The Paradise Box Set

by Leslie Pike

  “What makes you think that?

  “For one, he’s a hunter. He’s comfortable in that environment. And it’s secluded. It’s the perfect place to hide.”

  “Maybe. But it’s a big mountain,”

  “Tomorrow morning, we’ll start at the closest entry point to the hotel. I’m going to call Tom, the location scout. Hopefully, he’s still in town. He can tell us where he thinks a man would enter on foot.”

  “How do you know it’s on foot? Maybe he drove in, or took a chairlift up, or man, there are a hundred ways,” I say.

  Immediately I’m sorry I was quick to respond, because I see the glimmer of hope erode in a few sentences.

  “I’ve got to try. And I need you to come with me. I need backup,” he says.

  “Of course I’m coming.”

  “Good. Let’s get home and plan how we’re going to do this.”

  * * *

  When we get back to the condo, I make us coffee. Finn calls the hotel hoping Tom was still checked in. He wasn’t. But we got his number off the call sheet, and Finn’s trying it now. In the meantime, I got ahold of BB. I knew she was still awake, waiting to hear from me. She’s coming over to help us brainstorm. Good woman that she is, she made sandwiches and cookies in case we returned hungry. She said she didn’t know what else to do with herself, while she waited. I don’t think either one of us is hungry, but we’ll eat it for our task tomorrow. We’re going to need all the fuel and stamina we can muster.

  There’s a knock on the door. I let her in, and she takes the tray of food to the table and sets it down. We skip the niceties.

  “When’s Grandma coming?” Finn asks.

  “Tomorrow afternoon. And her name’s Libby,” BB says.

  “Can you pick her up?”

  “Of course. She’s going to stay with me. It’s all arranged.”

  “What about your Texas trip?” I say.

  “I’m not going. Of course I’m not. My sister’s going back by herself, and that makes my spare room available. Don’t worry, Finn, I’ll take care of Grandma.”

  I can see Finn’s grateful and impressed with how BB’s stepped up. So am I.

  “Thank you,” he says.

  He grabs the pen and paper on the table.

  “Let’s figure out what we need to bring tomorrow.”

  I put my hand up.

  “First we need to tell Vinnie what we’re doing. If we find Esme, we may need his help getting her out,” I say.

  “And if they find her first, you’ll want to go to him,” adds BB.

  “We need to be in radio contact,” I say.

  “I just don’t want him to think I’m going to be talked out of this, because I’m not.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Ok. First we need to get the right map. I think the location scout can scan something for us, and send it to the hotel. We’ll pick it up when we meet Vinnie,” Finn says.

  “What about weapons?”

  “Yeah, we should bring something. He’s going to have a weapon, that’s for sure. We need to be able to defend ourselves, if he comes after us. And we might have to defend Esme.”

  “We could bring knives. We’ve got some here in the kitchen. We’ve got a choice,” I say.

  “What about a gun?” BB says.

  “I don’t have a gun, and neither does Paul.”

  He looks at me.

  “Do you?” he says.

  “No.”

  “Well I do,” BB says.

  We both look at her, not sure we heard right.

  “I’ve got a gun in the condo. And I know how to use it.”

  “Well, I know how to use it too. I learned how to shoot on my last film,” Finn says.

  “Paul, you must know how to shoot. You worked in a prison,” BB adds.

  “We don’t carry guns. I never shot one in my life. But I’d do it.”

  “Can we borrow it?” says Finn.

  “Yeah. But if you end up using it on somebody, I expect you to say you found it at my place and decided to “borrow” it. Agreed?”

  “Agreed. Thanks. Go get it,” Finn says.

  BB gets up and makes her way to the door.

  “I’m going to give you both a little lesson in handling it. I don’t care how many prop guns you’ve shot, Finn. This is the real thing.”

  She leaves, and Finn and I look at each other and have to laugh.

  “It doesn’t surprise me in the least, that out of the three of us, it’s BB that has the gun,” I say.

  She returns in a few minutes, and we take the next two hours to prepare for tomorrow. BB shows us the Walther PPK pistol, and the ammunition she has, and makes good on her promise of a quick course in gun safety. She obviously knows her stuff, and is comfortable handling the weapon. I bet she’s a good shot too, because her hands are steady, and she’s serious when she’s teaching us. All her playfulness is gone. When she’s satisfied she’s told us everything she can, without us actually firing the gun, she hands it over to Finn.

  After she leaves, Finn and I gather our clothes for the morning. We check the radios and make sure our cells are fully charged. There’s one backpack, and we use it for some first aid essentials, waters, and a sweatshirt in case Esme needs to be warmed. That and the gun, is about all it’ll hold. Finn adds some protein bars. Right before we go to our beds, we each set our alarms for six a.m. that gives us three hours to sleep. I doubt if we get three minutes.

  * * *

  The alarm shocks me out of my dream. I was back in the prison, and I had accidently shot one of the inmates. My mind is probably dealing with some anxiety and fear. I don’t have a good feeling about this, but I keep telling myself it’s just a result of worry. I throw on my clothes and go out to the living room. Finn’s tying his boots. Next to him is a clear bag with something of Esme’s inside, just as Vinnie requested.

  “Did you get any sleep?” I say.

  “A little. Enough. You ready?”

  “Ready. Want me to drive?”

  “No. I’ve got it.”

  His cell sounds and we’re both on guard.

  “I called Tom and left a message. It’s probably him,” Finn says.

  He looks at the screen and gives me a nod.

  “Hi.”

  There’s a long pause, as Tom responds to Finn’s request.

  “Good…thank you…Yes, I will…Listen, keep your cell close, in case I need to call you back.”

  He returns the phone to his pocket.

  “He sent the map to the hotel. With some instructions, where he’d be looking.”

  “Well, it’s a start. Let’s go,” I say.

  * * *

  We drive all the way to the hotel in silence. Almost all the way. As we pull into the parking lot, Finn speaks up.

  “I take it you’re pretty good at taking a man down.”

  “I can do that.”

  “If I don’t get to him first, make sure you hurt that fucker.”

  “I will.”

  “Don’t let the priest in you get in the way.”

  “The priest is gone.”

  I see him nod his approval. He drives to the side of the hotel. His car is still parked there. It’s somehow shocking to see in its’ normalcy, as if nothing happened here.

  “I’m going to ask Vinnie if I can take my car. Then you can let BB know hers is here. She can have it when she picks Libby up from the airport.”

  We park next to the car and head for the lobby. It’s strangely quiet here. I’m used to seeing the crew fill up the space. I’m accustomed to hearing their conversations and laughter. Almost everyone’s gone.

  “We’ll get the map, after we talk to Vinnie,” Finn says.

  When we walk in, Vinnie’s waiting. He’s sitting in a wing chair, reading the paper.

  “Morning,” he says as we walk up.

  “Morning.”

  He hands Vinnie the bag with Esme’s clothes.

  “It’s her nightclothes.”

  “P
erfect. Let’s move to the manager’s office. I want to show you something.”

  We walk behind the front desk, and I see a glance and a nod pass between the cop and the manager, who stands attending to a guest. We go into the small room, and Vinnie grabs a CD lying on the desk.

  “I want you to see what happened. The detectives went over the tapes last night. The camera that records the side of the hotel where Esme was parked is angled forward, toward the front of the building.”

  We come around behind Vinnie, so we can see the monitor. He puts the CD into the manager’s desktop computer. It begins to play. The date and time are recorded in the lower right corner. Vinnie points to the car coming around the side of the building.

  “So here we see her arriving. She parks next to the Ford Explorer. The other side is empty.”

  We watch as she gets out and walks toward the entry of the hotel.

  “As soon as she’s out of sight, watch what happens,” Vinnie says.

  We see a light-colored van come around the side of the building and park in the empty space next to Esme’s car. A single dark figure is in the driver’s seat. He’s wearing a cap. He doesn’t get out.

  “See how he pulls in close to her car? There’s barely enough space for her to open her door. But it’s not so close that she’d go looking for the driver.”

  “Can you see his face? Finn asks.

  “No, we’ve got the plates, and we’re running that through the system, but no facial I.D.”

  “I expected to see the Ram truck,” I say.

  “I think this guy’s a little smarter than that. I’m betting the van was stolen, and the plates switched. Now here, look what happens.”

  The tape speeds up, until we see Esme coming back around the corner. It’s barely ten minutes from when she left. She walks to her car, looks at the way the van parked, then wedges her body between the car and the van. That’s where we lose her. The camera only records the scene from behind the vehicles. So we can’t see exactly what went down. But two minutes after we watch her try to get to her car, the van backs up and leaves the lot. Esme is nowhere to be seen. She’s obviously inside. It’s chilling.

  “Fucker!” Finn shouts to the heavens.

  “We’ve alerted law enforcement to be on the lookout for the vehicle. It’s obviously a kidnapping now, so things are being stepped up as we speak. There are going to be choppers looking for her on the mountain. And thanks to her grandmother, we have Kevin’s photograph circulated as well. But at this point he’s just a possible suspect. We can’t really tell if he’s the one who took her,” Vinnie says.

  “He’s the one.”

  “Don’t jump to conclusions, Finn. He may be the one. We’re going to do everything we can to find her and bring her home. Just hang tight, and…”

  “I’m not hanging tight. Paul and I are going into the mountain to look for them.”

  “And what will you do if you find them? This is a dangerous and volatile situation. We’ll be on the mountain too. We’re setting up camp now. I just don’t want you to interfere with the men who are going to be looking for her. Or worse, have your actions get her killed.”

  “Or they could save her. I’m going to go with that. You can’t be everywhere.”

  “We’ve got radios, and we’ll let you know if we find something,” I say.

  “Or you could let us have one of your police radios, then we could hear what’s going on,” Finn says.

  “That’s never going to happen.”

  “Then let me give you one of ours. If we need to call you we’ll have the means,” Finn says.

  “I’m not going to be able to talk you out of this am I?”

  “No.”

  “I’ll tell you where we’re going to be concentrating our search, so we don’t have any accidents. And let’s sync our radios. I’ll carry your set radio, but we need to get on the same channel. But know this. I think this is a bad idea, and I want to be on the record for telling you that.”

  “Noted,” says Finn.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Esme

  The morning light slips under the closet door and brings with it a ray of hope. I’m sitting on the floor, but now I can see clearly what I only guessed at. Last night when he put me in here, I was broken emotionally and physically. Then I found the hammer. I was running my hands over the shelves. I was moving slowly, so Kevin wouldn’t hear. As soon as I discovered it, I formed a plan. When he comes to take me, I’m going to try to get in one good blow. And even if it’s with my final breath, I’m going to hurt him. It’ll never be on the same scale as he’s hurt me, but I’ll do the most damage I can. I’m hoping it will buy me enough time to get out of the cabin. One of the crew members had left the tool on the shelf. Most likely he thought he’d retrieve it after lunch, or after the day’s scenes. His forgetfulness may save my life, because finding something I can use as a weapon turned my mind around. Now it’s facing in the right direction, away from submissive acceptance, toward self-directed survival.

  I’m going to try to save myself. Because if I do nothing, I’m going to die here. Probably today. Even if he’s not planning on killing me, to be kept in this cruel existence would be a worse death. It would just be a slower dying. So I started thinking about how I can help myself. All night I thought about it. First I stood up. I moved my arms and legs around, until my circulation coursed through my body. I kept saying to myself, “I’m ok. I’m ok.” giving myself messages of strength and encouragement. I know if I get away, I have to be able to run. It will do me no good to get free and not be able to move. So I checked to see if the bleeding had stopped. I felt around my backside and between my legs. But I didn’t detect any fresh blood. That’s when I knew my chances had improved. I did this all in complete silence. I couldn’t risk Kevin hearing me moving around. I needed the time to heal and plot. His loud snores coming through the closet door comforted me. The longer he slept the more I plotted.

  I’m hungry and thirsty, but I’ll deal with that if I get out. When I get out. I give myself a pep talk, as if I’m about to participate in a survival contest. Where knowledge of the surroundings and confidence play a big roll. The lyrics in my song keep repeating in my mind. I’ve got the inclination, left to my own device. I remind myself I’m comfortable in the mountain environment. In Colorado, our Girl Scout excursions were always in the mountains, amidst the trees. And Grandma always told me stories about her younger days when the mountains were a child’s playground. Maybe those stories will come in handy now.

  I know approximately where I am. It’s the furthest location we filmed at on the mountain. And it eventually connects with the Rectory set. If the cabin and its contents are here, maybe the crew’s still working. Maybe they’ll be at the Rectory. I try to picture the maps and directions sent on the daily call sheets, but I can only remember a partial picture. At least I think I know in what direction to move. But the best thing in my favor is the fact that I read the script. I know how the nun escaped her captor and how she left clues for the priest who was looking for her. I try to make a mental list of which ones I’ll try to recreate. I’m going to use every tool Sister Letitia used to let them know where I am. And who’s them? I thought about that all night. Is Finn looking for me? Are the police? How would they even know Kevin took me? By the time they figure it out, it may be too late. So I have to save myself, and hope my determination’s enough to get me to the Rectory, or to a road. At least to a road.

  The fact that Kevin locked me in here works to my advantage. I’ll know when he’s about to open the door, and that’s when I’ll position myself. I lean my ear against the door and listen. I can’t hear anything. I better stand up. When I do, I feel my aching muscles and all the sore spots from yesterday’s assaults. I’m ok. I’m strong. I can do this. Just keep standing. I touch my St. Jude medal and pray for him to help the police find me. I pick up the hammer and make sure it’s facing the right way. Then I measure myself against the doorjamb, trying to judge h
ow much taller Kevin is than me. I think his nose is about a head higher than mine. That’s where I’m going to try to strike the blow. That’s how high I have to raise my hand. I hear him cough, then blow his nose. Here we go. I squeeze my grip around the hammer’s handle.

  “You still in there?” he calls.

  I don’t answer. I hear him laugh.

  “I said, are you still in there bitch?” he yells.

  I don’t answer. I hear his footsteps coming toward the closet. I can tell he’s not wearing shoes. Good. I hear the key go into the lock, and I ready myself. I hide my right hand on the inside of the door and stand with three quarters of my body in the doorway. My breath quickens. I touch the top of my head, measuring one more time the height I think his head will be.

  “You better fucking answer me when I talk to you! I’m going to fuck you up!” Kevin screams through the door.

  The door opens slowly. He’s trying to prolong my fear. There stands Kevin’s barefoot self. He’s got the rubber monster in his left hand. He grabs my arm at the elbow and pulls me out. I have one shot, and it better be good.

  Before he can absorb what’s happening, I sweep my right arm back and with all the power within me, I bring the hammer down hard against his face. It connects with his mouth. I hear the sickening impact, and see two teeth fly in the air, leaving a wide gap in the center of Kevin’s smile. Blood shoots from the wound. Extreme pain and shock register on his face. He recoils from the violence of the blow. Then before he has time to react, I stomp with the full force of my leg, right on his bare foot. And then lift my knee hard, into his crotch. He goes down to the floor. He’s in agony and he’s mad.

  “Bitch! I’m going to kill you!” he says in a whisper filled with pain.

  The fact that he’s missing two front teeth, gives him a lisp. He tries to get up, but he’s holding his balls, and he’s hurting. I move away and scan the room for a weapon. All I see is a cast iron pan, the set decorator put there, hanging on a hook. I quickly grab it and come up behind him. I smash it into the back of his skull. He’s down and out. For a split second, I consider stuffing the rubber devil into his bleeding mouth. But I can’t make the mistake of getting too close, just to satisfy my anger. I look around for his backpack. I run to it and dump the contents on the wooden table. No gun. No knife. Just some ammo and a few ties. Where’d he put his weapons? I try the pockets and find his phone. I grab it and try to call out. No service. But I put it in my pocket.