In One Fell Swoop Read online

  As promised, I sat by the phone, drink in my hand, while my three girls got their rest. I sipped from my glass, tapping my finger restlessly on the side of it, then did what always made me calm, always had helped me when life got rough.

  I sang.

  Chapter 11

  His boots were making squishing sounds underneath him as he walked. His jeans were soaked from walking in the waist-high water earlier. Now that he was walking on drier ground, he could feel just how wet his clothes really were.

  Harry Herman heard a sound coming from his right side, then turned and shone his flashlight. A blue heron stared back at him. The light from the flashlight was reflected in its bright yellow eyes.

  Harry waved his arms, "Get out of here."

  The bird took off. Jeff came up behind him. "What was that? You found something?"

  "Nah, just a heron on its long weird legs, staring at me."

  Jeff nodded. "I hate those ugly birds."

  Harry shone the flashlight into the darkness of the swamps. He had been fishing in these parts for so many years and would always go at the crack of dawn, but he had never been out here at nighttime. He didn't like it. Everyone knew nighttime was bad in the swamps. But they had to find Julia's boy. Harry didn't like to think about him being out here, maybe all alone, without any weapons to protect him. At the same time, he sure hoped he was here somewhere, either running or trying to get home, and not dead in a ditch.

  Harry had known Sam since he was a little kid and, even though he couldn't stand his dad, Greg, especially because of the way he had treated the beautiful Julia, he really liked the boy. Harry was the owner of the Rocking Chair, where Julia and her family sang every Saturday and often Sam would hang out in the back while his mom was on stage. Harry and Sam would have some good chats. They were as different as night and day; Harry loved the outdoors while Sam was into computers and comics and stuff, but Harry enjoyed listening to the boy talk about coding, Anime and animation, and stuff like that. It was a world completely unknown to Harry, and for the most part, he didn't understand a word the boy said, but seeing the passion in Sam's eyes made it worth listening to. The boy had some serious talent for drawing and he could sit out there in the back of the bar and draw for hours. Harry was certain the boy would make it big some day.

  If he was still alive.

  "What was that?" Jeff turned his flashlight.

  "Did you hear something?" Harry asked and looked too. Nothing was there. Not even a heron.

  Jeff lifted his rifle. Jeff and Harry often went hunting together and he knew he was safe with him. Jeff never missed a shot.

  "It was probably nothing," Harry said. "Let's keep going. There’s a clearing not far from here. Maybe one of the missing campers found it and is waiting there."

  Jeff grumbled and followed Harry.

  "What was that?!" he said and turned around, pointing his rifle into the darkness.

  "There ain't nothing there, Jeff," Harry said.

  "I heard it again. I swear, I heard it."

  "What did it sound like?"

  "Like a slithering snake," he said. "Moving across the ground right behind us."

  If anyone knew about snakes, it was Jeff. When they were out on his boat, going under some trees, he would sometimes reach out his arm and grab one right off of a branch, while it was sitting there, waiting. Jeff knew exactly where to find them and claimed he could hear them, which Harry found strange because he had never managed to hear a snake.

  "What kind of snake?" Harry asked, his breathing ragged.

  "Big one. Might be Python."

  Harry swallowed hard. The darkness was very unsettling and claustrophobic. Harry was glad he had Jeff by his side; he wouldn't know how to survive in here without him. Especially not in the darkness.

  Jeff grunted and moved his rifle. "There it was again."

  They waited, rifle raised, for whatever was hiding in the trees behind them, but everything remained calm and eerily quiet. Harry wasn't an expert on the swamps, but he knew that it wasn't supposed to go quiet. Quiet was bad.

  Harry turned his head and looked in the direction they were going. He shone the flashlight and found the small path they were following. It was getting wider ahead, which meant they were close to the clearing.

  "How about we just hurry up and get to the clearing?" he said and turned his head to look at his friend.

  "Jeff?"

  Chapter 12

  I made pancakes and eggs, but no one was very hungry, especially not Julia, who was a mess. I couldn't blame her. I wasn't doing too well myself. I had stayed by the phone all night and, even though I had dozed off a few times, I kept waking myself up with a start, worrying that I had missed the call.

  I hadn't, ‘cause there had been none.

  "Eat something, baby," I said to Julia and handed her a plate.

  I shoveled down a pancake and some eggs and bacon. My problem was never that I couldn't eat when things were bad. I always thought food gave me comfort, but Julia wasn't like that.

  She shook her head, "I can't."

  I gave her my mother is worried look and that made her change her mind. She took one bite of the eggs, then pushed the plate away. I poured her some freshly squeezed orange juice and she drank it. She put the glass down hard on the counter.

  "I can't stand this waiting around. I need to do something."

  I grabbed my purse and my car keys. "Let's go."

  Danielle was on the phone all the way there, talking to her husband, Allen, who didn't understand why she had to go back out in the swamps and not come home. I never liked him much but tried to not show it. He was a businessman. Provided well for my daughter, yes, but that wasn't everything. If I had learned one lesson in life, that had to be it. I worried about her. They had only been married two years, but already I thought I saw trouble between them. He had demanded that she stop working as a preschool teacher, which she lived and breathed for before she met him. But in his world, a woman wasn't supposed to work. I didn't have a problem with that; I believed it was honorable to choose to take care of your family, but it had to be the woman's own choice, not the man's. And Danielle loved her job so much it almost killed her to have to give it up. And for what? It wasn't like they had any children yet. Was she just expected to be the housekeeper of his fancy new house? I never went there if I could avoid it. It was way too cold for my taste, too modern, too much black and white and slick surfaces. It had no charm, no warmth. It was filled with expensive art, apparently. I didn't know anything about those types of things, but apparently, it was so exquisite that Allen didn't allow children in the house. Children and art apparently didn't go together. I knew Danielle's biggest wish in life was to have children and feared it wasn't exactly what Allen wanted. And if he agreed to have some anyway, then there wouldn't be room for them in his heart or his big fancy artsy house.

  We took the back road again and parked really close to the police blockage at Gator Hole Campsite. I spotted Sheriff Ivan. He looked exhausted and even more baffled than the day before. It made me very uncomfortable.

  "Hey, Ivan!" I yelled and hurried to him, waving my hand. It was extraordinarily hot and muggy this morning and I was sweating like crazy. The humid air made it hard for me to breathe and I was panting when I reached him.

  He didn't even smile when he saw me. Sheriff Ivan always smiled when he saw me. This was not good.

  "I…I'm sorry, Patty. I wish I had better news. Well, I would have called if I had any kind of news, but it's all just such…such a mess."

  "So, what do you know? You must have found out something? You were here all day yesterday and all night?"

  "Nothing," he said with a shrug. "We found absolutely nothing. Not a trace of any of them. Thirteen people simply vanished from this place."

  "How is that even possible?" I asked. "There must be something…"

  "You'd think, wouldn't you? But nothing. Absolutely nothing. All we have is the trail of blood and the broken guitar. It looks like the trail of blood originated from someone hurting themselves on a rock over there and then they were dragged across the ground in between the trees. That's how far the forensic team has gotten."

  "So, someone was hurt?" I said. "It wasn't blood from an animal?"

  He shook his head. He was keeping it together. He was pale and his hands not quite steady.

  "Definitely human blood."

  My heart sank. I didn't dare to look back at Julia, who remained with her sisters. I couldn't look her in the eyes. She would see my despair. Sheriff Ivan lifted his hat and scratched his forehead. "I wish I had more answers for you, Patty, I really do."

  "I know you do," I said when a search team of four people from Webster returned looking like they had been in the wilderness for a month.

  One of them, Mayor Ingram, approached Ivan, a look of terror on his face. "We can't find Jeff and Harry," he said. "They were with us for most of the way, but suddenly they were gone. We looked everywhere, called their cell phones, but nothing. Nothing at all."

  Sheriff Ivan nodded, confused. "Well, the reception is horrible if you're deep in the swamps. They'll probably be back soon. Jeff and Harry are both good hunters and know how to navigate through the swamps. They'll be back soon. I’m sure they'll be back soon. I-I-I'm sure they will."

  I put my hand on Ivan's shoulder. "Let me get you some coffee," I said and looked at Irene, who was still serving coffee and sandwiches from the back of her van. "I think you need it."

  Chapter 13

  "Two days! You’re telling me it's going to take two days to fix that stupid old car?"

  Darlene was yelling at Billy in their motel room. After pushing the car to the auto shop, which was closed on Sundays, they had gone back to the motel and pretended like they had
never left, that they had simply gone to eat breakfast and taken all their stuff since they didn't trust anyone. The manager had bought their little lie, yet he gave them a suspicious look. He had asked for another deposit and they had to pay up. Monday morning, Billy had been to the auto shop and spoken to a guy there about the car before bringing the bad news to Darlene. How he hated bringing bad news to her.

  "Well, apparently there’s only one guy there," Billy said and lit a cigarette to calm himself down. He could see it in her eyes that she was about to explode. Exploding Darlene wasn't good. It was the worst.

  "Only one guy?"

  "The rest are in the swamps looking for some campers, or somethin'. I don't know; he said most of the townsfolk are in there searching for some missing people," Billy said and smoked his cigarette, avoiding Darlene's eyes. He felt very uncomfortable right about now.

  Darlene looked at him, then smiled. It wasn't a happy smile or even a pleasant one. "They are, are they? In the swamps? All of them?"

  "It's what he said, yes." Billy glanced at Emily, who had turned on the TV.

  Boy, how he adored that little thing. Too bad she had to grow up. He hated that they couldn't play anymore. He used to do all kinds of stuff with her. Climb trees, throw a ball, paint rocks, anything they could do where they were at, and with what they had. He even once built the most beautiful dollhouse out of cardboard boxes for her. Boy, how she loved that house. Till Darlene threw it out because it filled up too much space in Emily's room. That was back when they lived in Miami, in the little townhouse. It was a bad neighborhood, a terrible one, but the house was nice. Small and cozy. Billy had liked it there. He even had a job. He was driving a garbage truck and got to hang out with the guys. It was fun. He took Emily with him every now and then and she absolutely loved it. Everything had been better back then when they had a place to live and Emily had school. Before Darlene got her ideas. Before then, everything had been great. But Darlene hadn't thought so. She wanted something different. One day she simply came home and told Billy she knew how they could get their hands on a lot of money, and fast.

  Stupidly, Billy had thought it sounded great. Fast money always sounded great to him. But it wasn't. It really wasn't. The next day, Darlene had come home with almost ten thousand dollars in her bag.

  "Let's go places," she said, showing it to him. "Let's travel."

  "Travel? But…"

  But Darlene was determined and started to pack. "We’ll leave as soon as Emily gets home from school."

  "But where are we going?"

  Her eyes sparkled with joy and anticipation when she spoke. They also seemed a little mad to Billy. "Anywhere but here. Let's just drive."

  "Say, Darlene, where did you get the money?" he finally dared to ask.

  She stopped packing, cigarette in her mouth. She took it out and blew smoke. "My boss." She returned to packing.

  "Your boss?" he asked, puzzled. He never heard of no boss who would just give you ten thousand bucks. "Dave had that kind of money laying around? Did you steal it from him? Are you insane?"

  She nodded. "He ain't telling no one."

  That was when Billy knew they were in trouble. Deep trouble. The kind that never ended well. Darlene had stolen from her boss, who obviously was a crack dealer. No one else in this part of town had that kind of money just lying around. And now she had stolen it.

  "Darlene, you fool," he said. "They’re gonna come after you and kill you."

  She closed the bag, approached him, and with her cigarette burning between her fingers, she pointed at him. "Not if we get the hell out of here and keep moving."

  "So, that's it now. We're on the run?"

  "Yes. Get used to it and don't you ever call me a fool again."

  Billy hadn't, but he had thought it many times. Especially when they robbed that gas station with all the security cameras. And now he was thinking it once again when he saw the look on Darlene's face. The look of madness.

  "So, if everyone is out in the swamps, that means we can rob them for every penny they have without anyone noticing it."

  Billy shook his head. "No, no, no, Darlene."

  "Oh, yes," she said. "I knew there was a reason our car broke down in this town. I just knew it. We'll take them for everything they've got, then steal a car and get out of here before they return. It couldn't be more perfect."

  Chapter 14

  "JEEEEF!"

  Harry was running through the heavy, muddy waters. He could barely run anymore. He had been looking for Jeff all night and now it was getting lighter, the sun rising, even though it took a while for its light to get into the dense, swampy forest.

  Where the heck did he go? You can't just disappear! It's impossible! People don't just disappear like that.

  But he had. When Harry had turned his head, Jeff hadn't been there anymore. Harry had run to where Jeff had been standing, where he could still see the prints from his boots in the moist soil. But there had been no footprints leading away from it. Nothing that indicated that he had simply walked away. Or even run.

  It was like he had vanished into thin air.

  But how? Harry kept asking himself. How do you simply vanish?

  Harry had no answer and he had to admit he was scared. Scared that Jeff had been taken by the big python that Jeff had heard and talked about just before he disappeared, terrified that it was too late to even look for him.

  But Jeff knew everything there was to know about the swamps; he was the one who knew all the animals and could catch a hog with his bare hands. He had taught Harry everything he knew about this place, how could he…

  No, no he can't be. It can't be true. He must have taken another turn somewhere, gone in another direction, something…something other than that.

  "JEEEF! Where are you, buddy?"

  For some reason, Harry didn't know how to find his way back out of the swamps. He knew it was easy to get lost out here and he was afraid that's what he was. He had tried to use his phone to call for help, but there was no reception where he was. Harry spotted a clearing not far from him. He could see the sunlight coming down through the dome of branches. He headed towards it, pushing aside branches and bushes, fighting the soft mud that seemed to want to pull him down and keep him down. He was panting with exhaustion when his left leg got stuck in some mud. He reached out and grabbed a branch, then used it to pull himself up to where the ground was less moist. He walked, arms dropped, dragging his feet, barely able to lift them anymore.

  He even mumbled encouraging words to himself. "Just a few more steps, then you can rest. Just a few more."

  His eyes were closing, but he forced them open, pulling himself forward. The soil soon got moist again and he sunk into the mud up to his waist. Harry was about to cry when he realized he could hardly move. That was when panic started to spread.

  "This mud is pulling you down. You gotta move, Harry. You gotta keep moving or it'll keep you here."

  Harry grunted and fought, pressed through the mud and reached for a vine to use it to pull himself up, but as he reached his hand up, the mud now reaching his chin, the vine moved. It simply swiped itself away from him.

  What the heck?

  The vine returned and was close to him now, and with all the strength he had left, he pushed himself upwards towards it, but as soon as he almost had it, it moved again. Harry whimpered as he saw it disappear upwards, then come back fast against his face and, with a snappy swirl, slap him across the cheek.

  "Ouch!" Harry yelled and sank further into the mud, so deep it now filled his mouth. He looked up and saw the vine return, close to his hand, so close he could now grab it.

  "Gotcha!"

  Mud was in his nose and ears when he pulled with the last of his strength. Reluctantly, the mud let go of his body. He grunted and climbed up the vine, the mud making loud slurping sounds as it finally let go of his feet and he was free. Harry held on to the vine, clinging to it, climbing upwards.

  Harry continued upwards till he could reach a stronger branch and climb onto it. The big tree seemed to be complaining underneath his weight as he made it to the thick trunk and put his arms around it to better hold steady, his arms shaking from the strain of climbing.