Page 65 of Intangible
He turned his terrifying smile toward Thayer. “I debated a snuff film, but that’s really not my style.” She could feel the shiver run down her spine at his words.
“Good to know there are at least some limits to your depravity,” Memphis said. Thayer didn’t understand why he would continue to provoke the man.
Walking over to Memphis, he laid the point of the knife on his shoulder before slicing it down his chest. Thayer tried to scream to leave him alone through her gag, but Memphis barely flinched this time. Kneeling down, the man studied Memphis for a moment.
“Maybe I should do a snuff film. You could watch me rape your girlfriend, then kill her. I could still pin that on you.” Memphis spit in his face, kicking out at him with his good leg.
With a laugh, the man rose to his full height, wiping the spit off of his face. Thayer was screaming as loud as she could through the gag at the man to get him away from Memphis. Walking back over, the man set his nasty looking knife on a small table next to the syringes.
“How do you plan to do it? It’s not like we’ll be around to tell anyone,” Memphis said.
“Oh, it’s really quite simple. I’ll shoot her up with a lethal dose of Ketamine mixed with a healthy dose of speed. It would be easy for you, being a veterinarian, to get your hands on both. No one will be surprised to hear you’ve been siphoning it out of your cabinet a little bit at a time.
“I’ll send the same through your veins, leaving the needle in your arm. I’ll stage the scene afterward for the greatest dramatic effect, of course, after you’re both dead. A tragic lesson in being led astray by an unstable man.”
Thayer began to beg for their lives, even though her words only came out as a garbled mess. She knew neither her father nor Knox would ever believe that they had died of an overdose, but by the time they proved different, it would be too late. Her father would be destroyed.
Shaking her head, tears streaming down her face, she tried her best to reason with him. If she could just make herself understood, maybe she could buy them a little more time. Knox had to be burning the city down by now, looking for them.
“I love you,” Memphis said weakly, pulling on the restraints holding him against the corner post of the bedroom. Her eyes snapped to his face. “Remember that,” he added with a smile. “Whatever happens, I love you.”
No, she didn’t want to hear that. She wanted him to whisper those words while holding her on a beach somewhere or even standing ankle deep in the middle of a pen of pigs. But not here, where she couldn’t speak around the musty rag pushed into her mouth.
She felt a hot tear roll down her face again as she prayed he could see into her heart. That he could understand that she had fallen in love with him too.
Hearing a short bark downstairs, Thayer saw Memphis nod. What was he trying to tell her? Was it Murphy with the calvary?
Stepping to the door, the man pulled out a gun from his waistband as he looked down the stairs. Putting his finger up to his lips, he warned Thayer to be quiet. Hearing nothing more, he must have decided there was no threat and returned to the table.
She watched as he returned the gun to his waistband. The knife he had been using to cut Memphis was still resting on the table as he picked up the first syringe, turning to face her.
Stepping up, he pushed her sleeve up above her elbow, wrapping a piece of tubing around her bicep. He untied her one arm from the chair, giving her a chance to fight him if he hadn’t grabbed it tightly with the other hand.
“This vein should work,” he said, thumping on her arm. Thayer fought with everything she had, even though the effort was laughable, with her legs and the other arm still tied. At least she would know she hadn’t gone down without a fight. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew Knox would be proud of her. He had taught her to never back down.
“You should make the news from coast to coast. Nothing will stop me…” Thayer stared up at him when he stopped talking, making a gurgling noise instead. For a moment, she couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. She jerked her arm out of his grasp as he turned the syringe loose that had been hovering over her arm just moments before.
Suddenly, she saw a stream of blood trickle out of his mouth. When he fell to his knees, Thayer tried to scream as she watched Memphis’ shadow slowly disappear from behind him.
* * *
Knox heard the thump upstairs as he searched through the rooms on the first floor. He had been apprehensive at not finding anyone guarding the exterior of the house, but he wasn’t taking a chance of stumbling on any surprises.
Motioning Murphy to his side, he quickly moved to the stairs, keeping his gun ready. He was impressed at how fast the dog could clear a room using his superior sense of smell to hunt for threats. As they neared the top of the stairs, he thought he could hear muffled screaming coming from one of the rooms.
“Murphy, scout.” He watched as the border collie shot off down the hallway, hunting for the source of the noise. Hearing him bark, he moved quickly down the hall, entering the last bedroom.
Thayer was tied to a chair crying as she fiercely fought to reach the knife sticking out of the back of a man. He was lying on the floor at her feet, surrounded by a growing puddle of blood.
Knox kneeled, feeling for a pulse, finding none. The man had a knife buried to the hilt in his back at an angle that would have hit his lungs and his heart.
Studying it even more closely, he realized it was a method of immobilizing, often taught in hand-to-hand combat. He also knew it took a great deal of strength to stab someone through the back at that angle. Whatever had happened in this room had resulted in at least one death. He just prayed he had arrived before there were any more.
Looking up at Thayer, he found her almost frantic. She was trying to tell him something while struggling to pull the tape off of her mouth.
“Memphis!” she yelled with a sob. Turning, Knox saw his brother slumped in the corner, tied to one of the corner posts of the room, with Murphy licking his face in a desperate attempt to wake him.
Quickly cutting through Thayer’s remaining restraints, he followed as she rushed to the corner where Memphis sat. Knox reached behind him to cut on the rope that held him in place. Thayer tore off a piece of her shirt to try and stop some of the blood oozing out as he slumped forward onto the floor.
