Chapter 19
Friday Morning, continued
Nathaniel's breath rattled when he talked. "Tie them up." His raspy voice made him sound like the villain in a melodrama. "Gentlemen, I'm going to kill you slowly, painfully."
Turk Malone oozed from the shadows, a gun in one hand, hanging at his side, and a flashlight in the other. "You boys armed?" Turk's moldy smile held no humor.
Still pissed Ollie wasn't the Schwan's guy.
Turk laid his flashlight on the cave floor, then brought his pistol up and pointed it at Ollie. "Bang." Turk stuck his face into Rosswell's face. Turk's rancid breath made Rosswell curl up his nose. Turk bobbed and swayed. Stoned out of his mind. Rosswell had a hunch he'd fall down any second. Turk slurred, "You be a good boy."
"Shut up," Nathaniel said to Turk. "Search them and bind them. And hurry. We don't have much time."
A cell phone rang. Rosswell thanked Whoever that it wasn't his. Nathaniel punched his own cell phone. "What?" He listened for a moment before he said, "Don't touch anything. I'll be right there." After Nathaniel disconnected, he emitted a low growl, sounding to Rosswell like a rabid wolf.
Nathaniel smacked Turk on the shoulder. "Pay attention."
Turk's mouth fell open an inch when he fixed his gaze on Nathaniel's face.
Nathaniel continued, "Tie them up good, you idiot. You can do that one thing without screwing up, can't you? Don't screw up."
"I won't screw up."
"If they try to escape, shoot to wound. I want to kill them myself." Nathaniel vanished into the darkness.
Turk mumbled to himself, then said to Ollie, "He don't think I can't do nothing right."
Ollie said, "That's a triple negative. I'm sure you mean Nathaniel thinks you screw everything up."
Turk verged on a pout. "What the hell problem is tying someone up? I seen it done in the movies lots of times."
Ollie said, "You can do it. I have faith in you."
"Stick them hands out."
Turk searched his pockets until he found a pair of plastic zip ties, like the kind used for securing saplings to posts. He froze and didn't change position for a few minutes, probably considering how best to maneuver his gun while fastening the ties.
"Judge, put your nose on that wall and stick your hands up high." Rosswell complied.
Turk said to Ollie, "Go ahead. Stick them hands out." Ollie stuck his hands out. It was clumsy, but Turk managed to grip his gun while at the same time holding the zip ties. "Listen, you clown, you try anything funny and I'll shoot your ass, then I'll shoot Rosswell. Got it?"
"Got it."
"Sit down." Ollie sat. "Hands together. Say your prayers." Turk wrapped Ollie's hands with several of the restraints. Fishing around in his pockets again, Turk found more zip ties. Once Ollie was bound hand and foot, Turk said to Rosswell, "Turn around and sit down." Again, Rosswell complied. "Same for you. First your hands and then your feet."
Turk studied Rosswell and Ollie bound on the floor of the cave. "Only way to draw to that pair is pull a joker." Laughing, he stumbled, falling on his butt. "Time to go." It took him several tries to get up. Eventually, he stood. "The boss is waiting." He frowned. "No, I'm supposed to wait. Ain't I?"
Rosswell said, "Turk, I need to ask you a couple of things."
Turk pushed both of them from a sitting position to flat on the ground. "Your twenty bucks has done wore off." Then he wobbled out of the cave, forgetting his flashlight.
After a few minutes of silence, Rosswell said, "Have they both gone?" His chest, legs, and back ached. And his head. A migraine crouched in his brain, ready to leap out.
"You want me to holler for them?" Ollie flopped around until he achieved a sitting position. "I'm glad Turk didn't make me cross my ankles but I can't release my fingers. My wrists and fingers feel like they're joined together."
"My head feels like it's joined to the ground." Rosswell shifted his weight, trying to make himself more comfortable. "And I feel like a garbage bag with these ties on me."
"I've read all of Houdini's books. He revealed all his escape secrets. Unfortunately, that was before plastic."
"Ollie, my hands and feet are going numb."
"Sit up. It helps your circulation."
"I've made up my mind." Rosswell hadn't moved. "I'm going to kill Nathaniel." His voice aimed at the floor of the cave, muffling his words.
"Judge, I said, sit up."
"If your hands are in an attitude of prayer, maybe you should start praying." Rosswell struggled to a sitting position. "I'm sitting up now and I'm still going to kill Nathaniel. And after I kill him, I'm going to kill Turk. Don't try to talk me out of it." The ground beneath him was wet and the dampness seeped into his clothes. "I'm cold."
"You kill them and you'll spend the rest of your life in prison unless you get the gas chamber. Oh. Wait. You're a judge. You already know that."
"The gas chamber is a tourist attraction now. They traded it for lethal injection."
"Like you get from a veterinarian."
"It's not hopeless." Rosswell shook his head, trying to clear the pain of the headache. "But without Tina, the rest of my life won't be long."
"You can't kill Nathaniel and Turk until we get loose. That doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Besides, they have guns."
"I told you it wasn't hopeless. We have flashlights. And a gun."
"Shut your mouth." Ollie scooted close to Rosswell and gasped when he saw the bulge at Rosswell's back under his shirt. "Turk missed it, didn't he?"
"He was stoned. Missed my phone and flashlight, too."
"I still have my dinky little flashlight." Ollie's brow furrowed. "Could he really be that stoned?"
"Nathaniel told Turk to do two things. Search us and tie us up. Turk could only focus on the last thing Nathaniel told him."
Ollie kneeled, rocking back and forth till he found his balance, then leaned over Rosswell and peered down his shirt.
"Ollie, you fracking pervert, what the hell are you doing?"
"How sharp is the star on that necklace?"
"It's sharper than a serpent's tooth. But if you want to saw our way out, it will take several years."
Ollie sank to the ground. "How are your teeth?"
"We're going to die. A bear or mountain lion or rattlesnake is going to kill us. Maybe they'll gang up and all three will kill us."
"It's September but still hot as hell. Summertime. Bears don't go in caves in the summer. Neither do mountain lions. And snakes don't like caves any time of the year. It's too cold for them."
"We're going to die. Something will catch our scent and come investigating. Coyotes. Wild dogs. Wolves. Something."
Ollie said, "When that something sees us, we'll make noise and it will turn around and high tail it out of here."
Rosswell shivered from the cold, straining to move his hands as far as he could toward Ollie's eyes. "See this? I'm freezing."
"Hold on, Judge. It's not that cold. Don't leave me now." Ollie searched the wall above them. "Look up there."
"What do you mean?"
"There's an outcropping. 'And those caves were encompassed with sharp rocks.' Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews."
"Ollie, you fracking big gas bag, what the hell are you talking about?"
"Turk didn't tie my feet cross-legged." Ollie stood and stretched onto his tiptoes. "I can't reach that. It's a sharp rock. Or at least it looks like one from here. If I could get up there, I could cut these handcuffs off."
"We're going to die."
"Let me stand on your back."
"Find a rock on the floor of the cave!"
Ollie surveyed the floor. "Thanks, Houdini!" He toed a knife-shaped rock that appeared plenty sharp to Rosswell. "I can't pick it up. I can't use my hands."
Rosswell groaned. "Let's see. Die from you breaking my back or waiting until Nathaniel returns to shoot us. What should I do?"
"Roll over. All fours. Get as high as possible."
A
lot of effort went into Rosswell's flipping onto his stomach, then scrunching down to allow Ollie to climb onto his back. "Hurry up." When Ollie mounted him, Rosswell felt the breath leave his lungs.
From the perch of Rosswell's back, Ollie groaned. "I still can't reach it."
Rosswell's lack of air prevented him from saying much.
"Now listen, Judge." Rosswell said nothing. "I'm going to jump. On three. You roll away from me. I can't spread my legs because of the cuffs on my ankles. I'm going to try to hook myself on that rock. I can cut my wrist cuffs."
Rosswell whimpered.
"Good. Glad you understand. Here goes. One. Two. Three!"
Rosswell gasped before he tried scooting away. He couldn't move. When Ollie came crashing down on him, his spine would be broken. He hoped he died quickly.
Several seconds passed before Rosswell realized two things. One, he was still alive. And, two, Ollie must still be up in the air.
"I made it," Ollie said.
Rosswell gaped upward until he spotted Ollie, hanging from the rock outcropping, trying to move his hands back and forth. "I can't move my hands. All I'm doing is hanging on this outcrop. The pressure of my weight on the rock is too great. No way can I lift my hands off."
Rosswell moaned, then hunched his back under Ollie's feet. When he felt the feet on his back, he pushed upwards. When Rosswell's actions allowed the pressure on the plastic ties to ease, Ollie sawed like a demon chased by Satan. In a few minutes, he let out a big whoop.
Rosswell managed to scoot away a couple of inches, enough to avoid a trampling by the big man who hit flat on the ground, his hands free.
Ollie picked up the sharp rock he'd found earlier. "If there's one sharp rock in a cave, that means there are a lot of sharp rocks in the cave." Picking up Turk's flashlight, Ollie bent down next to Rosswell. "Knife time."
In a moment, Rosswell's hands were freed. "Damn, it's cold." He kicked off both his shoes. Without footwear, he easily drew his feet through the plastic around his ankles. "People who tie you up never think about your shoes. If Turk had tied my bare feet tight, it wouldn't be as easy to escape."
The weakening light from Turk's flashlight trickled through the cave only enough for Rosswell to spot the snake heading for Ollie.
"Ollie, don't move."
"I can move a little. I'm going to cut my ankle cuffs. I want to move because I don't want to get cold."
"A snake is headed for your leg. It's about two inches from you."
Ollie glanced down toward his leg. "Like I said, snakes don't like caves." Shuffling to his left, he moved from the snake's path. When he did, the snake followed him. "Caves are too cold for them."
"Tell that to the snake."
"I told you, I'm a caver. I've studied these things." Ollie shuffled to his right. The snake followed. "I don't know what it is but it's not a snake."
"You're a nice heat source." Rosswell shuddered. "Did I ever tell you I was allergic to snake venom?"
Ollie squirmed, moving his head, obviously trying to see the critter in the dimness. "It is a snake. I think it's a copperhead." The snake followed Ollie wherever he went.
"What's it look like?" By that time, Rosswell had shined the flashlight on the serpent.
"Can't tell for sure."
From a safe distance, Rosswell studied the reptile. "I'll Google it."
Before Rosswell could fetch his phone, Ollie moved around as best he could to check out the snake using his own flashlight. "It's a copperhead."
"It would have to be poisonous." The snake looked fatter and moved slower than a normal copperhead. Then it struck Rosswell. "The snake ate something. Caught a meal at the front of the cave. A rat or something. The snake got lost and he's headed for the heat. That's you. You're a wonderful heat source. You're big and have a bald head that radiates warmth."
Rosswell puffed, inhaled, and exhaled, like a woman practicing Lamaze breathing in preparation for childbirth. His tongue swelled up, like a dry sponge taking on water. He wondered how his tongue could swell before he'd been bitten. Teetering on the verge of collapse, Rosswell tried convincing himself that being scrunched up next to a guy tied up in a dark and damp place wasn't all that bad. As long as no snakes slithered into view.
Thinking happy thoughts didn't work.
Rosswell reached for his gun. "Move aside, Ollie. I'm going to shoot that bastard's head off." Talking was hard. He was sure he sounded like he had a mouthful of mush.
"You want Nathaniel and Turk down here again?"
"Yes, and I'll blow their heads off, too."
"Judge, listen to me. You can't use your pistol. Stomp him."
"I'm not wearing shoes. Maybe I could bash his head in with my gun."
"No, that's too dangerous. You might shoot yourself. Or worse, me."
Rosswell stood and shook his arms. "I need some blood circulating."
"Use one of your shoes." Ollie's voice shot up an octave. "If you don't kill that snake, the blood circulating in me will be poisonous."
"A copperhead couldn't kill a guy as big as you." Rosswell sneezed. "I don't think."
"Could we research that later? Kill the freaking frost snake and we'll talk about it over apple pie and coffee at Mabel's."
"I could smash his head with my gun." He drew out the pistol and stared at the weapon, as if an answer would appear on its handle.
"Don't go into shock. Judge, stomp your feet. Move. Do something."
There was only one course of action if Ollie were to stay alive. Rosswell swallowed the bile trying to shoot up from his stomach, then stuffed the pistol into its holster. He knelt and grabbed the snake behind its head with his right hand. "I'm trying to choke him but it's not working." The thing began twisting, trying to wrap itself around Rosswell's arm. "Don't snakes have necks?"
"Yes. Right behind that big fat head."
Rosswell grabbed the creature's tail with his left hand. The grip of his right hand behind the snake's head grew even tighter, yet it had no effect on the serpent.
Ollie spoke quietly but clearly. "Judge Carew, listen to me. Smash the snake's head against the wall of the cave. Now. And then do it again. And again."
"Good idea. Where's the wall?"