Night Chill

by Jeff Gunhus

  The mom in her screamed the alternatives. She was hurt and couldn’t call out for help. She wandered outside and was hit by a car. And the worse fear. The unspeakable fear. Somebody had taken her. It happened thousands of times every year. But it couldn’t be happening to her baby. No, not her baby.

  She thought about calling Jack but decided against it. Sarah could be around the corner, or pouting somewhere because she was in a fight with her sister. Why worry Jack until she knew what was going on? Besides, he might not be able to handle any more stress right now. The thought made her grimace. She had just gotten used to counting on Jack again. Now, she felt the old feelings of abandonment return. She suddenly felt very alone.

  Lauren shoved at the heavy metal door at the bottom of the stairs. She turned left and broke into a run toward the emergency room. She could hear voices down the hall, loud and with an edge of panic. Two male orderlies walked down the hall toward her, calling out for her little girl like they were looking for a dog that had run off. When they saw her, they shook their heads. Lauren recognized one of them, Ned Brickman, a kind old man, the resident grandfather. He had over a dozen young grandchildren and from the pain on his face she could tell he was living through the nightmare scenario with her, as if Sarah were one of his own.

  “We’ll find her, Doc,” the old man reassured her. “Probably jus’ run off to play or somethin’. You know how kids get. Don’t you worry, now. We’ll find her.”

  Lauren forced a smile but Ned’s concerned expression only made her hurry faster to the emergency room. The nurse was there, trying to calm Becky down and ask her questions at the same time. Becky shouted when she saw her mother and ran over to her, tears covering her cheeks. Lauren wrapped her up in her arms and squeezed her tight. She looked up at the nurse, “What happened?”

  “I was watching them. I swear it. They were playing fine so I walked over to get my charts. Then the phone rang and I…” Her voice trailed off as she fought back her own tears.

  Lauren didn’t have the patience to wait for the woman to pull herself together. “How long? How long were they out of your sight?”

  “Five minutes. Ten tops. Then Becky came in and asked if I’d seen her sister around. I looked all over this floor, all the bathrooms, called the other nurse stations. No one’s seen her. That’s when I called you. I’m so sorry, I—”

  Lauren shot her a look that ended the apology. She didn’t need Becky to hear any more panic. She hugged her daughter just long enough to calm her down, then she pushed her back and held her in front of her at arm’s length.

  “Becky, we just need to find your sister. O.K.?” She waited until Becky nodded. “All right. Can you tell me where you saw her last?”

  Becky made a few false starts, each time her voice catching in her throat as the tears continued to pour. Lauren rubbed the girl’s back and pushed back the stray hairs from her face.

  “I dunno…she said she had to go potty…she wanted me to go with her but I didn’t. I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry.”

  Lauren hugged her. “It’s O.K., sweetie. We’ll find her. She’s just somewhere in the hospital. It’s not a big deal, all right? I don’t want you to worry.” Becky nodded. “Good. Now I want you to stay here while I go look for your sister.”

  “Noooo,” Becky whined, grabbing on to her mother’s clothes. “I want to stay with you.”

  “Listen, I need you to stay here in case she comes back this way, all right? I won’t be gone long.” She hefted Becky into the air and sat her down on the padded receptionist’s chair. She turned to the nurse and snapped, “Watch her.”

  The statement came out loaded with accusation. The nurse lowered her eyes to the ground and Lauren immediately felt a pang of guilt. She couldn’t help feeling angry even though she knew it was unfair. How many times had she left the girls alone for ten minutes while she worked down the hall from her office? A dozen times? Two dozen?

  She made a mental note to apologize to the nurse later, but for now she had no time to think of anything except finding her baby. With one last smile at Becky she left the emergency room and walked back out to the main hallway. She could hear Ned Brickman and the other orderly still calling out Sarah’s name. Lauren wondered if Sarah would come out if she heard these men calling for her.

  She tried to think through the likely scenarios that would make her daughter hide. Purposely, she threw up a mental wall to block out the image of her little girl being abducted, giving other possibilities top priority. But no matter how thick and high she built the wall to block out the thoughts, she felt them building force inside her mind. Kidnapped. Molested. Murdered. It seemed so unlikely, though. There were people everywhere in the hospital. Someone would have to be crazy to try to take her here.

  “Ned!” she called out, running down the hall until she caught up with the old orderly. “Ned, can we put someone at every door. You know, in case—”

  “Already done it, ma’am,” he said, his eyes showing none of their usual good humor. It was obvious he was taking Sarah’s disappearance seriously. “I locked some ’a the doors an’ put nurses at the other ones. Jus’ being careful, you know. Don’t think anything like that happened, you know. Lotsa good people ’round here to look out fo’ her.”

  Lauren smiled. She appreciated his calmness. It was exactly what she needed. “You’re probably right. Thank you, though. For the doors.”

  Ned nodded and continued his walk down the hall calling out Sarah’s name. Lauren headed the other direction and did the same. She’d go floor by floor. She knew by now there were nurses on every floor looking for Sarah, but she wondered if so many people calling out her name would just scare her and make her hide. Maybe she thought she was in trouble. Maybe she had wet herself and was embarrassed to come out.

  She fixed on the idea. She had told her sister she had to go to the bathroom. If she couldn’t find one, or didn’t make it in time, that would explain why she might not come out from wherever she was hiding.

  Lauren felt herself calm down. The more she thought about it, the more rational it seemed. Once Sarah heard her mother’s voice, she’d come out, all red-faced about having an accident. It was just a matter of getting within hearing distance of wherever she was hiding.

  Lauren set off down the hall, struggling to hold on to her confidence that it would be a short search.

  FIFTY-ONE

  The squeeze hole was worse than Jack imagined. Much worse. Ten minutes to move less than twelve feet, his flesh crammed into any pocket of space available, his breathing made shallow as the rock coffin around him pressed hard on his ribs. Finally, he heard Lonetree’s voice urging him on, giving him instructions. Then a hand grabbed his boot and Lonetree pulled him through the last section.

  He sensed that this new cavern was larger than anything they had yet seen. The acoustics were different. The air moved to its own current. Water dripped in the distance sending echoes bouncing off the rock walls. It was a hollow sound, as if time in this place was measured by its disjointed rhythm. It sounded far away but reached them clearly through the dead air. He strained to see into the void in front of him but their helmet lights did little to push back the dark. He tilted his head back until his light pointed straight up. Again, the light was too weak to show anything except the wall stretching up behind them out of sight.

  “I can’t see anything” Jack said, not quite sure why he was whispering. “What is this place?” He started to take a step forward but was jerked back by a tug on his overalls.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Lonetree said. He pointed his light toward where Jack had been about to step. They were on a platform of some kind, a ledge on the side of a cliff that dropped straight off only feet from where they stood. One step forward and Jack would have tumbled down into the abyss. “Watch your eyes,” Lonetree warned, holding up what looked like a stick of dynamite.

  With a twist, the end of the stick erupted into a brilliant white phosphorus light. Jack could feel the heat from the
flare even though he stood several steps away from it. With a grunt Lonetree chucked the flare up into the black void in front of them. It sailed through the air, so bright that it created an eerie after-effect in their eyes, a long tail that tracked its trajectory, as if the light burned a hole in the air as it traveled.

  Jack stared at the light tumbling end-over-end through the air. He thought his eyes must be playing tricks on him because at the peak of its arc, high above the platform where they stood, the flare slowed in mid-flight and slowly righted itself, a candle held upright in the air by an invisible hand.

  The slight side-to-side sway of the light’s descent gave away the secret. The flare was attached to a parachute, designed to deploy at the peak of its arc. Jack tore his eyes away from the flare and surveyed the chamber now lit for them to see.

  It was larger than he suspected. Even with the light of the flare, the far wall of the cavern remained hidden in shadows. What he could see was immense. The rock platform they were on was twenty or thirty feet above the floor of the chamber and the roof soared at least three times that distance above them. Gigantic stalactites hung from the top of the cavern like an inverted forest of dead trees, glistening from moisture still seeping through the rock. Some reached down to meet their stalagmite siblings, looking like giant redwoods, or like ornate columns holding up the roof. The bright light of the flare reflected off of crystal structures embedded in the rock walls and brought out the brilliant reds and browns of the formations.

  After absorbing the dimensions of the chamber, Jack turned his attention to the floor of the cavern. The slow sway of the flare as it descended cast long moving shadows across the floor, making it hard to discern the structures spread out beneath him. As the flare closed the space between it and the floor, the light revealed more of what was beneath it. Then the air around the flare grew still and in that moment the cavern revealed its secret.

  Jack took a step back, reaching behind him to find the rock wall. “My God. What is this place?” he muttered.

  Lonetree didn’t hear him. It was his fourth time to the cave, but the scene still robbed him of his breath. Each time the terror of what he saw turned his blood cold. He lit another flare once the parachute hit the ground, this one less intense. He held it in front of him like a torch. “Follow me. And stay close.”

  Jack forced himself to look away from the scene laid out below him. He turned to watch Lonetree disappear down the side on the ledge. At first inspection, it looked like the rock ledge dropped off at a ninety degree angle, straight down to the cluster of stalagmites below. Now that he stood looking down at the edge of the platform he saw that there was a slight slope. Lonetree was making good time down the rock face aided by the hand and foot holds carved into the smooth rock. Obviously, they weren’t the first to use this entrance.

  Jack descended the rock ladder, testing each handhold before shifting his weight to it. The grooves carved into the rock were rough and uneven, as if hacked out by a pickax or a crude chisel.

  Jack jumped the last few feet and landed next to Lonetree. His light wobbled through the air until he steadied himself. But once he shone his light on the stalagmites rising from the ground in front of him, he wished he’d been a little more careful coming down the ladder. The limestone pillars were chiseled to a point, arrayed along the base of the ledge like an animal trap. Jack suddenly felt very unwelcome. They were the animals the sharpened stone spikes were meant to kill.

  “Step where I step,” Lonetree said. “I’ve found some nasty traps down here, things you definitely want to avoid.”

  Jack nodded.

  In only a few steps, they cleared the line of stalagmites and came up to the first of the strange structures he’d seen from the platform. And the first pile of skeletons.

  FIFTY-TWO

  One of the nurses had called the police. Officers from the Midland police department were the first to arrive at the hospital. As soon as they were told the situation, Sarah’s description was broadcast over the radio net. Available officers were instructed to patrol the area and keep an eye out for the little girl. Sheriff Janney radioed ahead that he was coming down to personally organize the search.

  Lauren sat in the nurse’s break room, her eyes red. Once again she picked up the phone and dialed Jack’s cell number. The phone rang five times and switched over to voicemail. Lauren slammed the phone back down. She’d already left messages.

  Dr. Mansfield had stayed by her side the entire time, not saying much, just staying close for support. She appreciated his presence. He knew most everyone in the room by name and had been an advocate for her. Lauren tried to smile at him but couldn’t manage it. She couldn’t take her eyes off the object sitting in the middle of the table in front of her. Sarah’s pink rubber ball. Found on the third floor. And worse, they had found blood on the floor. Of course there was no way to be sure it was Sarah’s. That would come later as part of the forensics done on the case. But Lauren didn’t have to wait for a DNA test. She felt it in her bones. It was her baby’s blood on the floor. Someone had taken her. Someone had hurt her.

  What if they’ve already killed her?

  Lauren shook her head as if that alone could sweep the thought away. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her. And that it happened in the hospital of all places. Too many things had worked in the kidnappers favor. Sarah had walked away from her sister. The nurse watching her hadn’t noticed she was gone. The nurse on the third floor had been in a patient’s room and hadn’t seen anything. The chances were astronomical that anyone could have carried it off. Still, someone had.

  She blamed herself. How could she have come back to the hospital after what had happened at home? She should have just packed up the kids and taken them down to her friend’s house in Baltimore. Four hours there and four hours back. She could have returned the same day to help Jack sort things out.

  But now her baby was gone. And it was her fault.

  Sheriff Janney strode into the room followed by the Midland police chief, a balding, lanky man who didn’t do much to fill out a uniform. He looked relieved and Lauren felt a surge of hope. Janney pulled a chair up to the table and sat next to Lauren. She scanned both the sheriff and the police chief for any hints that they might know something new. It had been that way for the last hour. Every time someone walked in the room she was seized with terror that they had bad news. We found your daughter, Mrs. Tremont. I’m sorry to inform you that…

  But Janney had nothing new to say. He just wanted to reassure her that everything that could be done was being done. That the officers and deputies involved were professionals and would find Sarah. Most importantly, the police chief had agreed that he, Janney, would be the head of the investigation and have jurisdiction over the case.

  Lauren glanced over to the police chief and understood the reason for his relief. He was off the hook. Janney was running things now. The news surprised Lauren. She always thought of law enforcement as being eager to keep jurisdiction, not give it up. But looking at the Midland chief, she wasn’t shocked. The man looked as if busting a jaywalker might give him a panic attack, let alone dealing with a kidnapping. Lauren decided it was a good move. At least until the cavalry showed up.

  “When does the FBI get involved?” she asked.

  Janney shook his head. “I called them but they’re letting us take care of this for right now. Said most of these things resolve themselves. Usually it’s a misunderstanding or something.”

  “What do you mean a misunderstanding? What’s to misunderstand? She’s gone. She’s—”

  “Now before you get upset, let me just say I agree with them. I bet we’ll find her playing outside or hiding somewhere in the hospital. There’s nothing the FBI could do for us right now anyway, except get in the way.” Janney explained in a calm voice.

  “I want to talk to someone at the FBI . She’s not just playing outside somewhere. There was blood up there. Someone took her, God damn it! This is a kidnapping not some misunde
rstanding.”

  “Lauren,” Dr. Mansfield said, “I agree with the sheriff. You should let the professionals handle this. They know what they are doing.”

  Tears flowed down her cheeks but she didn’t brush them away. She didn’t know what to do. Over and over, she saw Sarah’s face and fought down the thought of never seeing her again. It was overwhelming. “Just find her. Please find her.”

  “We’ll do our best,” Janney said.

  A nurse cleared her throat behind them. Dr. Mansfield twisted in his chair, saw who it was, then turned back to face Lauren. “That patient I told you about earlier, the one on the phone? She’s just come and—”

  “Go see her. I’ll be all right.”

  “I could cancel. Reschedule for later.”

  “No, I’ll be fine. Really. Go take care of her.”

  Dr. Mansfield patted her hand. “I won’t be long. Have them find me if anything happens. ”

  Janney shifted his weight uncomfortably in the chair as the doctor left the room. The sheriff turned to Lauren. “Look, I understand this is a hard time, but trust the pros on this one. Usually these things are not what they seem. Usually they are something else entirely.”

  Lauren caught the insinuating tone in his voice and noticed him wringing his hands. “Do you have a theory, Sheriff?” she asked.

  He cleared his throat and placed the palms of his hands delicately on the table. “Mrs. Tremont—”

  “Dr. Tremont,” the police chief corrected him.

  Janney gave the man a thin smile, barely hiding his irritation at the intrusion. “Yes, I’m sorry, Dr. Tremont. Like I said, I think we’ll find Sarah in no time at all. This whole thing will be old news by tomorrow morning.” Lauren waited for the sheriff to come to the point. “But, I want to think through every possibility here. Make sure we’re not missing anything. I’m not sure if you know this but many children go missing every year, almost 10,000 just last year.”