Blood Sport (9 page)

“Hey
, Jen, you got a minute?” Jen had been behind the counter here for as long as he could remember and used to serve him milkshakes when he was a kid. A large, kindly gray-haired lady, you didn’t talk to her if you were in a hurry as she was very difficult to stop once she got started.

“For you
, honey, always.”

“Do you have CCTV here?”
He looked around and saw a camera in the corner of the room and pointed at it. “Is that a real camera or a dummy?”

“It’s real
. We got it after that robbery a couple of summers back.” She put a cup in front of him and started to pour him a coffee from a glass jug that seemed permanently attached to her hand. “Do you remember that summer? That would have been when...”

He held up his hand. “Sorry
, Jen, I really can’t talk right now. I need to get a copy of your footage from yesterday and it’s really urgent.”

She didn’t seem in the slightest offended. “Sure, come through the back and I’ll get it for you.”

Leaving her with promises that he would return soon to catch up, he took the footage and hurried back to the station. The deputy was already there and watching the footage he had gotten from the council offices.

“Anything?” Finn asked
, coming to stand behind him.

“Not so far.”

They both watched silently as the images played across the screen until they got to the point where Kat and Daniel arrived. Despite going over it slowly, it was clear that the camera hadn’t caught anything.

“Fingers crossed we have more luck with this one.” Finn handed the disk in his hand to the deputy and watched as he replaced the one currently in
the machine and pressed play. Immediately, the image came on screen Finn’s heart fell. The camera covered the interior of the coffee shop, as he’d expected, but you could only see a small section of the road outside the diner. He had hoped that it would be at a better angle.
Damn!

He watched as
Kat appeared on the screen and collided with a man he didn’t recognize who was just coming out of the bathroom. He didn’t seem pleased and he didn’t need to be able to lip read to see that he said something angrily to her before leaving.

“Looks like he’s getting into a red car, or truck
,” the deputy said, pointing to an area at the top of the screen. He was right; you could just make out the bottom half of a red vehicle. “It’s no good to us, though. We can’t see enough.” As they watched, though, the car pulled forward and reversed towards the shop window to make a u-turn. As it did, for a brief moment, the license was in full view.

Not believing his luck, Finn quickly grabbed a pencil from a holder on the desk and a piece of paper and jotted the number down. Going to the nearest computer and switching it on
, he ran it through the database. And was immediately disappointed. The vehicle was shown as belonging to Mark Flint. The man on the footage must have been one of his farm hands. Finn had known Flint for years, since he had taught him in high school, and he knew without a doubt that he wasn’t involved in this in any way. He didn’t know the farm hand, though, so it was worth a drive out there even if it was just to eliminate them.

“Have you got time to come out with me to the farm or
do you need to get back to Carlton?”

“My boss said I’m to give you whatever help you need so sure, why not
?”

***

“What’s your first name, kid?” Finn asked the deputy as they drove up to the farm.

“John.”

“Well, John, thanks for all your help back there.”

“No problem.
Good change from issuing parking tickets in Carlton.”

“Here we are
. This is the Flint farm,” Finn told him, pointing to a dirt road after they’d been driving for twenty minutes. “It’s about two miles up this road.”

The
road was full of bumps and potholes and by the time they arrived Finn felt like they’d been put through a tumble drier.

Getting out of the cruiser, they climbed the steps to the front porch and knocked on the door.

“Finn! Gosh, how long’s it been?” The door was opened by a man who bore an uncanny resemblance to Colonel Sanders.

“Hi
, Mark.” Finn shook his extended hand. “How have you been doing?”

“I’m very well. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

Finn described the man seen on the surveillance footage and explained that they needed to speak to him but he stopped short of telling him why.

“Ah, that sounds like Kenny. Not the most sociable or friendly of people but he’s a good worker.”

“Any chance we could have a quick word with him?”

Flint shook his head. “I’m sorry
, Finn, he’s not here. I’ve sent him on an errand and he won’t be back until tomorrow.”

“Can you get
a hold of him and ask him to come back early?”

“I’ve got no way of getting
a hold of him. He doesn’t have a cell. I really am sorry, Finn. I’d help if I could.”

“What about the tr
uck. Is that here?”

“He’s got it with him
, I’m afraid.”

Disappointed
, Finn told Flint that he would be back tomorrow and they returned to the cruiser.

“Didn’t that seem a little odd to you?” John asked as they pulled out of the yard.

“What?”

“Who doesn’t have a cell phone these days?”

“Unfortunately, out here a lot of people don’t have them. The service is awful and a lot of the farm hands wouldn’t know what to do with one.”

Twenty
-Nine

You pay peanuts and you get monkeys, wasn’t that how the saying went? Well, he sure seemed to employ a bunch of monkeys. “Why didn’t you warn me they were on their way here?” he shouted into the phone.

“I didn’t know.”

“I told you I wanted to know everything that was going on in the investigation. You’ve let me down.”

He had no choice now
; he had to run, and fast. Shouting orders to his men, he told them to put their escape plan into action. He’d had one for years, always knowing that this day could possibly come but never actually believing it would.

He didn’t care about the farm itself
. He was not into all that sentimental clap trap, but it did represent a sizeable chunk of money.
Oh well,
he thought,
there was plenty more where that came from
. Going to his safe, hidden behind a picture in his dining room, he took out two large briefcases filled with cash. On top of them was a worn black book. The book contained all the details of the others like him and was invaluable. Putting the book inside his jacket, he looked around. There was so much here that he should dispose of but he just didn’t have time. No matter; there was nothing he could do to hide it any more. He grabbed the cases and stepped outside.

“The trucks are all loaded
,” Clay told him, coming out from the nearest barn. “What do you want us to do with the woman?” He thought about it for a moment. He hadn’t had time to deal with her yet and he didn’t want to take her with them.

“Leave her and the boy behind.” It was because of them that all this had happened.
He would leave them where they wouldn’t be found and when they were, it would be too late. The thought of the death that awaited them made him smile.

“Yes
, boss,” Clay replied before trotting back over to the barn.

***

Something was going on. “What’s happening?” Kat tried to get an answer from the men who were roughly removing the other boys from their cells. “Where are you taking them?” But they just ignored her. Gripping the bars of her cell, she screamed at them. “Leave them alone!” But they took no notice. The boys were mostly silent, doing as they were told and following the men meekly. She expected them to come for her and for Daniel, but as one after the other of the boys was removed and no one approached their cells she started to fear the worst. As the last boy was led out, the room was suddenly plunged into complete darkness as the light was switched off, the only light now coming from the still open door.

“Wait! Come back! You can’t just leave us here!” she screamed at the top of her lungs
, but to no avail. Despairingly, she watched as the light from the door finally disappeared as it was closed with a resounding clank.

Her own breathing was heavy in her ears in the silence that followed. Feeling her way, she went to the bars that separated her cell from Daniel
’s. She could hear him sniffling in the darkness and called out to him.

“Daniel, honey, it
’s okay.” She heard him move closer to her and felt his hand reach for her through the bars. “We’ll get out of here, I promise.” She was confused. Where had they all gone? “Daniel, has this ever happened before, where they’ve taken you all out at the same time?”

“No, they only ever take the ones that are fighting
,” he whispered, the tremble in his voice giving away how much this worried him.

“
Okay. I know it’s hard, but try not to worry. I’m sure they’ll be back soon.” Though she was trying to convince Daniel, she didn’t believe it for a second herself. Something had happened, something that was making them run, and she clung to the hope that the police were getting close. She’d not given a thought to oxygen before, as the constantly opening and closing door from the room that was linked to the outside replenished their supply. But now, without that, how long did they have? She didn’t know but she did know that the police had better hurry. If it wasn’t the lack of oxygen, it would be the lack of water that killed them. Either way, she knew for certain that one of them would.

T
hirty

He’d hoped to have some news for her by now but he had nothing. As Finn followed Jamie into her kitchen and faced her, he could tell she hadn’t slept. Her eyes were swollen from crying and they were ringed with dark circles.

“I’m sorry
, Jamie. We’re doing everything we can but there’s no sign of them yet.”

“You must have something to go on!”

“We’ve had a couple of leads from some surveillance footage that we’re following up, but so far we’ve drawn a blank.”

“Well
, they can’t have just vanished. They’ve got to be out there somewhere.” Tears were spilling out of her eyes now.

“And I promise you, I won’t rest until we find them.” And he wouldn’t. They were doing everything they could at the moment
, though. The whole department was out there, searching. The surveillance footage had all been checked now and the only leads were the ones they’d found on the footage from the therapist’s office and the coffee shop. Until he could go back and speak to the farm hand tomorrow, that was a dead end, too. They were still waiting for the forensic report but that was going to take some time. The analysis of the paint had to be sent out to a specialist lab, one that took cases from all over the state, so it would be several days before they got any news on that front.

Leaving her with a promise that he would get in touch the minute he had any news
, he drove back into town. John had waited in the car while he spoke to Jamie and, once they’d parked the car back at the station, he told him to go home and come back first thing in the morning. He’d already cleared it with his boss that he could use him for another day and though it was only mid-afternoon, he’d been up all night and needed some rest.

He wasn’t heading home yet
, though. As he walked into the station, Sandy handed him a big envelope. “This got delivered when you were out.” Momentarily confused, he suddenly remembered.
The missing boys’ case files.
Taking them into to the chief’s office, he opened the envelope and slid them out.

The next few hours were spent examining them for anything that connected the two cases or anything that connected them to Daniel’s case
, but he couldn’t find anything. The combination of spending the night before staring at surveillance footage and the hours spent combing over the files had given him a terrible headache, and when he saw that the night shift deputies had arrived he decided to call it a day. Tomorrow they would go back to Flint’s farm and speak to the farm hand and maybe, just maybe, something would break.

Thirty-One

As Finn drove his cruiser onto the farm, he was struck by the silence. When they’d been up here yesterday, the yard had been a flurry of activity as it was a working farm. This time, though, there was no movement. Pulling up outside the main farmhouse, Finn and the deputy from Carlton stepped out of the car and looked around.

“Quiet here.” John
said exactly what Finn was thinking.

“Yeah, too quiet.”

Walking up the steps to the porch, Finn knocked on the door and waited. Hearing no movement inside, he looked through the window to the left of the front door. Through a gap in the drapes he saw that everything looked normal. “Strange. Let’s go and take a look in the barn.”

Finn was g
etting worried now. What if the farm hand did have something to do with this? What if he’d found out they were looking for him and he’d harmed Mr. Flint?

As they approached
, they could see tire tracks in the mud that ended at the barn doors. “Let’s get this open.” With John’s help, he lifted the heavy metal bar and pulled the door open. They walked in and paused, taking a few seconds to allow their eyes to become accustomed to the gloom. It soon became apparent that the barn was empty, though from the tracks on the ground it was clear that it hadn’t always been.

“These track
s look recent to me,” John said, crouching down to take a closer look.

Finn nodded
. “Agreed. It doesn’t help us, though.” He looked around. “Something is very wrong here. Have you ever seen a farm this quiet?”

“Can’t say that I have.”

“I think we need to get into that house. I think we’ve enough to justify it without a warrant. For all we know, Flint could be laying in there right now, injured.”

“You’re the boss
,” John replied, standing up. As he did, he disturbed some of the hay and other detritus that lay on the barn floor and something glinted, catching Finn’s eye. “What was that?”

“What was what?”

But Finn didn’t reply, bending down and pushing the dirt aside with his finger. There, lying in the mud, was a gold stud earring. “Quick, go and grab an evidence bag from the cruiser.” He’d need to show Jamie to be sure, but it looked just like the studs that Kat wore.

As he waited for John
to return, he stood up and with his foot started clearing the area around the earring to see if there was anything else lying there hidden. He had cleared a good-sized area by the time the deputy returned and he was just about to stop when he felt the surface underneath his shoe change. Immediately intrigued, he noticed that part of the floor appeared to be made out of wooden planks.

“Co
me here and give me a hand with this,” he called over to John and they both knelt and started clearing the area by hand. It quickly became clear that what they were looking at was some kind of hatch, locked from the outside.

“Damn
, it’s locked,” Finn said as he rattled the now visible padlock.

“We could go into town and get some tools and come back later
,” the deputy suggested.

“No, that will take too long.” Finn looked around the barn. “It’s a farm. There must be an axe or something we could use to smash the wood around here somewhere.”

Going in different directions, they checked the rest of the barn.

“Over here
. I’ve got one!” Finn looked over to where John held up a large axe.

“Great, let’s get that hatch open.”

Finn realized he was holding his breath as he watched John bring the axe down on the hatch. It splintered with the first blow and the second separated it from the metal padlock. Having no idea what they would find, they both drew their weapons before Finn carefully reached down and lifted the hatch. Taking his flashlight from his belt, he aimed the beam down the hole. As nothing came flying up to meet them and take their heads off, he risked leaning over and looking down, following the beam of light.

Secured into the fairly narrow square shaft was a metal ladder which, from what he could see, dropped about
twenty feet before meeting the ground. “How are you with small enclosed spaces?” he asked wryly. He wasn’t about to admit it himself, but it was one of the few things that actually bothered him and looking down the hole, he could feel himself start to sweat.

“You ok
ay, boss?”

He must have l
ooked worried because John was looking at him as if he was about to faint. “I’m fine.” He gestured toward the hole with his gun. “After you.”

Keeping his gun aimed down the hole
, he watched as the deputy tested the first rung of the ladder before, satisfied that it would hold his weight, he gingerly made his way down. Once at the bottom, he disappeared from sight briefly before Finn heard him shout excitedly. “Boss! Get down here, you need to see this!”

Taking a deep breath
, he stepped on to the first rung.
Here goes,
he thought as he lowered himself down, the light from above becoming dimmer and dimmer the further down he went. Once at the bottom, he noticed a door that hadn’t been visible from above which now stood open, spilling a faint light at the bottom of the shaft. Going through it, he saw what had gotten John so excited.

The room took his breath away. Partly because it was so unexpected, but also because of its sheer size. It was huge. It was an amazing feat of engineering, carved as it was out of the ground, and must have been a long time in the execution. There were supporting pillars at
regular intervals except at the very center of the room where there was a clearly marked boxing ring, around which was seating for approximately fifty people. On the far side of the room was another door; this one, though, was locked from the outside. Skirting the ring to get to it, Finn was pleased to see that this one was also made of wood.

“We’ll need the axe again.” Looking around as he waited for the deputy to return with it, details that he’d missed on first glance were now jumping out at him. The floor of the ring was covered in dark, coppery stains that could only be blood and the floor was scattered with bits of paper. Dropping down to
one knee, he picked on up. It was what was left of a betting slip. Finn felt sick to his stomach thinking about what must have gone on in this room. It was one thing hearing Daniel describe it; it was quite another to stand in the room where it all happened.

***

The smell hit him first as he opened the door. A wave of stale air swept out of the room as he let the fresh air in and on it was carried the stench of unwashed bodies and what could only be described as sewage. It was pitch black behind the door but his flashlight soon revealed a cord dangling from the ceiling. Pulling on it, a single bulb swinging from a wire lit up, casting a faint glow.

The sight of the rows of empty cages shocked him and his feet felt as though there were rooted to the spot
. A noise to his left made him jump and he quickly swung round, holding his gun out in front of him. “Stop! Police!” he shouted, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.

“Finn? Finn! It’s me, Kat! Over here!”

The voice sounded like it came from the far end of the room and Finn and the deputy, who had followed him, quickly dashed over. They found them in the last two cells on the left hand side and Finn couldn’t help but flinch when he saw them. Both were filthy, their clothes torn, and a terrible smell was coming from buckets in the corners of the cells.

“Go topside and call an ambulance
. Tell them to put their foot down. See if any of the other cruisers have any bolt-cutters and tell them to get here, too,” he told the deputy as he looked at the metal bars and locks. “We’re not going to be able to get these open with the axe.”

“Are you hurt?”
He turned his attention back to Kat and Daniel.

“No, not hurt. Just very thirsty and hungry
,” she replied, her voice raspy from lack of water. “Thank God you found us.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of here soon.”
He looked around the room again, taking it all in. “Have you been down here since you were snatched?”

Kat nodded
. “Yes. But Finn, there were others, kids. I don’t know how many. They came and took them all and never came back.”

***

Finn stood back and watched as the paramedics and deputies helped them climb the ladder and out of their underground hell. They were both weak, dehydrated and hungry and had to be helped into the back of the waiting ambulance. Three other cruisers were parked just outside the barn now along with the ambulance, and he could see the shock on his men’s faces. None of them had ever come across anything like this before. Once Kat and Daniel had been safely put in the ambulance, he gestured for his deputies to gather around him.

“
No one is to go downstairs until CSI says it’s okay to do so, but we need to find out where this bastard has gone so I want the house turned upside down. Rip up floors if you have to, but give me something.”

As they left to follow his orders, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Hi there
,” Sally replied.

“Look, are you at work?”

“Yep, in the middle of a twelve-hour shift. Did you want to get together? I can take a break if you want to meet me in the canteen later.”

“I’m sorry
, Sally, I can’t. I’ve actually called to give you the head’s up.” He briefly filled her in. “Could you make sure you get security to stay with them when they arrive? I don’t think they’ll try and snatch them again but I haven’t got a deputy to spare at the moment to come over there with them.”

“Sure I will, and I’ll make sure I’m there when they arrive. It might make them feel better to see a friendly face.”

“Thank you, I’m sure it will. After this is all done, I promise we’ll get together and catch up.” As he put the phone down, he felt lucky. There weren’t many women who would put up with the hours he put in in his job and the fact that he couldn’t ever make plans. It was about time he started appreciating her a bit more. Walking over to the ambulance which was packing up to leave, he popped his head inside. From the expression on Kat’s face, she was none too impressed to be strapped to a gurney. “Hey guys, Sally is going to meet you at the hospital.”

“I don’t need to go to the hospital
, Finn. I’m perfectly fine.” She frowned at him. “I want to help you catch this guy. Deputize me, give me a gun and let’s go nail the bastard.”

Finn shook his head. “Not a chance. We’ve got it covered.”

“We need to go now, sir,” the paramedic said, appearing beside him to shut the doors.

“I’ll
call Jamie and let her know what’s happened,” he said, stepping back to let them close the doors.