Far From Shore

by Mark Stone

  I took a deep breath, and continued counting back from thirty. I also said a silent prayer. This had been a tragic few days for all of us. Old wounds had been ripped open for some, and new dangers seemed intent on creeping up on others. I had to fix this for all of us. I had to do what was right. I just needed the strength and grace to do it and, for that, I knew where to look. Pulling a handkerchief out of my jeans pocket, I wrapped it around my hand. I felt naked without my gun, but I knew Jack would need it more. If this all went according to plan, he’d never have to use it, of course. And I’d only see Aubrey again once she was apprehended, and once I had Jonah’s mother safely in my grasp.

  I finished my prayer and counted down to “one” almost at the same time. Rearing back, I heard a loud bang on the other side of the house. Smiling a little, I ran my covered hand through the back window. The glass broke around my arm and I used my covered hand to knock the jagged pieces that remained away, until I was left with a completely clean, square section of window.

  Reaching down, I twisted the lock and opened the door.

  I heard footsteps rushing around the house, but they sounded far enough away not to be a real threat to me at the moment.

  Moving as quietly as I could, I made my way through the kitchen, putting out the candles I came across as I did. I had my flashlight with me but, once I had stepped out of the room, all the light in it would be gone. This place would be in complete darkness until I returned, hopefully with Jonah’s mother in tow.

  I rushed through the kitchen and took the hall Jack had instructed me to. Like he said, a door sat at the end of the hallway. Twisting the knob, I found another of his sentences turned out to be accurate. The damned thing was locked.

  Sighing, I reared back and threw my shoulder into the door, pressing my weight against it. The thing didn’t budge. I was going to have to get more momentum and that meant I was going to make more noise. Hopefully Jack had the situation under control.

  I stepped backward and ran as fast as I could toward the door. My body slammed against and, though my shoulder sang in pain, the door gave way.

  It swung open quickly enough that I found myself flying forward, falling onto a set of stairs that descended quickly.

  Grabbing at the railing, I stopped myself with a jerk before I tumbled completely. My flashlight wasn’t so lucky though. It fell down the stairs, and I watched as my only source of light bounced down the stairs, settling at the end, and then going out.

  The entire world was in darkness now, and I was going to have to make due.

  Chapter 27

  I stood upright, my hand wrapped around the wooden raining that had just stopped me from breaking my neck on this staircase. I took a deep breath and started downward. I moved carefully, but quickly. I had no way of knowing how things had turned out with Aubrey and Jack. There had been no gunshots. So that was a good thing, at least. Still, my training as a police officer taught me to prepare for the worst in any situation and, given the fact that I was in a strange dark house with no gun and no way of knowing whether or not the person I’d come to save was even still alive, I had to admit that the worst this situation could get was very bad.

  I walked to the end of the stairs, careful not to fall again. Once I’d reached the end of the staircase, I leaned down, rummaging around for the flashlight. Feeling it in my hands, I picked it up and slapped the damned thing against palm. Nothing. Slapping it again, I was thrilled to see the light return to it and, with it, the world around me.

  Even all these years later, the basement still wasn’t finished. Concrete block walls covered in white maintenance paint and a cement floor, the place looked - for all the world - like a dungeon.

  The only thing in the room, another testament to how out of place it looked, was the pantry, stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables.

  Where the rest of the basement looked like it hadn’t seen a hand to clean it in a decade, the pantry looked well stocked and tended to. Looking at it in person, I felt even more strongly that it was hiding something.

  Running over to the pantry with my newly reinstated flashlight to guide me, I pushed it away from the wall. It was heavy and teetered a little, creaking as I moved it. Still, it gave way and I was able to wedge it out enough to slip behind it.

  Turning the flashlight against the wall, I saw the creased outline of a door. There was no knob, only a latch that flipped up and down. Flipping it up, I pushed the door open. It creaked as it moved, opening into another set of steps that went even further down. I was ready for it this time though, standing stalwart at the top of the stairs. It was a good thing too, because these stairs had nothing in the way of railing. That wasn’t the only difference though. Where the staircase that led to the basement were completely dark, this set of stairs glowed with an ambient light coming from below.

  Narrowing my eyes, I rushed down the staircase, more careful on this one than I had been in the dark. These steps were steeper and there was nothing on either side for me to hold onto it. If I tripped on this (or off this) I was as good as dead.

  As I got closer to the end of the stairs and to the light that partially illuminated it, I heard a strange sound. I thought it was an animal at first; a whimpering dog or a trapped bobcat. Nearing it though, I realized that it was the crying of a person.

  My heart skipped a beat and my body tensed as I registered what I was hearing. I moved quicker, rushing down the steps and throwing a little bit of caution to the wind.

  Reaching the floor, I looked up, amazed at what I saw.

  The room that stretched out in front of me was basically a hole. A dirt floor with concrete walls on three sides, it took all I could do not to call out in horror when I saw all that was here.

  A filthy mattress without so much as a sheet on it lay on the dirt. Piles and piles of clothes sat next to it. Nearer the wall, sat a plate with scraps of food on it. The smell of rot and other scents humans shouldn’t have to be confined to wafted through the air. A lantern hung from the ceiling, suspended by a chain, like some sort of makeshift light bulb. Finally, curled up in a ball near the mattress, tired tears streaming down her face, was Jonah’s mother.

  “Ma’am,” I said, my voice coming out like a shocked croak.

  She looked up, her entire body convulsing in terror as she took me in. She shrieked.

  “Ma’am, I don’t know if you recognize me,” I said, swallowing hard and holding my hands out in front of me to hopefully show I meant no harm. “My name is Dillon Storm. My grandfather is Wilbur Riggs. I grew up three miles from your house and I swear on everything holy that I am going to get you out of here.” I shook my head, surprised at the tears forming in my eyes as well.

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, the way this woman had been forced to exist. While Richard and Aubrey Cash were throwing parties and toasting on champagne, this poor woman was living like an animal in a secret subbasement in a woodland house in the middle of an island with no roads. All for money, all for a company. It wasn’t right. They were going to pay. I was going to make them pay.

  “It’s okay,” I said, looking at the woman and slowly walking toward her. “I promise you, ma’am. Everything is going to be okay.”

  Just then, the ringing of gunshots echoed through the house and my heart fell nearly out the bottom of my feet.

  Chapter 28

  With shots fired, my hesitation around Jonah’s mother was forced to become a thing of the past. She flung her entire body against the wall. Though, whether that was because of me or because of the gunshots, I couldn’t tell.

  “Listen to me,” I said, leaning down and placing my hands gently on her legs. “I need you to really try and listen to what I’m about to say.” Our entire lives rested on the next few minutes. Shots continued to fire upstairs, which meant Jack probably needed my help up there. While I wasn’t armed, that didn’t mean I couldn’t be of use. I was a police officer. I needed to be where I could help the situation. First things came first though and, right
now, the most important thing was getting an innocent woman to safety. I had to get Jonah’s mother outside of this house, and it would really help matters if the woman wasn’t fighting me the entire way.

  “I’m a detective,” I said in a calming voice. “I’ve been working on this case and I want to get you out of here, but in order to do that, I need you to trust me. We’re going to have to move quickly and carefully. I’m going to need you to do what I tell you to when I tell you to do it, and nothing else. Can I trust you to do that?”

  She looked at me, her eyes still wet with tears, rings like anchors under her eyes.

  “Jonah,” she said. Her voice was unimaginably tired and weak. “She said she was going to kill him. She said she was going to--”

  “I got to him,” I said quickly. “I got to him in time. He was headed to the doctor the last time I saw him.” I swallowed hard before I said the next part. “He’s going to be okay.”

  That might have been a lie. When I last laid eyes on this woman’s son, he was still unconscious. He had a pulse, a weak one, but there was no way for me to know whether or not he was going to pull through. Still, if I wanted her to pull through, if I wanted her to not fall apart in this makeshift dungeon and doom the both of us, I needed her to be strong. I needed to give her something to fight for and - there was nothing that would make you fight harder than a child. Even if that child wasn’t your own.

  Her eyes went wide and she clutched my arms. She pulled at me and, soon enough, I realized she was trying to pull herself up. She was trying to move.

  I stood, gently pulling her to her feet. Looking off to the side, I noticed all the clothes once again. There were piles and piles of them, and they looked to be much smaller than anything Jonah’s mother would have been able to fit into. With brown hair, green eyes, and pale skin, she was a shapely woman; certainly, too shapely for the likes of this stuff.

  Not that it mattered. She had only been in here for a couple of days, and these were enough clothes to last someone for months or years…maybe for three years.

  “This is where they kept Victoria,” I muttered, my eyes resting on the pile and wondering what sort of hell the district attorney’s wife had been through. Jack had searched this place and, all the time, she was right here under his nose.

  Now it was too late.

  “The girl,” Jonah’s mother croaked. “The one everyone was looking for all those years ago.” She shook her head. “She was here. Aubrey Cash told me she was here, and then she left. She tried to get out and--”

  Jonah’s mother choked back a sob as her body shook.

  “Hey,” I said, tightening my grip on her shoulders and holding her steady even though it seemed everything in her wanted to crumpled back into a ball on this dirt floor. “I’m not going to let that happen to you. I’m not alone here. There’s a man upstairs, someone who’s with us. He’s helping us as we speak. The shots you heard--”

  Just then I realized there had been no shots for a few minutes. The gunfight had settled down, meaning there was very likely a clear winner.

  I heard a harsh chuckle behind me. My gut soured as I realized it was a woman’s chuckle.

  Turning around, I saw Aubrey Cash standing halfway up the staircase. She had changed since the last time I saw her. Gone was the fancy dress. Instead, she was clad in black pants and a grey shirt, still designer, of course. But nothing like formal wear. She had a gun in her hand and - with a sickening thud, I realized it was mine. She had beaten Jack. She had stripped him of my gun and now she was going to use it to kill this innocent woman and me.

  “By all means, don’t stop on my account,” she said, a sly smile spread across her face. “I’m just dying to know what the man upstairs is going to do to help you.” She laughed again. “Given that I just shot him in the chest and all.”

  Chapter 29

  “You don’t have to do this,” I said, turning my entire body around so that I was acting as a human shield for Jonah’s mother. I wouldn’t be much of a buffer if Aubrey had more than one bullet left in the gun, but it was all I could do at the moment. Well, that and to try and talk her down.

  “We can talk about this,” I said, feeling the woman behind me tremble in fear. My heart broke for her, for what she had been through, and for what she might go through if Jonah didn’t survive the attack. Of course, she’d have to survive tonight, and that was still one big question mark. “This is an innocent woman. She has nothing to do with what went on down here.”

  Aubrey scoffed again, her hands steady and my gun still trained on me. “Do you have any idea how sick I am of hearing about who is and who is not innocent?” She shook her head and her mouth twisted downward distastefully. “When did that ever matter? When were the innocent ever spared? My son wasn’t spared. He was innocent.” Her eyes went wide. “He was the most innocent person in the entire world, and it didn’t make a bit of difference. He still died in a mess of twisted metal and shattered glass on the side of the road.” She blinked back tears. “Like a dog. My son died like a dog and there was nothing I could do to save him.” She took a deep breath. “I’m innocent too, you know. Or, at least, I was. I worked my ass off to get my husband where he is. Do you know that, when I found him, he had already gambled through most of his savings? He was a national treasure, that’s what the newspapers said.” She snorted. “A national treasure with a gambling addiction. He’d have been in the poor house if not for me. I saved him. I turned everything around for him, got him signings, sponsorships. I got the money back for him and, when it came, I invested it to make more money. I saw the future he was capable of with me by his side. I saw the White House, ultimate power.” She moved down one step closer to us, unflinching with the gun. “He was so stupid though. I had him on his way. We were the perfect family. Sure, he had his affairs every once in a while, and what man doesn’t? The important part was that he always came back, and he always kept them under his hat. I had it under control. “

  She blinked hard. “But then our son died, and everything changed. He descended into this spiral. Old habits came flaring back up, and I watched as the man, as the future I built, threatened to slip away like sand through my hands. I couldn’t have that. I got him out of Colorado and all the people who were such bad influences. I thought that, down here in Naples, we could get back on track. He had spent so much of the money though that I had to get it back again. I didn’t have time anymore though. There were so many wealthy people here. We needed to make a splash if we were going to be taken seriously and do that, I needed money quickly.”

  She walked down another step. She was one away from the dirt floor now.

  “I got sloppy. I’ll admit it. I was desperate. I turned to embezzlement and money laundering for some of the cartels that came through here. It was profitable and, as soon as the money was built back up, I took myself out of that world. It wasn’t quick enough though. The district attorney had taken notice of things and put that hotshot protégé of his on the case.” She shook her head. “That was when we found her.”

  She laughed again, a bitter laugh that sent chills down my spine. I clutched tighter onto Jonah’s mother in an attempt to make sure she knew it would be okay.

  “It’s almost ironic. I’m the one who told my husband to get close to Victoria. We saw her at a party once. She looked so depressed, so out of place. My husband was always a charmer. I knew he’d be able to twist her around his finger.” She sighed. “He was just supposed to get her to convince her husband to back off, to look somewhere else for his big break. I should have known better though. I should have known I couldn’t trust my husband’s decision-making skills or his libido.”

  “He fell in love with her,” I said, staring at Aubrey and trying to gauge what my next best move would be. There wasn’t much room to move around in here, and that limited my options. She had a straight shot at me, a straight shot at my head.

  “Of course, he fell in love with her,” she blurted back, visibly angry. “He’s an
idiot. This time was different though. He was more invested. Something about losing our son broke him and soured his feelings toward me. He wanted to leave me. I had worked too hard though. I had put my sweat, tears, and years into that bastard. I wasn’t about to let him go give it to some young thing. So, I showed him what I was capable of.”

  “What did you do?” I asked, swallowing hard.

  “At first, I called and threatened her. This worked for a bit, but then they started seeing each other again. They planned to run away together. I confronted her again, but she threatened to come clean about the relationship. She threatened to go to the newspapers if I didn’t back off. She knew my weakness. She knew my plans. If this scandal was to fall on Richard, he’d never become mayor, let alone president.”

  She shook her head. “I remember the look in her eyes, like she had beaten me, like she had won.” Hardness fell over her features. “She didn’t know who she was dealing with. I win. No one beats me! Not ever!”

  Aubrey took a breath to compose herself before continuing. “So, I had him followed, had pictures taken of the two of them together. Then, I faked an email to an account Victoria thought no one knew about other than the two of them. I told her I was Richard and to meet me in the Gulf, that we could run away together just like that. It was very romantic and the poor thing really did love him.”

  “And then you took her,” I said, my jaw tightening in anger.

  “She walked onto the boat. She assumed Richard was in it,” Aubrey said. “By the time she found out it was me, I had already hit her with a few tranquilizers. She woke up in this place.”

  She descended the last step. She was close to us now, and presumably ready to fire.

  “I brought Richard here and showed him my prisoner. I put her here, in this place he loved, and I was going to kill her here.” She ran her free hand through her hair. “At least, that was the plan.”