Character Sketch

Chapter 11 - Betrayed

Chapter 11


         Betrayed





Kaitlin rubbed the spot on the table with the dish rag, her eyes not focused. The circular motion hypnotic as she ran through the conversation with her mother from this afternoon.





“An officer was waiting for me at my office when I arrived at work today, Kaitlin.” Her mother had fumed. “I imagined the worst; I can’t go through that again. I want you girls packed and on the way home with Michael by this afternoon.”


“Mom you have to give us until tomorrow.”


“Why?”


“So Elizabeth and I can talk to our professors and see how much class we can miss without sacrificing this whole semester.”


“We can do that by phone from here.”


“Michael stuck like glue to me today and when he wasn’t with me my friend Jake took over. I’m perfectly safe.”


“And Elizabeth?” her mother asked.


“Her friends have rallied around her, they are keeping a very close eye on her. Just until tomorrow please Mom.”


“I have a very bad feeling about this, call it paranoia, call it mother’s intuition but I won’t feel relaxed until you are safe at home.”





Convincing her mother to let them stay one more day had been almost as hard as persuading Jake it would be alright for her to come to work with Michael as her shadow. Jake did not like how pale she looked when they left the hospital; he wanted her to call in sick to work.


She admitted to herself she was still a little shaky. She looked over at the booth that Michael and Officer Roberts were sharing. They were deep in conversation as Katie walked up to them. Officer Roberts was finishing his dinner and Michael was eating ice cream.


“I’m going to take a little break.” she said.


Are you doing okay?” Michael asked.


“Yes, I’ll just be in the locker room for a minute.”


“One of us should go with you.” Officer Roberts stated.


“I’ll be visible to the staff in the kitchen, so no need.”


“Okay but if you aren’t back out here in five minutes we’re coming in after you.” Michael kidded.


Katie just wanted to sit down for a minute, shut her eyes and try to convince herself to relax. The locker room was empty but she could see into the kitchen the cooks and cleaning staff busily finishing up the chores for the end of their shifts. She sat on the bench, placed a towel at one end and then laid down resting her sore head on the towel; she draped her arm across her eyes to shut out the light. Kaitlin tightened the muscles in her back and then slowly let them relax, she did the same to her legs and arms. It was a small thing but it helped.





A brush through her hair to tighten up her ponytail and she would be ready to face the world again. She turned the dial on her lock right two turns left two turns and then back a little.  The mechanism clicked into place and the lock pulled apart. She unhooked it and lifted the latch. She swung open the door and stared at the picture taped on the inside of her locker. It was her own face pale and angry with Jake a step behind her as they came out of the hospital this afternoon.


Katie suddenly felt sick as she read the words printed across the bottom of the picture. NOW IT’S MURDER.





Jake looked at the board in his room. All the names had been eliminated but two and of those he had dismissed one out of hand for personal reasons. Now he looked at the name and the information Will Hardy had found, employment history, record of a family tragedy, last known legal guardian. It all added up to the knowledge that Kaitlin was in danger. Jake grabbed his cell phone and called Michael.


“Hey Jake.” Michael’s voice came over the phone.


“Are you still at the student union?”


“Yeah, I’m here sharing a booth with Officer Roberts.”


“Can you see Kaitlin?”


“She just went into the locker room for a minute.”


“Go find her now.”


“Here she comes.”


“Michael what ever you do don’t let her out of you sight, I’ll be there in ten minutes.”


“That’s my job.” Michael trailed off as he realized Jake had broken the connection.


“What was that all about?” Officer Roberts asked.


“Jake’s on his way over, he apparently can’t stay away from my sister.”


Both men rose from the table as they saw the look on Kaitlin’s face.


“What happened?” Michael asked.


“I found this in my locker.” Katie showed the photo to the two men and officer Roberts took it from her hand.


“When was this taken?” he asked.


“This afternoon as I was coming out of the hospital.”


“We need to get this over to the police station. Are you going to be okay?” Officer Roberts inquired.


“I think I’m ready to go home.”


“I’ll go tell your boss that you are going to need the rest of the night off.” Officer Roberts handed Michael the picture, picked up his food tray and walked over to the service counter.


“I think it would be best for Kaitlin to go back to the dorm and get packed.” The officer said as he came back. “Michael if you don’t mind running that over to the police station, I’ll escort your sister to the dorm. Hopefully this uniform will discourage anyone who might want to harm her.”


“Jake’s going to be here in a minute.” Michael added.


“I told Katie’s boss to send him over to the dorms when he gets here.”


“Okay I’ll see you guys back at the dorm.” Michael said as he rushed out the door.


“Do you need anything from your locker?” Officer Roberts asked.


“No I grabbed my back pack.”


“Do you mind if I do a quick security check of the student union before we leave? I usually do it right after I eat. It will only take a minute.”


Kaitlin looked down at her watch


“Sure, I guess I’m okay.”


“Follow me and see the inner workings of a college campus.”


They walked down a hall and through some double doors into a huge high ceiling room. The hard wood floors stretched from one end of the ballroom to the other. Katie had been to a dance here last semester. It was dark and the echo of their footsteps sounded unnaturally loud. Officer Roberts pushed against the outside doors to make sure they were locked.


“That door is a short cut through the building.”


“Where does it lead?”


“If you go right it takes you to the front lobby and to the left to a labyrinth of tunnels under the whole college.”


“Wow, I didn’t even know they existed.”


“I’ve explored them all. I’ve drawn a map so I won’t ever get lost.”


As they passed through the door into a hall lit only with security lighting. Officer Roberts reached up on a shelf in the corridor and pulled down a note book. Kaitlin could make out the faint words written on the cover and her blood ran cold.


“Do you recognize this book. Someone else was using it. But it’s not the original and I so wanted the original. I waited in the cold for hours to get the original. You see I was in it.” Like a snake his hand struck before she could react. She went down onto her sore knees and gasped at the added pain, her hand came up to feel her cheek begin to swell.


“Taking notes, always busy taking notes of other peoples lives. People who didn’t want to be noticed”


“I thought we were friends?” she cried.


“Like hell we were! I don’t have friends, I don’t need friends.”


He grabbed the back of her hair and dragged her back up to her feet. She gasped as she felt the pull on the stitches in her scalp, she lashed out to scratch his face, he caught her arm and with one fluid motion snapped the handcuffs around first one wrist and then the other. He hooked the chain over a fixture on the wall. Katie had to stand on her tip toes so the metal of the handcuffs did not bite into her wrist. Next he gagged and blindfolded her.


“They’ll never find you. No matter how hard they look they’ll never find you until it’s too late.” He pulled the chain off the fixture and Kaitlin kicked in the direction of his voice. Her foot connected with something but it was too hard to be human and it jarred her leg.


“I knew you were a fighter, some of the others were fighters but most of them just cringed and cried. Weak and useless.”


Something hard poked into her back.


“Now walk.”





The lights in the dining area were dimmed. Only a few booths up by the service area had illumination and they were all empty. Jake looked around frantically. He banged on the bell by the register.


A woman came through the double swinging doors that led to the kitchen.


"Can I help you?” she asked.


“Kaitlin Moore.” Jake demanded.


“It’s the oddest thing she just left tonight without checking out. She didn’t even punch her time card.”


“Did any one see her leave?”


“No I don’t think so we were all in the back.”


“Did you see her brother?”


“I’ve met him but I didn’t see him leave either.”


“Officer Roberts?”


“He dropped off his tray about ten minutes ago. He’s a nice young man. He asked me about my family. Very thoughtful.”


Jake pulled out his cell phone and dialed Michael’s number.


“Michael where are you?”


“At the police station.”


“Is Kaitlin with you?”


“No, Officer Roberts is taking her back to the dorm.”


“I told you to stay with her.”


“Jake, Kaitlin found another picture in her locker at work so I brought it here.”


“I told you to stay with her.” Jake screamed into the phone.


“Where are you?”


“At the student union.”


“Didn’t the manager tell you all this?”


“No, Michael is Kaitlin alone with Officer Roberts?”


“Just till they get to the dorm.”


“Oh God help us.”


“Jake what’s the problem.”


“Kaitlin didn’t punch her time card, the manager never saw her. She’s alone with Officer Roberts and he’s our guy.”


“I can’t believe it. Hold on.” Michael said into the phone, after a minute he came back on the phone.


“Mitch is due in to work any minute.”


“I’m pretty sure he’s going to be a no show. Someone needs to let Sergeant Yeargin know. I’m going to see what I can find out here.”


“You didn’t tell me it was him when you called. Why didn’t you tell me.”


“Why didn’t you stay with her like I told you.”


“I thought we could trust him. He . . .” Michael sobbed.


“This isn’t helping Kaitlin. I’ll call you if I find out anything but get the police over here ASAP.”





“Stairs!”


Kaitlin stopped her hands stretched in front of her. She eased her foot forward until she felt the edge of the floor. Blind, the terror struck as she imagined the chasm in front of her. Fanning her arms right and left until the rough concrete of the walls bruised her knuckles she groped for the hand rail. The cold metal rail steadied her as she took the first tentative step. She counted the stairs and tried to take in the sounds around her, each footstep echoed off the concrete walls of the stairwell.


They had gone down dozens of corridors some had stretched on for several minutes others had twisted and turned. This was the third descending staircase and they had ascended one.


Tears streamed down her face at first until she had drawn upon the memories of her father and his expectations of his children. She now occupied her mind with ways she could help herself.  Being aware of her environment was her best weapon now.


Without warning he grabbed a hand full of her hair. Just as she had rehearsed it in her head she stepped back with her left foot and swung her torso around her shackled arms connected with his head.


They both went to the ground his hand still enmeshed in her hair. Her shoulder ached from the impact but she did not let herself think about it as she flailed about trying to cause as much damage to the prone figure as she could.


“You stupid cow, get off me.” He shoved her hard against the wall.


Her blind fold had come loose and she looked around frantically. The dark grey corridor was lit only by Mitch’s flash light that lay on the floor.


A double utility door interrupted the long wall across from her. She could hear the low deep thrum of machinery.


“Get up.” he yelled at her. “Welcome to your new home.” He opened the double doors; the noise of the machine was like a physical blow. She resisted but he pushed her inside.


A huge generator filled the room. The noise was deafening. Suddenly it cut off and whined itself to a stop.


“It an emergency generator. It goes on twice a day for ten minutes to make sure it still runs.  They do maintenance on it once a month, which was done two days ago. Unless they find you or you escape this will be your tomb.”


Her mouth was still gagged, she reached her hands up to loosen the gag and he poked her hard in the back.


“Don’t even try it.”


There would be no reasoning with him, cajoling, begging, no answers to her questions of why or what had happened to him that brought him to this point.


He prodded her with his stick toward a bed set up in the back corner. It had a heavy steel pipe frame. He pushed her down on it.


“Hands above your head, face down.” he yelled.


When she did not move the stick bruised her ribs until she complied. She felt his knee and all his weight on the middle of her back. She screamed through the gag. Her body clenched in fear of the rape she felt coming.


He unlocked the cuff on her left wrist and she heard the clink of metal against metal as he wrapped it around the pipes of the headboard and snapped it shut. His weight shifted as he straddled her waist grabbing her free wrist he twisted her arm behind her back pain seared through her shoulder. Leaning over he whispered in her ear.


“You couldn’t just mind your own business….always writing, taking notes, and watching where people were trying not to be seen.”


Her breathe came in big gulps as she tried to get air into her lungs through the gag with his weight on her back. Tears wet the sheets where her face was pressed into the bed.


“I didn’t mean to hurt them but the anger blinded me and I thought it was her. Then you started watching and I knew you would see, so the next one was her and you. I went too far because of you. When the one in the hospital died I realized that you had turned me into a monster, the same kind of monster who killed my mother.”


The last words he screamed into her ear. His breathe was hot and heavy against her face.


“But I won’t hurt you, bruises heal, swollen eyes see again. No, I want you to lay here in the dark, alone knowing I’m the only one who knows where you are as your mouth dries with thirst and your stomach starts to eat itself with hunger.”


She rubbed her face against the mattress trying to move the gag. If she could just talk to him, say his name, touch a place in his mind that still reasoned.


“Your sister is very pretty. She likes me, likes me a lot. Think about it, I could visit her before I leave. Lay here in the dark, alone, helpless and think about it.”


He pushed off her back and stood over her at the side of the bed.


“You can’t even imagine the noise when the generator kicks on in this little room, it will reverberate down to your bones.”


She rolled over. She didn’t see where it came from but now he held a Polaroid camera, the flash temporarily blinded her. He stared down at the developing picture.


“That’s perfect, just the right look of terror I’m sure your little boyfriend will enjoy this.”


Kaitlin pulled the gag free.


“Mitch.”


“That’s right I’ll have to change my name. I like Jake don’t you.”


Before she could say another word he swung the stick up and shattered the light bulb in the ceiling. Throwing the room into total darkness.








He heard her yell out his name as he shut the door behind him, then only the sound of his own footsteps as he jogged down the corridor.


First order of business to deliver his last message, Jake’s apartment was dark and his car was gone. It was too easy to tape the picture just above the doorknob on the apartment door.


Mitch’s bags were packed and in the bottom of his closet. He would retrieve them and then swing by Elizabeth’s apartment on the off chance she was there instead of the dorm. He cursed as he went to turn down the street to his apartment and saw the police cars parked in front of the building. He had miscalculated. Now all his things were lost to him. All he had left in the world was his wallet. He stopped at several ATM’s and got the money out of his account. They would know the make and model of his car so he would have to ditch it. He parked at the far end of the alley by Kaitlin and Elizabeth’s apartment and circled around the block only to be frustrated again by more police cars lining that street.  The debate only lasted a few seconds, returning to his car was too great a risk. He knew all the back ways to campus on foot, alleyways and cutting through yards he was unlikely to be seen.


One thought burned through his mind. ‘She will pay for this’.