by Rick Blechta
Jackie had faced a killer before and seen that kind of expression: the smile of a predator.
The last thing she needed them to know was how petrified she was.
“Drop dead,” she answered as calmly as she could.
The last thing she needed them to know was how petrified she was.
Little Guy slapped a fresh piece of tape across her mouth then patted her cheek. “That was your one chance, missy. Too bad you blew it.” He straightened up. “Well, Doc, our orders are to get information. What would you suggest? We can beat it out of her, I suppose.”
The good doctor looked unhappy. Obviously, he didn’t have much stomach for the rough stuff, and Jackie hoped she might be able to use that to her advantage.
Throwing himself into one of the chairs, Little Guy put his hands behind his head. “Of course, we might ask Dave to break a few of her bones. That would work with what we have planned for later.”
“No, Richard. I think we can be a little more creative than that,” Smith responded.“I have some things to attend to. We can deal with this later. She won’t be here until this evening. It also might be better to wait until the office staff has gone off for the day. Things could get a little noisy before it’s all over.”
Jackie did not like the sound of that.
***
I couldn’t believe that I’d lost my connection with Shannon’s cell phone in the middle of trying to answer her question. A subsequent call had not worked, either.
Katy couldn’t understand why I didn’t want her working on the painting, and as I couldn’t come out and tell her, we had quite a fight. When she called me a moron, I had no choice but to send her to her room. She demanded that I call Sandra to come and take her home.
This was not the way I’d wanted our weekend to go, and I knew the situation would have to be dealt with before my daughter fell asleep.
The phone rang, and I heard Katy’s feet as she ran to my bedroom to answer it. Another infraction to be dealt with. She probably thought it was her mom.
I went to the front hall and picked up the receiver.
“...so could you please get your daddy on the phone?”
“He’s downstairs. I’ll call him.”
She only partially covered the phone with her hand. “Dad! It’s the lady detective on the phone!”
“I’ve already got it, Kate,” I answered. “You can hang up and go back to your room. I’ll be up in a moment to talk to you.”
“All right,” Katy said, sounding rather disheartened.
I waited for the phone to click off. Little ears didn’t need to be on the line.
“Did you hear anything I said during that last phone call?” I asked.
“Not the important bits,” Shannon answered. “Is that sketch on your wall Maxine St. James or not?”
“I’m not sure. It could be.”
“You can’t do better than that?”
“Do you want the truth or the answer you want to hear?”
She sighed. “The truth.”
“What should I do?”
The line was silent for a moment. “Call Palmer. Tell him what you’ve found out. It might help the situation. Tell him I’ll call as soon as I have the situation out here secured.”
“Is Jackie Goode okay?”
“We haven’t had any contact since yesterday, but I don’t think she’s in any serious danger. They probably just busted her.”
“And Olivia?”
“Her stepmother flew out here just ahead of me. That I don’t like the sound of. I don’t know if Palmer has been in touch with her, or if something else has stirred her up, but I am concerned. We’re on our way to Sunnyvale right now. We’ll make sure Olivia’s all right, too.”
“Let me know, please.”
“I’ll do that. Now call Palmer.”
I hung up, then stood there thinking.
“Katy,” I called up the stairs. “I know you were up there listening. Would you come down here, please?”
There was no answer right away, then I heard a small, “All right.”
We went to the living room and sat down on the sofa.
“It’s not good to eavesdrop on phone conversations. You know that.”
She hung her head and nodded. “I know.” Then came a few sniffles. “I’m sorry I called you a moron.”
“I’m sorry I got angry.” I pulled her against me. “I don’t like it when you make me play the heavy.” I kissed the top of her head. “The lady detective wants me to let the police know something.”
“Is this about the man on the wall getting his head bashed in?”
I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. “It’s, um...”
Kate looked up at me. “I saw it this afternoon when I first went up to the room.”
“You did?”
“Yes, and I also noticed you freak when you saw it. What does it mean?”
“Did Olivia tell you anything about it?”
“No. She must have done it after I was here the weekend before she went away. I only saw her draw the stuff I was painting today. I have no idea how she wants to paint that side of the wall.” She was speaking about it so matter of factly, I began to doubt my sanity. “Why do you have to call the police about it?
“Because of something bad that happened to poor Olivia many years ago.”
“Did she see someone get killed?”
“We don’t know.”
“Was it her brother?”
Now I really was freaked out. “How did you know that?”
“Because the guy getting bashed with the rock looks like Olivia. Didn’t you notice?”
“I guess not.”
***
Shannon and Roy blasted through the motel room in all of a minute. There was no sign of Marvell, but also no obvious sign anyone else had been there. On the bedside table they found notes Marvell had made about his trips out to Sunnyvale.
“Take these, and we’ll read them on the way,” Shannon said. “I’ll drive. I know the way better than you do.”
It was pretty well dark as they took off down Highway 70.
Roy had the notes on his lap and had unfolded the topo map Jackie had bought when she’d first arrived in California. He studied both for several minutes.
“I’m thinking we should go to the front gate. The other way will take far too long and still leave us with the problem of getting in.”
“We don’t know how many security people they have or where they might be in the compound. We have to know those answers before we do anything. What good will it do anyone if they nail us, too?”
“I’ve been inside, Shannon, and my money is on them using the admin building for any hanky-panky. They can’t risk having the regular inmates know anything is going on.”
“Okay. So how do we crack this nut?”
“How soon before we have to decide?”
“Six, maybe seven minutes.”
“Let me finish Marvell’s notes. They may give us a clue.”
If Jackie or Marvell had blown it, that wouldn’t be a reason for Maxine to hustle across the country. A thought flitted across her brain. Had Jackie found out something particularly dangerous to her? Then the real issue sat up and screamed inside her head.
She pounded the steering wheel in frustration at her own blindness.
“What’s up?” Roy asked.
“Christ! Why didn’t I see it before? Sunnyvale has been helping Maxine all along. If it got out that they were drugging their charges or keeping people there for no real reason, they’d be in a lot of trouble. I figured she was just paying them a lot of money to do what she needed. What if it goes deeper than that?”
“Oh shit. A classic case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. We’re both dunces.”
“Either Maxine has some super strong hold over them or—”
“She owns the goddamn place!” He smacked his forehead with his palm. “If that’s the case, we could already be too late. How much time
to the turn-off?”
“That’s it up ahead, Roy.”
“Stop the car.”
Shannon did, and Roy opened the satellite phone.
“Who are you calling?”
Roy clicked it on and waited for it to find a signal. “Two places. The sheriff’s office and Sunnyvale. I just had a brainstorm.”
***
Jackie had spent too many hours on her stomach. Her legs and arms, pulled up tightly behind her, had been cramping, and she was having trouble breathing. Every time she rolled onto her side, one of the two men kicked her back onto her stomach. If anyone had bothered to ask her, she would have freely admitted she was scared shitless.
Marvell had finally come to, sort of. He’d done a lot of moaning and rolling around of his head, but it wasn’t until maybe an hour before that he’d stopped and opened his eyes.
The big guy, Dave, was watching them at the time. “You’re awake, buddy, and don’t think I don’t know it. Just be a good boy, and we won’t have to hurt you again. Got it?”
Dave really was a big man. She and Marvell would have a hard time with this guy –even if they could get themselves free.
Think! Jackie told herself for about the millionth time. There has to be a way out of this.
Despite the fact that Doc Smith was involved, Richard seemed to be the one in charge. When he strolled back into the room, he had all of Jackie’s other surveillance toys.
“Looks as if you didn’t search the room all that well, my friend,” he said to Dave. “I found these stuffed into the back of a chair.”
Dave coloured and looked down while his friend laughed at him. “Relax. It was a pretty good hiding place.” He dumped the stuff on one of the tables. “You got some first-rate equipment here, girlie. I just checked these pass cards, and one of them opens every door I tried. Not bad. How did you smuggle this stuff in here? I’ll be interested to hear the answer.”
Smith came into the room.“I just spoke to her, and she’s really upset. Her jet will be landing in half an hour. It will be another half hour to drive here. I sent Renaldo to pick her up.”
“Then I’d suggest we get our butts in gear and get some answers to the questions she’s gonna have. Might shut her up a bit.”
The doctor nodded. “This one first,” he said nodding at Jackie. “She’s the inside person. Put her up on the table. I’ll be right back.”
Dave picked Jackie up with about as much effort as a sack of groceries. Dumping her on her front, he put a meaty paw in the middle of her back and pushed down hard enough to make breathing even more difficult. She knew there was no point in trying to struggle.
Smith returned in a matter of minutes. He handed Richard a razor knife.“Cut her clothes off. I think it would be good to have her naked.”
Taped up and with the big guy leaning on her, she was helpless as the other man went about his work with obvious pleasure. If she ever got him alone, she’d make sure he paid in full. She thought they might leave her the dignity of her underwear, but that came off with two swipes of the knife. Jackie tried to hold back the flush of shame flowing down her body.
They would pay.
Smith, who’d been standing off to the side, told them, “Turn her over but take the tape off her hands. I need her arms at her sides.”
Jackie shut her eyes so she wouldn’t have to watch them looking at her.
Smith had brought in several heavy nylon straps, the kind used to hold things on roof racks. As Richard and Dave held her down, he looped one strap around her left wrist, then over her stomach around the other wrist and then underneath the table. Once buckled, she was completely pinned down. A second strap was wrapped around her ankles and a third over her upper chest. All were pulled extremely tight.
“Put some tape on her mouth,” Smith said. “It could get noisy while we soften her up.”
Jackie’s eyes got big as the doctor wheeled over his little cart with the packages of acupuncture needles and his electronic gadget on it.
“What you gonna do with that?” Dave asked.
“I think it’s best to get our information without leaving a trace. Any marks will be so tiny you could go over the girl’s body with a microscope and still not be assured of seeing anything. She’ll tell us in short order what we want to know.”
Even though it was completely pointless, Jackie struggled as hard as she could. The straps made it impossible to move more than a few inches. What pushed her rage to the very edge, though, was Dave guffawing at her efforts.
Richard chuckled as he noticed her murderous eyes. “If looks could kill, my friend,” he said nudging his partner.
“Hold down her left leg,” Smith ordered. “If she’s moving around, I can’t put the needles in.”
Smith put in a total of twelve needles: two in each leg, two in each arm and four in her chest. He was not at all gentle as he inserted each one, after carefully measuring off the correct spots. The needles bit deep, right into the heart of the trigger points, and this time it was painful, the reaction intense as he moved each needle roughly to get the spot “heated” up. Her heart was already racing even before he began connecting wires from his black box to each one.
Smith looked down at her with all the feeling of looking at a bug before squashing it with his foot.“She seems to be particularly sensitive to this. That’s why I thought of it. Now for the application of a little current.”
Over against the wall, Marvell must have been struggling, because one of the small tables suddenly crashed down.
As he took a blackjack from his pocket, Richard said, “If he doesn’t stop, hit him with this and put him out again.”
Smith’s eyes dropped as he switched on his machine, then began slowly rotating dials. “I’ve got to be careful. I don’t know if too much might stop her heart.”
At first, it felt pretty much like it had the first day she’d been at Sunnyvale.
Then Richard said, “Nothing’s happening. Better turn it up.”
Jackie felt as if she would have levitated right off the table if it hadn’t been for the straps holding her down. The pain was unimaginable. As the power cycled back and forth between pairs of needles, the nearby muscles completely seized up. It felt as if they were ripping themselves to shreds.
With interested expressions, the three men watched her writhe, straining against the straps for a good thirty seconds, which felt like three days. She couldn’t scream because of the tape over her mouth.
Smith turned off his infernal machine, and Jackie went limp, her skin slick with sweat. Reaching out, Richard yanked the tape from her face, leaving the skin around her mouth feeling even more raw and tingling.
His face hovered right over Jackie’s. “How do you feel now about telling us why you’re here and what you’ve found out?”
“Fuck you!”
“Doc, why don’t you turn on the juice a little higher and let her toast a little longer? We’ll see if she’s still uncooperative after that. Okay?”
“No, don’t...” Jackie moaned, panting uncontrollably.
“Too late. Remember, you do not get a second chance with us. Hit it, Doc.”
This time Jackie did scream, loud and long, pleading with the men to turn the machine off. It felt as if she was dying.
She held out longer than she would have imagined.
Dave had wanted Doc Smith to turn the current up even higher, but he refused, because he couldn’t be certain what might happen.
“She dies now, so what? She’s certainly going to die later.”
“No, you dummy!” Richard snarled. “We need answers.” He looked at Jackie. “You gonna tell us something now?”
It was the third jolt she’d gotten since they’d taken the tape from her mouth, and she’d screamed herself hoarse. Her voice came out in a shaky whisper. “What...do you want to know?”
“Who you’re working for,” said a voice from the doorway, a woman’s voice, and it did not sound happy.
Everyone t
urned as three more people entered the room. One was a woman dressed in an expensive business suit, not a hair out of place. Jackie recognized her at once: Maxine St. James. Close behind were two large men, each wearing dark suits and looking even more menacing than Dave.
“What is going on here, Smith?” Maxine demanded.
“Ah, Mrs. St. James,” Smith answered soothingly, looking nervous, “we didn’t expect you so soon.”
“That’s obvious.”
“We’re getting information from this woman. She’s the one I told you about. Unfortunately, she wasn’t being cooperative, so we’ve had to resort to harsher means.”
“And what have you found out?”
“Nothing yet. She is very stubborn.”
Maxine moved around the table and spotted Marvell. “And this one?”
“Her accomplice.”
Richard’s face was suddenly hovering over Jackie’s.
“You heard the lady. Who are you working for?”
Her throat felt like she’d been swallowing sandpaper. “May I have some water?”
“No. Answer the question or you’ll get another jolt.”
“I’m from Toronto. The people I work for were hired by—”
Jackie’s voice dropped away. She just couldn’t speak any more.
“Oh, for God’s sake, give her some water,” Maxine said, “or we’re going to be here all night.”
Doc Smith and Richard both stared pointedly at Dave, who shrugged and left the room, returning a moment later with a water bottle. Richard snatched the bottle and poured some water down Jackie’s throat, so fast she started choking. That only made her throat feel worse.
“You’ve had your drink. Continue,” Maxine said, taking a seat on one of the chairs against the wall.
“The man in Toronto who lived with your stepdaughter hired us.”