A Box Full of Trouble

by Carolyn Haines

  * * *

  Erin struggled to sit up. Her knees and arm were bruised and the side of her face hurt badly where Zach had punched her. She tried to move her wrists, but the zip ties he'd put on her were tight. Her feet were bound, too. There was no getting away, or even out of the main room of Zach's upstairs apartment when she could hardly move. Shelby Rae was only five feet away from her, similarly bound. Surprisingly he hadn't gagged either of them. That told Erin he was confident no one would come looking for them. He'd gotten away with so much, she suspected, that he didn't think he'd be caught. Or, perhaps, he was going to kill them.

  One wall of the room was filled with hundreds of photographs. Erin had good eyesight, and could see that they all appeared to be new and old images of Shelby Rae. There was a blank space on one board that she suspected had held the photo Trouble had brought to her. Trouble, please be okay. And Jocko. What did Zach do to you? She twisted around to get a better look at the three mannequins in the room. Mannequins wearing pageant gowns and a cheerleading uniform. Surely they had once belonged to Shelby Rae. It was like the whole room was some kind of shrine to Shelby Rae.

  Shelby Rae herself was sobbing, her makeup streaked below her eyes. "I didn't think he'd bring you here. I told him to leave you alone. Why couldn't you stay out of this?"

  "What's he going to do to us?" Erin's jaw stung when she talked.

  "I told him it had to stop. All of it. He killed that nosy Julie because she threatened to tell Bruce we were having an affair. I didn't hate her. I knew she didn't have a chance with Bruce no matter what lies she told him. There was no way she could get me to leave him. Oh, why did you come here?"

  Erin twisted her hands, trying to figure out how to get out of the ties. She remembered watching a video that demonstrated how to do it, but she couldn't recall what the details were. She looked around the room for some edge she could saw the things off with, and noticed an old typewriter on a table in the corner. It wouldn't help them, but it explained where the ransom note had been typed. "I didn't exactly get here on my own. How long have you been here? Did you text me to meet you out at the fishing cabin, or did he just use your phone?"

  Shelby Rae shook her head. "He's got my phone. I don't know why he's gone so crazy. He's never been like this before."

  It was hard for Erin to keep the disgust out of her voice. "How long have you been sleeping with him? Since before you married Dad?"

  The sobs began anew. A thin stream of mucous ran onto Shelby Rae's upper lip. "You don't understand. We were never lovers. Never. We dated a little in high school, but then he went in the Army. He showed up in New Belford after he got out of the police academy. I hadn't even kept in touch with him. He was always so sweet to me, but he never tried to date me or anything like that. We were just friends, I swear. But after I married your father we agreed that we probably shouldn't really talk to each other any more. And we didn't, really. Not until a couple months ago." Her voice trailed off.

  Erin didn't know whether to believe her or not. She didn't trust Shelby Rae any more than she had before just because they were both being held captive.

  There had to be a way out. If only she could get over to the open window beside the door to see if anyone was outside. She'd heard Zach's truck start up again after he dumped her in the apartment and told her to shut the hell up. She suspected he'd left, but she couldn’t be sure.

  "Okay. So Zach was kind of your friend, then he wasn't, and then he was. What happened? What changed?"

  "I don't think I want to tell you." Shelby Rae sounded like a chastised little girl.

  "He's got about a thousand pictures of you! And those pageant dresses, tell me they're not yours?" Erin jerked her head at the mannequins, which looked tatty and old in the sunlight. The dresses were grubby as though they'd been handled frequently, and it filled her with disgust. "There is something very wrong with him, Shelby Rae. He's psycho. He murdered Julie."

  "I know! I know! But I didn't know he was going to do that. It was all supposed to end when I came home. I was only out at the cabin. Nothing else was supposed to happen. It wasn't like either one of us even wanted the money. I only wanted your father to..." She stalled again, and Erin wished badly she could shake her to keep her talking. Maybe that only worked in movies.

  A horrible thought began to grow in Erin's mind. The money. The kidnapping. "You weren't really kidnapped, were you? It was Zach who came to get the money, wasn't it?"

  Shelby Rae moaned.

  "What did you do? Tell me!"

  "You don't understand! Ever since the lawsuit started, your father hasn't been a real husband. He was so caught up in it. It was like he couldn't get enough of being at work, and of talking to the lawyers. It was like some kind of stupid war campaign. He was never home. He never wanted to take me anywhere or do anything because he said he was too distracted. What was I supposed to do? The stupid lawsuit wasn't the end of the world, but I couldn't make him see that. I couldn't make him see me."

  "Tell me you didn't do what I think you did. Oh, my God, you're an adult! You're not a fifteen-year-old whose boyfriend is hanging out with his buds too much and wants payback. What is wrong with you? Daddy and I were afraid you were going to be killed!" Erin thought Shelby Rae would've been cried out by now, but her eyes filled again, and she began making a high keening sound.

  "Please! Stop it. Stop it, now, Shelby Rae."

  Shelby Rae eventually stopped crying and did her best to wipe her face on the shoulder of her peach-colored shirt. It was hot without air conditioning in the apartment, and her shirt already had patches of perspiration.

  "I thought if Bruce saw he might lose me, he would get it. It wasn't like I gave him any reason to leave me. Ever! I was gone two nights, and he didn't even stay at home the whole afternoon after I got back. What does that tell you?"

  "It tells me he was glad you were safe, and you may not know it but he left because Julie was trying to cause trouble for you and him. And don't tell me how broken up you were about the whole thing because you went to the stupid hairdresser after you woke up. I don't get you at all. Didn't it ever occur to you that Zach was way more of a stalker than a friend?"

  Shelby Rae looked away. "What if he kills us? He's lost his mind."

  Erin caught the change of subject, but, really, what other subject was there? If Zach killed them none of the other questions would matter a bit. He was some kind of obsessed psychopath. She hadn't paid enough attention when she and Noah had been there the night before. They'd done a great job of revealing information to a man who knew what was going on before they even got there. Is that why he'd turned on Shelby Rae? Maybe he thought she and Noah were getting too close, and that Shelby Rae was weak. The hoodie she'd seen hadn't seemed significant to her because she hadn't wanted to believe it was significant. So much simpler that way.

  "Did you give him a hard time about killing Julie?"

  "Of course I did. I didn't even want to see him again. But when I told him I was going up to French Lick to get away, he talked me into meeting him at the cabin so we could figure out what to say if the police somehow arrested him for it. That's where he told me he was framing Bruce for it, like I would think it was a good idea." Shelby Rae spoke angrily. "He broke every agreement we had. Fifty thousand dollars. It was all his, but he didn't even care about it. He wasn't supposed to do anything to you or your father."

  "Shhh." Erin turned her face to the open window and whispered. "Listen." She could hear a car rumbling slowly over the gravel. It didn't sound like a truck. It sounded like her Challenger. Noah had been to the cabin and figured out where she was.

  * * *

  I confess I’m a bit wobbly getting out of Erin's car. Noah is a fine driver, but his urgency led him to drive like a maniac over the rough backroads between the cabin and here. Jocko is similarly unsettled. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he stumbled toward the brightest patch of grass he could find for a nibble to settle his stomach.

  Noah is remarka
bly sure-footed, despite his panic. On the way here, I believe he reached Erin's father on the phone and directed him to meet us. Even though I'm certain I can handle the situation, it will be good for Noah to have some support. Erin is surely here, and that deputy, Zach, is no doubt hiding nearby. The big, black truck belonging to him is nowhere to be seen, but I'm no gormless fool. Best to flush out the cad and deal with him immediately, lest he ambush the lot of us. But before I can lead Noah on a search of the farmhouse, Jocko begins to growl low in his throat.

  "What is it?" Noah crouches beside the dog, whose ears are alert and whose hackles are raised. He stares at the distant dilapidated barn. I give him a warning meow, but he doesn't even turn around. Stupid git. He and Noah will not be deterred, but start jogging toward the barn. Resolving that it's as good a place to start as any, I run ahead of them through the sparse grass.

  I don't enter through the main door with Noah and Jocko but slip in through a hole in the wall. The interior is dim and battered by years of hard farm use. Above is a series of lofts, some intact, others broken and sagging with age, and I leap from pillar to post until I reach one. But it's not hay I'm in search of.

  Below, Jocko is busy sniffing the ground. Noah has found something near the big doors—rounded shapes beneath giant black tarpaulins. He pulls the tarpaulins back, revealing two vehicles: Shelby Rae's SUV and a small Mercedes I recognize as being Julie Berry's from when she visited Erin's house on Monday. Now my suspicions about the deputy are confirmed. He's involved in both Shelby Rae's earlier kidnapping and Julie Berry's murder. I'm relieved to see Noah is getting a leg up on things. He'll make a top-notch detective yet. I wonder if he's figured out that Shelby Rae is probably here as well. Her car may be hidden, but is she a captive, or is she an accomplice?

  Leaving Noah to his investigation, I hurry to finish my exploration of the barn. It's large, and there are many places to hide—and hide captives. There's plenty of debris: plastic buckets, rusting tools, burlap, mouse-eaten bags, and more than one pile of metal pipes. I make my way down to the stalls and discover nothing except ancient hay, and a great, rotting rat in a trap with a blanket of fat, buzzing bottleflies hovering over it. The smell is beyond horrific, and I hurry away.

  As I cross the barn, a slight vibration of the air teases my whiskers and I sense real danger nearby. Noah is leaning inside Shelby Rae's SUV, with Jocko at his feet. It will be one of the regrets of this life that neither my cry nor Jocko's alarmed barking alerts Noah in time.

  Chief Deputy Wilkins slams the SUV's door against Noah's legs, causing him to shout out in pain. Stunned, Noah tries to right himself, but the man throws the door open again and hits poor Noah with a shovel on the back of the head. Noah slumps to the ground. As the brutal deputy pulls back the shovel like a cricket player readying himself for a second slog, Jocko flings himself at the man's ankles and sinks his tiny fangs in. At the same time, I launch myself at the deputy’s back, my claws sinking into the skin beneath his T-shirt. He stumbles, screaming bloody murder, and I nimbly jump off, abandoning him to the tender mercies of the snarling Jocko. I reckon the tosser will be distracted enough to leave Noah alone for a while as he recovers himself. That is, if he can get away from the dog.

  My mission now is to secure Erin’s safety and stop Chief Deputy Wilkins.

  The only sign of life in the ground floor of the deputy's house is the irate barking of what sounds like a very large canine that’s running from room to room. It's only because I have superior hearing that I'm able to hear Erin's hoarse cries from the first floor above the din.

  I zip up the outside stairs to discover that the window through which I entered the other evening is still open. I ease my way through the opening and Bob’s your uncle, I’m inside.

  "Trouble!"

  Erin is on the floor, her feet and hands bound, leaning against a wall. Her face and neck glow with perspiration in the overly warm room, and there's an alarming purple bruise on the side of her face. But she's smiling, obviously chuffed to see me, and I leap gently onto her lap to touch my nose to her neck to comfort her. Surely the rotten deputy has done this to her. We shall have our revenge.

  "I don't know why you're so happy." The other human in the room is Shelby Rae, and she looks like a stretch of bad road. Her clothing is grubby and damp, her makeup melted. "What good is a stupid cat going to do us?"

  If I were a less dignified chap I would do something rude to indicate what a stupid cow I think she is, but that might embarrass Erin.

  "I told you I heard my car. It's Noah. I'm sure it's Noah. He found Trouble and Jocko at the cabin." Erin addresses me. "Is he out there? Can you get Noah to come up here?"

  "You're crazy." Shelby Rae sounds disgusted. Perhaps I can find a way to make sure Erin is rescued and she is not. Horrible woman.

  I can't produce Noah, and his survival depends on the passing seconds. The best I can do is find something to help release Erin from her bonds. I quickly examine the things around her wrist. As they're not metal, perhaps they can be cut.

  "See? He's just messing around." Shelby Rae scoffs like an old fishwife. "Probably looking for food."

  Doing my best to ignore the woman, I jump up and pad around the tables to look for scissors, a knife, anything sharp. I discover a cup full of pens and shiny objects.

  "Is there a craft knife or something in there? I should've thought of it before." Is Erin addressing me? No. "Come on, Shelby Rae. What is there? We've got to get out of here before Zach comes back."

  "I guess he does cut stuff up."

  "Like the faces out of photographs? That's not creepy or anything." Erin sounds angry.

  I knock the cup over and its contents spills onto the floor. In the midst is a shiny metal craft knife with a lid over the blade of the sort I've seen used for crafts at the Wetumpka Library. Voilà! Carefully, I pick it up in my mouth and, to cries of delight from Erin, carry it to her, setting it behind her back, within reach of her fingers.

  "Erin, don't. You'll cut yourself!"

  Erin ignores her stepmother.

  "Trouble, you're brilliant." With intense concentration, Erin feels along the knife's handle and carefully eases off the lid. Both Shelby Rae and I watch her, concerned, as she saws at the zip tie at her wrist. I have faith but Shelby Rae tells her again and again to be careful as though she thinks it's helpful.

  When I see Erin wince, I know she's cut herself, but she gives no other sign. Shelby Rae doesn't notice. Time passes slowly though it's only been a minute or two. We need to get to the barn and get the police, the real police, here quickly.

  Erin gasps and brings the hand holding the knife in front of her. When she brings the other around, Shelby Rae sees that it's bloody and gives a little shriek.

  "I'll live." Erin cuts the ropes from around her ankles and stands up shakily, holding onto the wall.

  "Now me. Don't leave me here. Please don't leave me here." Shelby Rae is whining, beyond undignified. I remember how she giggled as she talked on that phone in her closet, and it puts me in a right temper.

  Erin does the decent thing and frees Shelby Rae's hands without speaking. Then she and I clamber out the window beside the dead-bolted door, Shelby Rae calling after us as we fly down the stairs.

  "Where's Noah?" Erin asks me.

  Hoping she won't start yelling for Noah, I lead her to the barn. When we're within a dozen yards, I slow my approach, and she thankfully follows my cautious lead. I take her around the back to an opening I found that’s well away from the main door.

  After we enter the barn, Erin and I ease ourselves along the wall as far as we can. I expect Jocko to make an appearance, but the barn is eerily silent. I can see down to the end where Zach is silhouetted in the light from the big doorway. Behind me, Erin catches her breath, and I stop and look back at her. I can't have her throwing a spanner into the works now. Then she surprises me. Glancing around, she spies one of the longer bits of pipe lying about and stoops to grasp it, sliding it slowly toward her. Wha
t a grand girl she is.

  Ahead, Zach bends to lift something from the ground. Gripping poor, unconscious Noah by the ankles, he pulls him along on his back. This will worry Erin, but I don't dare make eye contact with her. Not yet. Zach groans with the effort and moves stiffly. One of his blue jean legs is in shreds and dark with what must be blood. Good Jocko. But where is the dog?

  When we're within a dozen feet, I stop and look back at Erin. Her face shines like that of a fair Celtic warrior. She's ready. When she meets my eyes, she raises the pipe and nods. Our feet are soundless as we cross the dusty, hay-strewn floor. Once again, I leap onto the deputy's back, but I don't stop there. Quickly, I claw my way to his front, and he hesitates a moment before he can fight me because his feet tangle over Noah's legs. We barely miss falling onto Noah. As I jump away, Erin is right there, bringing the heavy pipe down on the deputy's head.

  * * *

  “Stay on the ground. Don't move!" Erin's hands trembled the slightest bit where they met the pipe, but she knew she could hit Zach again if she had to. She might not have felt so brave if she couldn’t hear sirens getting closer. It was almost over.

  Zach slumped against a crate, intense pain evident in every small movement of his head. His voice was hoarse. "Don't worry, your boyfriend's not dead. Noah's like a son to me."

  "You're sick. You're no better than his father."

  "If I hadn't taken some care of him, he'd have turned out like his old man." He coughed, and tried to stand.

  "Sit down!"

  The sirens got louder and louder, then shut off one at a time. Erin heard tires skid to a stop on the gravel. Doors opened and slammed shut.

  Zach chuckled. "Princess, I've got a gun on me. If I’d wanted you or the kid dead you'd be dead already. You have no idea."