by Sara Schoen
Chapter 20
I was awoken by an audible creak and a click as a door was shut. I stretched in the warmth of the bed that Damien and I had shared together last night. He had fully intended going to sleep with me wrapped in his arms, but I wanted more than that and with a little persuasion I got what I wanted. There was a blissful smile as I thought about rolling over and taking up the entire bed, but when I went to take over the whole bed, I ran into a muscular back. I blinked repeatedly as I recovered from the shock and confusion of finding Damien in bed with me still. I could have sworn that I heard the door close, but now I wasn’t so sure.
There was another creak as I rolled out of bed. I felt fear surge through me as I quickly locked the door and then moved away just as a shadow came to the door. I fell backward onto the bed as I made out two feet and the footsteps to go along with them just outside the door. Once the knob started to turn I shook Damien from his sleep.
“Damien!” I whispered urgently.
“What?” he asked sleepily, until he heard the doorknob snap back into place as the person let go.
“Someone’s here,” I said, as we both looked at the shadow pace in front of the door.
“I’d say that it’s us dreaming, but that would be too optimistic,” Damien said quickly, throwing me my clothes and pulling on his.
“Do you think its Steve?” I whispered as Damien moved swiftly around the room.
“I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“What do we do?”
“We run as planned. We escape and then move on toward another life until we can find a way to prove he doesn’t have your best interest at heart, or we kill him,” Damien added the last part in a softer tone, probably hoping I didn’t hear him, but I did.
“How do we get out of here without being seen?” I asked, pointing to the shadow under the door.
“When I first heard about the proposition, I had the feeling Steve wouldn’t let me live through this little scheme of his, I made all these houses prepared for a sudden and quickly needed escape,” Damien stated, as he lifted the rug and pried open a floor board to show a ladder that led under the house.
“Where’s it go?”
“Out. Here, take your bag and follow the path.”
I followed the order and went down the ladder, while Damien fixed the rug above us and then slipped in after me. Once the door was sealed shut the tunnel was completely dark; I couldn’t see anything.
“How do we know where to go?”
“It’s a straight path, just walk,” Damien answered, as the door to the bedroom slammed open loudly. “Move quickly. It’s only a matter of time before he finds the trapdoor opening.”
I walked as quickly as I could down the dark tunnel, but I had no idea where I was going. I could feel Damien’s hand on my back pushing me forward, so I assumed we were going the right way. The walls were cold, but not hard. They seemed pliable, easily moved, and I wasn’t sure what it was made of. The whole tunnel was cold; I was shivering the entire time we traveled.
“Do you hear something?” I asked after a while. I could hear a muffled conversation, maybe a few conversations at once.
“Yeah, I’m not sure what it is.”
“Should we stop?” I asked curiously.
“And go where, Audrey?” he asked sarcastically, as he pushed me foreword again.
“I was just asking,” I growled, until I slammed my foot into something hard, then it turned into more of a squeal.
“Sorry, I forgot about the ladder,” Damien apologized as he moved me back so he could go up first.
I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear Damien’s feet hitting the metal rungs of a ladder. There was a soft clank every time he moved up the ladder, but nothing else. The voices had stopped; it gave me an unsettling feeling as Damien got closer and closer to the top of the ladder.
Suddenly I was blinded by a burst of light as a panel was opened to lead us outside. I tried to look up, but all I could see was Damien’s silhouette and a bright light that was impossible to stare at for too long.
“Come on, Audrey, let’s get out of here,” Damien called down to me.
I was about to answer him when a loud pounding reached my ears. It sounded as if it was coming from behind me and then the trap door on the other end busted open, sending the whole tunnel into the light. I grabbed hold of the ladder and made my way up quickly, although when I got up to the top I saw Damien on the ground with his hands over his head and a gun pointed at him.
“Are you Audrey Thomas?” A police officer asked me as I popped up from the hole.
“Yes sir,” I said through a shaking voice.
“You’re coming with us. You’re going home,” the officer said as two others forced Damien off the ground and pushed him roughly toward the car.
“Wait, where are you taking him?” I cried, as I pulled my arm out of the officer’s hold and ran after Damien.
I caught up to Damien, shocking the officers that were holding him, and ordered them to put him down. They just rolled their eyes at each other and another officer roughly grabbed hold of me. The jagged lift caused me to let out a scream of pain, and that sent Damien into a frenzy. We were both fighting to be with the other, but the officers wouldn’t let us near each other. I heard them slam Damien’s head into the side of the car as they forced him in and locked the doors. Then I was put into a separate car and quickly driven off.
“What’s going to happen to Damien?” I asked through the grate in the car. I was in the back like some sort of criminal. Trapped by the bars and cage structure that made up the back of the police car; it had a negative effect on my attitude toward the officer for treating me like this and separating Damien and me.
“He’s coming, just not with you. You should be happy! We got you away from the person that kidnapped you,” the officer exclaimed, clearly confused by my desire to stay with Damien.
“He didn’t kidnap me. He saved me from Steve Bennett!”
At my words the officer scoffed and then laughed a little. “Steve is how we found you. He did a good job leading us to you.”
“He’s playing you! He’s tried to kill me,” I yelled.
“Maybe you’re the one being played,” the officer said as we pulled into the Charleston police station. There was a huge throng of people, mostly officers standing there to greet me, but there was also Steve Bennett. They had played right into his trap and now I was stuck.
I could see the villainous smile trace his lips as he mouthed, “Soon, you’ll be mine.”
Chapter 21
“Damien! Damien!” I cried as I saw him pull up in the car behind me. The officer that had taken me to the police station held me back when Damien was roughly pulled out of the car. His head was bleeding, blood slowly dripping down his face.
“Audrey, I’m fine. We’ll work this out just like your mom said,” he stated as he was pushed through the crowd.
“What did he mean by that?” the officer behind me asked.
I didn’t answer. I turned and glared at him, then at his name tag, Officer Moore. I pulled my arm out of his hold and followed Damien into the police station. There were cameras flashing in my eyes and reporters shoving microphones into my face the entire time until I finally made it into the station.
“Officer Rivers, can you take care of our little friend here?” Officer Moore asked once he entered the station.
I must have gotten under his skin; he was passing me off to some other officer. I could see the younger officer roll his eyes as he groaned; he must be used to undesirables from that reaction. Officer Rivers didn’t even say a word; he just motioned with his hand to follow him and then led me into an office. Once the door was shut, I had a bad feeling about him.
“Well, Miss Audrey Thomas, we haven’t had a kidnapping like this since your mother was taken.”
“She came here?” I asked curiously, as I tried to gauge the ominous feeling.
“Yes she did. My father was the police chi
ef here during that time, also known as Chief Rivers,” he said with a smile.
“Impressive. Are you working up to that as well?” I asked, unimpressed by who his father was. He acted as if I would know his father personally, and I didn’t have a clue who he was.
“I am, and to do that I have to do grunt work. Which means getting your report on what happened. Shall we start from the beginning?” he suggested as he prepared a pen to write with.
“I ran out of my family’s home after discovering my mother was Anna Cowles. She and my father had never told me, and I was appalled by the news. I left the house and went out for a few hours.”
“What did you do during this time?” he asked to make me continue my story.
“I got a drink at a bar, had a few too many, and Damien took me to his house for the night. I woke up in his bed, with him on the couch downstairs; everything was fine until he learned I was Anna Cowles’ daughter. He offered for me to go on a trip with him to a friend’s house and I accepted. I willingly went with him and he took me to Steve Bennett’s old house.”
“So you were lied to in order to manipulate you to go?”
“No, I went when he offered because I didn’t want to go back home,” I said slowly, and eyeing his paper to make sure he was writing down what I was actually saying.
I could tell he was trying to turn everything on Damien, and now I had to be aware of that. This officer was clearly biased, but whether it was against a possible kidnapper or not, I couldn’t tell.
“Did he keep you against your will at the house?” he asked, as he looked up to see my accusing expression. “And I would like to remind you it’s a federal offense to lie during a police investigation, Miss Thomas.”
“Yes, I was held in the house against my will.”
“How did you get here today?”
“Damien helped me escape from the house when it started to burn down. Without him I’d be dead right now.”
“Touching,” Officer Rivers spat sarcastically.
“He gave me a jacket with a map in it and let me out of the car. I traveled in the woods for a few hours before sleeping; when I woke up, Steve was there. He threatened horrible things, like trading me for my mother or just keeping me to himself. That’s when I ran away from him and found Damien again. Steve found us and said that he would never tell Damien where his sister was buried.”
“Wait, what?”
“Damien’s sister was one of the girls kidnapped. Only her arm was recovered when digging for the bodies, the rest of her wasn’t found. Steve told Damien if he helped him get off death row to help the police find another kidnapper, then he would tell Damien where his sister was.”
“Wow, you were fed a line of straight bull-shit.”
“I was not!” I retorted.
“You were played!” he yelled back at me.
“He kidnapped me at first, but he let me go! He figured out Steve’s plan and he got me out of the house before it burned down. Then when we on the road, he gave me a coat with a map in it and let me go. That’s when Steve found me and he wasn’t interested in getting me home safe. He wants my mom!”
“Then this Damien fellow came along and took you again. When he could have brought you home sooner than this,” the officer stated, completely ignoring half of what I had just said.
“Damien saved my life and my mother's!”
“Steve Bennett is under twenty-four hour watch, Miss Thomas. He wasn’t going to get anywhere near your mother or you after you were found.”
“That’s a lie. You clearly don’t know what he’s capable of if you believe that.”
“I know the horrors of what he did, Miss Thomas—”
“But you didn’t live through them,” I stated knowingly as I snatched the report out of his hands.
I added in the details of Damien letting me go and saving me, and emphasizing the threats that Steve had said to me. When I was done, I signed my name in big letters and forced the paper back into his hands with an angry glare burning into his eyes.
“There’s your report,” I spat, as I sat back down in the chair, crossing my arms and legs to tell him that this conversation was over.
“Thanks. I’m sure your parents will be thrilled to have you back home,” he said, letting his words drip with sarcasm as he walked past me.
“I know they’ll be thrilled to have Steve Bennett back on death row,” I scowled, and the officer slammed the door shut behind him.
I was steaming as I sat in the small office and knew that outside that door Steve Bennett was plotting for a way to get out. I got up so quickly that my chair fell backward as I stormed to the windows of the office. I could see him standing in the corner with his ever-present guard as the officer that had just interrogated me walked by him.
I watched as the officer walked up to the water fountain and simultaneously slipped the report I had just written and signed into the shredder. The sound was covered up by the noise of the water dispenser and when the shredder was done, he walked away with water spilling over the cup.
This time when he passed by Steve, there was a subtle gesture between them, nothing more than a head nod, but it was there and it told me that not all the police were on the side of justice.
Chapter 22
I was radiating such anger that it ran the risk of becoming destructive. I watched Officer Rivers as he walked around the police station and produced a piece of paper from his pocket then handed it to another officer. They nodded to each other and nothing more as they passed. Then the officer stopped and turned to look at Rivers, clearly confused.
“She didn’t sign it,” the other officer stated.
“Then just go ask her to,” Officer Rivers said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
The new officer approached the office and caught my glare. He stopped momentarily before taking a deep breath and walking in.
“I’m sorry, I just have to have you sign the report.”
“I’m not signing it until I read it,” I stated forcefully.
“But you just helped him write it,” he stated in a confused tone.
“I saw him shred something and I want to make sure it wasn’t the real report,” I said as I snatched the piece of paper out of his hands.
“That’s a dangerous accusation, Audrey!”
“I don’t care,” I stated as I scanned the report.
“You don’t understand what you’re accusing!”
“I do, and I also know that I’m not the one being played. You are! Steve will run the first chance he gets!” I retorted as I continued to check the report.
All the facts were there except toward the end when he started to make it seem like Damien was keeping me from getting home and was holding me against my will. I grabbed a pen and wrote the same paragraph that I had done before then signed it and handed it to the officer. He looked a little less than pleased by my aggressive nature, but he took the paper and left. I watched him leave and head straight to a copier to make copies of my report before heading to the police chief’s office on the far wall near the entrance to the station.
I watched as he walked over to a couple of other officers and repeated my warning about Steve Bennett. They laughed and a few ridiculed me, until Damien was led past them. His head was held high, but then they started to deride him instead. Two armed officers led him down a set of stairs in the far corner of the building. I left the office and skirted around the police officers in the main room as well as the other two that took Damien down stairs. The room had one large holding cell and two smaller holding cells and a desk for an officer to sit at and watch the criminals, but they were too busy celebrating upstairs to be at the post.
“Damien,” I said as I approached his cell. He was lying on the cot with his hands over his eyes.
“Audrey, what are you doing down here? They said your parents had come to get you,” he explained as he jumped off the cot and slipped his hands through the bars to touch my face.
“I’ve bee
n stuck in an office for what feels like days. They won’t tell me anything about you, and they don’t believe me about Steve.”
“Of course they don’t believe you. They think they have him covered, but they don’t. Don’t worry about me by the way, I’m doing fine. In my mind I’m back in that bed with you getting ready to wake up,” he said with a gentle smile, as he moved a few strands of hair away from my face.
“I wish we could’ve woken up like that. We would be half way to South Carolina by now,” I laughed lightly, knowing that’s not where he had been planning to travel.
“It just means a change of plans, Audrey. We’ll get out of this and get away from Steve before he can take you. We’ll just have to –“
“What are you doing down here?” Officer Rivers asked, interrupting whatever Damien had been about to say.
“I’m checking on him after police brutality,” I stated sourly, pointing at the bleeding mark on Damien’s forehead.
“Enough with your smart mouth. Get back to the office,” he ordered as he grabbed my arm and dragged me away.
“You’ll be fine, Audrey! This will all be sorted out soon,” Damien called as I was forced up the stairs.
Officer Rivers very roughly and publicly shoved me back into the office, slamming the door shut. I fell to the floor in a heap, hitting my head hard on the carpet and could hear him laughing as he walked off, but that laughter was cut short by a sudden roar of gunfire.
There were multiple shots in quick succession that barely covered the screams of the officers in the building. I was so terrified I couldn’t even think about moving from my spot. I didn’t know who was firing or what their goal was and right now I was probably the safest person in the building, except for Damien.
“Damien!” I said to myself. I had to help him. He was in a locked cell with no protection.
I silently berated myself for the stupidity of my actions as I made my way to the door. I opened it as silently as I could while remaining close to the floor and slowly made my way out of the office. The gunfire had ceased and there was a deadly silence in the air. There wasn’t any movement from what I could see, so I made my move. I ran out of the office and down the side stairs to find Damien, but when I got there he was missing from his cell. The door was ajar and he was missing. Where could he have gone? He would have had to pass me in order to get out of here, unless he got out and hid before escaping.
