Long Holler Road - A Dark Southern Thriller (6 page)

  The sheriff made a mental note to call his friend who was the commander of the nearest Alabama State Trooper post and see if he could get those idiots in Montgomery to start being a little more vigilant on Highway 11 and not spend all their time chasing speeders on I-59. According to the timelines from when they were last seen until they were reported missing, some of them would almost certainly have had to pass through some part of Alabama.
                                  Things had been boring lately, anyway. There weren’t many moonshiners anymore. The ones that were left were all friends of his. He did get to bust a dope dealer every now and then, but they were few and far between. It was mostly just marijuana, anyway, and almost all nickel and dime stuff.

  Sheriff White was going to make it his mission to try and get to the bottom of these mysterious disappearances. He sat back in his chair and imagined being the one who finally solved the case.
Maybe there was some mad man out there who was kidnapping all these men. Hell, maybe they were being abducted by aliens,
he thought smiling
.
Whatever it was, he was determined to find out and finally be the hero he had always dreamed of being. He could see his name in all the papers and see himself on news channels all over the country.  

CHAPTER EIGHT

  I was sitting in the shade of a big old pecan tree watching Glenn and Snake sweat. But they were doing a commendable job and I didn’t want to interfere unless it was absolutely necessary. I would occasionally spell one of them and give them a chance to cool off under the tree. The Harper’s house and yard were immaculate. Like some sort of little fairy tale kingdom where everyone had nothing but happy thoughts all the time. Madge had fountains and birdbaths strategically placed in shaded areas that looked like something you’d see in Southern Living magazine. The trees all had flower beds around the bottoms with river rock borders and pretty, multi-colored flowers I couldn’t identify then, and probably still couldn’t. There were various fruit trees spaced at intervals like you’d see in an orchard and grape vines clinging to expertly crafted arbors in the back yard. The back yard ran all the way down to the edge of the woods, where the small ridge started its descent. Carl had buildings of all shapes and sizes scattered around his property. They were all constructed from different materials, but none looked out of place. I was thinking he must have made a fortune at whatever it was he did for a living to be able to have a spread like this.

  Me and Madge had become bosom buddies in the three hours we had been there. She kept bringing us lemonade and sandwiches, but would wait until I was the one sitting under the pecan tree before she brought them out. I could tell it was eating Glenn up. He was supposed to be the one getting to know old Madge and there I was getting all the attention.                                                        

  She was without a doubt the prettiest woman I had ever seen in my fourteen years. But not just on the outside. She was pretty on the inside, too. She was the nicest lady I had ever met. She wanted to know all about my family, especially my mother. She asked how I liked school and if I was studying hard and what my interests were. She even asked if I played football. She really won me over when we started talking about football. She knew everything there was to know about it and said she had become a huge Crimson Tide fan since moving to Alabama. I was falling in love. What woman in the world that pretty and sweet could know so much about football, especially Alabama football, my favorite subject. I also found out she was well educated, and like me, was a history buff. We talked about Civil War battles and the different generals involved, then moved on to Washington, Jefferson, Ben Franklin and the other founders of our country. She even touched a little on European history, but had me at a disadvantage there. All I did was listen when it came to that subject. The conversation was so pleasant that before I knew it, Glenn and Snake had finished the mowing.

  Madge told Snake and Glenn to sit down and rest and have some more lemonade and sandwiches while she went inside and got our money.

  “Oh, no ma’am,” I said. “You don’t owe me and Glenn anything. We just came to keep Snake company and help him out a little.”

  Glenn looked at me as if he was thinking,
‘speak for yourself, asshole
.
I was the one out there sweating my ass off while you were cozying up to the sexy woman I came here to get to know
.’ Glenn was gonna let me have it when we finally got alone. I couldn’t wait to tell him this was all his big idea and I didn’t want anything to do with it from the start. Although now, I was glad he talked me into it.

  Madge said she was going to pay all three of us and that was all there was to it. She walked into the house to get the money and I looked at Glenn. When I did, he turned his head and looked the other way.
So, he’s gonna give me the old silent treatment instead,
I was thinking. I was having to bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud. Snake, of course, was oblivious to it all and was woofing down peanut butter and jelly sandwiches like it was the last time he was ever going to get to eat.

  Madge returned with the money and gave us all a twenty dollar bill. Snake’s eyes were as big as saucers when his eyes fell on the picture of old Andy Jackson.

  “You ain’t never give me more than ten dollars, Miss Madge,” he said, never taking his eyes off Andrew Jackson’s face.

  “Well, you did an exceptionally good job today, Snake, and so did your friends. I’m so glad you brought them and I got a chance to meet them.”

  She disappeared into the house again and I could tell Glenn was still not going to acknowledge my existence, which was fine by me. I was happy. I had gotten as much money as I would have made doing back-breaking labor all day long in the hay fields and I had barely broken a sweat. I had also had a wonderful conversation with the prettiest woman on earth.

  Madge came back to the door and yelled for Snake. Snake walked toward the house with the same old caveman gait he always walked with, his knuckles almost dragging the ground. He walked in the house and Madge shut the door.

  I wondered what Madge needed with Snake. I thought she might even be giving him something extra and didn’t want us to know about it. You could just tell she felt real sorry for him.

  Me and Glenn decided to walk on down to the end of the road and wait on Snake there. We reluctantly walked away, occasionally looking back over our shoulders. Madge was one of those kind of people you hated to leave. Glenn was just staring off into space and humming to himself like I didn’t exist. I knew he was as proud as me to have gotten the twenty dollars, though I know he felt I didn’t deserve a penny of mine.

  We finally saw snake stomping down the road to meet us. It ran through my mind for a mere fraction of a second, that Madge might be treating old Snake to some of what the other boys his age were getting. But I quickly dismissed the thought. Surely Madge’s standards were higher than that. Glenn still hadn’t spoken a word to me when Snake walked up and we all three started walking toward Aunt Lena’s store. Whatever Madge had told him he was keeping to himself, which was uncharacteristic of Snake. He had a little smug smile on his lips as we rounded the corner onto Long Hollow Road.

CHAPTER NINE

  His captors had treated him fairly well, so far. He wasn’t sure if he had been there two or three days. His watch was gone as well as his clothes. They had given him a t-shirt and a pair of gym shorts to wear, but no shoes. He had been allowed to watch all the TV he wanted, as well as having all kinds of books and magazines to read. The TV was the only way he had of knowing the approximate time. He knew what time the news and certain other shows came on, but had to guess at the time in between shows. He had also been fed better that he would have been at home. The woman, or he assumed it was her, was an excellent cook, though wondering what they planned on doing with him next had diminished his appetite considerably.

  He had received one visit from the woman that he wished hadn’t happened, but it was forced upon him and he had no choice. He was a happily married man,
very
happily married, that had been in love with the same woman since his junior year in high school and had always been completely faithful. At least until now. But the woman had
made
him do it. That sounded rather childish when he thought about it, and he remembered some TV show where the punch line was,
the devil made me do it.
He couldn’t remember now which show it was. The fact that the woman was beautiful and had done things his wife would never do, didn’t make him feel any better about the situation. But she and the man had threatened to beat him, maybe even kill him, if he hadn’t performed. What else could he have done? Should he have resisted anyway, putting his faithfulness to his wife above survival? Of course his wife would understand that he had to do it to save his life. She always understood, or at least always had. What good would he be to her dead?              

  The big man who always wore the ski mask had filmed the whole thing. It didn’t make any sense to him. Were they trying to make some porno movie and couldn’t find anyone to participate? As beautiful as this woman was, he couldn’t believe they would have any trouble recruiting a lead man for the part.

  Deep in the recesses of his mind he knew that they had more in store for him than this, but was trying to keep that thought at bay while he tried to figure out a way out of this place. It was like a fortress. The place was underground, or at least he thought it was, and had solid concrete walls. He knew every square inch of them now. There was only one heavy metal door that looked like it weighed a ton, and of course it was bolted as tight as a dam. 

  After another two hours of solitude, right in the middle of Days of Our Lives, he heard the locks clicking on the door, causing him to quickly emerge from his semi state of sleep. His body stiffened as he wondered what they wanted this time. It wasn’t meal time yet and he was hoping they were not going to make him perform again. His conscience couldn’t stand another episode like that, even if he
was
forced into it against his will.

  This time it was the man and he was by himself. He was sure the woman was lurking nearby, probably with a gun. She was never far away from the man. The man walked over to him and held out what looked like some kind of black, cloth bag.

  “Put this over your head,” he said. His voice didn’t sound threatening at all, but he could tell by the look in the man’s eyes he meant business. Maybe they had had their fun and were taking him back to his car. At least that was what he was going to believe.

  He did as he was told and slipped the bag over his head. Then the man told him to put his hands behind his back. He obeyed the order and could feel cold steel around his wrist and hear the ratcheting sound of hand cuffs being tightened and locked. The man was not rough with him at all as he took his arm and led him out of the room.
Maybe they are taking me back,
he was thinking, hoping. He was led several feet until they came to a set of stairs.

  “Watch your step,” the man said in a pleasant enough voice. They ascended the stairs and he counted twenty-two treads. Then after several more steps, he heard a door open and could feel a breeze blowing. The first fresh air he’d felt in two or three, or however many days it had been. The sun was warm on his skin and he could hear birds singing. If only he could be a bird right now and just fly away. He heard a car door open and was told to step up. Once inside what he believed to be the back of a van, the door closed behind him. The engine fired up and they began to move.

  They traveled what he guessed to be no more than a half mile and the vehicle came to a stop. The door opened and the man told him to be careful getting out.
Maybe they drove my car here. They wouldn’t have just left it abandoned on the side of the road for the cops to find.

  The man led him a few steps and he could here the creaking of a door opening. His heart sank for a few seconds, until he thought that they may have put his car in some kind of building or garage. That made sense. They wouldn’t just leave it out in the open for anyone to see. They walked twenty steps up a flight of stairs to a landing, turned to the right, up ten more steps, and then stopped. The man got behind him and told him to step forward. He did as instructed and could immediately tell he was standing on some kind of unstable surface. Something that was swaying back and forth gently, and making a creaking sound, like a playground swing.

  The man then removed the cuffs from his hands and jerked the hood off his head. He blinked for a minute, trying to let his eyes get adjusted to the light. He could see he was on some sort of platform that was enclosed with heavy, steel wire mesh. The man pulled down the door of the platform that slid on tracks top to bottom. The platform started to lower slowly, like an unstable elevator car. The bottom of the contraption was solid, so he couldn’t see what was beneath him. His heart was starting to pound as he wondered where this slow descent was taking him. After what seemed like forever, he heard a gentle splash and could see and feel warm water running into the caged platform.