The Devil's Water: Scenic City Murder Series #1 (8 page)

“What kind of information?”

“That the killer is impotent. That he has a sexual dysfunction. That he’s been using objects on the women to rape them.”

Tasha thought about the angle for a moment. It was good. Very good maybe.

“This could possibly push the killer. Make him want to prove his virility. He also has a very high opinion of himself. Thinks he knows much more than the rest of us. This might insult him into doing something rash. Hell, I think this is worth a shot Clutch.”

“It’s about the only thing we have right now other than some testimony from a prostitute.”

“Right.” Tasha agreed. “Have you figured out when you want Operation Impotence to go into effect?”

“Haven’t nailed it down yet. Of course, if something else happens we’ll have to weigh the options then.”

“Well, keep me in the loop.” Tasha finally said.

“Tasha? One more thing.”

“OK?”

“What are you doing this evening?” Clutch asked.

“The usual.”

“Well, instead of going to Malone’s and drinking all night, why don’t you join me for a meeting at St. Mary’s?”

“I told you I didn’t want the program. I don’t want anything to do with it.” Tasha stated flatly.

“C’mon, Tasha. Do it for me. Hell, do it for your mom and dad.”

“Dammit, Clutch. That isn’t fair. Don’t go there with me.”

“OK. I’m sorry. Ultimately, you need to do it for yourself. I just thought we might go tonight and if you don’t like it, I’ll never talk to you about it again.”

There was a long silence. Tasha really wanted to spend the evening with her good buddies Jim Beam and Jack Daniels. Nevertheless, there was something playing around in the back of her mind. It was a feeling that maybe she had a compulsion, an overpowering desire to drink. That the only way to quell the urge was to do it, over and over again. Needless to say, she would always experience the same results. Lying in bed, wondering what she had dragged home with her the night before. The sweats. The shaking. She would always say she would never drink again. She would pray to some evasive deity and make false promises to herself as she leaned over the toilet bowl. She would do the same thing over and over again and expect different results which, as a very wise person once noted, is the very definition of insanity.

“Alright. I’ll go.” She finally said, breaking the silence.

“Great. I’ll be over at your house about 6 o’clock then. Meeting is at 6:30.”

“Hey, I don’t want to share anything though. Leave me out of that.”

“You don’t have to share. It isn’t a requirement. Just listen if you want.” Clutch laughed.

They signed off and, as Tasha walked to her car, she wondered how it felt to not be compelled to drink. How would it be to really just take it or leave it. She shook her head as she crossed the college parking lot. She realized that concept was completely foreign to her.

It was straight up 6o’clock when Tasha heard her doorbell ring. Clutch had been true to his word. “Ya ready?” he asked as she opened the door and grabbed her purse. “Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” They rode to the church in silence. Tasha was feeling a little nervous but was trying her best to hide it. Apparently, she wasn’t trying hard enough. “You scared?” Clutch asked as they pulled into the parking lot. “Nah….well….maybe a little.” She answered. “Relax. You’re gonna be fine.” There were several people walking into the church and, Tasha noted, it looked like there might be a crowd. She gazed across the church parking lot and noticed a rotund woman waddling toward the church. “Jesus.” Tasha exclaimed. “Is she in the program?” Clutch glanced toward where she was looking. “Oh yeah. That’s Sharon B. Been in the program longer than I have.”

“Fat lotta good it’s done her.” Tasha said and chuckled under her breath.

“Hey, Tasha. When we go in there, how about leaving the smartass at the door Okay?”

“Sure.”

“Besides that, she’s a great person. Tells a hell of a story. If you pursue this, she would make a good sponsor. She’s got a lot of good long time sobriety.”

“Look, I’m not ready to talk sponsors or anything like that. I’ve not even made it in the door yet, Clutch.”

“Sorry. I just really want you to get this.”

They walked in and found a seat toward the back. The sanctuary was almost full. Tasha noticed that there were folks there of all different types of backgrounds. Some folks were in uniforms. Clearly, they had just come straight from work. A man sitting fairly close to her was in mechanic’s clothes with grease stains on his shirt. Off to the front of her, a man was dressed in a suit and tie. He looked like an accountant type. In a few minutes, a woman appeared at the front of the church. She offered a few announcements and then asked if anyone wanted to share. A young man who didn’t even look old enough to drink raised his hand and began to speak. “I’m Joey and I’m an alcoholic.”

“Hi, Joey.” The crowd said in unison.

Tasha glanced over at Clutch. He was totally immersed in what Joey was saying. Tasha tried to listen but she kept on being pulled into observing folks. She watched young and old as they listened to the various stories. As the meeting ended at 7:30, she grabbed her bag and followed Clutch to the door.

“You want to stick around and meet some of the people?” he asked her.

“Not tonight.”

They got back to the car and Clutch crawled in the drivers’ side. “Well, how did you like it?”

“I don’t know. I guess some of the stories were interesting. I just don’t understand how you consider these people the authority on addiction. Many of them look like they smoke 3 packs a day judging from the folks puffing outside the church. They also drink coffee like it’s water.”

Clutch laughed which was not the response Tasha was expecting. “Look Tasha. The only requirement in the program is a desire to stop drinking. I don’t consider those folks the authority on anything. We’re all just a bunch of drunks who are trying to stay sober the best way we can.”

“Could you see yourself going back to a meeting sometime in the future?” Clutch asked.

“I dunno. Maybe.”

Clutch pulled up to Tasha’s apartment and let her out of the car. “Call if you hear anything more about the case.” She said as she closed the car door.

“Will do.”

Tasha wiggled her key in the front door lock and pushed on the door. As soon as it gave way, she entered her foyer and threw her purse on the kitchen counter. She walked directly over to the refrigerator and opened it. There, she saw two full shelves of beer. She grabbed a Corona, popped the top and took a very long gulp.

CHAPTER 19

He had given her a stuffed animal to hold. She wasn’t sure what it was but she thought it might be a dog. It had long ears and a wide mouth. She felt it sometimes in the night and it made her feel loved. Carol Shipley was staring at the empty darkness. He hadn’t been to visit her in a long time and she figured this was because he had someone new. Carol knew she wasn’t alone. She had heard the cries for help. She had heard the screams when he hit her or when he violated her. She wasn’t the only one stuck in this dungeon hell hole. Nevertheless, Carol knew that the woman’s cries for help were useless. No one was coming for her. No one had ever come before and Carol knew that she had not been the only one. She had heard screams from different women. She’d listened to their plaintive cries. Eventually, those cries went away and she would never hear them again. Now there was fresh meat and he was making her pay for being the new kid on the block. Carol moved her arm, which was bound, and touched her stuffed animal. It was truly the only constant thing she had. The man had been bringing her food twice a day. Lately, though, he had been unchaining her arms and letting her feed herself. It was a little hard in the pitch black darkness and her arms ached from having been tied up so long. Still, she was glad to be able to do that for herself. Carol felt herself getting a little stronger. For one thing, she wasn’t receiving the medicine nearly as much and she wasn’t being raped every night anymore. On days that he didn’t violate her, he didn’t give her the medicine either. She figured that was why her mind was finally starting to clear a bit. Carol had actually begun developing a plan to break free from this hell. If she was unsuccessful, she was sure he would kill her but what did she have to lose? She might as well be dead if she had to live for years, perhaps a lifetime, like this. Carol laid there and tried to think. She knew that it was nine steps from the doorway to the bed. She’d heard him cross that distance many times. She could almost see the door in her mind’s eye. Carol knew the door was unlocked. If she could get to the door, she could just open it and run out of the room   before he got to her. Should she try to help the other woman? No. If she got out of the room she would need to worry about herself and no others. Her only objective would be to get out of the house. Carol closed her eyes and hummed quietly to herself. She could see the black and white piano keys on her grandmother’s huge Wurlitzer piano. Carol couldn’t play the piano but her grandmother would sometimes play for her when she had been a good girl. She could see a small hand, her hand, reach up and press down on one key after the other. Four notes in all. Bumm..ba….Bumm…ba. One, two, three and four. Now Carol had a melody in her mind. One, two, three and four. She hummed the notes over and over and over. Somewhere, she had read that this was a type of hypnosis and it probably was. It seemed to soothe her during the very lonely times. She continued humming for minutes which seemed like hours. Finally, she felt herself drifting. She reached and touched her stuffed animal and brought it as close to her as possible. Bumm…ba…bumm…ba. One, two, three and four. Within seconds, Carol Shipley was asleep.

She awoke with a start at the sound of the bedroom door opening. She was a little bit fuzzy headed but, when he came over and touched her with a cold hand, her mind came to. She released the stuffed animal which she had clutched in her sleep. He was beginning to unfasten her legs and Carol knew that he would rape her again. First the legs and then the arms. Then he would crawl on top of her. Carol didn’t want this to happen again. She knew she would have to fully commit to making it stop. Now was the time. As he unfastened her arms, he reached up to her head and stroked her hair. Of course, he was wearing the night vision goggles and that would be an advantage for him. Carol would have to overpower him without the benefit of sight. She heard him unzip his pants and in a second he was climbing on top of her, his knees on both sides of her waist. With all the power Carol could muster, she brought her knee up and drove it into his crotch. She heard him scream  . Then, Carol brought both hands up and tore at his goggles ripping them off his head. Finally, she used both hands and punched at his face and stomach. She felt him fall off the bed. That was her cue. No time to waste. She lunged off the bed and ran for the door in complete darkness. Reaching out for it, she felt the knob and turned it opening the door. More darkness. She was in the hall now and she could hear him getting up from the floor beside the bed. She felt along the wall trying to see where it ended and the stairway began. He was cussing her and she knew that if he caught her, there would be hell to pay. “I’m right behind you, you bitch!” he screamed as Carol found the corner of the stairway and started up the stairs. She took them two at a time. As she climbed higher and higher, she noticed a stream of light coming from the bottom of the basement door. “I’m gonna get you, cunt!” He was at the stairwell now and coming ever closer. At the top of the stairs, Carol pushed on the basement door and stumbled into the upstairs area of the house. She was almost blinded by the shock of the bright light. She couldn’t stop though. She shut the door behind her and locked it. Then she moved through the house, trying to find the front door. She made it to the foyer just as she began hearing banging on the basement door. He was going to bust the door down. She had to get out of there.
Faster, Faster.
She managed to get to the front door as she heard wood cracking from the basement. He was leaning hard on the door, trying to get it to break. She swung open the front door of the house and ran out into the night. It was dark but her eyes adjusted quickly having been in complete darkness for so long. She ran along a large field toward a cluster of tall pines. As she reached the pines she could hear him on the porch. He wasn’t giving up the chase. She darted into the woods and continued running. Her feet were hurting from stepping on the pine cones but she had to soldier on. It hadn’t even occurred to her, until now, that she was nude. “I’m right behind you!” He kept screaming. She was running on pure adrenaline now. Her body had long before given out. It seemed as though he was gaining ground on her. His shouting sounded closer than before and she could hear branches break as he pushed through the woods in the darkness. As she continued running, she could hear something else over his screams and pursuit. She could hear vehicles moving along a road, perhaps fifty yards away. “Help!” she screamed as she moved in that direction. “Come back here!” He yelled. Carol could tell he wasn’t more than 30 yards away. She pushed herself even harder to get to the road before he could get to her. She reached the edge of the clearing and saw the road way down below just as he was closing in on her. “I’m right behind you!” he screamed once more. Carol figured he was less than a minute behind her. She was standing on the side of a very high embankment, approximately 40 feet above the highway. Glancing up and down the road she didn’t see a single car but she could hear traffic coming along the twists and turns of the highway. He was almost to her now. “I’m gonna get ya!” he yelled one last time. He was about 20 yards away. Carol took a deep breath and stepped off the edge of the embankment. She felt herself falling. The last thing she saw, before she landed on the asphalt below was a car coming around the bend of a large curve perhaps 300 feet away. “I’m free.” She thought, as her body smacked the pavement.

CHAPTER 20

It was early morning and Tasha Yoder turned over in bed. Semi-awake she heard a banging on the front door.
They’ll go away
she thought as she nestled in the warm comforter. The banging continued bringing Tasha out of bed with a finger on the trigger of her .38. She walked out of the bedroom and into the foyer. Another bang and Tasha cocked the gun. “Who is it?” Tasha yelled through the door. She opened the door and pointed the gun at whoever was wanting entrance. “Jesus Christ, put that thing down!” yelled Dan Mclutcheon.