Cut Down To Size: A Sebastian Cork Novel

by Neal Davies

  Up until now Sebastian’s senses hadn’t been aroused by the gibbous moon or every time a bush rustled, as his concerns for Paul’s safety had far outweighed any of his own fears, but he is now feeling he’s seen enough and is becoming uncomfortable with his surrounds again, so he waits for one of the policemen to escort him back to the station. When no one comes to get him he becomes impatient and begins walking toward the Sergeant and two other officers who have emerged from the barn. The closer Sebastian gets to the group, the less he likes what he’s hearing. “Yes, Sir, we did find the hidden room and we searched every inch of it but found nothing.”

  The Sergeant turns his head when he hears Sebastian’s footsteps coming toward him. “Well, Seb, you must have heard what my officer just said; what do you make of it?”

  A look of confusion comes over his face and although he really isn’t in the frame of mind to enter the barn, Sebastian gets clearance to go in with the officer who has just come out. They take the steps down to the hidden cellar. “Shit, I must have missed something!” he states, frustrated, to the young officer in front of him.

  “I don’t know how you could have; we’ve searched every inch of the barn and the cellar without finding a thing.”

  Being intrigued by what he has missed, Sebastian stumbles and almost falls down the ramp and the young constable is quick to turn and catch hold of his arm. “Are you okay? We wouldn’t want you hitting the hard concrete; you could end up breaking something!”

  Sebastian thanks the officer, then taps his cane on the solid floor and turns to the accompanying officer with a sudden impulse. “Oh, yes! Of course! Why didn’t I take notice of this before?”

  The officer looks questioningly at Sebastian, “Sorry, am I missing something? What have you found?”

  Sebastian lifts his eyes from his focus on the floor. “It’s not what I have found but more about what I haven’t found. As you can see, there is a hose over on the wall to clean up any residual blood but where does the water and blood flow to? There are no drain holes and there is certainly no bucket to remove it with. There has to be some way of the liquid escaping this room or we would be knee deep in it.” Sebastian walks over to the wall and detaches the hose and turns it on full force. It’s not long before water begins to build up. “There, over there, look!” Sebastian points toward bubbles coming from the wall opposite and farthest from the steps. “Behind there!” he proclaims in a conquering tone while pointing to a small wooden box against the wall. “That is where you will find what you are looking for.”

  “I don’t mean to be rude but I doubt if our killer will fit into an old soap box, Sebastian,” he replies sarcastically.

  Sebastian walks over to the wooden box and pushes it away with his cane, then points to a lever that juts out of the wall and levels just below the top of the box when it is standing vertically. Below the lever is a vertical slit so the lever can be forced downward by the foot. “No, the culprit is not a gnome; the box is concealing the lever that opens the way out!”

  He puts his foot on the top of the lever and pushes down hard and that in turn sets off a chain reaction; at the far end of the room the wall begins to lift exposing a dark narrow tunnel and at the other end of the room the hatch above the ramp where they entered from slams shut obliterating Sebastian’s view of the steps leading out. Sebastian can see the escape tunnel is narrow and low and tells the policeman to go ahead while he waits in the cellar until the others come to let him out but unknown to him, they are all outside the barn searching the surrounding shrub and didn’t hear the trap door close or notice the light go out. It seems like he is down there for an eternity, until he is finally released from his morbid dungeon and the officer who was with him explains that he followed the tunnel down the hill at the back of the barn until he reached a ladder leading up to another hatch. Once he climbed through the opening he found himself in shrub just off an old horse track that led to a dirt road further down. He went on to tell Sebastian that he could see there were tyre divots where a large car or van had ploughed off at considerable speed. He also explained that he had met up with a group of policemen who had heard dirt and gravel being hurled out from a vehicle and scurried down the old track but were far too late by the time they arrived at the dirt road. All that remained was a trail of dust where the perpetrator had sped off in haste. Sebastian has seen enough for one evening and arranges a lift back to the station.

  14. THE HOSPITAL – FRIDAY

  Back to the station, he rings Cynthia. “Hello, my love. I’m sorry to tell you this but I’m going to be home quite late tonight.”

  Cynthia hesitates. “Did you catch the killer?”

  “No, my love, I’m afraid we didn’t, but I have a good idea who it is.”

  “Are you okay?”

  Sebastian frowns and bites his bottom lip. “Yes, yes, I’m fine. But Paul has been whisked off to the hospital.”

  There’s a moments silence. “Why, what happened? Is he okay?”

  Sebastian moves quickly to negate any negative thoughts that Cynthia may have. “He’s fine, my love, just fine and I’m heading over to see him now. They will probably keep him in overnight for observation, that’s all.”

  After meeting Paul for the first time, Cynthia felt a bond as a mother would to her only son. “Why, was he shot? Tell me, what happened to him?”

  “No, nothing like that. Seriously he is fine. I’m sorry my love but I have so much to do and I promise I will explain it all when I get home, alright?”

  Cynthia, who is still sounding unconvinced, answers with some reservation, “Okay, but honestly, Sebastian, if you forget…”

  Knowing what’s about to be relayed to him, Sebastian jumps in quickly, “Don’t worry, my love, I won’t forget but I really must go now.” He hangs up the phone and scurries up to Jim’s office.

  Emily has already gone so he goes straight to Jim’s door and knocks. “Come in, Seb!” Jim calls in a very businesslike manner. Sebastian enters and Jim continues, “I just got a call through telling me our culprit got away; where to from here?”

  Sebastian sits down in front of him. “Well, for a start, Jim, as soon as I leave here I will be driving to the hospital to see how Paul is and I was wondering if you would like to join me?”

  Jim takes a deep breath and looks up at the ceiling, then back down at Sebastian with an apologising face. “Sorry, Seb. I did hear that Paul got caught up in this whole thing and, yes, I will go with you as I live only five minute’s walk from the hospital. So that won’t be a problem but, whichever way you look at it, we still have a serial killer on the loose!”

  Sebastian pulls a notepad from his shirt pocket, rips out a page and hands it to Jim. “What’s this?” Jim says through squinted eyes.

  “If you can bring these people in for questioning tomorrow, I promise you I will deliver your serial killer before the day is out. But for now, I really must be getting over to the hospital; are you coming?”

  Jim grabs his coat and hat and makes his way down to the car park with Sebastian and on the way over Jim makes numerous phone calls to several officers notifying them of who he wants to beplaced under surveillance for the evening and then to be brought in to be interviewed first thing the next morning. During the journey he looks at Sebastian and asks, “How do you know our killer won’t skip town now the noose is tightening?”

  Sebastian gives a sinister grin. “Because the killer has someone to remain for, someone they believe depends on them.”

  Jim and Sebastian eventually arrive at the hospital and sit with a very worn and drawn Paul who has just arrived back from his examination. Sebastian looks at him with concern. “How are you feeling, my friend?”

  “Tired, Seb, but the doctor seems to think I’m in good shape and will have no side effects by morning apart from the possibility of a minor headache. They said it will be like having a hangover.”

  Jim is quick to add, “And a couple of days off won’t hurt you, either.”

 
Paul sits up and pushes his pillows vertical to support him. “Seriously, Jim, the Doc has given me the all clear to go back to work and I really need to do this.”

  Sebastian and Jim look at each other for a split second in silence and then Jim replies, “I want a certificate, do you understand?”

  Paul smiles. “Thanks, boss, I appreciate that. Tell me, Seb… how did you know I would be there?”

  “In all honesty, Paul, I didn’t know you would be there but I knew someone would.”

  “After we had our first look at the barn, I was still a little curious about the new work that had been done on it, so I went back out for another look around yesterday after I had visited Joe Devonport’s old neighbourhood and as soon as I arrived, I searched inside the building from top to bottom, looking for hatches, side doors or anything out of the ordinary. I knew there was more to the old barn than met the eye but I couldn’t find any anomalies. So I took a stroll outside to clear my head and thought if I checked around the perimeter of the building, I may find some sort of concealed doorway but there was none.”

  “What I did find, though, was the length outside the barn seemed to differ from the inside, so I paced it out. In hindsight, I wish I’d focused more on the surrounding area and I probably would have found the track leading down to the road out the back. Anyway, I went back inside the barn and paced that out as well, only to discover it was three full strides shorter from front to back.”

  “So I began my search on the inside all over again, only this time I confined my observations to the rear of the building. I looked for scrape marks on the hard dirt floor where a door may have opened but there weren’t any, nothing anywhere that would indicate a door or a latch. I got so frustrated I sat down on an old bale of hay, threw my head backward into my hands and stared at the roof. There dangling above me was a block and tackle used to hoist bales into the loft and my mind immediately cast back to the renovations we’d seen when we first went there. I asked myself what if the secret door doesn’t swing in or out, what if it isn’t on a hinge but slides upwards on a pulley system. I sprung to my feet and pulled on the chain but it was solid and had no give. So I climbed the ladder to the loft and used my cane to bring the chain and pulley over to me.”

  “There on the side of the pulley was a well-oiled latch which, once flicked back, freed the chain and allowed me to effortlessly haul down on it. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the whole rear wall panel started to rise; in fact, the mechanism was so easy to operate a young child would have no problems getting it to work. I then realised the beam on the roof that held the hoist had been hollowed out and replaced with a metal compartment that contained an array of pulleys and cables which in turn was duplicated on the side beam and connected to the rear wall.”

  “Once the door was lifted I found a large hatch which connected to the same system and opened in unison. A ramp led down into a concealed cellar confirming my initial thoughts about the tyre tracks you found. They were very faint and difficult for me to see, so I put my penknife across the breadth of the tyre imprints; that way I could look across either end of the knife and calculate if there was a coinciding track and, of course, there was. That is what led me to believe these were tyre tracks from a wheelchair and, of course, this made a lot of sense if the killer was acting on their own. You see, if the culprit was of slight build, the chair would make a limp body manageable. My biggest mistake was to assume that the only way someone would bring a wheelchair to the barn would be from the main road and that was my downfall when it came to capturing the killer this evening. It’s possible that the cellar may have been built as a bomb shelter during the Cold War or may even date back further.”

  “The room below contains a diesel driven generator that’s used for driving the electric saw and also a pump that draws the water from the creek. Now, listen to me! I can see that you are tired and on the way over we organised a meeting for ten o’clock tomorrow when I will explain a few more things. So we will leave you for now and I will pick you up at nine-thirty sharp. Did you want me to notify anyone? Chelsea or your mother, perhaps?”

  Paul slowly moves his head from one side of the pillow to the other. “No. Better not, Seb. My mother will only panic and Chelsea will leave an important photo shoot to come home; I’ll let them know in good time but I would appreciate it if you could pick me up a change of clothes for the morning; the keys to my apartment are in my trouser’s pocket,” he mutters drowsily and then smiles wearily.

  Sebastian grabs the keys and he and Jim say their farewells; once outside Jim whips his head toward a café on the corner. “Would you like a coffee before you head home, Seb?”

  Sebastian’s hand goes up showing his palm. “No thanks, Jim. I have to get home. It’s been a big day and it’s going to be a bigger one tomorrow.”

  Jim looks Sebastian earnestly in the eyes. “Tell me, Seb. Do you honestly believe Paul is ready to come back tomorrow?”

  Sebastian closes his eyes and nods gently. “If the doctor has given him the all clear, then from my perspective as a psychologist it would be the best possible thing for him to do. He has been through a hell of an ordeal tonight and being able to not only face the person who did this to him but also to put the predator away for life will hand him back control of the situation and should also bring him closure. On the other hand, if he can’t watch the unravelling of this cold blooded killer, then all his subconscious is left with is the nightmare of tonight.”

  Jim slips his hands in his jacket pockets as a chilly breeze whips up. “That makes perfect sense, Seb. I better let you go and I will catch up with you and Paul in the morning.”

  Sebastian works his way through the car park to his car and with his mind filled with the events of the day, it seems like his half hour drive has passed in minutes as he pulls into the driveway of his home. The front porch light is on and Cynthia opens the door to greet him as soon as she hears him motoring down their drive. Before he can even get out of the car she gracefully glides across the veranda and waits outside his car door with her arms crossed to keep out the bitter cold. Sebastian clumsily works his way out of the driver’s seat and she kisses him, hugs one of his arms and walks in with him while still attached.

  “Put your coat and cane up and then go to the study. There’s bourbon in there, just waiting for you to enjoy, and once you have finished it, come join me in the kitchen. I kept dinner back so we can sit down and discuss the events as they unfolded.”

  Sebastian obediently does exactly what Cynthia has requested of him and then relates the whole day’s events to her over dinner. Cynthia’s more than relieved to hear that Paul is okay. By the end of dinner, she can see that Sebastian is physically and mentally exhausted so she talks him into having an early night.

  15. SATURDAY

  The following morning Sebastian is up early and drives to Paul’s apartment to pick up some fresh clothes and then motors to the hospital to get Paul at nine thirty sharp. “Good morning, my friend. Now here are your clothes but more importantly… how are you feeling?” Sebastian asks sincerely while handing Paul his attire.

  Paul looks much livelier than he did the previous night, so he immediately takes his clothes into the change room and returns a muffled reply, “I’m feeling much better than I did last night, Seb, and if you go to the drawer in the side table next to the bed, you will find the signed release form from my doctor.” Paul comes out of the change room still doing up his belt and Sebastian gives him the papers he has retrieved from the drawer. “I’m ready to go when you are, Seb, “he says with a grin from ear to ear and they make their way to the registrar where he signs out.

  Once they are in the car and heading toward the station, Sebastian is so enthusiastic about having Paul back he doesn’t stop talking all the way. He fills Paul in on his visit to Joe Devonport’s old neighbourhood and even a few of his own personal trials and tribulations.

  Sebastian parks the car and the two of them make their way up the steps of the buildi
ng. When they get inside and begin to work their way through the hordes of police officers and detectives, there are constant words of encouragement and pats on the backs for Paul.

  Sebastian looks at him proudly. “You deserve this, my friend. You are a very brave man.”

  Paul is humbled by his words. “Thanks, Seb. That means a lot to me!”

  Sebastian looks him in the eyes and smiles. “Yes, I know. Now, I would like you to go ahead of me as there is something I need to attend to. I won’t be long.” Before Paul has an opportunity to respond Sebastian has left, so he continues on his way to Jim’s office and no sooner has he entered, Emily walks around the desk to hug him. “How are you, Paul… and do you really think you should be here?”

  Paul looks at her gratefully. “I’m fine, Emily, and I don’t think it’s a matter of wanting to be here; I think I have to be here. You know that old thing about getting back on the horse?”

  Emily closes her eyes and nods. “Yes, I think I know what you mean; anyway Jim is expecting you two, so where is your other half?” Paul looks down, tightens his lips and waves his head from side to side and Emily’s empathic look soon turns to a stern glare. “Well he better get here soon, as Jim’s patience won’t remain passive forever, you know!”

  Paul is about to stall a little longer when Sebastian enters the room and is slightly out of breath. “Sorry…had something to do…that just had to be done…” Emily holds her index finger vertically in front of her face and glares at Sebastian, then moves to Jim’s door and announces them.

  The first thing Paul does is hand over the hospital clearance forms to Jim and then they both take a seat. “Good to see you here in one piece, Paul. How are you feeling?”