NaNoWriMo Day 26: 34, 298 of 50,000
And now we take the Falling Action to a WHOLE new level. Eek!
To read the previous chapters head HERE!
Chapter Twenty-Nine
A full twenty-four hours had passed since the four of them, plus Bella, had rushed out of Seattle to hole up in this mountainside cabin. Saul had not tied any of them up overnight even though Alice and Theo huddled near each other overnight. Chloe had somehow decided there was no danger after her and Saul bonded over his small stash of books he had in his cabin. That was Chloe for you. The man could be kidnapper and possibly serial killer, but if he has books Chloe would be all in and ready for a bedtime story.
“Theo could you pass me that water bottle please?” Chloe asked with her nose practically in a book near the fireplace.
“Hey bro you probably should read that from an appropriate distance. Ya know for your eyes and all that,” Theo said throwing the bottle at her.
“It has tiny print Theo. It’s an original ‘Tale of Two Cities’!”
“Okay, okay. Suit yourself.”
The group would’ve left as soon as Theo’s fears were realized, but the reports coming in over the radio told people to stay out of the city for another day. While the tsunami wasn’t as big as many geologists and forecasters had feared there was still significant damage. The city and police had to figure out how to get people safely back into the city with all of the bridges out.
“Everyone warm?” Saul asked walking in with a knife heading toward the stack of wood near the fireplace. Theo and Alice gasped and stood up to move away drawing the attention of everyone, including Saul, in the room. “You two alright?”
Theo stepped further back as Alice reached for his hand. Bella, sensing some danger, barked in the direction of Saul. Theo pulled her closer to him.
“Theo, what’s wrong?” Chloe asked as if the past ten months had meant nothing.
“Your- your kn-kn-knife,” Theo stuttered feeling that same surge of fear he felt almost two days ago.
Saul looked down at the knife in his hand then back up at Theo completely confused. “What about it?”
“Yeah, Theo, what about it?” Chloe asked the living room suddenly laying out like a wrestling ring with the pairs on either side of the room.
Theo was too scared to form words so the room stayed silent. “Who are you?” Alice’s voice asked next to him.
“Who am I? What do you mean? I’m Saul,” he explained dropping the knife and standing up.
“No, I mean why do you live out of your van in Seattle using a knife to pick the weeds when you have this beautiful place up here!” Alice was almost shouting now which only made Bella bark louder.
“Live out of my van, what do you- oh. It’s been you two,” Saul said his face relaxing. A chill ran down Theo’s back as Chloe now stood up realizing what was going on.
“What do you mean it’s been those two, Saul?” Chloe asked now understanding that maybe her loyalties shouldn’t lie with him.
“I’ve been feeling like someone has been watching my every move for weeks. I thought I was losing my mind, but turns out I wasn’t,” Saul had his arms crossed over his chest now.
“You haven’t answered my questions,” Alice challenged him showing more confidence and boldness than Theo could think about producing right now.
Saul sighed and sat in a chair by the fire. “I am not homeless. I choose to live in Seattle. I live in the apartments off 63rd I just don’t have a lot of room in that tiny, overpriced space. So, most of my stuff is in my van. As for the knife,” he said feeling accosted and for a right reason, “I have anxiety. Severe anxiety from serving in Iraq and the only thing that can calm me is landscaping. Since I live in the west coast version of the concrete jungle I do what I can.”
Everyone in the room didn’t move. Bella had stopped barking and Chloe had slowly made her way toward Theo standing next to him.
“We-we thought you were,” Chloe swallowed, “we thought you were involved in the disappearance of the four women in Ballard.”
“What? Because I cut weeds I somehow appear to be the kind of guy who kidnaps women?” Saul was laughing now. “Some detectives you all are.”
“But-but,” Theo had found his voice, “but you always left for weeks and then when you came back a woman disappeared. Where were you?” Theo asked genuinely curious now.
“Where was I? I was either around the block at work in Fremont or I was up here at my cabin. I mean honestly if this is how you judge strangers I am not sure I spent the energy getting you all here anyway!” With that Saul stormed out of the cabin slamming the back door behind him.
Chloe, Alice, and Theo unthawed all looking at each other. “So, he isn’t the one who took those girls?” Chloe was the first to speak.
“No?” Alice responded almost in disbelief.
Alice and Chloe were now staring at Theo waiting for his response because it was Theo who started this. It was Theo who stalked him, Theo who bought a journal and recorded his movements, Theo who obsessed day and night over this guy. Theo. Theo. Theo. He couldn’t respond because he couldn’t seem to imagine that this past year had been spent wasting so much time on Stanley-Saul when all along it was someone else. Someone else who was doing something unspeakable to one of his closest friends. Theo couldn’t live with himself if that were true.
Chapter Thirty
Theo needed some air. He needed to step away to swallow what was happening to him. Theo had moved out here to start over in a sense. A bad, tumultuous breakup made him rationalize packing everything up and driving halfway across the country. Now he had made the tumultuous, chaos back into his life.
“What is wrong with me?” Theo asked himself kicking the green grass beneath his feet.
“Theo,” Saul’s voice was quiet and somewhat apologetic in its tone.
“Saul,” Theo said turning to see the man with his hands in his pockets, “I am so sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just made all these assumptions without using reason. I can’t-”
Saul put his hand up. “Theo, I accept your apology, but don’t beat yourself up,” he said shrugging his shoulders, “you have to be kind of paranoid to live in the city. I’ll admit the news about the women disappearing is really messing me up too.”
“Yes, one of the women missing is a close friend of mine. Ophelia,” Theo said hoping by saying her name she would magically appear and declare she had been in Portland doing some sort of tech detox.
“Oh no, I am so sorry.”
Theo nodded. “We should probably go back in as a show of good faith. I kind of just walked out without saying anything to my sister of Alice.”
Saul smiled. “Brothers in arms it is.”
When Theo and Saul walked in smiling that seemed to defrost the room a bit. Even though Saul was no longer Theo’s #1 suspect he still wasn’t going to give up on his mini-investigation. Now that Seattle was in a state of emergency it was likely that the police were more into helping with the clean-up than finishing this investigation and finding the missing woman. Ophelia was still out there and if she had gone through what Tiffany had gone through she was probably starving somewhere in the mountains.
“Hey Theo,” Alice walked up to him that evening as the sun was setting behind the mountains.
“Hey Alice.”
“You alright? It’s been a bit of a whirlwind these past few days hasn’t it?” she rested her head on his shoulder.
Theo sighed. “Yeah I’m ok. I just,” he swallowed, “I can’t stop thinking about Ophelia and those other women. I mean if it isn’t Saul then who in our neighborhood is doing this?”
Alice took her head off his shoulder. “I wish I knew. I was right there with you Theo. I was completely convinced it was Stanley, or Saul,” she laughed, “sorry I am still getting used to his name.”
He laughed and turned toward her. “It’s alright. I hope Tiffany is okay. Heck, I hope everyone is okay. It’s so weird not having a lot of information right now.”
“I heard on the radio they were going to start opening up the highway’s into the city tonight. I think Saul wants to wait until tomorrow morning to leave because of the hoards of people that are going to be traveling back.”
Theo nodded his head. “I’m going to go for a walk around the yard. I need some time to myself if that’s okay.”
Alice nodded her head and rubbed his shoulder. “Of course Theo.”
After Alice walked inside Theo took a look at the large expanse of land around him. He wasn’t sure the boundary of Saul’s yard, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to go adventuring. He needed time to think because Saul was no longer in the picture. He was replaced by a mysterious, young man that Tiffany alluded to. As Theo meandered around a large tree and noticed a small path he considered the one question that had been eating at him since the first woman went missing: why?
Why would someone be taking females and then returning them months later? Theo often referenced back to what little research he had done and repeated the three reasons most criminals committed their crimes: motive, means, and opportunity. For Theo he was stuck on the motive aspect more than the other two. The mysteriou suspect clearly had means to take these women and place them somewhere so far removed from a populous area that no one had seen them in several months. He also had opportunity because these women had been taken in various spots around Ballard without anyone noticing.
As Theo followed the path in front of him he happened upon a small shed. It looked like no one had used it in several years, but Theo admired it nonetheless. Trees and greenery surrounded it with just a hint of a mountain peak behind it. Sighing, Theo turned around to head back but stopped when he heard a noise. He wanted to make sure he wasn’t losing his mind so he stood still for several more minutes hearing it again.
Theo walked closer to the shed realizing the noise was coming from inside. As he stood there with his hands tucked into his coat pockets his heart began to race. A snap of a branch made Theo jumped and when he turned around goosebumps appeared over every inch of his body.
“It’s you?”
Chapter Thirty-One
There’s was a moment Theo flashed back to as he stood there in the forest. Driving in North Dakota on his way out to Seattle the sun was setting in front of him and his GPS was telling him to continue straight for 105 miles. The podcast currently coming out of his car speakers was lulling him into a sleepy mode so Theo switched to some high energy playlist on Spotify.
As the road continued in front of him the signs became minimal and the road began to change from concrete to gravel. Theo hurriedly looked at his GPS noticing that nothing had changed, but to him it seemed odd that the highway had become gravel. A few miles later a sign appeared telling him the road ended ½ mile ahead.
“What the-” Theo couldn’t finish his question because the road stopped right in front of him. A field of corn stretched out in front of him displaying beautifully in the moonlight. Theo put the car in park and pulled his phone off the dashboard holder in front of him. It was still telling him to continue straight. “There is no straight! There is no road!” he screamed at the phone. It scared him, but he realized in the darkness of the North Dakota countryside he had no choice. He needed to turn around and try to find a main road.
That fear, sudden and abrupt, from that memory was exactly what Theo felt standing there in the forests of the Cascade Mountains. It wasn’t fear because of the noise he heard in the shed behind him. It was fear because of the person standing in front of him now.
“I don’t understand,” Theo wa able to say.
The person in front of him stood still their face completely expressionless. All the times that Theo had looked at this person never had he seen this expressionless look. As they stood there staring at each other it was becoming more clear to him. From the moment he met this person to this second, it was making more sense apart from one thing.
“Where is she? Where is Ophelia really?”
The person in front of him began to move walking around Theo and heading toward the shed. “I always knew it was going to end this way. We both knew, the closer you got to Saul that you would eventually end up here.”
“Tyler, cut this out right now. Where is Ophelia?”
Follow along with me this month at Jenna Pratt!
