Don't Read After Dark: Keep the lights on while reading these! (A McCray Horror Collection) (11 page)

Door agreed. “He’s got a dead man’s switch in his shoe.”

Back chimed in, “If the guy comes off his feet, it is ‘boom.’”

Evie frowned. Since Igor was still alive, clearly he had never gone “boom.”

“And how would you know that?” Evie asked, trying to find some chink in the dungeon’s impenetrable defenses.

Andrew shrugged. “It was before my time.”

“And mine,” Door stated.

All the men looked to Back, who was busy cleaning his own wounds. “What?” he asked, but then settled in to tell the story. “A few weeks after ‘my-shit-doesn’t-stink’ got here, Darion got the bright idea to cover his lock with some stale oatmeal before the mechanism clicked closed.”

The rapist drifted off as he dabbed around his calf.

“And?” Evie promoted.

“It worked. Then he jumped Igor the next time he came in to feed us. Then found, ‘wow-that-is-a-lot-of-explosives.’ Darion followed the wiring down to the shoe, and the rest is history.”

Evie looked down to Darion. So he had been brave and wanting to get out of here at one point. Darion smiled and pointed to a small nick on his neck.

“You missed one.”

Evie carefully cleaned it.

“Oh!” Andrew announced, with cupcake crumbles flying. “Remember the S&M Master?”

Door snorted. “Yeah, he thought he had all the moves. Thought that he could ‘take’ the pain from the collar and ‘use’ it.
Whatever
.”

“So,” Andrew continued. “Mr. Superior mimics Darion’s move, down to the stale oatmeal, but ties Igor’s foot to the bottom of a bar, keeping it flat while he went to figure out the combo to the outer door. Which he got through.”

‘Then, though, it was fucking BBQ central,” Back finished.

“His collar fried,” Door said. “But fried not only his neck, but his brain, man.”

Andrew pantomimed the action as he spoke. “He was flopping around, seizing for ten minutes before he died.”

“Yeah,” Back said with a chuckle. “That was a fucking great day, no doubt.”

“Then what?” Evie asked.

“Then fucking what? What?”

Evie was kind of over Back’s undiluted aggression. “What happened next?”

“Fucking nothing,” Back said.

“No, no!” Andrew shouted. “Remember, Esau had his hook from Farm Day and snagged S&M guy’s pant cuff and…”

Oh, Evie could imagine what came next.

“Oh yeah,” Door said. “Esau always did like his meat medium well.”

“No,” Evie said. “I meant, what happened to
Igor
. If he was tied up, how did he get away?”

Everyone looked at her sideways. Even Papa. Like she was the stupidest person on earth.

“Oh dearie,” Papa said. “Even
I
know that.” Papa indicated to thin pipes coming out of the wall. “If things ever get out of control, or when introducing fresh meat, he gases us.”

“‘He’ gases?” Evie asked. “You mean, Igor?”

Back snorted. “Does Igor look like he can fucking rig a dead man’s switch or track down and capture the Back Door rapist?”

Door stood up abruptly. “Why do you always have to do that? We’re having a perfectly good reminiscence and then you’ve got to go and take credit for my work.”

Back wasn’t intimidated at all, though. “
Bullshit
. Look who he took down first. Me. The
original.”

Door shook his head. “No way. You were just the easier mark.”

Papa interrupted the two rapists’ argument. “We don’t know who pulls the strings behind the curtain, but he certainly is thorough.”

Door and Back went back to bickering as Darion leaned into Evie.

“Like I said. Escape is impossible.”

Andrew took a nice big bite of cupcake. “You know, you can say anything you want about the ole ‘Zard, but dang, can he cook!”

* * *

Jake parked in front of a nice, suburban, upscale house. Mr. Woldham’s nice upscale house. He got out of the car and walked up the driveway. There was a BMW in front of the house. He checked the hood. It was cold. That car hadn’t been driven in a while.

He made his way past some nice rosebushes to the front door. He used the large brass elephant knocker.

“Mr. Woldham?”

He knocked again. The same lack of response. Jake looked over his shoulder to make sure that the neighborhood watch wasn’t out, then pulled his lockpicking equipment from his pocket.

“Hello?” Jake announced again. “Breaking and entering now.” As the metal pick slid into the lock, Jake continued. “Speak up now or forever forfeit your right to press charges against me…”

The lock clicked and Jake turned the knob. It went smoothly, only he couldn’t open the door.

“Crap, that could be a body,” Jake said, looking down at his phone. “Backup is only a call away…”

But he was so far off the reservation that his backup would more than likely arrest him, rather than help him out. Therefore, Jake put his shoulder into it and finally hefted the thing open a few inches. He peered inside. No body, but a huge pile of mail that was blocking the door. He heaved in a few more inches, then started checking the mail. The usual. Mostly junk mail. A few overdue bills.

Not finding anything of interest, Jake stepped over the large pile and walked deeper into the house. “Officer of the peace…” No one seemed to be home, but he had to be sure. “Here to serve and protect.”

He made his way through the swanky living room, past the dining room, set for an elegant dinner party, and into the kitchen. Jake pulled out his phone and called the number one speed dial.

“Brad here.”

“Yeah, dude,” Jake said. “It doesn’t look like Mr. Woldham has been here in a while. Jake opened the fridge, took out a carton of milk, and sniffed it. Wrong thing to do. Gagging and retching, Jake poured the clotted, spoiled milk down the sink.

“Weeks, maybe months,” Jake said, as soon as he quit gagging.

“I’m not surprised,” Brad said. “There’s been no activity on his credit cards in over five months.”

Was that a sound from the other room? Jake pulled his gun. “Brad, hang on.”

Jake made his way from the kitchen to a den-like room with a large sliding glass door out to the pool. A man stood in the middle of the room.

“Police,” Jake announced. “Hands where I can see them.”

The man’s hands flew to his head as he stood there shaking. Jake patted the man door quickly. No weapons.

“So did you guys find my landlord?” The guy asked.

Jake cocked his head. “Landlord?

The tenant threw a thumb toward a small house beyond the pool. “Yes, I rent the guest house.”

Jake holstered his weapon. This guy was no threat, except for possibly being a really, really poor judgment in landlords. “When did you report Mr. Woldham missing?”

The tenant shrugged. “I don’t know. About four months ago. I mean, he travels a lot, for weeks at a time, but when he didn’t show for the rent check, I knew something was wrong.”

“And did the police investigate?”

The tenant nodded. “Yeah, a few cops came out, but they just thought he’d gone on a long vacation.”

“With his car still parked in the driveway.”

“Mr. Woldham always took a taxi when he left.”

“What kind?” Jake asked.

“I don’t know?” the tenant said with a shrug. “A yellow one?”

Hey, this guy was just full of information. He lived a hundred feet from the guy, but didn’t even know which cab company he used.

“So it didn’t occur to you to call the police again when he missed another rent check? Or another?” Jake asked. “Or why bother, right? Free rent as long as he is missing.”

“That’s not a crime, is it?” the tenant asked, squirming a bit.

“Against, humanity? Yes. Against the law? Not so much.” Jake turned his attention to his phone again. “Brad, did you get all of that?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Brad said. “But this guy was not leaving town when he’d go off for weeks. He wasn’t laying out that kind of money.”’

“So he must have been going off to his killing grounds.”

“Killing grounds?” the tenant asked, his voice cracking. “What do you mean ‘killing grounds?’”

“Except…” Brad said. “Hold on, hold on, once a year Mr. Woldham was making a single rather large cash payment… Which was due two months ago.”

Jake headed back to the pile of mail. Maybe the address of that payment was in this pile. “Great. Thanks, Brad, I’ll get back to you.”

He hung up the phone and started really searching through the pile in front of him. The tenant joined him, but didn’t help, of course.

“Is Mr. Woldham a killer?”

“Let’s just say, if he ever does show back up, I’d have that rent money ready.”

That got the tenant skedaddling off to leave Jake to sort through the mail in peace. He found a cable bill. Water bill. Pool maintenance bill. Nothing that would help Jake track Starvin’ Marvin down.

Then he found it. An overdue notice for a storage unit. Jake kissed the envelope.

“Oh, I’ve got you now!”

CHAPTER 13

The dungeon was quiet except for the hushed murmur of people nursing their assorted wounds. Evie was one amongst them, although her small nicks and scrapes were nothing next to Darion’s and Back’s wounds. Of course, Clyde and Esau had paid the ultimate price. Both were in their cells awaiting Igor’s arrival.

“This is freaking me out,” Andrew said.

Papa snorted. “You child, had a hand in creating this carnage.”

Andrew, however, seemed proud of that fact. “I know.” His chest swelled. “My first kill inside. Four total.”

“Okay,” Door said. “I think that there has to be some kind of condition on what constitutes a kill.”

“Like they have to still be fucking moving?” Back offered.

“Or they have got more than ten minutes left to live, or something,” Door added.

Evie could feel the pressure build as the men squabbled. Why weren’t they focused on the big picture?

“Look,” Andrew protested. “That wasn’t my point.” He pointed to the air. “Listen,” he urged. “It’s
too
quiet.” He gulped. “Ever since I got here, Esau’s been preaching. It was like…soothing.”

“You’re right,” Door agreed. “Maybe we should say something.”

“Jesus,” Back barked. “You two are such pussies.”

Evie couldn’t hold it together any more. “Shut up!”

Back leaned on the bars separating their cells. “Ohh… Are you trying to turn me on?”

Evie didn’t back down, though. She’d had enough from all of them, but especially of Back. “You think you are so tough?”

The rapist stood to his full height. “Yeah, I do.”

“Then why aren’t you trying to get out of here?” Evie pressed as she pointed to the cameras that lined the walls. “Why are you his bitch? His circus monkey?”

“Hey!” Back shouted, slamming his fists against the balls. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”’

Across the aisle, Door fell off of his cot he was laughing so hard.

“And you?” Evie challenged. “You want to prove that you’re the Back Door Rapist? Then do something that requires
balls
.”

“Bitch,” Back sneered. “You’re going to pay and pay and fucking pay for that.”

“Okay,” Evie said, throwing her hands up into the air. “Sure. You’ll ride me until I’m raw.” She was so done with this dungeon. “What then? No one thinks I’m going to survive the week. What are you going to do then? Wait and wait, and wait until the ‘Zard gets in a mood to give you another woman?” Evie ran out of breath and had to take a deep draw of air to continue. “A woman trapped in a dungeon, completely outnumbered, I might add. Now that’s showing off your masculine prowess.”

Back was so pissed off that all he could do was make a sound that might have been “fuck” if he could have articulated it fully.

Darion lowered his head. “You might want to think about quitting while you are ahead.”

Evie turned on her “benefactor.” “Like you?” she challenged Darion. “A little C-4 and you back off?”

“There was nothing little about it,” Darion snapped back.

“But that S&M guy showed you how to neutralize the explosives,” Evie pleaded. Couldn’t they see? They could get out if they only tried.

“Then he promptly got electrocuted and then eaten.”

“Fine,” Evie said, plunking down onto the cot. “We’ll just have to figure out a way to deactivate our collars.”

Darion took another rag and worked on his wounds, turning away from her.

“But we’ve tried, child,” Papa said. “They deliver a shock if tampered with in any way.”

“Then it will take some trial and error to figure it out,” Evie said.

Darion turned back to her, sneering. “Easy to say when you’re not wearing one.”

Frustrated, Evie was on her feet again, pacing. She looked to Back, who was practically drooling.

“You know that all this impassioned shouting is just turning me on. I so badly want to bend you over.”

Door nodded. “I
was
going to go easy on you.”

She looked to the only one who hadn’t weighed in yet, Andrew. He just smiled and offered her a cupcake. “I can slide one over to you.”

“Ugh!” Evie shouted, turning away from the other men. Time to work on Darion again. “And you.” She pointed a figure at him. “You strut around here like you’re better than everyone else.
Prove
it.”

Darion, instead of getting upset, casually sat down and leaned back against the wall as if none of this had ever happened. “You do realize that he’s recording everything that we say? One flip of a switch and we’re all gassed into unconsciousness. Then, when we wake up, we’ll get zapped until we wished we’d never spoken the word, ‘escape.’”

Evie wouldn’t let it end there, though. She had too much at stake. “How do you know that he doesn’t relish the thought of thwarting us? That he doesn’t like it if we challenge him?”

Darion didn’t answer her. Instead, he made a sweeping motion to Back as if to give him the floor.

For once, Back seemed subdued. He sat down, rubbed his face, then began. “It happened just before Darion got here. I don’t think the ‘Zard had been doing this for long. There were only four of us in here.” The rapist paused, taking in a few breaths before continuing. “We were so full of ourselves. So sure we could break out…so sure we could…”