Chapter 31
It occurred to Marie that although she hated the man who was holding her in this cabin, the worst thing that could happen was for him to die or get killed. She had always been a believer, but since graduation from high school she had not regularly attended church. She had also fallen into the habit of only praying when a relative or friend was gravely ill, but now she found herself praying for the safety of the one person she hated above all others.
She was alone in the cabin and totally dependent on him for survival. She couldn’t survive long without the food and water he provided. No one else knew where she was or even if she was dead or alive. If anything happened to him, she would surely die of starvation before she was found.
The loneness of the cabin was brutally painful for Marie. She thought most women were collegial, social beings like her and actually needed social interaction. In her opinion, men were different. They could more easily adapt to being alone for long periods of time. But even Dex, who appeared to be fairly comfortable in his own skin, would probably prefer a public flogging to a long-term sentence in this place.
She had seen prisoners in the movies check off their remaining days in captivity on a calendar, but she not only didn’t have a calendar, she didn’t even know if there was going to be a release date. The length of her sentence was yet to be determined.
Marie thought about all the tired phrases she knew for dealing with unpleasant situations: Tomorrow will be a better day. This can’t go on forever. Just let me make it through the night. All black clouds have silver linings. Unfortunately, repeating worn-out axioms didn’t seem to be helping.
When Marie really began to question her sanity was when she started looking forward each day to watching a large spider weave its web in a corner of the cabin. She had never been squeamish about bugs and insects. They were just pests that had not yet been exterminated. But the spider had become a source of entertainment. She sat for hours and watched the inexhaustible spider design his intricate web. She marveled at how he set his trap for flying insects and how rapidly he could move across the web to claim his prize.
Then one day Mortimer suddenly appeared. She named the tiny field mouse on the day of his first visit, and he made regular calls each of the following days. She didn’t know where he had come from, but she was grateful for the companionship. He scampered back and forth across the cabin floor and appeared at odd hours of the day and night to claim the bread crumbs she saved him from her hamburgers. When she started talking to him, she was pretty sure she had finally slipped around the bend. Who in their right mind talked to a mouse and was happy to have it share a bedroom?
Marie was struggling to maintain perspective; it was becoming increasingly difficult. These bizarre activities were the extent of her morning and evening activities in the cabin. She invented games in a vain attempt to keep her mind active. In addition to her anatomy-naming game, she tried to name all the kids in her third-grade and fourth-grade classes.
When she thought about the poetry and prose she had committed to memory, one thought kept reoccurring to her. It was something she had read years before in a philosophy book. She didn’t remember the exact quote or who had said it, but she did remember the thought. It was that one of the things that differentiated humans from other living creatures was the ability to reason and choose among alternatives. Man, unlike lower forms of life, could refuse to accept outcomes that were imposed on him and could instead choose alternatives.
Marie didn’t know why she remembered that particular hypothesis when she didn’t remember much else from the philosophy class. She could easily shoot holes in the theory, but she kept trying to relate it to her present situation. She made up her mind that she would not allow her abductor to impose an outcome on her. She decided she would choose her own, and her choice was freedom. Of course, she didn’t have a clue about how she was going to accomplish it, but it was comforting to have a positive thought.
At that point, Marie quit playing the endless mind games and devoted her time entirely to considering how she might ultimately gain her freedom. It dominated her every waking hour.
Chapter 32
Marie listened as her abductor made his daily delivery of hamburgers and water. When he closed and locked the access door, she could hear his footsteps as he walked away.
She yelled sarcastically, “Thank you. Come to see me when you’re in the area.” Her regular sarcasm never seemed to affect him.
About twenty minutes later she heard footsteps again approaching the cabin. In the same sarcastic tone she yelled, “Hey, you came back. I guess you just couldn’t stand to be away from me.”
She didn’t expect a reply and didn’t receive one. But she heard the lock on the main cabin door rattling. She was terrified, but she tried to make a joke by saying, “Did you decide to finally come in and spend some time with me?”
“Who’s in there? What are you doing in my cabin?”
“Aren’t you the one put me in here?”
“Lady, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Is this some kind of game you’re playing? If you don’t tell me what’s going on, I’m calling the cops.”
Marie realized that this wasn’t the man who was holding her captive, and she said in a half sob, “Oh, thank God! Someone chained me to the wall in here, and I thought you were the one who did it. Please help me get out.”
“Okay, stand back. I’m going to shoot the lock on the door. This better not be a trick because when I open the door, I’ll still have five more rounds in my pistol.”
The deathly quiet inside the cabin was shattered by the gunshot. She heard the lock being removed just before the door began to slowly open. Bright sunlight flooded the cabin, momentarily blinding Marie. She looked away and blinked her eyes several times. When she could see more clearly, she looked toward the door and saw a man in camouflaged fatigues standing in the doorway pointing a pistol at her. The man saw the chain extending from Marie’s ankle to the wall and slowly lowered his pistol.
“Thank you, sir. I’ve been locked up in here for days and was beginning to think I would never get out.”
“Who did this to you?”
“I don’t know. Someone hit me on the head and knocked me unconscious. When I woke up, I was chained to the wall. He’s been bringing food and water and pushing it through that small door over there, but I’ve never seen him or heard his voice.”
She was pointing to the access door, and the man noticed it for the first time. “This is my hunting cabin, but that door has never been there. He must have just recently cut through the logs.”
“Mister, can you get this chain off my leg?”
“I don’t have any tools, so I’ll have to shoot the lock like I did with the one on the door.”
He warned Marie to turn her head, close her eyes, and hold her hands over her ears. When he fired the shot, the resulting impact of the chain against her ankle caused her to scream in pain.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but it hurt like the dickens when the chain jerked against my ankle.”
Marie was standing, and the man was kneeling down examining her ankle. “I need to get you to a hospital. That’s a pretty angry looking wound where the chain has been rubbing against your ankle. Do you think you can walk?”
“I think so, if you can help me.”
He stood and took her by the elbow, but after a few awkward steps, it was obvious that Marie wouldn’t be able to walk to where his truck was parked several hundred yards away.
“Do you mind if I just pick you up and carry you? It’s quite a ways to my pickup.”
She agreed, and he put one arm under her knees and the other behind her back and swept her up into his arms. He was a big man, and he seemed to carry her rather effortlessly. When they reached his truck, he helped her into the passenger seat.
When he was seated behind the steering wheel, he said, “I’m going to take you directly to Bradford Memorial in River City. That ankle needs immediate medical attention.”
“Yeah, I think it’s infected. I’m a nurse, but I didn’t have anything with which to treat it.”
He had already put the truck in gear, but he stopped abruptly after only moving forward a few feet.
He turned toward her and asked, “What’s your name?”
“Marie Murphy.”
“Oh my God! You’re the one that everyone has been looking for. Your picture has been on television every day, but I didn’t recognize you. I’m Bob Nichols from River City.”
“I hoped that people were looking for me, but I had no way of knowing. Where are we anyway?”
“We’re on Dogwood Mountain about twenty miles from River City. I’m going to call the hospital and notify them that we are on the way.”
He pulled a cell phone out of his fatigue pocket and called information to get the hospital number. He then called the hospital and told them that he had found the missing nurse and was en route to the hospital with her.
When he ended the call, Marie asked, “May I use your cell phone?” She dialed Dex’s cell number, and he answered on the first ring.
“Dex, I’m okay. I’ve just…” She started sobbing uncontrollably and handed the phone to Nichols because she was so choked up she couldn’t speak.
He took the phone and said, “Hello, this is Bob Nichols. I just found Ms. Murphy. She was chained to the wall in my hunting cabin on Dogwood Mountain. She appears to be all right except for a nasty looking wound on her ankle and a cut on her head. I’m taking her to the emergency room at Bradford Memorial, and we should be there in less than thirty minutes.”
“Thank God she’s safe. Are you sure she’s okay?”
“I think she’s going to be just fine.”
“Okay, I’m on my way to the hospital. I’ll meet you at the emergency room entrance.”
Marie was still crying softly, but she managed to thank him for completing the call.
“Was that Dex Martin I was just talking to? You called him Dex, and he’s the only one I know by that name.”
“Do you know Dex?”
“No, I’ve never met him, but I watched him play football all through high school and also followed his career at Georgia.”
Marie nodded but was too choked up to continue the conversation. They drove the rest of the way in silence. At the hospital, Nichols pulled his pickup right up to the emergency room door. Before they came to a stop, Marie saw Dex standing there beside a nurse with a wheelchair. He quickly opened the door and grabbed Marie before the nurse could get to her. The news that she had been found had spread throughout the hospital and a lot of people were standing in the background watching the reunion.
Dex gently lifted Marie out of the truck but was reluctant to turn her loose long enough for the nurse to get her into the wheelchair. They were whispering back and forth, and Marie was now smiling through her tears. The nurse finally prevailed on Dex to put her in the wheelchair. She quickly pushed her through the emergency waiting room directly to the treatment area, but they stopped Dex at the door.
He went back outside to thank Nichols and met him walking from the parking lot back to the hospital entrance. He had parked his truck and was coming back to check on Marie.
“Mr. Nichols, I’m Dex Martin. I didn’t mean to ignore you when you brought her to the door. I was just so relieved to see that she was okay that I forgot what I was doing. I don’t know how I can ever thank you for taking care of her.”
“You don’t owe me any thanks. I was happy to have been able to help her. I wanted to see you again though to tell you that I don’t think she knows what happened to her friend. She never asked me about him, and if she had asked I wouldn’t have told her anything. You probably ought to talk to her before she finds out from someone else.”
“Thanks, I thought she already knew about Hoagie. We’ve all been close friends for years, and she is going to take the news very hard. Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do for you?”
“Well, if you don’t mind, I would like to have an autograph for my son. He’s a big fan of yours, and he plays at your old high school.”
“I’d be honored to give him an autograph, and when this is all over, I would love to meet him. I’m still very close to Coach Delaney, and I’ll make sure he knows that the father of one of his players is a new hero of mine.”
Dex called Marie’s parents to let them know she had been found and was going to be okay and then called Gigi to give her the good news. While Dex was waiting for Marie to be moved to a room, what seemed like every reporter in town arrived and cornered him in the emergency room lobby.
The reporters wanted Dex to make a statement, and he finally said, “I saw Marie only briefly, but her injuries did not appear to be too serious. She is being treated in the emergency room, and there isn’t anything else I can tell you until I’ve had an opportunity to talk to her.”
He started to walk away but saw Morgan motioning for him to follow him to a corner where they could talk privately.
“Who found her? Where was she?”
“A man named Bob Nichols has a hunting cabin on Dogwood Mountain, and he found her chained to the wall inside the locked cabin. He brought her here to the hospital. I talked to him briefly before he left, and he told me she didn’t know who had abducted her. Apparently she was knocked unconscious and woke up in the cabin.”
“How badly is she hurt?”
“The chain that was wrapped around her ankle left an ugly looking wound, and she has a cut on the side of her head. By the way, Nichols told me that she apparently doesn’t know about Hoagie. I would prefer that you let me tell her, because it’s going to really hit her hard.”
“Yeah, I think you should be the one to tell her, but I need to talk to her as soon as she’s moved to a room. Do you know how to get in touch with this Nichols fellow?”
He handed Morgan a piece of paper and said, “Here’s the address and phone number he gave me, but I need this back so I can contact him later.”
“Do you think he is on the up and up? You don’t think he had anything to do with her abduction do you?”
“No, absolutely not. He couldn’t have been any more helpful. He ought to get some kind of recognition for rescuing her.”
Morgan walked with Dex to the nurse’s station to see if there was an update on Marie. The nurse told them that she had just been moved upstairs and gave them the room number. On the way to the room, Dex said, “You better let me talk to her first because she’s going to ask about Hoagie.”
Morgan stayed in the hall beside the door when Dex went in the room. He couldn’t hear their conversation, but Marie suddenly screamed, “No, not Hoagie. He can’t be dead.”
After that, all Morgan heard for the next ten minutes was Marie sobbing loudly as Dex tried to console her. Dex finally came out of the room and said, “Morgan, she’s not in any condition to talk to you now. Is there any chance this can wait until tomorrow morning?”
“I just need to ask her a few questions, and it won’t take but a few minutes.”
“Okay, go ahead and try it, but I’m not sure she can be of much help right now.”
Dex walked back in the room with Morgan and said, “Marie, this is Detective Lester Morgan with the county police. He has been working on the case since the beginning and he needs to ask you a few questions. He promised this would only take a few minutes.”
Marie nodded at Morgan, but didn’t say anything.
“Ms. Murphy, I’m sorry to bother you at such a time, but I need to find out anything you might be able to tell me about the man who did this.”
She was still crying softly but managed to say, “I don’t have any idea w
ho he was or why he did it. I never saw him or heard him say a word.”
“I understand he hit you in the head. Were you unconscious when he took you to the cabin?”
“Yes, I don’t remember anything until I woke up in the cabin. I was chained to the wall.”
“You were there for a long time. How did you survive with no food or water?”
“There was a small opening about the size of a pet door that he had apparently cut in the wall near the floor. It was locked from the outside. Every day he shoved three hamburgers and some water through the door. He avoided being seen by standing next to the wall when it was open. I tried to get him to talk, but he never said a word.”
“Had you ever seen this Bob Nichols who rescued you?”
“Not until he opened the cabin door today, but next to Dex he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen.”
Morgan and Dex both smiled at her attempt to make a joke, and Morgan told her that he would come back when she was feeling better.
Dex had asked Nichols for directions to the cabin, and he now relayed that information to Morgan, who said he was familiar with the area. Morgan immediately called his office and asked them to place a hidden sentry on the road up the mountain in case the abductor came back. Unfortunately the news media was already all over the story. Special news bulletins were broadcast throughout the afternoon and evening, and it seemed the kidnapper saw them. He never returned to the cabin.
The next day Morgan went with the crime scene unit when they were dispatched to check the cabin. They found the place on the dirt road where all the recent truck tracks stopped and noticed a partially obscured trail leading off into the deep underbrush. After following the trail for several hundred yards, they came to the clearing where the cabin was located. The lock, with a bullet hole in it, was hanging in the door hasp. They found the chain and the other busted lock inside the cabin. Marie had told him that the man never came inside the cabin while she was imprisoned there, so he didn’t think there would be much evidence available, but he still asked the crime scene investigators to check it out.
Appalachian Intrigue Page 16