by J. K. Zimmer
“I don’t believe you,” she said, pushing his hand from her face.
Gipson laughed as he leaned back in his chair. “You can believe what you want, but Kevin knows exactly where you are and who you’re with. You see, Sophie, in the business Gates and I are in, we share more than just information. We share everything,” he said, moving closer to her.
Sophie shifted, looking at Gipson with disgust. “I will not be shared with anyone, Mr. Gipson.”
“Oh, I think you will,” he said, resting his hand on hers.
Sophie tried to pull her hand from him. “Why am I here and why am I with you?”
“You are mine for the evening, and my time starts now,” he said, tightening his grip as he pulled her to her feet.
Sophie recalled what she had read earlier. Anya had made an attempted to resist the man she’d been given to. Was this a reenactment of that evening at Mr. Dubois’ castle? “Oh Three, no,” she whispered.
“As you have read, dear Sophie, of the pain Anya endured, so you too must endure. But take heart. You have hope in the darkest of times.”
She turned her head, Three’s words sounding in her ears. Gipson held tightly to her hand. “But Three, I read of no protection. There was no sign that you were with Anya. I only read of her fear and pain. You call that hope?”
“So you don’t believe that I will protect you, Sophie? You have read the diary.”
“I wasn’t allowed to finish it,” she answered in her mind.
“Even more reason to trust me for your protection. Your future depends on me.”
“Ms. Hanes, you seem distant, someplace else,” Gipson said, reaching for her other hand and pulling her toward him. “I think it’s time we change that.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kevin
Taylor slowed the car to take a left turn. His eyes caught something as the headlights swept across the countryside.
“What’s that?” he asked, stopping in front of a sign partially covered with green vines.
Kevin leaned toward the dash. “It says the Regal. Can you make out what it says under those vines?”
“Not sure, I can’t make it out.” Taylor froze, his eyes glued to the sign, thinking. “Hey, I remember this place,” he said, striking the steering wheel with the palm of his hand. “The angle is different, though. The rest of the sign reads ‘for the mentally impaired.’ I turned around here the other night after I lost Smith’s car.”
Kevin moved even closer to the windshield, scanning the wall. “Have you ever been in there?”
“No, I’m not from this part of Ireland, but if my memory serves me correctly from looking at some maps, there’s an old castle on the estate. I do remember it was under renovation about three years ago after a fire. It made pretty big news at the time.”
“Why don’t I remember that?” Kevin said, thinking out loud. “I was working in Ireland three years ago. This site was never considered.” There was a silence, and then Kevin said, “Taylor, get on your phone. Find out how long the Regal has been in business, who owns it, and who it services.” Kevin grabbed his camera from the back seat. “I’m going to take a look around.”
Kevin slowly opened the car door, waiting for motion detectors to light up. He stepped out and stood perfectly still, scanning the wall for any type of security. “Not a camera in sight,” he said as he started to make his way through the thick thorny vines that surrounded the entire wall about nine feet out. Who needs security when you have a natural deterrent, he thought, feeling the barbs snag his jacket and scratch his face. He made it to the wall and noticed a narrow pathway around the circumference for as far as he could see in the clouded moonlight.
“Let’s see where this takes me,” he said, walking parallel to the road. He turned to check the distance. He could see Taylor and the car about fifty yards behind him. The wall up ahead was going to take him to the left, away from the road. He took out his phone. “Hey, Taylor, do you have anything yet?” Kevin continued to walk, his partner’s voice breaking in and out on his phone.
“Gates, the reception is really poor in this area. I’ll meet up with you.”
Kevin took pictures of the area as he waited for Taylor to join him. He’d need a good pictorial map of the area if it became something of urgent interest. “Come on, Taylor,” Kevin whispered impatiently. Just then, he heard something run up behind him. “Taylor?”
“Yeah,” Taylor whispered. “Who were you expecting, an Irish banshee?”
Kevin pulled in a breath of relief. No surprises, he thought, at least not yet.
Wow, it’s hard to get close to the wall without being ripped apart by these vines,” Taylor commented, examining his torn jacket.
Kevin agreed. “I’m going to try to walk the perimeter and see if there’s any other way in except through the front gates. Did you get any information about this place?”
“Yeah, the Regal is licensed as a care facility for the mentally unstable. It’s owned by a legitimate corporation here in the country, and it’s been here for over twenty years.”
Kevin’s eyebrows rose. “Twenty years? That doesn’t make sense. We knew nothing about it just three years ago.”
“Who’s the ‘we’ you’re talking about?”
“The team I was working with at the time. It was Gipson, and— it was Gipson. That’s why I knew nothing about it. He didn’t want me or anyone else to know about this place. He’s connected, but how?” Kevin asked.
“We know that Gipson knows the professor,” Taylor said, following Gates as he continued to walk the perimeter. “So we can assume what we’ve thought all along—they’re into something not good, together.”
“Yeah, but we still don’t know if this is the place they’re keeping Sophie and the other women,” Kevin said.
“You’re right,” Taylor said, running his hands along the wall as they walked.
“Gates, a lot of the old estates had a secret entrance on one of the walls, but since this has been remodeled, I’m not sure where it would be, or if it would even still exist.”
The men stayed close to the wall, looking for anything out of the ordinary.
“What’s this?” Taylor asked, stepping back to get a better look. He clicked his cell phone on to light the spot in question. “This area has a different color brick than the rest,” he said.
“You’re right. The little bit of moonlit tonight reflects off it differently than the rest.”
Taylor ran his hands over the surface of the wall. “I don’t feel any buttons or see any handles that might get us in.”
“This isn’t right,” Kevin said, his chest beginning to rise and fall more rapidly.
“What are you thinking?”
“Something’s wrong. It’s too quiet,” Kevin whispered.
They both stopped, not speaking a word. There was nothing but the constant chirp of crickets and the deep throaty growl of bullfrogs.
Taylor turned, leaning his head against the wall. “Anya wrote the same thing in her diary, Gates. Right after she was—”
Kevin cut him short. “I remember,” he said, feeling a pain shoot through his gut.
“Think past the rape. Think to what she said about the people in the grand hall. She witnessed them suddenly become quiet, get up, and exit the room, like they were in some kind of trance. Remember she said the silence was so loud it was deafening?”
“It’s drugs, Taylor, something time-released. That’s what made the people suddenly change, become quiet.”
“Do you think that’s what is happening here?”
“I’m not sure, but we need eyes in there,” Kevin said, looking toward the top of the wall. “What do we have here?” he asked, stepping closer to the wall for a better look at a grated opening near the top of the wall.
Taylor put a light on the grate. “Maybe an air vent for a chamber built into the wall?”
“Do you have a mobile surveillance camera with you?”
Taylor pulled the pack off h
is back. “Yeah, but I don’t have a viewer.”
“Send the signal to my phone,” Kevin said.
Taylor worked on getting his camera in position as Gates programmed his phone. “Ready,” he said.
“Copy that. Initiating camera now,” he said, watching the thin, metal, telescopic arm raise the tiny camera into position on the ledge of the opening. “You should be getting a picture right about now,” Taylor said, looking at his partner.
Kevin looked intently at the screen. “Static. The picture has static. Wait a second. Images are coming in. No one inside,” he whispered, continuing to monitor the information. “I see a bed and a small floor lamp. The room looks about nine by thirteen with one door. I’ve got a call coming in from the chief. Bring the camera back down.” Kevin stepped a few feet from his partner.
Taylor zipped his pack as Gates rejoined him. “So what’s up?”
“There’s a team waiting for us in Dool. We’re supposed to meet them ASAP,” Kevin said, beginning to walk hastily back to the car.
Taylor could sense his partner’s annoyance. “The chief knows what he’s doing, Gates. We need to trust his judgment.”
Without thinking, Kevin turned quickly on his heels, grabbing Taylor’s jacket and pulling him close. “Don’t you get it, man? She’s in there, and we need to be doing something to get her out. Not later, and not tomorrow. Now.” Just then, Anya’s words lodged in his mind, words that made him sick and increasingly angry.
“Three, my case for hating men has been sealed. My body is bleeding, and my head? Three, I can hardly think.”
Kevin loosened his grip on Taylor as he nursed the words once more in his head. “So help me, if Sophie has to go through anything from that old diary, I’ll make sure someone pays,” he said, following after Taylor as they hurried toward the car. Kevin’s mind raced. “Three, huh?” he whispered. “He didn’t take care of Anya, what makes me think he’ll be there to protect Sophie?”
“So will you speak my name with belief?”
Kevin stopped at the sound of the voice and turned. A man stood directly in front of him. His shoulder-length hair was brown, matching his eyes, and he wore a long monk-like blue robe. Kevin was speechless.
“What’s the matter, Mr. Gates? You now have nothing to say?”
Kevin studied the man. “Who are you?” Kevin asked. “Tell me, I’m waiting for an answer.”
The man was still.
Beads of sweat covered Kevin’s upper lip as a strange edginess came over him. He slowly stepped closer, feeling drawn. “Are you the one? The one they call Three?”
There still was no sound from the man.
“There was never a mention in the diary that Anya had seen you with her eyes. She always said she just knew you were there.”
“She did know, Kevin. She knew me and trusted even in times of all-consuming pain and total despair. But you, on the other hand, know little of me and frankly don’t believe that I exist even though Sophie has begun to put her trust in me.”
A lump formed in Kevin’s throat as he tried to regain his slipping composure. “How do you expect me to trust someone who allows such degrading pain to those who are completely innocent?”
“All things will be to Sophie’s good benefit as it was in Anya’s life.”
“Good?” he said, moving closer to the man. “What type of good are you talking about? Taking young women and allowing them to be used by selfish men? What kind of keeper are you anyway?” he yelled.
“Kevin, this is as much about you as it is Sophie.”
Kevin pressed his lips tightly together to stop their quivering. He stepped back before he hit the guy but didn’t take his eyes off Three. “I don’t understand this, why Sophie, and why now?”
“She was destined to find the diary, Kevin. It was her time, her way to me.”
Kevin closed his eyes as he linked his fingers together behind his neck. “That diary has been nothing but trouble.”
“Also because you love her.”
Kevin felt a chill as he drew his eyes to the man. His voice broke. “More than you know.”
“No, Kevin, I know how much. That is why you have been chosen.”
“Chosen? Chosen for what?”
Kevin took one step closer, and then the stranger was gone, vanished. He now saw nothing but partial moonlight reflecting on the brick wall.
“Gates, are you coming?” Taylor asked in a loud whisper. He was waiting near the car. “Let’s get back and seal the rescue plan before it’s too late.”
Kevin looked over his shoulder and then back to the wall. “Was I dreaming?” he asked out loud, trying to shake the anxious feeling in his stomach. He turned and picked up the pace to join Taylor in the car.
“I got a message from the chief. We’ll have a conference call as soon as we get to the apartment. We’ll be joined by another team of specialists and—” He looked over at his partner. “Did you hear me, Gates?”
Kevin stared at the wall.
“Did you hear me? C’mon, if this is too close for you then we’d—”
“No, I’m fine,” he said, adjusting his ball cap.
“You don’t look fine. You look like you just saw a ghost or something.”
Kevin looked out the window. “I think I just did. Drive, Taylor. Get us to town.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sophie
“Who’s there?” Sophie asked, feeling the presence of someone standing near her. She sat up quickly. “Ouch!” She grabbed her head, feeling a rush of blood to her temples.
“Dear Sophie…”
“Three,” she said, tears developing in the outer corners of her eyes. “Gipson—”
“I know, Sophie, I was with you. I saw everything, and I felt everything.”
“But Three, I can’t remember what happened to me,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “What’s happening to me? I’m talking to someone I can’t see.”
“Sophie, listen to me. The drugs they gave you made you very sick. It saved you from the terrible advances of Mr. Gipson.”
She turned, trying to see Three. Her tears turned into deep sobs. “Why am I here?”
“I brought you Anya’s diary, Sophie. You must read the ending. Her fate is yours.”
“Maybe I don’t want to know, Three. It might be too hard to see what’s going to happen to me.”
“You need to know, Sophie. You need to know that there is a man who needs to—”
She cut him off sharply. “I don’t need a man to do anything for me. They just need to leave me alone.”
“Just as Anya thought, but you will see, dear one.”
“You’re not leaving me alone in this cell, are you?”
“I have never left you. I will always be close. Now lie down and rest. Your comforter is with you.”
Sophie looked around once more, still seeing no one, but she knew he was there. “Thank you, Three,” she whispered.
She heard a jingling of keys at the door. She turned to look. Someone was opening the door.
“Ah, I see you’re finally awake, Sophie.”
The voice was disgustingly familiar, but the man was still concealed in the shadows.
“What do you want from me?”
Professor Smith stepped into the light near the bed. “Come now, Ms. Hanes, is that any way to talk to your host?” he asked. “After all I’ve given you? I’ve provided you with a place to sleep, given you clothes and food.”
“I didn’t ask to be here, and I don’t need any of your charity!” she yelled. “I need to get out of here!”
He moved in closer. Sophie felt the sting of the back of the professor’s hand on her cheek. He grabbed her arm and pulled her roughly from where she was sitting. As his hands grasped her arm, she noticed a copper band with a red light embedded in it secured to her wrist. When was that put on? And what is it for? she wondered.
“You’re not going anywhere. It’s people like you, Ms. Hanes, who have prevented me fro
m getting the education I rightfully deserve. It’s my duty to keep you and others like you from doing that to anyone else,” he snarled.
Sophie looked into his eyes. They were bloodshot, sunken in. His entire body was shaking. She knew he was barely in control, and if he lost it… She sat back quietly on the bed, not wanting to agitate him any further.
“I’ll be back,” he said.
She watched him turn and move back into the darkness before opening the door. He looked back at her, and she could feel his cold eyes. Sophie lay on the bed, holding her hand to her bruised cheek. She now knew Smith’s motive for abducting her. But why the wristband? And he’d said ‘people like her.’ Were there others? “Oh, Three, I need to get out of here,” she said, her thoughts going back to her conversation with the unseen one before Smith came to visit. Her mind went to Kevin. “I need you, please help me.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kevin
“How are things going, Gates?” A. J. asked.
Kevin heard apprehension in his superior’s voice and saw the look he always gave him when he questioned his ability to remain calm. Skyping was a great tool for communication except when you didn’t want the whole truth to be known. Kevin thought back to the last time he’d gotten too close to a situation, and it wasn’t good. But he didn’t want to be pulled from this case, not now. “Sir, I’m good with this.”
“Excellent, keep it that way,” he said, his eyes conveying a strong warning.
A. J. turned his attention to the team sitting in the hotel room turned command post. “Gentlemen, get to know who you’re working with. You’re going to have to work together like one unit, as if you’ve trained together for years. You’ll be given a set of command words. You need to memorize them. Let me remind you to use only those words to trigger actions. We’ve talked with the owner of the Regal, and he has agreed to cooperate with us fully. This means he is out of the way so we can do our job. He has also provided us with the blueprints of the facility and a plot chart of the entire grounds. The owner has been advised not to talk to anyone associated with the Regal until this operation is completed.”