The Fix-It Man

by Donald Wells

  “Ms. Lee? Ms. Lee’s first name is—” His phone rang.

  Bill answered it and I could tell by his demeanor that it was someone from the Task Force, most likely Garner. He hung up.

  “The D.A. has a subpoena for Rainer’s DNA, so Rainer has decided to deal. He says he can lead us to the women. They’re still alive John, the bastard says that some of them are still alive, and… he’s giving up Thorne.”

  “Bill I know you, why the look?”

  “Thorne has got to know this. He must know that Rainer was arrested, but he’s not budging, Garner says he’s just sitting in his house, almost like he’s waiting for us to come in for him.”

  “You make him sound suicidal.”

  “That’s what Garner is worried about; he’s trying to figure out a ruse to get Felicia and her aunt out of the house before we move in on him.”

  “When is Garner going in?”

  “Probably tonight, Rainer says he’ll take us to the women, but only after his lawyers cut a deal, the D.A.’s balking about letting him walk scot-free. I’ve got to get going. If I hurry, maybe I can get there in time to be of help.”

  “I’m coming with you; I think I might be able to get Felicia and Sophie out of that house.”

  “How?”

  “I, ah, I’ve kept in contact with Felicia. In fact, I warned her about Thorne but she didn’t want to believe me.”

  Bill stared at me before asking his question.

  “This contact, does Tori know about it?”

  “No, and it’s not what you’re thinking. It’s Felicia’s Aunt Sophie, she may listen to me now. I can’t imagine with all the stress Thorne’s been under that they haven’t noticed he’s changed.”

  Bill looked at his watch. “If we hurry we can catch the one o’clock train out of Philly.”

  I smiled. “You forget I’m rich now. We have access to a helicopter. I’ll have us there by one o’clock, but first I’ve got to talk to Tori, to let her know that I’m going, and why.”

  Bill made a face. “Good luck with that.”

  “Thanks, I think I’ll need it.”

  * * *

  I found Tori in the dining room talking to the interior designer. After they were done speaking, I told her about Rainer and my plan to get Felicia out of the house.

  “You have her aunt’s phone number, why?”

  “Her aunt gave it to me, in case I ever wanted to contact Felicia.”

  “And have you used it?”

  “Yes, once, to warn her about Thorne, and it was messy but—”

  Tori pressed a finger to my lips, cutting me off.

  “You don’t have to tell me that nothing happened. I know nothing happened, because I know you. If something had happened, you would have told me.”

  “And I would have lost you.”

  “And you would have lost me.”

  I hugged her. “And I can’t lose you; I love you too damn much.”

  “I know, and for obvious reasons, I’m not as insecure as I once was about us.”

  “Thank you, for understanding.”

  “I do understand, and I’m coming along, you may need help.”

  I nodded. “I’ve already thought of that.”

  44

  Seven hours later, Tori and I were seated in the kitchen of a home, a large cabin, west of the Thorne Estate.

  The police had evacuated the occupants on all sides of Thorne and were now simply waiting to serve him with warrants.

  Lieutenant Garner wasn’t thrilled with having civilians involved, but agreed that there was little risk of danger if something went wrong, after all, we were half a mile away from the estate.

  I took Sophie’s card from my wallet and dialed the number. Outside the Thorne estate, police technicians were remotely monitoring my call.

  “Sophie, this is John Faron, can you talk?”

  She answered, “Yes.” but I detected strain in her voice.

  “Sophie, listen to me, David is about to be arrested for murder. Can you sneak yourself and Felicia out of the house?”

  “Yes… David’s asleep.”

  “Good, good, now, do you remember my friend Captain Healy?”

  “Yes.”

  “He’ll meet you and Felicia out on the main road, okay?”

  “Right, goodbye John,” And the line went dead.

  Tori stared at me. “Well, are they coming out?”

  “Yeah… but that was too easy, plus she sounded odd.”

  I called Bill and we discussed my conversation with Sophie, as we were talking, a black Hummer left the garage of the Thorne Estate and headed toward him and the other cops.

  “I’ll call you back.” Bill said.

  We waited, six minutes passed and then my phone rang.

  “It’s okay John, Felicia and her aunt were alone in the Hummer, we’re headed your way now.”

  I went outside and stood on the cabin’s porch, through the woods I could see headlights approaching. “That’s great Bill. I’ll see you soon.” I smiled at Tori. “Everything seems fine.”

  The Hummer pulled up in front of the cabin and parked beside my rented car. As everyone got out, I gave Felicia a careful look and, despite the obscuring bulk of her jacket, I could see that she was beginning to show. She was definitely pregnant.

  Tori noticed too, and went to her.

  “This may sound strange, particularly coming from me, but I hope that’s not your husband’s child you’re carrying.”

  Felicia began crying and Tori reached over and took her hand.

  Bill walked over to me. “You were right about Sophie sounding odd; David was with her when you called.”

  “So where is he now?”

  Sophie spoke up. “He handed me the keys to the Hummer and told us to wait five minutes before leaving and then he just walked away. Oh John, you were right; he’s been so odd lately, particularly since his friend was arrested. He’s been spending most of his time in the basement, doing God knows what.”

  I walked over to Felicia. “Are you all right?”

  She looked up at me with the saddest of eyes.

  “My husband’s a serial killer; what kind of life will my baby have growing up with that stigma?”

  “At least you’re safe.”

  She simply looked down and started weeping again.

  I looked at Bill. “Are you sure Thorne’s still in the house?”

  He held up a finger as his phone rang. After a few moments of talking, he gave a relieved smile. “They just flew over the house with heat detection equipment, it read two thermal signatures in the basement, one strong, one weak. The strong one is probably the furnace, while the lesser one must be Thorne, they’ve also got the warrants; they’re sending a SWAT team in.”

  We had all just agreed to go inside when the explosion occurred. It was so powerful that it lit up the night and trembled the ground. We ran back off the porch, past the Hummer, and toward the tree line to gaze east at the light of the fire.

  “That’s Thorne’s place,” Bill said. As he reached for his phone, a shot rang out and I watched in horror as he tumbled to the ground. We all spun around, and standing behind us with a gun in one hand and a knife in the other was David Thorne.

  45

  Thorne smiled at me, as I bent down to check on Bill.

  “I’m so happy to see you Faron, you cannot imagine my joy.”

  Bill was shot high in the back, but most of the bleeding came from a ragged exit hole in his right shoulder, and although he was unconscious, his breathing seemed steady. I looked over at Tori standing beside Felicia and Sophie and saw her shift her eyes to the front steps of the cabin, I gave her a slight nod and stood up.

  “Thorne, you crazy piece of shit! What was that explosion?”

  “That was the sound of my house blowing up and taking the cops with it, by the time they sort that mess out I’ll be long gone. Felicia, come here.”

  Felicia didn’t budge and Thorne pointed the gun at her aunt.


  “Come here or I’ll shoot Sophie, I should shoot the ungrateful bitch anyway for arranging these trysts”

  Felicia relented. “All right David.”

  I reached over and held her back. “If you’re leaving, go, but Felicia is staying here.” He pointed the gun at me and I held up my hand, hoping to buy time. “Wait! Why only blondes?”

  Thorne sighted down the barrel.

  “They’re more fun, goodbye Faron,”

  He was about to pull the trigger when he heard the approaching footfalls from behind.

  Bobby Owens. I had asked him along just in case and it looked like he was about to capture Thorne all by himself.

  Thorne turned toward Bobby an instant too late and Bobby caught him with a running right to the chin, that made Thorne drop the gun, but he was still wielding the knife.

  It was a mean piece of work too, a foot long blade with deadly serrated teeth on one side and a sharp edge on the other.

  As Bobby and I circled him, Thorne slashed the air in front of us. Bobby made a play for Thorne’s gun and plucked it from the ground, but as he was bringing it up to fire, Thorne slashed him across the back of the hand. Bobby screamed in pain and the gun went flying into the darkness of the trees.

  I scrambled over to where Bill lay bleeding and tore his gun from his holster. When I looked back at Thorne, he was holding the knife at Tori’s throat.

  “Throw it away Faron! Throw it away or I’ll slice her tits off.”

  As he talked, Thorne backpedaled toward the Hummer. I looked at Tori; she appeared both terrified and pissed at the same time. I held my hand out at arm’s length and then flicked my wrist, sending Bill’s gun into a thicket of bushes.

  Felicia ran over to Thorne and grabbed Tori’s hand.

  “Let her go! Just take the car and leave us alone.”

  “Come with me, I’ve money hidden away, we won’t starve.”

  “I’m not coming with you.”

  “Yes you will… or else.”

  “I don’t care about your threats anymore. The things you’ve done, all those poor women… oh my God, David.”

  “But… I love you Felicia, I can’t leave without you.”

  Felicia pulled Tori harder and Thorne let her slip from his grasp. Tori ran to me and I held her close, as off in the distance, an agonized scream tore through the night, and I wondered how many more people this animal had just killed and injured with his bomb.

  Thorne offered Felicia his hand. “Come with me, please… for the baby?”

  Felicia backed away from him in disgust.

  Thorne made a whimpering sound and then thrust the blade of his knife into a front tire on my rented car. A loud hiss filled the air as the tire flattened. Thorne activated the remote start on the Hummer as he climbed inside and jolted it into reverse, very nearly running over Bobby in the process.

  Bobby leapt to the side just in time, as Thorne then put the Hummer into drive and headed back toward the road. I released Tori and ran after him, behind me, both Felicia and Tori pleaded for me to stop, as I ran at an angle to the Hummer.

  My only hope of catching him was to cut through the trees, and pray that the straight line I was running was enough to make up for the speed of the Hummer, on the meandering strip of gravel that composed the driveway’s access road.

  I reached the front of the driveway moments before Thorne and searched for something, anything, that might be used to shatter the windshield and possibly cause him to crash.

  I spied a stone the size of a baseball and with no time left, I hurled it, shattering the side window, and watched as it smashed into Thorne’s face. In the dim light of the moon, I saw a spray of blood splatter the windshield, and then the Hummer swerved dangerously close to a ditch at the side of the road. At the last instant, Thorne regained control, gunned the engine, and was gone.

  I started jogging back up the driveway, when I reached the house I found everyone inside and was relieved to see Bill sitting up and conscious in the kitchen. Sophie, teary-eyed, was seated beside Bill and applying pressure to his wound, while Tori tended to Bobby’s cut hand.

  “Did you get him John?” Bill asked.

  “No, but I wounded his face with a rock, he’s bleeding badly.”

  “What the hell happened?”

  “He blew up his house, but never mind that, you need a doctor.”

  “We’ll go to what’s left of the house; they’ve probably got a fleet of ambulances headed there.”

  I looked around. “Where’s Felicia?”

  Tori pointed toward the living room. I walked in to find Felicia on her cell phone; she hung up just as I entered.

  “Who were you calling?”

  “No one, I thought I heard it ring.” She walked over and hugged me. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”

  “I’m fine, but what about you?”

  “I’m carrying the devil’s baby, that’s how I am.”

  I broke our embrace and guided her to sit on the sofa.

  “Have you considered… not having it?”

  “No, I could never do that. I’ll raise this child and keep the truth from it.”

  “That may be impossible, baby.”

  She began to cry. “I know.”

  Tori walked in. “Bill called Lieutenant Garner, they’re sending an ambulance here for him and Bobby, oh, and Garner says they lost eight men at the house, and more were wounded.”

  Felicia curled up into a ball and began to sob harder. Tori sat beside her on the sofa and rubbed her back soothingly, as I stood in the center of the room, in utter, complete, uselessness.

  46

  Bobby entered the room and I gave him a hug.

  “You saved my life, maybe all of our lives.”

  “Man, one minute I dozed off on that sofa there and the next thing I knew‌—‌Boom! When I got to the door I see everybody looking at the fire and that guy with the gun gets out of the Hummer and… and then he shot Captain Healy.”

  “Thorne was in the Hummer, you’re sure?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “He wasn’t in it when everyone arrived. I’d sure like to get another look at that Hummer.”

  On the sofa, Felicia now dried her eyes, as Tori talked to her quietly.

  Bobby nodded toward Felicia. “Wanda’s pregnant too,”

  “Congratulations Bobby, so when’s the wedding?”

  “You sound like her mother. We’re getting married soon, and you’re invited.”

  “Tori and I will be there, count on it.”

  “It’s scary you know, becoming a father.”

  I looked over at the sofa. “Yeah, it is. But you’ll be a good one, you love Wanda and you’ll love the baby too.”

  “Well yeah, I mean, who don’t love a baby?”

  I said, “No one, I guess,” and then I thought about Felicia’s child and the stigma that would follow it its whole life as an offspring of Thorne.

  * * *

  Four hours later, they found the Hummer abandoned, and it was a revelation.

  Underneath the wide, center console was a coffin-like compartment that was likely used to transport Thorne’s victims about Manhattan.

  It was also how Thorne managed to leave the estate undetected and wound up at the cabin.

  Tori, Felicia, Sophie, Bobby and I were all seated about a large conference table inside the PLATINUM Command Center, while Lieutenant Garner, who bore a nasty cut on his forehead from the explosion at Thorne’s, went over our statements. Bill was in the hospital and expected to recover fully from his wound.

  Garner displayed the Hummer on a huge video screen.

  “This rock you say you hit him with, it must have been big, he bled like a pig all over the seats.”

  I nodded. “It was a nice chunk of stone, it must have scarred him, should make him easier to spot.”

  “We’ll catch him.” Garner said. “It’s just a matter of time, his face will be everywhere by morning and because of the, well…uniqueness o
f his crimes; no one will ever forget this monster.”

  I looked across the table and saw Felicia wince. The extent of Thorne’s depravity was just coming to light, and the details were not only sensational, but also sickening.

  Jerold Rainer’s lawyers finally came to an agreement with the D.A.’s office and Rainer led police to a brownstone in Manhattan that was Thorne’s, but listed under an alias the police knew nothing about. Rainer said that the property had been his before he sold it to Thorne and that at one time, it had been a speakeasy. The building connected to a townhouse owned by Rainer by a secret underground passageway that was built in the 1920’s during prohibition, as an escape route in case of a raid.

  After the bomb squad gave the all clear, the police entered and found a fair slice of hell.

  Of the forty-one blond women that had vanished over the years, only eighteen were alive, some just barely. The cops were on the scene less than an hour before the place got its nickname: The Devil’s Dormitory.

  The three-story building had been renovated and now included sixty-six cell like rooms. Each cell contained a small bed, a sink and a toilet. They were soundproof and separated by white cinderblock walls. The door of each cell was composed of one-way, shatterproof glass, mirrored on the occupant’s side, but easily seen through on the corridor side. At the bottom of each door’s metal frame was a lockable sliding compartment that swiveled so that food could be sent in to the cell without any contact being made.

  Apparently, Thorne had stopped going to the brownstone sometime after Rainer’s arrest and the remaining women were near starving when rescued.

  And as if the cells weren’t horror enough, the police then found the other rooms.

  There was the Rape Room, where beds sat with straps and sexual devices numerous in number, and most, sadistic in their design.

  On the third floor was a room that had chains hanging down from the ceiling and also, embedded into the floor. It was windowless and its soundproof walls were covered by thick sheets of plastic, which could be removed after the room had been… used.

  It was the Killing Room.

  The place where David Thorne brought the women, one by one, as the depraved urge struck him, and without fear of detection or any semblance of conscience, would suspend them, naked and helpless, in chains and a metal collar, while he then slowly hacked them to pieces, until death finally freed them from their horror.