by Ann Mullen
The way she touched me made me even sicker to my stomach than I already was. What was wrong with this woman? Why would she do that? Not only was I still reeling from what had happened in the last few hours, but now I also had this crazy woman sitting beside me with a gun stuck up against my head, while her hand explored parts of my body she had no right to explore.
“We could’ve had so much fun together, but you had to go and ruin it.” She reached over and ran her hand up and down my leg, stopping at my crotch.
This couldn’t be true. I wasn’t sitting here with Rita Hudgins’ hand in my crotch. Is this really happening or am I dreaming? I had never experienced having a woman touch me in those places, and I sure as crap didn’t know how to handle it. The worst part was... she was enjoying herself! She made groaning sounds and blew air kisses at me.
She must be jerking my chain, I thought. She’s married and has a couple of kids. She’s just trying to rattle me, and it was working!
Rita pulled back and relaxed in the seat, her gun still aimed at my head. “You have it all wrong, you know.” Her demeanor changed suddenly. “Why is it that everyone I’ve loved didn’t love me back?”
I had no idea where she was going with this. She appeared to drift in and out of reality, not making any sense, but she was the one with the gun for now. I played along with her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, trying to soothe her. “Who is it that doesn’t love you back?” I could care less about what she had to say, but I had to do whatever it took to keep her from going off the deep end and pulling the trigger. At first my words seemed to calm her, but then she became agitated again.
“Them! All of them!” she cried. “I loved them all and they turned their backs on me. At first, they denied their true feelings, but I knew it was there. First it was Lisa. She told me I was sick right up until the end. Then Sunny used me to get my money. I should’ve killed her sooner. And that little girl in the red car was so sweet to begin with, and then she turned into the same crybaby slut as the rest of them. She didn’t want me to touch her, and she said I was crazy. But I showed her just like I showed the rest of them. I’m not crazy!” Her hands shook as her momentum built. “It was her fault. She’s the one who offered me a ride that day at the grill. My car wouldn’t start and she said she’d give me a ride home. It was snowing pretty hard.”
I used that moment of weakness on her part to jump out of the car. I didn’t even take the time to slam the car door before I took off into the woods. My mind was flying a mile a minute as I shot through the underbrush, my aches and pains totally forgotten. I ran until I felt like I couldn’t run anymore. My leg was bleeding badly by now and the cut on my forehead gushed with every beat of my heart.
I was sure I was going to die out here in these woods and nobody was going to know. “I’ll be just another face on a milk carton,” I said out loud. Then I stopped long enough to think about Helen Carrolton. Has her face made it to one of those cartons, yet? Do they only put your face on one after you’ve been missing for a long time, or do they do it right away? I sure didn’t want to know. I wanted to go home and forget this all happened, but I couldn’t. I was stuck right in the middle, with no way out. There were too many of them and too few of me. Rita blocked the way to my only means of escape, and her two guys were waiting somewhere in the background. Eventually, they would overcome me and my life would soon be over.
Where was Billy?
Once deep into the woods, I sank down and tried to rest. Rita hadn’t followed me like I’d expected, but I knew she was out there. They’d regroup and come after me. It was only a matter of time before they found me and I knew it. They’d surround me and drag me off to be buried in the hole they’d been digging just for me. That would be the end of me.
I lay there for what seemed like an eternity. The air had become hot and humid from the late afternoon rain. My knee was throbbing and the cut on my forehead was still bleeding. I held my breath as I crouched down, hiding in the damp leaves and the tangled mass of underbrush. Coming here alone was a stupid mistake... possibly the last one I’d ever make. There was a killer on the loose in the woods, and he was after me.
Then I heard a twig snap...
Chapter 29
But the killer wasn’t a he—it was a she. Or, was it? I was confused and couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on here. At first I was sure Jay was the one, but then he led me to believe his dad was the guilty party, and now, Rita Hudgins has confessed. Were they all guilty? What if... no, I don’t want to think about it. It’s too sick. I tried to put it out of my mind, but everything kept coming back to one thing. Helen Carrolton was dead, the killer was here, and it wasn’t me!
I heard the sound of cracking branches under someone’s feet getting closer. The faint whisper of my name echoed through the air. Was this friend or foe? I didn’t recognize the voice and until I did, I wasn’t about to answer. I sat and waited, quietly reaching into my back pocket for my gun. What the h...? Where’s my gun? This was unreal! This was just too unreal! I’ve seen better plots than this one in one of those stupid B-movies where the dumb, screaming girl runs, falls down, and just can’t seem to get up in time to save herself. Her arm instantly flies up to protect her face, while she pleads for her life. I always wondered why she didn’t have a gun stuffed in her pantyhose. Now I know it wouldn’t have mattered because she probably would’ve lost it just like I did! I couldn’t believe I had turned into one of those girls I’d always wanted to slap in the face.
Closer, my name was again whispered. This time I recognized the voice. It was Rose. I felt a momentary sense of relief. I truly believed she had nothing to do with Helen Carrolton’s death. My relief was short-lived and replaced with fear. If she had nothing to do with Helen’s death, why was she out here searching for me? Was she going to help me, or try to capture me?
“Jesse, where are you?” her voice low and begging. “I had nothing to do with this. I had no idea until just now. Please, I want to help. They’re going to kill you. You have to get out of here.”
She was going to help me. I pulled myself up off the ground, favoring my good leg, and leaned against a tree. I was wet from head to toe with blood and the dampness of the woods, and I hurt all over. My ponytail was filled with debris, and the few strands of hair that had fallen down in my face were now stuck to it, and matted with dried blood. The dried blood was covered by fresh blood. I must look like a wreck, I thought… then regained my senses. Who cares what I look like?
“I’m over here,” I whispered. “I’m hurt. I need help.”
Rose appeared. Even through the darkness I could tell her usual demure personality had been replaced with savage obedience. It was the look in her eyes that gave her away. Whatever she might or might not have known about this situation, she wasn’t here to help me. She was here to help her family conceal yet another ugly truth. One of them was a killer!
She grabbed me from behind, locking my arms together and twisting them back until I thought they were going to break. She shrilled in my ear, “You must be stupid if you think I’d help you after all the crap you’ve put my family through.”
“You lied to me,” I murmured. “All this time, I thought you were an innocent bystander, but you’re not. You’re just as sick as the rest of your demented family. You’ll never get away with it. You might kill me, but Billy Blackhawk won’t rest until he gets you and your whole crazy crew. Your only chance to get out of this unscathed is to help me bring an end to it. You have to let me go.” I did my best to confuse her. If I could convince her to listen to me, maybe I could save myself. It was now, or never.
I took a stab in the dark. “The police know about your mom. They know about Lisa and Sunny, and her last indiscretion—the girl in the red car. They’re just trying to figure out where the rest of you fit in before they come out here and throw all of you in jail. Let me assure you, I had only a slight jump on them. I’m surprised they’re not here alr
eady.”
Suddenly, we both heard sirens in the background. They seemed far away, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I’d lied about the police and figured the sirens were probably just a state trooper pulling somebody over for speeding. However, the sirens were working in my favor and this was my chance to pull the wool over her eyes.
“See,” I reassured her. “They’re on their way. They’ll be here any minute. Let me help you. I know you’re innocent. You’re just doing what you think is right. I know you want to help them, but it’s too late. You have to save yourself.”
She released her grip on me, sank down and sat on an enormous rock. My ploy had worked.
“I really didn’t know anything until a little while ago,” she began. “When I got home, I parked my car behind the barn and attended to the horses like I usually do. Then my mom pulled up. She was hysterical. She said Dad had been arrested and she didn’t know what to do. I’d never seen her in such a state. She kept mumbling something about how nobody loved her and she was sick and tired of living a lie. I thought she was flipping out, so I took her to the house and made her go to bed. She was out of it, and I didn’t know what to do. Finally, Dad came home. He had just been released from jail and was in a frenzy. He ran through the house screaming something about Mom. His exact words were, ‘She’s a stupid retard. The jig is up. This is the last time!’ I stopped him in the middle of his screaming fit. ‘Dad, what’s going on?’ I asked him. He gave me a weird look and said, ‘Mom’s sick, honey. She killed that girl, and we covered it up.’ Of course, I freaked out. When he told me all the sordid details, I cried. I couldn’t believe this could happen to us.”
“I know it’s hard to believe.” I took her hand in mine and tried to comfort her. “Sometimes, bad things happen to good people. Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
She stood and we helped each other find our way out of the woods. We reached the clearing where my car was and found Jay standing beside it. He was holding a shotgun against his shoulder... probably the same one he’d used on me once before.
“I see you found her,” he said to his sister. “Bring her over here.”
“Wait a minute, Jay,” she said to him. “We need to talk.”
“What’s there to talk about? You know what the old man said.” He was getting upset. “He told us to find her and take her to the pit. Now get the lead out!” He handed her the shotgun. “Hold this while I tie her up.” He grabbed me by my T-shirt, slammed me up against the car and forced my arms behind my back. I heard the jingling of metal and then felt the cool steel as he put handcuffs on my wrists. I tried to fight him, but it was useless. He was strong for his size, and determined to get the job done. He grabbed me in the bend of my elbow and jerked me off the car.
“Where’s your car keys?” he screamed at me.
“I don’t know,” I lied. “I think I dropped them somewhere in the woods. I fell down a couple of times.”
“Jay, we have to stop right now before this gets any worse,” Rose begged, backing up and then raising the shotgun. “Jay, please. I can’t let you do this. The police know everything. It’s only a matter of time before they get here. Please don’t make me shoot you.”
“Shut up, stupid!” he yelled. “You don’t have the guts.” He lunged at her, bringing the full force of his fist to her face. She stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, dropping the shotgun. Blood oozed from her lip.
“I won’t be a part of this,” she cried, wiping the blood from her mouth.
“You most certainly will!” He picked up the gun and pushed me back up against the car. Pointing it at me, he screamed at her, “Get up and search her pockets for the keys. We ain’t got all day.”
She got up and walked over to me. “I’m sorry,” she whispered as she went through my pockets, retrieved the keys and reluctantly handed them to him. “If I don’t do what he says, he’ll hurt me.”
“It’s okay,” I whispered.
It wasn’t okay, but she had no control over the situation and would probably end up like I was going to if she went against them. These people were capable of anything and it wouldn’t surprise me if they decided to bury her right along side me to shut her up. Someone was responsible for one death already and possibly two others—if what Rita said had any validity. What’s to stop them from adding another one to the list? How far would they go to save themselves? Would they kill their own flesh and blood? I had no doubts about the answer to that question.
Jay opened the door and shoved me into the back seat.
“Please, Jay,” I begged. “Let me go. I promised you I’d help you out and I will. Just let me go.”
He drew back and hit me in the head with the butt of his gun. I felt the blood cover my face just before I blacked out.
When I came to, I was still in the back seat of the car. My eyesight was blurred and my head felt as if it was going to explode. Through the flashing white spots and pulsating visions of the melting background, I saw Rose slumped over the steering wheel with blood running down her face from an ugly, open wound to the side of her head. Her right wrist was cuffed to the gearshift.
I panicked. “Rose! Rose! Wake up!” I bumped the back of her seat with my shoulder. Pain shot through me like a sledgehammer. This was the same shoulder that had suffered the original attack from that maniac, and up until now, was just about healed.
She didn’t stir. She was dead, killed by the hands of her own family.
Reality finally sank in. I was going to die in this dark and God-forsaken place. I’d never get to experience the joy of having kids and the love of a fine man... something I was so close to having. What about Mom, Claire, and Jack? They needed me! And where was Billy? Why hasn’t he come to save me?
Breathing was becoming more difficult. Not now, I thought to myself. A panic attack is the last thing I needed! I soon found out I wasn’t having a panic attack, but instead, the air in the car was getting thin. That’s when I realized we were buried in a hole, our graves sealed with dirt.
I looked at the dash. The lights were on, but everything else was shrouded in darkness. The keys were still in the ignition!
My mind took a bouncing leap forward. If I could just get to the keys and start the car, I could save us. I’d plow through the tightly packed dirt and come zooming out in a flying blaze of glory. I don’t think so. Where had my mind gone? First of all, I could never get the car to start. The exhaust pipe was probably packed full of dirt by now and a car won’t start without a means of releasing its ... what... breath? I don’t remember too many of the things my father tried to teach me about cars, but I do remember him telling me that if the exhaust was clogged, the car wouldn’t run, or something like that.
Rose groaned, and tried to straighten herself up in the seat.
“Rose!” I cried. “You’re alive! Thank heavens! I thought you were dead.” I was so glad she was still alive I would have reached over and given her a big hug, if I could.
“I feel dead,” she moaned. “Where are we? What happened?”
“I’m not sure. What’s the last thing you remember?”
“Well,” she seemed to be thinking. “I was driving. We’d just come up to where the path crosses the stream, and I couldn’t get the car into 4-wheel drive. Jay got angry and called me names. Then he hit me in the head with his gun.”
“Then what happened?” I urged her. Even if we were in a terrible situation, I now had the satisfaction of knowing the car might still be in 4-wheel drive. That alone would give us one advantage. Somehow I would get this car started and make a last desperate attempt at saving our lives.
“That’s it. That’s the last thing I remember until now.”
We sat silently for a moment. We both knew we were in a bad way and that it was going to take a miracle to get us out of this mess.
A thought came to me. My cell phone! Was it still in my pocket? Yes. I felt the bulge of it. Would it work here?
“Rose,” I said. “My cell phone’
s in my pocket. If you could just reach over and get it with your free hand, we could call for help.” I scooted up to the console.
Turning sideways, she reached over with her left hand and dug into my pocket.
“I’ve got it!” she rejoiced. A second later she screamed, “I’ve got a signal! What now?”
“Press the number three and hold it down for a second. That’s my mom’s number. Someone will be there, I’m sure.”
She hit the button and waited for a response. “There’s no one there,” she replied. “I’m getting a lot of static in the background.”
“Hang up, and try hitting number one.”
“It’s still ring... Hello... We need help!” she cried into the phone.
“Stick it up to my ear!” I demanded.
She put the phone to my ear and I could barely make out Billy’s voice over the static.
“Billy, shut up and listen. Rose and I are buried,” I tried to say. The line went dead before I could finish my sentence.
“Dial it again,” I shouted to Rose. “We lost the connection.”
She tried it several times and in desperation turned back to me. “I’m sorry. I can’t get anything, not even static. It’s a goner. What’ll we do?”
“I don’t know, Rose.” I sighed. Depression was overtaking me and the future was looking dim. Could I dare hope that Billy heard my cries, or did the static drown me out?
“Wait a minute,” Rose said. “The handcuffs...”
“What about the handcuffs?”
“I have the key in my pocket!” she shrilled. “Dad was real big on enforcing the safety of our home. Everybody had a gun of their own and was taught how to use it, and we all were given keys we had to keep on our key chain at all times. He told us many times they were our lifeline to freedom. He was right!”
She shook with laughter. “I’m free!” she exclaimed as she reached into the back seat and unlocked my handcuffs.