“The B.T.P.D.” Vikki said.
“Yeah, that's it I think,” said Danny.
“Not many people have,” said Vikki. “We're kind of a closed community.”
“And then he…” Danny continued, “and then the trucker pulled out his phone…and then he…and then he…”
“He what?” I said.
“He just…died! Like he was alive one minute, and I thought he was going to save me. And then he just collapsed. I got on my skateboard and started down the road like a fucking bat out of hell, and then the cop got back in his car and started driving behind me, and then he…he sideswiped me with his car and sent me into the ditch. That's when I lost my skateboard I think.
“Then I just ran into the woods, and he chased me but I was faster. I knew I was faster, but then…it was like something invisible was holding me. And then…and then the big cop was there. He took out his handcuffs and cuffed my hands behind me and threw me over his shoulder.
“He carried me back to the highway. I kicked and screamed the whole time, but he didn't seem to care…and when we got back to his car, he punched me in the stomach hard, and I couldn't breathe.
“And then he said if I cause any more trouble, my mom would be next…he said…he said my mom would be next…that he could kill anybody just like that trucker…with his mind.”
“Jesus Christ,” said Vikki.
“Vikki…who is this guy?” I asked.
“I don't know,” she said.
“I mean…Danny, are you sure about this?”
“I remember every little fucking thing, Gavin. I know what I saw. He waved his hand, and the trucker just died. And he wasn't just asleep. He was dead. His eyes were dead. He was still lying there when we passed him in the car going the other way, just, slumped against his truck with his phone in his hand.”
“Then what happened?” I asked.
“Then he just drove me for a long time. He didn't really say anything to me. I kept begging him to let me go. I tried all kinds of things. I said my mom would miss me. I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. But he didn't seem to care. Sometimes he'd laugh like I was saying something funny.
“So I asked what's so funny, and he said: 'You'll see. You'll see.' And he nodded like he was going to take me to Disneyland or something. And then he took me to that cave…he parked outside of it, and he started hauling me into it, and when I saw those doors I realized he was bringing me to some kind of fucking dungeon, and that's when I knew…I knew I was going to die in there. And that's where…that's where stuff gets fuzzy because I started hyperventilating.”
I just kept holding her hand. It seemed to give her comfort somehow. Like I was a surrogate for her mom or something. Like it connected her to someone, and as long as she felt that connection, she couldn't be hurt by the story. It was a story about someone else. It seemed real. It was real. But not entirely…it can't have been real. It was too terrible.
The stuff she told us next was truly frightening. It was the stuff of nightmares. Everyone's worst fear. She was chained to a bed and repeatedly raped. She was hung upside down. Worst of all, she said, was the torture. I still can't get out of my head what Danny said about it. She said:
“I always thought being raped would be the worst. But what he did to me in there was so much worse. When he raped me, he just looked like an animal, and sometimes he'd pinch me or choke me. And he was obsessed with his cock. He'd just go on and on about how hard I made his cock. But when he started c…carving…stuff into me. When he decided it was time to just…t-torture me, the look on his face was totally different. Like, like he was having some kind of religious experience. And sometimes the pain would get too much, and I'd just scream and thrash. And really, that was the best thing because the more I screamed and struggled, the quicker he'd get hard and start raping me again. And then at least the cutting would stop…
“Once I asked him why…why was he doing this to me, and he said: 'You'll see. You'll see…'
“And the weirdest thing…the weirdest thing…the thing that made every bit of my flesh crawl, was that he kept saying this one thing to me…
“'Do you see now? Do you see?'”
“Do you see what?” I asked.
Danny shook her head. “He never told me. And most of the rest of the time, he just left me hanging there in the dark. He said 'it won't be long now'…and then…and then you guys came. You came! Oh god…thank god you came…”
Danny almost dove for me then, sobbing, pulling me into an embrace, burying her face in my shirt, soaking me with her tears.
“Thank you, thank you. God, a million times, thank you.”
I just held her, comforting her.
We drove in silence for a while. We all had a lot to think about.
Chapter 46
Dad parked the cruiser semi-illegally outside the hospital, and we quickly got Danny inside. My dad flashed his badge at the emergency desk and asked for an immediate rape exam.
We were asked to wait, so we went to the waiting area. When we got there, a short brunette—who looked remarkably like Danny, but one generation older—was waiting with a lanky, scruffy man in a baseball-cap. This had to be Danny's mother and stepdad.
“Danny?” cried the frantic, middle-aged brunette.
“Mom!” Danny cried.
The proverbial floodgates opened. Danny rushed into her mother's arms and they held each other tightly.
“Baby, what happened to you? What happened to you?” her mother sobbed.
“Not now, mom. Just…please…not now. I'll tell you everything later. I promise. I'm just…I'm so happy to see you!”
I looked at Vikki, who smiled, all teary-eyed as she watched. Even my dad seemed to be crying a little. So I guess it's okay if I admit I did too. Everyone seemed to be crying tears of joy.
Except for the stepdad. He just seemed to roll his eyes and shake his head.
“You had us both worried sick, Danny,” he said. “What the hell were you doing out there?”
“Not now, Ted, please,” said her mother.
I did a double take on the stepdad. Ted. He had kind of a boozy smell to him, and I remembered what Danny had complained about…how she had to work extra hard so the family could eat, while he frequently dipped his hand into the till to get himself sauced. It just…made me so mad!
“Sir, you do realize your stepdaughter's been abducted, right?” said Vikki. “You're going to need to be a little more patient with her.”
“A week ago, we got a call from your department saying she was seen out and about on her skateboard a week after she disappeared.”
Whoops, I thought to myself. That was my fault, wasn't it? Fuck.
“You weren't abducted,” Ted nagged. “You were just behaving a spoiled child to get back at me and your mom.”
“Ted!” Danny's mom shouted. “Are you serious right now? Look at her! Just…just look at her!”
Everyone in the entire waiting room was looking at her, wearing little more than a men's black hoodie, drenched in her own blood, some dried, some oozing from semi-fresh wounds on her. It seemed to sober even Ted a little, but only for a second before he opened his big, dumb mouth again.
“Well this never would have happened if you'd just come home instead of—”
His speech was cut off when someone clocked him. Right in his goddamn face.
I found myself standing above him, fuming. And my knuckles hurt like a motherfucker. It was me, I realized. I had just punched Danny's stepdad right in his stupid mouth.
Ted was on the ground, and everyone was staring at me, standing above him like some kind of psychotic oaf. But I just glared down at him.
“This is not her fault!” I shouted, my voice wavering as I choked back tears. “Danny's a really good kid and she's been through shit no one else in this room could even begin to understand. And she doesn’t…I mean…no one deserves what's been happening to her for the last week. And do you know…you…alcoholic…ass-bag! Do you know how cl
ose she was to being murdered? Do you know how close your wife came to losing her only child? No! All you care about is how much this inconveniences you. What, did her mom have to come interrupt you at the local bar to get you here?”
“Hey,” Ted stammered. “You can't…you can't just hit me like that…you can't talk to me like that…he can't…”
Ted looked around at the people in the waiting room, scrambling for an ally in this. Someone to back him up. Nobody seemed to want to get involved.
“He assaulted me!” he shouted towards my dad and Vikki.
My dad just looked at him hatefully. Dad looked like he was about to punch him much harder than I just had.
Blood began to trickle out of Ted's nose. Blood also showed in his teeth when he spoke.
Jeez, I must have got him good! And damn my knuckles hurt…
“Motherfucker…” said Ted. “I think you broke it. He broke my nose! Arrest him! He should be arrested.”
Vikki looked at the man with pity in her eyes. Which kind of impressed me, really. Because almost everyone else looked like they wanted to kick his ass.
Meanwhile, Danny continued to sob into her mother's arms, a moment which could have been so beautiful if this ass-bag hadn't made it all about him.
“Danny was held captive and tortured for a week,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm, but my tears betraying me. “How could you possibly be making this about you?”
Ted looked uncertain of himself. Almost like he'd just sobered up a little. He looked around at everyone and seemed to see what they saw for the first time. He began to look ashamed of himself. He turned his bloodied face towards Danny and her mother.
“I'm sorry, Danny. Sorry everyone.”
“Sorry's not good enough anymore,” I snapped. “You have to start being a better person. You need to stop drinking. You need to get a job. You need to…you need to stop making excuses for yourself. You need to be someone your family can depend on. I think Danny and her mother deserve that, don't you?”
A silence fell over the room as Ted considered this. Ted nodded. He turned to Danny and her mother, and gave them a nod too.
Ted mumbled an apology to the two women in his life. Then he left the room, looking ashamed of himself.
Once he'd gone, Danny and her mother finally got their moment, held each other, and cried.
A minute or so later, a female doctor came by to examine Danny. She asked Danny to follow her to a private room. Vikki offered to go with her if she needed it, and Danny accepted. Danny's mother went with her too.
Dad and I decided it would be best if she was surrounded by a female presence for that examination. It made sense in way. Many female victims of male attackers seem to temporarily—and sadly, sometimes permanently—feel less comfortable around males in general. Even if dad and I were two of her rescuers. I hoped in Danny's case, she wouldn't have that problem. She's a defiant dame, after all. There's a part of me that wants to believe she won't let this ordeal change her. Not too much, anyway. That's how the bad guys win in the end, isn't it? She would have permanent, horrific scars. Both physical and mental. I knew that. But she would live, and her life would probably be—at least relatively speaking—normal. Eventually. I had to believe that. That was all that truly mattered to me. And even with the scars, she'd always be beautiful. Or at least, I'd always think she was beautiful.
While we waited, my dad got on the phone with the local police.
“Yes, this is Jack Masters with B.T.P.D.…The Bordertown Police Department…What do you mean you've never heard of it? Why is that my problem…? Look, that doesn't matter. Just send someone to Saint Joseph's to meet with me. I want to assign a temporary protective detail on an important witness…It's a sensitive case, I'd rather not discuss it over the…fine, it's connected to the Nefarious Darius case…yes, the serial killer who vanished ten years ago…yes, I know. I was surprised too. You seriously have no idea…thank you, sir…yes, I will. Thank you.”
****
When Danny's test was done, dad and I were invited to come in as well, as according to the nurse: “Danny was asking for you.”
We entered to see Vikki asking Danny a few follow-up questions. Danny held her mother's hand, while the surgeon gave her stitches where necessary.
“Hey Gavin,” she said sleepily as we walked in.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
She looked at her mother and then back at me.
“I think so,” she said. “Doc says I should rest and see how I feel.”
“Just to warn you,” said my dad. “We'll be putting a protective detail outside your door. We don't think you'll be in any further danger or anything. It's just a precaution for now.”
“Just want to make sure your star witness is safe, huh?” Danny asked with a sardonic smile.
It was refreshing to see her cracking wise like that.
“Something like that,” my dad replied. “Just until we can put Porter behind bars.”
“Cool,” she said.
“We should probably go,” said my dad.
“You're leaving?” asked Danny. This seemed to be directed more at me, than Vikki or my dad.
“Yeah,” I said. “We've got a bad guy to catch. You know how it is.”
Danny nodded. “Well…if he resists arrest, you have my permission to shoot him right in the dick!”
“Yeowch!” I said.
“I'll take that under advisement,” my dad said.
Satisfied that Danny would be safe in the hospital, with her family and the protective detail my dad assigned, I turned to go.
I heard my name from behind.
“Gavin?” asked Danny.
“Yeah, Danny?”
“You um…you said you live in Bordertown now, right?”
“That's right.”
“What's it like living there?”
I looked at my dad, then at Vikki, then back at Danny.
“It's nice,” I replied, genuinely shocked at how different my outlook on the town was since we'd first moved there. “It's really a great place to live.”
“It doesn't get too boring?”
I smiled. “Boring is probably the one thing Bordertown will never be.”
“Maybe if I'm ever in Bordertown I can look you up? Maybe we can grab a pint, or a coffee?”
I gave her a warm smile. “I'd like that.”
I turned to go again. Then I stopped. I realized it was, in a way, an empty sentiment. Because I realized that normally, people can't get into Bordertown. And in case Danny ever really needed me again someday, I didn't want to leave it like that. I turned back to Danny.
“Here, Danny, I'm going to leave you my number,” I said. “Vikki, can I borrow that pen?”
Vikki lent me her pen and ripped off a fresh piece from her notepad.
“If you ever find you're in trouble again, or…if you need anything. Just call me.”
“Okay,” she said.
“I'll come running.”
Danny smiled. “Thank you.”
We exchanged a final smile and nod, and then I turned and was out the door.
Outside the hospital, my dad, Vikki and I stopped by our awkwardly parked cruiser.
“So what do we do now?” I asked.
“Let's go get that monster,” my dad said.
We all nodded. No one had any problem with this plan now. We got back into the cruiser and rode home.
Chapter 47
The ride home was quiet. I think dad, Vikki and I were all spent from Danny's rescue.
“You saved that girl’s life, you know,” said Vikki, finally. “That was all you.”
“It wasn't all me,” I said.
Vikki turned to face me from the passenger side.
“It was, though.”
I nodded, not knowing how to react. “I just…” I shook my head. “I am relieved Danny's back with her family, I guess. It just…it all seems so senseless, you know?”
“I know,” said Vikki.
Vikki nodded, and caught a tear with her finger before it could quite fall.
“It's okay,” she said.
“No. It's not,” I said.
“I think I kind of knew,” she said. “I just didn't want…I just didn't want it to be real.”
“Yeah…I know. I'm sorry about that.”
Vikki shook her head. “Don't be. I'm glad. I'm…I've just been so sick from all the not knowing, you know?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Believe me, I get that.”
We rode in silence for a few minutes, save the sounds of the gravel bumps as we drove through the night back home.
“What are we going to do about Perry?” I asked.
“We’re going to arrest him, son,” said dad.
“We don’t have the authority,” said Vikki.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “We have guns. We have handcuffs. We have…evidence…”
Dad nodded toward the skull-bearing Hello Kitty bag.
“…and we have a witness. We’re driving straight back to Bordertown, and we’re arresting that fat sack of crap right now.”
“Shouldn’t we put out an A.P.B. or something?” I said.
“And give him a chance to run?” My dad said. “Hell no. We’re going straight to his house, we’re going to knock on his door, smile, act natural, and then we’re going to arrest him and bring him down to the courthouse and keep him in lock-up until the morning. Then it’s in the judge’s hands. Sound good?”
“I'm with you, partner,” said Vikki.
We rode in silence for another few minutes. It gave me time to think about something that had been irking me.
“What’s he doing with the souls?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, what?” asked my dad.
“What did Porter do with all the souls? I mean, we know he’s been taking their souls. But what’s he actually doing with them? I mean…he’s not putting them on trial or anything, right? Like, Vikki, they haven’t shown up in court, have they?”
“No. Not that I’ve noticed,” she said. “But I rarely sit in spirit court. I feel much the same way about it you do.”
Ghost Mortem (Bordertown Chronicle Book 1) Page 27