by PJ Fernor
Jessie
The place was dirty. And smelled. It smelled like dirt. Dust. Just really kind of old. But it was better than the basement. That was for sure.
The man brought Jessie upstairs like he said he would. And as long as Jessie responded to the name Cindy, he stayed kind of happy.
He didn’t break anything.
He didn’t yell at her.
But he liked to touch her hair.
Play with it.
That part made Jessie shake with fear, but, again, it was better than the basement.
The house wasn’t even a house really.
Once Jessie got the blindfold off, she was able to really look around.
It wasn’t like the last time.
When they got back from their walk.
When the man threw that little girl’s body to the ground.
When that happened, Jessie was so scared, she didn’t really look around good enough. She knew where the door was. Because she made her daring escape that failed miserably.
She knew they were in the woods.
But not just the woods.
This place looked like… like a big fort almost.
Everything looked handmade.
Even the windows… the curtains… there were no curtains. One window had newspaper that was faded yellow. The other had a ripped bedsheet nailed above the window.
The door… it was crooked.
Jessie kept blinking, telling herself she had to have been dreaming.
It was like a house in a kids story.
A scary story.
“Okay, Cindy, here I come!” the man yelled.
His feet thumped against the floor as he walked into the living room area.
He carried two glasses of water.
“Wish it was something better,” he said. “But soon. I promise.”
Jessie’s ankles were chained to the couch.
She knew better than to try and run.
At least not yet.
She needed a plan.
One would come to her.
Being out of the basement was a big step.
She kind of had the man’s trust.
“Thank you,” she said to the man as he handed her a glass of water.
The water tasted gross.
Almost like metal.
The man sat down on the floor.
He had no problem looking at Jessie now.
No need to hide his face.
He wasn’t an old man. But he wasn’t a young man either.
His eyes were striking though. They were blue. A really nice blue color too.
He had a lot of wrinkles on his face. And he looked really tired.
His hair was a dark blond color in need of being washed and cut.
“How’s the water, Cindy?”
“Good,” Jessie said.
“Not like the creek, right? Remember that?”
Jessie nodded.
“Oh, we had fun down there. Remember when we convinced Milton there was a snake under the one rock? And then you made him flip the rock over. And I poked him with a stick to scare him. We laughed…”
“I remember that,” Jessie said.
The man’s eyes faded. He looked down to the floor.
“But then you made Milton put his hand on the ground. And you took the rock he flipped over and you smashed it on his hand. Why?”
The man looked at Jessie.
Jessie shook her head.
“Don’t shake your head, Cindy. You smashed his hand. Then you took the stick I poked him with and you hit him in the back until he started to bleed. Why did you hate him so much?”
Jessie’s heart pounded in her chest.
What do I say? What do I do?
Jessie lifted the glass of water to her mouth.
The man jumped forward, on his knees, and smacked the glass of water out of Jessie’s hand.
She screamed.
The glass hit the floor and broke.
The man touched Jessie’s cheek.
“If this is going to work, Cindy, you need to confess everything,” the man said. “You confess it to me and you tell me why. So I can fix it.”
Jessie’s teeth chattered. She shut her eyes.
She needed to say something. Anything.
“I… I…”
“Open your eyes, Cindy,” the man said. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not like you. I didn’t mean for that other girl to die. That wasn’t my fault.”
Jessie opened her eyes.
She smiled.
The man didn’t smile back.
His face turned mean.
Twisted.
Angry.
“Now tell the truth,” he said in a low voice.
“About what?” Jessie whispered.
“Tell me why you killed our brother.”
Chapter Seventy-One
“So we have the guy, but don’t?” Garrison asked with his arms crossed, leaning against Ben’s desk.
Ben rubbed his jaw. “That’s about it.”
“He did the same thing to Daniel as he did to Steve,” I said. “Except we didn’t know it soon enough. Thanks to that stupid kid.”
“Careful,” Ben said. “That kid is going to get his own now for what he’s done in all of this. “
“What can I do to help?” Garrison asked.
“I need to think,” I said.
“We’ve checked all the records we can,” Ben said. “Daniel’s got a house… and an SUV…”
“So he stole the guy’s credit card and vehicle?” Garrison asked.
“I fear he’s done more than that,” I said. “Let’s go to the house right now.”
“I’ll drive,” Ben said.
“Want me to follow?” Garrison asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Get Mulvaney too. Hell, get everyone. If this guy is in Daniel’s house with Jessie, she’s coming out alive and he’s not.”
I stormed out of Ben’s office.
Laura came rushing toward me.
“We’re going to the house right now,” I said. “I’m taking everyone I can.”
“I’m coming too,” Laura said.
“Detective Down,” a voice called out.
I turned my head and saw Mulvaney waving at me.
“Not now,” I said.
“You’re going to want to hear this,” he said.
“Take notes and tell me later.” I looked at Laura. “Ben and I will take the front door. We’ll have help around back.”
“I’m going to call in for extra help,” Laura said. “In case this ends up as a hostage situation. If he sees us coming…”
“I’m sorry, but Detective Down…”
It was Mulvaney again.
I walked away from Laura and went right to Mulvaney and put my finger to his nose.
“You know what we’re up against here, right?”
“That I do. But you need to hear this…”
“Hear what?”
“What that man has to say?” Mulvaney asked.
He nodded to the front of the station.
A man stood there with a hat in his hand. Pacing back and forth.
He was tall, skinny, kind of young.
A rugged kind of look to him.
I looked over my shoulder.
Ben and Laura were talking.
When Ben looked at me, I motioned for him to go.
“I’ll catch up,” I yelled to him. “Get over there now.”
“I’m sorry to do this,” Mulvaney said.
I walked toward the door. “I’ll handle it.”
Mulvaney held it open for me as I walked to the front of the station.
“Sir, you’re going to have to leave a message here with Officer-”
“I think something bad’s happened,” the pacing man said.
“Excuse me?”
“My grandfather’s best friend. Daniel.”
“Daniel?” I asked.
“Daniel Endlebrook,” Mulvaney said. “See why I needed you, Dete
ctive Down?”
“Who are you, sir?” I asked.
“I’m Mitch Crownings,” he said, offering his hand. “I’m sorry to barge in like this. My grandfather’s best friend, Daniel Endlebrook… we haven’t seen him in days. He never misses a chance to eat and drink with my grandfather. Something’s wrong. I checked the house and-”
“You were at Daniel Endlebrook’s house?” I asked.
“Just this morning,” Mitch said. “I don’t know what else to do. My grandfather told me to check the old cabin but I can’t go down there alone. I can’t stomach to find him… gone…”
“Wait a second,” I said.
I looked at Mulvaney.
He nodded to me.
Something was way off here.
“You said a cabin?”
“That’s right,” Mitch said. He reached into his pocket and took out a piece of paper. “I’ve never been there. It’s a secret place. It’s, uh, it’s not supposed to be there. But way down there is the best place to hunt. My grandfather told me not to say anything. Daniel can get into a lot of trouble for this. He’s one of those guys that believes in the end of the world. So he built a place by hand. Dug a shelter to start and then built a cabin over it. But I can’t go down there and see it if he’s there and dead. I’ve got my own issues with that. Something’s very wrong here.”
“Okay, take a breath, Mitch,” I said. “Let me see that piece of paper.”
“I’m sorry to be like this,” Mitch said. “It’s just that, it’s been so busy lately. My grandfather was in the hospital not feeling all that great. He was out of it for a little bit but I got him home and settled. Then we realized we hadn’t heard from Daniel. I even called Daniel to tell him that Pops was going in to the hospital. And nothing. I tried to find him online…”
“Online?”
“He’s old,” Mitch said. “They’re both old. They can’t use computers. So I help them pay their bills and whatnot. Save money on stamps. I don’t mind helping. My grandfather did so much for me as a kid. Anyway, I logged into Daniel’s credit card to check. You know? Just to see if something was going on. And there were charges. A couple grand. For stuff he would never use. I’m nervous, Detective. Something is really wrong here…”
Mitch looked spooked.
My eyes scanned the paper.
It was a drawing.
No address.
A scribbled drawing.
The main road in town was a wiggly line. Then there were poorly drawn trees. Then a curved line. With an arrow pointing down.
Terrible handwriting, but a clear message.
Way down there.
“My grandfather told me where to go,” Mitch said. “I can show you.”
“No need,” I said. I rushed to the door. “I’ve got to go.”
“Where?” Mulvaney asked. “You shouldn’t go anywhere alone.”
I took out my phone and snapped a quick picture of the hand drawn map.
“Take this,” I said to Mulvaney as I stuffed the paper with the drawing into his hand. “Get to Ben and give it to him. I’m going to call him right now. There’s nothing at Daniel’s place.”
I had more to say but no time to say it.
My mind raced with how it played out.
Daniel’s SUV was missing. He wasn’t home. And there was a secret cabin that only a few people knew about. There were no property records of the place either. It was the perfect place to… hide.
I got into my car and looked at my phone.
The screensaver was a picture of Lo and I.
My heart raced.
This was it.
I’m coming to get you, Jessie…
Chapter Seventy-Two
I drove as fast as I could.
I had to turn off the road where we had the night we went to see Lucy’s body.
He’s been here the entire time.
My gut had been correct.
This guy - whoever he was - had been lurking around Sandemor.
Hiding.
I still had no idea what he wanted with Jessie or why or if she was even alive.
Before my car came to a complete stop, I slammed it into park.
My body jolted forward.
My shoulder hit the steering wheel as I reached for my phone.
I tried to pull up a satellite image on my phone of where this unknown cabin was located, but I couldn’t see it. I didn’t expect to find anything since the trees were so thick. I looked at the picture I took of the hand drawn map too. That didn’t help much either.
As I ran to the edge of the ridge and looked down, I shook my head.
The night we found Lucy’s body, I talked about this spot. Ben brought it up. Garrison was supposed to be the expert of everything in this area.
But to go down that ridge…
It was a long way down.
And a long way up.
It didn’t make much sense how this guy managed to get up here with a little girl’s dead body.
But something had to give.
I thought about the SUV.
There had to have been some kind of path somewhere.
A way to get down there.
By foot.
With a vehicle.
Daniel was almost eighty years old.
If I gambled I would have easily bet he wasn’t walking down the ridge.
There were lots of rocks and flat stones right at the steepest parts, as though Mother Nature designed this herself to keep people away.
Ben called me as I started to walk along the edge of the ridge.
“Where are you?” Ben yelled into the phone.
“I know where she is,” I said to him. “I’m not waiting around. Did Mulvaney call you?”
“Yes,” Ben said. “I’ve been calling you for the last ten minutes, Allie.”
“I’ve been driving and thinking. I don’t think Daniel Endlebrook is alive. I think this guy stumbled across Daniel and did something bad. Or maybe he knew about Daniel and this secret cabin.”
“Do not make a move without us there,” Ben said.
“Ben, just get here.”
“Allie, you’re going to get hurt. You don’t know where to go.”
“And you do?”
Ben was silent.
I stopped walking.
“You know how to get down there?”
“Allie, I’m begging you.”
“I need to know she’s alive,” I yelled. “We’re wasting time. If you don’t tell me, I’m just going to go down there… I’ll slide down…”
“Don’t do that!” Ben cried out. “Dammit. My one buddy Pete did that and broke his leg in three spots.”
“Ben,” I said.
“Follow the tree line up. In about a quarter mile hang a left.” He sighed. “You’ll see an opening. It’s not much, but if you know that path you can get a vehicle through there.”
“How did we not find tire tracks then?” I asked.
“He carried Lucy,” Ben said.
“Before that. To get Jessie down there…”
“My guess is he took the dirt road at the power lines,” Ben said. “And I bet he forced Daniel to tell him how to do it. You go up and cut through. We used to do it on our four wheelers back in the day. Or just go up over the mountain. Allie, please wait for me.”
“Ben, I’ll be fine,” I said. “She’s down there. Alone. Possibly hurt. Definitely scared. And why didn’t Garrison check this out?”
“I just assumed he did already,” Ben said. “He knows the woods. The party spots. This is not a place you go to party. It’s dangerous. Please…”
“Ben, stop,” I said.
I started to run, following the tree line like Ben said to do.
“Laura and a few others are going to the house just to be sure,” Ben said. “In case this is some kind of set up. And to look for evidence. I didn’t tell her where you were. She’d be livid.”
“Let her be livid,” I said. “You too, Ben. I’m sorry. I have to d
o this.”
I ended the call and tucked my phone into my back pocket.
I charged through the woods and looked for an opening on my left.
One thing I learned fast… there were some secrets about Sandemor I didn’t know.
The opening wasn’t much of an opening at all.
Two trees with just enough space between them to maybe fit a vehicle.
The branches were overgrown but easily pushed away.
As I stepped through, I saw the path.
Two chunks of ground that were torn up by tires.
I crouched down and rubbed my jaw.
I looked at my phone again, already knowing it wasn’t going to be much help at the moment. Mitch’s grandfather drew the secret cabin as though I were going to go right off the ridge and down.
After I put the paper away, I started to run.
I followed the left tire track.
My back pocket vibrated over and over.
I was sure it was Ben calling to beg me not to move again.
I just kept running.
The path curved and declined at a sharp angle but not sharp enough that I couldn’t withstand it.
Or a vehicle.
My heart leapt into my throat over and over, a mix of adrenaline and being winded from running.
Note to self - hit the treadmill once in a while, Allie Down.
The decline stopped and I paused for a second to breathe.
The path then split into two directions.
I chose left.
I hurried around a curve, completely swallowed up by the vast forest.
When I looked up, it was a canopy of trees, blocking the sun.
It was cool enough in the shade that when the air hit my sweaty skin, I shivered.
I kept going.
When I realized my pocket had stopped vibrating, I reached for my phone.
My nerves were starting to get jittery.
I always feared getting lost in these woods. As a kid, I would look to the trees and scare myself. I’d try to tell myself that there was a monster out there waiting to get me.
And in this case I was the one chasing the monster.
My phone stopped going off because I had no cell service.
The top left of the screen literally said NO SERVICE.
I couldn’t turn back now though.
Ben knew where I was.
I needed to find Jessie and save her.
The path started to get a little overgrown, making it harder to follow.