The Stolen Dozen Ch. 02

"You're very good at that, Missy."

"My husband taught me well."

When Henry finished with her, they took her to the bathroom, showered her, as before, and brought her back out for the next group to repeat the raping process. When Neil, Dan, Paul, and Alan had their way with her ass, and Alan, Philip, and Neil had their blow jobs they called it a night. They showered her once more, brought her to her bed and tied her to it, hand and foot, naked as the day she was born. They didn't even give her the privacy of a blanket.

Carolyn didn't care. She didn't cry, either. She just thought of Robert, until she fell asleep. She begged him to get even with them for what they were doing to her. She knew their God would do it, eventually, but she wanted him to do it for her, also. She didn't know if it was possible for him to get to them in the hereafter, but if it was, Robert please let vengeance be ours, because we did nothing to hurt these men.

The next four days were repeats of the first day, only with increased intensity. They would take her by twos on the second day, then by threes on the third day. On the fourth day, she had one in each of her holes, and they had her trying to jerk one of their fellows off in her left hand. This was not successful, although she tried valiantly.

On the fifth day, they did the flying cross. One each hole, mouth, pussy, and ass, and one in each hand. They did not stop until they went through one full rotation, and Carolyn fell to the ground exhausted.

It was just as well, because she had no idea what was coming next.

The previous evening, after she was tied to her bed for the night, the 12 men discussed how they were going to put her to her end, as if she were a chicken or turkey. She just didn't count to their way of thinking.

They were going to wrap her up, as if they were going to take her to the shower, but instead take her to the lake. They would all be naked, thereby leaving no trace evidence on their clothes. Using one the axes from the cabin, Dennis would behead her, while she was still wrapped up in the sheet. Her head would be placed in a canvas bag weighted down with rocks, and placed on a floatation devise, made of light branches. Thomas, their best swimmer, would swim out into the lake as far as he could, drop the bag into the lake, release the branches, and return to shore.

While that was being done, Carolyn's body would be unwrapped, her hands and feet removed from her body, placed in pillowcases, given to four individuals, who would head off in four directions, deep into the forest, and into the swamps, and be disposed of.

Her arms and legs would be dispatched next, placed in pillowcases, given to four men, who would head into the forest, in four directions, and be disposed of.

The only section of Carolyn left was her torso, which would be placed in the sheet, wrapped, carried into the forest, placed into a shallow hole, covered with earth, and left for the animals to find.

Animals had done this to her, and they wanted animals to find her in her final resting place.

Her God already had her in his arms.

On his way back to the cabin, Neil was passing close to the area they left Robert's body, and decided to check to see on its disposition. He wanted to know if any animals had disturbed it, yet.

When he arrived at the trail, he saw new tracks. He headed towards the clump of trees, where they had deposited his body to see what happened to it.

It wasn't there. Pieces of his torn shirt were around the area, as were drag marks from the tips of his shoes being pulled along the ground, for about 18 feet, before it got to a rough area, where they couldn't be tracked any longer. Something had pulled his body a long way along the forest floor, under the canopy, and into the woods, for its own purposes. This was a very good sign that Robert was someone's next meal. Neil was extremely happy when he left the site. He had good news to tell his compatriots.

At sunset, on the fifth day, they finished cleaning up the interior of the cabin. They removed every bar of soap that was used, every towel, every washcloth, every bath towel, everything they had touched, including Carolyn's sheets and pillowcases and the ropes they tied her to the bed with and threw them into the fire pit. They doused everything with fuel oil and lit the flames.

While the fire was raging, the men were drinking. At this point nothing could be pointed towards them and a criminal act. There was no evidence of the crime, so a crime had not been committed. No one had ever looked behind the cabin to see the Plymouth Fury parked there. It was just an oversight, and not a major one.

The following morning, the 12 men cleaned the exterior of the cabin, and the grounds around it, until it was in pristine condition. Everything looked as nature had it looking, before they arrived. They walked into the forest in 12 different directions, thereby not leaving one trail. They met up a few miles north and walked to their camps.

Two days later they were picked up in their limousines and carried back to the city, their parents, and their real lives. On 29 September, they were on their way to Europe, and University. Everything that happened, and they did in the woods of Pennsylvania was forgotten. To them it never happened.

To 2 families, in the Bronx, it had just started. Robert and Carolyn did not return home on time. They did not call. Something was wrong. Robert Riefsynder called the Tobyhanna State Park and asked the Ranger if there had been any reports of trouble from his daughter or her husband.

The ranger said he had not heard from them since they checked in, but he would go to the cabin and see how they were and get back to him before the end of the day.

He went to the cabin and found the front door unlocked. He went in and found everything in pristine condition. Everything looked untouched, un-lived in. It would be very unusual for a newly married couple to live in a space so sterile. He checked every bedroom and only one was out of place. It had no sheet, pillowcase, or bed covering on it.

The hairs on the back of his neck were up. There was trouble here, he could feel it. He just didn't know what it was, yet. Where were these two kids. He decided to walk down to the lake to see if they were there, although he knew he wouldn't find them. He had to check anyway. He looked, they weren't there, he turned around and went back to the cabin. Then he walked around the deck, and found their automobile.

"Holy shit, if you are still here, the kids can't be far away, can they?"

Then he went back into the cabin to check for one more thing, the kid's clothes and they weren't there.

"FUCK!" Just what we need here. I gotta get the sheriff out here now."

He got back to the Ranger station, called the Sheriff's office and like in any small town, the sheriff picked up the phone himself.

"Sheriff speaking."

"Henry, Dave Kelly over at the Ranger Station. I've got a shit-storm brewing over here. I've got 2 missing or dead kids on my hands. I just know it. Bring everyone you can in a hurry."

"What the fuck are talking about Dave? You can't lose kids in a State Park."

"Get over here, and I will prove to you that you are wrong, Henry."

"We are on our way. If you are pulling my chain, you are paying for bowling Thursday night."

"I swear I'm not."

Okay, I'll call the state police, and give them a heads up. I'm on my way."

"Thanks Henry."

From the Sheriff's office, in the center of town, to the Ranger station took a total of six minutes, and the sheriff didn't use lights and sirens to get there. He wasn't sure what he was walking into, so he did it carefully.

Dave met him outside and said, "Let's take my Jeep, it will be easier on the front end of your car."

"You just don't want me to drive."

"I've seen you drive. So have the men on your force. They won't let you drive either."

"Are you trying to get out my good side, already?"

"Henry, you better have a good side, because what I'm about to show you is going to turn your stomach, I just know it. Someone ate these two kids up, and spit them out. They were good kids, too. Just married, with their whole lives ahead of them. I hope like heck I'm wrong, but my bones tell me I'm right. When I walked around the cabin, the hairs on the back of my head stood up, like ghosts watching me. I know you know that feeling, because you've had it dozens of times before."

"You are right, Dave. If I get that feeling when I get into the cabin, we are looking for some bad person, who took advantage of two good kids. Who else was in the forest with them?"

"No one I met, but some fancy guy signed a group in, with hunting licenses for 20 days. No one saw or heard anything of them the entire time they were here. They're gone now."

"It might be good to find out who they were, and where they went, just to see if they know, or saw anyone else come into the forest."

"That's why they made you sheriff; I didn't think about that. I'll check on it for you."

"You do that, right away."

"How your kidneys, Henry?"

"When you going to pave a fucking road out here?"

"Is never too soon for you?"

"I think you're hitting those holes just for me."

"Nope, I'm hitting these, so I missed the big ones. There is the cabin."

"That's not a fucking cabin, it's a god damn house."

"The state declared it a cabin, that's why it's allowed on this property. Are you going to argue with the state?"

"I argue with the state all day long, every day. I never win, but I argue with them."

"Okay, be prepared to lose another argument, because that's a cabin."

"I want to know who the owners know, or own, that they got that declaration."

"Are you saying someone in our state government is corrupt?"

"God forbid!"

"Okay Sheriff, once you put your foot on that first step, you're in detective mode, and I am being quiet, unless you ask me a question."

Henry nodded his head as his left foot hit the first step. The next four went by and he was on the deck. He didn't head for the front door; he turned left and followed the decking around the house looking at, and in each window, as he passed them. He was slow and methodical about it.

He stopped when he saw the automobile sitting there untouched.

"Why is that still there?"

"Beats the hell out of me."

Henry continued around the remainder of the outside inspecting everything as he passed it. Not one thing was out of place.

"Dave, did you notice everything was perfect?"

"Yes, Henry, I did, too perfect. That's why I called you and said there was a shit-storm about to hit here. Someone was so careful at removing every bit of evidence that he was here, he didn't leave anything out of place. We are going to need the owners up here to take an inventory of the house to see what's missing. Then we may be able to put something together to find out what this person did to those children. Fuck, I promised to call the parents back this afternoon to tell them what I found out. What do I tell them Henry? Do I tell them they are dead or they are missing?"

"let me go through the inside of this monstrosity before I make that decision. Actually, I already made that decision, I just want to make sure I'm right."

"You are right Henry, my bones tell me you are, and I hate it. Someone came onto my property and killed my wards. Someone is going to pay for that crime and I going to help them if it's the last thing I do."

"If we are right, and these children have been killed, we have one hell of a crime scene to search. How many people can you get out here with skill to do it?"

"We have over 5400 acres, here in the park. If I can pull in 600 skilled trackers, that would be 10 acres per tracker. That would be doable in less than a week, and that would mean doing it with a fine-tooth comb."

"Can you get that many?"

"I will put an ad out on the radio, and on Friday and Saturday's newspapers. The first survey would start a week from Friday. Is that too late?"

"If they are dead, we will still find their bones after the animals eat their flesh. It won't be pretty, but we will find them, if they are there. You will have to draw out a grid for each tracker to survey. We won't mind if they overlap, we just don't want to miss any areas."

"Henry, you are still standing at the front door, when are you going to step inside?"

"Probably when the ghosts that's holding me outside, let's me in."

"Robert, let Henry in, he has work to do."

Henry's legs pulled him inside the cabin and he courteously said, "Thank you Robert, is there anything you want to show me?"

The air in the room seemed to suck him towards their bedroom. He saw what Dave had seen approximately an hour before. An unmade bed and pillow, with no blanket. Question -- WHY!

He went to every other bedroom and surveyed each one with a practiced eye. There wasn't a piece of lint out of place. The closet doors were perfectly level, and the hangers who evenly spaced. Every room and every closet were the same way, except that one room -- WHY!

He went to the kitchen and opened each cabinet. Each dish was in its place, as were every cup and saucer. He closed that cabinet and opened the next which was filled with different types of glasses. Water glasses were on the bottom shelf each lined up perfectly six-deep and three across. The next shelf was wine goblets. Smoky gray, six-deep, and three across, no prints on them. Above those were whiskey glasses, shorter, stouter, but still six-deep, and three across. Someone was seriously into entertaining.

Even the pots, roasting pans, broilers, and serving dishes were perfectly aligned. Someone had gone seriously overboard, in cleaning this place.

The living room was next and he went from chair to chair looking for evidence of fornication. Everyone did it on chairs, and couches. He found nothing. He especially found no cleaning fluids or disinfectants. Whoever he was he was a magician.

As he walked across the rug, from the armchair to the settee, he thought he noticed a glare. He stopped, took two steps back, and walked forward slowly. There it was again. He stayed put and called Dave.

"Dave, come here please."

"Yes Hank."

"Look there on the rug about 4 feet to where I'm pointing, do you see that glare."

"No, yes, there it is. What should I do?"

"Put something by it, something small, so it doesn't disturb it. I just want to mark the spot so I know where to look. I don't know what it is, yet, but I will find out. I have to check the rest of the carpet to see if I find anything else."

He found three more spots, and Dave marked them all.

Nearly an hour later for more officers showed up, at the cabin, and the sheriff wasn't happy.

"I hope you had a nice lunch at home and screwed your wives senseless afterwards. Where the fuck were you people?"

Steve Sherman said, "I was at home having lunch, and screwing my wife senseless, sir."

"Sherman, you aren't married."

"Then it was someone's wife, sir."

"Someone's going to shoot your dick off, Sherman."

"I will really miss it, if that happens."

"Sherman, you're a pain in my ass."

"I do that to keep you alive, sir."

"I want each of you to go to those four areas on the carpet and try to extract as much evidence as you can. If you have to cut the carpet to get the evidence, do it, I want that evidence."

"What are we dealing with, Sheriff?"

"The probable murder of two teenagers, who were staying in this cabin."

"This is a cabin?"

"Don't you start, Sherman. I've been all over Kelly about that, and I lost."

"You never lose, Sheriff. You just make believe you think you lost."

"Somebody kill him."

Kelly said, "Sheriff, not now, we are dealing with two real homicides, we don't need a third one."

Later that afternoon:

"It's nearly 3 PM, head back to the station and see if the state police are sitting there waiting for directions to this place. Take 'idiot face' with you. He can help you with the wording for the advertisement for the trackers, but don't let him talk to the people on the radio for your advertisement, because we will all wind up in prison."

"Should I let him talk to the parents?"

"He has about as much empathy as a wet bag of cement. You take it from there."

"Okay, it's my job, anyhow."

Dave walked towards the front door, and called Sherman. "Hey, 'Idiot Face', you are with me."

Sherman stood up briskly, looked at the sheriff, and asked, "You let him call me 'Idiot Face'?"

"If the shoe fits, wear it, you pain in the ass."

"I'll get you for this, Sheriff."

"You already have, you idiot."

"You are just angry, because I'm going to be your son-in-law."

"If I could get away with it, I would kill my daughter now. It would be less painful in the long run."

"I hope we have a dozen children, and they all hate you."

"Sherman, can we leave now?"

"Yes, I think I've calmed him down."

"How long until the wedding?"

"Six weeks, two days, eighteen hours, 17 minutes, and a few seconds. But I'm not counting."

"Which one of you is going to have a nervous breakdown first?"

"As long as we keep talking, it will be okay. It's when he sits there brooding that drives me insane."

"Well, he won't be brooding for a long time now. This case will keep him very busy. Someone killed these two kids, then meticulously went around and cleaned up everything to keep us from finding out who he was. That bastard has to pay for his crime, because those two kids were only 18 years old. They hadn't even voted yet. He just got his driver's license, and started to pay taxes. Whoever took their lives was an animal and has to be found and punished. If they want to save on electricity, I'll use my gun on him. Cruel and unusual punishment be damned, what he did to them was unconscionable."

"You can't be sure they're dead, Dave. He may have kidnapped them for ransom or for other purposes."

"If you're taking someone for ransom, you leave a note. You don't take their clothes with you. You don't clean the house, until it's spotless. The place is basically sterile, except for those four areas on the carpet we found, and that guy probably looked at that carpet and just missed those areas accidentally. This was too professional a job for just a kidnapping for ransom. These are two poor kids from the Bronx, who just got married, and are on their honeymoon, and they ran into the wrong guy."

"No one else signed in to the park?"

"Not a soul. Doesn't mean nobody was here, just means I didn't know about it."

"Looks like the State Police are here."

"Great, because I have the feeling, we are going to need all the help we can get."

Dave rolled to a stop in the front of the station, got out and greeted the two officers.

"Hi, I'm David Kelly, Deputy Ranger here, and this is Steve Sherman, he's one of our Deputy Sheriffs."

"Hi guys, sorry to meet under such strange circumstances, but it's got to be done. I am Morty Singer and this is Drago Propolino. What do you have for us?"

"Nothing good, I'm afraid. It's the probable death of two 18-year-olds, who got here last Saturday evening, to begin their honeymoon, at their uncle's cabin, which is 20 minutes inside the park. It's the only cabin inside the park. The boy and the girl were nice kids, very friendly, very courteous. They signed and properly, showed their identification and went on their way. I did not see them after they signed in. I gave them the privacy I thought they wanted. Then today, I get a phone call from the girl's father telling me they are overdue back home, and to check on them. I went to the cabin and I just knew they were both dead, because the hairs on the back of my neck stood up when I walked inside. The front door was unlocked, I called out, and no one answered. I walked in, and everything was in perfect order. I'm going to use the word 'Perfect' many times from this point on. I opened every bedroom door and went in. Every bed was made the room was set up perfectly, and the closet was immaculate. The hangers were spaced perfectly apart. It was the best I've ever seen. Six other bedrooms were the same, Perfect, in every way. It is the seventh one that convinced me these two children are gone.