Marie was shaking her head, but Dex pulled her along behind him, and they slipped in behind the waterfall. There was a rock ledge where one could stand and look out through the plummeting water. A rainbow was superimposed on the inside of the waterfall, and although it was shady where they were standing, they could look through the fall and mist to the bright sunshine.
After they were back at the gravel beach, Dex said, “Let’s go in the water before we eat.” He dove in, and Marie was right behind him.
When she surfaced she yelled, “Great Scott, Dex, why didn’t you tell me this was ice water?” She was swimming quickly toward the bank, but he grabbed her foot, pulled her back, wrapped his arms around her, and wouldn’t let her get out of the water.
“Marie, you had to know this wasn’t bath water. It’s a mountain lake, and it’s not that cold once you get used to it.”
“Yeah, but it would have been nice if you had warned me to ease into it.”
“If I’d told you it was cold, you would’ve never put a toe in the water, and you know it. Marie, you’re acting like a girl.”
Later she wouldn’t believe she had actually done it, but she ripped off the top of her bikini and said, “Hey, buster, maybe you haven’t noticed, but I am a girl.”
She was laughing when she broke away from him and beat him to the edge of the water. The top was back in place before he caught up.
After they ate lunch, they stretched out on the blanket. Marie said, “I’ve was all over this mountain when we were growing up, but this is the prettiest place I’ve ever seen. I can understand why you and Hoagie liked it so much. Thanks for bringing me to your special place.”
Then she smiled and said, “I can’t help but wonder how many girls you brought up here when you were in high school, but I don’t want to know.”
Since she was smiling, Dex didn’t respond. He was thinking about the hours he had spent here with DJ, and there had been others, but some things were best left unsaid. He turned over on his side, pulled her closer, and kissed her.
Suddenly she pulled away and said, “Hey, there’s someone up there watching us.” Two teenage boys were standing up on the cliff waving their arms, laughing, and yelling something that he couldn’t understand over the sound of the waterfall. They quickly gathered their picnic gear, but by the time they climbed up to the top of the waterfall, the boys had disappeared.
Dex said, “Don’t worry about them. They were just young boys having fun. That’s the type of thing that Hoagie and I would have done.”
“You’re never embarrassed. I’m just glad I saw them before we really did something stupid down there in plain sight.” Marie was still upset as they walked back to the car.
Chapter 21
The weekend ended much too soon. If Dex and Marie had known on Monday morning how the coming week would forever change their lives, they would have pulled the covers over their heads and never gotten out of bed.
Dex left that morning on a weeklong sales trip. After making several trips with Jim Mitchell, he was finally going out on the road alone, armed with extensive literature and samples of the new product. His first appointment was in Memphis, a six-hour drive from River City. It gave him a lot of time to reflect on the weekend he spent with Marie.
Dex had originally thought that his career-ending injury was the worst thing that could have happened, but now he considered it a blessing. It was what brought Marie back into his life, and he had never been happier. He was jubilant that morning as he drove west on Interstate 40. He was so deep in thought about the past weekend that he was basically oblivious of the cars and trucks whizzing by him at seventy miles an hour. He was also blissfully unaware that his euphoria was about to be tragically interrupted.
Dex’s first appointment was with a young physician in private practice whom he had never met. The receptionist took his business card and said, “Have a seat, Mr. Martin, and I’ll tell the doctor that you’re here.”
The waiting room was full, and Dex picked up a magazine and prepared for a long wait. He was sitting for less than five minutes when the receptionist said, “Mr. Martin, the doctor will see you now.”
Dex followed her through the door as several pairs of angry eyes followed him. The patients didn’t like the idea that a late-arriving patient was seeing the doctor before they were. As soon as he walked in the doctor’s office, he immediately sensed why he did not have to wait. There was an Ole Miss helmet sitting on the credenza directly behind his desk. The doctor was a football fan and recognized his name. Dex had already learned how to leverage his athletic celebrity to boast his sales. If these people insisted on living in the past, he would play along. They talked football for a few minutes before he started his sales pitch. Name recognition could get him in the door, but he still had to sell the product on its merits. The physicians always seemed surprised that a former jock was bright, articulate, and knowledgeable enough to intelligently discuss the efficacy of the product. Dex had done his homework well.
He was responsible for Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, the four states in the test-market area. The company was closely monitoring the results, and since they had so far exceeded expectation, Dex was being given a lot of credit.
As part of the marketing blitz, they had a company prepare several hundred life-size cardboard mock-ups of Dex in his Georgia uniform holding a bottle of EaseFast. Starting this week they were being placed in pharmacies and supermarkets throughout the test-market states. Marie did a double take when she walked into a local pharmacy and came face to face with a life-sized clone of the man who had just shared her bed.
Dex was on the road all week but told Marie he would be home Friday afternoon. They made plans to have dinner Friday night. He was in North Carolina on Thursday night and had to make a swing through South Carolina and Georgia. When Dex realized he wasn’t going to make it back for his Friday night date with Marie, he called Hoagie and asked him if would take her to dinner on Friday. Hoagie and Marie loved each other. The things that made Hoagie unattractive to all the other girls were the very things that Marie found adorable about the rotund musician. He was the one guy, other than Dex, with whom she always felt absolutely comfortable. She could show up for lunch without makeup, kid him about his weight, or just be in a terrible PMS mood and Hoagie always accepted her just as she was. Usually when she showed up in a bad mood, Hoagie could have her laughing within a few minutes. Their friendship went back to when he and Dex both thought of her as just one of the boys.
Before he called Hoagie, Dex called Marie and told her he was tied up and couldn’t make it back by Friday. She was disappointed but said she understood his situation. When he called Hoagie he asked him not to tell Marie that it was his idea for him to call her.
Hoagie called Marie that night. “Hey, beautiful, how about helping me improve my reputation? If Dex is still out of town, are you free for dinner tomorrow night?”
“Hoagie, you’re just what I need to get me through this week. I talked to Dex earlier, and he’s not going to be back until Saturday afternoon.” Hoagie didn’t tell her he had just gotten off the phone with Dex.
He asked, “How about the Canyon Catfish House?”
“That sounds good to me.”
Marie could have easily named a dozen other restaurants she would have preferred, but she always enjoyed being with Hoagie and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. It was a small restaurant nestled in a canyon between two mountains overlooking the river, and it was one of Hoagie’s favorites. He preferred everything fried, and if it wasn’t fried, it wasn’t served at the Canyon. The house specialty was catfish and hush puppies. It was about ten miles from River City on a sparsely traveled, twisting road that snaked through the canyon following the curvature of the river.
Hoagie and Marie ate on the deck. After they finished eating, they continued talking and si
pping on beer until they realized that they were the only customers remaining in the restaurant.
The parking lot was very dimly lit on the way out. It had been crowded when they arrived, and they had to park next to the woods at the farthest point from the restaurant entrance. The few cars remaining in the lot were all parked close to the entrance and apparently belonged to the restaurant employees. The only other vehicle next to the woods where Hoagie had parked was an older model SUV.
Hoagie walked around and put the key in the passenger door to open it for Marie; neither of them saw the man come up behind them. The butt of a heavy pistol struck Hoagie at the base of his skull, and he collapsed in his tracks. In a continuing backhand motion, the pistol struck Marie a glancing blow on the side of her head. She sprawled unconscious across Hoagie’s motionless body.
The attack was so sudden that neither of them made a sound. The man lifted Marie over his shoulder and carried her to the SUV. The backseats were removed, and he placed her in the back. He gagged her with a filthy piece of cloth and put a pillowcase over her head. Even though she was still unconscious, he bound her hands and feet together. The wound on the side of her head was bleeding profusely, and blood had already soaked through the pillowcase.
The attacker went back to check on Hoagie. His position had not changed. He was lying on his side with his head in a pool of blood. There was a wide, gaping laceration at the base of his skull. He knelt beside him to check his pulse. There was no heartbeat, and he started to panic. The attacker hadn’t intended to kill Hoagie. He had done some crazy things in his life, but he had never committed murder. His first thought was to leave the body in the parking lot and run, but he quickly discarded that idea. He dragged the body to the SUV and struggled to lift and push the dead weight into the vehicle beside Marie.
Exiting the parking lot, the attacker turned away from River City. His mind was working overtime. He had to dispose of the body, but he needed time to be far away from there before it was discovered. He had only driven a few miles from the restaurant on the mostly deserted highway when he noticed the road beyond the guardrail fell off sharply. He stopped and struggled to get the body out of the SUV and over the guardrail. It was so dark he could barely see the river at least a hundred yards below. He pushed Hoagie’s lifeless body over the edge and listened as it splashed into the dark water. He got back in the SUV and sped away. The attacker headed for his original destination with Marie still bound and unconscious.
Marie slowly began to regain her senses, but she didn’t recognize her surroundings. She was in a small room with what looked like log walls. She had a blistering headache that worsened as she slowly sat up. Then she saw that she was tethered to a log column that extended from the floor to the ceiling. A logging chain was wrapped tightly around her ankle and fastened with a lock.
The last thing Marie remembered was walking across the restaurant parking lot with Hoagie. Her head was pounding, but she tried to ignore it and reconstruct what had happened. She had a vague recollection of being carried over someone’s shoulder like a sack of flour and having a gag in her mouth and something like a bag over her head.
Maybe she was dreaming. She wasn’t gagged now, and there was nothing covering her head or face. She put her hand on her throbbing head, and it felt wet. Her hand was covered in blood when she removed it. She knew then that this wasn’t a dream. Someone hit her in the head, knocked her out, and chained her in the cabin.
Marie thought about Hoagie and wondered where he was. Had he also been hit in the head? The questions continued to run through her mind, but she had no answers.
She began to survey her surroundings. She was lying on an army-type cot. The only light was from an oil lantern that cast an eerie glow over the semi-dark room. She struggled to her feet and found that the chain was not long enough for her to reach the cabin door. It had apparently been carefully measured to allow her to only reach a makeshift toilet in the corner of the room. The toilet was constructed like an outdoor john with a large pipe that slanted down and passed through the wall to the outside. Next to the toilet there was a small metal tub sitting on a wooden crate. It was apparently supposed to function as a washbasin, because there was a small mirror and towel over it. There was a bucket filled with water sitting on the floor beside the toilet. She assumed it was for drinking, washing, and flushing the toilet. The idea of drinking from the bucket was repulsive to her.
The last thing she noticed was a small pet door that was too small for an adult to get through. It was cut out of the logs almost at the floor level. There was fresh sawdust around the opening. She pushed against it and could feel it give slightly, but it would not open. When she pushed it there was a noise like metal against metal, and she assumed it was a lock on the outside.
“Help, help! Is there anyone out there? I need help.” Marie cried out repeatedly but there was no answer, and she heard no movement outside the cabin.
She was still somewhat disoriented, but she again dragged the chain over to the wash basin to look in the mirror. She immediately wished she hadn’t looked. Her hair was caked with blood, and when she parted it she could see a large gash just above her right ear. It was still oozing blood, and even in the dim light she could see that it needed several sutures. She took the towel from the back of the basin, dipped it in the water bucket, and very carefully tried to clean the wound. She had nothing with which to disinfect the wound, but she was able to get a lot of the congealed blood out of her hair.
The effort exhausted her, and she finally limped back to the cot, dragging the chain behind her. She had no choice but to try to relax while she waited for someone to come. Thankfully her clothing was still intact. She had not been molested while unconscious. She had no idea why she had been abducted, but she was afraid some sort of sexual deviate had captured her and that it was only a matter of time before the molestation began. She looked around the cabin for anything she could use as a weapon but didn’t see anything.
Chapter 22
Dex returned Saturday afternoon and immediately called Marie. He got her answering machine and left a message for her to call him. His phone rang an hour later, and he was sure it was her. It was Gigi, and he could tell from her voice that something was terribly wrong.
“Dex, Hoagie’s mother called. He didn’t come home last night, and she is very worried. He was supposed to have met Marie for dinner, and she has been calling her all day but she hasn’t answered her phone.” A cold chill griped Dex as he hung up and headed for the door.
He left his car double parked, ran up the steps to Marie’s apartment, used his key, and opened the door. She wasn’t there, but thankfully there were no signs to indicate a struggle had taken place. Maybe she was just out shopping; Saturday afternoon was her only time to do that. He saw the message light blinking on her answering machine. He hesitated to invade her privacy, but worry trumped that concern. There were several recorded messages beginning with one from her mother on Friday night. He listened to the three calls from Hoagie’s mother and his own call earlier that afternoon. She had not answered any of them, and she always returned calls promptly. He was really frightened now.
Dex called the police and both local hospitals but didn’t find out anything. Then he noticed a note pad beside her phone. There was a note in Marie’s handwriting: “Dinner/Hoagie-7 pm @ Canyon.” He knew the Canyon Catfish Restaurant was one of Hoagie’s favorites. He ran to his car.
At the restaurant, Dex saw Hoagie’s car parked at the far end of the parking lot. It was locked, but the keys were dangling from the passenger side door. That didn’t make sense. Questions were tumbling through his mind: Where were they? Why would Hoagie leave his keys in the door? Why would the keys be on the passenger’s side? The manager of the Canyon was an old classmate, and he found him inside.
“Ron, have you seen Hoagie?”
“Not today. He was here last night with some good
-looking woman, but we were busy and I just waved at him from across the dining room. I believe they were still on the deck when I left about thirty minutes before closing time.”
“He didn’t come home last night, and his car is still in your parking lot with the keys hanging in the door. I was out of town and called to ask him to take my girlfriend to dinner. She was the one who was with him last night. She’s also missing. Something bad has happened, and we need to call the police now.”
A county cop responded to the call about fifteen minutes later. Dex hurriedly told him what had happened, but the officer said, “We don’t usually investigate a missing person case until after forty-eight hours, but I’ll check out the car and look around.”
They walked to the car together, and the officer walked around it without touching anything.
“Excuse me, Mr. Martin; I need to make a call.” He went to his car and returned in a few minutes.
“I’ve called for the crime scene unit. They should be here in a few minutes.”
“So you are going to go ahead with the investigation without waiting forty-eight hours?”
“Yes, I think we will get started on this one. It would be best if you wait in the restaurant until we finish here. I may need some additional information from you.”
The officer had not told Dex that he had spotted what appeared to be a pool of dried blood on the pavement and an intermittent trail of droplets leading away from the parked car.
When the crime scene unit arrived, the original officer pointed out what he had seen and said, “That looks like dried blood. You’ll want to get a scraping.”
The CSU officer said, “Yeah, I agree. We’ll also dust the car and the keys. Fingerprints may not help, but I’d rather get them than now than wish later that we had dusted.” They also photographed the car and the surrounding area and then walked all over the lot searching for other evidence. Dex was watching from a window in the restaurant.
Appalachian Intrigue Page 11
