Dumping Grounds (Joshua Stokes Mysteries Book 1)

by Lila Beckham

  She was still unconscious, but that was a good thing. He did not know how she was even still alive; they had already begun sewing her lips together!

  Joshua picked up the dress that was lying on the floor and draped it over her. Then he bent down to get a closer look at her mouth. A large needle with thick black thread hung off the side of the table and swung idly from her lips.

  Looking around, he saw a pair of snips lying on a small table near the sink. Joshua took the snips and pulling the knotted end of the thread out slightly from her lip, he cut it. He then eased the thread on through her lips until it was completely out. He hoped it did not leave too bad a physical scar, but he knew there would definitely be mental scars after what she had been through the last few days.

  Just as Joshua finished getting the thread out of Emma’s lips, Calvert came back into the room from the room of heads.

  “You’re not gonna believe this, Sheriff, but that door goes to a tunnel that comes out down to the river!”

  “That don’t surprise me none at all. I figured they had several escape routes from this place. Besides, I believe this was an old cotton plantation and many of them had tunnels that lead to the river.”

  “Yes, Sir, you’re right about that.”

  “I know I’m right. What did you see when you got to the river?”

  “It comes out near an old dock that was back up in a slew. I could see the main river from there though and could tell that it is used a lot. If they had a boat down there, which I’m sure they did, it and them was long gone by the time I got there.”

  “Go back through there and check where those double doors lead to,” Joshua ordered, and watched as Calvert disappeared through the doorway. Within two minutes, he was back. He reported that beyond the double doors was another large room.

  “It’s creepy as hell, Sheriff.That room is divided into several other rooms at the far end of it. The biggest room has coffins and such as that for selecting for a funeral, I reckon. There is an office and the main door leads outside to the west side of the house. There’s a sign out there that has “The Rising Sun Funeral Home” painted on it.”

  “So that was the name of it. I really wasn’t sure what it was called back in the day.

  As soon as the ambulance gets here and takes the girl, we can start searching for them boys that done all of this.”

  “Either which way they left that room, led outside, so they gone for sure.” said Calvert.

  “But not for good,” Joshua said, “because if it’s the last thing I do, I’m gonna catch those boys and string em up by their balls!”

  A moaning noise drew Joshua’s attention back to Emma, who was regaining consciousness.

  43

  Weaving Webs

  Emma’s brain felt like a mesh of cobwebs and there were hundreds of spiders in there, weaving away, making more and more webs.

  She could actually feel her brainwaves pulsing each time their tiny little feet took a step.

  Emma could hear voices speaking, but as hard as she tried, she could not focus her mind on them.

  The people she heard sounded as if they were all around her. She could not move her arms or her legs and her body felt plastered to whatever was against her back.

  Emma struggled, trying to get up. She knew she needed to move, but could not do so.

  When she finally opened her eyes, she saw the outline of someone standing over her.

  “Emma, are you awake?” Emma heard the man’s voice but could not focus on his face. He was a gray mass in front of her.

  When she tried to speak, her tongue felt thick and dry, but she managed to mumble something that, even to her ears, sounded warbled and quavering.

  What Emma intended to tell him, was about the spiders in her head. She remembered screaming when she first felt them and could not reach them with her hands to knock them away.

  She wanted so badly for him to make the spiders stop weaving.

  “Emma, can you hear me? It’s me, Sheriff Stokes. An ambulance is on its way to take you to the hospital.” Joshua was not sure if she understood him or not. He did not know the extent of what was going on with her, but he was sure they had drugged her in some form or another.

  That was how they could sew her mouth shut and her awake.

  Joshua heard a commotion behind him and when he turned, he saw Deputy Davis coming down the stairs ahead of two men with a gurney.

  “Sheriff, I hope you didn’t mind that I waited on them to show them where to come. The dispatcher called the substation in Citronelle and got them to send someone that was closer.” Davis reported. Joshua simply shook his head no, he did not mind.

  When the ambulance attendants reached the bottom of the stairs, they both stopped and stared. They looked plumb dumbfounded and Joshua was about to tell them to snap to it, when he saw someone else coming down the stairs with a medical bag. Well, maybe they did send someone that knows what to do, thought Joshua.

  The last man down the stairs was a paramedic and he immediately began asking questions about Emma.

  “All I know for sure,” Joshua told him “is that she has been drugged with something and they attempted to sew her mouth closed.” the medic went to Emma’s side.

  Joshua watched as the paramedic started an IV on Emma and began administering a saline solution.

  He told Joshua that it should flush out her system and he hoped it would weaken the effects of the drugs. Now that Emma was in capable hands, Joshua turned to the matter of catching the lunatics that had done this to her.

  44

  Wolver

  The ambulance attendants loaded Emma onto the gurney and took her up and out of the house; out of harms way, she was headed to the hospital. Joshua was no longer concerned for Emma’s safety; he was ready to hunt.

  He called in every available man, even the Sheriff’s Flotilla because they were familiar with the river waters.

  Joshua was under no delusions that catching Earl and Vernon was going to be easy. They had a pack mentality and were nothing short of being animals; wolves are what came to mind. They were just as conniving as wolves too. As long as they were together, they would be hard to stop.

  He knew the boys traveled the river often and probably knew every backwater slue from there to the Gulf of Mexico, but Joshua was a Wolver from way back. He had hunted down men that were just as crafty as those two were and he intended to get them before they could do harm to another person.

  He sent orders for his deputies to station themselves at every road and railway intersection along the river, even the narrowest of pig-trails was to be covered. He wanted them to thoroughly search upriver and downriver from the Rising Sun. He told them to shoot first and ask questions later. He knew the brothers had a good hour start on them and they could have possibly left the river, but he hoped not.

  They probably did not have the forethought to plan that far in advance. Most likely, the boys never thought they would be discovered, much less driven from their home, but they had. Now, there was no turning back, they had to surface eventually.

  Deputy’s Davis and Calvert had already begun a search of the area behind the old plantation house. Joshua figured there might be more than one entrance to the tunnel that came into the basement of the house. He even sent a deputy to the courthouse to see if they could locate the original plans for the house.

  He hoped the architects design would show a plat of the land and the rivers relationship to the house.

  Knowing the relationship of the river to the house would make likely tunnels easier to find.

  Joshua knew it was a long shot. Those days, many plantations were built on the spot by slave labor. The owners would simply draw the design he wanted on a piece of paper, then oversee and instruct the slaves to build it. Usually, only rich, educated planters hired architects.

  Since the home was ornate, with carved intricate fretwork around the porches and balconies Joshua figured the original owner was rich; he hoped so.

&n
bsp; He wanted badly to be on the river hunting Vernon and Earl, but felt compelled to stay put. He’d issued orders and sent all of his deputies out to try to intercept them along the river. The coroner had not yet made it to the house, but John Metcalf was in the basement busily doing his job.

  Joshua left Metcalf and walked to his pickup to get a pack of cigarettes. He had lit a cigarette and was sitting in his truck smoking when he remembered seeing a large barn a couple of hundred feet to the west of the main house. He was sure the deputies had already searched the barn, but he had a notion if there were tunnels leading from the house to the river, then there was probably a tunnel from the house to the barn.

  Joshua searched through his truck and found a flashlight behind the seat. He was surprised the batteries were not dead. He could not remember the last time he had used it. He eased back into the house and down into the basement. John Metcalf was in the “trophy” room noting each severed head and its placement on the shelves. Joshua nudged Metcalf then put his finger to his lips in a “don’t say anything” gesture. He took the notebook from Metcalf, found a clean sheet and wrote what he wanted to tell him on the notepad. Metcalf nodded that he understood.

  “Well, John, I reckon you’ll have it to yourself awhile. I’m headed to Earlville to see if they’ve captured those boys yet.” he winked.

  “Alright, Sheriff; I’ll finish up here in a bit and then be on my way. Catch you on the flipside.” Metcalf said, and then turned back toward the shelves, but not before unsnapping his holstered revolver. If Joshua’s idea was correct, those boys may be just out of sight, waiting on an opportunity to get back inside the house.

  45

  Divide and Capture

  Joshua went up the stairs and out of the house. He suspected that Vernon and Earl were hiding in the tunnels awaiting a chance to get back to their trophies. He did not believe they would take flight without trying to take the heads with them. He had told Metcalf to be alert. He intended to flush them out if they were in the tunnels.

  After Joshua left the room, Metcalf took note of the locks on the doors. He locked the double doors to the coffin room and the door to the autopsy room. The only door that was not locked was the door leading to the tunnels.

  There was nothing for him to do now, but wait.

  Joshua entered the barn as quietly as he could. He searched the large barn, which doubled as a garage. In it, there was an old hearse and several other vehicles, including a horse drawn carriage.

  The automobiles looked as though they had not been used in years. Seeing all the dust on the vehicles, he wondered how Vernon and Earl transported the bodies to the dumpsites. He had seen no other vehicles at the house. Did they transport all of them by boat? It seemed an impossible task.

  Joshua knew all the bodies had been found in fields near watered areas, swamps, creeks, and bayous. He had no doubts that all of the tributaries led back to a river, but he doubted they all led back to the Escatawpa River. He did not think there was anyone who knew the delta well enough to go from one river to the other by way of streams and other tributaries. The Tombigbee River was a good twenty miles east of the Escatawpa and there were dozens of bayous between them. Moreover, the Pascagoula River was that much or more to the west of it, with just as many bayous between them. Vernon and Earl bound to have some other mode of transportation; he just needed to find it.

  After a thorough search of the barn, Joshua found no entrance to a tunnel. And, unless it was underneath the vehicles, there was none.

  He walked out and around to the side and then the back of the barn. On the backside of the barn there was a lean-to attached. Parked under it, was a newer model pickup with a camper shell. It was perfect for hauling and concealing bodies.

  Joshua walked to the back of the truck, raised the hatch of the camper shell, and then peered into the back of the truck. It was clean as a whistle, but that did not mean they had not used it to transport the bodies; it just meant that they cleaned up afterwards.

  As Joshua walked around to the other side of the barn, he saw the opening of a storm cellar attached to the barn wall. He went over, opened it and shined the flashlight down into the opening. It was dark, but he could tell no one was in there.

  He went down into the cellar to see if there was an entrance to a tunnel, and sure enough, there was one. In it, there were two doors. Opening the door, Joshua felt a gust of cool air; it smelt musty, but he smelt something else too. He smelt human decomposition. He shined his light in and saw a pile of heads in the center of the 12 by 12 room. They were all men’s heads from what he could tell.

  He turned and walk to the other door. When he opened it, he felt another rush of cool air. It too, smelt musty. As he shined his light ahead of him, he saw it was a long tunnel.

  He entered the tunnel and made his way to an intersection. One tunnel went left, the other, straight ahead. If his estimations were right, if he stayed straight, he was headed for the main house.

  Joshua continued with his firearm at the ready. He would rather take the boys alive if possible, but he would damn sure shoot them if he had to.

  He shined his light ahead and then turned it off and walked in darkness. After a few yards, he would turn the flashlight back on and shine it ahead of him, just to make sure he was not passing up another intersection.

  The semicircle tunnels were brick lined. Joshua could tell the bricks were likely done by slave labor; they appeared to be very old and homemade.

  As he made his way further through the tunnel, Joshua could hear music playing. Although vaguely at first, as if the source was far away. He thought Deputy Davis had turned off the radio after they rescued Emma, but this did not sound like a radio, it sounded more like his 8-track player sounded. The further he went through the tunnel the clearer the words became. Joshua could clearly hear a song called “Highway Song” playing from somewhere above him. As he got beneath what should be the house, he began to hear other noises. No longer wanting to be stealthy, Joshua turned on the flashlight and hurried along the tunnel. He was concerned for Metcalf’s wellbeing.

  John Metcalf had become preoccupied with the heads of the women and animals and had lured himself into a false sense of being alone. Suddenly, he realized that music was playing somewhere nearby.

  His revolver lay on a shelf a few feet away where he undoubtedly had laid it down while examining the heads.

  He wanted to kick himself for forgetting the sheriffs warning to stay alert.

  He took several steps toward his firearm and quickly grabbed it up, swung around and watched the door to the tunnel. The door suddenly opened and he almost peed himself, because although he was watching for it to open, he was not expecting it when it did.

  Joshua pushed open the door and stood there. John Metcalf let out a sigh of relief. Joshua could tell from Metcalf’s expression that he had scared the living bejesus out of him, but now that he knew John was all right, he needed to find where the music was coming from.

  He motioned to Metcalf to remain quiet and then eased toward the door to the autopsy room. Leaning his ear against the door, Joshua knew that was where the sound of music was coming from. The song quit and another song began playing; it was Black Sabbath’s song, War Pigs.

  Stepping back, Joshua turned toward John Metcalf. Before he could speak, a commotion at the door to the tunnel drew both men’s attention. The door swung open. The force of it opening caused it to bang against the wall.

  Joshua saw a man standing there. The man was wearing a rubber pig head and held a machete aloft.

  Before Joshua realized what he was doing, he swung his revolver in that direction and pulled the trigger! The masquerader dropped to the floor and flopped like a fish out of water several times before his movement stilled.

  As soon as the echo from the gunshot quieted, they heard someone banging on the opposite side of the door to the autopsy room.

  At first, Joshua thought whoever it was, was beating the door with their fists, but then the ban
gs became more forceful and he saw a blade burst through the metal door, and then it done it again. He could tell by the protruding blade that it was an axe. They damn well meant to chop through the door!

  If, and when they managed to break through, he knew he would have to shoot whoever it was. He was not about to try to reason with someone wielding an axe, no more than he had with the pig head wearing, machete toting man.

  The machete toting, pig head wearer was trying to get to his knees. Metcalf had finally thawed enough to move. He kicked the machete away from pig-head, and then picked it up. Joshua turned his attention back to the door and ax-man. He knew it was useless to try to shoot through the door, so he unlocked it, turned the knob and then stepped back. The next time Ax-man swung his axe, it cut deep into the door and the door swung in almost unarming Ax-man, who quickly recovered and then yanked the axe out of the door. He raised the axe over his head and moved toward Joshua. Joshua squeezed the trigger.

  The bullet hit Ax-man square in the middle of his forehead; he dropped to the floor.

  Joshua stood there watching the flow of blood pooling around Ax-mans head. Sudden movement caught Joshua off guard. The force of Pig-heads attack knocked him off his feet. Even weaponless, the pig head wearer was a force to reckon with.

  Joshua’s own injuries prevented him from defending himself as well as he could have if he was not injured. Before he knew it, Pig Head was on top of him, choking him. Joshua managed to get his right arm free and swung hard, hitting his attacker up side the head.

  Pig head’s rubber head, suddenly came off in the struggle, flipped several times and then went flying across the room.

  The blood squirting up out of his neck was unexpected and Joshua watched, fascinated as the spurts of blood shot upward into the air.

  After a moment, Joshua shoved his assailant off him and scrambled to his feet. He turned in time to see Metcalf drop the machete to the floor.

  “Sheriff Stokes, I didn’t know what else to do. I did not want to shoot at him and risk hitting you. I had a clear swing at his head though.”