Of Blood and Water: Campground Murders (Virgil McLendon Thrillers Book 1)

by catt dahman

  “Does that fit? He was from a good family. He was in college, and if anything, he was around some fairly nasty friends, but would he hang around drifters? Stan was a rather vile man….”

  “How can you say that since you didn’t know him?” Lucy came into the room in a blaze, eyes flashing angrily.

  “I know he killed some innocent children, and that’s enough for me,” Vivian set her cup down and folded the rest of her iced cake into her napkin. She was tired, and this felt like a bad idea now because they were getting nowhere with the doctor who was acting strangely, with David who was flirting, and with Lucy who was louder than before. “Maybe we should do this another time.”

  “I don’t see how you can judge someone you ain’t even been around. Stan was a good person.” Lucy rubbed at a tear and winced, as she pressed too hard on a bruise that was discoloring one cheekbone.

  “She means he was from a good family and maybe fell in with the wrong people,” Ronnie said quickly.

  “Wrong people?” Lucy shrieked.

  Upstairs, a loud thump made everyone glance at the ceiling.

  “How can you say that? Ronnie, what are you going on about now? I hate when you play these games.”

  Vivian partially listened to Lucy’s ramblings. Her mind felt foggy with too many thoughts. Something was tickling at her memories. With the van situation and three more missing people, they had been too busy to continue going through the old cases as Virgil wanted, but when they had pulled the folders, she glanced at a few, “Doctor, David Gaither, weren’t his mother and sister reported missing years ago? I can’t think of the details, but I remember the name.”

  “Oh, do you think there is a connection? That would have been a long time back? Surely you don’t think Stan was around and doing this that long ago?”

  “Long ago? We’ve only been here a month,” Lucy complained.

  Vivian thought about it. No, Stan couldn’t have done this way back then. So, if he were guilty, then the past cases weren’t part of this case. Still, it was odd to have so many missing people in one town.

  Janice yawned.

  “You’d have to ask David.”

  Vivian remembered a conversation in the room a few days earlier.

  “He wasn’t a doctor of the mind, but he’s a smart man even though he is ill. He and Doctor Estell are working to bring the poor girl some peace,” David said.

  “That explains Doctor Estell’s having to live here all the time; between your poor father and her, he must be busy.”

  “Exactly. Stan brought her here, as I said, desperate,” David had said, “but it’s a family malady. It’s been passed down through generations, but their parents are both dead now. It’s just Lucy and Stan.”

  “How sad.”

  “How sad,” Vivian repeated, the same as she had said before. She heard a faint echo. Stan and Lucy. Stan. “Stan? Your brother?”

  “He wasn’t my brother, but one of my best friends, you stupid bitch. He was family. You ain’t nothing but water, no blood kin.”

  Ronnie held a hand out to still Lucy, but she was already waving Das, her knife. Talking about Stan made her furious; he had been one of them.

  “Dead as shit. Das guarantees it,” Lucy screamed.

  “Janice….” Vivian began, but Janice slumped over on the sofa. She looked as if she had just suddenly fallen asleep. The tea or the cakes. They were in so much danger. Vivian felt adrenaline surging weakly and much too late as she reached for her revolver, moving in slow motion.

  “Don’t make a mess in here,” said David as he backhanded Lucy, and then he ran into the room; it was another blow that would cause a bruise, but she cowered before him and put Das away. “She’s almost out. I want them in the barn. I told you not to touch them, Lucy.”

  “I didn’t. I was just scaring her. Really.”

  “What a little liar,” David said as he laughed a little.

  “Why not in the basement? Why are we storing them out there in that basement? What are we gonna do with them?” Ronnie asked. He removed Vivian’s gun, a Colt Detective Special, a small .38 snub-nosed revolver, and tucked it in the back of his waistband. In some ways he wanted to take off and run, but he would never leave his partners, and he thought he had more time. This was the best time of his entire life, except for losing his best friend.

  “Enjoy the games,” Lucy said. She hugged David and said, “I’m sorry, Honey. I was so et up with madness at them for what they done to Stan that I was crazy.”

  “Eaten up,” Ronnie corrected.

  “And madness is right,” David said, “my dad is dead.”

  “What?”

  David watched as Vivian passed out from the drug-laced icing. She and Janice would be easier to handle now. He sighed and said, “He fell out of bed. I heard the thunk and ran up there. I guess he hit his head, or it was time, but it isn’t as if we can call a doctor in until we do something with these two.”

  “I’m sorry, Honey. I saw how that one was lookin’ at you. I watched from the doorway, and she was just et up…eaten up with staring at you like she wanted to knock boots right on the floor.”

  David frowned, “Janice. I didn’t expect her.”

  “You know her?”

  “No, I don’t suppose I do. Anyway, it was okay. I had already slipped them a mickey. The one…Vivian? She was smart. She was figuring things out the second she arrived, I think.”

  David felt a horrible weight on his shoulders with having to deal with his father’s death and a loss, too, but he also felt as if he were now free and unburdened. His time was his own. He didn’t have to carry trays upstairs or help his father bathe. But how would he carry on the Gaither name if we were caught and executed?

  It was a quandary.

  Since David and Ronnie didn’t feel the rest of the deputies were close, each took a woman, threw her over his shoulder, and walked outside, down the path, and over to the barn that Lucy opened with a key. Once inside, she hurried over to unlock another lock on an almost-hidden door in the back.

  Ronnie and David groaned as they carried the women down a flight of concrete stairs poorly lit by a single bulb. Lucy reached between them to unlock more doors; then, she closed the doors as both men dumped the women on a bare, cold floor.

  Seven sets of eyes watched.

  A few of the faces were tear-streaked, and when they heard the noises, they hoped it was a rescue, but it wasn’t. It was the same three who always came in and tortured them physically and mentally. Seeing two more added to the basement did more to dash their hopes than anything else. But they watched, wondering how many more would be brought down below ground.

  As Ronnie and David dragged Vivian and Janice, they made sure the two women couldn’t get away and then checked the other women, jerking them around and tightening their bonds. Some were in old cuffs, some were in newer, metal cuffs, and a few were tied with twine and rope.

  The three captors were gone a while before the two new women awoke.

  “I’m going to be sick,” Janice mumbled.

  A woman motioned to a chipped basin on the ground. Janice vomited and then felt better. Her head began to clear as she drank some water from another basin; it had a slightly rusty taste and was unpleasant, but it cleansed her mouth of the bad taste.

  Vivian held up her arm and found a hard, leather band locked around her wrist; it was attached to a chain that ran back to a thick, overhead beam where a railroad nail held it in place. The band was much too small to slip her hand through, so she tried to yank the chain free.

  “I can’t budge it.”

  “We’ve tried, and you’re not getting’ free. Don’t waste your time,” a woman said. Both of her wrists were in shackles, and a short chain was between her bare ankles. She shook stringy hair from her face and showed off the bruises and swelling on her face.

  Her lips were split deeply, her cheeks were purple, both eyes were almost swelled closed, and a deep gash was across one cheek from the corner of he
r eye to her chin. She was skinny and dressed in unbuttoned, torn jeans and a haltertop.

  “What happened to you?”

  “I have a smart mouth and a quick knee. I pissed them off, and they beat the shit out of me,” the woman said. Her name was Dana. She said she was grabbed a few days before from the bus station. Openly, she said she had been trying to earn some money for a bus ticket and propositioned David, who yanked her into Stan’s van.

  “Whores get what’s comin’ to them, right? Well, I didn’t deserve this, and them others damned sure don’t deserve it. Little girls,” Dana complained. “They ain’t whores, and look at them.” She was a tough woman and had been on her own turning tricks for many years; she was hardened to the world, but seeing little girls tortured pulled at her heart.

  Vivian and Janice looked over the pitiful women and children who were kept down there like wayward pets. This is where the missing girls were kept.

  In the course of trading information, Dana shared that all three men had raped her, and when she fought back, she was more securely chained and beaten unconscious. She had glassy eyes and only looked alive when she said her friend Connie, who had been with her, was beaten worse and died right there in the barn’s basement.

  “They were pissed. Connie ruined their plans by dying,” Dana said. “Poor Connie, she was an older gal, and I think her heart gave out. She just up and died. Maybe it was from a withdrawal of drugs.”

  “What are their plans?” Janice asked. “What are they going to do to us?” she asked, but she had seen the girl scouts and how their bodies were used and then left exposed. She also had seen the other bodies in the van. Janice knew there would be no respect for her, the other girls, or the women, only abuse.

  There would be a lot of pain, and their bodies would be posed; it was all for a final tableau: the ultimate shock and control to display a sheriff’s girlfriend and a deputy’s wife naked, raped, and cut to ribbons. The entire law department would be decimated.

  “They like to make women and girls scream,” another woman said. She was Susan, a young woman they had grabbed after Dana and Connie; she lay on her side on the rough cement, unable to sit up. She wore only a torn blouse, only thing left of her clothing, and she shivered with shock and chills. She didn’t say anything else; she just wept over her wounds: deep cuts along her legs that were badly infected, bruises, a broken arm she cradled, and a gash along her neck that seeped blood.

  Janice was able to get close to Susan to try to bathe her wounds, but very little water was left in any of the few pans they had. Susan screamed with the pain, and Janice whispered that she didn’t think Susan would live unless she was taken to a hospital quickly.

  The infection smelled vile, and because the women had to use other pans for their eliminations, the conditions were filthy.

  Jillian Berger was there, as well. Despite the circumstances, they found her alive.

  The tight ropes had abraded her wrists so badly that the flesh was chafed away, and only open sores remained although the other women had tried to use scraps of fabric to cover her wounds. She wouldn’t let anyone near her and stared blankly, catatonically into the far corners of the basement.

  Dana said she was David’s favorite to hit and rape and that a few days before, she had stopped responding except to drink a little water when coaxed. “She was stolen outta a tent when she was sleeping.”

  “David did that? Are you sure?” Janice asked.

  “Why would you be surprised? He drugged us and threw us down here himself. You were there. Why’re you shocked to find out he tortures little children?” Vivian rolled her eyes.

  Dana sniffed, “Jillian, she’s tired, poor thing.”

  “I know. Everyone has been looking for Jillian,” Janice said.

  “Jillian, I met your parents and sister, Rose, and tons of people are searching for you. They won’t give up; someone will find us. I promise that the sheriff and his deputies are working hard to find you,” Vivian said, tears streaking her face. “They’ll find us.”

  “How come you met her parents?” Dana asked.

  “I am a deputy….”

  Dana suddenly laughed. “Now, the deputies are being taken hostage, too? What the fuck, girl? And you think anyone’s gonna find us when you done been caught yourself? Where’s your gun?”

  “They took it.”

  “Well, ain’t that dandy? Damn. I almost had hope there for a second,” Dana said as she spat. Of all things, this young gal was playing at being a deputy and was supposed to be rescuing people and got caught; she felt like slapping Vivian silly. If this one was supposed to be their hero, then they were sorely short-changed.

  What a joke this was.

  Vivian swallowed hard and kept talking, “I met her parents when the report came in, and everyone is looking for Jillian. The department, well, the sheriff, figured out a lot already, and they’re getting close to solving this. Haven’t you wondered why one of the men is missing? He was here, wasn’t he? Stan? Stan was with them?”

  “There was a man called Stan. He was one of those who broke in and killed Sally’s mama and took Sally. I’m Christy,” a teenaged girl spoke. They were all playing paper games and laughing when three men and a woman burst into the house. They killed Debbie, Sally’s mother, immediately, tied up all of the teen girls and two younger children, and took them outside to a van. Some of the girls vomited with fear, and shook and cried.

  Why Christy was taken, she wasn’t sure, but David said she looked a little like his sister. That was sickening, Christy thought.

  They drove a little while; Christy, Charlene, and Nina were yanked out of the van and tied up in the barn’s basement, but the four bad people left and were gone a very long time before they came back. Dana and Susan were already shackled and injured.

  “Christy, we know about you. They’re looking for you. And this is…Charlene? And Nina? They’re looking for you. I was there. I have been looking at your names and pictures and wondering where you were.”

  Charlene looked up and said, “They hurt my mama. They took Sally away. Is Sally okay? Is my daddy looking for me? I want my daddy.”

  Vivian felt sad and said, “I know they hurt your mama. I’m sorry. And, Charlene, Sally has been found.” She didn’t think she should say Sally was dead. “And your daddy is very worried and concerned about you. All of his friends are working to find you for him. You know Kurt, Tina, and Virgil, right? Well, they’re searching.”

  “Where is Sally? Those men said they left her at the movies. I heard them.”

  “They did that. And your daddy found her.” Vivian didn’t think that was fully a lie. It was withholding a lot of facts, but the child was only eight.

  Charlene thought a second, “She’s dead, right? Is my sister Sally dead like Mama?” Her little face was pinched, but her eyes were sharp and searched Vivian’s face.

  Vivian made a whining sound as she dreaded her own answer.

  Janice nodded for Vivian. “She is, Charlene. She has passed on. No more pain or fear. But there is a good part. My husband, who is Viv’s brother, is named Joey, Joseph. He’s such a good man and smart as can be. He is a deputy, freshly hired, but he’s been a deputy before back home. Joey and Viv’s brother is Nick. He’s amazing, too. And you know what? They are going to find us.” Janice patted the child’s hand. “I’m sorry about the rest.”

  “And my daddy, too?”

  Vivian paused for only a second. The spirit had to remain strong for this child to survive. “Tobias will be so glad to find you.”

  Charlene had light grey, striking eyes, strong features, and a soft mouth. She was a little fighter. She had been abused, but as long as she thought her father was waiting for her, she would claw and scratch to survive.

  The other child Nina curled up and cried. She was one of Charlene’s friends who had slept over. Her skin was greyish, her eyes were like dull marbles with no focus, and she lay limply.

  “She won’t drink the water. She re
fuses,” Dana said, “Nina is just tired and about to the end of her strength, I guess. She don’t have hope.”

  Vivian nodded. She may not be able to save all of them, but she would try to save as many as she could. And she would save Janice.

  “Them men is bad, but when that nasty Lucy picks you, it’s worse. She claimed little Nina and Christy. She ain’t right in the head and uses…things…cause she ain’t got herself a dick. Nina’s not gonna make it. Lucy dragged Nina out twice. Christy went only the one time, and for only was a short time.”

  Janice took a closer look and winced at the sight of the blood pool beneath the child. In the dim light and dirt, it was difficult to make out the blood, but now that Dana pointed it out, Janice saw the blood, the cuts, and Nina’s matted hair with blood. Lucy was the worst. Ronnie Estell was a big fake, but Vivian could figure out personalities without his help; she could use her brain.

  “How injured are you, Christy?” Vivian asked.

  “I don’t know. Bad. I hurt. Will they find us soon, Vivian?”

  “I hope so.”

  Dana asked about Stan whom they had been talking about. Vivian told everyone about how he was arrested and questioned and how he killed himself. Dana was sorry Stan had gone easily and swore she would have enjoyed killing him herself or at least seeing him go to the electric chair.

  “That’s one less. We got one of them,” Vivian said, “so there’s hope.”

  “So you got ole Stan….”

  “Tina did. But yes, he’s caught, gone, and dead.”

  “He talked,” Dana said. She was willing to share a little information now.

  “Who does?”

  Dana told Vivian, “David. He mutters things. He says shit in…yanno…chink-talk.” She saw Vivian didn’t understand and explained, “Vietnam. He was there, and he says shit like they say funny words I don’t understand. He acts like he’s back there, and he says it’s okay what he does. He says the other three ain’t the same. He says they’re his other side, whatever that means.”

  Janice whimpered.

  Vivian thought.