Chapter 33
When Matt and Lily left for the basement, Kara tried to keep her eyes open, but she was exhausted and her leg throbbed. She
knew it was bad and worried it would take weeks to heal. The last thing she wanted was to be on desk duty while her team solved
cases.
Kara was certain that desk duty was one of Dante’s levels of Hell, right below forced small talk, but above going to the hospital.
Chances were when they got out of this, she’d have to do all three.
She finished the water bottle, her stomach queasy from the first fluid in more than two days coupled with the blackberries
she’d eaten. But she didn’t puke. She leaned into the couch and let out a long breath.
Movement had her reaching out, eyes flashing open. She grabbed the wrist that was reaching for her head.
“I thought you were sleeping,” Lily said.
“I—I guess I dozed off.”
“I put a pot of water on to boil. When I searched the house the other day I found an old first aid kit. The previous owners cleared out most of the personal items, but I found some old clothes and towels. They’re a bit musty, but they’ll do.”
“Great. Go at it.” She motioned to her bloody leg.
“You should change. And shower.”
Kara perked up. “You have a working shower?”
“The water isn’t hot—there doesn’t seem to be a functional hot water heater. And there’s no soap. But Matt said the factory
you were in was flooded, and if that water was standing around for months there’s a lot of bacteria and dirt. Don’t touch
the wound, but rinse off. I could only find men’s clothing, but there are some shirts long enough to, um, cover you.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“But hurry, please? She could look at the cameras at any time. Your partner said he’ll figure out what to do, but . . .”
“Trust Matt. He won’t let anything happen to your son.”
Lily helped Kara up, then Kara limped down the hall to the bathroom. The floor of the old house creaked and groaned.
The bathroom was small, with a pedestal sink, cracked toilet, and tiny shower. Fine for her, but she doubted Matt would be
able to easily turn in it.
A towel, washcloth, and T-shirt were folded on the toilet seat. Kara stripped, grimacing as she untied Matt’s shirt. Blood
rolled down her leg as the wound reopened.
She put her shoes to the side, but the clothes not only reeked of body odor and disgusting flood water, but were damp and
dirty. She pushed them all into a corner, except put her panties in the sink and soaked them in water. She wasn’t overly modest,
but she didn’t want to walk around sans underwear.
The water was cool but not icy cold. Still, she winced as it ran over her sunburned body.
As she got used to the temperature, she stood under the weak spray and let the water flow over her.
It hurt and felt good at the same time. She looked down and saw brown and red water swirling down the drain as the grime and blood rolled off her body.
When the water started to run clear she’d shift, and it would flow dark again.
With a groan, she reached over and grabbed the washcloth. It was thin and rough, but she wiped down her body, avoiding her
injured leg. When she looked at the rag, it was dark with grime.
She could have stood under the trickle of water for an hour, but she rinsed as quickly as possible. The last thing she wanted
was to be caught naked by whoever had taken them.
She dried herself off with the towel and more dirt and blood came off. She folded the towel over the shower door because they
might need it again, then she pulled on the T-shirt. Lily was right—it fell nearly to her knees. It smelled musty, but not
disgusting, and definitely not like her ruined clothes. She squeezed water out of her underwear as best she could, considered
letting them air dry, then pulled them on. They might have to get out quickly. She dreaded putting on her gross shoes, but
carried them out with her. She would need them if they left the house.
Her leg ached as she limped back to the living room, blood dripping to the floor.
“Kitchen,” Lily called to her.
Kara stepped into the kitchen. It had the basics, including a lopsided table in the middle and three chairs. She sat on one.
“Put your leg on the other chair,” Lily said as she carried a pot of steaming water from the stove to the table where she
had also set up a first aid station—two towels, a first aid kit that looked like it was older than Kara, and another bottle
of water. “Drink. You need fluids.”
She didn’t have to tell Kara twice.
Lily sat down and looked at the gash. Though it was bleeding again, it wasn’t as bad as before, Kara surmised.
“I don’t have gloves, but I washed my hands.”
“I think I’m more likely to get an infection from the factory than from you, so I’ll take my chances.”
“I need to wash the wound with the hot water and I see some foreign matter in there—probably from when you were walking through the field. This is going to hurt.”
“Is there any tequila around? Whiskey? Bourbon? I’d be a cheap drunk since I haven’t eaten in a couple days.”
Lily shook her head and didn’t smile.
Okay, no humor with this one, Kara thought. “Well then, just do it.”
Kara winced as Lily washed out the wound, then took tweezers and pulled out . . . stuff. She didn’t want to look and see what
it was. She was still tweezing when Matt came up the stairs from the basement, which opened into the kitchen. Lily jumped
up.
“What happened? Is Nathan okay?”
Matt held up a soft-looking golf ball.
“What’s that?” Lily asked.
“She wanted you to believe that it was C-4.”
Lily’s eyes widened. “That’s an explosive!”
“C-4 is, this is not. It’s a high-grade clay that has the look and consistency of C-4, but won’t ignite. She told you that
she could remotely release the gas and poison your son?”
“Yes.”
“I inspected the gas. I don’t know what’s in the canister, and it could be dangerous. But there is no way to release the gas,
and definitely not with inert clay. It looked dangerous because of the wires and phone, and I thought it might be a real explosive, but once I disassembled it, I knew it
was harmless.”
“But you didn’t know! You could have killed my son.”
“I know what I’m doing, Lily. We need to get Nathan out of that cage. Kara can do it.”
“I can?” she said. “You have a lot of confidence.”
“In you, always,” Matt said and caught her eye.
Lily looked from one to the other. “What’s going on? Why would she put a fake bomb there and say it’s real? Does that mean
she isn’t going to kill my husband?”
“The woman has killed at least six people,” Matt said bluntly.
“Oh my God,” Lily said, then crossed herself.
“She’s capable of killing, but for now she needed you to be compliant. What better way than to threaten your son.”
Lily turned to Kara, implored her. “You can break the lock?”
“I’m not Supergirl, but . . .” She glanced at Matt. “What kind of lock?”
“Common Master lock with a keyhole.”
“I need really fine tools. Strong, flexible metal. Paperclip would be best, but I might be able to work with a bobby pin or
a barrette, if it’s small enough. And I need pliers. Unless of course you have a lock pick set handy.”
“I haven’t found anything like that,” Lily said, her hopes falling again.
“I’ll look,” Matt said. “I’ll find something. You finish bandaging Kara’s leg.”
“I need to check on my son.”
Matt nodded and stepped out of the doorway.
Lily ran down the stairs and Matt sat in the chair she had vacated.
“That was stressful,” Matt said.
“I’ll bet. You okay?”
“I’m more worried about you.”
“I got a shower. Cold water, no soap, but I feel a million times better. With you sitting there, I realize we both must have
stunk to high heaven.”
“Is that a hint?”
She smiled. “Not a hint, Stinky.”
He took her hand, kissed it, then looked at her leg. “That needs to be bandaged.”
“She will. She cleaned it out.”
“It hurts?”
“Yep. I won’t be running any marathons . . . but I never have run a marathon, so nothing’s changed.”
Lily came back up the stairs, each one creaking as she ascended. She was wiping tears from her face. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “She could come back. She has a gun.”
“Did you see her face?”
She shook her head. “No, neither of us did.”
Kara felt Matt tense next to her, and wondered if he knew something Lily didn’t.
“I’ll find the tools Kara needs. You finish bandaging her leg. We’ll all feel better when Nathan is out of the basement.”
Matt got up, ran his fingers up her arm. There was something else going on, Kara knew. She wondered what he’d learned down
in the basement.
Lily handed Kara two Tylenol packages. “They’re expired, but they might help with the pain. Take all four.”
Kara did, and averted her eyes when Lily opened a tube of Neosporin. She rubbed it into Kara’s wound. That hurt worse than
the tweezers. Then she wrapped gauze around it, followed by an ACE bandage. “That’s all the gauze that was in there, so I
hope it doesn’t start bleeding again.”
“I hope we’re out of here before dark,” Kara said.
“My husband has seen both of them,” Lily said quietly.
“You know that she has a partner?”
“I don’t know what is going on, but she talked about her husband. How Franklin owed her. She—she claimed they had an affair,
but it’s not true.”
“You’re sure about that.”
“Yes. I’m not being a Pollyanna.”
Kara wasn’t positive, but she let it slide.
“She sent a photo of herself with my husband. She put a smiley face over her own, but Franklin looked so scared, so shaken.
It was her way of telling me that I had to stay here or he would be hurt. And I think . . . her way of reminding him that
she had us.”
Lily looked at Kara, tears in her eyes. “They’re going to kill him, aren’t they? She told me that they wouldn’t if he did what they want and I stayed put, but they’re going to because he saw them.” Now it wasn’t a question.
“Not if we get out of here and stop them. Let’s go downstairs so I can check out the lock and free your son.”