Finding Susan

by Kahn, Dakota

  That moved. Shifted weight. It wasn’t clothes, it was a person, lying there, moving in their sleep.

  Her heart was beating so hard, she was sure the whole world could hear it. It could be Susan. She grabbed her cell phone and poked in Blake’s number. It rang three times and went to voice mail. Swearing softly, she did it again, and got the same result.

  “Wake up, Blake,” she whispered desperately. “Wake up you idiot!”

  *********

  Blake rolled over and reached for Kate. It was vaguely possible that she would be up for a little more lovemaking this morning, and he wanted to persuade her in that direction if he could. But his flailing hand encountered nothing but cold, empty sheets. He raised his head.

  “Kate?” he said aloud.

  No answer. He sniffed the air, hoping for coffee, bacon. Signs that he was appreciated.

  But there was just cold and silence.

  “Damn it, Kate!”

  He began to pull himself up. Where had she gone? Back to her house? Seemed logical. Letting out a string of obscenities, he rolled out of bed and began to look for his clothes. He was going to be late for work if he tried to find her first. So much for the promises of the night.

  He took a quick shower and then pulled on his uniform and was out the door in twenty minutes. His cell phone was still on the dresser where he’d left it.

  *********

  Kate stayed at the low window, staring into the interior gloom and trying to see who—or what—was on that cot. The light inside wasn’t going to change. Finally she realized what she had to do. She had to go inside.

  She looked quickly at the sky. Long streaks of morning purple were beginning to chase away the darkness. She tried Blake’s number one more time and got nothing. She was on her own. Now, how was she going to get in? With her taser gun in her hand, she began trying all the doors and windows, one at a time.

  She finally found a window that was promising. It was stuck shut, but as she jiggled it, she felt some give. It was at the back of the house, not far from the basement window. She jiggled and pried and pushed and pressed, and suddenly, the window gave, sliding up with a sickening schreech.

  She held her breath, trying to hear over the pounding of her heart. Had that woken Joe Bob? It had seemed enough to wake the dead, but she couldn’t hear any sense of movement in the house.

  She gave it a few minutes, then looked it over. It was awfully small. Was she going to fit through that? Reluctantly, she took off her light jacket and put it on the ground, then began to edge her way up to where she could slide inside, feet first.

  Her legs were inside, and then her bottom, but she couldn’t get any purchase with her feet. She was still clinging to the sill. Where could she go from here? She couldn’t just let herself drop when she didn’t know what she was dropping into.

  She reached and stretched with her feet and legs, and suddenly she felt something sturdy. She put her weight on it. It held. She made the transition from outside to in. She’d made it.

  The light was dim. She seemed to be in some sort of hallway. She felt her way along the wall, heading in the direction of where the basement would have to be, her heart hammering in her chest. One thought that kept blaring in her mind like a blinking neon sign—could you die of a heart attack from being scared to death? Did it really happen? And was it about to happen to her?

  A door. Closed. Could this be the way to the basement? She tried the knob. It turned with a squeak, that made her gasp. She listened. Nothing, she opened the door all the way and found stairs. Must be the basement. Slowly, she started down them.

  Something moved. Something was coming up the stairs toward her. Rats! She swallowed a scream, biting down hard on her lip, as they scurried by her. Ugh!

  She looked down at the cot against the far wall. The figure in it stirred and raised it’s head. She squinted, trying to see in the gloom.

  “Susan?” she whispered, suddenly sure it was her sister.

  “No!” yelled a voice so close behind her, she thought her ear drum had burst, and then pain as something hit her in the head, and the world turned black.

  *********

  Despite all his resolutions, Blake stopped by the house to see if Kate was there. Her car sat outside the half-built porch, but they’d left it there the day before when they’d started their hike into the woods, so that didn’t mean anything. He parked next to it and got out and went around back to try the door. It opened.

  “Kate?” he called.

  No answer. He listened and something about the silence told him the house was empty. He shrugged and headed back to his car. Funny. He couldn’t quite figure where she’d gone.

  Getting back in the car, he started off toward the station again, not looking forward to the day ahead. Something about Kate’s disappearance was making him uneasy. He would rather be out looking for her than in the office, shuffling through paperwork.

  He turned toward town, and suddenly a huge mass of white feathers landed on his windshield.

  “What the…?”

  He jammed on the brakes and watched as the duck slide down off his car, then quacked loudly and started toward the woods. He stared after it. When it came to the edge of the trees, it quacked again and ruffled its feathers, dancing about, obviously trying to get his attention. He shook his head.

  “That damn duck is trying to get me to follow it,” he told himself. “Or am I dreaming?”

  “Quack!”

  He took a deep breath. “Maybe I’m crazy,” he muttered to himself. “But I can’t ignore this. I’ve got to see what he wants.”

  He pulled the car over, got out and began following the duck into the woods. It didn’t take long to figure out where the duck was going.

  “Joe Bob’s, huh? What do you know?”

  As the man’s house appeared in the clearing, he began to feel a little silly. How was he going to explain this to Joe Bob? “Hey, the duck made me do it.”

  He approached the house. It looked dark. Joe Bob was probably sound asleep, but even so, just looking at the place gave him the creeps. And thinking about what the man did there was enough to turn your stomach.

  Suddenly, the duck disappeared. He stopped, turning slowly, looking in every direction. No duck.

  “Just leading me on, huh?” he said in disgust, turning to go back to his car. What the hell was he doing, anyway? He felt for his cell phone, thinking about giving Kate’s a call, but he didn’t have it on him. Oh well. He’d try calling her from the station. He started off.

  And then he thought he heard something. He turned back and looked at the house again. Something caught his eye. Something bright blue was lying in the yard. It looked somehow familiar. He hesitated. He didn’t really want to go back. But that color blue… He took a few steps and realized where he’d seen it before. Kate’s jacket. Once he’d pinned that down, he bounded toward it, adrenaline surging in his system. Kate had been here. Either that, or the duck was now wearing her clothes.

  There was no time to go back to his car to get his gun. He had to move fast. If Joe Bob had Kate….if he was hurting her… Blake was ready to use lethal force without a bit of hesitation. Suddenly he trusted himself implicitly. He could do this. He had to do this. And he didn’t bother knocking.

  *********

  Kate heard herself moaning as she slowly woke up. Her head felt like it was two sizes larger and pounding like a rubber mallet against a cymbal. The first thing that filled her mind was Susan.

  She pulled herself up. She was still in the basement and the person was still on the cot. Slowly, painfully, she rose and went toward her, pulling back the ragged covers. Her heart rose and sank at the same time. It was Susan and she was still alive, but when she turned her face to her sister, her eyes were bleary and vacant. She didn’t seem to be able to focus or recognize anything.

  “Oh Susan!”

  She threw her arms around her sister and held her tightly. “Susan, we’re going to get you out of here,
” she whispered. “Can you talk? Do you see me? Oh Susan! Please come to. Please try hard.”

  Turning, she made her way painfully up the stairs and tried the door. It was locked. Going back down, she went right to her sister again and held her hand. It broke her heart to see her this way. That pale, pretty face looked ash white, eyes sunken in, bones pushing at her skin at painful angles. She was a wreck of a woman, a torn and twisted form of humanity.

  “Come on, sweetie. You can do it,” she encouraged. “Wake up. We have to figure out how to get out of here.”

  A loud noise came from upstairs and she cringed, raising her hands, thinking of the blow she’d taken to her head, but it didn’t seem to be threatening her directly this time. She listened. Someone was yelling. Then there was another crash and the sound of something hitting the floor. Suddenly, everything was quiet. Kate held her breath. What was it? She listened intently.

  Someone tried the door, then kicked it open.

  “Kate?”

  “Oh, Blake!”

  Kate felt all her strength flow away like a damn letting go and she went limp. In no time, Blake was there, holding her in his arms and kissing her face, her lips, her ears.

  “Oh my God!” he cried. “Kate, I was so scared that you were hurt.”

  “I am hurt,” she said shakily. “You just haven’t heard what happened yet.”

  “Is that….” He looked at the cot. “Is that Susan?”

  She nodded. “She seems to be completely drugged out. Oh Blake, I’m so glad you came. How did you know I was here?”

  He grinned. “A little bird told me,” he said. “Come on. I’ve got Joe Bob tied securely upstairs. I’m going to call Sheriff Duffy and get this handled properly.” He held her close, burying his face in her hair. “And then I’m going to lecture you on the folly of doing things alone.”

  “Okay,” she said with a sigh. “I think I’m up for a good lecture about now.”

  “What I’m hoping is that you’re ready to surrender and take on a good partner,” he said gruffly, framing her face with his hands and looking lovingly down into her eyes. “If so, I’m available.”

  A smile began to spread over her pretty face. “I’ll take that into consideration, Officer Spanner. As a matter of fact, I think I can guarantee that you’ll be first on my list.”

  He kissed her hard, on the mouth. “I’m going to make sure I’m the only one,” he told her. “We’re going to make our own community. Okay?”

  She nodded, feeling happier than she’d been in a long time. “Our own community. And our own family. Don’t forget that.”

  *********

  Kate spent the next day seeing one doctor after another, either for her own head trauma, or for Susan’s case. Her own injury wasn’t dangerous and barring any unforeseen reactions, she should be free of any lasting symptoms, or so they told her.

  But Susan was another matter. Her long-term drug use and the way she’d been treated over the last few weeks might have long term implications. It was too soon to tell.

  Still, Kate had the reassurance that Jason Rudehammer could give her, as his ties with the rehabilitation community were strong. He volunteered to help shepherd her through it all. Kate closed her eyes as she thought of his offer and murmured, “God bless him.”

  “What do they think actually happened?” she asked Blake when he got back that evening. “Why did Joe Bob keep her in his basement like that?”

  Blake shrugged. “From what we can gather, Joe Bob grabbed her in a crime of opportunity. He hadn’t planned it out or anything. But when she showed up at the house, he was cleaning animals in the sink, and she yelled at him, so he hit her, knocked her out, and dragged her home to his place. Then he decided she was better than the animals he kept in cages. More interesting. Prettier to watch. And she wanted drugs. So he got them for her.”

  “Where?”

  “As near as we can tell, it seems Allison, the veterinarian, helped him there. Though we’re not sure she knew what he wanted the drugs for. At least not until you started asking around about Susan. That spooked her.”

  “How crazy.”

  “No kidding. But there may be a more sinister reason behind his activities. You see, old Joe Bob has been helping older people on their last legs around here and getting them to sign their property over to him. It seems he was becoming the main landowner in the valley. Only Gladys didn’t sign. We’re not sure what happened there. Now there’s a move to dig her up and see what she really died of.”

  “Ugh!”

  Blake gave her a wise look. “I think you ought to change your view of your old aunt. She seems to have stood firm and made sure you and Susan got your inheritance despite a lot of pressure from Joe Bob.”

  “What a creepy man.”

  “Oh say. I found the locket.” He pulled it out of his pocket and dangled it in front of her.

  “Oh, great.”

  She took it and watched it flash as it swayed on the end of the chain, then showed him that she was wearing the ring that matched it. “Where was it?”

  “In Joe Bob’s house.”

  She frowned, thinking. “So the duck took it there?”

  He shook his head. “Who knows? No one has seen hide nor hair of that duck ever since yesterday morning when he directly led me to you.”

  “You’re sure that was what he was doing?”

  “No doubt in my mind. He knew where you were and he wanted me to go there.”

  “And you came to rescue me.” She smiled at him. “My big strong handsome protector,” she said. “I think I’ll keep you.”

  He sank beside her and took her into his arms. “You better,” he said as he began to nuzzle her neck. “I really think the duck would want it that way.”

  Her laugh gurgled low in her throat and she reached to return his embrace.

  The End