Home of the Gray Dog - Segment 13

Chapter 61

“Jack, you said you found a piece of paper with Colin’s body?” This question came from Franklin while opening the dark room door. He had finished developing the picture taken earlier, and they were hanging on the line to dry.

          “Yeah, I gave it to Walker,” Jack entered the room and headed immediately for the photographs, “But he handed it back along with Samantha’s dress. Guess I forgot all about it.” With that, Jack reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the crumpled paper.

         Franklin wrinkled his nose in disgust at seeing the dried blood stains covering part of it. “Let me find something to put it in. The paper is evidence, you know, of a crime, maybe even of where Samantha might be!” After carefully flattening out the single sheet of paper and placing it between two sheets of clear plastic, Franklin brought it out to the main room where the lighting was better and placed it on a table.

         Jack followed him, now extremely curious about what was on the paper. Reading it for first time, he shook his head in disbelief, squinted to check out the reverse side more closely, and then stared at Franklin, too shocked to speak. Wordlessly, Jack gestured for him to read it for himself.

         “The paper is very old,” noted Franklin, quickly skimming through the faded words on the paper. “Do you know the person who wrote it?” He turned the paper over to continue reading the other side. “He mentions his wife Nancy and how he…” Franklin stopped in mid-sentence, stunned as Jack had been with what was in faded ink on the yellowed page.

         “Nancy was the second wife of Jason Edgeworth, the man who built this mansion back in the late 19th century. Colin, the dead guy you just photographed, is a descendent of his from England.” A visible shudder went through Jack. His imagination had suddenly pictured Colin mimicking Jason’s behavior.

         Franklin, understanding what Jack must be feeling since his thoughts were going in the same direction, put a comforting hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “Walker’s looking for Samantha right now, and you know he won’t give up until he finds her.”

         “I know he won’t,” Jack said, looking down once again at the paper in front of them, “but in what condition will he find her?”

Chapter 62

Down underground, Sherri had not let the overly protective men block her entrance into the limestone room for long. Despite objections from Joe and Walker, she stepped inside and slowly passed the light from her flashlight around the area. She stopped when the light came upon a skeleton manacled to the far wall.

         The old-fashioned clothing draped over the bones made it obvious the body was that of a female. The feet, still encased in high-button black shoes, dangled inches above the uneven floor with the arms stretched upward to their full length. Only the iron manacles hammered into the limestone held the body in place.

         Sherri continued into the room and walked to a small table on which she saw what appeared to be a journal. “Walker, come look at this.” She waited until he stood next to her, not noticing he was trying to block her view of the gruesome sight behind them.

         He opened the journal and started to read out loud. “This I am writing on the day of our Lord, December 15, 1912.” Walker interrupted his reading to tell the others, “He and his second wife, Nancy, had just returned from England about then. The 1912 date is a few months after he married her. We already knew his first wife died the previous April on the Titanic.”

         He continued reading. “Nancy knew where Marianne put my daughter’s body but has refused to tell me so I can give Hannah a Christian burial.” Again, Walker stopped to say, “Marianne was Jason’s first wife and murdered her child in a fit of insanity.” His mind went back to the day the previous year. He and his friend Randall, a forensic scientist from San Francisco, had discovered the young girl’s body in one of the caverns underneath the mansion.

         “Hannah?” Sherri asked, “Is that who you named the orphanage after?”

         “I promised at her funeral we would never forget her, and I thought that Hannah’s Home was the best way. To honor the child, I had the formal name, Hannah Edgeworth’s Home for Found Children, chiseled in Italian marble over the orphanage’s front door, but everyone just called it Hannah’s Home.

         Joe impatiently prodded Walker to continue his reading by asking, “Is that Nancy hanging back there?”

         Walker got the hint and read further. “She finally forced me one night to drug her with laudanum. The doctor had given her a bottle of the opium tincture to help quiet our baby son. Waiting until the servants had all gone to bed, I carried her out of the house and around behind it. On my walks to get away from the boy’s loud cries from colic, one day I came across a large hole in the ground. It had started drizzling, so I went into the hole to get out of the rain. It amazed and delighted me to discover many areas etched out from eons of water coming through the limestone.”

         Walker stopped to explain, “That’s what also created the three large caverns underneath the mansion. None of us realized there were even more of them.”

         A sudden sound from the corridor startled the three of them, and Joe poked his head out to investigate. He saw nothing in the dark, but the noise came even closer. In the distance, he heard a young voice yelling, “Valentine, get back here!”

         With the sound of the racing dog getting nearer by the moment, Joe spread his arms out wide to stop Valentine from entering the area. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he worried about what could happen when the excited dog saw the 206 bones in the skeleton behind him.

Chapter 63

With Valentine stopped in her tracks by a vigilant Joe before she could catch sight of the skeleton, Walker put the journal aside. He planned to bring it up to the surface and read at a later date.

         “Joe, why don’t you take her back and have one of the kids put a leash or something on her?” he suggested to the elderly man struggling to keep hold of Valentine’s collar. “Sherri and I can check out the rest of the corridor to see if Samantha is here.” He watched as Joe, dragging a reluctant dog behind him, left them.

         “Come on, Sherri. This poor woman isn’t going anywhere soon.” With Joe and the dog going in one direction, Walker and the doctor headed further down the corridor. It only took a couple minutes for them to see the entrance to another room. Sadly, the contents were even more horrific than the room they had just left.

         A roughly constructed pillory stood in the center of the room. They saw another skeleton with feet still secured to the floor by frayed leather straps. A cross board bolted down to restrict movement trapped the head and arms. Because no clothing covered the bones, they could not immediately determine the sex of the person.

         “Jason Edgeworth is a cold-blooded murderer,” Sherri said, “but it looks like he has to write about it to achieve full satisfaction.” On the floor next to the pillory she pointed out a second journal, and she was more than happy to let Walker pick it up.

         After reading a few minutes to himself, Walker quietly replaced the journal where it had been. “It seems after his wife died from starvation back there, he discovered he enjoyed listening to her beg for her life. Soon after that, he abducted a young woman from a village about 10 miles away and brought her back for more of what he calls his “fun and games.” He glanced at the body, sadness on his face. “Her name was Estelle, a scullery maid. With her, he went a step further and started inflicting not just starvation but pain.”

         “Walker, can we leave and keep going?” Sherri was trying to keep her emotions under control and finding tears were near the surface. “If that Colin is emulating his ancestor, I’m worried about what condition he left Samantha in.”

         Walker agreed without another word, and the two of them left to go even deeper into the cavern. Three more rooms revealed three more bodies. Each was in an increasing state of sadistic torture, causing even the doctor to gag at the sight of the last one. Whips of varying size hung from the wall and showed signs of heavy use, if the blood on them was any indication. The body lying in a wooden rack had bones pulled out of their sockets with some fractured in places. Ropes pulled tight at multiple points around the ancient machine gave mute testimony of how Jason accomplished the mutilation.

         Walker backed out of that room, not realizing he was dragging Sherri with him. “Oh, my God, no! Colin wouldn’t do anything so depraved to her. Please, not to Sam.” His voice, so soft Sherri hardly heard him, sounded terrified at what they would find, or even if they would find Samantha.

         They were nearing the end of the corridor with only a few more yards to go. Sherri shuddered at the thought of seeing any more mutilated bodies. “Walker, can you go on by yourself? I, um, I think I need some fresh air, okay?”

         “Go, get out of here. I’ll keep looking.” Walker managed to smile and give her a gentle shove back in the direction they had just come. He watched as the doctor, shining her flashlight ahead of her for guidance, moved out of his sight. When she disappeared around a corner, he took a deep breath and forced his own feet to finish the long walk of death.

         In this way, it was only Walker who looked into the final room to see what Colin had done to Samantha. A low cry escaped from him as he fell to his knees beside the still form of his friend.

Chapter 64

“Jack, didn’t you say you were going to get Itzam later today?” When Franklin made this comment in the late afternoon, Jack looked at his wristwatch in shock. They had been in the photography rooms for hours looking at the photographs for clues to where Samantha might be.

         “Right,” said Jack, moving toward the door. “She probably thought I’d forgotten her.” He took one last backward glance at the table filled with photographs. “Can you find Walker and let him know we haven’t had any luck with those?”

         Franklin nodded and followed Jack out into the entrance room. While Jack headed the short distance to the hospital in one of the mansion’s SUV, Franklin started asking people he met where Walker might be. He soon learned about the discovery of the hidden area in the acreage behind the mansion. With one of his ever present cameras slung around his neck, he continued through the mansion and out the back door.

         “Walker, are you out here?” called Franklin upon hearing voices in the distance. He kept calling, with no answer, until he came upon a group of adults and children. They had gathered around a fallen tree near a large hole in the ground. “Is Walker here?” he asked, and about half a dozen voices answered him at once.

         While trying to make sense of what they were saying, a startled Franklin suddenly yelped when he saw Dr. Delaney crawling out of the ground near his feet. He reached down and helped her to her feet.

         “Thank you,” Sherri said, once she had pulled some fresh air into her lungs. “Does anyone know where Jack is? I think Walker might need someone with him.” As questions came at her from all directions, she held up a hand to quiet them. “No, we haven’t found Samantha yet, and I’m worried about Walker when or if we do find her.” Seeing children in the crowd, she hesitated to tell what she and Walker had found.

         She spotted Joe kneeling on the ground near the edge of the crowd, still holding on to Valentine’s collar. The dog had quieted down, and she made her way over to them.

         “Do you think I should go back?” Joe was willing, but the doctor noticed his breathing was a bit labored. The air underground was stale and filled with the ancient remains of the desiccated bodies. Even she had found herself struggling to breathe after only the short time she had been there.

         “Joe, that’s kind of you, but I think it should be someone who hasn’t been there before, maybe even a bit…” Sherri tried to think of a diplomatic way of telling him she wanted someone younger. Joe wasn’t dumb, though, and realized what she was trying not to say.

         “Well, I see Toby over there.” Joe pointed to where Toby Cutler, the mansion’s outdoor equipment manager was standing. “Toby,” he called out, motioning the younger man closer.

         After a brief conversation with Sherri, who went into explicit detail, Toby was aware of what was ahead of him. By now, Franklin had quietly joined the trio and handed Toby his camera.

         “If it doesn’t bother you too much,” he asked, “would you take pictures of the bodies down there?” He explained his request was not out of any morbid or voyeuristic tendency, but to help in the further identification of the women. If we can find any of their descendents, they might want to learn the fate of their ancestors. “Also, I understand you found journals,” he continued, speaking now to Sherri.

         “Yes, there was one in each of the rooms.” She managed a tentative smile at Toby before asking, “If you could bring them back when you leave, that would save Walker having to do it.” She handed him the flashlight and hoped the batteries in it would last.

         “No problem. Pictures and journals, check!” With that, Toby headed through the crowd of anxiously waiting people and slowly disappeared like the Alice’s rabbit down into the hole. What awaited him, though, was not a Wonderland.

Chapter 65

Fifteen minutes later, Toby clambered out of the hole and looked around the crowd, panic on his face. “Dr. Delaney,” he started calling, almost before he was on firm ground. “Where are you?” When he caught sight of the doctor, still standing with Franklin and Joe, he roughly pushed his way through the people standing in his way to get to them.

         “Is it Walker?” asked Sherri, suddenly realizing that he had been underground the longest time of them all. Although not old, Walker was now in his 50’s and had been breathing in the rancid air for over two hours.

         Toby didn’t answer her but simply hurried back to the hole with Sherri almost stepping on his heels in her haste to follow him. All he could think of was getting a doctor down to help as fast as possible.

         When Toby had originally gone down underground, he found Walker within minutes. He stopped at the entrance to the room in shock at seeing Walker sitting on the floor with Samantha’s head cradled in his arms. Walker was rocking back and forth with tears streaming unnoticed down his face.

         Walker looked away from Samantha at hearing someone behind him. Seeing it was his young staff member, he said in a voice filled with pain, “She’s gone, Toby. He killed her.”

         Toby came into the area and bent down next to them. His hand came out to touch Samantha’s face in sorrow, but was surprised at its warmth. Her body did, in fact, seem lifeless. Instead of the usual professional clothes she wore around the mansion, Samantha had on a torn and dirty dress that looked like it was fashionable back in the 19th century. He could see a portion of one of her bare legs through one long tear, and both sleeves were hanging off her arms in shreds.

         He reached past Walker’s intervening arm to press fingers against her neck, feeling for a pulse. “Walker, she’s still alive, but won’t be for long if we don’t get her a doctor.”

         “What?” Walker looked at him in disbelief. “What did you say?” He had been in such shock after seeing Samantha’s body he hadn’t the presence of mind to check for life signs.

         “Never mind,” Toby didn’t want to waste any more time, and he left Walker holding Samantha even more tightly, brushing her long red hair off her face, and whispering soft words meant only for her.

         This is how he and Sherri found him upon their return. After she had also felt for a pulse, Sherri told the men, “We need to get her out of here and to the hospital as fast as possible.” No sooner had Sherri spoken these words then Walker stood and scooped Samantha’s limp body into his arms.

         Sherri went first, shining the flashlight onto the floor to guide the others out of the cavern. When crawling out of the hole, she was already calling for some men to help Walker. He passed Samantha out to the waiting arms of some of the waiters who had volunteered hours earlier. Without waiting for further instructions, they headed almost at a run back to the mansion with the still unconscious woman. Sherri was right behind them, on her cell phone calling the nearby hospital for an ambulance.

         When Walker climbed out, closely followed by Toby, he stood for a moment and looked around at the people who helped in the frantic search. His elderly guests stood side by side with children from the orphanage, the light from the full moon shining down on relieved and smiling faces. The exhaustion of the past few hours was gone from all of them.

         Only Sherri still worried over the final outcome for Samantha. She knew that days of dehydration, such that Samantha had gone through, still could be deadly. However, she didn’t have the heart to tell Walker or the others. Even now, Samantha’s internal organs could be shutting down as a precursor to death.

         Only time would tell whether Samantha lived or died.

Continued in next segment.

Home of the Gray Dog - Segment 14  (18+) Chapters 66 through 70. #1267318 by J. A. Buxton