P. Parrish - An Unquiet Grave

The door at the end of the hall was closed and he shoved it open, bracing himself in the doorway for anything or anyone, but the room was empty.

And cold.

The sliding glass doors were wide open, snow swirling and dancing on the rush of wind. On the floor, near the doors, lay a long thin tool with a rusty handle and a spray of sharp prongs on the other end. The prongs were wet with blood.

He scanned the rest of the room. An overturned table, shards of glass from a broken lamp, bunched-up area rugs, and blood. . lots of it, tracked across the floor to the deck outside.

Louis stepped quickly to the doors, flipping on the back floodlight. The entire yard and dock exploded in a wash of white light and it was so bright against the snow Louis had to blink to bring everything into focus.

Blood.

Red footprints and long, bloody drag marks stretching across the snowy deck and down the sloping yard.

Ives had taken her with him. But why? Where did he think he could go?

Louis squinted into the yard.

The boathouse. Ives would think it held a boat, a way to escape and a way to take Seraphin with him so he could finish her later.

Louis took a step outside, then turned back to the room.

The gun case.

He smashed the front glass with the tire iron, jerking out the closest shotgun, a long-barreled twelve-gauge. He cracked it open. It was not loaded.

He tried the other one. Empty. He reached for the small drawer at the bottom of the gun case. It was locked and it took only one hard jam of the tire iron to split it open.

Fuck! No shells.

He grabbed the twelve-gauge. He had to hope that Ives would see the gun and believe it was loaded and surrender.

Louis started to the deck, then spotted a phone on the desk. It would take at least thirty seconds to call, but he knew he had to. He punched in the Ardmore station number, left a rushed message with the dispatcher, then headed out into the deck.

The cold air was a sudden burn against the rush of adrenaline surging through him. The snow was deepening, up to his ankles now. As he walked he searched the yard, looking to the shadows for movement, but there was nothing. Just the track of red in the snow leading down to the boathouse.

The narrow door to the boathouse was unlocked and he threw it open, taking a second to back off, waiting for a possible shot, even though he knew Ives didn’t use a gun. But still he waited, and coming from inside, he heard a soft, pained whimpering, and the hiss of a man’s voice.

Louis stepped inside, the floodlight spraying in around him, painting the rugged wooden walls with a gray light.

The boathouse was long, the beamed roof about ten or twelve feet high, strung with ropes, hooks, and pulleys. Along the outside walls was a narrow wooden walkway, braced by a thin weathered rail. And between them was the black opaque surface of the lake.

It took a second for Louis to see Ives, but slowly his body began to take shape in the shadows. Ives was pressed into the corner at the far end of the boathouse. His head was covered in a black wool cap, long hanks of dark hair snaking from it, a spray of whiskers darkening his jaw. His slender body billowed with the bulk of a filthy old parka.

Ives held a long knife in one hand, his other wrapped around Seraphin’s neck. She was clinging to his arm, her fingers pressed into the sleeve of the parka. The front of her beige skirt was soaked with blood.

For a second it was still, then sounds began to register. Ives’s ragged, desperate breaths. Seraphin’s whimpers. His own pounding heartbeat.

Louis pointed the shotgun. “Let her go.”

Ives brought the knife down, thrusting it into her abdomen. Seraphin screamed, her body going limp, the scream quickly turning to a wet gasp.

Dear God.

Louis quickly moved closer, the shotgun leveled, hoping to force Ives into a decision. But Ives didn’t seem to even be aware Louis was there. Didn’t seem to recognize the gun as anything that could hurt him.

“Ives!” Louis shouted. “Listen to me.”

Ives looked up, looking toward Louis but not at him. His face was strangely calm, his eyes small empty holes that were searching but seeing nothing.

Then he unexpectedly flipped the knife to the hand that held Seraphin and Louis thought he was going to cut her throat. But Ives ignored Seraphin and the knife, focused on his empty hand.

“Ives!”

Ives reached down and touched Seraphin’s skirt, then pressed his fingers deep into the shredded fabric, into the wound.

Jesus.

Then he jerked his hand free, and brought it to himself, rubbing the blood on his crotch with frenzied strokes. Whispers now. Grunts. Hisses. Groans, as if there were some animal inside him fighting to get out.

Louis moved closer, watching for some sign Ives would defend himself or lunge at him, but Ives had reached back to Seraphin to get more blood. She was unconscious. Or dead.

“Ives!”

Finally Ives looked at him, his wild pupils still for just a second. Louis lifted the shotgun and aimed it at Ives’s forehead.

“Let her drop.”

Ives hurled himself sideways. Louis reached for him-both of them-but they were gone, crashing through the rotted railing and hitting the thin ice with a splintering splash. Ives disappeared underwater, taking Seraphin with him.

Louis leaned over the railing, stunned, his eyes searching the surface. For several seconds he saw nothing but the swirl of ice and black water. Then Ives’s head broke through, frantic, spinning, spraying water. And he still had Seraphin in his grasp, holding her now by the hair. Her eyes were open but Louis couldn’t tell if she was alive.

Ives struggled to stand in the waist-deep water and when he got his footing, he started to trudge away toward the open lake, dragging Seraphin behind him.

No. No.

He couldn’t let Ives just swim away, but he couldn’t go in the water after him. If he did, he would have to overpower Ives and do it quickly. And he realized in that instant that it might be for nothing. That Seraphin could already be dead. That Ives would freeze out in the lake anyway. And then he knew it was none of that. He was afraid to go into the water. Afraid he couldn’t take Ives. Afraid he would die.

He jumped.

The water stabbed at his body, pushing the air from his lungs, and he gasped, his heart throwing itself into a furious hammer.

Move. Move!

He forced his legs forward. Ives was only a few feet away, weighed down by the heavy parka and Seraphin. Louis lunged, grabbed the parka’s collar, and Ives spun, one hand still gripping Seraphin, the other flailing the knife. He started stabbing at Louis, thrusting up and down. Louis tried to use the shotgun butt as a weapon, but he couldn’t get in a solid hit.

Damn the gun. He tossed it to the water and grabbed Ives’s jacket with both fists, jerking him above the water and slamming his back against a piling so hard Ives let out a groan. But the knife came up and started on a downward thrust. Louis caught Ives’s wrist, keeping the knife high in the air, using his body weight to slam him harder against the piling.

Louis saw panic in Ives’s eyes.

Ives let go of Seraphin. The water started to take her away. Louis’s eyes flicked to her, and Ives’s fist came in hard, smashing into Louis’s temple. Before Louis could react, he was hit again.

Louis threw all his strength into dislodging the knife, slamming Ives’s hand against the piling. But the bastard didn’t let go, like he was feeling none of it.

Louis tried to rip Ives’s fingers from the knife handle, twisting them backward. The snap of bone and Ives let out a bellow, dropping the knife. Louis lunged for it before it sank. Ives slumped against the piling.