A Game of Greed and Deception: A Mystery Drama (6 page)

There
was a rustling sound of leaves blowing in the distance and Tammy whipped her
head around to make sure she was alone. A black and white snow owl flew quickly
past her from between the trees
. He’s
done got me paranoid. Get a hold of yourself, Tammy. There ain’t nobody else out
there, it’s all in your mind
. She finished her cigarette and flicked it
into the snow.

Standing
up again, she felt a rush of pain go down her left leg from the injury. As she
turned around to head back to the clearing, Tammy noticed something hanging from
one of the trees. She went to get a closer look and grimaced at the sight of
what was in front of her. A beautiful, sandy-brown fox had been caught, killed,
and was hung from a tree branch by a rope tied around its neck. Its pointy ears
stuck out and fresh blood still dripped from the gash that had been cut in its
throat.
Well what the hell are hunters
doing around here? Does someone else live up in these woods?

Feeling
unnerved, Tammy quickly headed out from the path back to the clearing. She
stayed clear of the incline and got closer to the back of the house around the
other side. She was able to get underneath the support columns below the floor
of the back of the cabin to look for an entrance to the basement. Tammy took a
handful of snow and threw it out and away from the covered space. She continued
to chuck snow out from the small area until she could begin to see the floor.
After clearing the area completely, Tammy saw that she was standing on a
concrete slab.

She
scoured every inch of the slab, but there was no visible door or outside entry
into the cabin. At the base of the slab where it met the retaining wall was a
small metal grating. She tugged on the grating but was not able to move it. She
looked inside and saw a small handle that controlled the water supply. Removing
the jade dagger from her pocket, Tammy inserted it between the slats of the
grating and yanked until finally it came off. She turned the handle to the off
position.
Well that should stop the damn
lines from freezing even more
.
The
best I can hope for is to turn that back on tomorrow and that the water will be
working again.

Ten
minutes later Tammy had carefully made her way back around to the front of the
house. Weary, in pain, and desperately thirsty, she grabbed two armfuls of snow
to bring inside.
I gotta melt and drink
this shit until someone can get to the cabin. There aint no way that anyone
else can get inside now, and I’m gonna keep it that way.
She opened the
front door, went inside carrying the pile of snow, and locked it securely
behind her.

SIX

Tammy dumped the pile of snow
into the sink in the half bath, removed small bits of dirt and tree leaves, and
tossed them into the toilet. She sat down on the toilet seat and propped her
left foot up. Then she slowly rolled up her pant leg and removed the snow boot.
She brushed the snow out from inside her pant leg and unwrapped the towel.
Spots on the calf had started to turn a darker color where there were deep
indentations into the flesh. She winced at the site of the injury and wanted to
wipe off some dried blood. She opened the medicine cabinet and found some
rubbing alcohol and cotton balls. Dabbing the cotton lightly with just a touch
of alcohol, she screamed in pain while trying to clean the wounds as best she
could, until it was eventually just too much for her to bear. Tears came
streaming down her cheeks but she knew it was for her own good.
Goddam that hurts like a bitch. I’ve got to
be able to walk on this leg and have it start to heal. At least it doesn’t look
like an infection is starting.
She looked again inside the medicine cabinet
and found a roll of white gauze. She took the gauze and wrapped the lower part
of her leg. She continued to wrap it in layers until the leg was totally
covered and kept it in place with two small safety pins.

Tammy
opened the door to Maria’s room to see her sitting on the bed all covered up.
Maria’s freckled face peered up from under the covers. “Tammy, why are you
walking so funny?”

Tammy
sat down gingerly at the edge of the bed. “I was outside looking for the water
shutoff because the pipes are frozen, and I hurt my dang leg. I am worried that
– someone might be outside trying to get into the cabin.”

Maria
sat up attentively. “Someone is outside? Did you see who it is? Maybe it’s dad!
Maybe he is stuck out in the snow and can’t get inside.”

“I
don’t know who it is, Maria. But whoever is out there could be dangerous and
may try to hurt us. I hope that it’s only a hunter and everything will be all
right. But just to be safe, we’ve got to stay inside from now on and keep all
of the doors and windows secured.”

“But
dad would never hurt us and we don’t know where he is. We have to see if he is
out there! What if someone out there is trying to hurt him? What if he needs
help?” Maria leapt up trying to look out the window.

“Maria,
listen to me,” Tammy shouted, “whoever is out there is dangerous. They set up a
trap hidden under the snow that injured my leg badly. Do you want to get hurt?
I’ve already done called the police. They told me to do everything that I can
to make sure that we are safe and to stay inside the cabin. Eventually they
will arrive and take care of everything.”

“Ok
Tammy.” Maria had a look of bewilderment on her face. “Oh, I found this in the
kitchen.” She showed the bottle of Strychnine poison to her stepmom.

“Let
me see that.” Tammy grabbed it from her hand to examine it. “This looks like
rat poison, which is very dangerous. I’ll put it somewhere safe and I don’t
want you to touch it. But what were you doing in the kitchen, Maria? I thought
I told you very clearly to stay in your room with the door locked.”

“I
was thirsty and went into the kitchen to try and find something to drink.”

Tammy
wiped her forehead and brushed back her hair from in front of her eyes. “Okay
well, I just brought some snow in from outside and put it in the sink in the
small bathroom to melt. If you need water you’ll have to get a glass from the
kitchen and drink that. Keep the stopper in that sink and check for any bits of
dirt or leaves. Got it?” Maria nodded. “Ok then. And there are snack foods in
the kitchen cupboards if you get hungry. I saw some chips, cookies, crackers,
jams, and canned goods. Otherwise I expect to see you staying here in your
room. Do what I tell you to, little lady.”

Once
her stepmother left the bedroom, Maria waited for several minutes. She didn’t
like being told what to do when her father was not around. She cracked the
bedroom door open a few inches and peeped out to be sure that the coast was
clear. Then she slipped out into the living room and grabbed Tammy’s cell phone
from on top of the coffee table. She connected to the internet and did a Google
search on the bottle of white powder. “A pesticide used to kill small birds and
rodents. Can be extremely dangerous when inhaled, swallowed, or otherwise
absorbed through the mouth. Can cause poisoning resulting in involuntary
muscular convulsions and possibly death.” She looked up the meaning of the word
convulsions. Then she went through the list of phone contacts and found her
father’s name. She hit the green call button and waited. There was no ringing
on the other end and it went straight to voice mail. She hung up and dialed him
again, getting the same result. Frustrated, she set the cell phone back
carefully where it had been, and went to drink some of the newly melted snow in
the sink.

***

Tammy
entered the kitchen. The door to the tea cabinet was open, with some cups and a
tea pot sitting on the table. She started to put them away when she noticed
something else – the silver skeleton key.
Well
where in the hell did that just come from?
I looked through every inch of this cabin and couldn’t find that.
She
took the key and examined it closely. The tip of it was dull and misshapen as
if it had been ground down a bit. The interlocking circular design in the bow
looked hand carved. Excited, she put the key in her pocket and went into the
living room.

She
tried the key in the front door lock – and it fit. Then she went over to the
door leading into the den. She held her breath and tried to put the key into
the keyhole, but something was blocking it. She bent down and peeped inside.
There was a thin piece of cardboard that had been jammed into the keyhole from
inside the den.
Son of a bitch, someone
HAS been in there. And if anyone else has a key like this, they can get into
any of the other rooms.
Tammy took another safety pin and bent it so that
the sharp point was sticking out more. She carefully inserted the pin into the
keyhole. After a bit of fidgeting, the piece of cardboard came out. She bent
down, peeped into the keyhole, and saw only darkness. Then she took the
flashlight from the bookcase, checked that it worked, and used it to provide
more light while looking through the keyhole. There didn’t appear to be any
sign of movement inside. She pushed the skeleton key into the keyhole and
turned it. There was a clicking sound and the door came unlocked.

Tammy
opened the door a crack and shined the flashlight inside before entering the
den. She was shocked that the room was filled with warm air and immediately
wanted to know what the source of heat was. She used the flashlight to
investigate further and found a small vent on one wall near the ceiling. She
reached up, put her hand in front of it, and felt warm air coming into the
room. Then she turned on a small table lamp to have a better look around.

The
lamp was on top of a very unusual, circular table made from the trunk of an oak
tree. The floor was made of an elegant light colored parquet with natural knobs
and ridges in it, which was different than the flooring throughout the rest of
the cabin. There were two wooden chairs with decorative pillows on them next to
a small sofa bed and a coffee table. Under the coffee table was a brown canvas
trunk with black metal slats and golden hinges. A thick shelving unit was
attached to the back wall of the room. On the shelves were a collection of
hand-painted wooden ducks, two gourd vases, a can of some long rusty nails, and
a brass lantern. Hanging from hooks near the shelving unit was a large net. The
head of a mountain lion that had been preserved was mounted to the wall beside
it.

Tammy
took the net from the hooks to have a look at it and see if it might be useful.
It was brittle to the touch and many of the strings that held it together were
broken. It was also discolored in some places with black stains. Then she bent
down and pulled the trunk out from under the table. It was small but heavy and
the wood felt thick and sturdy. There was a small loop in the front running
through a metal clasp with a padlock. She tried the skeleton key in the padlock
and it came right open. Tammy opened the trunk and a foul odor filled the room.
The interior walls were full of cut marks and indentations. There was a razor
sharp hunting knife with a nephrite jade handle inside that matched the shaft
of the dagger from the living room. The knife was stained with dried blood.
There was also a collection of sharp animal teeth, a neatly coiled section of
rope, and a tattered folded pair of camouflage pants.

Someone has kept this room up perfectly.
It’s like a hunter’s showroom. Someone has been hunting or used this knife
rather recently to kill something. And these teeth must be from that animal
head on the wall. But who would kill an animal, chop off the head, and mount it
on the wall just before the arrival of the tenants? Wouldn’t the owner clean
the damn knife off after using it? And that net is old and brittle so I don’t
think anybody is gonna catch something in that.

She
took the hunting knife and set it on the coffee table next to the dagger that
she removed from her pocket.
This is
obviously an old set of hunting weapons, and not cheap ones either.
Tammy
looked around to find out if anyone could get into the room from outside the
house. There were two tall windows rather high up on the wall and one was
slightly ajar. She reached up and pulled the window shut but was unable to lock
it as the mechanism had been broken.
Anyone
could have come inside through that window. But the lock was broken from the
inside. How could someone be in this room already and break the window lock
from the inside? I need to make sure those damn windows stay closed.

Tammy
took the rope from the trunk, cut a section of it with the hunting knife, and
pulled one of the wooden chairs over near the wall. She climbed on top of the
chair, wincing from the pain in her leg. Examining the windows better, she saw
that each one opened by sliding upwards. With the locking mechanism broken, she
decided to secure the windows with the section of rope. When she tried to close
the left window, it wouldn’t move all the way up – something seemed to be
blocking it. She opened the window and a folded piece of paper fell to the
floor. Then she closed the window again, and taking the piece of rope, tied it
to a metal clasp on top of the lower portion of the window. She pulled the rope
tight and tied it to the same clasp in the adjacent window. With the remaining
portion of rope, she pulled down hard and tied it to the hinge of the heavy
trunk, which she moved snug against the wall.
Well it ain’t perfect but that should be damn hard to break if someone
tries to get in.

Having
secured the windows as best she could, Tammy got down off the chair. She opened
the folded piece of paper. It was wrinkled and worn so she took care not to
tear it. It showed a hand-drawn sketch layout of the cabin. There were fuzzy
circles representing the trees and surrounding forest. There was a faded
outline of the living room and two bedrooms. A darker small square was drawn
for the den and a couple ovals for the bathrooms. There was another room drawn
adjacent to the master bedroom, which Tammy concluded was the one leading from
her walk-in closet. She decided the closet must have been added after this map
was drawn. There was also a series of dotted lines showing several connecting
rooms and passages below the ground line.
Ok
so this is an old map that someone drew on after the den was added. That dotted
line must be the damn basement. But how do you get down there? Did someone try
to cover a door up like they did with the one in the closet?
There was an
arrow drawn from the living room to the connecting rooms below. She folded the
map back up and set it on the coffee table. Then she grabbed the lantern and
headed into the living room.

Tammy
peered behind the bookshelf looking for some kind of doorway. She moved her
hand along the wall and felt nothing unusual. Then she looked behind the rustic
desk and sofa. She scoured every inch of wall space and could not find any
trace of a door or opening. She was certain that if at one time there was a way
down into the basement from inside that cabin it must have been sealed off.

***

Maria
took a tea cup from the kitchen and filled it with the water from the melted
snow. She drank some despite a slightly bitter taste. She went back into her
room and gazed out the window. The sun shone through the tree tops as it was
near midday.
If dad is out there
somewhere then we’ve got to help him. How could he just disappear and not tell
us anything?
She pushed her face against the window and looked up to see
large icicles hanging down from the rooftop near the top of her window. She
wanted to hold one. It might even melt and taste better than the snow water,
she thought. She climbed up on a small chair, opened the window, and reached
outside. It was hard to get a grasp on the icicle. Maria reached out further as
she stuck her head out the window and looked upwards.

Suddenly,
she screamed and fell back on the chair. She rubbed her eyes, gathered some
courage, took a deep breath, and got up to look again. A snow owl was lying
just off the edge of the roof. It was dead with a sharp nail file pushed into
one of its eyes, and many of the feathers had been removed. Some fresh blood
had dripped down onto the top of an icicle. Maria gasped and covered her eyes
for a moment, shocked that someone would do such a terrible thing, before
taking one last peek. The nail file was purple and pink with an alabaster
handle. She had seen this before in her stepmother’s purse and was sure that it
belonged to her. Horrified, she closed the window and jumped down off the
chair.