by Kit Crumb
Chapter Twenty Seven
Rye was right, it was no problem getting the license number of the Dodge Caravan. Claire simply asked Jake Bradshaw, her good buddy at the fire department, to run it through the DMV for a name and address. Apparently, the vehicle had been caught in a surveillance tape as it crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, and he was able to provide a crude image of the driver and the passenger. Now she had a face to match the name. Jake had pulled the face of the woman Rye identified as asking for help off the tape, but as Claire left Medford, Oregon, heading north, she began having doubts. What was she going to do when she got to this guy’s house? All she knew was Crystal’s name.
Claire pulled onto the shoulder of the freeway and dialed Paul Casey’s number on her cell phone. She got his answering machine.
“Paul, this is Claire. Rye went to LA in search of a porn company and I’m headed for 20415 Pericolo Lane. It’s just above Denton near the coast.” Claire pulled the phone away from her ear to avoid the static that suddenly came on the line.
“Great, well it was a good try,” she said and pressed the end button and put the phone back on the passenger seat.
She ran through several scenarios for getting into the house on Pericolo Lane. But who was this girl Rye wanted so desperately to help? Would she even be there and more importantly, who were these people she was involved with? She finally let it go; the whole idea was insane anyway. Paul had even told Rye that there was nothing either of them could do. Great, the message she left, outlining her intention of locating the girl, flew in the face of Paul’s advice. But, she figured, this far up the coast and having left a message for Paul—if his machine even recorded it—she sure as hell wasn’t going to turn back now.
It was while leaving the rest stop just above the little town of Cottage Grove that Claire had an idea that she thought just might work. She’d say she was a private investigator hired by an attorney to locate the two people who assisted with a multi-car accident on I-5. The victims and their families had put together a reward of $10,000, to split between the two. She wouldn’t even show the picture, she’d explain how she traced the license plate of the Dodge and had only a description of a tall, slightly balding man and a woman with long blonde hair. Claire ran the scenario over and over, even practicing what she’d say. When she reached Denton, she gassed up and drove a couple blocks without finding her turn off, then pulled into the parking lot of the Book Nook and asked for directions to Pericolo Lane.
The occasional house or mailbox became more and more infrequent as she drove on, until she hadn’t seen a house in twenty minutes. She was beginning to think that she had gone too far until she came to a hairpin curve and passed a steel reinforced mailbox with the correct address. A fifteen-foot high iron gate blocked the paved driveway. Attached on either side of the driveway were twenty-foot high stone pillars.
She parked a foot or two from the gate, got out and gave the iron bars a shake.
“Wow this is really made to keep people out,” Claire said, to no one in particular.
To the left and right of the pillars, barbed wire fencing lead off into the woods. Imbedded in one of the pillars was a speaker with a keypad.
Claire pressed the button marked “intercom.” “Hello, I need to speak to the owner of a black and red Dodge Caravan.”
The speaker crackled as a tinny sounding voice responded. “State your name and business.”
“My name is Claire Anderson and I’m a private investigator authorized to give the owner of the black and red Dodge Caravan a reward of ten thousand dollars.”
There was no immediate response and Claire was beginning to wonder if the speaker worked. When the tinny sounding voice caught her by surprise, she could feel her pulse pound in her ears.
“I’m sorry the owner of the Dodge isn’t here at this time.”
“Could I pass through? I just need to find out who the owner is.”
This time the response was immediate.
“Just mail the check to this address.”
Claire jabbed at the button. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. I have to deliver the check in person.”
The reply wasn’t so congenial this time. “Then you’re out of luck.”
She tried several different approaches but the person at the other end either wasn’t responding or wasn’t there. She got into her car and drove slowly along Pericolo Lane until she found a break in the barbed wire.
She started to wonder if the young woman who asked Rye for help was being held against her will. She hadn’t really expected an open invitation to come inside, but it was obvious that these people had something to hide—and it wasn’t just pornography.
Pulling onto the shoulder of the road, she left a note under the windshield wiper—Won’t start, caught a ride into town.
Reaching behind the seat, Claire grabbed her butt pack and pulled on a down vest. Checking up and down the road, she quickly made her way down the little slope that led to the barbed wire fence where the top two strands had come undone from one of the fence posts. High stepping, Claire leapt over the fence and into the forest, quickly moving out of sight from the road. She made her way in the direction of the driveway, figuring that she’d need to come up on the house from behind. She’d been jogging for nearly twenty minutes, finally stopping to catch her breath. Bent over with her hands on her knees she looked up and began scanning the woods for a house. Spotting the driveway, she figured if she just stayed parallel to it, she’d eventually run into one.
After another half hour of hopping over fallen trees and branches, she spotted what she was looking for.
Walking now, she began to circle around behind the block building until she was directly behind it. She duck walked out of the woods up to a large boulder just twenty feet from the rear door, and peaked around the edge. “What the hell?”
Rocking back off her heels onto her butt, her back against the moss-covered boulder, she tried to figure out what she had just seen. The only door looked solid, the top was chicken wire and the bottom half was reinforced with metal. The door handle was a simple pull, no doorknob.
This could be the door to any clinic in the country, Claire thought. “What kind of house is this?” she said softly.
There were no windows facing the boulder except the one in the door. Taking a deep breath, Claire sprinted to the back of the house, pressing herself against the wall of the building next to the door. Her blood raced as the adrenalin surged. Taking another deep breath and holding it, she peeked in through the bottom corner of the window. She looked down at what could have been a hospital corridor, complete with crash cart and two gurneys sitting in the hall. Not seeing anyone, she took a minute to scope out the hall, but couldn’t see much beyond the first room.
“OK, Claire, you can do this.”
She took several deep breaths through her nose to help calm down, the way she did before a sparing match at the dojo. Gently, very gently, she reached up and tugged at the door handle. To her surprise, the heavy door opened easily. In one quick move she slipped into the hall and stepped into the first room she came to.
She did a quick scan, checking out what appeared to be an exam room. “Holy shit!” she cried out louder than she meant to.
There, sitting on an exam table, dressed in loose fitting scrubs, was the blonde from the porn tape. Claire checked the hall, still empty. She closed the door and turned out the light.
“Hi, hello?” Claire whispered.
She immediately recognized that the young woman was mildly sedated. She sat on the exam table tottering, as though about to fall forward, eyes glazed. In twenty years as an emergency room nurse and EMT, Claire had seen people in this state of sedation hundreds of times; usually she had put them there.
She climbed onto the exam table next to the young woman, placing a hand on her shoulder to keep her from falling.
“My name’s Claire. Crystal?”
She leaned forward putting her ear in front of the woman’s lips.
>
“Mu eve.”
“Mary, is that your name? I thought it was Crystal.”
The young woman’s brow furrowed and she pursed her lips to speak.
“Hep!”
Each time the young woman spoke she rocked forward against Claire’s steadying hand.
“Helen? Is that your name? Can I help you, Helen?”
Suddenly the young woman turned to face Claire, her eyes focused, her speech clearing a bit.
“Must leave now.”
As though someone had flipped a switch, the young woman slumped forward, her eyes once again glazed over.
“That’s all I needed to hear. C’mon honey, let’s get out of here.”
She placed a hand on the woman’s chest and in the small of her back to help her slide off the exam table. Crystal wasn’t steady, but was willing. Claire led her to the door and checked the hall.
“Get ready. On the count of three we’re going to run out the door.”
She knew that providing a mildly sedated patient advance notice allowed them time to adjust. On three, the two women stepped into the hall. She figured Crystal was stable enough that she could be pulled along. Claire was just at the back door when she stopped short at the slamming of a door at the opposite end of the building.
“Hey their Crystal, who’s your friend?”
Claire turned. She was face to face with a burly young man in scrubs.
“Hi there, I’m Derrick, her anesthesiologist. And you are…?” he said slowly.
Claire knew that it was now or never. If she hesitated, all would be over.
“I’m Doctor Pain,” she said, smiling, as she planted her right foot into Derrick’s groin. She then grasped his throat with her left hand. As he doubled over, she helped him to the floor, placing a thumb behind his ear causing him to lose conscious.
Claire grabbed Crystal by the shoulders and shook her hard. “C’mon we’ve gotta go.”
Pushing and pulling, Claire got the two of them out the door. She headed into the forest, holding Crystal tightly by the hand, coaxing, dragging and pulling her through the woods. Branches slapped them, feeling like so many needles, poking and whipping.
“C’mon, snap out of it,” Claire hissed, as she dragged her along. They had to get back to the road and her car as soon as possible. “At this rate we won’t make the road before they notice you’re gone. C’mon, Crystal, you can make it.”
Scanning the woods ahead, Claire noticed a hill and some cliffs. Not exactly the direction of the road, but a place where they could hide until Crystal came around.
“Hey how about a rest, would you like that?” Crystal was becoming more responsive, crying out as branches struck her in the face. But she didn’t respond to Claire’s question.
Claire made her way around branches and tree limbs scattered on the forest floor. In some cases, whole trees lay in their path. Working her way to the cliffs, she noticed that Crystal was looking around, becoming aware of her surroundings.
There had to be some rocks, a place to hide. When she finally reached the cliffs, there were no boulders to hide behind, just a shear rock face.
Claire suddenly noticed that Crystal was no longer yanking her arm every thirty seconds. She was now moving with much more ease. Claire stopped, attempted to get a verbal response, but still nothing.
As they rounded the natural curve of the cliff face, a hole appeared. “Look, a cave,” Claire said.
Cautiously, she crept up to the small dark opening. Her breathing instantly constricted and she quickly stepped back, spooked by the black hole in solid stone that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The opening seemed to shrink right before her eyes and she was reminded of something far back in her memory, something out of her childhood. Taking a deep breath, she stepped up to the opening. One look and she knew this was no cave, it was a mine.
Even in the dim light, she could see that the timbers were huge and ran up the side, crisscrossing along the ceiling. But as she stepped to enter, Crystal would have none of it, and froze.
“C’mon there’s no time for this. Crystal, come on,” Claire said, in her sternest whisper.
Slowly, she managed to drag the young woman into the mine’s entrance. She had her back bent to the task and was facing into the shaft, pulling with all her strength.
“Where are we?” Claire whirled around. Crystal had spoken.
“Welcome back to the land of the living. My name’s Claire. C’mon, we’ve got to hide.”
She led her to the wall of the mine, and the two women crouched behind one of the huge beams. “What do you remember?”
“Only that I was going to be taken to a clinic to see my friend, Jan. When I got inside the room where Jan was supposed to be someone came up behind me and placed a cloth over my mouth and nose. The next thing I knew there were trees and someone pulling me along. Was that you?”
“Yeah, we’ve been bushwhacking for about fifteen minutes.”
“Who are you and why are you helping me?”
“My husband and I operate an ambulance service and were attending an accident just outside of Medford on the I-5. He said you came up to him and asked for help, then he saw you on a porn tape and thought you might be in trouble. But when we discovered that a dead guy was also in a film made by the same company, we were afraid you might be next.”
“What do you think they were going to do to me?” Crystal asked.
“I wasn’t sure until I found you in that exam room. Look.” Claire reached over and lifted the bottom of Crystal’s loosely hanging shirt. “Can you see this?”
She craned her neck looking over at her right side. “Black lines, and it looks like a circle.”
“Those are the lines placed on a patient so that the surgeon knows where to cut. It looks like someone was going to remove something—most likely your liver.”
Crystal rocked off her heels and sat down hard on her butt. “Oh my God… Jan.”
Claire placed a hand on her shoulder. “Crystal?” Claire whispered.
Crystal had a distant look in her eyes and wouldn’t respond to her name. Tears were running down her cheeks and her chest was heaving, as if she were out of breath. She gasped for air. Hyperventilation, Claire thought. Quickly unbuckling her butt pack, she fished around until she found a tiny paper bag.
“Breath into the bag,” Claire said, placing Crystal’s hands around the opening, directing it to her mouth and helping her hold it in place. Crystal wasn’t listening.
Grabbing her shoulders, Claire shook her hard. “I think we should find a place to hide back in the mine, wait until dark, then make our way to the road and my car.”
Crystal swiped at her nose with her wrist, looked Claire square in the eyes. “I’m OK, but can we stay here a little longer?”
“Sure, would you like to tell me about Jan? You’ve mentioned her twice.”
“Jan and I grew up in Garland, Iowa, and moved to Los Angeles together to break into acting. When the money began running out Jan answered an ad looking for women to act in adult films. I haven’t heard from her in days.”
She suddenly lurched forward and wrapped her arms around Claire, hugging her tightly. “Thank you so much,” Crystal said, rocking back onto her heels. “How did you find me?”
Claire was fiddling with her butt pack as she spoke. “I traced the license of the Dodge van to the mansion.”
Tears began running down Crystal’s cheeks. Claire reached across in the semi dark and using her thumbs wiped away the tears.
“When they wouldn’t let me in through the front gate I parked my car down the road, hopped a barbed wire fence and cut around through the woods, thinking I would come around behind the house. I stumbled onto the clinic by accident.
“That’s where you found me?”
“Do you remember me sitting next to you on the exam table?”
“No, after I was sedated I only remember being pulled along and tripping a lot.” She began rocking back and forth. “The thought tha
t you might not have found the clinic, and me…”
“I know, I know,” Claire said, trying to comfort her. “But we’ve got to get moving. I know I’ve got a penlight in here somewhere.” Claire continued to fish around in her butt pack.
“I’m ready,” Crystal said. “I don’t suppose you have a stick of gum in there.”
The two women stood and peaked around the thick wooden beam that hid them from view. They crept along one side of the mine; Claire kept her penlight at the ready. Each time they looked back, the entrance appeared smaller. Finally, as the shaft made a slight bend, the entrance of the mine was lost from view, and Claire had to turn on her penlight. They hadn’t gone thirty steps beyond the bend in the shaft when the only light they had was from the little flashlight.
“Hang onto my belt and stay an arm’s length behind me, we really have to watch our step,” Claire said. “I’ve heard mines always have vertical shafts.”
Crystal smiled into the darkness. “I think I’ve seen the same movie.”
Progress was slow, both women moving cautiously and the penlight was dimming to a pale yellow. Claire stopped and once again unclipped her butt pack.
“Here.” She handed the tiny light to Crystal. “I want to save the batteries. I think I’ve got a couple candles and a lighter.” Minutes later, with the little pack back around Claire’s waist and each of them holding a candle, they continued.
As they moved farther down the shaft, it began to change.
“What happened to the beams, and doesn’t the tunnel seem to be getting smaller?” Crystal said.
Claire was fingering round holes in the rock. “I don’t know but I think these must be where they placed the dynamite.”
Crystal stepped around Claire and went a little deeper into the tunnel. “Come look at this.” she said.
