When Justin woke up, he was completely in the dark. The back of his head felt like a knife was piercing it. It hurt like hell. It took him a few seconds to adjust to his surroundings. He wasn’t in the woods. Underneath him was concrete. On every side of him and above him were the wires of a cage.
His head was bandaged. He reached into his pocket. The gun he had been carrying was gone. He tried to stand up. But couldn’t. The space he was confined to wouldn’t allow it. That’s when it dawned on him. He was in a cage.
The area he was in was cold and damp. Small drops of water were dripping from above him. His first thoughts were that he was buried somewhere, perhaps in a cave or an abandoned mine. The Ozark hills were full of those. He screamed. But his screams became echoes. He was underground. Justin was certain of that. There was barely enough room for him to turn his body.
He pushed the cage door with all his might. It wouldn’t budge. The door was locked. He moved his hands around every part of the cage, searching for any openings or weak spots. There were none. He was trapped like an animal.
The intense darkness was frightening. He took long, slow, deep breaths trying not to panic.
Have I been buried alive? Justin wondered. Am I deep in the woods, hidden from others, left there to die? An awful feeling came over him. He had no water, no food and no way out. This would be a terrible way to die, he thought.
Justin tried to focus on good thoughts. Someone bandaged my head. That person must want to keep me alive.
Then he heard a sound. It sounded like a door being opened. That was when he saw the ray of light that broke through the darkness. At first, the light burned his eyes. He needed time to adjust to it. The light shined directly on him. He squinted his eyes to see where it was coming from. There was a shadowy figure behind the light. He couldn’t make out the person, only their silhouette.
“I brought you some food and bottled water,” a female voice said.
From behind her, a man’s voice said, “Turn over on your back and lift your hands to the top of the cage and leave them there.”
“Who are you?” Justin asked.
“It’s your buddy, Earl,” he said. “Now, shut up and do as you were told.”
Justin turned over on his back and lifted his hands.
“Good boy,” Earl said. “Now, don’t move.”
Justin could hear the cage door opening. That’s when he saw Risa put a sandwich down inside the cage along with a bottle of water. She backed out of the cage, and Earl shut and locked the cage door.
“Eat up, buddy. You’re going to need your strength,” Earl said before locking the cage door and backing out of the room.
Risa stayed behind just outside the cage. “I’m so sorry for the loss of your father and everything that has happened to you, Justin. I never wanted you to get hurt. I still love you, Justin. But I’m afraid that I can’t help you anymore. By blowing up the meth lab and the transportation building, you’ve made a lot of powerful and dangerous people angry. They want you to tell them who else knows about the drugs. They want to know if you are working with anyone else. They know that Clay helped you. They want to know where he is. These are extremely bad people, Justin. I’m afraid they are going to make you suffer if you don’t tell them what they want to know.”
“Where am I, Risa?” Justin asked.
“You’re in the basement of the condominium, in the room hidden in the ground. They brought you here after they found you unconscious in the woods. I bandaged your head.”
“Are you involved with the drugs, Risa?”
“No, I detest drugs. I hate what they are doing. But I’m afraid there is nothing that I can do about it. I am as much of a prisoner as you are. I lost their trust when I cheated on Richard with you. The only reason they keep me alive is because Richard won’t let them harm me. I’m safe as long as Richard is here. He assured them I didn’t tell you anything about the drugs. He assured them that I would keep quiet, that he could control me.”
“How is Richard involved?” Justin asked.
“I don’t know exactly. He’s a good man. I’ve known him since I was in middle school. He would never hurt me or intentionally put me in danger. Maybe that’s why he refuses to talk about the drugs or the people he is involved with. I’ve got to think that he was misled, that he didn’t know what he was getting involved with. Richard has never taken drugs. He detests them as much as I do.”
“Risa, what about Earl? How is he involved?” Justin asked.
“I don’t know. The first time I saw him was a few days ago, at a party in the condo. I thought he was a friend of Karl Gholson, but I really don’t know. Like I said, they don’t share any information with me.”
“Can you help me get out of here, Risa?”
“No. I’m afraid there is no way out of the jam you are in. They only allowed me to come down here to persuade you to cooperate with them. Tell them everything they want to know. Otherwise, I’m sure they are going to hurt you. I wish there was something I could do for you, Justin, but if I help you, then I will jeopardize my own life. I hope you understand. Please tell them everything you know. They promised me that they wouldn’t hurt you if you cooperate.”
“Do you really believe that, Risa?”
“I want to. Like I told you, Justin. I still love you.” Then Risa left, shutting and locking the door behind her.
Justin was left completely in the dark, cold, afraid and confused. Risa didn’t love him. He was certain of that. Maybe she had feelings for him, but it certainly wasn’t love. She loved Richard. He was the one she had chosen. Justin was no more than a port in the storm. He was a way of getting back at Richard. Maybe she was mad at him. Maybe she was hurt by him. Whatever it was, she used Justin to get back at him. And now, because of his relationship with Risa, he was in danger. His life was being threatened, and his father had been murdered.
No, that isn’t fair to her, Justin told himself. “She isn’t responsible for the trouble I’m in. She is in nearly as much danger as I am. She is trapped in an unwinnable situation. She fell in love with the wrong person. Richard had put her life in danger. Now she had no way out. She had to do what she was told.
Still, Justin could never have feelings for her again. Instead of putting her trust in him, she had chosen Richard. She may not have been involved in the drug trade on campus, but her boyfriend was.
Justin laid on the cold concrete floor. He had no blanket to keep him warm. He could barely move. The peanut butter sandwich Risa had left him was soggy from the raindrops coming down from cracks in the ceiling. He ate it anyway. He was starving. He drank some of his water and left the remainder for later. He turned his thoughts from Risa to his mother. She had to be worried sick about him by now. She had lost her husband just a few days earlier, and now she had to be thinking that she might lose her son too. It had to occur to his mother that Justin went back to Branson to seek revenge for the murder of his father. The fact that she hadn’t heard back from him since he left had to be weighing heavy on her.
Sometime later, his thoughts turned into dreams, and he fell asleep.
He was awakened abruptly several hours later when his cage door was opened, and he was dragged out by his feet. He was taken to a room on the other side of the basement. The door was opened, and inside stood Sheriff Roscoe Dale.
“Sit him at the table, boys,” he said to the two men.
“Should we handcuff him, Sheriff?” one of the men asked.
“Naw, I don’t think they’ll be a need for that,” he said. “I think Mr. Wade wants to cooperate. Isn’t that right, Mr. Wade?”
Justin nodded.
“Can the boys get you a cup of coffee, Mr. Wade?
“No thanks,” Justin said.
“Suit yourself.”
“We’ll be right outside if you need us, Sheriff,” one of the men said as he exited the room and shut the door.
“Well, Justin, you’ve caused us quite a bit of trouble, not to mention a lot of money,” the Sheriff said. “I got to tell ya, some of my associates didn’t want us to bring you back alive from the woods. They aren’t very forgiving of people that try to hurt their business. I’m afraid it was some of those people that took care of your daddy last week. I’m sure that you realize that car bomb was meant for you. I had to persuade them that you’re more valuable alive right now than you are dead. But I doubt that I will be able to continue to persuade them if you refuse to cooperate. Do you understand, Justin?” Justin nodded his head. “Good. We’ll start with a few simple questions. Do you know where your friend Clay is?”
“No. I told him to run after the explosion at the lab,” Justin replied.
“Well, come on, Justin. You must have some idea where he went. I’m thinking you two must have talked about what you would do after you blew the hell out of our property.”
“We talked about going to the police. I don’t know that he would go to the local police, for good reason, so I figure he would have gone to Springfield or someplace like that.”
“How did he plan to get out of town?”
“We stole a truck in Branson. The doors were unlocked, and the keys were in it. I assume that’s how he got out of town.”
“Yeah, that was Lester Calhoun’s Ford pickup. He reported it stolen a little after you took it. We found the truck abandoned on the north side of town last night.”
“Well, maybe he stole another car.”
“Yeah, maybe. But I don’t think so. Branson’s a small town. If he stole a local’s car, they would have surely reported it to me by now. Do you have someone else working with you boys?”
“No, we were by ourselves.”
“Where’d you get the explosives?”
“There’s a construction area north of town where the State stores dynamite to blow up mountain boulders to clear the way for the new highway.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured. Tell me who you told about the drug operation.”
“I didn’t tell anyone. Karl Gholson told me not to. So did Richard.”
“Come on, son. You don’t really expect me to buy that, do you? Who did you talk to?”
“I talked to three of my teammates, the three that were with me the night we broke into the transportation building.”
“Yes, we know about them. As I’m sure you know by now, Earl is one of us. He shared everything you talked about. Your other two friends have been dealt with. It’s safe to say they won’t be talking to anyone.”
“Who else have you talked to, Justin?”
“I talked to Risa. But you know that.”
“Yes, we know that. Son, you’re not very good at picking girlfriends, are you?”
“Speaking of that, what did you tell your girlfriend in Kansas City? I believe her name is Elise, isn’t it? Did you tell her about Risa? I bet you didn’t share with her that you slept with Risa, did you? I don’t think she’d be very understanding, do you? Did you happen to tell her about what you saw in the woods or what you found in the transportation building? Did you tell her about the money you made from the drug run to St. Louis?”
“No, she doesn’t know anything. We broke up before I started at S of O. She’s dating someone else now.”
“Oh, Justin, I was hoping you wouldn’t lie to me.” Then Sheriff McClain raised his fist and hit Justin with all his force in the right jaw. Justin went tumbling off the chair, landing on the concrete floor. “Don’t lie to me again, boy. I won’t be so gentle to you next time,” he said, lifting Justin up and sitting him back in the chair.
“I know you two were together the night your dad was killed. Did you tell her anything about us or the drugs?”
“No, I swear. I didn’t want to get her involved.”
“How about her daddy? He’s a captain on the Kansas City police force. Did you tell her daddy, son?”
“No, I didn’t tell him anything.”
“I hope you’re right, son. I’d hate to mess up her pretty face. You should know that we have eyes watching her and your mother and brother too.”
Justin looked shocked that he mentioned his mother and Brian. “Don’t look so surprised, son. We know Elise’s daddy moved your family to a safe house, and we know exactly where it is.”
That statement struck a nerve with Justin. His only hope of surviving was that Clay was able to escape to Kansas City and tell Elise’s dad what was going on. But, if the Sheriff was right and someone was watching Elise’s house and the safe house, then Clay, Elise and his family were all in danger.
“What did you take from the transportation building the night you broke into it?” Sheriff McClain asked.
“Just the key to the hidden room. That’s the only thing I took, and you got that back from my dormitory room.”
“That is consistent with what Earl told me. Son, I believe you are telling me the truth. I want you to know that if it was up to me, I would make your death quick. You wouldn’t suffer. But unfortunately, you upset some very powerful people. They aren’t as understanding as me. They want you to suffer. The end result will be the same, but they insist that your death be slow and painful.”
“Can you answer one question for me, Sheriff?”
“Depends on what that question is.”
“How is Earl Myers involved?”
“Yeah, he really fooled you, didn’t he?” Roscoe said with a smile. “It’s his property that the meth lab is built on. He’s the nephew of Karl Gholson. His older brother, Jason, is the head of campus security. Hell, son, they run the whole operation.”
That’s when the sheriff yelled for the two men that had been waiting outside the door to come back in.
“Son, these boys are going to take you back to the cage. But, first, the people you hurt by destroying the lab and the transportation building insist that I give you a message of their displeasure with you.”
Roscoe signaled to the two men entering the room. They grabbed Justin’s arms and lifted him out of his chair. Roscoe moved a wicker chair to the corner of the room. Then he cut the wicker out of the seat portion of the chair with a sharp knife. The two men put handcuffs on Justin’s hands and moved him to the wicker chair. They placed a large block of wood between Justin’s feet and ankles so he could not close his legs.
Roscoe opened the desk drawer and pulled out a rope approximately three feet long. Attached to the end of the rope was a baseball.
“This will be very painful, son. But only for a few seconds. Then you’ll pass out. But I’m afraid that pain is going to stay with you for a long time,” Roscoe said with a smile as he moved directly in front of Justin. “Hope you’re not planning on using your Johnson for a while, son,” he said with a chuckle.
Roscoe swung the rope several times, gaining momentum with each swing. Then he swung the ball between Justin’s legs and directly into his ball sack with such force he could hear a crack. Justin’s screams shook the walls. A few seconds later, he passed out.
When he awoke hours later, the pain was intense, so intense that his legs had gone numb from the pain. Through his tears, he could tell that he was back in the cage. The area was completely dark. He had no idea how long he was unconscious nor whether it was daytime or nighttime. He laid in agony for several hours when he heard the door open and saw the light from the basement. Standing in front of the cage, carrying a paper plate of scrambled eggs and a plastic bottle of water, was Risa.
She opened the cage door and put the food and water down in front of Justin. Then she shut and locked the cage door. “Eat the eggs. You’ll feel better,” she said. “I put some pain pills inside them,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry, Justin. I wish there was something I could do. Eat the eggs. Then, try to sleep,” she said as she walked out of the room, locking the door behind her.
After eating the eggs, the pain softened. He got tired and fell asleep. He dreamed of his high school days, his running, his friends, his family and Elise. He thought about his dad and the good times they had. He thought about what his life would have been like had he never decided to come to S of O, had he never met Risa. He thought about the wonderful life he had just a few months earlier. He dreamed of escaping and going back home. He dreamed of being able to start his life over, of being able to make different decisions, of being able to take a different fork in the road. He wished that everything he had gone through was no more than a nightmare he would soon awaken from.
His sleep was interrupted abruptly when a bucket of ice water was thrown on his head.
“Get up, son. It’s playtime again,” Roscoe said, laughing.
Two men dragged him out of the cage, into the basement and back to the secret room. They sat him in a chair next to a table and handcuffed his right hand to the leg of the table. Then, they tied his legs to the chair so he couldn’t move. For a few seconds, the intense pain he had was interrupted by the fear he had for what was coming next.
Roscoe sat down at the desk opposite Justin and smiled. Then he pulled out a metal instrument that looked like thin metal pliers on one side and a flat-head screwdriver with a sharp blade on the other. “Bet you’ve never seen one of these before, have you, son?” he said with a smile. “It’s a very effective tool for peeling back fingernails and removing the nail right down to the skin. Did you know that there are more sensitive nerves located in the raw skin underneath a fingernail than in almost any other part of the body? I understand that peeling back a fingernail is one of the most painful things a person can experience. Now, I don’t know that personally, but I’m hoping you can confirm it for me.”
Roscoe used the sharp side of the instrument to dig underneath the fingernail. As soon as he began, Justin began to scream in pain. “You know, son, that the most agonizing part of this procedure is that you won’t pass out. You’ll be awake the entire time to realize the full extent of the pain,” Roscoe said.
Once he had dug underneath the nail and just beneath the surface of the skin, he pulled the blade out and turned the instrument around. With the thin, metal pliers, side open, he latched onto the nail, tightened the grasp and twisted the instrument to pull the nail backward.
Justin begged him to stop. He screamed at the top of his lungs. The pain was incredible. Blood flowed from the raw, exposed skin underneath his fingernail.
With one final twist and pull, Roscoe completely removed the fingernail. He duplicated the same procedure for each of the five fingers on Justin’s left hand. Once all the nails were removed, exposing the raw, blood-soaked skin underneath, he pulled out a container of salt from his desk drawer.
“I have been told that pouring salt into an open wound causes intense pain that is similar to having a major limb cut off without the benefit of any pain medication. The good thing is that you won’t suffer more than a few minutes before you pass out,” Roscoe said with a sick smile.
Various types of torture continued every few hours for the next two days. He endured two wisdom teeth pulled out with pliers, sleep deprivation by using intense lights and loud noises, waterboarding and strangulation until he passed out.
Twice every day, Risa appeared at his cage. She brought him food and water. She cried. She prayed with him. She told him how sorry she was that he was suffering the way he was. But she always left, locking the cage and door behind her and giving him no hope of escape.
Sometime on the third day of his captivity, the door was opened, the light shined in from the basement, and he saw Richard and Roscoe standing over him. “Pack your bags, son. You’re going for a trip,” Roscoe said.
Ten men coming into the room behind them pulled Justin out of the cage and into the basement. They tried to walk him up the basement stairs, but his legs gave out on him. So, they carried him up the stairs and out the door to a plain, white cargo van inside the garage. They opened up the back of the van and put him in. Inside the cargo area of the van was a small rowboat. Richard climbed in the back with Justin.
“Just relax,” Richard said, pulling out a needle from a small box he was carrying. “This will help you,” he said, injecting the needle into Justin’s arm.
Roscoe climbed in the front seat of the van along with Karl Gholson. “I thought I’d take this trip with you, Justin,” Karl said, looking back at him from the passenger seat. “I warned you a while back that you should play ball, that you shouldn’t cause any waves. You have no one to blame but yourself for the situation you’re in.”
Roscoe started the engine, and the van rolled out of the garage. It was dark outside. It was the first time in three days that Justin had any idea what time of day it was.
The moon was behind the clouds that night. A soft, gentle rain came down. A low-hanging fog came off the lake’s surface and made visibility difficult.
That night reminded Justin of the evening he saw the boys being pulled from the campus pond, the night he saw the blood in the fountain.
As the van drove the side roads toward campus, the rain intensified. Thunder, followed by lightning, came over the mountains to the north of the campus. The squeaking sound of worn windshield wipers on high speed echoed over the sound of heavy rain slamming with the roof and sides of the van.
“It’s a good night for a swim, don’t you think, Mr. Wade?” Roscoe said from the driver’s seat.
The van stopped briefly as it entered the gates at the top of the hill at the entrance to campus.
“Go on in,” he heard a security guard say as the van began to move through the gates and onto campus.
The lights on the lamp posts throughout the campus were on, although their glow was blurred through the dense fog.
The students must be back from Christmas break, Justin thought. But it must be the middle of the night. The dorms are probably locked, and most of the students are sound asleep.
Justin could see the glow of the fountain lights off to the left side as the van came to a stop. He felt funny. Whatever Richard shot into his veins was beginning to take hold. His entire body was warm. He could barely move his legs and his arms. They felt so heavy. He tried with all his strength to move them. He couldn’t. It was as if his entire body was paralyzed. He tried to close his eyes, but his eyelids wouldn’t move. It was impossible for him to control any part of his body.
The van stopped. The engine was turned off, and the headlights went dark. A few seconds later, the back door to the van opened up. The rain was coming down in sheets now, pouring into the van and onto Justin. But he couldn’t feel a thing.
Richard grabbed Justin underneath his armpits. Roscoe grabbed his legs. They lifted him up and out of the van onto the muddy ground.
“Damn, it’s cold out here,” Karl complained.
Justin didn’t feel the cold. His body was completely numb. He didn’t even feel the rain pounding down on him. His hearing was fine, though. He heard everything that was said. He heard the rain pounding down around him. He heard the clamor of thunder from the skies around him.
His eyesight was fine too. He saw the rain, the bolts of lightning, the lights from the fountain and his killers.
Richard pulled the boat out of the van, and with Booger’s help, he carried it to the edge of the pond. Karl Gholson stayed behind with Justin.
“You know, I really liked you, Justin. In a way, you reminded me of myself, strong-willed, determined and smart. The problem is you never learned what side of the bread to put the butter. If you’d only played ball with us, you might have gone a long way,” he said.
A few minutes later, Richard and Roscoe came back. They lifted Justin off the ground and began to carry him to the pond.
“Aren’t you coming, Karl?” Roscoe asked.
“Yeah, just give me a minute. I’ve got to put another coat on. It’s too freaking cold out here.” Karl got in the van, grabbed a heavier coat that he had brought with him from the condo and hurried to the pond just as Justin was placed in the rowboat.
The three men lifted the boat and placed it in the water. Then, Roscoe climbed in the front of the boat.
“Come on, Karl. You wanted to be a part of this. Get in the boat,” Roscoe yelled.
Karl climbed in the back, and Richard pushed the boat from the shore just enough to get it moving toward the fountain.
Roscoe rowed the boat to an area just in front of the fountain. He stopped there.
“Do you have any last words to say, son?”
“Justin looked up at Roscoe and defiantly said, “Fuck you.”
“Help me lift him up, Karl,” Roscoe said.
They lifted Justin up, causing the boat to rock back and forth. Karl lost his balance and fell into the water.
“Damn, I guess I’ve got to do it by myself,” Roscoe said. Then he lifted Justin to the edge of the boat and pushed him. As he fell into the water, Justin managed to curl his left leg slightly around Booger’s right ankle. The sheriff staggered slightly and lost his balance falling over the edge of the boat and hitting his head on a sharp corner of the boat as he fell into the water.
The shot that Richard had given him had mostly paralyzed Justin’s body. He could barely move. He couldn’t swim. His body slowly went down to the bottom of the pound. He held his breath as long as he possibly could.
A bolt of lightning struck a tree just after Justin entered the water. The tree fell on a power line, the power line fell to the ground, and the entire campus went dark. The fountain lights went off, and the sprays of water stopped.
From the shore, Richard heard the sirens coming closer. He took off his shoes and jumped into the water, swimming to the area in front of the fountain where Roscoe and Justin fell in. When he reached the area where they went under, he dove toward the bottom of the pond.
There were over two dozen police cars and unmarked cars that raced onto campus that night. Karl was captured swimming back to shore.
The sirens, flashing lights and commotion around the pond woke most of the students. They exited their dorms and headed to the pond area. Yellow police tape stopped them from getting very close. Rescue boats and divers entered the water to search for survivors. But it was just too dark, and the fog was too dense to see anything.
The electric company worked frantically to get the line fixed and the lights back on. When they did, the fountain began to spray again. Just as it started, a loud grinding noise began, and within seconds the fountain water turned from white to red.