Deena Hopping wanted to comfort Arlene, but she did not know what to say, so Deena said nothing. Arlene and she were the type to hug each other.
Deena dried her eyes.
It was enough.
They walked to the driveway where Arlene quickly pretended to be in a hurry and left.
Curious about Arlene’s basement and her strange behavior of late, Deena wandered around the back of her house to take a look at the basement.
What she found after sloshing through a soggy backyard to the basement…was much worse than a madman living in the basement killing women…
It was something much worse.
And it was just the beginning…
“My God,” Deena muttered.
Deena stared at the hole.
Something had dug a tunnel beneath the back door, as groundhogs and other burrowing animals are apt to do. But if an animal had made this, then it was at least the size of a large goat.
Deena knelt down in the water, her knees sliding in the slush, and stared at the yawning cavity. There were no piles of dirt, as if something had burrowed up to the surface, and there weren’t any claw marks or scratches in the slushy ground to indicate that the hole had been dug from above ground. There was just a dark, round hole, easily four to five feet in diameter. The walls of the fissure glistened with an amber slime.
Still kneeling, Deena reached out and touched the side of the hole. The odd slime clung to her fingers. Grimacing, Deena held her hand up and let the rain wash the milky substance off. Deena raised her fingers to her nose and was reminded of something very familiar.
It smelled like…
The basement.
Deena’s nose wrinkled in disgust. She looked at the hole and remembered the eerie feeling and horrible smell of her house.
Deena was frightened and felt her knees tremble. She was feeling sick to her stomach.
* * * *
This will be an easy one, Arlene Balleza thought, parking her car up the street from the property. A simple capture. Arlene was glad she did not have to kill her prizes that she brought the master, only catch them and bring them to him.
If she had to have to kill, she would; after all, it was the master’s wish and she had to obey.
Different from the others that she’d brought her master. These were humans.
Out of the ordinary.
One for which the master had waited years.
One the master will definitely savor.
What was that old saying? Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Something like that. Well, it couldn’t get much colder than this winter has been with temperatures continuing to drop below freezing.
But now the time was right.
Arlene had mustered up the courage to do what needed to be done.
The couple were loners; no family meant no one would miss them.
She had put a powerful sleeping pill into the coffee at the house that she would show the couple today. Arlene would then drag them into the garage where she had rented a van to drive them to the Master.
The snow was beginning to fall again as she walked along the sidewalk. Tiny flakes that swirled and danced quietly changed the landscape, distorting the view, muting the sounds of the day.
Arlene followed along the sidewalk easily, through the maze that was new construction on nearby homes that the weather had halted the construction of.
Quickly. The anxiety inside her grew stronger.
Moving through the front yard and up to the front door, Arlene spied the couple parking across the street and exiting their vehicle. Right on time.
It was all she could do but smile; nevertheless she had to warn herself not to savor the capture until it has happened, until Michael and Jane Abraham had been taken off her list. Only then would Arlene be able to relish her success, as her Master would certainly be most pleased with her.
Closer to the house, the couple walked. Arlene turned her head toward them and smiled again.
Her heart was beating a little more quickly now. She was sweating inside the house as she opened the door to allow the Abrahams inside.
“Coffee?” Arlene asked.
“With sugar please,” Michael answered quickly.
“And for you, dear?” Arlene questioned Jane.
“Oh, I don’t drink coffee, thank you.”
Arlene felt nervous. Her plan would not work.
She handed Michael a cup of coffee and anxiously waited for him to drop to the floor. It takes only minutes.
“Michael!” Jane screamed, falling to her knees beside her husband who was a pile on the floor. “He’s barely breathing,” Jane adds.
“Hurry, we must drag him to the garage. There is a van inside and we can put him in there and drive him to the hospital,” Arlene suggests.
Jane does as she is instructed. Only once the two women load Michael in the van, Arlene removes the tire iron and strikes Jane over the head three or four times until finally the woman is a bloody mess atop her husband.
Arlene shoves Jane the rest of the way into the van and closes the door after throwing the tire iron at the side of Jane and her husband Michael.
Arlene is winded. She opens the garage door and slowly and quietly drives out of the driveway, makes a slow turn onto the street and disappears into traffic.
Two live—albeit barely—humans to feed the master.
Mission accomplished.
* * * *
“I don’t need to—nor will I ever run my investigations using nutcases, whack jobs, and/or psychos!” Sheriff Lindsey Hill was in a foul mood as she stalked down the hallway to her office.
It did not help that her lead investigator on the department’s biggest case ever was suggesting that one: the case was not closed, and two: he was proposing the irrational.
“I believe the correct term is ‘psychic’, and I’m not sure that anyone would call Mike Leopold a psychic,” Dauphin County Detective Gary Chapel, at the sheriff’s side, said.
“Trust me, I’ve heard Mike Leopold called many things in my years here and psychic is the most flattering,” the sheriff shot back. “Why are you letting him goad you into believing his wild story in the first place?”
“Listen, people are still disappearing,” Chapel insisted. “Mike Leopold saw something that made him burn his house down with his family still inside when he was only a child. There has to be something we’re missing.”
“An arrest of Mike Leopold for arson and the murder of his family,” Sheriff Hill responded. “Leave it alone. If you think for one second that I am to believe that there is a monster living in the basement at 1420 South Douty Street, you’re crazier than Leopold.”
“No—I mean—maybe Frank Marsden had a partner or something. All I’m saying is don’t close the book on the case yet; give me a chance to prove there is more to this,” Chapel pleaded.
“What’s this really about, Gary?” Sheriff Hill asked. “You helped break this case, solved eight potential murders and delivered the bad guy into custody alive, no less. What more does your career need? What’s your angle?”
“No angle, Sheriff. I just think I may have missed something and perhaps there could be more victims out there—more missing person cases to solve.”
Christ, this was turning into a headache.
“Tell me you don’t believe there really is a monster—all googly eyed, green with antennae sprouting out its head—hiding somewhere in Strafford,” Sheriff Hill demanded.
“Monsters come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, Sheriff. They can hide right under our noses too,” Chapel began. “Just look at Ted Bundy, BTK, and our own Frank Marsden for proof of that.”
“You have two days—forty-eight hours to dig, Chapel,” Hill replied. “No more. Then we put the last nail in the coffin—so to speak. We then move on with our lives and our other cases, agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“But I am warning you—the ice you are treading on is—” Sheriff Hill started to say.
“—razor thin—got it!” Chapel finished. “Sheriff, it was you who taught me that a good cop—especially a detective—should never discount any statement. I just want to see what Mike Leopold knows.”
A glint formed in the sheriff’s eye. “You think Mike Leopold was or is Frank Marsden’s accomplice, don’t you?”
“Stranger things have happened.”
“All right, keep me posted. I’ll let you know if we get anymore out of Marsden through interrogations in the meanwhile.”
They were at her office door and stomach acid was burning a hole in Chapel’s gut. His thoughts were on the basement at South Douty Street and of Deena Hopping. He had been immediately taken by her. Somewhere deep inside he wanted to discover the entire truth behind this bizarre series of events. He had to.
On behalf of himself.
For the people of Strafford.
And in support of Deena Hopping whom he was slowly becoming attracted to.