Frozen Past (30 page)

Chapter 58

Ellie woke from the nightmare and shook herself awake. She had been having a horrible dream, but when she saw where she was, relief washed over her. It was all just a nightmare. Her kidnapping at the hands of her father had all been a dream. She looked around her basement and wondered why she had fallen asleep down here. The TV was off so her mother must have done it. She went to get up, but couldn’t move.

She was tied to the chair. Suddenly, she knew it had not been a dream. Her nightmare was real and she was still living it. She struggled in the chair, panicking, but it was useless. Her hands were tied behind her and her feet bound to the legs of the chair. She stopped, hearing a noise and realized someone was behind her. Twisting around, she could see blond hair in her peripheral vision, but nothing else. The person behind her was unmoving.

“Hey,” she said. “Hey! Wake up!”

A moan escaped the person behind her and she recognized the timber of the voice. Patrick!

“Patrick! Wake up! Come on! Patrick!”

He moaned again but did not wake. She heard voices coming from above now, and she recognized one as her mother’s. She listened quietly, because she could tell the other was her father. Her mother’s voice was high pitched and getting louder and then she heard a slap followed by her mother screaming. She panicked.

“Leave her alone! Leave her alone!” She scooted in the chair, trying to move, but she must be tied to the chair her brother was in and he was a big kid. The chair barely moved.

“Come on Patrick! Wake up! Wake up!” Tears were falling down her cheeks and she was rocking the chair front to back trying to get him to respond, but he was passed out. The shouting above her grew louder and then she heard a loud thump and her mother’s voice suddenly cut off. Silence.

“Oh no!” she whispered. “You bastard! Leave her alone! Leave her alone! Bastard! Bastard!”

Then she heard a gunshot.

* * *

Luke went to the meter box and pulled the switch. He watched the lights go out in the living room. John was out back in the woods and Jimmy was across the street in some bushes in case Worthington made a run for it. Luke was going in alone.

The fear he felt was a crushing force that threatened to suffocate him and render him useless. He kept telling himself Ellie was going through worse and had been for two days. She needed him to be strong. Needed him to rescue her. Needed him to be her savior. He took a few deep breaths and moved. If he kept moving, he wouldn’t freeze up.

He crept to the basement sliding glass door and peered inside. What he saw surprised him. Patrick Pemberton was facing the glass, his head down, his feet tied to the chair he was in and his arms wrapped behind him. He was not moving. Then he saw movement just behind Patrick and Ellie’s head came into view. He gasped and felt elated. She was alive!

He quickly moved to the door handle and pulled. It was unlocked and he slid the door open quietly and slipped inside. The basement was dark since he had killed the electricity and the outer edges of the room in shadow. He could see Ellie and her brother from the dim light through the sliding glass door.

“Ellie!” he whispered and he saw her head jerk up.

“Luke? No! Get out of here! He’s in the…”

A huge blast sounded in Luke’s head and he was flung back against the glass by an invisible truck. He sank to the floor, the air sucked from his lungs and he looked around not understanding what had happened. Faintly, he heard Ellie’s voice as if coming through a fog.

“No! No! No!”

He watched a big shadow emerge from the gloom, a pistol leading the way as the rest of the huge man followed, grinning behind it. Then the pain hit him and Luke realized he’d been shot.

* * *

Jaxon was standing at the front door, his pistol out and up. Victoria he had sent around back and he waited the full minute they had agreed upon to enter the house. A gunshot sounded and Jaxon decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He kicked the door in and burst through it, his gun leading the way, but he found nothing but darkness and silence. Then he heard Ellie’s voice from somewhere deep in the house wailing ‘No!’ over and over again and it broke his heart. He knew Luke was around here somewhere, but they had not been able to beat the kid to the house. He hoped the gunshot had been Victoria taking Worthington down.

He ran to the kitchen and tripped over something in the doorway. Slamming his shin into a chair he cursed and sat up, feeling for his gun. He found Madison Pemberton instead. Leaning in close, he could just make out her open eyes and the dark mass of blood which surrounded her upper body. He realized he was kneeling in it. Her throat had been cut and she was dead.

More wailing from Ellie, and Jaxon felt around until his hand struck his pistol. He snatched it up and jumped to the basement door. Opening it slowly, Ellie’s sobs grew louder but no other sound could be heard. He knew Worthington was down there.

He crept down into the darkness and reached the bottom landing without feeling a bullet hit him. He pushed the thought out of his mind. Turning into the room, he tried to see into the gloom. His eyes adjusted just enough for him to make out Ellie tied to a chair and crying. Another figure was bound behind her, though it did not move or make a sound. He saw another shape slumped against the glass sliding door and heard a wet rasping sound as if someone was breathing through a damp rag. He realized it was Luke Harrison.

Movement in front of Luke caused him to jerk as a huge silhouette emerged from the left, backlit by the moonlight shining in through the door. Someone was struggling in its arms.

“Drop it, Detective.” The voice was Worthington.

He moved away from the door and the light shown onto Victoria’s face. He was holding a pistol to her head and she was struggling feebly against him. He jerked her in his arms and she stopped fighting.

“Let the kids go,” Jaxon said. “This is about you and me.”

“Now, why would I do that? I’ve finally gotten to know them.”

Ellie cried softly now, and Luke’s breathing was getting worse. The ragged sound grew louder by the second and Jaxon knew he didn’t have much time.

“I’ll put it down if you let them go,” Jaxon said.

“No!” The voice boomed in the room. Ellie squealed and started sobbing harder. Victoria remained still.

“I’m not putting the weapon down,” Jaxon said.

“Fine. Then die.” Worthington pointed the pistol at Jaxon and fired. It was like being struck with a fire hydrant. His shoulder jerked back, the gun flying from his hand, and he was flung against the wall like a rag doll. The blast from Worthington’s gun shook the air like a cannon going off in confined quarters.

There was no pain. Just a feeling of weakness, as if someone was letting the air out his body. He was deflating like a tire and could no longer stand. He slumped to a sitting position and watched as Worthington struck Victoria in the head with his gun, her body slumping to the ground and then he strode over to Jaxon, kicking his gun out of the way and picking him up like he weighed nothing. The man grinned into Jaxon’s face.

“You took my family from me,” he said through clenched teeth and Jaxon could smell his sour breath. “Now, I will finish taking yours and then take your life.”

He turned and fired the gun into Victoria’s prone body. Jaxon moaned as he watched it jerk and then lay still. He had lost again. The bastard had beat him and taken everything that mattered to him. A pain flared in his shoulder. Ice and fire screaming into his back and neck, and he welcomed it. It was like a jolt of electricity, jumpstarting his heart. He embraced the pain, moving his shoulder and creating more, a molten hot spike striking the core of his body. It made him angry, and angry was good.

Worthington was leering at Victoria, watching his handy work drain the life from her. Jaxon’s pain grew to a growling, menacing thing and it made his body tremble from the power of it. Worthington felt Jaxon shake and turned back to him.

That’s when he struck.

Thrusting his head back and then launching it forward, he struck Worthington in the face with his forehead, a loud crunching noise echoing through the room as his nose was crushed from the blow. Jaxon brought his knee up into his groin and Worthington bent over double, the gun dropping from his hand and Jaxon breaking free. As Worthington was down, Jaxon brought both hands up, his shoulder screaming in protest, but it only spurned him on. He brought both fists down on Worthington’s neck. Once. Twice. Three times, but the slab of meat that he was refused to go down. On the fourth strike, Worthington moved his head, and Jaxon’s locked fists struck his skull and he felt the bones in his hand shatter.

Worthington got to his feet and launched a blow to Jaxon’s abdomen that lifted him off his feet. The world spun and he felt his energy leave him. He sagged to the ground, but Worthington picked him up and pinned him to the wall, striking blow after blow to his body, his face, his ribs. Jaxon was losing consciousness and he knew he couldn’t hold on much longer.

A cannon went off in the room, and Jaxon’s world blazed in pain again. He had been shot again and felt the searing pain in his arm, bringing him back around. He looked into Worthington’s eyes and watched in amazement as the life leaked out of them. Worthington sank to the floor in front of him.

Jaxon looked up to see Ellie holding a gun pointed at him, her face a mask of pain and sorrow. She sobbed uncontrollably, then dropped the gun and ran to Luke. Jaxon sank to the floor as one of the Besner boys ran in through the door holding a rifle in his hands.

“Call 911!” Ellie screamed and as Jaxon blacked out, her cries followed him into the darkness.

“Don’t die! Don’t die! Come on Luke! Don’t die!”

Epilogue

Jaxon’s hands were slowly healing. It hadn’t been the shoulder or the arm causing him the most pain. Those two were nothing compared to the helplessness and pain he felt trying to do simple everyday tasks like pick up a piece of paper. The bones in his wrists had been shattered and he had two surgeries to get them back in shape. Physical therapy every day afterward had given him a new respect for the word pain. If he could have, he would have punched every one of the therapists directly in the face.

Victoria hobbled in from the kitchen and set down a glass of tea in front of him. The straw sticking out made him smile.

“You know I’m supposed to be practicing picking stuff up,” he said.

“Take a break,” she said and bent over, giving him a kiss on the top of his head.

“Besides,” he said. “I’m supposed to be waiting on you.”

She sat in the chair next to him. “You can’t even wipe your own ass.”

“Yes I can. Just not the way you think.”

“I don’t even want to know.”

She set the cane she was using down next to her and grabbed his swollen hand. It was sore, but he didn’t care. Her touch was all that mattered.

“Benton called again,” she said.

“I don’t want to talk to him.”

“That’s what I told him.” She paused. “He wanted to give you a new offer.”

“Not interested.”

“That’s what I told him.”

“What was it? Just curious.”

She smiled and told him.

“Not good enough,” he said.

“How long are you going to let him beg you?”

“Couple more weeks.”

She nodded. “You know he may just stop offering.”

He turned to her and looked into her eyes. He couldn’t seem to get the vision of her lying in that basement out of his head. She must have read his mind again and she smiled.

“I’m ok,” she said.

“Yeah—I know.”

“Call him back.”

He thought about it a few seconds and then leaned forward and took a sip of his tea through the straw.

“Soon,” he said. But he doubted he would.

* * *

Ellie sat in the swing in her backyard and rocked slowly back and forth. Her grandmother was inside washing the dishes. Having her here only reminded Ellie of the loss she felt every day.

A single tear trickled down her cheek and she turned into the setting sun feeling the warmth on her face as the cool autumn air chilled the rest of her. She would never be the same.

A hand on her shoulder startled her out of her thoughts and she jumped. Luke sat down next to her and said, “Sorry, El. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder as he pulled her to him stroking her hair with his fingers like he always did. She relaxed in his arms and she felt a little better.

Her mother’s death had been something she could not bear and no matter how many times she went through it in her mind, she could not stop feeling guilty about letting her die. If only she had been able to get free just a little sooner, she would have been able to save her too. She had horrible nightmares about her father killing her mother, and she woke almost every night crying out in terror as she heard her die over and over again, the muffled cries and thumps of her death replayed in her dreams. She shivered.

“Let’s go in,” Luke said and she nodded.

They walked hand in hand to the back door and Luke struggled to slide it open for her. She joked about how his strength was coming back after his gunshot wound, and he laughed with her, telling her he wouldn’t be a wimp for too much longer. She closed the door for him and they went to the couch and sat.

“I’m still freezing,” she said. “I’m going to go and get a blanket.”

He turned the TV on as she got up to go to her room. The blanket she wanted was not where it was supposed to be and she sighed knowing that Patrick had probably taken it. He took it out of her room like he owned it. She went to his room and sure enough, it was thrown over his chair in a heap. She grabbed the blanket and a metallic clunk hit the floor. She gasped. As she bent over, his computer caught her eye.

It was open to Facebook and she looked over his wall posts, glancing at his friends list. A name she saw caused her to take a quick breath. She clicked on it and stared in disbelief at the conversation that had gone on for months between him and William Smith. The world seemed to vibrate as she read the first post to her dead father’s alias. It was in response to the picture of Bentley’s head her father had sent him.

‘What was it like?’
Patrick had asked.

Her father had responded,
‘Like being born.’

* * *

Luke wondered why Ellie was taking so long and he was just about to get up when Patrick stepped into the room and stood in front of the TV.

“Hey, Patrick,” Luke said. “I didn’t hear you, man. You’re silent as a ghost.”

Patrick didn’t smile and Luke wondered if he had been doing any better. Patrick, though older, had seemed to take the death of his mother the hardest. He had barely spoken to him since that night and Ellie had said the therapy they were both receiving hadn’t seemed to help him.

“Doing alright, buddy?” Luke asked.

“I’m not your buddy.”

Luke frowned and wasn’t quite sure how to respond to him. He gave it his best shot. “Well, I consider you a friend,” Luke said.

“You’re the enemy,” Patrick said and brought his arm up. It held a pistol and Luke froze as the eye of the barrel came level with his own eyes. It was like staring into a bottomless cavern.

“Whoa! Dude, what’s the deal?”

“You killed my father.”

“Patrick, your father was a whack job, you know…”

“Shut up! He was a great man!”

Luke actually flinched at Patrick’s booming voice. It reminded him of Worthington’s. “Easy, dude.  Alright, he was a great man.”

“Now, you’re mocking him,” Patrick said and thrust the gun closer emphasizing his words. “He lived like no one else. He was a god.”

“Ok, I believe you. Whatever you say.”

“He taught me to grow like him. To be a man. To live beyond this life and take life as my own.”

“You’re scaring me dude.”

“You should be,” Patrick said, smiling now. “You’ll be
my
first.”

Luke felt the world slip from his grasp. He knew in his heart that he was going to die. The room seemed too bright, and the TV too loud, and he couldn’t seem to make himself move. The eye of the gun hypnotized him and he waited for the blast, knowing it would be quick. When it came, he was surprised how little he felt.

Then he watched a bright red spot bloom on Patrick’s chest and his eyes roll back into his head as he sagged to the floor. Turning, he saw Ellie standing at the bottom of the stairs, the gun wavering in her hand, tears streaming down her face as she slumped to the step, dropping the gun to the floor where it lay smoking in front of her.

He went to her and took her in his arms, rocking her there as she clung to him, sobbing.