by Kit Crumb
“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 that 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.
Holding her candle out in front and cupping her hand around it to protect the flame, Claire made her way up next to Crystal and saw immediately that the tunnel split about fifty feet ahead. Crystal held her candle up so that she could see Claire’s face. “Which way?”
“I don’t know. Let’s try the right first, I guess.”
The closer they got to the fork in the tunnel the more their candles flickered. As they stood at the split, they detected a slight breeze and had to protect the tentative candle flames with their hands.
“I think the decision has been made for us,” Claire said, nodding towards the right.
As the candles burned down into the wax, the flames produced less and less light. Soon the women were walking side by side holding the candles next to each other, in an attempt to get as much light out of them as they could. Claire kept one shoulder on the wall as she walked, to provide a guide as the candles gave out just enough light to show where they were stepping.
“Stop for a minute and take the candles, I’m going to get the penlight out while I still have enough light to see what I’m doing.”
“Tell me again why we’re in here,” Crystal said.
“Looking for a place to hide until nightfall,” Claire said, stuffing the penlight into her hip pocket.
“What time is it? Seems like we’ve been walking for at least an hour.”
Claire pressed the button on her watch illuminating the face. “Not a chance. Only about thirty minutes.”
When they started walking again, Crystal took the lead crouching to hold the candles low so they could see their feet, and dragging her shoulder on the tunnel wall. Claire hovered at her shoulder, staring at the ever-shrinking halo around their feet. Then, with a gasp, the light was gone.
“Crystal?” Claire waved her hands in an attempt to find her.
“It’s OK, I think I’m in a room of some kind, but there must be bats in here, cause something sure stinks.”
“Just stay where you are.”
“Could you hurry up with the flashlight? I’m starting to get creeped out.”
“I’m going to use the lighter instead of the flashlight to find you and see if I can light the candles again.”
“Fine, please just hurry up.”
Claire spun the wheel on the lighter causing sparks and a small flame by which she could just see what appeared to be an oval opening to a small room about six feet high. She had just made out Crystal’s long hair, when the flame went out.
“Shit.” She shook the lighter for the sound of fluid.
Again she spun the wheel. Spark, but no flame. And again. Same result. With each flash of spark she’d take another step into the room, and with each spark she would catch sight of Crystal’s long hair. But something was wrong, her hair was dangling, she must be laying down, not on the floor but on a ledge.
“Crystal, you OK?”
“Yeah fine, you’ve got about ten feet to go.”
Her voice didn’t come from the direction Claire had been following. Puzzled, she put the lighter in her hip pocket and took out the pen light, pointed it in the direction she’d been going and turned it on.
Suddenly the room came alive with dangling hair—long hair, short hair—all hanging from heads in every state of decay. Bare shoulders, breasts, nude bodies. And with every shudder that passed through Claire, the light she was holding moved an
d the heads danced until Crystal’s scream jolted her into pointing the light at the ground, but it was too late. Crystal in her haste to escape barreled into Claire, knocking her to the ground as she ran from the room.
As she fell, the penlight flew from her hand. Confused, she lay against the tunnel wall where she’d fallen, listening to Crystal’s screams fade into the darkness. It was when they abruptly stopped that she began feeling around the floor for the penlight, finding instead what she thought was a rock until she found a wire leading in from one side. She depressed the top of the rock. Suddenly the room lit up like daylight. Claire got to her feet in a state of shock. Stacked from the floor to what must have been an eight-foot ceiling were bodies. Each had its own shelf, and each was face up with the head at the outside edge of the shelf, hair dangling. There were no labels, numbers or names. The room reminded Claire of the catacombs below some of the ancient churches in Rome.
The light came from four large spotlights mounted onto a metal crossbeam bolted to the ceiling. As she turned to scan the walls of corpses, one of the bodies caught her attention. It was on the rear wall, fourth shelf from the bottom. She noticed something tiny sticking up from between the breasts.
Extracting a pair of surgical gloves from her butt pack, Claire gingerly grasped the body just under the shoulders and slid it out a few inches. There in the middle of the chest were sutures, several sticking up just enough to catch the light. She’d seen this before. The body had undergone some kind of heart surgery. Moving from body to body it soon became apparent that each had undergone major surgery on an organ. She shuddered as she realized that even in death these were young, attractive women, and that some of the bodies were hardly a week old. The glint off her little silver penlight broke her concentration and reminded her that Crystal was out in the mine somewhere. After retrieving her flashlight, she stepped on the floor switch sending the room into darkness, as though the bodies had never existed.
It was easy to follow Crystal, even with the dim penlight. Instead of going back the way they’d come, she’d continued up the tunnel leaving footprints. As Claire followed her progress down the tunnel, the image of the bodies haunted her, but instead of blocking them from her mind, she re-examined each one, until she stopped in her tracks and began to count on her fingers.
Each one has a major scar, she thought holding up one finger, and each one was young, none looked over twenty-five. Another finger went up. And they were all beautiful, at least in life. Another finger.
That’s when she made the connection. My God, she thought, anyone of those women could have been a porn star and every one of them had been eviscerated.
Claire’s head began to swim at the realization that these women weren’t murdered for some petty fracture of a rule, or for money, or an adulterous act. They were all hired like Crystal and her friend, for a single purpose, and it wasn’t to perform sex. These women weren’t hired for their youthful beauty, but for the value of their organs.
“Oh God. When I illuminated the room with my penlight Crystal must have seen her friend,” she said in a whisper.
She was sickened at what she’d discovered, then a rush of panic washed over her at the thought of Crystal running blindly through the mine with no light at all, just the mental image of her friend’s lifeless body.
Claire looked down the mineshaft and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Crystal,” she yelled. Then louder, “Crystal!” Her only answer was a faint echo.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The inside of the suv was like a dark oven. With all the windows tinted except the windshield, the interior was oppressively hot. Rye’s captors seemed not to notice. The one called Vince climbed across the folded seats, sat behind the steering wheel and started the engine.
“Just relax, Mr. Rye. I’m afraid Lewd and Lascivious is located in a rather rough neighborhood. Another ten minutes and somebody might steal my tires.”
Rye was surprised that the mob—he was sure these guys were mob—would have a problem with looters. At first he tried to count the times the SUV turned a corner, but he lost track. Then he attempted to establish landmarks through the windshield, but from the back all he could see was sky and the occasional top of a telephone pole. He finally squirmed into the back corner of the SUV and settled in for the ride.
“I know what you’re thinking, Mr. Rye, that we’re taking you for a ride. Well, you’re right.” His captor began to laugh. “Dude, you been watchin’ too many movies. We’re driving to a safe location where we won’t be disturbed.”
The big man began to talk about his sick father as though he were telling a fairy tale to a child. The tone of his voice changed, but he showed no emotion.
“My ol’ man died and the doctor said it was the transplanted liver. Contaminated. In such bad shape, even if he had survived the operation he wouldn’t have lived out the day.”
Rye figured he had nothing to lose and maybe, if he could get this guy talking, it might somehow aid in his release…or escape.
“How did you figure it was Lewd and Lascivious?” Rye asked.
“Same as you. Off the label of one of their tapes. When I picked up the liver, it was in an ice chest in a cardboard box. Vince here delivered the ice chest to the doctor and said he found a couple videotapes inside it. I watched one. It was pretty good—for porn. Then I get a call that my papa’s dead and that the liver was no good. I shoulda known sumpin’ was rotten. The bitch what made the delivery was really up tight, nervous even. Wouldn’t let me look at the liver.”
Rye adjusted his sitting position so he was leaning against the back door; the move wasn’t lost on his captors. As long as they thought that he could help them find the woman who sold them the liver, Rye figured they’d keep him alive.
“So, how can I help you find the woman?” Rye said.
Vince handed the other guy Rye’s wallet he’d removed during the pat down.
“Well, Mr. Rye, I see that you do have a last name.” He paused to read the driver’s license. “Now I know where you live. Both of us want the same thing, so I’ll give you three days, then I’ll contact you. If you come through with the details I want, you never see me again.”
They drove to an empty lot, gave Rye directions for finding his car and a number he was to call with information. Vince leaned over Rye and opened the back doors. Rock was waiting.
It felt good to stand up, and as he stood up straight, he turned to face his captor. Rock smiled and snapped off a kick catching Rye in the groin. “No offense, Mr. Rye. You know, an eye for an eye and all that.”
Rye lay curled in a fetal position trying to look up at Rock.
“Good hunting, Mr. Rye. I’ll be waiting for your call.”
When he caught his breath and knew he wouldn’t puke, he stood up again, slowly. The SUV was gone.
Three hours later, Rye was experiencing the most uncomfortable ride of his life, pondering all that had happened from the coach seat of a 737 headed north. Another three hours and he was home reading the note Claire left him.
“Hello, uh, this is Rye”
The voice on the other end of the phone came alive with recognition, much to Rye’s relief.
“Mr. Rye, glad to hear from you, I didn’t expect to get a call so soon. What can you tell me?”
“20415 Pericolo Lane, Denton Beach, Oregon.”
“How did you get this information?”
“I didn’t, my wife did. Apparently she traced the license plate number from the van I saw the blonde get into. There’s just one thing, my wife is already there.”
Rye was clenching and unclenching his fist, his mind filling with B-footage from a gangster movie where mobsters sprayed a room with bullets killing everyone in order to get revenge on just one person.
“Rest assured that your wife will probably not be hobnobbing’ with the same people w
e’ll be doin’ business with. But I suggest that you get up there as soon as possible and get her out. Is there anything else you want to tell me, Mr. Rye?”
“No nothing. Ah, maybe yes there is. I want to wish you good luck; these people are scum.”
“Yeah, we know that. Thanks. Good-bye, Mr. Rye.”
He stood holding the phone to his ear for a minute, listening to the dial tone.
Rye stepped to the door of the garage looking at his VW bus and the ambulance, thinking of the four-hour drive to Denton Beach. It was the image of Vince and Rock getting there first that made up his mind. Twenty minutes later, he was heading north on I-5, doing ninety, sirens and lights howling and spinning.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Rosie brooded as she drove through the Marin headlands, her midnight transaction already out of mind. Moonless night drives often triggered her mood swings. This time it was the argument she had with Simms about bringing in the South American black market contingency, how he was sure it was too soon for such a big move. She was deep in thought when an SUV traveling at about twice her speed, tailgating her with highbeams glaring, honked. She quickly moved into the slow lane, shoving a fist out the window with one finger extended.
She was still fuming over her argument with Simms. Granted, she’d arranged for the visit without first consulting him, but she figured this way he had no choice. If she’d talked to him first it would have been a flat out no.
“What do you mean he wants to visit the facility … and bring what, five, ten, fifteen people?” Simms had said. “C’mon, Rosie, you know how it has to be.” He spun in his chair to the right and pulled open the top drawer and extracted a day planner. “You know it’s an issue of security.” He laid the planner on the desk blotter, and then pulled up the calendar on his computer. “It could jeopardize everything, plus we have a new group of women coming.” He looked from his computer to the day planner. “In five days, we’ll be swamped. Taping the operations, I control what they see.”
Rosie sat stonefaced, letting Simms rant. She ran a thumb inside her blouse adjusting her bra, uncrossed and re-crossed her legs.
