Trapped (Dead Reckoning series - Part 20)

Continued from Episode 19 (Love Potion No. 9)

The story so far:   Josiah, having rekindled a romance with an old flame, Jeanette DeVille, has apparently disappeared since his supper with her at Evanley Hall last Saturday.  Samantha, frustrated that Detectives Wood and Stone are not interested in helping, has persuaded Archibald to go and find out what is happening, on the pretence of visiting Precious, his girlfriend.  Unfortunately, the cup of tea Precious gave him had a bit more than a spoonful of sugar in it!:

 

It was difficult, no, it was impossible, to know how long he had been there.   Yes, there had been periods of relative dark and light which might, he supposed, have corresponded to days passing but they might just as easily have been figments of his imagination. 

He knew that he had slept, occasionally, but he also knew that he had been unconscious, more than once, and separating one from the other was no mean feat.

He tried to lick his lips with his parched tongue, with little success.  He sighed, but immediately regretted it when the dust and odours, from the sacking covering his head and face, blew back into his nose and mouth.

The intriguing thing was that he had the sense that there was someone else there, with him, in the room (wherever and whatever that was).  He had nothing to substantiate that feeling, no noises, no sounds of breathing or motion, just a sense of ‘not being alone’. 

He strained to hear something, anything, but it was difficult to detect over the constant dripping of a tap in the distance which had been his only, infuriating, companion for all of his stay here.

There had been noises, earlier.  The sound of people moving about, purposefully but quietly.  The sound of a chair being scraped across the floor.  He had called out “Hello!”, but there had been no acknowledgement, no reply.

Nevertheless, the idea that there was someone else there nagged at him.  He had to find out.  He called out;

“Is there anybody there?”  and a familiar voice responded,

“Oh bloody hell!  I am dead then, ‘cause they’re trying to reach me by séance!”

“Hello Archibald” Josiah said, with mixed feelings of relief and sadness.

“Mr. O.?  Is that you?”

“I’m afraid it is, Archibald.  Are you similarly restrained?”

“Eh?”

Josiah sighed, regretted it, and said, “Are you blindfolded, with your hands and feet bound?”

“Well, yeah, summat like that.  I’ve got some sacking or summat over me face, smells like old socks to be honest, and I can’t move me hands nor me feet, so I guess they’re tied up.  I’m sitting on some sort of chair”

“Yes, that accords with my position” Josiah nodded, pointlessly.

“Do you know where we are?” 

“No idea, I’m afraid” Josiah shrugged, out of habit.

“Smells a bit, in ‘ere, don’t it?”  Archibald observed.

“Ah, that might have something to do with me” Josiah was pleased, for once, that the sacking covered his blushes.

“How do you mean?”

“I’m afraid that there are no toilet arrangements, wherever we are.  Some time has now passed since my incarceration and, in the words of the poem, “there are some things we all must do”

“Oh, right, got you?” Archibald said, wishing he’d never mentioned it, “how about food, water, stuff like that?”

“I have not been fed” Archibald said, mournfully, “as for water, had it not been for your girlfriend, Precious, popping in occasionally with a glass, I rather fear that I might have been dead by now.  She allows me a couple of sips, at the most, then she has to hurry away, before she gets caught.  At least, that is the impression I have gained”

“So, she’s in on it?”

“I have no idea!” Josiah shrugged, again, “I know not who my captors are, nor why I am being held captive, albeit that I have my suspicions.  How do you come to be here, Archibald?”

“Ah, well, Ms. Knight, Samantha, she wanted me to come to see if I could figure out what had happened to you…”

“That was kind of her, and you” Josiah coughed and retched, slightly.  The effort of talking, after all this time, when his mouth was dry as a bone, was telling on him.  “A kindness which I feel my behaviour, of recent date, has hardly warranted”

There was a silence, before, “Eh?”

“By which I mean that I have not behaved well to either you, or Mrs…Samantha, recently”

“Yeah, well,” Archibald shrugged, “she said I could crack on that I was there to see Precious, so that’s what I did.  Only, I reckon that Precious put summat in my tea, ‘cause the next thing I know, I’m waking up in ‘ere, wherever that is?”

“It would appear that you had a somewhat gentler, if no less incommodious, abduction than I.  My incarceration commenced with a sharp blow to the back of my head, which has left me somewhat the worse for wear, I fear”

“Any idea who’s doing all this?”  Archibald asked, warily.

“As I said, I have my suspicions” Josiah replied, darkly, “the apparent ease of access by Miss DeVille would seem to indicate a degree of involvement.  I thought, given her small acts of charity to me, that she might be an unwilling participant but now, given your abduction, I am less sure”

“So, her and that Mrs. DeVille then, do you reckon?”

“And/or the butler, Hames, or possibly all three!” Josiah admitted, “I am at a loss to comprehend what possible motive there could be, if my suppositions are correct”

“What do you think they’re planning to do with us?” Archibald asked, a little fearfully.

“I really do not know” Josiah sighed, “on the one hand, that I have continued living and breathing, albeit with some difficulty, has to inspire a degree of hope.  On the other, that they now have both of us in captivity, a situation which is unlikely to go unnoticed by the outside world, may lead them to do something…rash”

“Oh bugger!” Archibald said, with heartfelt emotion.

* * * *

Samantha swept into the Company yard, turned a corner and nearly crashed into Mr. Strine having a surreptitious smoke.

“Oh sh…” He began, sparking a bout of energetic coughing, cigarette ash and flying embers, “sorry Mrs., no harm done, eh?”

“Have you heard from him?”  Samantha barked.

“Who?” Mr. Strine wheezed.

“Archie, of course!”

“Oh, young Archie, well, no, not since you sent ‘im off to see ‘is girlfriend”

“Have you checked that he’s not on site?”

“Checked…?” Mr. Strine looked confused.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Samantha brushed past him and strode into the premises.  She hurriedly checked all of Archibald’s usual haunts, but came up empty.  None of the other employees could recall seeing him, either.  She summoned Mr. Strine to Josiah’s office.

“Well, Mr. Strine, it would appear that Archibald has not reported for work today.  I have checked both the works’ phone and my mobile, and there are no messages or missed calls, how about you?”

“Me, what, Mrs.?”

“Have you checked your mobile phone?”

“Oh, I don’t have no truck with any of that modern nonsense” Mr. Strine shook his head, vehemently.

“No, I don’t suppose you do!” Samantha cradled her head in her hands, “right, well, in that case, I need to have another word with the police.  Can you hold the fort?”

“Hold the…, oh, right, yeah, I’m with you” Mr. Strine grinned, “you leave it with me, Mrs., you’ve got nowt to worry about!”

“I wish that were the case, Mr. Strine, I really do” Samantha said, glumly.

You can find out a lot more about Josiah, Archibald and their very odd world of characters in The Undertakers Collection and you can read the next story in this series here!