The Devil's Punchbowl

CHAPTER 47

Caitlin has no idea how long she’s been locked in the car trunk when the vehicle finally stops. As soon as she woke up, she found a taillight with her foot and kicked it out, but though she stuck her hand through the hole and waved it wildly, no one stopped the car.

Two doors open and close, then the trunk pops open. Someone lifts the lid. She hears gruff commands-the accents Irish. Powerful hands seize her and lift her out of the trunk, letting her feet dangle to the ground. Fear is loose in her like a wild thing, but she keeps telling herself that if they meant to kill her, they could have done it before now. She’s glad they’re holding her up. With the hood over her head, it’s difficult to maintain balance.

“I’m holding a Taser,” says a voice. “Try to run, I’ll juice you. You won’t like it. I can tell you from experience.”

They march her forward at a rapid clip, then stop. There’s a jangle of keys. Suddenly she hears panting. A barrage of barking erupts close to her, and she hears heavy bodies slamming into a Cyclone fence. All at once she remembers Linda’s note, about Quinn feeding Ben Li to dogs.

“Get ’em back!” shouts an Irishman. “Goddamn it, go! Use bait if you have to.”

One man lets go of Caitlin, but the yammering dogs keep hitting the fence. Caitlin wants to speak, but duct tape holds her jaw immo bile. After about a minute, the dogs race away and slam into what must be a different fence. There’s a metallic rattle, then the sound of an opening gate.

The man drags her through, then opens a door and leads her into a closed space that stinks of urine, old food, and dirty animals. She smells alcohol too, rubbing alcohol, plus other medical odors she can’t identify. The floor feels like bare cement. They march her twenty steps, then stop and open another door with a key. This sounds like a real door, not a gate. Someone shoves her between the shoulder blades, driving her into the room. She almost stumbles, but keeps her feet long enough to collide with a wall opposite the door.

“We’re going to take the hood off. Be still, or you get the juice. Nod if you understand.”

Caitlin nods once.

The black hood is whipped off her head, and blinding fluorescent light stabs her eyes. After a few seconds, she realizes it’s just a cheap bulb, and her vision clears. One man stands in front of her, wearing a balaclava mask. His lips show through the mask; they look bright red, filled with blood. His eyes are gray and hungry.

“Take off your clothes,” he says.

“What?”

“Get ’em off!”

“No.”

He jabs the Taser at her. “You do it or I do. It’ll hurt less if you do it.”

“Why do you want my clothes?”

“Fuckin’ hell, you mouthy cunt. Do what I tell ya!”

Caitlin pulls her T-shirt over her head, then slides her jeans down and steps out of them.

“Panties too. Everything.”

With a hiss of anger, she pulls down the panties and tosses them at his feet.

“Not bad,” he says, his voice muffled by the hood. “A little skinny for my taste, but, damn, you’re a thoroughbred, aren’t you?”

“What do you think this is going to accomplish?”

“Ah…well, that’s up to your boyfriend, I reckon. You too. Lucky for you, he’s got something we need. But let’s see how coop erative you can be, eh? You shave it a little close down there, don’t ya? I like it natural.”

It takes a supreme act of will, but Caitlin turns and faces the wall. A barred window is set in it, but the bars don’t look strong enough to hold a determined prisoner. She expects to feel the bite of the Taser at any moment, but all she hears is a closing door.

She starts to turn, but then the door opens again, just wide enough for a head. “Hey, I like that side too. Better than the front, I think. I’ll be seein’ ya, princess. Oh, yeah. Lots to look forward to.”

This time when the door closes, a key turns in the lock, a heavy bolt shoots home, and muted steps go down the corridor.

Caitlin turns slowly in place, taking in every detail of the room. It’s a simple square with plywood walls, a concrete floor, and a low ceiling that looks like the underside of a tin roof. A plastic dog bowl sits on the floor, filled with water. A pail stands beside it, empty, and she realizes that this is to be her toilet. A door slams somewhere, and the walls of her cell vibrate.

“Well, this is what you get,” she says aloud, walking forward and testing the bars with a steady pull. The bars aren’t set in the window, but screwed over it. She could have them off in a couple of hours. It can’t be that easy, she thinks. Then she remembers the dogs.

“Fuck,” she whispers, realizing her situation at last. The bars weren’t put here to hold a human in this room, but a dog. I can use my wonderful opposable thumb to get the bars off, but the dogs are outside, hoping I’ll drop through that window like food through a chute.

The sound of an engine reaches her, and after a grinding of gears, it slowly recedes into silence. Thinking they’ve left her alone, Caitlin nearly jumps out of her skin when something bumps the wall to her left. At first she thinks it’s a dog, but then the sound comes again, a steady tapping against the plywood, low down on the wall. She drops into a crouch and puts her cheek against the wood.

“Is someone there?”

Three slow taps respond.

“Who are you?” Caitlin asks.

“Who are you?”

“Caitlin Masters.”

There’s silence for a few moments. Then a muffled female voice says, “Penn Cage’s old girlfriend?”

“Yes! Tell me your name.”

There’s a long pause. Then the voice says, “Are you for real?”

“What do you mean?”

“You could be with them. Helping them. Quinn.”

“My God, no! They just kidnapped me. I’ve been looking for Linda Church. Is that you, Linda?”

“You tell me the rest first. Why would they kidnap you?”

“Penn got your note-from that Pentecostal girl. He thought you’d got away safe, but I wasn’t sure. I wanted to find you. I never stopped looking for you, Linda. I traced that girl from the Oneness church. And then the preacher, Simpson.”

Caitlin hears soft whimpering. “I want to believe you.”

“Linda, is it really you? Please tell me. What can it hurt? They already know you’re here. They put you here.”

“I guess. I can’t think right anymore. I’m sick. My leg’s infected.”

Caitlin remembers this from the note. She’d forgotten it, assuming that Linda had got medical care by now. “Do you have fever?”

“I’m burning up. But that’s not the worst part.”

“What’s the matter?”

“He’s been doing it to me. Quinn.”

“Doing it?”

“Raping me. He started last night. He’s done it so much that I’m getting a UTI. It hurts so bad when I have to pee, and I shiver all over afterward.”

“Did you tell Quinn that?”

“He gave me some pills he said would help. Antibiotics. They’re for dogs, I think, but he said it’s all the same. But they’re not helping. If it gets any worse, I don’t know what I’ll do. I stopped drinking water so I won’t have to pee.”

“You can’t do that, Linda. You have to drink. You’ll die if you don’t.”

“I’m going to die anyway. They’ll never let me out of here alive. He’s going to use me till he’s tired of me, then feed me to the dogs. He told me.”

Fear and outrage rush through Caitlin in a flood. “That’s not going to happen. Listen to me, Linda. We’re getting out of here!”

“How? Does anybody know where you are?”

Caitlin doesn’t want to admit the truth, but she can’t bring herself to lie. “No.”

“Then how are we going to get out? There’s dogs outside this kennel. Bulldogs and something else too. Big dogs. They don’t even leave men to guard me most of the time. They don’t have to. It’s twenty feet to the fence. Even if you could get out of here, they’d tear you to pieces before you got to it.”

“Is that what this building is? A kennel?”

“Uh-huh. You’re in a regular room like an office. But the rest of it’s just two lines of fenced stalls with an aisle between. There’s cats in one stall down by the door. That’s it.”

“That helps. The more I know, the better chance we have. I’ll think of something. You just drink your water and try to stay strong. Maybe the antibiotics will start to work. I know the bladder infection hurts. I’ve had those myself. But you listen to me, girl. We are getting out of here. Do you hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Say it, Linda.”

“We’re getting out.”

“Say it like you believe it.”

“I’m sorry. My throat hurts. Did they put a collar on you?”

“What?”

“A dog collar.”

“No.”

“They’ve got a dog collar on me, and it’s chained to a post. He only takes it off when he does it to me.”

Jesus Christ.

“If you’re going to do something, please do it quick.”

Caitlin thinks frantically. “Are we by ourselves now? Did they really leave?”

“I think so.”

“I’m sure I can get these bars off the window.”

“No! Don’t do that! You’ll draw the dogs. They could jump through that window if they tried.”

“Okay, okay, I won’t.” Caitlin looks around her cell again, then lifts her gaze to the cheap tin roof. “What about the roof? Do you care if I try to get part of that open? Then I could get up on top and see what’s out there.”

After a brief silence, Linda says, “I guess that’s okay. Just don’t fall off.”

Caitlin flexes her hands, then takes hold of the window bars at shoulder height. With a mighty effort, she leans back and starts walking her feet up the wall, first to chest level, then past the window. Skinning the cat, they called it when she was a kid. Surprised she can still manage the maneuver, she keeps stretching and extending until her bare feet reach the edge of the low-lying ceiling, then begins kicking. By the fourth kick she’s put a dent in the tin, but soon she has to unwind and drop back to the floor, panting and rubbing her hands. She’s not sure how long she can keep it up, but she’s pretty sure a roofing nail has started to lift out of the two-by-four at the top of the wall.