HOME OF THE RED FOX - Segment Seven

Chapter 31

         At the same time the four males down below entered Wonderland, the three females on the fourth floor were about to have an adventure of their own. It turned out to be more terrifying than any the Red Queen ever devised.

         While Edith and Samantha quietly conversed and watched Sue Beth playing with Zorro and Toronado, a man entered the mansion through the unlocked front door. The strong storm wind, circling the building looking for a way in, came with him. When he walked by the currently unattended front desk, the wind caught the papers on it and scattered them around the room.

         An elderly guest walked by on her way to the game room, looking without much interest at the rain-soaked stranger. She stopped when he called out to her in a friendly voice, "Excuse me, ma'am?"

         "Yes, young man? Do you need some help?” Clara Winslow looked at the man, who seemed harmless enough. Besides, Clara was a trusting woman and only saw the good in people. That was why one of Walker's recruiters found her near starvation in an unheated, seedy, hotel room. The childless, 89-year-old widow, swindled out of her meager pension by a ruthless telemarketer, had also received an eviction notice for nonpayment of the rent. Even now, she still believed everyone was honest and truthful. On this rainy day, she was wrong.

         The stranger smiled at the woman and asked, "I'm looking for my nephew and niece, Joshua and Sue Beth Wilson. Do you know where I might find them?"

         Clara was a bit surprised at hearing the adorable children she often watched had an uncle. No one had ever mentioned there were other family members. She knew her memory had grown faulty lately. Maybe someone told her, and she merely forgot. "I'm sorry, but I haven't seen them today. You might check with Walker, since he's their legal guardian."

         "And where might I find him?” After hearing from Clara about Walker’s living quarters on the fourth floor, he politely thanked the older woman and headed for the elevator. Clara stared after him, thinking the children did not resemble their uncle at all. It’s none of my business, she thought. Not knowing what she set in motion with her innocent helpfulness, Clara continued to the game room.

         As he dripped rainwater on the floor while standing next to the elevator, the stranger looked around. Listening to it descend from the fourth floor, he had time to reflect on the purpose of his visit. It had taken months to find the two children so far from Noe Valley. It also had cost a San Francisco police officer his life. He had murdered the officer after slowly torturing him to reveal the distant location of the children.

         Finally within reach of them, the man reached into the pocket of his drenched raincoat to feel one last time for his favorite weapon of execution. When the elevator arrived, he got on and rode it up to the top floor where Samantha and Edith sat watching Sue Beth playing with the foxes, unaware of the danger swiftly approaching them.

Chapter 32

         The old blueprint of the area had been slightly misleading. In front of the men and Joshua stretched a large room carved out from solid rock. The uneven ceiling towered 20 feet over their heads in places and came down close to the floor in others. Off the room were three corridors, similar to those seen above on the first floor. Evidently, the mansion's architect had patterned part of the first floor on the cavern. These, though, were from water dripping on limestone for uncounted years. The water had disappeared, leaving only the hollowed-out limestone pathways.

         Randall looked around in awe and asked everyone to turn off all flashlights. After they did, the large room glowed with phosphorescence, appearing a deep blue, like dusk on the outside. To Joshua, it appeared magical. With the flashlights turned back on, the men decided to split up and explore each of the long meandering pathways, planning on meeting back in the area an hour later.

         Jack walked down the leftmost path, which quickly sloped downward. The steeper it went, the narrower it became. He soon had to walk slightly bent over to keep from hitting his head on the rock above. Just as he was about to give up and return the way he came, the corridor opened into another large cavern. Off that, he could see more pathways, but decided to explore just this area. The floor was uneven and showed tiny bones of creatures that had wandered in and never left. Never known to be squeamish, Jack stopped now and then, trying to identify the animals.

         In one large depression near the back, he found larger bones scattered by other animals probably foraging for food. When he reached down to pick up what he would have sworn was a femur, he found a rotted piece of material snagged underneath it. If he was not mistaken, the bone had once belonged to a human being. After removing his cardigan sweater, he wrapped the bone and attached cloth in it. He then started back for the main room to rejoin the others.

         Meanwhile, Randall had chosen the middle path and immediately found himself also going downward. The pathway was wide and easy to walk on, but kept switching back and forth, from left to right again and again. Soon, he became lost as to which direction he was walking and wished he had a compass to guide him. Without one, though, he just kept going until he suddenly came out in a familiar area. The corridor had looped back on itself after going nowhere. Randall decided to stay put and simply examine the room they had first entered. He was glad Walker had taken Joshua with him, as this corridor would have disappointed the boy.

         Walker had chosen the path on the right and immediately decided he had picked the most interesting one. He had been walking for a few minutes when he heard the sound of running water. Shortly thereafter, he came out into a large beautiful grotto, complete with an underground waterfall. The water flowed into a pool and eventually returned once more into the earth below. Over the eons, water filled the entire area, rising and falling to carve out ledges around the uneven pool. When the water table lowered, only the waterfall and pool remained.

         Around the large area, Walker could see magnificent cave formations caused by rain and snowfall soaking through the surrounding limestone to end here. Hanging down from the ceiling were long stalactites reaching in places to the floor of the grotto. He ran his hand up stalagmites as tall as he was. Looking at these, an old nonsensical rhyme went through his mind, The mites go up, and the tights come down.

         When he bent down and reached a hand into the large pool, he discovered the water was ice cold, but so clear he could see the bottom of the pool. With his active mind always thinking on ways to provide new entertainment for his staff and guests, he wondered how hard it would be to heat the pool. Jack, his idea man, would know. Seeing the allotted time had passed, Walker reluctantly left the beautiful grotto and headed back to rejoin his friends. He hoped Randall and Joshua had found as interesting a place as he had.

Chapter 33

         Edith watched Samantha closely, trying to understand what, if anything, the younger woman felt for Walker. The two had been talking for a couple hours with Edith learning as much about her son as she could. She had missed 50 years of Walker’s life and hoped Samantha could fill in some of the blanks.

         “Well,” said Samantha, trying to be as helpful as possible, “I’ve known Walker for two years, since he started looking for a place like the mansion.” She smiled as she looked around. “You should have seen it when we first saw it.” She continued for the next ten minutes, describing in detail the condition of the mansion and Walker’s unflagging enthusiasm for turning it into what it was now.

         At one point, when explaining Walker’s mission of providing a safe home for neglected, abused, or simply forgotten elders, Samantha stopped as a thought suddenly came to her. Looking intently at the older woman, she said in a whisper, “He did this all for you, didn’t he?”

         “I don’t understand. How could he know who I was?” Edith was at the point of tears. “Aren’t adoption files sealed?” Tears did fall unnoticed as she told of the long frustrating years when she had tried to find her child. The strict rules in place at the time about adoption policies stopped her at every point, until finally she had given up trying.

         “You don’t know how insistent Walker can be when he wants something.” Samantha remembered the way he had cut through all the red tape to get the mansion up and running so quickly. “It might have taken a little longer than he liked to find you, but don’t ever doubt he would have found you eventually. You have a stubborn son, Edith.”

         She took the hands of the other woman in hers and continued to tell her what she knew of Walker, which was not all that much. Samantha realized he was as much a mystery to her as he was to his newly found mother.

         Soon, Sue Beth joined them with her own question about her guardian. Hers was easier for Samantha to answer. The child simply wanted to know if she and her brother were going to stay with Walker. As she sat on the floor at the feet of the two women, Zorro and Toronado lay down nearby, exhausted from their strenuous playing.

         None of the humans noticed when the mother fox stood up, her fur bristling and her ears pricked forward. If they had been paying attention, they would have heard a low growl coming from Zorro as she stared at the unlocked front door. Only the attentive animal noticed the doorknob turning and the door opening slowly, inch by inch.

Chapter 34

         Joshua stood in the cavern watching the three men walk down their respective pathways. He wavered between joining them in the exciting adventure or going back to be with his sister. In all the time since his mother’s murder, the young boy had never been so far away from his sister and felt he was failing in his self-imposed job to protect her.

         Finally making up his mind that his sister was more important than any hidden treasure, Joshua returned to the door that had remained open all this time. He pulled the wooden door closed tight behind him and started up the long stairway to the third floor.

         This time, being alone, there was no conversation to keep him company. His flashlight broke up the nearby darkness, but it still was scary to be the only one in the narrow closed-in staircase. Because of the claustrophobic stillness while he climbed the stairs, the sudden muffled sound of voices startled Joshua.

         He figured he was at the first floor because the stairway was starting to switch back to the opposite side of the wall. Was someone in the stairwell with him? Who else would know about the hidden staircase? Were the three men returning from the cavern and on the stair just below him?

         Suddenly Joshua started laughing in relief. The voices were coming through the wall and were discussing tonight’s menu. If he was at the first floor, the stairway was next to the corridor outside the main kitchen. He recognized Michael, the pastry chef, with his distinctive Italian accent. With this figured out, the boy continued up the stairs towards the second floor. He had one more to go until he reached Walker’s hidden room.

         When the stairway switched back at the second floor, Joshua was starting to feel anxious again about being away from his sister. Even though he had left Sue Beth with Samantha and Edith, he knew they would not be able to protect his sister since they were only two women. Walker had promised him they would be safe in the mansion. However, Joshua had seen his mother murdered and been there when Ken Milton slaughtered eight more people. If the maniac ever managed to find them again, everyone in the mansion was in danger.

         Before climbing the stairs to the third floor, Joshua stopped to catch his breath. Dust filled the air in the stairway. Undisturbed by the passage of people for decades, it swirled around with each step he took. The thick dust got into his lungs and made breathing more difficult the higher he climbed.

         Gasping for air, he finally reached the open hatchway in the floor above his head. Climbing the last few stairs into the room on the third floor, Joshua felt overwhelmed by a feeling of panic. He knew there was no logical reason he should be so afraid for his sister, but he was.

         After leaving the room on the third floor, he had one more flight of stairs to reach Walker’s apartment. Still struggling to fill his lungs with clean air, he slowly climbed the stairs to the area in front of Walker’s wide-open door. As he stood there looking at the open door, he could hear nothing from inside; it was quiet, too quiet.

Chapter 35

         Randall watched Walker coming out of the corridor into the first cavern. Jack had already returned a few minutes earlier and was telling the other man about the room he had found at the end of his pathway. When Walker walked over to them, Randall glanced behind him, looking for Joshua.

         He asked, “Did you lose Joshua?” expecting the boy to come out into the room any second. Walker stopped and frowned at Randall.

         “What are you talking about? He was with you.” Seeing Randall shaking his head, Walker looked over at Jack.

         “No, he wasn’t with me either.” Jack answered before Walker could ask him. “Where did he go?” He glanced over at the wooden door and noticed it no longer was wide open. “Do you think he might have returned upstairs?”

         “Why don’t I go back up while you two check out down here?” Randall reached the door in a couple steps and stopped with a puzzled expression. “Where’s the doorknob?” He ran his hands up and down the door trying to find an indentation or a way to open the heavy door. Finding none, he attempted to put his fingers in the narrow crack at the side of the door. Once again, he failed to open the door.

         The other two men quickly joined him, but they too could not budge the door. Refusing to believe the door would not open, each man again tried without success.

         Jack said what they all were thinking. “Trapped like rats in a maze.”

Continued in next segment.

HOME OF THE RED FOX - Segment Eight  (18+) Chapters 36 thru 40 #1082907 by J. A. Buxton