Love Lies Dying (20 page)

Sixteen

The Jeep was flooded with the lights. They were so strong, John was forced to close his eyes and put his hands up to his face.

“What the –?” he muttered and readied himself for anything; like the sound of gunfire and yelling and people running towards them.

But there was only the sound of the Jeep’s engine.

Slowly his eyes became accustomed to the lights and he was able to open them further.

He turned to look at Zoe. She was staring at him with a smirk on her face.

“Don’t worry, Johnny,” she said. “It’s just the security lights. They turn on when you approach. They’ll go off soon.”

John turned his head to stare out of the Jeep.

They were parked just outside the small brick church. The security floodlights lit up the whole area around them. For the first time in hours John was able to see further than just a few feet from the Jeep.

He discovered they were sitting on the top of a small, well-forested hill. Trees and bushes were closely packed all around them, but the area directly around the church was cleared of everything, leaving only dirt. John looked up through the windshield at the wall of the church in from of him.

It looked small in the surroundings, but was probably a normal size for a brick church that was built maybe a century ago. The wall they were facing had to be the side where the altar used to be, as he could see the outline of a brick cross built into the wall. The cross stretched from ground to roof and the bricks were a darker colour – making the cross look as if it were standing out against the wall of the church.

He couldn’t see any windows, but as he dropped his eyes lower, he found the door. It was old and wooden, and its brown paint was peeling badly. Next to the door was an air-conditioning unit and, on the other side, a pile of firewood and a shovel.

“Don’t think we’ll be needing the air-conditioning,” he said.

“Nope,” Zoe agreed. “But we’ll probably need to start a fire. It looks like it’ll be a cold night.”

“I think you’re right,” John agreed. “But we don’t want to attract attention to ourselves.”

“Don’t worry,” Zoe said. “Ricky knows we’re coming here. If he wants to strike tonight he will, whether we light a fire or not.”

Zoe turned off the engine.

“Shall we?” she asked.

“I guess so. It looks okay. Very quiet though.”

“Well, we
are
out in the middle of nowhere, Johnny.”

“Yeah, I know. But it still doesn’t hurt to be careful.”

“Should I get the gun from my handbag?” she asked.

“No, no,” he replied. “Just take it easy.”

“Okay,” Zoe agreed. “I’m in your hands. What do you want to do?”

John rubbed his chin and realised he hadn’t had time to shave that morning. Then he looked at his watch: 11:25pm.

Before midnight.

And then his mind flew back twenty-four hours. At this time last night, he hadn’t even met Zoe. He’d been on his way home from work.

How things can change in twenty-four hours,
he thought.
Now look where I am! And it’s all moving way too fast. I need time to think this through.

“Alright,” he said. “We’ll take this nice and slowly. Where’s the key to the front door? You said you knew where it was.”

“Yep. It’s inside the air-conditioning box. There’s a little service door, and the key’s hanging from a string there.”

“Okay, good. We’ll get out and you can get the key. Then we’ll go inside and check the whole place out. Make sure that there’s no sign of anyone around.”

“Okay,” Zoe nodded.

“Once we’ve checked that, I’ll take a little walk around out here to make sure the same applies outside.”

“And I can get the fire started,” Zoe continued. “Sound like a good idea?”

John turned and smiled at her. “Okay, sounds perfect.”

“A deal.”

Zoe turned off the Jeep’s headlights and opened her door. The cold night air rushed in at them.

“And let’s make it quick,” she said. “Before I freeze to death.”

John climbed from the Jeep and took a good look at the dark pine trees that were surrounding them before he walked over to the church door to join Zoe.

“It’s
so
quiet,” John whispered.

“I know.” Zoe replied as she bent down and opened the air-conditioning unit. The service door squeaked through lack of use and sounded loud in the silence. “I think that’s one of the reasons I had to leave after a couple of days when I came here last year. The lack of noise was starting to make me go crazy!”

“I can understand that.”

“Got it!” Zoe yelled.

“Ssshh,” John said.

Zoe stood up with the key to the front door dangling from a piece of string in her hand.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to hear us,” she pouted. “We’re miles from anywhere.”

“You never know,” John replied. He pointed to the security floodlights. “And how long do these lights stay on?”

“A few minutes. They’re movement activated,” Zoe replied. “So, the sooner we get inside, the sooner they’ll go off.”

John nodded. The sooner they were inside and the lights were off, the better. Just in case someone actually was watching them from the bushes, the lights made it too easy to see Zoe and John. At least with the lights out, the darkness would disadvantage everyone.

If there’s anyone out there
, he thought.

But he knew he’d have to take a look around the church first, both inside and out, before he was satisfied they were alone.

Zoe placed the key in the lock and turned it. The church door swung open noisily.

“Easy,” she whispered.

Darkness greeted them from within.

“Is there a light?” John asked.

“Ah,” Zoe took a step inside the church and reached around to the wall. “I think it’s here somewhere.”

“We should’ve brought flashlights,” John complained. “I didn’t think of that.”

“Got it.”

The inside of the church illuminated. Zoe turned back to face him with a large smile on her face.

“Well done.”

“A pleasure,” she said. “Now what?”

“We go inside.”

Zoe turned to look into the church and then back to look at him. She rubbed her arms as a chill passed through her.

“Ah, you want to go first?” she asked.

John smiled. “Sure.”

He stepped forward into the church. The air was musty and cold. The light illuminated most of the centre of the church but left the corners in darkness.

“Okay, you stay behind me,” he said to her as he took another step forward. “If anything happens, do what I do. Okay? And if I get into trouble, make a run for the Jeep and get the hell out of here.”

“Okay, Johnny.”

Suddenly, Zoe’s voice sounded small and very frightened.

John took her hand and walked down a short step and into the main hall of the church. The lights were strung up high in the wood-lined cathedral ceiling, and they were positioned in the worst possible place to illuminate the area below.  Each of the four corners in the church were in a murky, unsettling darkness. As John walked forward the wooden floorboards creaked loudly under his step.

There was a large wooden table off to one side of the church, where the pews probably once sat, and to the left of the entrance area there was a small kitchenette with a stove and refrigerator.  A bench separated the kitchenette from the rest of the church.

Just behind the kitchenette was a door. It was half-open and John could make out a bath and toilet.

At least there’s a bathroom,
he thought.

At the other end of the church was a wooden railing that separated the far section from the main room. The railing was semi-circular in shape and cut across the room. In the middle of the railing was a gap just wide enough for a person to walk through.

John could make out the shapes of two beds behind the railing.

He squeezed Zoe’s hand. She squeezed back.

They walked further into the church and stopped by the long wooden table.

“Everything looks fine,” Zoe said. Her voice echoed around the room and sounded loud in the silence.

“Quiet,” John whispered.

“And soon we’ll be nice and warm,” Zoe pointed to the fireplace directly across from them.

It was halfway down the right wall of the church and looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time. The black charred bricks were covered in dust and a thick cobweb hung across the fireplace entrance. To one side, sitting on a pile of old newspapers, was a rusty fireplace poker. A half open box of matches rested nearby.

On the other side of the fireplace were two metal chairs. The dust had dulled the shine of the metal and a black substance, that looked like soot, streaked the metal slats that formed the back of the chairs.

Zoe shivered, “So you think I could get a fire started?”

John took one last glance around the church and nodded. “Okay. But be careful.”

“I will. There’s a pile of wood just outside the door, so I should have it going in no time.”

John walked over to the fireplace and picked up the poker. It wasn’t much, but it was heavy and he felt safer with it in his hands.

Slowly, he walked around the church, unable to shake the feeling that someone was there with them. He checked the two dark corners at the far end of the church, but there was nothing there other than another metal chair in one corner and some old magazines in the other. As he walked, he glanced out the old stained-glass windows. They were set into the two side walls at regular intervals; there were four on each side. John tried to look out into the night, but the combination of stained-glass and the darkness beyond only allowed John to see his reflection staring back at him. Most of the stained-glass was broken or chipped, and some looked as if it had been fixed at one stage or another. Large pieces of clear tape covered parts of the windows that were broken, keeping the night air out.

He walked through the gap in the curved wooden railing dividing the main room and checked out the two beds. They were both single beds, each with their headboards pushed up against the wooden railing. The ends of the beds almost touched the far wall of the church. The area smelt musty and mouldy.

But still no sign of anyone.

Maybe I’m wrong,
he thought to himself.
Maybe I’m just being paranoid.

But he had to be careful – for all of them.

He turned from the beds and stared back down the church to the front door. Zoe was struggling through the door with some logs in her arms. She smiled at him and he smiled back.

His eyes lifted to the far wall where he spotted the large brick cross which he had also seen outside. John estimated it was at least 20 feet tall and ten feet wide and took up most of the wall inside too.

Why just abandon a church out here?
he wondered.
But then again, why build it in the middle of nowhere in the first place?

Below the cross was a small platform and lectern built out from the wall and raised above the floor of the church.

Probably where the priest would have given his sermons,
John thought
. Above his congregation and looking down on them.

The platform was six feet off the ground and the only way to access it was by using the small spiral staircase near the kitchenette. It connected to one side of the platform.

The sounds of the firewood clanking into the fireplace turned his attention back to Zoe. She was kneeling in front of the fireplace with her back to him. She lifted the firewood and was slowly building a pyre. She looked as if she was concentrating hard and John didn’t want to disturb her.

He shivered as he realised just how cold it was in the church. The sooner the fire was roaring, the better.

He walked past the large table set to one side in the middle of the room and inspected it as he did so. It was made of heavy, old mahogany, just like the two long chairs that ran the length of each side of the table. They looked as if they were old church pews that had been converted to suit the table. John moved the fireplace poker to his left hand and ran his right hand along the table as he walked by it.

As he reached the end of the table, his fingers ran over a rough groove. He stopped and turned to study it. It ran deep and directly across the table. It had cut through several layers of the wood, and chips and splinters ran along its edge. John couldn’t work out what had caused such a deep groove.

If Fox conducts
business
here, I don’t want to know,
he thought.

He walked over to the kitchenette and quickly surveyed the refrigerator and the stove. They both looked functional and relatively new. He opened the refrigerator and discovered it was empty. The counter in front of the stove housed drawers underneath. He opened each one. The bottom three drawers were empty, but the top drawer contained cutlery; spoons, forks and knives. An old black phone sat in one corner of the counter.