Annabelle raced after her, grabbed her shoulder. “Please, Shirley, it’s my dad. Please. He’s all I’ve got left.”
“I already said way too much. Booze talking.”
“Can’t you tell me something? Anything? To at least point me the right way?”
Shirley hesitated and then looked at the ruined trailer and then back at Annabelle.
“Okay. But you’ll have to think about it real good.”
“All right.”
“When is a bottom changed into an ass?”
Annabelle immediately looked puzzled. “What?”
Shirley let out a drunken giggle. “Like I said, you think about it. When is a bottom changed into an ass? You want to find your daddy bad enough, you’ll come up with it.”
She staggered to her car and got in.
“Are you okay to drive?”
Shirley poked her head out the window. “Hell, honey, I been driving drunk since I was thirteen.”
Shirley peeled off and Annabelle raced to the van, which was hidden down the road and behind some trees. When she got there she found four men waiting for her instead of just two. And the new pair had guns.
CHAPTER 69
DINNER CAME right at six-thirty; two trays pushed through the slots. Knox and Stone took them, sat down on their cots and started to eat.
Knox pointed at the carrots on the plate. A few moments later the toilet flushed and the vegetables spun down the metal bowl and out of sight.
Stone was cutting his meat, which was a little difficult considering he only had a flimsy spoon to work with, when his eye caught on the edge of white poking out from under his plate. He nudged Knox with his elbow as he slid the piece of paper out. He unfolded it and began to read, while Knox looked anxiously over his shoulder.
I was the guard at the door when the nurse finished with you. I was a friend of Josh Coombs. Tomorrow in the rec yard. Just follow my lead. Flush this note.
Knox and Stone glanced at each other. Knox took the note, read it once more and then sent it sailing down into the prison’s sewer to join the drug-laced carrots.
“What do you think?” Knox said in a low voice as they resumed eating. They both tapped their feet against the floor to cover their conversation.
“I saw him glance at me when he was at the door. And he nodded. Didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I was hoping.”
“Follow his lead?”
“He’ll have to cover himself. And we’ll do exactly as he says when the time comes.”
Twenty minutes later something hit their door. “Trays,” bellowed a voice.
They pushed them through and sat back on their cots.
“Why do you think they’re even keeping us alive?” Knox said. “They don’t know that folks won’t show up for me.”
“Anybody comes near this place, they’ll know long in advance. Then they either kill us or hide us. Plenty of places to do that here.”
“So why not kill us now? Not that I’m glad they’re not,” he added hastily.
Stone thought about being left in the mine with the snakes. He was certain now that had been Tyree’s handiwork. “Killing is fast, a second of pain and then it’s over. We’re free of this place. That’s apparently not good enough for Howard Tyree. He wants to control us, every second of our lives. I’m sure he’ll kill us at some point. But in the meantime he’s looking forward to making our lives as miserable as they can possibly be.”
“Guy sounds like a serial killer.”
“He is, only on the wrong side of the bars.”
Knox stretched out on his steel cot. “So now we wait?”
“I don’t see another option right now, do you?”
Their door was hit with a hard object. “Hands through the cuff door,” yelled a voice.
“Aw shit, what now!” moaned Knox.
Stone whispered, “Just remember that we’ve been drugged, so act punchy.”
“I’m so tired I won’t have to act.”
They were cuffed, stripped, searched and probed. This had quickly become almost as natural as taking a piss. Both men hung their heads and acted as listless as possible without overdoing it.
They were herded down the hall, guards and Tasers on either side while they shackle-shuffled along. They climbed stairs until there were no more stairs to climb. Stone figured they were in the west tower of the prison but he couldn’t be sure. His usually reliable internal compass wasn’t working all that well in here.
The room they were brought to was circular-shaped with a table and two chairs in the very center. Three-inch-wide slits in the wall revealed the dark outside. A fluorescent light bubbled overhead. They were placed in the chairs and the guards stood back, waiting.
So were Knox and Stone. With apprehension. They didn’t know what was coming, only that it would be painful.
The door opened and Tyree walked in followed by four more guards, including the one who’d grabbed Stone by the balls and Manson, the one-eye.
“Gentlemen,” said Tyree. “We need to talk.”
Stone stared up at him with a dull expression. Knox kept his gaze on the table as though he hadn’t understood the man.
One guard whispered into Tyree’s ear. He nodded. “Right. Of course. Give them a pop then, because I need their undivided attention.”
A guard pulled a syringe from a black bag he carried. Stone was swabbed and then injected in the upper arm. The needle was cleaned with alcohol and Knox was hit next.
Whatever they’d been given, the effect was immediate. Stone could feel his heart racing and every nerve he possessed was on overdrive. He glanced over at Knox and saw he was having the very same reaction.
“Good,” said Tyree. “Now get ’em hooked up.”
A duffel bag was opened and out of it came two thick leather belts with black wires attached. They were placed around each man’s middle and padlocked down. Tyree was handed a black box with buttons on it.
He depressed one of the buttons and a green light came on. He stood in front of the men and then turned his attention to Knox.
“All right, Mr. CIA. Does anyone know that you came to the town of Divine?”
“Yes.”
Tyree depressed the button and Knox stood straight up, screaming as the voltage entered him. Tyree released the button, and like a marionette that had lost its handler, Knox slumped back down in the chair, panting and swaying.
Tyree looked at Stone. “What is your real name?”
“Oliver Stone.”
A second later, Stone was involuntarily on his tiptoes, feeling like both his brain and his heart were going to explode.
Tyree removed his finger and Stone dropped back down, missed the chair and hit the floor. The guards grabbed him and slammed him back in his seat.
Tyree turned back to Knox. “Does anyone know that you came to the town of Divine?”
“NO!”
The blast hit him again. After he was slumped back in his chair, he barked, “What the hell answer do you want?”
“The truth.”
“Well, one of those answers had to be the truth, you dickhead!”
Tyree held the button down so long that Stone feared Knox would not come back. But he did, sweating and swearing.
Tyree turned to Stone. “Oliver Stone?”
Okay, buddy, let’s see if you can take it as well as you can dish it out.