by Rob Ashman
Harper could hear the footsteps returning. He closed his eyes with his head bowed. The floorboards shifted as Mechanic strode towards him. The footsteps stopped.
‘Wakey, wakey,’ she said, tapping his cheek with her fingers. Shards of pain rocked through his head. He groaned and winced.
‘Come on, sleepy head. Time to wake up. Your friend needs you.’ She was singing the words.
Harper lifted his head and opened his eyes. The whole of his vision was filled with Mechanic’s face. She was tilting her head, first one side, then the other, as though she was examining a quizzical object.
‘You’ve had a little sleep,’ she said, ‘but now it’s time to wake up because you have important work to do.’
‘Fuck you.’ Harper cleared his throat.
‘That’s not very nice.’ Mechanic drew back as Harper spat a plume of gob past her face.
‘Tut, tut,’ Mechanic said. ‘Such bad manners.’
‘Where is Lucas?’
‘All in good time, you’ve only just got here.’ Mechanic walked to the front of the decking and leaned against the rail.
‘Where’s your boyfriend?’
‘You are full of questions today. I sent Jameson away, he had things to do, people to kill. You know what it’s like.’
The sun was going down, and Harper estimated the time to be about six thirty, which would mean he’d been unconscious for two hours. He felt slow and groggy. Mechanic dragged one of the wicker chairs and sat in front of him.
‘There are three things you need to know,’ she said. ‘The first is that your friend is alive. The second is that whether or not he remains alive depends on you. And the third is, if anything happens to me, he will die.’
Harper stared daggers at Mechanic. She leaned forward with her elbows on her knees.
‘Let me be absolutely clear. Should the cavalry roll in and take me captive, I will not talk, and Lucas will die. If you overpower me, I will not talk, and Lucas will die. If you kill me, Lucas will die. You will never find him in this wilderness. I figure he has four days, maybe five at the most, before he dies anyway. Without me, that’s what will happen. Is that understood?’
Harper said nothing.
‘Is that understood?’
Harper said nothing.
Mechanic leapt from the chair and drew a hunting knife from her belt. She straddled Harper and dug the point of the knife into his cheek below his right eye. Harper fought against his restraints. Mechanic gripped his throat. He could feel a warm trickle of blood run down his cheek as the knife broke the skin.
‘Is that understood?’
‘Yes,’ he croaked.
‘Yes, what?’
‘Yes, it’s understood.’ He gasped for air.
Mechanic released him and returned to her chair, replacing the blade back in its sheath.
‘That’s better. And just so you know, that’s precisely the kind of behaviour that’s going to get your friend killed. I figure you’ll do anything for Lucas. Am I right?’
Harper was sucking in air. He nodded.
‘Can’t hear you.’
‘Yes, I would do anything for him.’
‘I figure you would do anything to keep him alive. That’s true, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, it’s true.’
‘Good, that’s what I thought. Do you recall the penance?’
Harper looked at Mechanic and shook his head.
‘Let me refresh your memory. The last time you tried to set me up and have me killed, I told Lucas I would only stop murdering people if he paid a penance. Do you remember now?’
Harper thought back. He recalled the killings in the motels didn’t stop when they gave back Jo. The killings continued until Lucas paid a penance.
‘I remember,’ he said.
‘Lucas had to choose between you and Bassano. I wanted to kill one of you as punishment for my sister being dead. Lucas’s penance was he had to choose. He had to give me one of you to kill. He chose you.’
Harper racked his brain and churned through the events of the previous year. He remembered he had put himself forward as bait to trap Mechanic. But he was not aware that Lucas had given him up to Mechanic as his penance.
Harper’s face flushed with anger.
‘Oh, you didn’t know? You didn’t know Lucas offered you up as a sacrifice? You were to be his penance. Well, it’s good for you that I have a sense of humour and blew a hole in his wife’s head instead. It was great fun.’
Harper tore himself away from the past. He had to figure out how to survive the present.
Mechanic continued, ‘So the penance was never paid. My sister is dead because of you three and no one has atoned for her death.’
‘You killed Bassano.’
‘I did. But I took his life rather than it being offered to me as a penance. In the same way I took the life of Darlene Lucas. You and Lucas must take responsibility for your sins. You need to pay the penance.’
Harper said nothing, his head was racing. Where the hell was all this going?
‘I want to be fair, so I’m giving you the opportunity to choose. That’s only fair, isn’t it? Lucas had a choice and now you have a choice, that’s only fair, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, that’s only fair.’ Harper could taste blood in the corner of his mouth. ‘You sick bitch.’
‘Yes, I suppose compared to most I am a little different. But I am nothing if not fair.’ She slid from her seat and straddled Harper’s legs, drawing her knife.
‘Paying a penance is a voluntary self-punishment to atone for a wrongdoing. You are in a sorry predicament but believe me, compared to Lucas, you are on vacation in the Florida Keys. So if you want to save your friend you have to pay the penance. You must atone for your sin and I will let him live.’
‘You won’t, you lying bitch!’ Harper flung his head forward trying to smash his forehead into Mechanic’s face. She rolled back, and he missed.
Mechanic seized his neck and shoved him into the banister. The knife bored into his cheekbone.
‘Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t. But one thing is certain, if you choose not to pay the penance, Lucas will die. You can refuse at any time but Lucas will die.’ Mechanic stepped off him. ‘So I ask again, do you understand how this works?’
Harper tasted blood in his mouth.
‘Yes, I understand how it works.’
‘Good.’ Mechanic reached into her pocket and brought out a ring holding four silver keys. She knelt down beside Harper and unlocked the cuff on his left wrist. It snapped open. She moved back with the blade in her hand.
‘I need to know you understand the consequences, because I’m not convinced you do.’
‘I understand,’ Harper said.
Mechanic threw the knife and the blade stuck in the wooden floor, inches from Harper’s left hand.
‘Pick it up.’
Harper gripped the handle and worked it back and forth until it was free. Every muscle in his body told him to throw it at Mechanic. He fought the instinct.
‘Cut the top off the little finger on your other hand.’
Harper’s mouth dropped open.
‘What?’
‘It’s not difficult to understand. I want you to cut the top off the little finger on your right hand. Sever it at the knuckle joint.’
‘What?’
‘This is your penance. You need to do this to atone for your sins, and the sins of your friend. You choose not to do it, Lucas dies.’
Harper stared up at Mechanic, tears welling in his eyes. He twisted the knife in his hand. It was heavy and razor sharp. The blade flashed in the last of the evening sun.
‘You have five seconds.’
‘I can’t.’
‘Then he dies. It’s your choice. One …’
‘This is fucking madness, you murdering bitch.’
‘Two …’
‘You’re gonna kill him anyway.’
‘If you fail this small penance, I will get in that van and dr
ive away. You will probably survive out here in the elements, you have a chance of yelling for help. But you will never find your friend. I promise you on my sister’s life he will die. Three …’
‘Jesus Christ.’
‘Four …’
‘Aarrgh!’
Harper flattened his right hand on the floor with his fingers outstretched. He twisted his body and levelled the knife. The edge scored his skin above the first knuckle.
‘Five.’
Harper shifted his weight and thrust the blade down. The knife cut through the cartilage and tendons. The top of his finger rolled away in a spurt of blood.
He screamed and writhed on the floor clutching his wounded hand. Blood poured through his fingers and he tried to stem the bleeding.
Mechanic reached into her pocket and pulled out a cloth.
‘Here, bind it with this.’ She tossed it onto his chest.
Harper grabbed it and wound it around the bloody stump.
‘Fuck!’ he yelled as the pain kicked in, his exposed nerve endings sending excruciating signals to his brain.
‘There, that wasn’t too hard now, was it?’
Mechanic bent down and picked up the knife. She wiped it on her thigh and strolled into the lodge. Harper was bent double trying to block out the pain.
After a couple of minutes Mechanic was back. She took the keys, removed the shackles from his ankles and snapped his free hand back into the cuffs attached to his waist. She heaved him up. Harper was shaking.
‘I need to take a walk now, and it’s going to get cold out here so you’d better come inside.’ She pushed Harper and he shuffled along the deck to the lodge. Blood leaked from the tightly wound cloth, leaving a spotted trail on the floor.
Mechanic opened the door and Harper went inside.
‘I won’t be long and I want you to be comfortable.’
Harper’s eyes adjusted to the gloom of the cabin. He was standing in a living room decorated with woodland rustic charm. It had a sofa and two easy chairs upholstered in garish blue and green check, and a table and chairs covered with a cloth of the same pattern. Around the walls were trophy heads of animals shot for sport. The vaulted ceiling went right up to the roof and heavy wooden beams spanned the room. The large windows gave a panoramic view of the valley below.
Harper felt a surge of uncontrolled panic.
In the centre of the room, dangling from a beam, was a hangman’s noose, with a chair placed below it.
47
Lucas had stopped fighting against the metal coffin. His elbows hurt, his knees hurt and his fingers bled. He forced himself to stop when his head began to spin, as the oxygen in the confined space was replaced with nitrogen and carbon dioxide. His heart thumped loud in the confined space. His throat was raw from yelling.
He spent his time staring up at the disc of blue sky visible through the air pipe. He watched it glow pink as the sun sunk below the horizon, and change to a bluish grey as the day disappeared into dusk.
It was now black. The sliver of light which had cascaded down the metal tube was gone. Lucas’s world was cloaked in darkness. When he raised his hands in front of his face, he saw nothing. He knew they were there because he could feel his breath on his skin, but all he saw was black. He fought the ball of claustrophobic panic that wound itself tight around his chest. The dark vacuum was crushing him.
Every single noise was blocked by the metal box. Lucas strained his ears, but all he heard was the sound of his own breathing and the blood pumping in his head. The silence roared in his ears.
He closed his eyes and began to drift. He dreamed of the time he was with Darlene in New Orleans. They had partied until their feet hurt in the carnival atmosphere of the French quarter. She had berated him for ogling the hookers, he had berated her for flirting with a crowd of bare-chested college basketball players. They wore heavy, beaded necklaces around their necks and fell into bed when the sun came up. It was a magical time.
He snapped open his eyes. There was a sound.
Above him he could hear the faint crack of breaking twigs. He turned his head and lay on his side, trying to put his ear up to the hole. Yes, yes, there was a sound. It could be an animal, but it could be a person.
‘Help!’ Lucas yelled. ‘Help me.’ His voice echoed around the confined space.
He arched his body to scream through the hole.
‘Help, somebody help.’
He stopped to listen. More cracking twigs, it was the sound of someone walking. Someone was up there.
‘Help. I’m down here. Somebody help!’
He stopped again to listen. The sound was gone. Lucas strained his neck to get his ear as close to the hole as possible. There was nothing.
‘Did you think someone had come to rescue you?’ It was Mechanic. Lucas’s heart sank to the pit of his stomach.
‘How are you getting on in there. Still alive?’ Mechanic flashed a white light down the tube. The beam hit Lucas in the face.
It burned his eyes. Lucas screamed.
‘So you are still there.’
Lucas strained every muscle to keep control. He wanted to throw open the box to murder the psycho bitch, but he knew it was useless. He had to conserve his energy if he was to make it out alive.
‘Your friend Harper is doing very well. He’s helping me not to kill you by paying a penance. You remember all about the penance, don’t you, Lucas? I told Harper you had given him to me as part of your penance. He didn’t know about that, but he does now. Of course, I chose to kill your wife instead. I must say it was very satisfying to see the blood erupt from the back of her head as the bullet tore its way through her skull.’
Lucas covered his ears with his hands.
‘She was so pretty. Well, she was without that fucking great hole. You listening to me, Lucas?’ Mechanic shone the beam down the tube and peered in. She could see him squirming around trying to protect his eyes from the piercing light.
‘Harper has a long way to go if he is to atone for his sins. I’m not sure he realises how big a penance he has to pay to win your life. You killed my sister and that is going to take a ton of atonement.’
Tears ran either side of Lucas’s face and he bit his hand to stop himself sobbing. The light above went off and he was once again plunged into darkness. He heard the faint noise of footsteps fading away.
Moran had seen Mechanic slip away from the lodge. She crossed to the van and looked through the window, it was empty. She tried the door but it was locked. She ran across the veranda and peered through the first window. It was an empty bedroom with a double bed and single wardrobe. Through the second window she could see a large room with animal heads displayed around the walls.
At the third window she gasped.
Standing on a chair in the centre of the room was Harper. He had his hands manacled to his sides and a noose around his neck. The rope ran up to the ceiling and was looped over the rafter above his head. It stretched diagonally across the room and was tied onto a set of coat pegs on the far wall. The knot on the noose was against the left side of his neck, tilting his head over to the right. Harper was gulping in air as he tried to remain still and upright.
Moran darted around the front of the house and through the front door. Harper wobbled on the chair when he heard the door.
‘Fucking hell,’ Moran said as she rushed to the pegs and started untying the rope.
‘No, no, stop,’ Harper said.
‘What? I need to get you down.’
‘No, stop. When Mechanic gets back I need to be here otherwise she will kill Lucas.’
‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘She has Lucas held somewhere. If I don’t do exactly what she says she’ll kill him.’
‘Your hand.’ Moran spotted the bloody bandage and the red patch on the floorboards.
‘Look, you need to go. I don’t know when she’ll be back. If we try and take her out, Lucas is a dead man.’
‘Where is she?’
‘I think she may have gone to see Lucas. I think he’s being held nearby. The best thing you can do is find where she’s holding him.’
‘What about Jameson?’
‘She says he’s not here, but—’
The sound of heavy boots on wooden decking stopped them dead.
‘Shit.’ Moran made it into the bedroom just as the front door opened.
‘Getting cold out there,’ Mechanic said removing her jacket. ‘We’ll get a fire going.’ She busied herself taking logs from a basket and pushing them into the wood-burning stove.
Moran eased her way to the window and slid back the catch, the handle creaked as the frame swung open. She looped her leg over the sill and lifted herself onto the ledge. She pivoted and sank down onto the walkway outside. She pushed the window shut, inched her way to the back of the house and bolted for the treeline. The window was now unlocked but there was nothing she could do about that.
Mechanic collapsed onto the sofa. Harper was still tottering on the chair trying to keep his balance.
‘I told Lucas you were paying penance for your sins. I told him you were doing it to keep him alive. He seemed grateful enough.’
Harper snorted as he tried to calm his breathing. He shifted his weight to relieve his cramping legs. His back ached.
‘I told him that you had a whole bunch of atoning to do to make up for killing my sister. He was confident you wouldn’t let him down. You’re not going to let him down, are you, Harper?’
Harper glared down at Mechanic, holding his composure.
‘No.’ He choked the words out.
Mechanic got up to check the fire. She rubbed her hands together in the hot air rising from the grille at the front.
‘That’s the problem with wilderness living. What do you do to kill the boredom? Don’t you think?’
Harper nodded.
‘If only we had some entertainment to while away the time. What do you say?’
Harper nodded again.
Mechanic flopped down on the sofa again, leaned forward and kicked away the chair.
Harper dropped. The rope stretched under his weight and the noose tightened. His legs flailed around and he choked as the ligature cut deep into his neck, crushing his windpipe.