by Matt Hilton
‘They’re all here now?’
‘Yes.’ Jay then frowned, shook her head. ‘I’m not sure. They locked me in that hole yesterday and I haven’t seen them since.’
‘There’s one of them on the porch,’ I began. ‘He’s wearing a straw hat.’
‘That’s the Tin Man.’
At my bemused expression, Jay gave a disparaging snort that was anything but laughter. She rolled up from the floor, on to one knee. ‘That’s how I think of him, the heartless pig! He’s called Carson.’
‘So the other two are Brent and Samuel?’
‘Yes, they’re the Straw Man and the Wizard.’
I understood her earlier nickname for Carson Logan then, but didn’t comment on it. I was weighing up if I could get to Carson without giving myself away. If I could take him out quietly, then perhaps I could burst inside the house and drop the other two before they could hurt their captives. Ordinarily I’d have tried for it, but what if I failed and it was me who got killed? Where would that leave Jay and the others?
‘Come on, we’re leaving.’
Jay looked at me like I was an enemy. ‘No way.’
‘Come on, stay low and only move when I say so.’
‘I’m not leaving without Nicole and Ellie.’
‘They’re both inside, Nicole Challinor and Ellie Mansfield?’
‘I don’t know the girl’s full name,’ Jay croaked. It was almost as if the admission was a miserable failing on her part.
‘She looks a little like Nicole, almost as if she could be her younger sister?’
Maybe that hadn’t struck Jay before, but the realisation was plain to see on her face now. ‘Yes, she does look like Nicole. My God, I hadn’t given that any thought. Is that why those monsters have taken them? What do they want with them?’
My best guess was for sexual gratification. Yet there had to be something deeper than that involved. Jay Walker was a beautiful woman, and if the Logans only wanted to rape their captives then she’d have been used like the others. I pictured Helena Blackstock and how much she looked like Nicole and Ellie. It was pretty obvious now that the Logans had been responsible for her abduction, and that they’d targeted her and their subsequent hostages due to a specific look. And that led me to the other woman who’d disappeared off the face of the earth: Samuel’s sister, Carla. I wondered what she looked like, and if her sudden disappearance had anything to do with the subsequent snatching of the other women. Men directed by an unhealthy sex drive were bad enough, but I didn’t like to think of where my mind was leading me: along a dirty path heading directly to a deep cesspit.
‘I don’t know,’ I said.
Jay placed a hand on my knee. ‘What did you say your name was?’
‘Joe Hunter.’
‘Are you a policeman?’
‘No. I’m just someone your dad hired to find you.’
‘A private detective?’
‘Sort of. It’s not important. Now come on, I have to get you out of here.’ I knew from her questions she was trying to work on my sense of duty. I’d no shortcomings in that department, but I wasn’t about to be swayed. ‘Don’t worry, Jay. I’m going to get Nicole and Ellie free. But I can’t do that while you’re out here. I can’t leave you alone in case I don’t make it.’
‘I can help you—’
‘You can barely see straight from dehydration. I’m taking you out of here and getting you something to drink.’ I raised a hand to allay any further argument. Then, to add validity to mine, I cupped her face between my palms and stared into her eyes. ‘Listen, Jay! Every second we waste here is a second closer to those bastards discovering your escape. Do you know what they’ll do to the others if they think you’ve got away? Now, here’s what we’ll do. We’re going to where I have water waiting for us. Then I’m taking you back to my car. Can you drive? Yes, of course you can, you were using your father’s SUV. You will drive to the nearest place to call the police and get them here as soon as possible. I’ll come back here. I promise I won’t leave the girls to those monsters.’
Finally sense soaked into her parched synapses and she nodded gently in my hands. ‘OK, OK, you’re right, Joe.’
‘Right. Let’s go then, and stay low and only move when I tell you.’
Helping her to stand, I could detect her weakness, but, giving her her due, she steeled herself and moved quickly at my side to the far end of the junk pile. There we could stand a little straighter and I took hold of her hands and looked at her. ‘Everything’s going to work out fine, Jay. I know what I’m doing so you can trust me, OK.’
I’ve heard it said that pride comes before a fall. The fact that I was only offering reassurance to a traumatised young woman didn’t matter, because the proverb rang true.
There was the metallic bang of tin sheets being thrown aside at much the same time as a shout of anger rang clear through the desert air.
15
Carson Logan was approximately midway between the house and the hole in which Jay had been held. He scanned back and forth, his gaze on the house, then on his cousin who still threw aside tin sheets even though it had to be obvious that the woman was no longer inside. From the cover of the junk pile I watched them both. The older man tilted his hat back on his head with a sweep of his thumb, as he hollered something akin to an animal’s howl. The third member of the family appeared on the stoop, his hair sticking out in wild tufts, and I guessed he’d just been roused from a nap.
I glanced at Jay crouching beside me, her arms wrapped round her body, and saw that she was full of fear and loathing for the men, or rather for what they might now do. I regretted my earlier warning that the Logans would kill her friends if they discovered she’d escaped, and saw that she was now considering sacrificing herself to keep Nicole and Ellie alive.
‘Don’t move,’ I said, more a command than a caution.
‘If I go back they’ll punish me, but at least they’ll spare Nicole.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘I won’t let you do that.’
‘I have to. You said it yourself, they’d kill them if they thought I’d escaped and could bring back the police.’
The revolver was in my hand and I thumbed back the hammer. ‘Things were different then. If it looks like they’re thinking along those lines I’ll take the chance of killing them first.’
Jay’s eyes widened as they fixed on the gun. ‘Shoot them! Shoot them now!’
I was tempted. Maybe I’d even get Samuel and Carson, but the younger man, Brent, was out of my line of fire, not to mention too far away. If I ran out, started killing his kin, he’d barricade himself inside the shack and use his hostages as human shields.
‘No, they only think that you’ve given them the slip. They don’t know I’m here. I want to keep things that way for the time being. They’re not going to kill Nicole and Ellie immediately; they’ll try tracking you first. They think you’ve escaped on foot, so they’ll expect to run you down in no time. Now come on, my first plan still stands . . . we just have to get back to the ravines over there without them seeing us.’
‘I don’t want to leave. If anything happens to Nicole . . .’
‘The longer we wait here, the less time they have, now come on.’
Before she could argue further, I grabbed her elbow and led her quickly towards a stand of weirdly shaped rocks that reminded me of a huddle of gamblers over a roulette wheel. Pushing Jay before me, I glanced back to make sure we’d gone unseen.
‘Brent, goddamnit boy, get yoursel’ back in there and make sure them others don’t get ideas about runnin’ away!’
Carson, having yelled the command, strode towards his cousin. Samuel, a stocky man with shoulders that looked too wide for his height, had his hands bunched in his greasy black hair. His face was livid, and he was ranting about something but his accent was so thick that I barely caught a word. I took it that he was describing what he was going to do to Jay when he caught up with her. Well, he’d be disappointed if I had anything to do
with it.
Carson grabbed Samuel by his shoulders, and it looked like he shook some sense into his volatile cousin. Again their slurred vernacular escaped me, but I didn’t need to understand their speech when their body language spoke volumes. They were gearing up to give chase. Both men rushed towards the battered old pick-up and clambered inside. My greatest hope was that they’d head directly towards the pass near to the mushroom-shaped mountain. If they did that then I would have chanced returning for their other captives. I didn’t doubt that I could take Brent without him being aware of my presence until it was too late. Sadly, that eventuality didn’t offer itself, because the men swung the truck towards the watering hole, expecting to find Jay there. I could have still made it to the house without them seeing me, but I doubted I could get the girls free and lead them back here before we were spotted. I grabbed Jay and headed in the opposite direction, moving from boulder to boulder, and, where there wasn’t enough highline cover, I made her get down on her knees and crawl. All the while I kept one eye on the circling truck.
Samuel had climbed out of the cab and on to the flat-bed. He clung to the truck while leaning out over the sand, and there was no mistaking what he was doing: he was looking for tracks in the softer ground. Time was still on our side, because their search radius hadn’t expanded as far as the junk pile yet, but it was only a matter of time. They’d see the tracks we’d made as I propelled Jay towards the huddle of rocks and would easily pick up our trail from there. I studied the topography ahead. There was an ancient gully, through which water had once snaked, and I directed Jay towards it. Once inside, we could stand upright. I urged her into a jog, aiming for the nearby hills. Sweat spilled from the two of us, dotting the ground, but I was less worried about leaving a trail than how long Jay could maintain her speed before collapsing under the strain. I could have traversed the gully to the cover of the high ground in a few minutes, but Jay was already staggering and almost sinking to her knees with every other step. Enough was enough, I thought, as I pulled her to a halt.
‘I’m so thirsty,’ she moaned.
‘Just hang in there girl,’ I said. Then, before she could resist, I grabbed her by both wrists, stooped low and pulled her across my shoulders. She wasn’t a tiny woman, in fact ordinarily she would be described as voluptuous, but neither was she a heavyweight. I carried her in the classic fireman’s lift, galloping along at a quicker pace than she could have kept up. It took me back to my former life, and how I’d carried a number of my comrades-in-arms from battlefields throughout the world. Sadly most of them hadn’t survived their injuries; I hoped that the same wouldn’t hold true for Jay Walker.
We’d gained the best part of a half-mile when a shout rang across the desert, followed by the roar of an engine as the truck kicked up dust. Samuel had found our trail. From our position I couldn’t see them, and could only hope that they’d waste more time searching the first boulders we’d hidden ourselves among before discovering that we’d fled east. Unfortunately it didn’t sound like that because the roaring of the truck was getting closer. It was likely that they’d recognised the gully as our escape route and weren’t wasting time searching every step of the way but cutting off our route out of the valley.
I hoped that Jay had fallen unconscious and was spared the panic that she might be recaptured, but as I ran I could hear a corresponding sob with each step. Fuck this, I decided, there was no way that I was going to let any harm come to this poor woman. If the Logans did cut off our escape route then they’d be sorely disappointed when they found not a defenceless woman but an armed man as mean as a shithouse rat.
The Logans were calling to each other, Samuel the most vociferous as he guided Carson along the brink of the gully. Luckily for us it didn’t run in a straight line, but twisted and turned with the contours of the desert, and we stayed beyond their line of sight. I spurred on: speed was still our greatest ally. Suddenly, looming over the edge of the gully I saw a tall crag and knew that we’d made it to where the ridgeline broke up as it entered the desert in a series of jagged teeth. As I slowed, looking for a way to clamber up the gully’s bank and into the rocks, the engine sounds drifted away. Thinking that Jay might already have made it this far, they must have decided to head directly for the pass under the overhang of the mushroom rock. Well, that suited me just fine.
Placing Jay back on her feet, I dashed sweat from my eyes. Salt was on my lips, and my shirt was soaked through with a mixture of both our bodily fluids. Jay looked like she’d been through a wringer. She looked back at me with a dazed expression, her eyes barely focussing. ‘How are you doing, Jay? Are you still with me?’
She held out a palm and braced it against my shoulder, smacking lips that would crack into oozing sores if she should attempt a smile. With her other hand she attempted to straighten her twisted clothing. Her expression said, That was a little undignified!
‘It’s OK, don’t try to speak. We haven’t far to go now, and you can drink your fill. The only thing is I can’t carry you any further, you’re going to have to walk.’
‘I . . . I can do that.’
‘Good girl,’ I said, and there was nothing patronising about it.
I had my right hand full with my gun, so I offered her my left, gently tugging her up the embankment behind me. Cresting the rim of the gully, I looked towards the opening of the pass but couldn’t see the truck now. A cloud of disturbed dust hung in the air obscuring much of the space below the overhang. Any second now, I thought, and the truck would burst through it and race towards us.
‘Up there.’ I indicated the narrow trail I’d followed into the valley and Jay set off. Having made it this far, the thought of escape and the subsequent release of Nicole and Ellie spurred her on with more determination than before. Her footing was steadier, and she managed a jog so that she was a few steps ahead of me all the way. She looked the type who was ordinarily health-conscious, someone who’d work out regularly, and on a good day might well have been solid competition in a race through the desert. Then and there, I knew, only the adrenalin was pushing her on.
I admired her. I hadn’t heard her complain once about her predicament; all of her energy was concentrated on saving her friend, a trait I found very attractive. She was cut from the same cloth as I and those I called friends were. My interest had nothing to do with her good looks, or her lithe athleticism that was only partly blunted by fatigue, but neither had they passed me by. She reminded me a little of my girlfriend, Imogen, though almost half her age. Shit, throw that thought away, it made me sound too much like the Logans. Nevertheless, if I’d found myself following her in less desperate circumstances, my gaze would have fallen upon her in a different fashion. I was watching her for any sign that her strength was going to give out, or that she was about to stumble and fall. It was bad enough moving her quickly and silently without an injury to contend with.
We followed the trail, swerving among boulders, and I was searching now for landmarks as often as I was for our enemies. I almost missed the lion-head rock, coming on it from a different angle. Approaching it via this direction it was just another formless hunk of weathered stone, and, if a chance look back over my shoulder had come a few seconds later, I might have missed it as we padded on by.
‘Jay,’ I called softly. ‘Here.’
She stumbled to a halt, both hands on her thighs as she caught her breath.
My rucksack was undisturbed and I drew out the container of water. Unscrewing the lid, I heard Jay scrabbling through the dirt as she came down on her knees and held out her hands gratefully.
‘Take it real easy. Just sip the water, slow and steady or you’ll make yourself sick.’ That was like placing an unaccompanied child in a sweet shop and telling them not to touch. She grabbed the container greedily and began chugging down mouthfuls at a time. Her eyes rolled up at me, as though she expected me to snatch the water away any second. I let her get a good litre inside her before gently pushing the container away. ‘Slow down, Ja
y, or there’ll be none left.’
‘God, do you know what that tastes like?’
Like warm plastic, I assumed, as I took the container from her.
‘Delicious.’ Jay’s gaze never left the bottle as I raised it to my parched mouth.
‘Yeah,’ I agreed as I let the water trickle between my lips. I held on to a mouthful, slowly swilling it round my gums and the roof of my mouth before allowing gravity to do its job and take the water down into my stomach. I shoved the cap back on, but Jay’s desire couldn’t be ignored. I handed her the bottle. ‘Make sure you save some for later.’
She must have been as parched as the desert that surrounded us, but she didn’t go over the top. She only took another couple of long gulps before replacing the cap and putting down the bottle on her folded knees. Dribbles had made rivulets in the dust on her chin, but had almost moistened her lips and they looked a little plumper than before. A sparkle of life had reignited in her eyes.
From my rucksack I withdrew the photos given me by her father. I showed her the news clipping reporting the murders at the gas station, followed by the one that named Ellie Mansfield as having been snatched during the robbery. She only studied the photos for a second before nodding her head. ‘Yes, that’s the girl,’ she confirmed. Her lids drooped, and a tear trembled on her lashes. ‘Those monsters murdered that poor old man and the family in the station wagon. Dear God, I didn’t want to believe that, but it’s true. Yet they spared Ellie and Nicole, they wanted them for something else.’
‘Did they, uh, touch you?’
‘Not like that, they were happier beating me, especially the ugly one, Samuel.’ Jay placed her head in her palms. ‘But I heard Nicole and Ellie screaming. Oh, my God, no . . .’
It was an uncomfortable discussion, and not one I wanted to dwell on. Placing a consoling hand on her shoulder, I asked, ‘What about this woman? Have you seen her?’