AMELIA
When the door swings open, we’re ready.
I’ve no idea how much time has passed. It was cold in the
container at first, but there’s not much room for air to get in and out. We’ve all been breathing in here and that’s heated things up plenty.
I’m sweating in my gown, so I took it off and gave it to the youngest one in here. She’s been trying to sleep over in the corner. Susie, her name is. She’s from out of town.
Apart from Moira and me, no one in here is from Gordon’s Cove. I guess that makes sense. Kidnap too many women from here at once and people will come looking.
But just bring them here willingly in cars to help the authorities and look how things end up. After this, I won’t trust anyone ever again. Not a single person.
That’s if I get out of this. For the plan to work, there are a lot of variables. Any one of them could go wrong at any point. I just have to pray fate is on our side.
The door opened once already, but we didn’t have time to react. They threw in a few bottles of water and a couple of candy bars before shoving the door closed again, leaving us in the dark.
I talked to everyone once we were alone. I don’t want anyone getting in the way when it all goes down. So the next time the door opens, we’re all prepared. Moira is down and she’s in agony, rolling around and crying out in pain. I can’t do anything about that.
The door swings outward, letting in a blinding light. For a moment I can’t see anything, but then I see someone being pushed in to join us. “Hey,” I call out. “We’ve got a sick woman in here.”
Moira’s down on the floor moaning, foaming at the mouth. She’s flailing her arms and the guy at the door glances inside. “So fucking what,” he says.
I notice who it is. It’s Louie. The sheriff is pushing someone inside. His normal smile is gone, replaced by a sneer. In front of him is Rose. She looks terrified.
She looks up and sees me and runs over, throwing her arms around me.
“Help me,” she says. “What’s happening, Amelia?”
“It’s all right,” I tell her. “You’re going to be okay.”
“They told me I needed to come down here to help you with something, but then they pulled guns out when we got here. I’m scared, Amelia. I’m terrified. My dad will be so worried.”
“I’ll tell them I saw you jump off the cliff,” Louie says. “Tell them you came to see me all depressed. That’s the best thing about being sheriff. Everyone believes what you tell them. No one ever thinks to question you.”
He grins. “And I get paid a fortune for shit like this.” Moira screams again.
“Louie, you dumb fuck,” I say. “You want the numbers to be wrong when your boss turns up? Think how he’ll feel knowing you let one of us die. We’ve got to be worth something to him, even if we’re not to you. Please, just look at her. It might be contagious. What if we all catch it?”
He glances around the container, pulling out a flashlight and shining it straight at Moira’s face. “Get back,” he says, pointing his gun at the rest of us. “Over there in the corner.”
We shuffle back as he comes in. He only needs to come a little further. Moira is still shaking on the floor, her eyes rolled into the back of her head.
He kneels and grabs her by the shoulders. I lunge for him but he notices me coming, getting to his feet, his gun inches from my chest. “What are you trying to pull?” he asks.
My mind goes cold. All emotion drops out of me. There’s no fear. There’s nothing but what Leo told me. Rush a gun. Never run from a gun. I lean over and grab his arm before he can think about firing.
“Get the fuck off me,” he says as I shake his arm off-balance, shifting my weight, moving my fingers, sliding the gun out of his hand and into mine. Then it’s pointing at him. “Get back,” I say, stepping away from him.
I don’t want him to do the same thing to me I just did.
“Give me the gun,” he says.
He doesn’t see Rose coming. She’s behind him. Moira lifts an ankle and Rose shoves him forward. He trips and smacks straight into the metal floor of the container. The noise is sickening. He doesn’t move. “Is he dead?” Moira asks, getting to her feet and wiping her mouth.
“Nope, but he’s out cold,” I reply, nudging him with a foot. I reach down to my dressing gown and loosen the cord. Tie his hands with this. Anyone got anything to put over his mouth?”
I hear ripping, and then there’s a cloth going over his face. “Keep a lookout,” I say, crossing to the door and peering into the open space of the warehouse. No one in sight. “I’ll be back.”
I take a breath and then run for the nearest pile of crates. I get there and crouch down. From here I can see the shuttered door. I doubt I can get out that way, but maybe there’s a fire escape somewhere. I move to the next pile of stuff, listening hard.
I can hear men talking somewhere to my left. I move right, keeping low, gun ready. I’m hoping I don’t have to use it. I’m outnumbered and outarmed, but if those women are to stand any chance, I need to get somewhere I can call for help.
I move again, and there’s the back wall. A guy is leaning against a crate, smoking a cigarette. “You moron,” someone else shouts. “That’s the explosives. Go outside!”
The guy stands up, and kicks open a door that’s just out of sight. “Can’t explode without detonators,” he mutters.
I hear the door swing open and then shut, and then someone laughs. “Gonna get us all blown to kingdom come if he keeps smoking in here. Where’d they get him from, anyway?” The voice fades away.
I cross to the door and press the bar to open it, hoping I won’t be seen. I make it outside, but then the guy sees me. The cigarette drops from his hand as he scrambles for his gun.
I reach him first, hitting him with the butt right in the middle of his nose. He drops to his knees and I whack him over the back of the head. He goes down, not moving. I leave him there and move over to the cliff.
I can either try to swim around to the other side of the docks or climb the cliffs. I reckon I’ve got a better chance of avoiding being seen if I climb.
There’s no way I can climb with the gun though, so I wedge it in the rocks, hoping it remains out of sight. I get hold of the stones above me and work my way up.
All the time I’m waiting to hear shouting below me or an alarm going off somewhere, but there’s only the noise of the sea. Somewhere far above is the casino.
Maybe there’s a phone in there I can use to call for help. How long have I got before the boat gets here? No idea.
I need to hurry.
I’ve no time to think about Leo, but I can hear him. He’s whispering in my ear as I get higher. “You can do this.”
My hand slips and I almost cry out. My feet flail, but then I get a grip again. I take several panting breaths, making the mistake of looking down. The ground is a long way away. “I can’t do it,” I whisper out loud.
“You can,” his voice says, somewhere deep inside me but also right next to me. “I believe in you.”
I climb again, my arms aching. I do not know how long it takes, but eventually, I see the top and then I’m slinging myself onto the grass, lying flat and gulping in the night air, my hands bloody, my arms feeling like dead weights. “I did it,” I say, closing my eyes.
I can’t stay here long. I know what I should do. Call for help. But if I do that, I risk being spotted. The best thing I can do is vanish. Just like Leo did five years ago.
Disappear into the night and not pop up until I’ve changed my name, my hair, my whole look. Turn up in some quiet town somewhere no one knows about the mafia. Start a whole new life.
I can’t trust anyone. The town seems tainted. Down there is a warehouse filled with misery. I need to decide what the hell to do and the problem is I have absolutely no idea.
The casino is about a mile from the spot where I reached the top of the cliffs. The only other place up in here is the Mansfield house, and I doubt there’s a working phone in there.
Who am I going to call, though? The sheriff is in on it. There’s only one person I can trust.
I get to my feet, forcing myself to move. I have to help those people down there. I can’t leave them to their fate. Leo would be proud of me, I like to think. Proud that I’m at least trying to help.
I make my way to the casino. I don’t care how I do it, but I will not rest until I’ve freed all those people down there in the shipping container. I just hope the casino’s open and the doorman will let me inside without asking why I’m out in the middle of the night in pajamas.
I just wish Leo was here with me. He’d know what to do. If the doorman is in on the whole thing, this is how it ends. It would take too long to get to the nearest phone in town, moving on foot like this.
The boat might arrive any minute and I couldn’t live with myself if it leaves with Moira, Rose, and all the others on board.
I think about what they said to me about our destination. I think about what was going to happen to me, what will happen to the others if I can’t get help. The thought spurs me on, makes me move faster.
I wish Leo was here.
But he isn’t, I tell myself. Because he’s dead. Stop thinking about him.
I can mourn for him later. For now, I’ve got stuff to do and no time to waste. One thing’s for sure. By the time the sun comes up, it will all be over one way or another.
I get to the casino and there’s the guy on the door from the last time I came here. So much has changed since then, I hardly recognize myself.
I run over to him and grab his arm. “I have to use your phone,” I say. Then I ask him a question that gets him looking at me really strangely. Luckily, he decides at the end of an insanely long pause to answer me the way I hoped.
He looks down at me, and then he nods. “Inside. To the left.”
I go past him and push open the door. It’s warm in there. At the end of the corridor, a laughing couple is pushing their way through to the main casino floor.
She’s dressed in red and he’s old enough to be her grandfather. I want to yell at them: Do you know what’s going on right now?
I pick up the phone and dial. Time to see if I can fix things before it’s too late.