by PJ Fernor
“For me?”
“Well, for me,” he says with a big smile. “But you’ll reap the same benefits also.”
Mr. G touches a doorknob and twists it.
She jumps out of the way.
The bedroom door opens with a squeak and he stands there, smiling.
A very big smile.
“The empty cage is good for now,” he says. “She’ll need it. They all need it. But this one… she’s like you.”
She gasps. “Are you saying…”
He nods. “I am. This room is messy. It smells of years of neglect. This room is not good enough.”
“But it will be,” she says.
“Yes, it will,” Mr. G says. “Yes. It will.”
He walks away, leaving the bedroom door open.
She looks into the room and remembers what it was like living in that room.
Alone. For months. Maybe longer.
Food and drink offered and nothing else.
The cage scared her. This room broke her.
“Oh, before I forget,” Mr. G calls out. “Go get the girls a can of soda. From me to them.”
She nods but doesn’t speak.
Something very bad is about to happen… and soon.
Chapter Ten
Another day, another call about a trashed porch.
This time I knew I had no choice but to go check it out for myself.
Ben had called me while I was mid-coffee, taking in everything good in my life. Trying a whole new thought process for the moment. My midnight walks were helping, but my body begged for more sleep. I needed to take a moment and sit and remind myself of the good to hopefully overpower the bad.
Then again, my job was the bad.
If something bad happened, what did people do?
They called for help.
I was the help.
After giving Lo a big hug and telling her I loved her, I left the apartment and skipped even going to the station.
Ben gave me the address and the directions took me right to the wealthy neighborhood where the porch attacks had been going on.
The drive gave me time to talk to myself. Yes, it was just pumpkins and gourds being thrown around a yard and on a sidewalk. Yes, it was just some glass candle holders and some decorations. Yes, these people were wealthy enough that they could replace anything and everything without blinking.
With that in the open, they were still people. Their safety and comfort and peace of home was threatened.
It was my job to protect them from that happening again by finding out who did it and making sure they were dealt with properly.
As I drove up the hill to the development, the trees parted, revealing one large house after another. This wasn’t the kind of development where the houses all looked the same. Each house was different.
The Anderson house was a quarter mile from the top of the hill.
Just around a wide bend, it was a tall house with several peaks throughout the massive roof. The garage was bigger than my apartment, complete with two large, almost chandelier looking lights on each side of the garage that were still turned on.
Ben was parked in the driveway, so I parked against the curb.
The porch was small, but what they had, they certainly used to the max.
Or what used to be there…
The yard and sidewalk was littered with smashed pumpkins, decorations, and glass.
I could understand someone walking outside to see this and getting scared.
“Now, Mrs. Anderson, let’s wait for my partner…”
I heard Ben’s soothing voice trying to work his usual magic.
Mrs. Anderson wasn’t having it.
She wore a very thick dark gray robe and held it tight against her body.
Her hair was a puffy mess and she pointed at me.
“That her?” Mrs. Anderson cried out.
“That’s me,” I said with a smile. “Looks like we have a mess here.”
“Jokes?” Mrs. Anderson asked.
Ben stood behind her and cringed.
I felt my face get a little flushed.
“I’m terribly sorry about this,” I said. “This isn’t the first-”
“Oh, I know that,” she said. “This is a nightmare for us.”
I looked around the yard.
Every blade of grass was perfectly groomed.
The front door was wide enough for two doors. Only one was open.
I spotted the camera on the porch and pointed.
“Of course,” she said. “I have it linked to my cellphone. Here. Look.”
I stepped up next to Mrs. Anderson.
She smelled like perfume that was way out of my budget. It tingled my nose. It had a hint of rose… and bug spray.
“I watched and tracked it down,” she said. “Right here…”
She showed me the surveillance footage on her phone.
Just after one in the morning five people showed up. Dressed head to toe in black. The ringleader pointed to the camera but never looked at it. None of them looked up at all.
They were smart.
It was no surprise that everyone up here had cameras everywhere.
When they went to work, they worked fast. And they enjoyed it.
One threw a pumpkin and it didn’t smash so another jumped on it and stomped around like a child in a rain puddle.
The entire ordeal took three minutes, if that.
They were there and then they were gone.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“What else do you want?” Mrs. Anderson snapped.
Ben jumped in. “I told Mrs. Anderson we’ll ask around for other footage. Find out where they went. If they were driving a vehicle, we can get the plates and go from there.”
“And that’s going to work?” Mrs. Anderson asked.
“We are going to do everything we can here,” I said. “You are not alone. You are not forgotten.”
“I feel it,” she said. “Where are the police? Huh?”
“There have been complaints about the police traffic through these streets,” I said. “We don’t want anyone unhappy or scared…”
“I am both,” Mrs. Anderson yelled.
“I’m sure you are,” I said. “We’re going to-”
“Get more people up here,” she yelled. “Get your best guys. Women. Whoever works for you. Send actual help. What are my taxes paying for?”
“We’re a small town here,” Ben said. “You have to be reasonable.”
“Don’t you tell me how to live,” Mrs. Anderson said. “Maybe you should give up some of those fancy raises and overtime you all get and actually put the money to good use.”
I opened my mouth but Ben went first.
“How dare you?” he growled.
Whoa.
“How dare I?” Mrs. Anderson asked.
“You have no idea what you’re saying,” Ben said with fire in his eyes.
I hurried to nudge Ben out of the way and gain Mrs. Anderson’s focus again.
“What Detective Welloski is trying to say is that we are a small town, but we are working hard at this.” I motioned for Ben to walk away. I couldn’t remember seeing him get so heated before. “I understand you’re scared. You have every right to be. I would be scared too. Just know we are working on it. Okay? I’m giving you my word, Mrs. Anderson. I will find out who did this and they will be punished accordingly.”
“That doesn’t fix a thing,” she said. “But I have no choice but to accept that. I need to go call my husband. You’re lucky he’s out of town on business.”
I forced a smile and nodded.
“I can have one of our officers come help clean this up,” I said.
“No, thank you,” Mrs. Anderson said. “My decorator is on her way with her crew. My front porch will be better than ever in a few hours. They work faster and better than you.”
“Then if they are interested, they can come by the station and fill out an application,” I said with a smile.
Mrs. Anderson huffed and went back inside.
I took a deep breath and approached Ben.
“Husband out of town?” he asked. He made a ppffftt sound. “I bet her husband is sleeping with his secretary. Probably in a hotel somewhere, getting his-”
“What was that about?” I asked. “You never lose your edge, Ben.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry. I just… I remember times when people with money would haggle with my father at the garage. Treating him like he was worthless. When he was the one fixing their vehicles. And you know my father. He never overcharged anyone. Ever. And they would…”
I touched his arm. “It’s okay, Ben.”
“Sorry. I’m just having a morning here. I need more coffee.”
“I second that,” I said. “Maybe we should get a coffee and start thinking about what to do up here.”
“Deal,” Ben said. “I’ll follow-”
Ben’s phone started to ring.
“Garrison,” he said.
He turned and took the call.
He didn’t say a word, and the call lasted all of ten seconds
“We’re going to have skip the coffee, Allie Down,” he said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Someone just found a body near the fire road on Chibb’s Ridge.”
Chapter Eleven
Chibb’s Ridge was another famous spot around Sandemor. There were stories that still floated around about that spot from when I was kid. The place was marked no trespassing years ago after 3 twenty-something-year-olds decided it was fun to go enjoy a hike in the middle of the night.
The ridge wasn’t all that big, but the woods that surrounded the area, and then up over the mountain… it wasn’t all that hard to get lost. Especially in the middle of the night.
Two of the three hikers wandered off, leaving the third one behind. It was one woman and two men. The woman and one man were the ones who wandered off. They were a couple and were probably looking for a little privacy. Or adventure. What they got was a chance to meet their deaths.
They were reported missing the next morning after the other guy managed to get off the ridge and call for help.
What happened after that was a disaster of searching, which ended with the police finding the woman’s body. She had been injured. And she died. Alone. Because the man she was with was never found.
That’s when the stories started.
The man was attacked by a bear. Or a mountain lion. There was even a story about a secret group of people who lived on the side of the mountain that didn’t believe in normal society.
Now this all took place thirty years ago.
There were no cellphones. No technology to really search and track.
Chibb’s Ridge suddenly became a famous place to try and find the missing man.
His name was Mark Milher.
So eventually, the ridge was deemed too dangerous and it was made into a no trespassing area.
Which was the smart thing to do.
Every now and again someone would mess around near there and get into some trouble for it.
It was never anything serious.
Until now.
A body was found.
Of course, the first thing I thought about was the story about the three people all those years ago.
The only problem was that if by some miracle Mark Milher was found, it wouldn’t be a body. It would just be a pile of bones.
To get to Chibb’s Ridge, we had to cut all the way through town.
I followed Ben, and we both had our lights on.
Lights and sirens in Sandemor meant attention.
Back in the city, the sound of a police siren was just part of the soundtrack. Like the squeal of brakes. The honk of a horn.
Here it was different.
Which meant people were going to be talking in no time about us racing through town.
Ben took a different route than I would have, but we got there just the same.
The smooth, clean, paved roads of Sandemor gave way to a little bit of a rougher road. That road ended where the emergency road began. That road was nothing but rocks. There was only so far a car could climb. To keep going to the top and daring to go over required something with four wheel drive.
Neither Ben nor I had that so we pulled over and got out of our cars.
The air was cool and crisp.
The ridge and mountain was in full autumn display.
“At least we have a nice view,” Ben said.
“Until we see what’s waiting,” I said, feeling morbid.
We were walking side by side when we spotted Garrison coming down toward us.
He was moving so fast, I had an image of him losing his balance and rolling down to the bottom of the ridge like a ball.
That brought a quick smile to my face.
“Just over here,” he called out.
Ben and I picked up speed and when I was close enough, I asked Garrison, “Isn’t this your area to look after?”
“The whole mountain is,” Garrison said. “I’m only one person.”
“Who called it in?” Ben asked.
“Some hiker,” Garrison said. “Some fool looking to have a little fun. Got more than he bargained for.”
“I can’t even imagine,” I said.
“You don’t need to imagine,” Garrison said. “The real deal is waiting.”
The ridge leveled off enough to have some balance, and that’s when I saw a man sitting on a sloped rock, drinking a bottle of water.
When he lowered his head, he looked at me and looked away.
His face was pale white. He was out of breath.
He had the word guilt basically written across his forehead.
Of course he was guilty.
He was trespassing in a dangerous area.
Ben and I looked around, not exactly seeing a dead body anywhere.
Before I could say anything, my eyes realized just where we were standing.
We were about one mile away from where things dropped off. Where that homemade cabin had been. Where a little girl had been kidnapped and kept.
I felt uneasy at how close to home things seemed to be at the moment.
Ben touched my back. “You okay?”
“Fine,” I said. “Just thinking for a second here. What do you think of this guy?”
We both looked and now the guy was rubbing his ankle.
Garrison popped into our field of vision. “He found the body over there in the trees. Pretty much hidden. It’s almost luck that he found her. Hate to say it, but it was maybe a good thing he was up here. Nobody would have ever found her.”
“It’s a woman?” I asked.
“Young woman,” Garrison said. “Very young woman. She looks like-”
“And the hiker?” I asked. “He seems spooked.”
“Finding a dead body will do that to anyone,” Garrison said.
I ignored Garrison and looked at Ben. “Maybe it’s that easy, right? He comes up here hiking with someone and kills her. It’s the perfect setup to the perfect crime. But then he gets hit with guilt or he hurts himself and can’t walk. He panics and calls for help.”
“Allie…,” Ben said.
I stepped forward. “He’s ripe to do some talking.”
“I already talked to him,” Garrison said. “He’s not-”
“Garrison, go secure the scene where the body is,” I said. “I’ll be over there next. I just want to introduce myself to our trespasser here.”
Garrison moved away and Ben came with me.
“What are you doing, Allie?” Ben asked.
“One thing at a time,” I said. “I want to hear what he has to say. He doesn’t need time to think things over.”
“You think this guy brought a girl up here, killed her, then called it in himself?” Ben asked.
“Only one way to find out,” I said.
I knew I was being bold. But it was worth a shot.
And to ans
wer my own question…
Maybe it was that easy, right?
No… it’s never that easy.
Chapter Twelve
“What’s your name?” I asked as the baby-faced looking hiker stared up at me.
There was a little stubble around his jaw, but it was obvious where the patches of hair on his face refused to grow in, leaving him with no choice but to keep a mostly clean shaven face.
Poor guy.
“Rick,” he said. “I, uh, I mean Rick Danefield. I have my ID and stuff with me. In my bag. Do you need it?”
He reached for his bag and I stepped forward and put my foot to the bag. “I’ll go with the honor system for the moment here. I want to talk about what’s going on up here.”
“Okay,” he said.
His face turned white again. Guilt made him sweat. His lips quivered with fear and the need for water.
“Take a drink, Rick,” I said. “We need to talk.”
I felt Ben standing behind me.
We had taken our roles for the moment.
I was going to do the questioning. Rick was going to answer. Ben was my backup in case I needed it.
“Sure,” Rick said. “Anything you need. I know I’m screwed here… but I couldn’t just leave her. You know?”
“Let’s talk about that,” I said. “Why do you think you’re screwed?”
“I’m not supposed to be here.”
I snapped my fingers. “That’s right. This is a no trespassing area. Dangerous up here. Right?”
“So I’ve heard,” Rick said.
“And you still came up here?”
“I’m a thrill-seeker.”
“Thrill-seeker,” I said. “You got one hell of a thrill then, huh?”
“Please… you have to believe me…”
“I didn’t say I didn’t believe you,” I said. “What are you doing up here?”
“Okay, look, I’m a thrill-seeker. I love this stuff. Finding alleged haunted places and exploring. No matter what.”
“Haunted?” Ben asked over my shoulder. “You think this place is haunted?”
“Totally,” Rick said. “I read about it online. I look for small towns and good stories. I know the story about the hikers. One survived. One was found dead. The other never found. I read online about that missing hiker walking all over this mountain, looking for an escape.”