Finding the Runaway

Lisa ‘s sleep was troubled during the night. She’d went to sleep late having spent the previous day moving into her new home. Everything was in order. It had been a hassle but she was finally settled in. She was so tired when she finally fell into her bed. Exhaustion usually made her sleep peacefully for hours. Not so this time. This house was brand new. Still the minute she fell asleep she started hearing noises. She heard the weak cry of a baby. It sounded so pitiful. She wanted to find it and comfort it. But where was it coming from. Were she asleep and dreaming? The sound seemed to be coming from the floor like it was traveling up from a long distance like the basement – even below that. Then it stopped. Another desperate voice of a young woman sobbing. No milk. No milk. My breasts are all dried up. Please God make mommy and daddy let me out. Then she began cooing to the wailing thrashing baby Soon her sobs mingled with the wailing of the desperately hungry baby. Her stomach rumbled as she crushed the baby to flabby empty breast. Lisa woke with a start. She heard nothing. She glances at her old fashioned alarm clock. Three o’clock. Bother she said as she burrowed back under the bed covers. The second she closed her eyes the heart rendering wailing started again. Lisa awoke again and finding that two hours had elapsed she got up determined to find the source of the noise as awake she was still hearing the wailing of the baby and the soft hopeless sobs of the young woman. Sliding her feet into her slippers as she dragged on her robe Lisa had to find the wailing baby. She slipped out the room quietly so as not to awaken her gently snoring husband who needed to be at work in a few hours. She lighted her way down the stairs with a flashlight. When she opened the door to the basement she was shocked and horrified. She didn’t see her beautifully finished basement. She didn’t know she’d screamed. Her husband was awakened and tore down the steps and found his wife swaying at the top of some dirty steps to an unfinished dungeon like basement and he heard the wailing too. He grabbed her arm and together they descended the rickety steps to the dirt floor. Lisa shined the flashlight in a circle seeing an old fashioned furnace in one corner and a room to the right of the steps with a door that glided open as if someone was expecting them. Focusing her light into the room Jason and Lisa beheld a gruesome sight. Bones. Human bones – not animal. Remnants of cloth still clung to the bones. Obviously a nursing mother and infant.

Cora, only daughter of crime lord Lancelot Drake, disappeared the night of January 1, 1999. She had been in disgrace. She’d brought shame on the good name of Drake. Her baby was born the night before she disappeared. Cora had spent the day recovering from her birthing ordeal anticipating her release from her prison existence.

She was the living definition of precocious. Even as a little child she’d questioned everything. Why this? Why that? How come this that or the other? And she did anything she wanted. She didn’t understand rules. She had an adventuresome nature. She just had to try everything even if doing so resulted in a spanking. She’d say it was fun and decide if she’d do it again or not. That’s how she landed in dreadful circumstances and relegated to the top floor of her parent’s home. There was a widow’s walk and that was where she got her exercise and fresh air. Cora had everything a rich little girl could wish for to entertain herself except what she craved-- the company of her peers. She saw no one except her parents, her doctor and sometimes a brother was with her parents. Not at all satisfactory to a daring, bold socialite who loved being in the midst of a crowd. The last escapade she’d had no intention of repeating in the near or distance future. She didn’t like it much as it hurt at first and then it exploded into something different and left her feeling dirty with a weird sort of satisfaction that was muted by shame. Now that she’d had the baby maybe she’d feel clean again. And could be with her friends.

Lisa never saw her friends again.

Jason and Lisa looked at each other in horrified disbelief. They couldn’t be having the same nightmare. It was real. Wake me up Jason. This is to real. You’re awake Lisa. We have to report this to the police. But what happened to our basement? As they mounted the stairs they looked back and saw a flash of their basement. Then it shifted to the dungeon like basement.

Lisa, what was that you picked up?

My missing black book. I knew I’d brought it with me. How it landed on the kitchen floor by the basement door, I’ll never know. I’m just glad I found it.

I am too. You obsess about those black books of yours.

I know. Thanks for respecting my privacy. I don’t keep them under lock and key.

Kind of scared to delve into your secrets. Might be something scary in those little black books.

You’re so silly. Go on call the police while I take my shower.

Jason went back to the kitchen and opened the door to the basement hoping he and Lisa had imagined the scene in their state of the art finished basement. But their basement was gone. Google call the police. He said to his smart phone. By the time he’d showered and dressed, and Lisa had put on the coffee pot the police was pounding on the door.

The lights were out and all were asleep at 2340 East 33rd Street. In fact all up and down 33rd Street the only lights were the street lights. The New Year had been rung in with parties, and now the residents were sleeping off their drunks. A lone car drove slowly down the street. It was time for Lancelot to pay his debt. His potential replacement lord, Rodney Sphinx, relaxed in the backseat of the white sedan that pulled into the Drakes driveway and parked in the back. Three goons dressed in white were indistinct in the snow encased landscape as they slipped through the basement window that had been left unlocked before a certain guest left the Drakes’ party. They went to the master bedroom.

Leda awoke with a start feeling cold steel at her temple. She gasped. A gun at his temple too, Lance asked What do you goons want? Racing through his mind though were questions. What happened to the alarms? Weren’t all doors and windows locked? How did these goons get past my guards? You’re on our hit list. It’s time for you to exit the scene.

That gun at his wife’s temple unnerved Lance. He knew these fools. He’d refused to let them work for him. Now some takeover nobody moving up in the ranks had hired them to take him out. He was tired of this life. He was quitting anyway. He didn’t need to die. But there was something in his past that still bothered him. Leonard’s wife, child and baby. He’d did all he could but failed to save them. Leonard, this is not necessary. You know I did all I could. Lance said in a placating voice. But failed. Leonard said coldly. Jacob laughed saying. Big bad Lance failed. That’s when Lance realized the reason for his failure. Jacob had killed Leonard’s family, not the mob. Lance had stopped the mob. Realizing that was a consolation. However Leonard didn’t know.

Lance never fails. He said. Hard as you looked you couldn’t find any proof that the mob killed your family. You should have looked at your laughing friend Jacob.

Leonard said harshly. Shut up. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. Aye Lance?

Cora was confused. Her parents had been so nice about her situation, and now she was going to die slowly along with her baby and they were going to say she ran away. Mommy, daddy, please. I said I was sorry. She cried clutching her baby to her chest. Lance and Leda said nothing as they ushered her to the punishment room in the basement. As she was seated on the floor her father spoke in a gravelly voice. You understand we have to do this. We have a position to maintain. Her mother nodded smartly and turned with her husband and left the room. Cora heard the key turn in the lock. The first thing she wrote in her little black book that she pulled from her pocket was simple. I thought they loved me.

Jason opened the door and ushered the two police officers in, one looked like a rookie being trained by a senior officer. The young officer said. This had better not be a joke. I never heard such a cock and bull story. You had better be on the level. Are you prepared to repeat that story you gave over the phone.

I’d rather show you.

The officers stared for long moments at the scene. The senior officer said Your house is built on the site of Lancelot Drake’s property, a top man with a notorious mob. That’s the remains of his only daughter. I don’t know how it surfaced here. She was reported as a runaway months before her parents were executed. That baby she’s cradling explains the runaway story. This was my biggest case and at long last it can hopefully be solved. Turning to his partner he snapped. Randy, you know what to do. Do it. We solve this 20 year old case your promotion is guaranteed. Randy’s boyish face broke out in a grin as he pulled out his smart phone and started making calls. It was all Sr. Officer Charles Shinaul could do not to break out in a grin too as he could see his retirement being sweetened.

When the police finally left their house for the last time Lisa had another little black book. The first one she’d turned over to the police as it was Leda’s. She had chronicled all the activities and people that flowed in and out of Lance’s life since their marriage. And she had managed to report that fateful night.

Lisa determined that she never would find her lost black book but the one she had made up for her loss. Jason and Lisa perused it together. It recounted Cora’s life after she was marched to what her parents hoped would not be her death chamber. They knew their time was limited. They prayed to that their sons would not come to visit.

Leda was crying as she and Lance were marched back to their torture chamber. How can we help our baby? She moaned. We’ll find a way Lance whispered. Still Leda’s shoulders heaved as she struggled to believe her husband. Lance wrapped his arms around her stilling the shaking in his own limbs and giving her what comfort he could. He had no idea how he would get food to his little girl. Help arrived that morning in the form of their cook. She assessed the situation, played dumb, and did her part admirably. For the week before her parent’s demise Cora did not suffer. They did. She died two weeks later. In that time she’d learned that her parents did love her. Her last entry in her little black book.

Lisa my parents loved me. We are one and the same person. Lisa meet yourself- Cora Drake.

Lisa and Jason received a considerable reward for being part of achieving justice for the Drake family as the little black book Lisa gave to the police had all the evidence to convict Leonard and Jacob as well as Rodney Sphinx. Others in that organization fled.

Cora’s parents’ will listed Lisa as beneficiary.