by Philip Cox
‘Stacey!’ Billy called out. ‘Get down here! We got company!’
Stacey appeared in the kitchen doorway and gasped when she saw them: Ben, leaning on the stove, clutching his stomach and rubbing his now bleeding jaw; Craig panting and standing awkwardly, with his back up against a wall. She put her hand to her mouth.
‘A happy reunion,’ Billy leered, walking up to Stacey. He stood next to her and, the gun still trained on Ben and Craig, put his arm round her shoulders and squeezed her next to him. Nobody failed to notice the slight grimace on her face. ‘What do you think, sugar?’ he laughed.
‘Yeah, Billy, just like you say,’ she answered quietly, sad eyes staring at Ben.
‘Enjoy it why you can, Loomis,’ said Ben. ‘The police’ll be here soon.’
Billy laughed. ‘Yeah, right.’ He thought for a moment. ‘We’ll take care of you fuckers later.’ He looked over to Scott. ‘Let’s get them downstairs. Till we decide what to do with them all.’
Scott pushed Craig in the back again, making him stumble forward. Ben gave him support. Billy indicated with his gun that they should go out of the kitchen. The door led to a large hallway, and there was a door under the stairway which clearly led to a cellar. Billy opened the door and gestured again with the gun. Slowly, Ben moved into the doorway. He looked down the stairs to the cellar. It was dark, but not pitch black: he could make out the floor of the cellar.
‘Go on. Hope you ain’t afraid of the dark.’ Billy prodded him with the gun. Ben slowly walked down the steps. Craig started to follow him, until Scott pushed him again, causing him to fall down the first few steps until he grabbed a handrail, arresting his fall.
‘Until later, you queer bastard,’ Scott sneered, as he shut the door behind. They heard the door being locked, and then Billy’s voice.
‘Yeah, quite a happy reunion.’ Then some laughter, as the voices disappeared into another room.
Ben and Craig felt their way down the steps into the cellar. Looking around, as their eyes got used to the comparative darkness, they could see they were not the first to be accommodated here. There was a camp bed with a mattress and some sheets, and a table and chair. There was an open door, to which Ben assumed was a storage closet; as he peered into the gloom he could see it was a small bathroom, or at least a toilet and small basin. A little daylight was coming through a grimy window at the top of one of the walls. The bottom of the window must be at ground level, Ben assumed.
‘Well, what now?’ said Craig.
Ben looked at his watch. There was not enough light to see the time, but he estimated that they parked the car about an hour ago. ‘Well, Sanchez and McGee should be here within the hour. I guess we’ll just have to sit it out till then.’
Just then a murmur came from the camp bed. Startled, they both turned round. In the darkness, they had not noticed the figure lying on the bed, wrapped in a sheet. The figure murmured again, and turned round in the bed, the springs creaking. Ben squinted in the dark to see better. The figure sat up a bit, leaning on its elbow. All Ben could see was a black outline. The figure reached over to a small lamp which neither of them had noticed. The lamp switched on, bathing the cellar in a very dim light. Craig gasped.
The figure blinked, and sat up.
‘Hello, Craig,’ said Adam.
Chapter Forty-Eight
IN THE DIM light, Ben strained his eyes to see Adam. When he had focused them, he could recognise him from the photos Craig had shown him. Not the Adonis-type figure of the photographs, but looking pale and tired. His hair, a little longer than the photographs, was ruffled and unwashed and he had several days’ growth on his face. However, still clearly Adam, alive and seemingly well.
Craig had frozen. He stared at his brother open-mouthed, and then took two strides over to the camp bed. Adam stood up and the two brothers grabbed each other in a huge bear hug.
‘I don’t believe it! You’re alive!’ Craig said, as they separated.
‘What on earth are you doing here?’ Adam asked. ‘Who’s - ?’ He indicated over to Ben.
‘Oh, sorry; this is Ben. He’s – he’s a friend. Works with me, too.’
‘Oh,’ Adam said, smiling weakly at Ben. He held out his hand. ‘Adam. Though I suppose you know that.’
‘Yeah.’ Ben shook hands with Adam. ‘Ben. Ben Rook.’
Adam sat down on the bed again. Craig sat on the small wooden chair, wiping his eye. Ben just leaned on a wall. ‘So, tell me how you got here,’ said Adam.
Craig started to relate the whole story of how their father had first flown over when Adam was first reported missing. How he flew back with no answers and how Craig had decided he would take time off work to look for Adam. The late night visit to Ben’s flat and Ben’s offer to fly out and help. Adam looked over at Ben and nodded his thanks.
‘Where’s Steve?’ Adam asked. ‘What happened to him?’
‘He had to fly back eventually,’ Craig said. ‘Had to go back to work himself. So he flew back with Dad.’ Adam nodded again and Craig continued. Talked about the visits to Shots, the CCTV tape, and their first meeting with Stacey/Corinne. At the mention of her, a sad expression passed over Adam’s face. The encounters with Billy Loomis and Jared Stevens, the waterboarding, the diner, the waiter’s murder at Ponce Inlet: all the events right up to their arrival at the house.
‘God,’ Adam exclaimed. ‘I can’t believe it.’
‘So tell us what happened to you,’ Ben said from the corner of the room.
‘We’ve established some stuff, but there’s been a lot of guesswork,’ Craig added.
Adam leaned back and took a deep breath. ‘Okay, then. From the top. Steve and I came out here for a ten day break, as you know. The usual stuff,’ he added, looking over to Craig.
‘Well, a few days in, Steve had to go to some convention up in Dallas. We knew that in advance; that’s why we picked this time to come over. While he was up there, I was at a bit of a loose end. Then one day, I bumped into Stacey.’
‘Or Corinne,’ said Ben. ‘At the supermarket, of all places.’
Adam looked over at Ben and gave a small laugh. ‘Oh, she told you, did she? And about the Corinne thing. Anyhow, we kind of got it together; she introduced me to these four guys: Billy, Jared, Scott and Bobby. You’ve met them.
‘One night, her parents, or should I say her mother and her boyfriend were away, and she suggested I stayed over there that night. We all started off at Shots, Steve was happy to stay playing pool with the others and to make his own way back to the apartment. We went back to Stacey’s place. Got there about half eleven I think, but I didn’t stay over after all. She said she was tired and had to get up early the next morning so I left about two. I was just about to get into the car, outside Stacey’s, when I was grabbed by – well I found out later it was those four upstairs. They took me somewhere – no idea where it was, and gave me a dose of that waterboarding you talked about.’
He looked over at Ben. ‘I was still blindfolded, but could hear them talking and laughing. They were saying something like Go Home Limey Bastard, that sort of thing, and then it felt as if one of them had taken my wallet out of my pocket. It sounded as if they were rummaging through it, as they were counting dollar bills. Then the water thing stopped. It all went quiet, and I felt I was alone for five, maybe ten minutes. I thought it was some kind of elaborate mugging, and then they came back. They kept the blindfold on, but dragged me out of wherever I was into a van. Then we set off, quite a long drive, down to here obviously. Once they had bundled me down the stairs, they pulled off the bag or whatever it was over my head. I don’t even know where I am.’
‘You’re in the basement of an empty house just outside Miami,’ Craig told him.
‘We are,’ Ben corrected him.
‘Oh, yes; we are,’ said Craig. He turned back to his brother. ‘Your car was found outside the apartment building, not outside Stacey’s.’
‘I can only guess they moved it,’ Adam shrugged. ‘Cover the
ir tracks, confuse things, whatever.’
‘They certainly did that,’ muttered Craig. ‘Go on.’
Adam continued, ‘Once I was down here, they kept asking me how much money I had at the apartment, and in the bank. So it was clear what it was all about.’
‘Nobody went to the apartment,’ said Craig, puzzled. ‘Surely they didn’t take your word for it, but there were no signs of any attempted break-in.’
‘Don’t forget Steve,’ said Ben. ‘He was still around. Then your father. That apartment was never really empty.’
‘They kept my wallet with all the cash, cards and ID, and took my phone.’
‘That’s a point,’ said Ben, stepping forward from the wall. They haven’t taken away our phones. Or Bobby Chin’s.’
‘Bobby Chin’s?’ asked Adam.
‘Long story,’ said Ben, getting his and Bobby’s phones out. ‘Why didn’t they take them?’
‘Because they’re stupid,’ Adam said. ‘It was obvious when I first met them. Not the sharpest tools in the shed. Even the one who works in a bank.’
Ben checked the two phones. He shook his head. ‘No signal. Must be because we’re in a cellar.’ Craig found the same. ‘That’s why they didn’t bother.’
‘Or they just didn’t think to. Do you know if they took anything?’
Craig told him about Jared, Scott and the withdrawal at the bank. ‘It appeared to be some elaborate charade. They weren’t able to take anything electronically, so had to resort to this. From the bank CCTV, he even looked similar to you.’
‘That was probably Stacey’s contribution. She told me weekdays she would go to drama school. Not just acting, although she was good at that, but costumes, make-up and stuff.’
‘How much did they take?’
‘We know of fifteen thousand dollars at least,’ said Craig. ‘But all your accounts have been frozen now.’
‘How have they kept you here?’ Ben asked. ‘You know, food and stuff. I see there’s a toilet.’
‘My ensuite, you mean?’ Adam muttered. ‘At least one of them was here most days. They’d bring me food – basic stuff, bread and that – and water. Let me upstairs every now and then to stretch my legs. Even let me take a shower upstairs one day; said I stank. I managed to shave that day as well.’ He rubbed his stubbly chin.
‘Did they say how long you’d be here for?’ Ben sat on the table.
‘At first I wasn’t sure how long I’d got in this world. You know, once they’d taken all the money. Billy – who seemed to be the ringleader – kept making remarks about the best place to hide my body, so I thought once the cash had dried up, that would be it. Then they started asking questions about how much money the family had. They knew that Dad owns the apartment. Then things started to change - they were getting a bit edgy. Billy and Jared seemed to be down here all the time. Suppose that was when you two arrived, stirring things up.’
‘So once they had your money, they kept you around to rip of the family,’ Craig said.
‘That’s about it.’
Ben cut in, ‘You said they took your phone. But Craig: didn’t you say the phone company said there was a call early the following morning to your father from the Miami area?’
‘Yeah, that’s right: about five the next morning.’ ‘It must have been about three when they took the phone. Dad was the last person I called: all they had to do was press redial.’
‘Did your phone have a lot of apps on it?’ Ben asked. ‘Games, that sort of thing?’
Quite a few, why?’ Craig and Adam looked up at him, puzzled.
‘I bet they gave the phone to Bobby Chin to look after. He’s a techno freak after all. I bet he was playing with it down here, and accidentally pressed redial.’
Adam agreed. ‘Very possible. He always seemed a bit nerdy.’
‘What do you make of the others?’ asked Ben.
‘Billy’s a psycho, I’m sure. Stacey’s scared of him, I knew that. Scott: he has some issues. Anybody not WASP, right wing: they’d have no chance. He’d like you,’ Adam said to Craig.
‘I’ve already crossed paths with him, remember.’
‘Jared – very quiet, didn’t say much. And Bobby: well, nerdy; a bit of any outsider, I’d say. You mentioned him earlier.
They told him about the incident with Bobby Chin on the motorcycle. Adam smiled.
‘One other thing,’ he said. ‘Billy seems to be the ringleader; but he appears to take orders; no, that’s not right: he appears to take advice from somebody else if he wants to know what to do.’
‘Any idea who?’
‘None,’ shrugged Adam. ‘I told you: they’re not very bright. Somebody else must be giving them help.’
Chapter Forty-Nine
THE PERSON GIVING them help had almost arrived at the house. Keen to arrive and get things sorted out once and for all before the police got there, they paid little heed to the speed limit. With a painful squeal, the car protested as it was driven hard round the sharp bend where earlier, Bobby Chin had come to grief.
The driver reflected on the events of the past two weeks and how things had gone so irretrievably wrong. No, that was not quite right. Wrong, maybe; but not irretrievably. Being so far away from home could be an advantage. What started out as a simple bit of extortion had escalated into something more byzantine as each day went by. If only they listened to advice and instructions. Then those two British kids turned up.
Stirring up dust, the car pulled into the driveway of the house. Switching off the engine, the driver stepped out and walked up the wooden steps to the front porch. Billy Loomis stepped out of the front door.
‘Where are they?’
Billy inclined his head backwards. ‘Downstairs.’
‘With the first one?’ They both went indoors.
‘With the first one?’ Came the question again.
‘U-huh,’ Billy muttered sullenly.
‘Are you all here?’
Billy ran his left hand over his head. ‘Scott’s here. Jared’s gone out for groceries. Should be back soon.’
‘And Bobby?’
Billy did not answer.
‘And Bobby?’ The question came again, more insistently.
‘Bobby’s not arrived yet.’
‘Jesus. I guess she’s here, also?’
‘Stacey, yeah; she’s around.’
‘I thought she might be. Don’t let her get downstairs. She’ll drop her panties and let them out.’
‘Don’t worry about her. She’ll be okay. She’s upstairs watching daytime TV.’
There was the sound of another car coming up the drive. They both looked out of the front window. ‘That’s Jared,’ Billy said, sounding relieved.
They heard the car door slam and footsteps rushing up the front steps. Letting the door crash behind him, Jared raced into the house. He dropped the box of groceries he was carrying onto the floor.
‘Have you heard from Bobby?’ he asked Billy, breathlessly.
‘No, nothing.’
Jared sat on the chintzy looking chair in the hallway. ‘He called me from the hospital.’
‘The hospital?’ It was not Billy who asked the question.
Still breathless, Jared recounted to them of the call he had received from Bobby. Of the chase down from Davenport, the accident, and how Ben and Craig had found out about the house. Ten minutes after Ben and Craig left him, the ambulance arrived and took him to hospital. After his leg had been put into plaster, he found a callbox at the hospital, as they had taken his phone. He had to call his father at work as the hospital needed medical insurance details. Then he had to warn the others. Jared’s was the only number he knew by heart.
‘Where is he now?’ Billy asked.
‘He’s staying at the hospital for now. His father is driving down to pick him up.’
‘Shit,’ the driver said. ‘At least that idiot’s out of the way. Can’t screw anything else up.’
‘What do we do now?’ Billy asked, as Scott joi
ned them.
‘What do we do now? It’s over, you moron. The police will be here soon. Get them up here, all of them.’
Looking at Scott, Billy nodded his head towards the door to the cellar. Scott opened the cellar door. Picking up the gun from a bookshelf, he and Scott climbed down the stairs. Adam and Craig were sitting on the bed and Ben was perched on the table.
‘Up, all of you,’ Billy snarled, gesturing with the revolver.
‘What’s happening?’ Adam asked, slowly getting to his feet. ‘Where’s Stacey? What have you done with her?’
‘Don’t worry about her,’ Billy said. ‘She’s watching TV. She’s fine.’ He grinned. ‘In fact, when we’re done with you three, she and I are gonna have ourselves a little R and R.’
‘Not before you and I have a little R and R,’ laughed Scott, pushing Craig towards the stairs. Craig moved as if to defend himself but stopped as he heard a click come from Billy’s gun.
‘Forget it,’ he snapped. ‘Just get up the fucking stairs.’
Billy and Scott followed Ben, Craig and Adam as they climbed the stairs up to the hall way.
Where Jared Stevens was waiting.
Where Lieutenant Sanchez was waiting.
Chapter Fifty
AS SOON AS they saw Sanchez waiting at the top of the stairs, Ben’s heart jumped with relief. She’s here, at last! In a fraction of a second he glanced around the hall for Detective McGee: on seeing he was not there and the expression on Sanchez’s face, his heart dropped. She was pointing her service revolver at them. She shook her head as they all trooped up the stairs.
‘Get over there,’ she said, indicating to a corner of the hallway. Adam, Ben and Craig shuffled over to the corner.
‘Get the girl too,’ Sanchez barked, her eyes and gun still focused on the corner.
‘What?’ said Billy in disbelief.
‘Are you deaf as well as being a retard? Go get the girl.’
Billy froze.