by Tiger Hill
I’ll call them if I have to, if I feel it’s the right idea. By by then, it might be too late.
He parked at the lot in front of the trail, a new flavor of eeriness settling into his bones. As usual, there were no other cars there. He was completely alone… Or so he assumed. As he stood there looking around at the treetops, he wondered if Max was there right now, looking down at him.
It’s possible, but if he is here, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to start a standoff in a semi-public place. He wants to draw me out on the trail, take me to a place that he can keep me nice and hidden. Then he can do his dirty business and be rid of me. He’ll confiscate my phone, delete the texts, let Tula go, and go about his merry day as the psycho he is.
He walked cautiously, his mind ever-conscious of the handgun that was wedged between his back and the belt of his pants. In his mind, he visualized over and over again about pulling it out and firing a death shot. He’d been to a shooting range with his mother a handful of times—he could shoot, but he was certainly no expert.
The trail seemed as normal as it usually did, though every noise or moment of silence felt like the signal of attack. After about ten minutes of walking with no sign of Max, he couldn’t take it anymore—he pulled out his phone and called 911. After Rhett reported the incident, and told the responder where he was, the woman told him that there would be a fleet of squad cars there within a few minutes.
Knowing the cops, it’ll probably be much longer than that.
Not sure of what to do with himself, and not wanting to go back to the car yet, he decided to continue down the path. He felt more at ease for some reason, as if he’d transferred the stress of having to deal with Max over to the police even though they were nowhere in sight yet. Not three minutes after walking on, he came to a sign on one of the trees. It had his name on it written in a black Sharpie, an arrow situated underneath. It felt as if the air escaped him as he looked at it. Should he go on, or wait it out? It was glaringly apparent that Max was trying to lead him to some trap, or much worse, his own death.
I don’t care. I want to murder that guy myself. If this takes me one step closer to doing that, I’ll go.
Parting the leaves leading into the wilderness, he walked on, seeing other signs pointing him in the direction that Max wanted him to trek towards. He tried to keep his eye out for booby traps or Max himself, but nothing turned up. Constantly in a phase of simultaneous panic and relief, he headed on under the shadows of the treetops. Eventually, he reached a sunny clearing. It was nice to be out of the thick darkness of the forest, but he felt exposed in a way that made him feel uncomfortable.
“Freeze!” Called the voice of Max. “Put your hands up!”
Though Rhett couldn’t see Max, he wasn’t about to disobey a man who was mentally unbalanced. He kept in his place and slowly raised his arms in the air. He heard a rustling and the swish of pants passing through high grass until he saw Max materialize from the shadows. He had an aura to him that Rhett had never perceived before. It was like the malignant confidence of a boy who had just burned a hill of ants to death with a magnifying glass. In his hands was a large shotgun, pointed right at Rhett’s heart.
“Nice to see you, Rhett,” he said. “So I guess you’ve volunteered to have yourself killed today. Good choice.”
Rhett decided to hold back the comments he really wanted to say at that moment.
Filling the empty space, Max made a few steps forward as he continued on. “I have to say that I’m surprised you showed up. I thought you would be too selfish to save Tula’s life. I guess I misjudged you.”
“Where is she?” Rhett demanded, sweat coming down the side of his brow.
“Oh, she’s in a safe place. A very safe place. It’s best that I get this over with quickly. I wouldn’t want to keep her waiting. If you try and kill me, by the way, it won’t be very good for her. So don’t try any funny business.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”
“Let’s get back to the topic at hand,” said Max, steadying his hold on the gun. “So I suppose you’re wondering why Tula has been so distant lately, hmm? Why I haven’t been so nice to you? I suppose you probably have your suspicions by now.”
“Tula told me everything. There’s nothing you can say that will surprise me.”
“Is that so? Including how I’ve been bending her over and banging her for the past five years?”
Rhett grit his teeth. It seemed to get the effect that Max had wanted, because he smiled when he saw it.
“It’ll be better this way,” said Max. “Tula and I will be together again, just as it was. You’ll be gone, and she’ll have learned her lesson about lying to me. It’s not like I didn’t give her more than enough warnings about staying with you. We’ll live happily ever after, just like we’d planned. You’re her last mistake, whether she lives through this or dies.”
He lowered his eye to the sight, and Rhett realized in a jarring moment that he might get a bullet through him in the next few moments if he didn’t keep stroking Max’s ego.
“How did you do it all?” Rhett asked quickly. “You weren’t throwing us off the whole time, were you? The oven in your parents’ house, the old woman in San Francisco… You couldn’t possibly have made that all happen.”
Max lowered the gun from his eyes. “It’s quite possible, with a little motivation. But then, you’re only a basic mechanic, so you wouldn’t have much of that, would you? Motivation, that is. All I had to do in the beginning was place a bit of dough in a pan Tula likes using and leave it in there. Easy. You remember that I recommended San Francisco, don’t you? I had read about the Gypsy woman online, and decided to go to her ahead of time to target you both. That would have been a good omen for your impending marriage, wouldn’t it? Losing that little trinket on her finger forever?”
“I wouldn’t let that woman get away with the ring I bought her,” Rhett found himself uttering.
“Mmm. Yes, I suppose you out-do me in the athletics department.”
Ask him more, ask him more. Come on, Davis PD. “You know I was going through your room, right?”
“Yes, I have video of you poking around in there. It was quite amusing watching the door shut on my closet, followed by those screams of yours.” He let out a little chortle. “That was certainly worth all the effort. I thought that it might have been in vain.”
“That I would never go in there?”
“Yes. And that you’d never catch on that I was the one trying to get rid of you.”
“So the diary I found in that drawer…”
“It was a fake. You see, I’m quite the planner, Rhett. I like knowing that I’m two steps ahead of others. It was my mistake to not keep an eye on Tula well enough a year ago, but now I’ve made up for it.”
As Max raised the gun once more, Rhett realized that his arms were getting wobbly from standing there and talking for so long.
Even if he gets a good aim on me, his accuracy is shot because of his weak muscles. He spent too much time planing and not enough time at the gym, I guess.
“Max, watch out!” Rhett shouted. “Look that way!” Before a reaction could even register in Max’s mind, Rhett had launched himself off to the side, into the soft and thick grass. A deafening shot went off, and regardless of where the bullet flew, he kept on rolling. Tree branches collapsed near where Rhett moved to, but he ignored the commotion, keeping his focus on getting behind a large tree as quickly as possible.
He’s got a double barrel, Rhett thought as he situated his frame behind a bulky trunk. Only one more shot. He knows that, too.
Rhett could hear rustling footsteps coming toward him. Very heavy, persistent footsteps. Not wasting another moment, he pulled the gun out from behind his belt and zeroed in his sight on Max. He turned out to be a lot closer than Rhett had assumed, towering above him. Both of them were disoriented at seeing one another, especially Max because of the long barrel of his gun. Rhett’s instincts kicked in, a
nd he took the first good shot he had. Dark blood exploded from Max’s upper chest, causing him to let out a scream. The shotgun went off again, and Max collapsed back onto the grass with a loud thud. Putting his gun back, Rhett kicked the shotgun away and launched himself onto Max. After some half-hearted wrestling, Max was pinned onto his stomach.
Rhett let out a sigh of relief once he knew that Max was demobilized, though he felt bad about applying so much pressure to the wound. Max had a decent head on his shoulders when it came to deception, but he was no Manny Pacquiao or James Bond when it came to taking on men like Rhett. Max didn’t put up much of a fight, anyhow. Rhett supposed that Max knew the jig was up concerning the whole thing. Rhett wasn’t quite done with him, though.
“Where is Tula?” Rhett demanded, keeping his knee firmly in Max’s back.
Max laid there on the grass, an almost serene expression on his smooth face as he stared out. “I told you—in a safe place. Please, why don’t you just kill me now? I don’t want to go on anymore.”
That’s just what you’d like, thought Rhett. I’d be a murderer and you’d be put out of your pathetic misery. It’s not happening, buddy.
“Tell me where she is!” Rhett demanded.
Max just laid there dully, pretending he hadn’t heard. Before long, policemen began showing up one by one. The shotgun blasts had attracted quite a lot of attention, thought Rhett, as hikers also began filing over. Feeling that he was losing time, Rhett begged for Max to tell him where his fiancée was.
“She’s safe, but not for long,” stated Max. “Despite myself, I do love her. I don’t know what she saw in a gorilla like you. I think I’ve spelled out pretty well where she is. Just use your head, you ape.”
Rhett took a moment to consider his words. He keeps saying that she’s safe. What does he mean by that?
“Freeze, both of you!” Hollered a policeman with the largest gut Rhett had ever seen. He had a gun pointed and a fearful expression on his face.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Countered Rhett, holding Max in place. “If I let him go, he’ll run, whether you threaten to shoot him or not. Someone needs to come over and handcuff him.”
The policeman stood solid for a moment, considering the words.
“There are two guns in the grass,” Rhett continued. “A shotgun and a handgun. There are no more weapons, and this guy is hurt. Please, I mean no harm. I’m the one who called 911 earlier. I’m Rhett Williams.”
That seemed to be enough information to please the policeman, because he slowly edged over with his gun pointed. Max was eventually arrested, looking rather forlorn about it. An ambulance was called for Max’s wound, but before he was taken away, Rhett demanded that the police find out where Tula was located. He showed the increasing collection of cops the disturbing photo that was taken, and Tula’s phone was found inside of Max’s pocket. Everyone did the best they could to get Max to talk, but he just kept a sinister smile on his face, lapping up the attention.
Finally, as he was being wheeled into the ambulance, he uttered, “You all are supposed to be qualified professionals. Just look at the photo. She’s not far. Whether you’ll be able to get to her out in time or not is the real question.”
Knowing that Max wasn’t going to be able to give them any more clues because of his wound, the police eventually came to the conclusion that Tula was indeed in the vicinity of the incident. Hounds and German Shepherds were called out to begin the search, and at the same time, the police wanted to take Rhett into the station for questioning. The sun was falling in the sky at that point, creating an orangey glow on everything it touched.
“Don’t take me in yet!” Rhett demanded. “Let me help—I have to know that she’s okay!”
Sympathetic to him, and feeling that he wasn’t much of a threat, the authorities allowed him to follow along with the investigation as long as he had someone to tag along with him. Rhett thanked his lucky stars, and set out with a large flashlight. He was cold as he journeyed through the woods, still only wearing a light T-shirt and jeans, but he was as determined as ever to find Tula that night. At midnight, finally, one of the officers came across a large black safe.
They all circled it curiously, inspecting and knocking on it. Faintly, from the other side of the metal, they could hear the voice of someone calling out for help. It became apparent that Max had stuffed Tula inside of there—it would be a squeeze, but it was certainly large enough to contain a human being inside. Discussion started humming between the lot of them about what they could do to get her out.
“She’s running out of oxygen to breathe,” said one of the younger officers, a man with thick glasses and acne on his cheeks. “If we don’t get her out soon, she might suffocate and die.”
The conversation then transferred towards finding a man to properly safe-crack the thing. It was the middle of the night, though, and men possessing the ability to open a complicated and expensive safe weren’t exactly on speed dial. Rhett began to get panicky thinking about how long it would take to not only get her out, but to also find the man with the qualifications to do it. With every passing minute, Tula was taking in more oxygen that wouldn’t be replaced. He had to do something to save her—but what?
The only link he could think of concerning a resolution to this whole thing was the key that he had found in Max’s room.
But what could a key do for me? I need a safe combination, not a key. These officers can’t even pound Max in the face in order to get an answer from him—he’s in the hospital right now for the gun wound. God, what do I do? I can’t just stand here—I have to do something!
“I’m leaving,” he said to an officer standing next to him.
“Say what?” The man replied.
“I have to go try and find the combination. You all can do what you want, but I’m going to figure this thing out.”
He jogged back towards the trail, and without a word, a few of the officers followed him. Racing down the dirt path to get to his car, there were only two things on his mind: Tula bruised face and the last place he had possession of the key. He didn’t know exactly where he had misplaced it, but had a strong inclination towards assuming that it was somewhere at his mother’s. Before he got in and headed for his destination, he told the officers the address to Tula’s house, and instructed them to investigate the bedroom upstairs. They nodded, obediently following his orders.
Maybe I went into the wrong profession after all, thought Rhett as he revved the engine. I’m a natural leader when it comes to this cop stuff. Maybe I should ask if they have an opening.
He sped to his mother’s house faster than he probably should have been, but considering that the entire police department was working on freeing Tula, he wasn’t so bothered about the idea of getting a ticket. Rustling around through his bedroom, he turned over every piece of dirty clothing to try and find the silver key. After a few minutes of searching, turning around furniture and scouring places that hadn’t seen the light of day for years, he never found what he was looking for.
Finally, after making all that noise, he finally attracted the attention of his mother. “What in the hell is going on here?” She was dressed in her black silk robe, her hair tied in a braid. Yawning, she crossed her arms.
“I’m looking for a key. Have you seen it? I need it right now—Tula is in really big trouble.”
“Tula is in trouble?” She asked. “What happened?”
“I don’t have time to explain! I just need to know if you’ve seen that key!”
Perturbed, she responded, “A little key? Yes, I found it downstairs by the television. It’s in a drawer in the kitchen if you’re looking for it.”
“You found it?!”
“Yes, dear. Calm down.”
He grasped her by the hand and pulled her downstairs, demanding to be shown where it was located. Once it was handed over to him, he whipped right out of the house and headed back for his car. His mother simply rolled her eyes and headed back upstairs
to sleep.
Once Rhett got to Mr. and Mrs. Florian’s house, there were about half a dozen squad cars parked on the street. It seemed as if every neighbor were standing on their front lawn, conversing with their significant others about what they figured was going on. When one of the police officers stationed out front saw Rhett, they breathed with a sigh of relief.
“What happened? Where did you go?” Asked the officer with thick glasses.
“Nevermind that. Did you guys get into the bedroom upstairs?”
“Yeah, and we got a nasty surprise when we got up there.”
“Spiders?”
“Yeah! How did you…”
Rhett raced into the house and upstairs, heading right for Max’s bedroom. Mr. and Mrs. Florian tried to halt him so that they could probe him with questions, but he flat-out ignored them.
“What did you guys find?” Rhett asked as he entered the room. The place was completely trashed, with thousands of dead spider carcasses and books spread out all over the floor. Some police officers held back Tula’s parents as they tried to butt themselves inside.
“Oh, look who’s here,” said one of them. “You came right in time. Look what we found.”
A small safe was presented in the man’s arms. Not pausing to further inspect it, Rhett pulled out the key and inserted it inside of the hole. Twisting it, the lid lifted a moment later. Inside were a few documents, like Max’s birth certificate and social security card, but there was also a large collection of birthday cards from Tula. Rhett sifted through, eventually finding the paperwork for the safe that Max had bought. Printed in the upper right corner was the combination to open the safe.
Rhett heralded the police back out to the cars, and they headed back to the trail. It was a bit harder finding the location of the safe than they thought it would be, but with some resourcefulness, they figured their way back. Quickly entering the code, with seven beams from flashlights helping him make it happen, Rhett solved the combination. Pulling the door open, Tula was revealed. She was just as she had appeared in the photo that Max had sent, covered with wounds and tied to a small chair. She appeared as if she had been sleeping, her eyes barely able to perceive reality past her thick eyelids crusted with blood. Rhett commanded the police to cut her free immediately, probably insulting them with his forwardness. He didn’t care. He just wanted her out of there.
