The summervale series, p.30
The Summervale Series, page 30
“Hang on. I think that’s my car.”
The trunk was then closed, and the video panned out to reveal that it was, in fact, Bobby’s car, a silver sedan, sitting in the middle of the woods. The footage zoomed out even more, an aerial shot now, most likely taken from a drone, and the bunker became visible to the right of the screen.
“He’s right outside!” said Bobby. And ran for the ladder leading out of the bunker.
“Bobby, wait. So is the killer. He’s watching us.”
“I can take him. Plus, Dane is outside. He’s injured, possibly worse.” He was almost to the top of the ladder when the hatch above opened. We both gasped. Bobby let go in surprise and nearly fell backward but caught himself at the last minute. He stared at the face now filling the small hatch.
“Hi, Bobby,” said Adrian. “I hope you’re well. Darcie, I brought a couple of visitors with me. I hope you don’t mind.”
I balled my fists tightly.
“What did you do to Dane, you bastard.”
“Oh, your Romeo is fine. He’ll just have a bit of a headache when he wakes up. You can be reunited with him soon. But first, don’t you want to be reunited with someone else?”
I watched, puzzled, as Adrian’s face disappeared and a familiar face appeared.
“Hello, Darcie. I heard you wanted to see me.”
Cold fear and anxiety filled me like a knife to the gut.
It was him. My father.
“What are you doing here?”
The tension in the small room was thick. I stood as far away as possible from the man who had brought such terror to town and caused me so much pain and trauma.
He smirked and threw his arms wide like he was inviting me for a hug. But I would never hug that man ever again. He made me sick.
“What, no hugs and kisses for your old man, Darce? No I-missed-yous?”
Adrian was gone, and so was his father. They were probably outside doing something to Dane. I pushed aside the fear and tried not to think about Dane, injured, lying in the trunk of Bobby’s car, actively bleeding.
I crossed my arms and sighed. “What are you doing here? How did you escape?”
He laughed. “Darcie, come on, sweetheart. I thought you were smarter than that. I thought for sure you would have put the pieces together.”
He and Adrian’s father were both still wearing their prison orange. I thought about what the woman at the prison reception had said, about the riot and the fact my father was in the infirmary and that someone had died… suddenly all the cogs clicked into place.
“The prison riot. You started it on purpose. As a distraction.”
He flicked his pointer finger at me and clicked. “Bingo. Good girl. John and I caused the riot as a distraction for our escape.”
“So, you know Adrian’s father?”
“Yeah. He and I go way back. We went to high school together. We used to steal cars and other things in the beginning, before he moved onto fraud, and I moved onto…”
“Murder?” I finished. The way he said it so casually… I wasn’t surprised, but I still couldn’t fathom all he had done. That he was a serial killer.
My father walked over to the well-stocked shelves of canned goods, turning them around and studying them, before checking out the rest of the bunker. He made his way into the bedroom and found the closet.
“Ah, yes. Perfect.” He began stripping out of his prison jumpsuit right before Bobby and me. I turned to Bobby.
“We have to get out of here. Rescue Dane,” I whispered.
“I know. But Ashton and his father could still be out there.”
I laughed then, remembering how the tables were turned just a few minutes earlier, and I was begging Bobby not to go outside.
“What’s so funny?” he asked, confused.
“Sorry. Nothing. I was just thinking how our positions have changed.”
He grinned just as the hatch opened. Bobby, whose back was facing the hatch, spun around as someone began climbing into the bunker.
I immediately recognised his worn black and white sneakers, jeans and hoodie.
“Oh my god, Dane!” I ran to him, helping him down the ladder and hugging him when he reached the ground.
“Darcie,” he panted, holding me close. I then realised his body was shaking.
“Dane?” he sniffed and looked down at me. He was crying.
“Aww.”
“You’re okay. You’re alive. I thought I was too late.”
I stepped back and looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Someone sent us a photo of you unconscious in the middle of the woods, followed by coordinates. I thought you were dead, Darce.”
“Us? You mean Stacey and Ashton too?” asked Bobby.
Dane nodded.
Bobby cursed. “Oh no. They can’t come here too. It’s a trap.”
“I know. But I didn’t care. I had to find you.” He looked at Bobby. “Both of you. I’m so glad you’re here together.”
I threw my arms around him once again. “You stupid, reckless idiot. I love you.” I kissed him and realised too late I was tasting blood and tears. His blood.
“Oh, your head…”
“Here.” Bobby ran for the first aid kit they had used to patch themselves up. I made him sit down on a chair in the kitchen.
He swayed a little. I caught him.
“Whoa. Easy. Bobby, can you get Dane some water or juice or something?”
“Yes. Sure.” He ran to the fridge, which was well stocked with water, soda, beer and juice. There was also a ton of meat in shrink-wrapped plastic in this fridge. The thought that it could be human flesh made me sick. So, I thought it was deer meat from a hunt or something.
Okay, I had officially watched too many murder documentaries and one too many episodes of Hannibal.
I started by cleaning up the wound. It had clotted a bit, and the bleeding was beginning to slow, but it was still actively bleeding, and he had lost quite a bit of blood.
“Ugh, I think you might need stitches, babe. It’s pretty deep.”
“Yeah. When I woke up, I couldn’t see. There was blood in my eyes.”
“So, did you escape the car by yourself?”
“Car?” he asked, blinking in confusion. I looked at Bobby. We shared a look.
“Yeah. We saw footage of you lying in the trunk of a car.”
“Oh. I woke up on the ground outside. There was no car. But then I heard voices and saw two men, one younger, one older. Probably father and son. They were debating over what to do to me. The son said just to leave me there and that I’d probably die anyway. And that they had to get to the other side of town to draw the police away from here.”
I gasped and looked at Bobby.
“So that’s why my father and his team haven’t found us yet. They’re basically leading them on a wild goose chase,” said Bobby.
“Yeah. Even though I gave your dad the information we had received. The pictures, the coordinates, everything,” explained Dane.
Bobby leaned against the kitchen counter and sighed audibly. “This is bad.”
“Stacey and Ashton are still out there, though. They know where we are. They could still come and rescue us,” I said, hopeful.
A static noise alerted us that another video had begun to play on the giant screen. We turned to face it and simultaneously gasped when we saw what had appeared.
“Not if Adrian and his father find them first,” said Bobby.
twelve
THREE DOWN, TWO TO GO
DANE
The video showed drone footage of Ashton’s red pickup truck driving out of town. The drone followed them every step of the way.
“Oh, shit. They’re coming this way. They’re driving right into the trap!” exclaimed Darcie.
“Are any of your phones working, guys?” Bobby asks.
“Nope. No signal,” I said.
“Me too.”
“This is bad,” said Darcie, watching the screen in horror, her hands tugging her hair.
She had bandaged and cleaned my wound, so it was good for now, but I would need medical attention when we eventually got out of here. If we got out of here…
No. I couldn’t let my mind go there. I looked at the screen.
Soon, Ash and Stacey would arrive at the bunker and walk right into the killers’ trap, and we couldn’t warn them. We couldn’t do anything but watch. It was like watching a train accident in real-time and realising you are a powerless human and can’t do anything but watch it happen, knowing people are about to lose their lives.
“I can’t let anything happen to them too. We have to get out of here and warn them,” said Darcie. She began to run for the ladder leading to the escape hatch, followed by Bobby and me, but the click of a gun stopped us all.
“Uh uh uh, you’re not going anywhere, kids.”
We spun around slowly and saw Harry coming out of the bedroom, now dressed in camo gear.
“Dad, what is your plan? So, you’re working with Adrian and his father, to what? Help them get revenge? On us? We’re just a bunch of kids.” I was so happy Darcie was trying to deescalate things with her father. Everyone knew that Darcie was Harry Ryder’s Achilles heel. Even if it made me scared as hell.
But that’s why Darce and I were made for each other. We were the same. Nothing could come between us. Nothing. And we were both willing to do anything for love.
Even commit murder.
“Oh, I’m not working with them. I just used them as leverage to get out of prison by pretending to help get revenge. But I play by my own rules. You should know that, darlin’.”
Darcie nodded and rolled her eyes. “Of course you do.”
“And so, what? You want revenge on us? For locking you up? Is that it?” I said, stepping closer to Darcie.
“I’m not exactly after revenge, per se. I’m just loving the freedom. But you kids have fucked everything up for me.” Harry pulls back the safety on the gun and points it at his daughter, Darcie. I move closer. But he sees me and aims the gun at me.
“Easy, Dane. I just want to give my daughter a chance to catch up with her old man. That’s what you want, sweetheart, isn’t it? For your book. Congratulations, by the way. I’m impressed. What do you want to know?”
Oh, man. He loved the ego trip. He was thriving in it.
Darcie sighed. “Enough with the bullshit. Put the gun away, and we can talk. I just want to talk, but I would have preferred we do it with you in handcuffs on the other side of a bulletproof Perspex screen.”
“Okay, fine. I think this is much better, though.” He switches off the safety and sticks the gun in the back of his pants.
Darcie then takes two chairs and turns them to face each other.
“Sit. Bobby, can you please get my father some canned baked beans? Or would you prefer canned cream of corn?” She says all this without blinking, not taking her eyes off her father. I smile as I watch from a safe distance in the kitchen and help Bobby get the canned food ready so we can afford the Ryders the privacy they need.
But I am only a few metres away, close enough to react if Harry decides to try something again.
“So, Darce, what do you wanna know?”
She takes her phone and hits the record button on the voice recorder app.
“I want to know exactly how many women you have killed.”
thirteen
THE TRAP
STACEY
It had grown ever darker by the time we made it to the fire trail. The woods were so thick that they were black as shadows, and we could not distinguish actual shadows of trees or anything else in the woods. What if the killer was out there watching us right now…
A small green light whizzed by the windscreen.
I screamed, and Ashton hit the brakes.
“What is it?”
“Did you see that?”
“See what?”
“That light. It looked like a UFO or something.”
Ashton looked at me like I had grown two heads.
“Stace, there is no such thing as…”
The green light flew by again, this time hovering above us a few metres ahead.
“There it is again!” I screamed, pointing. We had begun driving again after the first sighting, and Ashton pulled over to the shoulder this time.
“It’s a drone. Someone is watching our every move. Maybe we shouldn’t have come.”
“What about Darcie and Bobby? And Dane is out here somewhere too.”
“I haven’t seen his car anywhere…” We began to move back onto the road when, out of nowhere, what sounded like gunshots rang out, hitting the tires of Ashton’s truck. I screamed. Ashton swore. We tried to drive off by hitting the gas, but one or more of the tires had been obliterated by the bullet, and we rolled to a sudden stop and the car tilted to the right unevenly.
Ashton tried the engine again, but we couldn’t go anywhere without all of our tires. Another shot ran out, and we screamed and ducked.
“Stacey! Are you okay? Stay low.”
“I’m fine. Who’s shooting at us?”
“I don’t know. But we have to get out of here. We’re sitting ducks.”
I looked at him like he was completely insane.
“In the middle of the woods in the dark while a crazed killer is shooting at us?”
“We have to try and make a run for it. It’s our only chance. Open the glove box, Stace.”
“What?”
“Trust me.” I opened the glove box before me and found a handgun.
“You have a gun?” I asked eyebrow cocked. “I never knew you had a gun.”
“It was a gift for my sixteen birthday from my parents. For hunting and protection.” He reached for it and checked the magazine and bullets. It wasn’t loaded, but a box of ammunition was in the glove box too. He grabbed that and loaded it so the gun was full.
“Okay, Stacey, I need you to stay down and quiet while I check our surroundings. Then when I give the signal, we’ll run into the woods to the left over there.” He gestured to the far side of the road to my left.
My heart pounded hard, and I swallowed the lump of fear that formed in my throat.
“Okay.”
He kissed me before opening the driver’s side door and jumping out.
“Ash!” I cried. Oh my god. He had left me. He had freaking left me! I was alone in a car with a gun in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by some psycho … Ashton’s face popped up next to me at the passenger side window, and I screamed.
He opened the door.
“Shh, Stacey. It’s me. It’s okay. They’re gone. We have to go.”
“They’re gone?”
“Yeah, I think they just wanted to get us to stop.”
I began to sob uncontrollably. “Oh, god. They’re going to kill us!”
“They’re not. Come on. Stay with me. We’re going to run for it into the safety of the woods. All right?”
“How do you know they’re gone, Ash?”
“There’s no one here. The drone’s gone too. Are you ready?”
“I don’t know about this, Ashton.”
“I know. I’m scared too. But we have to go rescue our friends.”
When I thought of Darcie lying unconscious and hurt in the woods and Bobby and Dane possibly in the same predicament, it gave me the courage I needed.
“I’m ready.” I took a deep breath, grabbed my phone and jumped out of the truck. I then took Ashton’s hand, and we ran into the woods.
fourteen
SEVEN BODIES
DARCIE
Dane and Bobby got us a couple of cans of soup from the pantry. My father and I ate facing each other in the kitchen whilst the boys went into the living room, or rather, the other side of the row of shelves separating the areas.
My father busied himself eating the soup, almost devouring it as if he hadn’t eaten in a while. But I knew that was a lie. He looked healthy. I knew prisoners were well fed in jail.
I knew he was just doing it to stall me.
“Dad, how many people have you killed?”
“Darcie, really. Is that what you really wanna know?”
“Yes. Stop messing around and answer the question. How many?”
He slurped another spoonful of soup, corn chowder, then put his head up and seemingly looked into space deep in thought. He then shrugged and said, “Seven, give or take.”
I was surprised by that. “Seven? Is that the truth? What about all the other rings in the storage facility. There were about twenty rings in there.”
He put his hand out flippantly as if to say, no big deal.
“Merely costume jewellery. Props. The number is seven. Happy?”
“Yes.”
“I’m telling you the truth, Darcie Drew.”
I rolled my eyes at the use of my old nickname people used to call me because I loved solving mysteries. It began when I helped a neighbour back in Acacia Creek search for her missing cat. I took a notebook and pen and asked her a million questions. I had probably bugged the hell out of the poor old lady, but she was thankful when I eventually found the cat under a bush a few houses away with a litter of newborn kittens. She had offered to give me one of the kittens when they were old enough as a thank you, but my dad hated cats and refused. That was when I was six years old.
The same year, I helped a kid at school look for a missing toy doll. It turns out another girl in our class had stolen it.
The other ‘cases’ were much the same. Missing pets and missing toys. I was never asked to help find a missing person until the year my mom went missing.
Until my mom was found murdered, and I realised what my dad was capable of.
I suddenly realised what I wanted to do with my life.
I wanted to help other victims of crime. I wanted to find missing loved ones for families. I wanted to set up my own business.
