JJ09 - Blood Moon (18 page)

I unlocked it and we walked inside.

The first thing that stood out to me wasn’t the presence but the absence of something. I didn’t hear the hum of the refrigerator.

“Hear that?” I asked.

“What?”

“Exactly.”

“Oh. No hum.”

“Tell you what, I’ll still pull out the fridge and you can try all the outlets in here while I go get you some sneakers out of my office and check on Emmitt.”

“Just hurry back.”

“I will. The fridge could be plugged into the wrong outlet. Just try them all. If you get enough charge, go ahead and call.”

“Who?”

“Merrill or Dad or nine-one-one. Nine-one-one will be faster and easier, but with Dad or Merrill you can really explain what’s going on.”

“You have either of their numbers?”

I gave them to her as I pulled the refrigerator back from the wall.

Then I hugged and kissed her and hurried away so I could hurry back.

Checking both ways before I opened the kitchen door, I stepped out and took the half dozen or so steps to the door that opened into the main hallway right across from my office. Pausing there, I looked around. Seeing no one, I eased open the door and stepped into the hallway.

But before I could cross the hall to my office, something in the sanctuary caught my eye.

I was seeing it through the square glass windows of the main chapel doors to my left and at first wasn’t sure what I was seeing.

Snatching open the door on the right, I stepped into the sanctuary and crossed over to the center aisle and stared in disbelief.

There in the front of the sanctuary, nailed to the podium in a horrific crucifixion pose, was the naked body of Emmitt Emerson.

Blood and bowels hung and dripped out of a large hole in his side. His eyes were missing, their sockets black bloody gaps into which his head could be seen, out of which nothing would ever be seen again. Blood also dripped from his wrists and feet and the jagged cuts across his forehead, this last appearing to mimic the damage that would be caused by a crown of thorns.

The entire terrifying tableau was lit from below by an emergency light that had been ripped from the wall and brought over to give dramatic illumination to the sadistic and sacrilegious scene.

This is my fault. I brought him in. I drugged him. I used him to––

The front door of the chapel opened and I dropped to the floor and rolled beneath the pew nearest me.

When the sanctuary doors opened, I slid a little farther beneath the pew.

“What the fuck?” a voice I didn’t recognize said.

“Jesus Christ, man,” another voice said. “Is that–– Who is that?”

“I have no idea, but I know whose work it is. It’s what happens when you let a serial killer loose to play with a big knife. Fuck. Look at it. Better call RW.”

One of them radioed Randy Wayne.

“Your boy crucified some poor bastard in the chapel.”

“Oh good. Who?”

“Don’t recognize him.”

“Oh shit. Bet it’s Emerson. What’s he look like?”

He told him.

“That’s him. Oh, well. You know what? Actually, this is good. This is very good. Yeah, this helps with the story.”

“Whatta we do?”

“Leave everything just as it is. Keep looking for them.”

“Ten-four.”

“Oh, and don’t get on the wrong end of Cantor’s blade.”

“Shit’s not funny,” one of them said.

“It’s kinda funny,” the other said.

“Let’s finish lookin’ and get the fuck out of here. That shit’s creepin’ the fuck out of me.”

I could see their boots as they began to move toward me.

If they did a thorough search, they’d see me. There was no way around it.

If they went in the back, they’d see Anna. If I didn’t get back to her soon, she’d probably come out looking for me.

They continued toward me, still on the back aisle, staying together, easing their way farther into the sanctuary.

“What if that motherfucker decides to come after us?”

“RW?”

“No. The psychopath with the knife.”

“Shoot him.”

“With what?”

“You’re really wandering around in here in the dark without a weapon?”

“How’d you . . . I didn’t know we could bring one in.”

“Tonight’s different. Nobody but us up here. Who’s gonna know?”

“Where’s the captain?”

“RW took care of him. Put something in his coffee. He’s sleepin’ like a big baby. When he wakes up he’ll be one of the ones blamed for all this shit.”

“Sweet. Think I can run out to my truck and get my gun?”

“RW ain’t gonna let you outta here.”

“You got an extra?”

“Just stick close to me. I gotcha.”

“Hey, wait. If they were in here, Psycho Slasher would’ve gotten them.”

“Good point. Let’s look somewhere else.”

They stopped walking.

“I mean, hell, we’re here more for containment than anything else. He’ll find ’em and fuck ’em up. All we gotta do is lay low and stay alive.”

They turned and began walking back the way they had come.

When they reached the sanctuary doors, I raised up to see if they were leaving the building or checking the back hallway.

At first they just stood there.

After a little time had passed, they stepped toward the door, then stopped and started back this way, then stopped again.

They were saying something I couldn’t make out.

If they did go down the back hallway toward the kitchen, I’d have to move fast. I wish I knew which one had the gun. I’d need to attack him first. But there was no way for me to know.

In another moment, they headed toward the front door and walked out of the building.

Back beneath the blood moon.

Bat in one hand, Anna’s hand in the other.

Moving quickly, but carefully, making a wide swing around the right side of the upper compound that brought us close to the perimeter fence.

“What about the perimeter patrol?” she said.

The prison was encircled by an asphalt road that was patrolled during each shift by an armed officer in a vehicle. If we stayed near the perimeter fence long enough, he’d eventually drive by.

“I thought about trying to wait out here and get his attention earlier, but figured he’d be working with them. No way Randy Wayne wouldn’t have one of his guys out there.”

“Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe he doesn’t have any more guys. Maybe he thought he’d be able to take us out quickly and quietly in the chapel hours ago.”

“Maybe,” I said. “We can risk it if you think we should.”

“Might not have a choice eventually, then it’d be less of a risk.”

“How are you feeling?”

She was wearing a pair of sneakers I had in my office, under which were three pairs of thick socks. When I had returned to the kitchen with them, she was sitting on the floor, her back leaning against one of the cabinets, the front of her pants wet with blood.

In that moment, the fact that none of the kitchen outlets had power became a secondary consideration.

“I’m okay,” she said. “Feet much better. Still bleeding some, but can’t tell how much. Pain’s not too bad. Some in my abdomen. Mostly just achy. I can move faster if we need to.”

Suddenly, something was there in front of me, and I tripped. Letting go of Anna’s hand so I didn’t pull her down with me, I hit the ground and rolled, coming up with the bat as soon as I stopped.

“Chaplain, it’s me,” Cardigan said. “Don’t swing.”

“Ronnie?”

“Yeah.”

I got to my feet and moved back over to Anna.

“What’re you doing out here?”

“This is where I’ve been the whole time. Thought I’d just lie out here in the dark and wait for daybreak and shift change or . . . I didn’t know what else to do.”

Something Lao Tzu said popped into my head.
In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous.

I had listened to the
Tao Te Ching
audio book many, many times, and the voice in my head was that of the narrator.

“There are worse plans,” I said.

Finding him here made me realize that we were all staying on the right side of the upper compound, which was what Randy Wayne and the others had to expect. Perhaps we’d be safer and have a better chance on the opposite side––behind the Library, Education, PRIDE printing plant, and Food Services, but to get there meant we’d have to cross the road and an open area of some fifty yards where we could be more easily seen.

“If I’m gonna die, it’s not gonna be in a cage, but out here under this magic moon.”

I nodded, appreciating the sentiment, though I doubted he could see it.

I had been so busy trying to survive and keep us alive, I hadn’t taken the time to prepare to die or consider how I wanted to if it came to that.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

If
I died wasn’t ultimately up to me.
How
I died was.

How do I want to die?

Without fear. At peace. Trying to live, trying to protect Anna and preserve both our lives––but not in a thoughtless, panicked, frenzied way. In a Zen way, doing all I can, then stepping back and accepting what is.
I wanted to die on my feet, attempting to do the right thing for the right reasons. I wanted to die honorably. I wanted to be able, though I wasn’t sure I could, to have compassion for my killer, to love and forgive with my final breath.

That’s what I wanted. What of that I would actually be able to achieve I didn’t know, but if I wasn’t mindful about it, if I wasn’t prayerful and careful, I’d have little chance at all at having a good death.

“Have you seen anyone?” I asked. “Inmates or officers going into and out of buildings? Anything you can tell us?”

“Inmate went into Laundry a little while ago.”

I turned and looked toward the laundry building. Through the fog and darkness I could see a faint light coming from a few of the small widows.

“Looked like the one they call the Gainesville Grim Reaper. What’s his name? Cantor? He had a weapon too. Looked like the biggest fuckin’ carvin’ knife you ever seen.”

“There’s no way you could’ve seen all that from out here,” I said.

“I was closer earlier. Saw him when I was. He went in the chapel for a while. That’s when I moved out here. Saw him go in Laundry just a little while ago.”

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks. You wanna go with us? Fare better if we work together.”

“Think I’ll stay here. If you figure something out for us or need me, this is where I’ll be.”

“Where’re we headed?” Anna asked.

“Laundry.”

“Seriously? Like some run-toward-the-roar face-your-fears shit?”

I laughed. “Not exactly, no. Well, maybe a little. But more to be unexpected. Switch things up some. Go on the offensive instead of staying on the defensive. How’re you feeling?”

“Not so good. But it has less to do with the cuts in my feet and the bleeding coming from my belly than the fact that we’re running toward a psychotic serial killer.”

She had not seen what Cantor had done to Emmitt, nor had I told her in any detail. If I had or if she had seen it, the fear and dread and nausea she felt now would pale to the point of nonexistence.

“I’m sure it’d be easy to talk me out of,” I said.

“I doubt that.”

“It may be the worst idea I’ve ever had,” I said, “but it just seemed like Cardigan is lying over there waiting to die. I don’t want to do that. I can’t.”

“I’m glad. I just––”

Just then we were tackled from the side, taken to the ground with force, Anna letting out a painful shriek.

I dropped the bat and it rolled too far away to reach.

I grabbed for Anna, but was on the ground with someone on top of me before I could make any contact at all.

I struggled with the figure on top of me, but only for a moment––only until his partner, who was still straddling Anna, reached over and pressed the barrel of his small handgun to my head.

“See this,” he said, tapping me with it, “this will now be pointed at her head. Resist some more if you want to be single for a little while before you die.”

I went perfectly still.

They were the two officers from the chapel.

The one on me pushed himself off and told me to stand slowly as the other helped Anna to her feet.

The two men looked vaguely familiar. I had seen them at the prison before, but didn’t know their names and probably had never shared more than a passing greeting with them. Certainly not an entire conversation.

The one who had been on top of me was smaller and younger, but both men looked to be in their thirties.

“You okay?” I asked Anna.

“I landed on the baby. It was hard. I don’t feel right.”

“Real soon all three of you won’t feel a thing,” the one with the gun said.

He held the gun close to Anna’s head, and he was standing too far away for me to reach. I tried to think of our options, but couldn’t come up with any.

“We takin’ them to the ripper or callin’ for someone to bring him to us?” the smaller guy asked.

“Whatever way the boss wants, but Butler wanted a word with that one before we turn the ripper loose on ’em. Maybe all we have to do is turn them over to him and Pine and let them deal with him.”

“You don’t want to watch him do it?”

“No I sure as shit do not. Was bad enough seeing what he did to that poor prick in the chapel after the fact. That shit’s bad enough to not be able to unsee, but actually seein’ him do it . . . Might give me ideas for my old lady.”

The smaller guy laughed at that. He did it in such a way as to convey his understanding of why, given his old lady, it would be a temptation.

“Get ’em cuffed,” the one with the gun said, “and let’s ge–”

Ronnie Cardigan jabbed his shank in the left side of the bigger officer’s neck and pulled it out, blood spurting as he did, then did it again.

I lunged for the gun, grabbing it from him as he reached for the gush of blood at his neck.