Diana and the Three Behrs

by Fleeta Cunningham

  He shook his head. “They haven’t made any move that suggests they’re leaving.”

  “Then let’s see if we can inspire them.”

  Adler opened the door and a chorus of cheers went up. He held up a silver dollar. “It’s been very nice, my friends, but I think it’s going to rain. I wouldn’t want any of you to get sick from getting caught in it. Let’s bring the party to an end.”

  “One song for the bride! Something pretty for Mrs. Behr!” The chant went through the group. “One more number! One more number!”

  “All right, boys. Just one, while I express our appreciation…for your imminent departure.” Adler went down the steps and out into the crowd. Diana felt suddenly isolated in the darkness as some of the glee club turned to him, reaching for the silver dollars he was passing out. Others formed a knot at the edge of the porch, creating a barrier between her and Adler.

  Again in close harmony, the group began “Down by the Old Mill Stream,” and Diana had to admire their skill. She thought a little less of it by the time they began the chorus for the fourth time, and she realized they were rotating men in and out of the group, some stepping back to reach for Adler’s silver dollars and permitting others to slip into the group singing.

  Enough of this. The wind is getting up and I can smell the rain coming. She took a slow retreat, a little at a time, until she was at the back side of the porch. In the deep shadows, she thought she could dash back into the house as the last of the vocalists turned toward Adler.

  I can just slip inside. They’re all focused on Adler now, and I can… Diana didn’t finish the thought. Out of the darkness a hand grabbed her arm and spun her around. She started to cry out. Another hand, this one across her mouth, stopped her. The assailant held her as a cord was wrapped around her, confining her flailing, struggling body, and a gag bound her mouth. Two dark figures, one on each side of her, hustled her into the shadows, dragging her when she tried to wriggle free. Furiously she resisted, but the bonds were tight and the men more powerful than one slender woman could defy. For the first few steps, Diana wasn’t frightened, only angry that someone was playing such a nasty prank. As they turned a corner, where the streetlamp spilled light into an open space, she saw the faces of her two captors. Then she remembered where she’d seen the man who looked like an angry elf before—outside Tommy Gunn’s club. Somehow they’d found her.

  Diana struggled even harder when she realized she’d fallen into the hands of the men she’d run from months before. She twisted, kicked at the ankles of the shorter one, and found herself lifted and tossed contemptuously over the shoulder of the other like a bag of feed.

  “The car? This block?”

  “Yeah. Under the big tree. Can’t hardly see it in the dark, but it’s right there.”

  “Right, I see it.”

  Though she writhed and thrashed, nothing came of Diana’s efforts. In moments the men stopped, and she heard the grate of a car door. She felt herself heaved into the darkness and was only slightly relieved to land on a cushioned seat instead of unyielding floorboards. She couldn’t help remembering another car and another captive, some months back. A captive who was found dead and went unidentified for several days. Without question, she knew the men in the front seat of the car had the same plan in mind for her.

  The car bumped along on streets not paved with bricks. Not paved at all, she would guess. Are we out in the country? Are they just going to…dump me, dead, like poor Haver? Anger had passed, leaving her shaking in fear. Somehow they’d identified her, found her, even out here in placid Pfeiffer. They wouldn’t leave her to tell what she’d seen, she had no doubt of that.

  Adler! All the things we planned, the life we thought we’d have. And Pam. And the owls. I’ll never see them again. She struggled against the cord binding her but found no ease in its coils.

  The car rolled to a stop. The men opened the back door and hauled her out. She recognized the place, a small cul-de-sac with an isolated Sunday house at the bottom, not as large or elaborate as the one she and Adler had borrowed, at the edge of the residential district. Diana had only a second to observe her surroundings before the taller man threw her over his shoulder again and loped to the covered porch of the house.

  “Get it open before somebody notices us.”

  “Hard to see in the dark. Oh, got it. Get her inside.”

  Diana’s head came in sharp contact with the hard edge of the door and she saw stars as her captor pushed his companion aside. In the unrelieved darkness, she heard his shoes striking wooden flooring and bumped against his shoulder at each rising and falling step. Though she could see little, she knew he must be taking her up stairs. At least they weren’t planning to kill her immediately, it seemed. She might have a chance to wiggle free if they left her alone.

  He stopped abruptly; she felt herself falling. Braced for impact with the floor, she landed on something firm but resilient. Lumpy but not rigid. Her face felt the rough texture of coarse fabric. It smelled of dust and age. Wherever she was, the heat was suffocating.

  “They shouldn’t be able to make trouble here. Nobody around. No way out of this place.”

  “Hot as hell up here. Leave ’em here. Give the others an hour or so to get home, get to bed. Then go pick them up; those old guys should round up as easy as picking nuts off the ground. Take care of the whole batch when we get back. No slip-ups, no witnesses. Then we go home, get back to the city.”

  “Better not be any slip-ups. Gunn doesn’t like loose ends.”

  “The heat’s getting me. Come on. We’ve got a couple of beers out on the porch. Cooler out there, and we’ve got some time to kill anyway.”

  The voices stopped and the footsteps seemed to move away. In another minute, a heavy door closed off the room. Diana rolled upright, stiff from her restraints. She sat still, listening, suddenly certain she wasn’t alone in the room. She thought she was sitting on a bed or cot, one with a cornshuck mattress by the way it smelled. Twisting slowly, she tried to make out anything in the room, or any other person, to be certain her senses weren’t misleading her.

  Gradually she was able to recognize shapes. Faint light seeped into the room from outside, suggesting it had windows or some ventilation. She could see the dim outline of what she thought was another cot. It had an irregular form, and as she watched, the form moved and sat up.

  “Di? Is it you?”

  Still gagged, Diana couldn’t answer, but she knew that whisper. She’d been hearing it all her life. Pamina! Somehow Gunn’s men had found both girls. Diana tried to make some kind of affirmative sound through her gag.

  “Sit still. I got that filthy rag out of my mouth. I think I’ve almost managed to pull one knot loose with my teeth.” A rustle of movement from the other side of the room accompanied sharp yips and a fervent, “Ouch!”

  Diana could see her sister wriggling and squirming, then saw the slight shadow of one slender hand.

  “Got one loose. Those goons may be good at something, but they couldn’t tie a decent knot if they had to—thank goodness. Hold on.” In a moment Pam was beside her, loosening the gag, then fumbling to find the ends of her bonds.

  “I can’t believe they found us.” The last coil came loose, and Diana rubbed her numb wrists and arms.

  “It was Trey’s car. That red ReVere is about as unobtrusive as a skunk at a Sunday social. I heard them bragging about it, how they spotted the car that evening at Tommy Gunn’s and found out who owned it; they’ve actually more or less followed us all the way from home, but until now they were always a little too late to catch us. They grabbed me as I came back from giving Lotte your wedding veil. Crowed about how smart they were, trailing the car here and staying just out of sight. Boasted about it the whole time they were waiting for the glee club to follow you and Adler. Dumped me here and went after you, without a thing I could do to warn you.”

  “But they didn’t just get rid of us, at least not yet. What are they planning? Do you know?”


  “Boy, do I! They’re going after Trey and the owls. Or the ones at Adler’s. They don’t seem to know that the fellas split up and only half of them are at his house.”

  “Then we have to escape. Go tell them. Get to a telephone and call the sheriff or Judge Schmidt. By now Adler is probably combing the town, looking for me.” Another thought stopped her. “Or he may just think this is part of the shivaree, that maybe it somehow got out of hand, and he’s waiting at the Sunday house, thinking the glee club will expect him to ransom me. Being Adler, he’ll probably glare and fume and decide he’s not going to do it.”

  Pam stopped her with an impatient shake. “You just said the magic word, Di. Escape. We have to get out of here.” She slumped down. “The whole time I was trying to get loose, that’s what I kept saying to myself. But now, well, look at this place. I can’t see any way out except the stairs on the other side of that door. I can pretty well promise our buddies downstairs didn’t leave a key under the mat.” She edged away from the cot and felt her way to the door. “Locked tight.”

  Dripping wet from the heat and her exertions, Diana pushed damp hair back, and stared into the darkness. “Of course it’s locked. Even with us tied up, they wouldn’t take any chances.”

  “But, Di, we have to do something. Trey, Adler, all of them… Those goons will…”

  She didn’t have to finish the thought. Diana knew what Gunn’s men would do. She felt her way to her sister. “There’s a way out, or at least I’m pretty sure there is,” she whispered. “These places are built for families with kids. Erlich told me about them. You can feel how hot it is in here. Nobody would park kids in a room this hot with no way to let in some air. There’s always the possibility of fire, too.” She began to run her fingertips over the rough panel of the wall. “Usually there are shutters or panels that can open or slide back to let in air and to get the people out in case the place goes up in flames. All we have to do is find it. Probably a crank or pulley. Some kind of mechanism that will open something. Start checking around the walls. It won’t be too high up, because it has to be within reach for a child. And it won’t be too hard to open, for the same reason.”

  “A crank or a pulley?”

  “Yes, but if you find it, be quiet. We don’t want sudden company from downstairs.” Diana felt her sister move. “Wait. Do you still have on those high heels you wore to the wedding?”

  “Don’t worry, I lost my shoes somewhere around the meeting hall when Gunn’s palookas grabbed me. I’ll be silent as a mouse. Just hope this floor doesn’t have splinters. My stockings are nothing but shreds now, and my feet are bare.”

  To avoid telltale noise on the wooden floor, Diana slipped out of her shoes, too, and began the slow search of the walls for an escape route. As she crept around the edge of the room, feeling her way into darker corners, she felt her silk stockings snag and tear. Finally she rolled them down and tossed them aside. They were only hampering her hunt for the elusive release.

  The search had to be slow and silent, but Diana bit back a shriek when she encountered a spider web. Pam muffled a sneeze against her silk sleeve as dust rose. They couldn’t take the risk of the men downstairs hearing them and coming to investigate. The fear of bumping into something they couldn’t see near the walls kept them moving only inches at a time, feeling ahead, then running fingers over the rough planking. Diana stopped to wipe away the sweat that stung her eyes and push back the damp hair plastered to her head.

  “Anything?” Pam’s whisper was close by.

  “Nothing. We have to go around again.” Unbuttoning the neck of her dress, she pulled the damp fabric away from her skin. “Reach lower. When you find the corner, turn around and go back. It has to be here. A way to open vents of some kind.” Diana felt her sister’s dress brush her arm and reached out to touch Pam. “Look up. See those faint, gray lines? Those are air holes, big ones. That’s why we have a little light. Those panels aren’t fixed very tight against the frames.”

  “I see them, but they’re way up above my head. If we find the dingus to open them, we still have to find a way to get up there.”

  Refusing to believe escape was impossible, Diana squared her shoulders and began another circuit of the room. “Find the means first, and then we’ll figure out how to use it.”

  At that instant, a brighter light briefly outlined a rough rectangle.

  “What was that?” Pam’s question was answered by a low roll of thunder.

  “Adler said it was going to rain.”

  “That’s going to send Mutt and Jeff inside. They won’t wait on the porch to get wet.”

  “Even if they come back in, we have to keep looking till we find it. Just be quiet about it. We don’t want them coming to find out what made strange noises.”

  The girls started their exploration again, with no results. Slumped against the wall, too hot to go on, they wiped sweaty hands on limp skirts and tried to summon strength to try again. Diana tilted her head back against the splintery panel and stared up into the darkness. Lightning flashed again, reminding them the storm was drawing closer and time was growing short. With rain likely, their captors might be advancing their schedule and heading for Adler’s house at any moment. In the brief flash of light, Diana spotted something in the shadows. She reached out to her sister.

  “Pam, can you see that darker square just above your head? Over the end of that far cot? Looks like a telephone shelf.”

  Pamina smothered a nervous giggle. “There wouldn’t be a telephone in this place, Di.”

  “No, but that just might hold a lever or pulley for the panels.” She inched into the corner beside her sister and stood on tiptoe, cautiously reaching into the dark recess above. Her guarded search met a thin metal rod topped by a wooden ball. “It’s a crank, Pam. This has to operate the air panels.” Squeezing between the cots placed at right angles in the corner, Diana gripped the rough wood with both hands. Praying the mechanism wouldn’t creak or squeak when turned, she pulled the ball down. It was stiff, likely unused for months. The house, with its cobwebs and dust, had an abandoned feel, and the crank wouldn’t have been oiled in ages. She tugged harder and felt the crank give a little. A single panel under the edge of the roof opened out like an awning, up toward the roof and away from the house. One inch. She gripped and pulled again. Another inch of sky shimmering with lightning showed.

  “Can you get it, Di?”

  Diana stopped and rubbed her hands on the hem of her cotton skirt. “It’s stiff, and my hands are slick, but you can see it’s moving.” She took hold and pushed the crank around a quarter circle. The panel opened another couple of inches.

  “Here, let me try.” Pam pushed into the cramped space and put her hands over Diana’s. Together they dragged the crank down, completing one revolution. They could see wider flashes in the sky through the growing span. “This thing must not have moved in a year. It’s going to take both of us to turn it enough.”

  Pulling down and shoving up, they turned the crank until their arms were aching from the effort. At least the room was cooler with the damp breezes seeping in through the widening gap.

  “Another few turns and I think it will be enough for us to get out.” Diana tried to estimate the width of the opening.

  “And then what?” Pam pointed to the aperture above their heads. “How do we get up there to climb out, and what do we do if we get there? Any idea what’s on the other side?”

  Diana tried to see what was in the room that would enable them to reach the edge of the vent. It had to be almost five feet above her head.

  “There has to be something in here that children would use to get out in an emergency.” Four cots were visible in the room now that a little more light from street lamps and the intermittent lightning thinned the darkness. “It’s obviously a room meant for youngsters.” Wiping her face on the hem of her skirt, Diana dropped down to the cot, taking a moment to rest and to survey their prison. She didn’t see anything that suggested a means of reac
hing the opening beyond the panel.

  “No chest of drawers.” Pamina, palms down on the frame of the cot, peered into the corners of the room. “No chair or bench.”

  “It has to be here. Something sturdy, easy for children to use. Nothing complicated or too heavy. Do you suppose there’s a stool of some kind?”

  “No, not a stool. Something easier than that.” Hiking her short skirt up, Pam clambered over the bed. “I think this might be a sort of ladder. At least the cross pieces look like they’re strong enough to hold a person if we could climb up.” She grasped the edge of a horizontal brace above the bed and pulled herself up. “Do they go all the way up?” She craned her neck to look up into the dark shadows above. “I believe they do!”

  “Wait, Pam.” Diana caught her sister’s skirt. “I think that whole thing pulls out. I felt it move. Come back down and let’s see if we can shift it.”

  When Pam was again beside her, Diana reached for the outer post, a sturdy beam of aged cedar, that braced the crosspieces. Pam caught the cedar upright on the opposite side. They tried pulling the unit away from the wall, and though they felt it move, they quickly realized it wasn’t coming loose.

  “Maybe we lift it? Just push up?” In the brief light given in the flash of closer lightning, Diana could see a gleam of metal against the dark wood. “A ladder is something children could manage, isn’t it?”

  “Worth trying.” Pam put her palms against the lowest cross piece. Diana followed her action and together they pushed up on the aged wood. The entire frame of the ladder lifted and then folded away from the wall, creating a set of solid steps leading to the vent. Pam scurried up and peered through the narrow opening. “If those jaybirds downstairs had bothered to bring a light, they would have seen we weren’t trapped at all. We can go right on out through that panel.” She backed down and dropped lightly to the surface of the cot. “Let’s get that panel open and get out of here. It sounds like the rain isn’t very far off.”