Page 78 of Psycho
At the final door, they found themselves spit out into the junkyard. There were cars stacked like metal towers on either side, creating a dizzying maze of twisted metal. August pulled his gun but kept his knife in his non-dominant hand as he swept the space for stragglers.
When they took another turn, Lucas was certain he’d never be able to backtrack his way out of the place, but it didn’t matter because they’d found what they sought. The shipping container.
August pointed two fingers at his eyes, then in the opposite direction, clearly telling him to keep watch as he disengaged the metal lock, swinging the door open, weapon raised. The smell hit Lucas first. Even without looking, he knew there was a corpse in the container. He couldn’t help himself. He had to look. He had to know if they were too late. August hopped up into the trailer, turning the girl so her face was visible in the barely-there glow of the filthy security light sitting high on a concrete pole in the center of the metallic sea.
Lucas’s stomach unknotted when he realized it wasn’t Cricket, but his relief was short-lived. A girl was still dead, somebody who shouldn’t have had to endure that level of horror. She’d been there for some time. Rigor had set, then passed, her body starting to give in to the gases that released after death. August closed milk white eyes with his gloved hand.
These men were so cocky, they literally just left the bodies where they fell until they were ready to dispose of them. Fucking pricks. He’d seen a million cases, had interviewed hundreds of serial killers, but it had always been so abstract. None of it had really penetrated until Kohn, until this. The level of venomous hatred coursing through him felt lethal. Fuck.
Lucas’s gaze darted upward to August’s. “She’s not here. Where the fuck is she?”
Lucas’s eyes widened as August raised his arm and fired. He spun around to see a man get knocked off his feet.
“My guess is she’s wherever that guy just came from,” August reasoned.
August dropped from the container, motioning for Lucas to follow, like that wasn’t already the plan. They turned down another narrow passage lined with crushed metal, sweeping left to right, Lucas checking their six as they slowly advanced in the only direction possible.
A piercing shriek cut through the space followed by, “Get the fuck off me, you stupid motherfucker!”
There was a grunt and a groan. “Ow. Get back here, you crazy cunt.”
August and Lucas bolted towards the girl, running directly into a terrified Cricket, whose hands were zip tied so tightly her wrists appeared purple. When August caught her, she looked back and forth between the two of them with wild eyes. Lucas quickly remembered she couldn’t see their faces.
“It’s us. It’s us. You’re okay.”
A tall heavyset bald man lumbered around the corner, wheezing and limping. Cricket gasped, backing herself into Lucas as she realized he was the lesser of two evils. August jabbed his knife into the man’s carotid and twisted before pulling it free. The man coughed, spraying blood as he fell.
Lucas turned Cricket to face him. “Are there any more like him coming?” Cricket shook her head, appearing dazed. “Then let's get the fuck out of here.”
“Wait! No,” Cricket shouted, yanking herself away from Lucas and taking off for where she’d come from.
Lucas threw a confused look at August, who shrugged and ran after her. They found her trying without luck to unlatch the second shipping container lock.
“Help me,” she snapped.
Lucas jumped into action, letting August keep watch this time. Inside, three girls huddled together, all of them filthy, half-dressed, and extremely malnourished. “They’re alive,” he mumbled to himself. He looked to August. “What do we do?”
“Free them,” August said, nodding to the keys dangling from a hook just inside. Lucas’s hands shook but he managed to get them loose, helping them out of the shipping container.
August cut Cricket’s zip ties, rubbing her wrists. “You know who we are, yes?”
She looked back and forth between the two of them and then nodded.
“Nobody else can know. The others are dead. This building is about to go up in smoke. When I say so, I need you to take the girls and run. Do you understand?”
Once more, she nodded, watching them both intently.
August fished a phone from his pocket. One of several burner phones the Mulvaneys seemed to have on hand. “Get somewhere safe from the flames and then call 9-1-1. Tell them you don’t know what happened but that a group of men with Russian accents attacked the men inside while you were being transported and that you managed to free the others and get away.”
Cricket just stared at him until August shook her gently. “Do you understand?”
“Yeah,” she managed, nodding slightly. “I understand.”
He handed the knife to Cricket. “Let’s go.”
Back in the shop, August stored the girls in the office until they were ready to start the fire. They found Atticus sitting on a turned over bucket, dabbing at a bite mark on his leg.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Lucas asked.
