LIFERS Chapter Thirty

Mason took great pride in his ability to incapacitate his enemies, regardless of size, sex, or age; he swung his right fist from behind his left shoulder and put his whole upper-body into the blow that caught Miss Wise square on the jaw. She hit the side of the blue Ford and landed face down next to it. She was out cold; of that, he had no doubt.

His initial plan was to kill her there and put her body on the back seat of the Ford and then drive both her and the boy in the trunk out to Joshua Falls, then, after he’d removed all means of physical identification, head and hands, he’d set fire to the car. After that, hitch a lift back to Lynchburg and finally dispose of Kessler’s little Dinky toy.

Miss Brontrose will see to it that Kessler doesn’t leave Martinsville, not alive anyway, and if that partner of his hasn’t been heard from since he got there, he won’t be coming back either.

Mason looked at the prone, curvaceous woman at his feet, unable to move, but more to the point, unable to fight him off. New ideas about her disposal began to surface, another plan started to hatch, and a more pleasurable one at that. Okay, she’s a lot older than the girls he normally likes to play with, but hey, who’s complaining?

After a quick look around the parking lot he closed the red trunk and put Brenda on the front passenger seat before he climbed in the driver’s side. A minute later he had the car hot-wired and running.

He drove the short distance to the Marianna II where he climbed out and hauled his prize from the car then hitched her over his shoulder. She didn’t weigh much but she felt solid, she obviously looked after herself, a gym-freak no doubt, obsessed with fighting the flab.

Once on board, he carried her down the half-dozen steps that led into the spacious cabin and dumped her on the double bed where she settled on her back with her knees raised and twisted to the right, her arms were by her sides and her head had a slight tilt to the left. Her thick, raven hair had fallen across her face and obscurred almost half of it; Mason brushed it aside and turned her to face him. He noticed her right cheek had already started to bruise and her bottom lip had a small split near its right corner. He unfastened the belt on her coat and dragged it from under her, and then again straightened her hair.

Mason lowered his gaze and cracked another smile, by Christ was he going to enjoy every minute of this. He unfastened the top button of her blouse and eased apart the collar to feel his excitement start to grow; his breaths became hurried and his hands clammy. He wiped them on her thighs to feel the toned muscle beneath her jeans and then unfastened the second and third buttons to reveal her cleavage. He felt a rush of blood coupled with stiffening and gripped himself; he stroked once, twice, three times, then stopped. He didn’t want to spoil things; this was far too precious an opportunity to waste on a double-quick handshake.

He gripped the half-open blouse and tore it apart to send the remaining buttons skittering around the cabin as he looked to see her white lace bra cradle her perfect breasts so well. With a lick of lips, he stroked his fingess over the material to feel the small mound of her nipples through the thin fabric as pictures played through his mind, like the ones in his imported magazine and DVD collection, pictures of all those pretty little girls with their ever-loving uncles and aunts.

All this imagination abuse sent his body temperature soaring; he became parched, needed to quench his thirst. He left for the galley below where he found half a carton of pineapple juice and finished it off in an instant. After a huge belch, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and tossed the empty carton into a trash bin under the sink. If nothing else, he was tidy.

Half way up the five carpeted stairs that led from the galley to the cabin, Mason’s eyes were level with the windows and there he saw the blue Ford by the gangplank. He’d have to get rid of it; leaving it there would only invite trouble. He could save himself the long trip to Joshua Falls and push it into the lake, the water’s depth where the Marianna II was moored reached close to six fathoms, but right now there were too many witnesses, he’d no choice but to leave Miss Wise and take the car up to the house.

He took two gold-coloured ties from the curtains and bound his captive’s hands and feet, and just in case she came round and screamed for help, he pressed a six-inch strip of grey duct-tape over her mouth. His manicured fingers poked through the pockets of her jeans for the keys to Kessler’s car but didn’t find them. Then he remembered hearing their tell-tale chink as he removed her mac. And now, with the keys sequestered, he leaned over and rested his hands on her thighs, his nails clawing the material.

‘Won’t be long, honey, just popping out for a while. Make yourself comfortable and I’ll be back before you know it.’

He left the Marianna II and drove up to the house where he punched a code into the intercom keypad and the gates opened. He drove through and checked the rear-view to ensure they closed behind him then parked the car in a small lock-up garage at the back of the house. It was safer if he disposed of it and the body in the trunk during nightfall, less chance of discovery. And right now he had other, more pressing things to see to, after which he’d take Miss Wise for a trip around the lake on the Marianna II, as a kind of thank you for services rendered, and, of course, he’d allow her to take a little dip.

Mason entered the house through the rear and collected a spare fob for the gates before he left and locked up. He somehow managed to squeeze his bulk into Kessler’s car, which he likened to Noddy’s little run-around, and had it been any smaller, he could have used it as a skateboard.

As the Brontrose place slipped behind, he headed back to the lake and parked the car on the parking lot in an unnamed slot and made the short walk back to the boat. He reached the foot of the gang-plank only to be halted by his cell phone, but what halted him most was the unknown number.

..

Celia was anxious to get to her daughter; she leaned forward in her seat. ‘How fast are we travelling, Mister Kessler?’

‘Sixty-five, why, is that not fast enough?’

She looked at her watch. ‘I’m trying to determine how much head start they have on us and how long it will be before we get there.’

‘What time did you say Marianna left for the lake?’

‘She left the house at seven, always does.’

‘So if we assume they took her as soon as she got there, they would’ve left around seven fifteen, give or take. We left the lake at eight fifteen, which gives them an hour over us.’

Celia smiled as the car’s sudden surge forward pulled her back into her seat, it pleased her that Kessler felt he needed to hurry because the only thing more important than getting to Marianna, was getting to Marianna before Ella did.

‘I’m going to call Brenda,’ he said. ‘Find out how she got on with the police.’

Celia heard the beeps of the keypad, she couldn’t stop him from making the call, but she might be able to stall him. ‘The mountains make it very difficult, Mister Kessler. You’ll be lucky if she has any signal at all. So perhaps you should try once we clear them,’ she said, knowing she’d think of some other excuse to stop him when the time came.

‘It’s engaged,’ he said. ‘She might still be on the phone with them, or trying to call me.’
Celia wasn’t happy to hear that; by now, both Miss Wise and her phone should be dead, but the engaged signal meant neither of them were.
‘Like I said, the mountains seem to have that effect, now are you sure it was engaged or could it be that you weren’t properly connected?’

He tried again. ‘No, definitely engaged,’ he said.

Not good news, if that buffoon had failed to kill the woman, Kessler could receive a call from her any time now and he’d turn and go back. She had to be sure.

‘May I borrow your phone, Mister Kessler; I left mine with Mason, I’ll call him to see what’s happening regarding the police.’

‘What about the no signal thing?’

Private investigators, they were like lawyers, and she hated both, why did they always have turn things around? ‘Quite true, Mister Kessler,’ she said. ‘But you seem to have managed an engaged signal from Miss Wise; so maybe the Goddess of communication is smiling down on us today.’

Kessler kept his eyes on the road as he passed back his cell phone.She took it and entered Mason’s own mobile number.

‘It’s Miss Brontrose, Mason, Yes, I’m using Mister Kessler’s phone as you have mine, is Miss Wise there? … Ah, I see, and is she on the phone? … Very good, when she finishes that call can you ask her to ring Mister Kessler?’ She looked at Kessler’s eyes in the rear-view mirror to see him still watching the road ahead, and as her window opened with an almost silent hiss, she allowed his phone to fall from the car.

‘Oh my, Mister Kessler,’ she gasped.

‘What, what is it?’

‘Your phone, it slipped, I’m afraid it fell from my window, I’m dreadfully sorry,’ she said as she slid to the edge of her seat when they came to a shuddering halt.

Kessler rammed the Bentley into reverse and they headed back to where the phone, or what was left of it, had fallen from the car. It was good news; broken bits were strewn across the highway for about thirty yards, all of which they found, except for the rubber number-pad.

‘I’m very sorry, Mister Kessler; the wind from the window must have taken it from my hand. It isn’t too badly damaged is it?’ she said, pleased the threat of discovery was over.

‘Well nothing can be done about it now, Miss Brontrose.’

‘I will personally buy you a new one, Mister Kessler, as soon as this whole business is sorted out.’

Kessler smiled at her as he got back into the car, and Celia did the same, only her smile was a genuine smile, a satisfied, genuine smile.

..

After he assured Miss Brontrose that both Miss Wise’s breath and phone had been permanently separated from her, Mason heard a lot of wind in the earpiece and then a loud crackling noise just before the call went dead. He shrugged, put his phone in his pocket, and entered the cabin to resume his little game with the very much alive Miss Wise, whom, he found in the same position he’d left her in.

A wooden chair that sat before the dresser’s mirror was soon adorned with his jacket as Mason looked his captive’s reflection up and down. Again he began to rub himself and soon felt rigid enough to perform, but he couldn’t do much of a perfomance with her legs bound together like they were.

He knelt on the floor at the bottom of the bed and began to undo the knots that held her ankles together, but he only managed to get one undone before her feet pulled away from him. His head snapped up to see her emerald eyes wide with fear just before a sharp pain filled his entire head. He screamed, stumbled back, and clutched at the right side of his face.

..

With her ankles still bound, Brenda began to wriggle from the bed as Mason, the man who was just about to rape her, was a little preoccupied with feeling the inside of his right eye socket, but what he searched for was skewered onto Brenda’s three-inch right heel.

Without thought or hesitation, she bunny-hopped across the cabin and crashed through the thin louver door and up the few steps to the deck. And just as she reached the gangplank she heard Mason growl obscenities from inside the cabin, but the gangplank was as far as she managed as the shoe that served her so well just now had become her downfall.

Her right heel stuck fast in one of the small gaps between the planks, and with her hands tied behind, she had no chance of saving herself. She hit the water head first and kicked her tethered legs as one in a bid to right her position, which she did, but only to see the shimmering surface move away as she began to sink to the bottom.

A cold, dark silence surrounded her as she looked left and right for some form of release from this watery nightmare, but there was nothing on offer. The voice in her head screamed for her to kick, to swim, but any attempt at propulsion was futile.

She looked again to the ever decreasing light breaking through the surface and half-expected Mason to come crashing through to finish her off, but all she saw was a small disturbance then a dark object drop fast toward her. And it wasn’t until the object past close to her face that she realised it was a gun, and as it sank to the bottom, her eyes followed it to the black abyss below.

The pains in her chest screamed for her to release the expired breath she held but she needed to survive this, she needed to garner every last vestige of oxygen from it before she gave up the fight. Again she attempted to swim, and again she sank deeper toward the lake-bed, now just a few metres below.

The urge for her to breathe had multiplied three times in only a few seconds, she had to let it go and looked up one last time to see her final breath scurry to the surface like the glowing embers of a bonfire caught in the rising heat. She had no choice now, her brain forced her to breathe in, to give it oxygen, but her will for self-preservation forced just as hard for her not to.

Then a light moved toward her, a soft, warm, violet hue. She looked on as the glow grew nearer, the water warmer. To her right was a small child on a swing being pushed by her father. She’d always remembered that day, her ninth birthday; the swing was a present, something she’d always wanted.

She laughed and screamed to go higher, to go faster, and her father laughed along with her. From her left Brenda heard her mother call to her; she turned to see the flash of a camera just as the syrupy thickness of the cold black water rushed into her lungs.

For many agonising seconds she prayed for the tremendous pain to subside, only to be forced once again to breathe out and then in. The syrupy thickness this time had turned solid and jammed hard in her throat and turned her lungs to concrete. And as the pain eased, she watched the violet glow evaporate and the vision of her ninth birthday fade to grey, and then, like the water that surrounded her her, to black.

Brenda’s bright green eyes were open and unmoving as they stared across the cold, dark depth that imprisoned her. Her skin paled over and her once opulent, vibrant body had settled on the bottom of the lake, motionless, save for the soft current playing with her thick, raven hair.