After Nick pulled his van up just short of Main Street, Jill and he climbed out to look along the road for the 4X4, only to find the road empty of vehicles.
Jill told Nick to wait while she crossed the street to go look inside the garage. Once there, she peered through the office window to see the inside door had been closed, blocking her view of the inner, larger room.
She leaned her back against the wall looking out towards the street, when something in the road caught her eye. The blood-bag, the one Gregg had shot at earlier; there was a faint red trail leading from it, an eight-inch-wide faint red trail.
She followed the progress of its fading arc to find … her heart sank, the faint red trail stopped at the base of the shutter to her right. She had a bad feeling about this. The 4X4 had obviously driven over the blood-bag and was now inside the garage, and its occupants had either captured, or killed Gregg, and they could still be in there.
She knew her next move was going to be one of ignoramus proportions, and doing it could quite possibly get her killed, but she needed to know for sure about Gregg. With her heart-rate racing way off the scale, she took out the 3.57 and moved across to the far side of the shutter.
Then, removing one hand from the gun, she, ever-so-lightly, rapped on it. After a few long seconds the shutter began to ascend, and just in case it wasn’t Gregg, and she had no doubt in her mind it wouldn’t be him … she pulled back on the hammer, ready to blast the first person she didn’t recognise.
As the shutter’s base left the floor, Jill stepped further to the side, from where she was now standing she could only see the far part of the rising door, near to where it met with the office window. And when it reached just above head height, she wheeled round with her gun outstretched, only to see Gregg had done the same. Both sighed lowering their weapons, and Jill turned beckoning for Nick to come over.
After climbing into his van, he drove into the now overcrowded garage to inspect the damage a little closer.
Jill indicated to the 4X4. ‘Did you see them?’
‘Yes, in the tunnel. They have Marianna Brontrose.’
‘The psychic?’
‘No, Marianna’s her daughter.’
‘Hah, you’d have thought her mom would have seen that one coming.’
‘No, Jill, this is serious. Something here stinks of a cover-up. Celia Brontrose must have known about this place, about the people, and what they’ve become. What gets me is why would they take her daughter?’
Jill shrugged. ‘Maybe it’s because she told you about the kidnappings?’
‘I doubt that.’ Gregg thought back to his visit of the Brontrose place. ‘I recognised Marianna from photographs her mother had in the house.’
‘And?’
‘The dates on them were wrong, I mean way off, or at least I assumed they were. One of them was dated almost sixty years ago. Celia Brontrose was in that picture, which was what made me think about the date error. Here, take a look at this,’ he said, passing her Marianna’s driving licence. ‘Look at her date of birth.’
Jill studied both the photograph and Marianna’s date of birth. ‘1986, looks about right; I’d say she was in her early twenties,’ she said, passing it back.
‘So would I, but Marianna was also in those photographs, sixty years ago.’
‘Really?’
Gregg nodded. ‘Really!’
‘Just like the old guy in the cell then,’ offered Jill. ‘The one who drew out the tunnels. He said he was one hundred and thirty six, yet he looked no older than what, fifty? He put it down to that injection, “The Turning” I think he called it.’
‘Celia Brontrose has to be a part of this in some way, there can be no other explanation.’
‘Well if that was the case, why have they taken her daughter?’
‘What else did the old guy say?’
‘He said that the Primary Thingy was working on something, something that could to change them.’
‘Yes he did, if Celia Brontrose is one of them, Marianna must be at least third generation vamp-’ He stopped from saying it. ‘What if, she’s the one who holds the secret to this change he talked about? What if … they were hoping to branch out? Like in the rain say? She sails a boat on the lake where she lives, if Marianna had any fear of water, she wouldn’t do that, right?’
Jill nodded. ‘Well that must be why they have her, something Marianna has, could hold the key. Can you imagine what would happen if this lot were free to roam the streets?’
Gregg nodded. ‘Then that gives us even more of a reason to blow their world apart.’
‘Nuke em’. In the bud so to speak,’ said Jill.
‘Exactly, but if there are anymore young girls still being held captive up there, I’ve got to get them out first. Speaking of which,’ he said, taking Jill over to the 4X4. ‘Jill Gordon, I’d like you to meet Miss Alicia Vincent.’
Alicia sat up on the seat narrowing her eyes. ‘How do you know my name?’
Jill looked at Alicia then at Gregg. ‘How did you …?’
‘In a moment, Jill. Alicia, my name is Gregg Pieroni, I’m a private investigator from Richmond, and your mom hired me to find you.’
Alicia looked at Gregg and her eyes began to blink as a solitary tear dropped the short distance to her cheek. ‘Thank you, Mr Pieroni,’ she said, ‘and I know my mom will say thank you too.’
‘The name’s Gregg, Alicia.’
Alicia smiled. ‘Thanks, Gregg,’ she said, jumping from the 4X4 and wrapping her arms and legs around him.
Nick came over after his inspection of the van. ‘Have you seen what they did to my, whoa, is she one of them?’ he said, taking a cautious step back.
Jill rolled her eyes. ‘No, Nick, this is Alicia. Alicia, say hi to Nick.’
‘Hi, Nick,’ she said, still clinging to Gregg.
‘Hello, Alicia. Where’d you find her?’
Gregg prised Alicia’s grip from his neck sitting her back in the 4X4. ‘To be honest, she found me, but that’s a question I’d like to ask you, Alicia. What were you doing in the tunnels?’
‘The tall lady let me go.’
‘The tall lady? Do you mean Ella?’
Alicia shrugged. ‘Don’t know her name, but she said when I get out of the tunnel; I was to give this to the investigator,’ she said, reaching into a pocket in her skirt.
Gregg looked at Jill and then at Nick, he reached out taking a piece of paper from Alicia’s hand. Opening it out, he started reading it to himself.
‘It’s okay for you to read it out loud. I know what it says, she made me write it.’
Gregg cleared his throat and began reading the note to the others,
“Here’s the deal. I have given you what you came for, take the girl and leave. No one will try to stop you, and no one will come after you. If you choose to refuse this offer of freedom, then you will only have yourself to blame for the consequences that will undoubtedly follow.”’
Gregg turned the note over and back again, but that's all there was.
‘Does that mean we can get out of here now?’ asked Nick.
‘Alicia, are there any more like you? Is there anyone else locked up where you were?’ Gregg asked.
Alicia nodded, confirming his fears. But if they were locked up, it also meant they were still alive.
Jill took hold of Alicia’s hand. ‘How many more, Alicia?’ she asked.
‘Two more, Jenny and another girl, but I don’t know her name because she never spoke, she only cried.’ Alicia held out her left arm. On her wrist she wore a bright coloured plastic bangle. ‘I had two of these,’ she said. ‘But I gave one to Jenny for being my friend.’
Gregg thought for a second, trying to recall the name. ‘Jenny Walsh,’ he remembered. ‘She was taken from Little Falls in Fredericksburg just two weeks ago. She’s Senator Edward Walsh’s granddaughter, and only just turned thirteen.’
‘We have to get them out Gregg.’ Jill said.
‘I know,’ he said, not taking his eyes off Alicia. ‘Alicia, can you tell us anything about where you were kept?’
‘The room you mean?’
‘Yeah, tell us about the room.’
‘It was small, it had a window with bars over the outside, and there were two small beds. That’s it.’
‘Did you see outside the room, like when the tall lady let you leave?’
Alicia nodded. ‘She unlocked the door and told me to follow her. I thought she was going to kill me or something.’ Jill squeezed Alicia’s hand a little. ‘I picked up my school blazer but she said to leave it where it was, then we went down some stairs in this big hall and into a kitchen. That’s where she made me write the note.’
‘Carry on,’ Gregg prompted.
‘She opened a door in the floor and we went down some more steps, to another door, she unlocked it then pulled me into a small room.’
‘What was in that room, Alicia?’
‘Just two more doors in the floor, a wooden one, and an iron one, I think it was iron anyway. Oh, and a small table in the corner, it had flashlights on it, or something like that.’
‘The wooden door Alicia, is that the one she sent you through?’
‘Yes, she told me to go down the steps, and when I reached the bottom, I was to go straight on until I got to the end, then turn right and climb out to find you. But I saw light from here that’s why I didn’t go all the way to the bottom.’
‘What happened to your shoes?’ Jill asked.
Again Alicia shrugged. ‘Don’t know, when I awoke in the room they’d put me in, they weren’t on my feet, nor were my socks.’
Gregg explained, ‘It would have been to slow them down, should they try to escape.’
‘Alicia,’ Nick said, bending with his hands on his knees. ‘You know this door you mentioned, the one in the kitchen floor. Would you say it was in the centre of the building?’
She thought for a few seconds then shrugged again. ‘Could be, I’m not sure.’
‘Well, was it near a window, or a door to the outside?’
‘No,’ she said, certain she was right. ‘It was in the middle of the floor.’
‘Okay, thank you.’
‘Okay, Alicia, just a couple more questions,’ said Gregg. ‘How many others did you see, just before you left?’
‘Others?’
‘Yeah, people like the tall lady.’
She shook her head. ‘No others. There were other rooms on the landing, but all the doors were closed.’
‘Well did you hear anyone else while you were there?’
‘When I was locked in the room I heard voices coming from below, where the kitchen was.’
Gregg touched her shoulder. ‘Alicia, you’ve been very helpful, and very, very brave.’
Jill stayed with Alicia while Gregg and Nick moved closer to the hatch, to hopefully sort out what they were going to do to get the girls out of the town hall before they could attempt to blow it up.
‘Okay, Gregg. What now?’
‘I was just about to ask you the same question, you’re the Pyro here, remember?’
