Legacy (27 page)

For a moment I stared at him, uncomprehending, unable to believe what had just happened. Then I was on my feet, running the few steps to Father where he lay, not hearing whatever it was that Campbell was saying. I knelt beside Father's body, weeping uncontrollably now, as I saw the wound in his throat where the bullet had entered and the gaping red opening at the top of his head. The thin wisps of blond hair at the edges were now stained crimson amid the widening pool of blood that now darkened the carpet. Above me Campbell was cursing, threatening, ordering me to get up and go with him, but I could not move as the sobs came, shuddering, bursting forth with the wild grief that possessed me.

And then a thousand bright lights seemed to explode at the back of my head, and for one fleeting moment I thought: he's killed me too.

Then the great darkness of oblivion engulfed my entire soul.

Chapter Eleven

I have no idea how long I remained unconscious, mercifully unaware of everything that was going on around me. I have a vague impression of being picked up and jolted, but then I slipped even deeper into the quiet darkness and remained there. dreamlike, I thought I was at the bottom of a great, dark sea, struggling upward to reach the surface, but the further up I tried to swim, the darker it became. Then at last I heard the sound of waves crashing, and I began to gasp for air . . .

I could still hear the water, but I knew that I was awake and not moving. My wrists and ankles ached terribly from the ropes that bound them together. My mouth was gagged. I was lying on my back on something hard and rough that bent my spine painfully. Water was splashing, and there was another sound, a scrape, metallic . . .

I opened my eyes and realized I was in a rowboat, moving quickly across the lake. Above me I could see the muscular form of Campbell, his bearded face shadowy in the darkness as he worked the oars. There was no moon above, only a few faint stars, cold and unchanging, heedless of the horror that had taken place beneath them. The image of Father's lifeless body came back to me then and I thought I would go mad with my sorrow and fear and my rage at this disgusting creature that now held me powerless. I clenched my muscles and strained against the ropes, but I could not even begin to move either my hands or feet, so tightly were they bound. In my despair, I tried then to roll my body to one side of the boat in order to make it capsize. I would take him down with me, I thought, down to the bottom of the great, dark lake.

I struggled to move and had succeeded in getting my legs bent just slightly when Campbell game me a vicious kick in the side.

'Hold it there, bitch!' The voice was low, almost a whisper, and I realized then there must be people looking for us. If I could only scream!

As he talked, his growling manner turned softer. He spoke the way a person would talk to an injured dog. 'Ya just lie there and ride. Can't have ya sinkin' yourself out there. Gonna need ya around, yes, ma'am, get me some money for ya. Big money, too. Reckon ya can sing for your supper back to the folks in town, and they'll give ole Red a good-sized piece o' your daddy's pie just to see you back in one piece, yes. But 'fore I'm done with ya, I'm gonna have me a little fun, yes, indeed.'

The filth began to pour from his lips then and I shuddered, concentrating on the stars overhead, and then shutting my eyes altogether and listening only to the splash of water made by the oars, counting the strokes, anything to keep from hearing the vile words that issued forth from that horrible man's mouth. After a time he seemed to notice that I was not paying attention, for I felt the toe of his boot prodding me in the side. 'What do ya think of that, hey?'

'I think you're disgusting!' I mouthed the words into the gag. The words were unintelligible, but I felt better for having said them.

'Can't wait for it, either, can ya?' Chagrined, I realized that I had only excited him further by making a response. I clenched my teeth around the gag and vowed to be silent, to shut this creature out of my awareness. He went on talking, though, and what he said made me wince.

'I saw ya out there in that cabin the other night, standin' there buck-naked. Ya thought ya had the curtains drawn good and tight, but ya left enough room for ole Red to get hisself a good, good look. And won't be long now 'for he gets hisself. . . '

There was more, but I forced myself not to listen. This isn't happening, I told myself. It's only a dream; it isn't happening . . . it isn't.

The sound of the oars changed, slowed, and the boat scraped what must have been the shore. Overhead I saw the edges of tree limbs and the silhouettes of a few small leaves. He stood up, got out at the front of the boat, and lifted it at that end, pulling it on to the shore, hardly making a sound. Then he set it down and came back to where I still lay, bound hand and foot. The voice from that dark shape was greasy and low. 'Come on up, now. Ain't never did it with one hog-tied before!'

He dragged me up from the rowboat, forcing me to stand on the riverbank. Then he carried me, with one arm around my waist, as if I were a log. My feet were dragging on the ground. Campbell took me a short distance back into the woods until we reached a tiny clearing in the middle of a thicket. There he stood me up again, his grip hard on my arms as he waited behind me. The air around us had a musty, dank smell that I could not place. Above us were the trees. I had caught a glimpse of the lake when he had got me up out of the boat, but the lake was empty as far as I could see in the darkness. How clever he had been! If they were using dogs to track us, they would have no luck at all until they reached this part of the shore - if they came around that far. It was more likely they would follow whatever trail Campbell had made when he had wandered around the hotel earlier during the past two days.

He was breathing heavily now, the only sound besides the quiet lapping of the waves on the lake shore and the pounding of my heart.

He forced me to kneel, and then to lie down on my stomach, my bound hands in front of me, making a painfully awkward pillow as I finally was able to loosen my hands enough to cross one wrist over the other. I steeled myself for what I knew was coming, hoping that when he untied my legs I would somehow be able to do something to escape, or at least to work loose the gag now that I could move my fingers slightly, and then I could scream for help.

His weight was over my back and I felt his hot breath whispering at my ear. 'Looks like ya got a good mouth for kissin', bitch. Too bad ole Red can't take a chance on your keepin' quiet now, ain't it?'

He sat up and pulled up my skirt and my petticoat. With his breath coming faster, he tore away my cotton and lace drawers and waited. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him kneeling there, gloating over his prize.

Then his body was pressing down on me again. And I needed every bit of willpower I possessed to concentrate only on the gag in my mouth, the chafing pain of the ropes that bound my wrists, and the revenge, the terrible revenge I vowed I would one day take on this detestable man.

A short while after his hissing and grunting finally subsided, I was hauled roughly to my feet again. He turned me around to face him, the whites of his eyes and his grinning teeth visible in the darkness. With one hand he pawed at my breasts; with the other he gripped my shoulder hard just below my neck, tightening cruelly when I tried to twist away. 'Ain't tamed you yet, have I?' There was a low-voiced, sneering laughter in his words. 'Guess I had you figgered right at that. Thought you was the kind that'd need more than one ridin' 'fore you finally settled down and behaved.' He thrust his face close to mine and squeezed my breast hard, making me wince with the pain. 'We're gonna have ourselves another go not too long from now when I get back. I got a good safe place to put ya in the meantime. Ya ain't gonna be too happy with it, but it's good and safe.'

With that he turned me around again and half-dragged, half-carried me deeper into the thicket. The putrid smell I had noticed earlier grew stronger. When we stopped, it seemed to be all around us, coming from something on the ground.

'Now you just stand right there and don't fall over, while I locate your new home here .. .' He took a few steps away from me and bent over as though he were looking for something on the ground. Then he stopped and gave a grunt of satisfaction. 'Yeah,' he said, 'this is it, all ready for ya.'

He straightened up and came back, and soon he had taken me over to the spot where he had been standing. It was a dark place, even in that darkened thicket, what seemed to be a hole dug into the rocky earth. The musty, dank odor of the underground was overpowering here, and. I realized with horror that this was not a hole, but a fissure in the earth, one of the cracks in the structure of these mountains that penetrated deep beneath the surface.

I had heard about these 'drop-caves' when I was a child in school. To the boys, it was a sign of bravery to clamber down the jagged, slippery surface of the rock with a candle as far as they could go and then leave the candle burning behind and climb back up in the darkness. Then the next boy would inch his way down the narrow, twisting crevasse and try to retrieve the candle. Some boys had died, I had heard, when they slipped on the wet, slimy surface and fell, cracking their heads on one of the jagged protrusions that marked the tortuous descent.

Moments later Campbell had pushed me partway down the opening and then as I sat on the edge he climbed down with me. 'All right, now,' he whispered, 'you just let ole Red slide you down here a bit. Don't go wigglin' around none. This here crack goes down a good hunnert and thirty feet. Make a nice deep grave if you try anything funny.'

A few painful minutes later he had maneuvered both of us down the craggy, muck-covered incline. After the first few yards the descent was not straight down any longer but at an angle, where the crack went, I supposed, zigzag fashion in the earth. After a few more yards of wiggling me along, our two bodies face to face in a horrible parody of lovemaking, he stopped.

'Wait right there for me, bitch, till I get back. If you're lucky, ole Red's gonna have hisself plenty o' money from whoever's lookin' after your pappy's will. Then I'm gonna turn ya loose after some fun with ya.'

He squeezed against me, sliding past and up the narrow, sloping passageway in the rocks. Then I heard his voice again. 'Listen good now. You don't wanna go slidin' around down there. Just under your feet there's a straight-down drop of nearly twenty yards. Hear me? You just stay put right there. If I'm more'n a day or two, I'll have somebody take a look in, maybe pull ya up and give ya a drink o' water.' He gave a low, nasty laugh. 'Reckon he's gonna get hisself mighty excited.'

And with another chuckle he was gone, leaving me alone in complete darkness. Buried alive, I thought to myself. Who would find me here? The stench of the cave would be too strong for a hunting dog to track where we had come. I could not cry out, and even if I could, my voice would be blocked by the yards-thick layers of stone and dirt that separated me from the surface. Down here the silence was complete, except for the noise of my breathing. I listened as carefully as I could, but I could hear no more than I could see. I was lying on my back, my hands and feet still tied, every muscle aching from my ordeal. The rock was cold, and the dampness was beginning to soak through my dress, making me shiver. I clamped my teeth tightly on the gag and forced myself to think of escape, of what I could do if another man came, what I would do if Campbell returned, but I was so very, very tired.

I awoke I knew not how long later, for I could still see nothing. It might have been day or night outside for all I knew. Had I fainted? I could scarcely believe that I had fallen asleep, even though I had been up all night and had not slept well for days, not since I had come out here on this trip with Father.

And then my memory came back again. Father was murdered, and I was alone. For a moment the hot tears filled my eyes, but, unbidden, something changed within me. Then the grief was dispelled by a newer, stronger feeling that burned deep inside me and spread throughout my body. I was going to win. I was going to beat them all. With a ruthlessness I had never realized was in me before, I vowed I would live from this moment as though I were beyond all passion. I would somehow avenge Father's death and complete the financial empire he had dreamed of. I saw myself on Legacy again, in that new brick mansion so different from that of the Graybars, and I realized why I had been alone, why Justin had not been with me the time I had dreamed of that new mansion before. I was going to have to do it myself. I could not indulge myself with a love for Justin McKay, even though I might still feel it. I would have to use him, manipulate him, just as I would have to manipulate Steven Graybar to get what I wanted.