by Judith Price
A bead of sweat dripped down Matthew’s back. He didn’t know if he should run out the doors or … “No, no, no,” he whispered, moving faster now. He needed to keep control. Needed to move slowly. He stopped abruptly when he heard the next question.
“What was Mr. Fisher’s position here?” The man asked. Matthew cringed.
“He was head of maintenance. He’s the one who did most of our refurbishing. Well, he and Matthew of course.”
“Matthew?” he clarified.
“Matthew McGregor. He’s George’s, err, well, was George’s assistant. Nice young man. Had a bit of a troubled past. We hired him from that rehabilitation program. What was the name if it?” She paused. “Sorry, I don’t recall. It was over two years ago. It’s the one in town—that place for troubled youths. Well, he was over twenty then.” Jill shot Jake a glance. “He’s head of maintenance now. No budget for an assistant, he works alone, but is hard working. Even comes in after hours sometimes.”
“Can you take us and show us this cave system?” the man interrupted.
Mandy the manager looked at her watch and turned in Matthew’s direction. Just as he was almost out the door he heard her say, “There’s Matthew now. Matthew. Matthew!” He stopped and gripped the handle of his mop tightly. “Sorry, but I have to go off premises for a meeting,” she said to the two agents, then turned towards Matthew. “Matthew, can you show these folks the old cave?”
Matthew stood stunned, his shoulders slightly hunched over his lean body and shifted from one foot to the next. “But, ummm it’s locked up tight, Miss Humphreys.” Matthew said. “And it’s closing time.” Mandy the manager frowned. Before she could insist, he said, “Besides, no one has been in there for years.” He tried to stop his eyes from darting from one person to the next.
“Miss Humphreys,” the male agent spoke.
“Mandy,” she corrected him with a hurried smile.
“We need just five minutes to rule out this tip. Five minutes,” he insisted.
Mandy the goddamn weak manager looked back at Matthew. “Five minutes then, Matthew, and don’t take them in too far. We don’t have insurance. Take real good care of them.” Her look was one of command with a slight smirk when she turned and waddled away.
Matthew scowled in her direction. “Follow me.” He said begrudgingly.
“I’m Special Agent Acker and this is Special Agent Oliver,” said Jake as he strode up and walked beside Matthew. Agent Acker did not hold out his hand to shake his. Probably thought he was better than he was. Since he was just a janitor.
“We will only be able to go into the mouth of the cave. It’s probably wet with all the rain we’ve had this fall. It smells bad in there, too.” The female agent trailed behind and Matthew felt her stare drill a hole in the back of his head.
“How long have you worked here Matthew? May I call you Matthew?” Agent Acker asked. Matthew nodded and continued his pace.
“Almost three years,” he finally responded.
“Where’d you work before then?”
Matthew shrugged. “I don’t know, odd jobs here and there. Why all the questions?”
“Just routine. Gotta do my job ya know. Boss is a hard-ass. Were you there when Mr. Fisher fell?” His pace quickened slightly. Matthew just nodded. “When was the last time you were in this closed cave?” Agent Acker continued.
“Maybe four months ago. Check it every couple of months to …” Matthew trailed off. “To check on the water levels. See if anything has changed, you know, after heavy rains. Last thing we need is a water leak into the main cave system. Why do you need to look in a closed-off cave?”
“The boss says I have to follow up on all the tips. We get some whacky ones.” Jake smirked back in Jill’s direction. She didn’t look amused.
They came to the end of a corridor. Matthew pulled on his key ring, zipped the line from its pulley, and thumbed through them. The lock clinked as it turned and the door swung open into the rain. “It’s over there.” Matthew pointed down a small flight of steps and over to a ramp about fifty feet from where they stood.
Matthew stopped and turned towards Jill. “Ladies first,” A wide smile formed on his face when he shut the door behind them.
The streetlights at the main entrance parking lot flicked on, one by one. The rain was lighter now as the trio hurried to the old cave’s door.
Who do these people think they are? What are they doing here? A tip? There was no tip. These cops are just screwing with me. They are always screwing with me.
Matthew knew that eventually a cop would show up. He was no fool. When they found that skank, Mandy the manager, sure they’d come and ask questions. But they wouldn’t ask Matthew. Who cared what a janitor thought anyway? Besides, why should he care? It wouldn’t matter. He was prepared. He was always prepared. Matthew thought about what he was going to do. Needed to do.
That lady cop couldn’t be more than one hundred pounds. She wasn’t saying much, he calculated. She was nice looking. Not his type. Did he even have a type?
He had planned for visitors, hoped for visitors. That would be fun! But he hadn’t thought his first visitors would be cops. And then there was their car. He hadn’t thought about a car. Surely they would have guns and he knew they would use them. Think, Matthew. Think. They didn’t know that the mop he was still carrying was actually a weapon. A sheath. Adrenaline pulsed his veins as he thought about the makeshift knife. And then there were his traps inside. He’d take down the man first, then take care of the girl in his own way. He giggled inside. Then he saw that know-it-all male cop glance down at the tire tracks that lead to the ramp and over to the last vehicle in the lot—his van. His blood pulsed faster. Did that cop notice his tire tracks? Of course he noticed the tire tracks. After all, he was a cop. Don’t be stupid, Matthew. Matthew gripped the top of his mop handle with his right hand and flexed his left fingers around it closer to the base.
He could sense growing mistrust. He wasn’t afraid. He was never afraid. Not Matthew. He tried to shrug off the feeling of falling out of control, like trying to take off a coat with no hands. He had to be careful now. Both the cops stood under the small roof that jutted out above the door. Keep it together, Matthew. Keep it together. Then without speaking, He zipped out the key ring. He thumbed a key and unlocked three shiny new locks on the large door.
The heavy door creaked open and Jill saw that Jake had instinctively touched his gun holster. Habit, she thought. Or were his creep alarms blaring at him as loudly as they were at her?
To Jill, Matthew seemed harmless enough. He sure didn’t look like any serial killer she had ever seen before. He was ordinary, but there was something odd about him, yet she couldn’t conjure up a thought as to why. She walked through the large entrance.
The smell hit her first. Mold and stale water and something else that she couldn’t quite decipher. “Wait here,” Matthew said. Lights from the parking lot shone in through the door giving them just enough light in the cave foyer. Matthew walked over to a lamp that sat on a wooden perch. He reached into the top pocket of his uniform shirt, pulled out a lighter, and lit the oil-soaked wick. “No electricity here.” he said looking back at them. He picked up the lamp, walked back and handed it to Jake. Matthew’s claw-like fingers lightly touched Jake’s in the exchange. It took Matthew’s full body weight to shove the door closed behind them. Then, in a bizarre movement, Matthew leaned on the brush of the mop and plucked off the end of it. “Good walking stick.” He grinned wide holding up the long wooden handle. Then he reached forward. “Give me the light. Follow me and be careful. It’s slippery.”
“What’s in there?” Jake queried holding the light towards an oversized black painted door on the right. A small metal ramp about six inches long disappeared behind it.
“That there is for storage.” Matthew answered a little too fast for Jake’s liking.
Jake handed him back the light. Matthew lifted the light up in front of them. “How are we supposed to get t
hrough there?” Jake asked. Jill was behind them now and what she saw made her suck in a breath.
“It’s real pretty isn’t it?” Matthew moved the light in a half-moon gesture, pointing to the golden jagged walls that seemed to swallow the path in front of them. They moved towards a large, black, oval-shaped hole. “It’s not like the main caverns, which are all paved, like the manager said. It can get a little tricky here. If you need to, just lean to the right. Keep close and make sure you look down. It’s not level,” Matthew said in a caring voice. “You wouldn’t want to get hurt.” Then he giggled.
Jill grabbed Jake’s right arm for support as they teetered on the path. When Matthew got to the mouth of the cave he abruptly stopped, making it almost impossible for Jake not to bump into him.
“Sorry,” Jake huffed a breath in Matthew’s direction. “How far can we go?”
“Not too much farther, I’m afraid. But you can’t miss this cave. It’s spectacular.”
The yellow hue of the light lit up the cave as they crouched in. “Wow,” Jill breathed out unexpectedly. The cave seemed to stretch on forever. Pools of darkness polka-dotted the background. The cave ceiling was low, allowing the glare of the light to illuminate the first cave wall. Jagged baby teeth dripped from the ceiling. In the distance there looked to be a long, narrow body of water.
“See, I knew you would like it. I knew it.” Matthew had stopped and leaned against the wall on his right. He seemed to be reaching around the round corner of the cave wall with his right arm. “We can’t really go any farther,” he said quickly.
“What’s down there? Jake asked, pointing down a narrow makeshift stairwell. It was just enough of a question to take Jill’s attention off Matthew, off her step. And when she turned in Jake’s direction she felt the pain as her ankle twisted sideways on a round rock. It was too late to steady herself and her ass hit the hard cold stone as her feet flew out from under her. Her head snapped backwards and smacked against the rock spike jutting up from the floor. For an instant she thought she saw stars.
“Jill,” Jake shouted. “You okay?” He leaned over her, and Jill thought she saw Matthew holding up a wooden club, but couldn’t muster a word. Before Jake could turn and see what Jill was blinking at, Matthew swung the bat hard. Jill heard the sound of crushing bone as Jake’s head twisted to the left and he fell to his knees. Did she just see that? She tried to comprehend, tried to push past the stars, tried to figure out what the goddamn hell was happening. She could not form any cognition as she watched Matthew lift the stick up over his head and pummel another blow on the top of Jake’s head. The force of Jake’s body came rapidly toward Jill. She didn’t have any time to react. And in slow motion, she didn’t feel the full reverberation of Jake’s skull bouncing off hers.
Fifteen
Jill moaned. Jake blinked trying to adjust to the light. He blinked as his head began to pound out the haze. He blinked as his breath fogged the air. He was sitting, his arms and legs hugging a large stalagmite. His left cheek felt cold as it pushed tight against the giant stone. He jerked his hands, but they would not move. His wrists were bound, zip-lined tight to a metal ring that was drilled into the stone. He pulled again, trying to move. Nothing. The large cave was illuminated. Small dark shadows cast onto the golden walls as if dancing on a stage. He couldn’t move his head as he tried to focus. Everything moved, fading in and out.
He heard another moan and looked over in the direction the sound came from. Focus, Jake. As the double image merged into one, he blinked in disbelief at what he saw.
Jill hung upside-down by her wrists and ankles from a long wooden rail. Her hair fell backwards almost touching the floor. She was naked and her mouth had a stretchy black band across it. Her eyes were closed, but the moaning told Jake she was alive.
“Oh, Agent Acker,” Matthew sing-songed to Jake. “I’m talking to you.” Matthew moved closer to Jill’s head, shadowing the light behind him.
What the hell was he doing? “What the hell?” Matthew’s movements were getting stronger, faster as Jake watched the shadow pleasure itself. Jake frantically pulled at his bound wrists.
“You can’t get loose, Agent Acker,” Matthew giggled. “This is going to be fuuunnn. Something different!” He proclaimed with glee. “You can watch, Agent Acker. You’re going to enjoy it, trust me.” Matthew grunted out the words. Jill’s eyes were closed, but she was moaning more frequently.
More grunts came from Matthew. Jake couldn’t watch this monster. But he forced himself to open his eyes when Matthew abruptly stopped. Jake heard it, too. Matthew turned quickly looking in the direction over Jake’s shoulder. A distant sound that sounded like a generator, no—a song, music. It was that organ—yes, that giant organ. Matthew cocked his head to the right and listened again. There it was again, organ music.
Matthew zipped up his pants and straightened his shirt. Perplexed anger washed over his face when he leaned over and glared at Jake squarely and smiled. “This will have to wait.” Matthew turned and hurriedly grabbed the lamp from a shelf. His boots crunched then echoed as he left. The light bounced with each of his steps and slowly disappeared.
Another moan came from Jill. “Jill,” Jake whispered. She whimpered. “Jill, we have to get out of here before he comes back.” For an instant he felt shameful that she was the one on the rail. He studied the contraption Jill was hanging from. It looked almost identical to the one Jill had drawn. Then the realization hit him hard. “Jill,” he whispered louder, frantically moving his hands before resigning to the fact that the only way he could free his hands would be if some phantom creature from the dark tunnels appeared and was hungry enough to gnaw them off.
He let out a huff and looked again at Jill. She was moving now. As she struggled, Jake could see that the contraption moved, swinging slightly. “Jill!” he commanded loudly. Instantly Jill’s eyes popped open and she let out a muffled scream as she frantically tried to move, tried to comprehend what was happening.
“Jill, Jill. Look at me, Jill,” Jake commanded again. The contraption swung in a stiffened snake-like fashion as Jill wept, looking in Jake’s direction. Her look of terror made him speak faster. “Can you move your body? Can you pull yourself up? Inch your arms up over the end of the beam. Or pull yourself up and try to shimmy your legs off the end of the beam. Jill couldn’t move her arms and shook her head fast. Jake saw the look of despair in her eyes. Of course she can’t pull herself up, you idiot. She is probably numb in all her limbs, he thought ruefully to himself.
Jake studied the contraption again, then said, “If you can move your body in a head-to-toe swing, you could get enough momentum to free your legs.” Jill lifted her head and examined the structure.
Jake listened for the sound of the organ notes that still hummed in the caves. “Try it, Jill, pump as if starting a swing. Pump your body.”
Jill grunted, tensed her body, and pushed once toward her head, once toward her feet. Then, again. Pumped. Pumped. Pumped. The rail began to move in the direction of the pumping. It was moving faster now. Back and forth. Pump. And just when the momentum was perfect, the top of the rail above Jill’s head smashed into the side of the cave giving her just enough recoil to pull her legs off the end of the rail. Her legs fell like limp noodles and her heels smacked the ground. The swinging rail dragged her now. Jill hopped to keep up with its movement, trying to slow it down, get some sort of traction. Anything. But all she could do was hop. The momentum of the rail began to slow and Jill arched her back attempting to lift her wrist backwards to the end of the rail. She hopped once. Again. Again. Again. The last hop freed her and Jill fell backwards landing hard on her back. Breathless, she looked up at the large piece of wood that swayed slowly above her.
She tried to catch her breath. She tore at her mouth, clutched the black strap, and tugged out a small blue ball from her mouth. Gasping and spitting out a primal scream of anger, she rolled quickly onto her stomach, perched herself onto her elbows, and breathed hard.
&
nbsp; “You okay, Jill?” Jake knew it was a stupid question. “He’ll be back soon. As soon as the organ stops he will be on his way back.” A thought wound its way through Jake–who was playing the organ?
At that moment, Jill looked down and for the first time realized she was naked. “What the hell, Jake,” she gasped for more breath.
“No time, Jill, its the 'Iceman'. Let’s move. Hurry, over to your right looks like some sort of workbench. There’s probably something that can cut those ropes.” Jill raised her head and studied Jake. Recognition dawned as she realized the predicament that he was in. Then, without hesitation she lifted her knees and perched herself onto her elbows as if doing a plank in a fitness program. She began to pull herself in the direction of the workbench. Jake could tell it must hurt as she grunted each time she plopped on her knees every six inches.
She reached the wooden workbench and tried to stand to see what was on it. The pain must be searing her numbness back to reality, Jake thought. But that wouldn’t stop Jill. Not now. “I can’t stand up … the pain.” She breathed through clenched teeth.
“Lift your hands to the workbench top. Feel around, Jill.” Jake almost sounded frantic. “The organ’s stopped, hurry.
“I feel something,” Jill’s attempts to grab whatever was there seemed futile until the sound of a metal instrument clanged beside her on the floor. Jill picked up a scalpel and held it up to the light.
“Hurry, Jill, he’ll be here anytime. Hurry.” Jake's voice pitched. He watched Jill, her wrists still bound, as she awkwardly sawed the thick rope around her ankles and freed them. “Can you walk, Jill?” She lifted her left leg and tried to pull herself up on the workbench while clutching the scalpel. She stood, naked, holding herself up like a toddler getting ready for her first steps.
