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An Oliver Perritt Thriller
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Prologue
1968
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The six-year-old boy sat quietly, watching with pensive eyes as the small, shadowy figures darted around the dank, dark corners of his prison. He could hear them fighting over the crust of bread, which he had stolen from the kitchen, that he’d thrown over from his now empty pocket. Something squeaked loudly to his left, and his sandy-blonde head whipped around. Another squeal from his right and the boy hunkered deeper into his small, bruised frame.
They were everywhere.
Slowly, the child felt a sudden, warm, wet heat in his crotch as the stain spread across the front of his pants, and instantly humiliation began to fill him, his head drooping. He cried out as something sharp suddenly nipped at his bare foot and he quickly scraped it up underneath him along with the other one. She had taken his shoes this time. Sweater too, despite the fact that it was mid-winter in the northeastern part of the country and freezing down here. The boy trembled as his eye caught a glimpse of something skittering towards him, belly low to the floor as it appraised him warily and he whimpered.
“Please...” he begged, simply as he slammed his eyelids shut over piercing, light-blue eyes, willing the creature to leave him alone.
More embarrassment as the back of his underpants now became soiled with solid filth and he wept in shame.
***
The middle-aged woman set down the tawdry romance novel she was deeply engrossed in, hidden in plain sight by the dust jacket from a much more suitable book for a lady of her caliber, jostled by the scream. Another scream and slamming the book on the table this time, the large woman got up with a heavy sigh as she headed towards the hysterical shrieking coming from the storage room in the basement. The last thing that Ida Haggerty needed right now was another outburst from that incorrigible child.
On her way to her office door, Ida passed her walking stick, which was leaning up against the corner and she hefted it expertly up into her hands.
The ornate cane was made of a somewhat heavy, expensive dark wood, and its summit was mounted with a wolf’s head, a scarlet-colored gem where its eye was supposed to be. Ida had found it in one of the basement storage rooms once the state had taken over the building and turned it into the orphanage it now was just after she’d been hired to get the place into shape. It wasn’t as if she needed it to walk, not really, but the cane had been so impressive as if it was made just for her. There was no way that she could possibly leave such a relic for someone else to take. She had immediately claimed it as her own, no one the wiser and had kept it with her ever since.
The metal wolf’s head gleamed in the scant hallway light as she made her way down the short pathway to the basement door. It gave her joy to tap the cane on the hardwood floors as she walked around her orphanage, keeping order. Oftentimes a misbehaving child would find themselves struck with the butt of the cane. Or if they really frustrated her, it would be the metal wolf’s head.
He or she would usually get into line after that.
Ida absolutely hated to have to repeat herself when laying down the law and most of the children, even the smallest ones, had already quickly learned that she ran a very tight ship. She decided long ago that this was the best method of operating the orphanage, despite some of the others feeling that she was far too harsh. The matron knew that the rest of the staff whispered about this behind her back but nary would one of them even speak a word of it directly to her face.
Spare the rod, spoil the child is what the good book said.
Proverbs 13:24
But not all of the children had learned how to toe the line or were even willing. Ida decided that she would work with the boy, who apparently needed help the most until it was ingrained in him.
“...hopeless child....” She muttered, moving slowly down the stairs, the cane tapping at her side on the cement steps.
“Miss Haggerty?” a soft, nearly musical toned voice interrupted her thoughts, stopping the sedate woman in her tracks. “Is everything all right? I heard screaming...”
This was a new one to the fold, fresh out of college and very ambitious.
She’d never last here with her coddling nature towards the children.
“Just fine, Miss Trimble. Go back upstairs and I will be with you shortly.” Ida gave the curt retort over her shoulder as she got to the bottom of the stairs.
The young blonde was still standing, watching the stern director and her beautiful, heart-shaped face fell in despair as the faint wailing continued, along with banging against the locked door at the end of the hallway. This social worker was going to be a problem, Ida thought as her steely, blue-grey eyes widened incredulously at the open disobedience of her subordinate, fixing the girl with a cold stare. She would have to have yet another talk with the young woman. Ida was already trying to see what she could do to get Susan Trimble transferred out of her administration.
Girl was a real upstart.
“Now, Miss Trimble!” Ida finally snapped when the other woman still did not move away from the stairs.
“Yes, Miss Haggerty.” The delicate Miss Trimble finally resigned over the wailing, her mouth turned down in a sad line as she seemingly dragged her slender figure away from the stairs.
“Quiet! Quiet, boy!” Ida snarled, banging the head of her cane against the door until the howling finally subsided.
This was not the first time she’d had to use excessive methods of deportment to make the boy understand that he was expected to behave in a certain manner. Ida required it from all of the children, and he was no exception to this strict rule.
When Ida unlocked the door, the unmistakable smell of human waste was the first thing that assaulted her nostrils. Raising a hand, she pinched her nostrils shut as her eyes adjusted to the sudden blanket of light from the open door, she could see the small boy huddled in the corner, crying hysterically.
“Ugh! Filthy! You are absolutely filthy!!” she screeched, grabbing him up roughly by one arm.
His good one.
Ida made a face of disgust at the other limb hanging limply at his left side, a smooth stub where his forearm, hands, and fingers should have been at the end of it just below his elbow. He had come to the orphanage directly from the hospital when his parents could not care for him. The child had been her problem ever since, an unruly brat.
“You made this mess, you will clean it up. Now!” Ida spat, roughly shoving the boy out of the room and towards the closet where the disinfectant was kept. “Move!!”
“Rats....” The child stammered, as his small shoulders shook and he continued to cry, “There w-w-were r-r-rats....”
“Nonsense.” Ida cut him off, waving her hand dismissively at him as he let out a high-pitched whine and his eyes gushed fresh tears, “And you know better than to lie like that.”
But he wasn’t lying.
Ida had seen one of the filthy beasts herself the last time she’d sent him down here. The place was old, run-down but she did the best that she could with what the state sent her for maintenance. The property was a dilapidated Victorian from the last years of the 1800s that had been somewhat renovated about a decade ago to make room for the influx of orphaned kids that needed housing.
They had a total of twenty-nine children, paired up in each of the converted bedrooms, and ten social workers in addition to herself as director. Boys in one wing, girls in the other with the employee quarters in-between to keep an eye on things. The social workers all had their own rooms but shared the water closet at the end of the hall. Men first at six in the morning, ladies afterward at seven. Of course, Ida’s own room, or rooms, was more of a suite with its own private bath. As Director, she should have that convenience, and nothing was said about it when the orphanage officially opened its doors ten years ago. She earned the privileges that she had through all of the hard work that was on her shoulders. Basically, it all fell on Ida to keep everything in order and everyone in order.
If there was a problem, Ida handled it immediately and moved on. The last thing she needed was a visit from the regional manager of social services on her case over a rodent infestation. Simple mechanical rat traps had mostly done the trick, but periodically there was still the odd infestation or two. The boy would cause the other children to get upset again if he kept on about the rats and she simply couldn’t have that.
“You behave, now.” She chided, lightly shoving the boy away from her as he tried to cling to her for comfort, tears staining his little cheeks as he waited for her to hug him. “Go on. Clean it up.”
The youth was forced back into the empty, smelly room to clean the mess he’d made. The woman eyed the holes along the baseboards of the walls, pretending not to notice the rodent droppings. She also overlooked the dead bodies of the large, water-bug cockroaches on their backs, legs in the air. She detested those damn things, the insects nearly as long and wide as her entire thumb. Ida looked away from it all with a barely suppressed shudder and then at the boy in utter repulsion at the feces on the seat of his pants, which had crawled partway up his back.
Filthy.
He was absolutely riddled in filth.
Ida would not tolerate this kind of behavior and repeated outbursts from this one wayward child.
“Hurry up, boy!” she snapped, stamping the cane against the floor impatiently as he finished up, the sudden noise making the child jump with a start.
Ida grabbed him by his good arm again, taking care not to get too close to him of course, and forced him up the stairs and towards the bathroom. The kids were only allowed to use that one and that one only. She wouldn’t allow any of them up on the second floor during the day where she and the other social workers slept unless they were supervised. Only if a child was ill were they permitted upstairs when classes were commencing, and even then, they were locked in their room. She herself or one of the other social workers would check on the bedridden child and supply meals, if necessary. All of the staff had teaching credentials which allowed them to school the population in-house.
They all had basic first-aid knowledge and had a doctor, who brought with him two nurses, come to visit once a month. The many rooms and parlors of the first floor served as classrooms and there was a large dining room for meals, which the entire household took together simultaneously three times a day. There were no snacks or treats, not ever. Visits to the dentist were tedious when it came to some of the children being frightened, so removing the temptation of sweets altogether seemed to best the best course of action.
Ida marched the little boy right into the bathroom, while still making sure not to get too close to him and the disgusting mess, past the other children in the hallway, some of which were laughing and pointing at them derisively.
She would definitely deal with that situation later.
“Clean yourself up,” Ida ordered, gripping and turning the metal cross-handle to allow water to gush out of the spigot and into the deep, rust-stained, claw-foot tub in one corner of the room before he even had a chance to begin removing his clothing. “Now!”
There was a sudden commotion outside in the hall and Ida’s neck snapped around as her eyes tightened, along with her lips, and she left him to see what the other kids had gotten into this time.
***
It was only after Miss Haggerty made her hasty exit that the boy hunched over and threw up the scant contents of his little stomach all over the tiles set into the bathroom floor.
“Oliver?” Susan Trimble called softly, coming into the bathroom, and shutting off the water, which was ice-cold. “Are you all right?”
He didn’t answer because the last time Miss Susan had taken up for him Miss Haggerty had yelled at her and made her cry. He didn’t want to get her into trouble again on his account. She wore her long hair up today, a style she called a bouffant in which she had added a small, blue bow to one side. It matched her eyes and her dress and he thought it made her the prettiest lady he’d ever seen.
“Come on,” the young woman urged gently, “Let’s get you cleaned up, okay?”
She helped him off with his clothes after she ran a hot tub of water, testing the temperature with her elbow before carefully easing him into it. He didn’t want his filth to get onto her pretty dress, but she didn’t seem to care as she helped him anyway. The attractive blonde busied herself with bagging his dirty clothing as he washed as best as he could and then she washed his back and neck.
Next Miss Susan got a large towel to wrap around him as he stood up in the tub, snuggling it around him. He may have imagined it, but it almost sounded like she was saying that she was sorry. As she held onto him, her body quivered, and Miss Susan sniffled. When he snuck a peek at her, Oliver felt sad as he realized that Miss Susan’s eyes were full of unshed tears.
She was curling her frosted-pink lips into themselves over and over as her nostrils quivered. He was quite sure it was because he had smelled so bad, and that disgrace crept back up into Oliver’s bones again. Still, Miss Susan held him against her for quite a while as the cacophony of noises surrounded them from outside of the bathroom. Soon, the noises faded as he felt her heart beating against him and it was as if he was in his own world with Miss Susan. He liked the feel of her embrace because it was like a cocoon of warmth and Oliver knew that he was completely safe at that precise moment, his eyes closing as he wished that he could stay that way forever.
But that was wishful thinking as she got him some fresh underpants that she had brought down. How she’d known that he would need them made him feel extra special because it seemed that Miss Susan was always watching out for him. She didn’t say much as she continued to help him get dressed in nice warm clothes, better than the ones that he normally had access to.
“There,” Miss Susan finally smiled at him after she composed herself, “That’s much better, isn’t it? These used to belong to my little brother, but he’s outgrown them so quickly...”
Oliver hadn’t an inkling that Miss Susan even had a little brother since she had never mentioned it and he instantly felt jealous of the other little boy in her life that got to spend time with her. She visited her family back home from time to time and during the holidays, and Oliver cringed to think of Miss Susan leaving them soon with the coming Christmas season. Maybe if he asked her very nicely, and Miss Haggerty said it was okay, he could go home with her.
She was smiling at him, taking a moment to run a gentle hand through his thick, blonde hair. And he wanted to smile too because Miss Susan was always so nice to him. Oliver would often wish that she would adopt him and take him away from the orphanage so that Miss Haggerty couldn’t be mean to either of them anymore. They could live in a nice, clean house, have good food to eat and best of all Miss Susan would be his real mother. He would be the best-behaved, obedient son that she could dream of.
Miss Susan would never have a reason to be angry at him and punish him.
He would act perfect.
He would be perfect.
“Oliver? Did you hear me?” she was asking him now, snapping him out of his fantasy. “Would you like to go to the kitchen and have some lunch? I missed seeing you at breakfast this morning. You must be starved.”
She held out her soft, thin manicured hand as he took it, and off they went towards the kitchen for something to eat. Oliver could smell the lemony scent wafting from her as they walked together. It was his favorite smell. He came right out and asked her about it once and she had given him a pretty smile and told him it was a perfume called Lemon Verbena.
He loved it.
And her.
Miss Haggerty was reaming out another kid, so thankfully her attention wasn’t on him at the moment as Miss Susan hustled him quickly past the carnage. All Oliver had to do was behave and Miss Haggerty would leave him alone, at least for a while. But it seemed that something about him always tended to irritate her, turn her against him and he’d end up in the basement again. He felt a tremor go through him as he thought about the rats.
Maybe they had chewed off his arm and that’s why he only had one that was whole. He had actually asked Miss Haggerty about that possibility once and she had laughed at him, so hard that tears streamed from her eyes. It was a very strange sound to hear her laugh because she never did. Although Oliver didn’t understand that she was actually mocking him and wanting desperately to be in her good graces for once, he had laughed right along with her.
“Oliver?” Miss Susan beckoned him, smiling that pretty way that she did as he ambled to the large trencher-style table, as if afraid that Miss Haggerty would show up to forbid him from eating. Something that had happened once in a while and depending on whether she was angry enough with him or not for whatever it was he had done. Miss Susan had just set down a steaming bowl of soup for him along with a hunk of fluffy, white bread to sop it up with.
“Oliver!” the young woman cried out in surprise as he hooked the bowl in and began to hungrily drink the hot soup directly from it, foregoing the spoon, despite the broth burning his mouth and fingers.
You’re an animal!
He could almost hear Miss Haggerty raging at him as he shamelessly gulped down the soup. Next went the bread, gone in three quick bites with barely a chew in-between. If it was in him, no one could take it from him.
That’s what he’d learned early on.
Miss Susan was staring at him, wide-eyed with a shocked hand to her mouth at the sight of him. The place-setting at the large dining table was a mess and he’d accidentally knocked over his milk glass in his labors to eat by himself, the creamy liquid spreading rapidly. Oliver’s eyes flitted to the clean bowl he’d left and then back at Miss Susan, who seemed to understand him even though he’d not said a word. She came back with another bowl, pressing a spoon into his hand as she sat right next to him.
“It’s good, isn’t it?” she asked, another one of those pretty smiles on her face as Oliver began noisily slurping up the soup.
During his last checkup with the bloated, old doctor that came to look after all of the children Miss Haggerty was informed that he was underweight. Oliver listened as Miss Haggerty lied about the boy being a finicky eater or never wanting to eat when in truth she wasn’t always allowing him to. He often filched what scraps he could from the kitchen when he was on duty there, cleaning up. The one time he tried to speak up and tell the doctor that Miss Haggerty didn’t always permit him food at mealtimes, she had put him in the basement as punishment the second the doctor left the premises. After that, Oliver smartly learned to keep his mouth shut.
Miss Haggerty had done a funny little laugh that he’d never heard before as she told the doctor that he was such a precocious child. And then the man had chuckled with a knowing nod, which made Oliver want to kick the doctor. But the old man had completely surprised him by lecturing Miss Haggerty about the importance of a proper diet for a growing boy. Even better was that she seemed to be listening to and respecting the doctor as he’d spoken to her and that had made Oliver take notice. He saw the power and knowledge that the old doctor had, even over a mean witch like Miss Haggerty.
“Until next time, Oliver.” The doctor said, clapping him on his scrawny back before asking the nurse that always accompanied him on visits to send in the next child.
Oliver knew that Miss Haggerty was a liar when she fibbed to the doctor about him not wanting to eat, but she made sure that everyone always believed what she said, even a doctor who should have been smarter than that. This is how she continued to get away with all that she had done to him and it wasn’t fair that she always lied.
Always won.
All Oliver knew was that he hated Miss Haggerty.
***
1980
Thwack!
Thwack!
Thwack!
The sound the heavy, wooden cane made against Oliver’s bare back muffled in his ears as Miss Haggerty let him have it, or at least she tried to. He really hadn’t wanted to go against her, deciding that it was like reasoning with a brick wall, but she was wrong and this time he wasn’t going to allow her to get away with it. Recently, Oliver had been getting into more trouble for talking back and causing discord amongst the others.
Miss Haggerty had accused him of being alone on the second floor, but he hadn’t been. It was one of the smaller kids that had leaped at the chance to go exploring, but Oliver would take the punishment to spare the girl who had only wanted to retrieve a forgotten doll. He himself had seen her quietly traipsing up the stairs and then coming back down with the toy a moment or two later while he’d been sweeping the front hall.
At first, Oliver wasn’t going to say anything, let the waif take her much-deserved punishment for disobeying the rules. But watching the terror build in the eyes of the tiny girl, who couldn’t have been much more than six or so, as Miss Haggerty promised to find out who had been on the second floor, had made him change his mind. The little girl would be ruined, as she already appeared to wear her heart on her sleeve in the short time that she’d been with them. She wouldn’t be able to take Miss Haggerty’s abuse.
So, there he knelt, in front of Miss Haggerty, as she beat him about the back and shoulders with her fancy black cane with the wolf’s head.
It didn’t hurt.
Much.
Oliver delighted in watching Kung-Fu Theater on Saturday afternoons in the recreation room while keeping an eye on the children in his charge. He was the only one old enough to watch over the others because he had never been adopted. People came in to ooh and ahh over the infants, toddlers, and smaller children. No one ever wanted him, not with the way that Miss Haggerty always dissuaded potential adoptive parents that showed the least bit of interest.
Behavioral problems. The boy really should be institutionalized but we are trying to help him work through his issues....
And the looks of pity would turn his way as polite smiles were pasted on faces and couples looked at the others.
Lies.
All lies that she loved to tell anyone that would try and show him the least bit of consideration. And he knew better than to contradict her, so Oliver hadn’t said anything at all. Just as he did now and Miss Haggerty continued to carry out his sentence, battering scarred-over flesh from years of punishment under the guise of ‘correcting’ and ‘guidance’.
He had watched, and learned, as the hero of one story made his mind be in one place while his body was being beaten and abused by the bad guys.
Meditation.
It had been amazing!
Oliver found that he was so fascinated by this feat that he looked up books on meditation in the card catalog at the public library when they were allowed an outing to the local branch with some of the other social workers. On the way back to the orphanage and before they had gone inside, Oliver had hidden the small book underneath his shirt, not wanting anyone to know that he had it. He had also made sure that no one had seen him slip the instructional pamphlet into the recesses of his jacket, while deep in the stacks and right before they lined up at the exit to get back on the yellow bus.
Over time, and as difficult as it was at times, Oliver learned the art of separating mind and body during unpleasant things. This applied knowledge was working especially well at the moment. Oliver noted that finding inane reasons to dole out punishments seemed to satisfy Miss Haggerty’s perverse desire to inflict pain on him. Oliver was not going to give her the pleasure of hearing him scream or cry as he had done many times in the past when he was younger, so he had simply meditated during the beatings. Calmed his breathing and shoved out the sound and feel of the damage being inflicted on his body.
The old battle-ax couldn’t hurt him anymore.
He had been studying Miss Haggerty for years and he could now easily see all of her faults, her weaknesses.
His only savior, Miss Susan, was long gone after Miss Haggerty got through chewing her up and spitting her out. Vanished like a fart in the wind one day about twelve years ago without warning. It was only later and simply by chance that Oliver found out that Miss Susan and one of the other social workers had been caught by Miss Haggerty, having sex, and both had been immediately fired. At least that was Miss Haggerty’s version of what had happened when he had eavesdropped on her while she was talking to the regional manager in the privacy of her office regarding the situation.
He hadn’t even gotten a chance to say goodbye.
Of course, Oliver had been extremely overwrought at the loss of Miss Susan, and he’d been sent to the basement for having an outburst upon the news of her dismissal. To this very day, Oliver believed that Miss Haggerty had done this to get Miss Susan away from him knowing that she was all that he had. It was the only reasoning that he could come up with as he sat in that miserable basement. But as time went on, Oliver grew less and less perplexed about being sent downstairs. He began to look forward to it because it meant getting away from Miss Haggerty during that time.
So, at the moment Oliver remained quiet as she doled out her reprimand, Miss Haggerty breathing heavily as she began to grow tired from her efforts. With the transparent fact that her ineffectual beatings no longer bothered him, Oliver could tell that his recalcitrance infuriated the miserable old bitch. So now Miss Haggerty had started finding ways to further get a reaction out of Oliver for the sole purpose of being able to punish him for it afterward. Very petty and passive-aggressive behavior if you asked him.
Once the sun fell and it was lights out for all, this was Oliver’s favorite time because that’s when the old witch would booze off to sleep for the night. Everyone knew that Miss Haggerty kept a liquor bottle in her office, and she probably hid one in her room, too. And sure enough, when he was brazen enough to steal into Miss Haggerty’s bedroom one night while she was passed out drunk, Oliver saw that his suspicions had indeed been correct. He had gotten upstairs, and into the tyrant’s room, without her ever knowing a damn thing. That accomplishment alone had made him smile, something that was almost foreign to him since he had nothing to be happy about. But it also made him feel powerful as he watched her sprawled out on her bed, the empty gin bottle at her side as she snored loudly with her mouth wide open.
Next time he would bring a few of the dead cockroaches from the basement to drop into her opened maw. And Oliver had to take a quick moment, stifling his laughter as he thought about how funny that was going to be. Watching her inadvertently swallow them. He was quite confident that eating the bugs wouldn’t kill her, as insects were very high in protein, so no real harm was done. He had even read that people in many parts of south-east Asia ate cockroaches.
Crickets too.
He couldn’t wait, wishing he had thought of the bugs before he’d come upstairs. Oliver had solid evidence that Miss Haggerty was afraid of rodents and insects, as he had noted in the past when either of the two made an occasional appearance in the common areas. She particularly got vexed when this occurred in the kitchen, and he’d readily used his position as a permanent dishwasher to taint her food with the cockroaches that he ground up in the blender whenever he could while the hag was completely insensible. He wished he could do something similar with the rats, but he’d figure it out sooner or later. Oliver could do anything that he wanted, anytime he wanted, and he was slowly beginning to realize this fact.
Tempting as it was to just be done with all of this, for the moment he was going to bide his time. Concoct a plan to make his leaving one that would be worth every last bit of all the pain and suffering he had endured. And this illustrious scheme came to full fruition a few weeks later as Oliver finally bid farewell to Ida Haggerty’s Children’s Home and Orphanage once and for all. It wasn’t going to be hard at all to leave the dank, smelly old decrepit Victorian-style house.
Not hard at all.
And why would it be?
It had never been his home and only a place where his parents had abandoned him as an infant because he was broken. Part of his master plan was getting closure with them after he got finality with Miss Haggerty. Presently, she wasn’t too happy about her circumstances but as he had learned from her, deportment forced you to succeed in being better.
Being perfect.
No amount of screaming or crying would help her out of this, something that Oliver had made sure of.
Not a thing had been left to chance.
While he had been on kitchen duty that evening, he had slipped a massive dose of sedatives into the large tureen of tomato soup that was meant to be served with dinner. Mr. Stevens, who had been there nearly as long as Miss Haggerty, was on medication for anxiety and sleep disorder. The man kept his pills hidden in his room as he knew that their discovery would put his position there in jeopardy. If Miss Haggerty was an example, the state wasn’t vetting the social workers that were in the system, but Oliver was sure that someone with a perceived mental illness would most assuredly be turned out.
After all, they had to think of the children, didn’t they?
Not even Miss Haggerty knew about the pills otherwise Mr. Stevens would have been out of there already. It was during his nighttime forays to the second floor that Oliver had found the labeled bottle in the recesses of Mr. Stevens’ medicine chest. The small wooden box occupied the top shelf of the closet, hidden behind extra blankets. The pills had been found underneath some Playboy magazines within the box. Looking at the pictures of the naked, buxom women made Oliver feel funny in his lower extremities, but he didn’t know how to deal with that, so he put the dirty magazines away and instead studied the bottle of pills.
He committed the name and dose of the drug to memory so that he could research it. After the last trip to the library, Oliver had not only read up on the pills but figured out exactly how many would be needed to effectively contaminate the soup.
Miss Haggerty was the only one in his crosshairs.
No one else.
He didn’t want to do away with the others even though it would have been very easy. Oliver had crept into Mr. Stevens’ room right after breakfast had been served on that last morning, knowing that the social workers were on duty in the many rooms on the first floor and preoccupied with the other children. Mr. Stevens wouldn’t be back up to his room until after dinner, at which point he would most likely be feeling too drowsy from the soup to notice his missing pill bottle.
Oliver hadn’t put in enough of the pills to kill anyone, but they would all sleep for hours and hours, dead to the world in which they wouldn’t hear a thing. Since he knew the kids were all locked in their rooms after lights-out, Oliver didn’t need to do anything to their bowls at all. They wouldn’t be able to get out of their rooms even if they did hear anything. And because he was always being made a spectacle of in front of everyone, Oliver knew that every child in the place was terrified of being sent to the basement so they wouldn’t dare disobey.
He had complained to Miss Haggerty once about the practice of locking them in being a fire hazard, something he’d read somewhere recently.
But she didn’t care.
She instead sent him to the basement for daring to challenge her in front of her staff. She didn’t know it, but Oliver had become very skillful at picking locks and was able to come and go at his leisure. Another thing he’d learned to do by reading about it from his stolen cache of library books. Also, because he was the only person at the orphanage that didn’t have a roommate, no one knew about his nighttime excursions. In fact, no one bothered with Oliver much at all, and was most likely afraid of being punished by association so he was persona non grata.
Then there was his arm, useless fucking thing, hanging at his side and that had scared them completely away. He used to long for even a single friend, but Oliver had learned years and years ago that the only one he could depend on was himself.
All of this was Miss Haggerty’s doing.
Bitch.
But no one was going to come to Miss Haggerty’s aid this time and Oliver was pretty sure quite of few of them would cheer him on, social workers included.
Bitch!
Bitch!
Bitch!
Oliver shook his head to get his anger in check and refocus on the tasks at hand.
It was easy to make sure that she received an untainted bowl of soup since he was always in the kitchen, cleaning it up, washing dishes, or helping with the serving and preparing the trays to go out. Often, he wasn’t allowed to eat at all until after dinner service was complete and by then his food was always cold. He hated nothing more than hot food not being hot. The bottom of the pot was his, leftover pieces of chicken or beef for him to eat even though he wasn’t allowed to use the stove to heat it back up. Once when he had tried to eat dinner beforehand, Miss Haggerty had slapped the food right out of his mouth. Hollered at him to clean up the mess and then she sent him to the basement so that he couldn’t sneak any food at all.
She locked him in with a deadbolt that even he couldn’t disengage. Made sure he stayed there all night, a first for both of them and Oliver had suffered through hunger pangs the entire time. This made him wonder if she somehow knew that he was able to get outside of his room after lights out. Just to be safe, he stayed in for a few weeks after everyone retired for the night and tried his best to behave.
To be perfect.
Yes, Miss Haggerty had it coming, so he decided to use food as a weapon of sorts against her. He had simply ladled out Miss Haggerty’s portion and then dumped the drugs into the pot afterward. Miss Haggerty’s bowl had gone out first and he had spit in it for good measure before taking it to the large table the adults all sat at. To keep it straight, Oliver opened up a can of chicken noodles for the kids, stating that there hadn’t been enough of the tomato variety. No one cared and he got the bowls out to the social workers first and then to the kids. This was important because Oliver wanted her to be wide awake for what was going to occur in just a little while.
Judgment Day.
It happened faster than he’d hoped, as one by one the social workers all started heading upstairs to bed. The kids too, because they were not allowed to be downstairs without adult supervision. There was some whining and complaining, but they went without too much more of a fuss. Oliver side-eyed Miss Haggerty and he obediently took up the rear as he headed upstairs and towards his small room. The young man heard first the click of the lock of his door and then a moment later the lights went out. Miss Haggerty always threw the switch at the end of the hall to either turn the lights on or off to make sure that no one was up past curfew.
It was something like a prison warden would do.
Now that he was ‘locked in’ for the night, Oliver sat on the edge of his bed and waited.
Patiently.
He had planned for this particular day because he had learned that this was the very day that began his eighteenth year. Oliver was legally an adult now and no longer a ward of the state, something he’d learned at the library, so he could simply leave. No one acknowledged his birthday nor had anyone discussed him leaving the orphanage, but he could leave. No one, not even Miss Haggerty, could do a damn thing about it either and he would leave, but not just yet. During his many quiet nights of snooping in Miss Haggerty’s office after hours, he had come across his file. The file cabinet drawer had been locked but picking the lock had been fairly simple. He had learned many things about himself that he had not known previously, such as the names of his biological parents.
Stuart and Elaine Perritt.
Perritt.
That was his last name and he had smiled as he tried it on for size the first time and he mouthed the word while reading through the thick file.
Oliver Perritt
It suited him.
More reading showed that when Oliver had been about eight years old, a private investigator had been sent there looking for him. Yet he had not been informed, nor did things change for the better. Instead, things got worse after that, and Miss Haggerty’s punishments included sending him to the basement more frequently. There was nothing further about what that entailed with the PI, but he was positive that Miss Haggerty knew something about it. Feeling his heart begin to race, he noticed a sheet of paper with Miss Susan’s name at the top of it. Oliver’s eyes skimmed over the sheet of the official-looking paperwork, and he shuddered a breath as he read about how Miss Susan had been wrongfully terminated, at least in his eyes, for trying to help him by filing a report with the regional manager. Miss Haggerty had exhausted all of her tricks and lies to cost Miss Susan her job, using made-up lies, the whole ordeal upsetting his savior so much that she stated that she could no longer do social work. Miss Susan had lost her whole career just to try and save him and even after all of this time, he loved her still for loving him. No wonder he had never heard from her again. Miss Haggerty had yet again interfered and made sure that Oliver had nothing.
A short time later, Oliver faced his nemesis once and for all in her final hour. Her nose was bleeding from when he’d sucker-punched her after catching her unaware in the back hallway to the basement. First, Oliver had made a commotion loud enough in the front vestibule just after three in the morning to rouse her so that Miss Haggerty would come down to see what was going on. Second, he had lain in wait against the shadows of the living room, watching her completely unaware of him as she gingerly crept towards the front door.
Now that she was on the first level of the house it was time for stage two. Oliver next headed towards the basement, making enough of a racket to divert her attention there. He’d already deduced that she’d tried to rouse one of the men to come down there with her, but Oliver had seen to it that none of them would be disturbed thanks to the soup. So, Miss Haggerty had come to the top of the basement stairs and opened the door to peer down. Before she could even fathom what was going on, Oliver had put his hand on her back and shoved her.
Hard.
She screamed, falling off balance as she lurched forward over the first three steps and then tumbled down the remaining six. Whimpering, Miss Haggerty lay on the floor as tears slid down her cheeks. There was a streak of blood on the hem of the long, white nightgown the old biddy wore.
Good.
Oliver tapped the cane, which he had stolen from Miss Haggerty’s room after she’d drunk herself to sleep, loudly as he descended the steps and loomed over her. The woman had been shocked to see him standing there and the first thing that she did was scream for help before Oliver struck her with the butt of the cane. In the same manner in which she had done to him many, many times to the point that he was able to do it to her expertly. Now she lay before him, cowering on the floor as her shoulders shook with sobs. When she finally fatigued herself and her cries whimpered off, Oliver fixed his best unwavering stare at her.
The one he’d learned from her.
“Who is Peter Stone?” Oliver asked in a strangely soothing tone as he held up the yellowed, card-stock rectangle containing the PI’s information.
He already knew, but he was curious to hear what she had to say.
Damned if he was going to bellow and snarl as she had always done to him.
No, he was in complete control.
When she didn’t say anything, he slammed the cane across the older woman’s shoulder blades as best as he could with his good arm. The wood reverberated in his hand as it hit home against her bones with a sickening crack. Miss Haggerty screamed and slumped over deeper into the floor. She wasn’t going anywhere. Her muted, blue-grey eyes darted to the yellowed business card Oliver held and then back to him as she remained quiet.
“Come n-now, Miss Haggerty.” Oliver reasoned continuing in that same soothing tone, as if the matron were a petulant child, “You’ve been holding out on me, knowing about my p-parents all this time and not saying a single word. Surely y-you don’t want to make this harder than it needs to be, do you?”
Silence.
It was this damn stutter of his that happened once in a while, and he hated it. He had wanted to show Miss Haggerty that he meant business, not sound like some scared asshole that couldn’t form a complete sentence. Miss Haggerty seemed like she was trying to hold back a smile as if she was going to laugh at him.
Bitch.
Oliver caned her again, her kneecap this time and she seemed to fall unconscious. A sharp slap against her cheek fixed that and she blubbered as he made ready to wallop her again.
“He is a private investigator.” She tearfully surrendered, but Oliver knew there was much more to Peter Sloane than that.
As he lifted the butt of the black cane, pointing it threateningly about an inch away from Miss Haggerty’s face, she swallowed deeply and told him the rest. Peter Stone had been hired by his biological parents to locate their son and bring him home. They had been urged by a social worker at the hospital to give Oliver up at birth due to his disfigured arm. They had been advised that it was better for him and them. But they hadn’t been able to take care of themselves, much less a crippled infant on top of everything else.
They were dirt poor.
But Stuart was a gambling man and a sudden windfall had reversed their fortune. Now he had wanted his son back and had sent the PI to the orphanage, believing that Oliver’s stay there was a fostering situation. Something temporary, as Stuart had been told at the time and Oliver had been left there with a promise that the couple would return for him when they could. Only they had never come back, at least that’s what Oliver had always believed. Now he was truly very angry at the loss of time that could have been spent with his family. Oliver had worked hard, for years, to control his emotions and he wasn’t going to sully that now and get worked up in front of Miss Haggerty. Let her see that she had gotten one over on him this time.
But he was also torn.
Stuart and Elaine should pay for what they did to him, leaving him like they had, just because he wasn’t perfect.
He would deal with them later.
Right now, he had a job to finish.
***
“Stuart and Elaine Perritt.” Oliver inquired as he spelled both firsts and the last name for good measure.
Getting a hold of the private investigator had been a dead-end since he seemed to be out of business according to information, but questions Miss Haggerty had answered about his parents got Oliver what he needed to get started. His file from the office would fill in the rest. With the home address of Stuart and Elaine in hand, Oliver took one last look around Miss Haggerty’s office to be sure that he hadn’t forgotten any of his paperwork.
He didn’t want to leave a facet of himself in this hellhole.
The sun would be up soon, and it was time for him to go before the others awoke from their deep sleep and found Miss Haggerty. He had taken his time with her in that dank, dark basement room, torturing her slowly, both physically and mentally, as the woman begged weakly for mercy. By the time Oliver was through Miss Haggerty had not only wet herself but had shit her pants as well. His experiment had gone perfectly and without a hitch. Oliver left the quivering old woman there, barely alive as she writhed in pain against the cold, stone floor. Her body shook as she blubbered and Miss Haggerty, again, pleaded for mercy. Ignoring her pleas, Oliver wiped down the head of the bloody, black cane with the hem of her tattered nightgown before he pivoted and stalked from the room.
Just before he closed the door, preparing to lock her in, he saw something in the shadows move out of the corner of his eye.
This was getting better by the minute.
Of course, he knew now that they wouldn’t attack her, as rats generally tried to stay as far away from humans as possible. But Miss Haggerty didn’t know that, and he was confident that this would do her completely in. She was already in poor health, an unconcealed observation made due to the years of drinking wearing her down by degree.
The sound of the cane tapping against the floor as he gripped it echoed through the empty basement corridors as Oliver Perritt exited the dimly lit passage and didn’t look back.
CHAPTER ONE
2019
––––––––
...breaking news. We have just received information that another woman, the third in the last six weeks, Portia Riley, was reported missing just this morning by family members. Miss Riley is twenty-six years old, and lives and works in the tri-state area. She was last seen coming out of a mid-town Starbucks coffee shop at approximately seven-thirty yesterday morning. Shortly afterward, her purse was found in an underground parking garage, well away from her normal route for that time of day. Like the previous cases, all of the women abducted have left no other clues behind, baffling police. This is a breaking story, and we will have more later. We now turn to the weather....
Letting out a cry as she was startled awake by the sudden noise filling the room, Avery Hansen blindly scrambled for the television’s remote control, her pink-manicured fingers feeling for the oblong, black device. Had she actually set the volume on the large flat-screen television this damned loud?
“Jesus...” she grumbled as blessed silence instantly filled the bedroom and the TV darkened.
It was preset with the volume up, the way that he always kept it. Five a.m. so that he could get a run in before work. Avery’s blue-green eyes rolled to the other side of the bed, the empty side of the bed and they filled with tears. Josh had been so angry last night when he left their apartment, more than she’d ever seen him in the four years they’d been together. A stupid, idiotic fight about where their relationship was heading. She wanted to get married and have a family, but Josh was living high on life and liked things the way they were.
Men.
They didn’t understand anything about biological clocks and the incessant longing that most women her age had about having babies. True, she was only twenty-four and had plenty of time, as he had pointed out, but two cousins on her father’s side had suffered through miscarriages, IVF, and a myriad of other disappointments. Avery wanted to get married now so that she could start having children while she still had a chance.
In case she needed extra help with getting pregnant.
But was she really being selfish, like he’d shot at her in the heat of the argument?
No.
She had simply made it clear that she wanted to be married and he knew that. Josh also knew that she wanted a family with him and that she felt marriage and children would complete them. Avery delighted in spending time on Zillow looking at houses, ones that had plenty of bedrooms and a big yard for children to play in.
Shaking her head, Avery snapped back the sheets and sat up, swinging her legs around to the side of the king-sized bed as she planted her feet on the carpeted floor. Her baby-blue iPhone was in her hands next, checking to see if there were texts, emails from Josh, or anything at all.
But there was nothing new.
Sighing dejectedly, Avery decided that two could play at that game and she headed off to take a shower. She appraised herself in the full mirror over the double sinks. Her body was taut and firm, she ate right and when she could get up that early, she sometimes ran with Josh. Her long strawberry-blonde hair shimmered in the harsh overhead lighting in the bathroom as she leaned closer to the mirror to examine her eyes.
Bloodshot.
“Visine!” she announced out loud as she rifled around in the medicine cabinet for the tiny, clear bottle.
Next, she looked at her teeth and what years of wearing braces had given her. A beautiful smile. Running her manicured, slender fingers through long tresses she twirled her hair upward, grappling for a tortoise-shell jaw clip to pin it all to the top of her head.
Her iPhone’s ring-tone played a tune just as she shut off the water six minutes later and she damn near broke her neck trying to get out of the tub to answer her phone. A beautiful, mocha-skinned face was on the screen wearing a wide, friendly smile as the phone continued to play the ring-tone.
Erin.
“Hey Erin,” Avery sighed, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice that it wasn’t Josh.
“Wow, good morning to you, too!” Erin replied in a sarcastic tone, which made Avery immediately apologize.
She filled her best friend in on what had happened, quickly, as she pulled her favorite brown, leather skirt off of its hanger. She had chosen a long-sleeved, cream-colored blouse to go with it. Brown, foldable ballet flats, her beloved Tieks, were ready for Avery to slip into. They were more comfortable than sneakers and she owned a pair in just about all available colors. There was a naysayer or two, who didn’t care for them, but her feet loved them, and they were super cute.
“You know how Josh is.” Erin reminded her, “Once he cools off, he’ll come back.”
Maybe, but Avery had never seen her boyfriend this pissed at her before and she was really worried that this might be it for them. It took a lot to get Josh mad and yet she had managed it.
“Forget about him,” Erin advised as Avery tried to muster up the same bravado. But all she could remember is how Josh had slammed out of their apartment late last night, making the windows rattle as he did. “I’m sorry Ayv, but if Josh was serious about you, he would have proposed already.”
And there it was.
The voice of reason that she so badly wanted to ignore but could not because everything being said was one-hundred percent correct. Only a best friend could give you uncomfortable news like that because it was for your own good. Deep down inside Avery knew that she wasn’t happy with this growing snarl in their relationship and if she was truly being honest, she hadn’t been in a long time. Josh would be content to stay as they were forever and that wasn’t what she wanted.
They had grown into a comfortable existence with one another, and Josh didn’t think they needed some piece of paper just to prove their love. Avery felt that it showed a lack of commitment from Josh and had told him so.
And that’s when the proverbial shit hit the fan and he’d left her alone, crying her eyes out. More tears were flowing now as Erin droned on about how Avery had to find someone who was more in tune with what she wanted and needed.
Someone more supportive.
But Avery didn’t want someone else.
She wanted Josh and only Josh.
Deciding to change the subject before Erin figured out that she was full-on and silently ugly-crying, Avery promised that she would be in touch later and ended the call. Erin was no fool and had known Avery long enough to understand how hard this separation between her and Josh was, knowing that her ex-roommate just needed some time to think.
***
Work that day wasn’t much better, Avery dragging herself around glumly as she completed her tasks as a graphic designer for a small web development start-up. She had almost called out that day, but Avery was required to work at least two days in the office and that very afternoon there was going to be a big meeting.
The only reason she had come in, to be honest.
The company was changing direction and Avery hoped that this didn’t mean that she was going to lose her job. It had already happened to her once a few years back and had taken forever for her to find another position. That’s when she decided to contract herself out, finding that she liked it and had learned a lot about what she was really worth. Avery actually had a lot of clients of her own on the side, something that her current employers were not aware of, but as long as that work didn’t interfere with her day job, she felt they didn’t need to know. However, it would still suck not to have a steady paycheck if she lost her job again. At least tomorrow she could work from home, that is, if she could actually focus on work and stop thinking about Josh.
Avery closed her eyes and envisioned the tall, broad-shouldered hunk that she’d fallen hard for after a chance meeting at her gym. His deep, dark, and expressive eyes had drunk her tall, fit frame in, and Josh had immediately invited her to have coffee after their training session. The two had been inseparable ever since, and Avery was sure that Josh was The One. Sure, it was natural for couples to have spats once in a while, but this was the first time since they’d known each other that they’d had one as bad as this.
She was scared to lose him.
And she was still lamenting about her situation at twenty minutes to five when Erin called to check on her.
“Whatcha doin’?” she asked, the din in the background very distracting.
Erin was a barista at a small, gourmet coffee shop on the Upper West Side. It was a great atmosphere, they had a huge social media presence, and they even had a bean roastery on the premises. A celebrity or two stopped in there once in a while, so the place was always doing well, and Erin loved working there. Her ultimate dream was to compete at the World Barista Championship in Melbourne, Australia next year. Every year the competition was held somewhere around the world, and this was perfect since Erin’s other dream was to visit Australia. Her boyfriend of two years, Kevin, hailed from Brisbane and according to Erin things were becoming serious between them.
Two birds, one stone.
Erin’s coffee skills and latte art were definitely on point, but she had some very stiff competition.
“Getting ready to get out of here.” Avery sighed, absently looking through the various take-out menus in her desk drawer to see which place she was going to get dinner from.
No sense in cooking tonight when she was going to be alone anyway. And just the thought of that made her eyes fill with tears as she stifled a sob. Erin was completely oblivious as she rambled on about how hectic her day was and how she was meeting up with friends in the city.
“Come with me.” She invited. “Katie has tickets and some of us going to that new comedy club in mid-town and then to get some apps and drinks somewhere after. It’ll be fun!”
“Not tonight, Erin. I think I’m just going to go home and....”
“And what? Sit around and wait for Josh to call?” Erin accused with perfect accuracy as Avery felt her cheeks reddening in embarrassment.
Busted.
“I’m just not feeling up to it....” Avery tried to beg off again, but Erin wasn’t having it.
“That’s it!” Erin snapped, startling her friend, “You are not going to sit around and mope at home over this. You are coming out with me and my co-workers tonight.”
“Erin....” Avery moaned, wanting to just go home and crawl under the covers and start the last twenty-four hours over.
Back to when she and her boyfriend were still on good terms.
Josh had still not called her at all today and she had cried about it in the ladies' room at work, to her embarrassment.
“I’ll meet you downstairs in the lobby in twenty and then we can get an Uber,” Erin ordered before the mid-toned, triple beep sounded in her ear, indicating that the feisty African-American woman had hung up already.
Sighing, Avery decided to visit the ladies' room before getting her things to leave. Just as she promised, Erin was waiting patiently in the lobby of Avery’s office building at five-ten when she exited the elevator banks.
“One round of drinks, coming up!” Erin cackled, hugging her as Avery shook her head, a smile creeping up onto her face. “There she is! We’re gonna have so much fun tonight. I promise!”
Maybe it would make her feel better to get out for the evening.
***
The music seemed slightly louder than it had been when the women had first been seated at a large table in the rear of a new bar off the beaten path. One of Erin’s co-workers had picked it, or one of the co-worker’s friends who had met them there or something. It was a nice place with ambient lighting and decent-looking food. By nine-thirty the place was packed butt-to-gut with the after-work crowd trying to unwind. But then again, there was no rule against coming out for a drink on a rainy Wednesday evening. After making sure that no one was paying attention to her, surreptitiously, Avery checked her iPhone, dismayed to see that Josh still hadn’t called. He had never gone this long without speaking to her. Dread filled Avery as she suddenly wondered if something had happened to him. Something to keep him from calling her.
“I’ll be right back! Ladies' room!” She shouted while motioning to Erin over the music as she slid out of the booth, leaving her best friend and six other women behind laughing and chattering over appetizers.
She was just going to call him.
Screw it
She didn’t care who was right and who was wrong anymore, Avery just wanted to hear Josh’s voice.
As she rounded the corner leading away from the noisy bar area and towards the restrooms to find a quiet spot to make her phone call, she heard a pained cry that made her ears perk up.
“Owww......stop it.... STOP IT, Joe! Joooooeeee.....!” the small, delicately thin woman begged as a tall, hulking man gripped her arms, tightly in an aggressive manner.
The man’s large biceps bulged as he manhandled the Latina, the young woman wincing as she was shoved roughly against the wall. She nearly toppled over in the four-inch heels she wore and a small scream tore from her throat. He had a multitude of colorful tattoos covering both arms, a closely shaven beard, and a mustache covering his olive-colored face. Thick, jet-black hair hung just to the collar of the plain, white t-shirt he wore. Blue jeans and steel-toed boots completed the look and Avery noticed a black, leather jacket on the floor between them.
Biker?
Maybe.
The Hispanic woman edged away from him now, her milk-chocolate brown eyes widening as she suddenly noticed Avery standing there gawking at them. Her red, polished lips quivered slightly as they parted to release a few words towards her male companion, and then it was the man’s turn to look over at where Avery stood with mean, dark eyes. Joe, or at least that’s who Avery guessed he was, wore an irritated expression now as he turned around and stalked away from his girlfriend, heading back towards the bar. The female shot her an embarrassed and apologetic glance as she passed the other woman, leaving Avery alone as she headed into the ladies' room.
What an asshole he is.
Avery didn’t miss the tears streaming down the woman’s cheeks, suddenly realizing that everyone had some sort of issues these days. She briefly felt sorry for the girl, but Avery had problems of her own at the moment.
Remembering the mission at hand she pressed the green button on the phone’s touch-screen, which was overlaid with a graphic of a white telephone receiver, and pulled up her contact list. She was just about to tap Josh’s name when she felt someone suddenly move up behind her. Jumping with a start as she gripped the phone to her breasts to hide the screen, Avery was humiliated to see Erin standing there wearing a knowing expression.
“Girl were you seriously going to call Josh!?” she asked, incredulously and with raised brows, as Avery stammered a reply and Erin held out her hand. “Nope. Gimmie. Come on.”
Reluctantly, Avery handed over her phone.
“No Josh tonight. We’re supposed to be having fun, remember?” her friend said, sadness in her eyes as she noticed Avery’s clouding over, “Don’t worry, Ayv, he’ll probably call you later tonight or first thing tomorrow.”
And Avery knew that Erin was one-hundred percent right. He wasn’t an unreasonable man, and he had to have cooled off by now.
“You know he loves you.” The curvaceous woman reminded her, “You remember how broken up he was when you got mugged that time? Crying and stuff when he had to come to get you from the emergency room? Josh is crazy about you, and you know it.”
Avery did recall that difficult time a year ago.
She had been in Central Park one Saturday afternoon, waiting for Josh to come for her after working a rare weekend, and she’d been mugged. Right there, in broad daylight. It had happened so fast, her head had spun, and the man had tried to take it even further by dragging her into the bushes to do God-knows-what. Luckily, a group of college kids had come to her rescue, running the guy off before any real harm, besides the loss of her previous iPhone, had been done. Josh had blamed himself, but who would have thought a mugger would attack right in the middle of the park in the early afternoon hour on a Saturday when the green space was the most occupied?
But then again, that was New York City for you.
So, she and Erin had decided to take self-defense classes in the event something like this ever happened again. Avery also never went to Central Park alone again either. Ironically, the mayor had recently placed more police patrol to cover the park, but Avery wasn’t taking any chances. She and Erin had learned a great deal in the class as they kicked the shit out of the poor instructor, who had been wearing protective gear for the lessons. Why should she be the one all up in arms over this when Josh was the one who had started the argument in the first place?
Erin was right.
He was probably already back at home and having a beer in front of the television, waiting for her to come home. So back to the table they went, just as a platter of Buffalo wings and loaded French fries was set down on the table for them.
“Yes! Starving to death....” Erin exclaimed, snatching up a couple of wings and then looking for the blue-cheese dressing that was usually served with Buffalo wings at just about every bar and pub across the nation.
Avery hungrily took some of the wings and used her fork to spear a few of the French fries. Her diet was wrecked, and she knew better than to eat this garbage, but she didn’t care at the moment. She always craved junk when she was depressed, so she would worry about the damage tomorrow. Raising her hand in the air, she beckoned their server over so that she could order a beer.
To hell with it!
***
“Are you ready?” Erin asked, easing into her light jacket as the others began getting to their feet an hour or so later. “Oh, here you go.”
Avery took back her cell phone with a little chuckle, realizing that Erin had been right to stop her from calling Josh. She had managed to have a really good time tonight and Avery was glad that she had come out with them.
“Thanks.”
“You know what? Let me run next door and get a pack of cigarettes real quick. They should still be open, I think...” Erin mused as Avery nodded, getting into her jacket.
Why Erin smoked, Avery didn’t know but she had tried numerous times to get her friend to quit. As it was, she was slightly overweight, so the smoking certainly didn’t help matters. But Erin had picked up the habit in college and unfortunately, it had stuck.
“Take your time. I’m going to the ladies' room and then I’ll meet you out front. I think those wings screwed up my stomach....” Avery muttered, as Erin nodded and made her way to the front door.
“If you throw up, I am laying their shit bare on Yelp,” Erin promised, and Avery laughed.
Something was going on between her gut and the wings or, more likely, it was that last beer she had drunk. She didn’t drink alcohol often, being more of a social drinker. Josh used to tease her about being a lightweight when they had first started dating and she refused alcoholic beverages most times. Or maybe it was because she had overdone it with the fries and then the huge slice of strawberry cheesecake she had split with Erin.
As Avery passed the bar, she saw the Spanish woman in the red dress from before waving at her from a stool. Her slender arm, piled high with gold bangles, was raised in the air as she waved Avery over, patting the empty stool beside her. Unable to pretend she hadn’t noticed the girl, Avery pasted on a smile and sauntered over.
“Hi.” The young woman greeted, sticking out her hand. “Carmen.”
“Avery. Hi.” Avery replied, shaking it.
“I just wanted to apologize to you for before, you know, what happened back there with my boyfriend.”
“Oh. No worries.” Avery assured Carmen, a smile of her own slowly appearing, “Actually, it’s none of my business but....”
“I know how awkward that whole deal must have been.” Carmen lamented with a somewhat thick Spanish accent to her voice, “I keep trying to work things out with Joe but.... oh, sorry. Do you want to sit down?”
“I am on my way to the ladies' room and my friend....”
“Gotcha,” Carmen said with a sad smile on her face. “You two look pretty close. Have you known each other long?”
“We used to be roommates back in college and then we were roommates again once we both moved to New York from Texas.” Avery babbled, reddening slightly as she wondered why she was telling a complete stranger her business. But Carmen had an endearing look about her that instantly made Avery feel comfortable and at ease.
“Texas? Wow, I’ve always wanted to visit there! I love your accent.” Carmen said, which made Avery laugh.
All this time she’d been living up north she thought that she had lost her accent.
Guess not.
“Thank you, I love yours too. Where are you from, originally?”
“Ecuador.”
Avery’s eyes widened slightly as she smiled and gave an impressed nod.
“Wow, that’s awesome. It’s pretty far away, huh? I’ve never been to South America.”
“Yes, but it’s okay. I would love to visit Texas someday, though.”
“You should do it.” Avery prompted, smiling at her new acquaintance, “You’d love it there.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Carmen beamed, taking a leisurely sip of her Cosmopolitan.
“Well, sorry to run off but I have to visit the ladies’ room and my friend is probably waiting for me outside...”
“Sure. Nice talking to you, Avery. And thanks again.”
Avery smiled and nodded as she left Carmen at the bar and entered the bathroom.
As she sat on the toilet inside one of the two stalls, Avery exhaled as she reached into her purse for her mobile phone. Peeing gave her some relief, but she didn’t feel as if she needed to move her bowels, although her stomach still felt weird. Looking again, she saw that it wasn’t there at all which meant that she must have dropped it somewhere between the table and the restroom.
“Dammit...” she swore out loud, finishing up and flushing the toilet. As she quickly washed her hands at the sink, the bathroom door suddenly opened, and Carmen was there.
“Oh, I’m so glad that you’re still here. I think you dropped this...” she said, holding up the small cell phone, a smile on her pretty face.
“My phone.” Avery laughed, reaching for it. “Thanks....”
As their hands touched, the blue iPhone bobbled between both sets of fingers before crashing loudly to the bathroom floor.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry to be so clumsy...”
“No big deal....” Avery shrugged off the overall strange feeling moving through her, squatting down to get the phone and discovering that she felt the sudden need to sit.
“Avery? What is it?” Carmen asked, with a tinge of panic in her voice. “Oh my God, are you okay?”
She was okay, or at least she thought that she was okay, but something was off.
“I...I....” Avery murmured as she attempted to make words, the gibberish coming from her mouth sounding as if she were speaking in some foreign tongue.
As she tried to get up, she was shocked to feel her feet sliding against the tiled floor as Carmen took her up under her arms. Carmen was speaking to her, but Avery could not comprehend what the woman was saying as she felt herself topple heavily to the floor.
“You’re not okay.” Carmen declared as she picked up Avery’s phone, “Where did you say your friend was? Can I call her for you? I’m going to get some help...”
Avery tried to answer but could not as the room began to grow hazy. All she wanted to do was lie down, which is exactly what she did as sight and sound faded completely away.
***
Eye-gouge, throat-jab, elbow-hook, groin-kick.
Eye-gouge, throat-jab, elbow-hook, groin-kick.
Eye-gouge, throat-jab, elbow-hook, groin-kick.
This was the jumble of thoughts that permeated the thick fog in her head, tactics that she had learned in that self-defense class last year, yet she didn’t do any of them. She couldn’t, despite knowing that she was in extreme danger. It felt like everything was a dream, as Avery faintly became aware of what was happening around her.
The loud hum of the bathroom’s hand-dryer sounded somewhere to her right and she could hear someone crying softly. Different faces floated above her now and they seemed vaguely familiar. A flash of an arm, a tattoo of a rose looming too close and Avery wanted to swat the stranger away from her.
Her arms wouldn’t work properly even with her best efforts.
Neither would her legs.
She briefly made out glossy, scarlet-red nail polish on the toes peeking out from the black high-heeled shoes that were directly in her line of sight.
“......she will......” a high-pitched voice, female, filtered into Avery’s ears as she again tried to move. “....her friend....”
“...take...care...” the deeper, male voice rumbled as she suddenly felt herself being moved.
No, not moved but lifted as the overhead circles of light on the ceiling sharpened into focus before blurring again.
“...worry...” a male voice rumbled as an echo in her ears.
Fighting was fruitless and the young woman sank deeper into the darkness that she was so desperately fighting off.
Sleep...that’s it, Avery....just sleep....
Whether the calm voice was real or imagined, that’s just what Avery Hansen did.
***
There was a buzzing in her ears, long and reverberating as she slowly regained consciousness. Avery groaned as she tried to open her eyes but found that she felt better keeping them closed for the moment. Beeping. Something was beeping. A hiss and she could hear someone moving about nearby. Fingers probed her closed eyelids, peeling them open as a bright light blinded her.
“She’s coming around.” a female voice spoke softly, as the darkness returned and Avery allowed it, with relief.
She dozed off for a little while and when she awoke there was a medicinal smell in the air as the beeping continued in the background. It took her a moment to realize that she was in the hospital, the repetitive sound from the heart monitor near her bed. Avery couldn’t be sure, but there was something wrong with her arms and legs. She didn’t know if she couldn’t feel them or not because she could not move anything. She tried to wiggle her toes, which thankfully she was able to do, but she could not move her legs.
That’s when Avery realized that soft restraints were encasing them at the ankles, the material foreign against her bare skin. It was the same deal with her wrists, although she could move her hands without too much difficulty. The same soft cuffs held fast against the railing of the bed as she tried to free her arms. Again and again, Avery jerked her arms but to no avail as the beeping increased. She was stuck.
Next, she tried to move her legs as she twitched them back and forth, the panic growing in her as she realized that she was tied to the bed. A further examination of her left arm showed that there was a peripherally inserted central catheter, or what was commonly known as a PICC line, in it.
An IV? What the hell’s going on?
Since her mother had been a nurse, it was something that Avery was familiar with. The clear fluid bag that hung up on a stand high above the bed caught her eye, as she watched a single drop disappear into the long tubing at the base of it. She was nearly falling back to sleep again, lulled by the gentle beeping since she’d stopped struggling and her heart rate resumed its normal pace.
Wake up!
A voice inside her cried, jostling her awake as she stared back at the bag again. Another drop repeated the motion of the first one a moment later. The door to her right suddenly opened and a wrinkly-faced, older woman entered the room wearing a smile. She looked like she could be someone’s grandmother with her short fluff of bright, white hair and maternal features.
“Don’t fret, dear,” she said, moving closer to the bed to lay a comforting hand on the side of Avery’s head in a motherly fashion. “You’re going to be all right.”
“Where....”
“You are safe now, and that’s all that matters.” the woman said, in a calm tone of voice as she turned towards the dresser across the room.
A crystalline decanter sat on top of a clear, plastic tray and the woman poured some water into a matching goblet.
“Drink this,” she urged softly, helping Avery hold her head up as the young woman greedily imbibed. “There you go....”
“Where.....what happened....” Avery tried again, but the woman put the glass back to her lips.
She gulped down the water greedily and then sat breathing heavily from her exertions.
“The doctor will see you shortly.” the woman, who Avery now surmised was a nurse judging by the white uniform she wore. “You just rest and I’ll be right back.”
The nurse left, pulling the door closed behind her and Avery could have sworn she heard the click of a lock being turned. As more of the fog began to lift from her head, Avery took a good look around what appeared to be a hospital room. Aside from the dresser, there was a nightstand that contained a simple tissue box and the water glass the nurse had put there. A rolling bed tray stood over to one side of the hospital bed that she was in, but there was nothing on it.
My phone.
Where’s my phone?
And as Avery looked around further, she noticed that her clothes were also nowhere to be seen. Neither were her shoes, her purse, or anything else that belonged to her. She pulled at the soft restraints again just as the nurse entered the room again, wearing the same, serene smile. An orderly had followed her this time, bearing a large tray with a dome-covered plate on top of it.
“Careful,” the nurse cautioned, moving forward to help Avery sit up, “We’ll get you situated so that you can try some breakfast.”
Breakfast? How long have I been here?
“Where’s my stuff? I need my phone....”
“Don’t you worry about that right now, dear. Eat your breakfast like a good girl and the doctor will see you shortly.”
“No. I’m not hungry and I would like my phone, please. I need to call my......”
“Let’s not make things difficult.” the nurse warned, never losing the calm tone of voice that was starting to grate on Avery’s nerves. “You must be hungry since you didn’t eat at all yesterday.”
“What are you talking about?” Avery asked, eyes agape, “How long have I been here? And why am I being restrained...”
“I’m sorry, dear.” the nurse said, legitimately looking a bit sorrowful as she placed her warm hands over Avery’s, making the girl want to cringe at the unwarranted familiarity of this stranger. “You had a bit of....trouble...settling in when you first came to us. The restraints are for your own protection as well as for ours, you do understand?”
No, she didn’t understand.
She wanted to leave.
Now.
“Well, I feel fine, okay?” Avery lied, trying to ignore the fact that something was still off within her somewhere. She stood her ground as she cut her eyes first at the nurse and then the large orderly, hard. “My phone, please.”
Josh had to be out of his mind with worry if she’d been here as long as the nurse had said.
“Robert,” she stated as she ignored Avery’s request, gesturing towards the hulking orderly staring at her from across the room, silently, “will be taking care of you during your stay...”
Forgetting about being polite at this point, Avery erupted and raised her voice to be sure that she was not being misunderstood. They couldn’t just keep her here and she wasn’t putting up with it anymore. She would sue the goddamned hospital the moment she got out of here, making sure whatever doctor this crazy bat was talking about was at the very top of her list.
“No, you don’t seem to hear me. I’m not staying here.” Avery interrupted rudely as the glare she cast at Robert shot spite and malice. Then she got bold on them and began swearing to drive home her point. “Let me the fuck out of here! NOW!!”
Avery thrashed on the bed, the restraints fraying against the force of her body pulling on them, screaming at the top of her lungs as the food tray got knocked over during her tantrum.
“Calm, you must be calm....” the nurse repeated over Avery’s screams, as Robert used his big mitts to forcefully grip her arms.
“No!” Avery shouted and then began screaming again as she saw that Robert had a large syringe, the long tip of its cap in between his teeth as he smoothly pulled the barrel affixed to the needle away and inserted it into her arm.
“Noooooooo......”Avery howled as the heaviest of feelings began to come over her entire body. Her thrashings and convulsions from trying to break free grew less and less animated as she sank into the mattress, her eyes rolling up into her sockets as she fell still now.
“There we go......there we goooo.....” the nurse’s voice faded away as Avery gave up the fight and went into the darkness.
Get “The Doctor” today
