by Newman, AJ
He heard the voice again. “Move forward and to your right or die.” He was guided to the front of the cabin and pushed through the door. “Now walk into the mine.”
They walked to the backside of the mine and stopped in a secondary shaft. Roy stumbled to the ground when he was pushed from behind. Roy felt another zip tie close around his ankles. “Why are you doing this? Take what you need and go.”
“I will after I get what I came for. Open your mouth.”
Roy refused and found a hand pinching his nostrils until his mouth opened. He felt a small ball being forced into his mouth and then the sound of duct tape being stripped from a roll. The tape was wrapped around his head covering his mouth. He grunted but only received a swift kick for his effort. Roy’s mind raced as he thought about the many reasons why someone would capture him.
A short while later he heard voices and then a body was dropped by his side. The person wiggled to get free but was bound the same as Roy. He didn’t know why, but he knew it was Lisa next to him on the mine floor. He wiggled next to her and tried to grunt her name. He couldn’t move much because the person had used another zip tie to bind his feet to his hands. All he could do is wiggle around on the damp floor.
***
Meg didn’t want to escort Missy back to camp, but Missy was doubled over in pain when Meg found her and asked for her help. The group had split up to cover more homes and Tom felt they would be safe since Missy was a US Marshal, so Meg left a note at the rendezvous telling Tom the situation. Missy needed help getting on the horse and needed Meg to help hold her up as they rode back to Roy’s place. Meg wondered if riding the horse was hurting Missy more than just lying down and waiting on the others. As though Missy read her mind she said, “Meg thanks for taking me back home. My medicine will stop the cramps and pain. I could kick myself for forgetting to take my pill this morning.”
Meg then wondered how many pills the girl had and what she would do when they ran out. Meg liked Missy even though Mattie had told her on several occasions that there was something off about the girl. Meg just thought Mattie was jealous since Missy was playing up to Luke and cautioned her several times not to let that hurt her opinion of Missy.
Sally waved at them as they rode back into camp and told Missy to get some rest and take her medicine. Meg helped Missy off her horse and inside where Missy began digging for her pills as Meg left to take care of the horses. She took the horses to the barn, gave them water, hay, and then brushed them. She leaned her rifle against the stall so her hands would be free. Almost finished, she heard the door to the cabin squeak. Roy and Lisa should have been home and should have greeted them when they arrived. Something was wrong. Meg left the barn wondering if the others had returned since she knew Missy was bedridden in Meg’s house.
Missy entered Roy’s cabin and struck her head against one of the logs. She felt a small trickle of blood flowing down her cheek and was pleased. Missy was very good at deceiving people.
Meg saw someone close the door to the cabin. She knew no one was supposed to enter the cabin without Lisa or Roy’s permission. She cautiously walked up to the cabin and didn’t see the person lurking inside in the shadows. Meg burst through the door and saw Missy about to open the secret door that went back into the mineshaft. “Missy, what are you doing, and why are you in Roy’s cabin?”
Missy turned, and Meg was shocked to see the blood trickling down Missy’s face. Missy was frantic. “Meg, a strange man pulled me into the cabin and attacked me. He tried to pull me into the mineshaft when Tom heard me scream and knocked the man off me. The man ran into the mineshaft and Tom followed him. We have to save Tom. That man will kill him.”
Meg was confused at first because Tom should be miles from the cabin. She knew that no one was home now and that only she and Missy could help Tom. Meg kept her backpack and grabbed a lantern. She dropped her rifle, drew her 9 mm pistol, and ran down the shaft with Missy right behind her. They ran for several hundred yards until Meg was out of breath. “Missy, we can’t shoot our guns, or the mine might collapse on us. Have your knife ready.”
They stopped again when they came to a cross shaft. Meg lowered the lantern to search the floor. “Damn, every footprint for the last fifty years is still here. Let’s keep moving and go down the side shaft…”
The butt of Missy’s .45 on Meg’s head stopped Meg in mid-sentence. Missy drug Meg’s limp body on down the tunnel until she arrived at the area where she had staged her supplies. She chained Meg to a support beam. Missy knew she had Meg so far back in the tunnel that she could yell her lungs out and no one would hear her. The rats would feast on her body in a few days. Now she would go save Roy and Lisa from the bad men who kidnapped Meg. They would believe her thanks to some new bruises and the head injury. It would only be a matter of time before she would claim Tom and then she would get rid of Mattie. Missy saw an accident in Mattie’s future.
Meg finally came to. “Missy, why?”
“Bitch, you killed my father, and I’m committing you to a slow death. The rats will eat your body. By that time, I’ll be sleeping with Tom, and your bitch of a daughter will have an unfortunate accident. Think about that while you starve to death.”
Missy waited for another hour and then acted as if she was running down the mineshaft in the dark. She ran into Roy and Lisa and acted very scared. “Who’s that? I have a gun. Leave us alone.”
Missy heard them straining against their gags to make noise. She found Lisa in the dark and freed Lisa from the gag. “Lisa it’s you. Be quiet. They might still be around. Is that Roy?”
Missy untied both of them and proceeded to tell the story about escaping from the kidnappers and that Meg was still captive. They limped out of the mine and checked each other out for injuries. None of them was seriously injured so Missy volunteered to go get Tom and the others while Roy and Lisa checked the valley for Meg and the kidnappers.
***
Mattie and Tom rode to the rendezvous and found Missy waiting for them. “Tom, hurry. They took Meg! Tom, they tied Roy and Lisa up and tried to kidnap Meg and Me. I got away from them…”
Tom jumped off his horse, and Missy fell into his arms sobbing. Tom was frantic. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. I was shanghaied from behind as was Roy and Lisa. We only know the person had a weird voice like a boy trying to talk like a gruff man. Ask Roy and Lisa.”
They rode on up to the camp and quickly found Roy and Lisa. Tom asked, “Did you find anything?”
Roy responded. “No, it’s the damnedest thing. We don’t see any strange footprints or horseshoe prints. It’s as if they fell from above, attacked, and left from above without a trace. Where are the others?”
Tom said, “Ann, Walt, Cristy, and Luke are still scavenging and won’t notice that we’re gone until we don’t meet them at the rendezvous point after sundown. We can’t wait for them. We have to find Meg and the kidnappers now.”
Missy was still in shock, so Tom calmed her down. “Now there, tell us what happened in detail.”
Missy replied, “Several men came into the camp and captured Roy, Lisa, and Meg. They didn’t find me for a while because I was at your home asleep. They took everyone into the mineshaft and tied us up. A bit later, the men took Meg and me away from the others and they… well…they told us what they were going to do to us. I saw a side shaft through the dark and ran down the shaft yelling for help. I think they got spooked and left. I stayed hidden until I thought they were gone and then found Roy and Lisa as I tried to find my way in the dark. We have to find Meg.”
Tom was frantic to find Meg but quickly realized that Missy hadn’t given any information that helped them know where the kidnappers went. “Missy, is there anything you heard or noticed about these thugs that would give us a clue where they took Meg?”
“I’m sorry. They hit me on the head, and I was dazed most of the time.”
Tom left Missy and caught Mattie. “Mattie, we came up the canyon, so I don’t th
ink they left that way. There are only two other ways to get out of here. The first is up and over the mountain, and the other is through the mine to the other side of this big assed hill.”
Mattie whispered. “Tom, who the hell would know that the mine shaft goes all the way through the hill or would leave by climbing the hill? They would come down the canyon. Either Missy’s recollection of events is off by at least an hour or the bitch is lying.”
Tom was surprised at the animosity toward Missy. “You really don’t like her do you?”
“Hell no! I think she attacked Mom the other day and I don’t believe a word she said.”
Roy had walked up to the conversation. “Mattie might have something there, but we need to check things out first. The men didn’t drag Meg up the hillside, so Lisa and I will go down the canyon and look for the asshats while you and Mattie go through the mineshaft to the other side. Be careful to cover the entrance if you go on out to the valley below. We don’t need visitors.”
Mattie and Tom each had kerosene lanterns to help them see in the blackness of the shaft. The mine was just as damp as it was dark. The shaft smelled of earthy things and offended Mattie’s nose. They walked within 50 feet of Meg as they saw a glint of light ahead. They rushed to the end of the shaft and didn’t hear Meg’s muffled pleas for help.
The glint of light became a soft glow as they approached the opening. They stood at the entrance, which was hidden from view by a stand of scrub pines and bushes. Tom stopped Mattie and began searching the ground around the trees for footprints.
“Mattie, no one has come this way since the big rain over a week ago. This was a waste of time. This whole scenario has too many holes in it. I need to question Lisa, Roy, and Missy again. Now start from the first and tell me everything that we’ve heard about today starting with Missy getting sick.”
They sat at the entrance to the tunnel as Mattie recounted what happened that day. Tom carefully listened and made copious notes to create a solid timeline. He knew someone was either confused or lying to him. He also wondered how Missy went from being too sick to help scavenge, to well enough to go out of the cottage to try and stop the kidnappers who had overlooked her to start with.
Tom said, “Mattie, I’m almost sick to my stomach with fear and rage. There is no evidence that your mom left the valley. Let’s go down to the pond and check out the area around the waterfall and electric turbine. I just don’t know what else to do. I pray the others found her down the canyon trail.”
***
“Hmmmmmmlp! Muuummmmm!” was all Meg could muster through the gag. She could plainly recognize her daughter and Tom’s voices even though they were faint. They were walking away and didn’t hear her feeble attempt to gain their attention. Meg had fallen asleep and missed them when they walked within a few feet of her. She didn’t know why Missy had gone crazy and attacked her, but she vowed to kill the bitch when she freed herself.
The plastic zip ties were too tight and too strong to break free from, so she rocked and wiggled until she was against the opening to the side shaft entrance. She rubbed the zip tie against the edge of a sharp rock but scraped her wrists as much as the zip tie. This made her slow up and try to contact the rock only with the side of the zip tie. She scraped up and down for an hour before the tie finally broke.
Meg groped around in the dark until she found her backpack and took the small flashlight from the D ring. She saw her bloody wrists but knew they could wait until she escaped this nightmare. She found her knife, cut the zip tie from her feet, and stood up for the first time in hours. Meg reached into the backpack and took her Colt .45 from the bottom, and it felt good in her hand.
Meg found a lantern and lit the wick. The lamp gave off very little light compared to modern flashlights, but it at least lit up the shaft enough to find her way to the cabin. She looked in a mirror and was shocked at the blood and filth on her face, so she quickly cleaned up a bit.
Meg took a deep breath and snuck out of the cabin to go and find the bitch. She walked toward the cottages but changed course slightly when she heard voices on the other side of them. She was sure everyone was sitting around the fire pit. She heard Tom and Mattie’s voice before she walked to the far side and saw them. There the bitch was sitting between Tom and Roy. She was happy they were seated in a horseshoe shape with no one across from Missy.
Everyone left in camp had their eyes fixed on the fire, and none of them saw Meg walk up behind Missy and draw her huge Colt. Missy jerked when the end of the barrel poked her in the back of the head. She turned to find out what had poked her head and found herself staring into the barrel of Meg’s .45 Colt. Meg smiled and said, “You are the one who kidnapped us, and you left me for dead. I heard your plans for all of us. Go to hell.”
With that, Meg pulled the trigger, and the large bullet exploded through Missy’s forehead and blew the back of her skull into the fire pit. Meg saw Missy’s body fall to the ground. “Die Bitch die.”
The explosion of the big bore pistol stunned the others, and they stood up with their jaws hanging not knowing what to do. Several had blood and bone splattered on them, and they were a gory sight. Tom took the .45 from Meg’s hand and hugged her as Mattie joined in holding her mom. Tom kissed Meg and held her close. “Babe, I’m sorry this happened to you. Are you sure Missy did this?”
“Tom, it hurts that you even have to ask me that question. I watched as she dragged me to that side shaft and chained me to a timber. She rattled on about her plans for this group, which included killing Mattie and taking you to be her man. That’s why I killed her. She thinks we killed her father. Slim turned out to be a rat, but he was still her dad.”
Lisa was stunned at first but finally spoke. “It all makes sense now. There were no signs that any men attacked us other than Missy’s claims. We never should have listened to her. Damn, I feel stupid.”
Roy said, “Should I go find Walt and bring them back?”
Tom replied, “No, they’ll be back before dawn.”
☆
Chapter 14
Gerry was out of his mind with hate and grief for several weeks after they had buried his parents. He asked Jose several times to go with him to bring that Gringa bitch back to be tortured and then executed. Jose always had excuses but no action. Gerry cornered Jose one afternoon and demanded that Jose send a team to find the woman. He got in Jose’s face before several of Jose’s guards took him down to the floor.
Jose looked down at him. “I should have you killed for showing such disrespect for your new leader and the governor of the area. I will give you two men to help you search for your dad’s killers. I think she left the area and you won’t find her but search if you want to. Bill, assign two men to go with Gerry and give them weapons and supplies for a two-week trip.”
Gerry stopped by his parent’s graves and kneeled down between them. He made the sign of the cross, prayed to God for their souls, and then stood up. “God, I promise I will kill the woman who killed my parents. She is pure evil, and you should be pleased that I take this upon myself to rid the Earth of such vermin.”
Gerry turned to see the two men Bill selected to go with him and frowned. They were already half drunk and wouldn’t be much help. It was apparent to Gerry that Jose didn’t respect him or his father’s memory. Gerry should be taking over the leadership of the area, but Jose had pushed him to the side. Gerry was no fool and knew he had to lose these two before they killed him for the reward from Jose. It wouldn’t do for Gerry to be around anymore reminding people that Carlos was a great leader.
That night Gerry saw the two men were three sheets to the wind and offered to take first watch. The men drank until they passed out and were soon snoring. Gerry loaded everything back onto the packhorses and road off with the two packhorses and the men’s horses. He also took their boots, guns, and supply of alcohol. Gerry rode away at a good clip and didn’t stop until he was on the other side of the Verde River on the east side of Cottonwood. Jose had told Ge
rry that the scuttlebutt was that Tom and Meg went toward Sedona and that Missy thought Meg had her dad killed.
Gerry covered the 20 miles to Sedona early the next morning and hid in a clump of trees not far from where Tom had hidden the wagon that morning. He barely missed Meg and Missy heading back to camp as he searched for supplies. Gerry wasn’t as careful as he should have been and stopped to talk with everyone he saw. There weren’t many people to be seen, but Gerry would catch them and ask if they had seen Missy. Most just told him to go away, but two men started following Gerry. They took note that Gerry had a nice new AR15 with extra mags on his tactical vest. They wanted the rifle and his pistol.
Gerry left the two thugs and didn’t watch to see if they followed him. Gerry didn’t see them slinking in the shadows staying about a hundred feet behind him. Neither of the three of them saw Ann watching this play out through her scope on her rifle. “Hey Cristy, I think the one in the front is that Fox boy. Gary or something like that is his name.”
Cristy borrowed the scope and saw Gerry. Her heart throbbed as she saw him in danger. “Ann we have to help him. What can we do?”
Ann said, “Well we don’t want to fire our weapons so we’ll just have to scare them off. Come on with me, I think Walt and Luke are only a few hundred yards ahead of them. Let’s set a trap and give them a show of force.”
Cristy replied, “Let’s go.”
Ann quickly led the way to a point ahead of Gerry so they could lie in wait to ambush the ones following him. She caught Walt’s eye, and he brought Luke over to join them. Walt reviewed the situation. “I can kill one with my knife, but I don’t think I can get the other one. Ann, you take the one closest to Gerry, and I’ll get the other one.”