The Hostage (16 page)

Nothing. No movement anywhere.

“Maybe another day, Rod.”

It was time to get some sleep. Later that day he would deal with Sarah. She needed to start wearing the panties. When he woke up, he would take the first pictures of her wearing the panties whether she liked it or not. If she wouldn’t work with him willingly, he would shoot her up with ketamine again but this time he’d use his tranquilizer gun so there would be no need to enter her cell.

He crawled over to the access door, dropped down to the attic and closed the hatch. Once he got to the main level of the house, he headed for his office where he placed the Mambas in their holder and put away his infrared glasses. When he stepped into the hallway, something caught his eye. He turned fast but missed it. Something at the rear of the house blinked.

It was more dark than light still, but he was sure he’d seen something.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

He didn’t have time for the pistols. He ran back upstairs, climbed the ladder into the attic and jumped back onto his rooftop patio. He saw them clearly now, without the aid of the glasses, approaching from the rear. The closest one was at least fifty yards out. As the roof was quite high and the patio area had been built in the center, if they got any closer, the eavestrough would obstruct his view.

Behind the first man, he counted four more who followed. They were hopping from tree to tree, attempting to stay hidden as they approached.

Elmore looked behind him to make sure no one was coming from the front, but nothing moved there.

He silently lifted the M60 onto the tripod, clicked it into place and aimed the weapon. He breathed in and out slowly, knowing this approach to intruders could be construed as excessive. But he also knew what these men were doing was illegal. The claim would be that he felt threatened by what looked like paratroopers assaulting his house.

His first priority was to protect the basement at all costs.

He aimed at the man closest and fired. Even from his distance, he could see the man fall. He quickly took aim at the others. Man after man fell in the bush behind his house. The last man remained hidden behind a tree. He waited. Finally the man stepped out and started running. Elmore took his time to aim due to how far away the man was. He fired his weapon and continued firing under the man was cut down.

He set the M60 aside and stood up to survey the grounds below him. Nothing moved and no one returned fire. The sun has eased higher, cresting the trees behind him.

I wonder which one of them was Rod?

He unhooked his weapon from the mount and set it back in its long case.

Below him, somewhere in the house, glass broke.

“What the fuck?”

Elmore got to the hole and jumped down into the attic. With extreme caution, he crawled down the stairs from the attic onto the second floor of his home. He had to get to his pistols in his office. He had no weapon on him and no way to defend himself.

It has to be Rod.

How did he miss him? He moved along the hall, sweating at the anticipation of a bullet at any moment. Near the end of the hall, he stopped and took long, deep breaths. He had to stay alert and focused. He had to try to not let the fear cause him to make a mistake.

At the corner to the stairs, he slowly peeked around the edge. The stairwell and hall to the kitchen below appeared empty.

This is it. I will be exposed all the way down those stairs, but I have no other choice.

He turned the corner and started down the carpeted steps, one by one, going slow enough to be quiet, fast enough to get to cover.

At the bottom, he breathed out, not even realizing he’d been holding it. A quick hop across the hallway and he entered his office, where he discovered no one waiting.

He ran over and opened the Mambas’ cases. He pulled both out, clicked off their safeties and held one in each hand. Back at his office door, he felt a lot better. Whoever had entered his house would know the four men out back were dead and that coming here had been met with extreme force. Whoever had entered his house would be frightened and he intended to shoot them in the face.

Elmore began a systematic search of the main floor and found the point of ingress — the back kitchen door — but he didn’t find anyone hiding in any of the available places.

That only left the basement.

He silently walked to the basement door and discovered it unlocked.

A master locksmith, are you, Rod?

He stood to the side and opened the door. He jabbed at the light switch and turned it on. His nerves were playing on him now. It had been at least five minutes since he’d first heard the glass break and he couldn’t stand much more of this tension. Killing those men in his backyard had meant nothing. He’d killed before and actually found pleasure in the act. But the feeling of being hunted in his own house caused him great stress.

He used the back of his forearm to swab at his forehead and then flipped onto his stomach and edged to the door to look into the basement.

From his vantage point, he could see the bottom front of Drake’s and Sarah’s cells, but not their feet. Something was wrong. They would’ve heard the door open. Usually the prisoner stepped forward and awaited Elmore’s arrival in the basement unless they were sleeping.

But things were different this time. They had Rod for a visitor.

He knew no one would be joining them. With the cell phone blocker, there would be no way for the visitor in his basement to get word out for backup. The five-man assault team on his house would have had no legal backing. It was a black operation. Since no one knew the visitor was in his basement and no one would be coming to rescue him, Rod was stuck. Getting past Elmore would be his only option.

He got up, closed the basement door and locked it. He walked over to the hallway cabinet and maneuvered it in front of the door. The lock was only accessed from the hall side in case a prisoner ever got past him like Jackie had. The remote to unlock it was always in his pocket. Unless Rod, or whoever was in his basement had a remote, that door would remain locked until Elmore chose to unlock it.

He holstered his two guns and went to the garage where he grabbed a wheelbarrow. First things first. He would pick up the four dead men in the back and wheel them into his garage for disposal later.

Then he would come back to the basement and deal with the intruder.

Elmore was already working on a plan to flush him out.

He was pretty certain it would work.

Chapter 27

The basement settled back into darkness as Elmore clicked off the light. A flashlight flicked on and Rod shined it on his face for Drake and Sarah to see him.

“Rod, he’s gone for now,” Sarah whispered. “But he’ll be back. And I’ve got a question for you.”

“Ask away,” Rod said.

“Why the fuck did you put one of those tracking devices in my neck? That’s over the top, you know? I should be seriously pissed at you — but I’m happy to see you because you’re our only chance out of here.”

“If I hadn’t stuck a VeriChip in you, I think the guy upstairs would be putting something else in you. You’re lucky I’m such a bastard.”

“He’s got a point,” Drake added. “He is our chance out of here.”

“Where are the keys for these cages?” Rod asked, spanning his flashlight around the basement and stopping on tables and shelves. “And how come my cell phone doesn’t work? Do either of you know what the reason is?”

“He always has the keys on him,” Sarah said. “It’s some kind of electronic device. He uses a cell phone signal jamming device. It’s plugged in over on the far wall.”

The flashlight raced along the far wall and found nothing.

“Shit,” Rod said. “He must have it upstairs with him.”

“What are you going to do?” Sarah asked. “This guy is seriously sick. These cages have a long history.”

“What kind of history?”

“A history of females, mostly late teens to early twenties. He’s been kidnapping girls and keeping them locked up here for his personal pleasure.”

“He’s lying. There’s no way anyone can carry on that long without any authorities getting suspicious. Impossible.”

“Do you really think it’s impossible or are you trying to convince yourself that it is?”

“From what we’ve seen,” Drake added, “we feel it’s true. He’s ruthless enough to’ve done it.”

Drake gave Rod an overview of what Elmore had told them about his photo studio and how he got the girls here.

“There is something to be said about a man who builds an observation point on his roof and hooks up machine guns to it to cut down anyone who enters his property. He just shot four of my best men. They’re outside either wounded bad or dead. For that alone, I will not let him breathe another day.”

Sarah stepped back from the bars of her cell to think. Too bad she had no way to write something. Maybe the recently quiet Vivian would tell her what to do if she could write.

“He’ll be back soon,” Rod mumbled to himself in the far corner as he continued to search the basement. “I’ll be waiting. Also, he can’t know that I don’t have backup coming. He will have to assume I do. This’ll be all over in no time.”

Somehow Sarah didn’t believe him.

Chapter 28

Elmore had handled the four bodies. They were all stacked in his garage waiting for burial later that day. Elmore removed the belt from one of the men and took another wide walk around the perimeter of his property. Nothing unusual stood out. He’d deal with Rod and then come back up to bury his friends.

He reentered his house and pulled both Mambas from their holsters.

“Showtime,” he whispered to himself.

He shoved the cabinet away from the door and pushed the button on his key fob to unlock it. He moved to the side, in case his visitor stood at the top of the stairs, and opened the door, his weapon aimed to fire, the safety off.

But the stairs were empty.

He flicked on the basement light and got down onto his stomach on the cold tile floor of the hallway. He edged around the trim of the basement door and peeked down the stairs. From where he lay, he could see Sarah’s ankles and feet and Drake’s mid-thigh area. No sign of Rod. Elmore carefully aimed his weapon and fired.

Drake screamed as the bullet hit him in the thigh.

Perfect shot. Yes.
Elmore did a fist pump and then shook his head.
What is it with that stupid fist pump?
Why people did it, he never understood.

He leaned a little farther in and saw Sarah at the edge of her bars, saying something to Drake as he lay on the floor, both hands covering his wounded leg.

He continued to scream as blood seeped out through his jeans.

“The next bullet goes into Sarah,” Elmore shouted loud enough to be heard over Drake. “Soon, the two people you came to rescue will be dead. That would make your rescue attempt a moot point wouldn’t it? Then I would have no use for my basement. This door will be shut and not reopened until next month, at which time you’ll have expired. Now, the basement is soundproof. There is no escape except through this door and your bullets won’t penetrate it.”

He waited a moment to see if Drake would quiet down, then he continued, “But you have a chance to do something good here. You can save Drake by reducing his blood loss. Here’s a belt.”

Elmore tossed the belt to the bottom of the stairs.

“If you decide to take the belt to Drake, I will open his cell door from here. You are to enter his cell and tie the tourniquet on yourself. Shut the cell door behind you. Do this and you save all three of you. Don’t do this and I will shoot Sarah and then lock this door and leave for a month. It’s your choice, Rod. Make it now.”

Elmore pulled back a little. He kept one of his guns aimed down the stairs and his left hand on the door knob, ready to shove it shut if Rod decided to run for the stairs.

“You’re down to seconds left here. It’s not a hard decision. Choose now.”

“If you unlock Drake’s cell,” Rod said. “I’ll be taking him out and up those stairs to seek medical treatment.”

Elmore clicked the button to unlock Drake’s cell. He turned and shouted down, “And you’ll both be shot before you reach the top. How far can you get with him bleeding like that? You think he could still run? You’re out of time. Decide.”

“Fuck you.”

Elmore counted three breaths. Drake still lay on his cell floor, by himself, bleeding out.

He brought his weapon up and aimed it at Sarah. He was out of options. Rod wanted to test him. He learned a lesson. His obsession had been too expensive. Sarah had cost him everything. There were dead men in his garage. An american cop challenged him from the basement. If it meant Sarah had to go, then Sarah had to go. He accepted that his whole operation could not be based on one girl.