Black Jack: A nail biting, hair-raising thriller (Jack Ryder Book 4) (22 page)

M
ay
2016

Kimberly stormed out of the kitchen and into the living room. She made it to the front door, when she realized she didn’t have her keys and the top lock needed one. Kimberly cursed when she heard a car door shut outside and looked out. Five police cars had driven up into the street and parked in front of her house. Out of one of them stepped Shannon’s fiancé flanked by two detectives. They were pointing and talking about the house, running towards the stairs.

Kimberly let go of the curtain and stepped backwards. She turned and ran back into the hallway, towards the back door, when she spotted officers in the yard as well. Two of them approaching the door.

Now what?

The baby still tucked in her arms, Kimberly turned on her heel and stormed back into the kitchen where Shannon was lying lifeless on the floor, blood gushing from her wound. Kimberly stepped on her to get past her, then walked to the chest and pulled it to the side using only one arm. Meanwhile she heard the front door being knocked in and voices filling the living room. She also heard voices from upstairs, then steps and cheerful yelling and knew the girls were loose.

Kimberly pulled the hatch open, grabbed a flashlight in her drawer, took off her high heels and left them on the kitchen floor before she - with the baby on her arm, carefully climbed the steps into the darkness, closing the hatch behind her.

As soon as it was closed she heard voices in the kitchen, she even believed she heard Jack scream Shannon’s name out, then ask for someone to call for an ambulance.

That should keep him busy till I get out of here.

Kimberly put her feet in the water and walked, her head bend so she wouldn’t hit the ceiling, flashlight in her other hand, slowly through the tunnel. She had only been down there to get rid of the bodies. First Joseph, then Rosa and finally Bibby Libby. She had dragged them as far in as she had thought necessary so the smell wouldn’t reach her house. She knew a good part of the tunnel, but had never walked all the way through. She knew it was connected to the ocean in the other end, but she also figured it was a long walk before she got to it, since she didn’t live very close to the harbor.

But she knew that Bibby Libby and Betsy Sue had escaped through the tunnels and if they could do it, then so could she. It couldn’t be that difficult, now could it?

The tunnels were cold and damp and soon she was freezing. Every now and then her flashlight hit a rat and she shrieked remembering the time the rat had crawled into the garbage disposal and she had been covered in its blood. Oh how silly she had been back then thinking it was the house, thinking the house was trying to drive her insane. How could a house do that? It wasn’t like it was alive. She didn’t believe in all those old stories especially the ones about it housing ghosts. But she had used the old stories for the girls. So they didn’t feel so lonely growing up. She had told the girls about the ghosts living in the attic, but told them they were their friends that they could play with them, and even that they ate with them when they gathered at the dinner table. Like the dolls they had made the girls believe they were real. In that way when they asked to go outside and find friends to play with, she could tell them there was no need to. She could always make up new ghosts.

Kimberly knocked her head on the ceiling and cursed. The tunnel seemed to get smaller down here and she had to crunch even more. Her head was bleeding, she realized when touching it with a finger.

How long is this tunnel anyway?

Kimberly snarled and shone the light in her direction, when suddenly she heard a sound coming from behind her. She gasped and turned to look. She couldn’t see anything, but clearly hear the sound of steps in the watery tunnel.

They were gaining on her.

M
ay
2016

I could see her flashlight ahead of me and I could hear Tyler crying while carefully walking on the wet floor beneath me. I had no flashlight and my eyes had a hard time to acclimate to the darkness. It was hard to breathe in the heavy musty smell of moldy water. I lowered my head cautiously to not hurt it on the lower ceilings.

I tried to judge how far ahead she was from me but it was impossible. All I could see was her light far down the tunnel from me.

I tried to run but the floor was slippery and I didn’t want to risk falling and hurting myself. I was getting my son back no matter what.

My heart was still racing rapidly in my chest, heaving up and down in deep ragged breaths. I couldn’t escape the image of Shannon lying on the kitchen floor, blood gushing from her stomach. It haunted me and I was desperate to get this woman for what she had done.

I had asked Bellini to call for the ambulance and she had told me she would stay with Shannon and go with her to the hospital, while I went to get my son. I kept wondering if I should have stayed with her instead, but how could I? My child, my baby was in this tunnel being abducted once again and this time I had to stop it. I had a chance once I realized the woman had escaped through the tunnel. It wasn’t hard to guess since her shoes were on the floor next to the hatch.

After going back to the police-station, I had followed in Shannon’s trail to track her down along with Bellini and Nelson. The lady at the doll-store had given me the number for Kimberly Milligan, the doll-doctor. It was easy from there for the detectives to track her phone to her house, even if Bellini and Nelson kept telling me the house was abandoned and that no one had lived there since the nineties.

I was closing in on Kimberly slowly but steadily. I didn’t know if she knew I was behind her or not and I didn’t care. I was going to get her no matter what. I tried to run a little again, and for a little while it worked, but then the tunnel got narrower and I banged my head on the ceiling. I screamed in pain and felt my forehead. I couldn’t see it, but it was definitely warm blood I could feel.

I knew my scream blew my cover and I sensed she accelerated. The light in front of me started to move faster, almost flickering.

She was running.

I sped up as well. Holding a hand to my hurting head, I ran through the waters, my head lowered, my back bent, thinking only of my son, and getting him back home with me.

If it’s the last thing I ever do.

I was faster than her or maybe I was just more driven by my fear of losing my son once again, but soon I was gaining on her even faster. Running, sometimes slipping and falling I could soon see the back of her and hear my son’s crying very loudly.

“Stop,” I yelled. “Give me my son back!”

The woman continued. Her feet splashing in the water. I was panting, breathing, my heart pounding in my chest.

Almost there, almost there!

She could have been no more than a hundred feet in front of me, when she suddenly stopped. The light stopped moving, the back stood still.

Why has she stopped?

As I approached her I realized why. The road was blocked. Big rocks had fallen and made the road impassable.

Of course. This is where the tunnel had collapsed when the building did. Ha! You’re not going any further my friend.

With the prospect of actually getting to her, I slowed down a little to make sure I didn’t slip again, thinking there was no way she could get out of this, but of course I was too fast. When I was almost there, I raised my gun towards her, since I didn’t know if she was armed or not.

“Hand over my son!” I yelled. “Hand him over now.”

But as I came closer I soon realized there wasn’t just one tunnel. The tunnels were connected underground and soon the woman turned to look at me, then lit up her own face with her flashlight, showing a big smile, before she took off running to her right down another tunnel.

Oh no!

Desperately I started to run again, but as I reached the blocked part of the tunnel and tried to turn, I slipped and fell face first into the water. I managed to hold the gun out of the water, with the result that my face fell all the way in. The water tasted so gross I almost threw up. I rose to my feet only to see the woman’s flashlight disappear further down the tunnel.

“Stooop!” I screamed, then raised my gun and fired it in anger. I fired three shots knowing I would never be able to hit her from this distance. The gun made a loud noise that echoed into the tunnels and the sound was overwhelming.

When it stopped I was left in the greasy wet tunnel all alone, panting, breathing angrily, when suddenly everything was drowned out by another sound. A much louder sound than what my gun had provided. It sounded like a train, or a ravine.

The tunnel and the ground underneath me shook like an earthquake and I feel to my knees holding my ears.

When it finally stopped I rose to my feet and realized the flashlight had disappeared. Meanwhile a cloud of dust emerged towards me and blew me to the ground once again.

When I managed to get up, I realized to my terror what had happened. The tunnel collapsed! The tunnel that the woman had disappeared into with my baby had collapsed probably from the loud noise of my gun going off.

“NOOO!” I screamed and ran through the dust cloud towards where I had seen the light disappear, but when I reached it, there was nothing but rocks and debris.

“TYLER!!”

M
ay
2016

I was digging with my bare hands. Removing rocks, digging through dirt. A crew of firefighters had joined me from inside the tunnel and some from above the ground where they told me the floor had collapsed inside of a house, in the basement of another house that was being renovated.

Please God, please God.

I was having dust and dirt everywhere. In my eyes, in my mouth and nostrils. I coughed and spat, but never stopped digging.

“Please, my son is in there, please,” I pleaded. “Please find him!”

The firefighters next to me removed rock after rock, while I scrabbled frantically through the rubble, but still no sign of either the woman or my son. Hope was oozing out of me slowly and I was beginning to cry. It felt like so much time had gone by now since the tunnel collapsed. Was there even the slightest chance that any of them could be alive at this point?

I didn’t dare to ask or even think about it. I didn’t know if Shannon was alive or not. I wasn’t going to lose the both of them in the same day. I simply refused to.

I dug my fingers into the dirt once again, and scraped small rocks and soil away while the firefighters removed the bigger bricks and rocks. They were working incredibly hard. I felt a hand on my shoulder coming from behind and turned to see detective Nelson. He was the one who had called for the firefighters and had helped me dig until they arrived. He had a flashlight in his hand and in the sparse light from it I could see his face was covered in brown dirt.

“It’s been two hours,” he said.

“My son is in there. Under all that rubble.”

“I know. But I think that maybe… well you know the chances aren’t very good for survival after this long.”

I shook my head in disbelief. I wasn’t going to give up. If I had to dig all night, then that’s what I would have to do.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “but I have to get back to digging. Every second counts.”

I fell to my knees again and dug my fingers into the dirt, while tears rolled across my face.

He’s not dead. He’s not dead.

I dug till I reached a big pile of bricks that I started to remove one after the other, the flashlight the firefighters had given me between my teeth. When I removed one at the bottom, I spotted something. A small finger was sticking out.

My heart dropped.

“Hey! I got something!” I yelled, then frantically dug and removed the bricks. Two firefighters joined me and we removed brick after brick till more of what I recognized as my son’s arm stuck out.

Oh my God, oh my God, please, please let him be…

I barely finished the thought before two of his tiny fingers moved. “It moved!” I almost screamed. “He moved his fingers!”

Crying heavily and breathing raggedly I removed more bricks and stones until I, from under the rubble, heard faint cries.

“It’s him. It’s Tyler, he’s alive!” I screamed.

Seconds later we removed the last rubble and I was able to pull out my baby boy from the debris. He was crying hard and the sound echoing in the tunnels, but it was the sweetest sound I had ever heard.

“He’s alive! My baby boy is alive!”

S
URRENDER
: To surrender is to abandon your hand, while recovering half of your initial bet.

M
ay
2016

Shannon suffered severe damage to one of her kidneys as the corkscrew went through her and she was in intensive care, fighting for her life for two days, before the doctor finally told me she was stable.

My parents, Shannon’s mother and her sister Kristi and all our kids were with me when he came out to tell us. Cheer and joy took over in the small room at the hospital and I sunk to a chair relieved.

They had examined Tyler but as a miracle he had suffered no injury form being buried under the rubble. Not even a scratch. It was amazing.

They had dug out the doctor, aka Kimberly Milligan, but they weren’t able to save her. I felt bad about that, I wanted her to go to trial, I wanted her to receive her punishment for all the pain she had caused my family.

“Now maybe you could do with a coffee, huh son?” My mother asked and sat next to me. “You haven’t been eating or drinking anything for two whole days. I have an energy bar in my purse if you like?”

I smiled for the first time and nodded. So glad my mom never changed. “I would love that, thank you.”

My mother gave me the bar, then went for coffee from the vending machine. She brought back the cup and several bags of chips and chocolate bars.

“I would wish they would put more healthy stuff in those things,” she said. “It is after all a hospital. Wait I think I also have an apple in my purse.”

“I’ll start with this,” I said and took a bite of the bar. I looked down at Tyler who was sleeping heavily in his cot. I couldn’t believe all the things he had gone through and how well he slept even afterwards? I envied him. I hadn’t slept in forever.

“You can see her now,” the doctor came out and said.

I grabbed Tyler in his cot, got a hold of the kids and parents and we followed the doctor into Shannon’s room. I peeked inside first. My eyes met Shannon’s and she smiled feeble. I turned and looked at the kids.

“No screaming, okay? Nice and quiet.”

Austin and Abigail didn’t listen as usual and stormed in there screaming and yelling. “Shannon!!”

They threw themselves at her and she laughed even if I could tell she was in great pain. Angela walked in with me, holding my hand. She had been so nervous, so scared and I had tried the best I could to comfort her along the way.

“Go on,” I said. “Go to her.”

Shannon reached out her heavily bandaged hand and now she started to sob. “Baby girl.”

Angela approached her and hugged her carefully while I told my kids to get down from the bed and sit in chairs. Angela and Shannon spoke for a little while and hugged a lot. When they were done I grabbed Tyler from the seat and put him on top of Shannon. She held him the best she could, tears streaming from her eyes.

“My baby boy.”

“And he’s perfectly fine,” I said. “Not a scratch on his head.”

“That’s amazing.”

Tyler didn’t even wake up. He kept sleeping on his mother’s chest while she played with his fingers, laughing, crying, kissing him all over. When I could tell she was getting tired, I removed the baby and put him back in his cot.

Of course that woke him up and he started to cry. “I know baby boy. I want mommy too, but mommy needs her rest.”

“Let me take him,” my mother said. I handed her the boy. Meanwhile Shannon’s mom and sister spoke to her.

I spotted Emily standing by the door, as if she was deciding whether to go in or not. Shannon saw her and signaled for her to come closer.

“Are you going to be well?” she asked. “Like will you be able to play guitar and sing again?”

“I don’t know yet,” Shannon said with an exhale. I could tell this was all a little much for her. She was getting tired. “Right now I am just happy to be alive.”

“And we’re just happy you’re alive too,” I said and approached her with a kiss to her forehead. “Now we’ll leave you alone so you can get some sleep.”