The Redemption

by David Boiani

  “The school called and they aren’t there. Where the hell could they be?”

  As John got up to leave, Captain Johnson walked into the office. “John, sit down.”

  “My children never made it to school, I have to go…”

  “John, I know where they are.”

  “What? What are you talking about? Julie, I’ll call you right back.” John hung up before she could reply.

  “Red, please get John a drink. Something strong, preferably.”

  “Sure,” Red said, and walked out of the office.

  The Captain sat down. “John, I received a video link fifteen minutes ago. He has your children.”

  John looked at his captain with a blank stare until what was said sank in.

  “What?”

  “We’ll find them. Me, Ricky, and the feds. You have to trust us.”

  “I’m going with you,” John said, standing up.

  Red walked in with a scotch on the rocks, “Here John, drink up.”

  “John, you’re not working this case. I’m sorry.”

  “The fuck I’m not. You can’t stop me.”

  “John, if you were me, what would you do? You would keep yourself from it. It’s too close to your heart. You know as well as anyone that doesn’t mix. I’m making this decision for you and your children. We’ll find them, just trust us and accept our help.”

  “I want to see…”

  “John, I don’t think that’s a good —”

  “I WANT TO SEE THEM, GODDAMIT!”

  The Captain sighed, dropped his head and said, “Okay, but on one condition. You let us handle it. Go be with your wife. She needs you right now. Promise me that, and I’ll take you to see them.”

  John looked at the captain. “Okay, I promise.”

  23:22:03, 23:22,02, 23:22:01…

  On the way back to the station, John called Julie and she answered on the first ring.

  “John?”

  “Yes. Julie listen, he has them. The killer has them. I’m going to the station now to see the video feed and then I’ll come home.”

  “What?”

  “He has Gianna and Ryann. I’m sorry,” John heard those useless words spoken from him, and there was no answer from his wife. He heard his wife’s sobs as he felt pain arise in his heart.

  “Julie, are you there?” Again, nothing. “Listen, I’ll make this right.” The captain glanced over as he drove.

  Finally, she answered. “You did this. You just had to jump back in. Why, John? We had everything we needed. Why?”

  “I’ll save them… I have to,” John said to an empty line. Julie had hung up.

  They arrived at the station and John rushed into the office and brought up the video feed. There, on a small platform, were his babies, each with a noose around the neck. He heard the muffled cries through the wind that had started to kick up. As the captain finally caught up to him and walked into the office, John dropped to his knees and brought his hands to his face.

  “Noooooo!” he screamed as Captain Johnson put his hand on his shoulder.

  23:04:03, 23:04:02, 23:04:01…

  Ricky walked into the office to join his friends. He and the captain attempted to comfort John any way they could.

  “John, I don’t have to tell you we’ll do everything in our power to get them back. I’ll put all of my manpower on this case,” Captain Johnson said. “Let me take you home. You need to go be with Julie. Your wife needs you now more than ever. I’ll take you.”

  “If I agree to go home now, will I be allowed back to work on the case?”

  The captain glanced at Ricky who turned to John. “Let us do our jobs. We’ll get them back, trust us. You know it’s the correct way to handle this.”

  “Promise me or I’m not going.”

  “John…”

  “Promise me goddamnit!”

  “Okay! I’ll let you come back, but not to work the case. You can return but let us do our jobs. It’s what best for everyone involved,” Captain Johnson said.

  Ricky watched as the captain walked John out of the station. He then turned his attention to the video feed. It was a very dark, shadowy place; high ceiling, maybe fifteen feet or more. He zoomed in on the platform and noticed the trapdoor. “Bastard is going to hang them, crazy son of a bitch.”

  Ricky took out his notebook and jotted down all the characteristics of the scene: large dark enclosure with a high ceiling, a wooden platform set up like gallows, a noose around each of the kid’s necks. He turned the sound up and he heard the wind pick up and whip by the camera. Then he heard the cries, the cries of the innocent, just like in his dreams.

  22:45:03, 22:45:02, 22:45:01…

  John entered his house to a warm welcome from Simba. John shut the door, sat down on the floor, and held his loyal canine close to him. Simba licked away his tears as John tried to regain control. He stood and walked upstairs to find his wife. Julie was face down on the bed in her panties and a t-shirt. He walked into the bathroom to quickly wash his face with cold water. He saw the bathroom mirror shattered, vomit on the floor and toilet seat, and noticed the empty wine bottle on the floor. He walked over and flushed the toilet, grabbed a towel, and wiped up what he could. He then noticed the blood in the sink. He rushed from the bathroom to the bed.

  “Julie, are you okay?”

  No answer, so he walked around to her side of the bed. She had a blood-soaked towel on her right hand. John gently unwrapped the towel to expose a deep gash on the side of her hand.

  “Julie?”

  “Get away from me.”

  “Julie, what the hell did you do? You need stitches. I’ll take you.”

  “I punched the mirror. Get the hell away from me and don’t come back until you have our children.”

  “Julie, I—”

  “Leave now, you son of a bitch!” she screamed as she jumped up and swung her good hand at his head. John ducked and wrapped his arms around her.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll make it right, I’ll save them. Julie, I love you. I’m sorry.”

  She started sobbing and relented to his embrace. Finally, she put her head to his chest and let go. She cried in deep, horrible, heart-wrenching sobs, a dark and hollow cry that emanates from the soul and squeezes your heart in a vice of sorrow. Soon, John was crying with her and all he could do was hold and comfort her as best he could. After what seemed an eternity she stopped, looked up into his eyes and said, “John, you have to get them back.”

  He looked into her bloodshot eyes and answered, “I will…”

  22:20:03, 22:20:02, 22:20:01…

  Ryann stopped crying and turned to speak to his sister. “Gianna, what’s happening? Is daddy coming to get us?”

  “Yes, Ryann, we’ll be fine. I’m sure Dad is working on finding us right now and may even be on his way.”

  “Where are we?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe a tunnel of some sort. What can you see from your side?”

  “Just the wall in front of me, the rest is too dark to see. This thing around my neck hurts, it’s too tight. Is he going to… hang us?”

  “No, we’re going to escape. Ryann, try to get loose from the restraints on your wrists.”

  “Okay.”

  Gianna glanced up, turned and noticed the small light from the camera. She turned back and worked on her own restraints. The wind kicked up, blowing her hair in her face as she felt the noose tighten, ever so gently.

  22:05:03, 22:05:02, 22:05:01…

  Ricky sat at his desk, searching the Internet for any structures that may fit the characteristics of the scene he had written in his notebook. The captain was outside talking to the press who, thankfully, hadn’t gotten any information about the children. It would only be a matter of time because that’s how these things worked. Ricky was a relatively inexperienced detective, but he already knew there were agents with connections who would leak info to the press for future favors. He glanced up as he saw Alexis walk into the station and up to his desk. />
  “Hi, how are you? How’s your dad?” Ricky asked.

  “We’re as well as can be expected, thank you. I was wondering if you would like to grab lunch with me.”

  “Oh, I would love to, but something has come up,” he answered.

  “What? Anything I can help you with?”

  Ricky glanced around, deeply sighed and said, “Follow me into the captain’s office.”

  As she followed him across the station to the office, Ricky wondered to himself why he had no self-control whenever it came to this woman. He closed the door behind them and took her in his arms.

  “I’ve missed you. Listen, what I’m about to show you cannot leave this room. Deal?”

  “I’ve missed you as well, Ricky. You know I would never do anything to cause a problem for you.”

  “Okay,” Ricky said as he sat at the computer and turned the monitor toward Alexis. He zoomed in on the platform.

  “Oh my, they’re just children! Is he going to hang them?”

  “Unless we can stop him, I’m positive he’ll do just that. But those aren’t just any children, they’re John’s children.” Alexis quickly brought a hand to her mouth and let out a squeal. “Alexis, there’s something I have to tell you. John saved your father. He deciphered the riddle. I need to save his children; not just to repay him, but because I can’t let him go through the horror of losing them. He’s a great man, excellent detective, and wonderful father who loves his family more than anything in the world.”

  Alexis’ eyes started to tear up as she studied the scene on the monitor. “Ricky, is there anything I can do?”

  “Pray, if you believe in that sort of thing.” Ricky looked up and saw the congregation on the street in front of the station start to break up. “If not, I guess we can always start. I mean, what could it hurt, right?”

  Alexis hugged him, and Ricky held her head to his chest.

  20:00:03, 20:00:02, 20:00:01…

  John had taken Julie to the hospital to get the couple of stitches she needed to close the small gash on the side of her hand. As soon as Doctor Talbot noticed Julie in the ER, he immediately brought her into his room, cleaned, and stitched her wound. When they returned home, Julie immediately collapsed on the couch, exhausted from her emotional distress. John went to the bedroom and opened the bottom drawer of the dresser, the drawer Julie used to store their bible. John picked the book up and studied the cover. He opened the pristine pages and leafed through them, glancing over the text. John’s mind wandered:

  We all would like to believe the faith and spirit of our souls will guide us through life, unscathed and protected, but the somber truth is we are just matter, ushered along in a world of physical substance governed by the rules and guidelines of our universe and its uncertain, unpredictable laws. A plane crash here, a terminal disease there, for no rhyme or reason, eradicating people just because they pulled a joker from the deck or obtained a pair of snake eyes on one roll of the dice. Well fuck you fate, and fuck you, God…

  John slammed the book shut and tossed it into the trash bin in the bathroom. He glanced into the part of the mirror still intact. His reflection, with the cracks of what remained running through his face, accurately portrayed how he felt. He was a broken man, and if he lost his children, he wasn’t sure if he would ever put himself back together again. He headed downstairs, wrote Julie a note for when she woke, and headed for the station.

  19:42:03, 19:42:02, 19:42:01…

  John arrived and entered Captain Johnson’s office where Ricky was studying the video feed. John sat next to him and saw his children with their heads down, nooses still secure, waiting for their execution.

  “John, how is she?” Ricky asked, more to break the silence than wanting an answer.

  “She’s a mess. Punched the mirror, had to get stitches. She passed out on the couch.”

  “I can’t imagine. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s a hard feeling to explain. Once you have a child, you change. You’re no longer free. The constant pressures and fears bind you in chains that only your heart can see or feel. When those horrific fears come true, it’s surreal, like living in a nightmare. Ricky, have you ever felt your core shake? Have you ever been hit with so much emotional turmoil that everything becomes fuzzy and trancelike? Your lungs feel tight and you can’t do anything. You’re unable to move, unable to react, unable to even think. That’s what I have felt since I found out he has my kids.”

  “We’ll get them. I promise you with my life. Just trust us.”

  “Any idea where they are?”

  “Not yet, but I’m working on a few theories. Go grab a drink and come back in a few hours. Watching them suffer will only make things worse.”

  “You’re right. I need to inform Red anyway. A drink will help numb my mind.”

  “Of course. Come back in a few hours… maybe I’ll have something by then.”

  John stood, placed his hand on Ricky’s shoulder, and walked out.

  19:20:03, 19:20:02, 19:20:01…

  John sat at the bar of his own restaurant with every intention of drinking himself numb; a numbness that would save him from the horrors of the world he gave so much to over the years. Red was working the floor, but when he saw John he approached his friend and sat down next to him.

  “I heard. Captain Johnson sent me the details. John, I’m sorry.”

  “Me too, Red, me too. I need a drink.”

  “Sure, scotch on the rocks?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Red made his drink and returned to the seat next to John. “How’s Julie?”

  “She’s a mess. Blames me, and rightfully so. If I had just stayed away, none of this would be happening.”

  “You don’t know that. This maniac searched you out. This whole production; the emails, the videos, the twisted traps, they’re all for you, John. He would have found you one way or another.”

  “Maybe, maybe not, but I need to find him and end this. I swear to hell, Red, I will kill him, just like the others. Just like Silas Alvah.”

  “John, you’re past that. Don’t go back, go forward. You’re a better man than that now. You must fight those instincts. If not for him, then for you, Julie, and your kids.”

  John downed his drink and pushed his glass to Richard, the bartender who had just arrived for his shift.

  “Scotch on the rocks please, Richard.”

  “Coming right up.”

  “John, don’t drink too much, you need to be thinking straight in case they need your help,” Red said.

  “The captain gave me a leave. He thinks I’d hinder them, not help.”

  “Well, he may be right about that. Trust in them, they’re good men and great detectives.”

  “It’s weird, Red. When I think about my children, it’s never how they are now. I see them in stages of their lives, growing up. I’ll never forget how they looked as infants, as toddlers. I’ve a message on my voicemail that I saved from Gianna when she was about seven. It was on Halloween and she was calling to make sure we were still going on a haunted hayride. She sounds so pure, innocent, but yet so brave. She was always so courageous, never afraid of anything. She made me so proud. I listen to that message every now and then just to go back to that time. Sound does that to us. It can take us back to certain moments and make them seem genuine and real.”

  “They’ll find your children. Just have faith.”

  “Faith? Don’t be a prisoner of that beautiful lie, Red. People would rather believe a comforting fable than accept a painful truth, and this painful truth is I may have lost my children forever.”

  After another drink, Red took John home. He walked in and sat by his wife, who was still asleep on the couch. He was soon fast asleep himself, his mind exhausted and inebriated.

  18:05:03, 18:05:02, 18:05:01…

  Ricky researched the web for any landmarks in or around Seattle that fit the scene from the video: a tunnel-like structure maybe twenty-five feet wide and fifteen feet high. B
ecause of the grainy, dark video, there wasn’t much else to discern, other than those approximate measurements. The ceiling and the walls were hard to see, and the video cut off just above the ground. The son of a bitch was careful not to give away any clues through the video, Ricky thought as Captain Johnson walked up to his desk.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  “I’ve done an Internet search on all of the tunnels, underpasses, subways, mines, burrows, shafts, and passageways in or around the Seattle area. I need you to take a look and eliminate the ones that don’t fit what our video shows. I don’t know this area as well as you, so your help decreasing the possibilities will save valuable time. Here’s a list I printed out. ”

  “Sure, I’ll be back in a few,” the captain said as he grabbed the list and headed for his office.

  16:10:03, 16:10:02, 16:10:01…

  John watched as his two newborn babies wriggled in their bassinets. They each donned a little cap, the girl’s pink and the boy’s blue. They were the most beautiful sights he had ever taken in. Suddenly there was movement from the corner of the room. Shadows danced and something shifted just outside of John’s vision.

  “Who’s there?” He asked as he peered through the glass. He noticed what looked like a man’s silhouette against the far wall, move forward toward the bassinettes which contained his babies. As the light reflected on the figure, he noticed it wasn’t walking, but floating on air. He also realized it was no man. The creature had a man’s face, but any human resemblance ended there. It sported two horns that spiral up above its head, beady red eyes, and ragged black wings that fluttered behind it as it levitated across the room. Before turning its ugly head towards the babies, it looked straight at John and smiled, revealing a vile set of razor-sharp, jagged yellow teeth. John started screaming and pounding on the glass to no avail as it was impenetrable. He heard the newborns harrowing screams as blood splattered on the floor, walls, and ceiling. The beast turned with a little foot hanging out of its mouth, and it continued to chew until the extremity was gone. Blood covered its evil mouth and a long, black forked tongue protruded lick it up. John screamed and continued to pound on the partition. The creature floated slowly over to the glass and looked John in the eyes. With only a couple of feet between them, the beast threw its head back and let out the most chilling, evil laugh John had ever heard. John dropped to his knees with his face in his hands…