However, she was apparently concerned about Arlene not being at her station because as soon as she sat down, Ashley had to ask, “Professor Hemmingway, what’s wrong?” Darla looked at her as coolly as she could and just shook her head.
“Oh nothing. Arlene must have been in the restroom or something. There was no answer.”
“No answer?!” Athena said in a panic. “She got her. She got her and now she’s in here with us.”
“You’re delusional,” Laura said, rolling her eyes.
“I’m not delusional,” Athena protested sounding very offended by the very idea.
“You are,” Laura reaffirmed. “Check it out.” She gets up and walks to the hallway.
“Laura, don’t go out there!” Athena pleaded.
“Honestly, what’s going to happen?” Darla asked, bored with Athena’s insistence that it was anyone but her.
Laura stopped outside the gathering room in the center of the hallway and held out her arms like it was a major accomplishment. She looked both ways down a hallway completely clear of any activity since as far as they knew, everyone in that entire wing was present in the gathering room.
“The hallway is empty,” Laura declared. “What’s she going to do? Jump out of the shadows?”
“She could be hiding in a room,” Athena suggested.
“It’s true,” Ashley agreed. “She could.”
“Honestly,” Darla said with another eye roll.
“Let’s be realistic here,” Laura said. What she missed as she was gloating was a door down the hall from her opening apparently of its own accord.
* * * * * * * *
Dr. Quired and I entered the facility probably about that time to find the security station to be completely empty. Where I was concerned, however, Quired seemed to be annoyed that I got him out of bed and was completely confident in his facility’s security.
“Dr. Quired, where are your security personnel,” I asked, pointing at the empty desk.
“She’s probably in the restroom,” Quired suggested. I didn’t buy it.
“And you think she was in there when I called earlier?”
“Likely. I think you’re overreacting.”
“I’d rather overreact than do nothing at all. We have six women’s lives at stake in here, and I don’t want their deaths on me head. Where is the restroom?” I didn’t care if it was the women’s restroom, I was going to go in there and check for the missing security guard. Dr. Quired pointed me in the right direction and continued to assure me as I checked.
“Don’t worry. This is a secure facility. You see that no one could even get past the gate without proper clearance.” The restroom was empty. No one had been in it since it had been cleaned earlier by the looks of it. I made my way to behind his security desk.
“No one can get in, you say. I would say that if your people abandon their posts, it sure makes getting in a lot easier.”
“I assure you that she will no longer be working for us when I get ahold of her, Detective.”
I reached the backside of the desk and looked over a shamble of broken monitors and buttons along with the arcing of electricity everywhere. Whoever did this kept it strictly behind the desk as it was not visible from the front. This kept getting worse.
“Doctor, is your facility always in this condition?” I asked flippantly given all the grief he had put me through so far. He mumbled something about being state of the art as he wandered behind the desk, but stopped in shock at seeing the chaos we were faced with.
“I want to get back there,” I told him urgently, and he reached past me to press the appropriate button on the desk. Nothing happened. Quired finally looked concerned and pressed the button again to no avail.
“How much do you know about how it works?” I asked.
“A bit,” he said kneeling down to open the underside panel. “Let me see if anything is wrong under–” He gasped and instinctively jumped away from the desk. I looked under the desk and discovered what had happened to Arlene. She was quite dead, hopefully before she ended up folded in half underneath the security desk amidst the sparking wires and other dangers that lurked there. I looked at Quired who had fear all over his old face.
“I want in there. Now! Tell me there is some kind of override,” I insisted. Quired nodded slowly before snapping out of it and nodding more firmly.
“Yes, of course,” he said. “A few of us have master keys that disengage the security measures whether that be the lock or magnetic plate.”
“Then please, doctor,” I told him offering him a hand to help him to his feet. He took it and walked to the barred door just the other side of the metal detectors, shuffling through a ring of keys. He stopped at the lock and stared at it.
“What is it?” I asked, already fearing the worst.
“Someone filled the lock with something,” he told me in a monotone. I looked at the keyhole and found that whoever had done it had used some kind of metal filler to render the keyhole worthless. There was no way to dig that out after it had hardened.
“I don’t suppose there’s value in reaching the other side,” I said.
“These bars are only two inches apart, Detective,” he said, defeated, “I couldn’t get my arm through there and neither could you. Besides, we have the same problem at our next obstacle.”
I looked through the bars at the first door to find that whoever had done this had done the same to the next door, effectively locking us out completely, and I had no doubt we’d find the same at the innermost door. Whoever did this had planned carefully. They knew the facility intimately already, which not only fit in with the planning I had seen at the house, but also with who I suspected to be behind this. I dialed a number on my phone.
“I need someone out here five minutes ago to cut through some doors.”
* * * * * * * *
Laura was still standing in the hall paying attention to everyone in the gathering room, so she did not see the faceless figure emerge from a room and creep down the hall toward her. Instead, she was listening to Darla continue to berate Athena.
“Athena, you’re doing nothing more than trying to avert the blame from yourself. We’ll just take shifts watching you so you don’t take out any more of us.”
“Makes sense to me,” Laura said. “I’m going back to bed.”
Athena was the first to see the figure next to Laura as Laura turned and found herself face to face with her.
“Laura, run!” Athena cried out, but it was too late. The figure grabbed both sides of Laura’s head and gave it a sharp twist. Laura’s neck cracked sharply, and she slumped to the ground, dead. The other three stared wide-eyed at the figure who stood before them, firmly establishing that Athena was not the one behind it. The figure was the first to move as she reached into a sheath at her side and drew her knife.
She moved quickly into the room, which snapped Athena and Darla to action, but Ashley remained frozen. Athena grabbed Ashley’s wrist and dragged her around the path of the figure and ran for the door. Darla grabbed a chair and lobbed it at the figure which slowed her down just enough for the three women to escape the gathering room.
They ran down the hall into the darkened end of the corridor. They turned a corner and ducked into a room, closing the door behind them. Ashley was the first to freak out, quickly spouting out, “Ohmygod, she’s real, she’s reallyreallyreal. She’s in here. We’re gonna die!”
Darla claps her hand across Ashley’s mouth and held her as still as possible and she and Athena backed up as close to the door as possible to avoid being seen through the window, despite the darkness.
They spotted the shadow of the faceless figure at the window, and to their surprise, they heard an intercom pop on. Athena jumped at the sound, and it was Ashley’s turn to faint this time. Darla continued to hold her tight. As soon as they heard the pop, they remembered Quired mentioning that the rooms did possess a two way intercom to allow those outside the room to communicate with those inside so t
hey didn’t have to unlock the door or open any panels to talk. It was another security measure, and now the figure was using it in the hopes of hearing which room they entered.
After a brief moment, the intercom pops off, and the pair relaxed a little. The window didn’t let in much light, but their eyes were adjusting to the dark so that they could kind of see each other as well as the room’s furnishings.
“Oh Athena, I’m sorry,” Darla whispered, quite honestly.
“Forget it, Darla,” Athena said. “I was having trouble believing myself after awhile. But we have too much going on right now to worry about blame though. We have to do something.”
“Well, she’s not doing anything,” Darla said laying Ashley out on the floor. Passed out in a random room, Ashley probably had the best chance of surviving the night at this rate.
“We can put her in the closet,” Athena suggested, “and hope she doesn’t wake up and scream. It’ll be dark in there.” Darla nodded in reply. Athena continued, “but that doesn’t help us.”
“Can we try luring her into a room, then locking her in?” Darla suggested. Athena shook her head.
“All these locks need a key to work from either side. If we got her into a room, we’d have to try and hold it shut. She’s pretty strong from what I’ve seen.”
“That won’t work then. There’s got to be something in here we can use.”
“But what?” Athena asked as much to herself as Darla. They looked at the empty beds in this part of the wing, and an idea formed. She looked at Darla. “This is going to be a long shot, but I have an idea.”
She explained the whole scenario to Darla who nodded and agreed that they didn’t have a lot of options, so it was as good as anything else. They put Ashley in the wardrobe and closed that door behind her. She would freak out when she woke up, but she would be safe if the figure went room to room flipping lights on. Like their plan, it wasn’t great, but it was better than anything else at the moment.
Athena stood behind the door and looked out the window as far down the hall both ways as she could manage. It appeared to be empty, so she cautiously opened the door and checked again. The hall remained clear. She gestured to Darla and together, they left the room and closed the door behind them.
They crept to the main hallway and looked down it toward the well-lit entrance. Still completely empty. Continuing quietly, they walked along the wall toward the closest room they knew of to have bed linens. Encountering no resistance, they entered that room and left the lights out as they stripped the beds, each of them carrying the two sheets from each bed. Their next destination was the gathering room, and so far, it had been so good, but they knew they’d encounter the figure at some point.
Athena checked the hall again, and it was still clear. Athena led as they crept out of the room, moving towards the gathering room, passing a room labeled as a Utility Room as they moved. The Utility Room door opened after they passed it, and the faceless figure crept out behind them, drawing her knife. Once settled directly behind Darla, the figure stabbed her knife downward into Darla’s back. Darla fell to the ground as the figure retained her knife.
Athena didn’t wait. She couldn’t. She ran for the gathering room and darted inside, knowing the figure would follow. She quickly let out the sheets she was carrying and as the figure ran through the door, Athena tried to use the sheets like a net to trap her. However, the figure was ready with her knife and sliced right through the sheets and into Athena’s arm.
Athena dropped the sheets and backed away from the doorway, looking for the figure behind her, and the knife swiped at her again. Athena ducked out of the way, but when she came back to her feet, the figure was gone. She held her arm against her stomach, which allowed her shirt to soak up a lot of the blood from her wound, though she knew that wouldn’t last long.
She crept up to behind a couch to see if the figure was hiding on the floor. Nothing there, but then something sliced her ankle and she went down again. She knew she couldn’t stay down and the cut on her ankle, while deep, would not be any more permanent than a scar if she survived. She limped to her feet, but the foot of the figure kicked her in the face, sending her back to the floor. Bleeding and weakening, Athena looked up to see the figure closing in on her. She braced herself for the inevitable strike. Instead, the figure whispered again.
“If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though she does not know it, she is guilty and will be held responsible.”
“Why do you keep saying that?” Athena begged. This time, the voice changed. No longer a whisper, the voice turned into a clear female voice. And it was familiar. Athena would know it anywhere. It was the voice of the person whose file I read last. The voice of the person whose house I searched. A house just next door to her first victim.
“Because, that is you.”
Athena stared in complete shock as the figure removed her mask to reveal the face of her friend and neighbor, Kathy Brackett. Within her eyes, a wild madness dwelt, and it appeared that she might use the knife she held in her hand again at any moment. Athena searched for words, but only managed a pitiful, “Kathy?”
“Anyone who sleeps with an adulterer commits adultery,” Kathy told her. “It is a finite law of the Lord.” Athena was quite confused. As far as she knew, she was not the one who was in any kind of adulterous relationship. She had married Hank two years ago, and they had lived together ever since. Despite what he had done, his acts had not invalidated their marriage. She looked at Kathy, the confusion evident on her face. Kathy leaned down to Athena, inches from her face. “He left me without a divorce, so your marriage is void. You were sleeping with my husband.”
Athena’s mind reeled. All this time, Kathy knew that Hank was next door, but then she realized that Kathy had moved in next to them. And in that whole time, even though Kathy referred to a husband, Athena had never seen one. Hank was married to Kathy before he was married to Athena, and he never filed for any divorce from Kathy. Athena looked up at Kathy innocently, “But–” she started, but Kathy interrupted.
“–you didn’t know!” Kathy mocked. Athena realized that in the stories she had heard from the other women Hank had been with, they continually used that phrase. Even Darla, with whom Athena had been so angry before, had said that Hank began the relationship before telling Darla anything, and Darla had been the one to find out. Hank never told her. It turned out that in the end, Hank had done the same thing to her, but in this case, he had taken her all the way to the alter and kept her in the dark to be a maid with benefits. She looked at Kathy who was still kneeling next to her and gloating in her victory.
“What are you going to do?” Athena asked quietly.
“Do you know what it’s like hearing about how wonderful your husband is from another woman claiming to be his wife? Do you have any idea how patient I had to be? Do you have any idea how close you came to death so many times? I considered killing everyone else and framing him for it, but my enthusiasm got away from me.” Kathy chuckled at the very thought. “Couldn’t let him live, though. He did piss me off, you know.”
“Why let me live?” Athena asked, her voice empty.
“Oh, the first time you were lucky,” Kathy admitted, “and I had a hell of a time getting back home through our backyards. Fortunately, you were too flustered to notice the black pants under my robe. A quick change and I was hidden again, which I did while I told you to chill out on the couch. When we got the reaction we did from Thompson, I decided to play with you while killing everyone else. That was actually really fun.”
“You’re sick,” Athena breathed. Kathy slapped her.
“The world is sick,” Kathy spat back. “Hank did what he wanted to do, and that was ok with everyone? Someone had to do something, and no one else even cared.”
“But you killed more than just the girls,” Athena protested. “What about the others? How did they fit in? Why kill them too?”
“You mean like Scott Ow
en?” Kathy asked. “He slept with an adulteress, and so was just as guilty. Same deal.”
“And the police officer?”
“Icing.”
“On what?”
“You.”
Athena was taken aback, momentarily left without a response. “What about me?” she asked in confusion.
“You see, that’s the best part,” Kathy explained with a smile. In fact, it appeared that she was enjoying this far too much. “I was going to kill you. That’s why I came to your house the day after I took care of Jenny Thurman. You were going to die. But after you got away, and we had to talk to Detective Thompson, I decided that you get to live.”
“After what you’ve done to everyone else?” Athena asked shaking her head to try and make sense of this.
“No, you misunderstand,” Kathy said. “After what you’ve done to everyone else.”
“What?”
“Thompson already entertains the possibility, which is what makes it so workable. I leave you alive to take the rap for everything that happened here tonight. You were always their prime suspect. Thompson practically said it that day in his office. You’ll be the sole survivor, and their suspicions will be confirmed. Anything you accuse me of will be desperation.”
“But I was in jail during one of the murders,” Athena pointed out.
“Leading the police to wonder who your accomplice is.”
“I could tell them you’re my accomplice,” Athena said. “They’ll investigate you, and I’m sure there’s evidence somewhere.”
“Have you learned nothing from Hank?” Kathy laughed. “Knowing what to say to whom and when to make them think whatever you want them to think. He kept you completely in the dark. I know I’ll be questioned, but I am as much the psychology major as Hank is. I’ll avoid their questions and watch you rot. As for your accomplice, they’ll find evidence that one of the people you killed here tonight was your accomplice that night.”
Vengeance Page 15