I Know Where She Is: a breathtaking thriller that will have you hooked from the first page

by S. B. Caves

  ‘Yeah,’ Autumn said, without diverting her attention from resuscitating Wendy.

  ‘Is this man the one in charge?’ Francine asked.

  ‘No. Daddy’s in charge. He’s on the top floor,’ Autumn said, looking up from blowing air into Wendy’s mouth. Wendy stirred, coughed, but remained motionless.

  Daddy? ‘So what does this man here know?’

  ‘I know how to get you out of the forest,’ Joseph offered. ‘I can … I can call the men off you, send them on a wild goose chase.’

  ‘We need one of the cars,’ Autumn said over her shoulder.

  ‘Give me the keys to one of the cars. Make it snappy,’ Francine said.

  He stumbled over, hand in pocket, and produced a set of car keys. ‘Black BMW. It’s the only BMW there. Please … I can help you out. Just let me live. I have a wife … two sons … please.’

  Francine snatched the keys from him. ‘Autumn?’

  Autumn had her hands under Wendy’s armpits, trying to sit her up. ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Do I need anything else from him?’

  ‘His book,’ she said, meeting Joseph’s eyes when he looked over at her in surprise. ‘His big book of names. But we don’t need him for that. I know where it is.’

  Francine nodded. ‘Is there anything else?’

  Autumn said, ‘No.’

  ‘Good. Cover your ears.’

  28

  They carried Wendy out of the basement with her arms slung around their shoulders. The girl couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred and ten pounds, but it was all dead weight. She was semi-conscious, eyes open to slits, feet dragging on the floor. At the top of the stairs they lowered her into a sitting position and leaned her against the wall.

  ‘They’re all out there looking for me,’ Autumn said, stopping herself from adding ‘Mom’ just at the last second. She didn’t want to shatter the illusion, as though the word would end this whole perfect dream.

  ‘There’s nothing we can do about that just yet,’ Francine said. ‘There are others here at the house, right? Other girls like you?’

  Autumn nodded.

  ‘Where are they?’

  ‘They’re probably locked up in the dorm. I thought they would be in the basement, but I guess they’re not, so they have to be upstairs.’

  ‘Then here’s what I want you to do. Go up there and unlock their door and tell them what’s happening here. We won’t be able to take all of them, but if they go in groups, they might be able to find their way out. Tell them to just get into the woods and stay hidden, and when you and me are out of here, I’ll send help to come and get them. Think you can do that for me, sweetie?’

  ‘Yes.’ Autumn nodded. ‘What about Wendy?’

  ‘She’ll come with us, but right now we have to leave her here.’

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Top floor.’

  ‘No.’ Autumn’s hand reached out and clung to Francine’s jacket sleeve. ‘Let’s just get out while there’s time.’

  Francine cupped her daughter’s face in her hands. The feeling of looking at her daughter, this teenage girl she did not know, was like an out-of-body experience.

  ‘We will get out of here. I’m telling you to be strong. You just have to hold on.’

  ‘How can you say that? You can’t guarantee that we’ll be okay.’

  ‘You have to trust me, Autumn. I won’t let you down again. Look at me. We are getting out of here and we are never looking back. God as my witness.’

  Autumn blinked away tears and nodded.

  ‘Go and let the other girls out. I have one more thing I have to take care of. Don’t hang around, okay? Just do what you have to do and meet me back here. But if you see anyone coming, take off and wait by the car. You got it?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Autumn said breathlessly.

  ‘Good.’ Francine kissed her firmly on the head and walked away.

  * * *

  There was no longer any caution in the way she moved. Autumn ran like a startled antelope, bolting through the corridors. The ground melted away beneath her as she sprinted. She passed the barred windows down the second-floor hallway and cast a quick glance outside. There was nobody on the lawn. She made it to Joseph’s office; that vague memory of the guard stuffing himself inside her flittered to her mind as she tried different keys in the lock. She snapped the light on and stood there in the silent room with only the sound of her own thunderous heartbeat for company. It was to the side of the desk: a large leather-bound tome. She opened it up to make sure it was the right one, her grubby hands flipping through the pages, and was finally satisfied. Then she snatched the book up, cradled it against her bosom, and hurried out of the office.

  * * *

  Francine took the steps two at a time, following the staircase up to the very top floor. She knew immediately that Daddy would be waiting behind the double doors at the end of the corridor, and her stomach did a quick somersault.

  The doors opened without a creak and revealed a large room that appeared strangely clinical. An ancient-looking man lay in bed, cocooned in sheets and blankets, a small lamp on the table to his left providing the only light. Francine approached the foot of the bed. The old man’s eyes fluttered open and his toothless mouth made wet smacking sounds as his tongue slithered out to lubricate his lips. The skin on his waxy, liver-spotted face furrowed until it looked like his whole skull might fold in on itself.

  ‘Who’s that?’ he said, his voice like boots crunching on gravel.

  Francine stared into his eyes, breathing through clenched teeth. Her shoulders were heaving as she tried to contain the venom bubbling within her. ‘My name,’ she began, but the venom was too toxic. It corroded her energy, making even speech difficult. ‘My name is Francine Cooper. I am the mother of Autumn Cooper-Wright. You know her as Melody.’ She spoke clearly and loudly, wanting the words to register the first time, as she did not think she could bring herself to repeat them.

  The old man blinked, then said, ‘What do you want here?’

  ‘You have stolen my life. You ripped my heart out of my chest. And now I have come to return the favour.’ She aimed the gun at the man and watched him. He made no attempt to barter, nor to squirm away. Instead, his ugly little face pulled into a sneer.

  ‘Mel is a good girl. Firm, fertile. She’s done well.’

  Shooting him would be too merciful. She unhooked the strap from around her neck and threw the gun on the floor. Then she marched over to the old man, wrapped her hands around his thin, brittle throat and squeezed. She felt his oesophagus pulse against her palms, could feel the column of bone in his neck. He couldn’t seem to get his arms out of the covers as she strangled him, so he just lay there, his face going from jaundiced to red as the blood vessels burst.

  She didn’t hear the man behind her. She didn’t acknowledge his presence even when he hit her around the head. It was only when he clawed her face and physically wrenched her away from Daddy that she realised she was being attacked. He leaned back and put all his weight behind his next punch. It smashed into her forehead and rocked her skull, and she collapsed to the ground. He stepped over her prone body and approached the bed.

  ‘Can you hear me, Mr Wydebird? It’s Horace. Are you okay?’ He bent over and Francine could hear him blowing into the old man’s mouth. ‘What have you done?’ he snarled between bouts of breath. ‘What have you done?’

  The rifle was on the floor at the foot of the bed. She reached out for it but saw three hands in her vision, all of them moving in different directions. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs, but that only shifted the pain to other regions of her brain. She tried to get to her knees but couldn’t make her legs cooperate. Spiderlike, her fingers crawled towards the barrel.

  ‘Come on, breathe,’ Horace pleaded. Upon seeing that his attempts to revive the old man were futile, his hand went to snatch up the phone receiver, but in his haste, he knocked the whole thing to the floor. He bent down, clumsy in his panic, and snatched
the phone and the cord up in his arms, bundling it like a baby. He set it back down on the bedside table and stabbed at the buttons with his finger. He was about to dial the last digit when a salvo of bullets tore his skull to pieces.

  * * *

  The girls were already at the door, scratching to be let out like a roomful of dogs. Autumn hushed them while she found the right key, telling them to be silent and not say a single word. When she got the door open, she pushed them all back into the room and shut the door behind her.

  ‘We need to go to the bathroom!’ Elaine said in a burst of emotion.

  Not one of them thought to ask her where she’d been, or why she was so filthy. Look out for number one, that’s the name of the game, isn’t it? No, it wasn’t. And maybe that was why Autumn had made it this far, because she did care for the others, she was good for this evil place. ‘All of you just shut up for two minutes!’ she yelled. ‘I need you to listen.’

  The girls lapsed into silence, though some of them continued to dance on the spot, eager for the toilet.

  ‘I don’t have time to explain this and I won’t have time to say it again. All the guards are out in the woods right now. The doors to the house are open. If any of you want to get out of this place, then you have to go right now.’ The girls began mumbling and barging in with questions. ‘Shut up, just listen to me! You won’t all make it if you go as one big group, but if you split up and go in different directions then you might be okay. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?’ They stared at her blankly. ‘Look, I don’t know how much time you have, but I’m leaving right now. I can’t take any of you with me, but I’m going to send for help. Just like Lena did.’

  ‘Bullshit!’ one of them screamed. ‘You’re trying to trick us.’

  ‘I’m not,’ Autumn almost whined, lacking the strength to add conviction to her words. ‘Why would I need to trick you? Look, stay or go, I can’t help you any more than that.’ As she turned to leave, she heard them muttering and conversing, but she didn’t hear the shuffle of feet. She turned around and saw them still huddled in the room. ‘Come on, you guys! You can’t stay here. Please don’t stay here.’

  ‘We’re frightened,’ little Alma said, her big eyes welling with tears. ‘Please don’t leave us, Mel.’

  ‘I can’t …’ Autumn shook her head, hoping she could keep from crying. ‘I can’t stay. And neither can any of you. Be brave. Come on. Please be brave.’

  ‘We should wait here for the guards,’ someone said, and the conversation flapped from talk of escape to the trouble they would all get into if the guards saw the door open and they weren’t in bed. ‘Maybe we can run to the toilet and get back before they notice any of us left,’ another girl said, and right then, Autumn knew it was useless.

  She ran down the corridor and made her way back to the ground floor. She was sure the guards would be waiting for her like some horrendous surprise party. She took the last stretch cautiously but swiftly. The house was silent. She peered around the corner and saw Wendy still leaning against the wall, her head lolling to the side. Autumn dashed out and ran to her friend’s side, skidding across the floor and skinning her knees.

  ‘Mel … I’m hurt bad, Melly,’ Wendy whispered. One of her pupils was black and the size of a penny. ‘I think I’m dying.’

  ‘No you’re not. You’re not dying. But when you’re better, I might have to kill you for all the trouble you’ve put me through.’

  ‘Trouble?’

  Autumn shook her head. ‘I’m just teasing. You didn’t cause me any trouble. In fact, you might’ve saved me.’

  ‘Where am I, Mel? I can’t see.’

  ‘We’re at the house.’

  ‘Oh God. It hurts, Mel. I’m hurting all over.’

  ‘It’s okay,’ Autumn soothed. ‘We’re hitting the road. Any minute now.’ She set the book aside, slumped down on the floor next to Wendy and cradled the girl’s head in her arms. There was little else she could do except wait. The longest night of her life was coming to an end. As she stared through the window in front of them, she felt the rhythm of Wendy’s breathing slow down until eventually it stopped altogether. She bit down on her lower lip. ‘Wendy? You still with me?’

  There was no reply. Autumn stroked the girl’s hair away from her face. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered into Wendy’s blood-crusted ear. She kissed her lightly on the cheek. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Autumn wept for her friend. When she wiped her eyes, she saw her mother standing at the end of the corridor watching, her forehead smeared with blood.

  ‘It’s time to go,’ Francine said.

  29

  The body of the black BMW gleamed in the spotlights. As they got into the car, Francine said absently, ‘Here, you’re in charge of this.’ She handed Autumn the rifle before adding, ‘Put your seat belt on.’ She settled behind the wheel. ‘Am I right in thinking there’s only the one entrance? That one up there.’ She pointed at the gate deep in the distance.

  ‘Yes,’ Autumn said, clutching the big book of names to her chest.

  ‘Do you know the woods?’

  ‘No,’ she admitted. ‘I got turned around in them trying to find my way out.’

  ‘But there’s a dirt road that takes you right here,’ Francine said, putting the key in the ignition. The engine purred to life. ‘I came down it. Didn’t you try and follow it out?’

  ‘Of course not. That path is the only way in or out of these woods, so it’s exactly the way they would’ve expected me to go.’

  Francine still hadn’t put the car into drive. She sat upright, her sweaty hands coiling and uncoiling around the wheel. Blood ran down the side of her face. ‘We might see them out there in the woods. If that happens, we may need to ditch this thing and get out on foot. But we have a weapon at least. We’ll just have to take our chances.’

  Carefully she pulled out of the parking space and guided the car across the lawn without turning the headlights on. No one was waiting at the gate, nor did she see the lights of any other vehicles. It was almost too perfect, and the realisation made her throat close to a pinprick. It felt like she was sucking in air through a straw. She was sweating profusely and was having trouble with her vision – her left eye was swollen almost completely closed and the rain blurred the windscreen. In the forest she would have no choice but to use the full beams, advertising her location.

  ‘Did you manage to get any of the other girls out?’

  ‘I unlocked the door, but they didn’t want to go.’

  ‘None of them?’

  ‘No … Wait!’ Autumn spun around in her seat, the rifle barrel clinking against the window. ‘Stop the car.’

  ‘What’s the problem?’

  ‘I didn’t get the pregnant girls.’

  ‘What?’ Francine drove through the open gate into the forest. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘We have to go back! Stop the fucking car!’

  ‘I can’t stop the car, Autumn. What’s the problem? Spell it out to me.’

  ‘I forgot about the pregnant girls on the third floor. They’re in cells. Some of them are ready to drop. We have to turn back.’

  Francine thought about it but made no effort to slow the car. The house was already a glint in the rear-view mirror.

  ‘I’m sorry, Autumn, but we can’t. We just can’t do it.’

  Autumn hammered her fists on the dashboard and began knocking her head against the window. ‘Damn it! Fucking bullshit! Stop this fucking car!’

  ‘Hey, calm down.’ Francine reached one hand across to try and prevent her daughter doing any more harm to herself, her other hand guiding the wheel. Autumn’s sudden outburst had raised goose flesh on her cheeks.

  ‘It’s all my fault! They’re going to die and it’s all because of me!’

  Now Francine stopped the car.

  ‘Look at me, Autumn.’ Her hands went out to grab hold of Autumn’s shoulders, but she immediately thought better of it. The girl would probably not appreciate any
physical contact just then. ‘Autumn. Focus for a second and look at me. None of this is your fault. Nothing that has happened in that house is down to you, do you understand me?’

  ‘I could’ve helped them. I could’ve …’ Autumn broke off and shook her head. She sighed and sank into the car seat. ‘I don’t know what I could’ve done.’

  ‘If they’re pregnant, then there’s not a whole lot you can do. We wouldn’t have had the space to take them all, would we?’ When Autumn didn’t speak, Francine continued. ‘Look, once we get out of here I’ll call the police and tell them—’

  ‘Just stop it,’ Autumn said, shaking her head. ‘Stop talking and drive. Police won’t do shit. A car won’t even get dispatched.’

  Francine turned her lights on and drove. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said quietly.

  ‘So am I.’

  Ten minutes later, Francine passed the car she’d arrived in – saw it parked just off the side of the road. She thought about Glenn Schilling and whether he had suffocated yet. Probably not. But it was doubtful anyone would get to him soon, and even if they did, it didn’t make a bit of difference to Francine. She supposed she would find out one way or another; it’d be all over the TV once something definitive happened. But by that time she planned to be long gone; just the two of them, somewhere far, far away.

  Hawaii, perhaps.

  ‘How did you find me?’ Autumn said, her head resting against the window. ‘It was Lena, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Autumn laughed mirthlessly. ‘That silly girl. Where is she now?’

  Francine paused. ‘She’s dead.’

  ‘What happened?’ Autumn asked without a hint of surprise in her voice.

  ‘I think she jumped off a bridge. I don’t know really know why.’

  Autumn’s throat clicked. ‘Lights,’ she said, and pointed through the windscreen.

  Francine quickly turned her headlights off, though she knew it would be too late. She veered off the path and let the BMW roll down the embankment, narrowly missing a copse of trees. All the while she kept her eyes on the vehicle in the distance as it sped along the path in the direction of the house. The BMW came to a halt and she switched the ignition off and allowed the engine to lapse into silence. Both mother and daughter watched silently as the Jeep rumbled down the path, giving no indication that it had noticed the other vehicle.