The Falls City Five

by Sarah Markel

  “How do you know what Dani’s breathing sounds like?” Max asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Young shot the woman a doleful look. “I’ve been listening to your wife breathe for over a month now. Dani’s breathing is soft and calm, even after exertion. Whoever is breathing that close to her ear piece, has a deeper, more ragged breathing pattern. Almost like a smoker after running up a flight of stairs.”

  Max glanced at Agent Frost with wide, terrified eyes. “He’s got her.”

  Chaos erupted in the van as each member of the team scrambled to their posts.

  “Weston,” Frost snapped, “get down to the trail and find Dani’s phone. Henson, I want you to clear the river on the south side. Vickers, meet us at the van.”

  “Copy,” three voices chorused.

  “Circling back around,” Vickers said as he hit the signal to make a left turn.

  “Guys, listen,” Young said, turning up the volume for the others. A faint jingling could be heard over Dani’s ear piece. A moment later, a loud creak sounded through van.

  “What is that?” Frost asked. An ear-splitting crash blared inside the small space and all four Agents clapped their hands over their ears.

  “For fuck’s sake, what was that?” Cordy demanded.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Agent Young replied, rubbing his aching ears, “but it sounded like a heavy door slamming.”

  “I heard it out here, too,” Cordy relayed, “I found the phone. It’s on the ground, about ten feet from the mouth of the path.”

  “Alright everyone, start searching. She can’t have gone far, which means whoever took her is holding her nearby.” Agent Frost threw open the back door of the van and hopped out.

  Max and Harrison followed quickly, both drawing their weapons as they swept the area. The van was parked less than fifty yards from The Pink Pokey.

  The road between the store and the jail was a narrow, one lane road with only a handful of houses along the south end. If the UNSUB crossed the river with Dani, they would have come out somewhere behind the van.

  Detective Vickers pulled up beside the Agents and rolled down his window.

  “Vickers,” Agent Frost said, bending to speak through the window, “drive down this street and knock on all the doors. See if anyone noticed a person being carried across the water.”

  “Harrison,” she said, turning to the taller man, “go down to the bank and follow the trail behind those houses. It will take you out to Rock Ledge. The house directly beside the island has motion-sensor lights. You should be able to see any evidence that might be on the path.”

  Harrison nodded and rushed off, his weapon at the ready and his senses on high alert.

  “Max, let’s go. We’ll check out the jail and City Hall building, then move up river toward the car bridge. Young,” she added into her ear piece, “keep on the surveillance. If you see anything on the camera, call it in to us.”

  “Ten-four,” Agent Young said, closing the van doors when the women headed across the street to the jail.

  ***

  “What was that?” Melissa asked when a loud clang echoed from somewhere beyond the room.

  “He’s coming,” Piper whispered, “Whatever you do, don’t make him mad. He usually doesn’t come back twice in one day.”

  Their abductor had been by a few hours earlier to hand out their daily meal. The light had not been turned on since Melissa arrived, and for that, the teenager was grateful.

  She didn’t want her friends to see the scars left by her mother, because she knew they would use the marks to torment her. She didn’t think Piper would make fun of them to her face, but she was certain the others wouldn’t hesitate.

  A moment later, the door swung open and the light dangling from the center of the ceiling flared to life. The girls blinked rapidly at the sudden brightness and Melissa instinctively curled into a ball to hide her arms and legs.

  No one said a word as the black-clad figure pulled a mattress from beside the door and dropped it beside Piper’s. The figure left the room for a moment, giving the girls a quick peek at the room beyond the door. A second later, the person returned, carrying an unconscious girl with a hood over her face.

  The teens watched with a mixture of curiosity and fear as their captor carefully set the girl on the bed and removed her hood. The figure looked around the room silently, noting the hatred on the face of each of the six conscious girls.

  “You’ve got twelve hours. Admit your sins, and I will set you free. Fail, and your bodies will be found floating in the river.” With that, the figure turned and left the room. The sound of the lock being set echoed in the stillness around them.

  “Who is that?” Piper asked, staring at the sleeping redhead in the bed next to her.

  “I don’t know,” Bailey replied, her eyes also fixed on the girl lying across from her.

  Curious, Melissa raised her head and gasped loudly. “Daniela!” she cried, lunging toward her friend. The chain on her ankle stopped her from reaching Dani, and Melissa struggled.

  “Who’s Daniela?” Angelica asked.

  “She’s new at school,” Melissa explained, “Her mom is the new English teacher.”

  “What’s that thing in her ear?” Bailey asked, noticing the blue device still firmly in place.

  “It’s a hearing aid. She’s deaf on that side,” Melissa replied. “Daniela! Daniela, can you hear me?”

  Dani groaned and tossed her head to the side, covering her eyes with the crook of her arm. “Max?” she muttered.

  “Daniela, wake up,” Melissa coaxed, “you need to wake up.”

  Dani opened her eyes carefully, only removing her arm once she adjusted to the brightness in the room. “Melissa?” she asked.

  “Yes! Daniela, yes, it’s me,” Melissa couldn’t help the relieved smile that spread when Dani sat up and looked at her.

  “Where are we?” Dani asked, looking around the room. Her eyes widened, and she let out a laugh when she spotted each of the missing girls.

  “We don’t know,” Frankie answered, “but I think we are still in Falls City.”

  Dani looked toward the door and quickly turned back to the girls. “How long until she comes back?”

  “She?” the girls chorused.

  Dani rolled her eyes. “Yes, she. I’ll explain later. How long?”

  The girls exchanged a look and shrugged. “No telling,” Gabby said, “this is the first time he’s come back twice in the same day. Usually, he only comes in to bring us food and make us shower. When he brings in another girl, he brings the food in at the same time.”

  Dani looked up at the ceiling and jumped when she heard Young’s voice in her ear.

  “Dani! Do you know where you are? Everyone’s out looking for you. Can you tell me anything?”

  “There’s padding on the walls,” Dani replied, her audience suddenly forgotten, “I don’t know where we are, but I think we’re underground.”

  The other girls shared a speculative look but said nothing as they watched Dani stand turn in a circle.

  “Do you have a visual?” Dani asked.

  “Yes,” Young said excitedly, “Dani, get the girls on video.”

  Dani turned back to the girls and made eye contact with each. When she finished, Dani dropped down on the mattress and closed her eyes.

  “Young,” she said, scrunching her face as she focused on the sounds of the room, “I’m going to turn the bug down. You’ll still be able to hear what’s going on, right?”

  “Yes,” Young replied, “you just won’t be able to hear me.”

  Dani nodded, and the girls watched intently as the redhead removed her hearing aid and fiddled with the dial on the arm. She replaced the device and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly as she concentrated.

  “What is she doing?” Frankie asked loudly.

  “Shh!” Dani commanded firmly, “I’m listening. Be quiet for a minute.”

  Frankie quirked her brow but clamped her mouth shut
. She looked skeptically at the others, but each of the girls was watching Dani intently.

  “I can hear water,” Dani said to the room, “and what sounds like a car idling. It’s faint, but it’s there. I think I can hear music,” she added, tilting her ear toward the ceiling. After a moment, Dani opened her eyes and turned up the volume on her bug.

  “Got it, Dani,” Young said, “Max and Frost aren’t wearing bugs. Weston and her Detectives can still hear you, though, so relay any info you can get.”

  “Got it,” she said before turning to look into the scared eyes of six young girls.

  “Dani, you can’t be far from the van,” Young said, “There is only a twenty-minute gap between your last transmission and the UNSUB threatening the girls.”

  “Copy that,” she replied, “and do me a favor, will you? Tell my wife to hurry up. I much prefer it when she’s the one chaining me to things.”

  Young, Cordy and the Detectives laughed heartily in Dani’s ear, making the redhead chuckle. With a smile, she returned her attention to the teens.

  “Girls, my name is Agent Daniela Prescott with the FBI. My team is close. We’re going to get you all out of here,” she promised, meeting each of their eyes with confidence.

  ***

  “Frost, Dani’s with the missing girls,” Agent Young said into his phone.

  “Are you sure?” Frost asked, stopping as she reached the underside of the stone footbridge.

  She and Max had followed the riverbank all the way to the car bridge, but found nothing to indicate Dani or her abductor had been there.

  “Positive,” Young replied, “she said she can hear water, a car, and possibly music. She said the room they are in is padded, so there’s no telling how close the sounds are.”

  Frost glanced at Max, who was crouching a few feet in front of her. “There’s music coming from the bar,” she said, watching Max as the woman reached out and picked something off the ground.

  “Have Vickers and Henson knock on any doors near the river that are within hearing range of the music. Weston is combing South Main street, so have her do the same.”

  “What did you find, Max?” she asked as she hung up the phone and joined the Agent.

  “She was here,” Max stated confidently, holding up a dirty ring for Frost to see, “this is the ring she’s been wearing in place of her wedding band.”

  Frost took the ring and glanced around at their dimly lit surroundings. The glow from a lone street lamp beside the City Hall provided the only illumination, making it difficult to see any other evidence that might be present.

  Max scanned the area as well, but not for physical evidence. She looked from the ground in front of her to the water behind her, then glanced over at the City Hall building. Her eyes narrowed as she calculated the distance from the bridge to the building.

  “Frost,” Max said, her eyes fixed firmly on the building, “how far do you think it is from here to that cellar door?”

  Frost stood beside Max and considered the distance. “I don’t know, maybe twenty yards?”

  “That sounds about right,” Max agreed, “How long do you think it would take to carry a one-hundred-pound woman from here to the cellar, unlock the door, go inside, and slam it shut?”

  “We don’t know that she was carried, though,” Frost pointed out, “without knowing all the variables, I can’t give a proper answer.”

  “Just for the sake of argument,” Max huffed, “let’s say she was carried. My wife would have figured out a way to alert us if she was conscious.”

  Frost considered Max’s theory and studied the distance again. “I’d say about three minutes or so,” she finally answered, “barring any complications. If the UNSUB was struggling with Dani’s weight or fumbling with the keys, it could have taken up to five minutes. Where are you going with this?”

  Max didn’t respond, she simply walked toward the City Hall building and stopped in front of the cellar door. Frost followed the taller woman silently, wondering what the Agent was thinking.

  “We need a key to this,” Max said, pointing to a dark wet spot in front of the door, “That water is fresh. And look,” she added, pointing to the door itself, “these water marks are still damp. Those weren’t there when Dani was over here earlier.”

  Frost whipped out her phone and called Lieutenant Weston. “Cordy, we need a key to the City Hall cellar. We think the UNSUB took Dani down there. That would explain the loud bang we heard earlier.”

  “I’ll wake up the Mayor,” Cordy said, hanging up the phone before Frost could reply.

  “Max, let’s go back to the van. I want to see what Dani’s seeing. We’ll come back when Cordy gets the key.”

  Max followed Frost back to the van. She turned back to look at the jail and a thought occurred to her. Before Frost could open the door, Max put out a hand to stop her.

  “Cordy said the cellar had been closed to the public because it was too cramped, right?”

  Frost turned to see what Max was looking at and nodded. “Yeah, the space isn’t big enough to accommodate tourists safely. Why?”

  “If the space isn’t big enough, why would the UNSUB take Dani down there? I doubt the cellar is big enough to hold seven teenagers,” Max replied thoughtfully.

  Frost opened the door and the women stepped in to join Agent Young. “Anything?” she asked.

  Young shook his head. “Dani exposed herself to the girls and is trying to keep them calm. She’s got them talking about what the UNSUB has said to them.”

  Max watched the screen and breathed a sigh of relief. Hearing that her wife was okay was a much different feeling than seeing it.

  “Agent Young,” Vickers radioed, “I’ve canvased all the way to the high school. The music is audible only until you reach the last house before the school. I’m going to double back and go down Dayton Street. A couple of the residents didn’t answer, so I’m going to hit them once more.”

  “Ten-four, Vickers,” Agent Frost replied, “meet back at the van. Weston is trying to get us a key for the cellar under the jail. I want you and Henson to keep watch for anything suspicious until she gets here.”

  Frost turned her attention to the monitors and joined Max and Young as they listened to Dani’s conversation with the missing girls.

  Chapter 17

  “So, why do you think our kidnapper is a woman?” Angelica asked with genuine curiosity.

  She was intrigued by the newcomer’s insistence that the person who’d been terrorizing them for weeks was not a man.

  “Her breathing,” Dani replied, “a woman’s breathing is distinctive from a man’s, especially when they’re exerting themselves.”

  “How is that?” Melissa asked.

  The girl was still doing her best to keep her body hidden from the others, but the effort was futile. Dozens of marks crisscrossed down the length of both arms and legs. Only Melissa’s back was hidden from the eyes of the other girls. Dani noted that the only girl who didn’t seem to stare at them, was Piper Frank.

  “When we exert ourselves, we tend to grunt,” Dani answered, “most times, we don’t even realize we are doing it. A woman’s grunt is not as deep as a man’s, and can sometimes be as distinctive as a voice. Everything went black after I felt a pinch in my neck, but I could still hear when she lifted me onto her shoulders. I passed out when she started moving.”

  “Agent Prescott,” Bailey Chambers said softly, “What are we going to do when she comes back?”

  The room was quiet again and Dani could see the panic beginning to settle over the girls. “She said we have twelve hours. My team will get to us before she does.”

  The girls started to speak over each other, but a sound caught Dani’s attention. “Wait,” she instructed, “be quiet.”

  The girls stopped talking and stared intently at the woman.

  Dani tilted her ear toward the ceiling and frowned. “Young, are the Detectives still canvasing?”

  “Affirmative. Detective Vickers is
knocking on doors on Dayton Street.”

  “Vickers, can you hear me?” Dani asked.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Vickers replied.

  “Are you at a house now?” Dani asked, straining to hear if the sound was still present.

  “Affirmative.”

  “Vickers, knock hard in a pattern. Three, pause, three, pause, two,” she instructed.

  “Copy,” Vickers said before tapping out the pattern on the door of the last house on Dayton Street.

  Dani listened carefully, and her heart leaped when she heard the faint sound of Vickers’ fist rapping on a wooden door.

  “Vickers, what address are you at? I can hear you knocking!”

  “One-oh-eight Dayton.”

  “Max, did you hear that?” Dani asked excitedly.

  “I heard you, baby, we’re on our way,” Max promised as she flew out the back of the van.

  ***

  “Who owns the house?” Frost asked as the Agents waited for the entry team to arrive from Salem.

  “The house is owned by Esther Kinney. She’s the elderly woman that owns the island and water rights to Rock Ledge,” Cordy supplied.

  “Do you think she’s capable of kidnapping teenagers?” Max asked.

  Cordy shook her head. “She’s ninety-four. If the girls really are down there, I doubt she’s even aware of it.”

  “Wait,” Harrison said, looking at the Lieutenant with confusion, “How can she not be aware of a group of teenagers living in her basement? Even if she’s not all there anymore, she would still notice someone bringing people into her home.”

  “I have a theory about that,” Max cut in, “I think there might be a tunnel between the cellar under the jail and this woman’s basement. That would explain how the UNSUB is getting the girls in there without anyone noticing.”

  Harrison’s eyebrow shot up. “Then why are we waiting for the entry team? Why don’t we open the cellar and find out?”

  Cordy shook her head. “We can’t. The Mayor said the City didn’t change the lock. We don’t have a key to get in.”