Blackout (16 page)

Chapter
Thirteen

“He said,” Rick told the Canfield parents,
“that he, uh—” What was a nice way of putting that? There wasn’t
any nice way.

“He said he sold her. I’m not sure I believe
that but it doesn’t matter what I believe. We have to check every
lead.”

“Sold her?” said Rhoda. She not only didn’t
believe it, she didn’t understand.

“You know. White slavery.” Rick couldn’t look
at either parent.

“But—why would he do that?”

“Who knows why he’d do anything? He’s still
in high school. Where would a high school kid get the connections
for doing something like that?”

“It does seem rather incredible,” she said,
half to herself. Mr. Canfield said nothing.

“In any case,” said Rick, “that’s all I could
get from him. Even if it’s true and he does have connections, I
don’t think he’d know what they did with her after the transfer was
made.”

Mr. Canfield spoke at last. “They’ve got to
know something. Wouldn’t there be some kind of chain you could
follow?”

“Presumably. But it starts with Mr. Steffers
and he won’t talk.”

“Can’t you make him talk?”

“I suppose I could but it’s not legal.”

Canfield got a hardened look as if he didn’t
care what was legal, as long as he got his daughter back.

“I want her as badly as you do,” Rick said.
“But I need my job, too. The kid has a lawyer.”

“How could he sell her?” Rhoda burst out.
“People don’t do that sort of thing.”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Canfield. Some of them
do.”

“But—” She shook her head. Then made up her
mind. “I don’t believe it either.”

Rick stood up to leave. “I just wanted to let
you know where we’re at. And what he said. I have a feeling that’s
all he’s planning to say.”

After Rick left, the Canfields went on
talking.

“Do you believe it?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“What can we do about it?”

“Somehow we have to get hold of that kid and
shake it out of him.”

“He seemed like such a nice boy. Once,” she
said. “I can’t imagine him doing anything like that.”

“Cutting her brake line wasn’t very nice. She
could have been killed. Maybe we should move closer to town.”

“But this is our
home.
”

“Yes. And next year she’ll be away at
college.” He didn’t say it, but that would depend on whether they
got her back.

She stared at the front door, waiting for it
to open and Maddie to walk in. “I wish we knew where he lives. We
don’t even know that. Or do you?”

“How would I know? I never paid much
attention when she was dating him. Not until after they split up
and he began doing things, like cutting her brake line. Then I
couldn’t find out anything.
She
didn’t know where he lived.
Why do you want to know that now?”

“To find him, of course, and do what you
suggested. If he did sell her, we can ask him who he sold her to,
and follow it from there. I can’t believe I said that.”

“Said what?”

“About selling her. I just don’t believe
it.”

“Better than killing her. Maybe,” Henry
said.

* * * *

Cree was suddenly awake. I could tell she
was. The whole feeling in that basement changed.

Finally, she said, in almost a whisper, “I
did it.”

“Mmp,” was all I could answer.

Then I realized. She had spoken!

“Mm
mm,
” I said.

She was beside me, struggling with my hands.
“God, it’s tight.” There was that almost whisper again.

“Dang,” she said. “I wish I had a knife, or
something.”

“Mm!” I said. She finally caught on and
removed my gag and blindfold.

“If this is a basement,” I said, “there’s got
to be something somewhere. Why is it so dark?”

“I don’t want to turn on any lights and let
them know we’re getting loose.”

“What time is it?”

She looked at her watch. “I can’t see
it.”

“Do you still have to go?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking about it.
For a while, I was asleep.”

“Lucky you.”

“Then I woke up and really started trying to
get my wrists undone and I made it!”

“Good for you,” I said, and added, “I’m
glad.”

I hurt all over but it still didn’t seem
real. Even so, I was sure Evan had some reason for this. What was
he going to do? How would we get out of it without being caught and
put right back where we were?

“Shoot, I’m not getting anywhere,” she
said.

“At least I can talk and see now.” And I knew
she’d get my hands free soon. Before they came and tied us up
again. Maybe we should get out first, and forget my hands for a
while. All I wanted was to go home. I would never leave it again
for any reason.

“Cree,” I said. “What’s at the top of the
stairs?”

“I can’t see any stairs. But I know we came
down some.”

I could see as well as she could. Which was
almost nothing, it was so dark.

“We have to get out of here,” I said. “Never
mind my hands for now. We have to get
out.
”

“Yeah, I know.” She stopped trying to untie
me. If Evan were smart, he’d have tied us
to
something. But
maybe just being in the basement was good enough.

She helped me up. It was hard when my hands
were still tied. We discovered that the little firewood room had a
door She groped for the knob, found it, and opened it.

The outer room was a tiny bit lighter but not
by much. However, we’d been in the dark and could see as well as
anybody could.

We both saw what looked like a work table. I
groped my way toward it and she did, too. I had to grope with my
feet but they were serviceable. She seemed determined to cut my
ropes but I was more interested in just getting out of there.

She felt her way along the table, picking up
things and feeling them.

“Let’s get out,” I whispered.

“How?”

“The stairs.”

“Where are they?”

Darned if I knew. We crept around, looking
for stairs, and after a while we found them.

They disappeared into blackness at the top. I
couldn’t see even a little bit of light under or around the
door.

“I wish I knew this house,” I said. “I assume
it must be his.”

She said, “I really have to go.”

“Then you’d better just do it. If anybody’s
down here, they can’t see you.”

She scuffed around, feeling with her feet.
“Unless they’ve got a sniper scope,” she said.

“Most people don’t have one.” I started up
the stairs, very quietly. She did whatever she had to do and then
followed me up.

“Thanks,” she whispered, right in my ear.
“Now I can conquer the world.”

“All we really need is to get out of here.” I
found a doorknob and turned it.

Nothing happened.

I turned it again and pushed. I pushed
harder. Then she tried with her more functioning hands.

Still nothing.

“It’s locked,” I said.

“Oh, great.”

I was glad she didn’t ask what we were going
to do. I had no idea. I had thought we were out of the woods when
she got her hands free, but we were right back where we
started.

I pressed my ear to the door and listened.
Didn’t hear a thing. “I wonder what time it is,” I said.

She couldn’t answer that.

I said, “If this is his house, he’d be
upstairs asleep. He said he was going to bring us some food. I
don’t feel like eating but I’d really like some water. Or Pepsi. Or
anything wet. I wonder if this door opens in or out.”

“Probably out,” she said. “Into a hall or
whatever’s there.”

“Is that how it is at your house? It is at
ours.”

“If that’s just a key,” she said, “we could
push it out. But we have to have something we can stick under the
door to get it in here.” She slipped away and went back down the
stairs. I sat on the top step and worked at the rope that bound my
hands.

A moment later, she was back. She’d forgotten
about my hands, but brought a screwdriver.

“Now we need something for it to fall on,”
she said.

I was getting awfully discouraged. If I had
my purse, there was a notebook in it. We could tear out a page. But
I didn’t have it. Probably it was still in my car.

She went back to the workbench and searched
all over. At least she had hands to do it with. I couldn’t stop
being afraid someone would come. Someone being Evan, or one of his
buddies. They’d see we were loose and they’d tie us up again,
tighter than before.

Cree found something, a small sheet of metal.
She pushed it under the door. It barely fit. We would never get it
back with the key on it.

She took the screwdriver she had brought up
earlier and tried to poke it into the lock.

It didn’t fit. It was too big.

“Dang,” she said. “It’s the only one I
found.”

I said, “I wish I could be more useful.”

“You can’t. It’s a one-person job. Just
listen for if you hear somebody coming.”

I listened. I thought she got kind of noisy,
scratching around on that workbench. But nobody came. They were all
upstairs sleeping. Including Evan, who didn’t bring us anything to
eat or drink.

I was sure he planned to kill us, so he must
have figured it didn’t matter if we ate or drank. He just had to
figure out how to dispose of our bodies. A lot of times people kill
in the heat of the moment and then they’re stuck with a body. I
wondered if they had any electric saws in this basement.

Cree came back, having found a smaller
screwdriver.

“It’s not going to fit under the door,” I
said. “So then what?”

She crouched down next to me. “I don’t
know.”

“Neither do I.”

“Are you sure it won’t fit?”

I said, “We could barely get that sheet of
metal under it. How are we going to get it back with a key on
it?”

“We can try?”

“It won’t work. And then the key will be out
of the lock.”

“Dang.”

“The only thing I can think of,” I said, “is
if you get one of those logs in that room and brain him when he
comes in.”

“And that will accomplish what?”

“Well—if you brain him hard enough he’d be
out cold and then we can run up the stairs and escape. He’d have
left the door unlocked. If he doesn’t, he’ll have the key on
him.”

“Hmm.” She thought that over, and said, “I
wish I could see my watch.”

“Maybe you can when the sun comes up.”

She groaned. We had finally found some
windows, but from what we could see, it looked as if the sun would
never come up. It was utterly pitch dark out there.

We sat on the stairs, trying to think. She
placed her hand on my knee. “We could be getting you untied. Then
you can do that thing where you bop Evan with the firewood.”

That would give me great satisfaction. She
went back to the bench and scrounged around it. “I can’t
see.
”

“Don’t turn on a light,” I warned. “You were
right about that.”

She found a saw. A full size one, and tried
to make it work.

“Ouch,” I said. It wasn’t working. She got
more of me than the rope.

“This is awkward. I need both hands and I—I—”
She forgot what she was saying as she concentrated on sawing. From
time to time there was an “Oops, sorry,” as she nicked my hand. It
was a difficult angle.

“What if I lie down?” I said. “Would that be
easier?”

“It might.”

We went back to the firewood room. Nothing
was visible there. I groped with my foot and found the so-called
bed. I hated to lie down, still not sure about spiders and
cockroaches, but did it anyway. Someday we would be out of there.
We had to be.

Now she couldn’t see anything. She had to do
it by feel. It seemed to take forever.

Suddenly I felt a loosening. I felt her
fingers on my hand. Then she said, “Voilà!” and pulled off pieces
of rope.

I could separate my hands. I could put them
in front of me and wiggle my fingers.

“I did it!” she said.

I was still wiggling my fingers. “You really
did. Now all we have to do is get out of here.”

“I can’t believe it. That we’re still here.
Am I awake?”

“If you’re not,” I said, “then we’re having
the same dream.”

“I don’t like it.” She put away the saw. Or
tried to. She couldn’t see where it went. “There’s got to be an
outside door in this place.”

“Good luck.” My momentary happiness at having
my hands untied was fast disappearing.

She said, “I’ll wait till the sun comes up.
If it ever does.”

“Do you realize we’re going to miss school?
This is Tuesday, isn’t it?”

“I think so.”

“I really wish I had a Pepsi. Right now.
Maybe even water. I really wish.”

“Don’t think about it,” she advised. “You’ll
only make yourself thirstier.”

“I’m almost starting to feel hungry.”

“Don’t think about that either.”

The more I tried not to think about it, the
more I thought about it. I tried to think of something else. Maybe
Rick. What was he doing now? Was he thinking of me? Or Rosie?
Probably Rosie, since as far as he knew, she was worse off than I
was.

We prowled around and finally found it. An
outside doorway. It was up a couple of steps and was one of those
metal things that opened upward, not like a door. But if we could
get it open, we could go outside. And then
home.

The place was recessed and we couldn’t see
anything inside that recess. It had been behind a door. We found it
only because it was near a window and Cree noticed a doorknob
gleaming very faintly.

“It’s all spider webs in there,” she said,
backing out. “I don’t think they use it very often.” She kept
brushing her hands, and the rest of her, and her hair. “I wish I
could see.”