Arrow's Rest by Joel Scott (best way to read books txt) 📕

In the distance, freighters were anchored in a cluster off Lions Gate Bridge with a cruise ship carefully threading its way through them. Joseph approached the edge of the bluff and crouched down and looked over the drop-off. The house was directly below him, the two lines of fencing that enclosed it running up to the base of the bluff. It would be a simple matter to traverse the shallow slope and enter the grounds.

Joseph moved back a few feet and opened the packsack. He took out a jug of water and a small plastic bowl. He took a drink and then filled the container twice for Sinbad. He put the bowl and bottle back into the packsack and pulled out a pair of binoculars, then crawled to the edge of the bluff and rested on his elbows and began scanning the property. There were no cars visible, but a large garage ran out at right angles from the back of the house. He counted three cameras covering the inside grounds. The windows of the mansion were shuttered and there were no signs of anyone inside. Joseph made himself comfortable and settled back to wait for the dark. Sinbad dozed at his side, his ears twitching occasionally at the sounds of cars going past on the road below.

Chapter 26

Annie woke to darkness. She was covered in a sticky substance that she knew was blood. What she didn’t know was how much of it was hers and how much belonged to the man they’d thrown on top of her in the van as they tore out of the parking lot. Joseph had got him pretty good. One of the men had been crouched on the floor beside him, trying to stop the bleeding. When the injured man shuddered and went limp, he turned on her, screaming and kicking. She’d curled into a ball and put her arms in front of her face to protect herself, but some of the blows had come through and she had passed out.

Annie rolled over and sat up, moving slowly and carefully as she assessed the damage. Nothing broken except for maybe a cheekbone, she thought, not too bad. Ribs sore, but not the piercing pain that she would have experienced had they been broken. Probably just bruised. Her second husband had beaten her badly that one time before the family sorted him, and she knew the difference. At least she wasn’t tied up, and she made slow careful movements trying to stretch out some of the pain. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw she was lying on a cement floor in a medium-sized room with a ten-foot ceiling and a small window with iron bars set high on a concrete exterior wall. So she was probably in a basement.

Annie crawled over to the door and examined it. She gave it a soft tap with her knuckles. Steel. And sounded thick. She managed to pull herself up to her feet with the aid of the handle, moving slowly, and tried to open it. It was locked, no big surprise there. In the semi-dark she moved a cautious shuffling half step at a time around the perimeter of the room, searching for anything she could use as a weapon. Her foot struck something and she bent down, grunting against the sudden pain in her chest, and picked it up. A plastic water bottle with the seal intact. Annie removed the cap and smelled the contents before taking a slow, careful drink and continuing her circuit of the room. She found nothing else. There was no way for her to reach the window and in any case the glass was thick and she doubted she could break it without a tool, never mind the iron bars on the outside. Calling out for help wasn’t going to be an option.

Annie lowered herself back to the floor and rested her back against the wall beside the door. She reached up and removed the long whalebone pin that bound her topknot and began to scrape the tapered end against the rough concrete floor. After a few minutes’ work she was satisfied and settled back to wait. She began to nod, and after a while her eyes closed and she drifted off into a confused sleep.

Joseph stood up and stretched his legs, then moved slowly down the slope towards the darkened building, Sinbad drifting along in front of him. As they reached the base of the bluff, headlights suddenly appeared outside the gate and they ducked into the shadows alongside the garage. The gate slid open and a black pickup drove through. It went past the house and continued up the slope to the garage. Two of the men that had taken Annie were inside. The garage door opened and the pickup entered and the door shuttered back down behind it. Joseph went to the window and looked inside. The white van that had taken Annie was backed into one of the bays. He waited there, listening.

“. . . seen him that pissed. Thought he was going to do us right there.”

“Not our fault. How the hell were we supposed to know? Hundred-year-old guy carries a knife and knows how to use it, what are the fucking odds?” The fat man had a distinct whine to his voice.

“He says it’s too risky to hold onto her now. Too much noise out there after the screw-up in the parking lot. He wants it all cleaned up. Get the woman, dump the bodies, torch the van. He wants it done tonight.”

“I’ll do her right now.”

“Bring her up to the van first. No sense in packing her up the stairs if we don’t have to. She’s no lightweight.”

A trace of a smile appeared on Joseph’s face. He watched the man leave the garage and followed him out around the back of the building. A set of concrete steps led down to a steel door. The man opened it,