by K. J. Dahlen
“You lie. I was at the hospital. I overheard what the doctors told you. He’s in a coma.”
“Yeah he’s in a coma but it’s a drug controlled coma. The doctors can bring him out of it anytime they want to. They want to give him time to get his strength back.”
Sable saw a flash of light from the windows and hoped it was Nick and the rest of the team coming to rescue her. She got up and flicking the lighter on made her way over to the windows. Peeking out through the boards she saw a car parking in the lot. The lights went out but she knew that someone was here.
She went back to the door and listened. Sable heard some shuffling on the other side. She couldn’t tell what he was doing at first. Then she heard a different sound and smelled the odor of gasoline.
“Are you completely crazy? A fire will bring the police not to mention the fire department,” she yelled.
“Yeah but I’ll be long gone before they show up and you and Greg will be dead. You’ll have died from smoke inhalation long before the city fire department can get here," he yelled back.
“Don’t bet on it. The Pier has its own fire department and they aren’t that far away,” Sable told him.
He laughed. “Yeah I thought about that. That’s why we aren’t close enough to the Pier for them to come.”
“Liar,” Sable screamed. “We’re at the water treatment plant. The Pier is just on the other side of Olive Park.”
“How do you know where we are?”
“This is where you left me twenty years ago, you bastard.” Sable cried. “You brought me back to the same place you left me the first time you tried to kill me.”
“And this time you’ll die here," he screamed at her. “And I’ll walk away to kill again.” He reached inside his shirt pocket and pulled out a book of matches. Pulling a match from the book he struck it and watched as the flame burst from the end of the match. He watched the flame as it burned for a moment and then before it reached the end of the match he flung it away to land on the pile of rags and other trash he’d stacked against the door.
Instantly the pile burst into flames and he stood there a minute to watch the flames as they grew higher and higher. He could only imagine the terror Sable felt, knowing he was going to burn her to death and she would be unable to get free.
Sable smelled the smoke and watched as it crept under the door. She flicked the lighter she held in her hand to look for something to put by the door that would smother the smoke but she couldn’t find anything in the room. She began to cough as the smoke got thicker.
She got down on the floor and moved toward Greg. She pulled his body to the windows and prayed Nick and the others would find her before the fire got to her. She couldn’t understand why Greg didn’t wake up. She felt for a pulse on his neck. His heart was still beating. She tried slapping him awake. For a moment he responded but then he fell silent again.
By now the smoke was getting thicker and Sable felt trapped. She dragged Greg’s body a little closer to the windows. The air was getting worse and she could barely breathe.
~ * ~
Nick cut the lights as soon as they got to the parking lot. He coasted to a stop and looked at Quentin. “Are you sure this is where she’s at?”
Quentin nodded. “Yes, the beacon is generating a signal from this building.”
Brandi reached for her weapon and said, “Let’s lock and load.” She cocked her gun and reached for the door handle.
Nick turned and looked at her. “Just remember, we go in quiet and remain that way until we find her. If he’s in there, we don’t let him get past us. If we do he’s gone.”
Nick looked at Brandi and saw her nod, and then he looked at Quentin and saw him nod. “You find Sable and get her out of there. Brandi and I will look for Oscar.” When Quentin nodded Nick said, “Let’s move.” They opened their car doors at the same time. Quietly they closed them and all three moved toward the building.
Brandi moved farthest away and when she reached her point of entry, she waved her hand at Nick. Brandi slipped through a broken window while Nick and Quentin entered through a broken door. They all moved quickly and silently through the first floor.
Before Brandi slipped on her night vision goggles and moved forward. She watched as Nick and Quentin disappeared into the darkness of the warehouse. They would each take the floors above from a different staircase, covering as much ground as possible in the least amount of time.
Nick mounted the steps, taking them two at a time. His foot barely made a sound as he scaled the steps. When he reached the second floor, he first looked to the left and then to the right. He was about to go to the third floor when he caught the scent of smoke. He couldn’t risk alerting the other in case Oscar was around so he simply followed his nose.
Hugging the wall, he peeked around the corner. Down the hall he spotted a small fire in front of one of the doors. Carefully making his way down the hall he kicked the trash away from the door and stomped out any remaining flames. Then he pressed his ear against the panel of the door and listened carefully. He barely caught the sound of someone coughing inside the office.
Nick backed away from the door and kicked it in. Grabbing his flashlight from his belt he began sweeping the room. By the windows the light caught the body of Greg Reardon. From this distance Nick couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive.
“Sable,” Nick called out softly. “Are you in here?”
“Nick,” Sable called out. “I’m over here.”
Nick’s light followed her voice. She wasn’t too far away from Greg. She raised her hand and blocked the light from his flashlight. Nick rushed over to her and knelt beside her. His light roamed over her body. He could see the soot and dirt on her face from her struggle but he couldn’t see any blood. “Are you alright?”
Sable nodded. “I have a slight headache from the chloroform but I’m ok.” She glanced toward Greg and said, “It’s Greg I’m worried about. He hasn’t come to since we’ve been here.”
Just then Greg groaned and began moving slowly. His eyes opened and he coughed.
Nick reached over and felt the side of his neck. His pulse was steady and getting stronger. Nick looked back at Sable and nodded. “I think he’ll be okay.” He helped her to her feet. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Nick reached for his phone and hit the walkie talkie button. “Quentin, are you there?”
Quentin’s voice came back. “Third floor is clear, boss.”
Nick pushed the button again. “Yeah I found them on the second floor. Meet me by the south staircase.”
Quentin’s voice came back. “Be there in five minutes.”
Nick grabbed Greg and dragged him to the door. Sable followed. She was more than happy when Quentin joined them a few minutes later.
~ * ~
The eerie green lights of the structure showed her exactly where the doors and the other obstacles were located. Not only did the goggles show her where the obstacles were, they were also heat activated and they showed nobody on the first floor. She moved cautiously up the steps to the second floor. She peeked down the hall but didn’t see anything. Then she heard footsteps coming down the stairs from the second floor. Brandi stepped back against the wall and waited for whoever was coming at her. She removed the night vision goggles and waited. When he got closer, she raised her weapon to firing position.
As he stepped on the first stair going down, she reached out her foot and tripped him. She heard him crash down the steps and hit the landing wall. She waited for any other sounds and when she didn’t hear any, she followed cautiously. When she rounded the corner, she saw him lying on the floor. She moved into position and flipped him over. Brandi went to secure his wrists in handcuffs and that’s when all hell broke loose. Oscar came up screaming. With a knife in one hand he made a sweeping motion. The knife came very close to Brandi and she backed out of the way. In the darkness neither one could see the other all that well.
Brandi reached for her gun and Oscar lun
ged at her again. The weapon went flying. Brandi dove after the gun and when her hand closed around the butt, she brought it up in a defensive hold. Oscar had followed her and he was closing in on her. She fired the weapon and she heard him scream as the bullet hit its mark.
He stabbed the area he knew she was in and this time the knife connected. Brandi screamed, lifted her gun in the air, and fired a couple rounds. Oscar backed off and disappeared into the darkness.
“Son of a bitch,” Brandi growled to herself as her hand found a wet spot on her arm.
She heard footsteps running down the stairs and she yelled out to let them know where she was. Flashlights marked her when the others got near.
“What happened?” Nick asked her as he trained his flashlight on her arm.
“The little bastard got away from me,” Brandi told him sarcastically. “I tripped him down the steps and he played possum. I went to secure him and he came up fighting. He had a knife in his hand. We struggled and I got a shot off that I think hit him and he took off running.”
“Your arm isn’t too bad,” Nick told her. He looked up at Brandi and said, “You stay here with Sable and Greg, Quentin and I are going to have a look around outside.”
“Be careful, this guy is tricky and he sure as hell doesn’t want to get caught.”
“Don’t move until we come back,” Nick told her as he reached for his weapon. Quentin already had his gun out. Nick nodded at him and they left.
Sable ripped the bottom of her shirt off and wrapped the fabric around Brandi’s arm. She knew it wouldn’t be enough but it was all she could do just then. She turned her gaze at Greg. He had regained consciousness just as Quentin joined them at the staircase, but he hadn’t said anything yet.
“Are you all right?” Sable asked him.
Greg nodded. “I have a hell of a headache but I’ll be fine.”
Sable looked at Brandi. “I don’t suppose you got a good look at him did you?”
Brandi shook her head. “No, it all happened so fast. I barely had time to react let alone see his face.”
“Damn,” Sable swore. “Then we still don’t know who he is.”
“Does that matter anymore?” Greg asked quietly. “Does it really matter who he is at this point?”
Sable looked at him and said, “No, I don’t suppose it does. But for my own sanity I need to know.”
Greg nodded and thought about something for a moment. He hesitated before he told her, “I didn’t want to believe it myself but how can I deny it now?”
“Deny what?” Sable frowned.
Greg looked at her with tears in his eyes. “The fact that my son is the madman your hunting.”
“The question is which son? Was it Micah or Richard?” Sable dared to ask.
“It was Micah,” Greg finally told her.
“How do you know?” Sable asked.
Greg closed his eyes. “When Micah was ten he was fearless. He used to go out on the roof and walk along the top of the house. He never understood his mother’s fear of heights. One day he fell and he got caught up in the limbs of a tree that stood at the edge of the house. That tree saved his life and gave him a scar on his forehead. It wasn’t a big scar but it was a scar none the less. Just before my head hit the wall I looked at my assailant, and he had the same scar on his forehead. It was Micah.”
Sable shivered. The building suddenly got cold. She looked at Brandi and then looked out into the darkness around her. She was wondering where Nick and Quentin were.
Chapter Seventeen
Moments later they heard footsteps coming toward them. Nick called out, “It’s only us.”
“Did you find him?” Sable asked.
Nick shook his head. “No we didn’t but we heard him. He was crashing through the brush headed for the park. It was too dark to follow him so we came back to the plant.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Sable suggested.
They all got up and made their way out to the parking lot. Nick checked the car to make sure Micah wasn’t near it and they all got inside. A little while later Nick parked in the hospital parking lot. A weary group entered the emergency room.
The nurse behind the desk took one look at them and shook her head. “What did you guys do? Take on a street gang?”
Nick glared at her. “We need a doctor, probably several of them.”
The nurse nodded and led them to one of the rooms. “Someone will be with you shortly,” she told them before she disappeared.
Hours later Sable accompanied Greg back to his father’s room. The Judge was still hooked up to the machines but Emma was glad to see him. “Oh thank God, you’re back.” She exclaimed as she watched him sit down next to her. “When I heard you were missing, I didn’t know what to think.”
Greg nodded at his mother. “Thanks to Sable and her team I’m still alive. They got us both out of a death trap.” He glanced over at Sable and then looked back at his mother. “It was Micah that did all this.”
Emma looked shocked. “Are you sure it was him?”
Greg nodded.
Emma got up and went to stand next to Gabriel for a moment. She looked down at the man that had been her husband for over fifty years. She saw the bruises on his face, and she knew the internal damage her grandson had done to him. It didn’t make any sense to her. How could he hate them all so much?
She reached out and touched Gabriel’s hand. It was cool to her touch. Her heart was breaking as she thought about what Micah had done to their family. All she wanted was the way it used to be. She turned back to face whatever they had in mind.
“What happens next?” she asked.
Sable looked at her. She could see that the past few days had taken their toll on her as well. “We need to find Micah and bring him in. Do either of you know where he might go? He’s wounded and probably scared to death. He’s never been this close to getting caught before.”
Emma thought for a moment as she walked back to her chair. She was remembering something that happened a life time ago and she didn’t want to mention it until she had time to think.
Greg shook his head. “I have no clue where he would go. He hasn’t been back here in a long time.”
“Our records show he’s been back to Chicago many times over the years. He’s been collecting money from an account here, set up by the Judge.”
“I forgot about that," Greg muttered.
“He would go home,” Emma finally said.
Sable looked at her and frowned. “How do you know?”
Emma smiled slightly. “When he was just a little boy Micah got mad at his parents over something, I really don’t remember what now but he wanted to run away.” Emma glanced at her son and said, “You and Jill were often very harsh with the boy and he needed an escape. He would often come to me for understanding he didn’t get from you.” Emma cleared her throat and went on with her story. “Together he and I built a safe place for him to go. In the basement of our house he and I created a room for him. I moved a dresser and a bookcase to set up a hiding place for him. After awhile no one questioned why we weren’t using the room any more. Gabriel never went down there and you and Jill had other things to do.”
Emma looked down at her hands. “Whenever life got to be too much for him, Micah would go downstairs and hide for awhile. Most of the time it was just his way of escaping the insanity his life had become. He would go there to draw or listen to music. He would always let me know where he was, but for him he was hiding from the rest of the world.”
Greg was quiet for a moment. He turned to his mother and asked, “Was I that bad a parent?”
Emma smiled and shook her head. “Of course not, dear. You were busy building your life. Both you and Jill were working and Micah was just lonely. He didn’t have that many friends growing up, and he just wanted to belong.”
“Maybe that’s why he was so easily used by Richard.” Sable commented. “Richard was able to give him something he thought he needed and by the time he realiz
ed it, he was in too deep to ever think about getting back out.” Sable looked at Emma. “Have you seen him over the years?”
Emma shook her head. “No I haven’t but...”
“What is it?” Sable questioned.
“There have been a few times when I think he’s been in the house,” Emma admitted.
“What makes you say that?” Sable asked.
“Nothing I can put my finger on, but a few times items in the house have been moved. Food has been missing and I’ve found empty wine bottles in out of the way places. Like I said, nothing I can really blame on anyone,” Emma concluded.
Sable thought about what she had told them. If Micah had been visiting the house over the years without anyone knowing, that might be where he would go. He would think of that room as his safety net. A place no one else knew about. Sable got to her feet. Looking at Emma she said, “Thank you for the information.”
She got to the door before Emma Reardon called out to her, “Please I know you think he’s a monster, and maybe that’s what he turned out to be, but do you have to kill him?”
Sable turned to look at her. “Ma’am, he’s going down, how is up to him but I don’t think he’ll come quietly.” She almost said she was sorry, but that would have been a lie.
Emma nodded and hung her head. Her family would never be the same after this.
Sable closed the door behind her and shook. They spoke of Micah with fond memories of his youth. She couldn’t imagine the Micah she knew of walking along the roof of a house or needing a place of his own to get away from the world. The Micah she knew had tried to kill her twice. He beat up and tortured her best friend and he almost beat his own grandfather to death.
She met up with Nick, Brandi, and Quentin in the room that Max was in. He had regained consciousness but still wasn’t ready to leave. When she entered the room, Nick looked at her and asked, “Did they know anything about where Micah could be?”
