by Rob Ashman
They pressed on.
At fifty yards out from the lodge Moran stopped and fished out her binoculars. She was scanning across the building, focusing on the windows for any sign of life. Mechanic strolled out onto the veranda. She was dressed in the same clothes they had seen earlier. She looked around and sat in one of the wicker chairs.
‘It’s her,’ Moran whispered.
‘I see her. Is she armed?’
Moran shook her head. ‘Not that I can see. No sign of Jameson.’
They edged closer and stopped. This time they both held binoculars. Mechanic was lounging in the chair.
‘What the hell’s she doing?’ Harper asked.
‘I’d say she was waiting. Waiting for you.’
‘Damn well looks that way to me too.’
‘No sign of Lucas or Jameson.’
‘Jameson could be in the cabin or the van.’
‘Where do you think she’s holding Lucas?’
‘No idea, he could be anywhere.’
They moved forward but this time skirted to the right, taking them deeper into the undergrowth. They settled behind a thicket.
‘We could wait till nightfall,’ Harper whispered.
Moran checked her watch. It was four o’clock, another three hours till dusk. Lucas had been gone six and a half hours.
‘But we need to strike, we don’t know what condition Lucas is in.’
‘Let’s wait and get eyes-on for longer. If she is expecting us, it will be a trap.’
They crouched beneath the trees and bushes and watched. The time ticked by. Mechanic sat in her chair and did nothing.
After thirty minutes Harper said, ‘I say we go. I’ll circle around the treeline to the back of the house. From there I got about fifteen yards of open ground to cover before I reach Mechanic. When I break cover you hold your position, and when Mechanic turns to confront me, that’s when you make your move. Remember, we need her alive.’
‘Got it.’
Harper set off and inched his way around the perimeter, keeping well under cover. Mechanic continued to sit in her chair, taking in the view.
He reached the back of the clearing and took out his field glasses. Mechanic was twenty yards away with her back to him. He placed the binoculars on the ground, gripped his gun and crept forward.
There was one almighty whoosh.
Harper was catapulted into the air, cocooned in a cargo net. He was swinging upside down, crashing against the tree that had just propelled him skywards.
Moran heard the violent rustle of leaves being swept through the air. Her view was obscured but she heard Harper yell out.
Mechanic leapt from her seat and picked up a baseball bat that was propped up against the side of the house. She leapt over the balustrade and strode across the clearing, twirling the bat like a cheerleader. Moran could hear the sound of laughter.
What the hell was happening?
Moran was paralysed.
Harper was flailing about trying to right himself. The net had him jack-knifed with his head on his knees as he bounced amongst the pine trees. He fought against the net but it was no use. His gun was gone.
He saw Mechanic emerge from beneath the branches, bat in hand.
‘I wasn’t expecting you yet,’ she laughed. ‘You are so predictable, straight out of the Korean War handbook.’
‘I’m gonna fucking kill you,’ he yelled.
Mechanic stood next to him. Harper’s facial features were forced through the netting, he snarled at her. He was hanging five feet off the ground like a trawled fish. She grabbed the net and spun it around.
‘I laid a trail of crumbs and you followed them, like the good detective you are. You made excellent time, though I suppose I did make it so easy a kid could work it out,’ she said laughing.
‘I’m gonna—’
‘No, you’re not.’
Mechanic stepped back and swung the bat.
Lucas was aware of the sound of his own breathing. He felt as if he was floating, gently bobbing around in still water. He was groggy and his head hurt. His mouth was dry. He could taste acid at the back of his throat.
He tried to open his eyes but they would not respond. The fog in his brain made everything woozy. He slipped back into unconsciousness.
He came back to the surface again and flicked open his eyelids. It was black. The world swam back and forth as Lucas began to orientate himself and realised he was lying on his back.
He tried to focus but all he saw was darkness. He raised his hands to his face and felt a thick ridge running down his left cheek. It stung like hell. He raised his leg, and his knee struck a hard surface. A dull thud echoed around him. He reached out in front and his fingers touched something cold. It was flat and metal.
His mind was clearing fast.
He remembered seeing Mechanic get out of the van. He remembered the black backpack slung across her shoulder. He remembered a noise coming from behind. Then nothing.
A knot of fear rose in his chest.
He held his hands out in the darkness and pushed his palms flat against the surface above him, it was cool to the touch. Lucas slid his hands across the metal and felt two corners, one on either side. He tried again to move his legs but they struck against the metal.
His eyes were becoming accustomed to the dark and he realised there was a small cone of light above his head. He dug his heels into the base and shuffled his way towards the light. When he was directly under it, he could see blue. His brain struggled to compute all the sensory information he was gathering. He stared at the circle above his face. How the hell could he see blue?
Lucas dropped his hands to his sides and felt around. His fingers touched a collection of small hard objects along with soft material. He brought his hand to his face.
Panic gripped him.
He could smell soil.
He jerked around, smashing his knees and elbows into the metal with dull echoing thuds.
Lucas screamed until his lungs burned.
He was buried alive.
46
The back of Harper’s head felt like someone was going at it with a steam hammer. He was sitting on the floor with his hands by his sides and his legs straight out in front of him. When the thudding in his head subsided he could hear birds and felt a cool breeze brush across his face. He was outside. He kept his eyes shut.
Mechanic clomped around the wooden decking in her hiking boots. Harper could feel the boards shift beneath him as she walked by. The footsteps faded away. He opened his eyes to see her disappear into the lodge.
Harper looked around. His hands were cuffed to a thick leather belt fastened around his waist and his ankles were shackled to a metal ring set in the floor. He was leaning against the balustrade at the back of the extended decking area. He could see the wicker chairs to his right and the dark treeline to his left. He searched beneath the trees hoping to find Moran. She wasn’t there. How long had he been out?
Harper could hear the footsteps returning. He closed his eyes with his head bowed. The floorboards shifted as Mechanic strode towards him. The footsteps stopped.
‘Wakey, wakey,’ she said, tapping his cheek with her fingers. Shards of pain rocked through his head. He groaned and winced.
‘Come on, sleepy head. Time to wake up. Your friend needs you.’ She was singing the words.
Harper lifted his head and opened his eyes. The whole of his vision was filled with Mechanic’s face. She was tilting her head, first one side, then the other, as though she was examining a quizzical object.
‘You’ve had a little sleep,’ she said, ‘but now it’s time to wake up because you have important work to do.’
‘Fuck you.’ Harper cleared his throat.
‘That’s not very nice.’ Mechanic drew back as Harper spat a plume of gob past her face.
‘Tut, tut,’ Mechanic said. ‘Such bad manners.’
‘Where is Lucas?’
‘All in good time, you’ve only just got here.’ M
echanic walked to the front of the decking and leaned against the rail.
‘Where’s your boyfriend?’
‘You are full of questions today. I sent Jameson away, he had things to do, people to kill. You know what it’s like.’
The sun was going down, and Harper estimated the time to be about six thirty, which would mean he’d been unconscious for two hours. He felt slow and groggy. Mechanic dragged one of the wicker chairs and sat in front of him.
‘There are three things you need to know,’ she said. ‘The first is that your friend is alive. The second is that whether or not he remains alive depends on you. And the third is, if anything happens to me, he will die.’
Harper stared daggers at Mechanic. She leaned forward with her elbows on her knees.
‘Let me be absolutely clear. Should the cavalry roll in and take me captive, I will not talk, and Lucas will die. If you overpower me, I will not talk, and Lucas will die. If you kill me, Lucas will die. You will never find him in this wilderness. I figure he has four days, maybe five at the most, before he dies anyway. Without me, that’s what will happen. Is that understood?’
Harper said nothing.
‘Is that understood?’
Harper said nothing.
Mechanic leapt from the chair and drew a hunting knife from her belt. She straddled Harper and dug the point of the knife into his cheek below his right eye. Harper fought against his restraints. Mechanic gripped his throat. He could feel a warm trickle of blood run down his cheek as the knife broke the skin.
‘Is that understood?’
‘Yes,’ he croaked.
‘Yes, what?’
‘Yes, it’s understood.’ He gasped for air.
Mechanic released him and returned to her chair, replacing the blade back in its sheath.
‘That’s better. And just so you know, that’s precisely the kind of behaviour that’s going to get your friend killed. I figure you’ll do anything for Lucas. Am I right?’
Harper was sucking in air. He nodded.
‘Can’t hear you.’
‘Yes, I would do anything for him.’
‘I figure you would do anything to keep him alive. That’s true, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, it’s true.’
‘Good, that’s what I thought. Do you recall the penance?’
Harper looked at Mechanic and shook his head.
‘Let me refresh your memory. The last time you tried to set me up and have me killed, I told Lucas I would only stop murdering people if he paid a penance. Do you remember now?’
Harper thought back. He recalled the killings in the motels didn’t stop when they gave back Jo. The killings continued until Lucas paid a penance.
‘I remember,’ he said.
‘Lucas had to choose between you and Bassano. I wanted to kill one of you as punishment for my sister being dead. Lucas’s penance was he had to choose. He had to give me one of you to kill. He chose you.’
Harper racked his brain and churned through the events of the previous year. He remembered he had put himself forward as bait to trap Mechanic. But he was not aware that Lucas had given him up to Mechanic as his penance.
Harper’s face flushed with anger.
‘Oh, you didn’t know? You didn’t know Lucas offered you up as a sacrifice? You were to be his penance. Well, it’s good for you that I have a sense of humour and blew a hole in his wife’s head instead. It was great fun.’
Harper tore himself away from the past. He had to figure out how to survive the present.
Mechanic continued, ‘So the penance was never paid. My sister is dead because of you three and no one has atoned for her death.’
‘You killed Bassano.’
‘I did. But I took his life rather than it being offered to me as a penance. In the same way I took the life of Darlene Lucas. You and Lucas must take responsibility for your sins. You need to pay the penance.’
Harper said nothing, his head was racing. Where the hell was all this going?
‘I want to be fair, so I’m giving you the opportunity to choose. That’s only fair, isn’t it? Lucas had a choice and now you have a choice, that’s only fair, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, that’s only fair.’ Harper could taste blood in the corner of his mouth. ‘You sick bitch.’
‘Yes, I suppose compared to most I am a little different. But I am nothing if not fair.’ She slid from her seat and straddled Harper’s legs, drawing her knife.
‘Paying a penance is a voluntary self-punishment to atone for a wrongdoing. You are in a sorry predicament but believe me, compared to Lucas, you are on vacation in the Florida Keys. So if you want to save your friend you have to pay the penance. You must atone for your sin and I will let him live.’
‘You won’t, you lying bitch!’ Harper flung his head forward trying to smash his forehead into Mechanic’s face. She rolled back, and he missed.
Mechanic seized his neck and shoved him into the banister. The knife bored into his cheekbone.
‘Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t. But one thing is certain, if you choose not to pay the penance, Lucas will die. You can refuse at any time but Lucas will die.’ Mechanic stepped off him. ‘So I ask again, do you understand how this works?’
Harper tasted blood in his mouth.
‘Yes, I understand how it works.’
‘Good.’ Mechanic reached into her pocket and brought out a ring holding four silver keys. She knelt down beside Harper and unlocked the cuff on his left wrist. It snapped open. She moved back with the blade in her hand.
‘I need to know you understand the consequences, because I’m not convinced you do.’
‘I understand,’ Harper said.
Mechanic threw the knife and the blade stuck in the wooden floor, inches from Harper’s left hand.
‘Pick it up.’
Harper gripped the handle and worked it back and forth until it was free. Every muscle in his body told him to throw it at Mechanic. He fought the instinct.
‘Cut the top off the little finger on your other hand.’
Harper’s mouth dropped open.
‘What?’
‘It’s not difficult to understand. I want you to cut the top off the little finger on your right hand. Sever it at the knuckle joint.’
‘What?’
‘This is your penance. You need to do this to atone for your sins, and the sins of your friend. You choose not to do it, Lucas dies.’
Harper stared up at Mechanic, tears welling in his eyes. He twisted the knife in his hand. It was heavy and razor sharp. The blade flashed in the last of the evening sun.
‘You have five seconds.’
‘I can’t.’
‘Then he dies. It’s your choice. One …’
‘This is fucking madness, you murdering bitch.’
‘Two …’
‘You’re gonna kill him anyway.’
‘If you fail this small penance, I will get in that van and drive away. You will probably survive out here in the elements, you have a chance of yelling for help. But you will never find your friend. I promise you on my sister’s life he will die. Three …’
‘Jesus Christ.’
‘Four …’
‘Aarrgh!’
Harper flattened his right hand on the floor with his fingers outstretched. He twisted his body and levelled the knife. The edge scored his skin above the first knuckle.
‘Five.’
Harper shifted his weight and thrust the blade down. The knife cut through the cartilage and tendons. The top of his finger rolled away in a spurt of blood.
He screamed and writhed on the floor clutching his wounded hand. Blood poured through his fingers and he tried to stem the bleeding.
Mechanic reached into her pocket and pulled out a cloth.
‘Here, bind it with this.’ She tossed it onto his chest.
Harper grabbed it and wound it around the bloody stump.
‘Fuck!’ he yelled as the pain kicked in, his exposed nerve endings
sending excruciating signals to his brain.
‘There, that wasn’t too hard now, was it?’
Mechanic bent down and picked up the knife. She wiped it on her thigh and strolled into the lodge. Harper was bent double trying to block out the pain.
After a couple of minutes Mechanic was back. She took the keys, removed the shackles from his ankles and snapped his free hand back into the cuffs attached to his waist. She heaved him up. Harper was shaking.
‘I need to take a walk now, and it’s going to get cold out here so you’d better come inside.’ She pushed Harper and he shuffled along the deck to the lodge. Blood leaked from the tightly wound cloth, leaving a spotted trail on the floor.
Mechanic opened the door and Harper went inside.
‘I won’t be long and I want you to be comfortable.’
Harper’s eyes adjusted to the gloom of the cabin. He was standing in a living room decorated with woodland rustic charm. It had a sofa and two easy chairs upholstered in garish blue and green check, and a table and chairs covered with a cloth of the same pattern. Around the walls were trophy heads of animals shot for sport. The vaulted ceiling went right up to the roof and heavy wooden beams spanned the room. The large windows gave a panoramic view of the valley below.
Harper felt a surge of uncontrolled panic.
In the centre of the room, dangling from a beam, was a hangman’s noose, with a chair placed below it.
47
Lucas had stopped fighting against the metal coffin. His elbows hurt, his knees hurt and his fingers bled. He forced himself to stop when his head began to spin, as the oxygen in the confined space was replaced with nitrogen and carbon dioxide. His heart thumped loud in the confined space. His throat was raw from yelling.
