The Plague Doctor

by E. Joan Sims

  I made it to the top of the hill and stood there for a moment as I caught my breath, knowing that my silhouette made me a perfect target against the moonlit sky. Then I remembered the triangular hole in Porky’s forehead and Barry saying, “Arrow.” I jumped with reckless abandon off the top of the spillway and onto the sharp rocks below.

  Pain shot up through my one bare foot as I landed heavily. I turned to look behind me and saw the huge figure of Bartholomew Sedmonds standing on the spillway above. He raised his arms and screamed in rage.

  “You bitch!”

  I took off. The rocky stream meandered down through the field and beyond. The water was shallow now—only ankle deep—but during the heavy summer rains it became a small creek. At places, the bank was as high as my head and I couldn’t see over it. I had no idea where I was, and I was getting tired. Barry would catch me soon. I couldn’t go on much farther.

  Suddenly the stream bed disappeared altogether. I fell heavily over the last big rock into the soft grassy meadow. I lay there panting—certain that I was a goner. Barry was right on my heels. He would be here any moment, but I couldn’t run any more. I rolled over on my back and prayed for Cassie while I waited.

  Something grabbed me around the waist and pulled me down into darkness. This time the hand over my mouth was firm but gentle and the voice in my ear was full of love.

  “Oh, Mommy, Mommy, thank God you’re okay!” cried Cassie softly.

  “Shhh, he’s coming,” warned Ethan.

  I heard the big man’s footsteps as he ran past the cave mouth and on through the grass in the meadow beyond. Ethan released his hold on me as he whispered another warning.

  “He’s bound to come back. He’ll soon realize there’s no place out there for you to hide, and he’ll come back looking for us.”

  “What’ll we do?” cried Cassie. “We can’t go up. He’ll see us!”

  “Then we’ll just have to go down,” decided Ethan.

  “Down where?” I croaked.

  I was still out of breath and on the ragged edge of exhaustion.

  “Down through the cave,” he answered.

  I looked around me in the darkness. This was no cave, it was just a big hole in the ground, and I told him so.

  “What do you think a cave is?” he laughed. “Follow me.”

  Ethan squirmed and turned until he was headfirst in the hole. His bony knees bruised my ribs as he pushed and pulled himself down deeper. Soon all we could see of him were the soles of his shoes.

  “Mom? Do we have to?” asked Cassie tremulously, as she stared into the dark pit below.

  “I guess we have no choice, pumpkin. Follow that man.”

  It was easier for Cassie and me to turn around, but pushing and pulling along the dark rocky walls of the narrow passage was terrifying. I wasn’t aware that I had any phobias—spiders, maybe—but the terror I felt in that dark confined space beat anything I had ever experienced before. I’ll take a Latin American revolution any day over a damp, narrow underground cave.

  Just when I thought I would lose my mind in the darkness, the walls widened and the going got easier. In places it was actually possible to quit slithering like a snake on my belly and crawl on my hands and knees.

  Abruptly, the cave opened into a large underground cavern. Even Ethan was taken by surprise. He tumbled out of the narrow passage to splash headfirst into the natural spring basin below. Cassie and I followed in quick succession.

  The water wasn’t deep, but it was clear and very cold. All three of us came up gasping.

  “Brrrrr! Oh, my God, I’m freezing. Mom, are you okay?”

  I squirted half a pint of spring water out of my mouth so I could reassure her.

  “Just hunky-dory! As a matter of fact, I don’t know when I’ve had so much fun.”

  Ethan laughed a big booming laugh which resounded off the walls of the confined space. I looked around and realized that it wasn’t dark any more. Everything glowed with a faint green light.

  “Where’s that light coming from?” I asked Ethan.

  He was, after all, an expert on caves. Weren’t we just the lucky ones to be trapped down here with an expert, I thought cynically.

  “Phosphorescence. This water has tiny little animals that glow when we brush up against them. They give off that faint greenish light.”

  “Little green animals? Ethan, get me out of here,” squeaked Cassie.

  “Relax, honey. They won’t hurt you. Even if we weren’t here the fish would cause them to give off light by their swimming action.”

  “Fish? What kind of fish? Big fish?” she asked in a scared little voice.

  “Maybe, but don’t worry. They’re blind.”

  “That’s it! I’ve had it. Blind fish, green animals, suitors with murderous intent. Damn it all!” I shouted.

  I splashed clumsily over to the rock ledge that ran around the pool and pulled myself painfully up until I could throw one leg over the edge. Slowly, I managed to lift my whole body up. I lay there panting and feeling as vulnerable as a beached whale.

  “Watch out for snakes,” warned Ethan.

  “Don’t you understand?” I croaked. “I, Paisley Sterling DeLeon, no longer give a shit.”

  Cassie waded over to my side. She reached up to rub my shoulders.

  “Poor Mommy, you’re so tired,” she acknowledged. “But I love you. And when this is all over we’ll sit out on the patio and laugh while we’re telling Gran all about it. You’ll see, everything will be okay.”

  She sounded so grown up, so authentically mature. She sounded like me. I should be the one to tell her those things. The world was all upside down, and we were inside and should be out. I started laughing. I laughed for a while and then I cried. When I was finished, I felt much better.

  “Well,” I hiccoughed. “That’s over with. What’s next on the agenda?”

  During my little emotional outburst Ethan had climbed up on my ledge and pulled Cassie up beside him.

  “I guess we wait down here until morning and then go back up and get some help. Find the police and…”

  “Wait, aren’t you hiding from the police? Maybe I forgot something in my delirium, but didn’t you escape from prison last night? Aren’t you ‘on the lam’ as they say in jailhouse parlance?”

  Ethan let out a big heartfelt sigh before he answered me.

  “I guess it’s time for me to explain some things.”

  “Ethan, you don’t have to explain anything to me,” said Cassie.

  “The hell he doesn’t!”

  “You’re quite right, as usual, Mrs. DeLeon. I do have some explaining to do. Especially to you, Cassie. First of all, let me thank you both for standing by me when I gave you so little to go on. And out of curiosity may I ask why you trusted me so much? Was it woman’s intuition?”

  “Yeah, I got great woman’s intuition!” I snorted. “I almost fell head over heels for that mountain of murderous muscle in overalls.”

  “Barry Sedmonds. Yes, he is quite likable,” admitted Ethan. “He had me fooled, too.”

  “Yeah?” I asked. “I bet you weren’t wondering what he’d be like in bed.”

  Chapter Forty

  Ethan might not have had my lusty thoughts about Dr. Sedmonds, but he had trusted him implicitly. He had gone straight to Barry for help when he escaped from jail.

  “Then you were there yesterday afternoon?” asked Cassie.

  “Not yet. I hadn’t made it to Rowan Springs. You have no idea how far twenty- five miles is when you’re on foot. And it was fairly easy for me. I had spent so much time in the hills and valleys around here that I knew exactly how to travel across country. I knew all the shortcuts and how to avoid the police roadblocks. I got to the experiment farm a little after dark. At the time I thought it tremendous luck because Sedmonds was just getting ready to leave on his bicycle. He saw me coming and opened up the greenhouse. I was totally up front with him before I went inside. I told him I had escaped from the police and nee
ded a place to hide. He seemed quite willing to let me in. Now I know why.”

  “And why is that, Ethan?” I asked.

  “Sedmonds is the brains behind everything. I thought it was poor old Doc Baxter. He’s the reason I ran away from Teddyville in the first place. When they told me he was coming to give me a prerelease physical exam I panicked.”

  “Why? What could the poor old thing do to you?”

  “Shut him up, Cassie. Right Ethan?” I asked.

  “That’s right, Mrs. DeLeon. Shut my mouth, as you say here in the South.”

  “Very funny! And as long as we’re stuck in this cave together you might as well call me Paisley. Save the formalities for later.”

  He laughed again, “Okay, Paisley. But you’re right. There are at least a dozen ways he could have made sure I never left Teddyville alive. I did a lot of thinking during those eight days I spent in jail. I was pretty sure Baxter was responsible for all the abortions. I thought that was the answer to everything.” He ran a big hand thorough his hair and scratched his ear. “Boy, was I wrong!”

  “You mean there’s more to this?”

  “You bet, Mrs.…er, Paisley.”

  “What, Ethan?”

  “Drugs, Cassie. A big-time drug operation under the guise of normal agricultural experimentation.”

  I was flabbergasted.

  “At the county extension farm? That’s what Barry was up to? I thought he was a famous scientist—a something-or-other in fungus.”

  “He is. His background is impeccable. Someone at the CDC even recommended him to me as a resource when I was planning my trip. He studied at Stanford and Texas A&M. He even did a stint as associate professor at The University of Mexico. I think that’s where he got the idea.”

  “Idea for what?” Cassie asked as she scooted closer to Ethan.

  The temperature in the cave should have been even, but our wet clothing was lowering our body temperatures. I was tempted to scoot closer too, but I didn’t.

  “For growing a stronger, more prolific strain of certain mind-altering drugs.”

  “Marijuana?” I was disgusted. “All of this running and killing and hiding is about a few joints?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Then please explain it to me because I am righteously pissed!”

  “Cannabis…” he began.

  “In English if you don’t mind,” I interrupted irritably.

  “The flower of the female marijuana plant has a resin which is extremely potent. That’s what hashish is made of. Barry was growing a special strain of the female plant in his greenhouse. He had a highly sophisticated grafting process going on, which I would expect from a scientist of his knowledge and expertise.”

  I had to smile. Even after the man had tried his best to kill us all, Ethan still admired Barry’s scientific mind.

  “The hashish he was growing was like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It would be worth millions in the drug market. And he could have named his price for the process.”

  “Is that what caused the abortions? Hashish?” I asked.

  “No, Paisley, I’m sure it was Goldenrod, or rather the fungus growing on it. The spores from the plant rust spread the abortifacient from one patient that Baxter had inoculated to other pregnant patients in his office. A microscopic airborne spore is hard to spot, especially if you’re not looking for it. Sedmonds might have suspected what was going on, but he didn’t care. It could even have furthered his study in a bizarre kind of way. He’s trying to make a name for himself by developing a natural universal fungicide. I think that’s why he got into the drug business. He really needed the money. Funding for his kind of research is notoriously scarce. Barry’s been operating on a shoestring for years. He hunts for most of the food he eats, and he doesn’t even own a car. That’s why I had to call you to help me get out of town.”

  “Okay, about that, Ethan,” I inquired a bit tersely. “Why didn’t you just ask to speak to Chief Joiner? Why couldn’t you tell him what you’ve told us? Why involve my daughter?”

  “I honestly didn’t know who to trust, Mrs. DeLeon. I’ve only been in Rowan Springs for nine weeks, and so far I’ve discovered that one of the town’s leading citizens is a murderer and another is a drug dealer. The only person I knew for sure that I could trust was Cassandra.”

  “Okay,” I admitted, “I’ll buy that. But I still have a lot of unanswered questions. For one thing, who in the hell is Porky Pig?”

  “Who?” asked Ethan.

  He was no actor, and the surprise was written all over his face.

  “The dead guy under the cedar tree, or didn’t you see him? I thought that’s where you were supposed to meet Cassie?”

  “I never got that far, Mom. I met Ethan on my way around the lake. We, eh, we said ‘hello,’ and then I whistled for you, or rather Ethan did. I couldn’t pucker.”

  Ethan laughed heartily until a blushing Cassie poked him in the ribs with her elbow.

  “Well, I couldn’t. For whistling, anyway,” she grinned. “We didn’t see any dead guy, but Ethan said he saw Barry walking away from the big cedar.”

  “That’s why I had to find Cassie before she went up the hill. I didn’t know what Barry would do, and I couldn’t take a chance.”

  “And what about the poor old woman? Am I expendable? Is that why you whistled again, so I would walk into Barry’s trap and draw his attention away for you to make good your escape?”

  “Mom!” chided Cass indignantly. “First of all, Ethan only whistled once. I guess Barry heard and knew it was some kind of signal. He must have whistled again to see who would come running.”

  “But…”

  “Wait! And second of all, we were coming back to find you when I fell off the spillway.”

  “Oh, Cassie…”

  “Just one minute, Mom, I haven’t finished. And third of all, how can you possibly think I would ever abandon you…” Her voice broke as she burst into tears.

  “Cassie, darling! I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

  “She’s right, Mrs. DeLeon. We were coming back to get you when Cassie fell. I climbed down to get her. By the time we had started to climb back up, we heard you running towards us with Barry right behind. I grabbed Cassie and we headed towards the meadow and the mouth of the cave. I found it two weeks ago when I was out here alone.”

  He held out his wrists. In the dim green light I could see faint white lines where the deep scratches had been.

  “I fell in the hole. I got scratched trying to get back out again. It’s a lot harder when you’re loaded down with equipment.”

  “Speaking of scratches—what did you have to do with the Hayes girl?”

  “Nothing,” he denied vehemently. “The only time I ever saw her was the night of the festival. She attached herself to me at the street party. She wanted to dance. The girl was very insistent. I could tell she was drunk, and I tried to get away without making a scene. I’m afraid I wasn’t too successful. She was furious. She spat in my face and screamed that she would make me pay.”

  “Well, that she did. I believe you, Ethan,” I assured him. “I don’t think that comes as a surprise. I’ve been somewhat impatient with you during these last two weeks, but that has nothing to do with my belief in your innocence.”

  I stopped a moment and listened.

  “Does it seem noisy in here all of a sudden?”

  Ethan turned and looked around at the hole we had fallen through like Alice. A slow but steady stream of water was trickling from the opening of the cave into the basin below.

  “Oh, my God!” he exclaimed. “It’s raining!”

  “What’s the big deal?” laughed Cassie. “It can’t rain in here. And we couldn’t get much wetter, anyway.”

  Ethan turned a white and frightened face to us.

  “You want to bet?” he asked. “We’ve got to get out of here while we still have a chance!”

  “What the hell? What’s going on, Ethan?”

  His fear w
as infectious. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck coming to attention.

  “This cave is the lowest one in a system of limestone caverns that runs from one end of the whole valley between Rowan Springs and Morgantown. It’s part of a still greater system of caves in the state. The biggest one is Mammoth Cave which is about a hundred miles from here.”

  “What’s that got to do with us?”

  I still didn’t get the reason for his anxiety.

  “All of the ground water from the valley above will flow down to this point. During a heavy rain this cave will fill up in a matter of minutes. We’ll drown, that’s what.”

  “Why can’t we just go back out the way we came?” shouted Cassie.

  The sound of the water pouring in the pool had increased so that I could hardly hear her. Ethan pointed to the rush of water now tumbling from the cave mouth. As we watched, it grew steadily into a small waterfall.

  “IT WOULD WASH US RIGHT BACK OUT AGAIN, THAT”S WHY!” he shouted.

  “WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?” screamed Cassie.

  The water in the pool was rising rapidly. It was almost over the ledge we were sitting on. We stood up and huddled together. The water crawled slowly upwards and covered our feet and ankles. Ethan pulled our heads together so we could hear each other.

  “We only have one hope,” he told us. “This cave is connected to all the others in the system. There must be an outlet in the bottom of the pool. If we dive down to the bottom when the cave is almost full, we’ll be pushed out by the pressure of the water above. There’s a pretty good chance we’ll come out into another bigger cavern or maybe into an open spring somewhere in the valley.”

  Cassie was trying to keep from crying, but she couldn’t stop her lower lip from quivering uncontrollably. I knew if I hugged her she would dissolve into tears. As much as I wanted to hold her, I could not let myself. Instead, I whacked her on the rump as hard as I could. Her surprise and anger were instant and genuine. I had not spanked her since she was four years old.

  “Mom! What…?”

  “Get mad, Cassie! Get good and mad.”

  I knew she could be an Amazon when she was angry.

  “I’d rather see you drown here like a rat than marry this sorry son-of-a-bitch.”