Stepford USA (Jade Snow International Adventure #1)

by Lada Ray

  I tried to wiggle my toes. They moved, but my feet seemed to be tied. I attempted to move my hands. They were tied, too. Now, that sensations started returning to my body, I felt all bruised, my whole body aching. At least the baby was all right, but for how long? I better not waste any time and scream for help. I inhaled deeply and almost choked on some dusty cloth filling my mouth, instead of the fresh air I expected. I was gagged.

  What has happened to me? I recalled my desperate dash for freedom, followed by the blackness. Marc Catcham must have hit me on the head. That explains the headache. But what is digging into my hip? I tried to shift my body away from whatever was causing me such discomfort, but couldn't. The space I was in wasn't big enough for me to move. And the more I moved, the more it rocked. And a new sound was added to it. It was some kind of splashing. Splashing? That means water. And then, the realization dawned. That's why I could see nothing but the moon and stars. And that's why I couldn't shift my body. I was in a boat - a very small boat - and I was floating in the middle of the lake.

  But why? What did Catcham have to gain from putting me in this boat? The very next morning, someone was bound to find me and everything he’d done would come out anyway. All he’d achieve was to add yet another crime to his long list of evil deeds.

  Wait, the next morning? I was supposed to spend the whole night in this boat? That could be very bad for the baby. Now, I was concerned. But no, it was still illogical. Yes, I may be cold and utterly uncomfortable, but it's a summer night. I'll be okay, and so will the baby. What he did was not smart and that stumped me, because whatever else Marc Catcham was, he definitely wasn't stupid.

  Come on, Catcham, where's the catch? I tried to think through the haze caused by splitting headache and utter discomfort. By the way, why was my hair wet? I raised my head as much as I could and shook it. I felt my face being splashed with water and licked greedily the drops that landed near my parched lips. I felt a splash as I lowered my head back down, and right away I knew the horrible truth. The boat leaked. They must have been small leaks at first, and in my dazed state I didn't notice that the water was rising as the leaks expanded. But now, there was no mistaking it. It was getting wetter by the minute. In panic, I thrashed wildly, as the little boat rocked dangerously. The leaks seemed to intensify as well. When I ran out of breath and stopped thrashing, there was more water in the boat. I was only making it worse.

  What do I do? I thought desperately. I wouldn't survive till morning if the boat leaked. It would go under pretty soon and take me with it.

  And then, the cold came. The gentle night breeze was hardly noticeable on a warm summer night if you sat in the garden or took a stroll. But if you were wet, tied up and immobile, pregnant and exhausted on top of that, it could prove to be deadly.

  It seemed to be getting more windy, as the boat rocked harder. I felt dizzy and nauseated. And on top of it, now I was starting to freeze. I was sprawled at the bottom of the boat trembling, feeling the life force draining out of me minute by minute. My hands and feet were going numb and I could hardly breathe any more. But the worst thing was that my stomach weighted on me, like a giant weight. It was heavy, but not with the heaviness that I was used to. That old, familiar heaviness was the heaviness of life. The one I felt now was cold and clammy, like a rock... like death. Gathering my last strength, I sent a prayer, “God, please save my baby, God, please save my baby!”

  Then, I could feel neither my feet, nor my hands, nor the rock that became my stomach. Next, apathy came. But when I was about to fall into the black abyss, I heard a sound from the shore.

  It was the divine sound of meow. At first, barely audible. Then, the wind blew in my direction and I heard it distinctly. The hope was back, the new strength filled my numb body and I tried to shift it as much as I could to show Lily that I was here.

  Please, darling, please, sweet Lily, you are my last hope! Find someone, rescue my baby and me! I kept sending a psychic SOS over and over again, hoping Lily would hear it and produce a miracle. There was one last meow and then, it stopped. Lily disappeared. I strained my hearing for a long time, but no sound came. My last hope was fading fast, as yet again, I started slipping into oblivion.

  But then, I heard it! There was that meow, a desperate, desperate meow. I also heard barking, followed by a man's voice. The man on the shore was trying to calm down his dog. It went like this for several rounds. A desperate meow, followed by urgent, agitated barking, then a man's voice trying to convince his dog to calm down.

  Realization struck. Lily didn't let me down! She did bring someone and now, it was up to me. Come on Jade, you can do it! I gathered whatever little strength was left in my tortured body to keep myself from falling into eternal darkness that was about to claim me. I thrashed, and thrashed, and thrashed, sending splashes left and right and rocking the boat as hard as I could. I could hear the dog barking his head off. And a moment before I felt myself slipping into the abyss again, the man on the shore finally got it!

  “Oh, my God,” he yelled. “There is someone in that boat! There is someone in that boat!” I heard more barking, mixed with a sound of the man screaming at someone on his cell phone. After that, the moon and stars turned off.

  Chapter 27

  I woke up to the rhythmical rocking. Oh, God, not again! Hastily examining myself and my surroundings, I discovered that I wasn't tied up, thank goodness, and that I wasn't in a leaking boat. That in fact, I was in a bed, with some tubes attached to me, covered with warm blankets and inside of what looked like an ambulance. My eyes searched for the nurse.

  “My baby,” I whispered to her.

  “Your baby will be fine, and so will you,” she said with a comforting smile, while her fingers deftly checked my pulse.

  “Thank you,” I said, lowering my eyelids in exhaustion.

  “Not at all. It's your rescuers you should be thanking, not me.” She gestured toward the opposite side of the ambulance van.

  Beyond the hazy mist swirling in my eyes, I noticed the vague contours of my co-passengers: a wet man and a wet German Shepherd, both wrapped in blankets. I smiled at them through the foggy tears of gratitude.

  Next to me was another small, wet bundle, wrapped in a towel. A furry cat ear and a tri-color tail stuck out of it. I touched the ear. It twitched, and so did the tail.

  “Lily,” I exclaimed.

  “Meow,” said Princess Lily. She freed herself from her improvised cover and immediately snuggled up to me with her wet fur.

  “Why are you all wet, Lily?” I asked, alarmed.

  “That's quite a cat you've got there,” said the man, wrapped in a blanket.

  “Dan?!” I blinked at the hardly recognizable, disheveled form. “Is that you I have to thank for my rescue?”

  “I think the real rescuer is this little kitty. James and I just helped.”

  James, as always, a dog of few words, gave a brief, confirmational bark.

  “It was lucky,” said Dan, “James and I decided to take a midnight stroll by the lake. Lily ran to us and started meowing. What surprised me, she wasn't afraid of James, like she usually is. And James didn't bark at her either. But she kept meowing, trying to lead us somewhere. Abruptly, James pulled on his leash so hard, that I had no choice but to follow him. We arrived at that secluded area on the Hidden Lake shore, the three of us had been exploring the other day, and Lily started to meow even harder. She would run to the water and come back to us, run to the water, come back to us. James barked and pulled me in the same direction. And he wouldn't stop, no matter how hard I tried to calm him down. Lily kept doing her routine of running back and forth and since it wasn't working, she was getting more and more desperate. She ran in deeper and deeper, until she was completely wet. But she paid no attention to that. And there, I thought cats were afraid of water. My James kept running back and forth also, barking frantically at some object on the water.

  “I realized that the animals were trying to draw my attention to something, but the onl
y thing I could see was a small empty boat bobbing in the middle of the lake. And that's when I noticed the boat rocking. It's like a light went on in my head, as I understood what Lily and James were trying to tell me. As you see, it was them,” Dan pointed at the two furry heroes, “who get the credit. I was just there, that's all.”

  “He's being modest,” said the nurse. “Dan called us on his cell, but he didn't want to risk waiting until we arrived. There were no other boats around, so he swam together with James to you and the two of them pulled you all the way to safety.”

  I stroked Princess Lily's wonderfully warm, wet body, as she purred excitedly next to me.

  “Thank you so very much,” I said. “Thank you Dan, thank you James, thank you Lily. Many thanks to all of you for saving us! We,” I gently hugged my stomach, “wouldn't be alive, if it wasn't for you.”

  Chapter 28

  I opened my eyes and promptly recalled the events of the night – Marc Catcham, near drowning, local hospital's private room... But there was someone else besides me in my room, I could feel it. I quickly turned on the light and recoiled. Above my bed hovered the giant shape of Nick Nordini, resplendent in his police uniform.

  “What do you want?” I said in the coldest voice I could muster, considering the butterflies of fear in my stomach.

  “I responded to a call,” he said, as his frowning face hung over me like a big, dark cloud.

  I tried to edge away into the furthest corner of my hospital bed, which wasn't very far, since the bed was pretty narrow.

  “If you try anything,” I said, more confidently than I felt, “I'll scream and wake up the entire hospital!”

  He was silent. I felt fear taking over, paralyzing me in its frosty embrace. Where is the nurse? I thought frantically. How could they leave me alone with this monster? How could they let him into the hospital? And then it occurred to me that they didn't know he was a monster. They only knew him as local chief of police and they probably called him to report a crime, an attempted murder by drowning of one Jade Snow.

  “Please relax, Ms. Snow.” He pulled up a chair and sat next to the bed. “You don't have to be afraid.”

  “Oh, I don't have to be afraid?!” I sat up as tall as I could – with some difficulty. My fear has completely evaporated. Now, I was angry as hell, I was simply livid. “Is that what you said to Rebbecca when the poor thing wandered into your midst, looking for protection? You and your cronies raped and almost killed her! And your best buddy, Marc Catcham, is that what he told Adelaide while strangling her? Don't have to be afraid my ass!”

  I must have looked pitifully small and defenseless, sitting on the hospital bed in my night gown and pregnant to boot, compared to this mountain of a man who could snap my neck with ease, if he so wished. But I didn't care. I was past fear, past niceties, past any sort of pretense, past waltzing around the issue. Out with the truth!

  “That bastard tried to kill my baby and me!” I yelled at him, clutching protectively at my stomach, as the memory of the night's horror struck anew. “And you - you have a nerve to barge in here and tell me that I needn't be afraid?!” I felt an irresistible desire to strike him, better yet, to beat him into a pulp, for me and my baby, for Rebbecca and Adelaide.

  “I am so sorry,” he whispered, and for the first time I noticed that his eyes were red. Then, he buried his head in his huge hands and started sobbing. I stared at him. The rock-like Chief Nordini is crying helplessly in front of me? Did I do that? Or maybe, it was his conscience?

  He finally lifted his head and wiped his eyes with a sleeve of the impeccably pressed uniform.

  “Please understand, I was called in to investigate, because a crime took place,” he said meekly. “But I know how you feel and won't bother you for long. I already called in an investigator from Boston, citing a conflict of interest. He should be arriving shortly to take over. I just wanted to check up on you to make sure that you were all right.”

  I said nothing, trying to adjust to this unexpected turn of events.

  “Before I go, I just want to explain something.”

  I eyed him, my eyes narrowed, expectantly.

  He glanced at me and gulped, as if it pained him to talk. “I was planning to confess, because I couldn't live with this any more, but hesitated for too long.”

  He hung his head again.

  “I know,” I said. “I overheard your and Catcham's conversation in his office.”

  “So, it was you. I thought I saw a shadow move in the direction of that closet, but it was dark and I discounted it as figment of my imagination.”

  “If you didn't hesitate,” I said accusingly, “Adelaide would've been alive! If your daddy didn't lie and falsify the evidence, Jason wouldn't have to throw away best years of his life in jail! Better yet, if you and your gang didn't rape Rebbecca, none of this would've happened!”

  “I know,” he mumbled. “All I can say, I am sorry.”

  “YOU ARE SORRY? IS THAT ALL?” I gazed in astonishment at this spineless wreck of a man, posing as chief of police.

  “I know, I know,” he nodded. “It's too late for that.” His whole body sunk into the small chair limply, like a misshapen, oversized sack. I wondered what happened to the confident man, whom I first saw just a few weeks ago at the Blue Peacock.

  “Unfortunately, it is.” I responded coldly.

  “Right,” he got up slowly, as if it cost him supreme effort. “The new investigator will be arriving in a few hours time to take your statement. I am so sorry, Ms. Snow.”

  As he walked to the door, I wondered again where the forceful walk of the old Nick Nordini had gone. His shoulders slouched, head hung and he, somehow, looked diminished.

  He paused by the door: “For what it's worth, I didn't participate in the rape. I was just a spectator. I went to the bushes for a nature break and when I returned, they were already at it. Rebbecca was fighting and they were holding her down and covering her mouth. I was too stunned or too drunk, to react.”

  “Or maybe,” I interrupted, “you were afraid to lose your rich and powerful friends - your future meal ticket.”

  “Maybe,” he whispered.

  At that moment, I realized that he might be telling the truth. “So,” I said, “were you the one who stood right in front of Rebbecca, as the other two raped and beat her? Just stood there and watched?”

  “Yes,” he responded. “That is correct. How did you know?”

  “I have my sources,” I said, as it occurred to me to probe some more. “And the other two were Marc Catcham and Jack Maloof?”

  “That's right.”

  “So,” I went on, "Marc had started teasing Jack, questioning his manhood, which got Jack all fired up. He always had a secret crush on Rebbecca, but that night, between alcohol and Marc's provocations, he forced himself on her, while she attempted in vain to fight him off. She said something humiliating, which only set him off. At first, Marc just nudged and teased Jack, but later, he was helping him to hold Rebbecca down. After that, they took turns on her. Is that how it happened?”

  “Yes,” he nodded. “But how did you know?”

  I disregarded his question and feeling a little more secure now, that he was some distance from my bed, pressed on. “One thing I don't understand, though. How could you just stand there and watch? How could you do nothing? You - the chief's son, a future policeman! Whatever happened to the good, old “serve and protect”?

  “I... I told you, I don't know. I was young and stupid, and awfully drunk. It was... it was such a long time ago.”

  “You weren't drunk later,” I pointed out, “when you went to your father and told him that he needed to figure out how to protect you and the other two. You weren't drunk, when you and your father sent an innocent man to jail.”

  Nick didn't respond. He simply stood by the door, frozen.

  After a pause he said. “I just don't understand how you know all this.”

  “I told you, I have my sources. But I do have one quest
ion for you.”

  “Yes?” He tensed up again.

  “Well, considering how tight the four of you were, it's surprising only three were at Hidden Lake that night. Where was Peter?”

  “Ah, that,” he said, relaxing. “After graduation, we had a farewell football game. And Peter was unfortunate enough to break his leg. He was, understandably, angry at himself and disappointed at being unable to participate in our little party.” Nick gave a bitter laugh. “Come think of it, his breaking a leg was the best thing that could have happen to him.”

  “Ironic, isn't it?”

  “Goodbye, Ms. Snow.” He gave me a final, tortured look, before disappearing behind the closed door.

  I exhaled. And it was only then that I realized that I've been holding my breath for most of this conversation.

  I sat in bed, digesting the new developments. After a minute or two, I arrived at my decision and started yelling at the top of my lungs, “Nurse! Nurse!”

  There was a stampede of someone's feet in the corridor and a harassed looking nurse ran into the room.

  “What happened?” Her breathing was heavy. “Are you all right, Ms. Snow?”

  “I need to go home right now!” I announced to her firmly.

  She checked my pulse and said in her trained, soothing voice. “Now, how about we get some nice sleep, ha? You went through a lot last night and you need some rest.” She fluffed up my pillow invitingly and tried to coerce me back onto it. “ Let's lie down and everything will be much better soon, you'll see.”

  “No,” I said, refusing to budge. “I am not staying here for another day, not even for another hour. I must go home right now!”

  “Doctor Sorensen says you need to stay for observation till tomorrow.”

  I dispensed with niceties and responded sharply, “I don't care what Doctor Sorensen says or what you say, for that matter. You've just let a very dangerous man in and allowed him to be alone with me in the room. Only God knows what could've happened!”