The Witness

by Sharon Harclerode

  “Hello?” I tried to hide the annoyance in my voice.

  “Jake, why haven’t you answered your phone? I was starting to get worried about you.” The sound of my mom’s voice was both comforting and ill timed.

  “Sorry, Mom, I’ve been busy with Ethan, and I didn’t hear my phone.” I didn’t like to lie to my mom, but I also didn’t want to hurt her feelings by telling her that I was ignoring her.

  “Well, you’ll be happy to hear that Dad found Huxley.”

  “What? He did?”

  “He was wandering in the neighborhood just down the hill. I can’t imagine how he got all the way down there. He’s dirty as the day is long, but otherwise, he’s okay. I just wanted to tell you so you wouldn’t worry anymore. I’m making spaghetti for dinner. If you and Ethan want to join us, please be home around seven. Love you, dear.”

  She hung up the phone before I could say another word. The joyfulness in her voice was in stark contrast to how I was now feeling. I must’ve had a horrified look on my face because Lori and Ethan both asked me what was going on with obvious concern. My eyes drifted upward toward the attic door. The scratching resumed, and the sound of it echoed in my ears.

  If Huxley wasn’t the one making those noises in the attic, who or what was?

  Chapter 6

  My hands began to shake as I put the phone down. The momentum I had was now gone, and I had to take a minute to collect myself. I sat down on the garage floor and put my head in my hands. Lori and Ethan kneeled down and waited for me to say something.

  “What is it, man?” asked Ethan.

  “That was my mom. She said they found Huxley. Huxley isn’t the one making that noise up there. So what’s up there?” My voice cracked, fear quaking through me as I tried to suppress it. Lori and Ethan looked up at the attic door and back at me.

  “There’s only one way to find out, Jake,” said Ethan, his voice firm and steady. They both stood up, and Ethan extended his hand to help me up. With a deep breath, I took it and leaped to my feet. I tried to bring back the resolve to open that lock. My hands were now sweaty and still a bit shaky. I climbed up the ladder and stuck the tension wrench and rake pick into the lock, clumsily fumbling with it. The rake pick fell to the ground. The noise wasn’t that loud, but to me it sounded like I’d just dropped a ton of bricks on the floor. I climbed down and picked it up. No, I was too nervous to do this. I looked at Ethan and handed him the rake pick so he could try while I calmed down.

  Reluctantly, Ethan grabbed the pick from my hand and climbed up the ladder. He’d watched the video with me and was now going from memory. He fiddled around with the rake pick for a few seconds. Nothing happened. He tried again, moving the pick up and down, and then we heard it. Pop! The sound startled all of us. It actually worked! Ethan slowly turned the lock and pulled it out of the door. He looked at Lori and me with big eyes. He reached into his pocket and dug out his phone, then turned on the built-in flashlight and slowly started to open the door.

  The door creaked with each inch that he opened it. Using the flashlight, he began to go deeper and deeper into the attic, slowly at first, by just peeking his head through, and then he disappeared up to his waist. Lori and I waited for him to say something, to tell us what he saw. We both held our breath in anticipation.

  Ethan started to climb back down the ladder and stopped halfway. “It’s a little hard to see. I need more light. Mom, could you grab that LED lantern that we take camping? Let me make sure it’s all right first, and then both of you come on up.”

  Lori ran into the house as I started to climb the ladder. Ethan had already disappeared into the attic. I waited for him to give me some kind of signal. After a minute or so he poked his hand out and motioned for me to come up. Specks of dust floated around in the light that Ethan was holding. I had to adjust my eyes to see anything. I blinked rapidly to try and adjust my focus. Ethan reached out his hand for Lori, but I didn’t hear her coming up the ladder. I peered down, and she was staring back at us with fear in her eyes.

  “I-I-I think I should stay down here. If Bill catches me up there or even thinks I was in there he would k— . . . hurt me.” She was visibly shaken.

  Ethan and I just nodded our heads and turned our attention back to the attic. He turned on the lantern, which helped to illuminate more of the space. As Ethan adjusted the settings, the light became brighter, and we were able to see what we had anxiously been waiting for. The walls and ceiling of the room appeared to be well insulated. Portions of the floor were covered with foam tiles. Some spots were strangely bare, as if the tile had been removed for some reason. I noticed a strange smell, almost clinical. A strong odor of bleach permeated the room.

  In the center of the room there was a large object covered by a tarp. You could only see the very bottom, and it looked like it was made of steel and had bars. We moved toward it as one unit. Ethan reached it first and raised his hand to lift up the tarp. At first he hesitated, and then with one swift movement, he yanked the tarp, half of it coming off and exposing what was inside.

  It was empty. It looked like a large kennel made for dogs, but it was so large that I could probably fit in it. Dark brown stains covered spots on the floor of the cage. I looked closer and saw small clumps of hair trapped between some of the bars. That was creepy enough, but what made it worse was that there was more than one color of hair snagged between the bars.

  Is that human hair? The thought made me shudder. Ethan knelt to examine the cage, and I moved toward the wall farthest from the attic door. There were pictures and newspaper clippings taped to it. I held the light up, curious to see what the pictures and clippings depicted. A young woman’s face came into view. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, probably no more than twenty years old. She was sitting in a car and smiling. The car was black with a black leather interior. All of the cars at the Meyers household were black with black leather interior. The car appeared to be parked in a wooded area, somewhere I did not recognize, though there wasn’t much to see.

  I moved to the next picture. It was a different woman. Her auburn hair was blowing in the wind, and it looked like she was taking a selfie. Her blue eyes shined and were full of light. Why would her picture be hanging on a wall in Bill’s attic? The next picture depicted a young woman with dirty-blonde hair. She was sitting on a bench in what looked like a park, reading a book. She looked completely oblivious to the camera, as if she didn’t know her picture was being taken. As I continued down the wall, Ethan joined me and started to look at the pictures I had already studied. I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders, not sure what we had discovered.

  Next I came upon some newspaper clippings. They only had slight discoloration, which meant they were probably not that old. The headline on the first one read: College Co-ed Missing. I began to read the accompanying text.

  College co-ed Melissa Brown went missing on Friday. She was last seen in the area of Riverdale Park Friday afternoon. She is described as 5'4", 115 pounds, with dirty-blonde hair and green eyes. She was wearing a pair of red shorts with a black top.

  I glanced back to the photo of the last woman that I saw. Dirty-blonde hair . . . check . . . red shorts and black top . . . check.

  OH MY GOD! This must be her. The article described her exactly as I was seeing her in the picture. I couldn’t see her eyes since she was looking down, but the rest of the description fit like a glove. I covered my mouth in horror and looked at Ethan. My eyes rapidly moved between him and the newspaper article. He examined it and then looked at me. It was strange that he seemed so shockingly calm. What had we stumbled upon?

  The scratching noise we heard earlier broke the silence. It was a little more pronounced now that we were in the attic instead of below it. It was coming from a dark corner closer to the door where we entered. My hands began to shake, which didn’t help my attempt to raise the light toward the noise. Ethan was close behind me, almost on top of me. Slowly and carefully, we moved toward the corner. With each step, it became har
der to breathe. My legs joined my hands in shaking. As the light began to illuminate the corner, my eyes caught the glint of something shiny. At first I couldn’t tell what it was, but then more of it came into view.

  A pair of large wire brushes kissed the ground. They were attached to bungee cords anchored to the ceiling. The carbon-steel bristles on both brushes glistened in the light. One brush had been outfitted with small nails mixed in with the bristles. It was a strange place to find something like this, and I shuddered at the thought of what they were being used for. It resembled some sort of medieval torture contraption.

  Why would someone add nails to a wire brush? After what we’d already seen, my guess was it wasn’t for removing paint and rust.

  A small gap between the door and the floor provided enough room for the occasional draft, which caused them to move and scrape against the floor. Surprisingly, this particular corner was not soundproofed, and evidence of a repetitive pattern of scratching scarred the floor. At least one mystery was solved. We went back to the wall with the pictures and clippings. The last article was dated a month ago.

  I decided it would be a good idea to take pictures of the attic and what we had discovered. More evidence for the police was a good thing, and if my suspicion was accurate, Bill was involved in much more than abusing his family and terrorizing me. Before leaving the attic, we placed the tarp back on top of the kennel, once again concealing it, doing our best to make it appear as if nothing had been disturbed. We made our way back down the ladder, and once we were back in the garage, I sucked in fresh air in big gulps. The overwhelming smell of bleach had given me a headache.

  Just as Ethan replaced the lock on the door and put the ladder away, Lori’s phone started to chime from inside the house. She ran toward the door leading to the kitchen and came back out with her phone in hand. Her eyes were big, and she held up her phone for us to look, the phone chiming again and again.

  Text message after text message came in.

  Where the hell are you?

  Why aren’t you answering the goddamn phone?

  Do I need to come back home and remind you about what happens when you don’t answer me?

  There was a series of missed calls from the past ten minutes, all from Bill’s cell phone.

  “I forgot it in the house and didn’t hear it. What do I say?” Lori asked, panic-stricken.

  “Just tell him the truth—that you didn’t hear your phone,” Ethan said. “Apologize profusely and make it believable so he isn’t suspicious. We need more time.”

  Lori nodded and started to text Bill back. All we could do was hope that Bill would accept her answer and forget about it. If he found out that we’d been snooping around, we were all in danger. We had to call the police. There was enough evidence here to put Bill away for good.

  “I’m calling the police. We can’t let this go on any longer. Bill has committed crimes far worse than we could’ve imagined.” I fumbled around in my pocket, searching for my phone.

  “No! Jake, no!” Lori cried. “Bill always gets away with things. You don’t understand. He has high-ranking friends who are cops. He also golfs with judges. He would get off on some . . . on some technicality if we call the police now. He’s too well connected. We need more evidence, something undeniable.” Lori’s voice was frantic as her eyes moved quickly from me to Ethan. “We need more—”

  “You’re being unreasonable!” Ethan said, cutting Lori off, his voice stern. “He needs to be arrested now! We have what we need. If we wait, there’s no telling what could happen. He’s going to keep hurting you. Or he’ll finally kill you.”

  I didn’t know what to do. Lori was begging me to wait to find more evidence against Bill before contacting the authorities. She looked at me, pleading with me, begging me to wait. I couldn’t rationalize anything at this point. Tears were now rolling down Lori’s cheeks as she clasped her hands together while covering her mouth. Inside, I was having an internal tug-of-war. I leaned against the wall while rubbing my forehead. Ethan and Lori stared at me, waiting for a response.

  “The only thing I can think of is that we come up with some kind of plan to get more evidence, if we can. Like a confession or something. I’m willing to give it until tomorrow night, and then regardless of what happens, I’m contacting the police. I don’t feel right about this, Lori, but if you think it will be better if we have more proof, then we’ll try.” I wanted to put Lori at ease, even if it was just temporary. She took a deep breath and nodded. Ethan just stared at me with his hands on his hips. After a few moments, he reluctantly nodded his head in agreement.

  “Let’s go back in the house and regroup,” I suggested.

  Chapter 7

  We sat quietly in the kitchen of Ethan’s house. Lori went back to finishing up dinner while Ethan and I pretended as if we were staring at our phones. It looked innocent enough—or so we hoped—if Bill had hidden cameras in the house. It was almost seven p.m., and I had to go home soon or my parents would start to worry. I invited both Ethan and Lori back to my house, but Lori declined.

  “I need to take care of a few things before Bill gets home.”

  “I’ll stay, too,” said Ethan.

  “No,” she said firmly. “Get out of this house and go experience a ‘normal family.’” She said that last part with such sadness that I felt a rush of guilt sweep over me; I’d never realized how lucky I was.

  The distance between my house and Ethan’s house was short, but the silence that ensued once we started walking made it feel like the longest walk of my life. I knew that I needed to say something, to formulate more of a plan, but words eluded me. I just wanted to be around my family and not think about the mess we were in. It was like a never-ending nightmare, and I was ready to wake up. We managed to maintain silence until we reached my front door.

  “Just remember, I don’t want my parents involved in this,” I said. “Try to act normal, okay?” I searched Ethan’s face for reassurance. He gave me a small wink and a half smile. Before I could open the door, it swung open, and my mom launched into a cheery tirade.

  “Boys! I thought I heard someone out here. You’re just in time for dinner. We’re having steak and potatoes with Caesar salad. My goodness! You both look as white as a sheet. And thin, too. Jake, I know you haven’t eaten much since yesterday. You boys need to eat a good meal. Come on, come on.”

  I don’t think she took a breath. Normally I didn’t mind Mom’s jolly tone or overbearing ways, but tonight I didn’t have the strength to deal with it. Nevertheless, it would be better if I tried to act like myself.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Howell,” said Ethan. “I know I haven’t been over here in a while. Thanks for the invite to dinner.”

  Ethan’s ability to flip the switch back to normal astonished me and proved that he was a way better actor than I ever could be. His smile was so genuine that it almost made me think the last twenty-four hours were just a bad dream. My parents loved to eat on the back terrace in the summer and tried to spend every waking second they could outside, so Ethan went with my parents to the backyard. I headed for the kitchen to wash my hands.

  I heard a familiar clank and turned to find Huxley coming to greet me. He must’ve had a good scrubbing; his coat looked brand new, and he had that just-washed shampoo smell. My parents always kept a spare set of Huxley’s tags in the junk drawer, so I would need to hide the original set I had stashed away in my pocket so they would be none the wiser.

  “Hi, buddy! Boy, am I glad to see you.” I picked him up and kissed the top of his head, grateful that he was safe. I wasn’t sure if Ethan, Lori, and myself would be as lucky to come out of this unscathed. I watched my parents and Ethan from the kitchen window, smiles plastered on each of their faces. Laughter echoed through the door. The moment was almost too much for me.

  I went out to join them and tried my best to smile and engage in conversation, knowing in the back of my head that tomorrow night, Bill would be waiting for me. Ethan would occasionally look i
n my direction and give me a knowing smile.

  After the dishes were cleared away and the leftovers packed neatly in the fridge, my parents retired to their bedroom for the evening with half a bottle of their favorite red. They were more social drinkers than anything else, but when they drank they would be out of commission for a while. I knew that this would give me and Ethan the opportunity to put our plan together. Luckily my parents took Huxley with them when they went to their room, so I didn’t have to worry about watching after him.

  I closed my bedroom door and locked it, just as an extra precaution in case one of my parents decided to try and pop into my room.

  It was time to figure out how to outsmart a madman.

  Chapter 8

  It was half past midnight when the glare from Bill’s headlights notified us that time was up. Ethan and I quickly ran down a checklist of things to do and be ready for in relation to our plan. We had Lori on speakerphone, and she abruptly disconnected once Bill came home. She was careful to go to the garage and use the landline instead of her cell phone, since Bill checked the messages and logs nightly.

  We felt good about our plan. Now the tricky part would be to move it to action. I escorted Ethan out of my room and down the stairs, keeping watch as he exited through the back to make sure he wouldn’t be seen. Ethan said Bill usually lingered in the garage for a bit before heading in, most likely to visit his makeshift torture dungeon we’d discovered in the attic. Needless to say, it bought Ethan more time to slip into his room undetected.

  As Ethan was about to start running to his house I grabbed his shoulder and said, “I’m sorry, Ethan. Sorry this happened to you guys. I wish I could’ve done more, helped you somehow.” I was slightly ashamed and extremely sad knowing what hell both Lori and Ethan had gone through all of these years.