Kelly gasped.
“Don’t speak,” said Rodney. “You listen. We are here with your parents. We are holding Christina captive while we take care of some business. You will not go to the police or tell anybody where we are. If you call the police, the feds, anybody, I make this promise to you. Are you listening? Listen good, because you don’t want to miss this. If you tell anybody about our whereabouts, I promise I promise I promise I promise she will die. Christina will die. Do I make myself clear? I’ll say it again—Christina will die. Tell me you understand.”
Tears rolled down Kelly’s cheeks. Her throat tightened.
“Tell me you understand!” screamed Rodney.
“I…understand,” said Kelly, choking between the words.
“Good,” said Rodney. “We’re keeping this in the family. Right, honey?”
“Yes,” she said faintly.
“Kiritimati is our little secret, correct?”
“Correct.”
“We had a fantastic vacation, babe,” said Rodney. “I just want to bring some of that home for more people to enjoy. Won’t that be generous? You know I’m a generous guy.”
“Did…did you find it?” she asked him.
“Find what?”
“Please…you know what I’m talking about.”
“We have what we need,” said Rodney. “Now it’s time to say goodbye. I’m a very busy man.”
“Please don’t hurt her,” begged Kelly.
“That’s up to you,” responded Rodney. Then he disconnected the call.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rodney hung up the phone in the kitchen of the farmhouse, returning the pink receiver to its place on the wall. He turned to Carol, who stood nearby.
“She won’t dare send anybody after us,” he said. “She knows the consequences. But we need to move fast and stay on schedule.”
“Gary and Sam are in the barn, fitting the detonator,” she reported. “The boys are patrolling the grounds, watching for any unwanted visitors.”
“We’re confident the bomb will still work after all these years?” asked Rodney.
“The Russian scientists are guiding us every step of the way. They tell us yes.”
Rodney paused, then smiled. “Yuri agrees.”
A small child’s voice cried out from another part of the house. Rodney rolled his eyes, muttering, “Here we go again.”
The tiny voice pleaded for “mommy” in an increasingly mournful voice, ending in small sobs.
“She won’t shut up,” said Carol.
“She wants mommy,” grumbled Rodney. “You got tits. Go down there and tell her you’re mommy.”
“You know that’s not going to work.”
“Then feed her something. Maybe she’s hungry. I don’t know. I don’t care. Just stop the noise.”
Carol grabbed a box of Cheerios from the kitchen cabinet and left the room. She walked to the end of a corridor and unbolted the door to the basement. She opened it and descended down the steps to where Christina sat on the dirty floor, pale and frightened, her wrist handcuffed to a pipe beneath an old water basin.
“Mommy?” said Christina. When Carol emerged from the shadows, revealing an evil face bringing no comfort, Christina began to cry again.
“Shut your mouth you little piece of filth,” snarled Carol.
Christina tried to pull away from the approaching woman but Rodney’s police handcuffs kept her in place.
Carol kneeled down next to the child and shook the yellow box of Cheerios. “Is this what you want?”
“Mommy,” said Christina.
“Mommy all gone,” said Carol, smiling at the elevated wave of panic and crying her statement caused.
Digging her hand into the cereal box, Carol pulled out a fistful of Cheerios. She thrust them toward the child. “Okay, okay. Shut up. You like some? Yum yum food. Eat, you fucker.”
Christina’s crying subsided as she inspected the Cheerios in Carol’s outstretched hand.
Carol studied the little girl and watched as she began to glimmer, covered in a strange, luminescent glow. Startled, Carol let out a gasp and nearly dropped the food. Christina looked at Carol with her big, brown eyes.
Carol experienced a feeling of water washing over her, yet she remained entirely dry. She felt her anger and hatred fall away until another person emerged from inside, something familiar, an old persona retaking control of her physical being.
“Oh my God,” said Carol in a small voice, continuing to stare at Christina.
Christina reached into Carol’s hand and took several Cheerios. Carol watched as the little girl placed them in her mouth and slowly began to chew.
“What have I done?” said Carol softly. “Christina, honey, who did this? Did we… Did I… Oh no. Oh dear God…”
Christina stared back at her. Carol’s head swam with confusion. Her chest swelled with heartbreak.
“I’m sorry,” said Carol. “Are you hurt? Are you scared? Sweet Christina…”
“Carol!” thundered Rodney from above. “What’s taking you so long?”
Carol turned to face the basement stairs, speechless.
Rodney shouted, “Leave the food with the kid and get your ass upstairs. We have a lot to do and not much time.”
She listened to the familiar voice warped by an unfamiliar tone. “Rodney?”
“Carol, get back here!”
Carol dropped the cereal box to the ground. She stood up, still staring at Christina.
Slowly, she backed away.
As Carol created distance between herself and Christina, she felt a whirlwind of competing emotions.
By the time she reached the stairs, a coldness began refilling her veins. She looked back at the child with a growing detachment.
“CAROL!” boomed Rodney.
Carol climbed up the stairs. When she reached the top, she turned toward Christina, a small figure huddled in the dark beneath a big, moldy water basin.
“Eat and shut up,” Carol told the little girl. “Next time you make a noise, I will kill you.”
She left the basement and closed the door.
Carol returned to the kitchen, where Rodney stood, scowling, hands balled into fists.
“What took you so long?”
“What do you mean?”
Rodney unleashed a hard punch across Carol’s face. She collapsed to the ground.
Rodney stepped closer to stand over her. “I know what can happen. That is why she is isolated from us in the basement. She might seem like a mere child…but she is a persuasion. Don’t be weak, Carol. I swear, I will destroy anyone on this team who shows any signs of weakness. Am I clear?”
Carol sat up. Blood trickled from her nose to her upper lip. She stared at Rodney. Slowly, sensuously, she licked the blood with her tongue. “Yes,” she said.
“Then let’s get back to work.”
Rodney walked over to the kitchen table. The surface was covered in maps and blueprints. Carol joined him at his side.
Rodney pointed to a large, unfolded blueprint of a football stadium. A red circle indicated one of the entrances. “Gary tells us this is the way to get in, through the service entrance. He knows people. He’s brought his truck there before, the one from his store, to deliver promotional giveaways and merchandise for the gift shop. He’s a regular. No one will understand what we’re doing until it’s too late.”
Carol traced the circled area of the blueprint with her fingertip and smiled.
Rodney stepped away from the table. He moved to the window and parted the faded, flowery curtains. He stared at Gary’s van on the gravel driveway. The cheerful “Gary’s Game Day” logo decorated the side accompanied by a big cartoon rendition of Gary’s smiling face.
“Tonight, we open the Gates of Hell and begin the resurrection,”
said Rodney. “We will seize back the earth from a weakened God. The stadium is sold out. There won’t be an empty seat in the house. Game time is near.”
Part Six
The Devil’s Scream
Chapter Thirty
Kelly grabbed her clothes and got dressed in a flurry of motion. She yanked off her hospital gown, threw it aside and pulled on her street clothes. “I can’t stay here. I have to go. I have to be with Christina.”
Emma and Jake pleaded with her.
“Kelly slow down,” said Emma. “We need to call somebody for help. This is dangerous.”
“No,” said Kelly. “Rodney means what he says. He’ll kill her if we call for help.”
“But you can’t go there alone,” said Jake. “They’ll kill you.”
“We should get the nurse,” Emma told Jake.
Kelly shouted, “Don’t call the nurse! I’m leaving. That’s all there is to it.”
Jake reached out for Kelly and she pulled back, avoiding his grasp. “Kelly, be reasonable,” he said. “You’re not well. You’re still recovering.”
“I need to be with my daughter,” said Kelly. “I need to be with my parents.”
“Kelly, please think this through,” said Emma.
“I have,” Kelly responded. Then she scrambled past them for the corridor.
“Dammit!” said Jake, and he quickly followed with Emma close behind.
Kelly weaved through the obstacles in her way: medical staff, hospital patients, visiting relatives, gurneys and laundry carts. She reached the elevator and pounded on the down arrow. When the elevator arrived, Jake and Emma had caught up with her and the three of them rode down together.
“Let’s talk about this,” said Jake. “Just stop and talk.”
“There’s no time to talk,” said Kelly.
When the elevator opened, Kelly hurried down another busy corridor to reach the front lobby. She exited through the electric sliding doors, entering the bright afternoon sunshine.
Emma and Jake caught up with Kelly on the curb, where she stood, momentarily paralyzed.
Thick traffic rumbled in front of her. She eyed the multi-story parking garage across the street.
“Where’s my car?” she said.
“Your car isn’t here,” said Emma. “You were brought here by ambulance.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” said Jake in a gentle voice. “So, please, let’s go back inside and think this through.”
Kelly’s shoulders slumped. She nodded. Slowly, she turned back to face the hospital entrance. Jake and Emma turned with her.
Within a few feet of the hospital entrance, Kelly lunged at Emma. She grabbed Emma’s purse and pulled it from her arm. Then she turned and ran.
“What the hell!?” said Emma.
Jake spun around to witness Kelly running into the street with the purse. Cars screeched and swerved to avoid her. Drivers blasted their horns.
“Son of a bitch!” shouted Jake, and he took off after her.
A huge bus filled Jake’s path, stopping his momentum. Emma caught up with him. “What the hell is she—?”
“I don’t know.”
Running into the parking garage, Kelly reached inside the purse. She pulled out Emma’s car keys. She began pressing the red button on the keychain, listening for a response from Emma’s SUV.
Not hearing one, Kelly dashed into the elevator. She lit up the panel of buttons for a stop at every floor until she found what she was looking for.
The doors opened on the second floor and Kelly reached out and clicked the keychain button repeatedly—hearing nothing in return.
She advanced to the third floor. The doors opened and she stepped halfway out, thrust the keychain forward and clicked the button over and over, moving her arm in a sweeping arc at the rows of vehicles before her.
Then she heard it—two high-pitched beeps.
Emma’s SUV.
Kelly jumped out of the elevator just before the doors shut. She ran in the direction of the sound.
Kelly found the SUV parked halfway down the aisle, lights blinking.
Behind her, loud footsteps pounded the concrete, echoing through the garage like gunshots. Kelly turned to see Jake sprinting toward her with Emma limping to keep up.
“Sorry!” said Kelly. She kept the car keys and tossed the purse in their direction. She climbed into the SUV and quickly started up the engine.
Jake reached the SUV as Kelly was backing up. He scrambled to grasp a door handle.
Kelly accelerated away from him. She reversed into a pillar, striking it with a loud crunch.
Emma picked up her purse from the ground. She joined Jake in trying to stop the vehicle from getting away.
As Kelly shifted gears to move forward, Emma opened the SUV’s rear passenger door and climbed inside.
“Stop the car!” she yelled at Kelly.
Kelly drove into the center of the aisle and began picking up speed. Jake ran at the car and reached the open door. He grabbed a shoulder strap and pulled himself inside, joining Emma.
Kelly accelerated the car through a rapid succession of screeching turns, rotating through the layers of down ramps to ground level.
“This is crazy,” said Jake, catching his breath in the back seat.
Kelly reached the exit, blocked from the street by the outstretched gate of a toll booth.
“Please don’t—” said Emma.
Kelly crashed through the gate, sending the wood board flying through the air.
The SUV made a sharp turn and barreled down the street. Jake reached over and slammed his door shut.
“I guess we’re not changing your mind,” he said.
“It’s about my daughter,” said Kelly. “I’ll let you out at the next light.”
Jake sighed. “No,” he said. “If you go, we go. It’s not just Christina and Rodney. It’s Carol. It’s Gary. It’s Sam. We’re all in this together.”
Emma nodded. “The three of us are the ones who really know them.”
Kelly began following the signs for the highway. “Thanks for letting me borrow your car,” she said to Emma.
Emma smiled, barely. “Any time.”
The roadside scenery transformed around them. The city became suburbs and the suburbs became countryside as Kelly sped the SUV along the familiar route to her parents’ downstate farm in Cody, Illinois. The afternoon sun struggled against the advancement of a thin layer of clouds, dimming the light.
Returning to her hometown, she stopped short of her parents’ property, pulling over on the side of the road at a neighboring farm.
“Let’s park here,” said Kelly. “I know this area like the back of my hand. It’s where I grew up. There’s a path we can take…through the cornfields…to get a good look without being seen.”
“I don’t feel good about this,” said Jake. “We’re completely unarmed.”
“We’re not here to fight,” said Kelly.
“Still, what if something happens and we need to defend ourselves? We didn’t think this through. Dammit, Kelly, you were in such a mad rush to get here…”
“Let’s just get out,” said Emma. They climbed out of the car. Jake paced, surveying the scene around them.
An occasional wind rippled through the crops, disrupting an otherwise picture-perfect stillness.
“You really did grow up in the middle of nowhere,” said Emma.
“To me, this was everything,” said Kelly. “It took me years to adjust to the city. The city was all Rodney knew…” Then she dipped her head, saddened by mentioning his name, as if referring to someone who was now deceased.
“Well, it isn’t much, but at least it’s something,” said Jake, circling from the rear of the SUV. “I found this.”
He held out a tire iron.
E
mma sighed. “Great. You can change their tires.”
“It’s better than nothing.”
“Follow me,” said Kelly. She moved up the road until she found the opening she remembered from her youth. “This is it. Here’s the path.”
The threesome advanced quietly through the full-sized cornstalks that towered around them, unable to see much else.
“I hope you know where you’re going,” said Jake.
“I do,” said Kelly.
After ten minutes of walking, the cornfield ended, and they stepped into lush, green rows of soybeans. Just ahead in the distance, a farmhouse with a red barn and silo sat on the horizon.
“My home,” said Kelly softly.
“Should we keep going?” asked Ellen.
“I don’t see anyone,” said Jake. “Let’s keep moving, but stay low.”
Kelly, Jake and Emma stepped through a narrow dirt path between rows of soybeans. As they approached the house, more of the surrounding property came into view. An old swingset produced a slow, rhythmic squeak as its single swing moved gently in the wind. Kelly’s eyes became transfixed on the swing, a sweet memory. Then nearby, she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye.
A young man stepped out from behind a small shed.
Kelly gasped. “Shit.”
Jake froze. “Keep calm. He sees us.”
“Who is it?” asked Emma.
Kelly studied the stranger. “I’ve never seen him before.”
The young man wore a black T-shirt. His head was shaved. He began walking toward them.
Jake slipped the tire iron up the sleeve of his shirt, hiding it.
“Maybe it’s one of the neighbor kids…” said Kelly. “He doesn’t look familiar…”
“Everybody just play it cool,” said Jake.
The young man in the black T-shirt advanced toward them. “What are you doing here?” he called out.
Emma looked at Jake for an answer.
Jake stepped forward. “We’re looking for our dog,” he said.
The young man stood in their path. He studied their faces. “Dog?”
“Yes,” said Emma. “We live a ways down…”
Anatomy of Evil Page 19
