Tom Simpson - Sink

Sally Backlin and Kathy Santos ran down the entire side of the lake searching for Billy and Jack. They called their names every minute or so but were answered only by silence. They made their way back to where the marina had been and saw Otis laying on the ground surrounded by a small group of people. He was obviously in much pain and they didn’t really want to bother him but they figured he would have seen the boys if anyone had.

“Excuse me sir.” Sally barely spoke. “Do you think I could ask you a question?”

“I don’t think he is any shape to answer any questions.” Piped up Ted Brumfield the cameraman. “He almost died in that hole in the ground.”

“It’s all right young lady. I’ll be fit as a fiddle very shortly. What question could a young lady like you possibly want answered by an old cripple like me?”

“It’s my brother sir. I’m really worried about him. We have looked all around the lake for him and his friend and we can’t find them anywhere. I wanted to ask you if you had possibly seen him and his friend. They said that they were going down to the lake to play early this morning and no one in our families have seen them since. I was hoping you might have seen them since you run the marina and can see the lake from where you work. My brother has red hair and his friend has blonde hair and I’m just hoping you saw where they may have gone.

“Well young lady, I did see two boys playing down at the lake till about noon and then I saw them head toward the woods by that big boulder over there. If I were you, I would wander over in that direction and you just might find them all safe and sound playing their fool hearts out. But, if I may add, you might want to take my dog Bart with you. He is very familiar with those woods and he has a powerful nose on him even if he looks a little lazy. I have seen the time he has rustled up a rabbit or two when I had no idea that one was even around. He never hurts them mind you. He just likes to play a little game of animal hide and seek and he is really good at it. Just call him to follow you into the woods and if your brother and his friend wandered too far in the woods he will scout them right out for you.”

“Thank you very much mister. I will borrow your dog since you don’t mind. I’m sure he will be a big help. Come on Bart. Let’s find Jack and Billy.”

Bart wagged his tail and smiled like only a dog lover could notice and followed Sally and Kathy as they headed toward the big boulder at the edge of the woods.

Ted Brumfield looked up when he heard the sound of the approaching helicopter. He watched as it flew over the courtyard and saw the sheriff frantically waving it away. He turned to Marcia Meadows as the helicopter began descending onto the large road leading into the resort after coming back from circling around the edge of the lake and said in a very somber tone.

“Marcia. I am going to run over there and see if they can get a stretcher over here to transport Otis to the hospital. I don’t like his color. I think we might be on the verge of losing him.”

Otis had been unmoving for the last five minutes and his face had turned an ashen gray. Marcia had run to the edge of the lake and dipped her handkerchief in the water. She tried to soothe Otis by patting the cool cloth on his warm forehead. She wiped the dried mud carefully out of his eyes and tried to console him with her gentle words but, she had not received a response since shortly after the red-haired girl and the attractive brunette had left to search for the missing boys.

Marcia Meadows nodded her head in agreement and continued to caress Otis’s face with the damp cloth. Ted Brumfield carefully sat his video camera down on the grass and ran toward the just landed helicopter. Marcia called after him and said.

“Please hurry Ted. You don’t know what else could possibly happen around here.”

Ted had been gone just over three minutes when Marcia suddenly felt a rough hand clamp tightly over her mouth and a sharp pain in her middle back.

“Don’t make a sound.” Came a nervous voice close to her ear. “Stand up and come with me.”

Marcia’s eyes, bulging with fright tried to get a glimpse of who had grabbed her when the voice said. “Don’t try to turn around, just start walking.”

The sharp pain in her middle back increased and she could feel a warm trickle starting to run down her back. She was roughly pushed along until she came to the backside of the manmade mountain and she saw the door was standing open. After she entered the doorway the voice told her to stop and the sharp pain decreased momentarily from her back. She heard what she thought was the sound of the door closing and the sharp pain returned in a slightly different place. She was pushed up the circular stairway leading to the top of the mountain and was suddenly pushed toward the porthole when she reached the upper landing.

Marcia tried to maintain her balance but her forward momentum caused her to land on her hands and knees and she let out a short yelp of pain and fear. She turned herself slowly around still on her hands and knees and faced her abductor.

“Mr. Brown. What are you doing? Have you gone totally crazy? Why did you grab me? Otis is badly hurt and he needs help. I need to stay with him until the people from the helicopter rescue him. Let me go back there and I will forget you ever grabbed me and brought me here. We can pretend that this didn’t happen. I am going to go back to Otis now.” Marcia Meadows started to get up when she saw the large hunting knife that had been pressed into her back start to move slowly toward her throat.

“Stay right there Miss fancy television reporter. I’m the boss now and you are going to do exactly what I tell you, if you want to live.” He pressed the sharp point of the knife backwards on her chest and cut the top button off with a slow flick of his wrist. “Me and you are going to have a little party. Just the two of us. Nobody knows we are up here and while everyone is busy trying to save all those stupid fools down in that hole we are going to have a great time.”

Stanley T. Brown, proprietor of the Brown Spot, had been hiding on the backside of the manmade mountain watching Marcia Meadows and the cameraman Ted Brumfield take shots of the waterfall. He heard all the commotion when the ground fell in and had seen that young girl from the corporate office open the door and her and the dog disappear inside. She shut the door after her and Stanley Brown waited for a few minutes and then walked toward the doorway. Just as he had approached the opening, he heard the door start to open and he hid behind a large palmetto bush and watched her and the dog come out and head toward the lake. He walked into the doorway, that she had forgotten to close, and went upstairs when the idea had come to his mind on where he could take Marcia Meadows. He could not believe his luck when the cameraman left her alone with the old man and he seized the opportunity with a mind that wasn’t quite right anymore.

Something inside Stanley Brown’s mind had snapped the day before, when he had first set his eyes on the gorgeous reporter. The years of constant nagging from a three hundred and forty-pound overweight very homely wife had finally taken its toll on Stanley’s mind. He had married the former Suzanne Powers, even though she was voted secretly by her classmates as the most unattractive student in their high-school class, because her father was one of the wealthiest men in town and Stanley T. Brown had always been very greedy. After that first honeymoon night when she still very slim and Stanley had really tried to make love to her but his stomach just couldn’t handle her white naked repulsiveness and she had harassed him for his failings to be a real man. He would have left after that first night but, the greedy part of him just had to have her dowry. He took the money her father had bestowed on them, payment Stanley thought just to get rid of his ugly daughter, and purchased a rundown liquor bar and turned it into one of the most prosperous places in town. He had spent just about every waking hour at his establishment and turned his unused sexual emotions into hard work. That was until Marcia Meadows had entered the picture and his mind had gone south.