by Bill Hopkins
Into Ollie’s ear, Rosswell said softly, “Everything looks the same in both tunnels.”
Ollie and Alessandra following in silence, Rosswell shined his light on the floor of the cave, then knelt. The floors in both passages looked the same. He ran his hands along the dirt, first in one passage, then in the other. There was no difference in the feel or the smell in either passage. If one tunnel was a dead end, then the other—the one that gained entrance to the house—should show signs of traffic. That is, if anyone used this cave all that much.
The dead woman. Mary Donna Helperen from Piggott, Arkansas. Why did they bring her down here? Obviously, to hide her. Why did they have her on the ferry in the first place? She wasn’t dead when she got on the ferry and had somehow managed not to drown when she went in the water, then later died in childbirth. Who brought her down here? Charlie Heckle and Turk Malone. Not two of the crispier rocket surgeons in the harbor. Would they have carried her? No.
Rosswell again kneeled on the floor and again shined his light. He tried to force himself to see what he was really looking at. He tamped down his fright at the thought of going up against a bad guy. The worst guy he knew.
Rosswell repeated aloud one of his favorite quotes. “ ‘Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.’ ” Was Aristotle a saint? Rosswell thought he should be.
Then, in the pool of light cast by his flashlight, there it was. When they had found her, Mary Donna’s heels were muddy. He remembered that now. In the dirt of the tunnel to his left were faint traces of what he suspected were heel marks along with other indentations that looked like shoe prints. He hoped they were faint traces of heel marks and shoe prints. Because if they were, then that meant that Charlie and Turk had dragged the woman from somewhere up in the house and had come through the left passageway.
“Left it is,” Rosswell said. “And Tina’s at the end of this tunnel.”
Someone tapped on Rosswell’s shoulder. He whirled around, his gun pointed at Ollie and Alessandra. They each put a finger to their lips. Rosswell nodded, ashamed of himself for speaking too loudly.
Rosswell signaled for them to head through the left passageway.
All three of them froze when they heard a door open. Someone humming off-key waltzed through.
Chapter 40
Monday Night, continued
The trio snuffed their flashlights. Rosswell tugged Alessandra and Ollie into a shallow side passage. The cave was darker than the night outside. Rosswell hoped the side passage was deep enough to make them invisible to whoever was entering from Nathaniel’s house. A door slammed shut. A noise, a soft scuffing sound, grew stronger then stopped. Someone walking, then halting directly in front of them. Whoever it was had a small flashlight, although its beam shined on the ground, enabling the person to see where he or she was walking.
The figure coughed, turned off the flashlight, then flicked a lighter and held the flame up to a cigarette. Charlie Heckle. The scarfaced man hadn’t caught the night train to Memphis after all.
Ollie and I were set up. Nathaniel sent Charlie to the alley so he could entice us to come here!
Charlie exhaled a stream of smoke. When it reached Rosswell, he detected a smell like a skunk burning in an alfalfa hay bale. Charlie was toking a joint. Rosswell hoped Charlie and his blunt weren’t keeping company with anyone else.
As best he could, Rosswell explained by grasping Alessandra and Ollie’s hands, then pointing and gesturing, that he wanted Ollie on Charlie’s left and Rosswell would take his right. Alessandra would stand in front of Charlie. Rosswell placed Alessandra’s hand on his head and he nodded. Then he touched her head. Alessandra nodded. Rosswell and Ollie also exchanged a silent greeting in the darkness.
Rosswell liked the phrase Ollie had used in the alley. He decided to use it on Charlie.
“Show time, boys and girls!”
“What the—”
Charlie’s surprise was complete, allowing Rosswell and Ollie to knock him on the ground, but not allowing Charlie to finish his question.
Rosswell, risking one light, turned on his flashlight and stuck a gun in Charlie’s right ear to whisper, “Where’s Tina?”
“I don’t—” Charlie spoke a bit too loudly. Rosswell punched the gun barrel into his ear to silence him.
“Real quiet. Tell me where Tina is.”
Barely audible, Charlie whimpered, “I don’t know no Tina.”
Alessandra stuck her gun in Charlie’s left ear as Ollie pulled off Charlie’s shoes and began wrapping him with clothesline.
Rosswell bent over Charlie’s face. “I’m not going to shoot you. It would make too much noise.” He felt Charlie relax. “Instead, I’m going to stuff cotton balls in your mouth and nose, then duct tape them shut.” Charlie stiffened and began shaking. “Charlie, you ever see anyone suffocate?”
Rosswell knew death threats spoken in a soft, clear voice were more effective. It was a lesson learned from watching gangster movies.
Charlie’s tiny voice quivered. “No. I don’t know where nobody is. Don’t kill me. Please, don’t kill me.”
“Suffocation’s worse than drowning. Takes a lot longer. And you don’t pass out before you die. You die after a lot of pain. A lot of terror. I’ve heard it seems like hours.”
Charlie said nothing. Ollie had wrapped all the clothesline around Charlie and was finishing the task of duct taping the man into complete immobility.
Before Ollie taped Charlie’s mouth shut, Rosswell posed his question one more time. “You get to choose whether to tell me or die of suffocation. Where’s Tina?”
“Second door to your left, about hundred feet after you get into the house.”
“That’s better. Any guards?”
“No.”
“Any alarms?”
“No.”
“Anything dangerous I need to know about?”
“No.”
“If you’re lying, I’ll come back and choke you to death with my own hands.”
Charlie nodded.
“And where’s my silver?”
“Nathaniel.”
When he rose, Rosswell stepped on Charlie’s hand, grinding his heel into it for emphasis. “Ollie, finish bundling up the trash.”
Ollie stuffed cotton balls in Charlie’s mouth. Charlie whimpered. Tears ran down his cheeks when Ollie taped his mouth shut.
Rosswell assured Charlie, “I’m not going to suffocate you. For now. This is to keep you quiet.”
Ollie added, “Try not to upchuck before we get back. The vomit won’t have any place to go, which means it cuts off all your air. Understand?”
Charlie nodded again. Rosswell’s nose picked up an odor telling him that Charlie had crapped his pants before he peed himself.
“Ollie’s right. Another word of warning.” Rosswell made certain Charlie could see his face. “Don’t swallow. You could wind up choking yourself. That’s suffocation.”
Charlie’s eyes grew wide. He lay still. Very still.
With the promise that no guards or alarms or anything else dangerous awaited, the trio exited the cave through the wooden door that Charlie had come through. When they reached the door of what Rosswell prayed was Tina’s room, he admitted to himself that perhaps Charlie hadn’t been lying. The glow in the hallway radiated from small night lights plugged into outlets at various intervals. Whenever they had passed one of them, Rosswell yanked it from its socket. At the end of the hallway were two fire doors with push bars. If the map from Mrs. Bolzoni’s was correct, the rest of Nathaniel’s house waited on the other side of the fire doors.
The door to Tina’s room lay shrouded in darkness.
Rosswell risked a whisper. “I’m going to try the door. If it’s unlocked, I’m going in first. Ollie, if it’s locked, kick it open if you can. Then I’ll go in. Alessandra, guard the hallway. Ollie, if Tina’s drugged, you’ll have to help me carry her out. If anyone else is in the room, don’t shoot them. Unless they point a gun at you.”
> Ollie moved close to Rosswell. “What if she’s not in there?”
Alessandra stood close to Ollie. “Then we go to Plan B.”
“Rosswell never has a Plan B. You’d best give him details.”
“We kick down every door in the place. With our weapons drawn.”
Rosswell said, “Alessandra, I like the way you think.”
Ollie, clearly not satisfied by the answers he’d heard, barged ahead. “What if she’s not in this house anywhere?”
Instead of answering Ollie, Rosswell asked Alessandra, “Have you ever been in this part of the house?”
“No.”
“Then we leave the way we came in.”
Ollie wanted answers. “If we blunder through every room and don’t find Tina, what do we do?”
Rosswell said, “We leave any way we can.”
Ollie and Alessandra gave Rosswell a thumbs up.
Riffling through the tote bag until he found a length of plastic rope, Rosswell thrust it in to Ollie’s hands. “Wind this through those crash bars on the fire door. It won’t stop someone from coming through eventually but it will slow them down.”
Above the metal doorknob of Tina’s room, Rosswell’s hand hovered for a couple of seconds until crunch time arrived. As soon as his skin made contact, alarms—louder than the ones Rosswell had heard the first time at the house—screeched in a deafening siren whoop. Lights in the ceiling flashed on, giving the hallway the look of high noon in June. Rosswell twisted the knob and shoved the door open, promising himself he’d kill Charlie Heckle.
Chapter 41
Monday Night, continued
Tina lay on a bed, her eyes wide, her body tensed.
“Rosswell!”
He risked taking a moment to kiss her, then rubbed the Celtic cross necklace lying at her throat. The actions served as his validation that he’d reached the end of his journey.
The klaxons screaming in his brain couldn’t dampen the joy of seeing Tina. Using his medic’s training, he assessed her condition within seconds. Her hair smelled of a recent washing with a shampoo recalling fresh air on a mountainside. Her skin felt smooth, supple, and soft. They’d kept her clean. It was nice when bad guys kept their prisoners clean. Her belly was huge with their baby.
“I’m fine,” she screamed over the screech of the alarms. “Get me out of here!” She jumped from the bed and shoved her feet into tennis shoes, all in the same motion.
Even through the sound of the sirens in the hallway, Rosswell could make out people yelling somewhere, running straight for them.
“We’re leaving this dump!” Rosswell assured himself the orange rope tied to the door would keep the pursuers at bay long enough to ensure their escape. “Alessandra, clear a path for Tina and Ollie. I’ll bring up the rear.”
Alessandra, her flashlight clutched in one hand, the gun at the ready in the other, sprinted down the hallway toward the cave. Ollie, whose adrenalin must’ve been surging overtime, cozied up close behind Alessandra, dragging Tina as she hurried to keep up.
Rosswell followed the three of them, his pistol in firing position, his eyes ready to catch sight over his shoulder of anyone who gained on him. No one followed. With a glance forward every second or so to make certain he wasn’t going to smack headfirst into a wall, he closed on his goal of the cave’s outside entrance with each step. Now, he spotted the wooden door marking where the hallway in the house ended and the cave began.
Alessandra grabbed the doorknob and turned. “It’s locked.”
Behind them, Rosswell heard people—it sounded like a lot of people—pounding on the fire door. “Ollie, kick the door where the handle meets the frame.”
“Actually, it’s where the lockset meets the casing.”
Alessandra smacked Ollie in the face. “Start kicking, damn it!”
A few swift kicks from Ollie shattered the wood where the lockset met the casing.
They all dove through into the back of the cave. Rosswell found a chunk of rock and stuck it under the useless door. Another speed bump for would-be pursuers. With all of their flashlights on, the way shined clear. It took the rescue party only a few seconds to reach the entrance.
Rosswell, Tina, and Ollie halted, turned, and aimed their pistols into the cave.
“Don’t…Where…” Ollie stopped, his panting leaving him unable to speak. He gasped and breathed deeply until he regained his voice. “Where’s Alessandra?”
Rosswell hollered back into the depths of the cave, “Alessandra!” The clamoring of the alarms swallowed his yelling.
Ollie said, “She’s still back there.”
“You and Tina get to the car right now. I’ll fetch Alessandra.” No way was Tina staying in the filthy cave.
Before Rosswell could move five feet, Alessandra appeared out of the darkness, jogging toward him.
“What kept you?”
“Since you didn’t kill Charlie like you promised, I had to kick him in the nuts for lying to us.” She smiled. “I think he’s hurt.”
Outside the cave, Rosswell’s shaking fingers punched 9-1-1 as they sprinted for Sofia.
The operator said, “What is the nature—”
“Two people have been shot at River Heights Villa. One dead. One injured.” Not once slowing down, Rosswell repeated the message two more times, then clicked off.
Ollie panted. “Who’s been shot? Who’s dead?”
Tina’s adrenaline must’ve kicked in since she was leading the pack.
Rosswell’s phone rang. The emergency operator making the standard verification call on hang-ups. He let it go to voicemail. “Serious injury and death calls take precedence. I lied. So sue me.” Shortness of breath began working a number on him. “Keep running, people.”
Running being the only concern now, not a one of them checked behind them nor did they slow down.
Gunshots sounded.
They reached Sofia, huffing and panting after the sprint. Although Rosswell expected the place to erupt with cops and ambulances within minutes, he felt duty bound to check on Jim Bill immediately. Except that now it sounded as if people were shooting at them.
Ollie stated the obvious. “Officer Evans is overdue.”
“I already know that. You three get to the hospital.”
Rosswell bent to kiss Tina again. “I love you.”
“Don’t leave me!”
“If it weren’t for Jim Bill, I wouldn’t have found you. I’m going to help him.”
“Hurry.” Alessandra put her arm around Tina. “All of us are going to be fine. The cops will beat Rosswell to the scene.”
Ollie beamed. “You’d make a great research assistant.”
Alessandra jiggled and smiled. “Never forget that.”
Their elation rapidly deflated when from behind, Susannah and Frankie Joe, each armed with a pistol, flanked them.
Susannah chuckled. “Everybody’s weapon on the ground. Now. Real slow. Real easy.”
“Guns on the ground.” Frankie Joe stuck his gun to Tina’s temple. “Now.”
Rosswell, Ollie, and Alessandra did as they were ordered. Frankie Joe flung all three guns deep into the burnt area.
Rosswell dropped to his knees by Tina. “If you’re going to kill me, then you’ve got to let me tell her good-bye.”
Tina said, “You assholes let me go. The cops are coming.”
Susannah said, “Shut up, girly.”
Alessandra dropped the tote bag next to Rosswell. In all the confusion, he thought the thing had been left in Nathaniel’s house. He risked a glance inside the bag.
“About time you jokers showed up.” Alessandra marched up to their captors. “I’m through with these losers.” She pointed to Rosswell, Tina, and Ollie. “I found out all I can. I’m reporting to Nathaniel.” Doing an about face to all of them, she walked away from the car, toward the house.
Susannah yelled, “Get back here or I’ll shoot your sorry ass.”
Without turning to face Susannah, Alessandra
said, “I take my orders from Nathaniel, not you,” and kept walking.
Frankie Joe joined his wife. “You turn around right now or I’ll shoot you myself. I’d enjoy it.”
Alessandra continued trudging up the hill. “Shoot me. Then enjoy what Nathaniel does to you. He specializes in slow and painful deaths.”
Frankie Joe and Susannah, never lowering their guns, exchanged a quick glance, shrugged, and returned attention to their three prisoners, each of whom now brandished pistols.
Ollie’s weapon hovered mere inches from Susannah’s face. “Anyone who’d stick eighteen garden gnomes in front of a doublewide doesn’t have the sense God gave a green goose.”
Tina positioned herself into a firing stance. “This girly is a cop.”
Alessandra called down from the hill, “And so is this girly.”
Rosswell’s gun barrel touched the tip of Frankie Joe’s nose. “You certainly have pretty hands for a farm machine mechanic. Alessandra, check in the tote bag. Might be some extra clothesline and duct tape.”
Alessandra sprinted down the hill toward the group. “Gladly.”
Ollie crowed, “Told you she’d make a great research assistant.”
Alessandra poked around in the tote bag. “You weren’t kidding about the code talk. I can’t believe all the crap you got in here.” She glanced at Susannah and Frankie Joe. “We’ll add your guns to our stash. Thanks.”
Ollie shoved Susannah and Frankie Joe to the ground and flipped them face down. He removed their shoes, and inspected the pistols. “Trash. Gustave’s a cheap boss man.”
Rosswell said, “Tie them, then drive Tina to the hospital.”
Chapter 42
Monday Night, continued
Rosswell left Ollie and Alessandra, who busied themselves with tying up Susannah and Frankie Joe before hustling Tina to the hospital.
Rosswell scrambled up the hill and planted himself in the spot where Gustave busted Nathaniel early Friday morning. Now, after the alarms stopped, echoes pounded inside Rosswell’s brain like sledgehammers banging on a tin roof.
