The Caterpillar King (11 page)

The cave didn’t look any different from the
time I left it. Ned in the middle, the walls all around. The cocoon
had developed. It seemed more solid on the outside. That wasn’t a
good sign. He needed to be pulled out now.

I reached back for my shovel. My hand hit
the wall where I kept it. It wasn’t there. I turned around,
confused. A pulse of light lit up the cave. To my right, I saw a
huge, dark presence. I fumbled with the knife in my hands. Never
had a chance. Something heavy and metallic crushed my skull. It
felt a lot like a shovel.

***

I couldn’t stand. My eyes got clear, and I
realized I was still in my basement. But now I was tied up. My
ropes, my chair. This was too much. This was perfect. There was no
point in struggling. There never is. Out of the shadows, a tall,
dark figure appeared. Slowly, the features made themselves known.
Caramel skin, swaying hips, and the hair of Cleopatra. Amanti
Jordan.

“So Castor,” she said. “Looks like I can
track people down, too.”

I licked the dried blood from my mouth. “You
did a little more than tracking,” I said.

She ignored that and came closer. “You want
to know how I figured it out? Here’s what I was thinking: I already
got interviewed once. Now here comes this old dude into a girls’
locker room, no uniform, no ID, no notebook. That doesn’t sound
like a cop to me. But he knows about the disappearances, and he’s
real interested in them. The thing is, he knows too much. If you’re
not a cop, odds are you’re the one making the disappearing
happen.”

“You got the story half-right,” I said.

“Man, stop lying,” she said. “Now I need you
to tell me. Where are Ned and Madeline? Where’d you take them?”

“I didn’t take them anywhere,” I said.

“Yeah? That’s not the two of them in your
dungeon? Trapped in a cement block or something?”

I smiled. “Just one,” I said.

“You one of those pedophiles? You like
messing around with middle school girls?”

“Less and less,” I said.

“No surprise there,” she said. “Now that
your life is in
my
hands, you’re trying to act like a decent
guy. But I already saw the real you. There’s nowhere to hide.”

Amanti still had the shovel in her hands.
But she wasn’t going to hurt me any worse. Too much talking, too
little action. Maybe she’d go to the police, but I suspected not.
She’d gotten involved, and she’d gone too far. Assault, battery,
and so on. That might not’ve mattered if she had any proof. But she
didn’t. She had suspicions, but as far as she knew, the missing
kids weren’t here. She didn’t want to bust me. She wanted my
information. That was my only chip to play with. I had to make sure
it cost her.

“You’re a smart girl,” I said. “And that’s
why you’re going to untie me.”

She looked disgusted by my compliment.

“What?” she said. “So we can trade
places?”

“Look, you don’t know the whole story,” I
said. “Ned’s easy. We can get Ned in two minutes. But Madeline’s a
problem. I don’t know where she went. Ned can help. But we need to
move.
Now
.”

“You’re desperate,” she said. “Desperate
people lie.”

“Then keep me tied up. I don’t care. Just
get me into the cave and I’ll tell you what to do.”

She gave me a glare that burned with
resentment.

“I’m supposed to lift you?”

“You did it once, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” she said. “That was plenty.”

But she needed my help just as much as I
needed hers. The Little Duck meant something to her. Desperation
went both ways. She dragged my chair back to the cave. The feet
screeched against the floor. She opened the door and pulled me
inside. The chair jumped the gap. It felt like a car flying over a
speed bump. The landing wasn’t soft. I mentioned it.

“Maybe I knock you a few more times with
this,” she said. She held up the shovel. “Maybe that’ll shut you
up.”

I couldn’t argue with that.

She put me down in the corner. It gave me a
nice view of the cave. The cocoon glowed with every pulse, but the
light had turned weak. I could barely see Amanti. But I could hear
her just fine.

“Talk,” she said.

“Be more specific,” I said.

“Talk or I break your face,” she said.

I grinned. “There’s a lot to like about
you,” I said.

I didn’t get much response. But that was
nothing new.

“Alright,” I said. I explained the whole
story from beginning to end- the way I watched the Little Duck,
Ned’s appearance, how I trapped him. I told her we could find the
Little Duck. I told her we needed Ned’s help, but he might be a
little damaged. It was mostly true. You make a story all true and
nobody will believe it.

“You hurt him,” said Amanti, her voice flat
and hard.

“He’ll wake up fine,” I said. “But he won’t
remember much. That’s what happens. People go in the cocoon, they
forget.”

“You’ve done this before,” she said.

I nodded.

“And you’re planning on doing it to me,” she
said.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said.

“You made your sick-ass rape chamber in
here. You drugged Ned. There are probably chemicals soaking into
his brain right now.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Once you’re finished being all perverted,
you dump the kid off. They don’t remember anything. Cops can’t help
them.” She paused. “If you get your way, the cops won’t be able to
help
me
.”

“Do I look like I’m getting my way?’ I said.
I lifted my arms up as far as they could go. It wasn’t very
far.

“That’s how it should be. Now tell me how to
get Ned out of here.”

“You’ve got a shovel. You’ve got arms. Use
them.”

“You saying I’m supposed to smash this thing
open?” she said.

“Imagine it’s the back of my head,” I
said.

That got a smile out of her.

She took up the shovel and tapped it against
the side of the cocoon, one two. It echoed through the cave like a
knock at the door. But it didn’t do any damage. While she worked, I
fished my knife out of my pocket. She had forgotten to frisk me. Or
maybe she just didn’t want to. I don’t blame her. I sawed at my
ropes. They were thick ropes but they could be cut.

Amanti pulled back a little more, slid the
shovel underhand right into the shell. The echo got louder, but not
much. I hid my knife for a moment. I wanted to make conversation.
It’d be rude not to.

“Looks like you’re sweeping,” I said.

“Sorry,” she said. “This is someone I
don’t
actually want to hurt.”

She went back to sweeping.
Tap tap
tap.
It was a nice little rhythm. My fingers were free, so I
joined in. I tapped them against the wooden chair. She stared at
me.

“We could make beautiful music together,” I
said.

I hummed a few bars of an old blues song.
You wouldn’t know it by looking at me, but I can keep a melody as
well as the next guy.

“I bet you’ve got a soulful voice,” I
said.

“Oh, he’s racist, too?” said Amanti. “Just
when I thought it couldn’t get any better.”

Jesus
, I thought. Nobody can take a
compliment these days.

I cut through one rope and freed my left
hand. Amanti was busy with the cocoon. She got tired of playing
patty cake pretty quick. Now she was really smashing it. Ned would
be lucky to come out alive. The light pulsed bright and quick.
Amanti hammered down again and again. But nothing budged. This was
a tough case to crack. Ha.

“What’re you laughing about?” said Amanti.
She wiped sweat from her forehead.

“Ever see a stupid kid try to open a bag of
chips? They’ll pull and push and bite. But if they just took a
second to read, they’d see a little arrow pointing to a “Tear
Here,” sign.”

“So you told me the wrong way to do
this?”

“Nah,” I said. “I just didn’t tell you the
right way.”

Amanti looked sick. But she started using
her brain. She crouched down by the cocoon. She looked for a seam.
She didn’t see one. It kept her very occupied. In the mean time, I
cut through the last of my ropes. But I kept the ropes covering my
hands. Then I hid the knife underneath my palm. I waited. Ned might
not be free, but I was.

Soon enough it dawned on Amanti. Put a dumb
mouse in a maze and it will find the cheese eventually. She rolled
the cocoon over. On the underside, there was a dark line from top
to bottom, like a vein. With each pulse, it revealed itself.

“I hit this line in the middle?” she
asked.

“You already hit everything else,” I
said.

She pulled the shovel over her head. It came
screaming down with the force of the gods. The metal clanged
against the shell, sending shockwaves through the air. On the next
pulse, I saw a crack forming along the line. She hit it again,
lighter this time. The shell split open like a broken piñata. There
was no candy inside, though. Life is full of little
disappointments.

Amanti dropped the shovel and took out her
phone. She flicked it on, as if it were a torch. The cave glowed
blue-white. A shape came out of the shell. It stood up and found
its balance against a wall.

“Ned?” said Amanti. “Hey.”

The boy leaned over, spit a little. His hair
had been flattened. His body looked spent.

He puked against the wall. I felt for him.
This world was enough to make you sick.

“Are you OK?” said Amanti. “Ned?”

Ned saw her coming toward him. He scared
quick. He backed into the corner of the cave. In the blue-white
light, I saw an animal gleam in his eyes.

“Who are you?” he said. “Who’s Ned?”

14.

Amanti pretended it was all a joke. She
bullied Ned, pushed him further into a corner. Asked him about
everything he didn’t remember. The clueless interrogating the
clueless. She told him names. She told him stories. Nothing
worked.

I sat and watched. The ropes around my wrist
were loose. Amanti hadn’t tied my legs down. I had a knife. I could
move whenever I wanted to. But I was enjoying the show.

“Think about Madeline,” Amanti told him. “We
need to find Madeline.”

Ned curled into the fetal position. He
might’ve been crying. I might’ve been laughing.

Amanti turned on me real quick. “This is
your
fault,” she said. “Look at him.” She pointed to the
whimpering mass in the corner. “He’s retarded now.”

“Don’t think that’s a recent development,” I
said.

She shook her head. “I know you did it. It’s
from being locked up in that shell.”

“That’s one way to look at it,” I said.
“Then again, you’re the one who bashed him over the head with a
shovel.”

Suddenly, she didn’t look so sure of
herself. “You said…you said he was already messed up. That happened
before I came here, didn’t it?”

“I don’t know what I said.” I grinned. “But
I can help.”

“That’s the last thing I need.”

“All you have to do is untie me.” I looked
down at the ropes that hung on top of my wrist.

“Eye for an eye,” said Amanti. “You kept Ned
here for a day, I keep you here for a day. Seems fair.”

“Promise to come back for me?” I said

“You help us find Madeline?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said.

She thought it over. “Not good enough.”

“I have no choice then,” I said. I rose from
the chair slow and steady. The ropes fell by my side. Amanti held
her phone like a weapon. I held my knife like a weapon. I was
feeling alright.

“You ready for another beating?” she
said.

“Nah,” I said. I dropped the knife to prove
it. “I told you, I’m looking for the Little Duck, same as you.” I
kicked the knife. It scratched across the cave floor and stopped at
her feet.

“You want to tie me up again, fine. You want
to hit me again, fine. But I’m the only one who’s got any idea
where she is.”

Amanti stared at me. Then she bent down to
pick up the knife. But she dropped her phone. The screen broke, and
the lights went out. Ned whimpered.

“Don’t move!” said Amanti.

I started talking. I didn’t want Amanti to
feel threatened. At least not now.

“I had a chat with Madeline’s mom. Nice
woman. She told me Madeline was going to the cave at a park
somewhere close. You know what she meant?”

“It’s not really a-” said Amanti.

“The cave,” said Ned. “The cave.”

Looked like someone had a guilty
conscience.

“Is it coming back to you?” I asked Ned.
“How you tortured the girl? Stole her diary? Then you decided to
lead her to a cave. I bet you thought you could have a little more
fun there.”

“Not the cave,” said Ned.

“You don’t understand,” Amanti said to me.
“He’s freaked by caves. Can you blame him? Let’s get him out of
here.”

“Listen,” I said. “The cave at the park-
Madeline’s mom searched it. Didn’t find a trace of her daughter.
But she didn’t seem like she had it all together. She might’ve
missed something.”

“You’re saying we go back there now?”

“Couldn’t hurt,” I said.

A new, small voice came out of the
darkness.

“You won’t find her there.”

***

I knew that voice. It was tinny and
high-pitched. It came from the back of the cave, across from Ned. I
looked there and saw the two specks of yellow on the ground. That
meant there would be another voice. That voice would be a low
growl. Low growl didn’t say too much.

“You two,” I said.

“Who are you talking to?” said Amanti.

“She went into the cave,” said high-pitched.
“We’re protecting her now.”

That sounded like one interpretation of
things. Mine was a little different.

“You took her,” I said.

“She came to us,” said high-pitched.