Chapter Fifteen Brad #3
“Where’s Bree?” I blurted.
His face dropped, and he licked his lips like he was holding back what he really wanted to say. “Come on, Brad, you’re killing this for me.”
“Hayne, I’m here undercover, and I need to know where she is.”
He cursed, then shook his head, annoyed. “Inside—” I barely heard the rest as I raced around the front. The suspect had already gone inside. I pushed through the small lineup and flashed my badge.
“This ride’s closed until I clear it,” I instructed the guy at the door.
“Okay.” He shrugged.
I lifted the radio and spoke quietly. “I’m in the fun house. I’ve shut it down. No sign of him yet.”
“Copy that. I’m moving your way,” Kennedy replied.
“This is unlike any fun house you’ve been in before.” The recording started as I entered the first room. “These are the rooms you dream about at night. The doors to all your fears have been left open.”
I took a moment to let my eyes adjust to the dark room.
It looked like it had been bombed several times.
Dirt and fake broken cement blocks were everywhere, and the floor was slippery as I tried to hurry my way through.
I imagined he would be a few minutes ahead of me.
I hoped he’d be affected by the stuff inside the house enough to slow him down a bit.
I stepped into the hall and was forced to take a sharp left.
The music helped muffle my steps but also muffled his.
I ducked when something shot out at me, but it stopped just inches from me.
A swinging sandbag seemed to come from nowhere and almost hit my side.
I knew they were just full of stuffing so they wouldn’t hurt if they were to reach you. They were just to make you jump.
“Ahhh!” someone screamed up ahead, and I picked up my pace but stopped when I saw the girl. A boy laughed at what had just made her scream. Strings of marbles were used to skew the lighting. I reached up and pulled some off and tossed some in their direction.
“Hey,” I mouthed as quietly as I could, then put my finger to my mouth as I showed my badge.
Both kids froze. “Go back out the way you came.” They didn’t even question me, and the boy grabbed her hand, and they dashed back toward the front entrance.
I tucked the marbles I still held into my pocket in case anyone else was up ahead.
I stepped into the next room and caught sight of his jacket just as the door slammed shut. “Welcome to your worst nightmare, where not everyone is as innocent as they seem. Can you spot them?” The recording gave a spooky laugh, then a strange smell was pumped in from somewhere.
“What the hell?” I scanned the fake dead bodies thrown together everywhere and thought how sick people were to use these kinds of ideas.
I was all for scary stuff, but whoever the creator was of this house had clearly re-created a mass murder.
It was gross. They had crossed the line from being fun and scary to disgusting and inappropriate.
There was enough bad stuff like this on the news every day, and people didn’t need more.
I put a hand on my weapon when the light went off, and a black light clicked on.
Five letters lit up in neon pink. IYKYK.
It stood for if you know you know. I hated that we lived in a world of acronyms. The lights flickered, making it harder to see.
It wasn’t hard to figure that the object of the game was to solve the puzzle.
I studied the scene, then moved around each victim until I spotted a young shooter.
I pulled the replica of a gun from his hands, and it shot up in the air, attached to some sort of retractable cord.
Once it disappeared, the door behind me slid open.
“Gross.” I felt like I needed a shower. That delay had caused me to lose my visual on the suspect. I only hoped he’d struggled with it longer than I had. The floor sloped at a steep angle, and I had to hold the wall to keep from—
Suddenly my feet were kicked out from behind me. I hit the floor and plummeted down a metal slide. The moment I hit a mat in the dark room, I quickly rolled to the side, then jumped to my feet and pulled my weapon at the same time. I heard someone behind me.
“So, you figured it out.” The voice had come from somewhere beside me.
I turned and aimed at the sound as I blinked to get my eyes adjusted.
My heart sank at the sound of his voice.
Even though I knew the truth, it still brought pain.
That I had been so wrong about the man I thought he was weighed heavily on me.
But then the lifeless young faces of Maggie and Shelly came to me, and I felt a whole new level of anger.
How was this man capable of being so heartless?
“I did. I know it’s you, Hank,” I yelled and used my voice to muffle the sound when I clicked on the radio.
I wanted the others to hear us. “Give yourself up, because you’ve got nowhere to go.
” I was able to make out his silhouette as he moved and tracked him with the muzzle of my gun.
The only light was a tiny red hue in the far corner of the room.
“Have you enjoyed my performance?”
“Performance?” I mocked. “I’ve seen better.”
“I guess I should step up my game.” He sounded amused. “Maybe we start with what I didn’t finish at the lake.”
“Funny, because right before Timothy Ford died, he took credit for nearly killing Bree.”
“I suppose that’s true.” I heard him race off, and I followed but tripped over something on the floor.
I fell but used the momentum to roll back up onto my feet.
The next room was all mirrors. They were angled to disorient you, but at least there was better lighting, and I caught sight of him.
I quickly jerked in his direction only to come face-to-face with a dead end.
Shit. I had to think like this house of horrors.
What appeared left wasn’t left at all. The floor shifted under my feet, and I was turned in a different direction.
“Why the fair?” I spun on my heel and saw that when the floor shifted, so did the mirrors.
“Why not?” His voice seemed to come from behind me. I slowly turned. “What better place than this for such a performance?” He laughed. It wasn’t lost on me that he used the word performance. I wondered what else he had planned.
“Why, Hank?” I called as the lights spun. “I’ve known you for years, so why do it?”
“She’s quite pretty, isn’t she?” He spoke from somewhere different from before. I was thankful that he was still there and hadn’t given me the slip. “I understand the infatuation.”
“Were you doing this for someone else, Hank? I can’t believe you really wanted to kill those poor girls.
Or was it something from way back, maybe because of your friend?
The one that died in the greenhouse when you were a kid?
” I wanted to keep him talking. Then I quietly spoke into my radio.
“I’ve got him with me in the mirror room,” I said, filling the team in.
“No.” He made a strange sound almost like a sigh. “I wish those girls were my subjects. I would have had a much deeper connection when their lives slipped away. I would have chosen something much more intimate.”
“Subjects?” That was an odd word to use. “So, they were an experiment?”
“In a way, yes.” I heard a door open and click closed, but I could see Hank in a small, tilted mirror, so I knew he was still with me.
“Dammit, get back here.” I pretended I was pissed he’d left.
I cleared my mind and refocused. Puzzles were a big part of my job, and I loved that part of it.
I planted my weight firmly on both feet and watched how the plates moved under them.
One movement to the left, two to the right, and another two to the left before the pattern repeated.
I could feel his presence in the room, like a dark chill that prickled at my skin.
I’d known the man for years and never gotten a bad vibe from him.
That played on my mind. Focus. The mirrors repeated the same pattern then in an opposite sequence.
I counted the directions as I moved through the maze.
I let the floor swing me around in a new direction, and I came face-to-face with Hank.
He swung, and I ducked, and he yelped in pain as his fist slammed into a mirror.
I jumped and fought the floor as it turned to change my direction.
Two mirrors turned inward, and I was able to slip between them, grab Hank by the jacket, and haul him with me backward.
Suddenly, we both whirled around in opposite positions, and I lost my grip on him as the lights went dim in spots around the room.
I prepared myself for Hank to reappear when the floor swung back around. I planted my feet, raised my fist, and was ready to drill him in his face when Bree suddenly appeared.
What?
“Brad?” She looked confused.
I reached out for her only to slam my hand into mirrored glass. This place was maddening.
“Brad!”
“Ah, look.” Hank chuckled darkly from somewhere. “We have company.”
I saw his reflection in two of the mirrors, but I didn’t bite. I jumped to a different track and tried to see if I could catch her. The floor started to turn, and I forced myself to stand still and try to study the pattern.
“Ms. Jaminson, how lovely you could join us.” I heard his feet scrape as he hit the floor. Where is he? “Tell me, how is your head?”
“Brad.” Her voice was so quiet I hardly heard her, but when I turned toward the sound, she jumped onto my track, and I wrapped my arms around her to keep her with me. “Is that Hank?” she whispered.
I tilted her head up and nodded so he couldn’t discover where we were. Her face hardened, and her eyes went wide with understanding. You need to get out of here, I mouthed.
How? she mouthed back.