Laura quickly helped Linh find all her clothes in the box while Jack spoke quietly with Bien. She didn’t need to ask if Bien was willing to go along with Jack’s plan. Bien’s nodding of his head and the warm embrace he gave Jack was answer enough.
Jack approached Laura and said, “He says he is certain that Linh can do it. She’s a little girl who is very traumatized. Nobody would dare push her too much at this point.”
“Hope you’re right,” said Laura, before telling Bien to take Linh out to the adjoining room to get dressed. She watched them leave before checking the chain on Pops’s ankle and taking his handcuffs off.
“Thank you,” said Pops. “The chain?”
“That stays on,” said Jack.
Laura walked to the passageway and turned to take one last look around the room.
It was a memory that would haunt her forever. A place where the walls and floor had been covered in red enamel paint. A colour she knew, that was picked for a reason. The drain on the floor completed the look.
She gazed at the dirty and blood-stained foam mattress beside a toilet that had the lid held on by two steel bands. Briefly, Laura wondered if Pops was afraid his captives might use the toilet tank lid as a weapon.
A large calendar on the wall with splashes of red circles caught her eye. Beneath it, a box of horror. It wasn’t a prison cell, she decided. It was an abattoir.
She looked at Jack and gave a silent nod, before wiping off the key to the padlock and dropping it in the box.
Jack followed Laura out through the passageway.
“Where are you going?” cried Pops. “You can’t leave me in here!”
“I’ll be right back,” said Jack.
At the back entrance, Jack went up into the kitchen while Laura took Bien and Linh to the car. She placed them in the back seat and got in the front and waited.
Jack found a tea towel, left the house, and went out into the lane. A minute later, he returned to the basement and scrambled back through the passageway.
“You called an ambulance ... right?” asked Pops.
“No,” replied Jack, carefully picking candles up out of the box by their wicks.
“You have to hurry! I might die!”
“I’m surprised you haven’t died already,” said Jack calmly, as he walked around the room and set the candles down in various locations.
“You can’t do this! You will call an ambulance right now!” Pops demanded harshly.
Jack looked at him blandly and said, “The illusion of power and control ... right to the end. I know about that. I was born into that element. I figured that by now you—”
“No,” cried Pops. “Please ... don’t torment me like this.”
“Ah ... now it comes. That’s more the tone I expected. The bully reveals the insecure coward that he really is.”
“Don’t,” Pops said weakly.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t torture me like this. I’m scared—look ... I’ve wet myself.”
“So you have,” observed Jack.
“You see? You’ve won! Please ... call the ambulance now.”
“Won? I haven’t won anything! This isn’t a game. It isn’t my intention to torture you.”
“Good,” gasped Pops. “You’ll call now, right?”
“Wrong. You are like a rabid dog. I take no delight in destroying a rabid dog any more than I would wish a dog to be rabid. I am simply doing it because it is the right thing to do.”
“You can’t! You’ll go to jail for this. For the rest of your life!”
“A chance I’m willing to take.”
Jack dropped the last candle on the floor close to Pops. They both watched as it rolled to a stop.
Pops looked up. He had a look of bewilderment in his eyes, which increased more so when Jack picked Dúc up off the floor and dropped his body on top of the candle near Pops.
“What are you doing?” asked Pops.
“You can hold his hand and take him with you when you die,” replied Jack.
Pops went to speak, but winced, grabbing his side while watching Jack light the four other candles he had placed. Their meaning became clear when Jack disconnected the propane heater and turned the propane tank on.
“Turn it off!” sputtered Pops.
Jack turned off the lights and briefly watched the flicker of the candles before ducking down to leave.
The sound of the hiss from the escaping gas permeated the entire room.
“Take me to the hospital,” pleaded Pops.
“I’m sending you someplace else,” replied Jack. “Say hello to my father for me, when he joins you.”
Jack got in the car and Laura started it up, drove to the end of the block, and parked. Everyone sat in silence and a minute slowly ticked by.
The sound of a muffled explosion and the shattering of basement windows caused Laura to glance in the rearview mirror.
She looked at Jack, who remained staring straight ahead. “Jack?”
“Take Linh to a suitable payphone,” he said, without turning his head.