by Blythe Baker
“Just go, Maddie. Go before you lose your nerve.”
I began the slow descent into the basement. To shine the light at anything other than the steps was to risk killing myself. They were terribly decomposed. The further I got down, the colder the air became, causing goose bumps all over my body. When I saw the floor, I was relieved but still terrified. It was a dirt floor. That meant water, insects, snakes, or rats could have taken up residence here at the mansion.
But before I could change my mind and dash back up the rickety steps, I saw a sight that I’d never forget. No matter what would happen in the future I’d never forget seeing Mamma Jackie tied to that chair.
15
“Thank goodness!” I ran to her side with tears in my eyes. She was unconscious, wearing her leopard printed get-up that I had last seen her in almost three days ago.
“Mamma Jackie,” I whispered. I smoothed her hair from her face. “It’s okay, Mamma. I’ll get you out of here.”
The old woman began to flutter her eyelids but she didn’t completely wake up.
The ropes around her wrists and ankles had started to dig into her skin, leaving terrible red marks. On her left hand was a deep, dried cut. That had to be where the kidnapper got the blood on the scissors he had sent to me.
Seeing all this made me angry. I was no longer scared of spiders or rats. I had to get Mamma Jackie out of here. But I wasn’t even sure she could walk, let alone climb those rickety steps.
“You won’t be getting her out of here.”
The voice behind me made me yelp and jump. I turned around and shined the flashlight at the stairs.
At first, all I could see were his shoes.
“You couldn’t just do as you were told. A silly woman thinking she could best me,” he rambled on with each descending step he took.
I stood up straight and stepped in front of my ex-mother-in-law, putting my body between the man and her.
“Did you think this was some kind of game? You did? You brought the police to the mall. Sitting there so stupidly, thinking I was going to fall for your ruse.”
I tried to swallow but I had no spit. My mouth felt like the dry earth outside.
“But now, you’re here.” Finally the man stepped into view.
I shined my flashlight at him as he struck a match and lit a kerosene lamp.
“Mr. Butler. You are so going to jail,” I said. Like upstairs, I thought if I sounded and acted strong, I’d be tough enough to fool Mr. Butler.
I wasn’t sure it was working.
“You’re going to die, young woman. You and your mother-in-law will be buried right here in this basement. No one will miss either of you.”
Mr. Butler had changed since I saw him at the community garden. His eyes were bright, like there was electricity behind them. Dark circles dripped from beneath his eyes and down his cheeks, giving him an almost skeletal appearance. But, the thing that was most disturbing was that he no longer looked like an innocent old man. Instead, he looked strong, menacing and completely capable of burying us in this basement.
“Yes, they will too miss us,” I lied. “I told everyone I was coming here. In just a few minutes, Detective Sullivan will be pulling up outside. If I were you, I’d turn tail while I still had a half-way decent chance of getting away.”
He laughed at me.
“Did you really tell everyone?” He narrowed his eyes and sneered. “Then I guess I’d better hurry. But first, I must know.” He pulled a gun from the back of his trousers. “How did you figure out I was keeping Jackie here? I’m quite surprised a person in this redneck town could string a coherent sentence together, let alone figure out something complex.”
In the back of my mind, I knew I needed to keep him talking. As long as he was talking, he wasn’t shooting us.
I said, “See, that’s where you made your mistake, Mr. Butler. You think you know what kind of person I am. Well, you might have thought twice about leaving your last threat in my house, along with a pair of bloody scissors that were unique to a gardener like yourself. It took me awhile to place them, to realize they weren’t plain household scissors but a kind of shears I had seen you using on the tomato plants at the community garden.”
The corners of Mr. Butler’s mouth came down in a dumbfounded scowl, dragging the dark shadows from his cheeks with them.
“That’s right,” I continued. “Those gardening shears are with the police now. It will only be a matter of time before they figure out it was you. Did you remember to wipe them down for prints? Can you be sure you got everything? Not even a partial print left?”
His eyes shifted, as I watched his expression. He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t be positive that he hadn’t left evidence behind.
“Can’t remember?” I asked. “Well, the funny thing is that you might’ve gone undiscovered longer if I hadn’t remembered something Mamma Jackie once mentioned to me. She said her friend Mr. Butler down at the community garden was the caretaker for Redstone Manor. I had forgotten all about that, until a chance dream brought it to the front of my mind tonight. Even then, by itself, the knowledge would’ve meant nothing. But then, someone in the same dream kept repeating scissors over and over, until I was reminded that those bloodied shears I found in the house were for gardening. Sculpting really. Like what you were doing at the community garden. Like what you’ve done with the hedge maze here at Redstone Manor. And then for your final mistake, there was that word you used in your first ransom note.”
A part of me was enjoying laying out all the puzzle pieces. Even though he had a gun on me. Even though Mamma Jackie was still tied to the chair. I was enjoying pointing out all the mistakes in Mr. Butler’s perfect plan.
“What word?” he asked.
“Treasure,” I said. “Who uses that word to describe ordinary ransom money? It’s a rare word to use much at all. But you used it…twice.”
Mr. Butler’s eyes fell to the ground like he was searching for something. When they popped up to meet mine, they burned with hatred.
I continued. “You said it once when you were talking about taking Mamma Jackie antiquing, or ‘treasure’ hunting, with you. You used it again in your ransom note, when you told me to bring you the ‘treasure’ to save Mamma Jackie.”
Mr. Butler didn’t appear to enjoy having his mistakes pointed out to him.
“Shut your mouth!” he suddenly bellowed and took two angry steps toward me.
It was at that moment that I thought maybe I had gone a little bit too far.
He held the gun tightly. His hand was steady. It made me think he might have done this sort of thing before. I had never broken into a mansion, especially not one that might contain a dangerous criminal, and I could barely keep my flashlight beam straight. I certainly wouldn’t have been Steady Freddie with a gun in my hand. But Mr.Butler? Clearly, he was no stranger to this.
Again, I tried to stall.
“Of course, it took me awhile to figure out what treasure you were looking for,” I said quickly. “At first, I didn’t know. But then, I realized ‘treasure’ is a word you like to use for antiques. Like this one.”
I reached into my bag and pulled out the ugly Fortune Cat statue that had been stuffed in my kitchen wall and unearthed by my construction workers.
“Give me that!” Mr. Butler demanded.
I ignored the demand and said, “First, tell me how you even knew I had this cat. No one knew anything about it.”
Mr. Butler laughed. It sounded like a rake dragging across gravel.
“While we worked together at the community garden, you’re mother-in-law had a lot to say about your house. She complained incessantly about the noise and the dust and the garbage inside the walls.”
I wanted to be mad at Mamma Jackie but I couldn’t be. I was tired of those same things. I wanted my kitchen done and I wanted the house to be ready for sale. She was old and fussy and disrupting her day in any way caused her stress. I knew that.
“She told me all about the
maneki-neko,” Butler continued. “She described it in great detail. Said if you ever got your act together, you were going to take it to some junk store or thrift shop.”
“Why didn’t you just ask for it?” I wondered. I put my hand on my ex-mother-in-law’s hand, thankful it was still warm. “I would have given it to you.”
“Would you? Once you found out there was value in it? I heard you were struggling to pay off your renovations. The property you inherited is becoming too much for you to handle. You are obviously too ignorant to know the treasure that fell into your lap, but asking for it might have made you realize its worth. Well, it’s too late now.”
His attention shifted to my hand, resting on Mamma Jackie’s. “Jackie wasn’t really hurt,” he said. “She’s been pleasantly sedated for the past couple of days. It was easy enough to slip something into her canteen at the garden, a little drink of death—or at least of sleep— if you will. I had planned to let her live, but now that you’ve discovered her and learned my identity, you’ve both become an inconvenience. So now, I’m afraid your time is up, Maddie Morgan. Say good-bye to your mother-in-law. You two won’t be seeing each other anymore.”
As he raised his gun higher, without thinking, I chucked the cat statue at Mr. Butler, using as much force as I could muster. Whether it was luck or skill, I wasn’t sure. But the cat hit Mr. Butler square between the eyes with a very satisfying CLUNK. The gun clattered to the ground, as his hands flew to his face.
With all the grace and skill of a baby hippo, I dove for the weapon. Once I felt the cool metal in my hands, I awkwardly rolled away from Mr. Butler, followed by an equally clumsy crab crawl back to Mamma Jackie’s side. Panting heavily, I raised the gun. While I held it pointed right at Mr. Butler, I inched my way over to where my cat statue had rolled. Quickly, I scooped it up and tossed it back into the library bag that was still slung over my shoulder.
Mr. Butler yelled, either in pain or fury, and pinched the bloody bridge of his nose. His eyes popped out at me, red and furious. He pulled his lips back in an evil sneer. “You’ll pay for that.”
“Don’t come any closer.” I held the gun up but my hands trembled. Mr. Butler didn’t miss noticing that.
“You won’t do it,” he hissed, as he took a step toward me.
“I will. And I’m a lousy shot. I could end up blowing something off that you really want to keep.”
I was being serious. Apart from one incident in the past, I had little idea how to shoot a gun. I could barely aim a can of raid at the aphids that tried to eat my grandmother’s rose bushes in the tea garden.
I backed up into the seemingly unconscious Mamma Jackie and accidentally stepped on her toe.
“What is wrong with you, girl!” she shouted, making Mr. Butler and I both jump. “You just stepped on my gosh darn toe! I know you broke it! You weigh as much as an elephant!”
Before I could say anything, she slipped back into unconsciousness. Whatever Mr. Butler had given her to keep her asleep, it must be gradually wearing off.
“That’s it!” Mr. Butler scowled. “I’ve had enough of both of you.”
He took two brisk steps and I pulled the trigger.
CLICK!
Butler’s face paled for an instant but, as he released the gun wasn’t working, his face turned red with rage.
“You’re going to pay for that.”
And he dove at me.
I threw the gun as far away as I could and heard it thud on the dirt floor in some shadow. As Mr. Butler went to retrieve it, I bolted up the rickety steps, hoping they would hold until I got to the top.
“If you touch my mother-in-law, I’ll make sure you never find this statue!” I shouted down the steps. “You’ll have killed us both for nothing!”
I held my breath and waited, desperately hoping my gamble would pay off, that he would choose to come after me and the cat statue, rather than wasting time finishing off Mamma Jackie, who wasn’t any threat to him in her current state. He wouldn’t murder her right now, would he? He wouldn’t risk not getting his treasure, would he?
I heard his footsteps, as he stomped around in the basement. Then, I saw the light from the kerosene lamp start to dance along the walls. I waited a few more seconds, and then I saw him coming up the steps. He was practically crawling up them, like a creature out of some nightmare.
His eyes showed he’d lost his patience with me. I turned to run, just as he raised the gun and pulled the trigger. This time it went off. He was a much better shot than me.
Fragments of plaster showered down, as I darted out of the kitchen, through the saloon and back to the library. Thinking quickly, I threw my flashlight down the hall, hoping he’d follow the light, giving me just enough time to squeeze out the window.
It worked. I stooped to crawl out the way I had come in, cracked my forehead on one of the beams of wood, saw stars for two or three seconds, and forced myself out with my stomach on the sill, only to get my hoodie tangled on a shard of plywood. I was sure I’d made enough noise to wake the dead. Any minute now, Mr. Butler would surely appear. With all my strength, I pushed myself out the window. I heard the fabric of my hoodie rip. Just as I thought I was in the clear, a strong boney hand clasped onto my ankle. It was like a vice grip. I yelped in pain and terror.
“I’ve got you now. You won’t get away,” Butler growled.
I couldn’t let him pull me back into the house. With as much strength as I could gather, I twisted my body into an unnatural position and kicked my free leg at his hands, arms, chest and face. I didn’t stop until he let go, allowing gravity to do the rest.
I fell with a thud against the hard ground, scrambled to my feet, and took off toward the hedge maze. But a pain in my thigh slowed me down. When I had twisted my body in the window, I must have pulled a groin muscle. Nice. I couldn’t have a dignified injury, like a twisted ankle or even a bullet wound to the shoulder. No. Maddie Morgan pulled a groin muscle. When her life was in danger, she relied on the strength of her groin muscle to pull her through. What a hero.
The best I could do was half run-half skip into the hedge maze and maybe buy myself a little time hiding in there. Clenching my fists and gritting my teeth, I took off into the dark maze.
Clouds had completely covered the moon. I didn’t have a flashlight. More than once, I felt my way into one of those horrible sticker bushes and could feel the itch and burn of the scrapes across the skin on my hands.
“You can’t get away, Maddie!” Mr. Butler shouted. “You’ll never find your way out of here!”
He was going to tirelessly keep after me because, unlike me, he knew where he was. This was familiar ground for him. He wasn’t going to let anything stop him from getting his treasure. Right now, I was the only thing standing in his way.
It was funny the thoughts that could run through a person’s head when truly terrified. As I stumbled along through the maze and listened for footsteps behind me, I remembered a path in the tea garden that had exceptionally beautiful pebbles along either side of it. They were smooth little stones that were a variety of earthy colors. I had always thought they looked like candy. They were smooth and perfect. Like a bigger, shinier stone I suddenly saw at my feet now.
I stopped where I was and listened. It didn’t take long for me to hear Mr. Butler’s steps behind me. He was getting closer. I fell to the ground and snatched up the smooth rock. It wasn’t much. But it was the only weapon I had.
Pushing myself back to my feet felt like someone was trying to pull off my leg like the drumstick of a chicken. I winced at the thigh pain and a tiny wheeze came out of me in the process.
I continued through the maze.
“You’ll never get out!” Mr. Butler continued to yell. “I’m going to catch you. The last thing you’ll see are these hedges! No one will ever find you! If you just give up, I’ll make it quick! Otherwise…”
I shuddered. He was trying to get inside my head. Considering I wasn’t having any luck coming up with a genius i
dea to thwart his evil plan, his words were quickly filling up the space.
“I’m closer to you now, Maddie!” he shouted. From the sound of his voice, it was true. I was slowing down because of the pain in my thigh. I was panting and sweating and my stomach hurt from where I had climbed over the windowsill.
I clutched the rock in my hand. It was all I had. Dare I stop and confront him, using the element of surprise? Or should I keep running and hope I found the exit at the back of the maze? It didn’t matter. My mind instructed my feet to take a right and then a left. But I was sure I heard Mr. Butler still coming, so I took a right and another right and came to a dead end.
My first thought was to push through the shrubs. But the entire aisle was sticker bushes. If I tried to backtrack, I’d run right into Mr. Butler.
I crouched down and tried as hard as I could to seep into the shadows. Maybe he’d pass me by. Maybe he would take that left turn, instead of two rights.
“I can hear you.” His voice sounded like he was standing behind me.
I gasped, giving myself away. I might as well have shot up a flare.
His kerosene lamp showed through the brambles. Mr. Butler wasn’t running or even walking fast. He was a on a casual stroll. How could he be so unhurried about it? Was he really that ruthless? I didn’t know what scared me most. The fact that Mr. Butler was going to kill me or the fact he seemed to approach the task with no more concern than if he were perusing the pickle aisle at the grocery store.
“Time’s up, Maddie.” he said and stepped into view.
I couldn’t get out. I was trapped. Painfully, I pushed myself to my feet. As Mr. Butler stood there, he reminded me of the mythical ghoul at the head of that boat that was supposed to lead souls to the afterlife. He was a shadowy figure and held a lamp like his. Was that what I was seeing? Was this going to be my guide to the afterlife?
“Now, give me the cat,” Butler said.
