Haunted in the Night

Chapter Twenty-Three- Part Two

“More than okay" she replied as he pulled out of his parking space and started heading in the direction she figured the well was in.
“Really? Did Chad tell you what that well means to him?” he asked curiously and Claire gulped before she nodded, remembering how scared she saw him.
“And he was just willing to let you go?” Bob asked suspicious and Claire blushed furiously.
“Say no more" Bob replied suddenly, her body language being a total give away and he completely understood after that.
“Are the rangers coming out?” she asked as they headed a small way out of town.
“Their already there waiting for us, I packed some stuff for us too" he told her and she nodded, suddenly feeling bad for keeping everybody waiting while she was getting the fuck of her life.
“Hey" Ranger Harvey waved at them when they pulled up.
Climbing out of the car, Claire smiled at them nervously, memories of what they found the last time they were together haunting her, suddenly the after effect of her sexual encounter with Chad faded away as only nerves flowed through her now.
“Let’s get going, rainfall is forecast for tonight, I want to beat it" Tony said as he began leading the way down a small path into a section of the woods.
Claire glanced quickly at the road that led back into town, considering whether she should just run back to Chad and lose herself to him again and not worry about what could be waiting for her in that well but she knew she couldn’t do that, as much as she would like to avoid finding out the truth and having it break her heart she knew that putting it off wouldn’t help her either, no matter how much Chad could make her forget about her worries.
Onward she walked, quickly catching up to Bob and the three rangers, Jared had been quiet, but they could all feel the tension between them, the nervousness of where they were going, it was obvious even the rangers were scared of this place and it only made Claire’s stomach clench and make her feel sick.
It only took them about half an hour before they advanced upon the small clearing, the well placed exactly in the middle and Claire rushed over to it, grabbing onto the ledge and peered over.
Nothing, it was too dark to see the bottom, but a stale odour was drifting up from it and made Claire gag, quickly leaning back away from it, coughing slightly.
“There is definitely something down there" Claire declared looking back at the men.
“The entrance is over there" Tony said as he pointed into an area of more trees and they began making their way towards it.
Soon they came across another smaller clearing, seeing what was basically a ditch that led to the well, a ditch that when overflowed could easily connected to the river, it was no wonder anything down there could easily get washed away.
“Now here is what we’re going to do" Tony said as he took off his backpack, dumping it onto the ground with a thump as he unzipped it and pulled out a massively long, thick rope.
“I’m going first, Claire you behind me, then Bob, Jared and Harvey will stay up here in case anything happens, now whatever you do, do not take off this rope" Tony declared as one by one he tied himself, Claire and Bob into the rope, tying the end to a thick tree.
“What is this for?” Claire asked slightly concerned and confused.
“It’s so if the well starts to get washed out we can try to pull you back out" Jared replied finally speaking but Claire didn’t like what came from his mouth.
“You can try and pull us back out?” she asked, she didn’t like the way he said try, plus there was only two of them where they would have to pull out three people, Claire did not like those odds.
“It’ll be alright Claire, quickly, the sooner you get down there the sooner you can come back up" Harvey tried to reassure her but it didn’t help much, Claire felt slightly dizzy and feared that she might faint but she hid it well, giving him a slight smile.
The ditch down was wet and sloppy, many times their feet sled and they nearly lost their balance, however they all held each other’s weight, which helped the other, however if they lost control of that weight they could very well all get pulled down.
Finally they made it to the entrance, Tony taking out torches that he had in a pouch around his waist and handed one to them each and they all switched them on.
The entrance to the cave was hard mud and rock, slime all over it though, the smell was even worse down here now and Claire had to try and only breath through her mouth which didn’t make it much better.
Slowly they made their way inside, the torches not lighting much with how dark it was inside, the awful odour only growing stronger the further they went.
“Hey look here" Bob said as he came across a small lantern which still had a candle inside, Tony handed him some matches so Bob could light it, turned out there was a whole string of lanterns, obviously left from when the workers had come here to pave it.
Slowly the cave lit up more as they ventured further until suddenly they froze, in the distance, there was a faint noise, footsteps, running away from them and Bob quickly pulled out his gun, nodding to them to keep going.
Tony also pulled out a hunting knife and offered it to Claire who quickly shaped her head, there was no way she could use that thing, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she killed somebody and he sighed before wielding it himself.
“Who’s there? Come out, it’s the police" Bob shouted out, his voice echoing in the cave and a small whimper was heard as they neared where the well would be above them.
Shining their torches at the back of the cave they gasped at the horror they saw.
It was a woman, in a rag of a dress, Claire figured it was meant to be white but was stained with huge mud marks all over it, she had long waist length, ghostly white hair, she was sickly thin and pale and when Bob shined his light on her, her eyes looked grey.
“Mary Scather?” Claire asked softly, trying not to scare the woman who was pushed as far as she could into the back wall of the cave, she was obviously terrified of them.
She made a small whimper at the sound of her name, she looked older than she should be, which would be 54 by now but after living out here and everything she had been through it had obviously taken it’s toll.
“Mary we’re here to save you, we’re going to take care of you I promise" Claire spoke kindly to her even though she suspected that this was the offender who kidnapped and killed many people, however mentioning that right now would do none of them any good, it might force Mary to try and defend herself and that could get ugly.
“No one can save me, no one came" her voice was harsh, she obviously hadn’t spoken much over the years.
“We have the man in custody who did this to you, but we need your help to convict him, to get the justice he deserves" Claire tried to appeal to her, isn’t that what Mary wanted? Isn’t that why she was kidnapping people? Because no one had been able to save her so she was taking people to try and get them to finally solve the case, as harsh as it was.
“You have him? His back here?” Mary suddenly growled, her voice sounding rather hungry, like if she managed to get her hands on him she would tear him the pieces, that she would shred away his skin and it sent shivers down Claire’s spine.
“We’re going to convict him Mary, his going away to prison for the rest of his life" Claire told her but that didn’t seem to be enough for Mary.
“No, I want him here, I want him to feel how I felt, I want him to cry himself to sleep all those nights, I want him to nearly drown like I did when he left me for that storm" Mary screeched, dragging her nails down the wall, you could tell she was imagining it was Hardgrove.
“He left you for a storm?” Claire asked curiously, taking a small step closer to the woman.
“Figured it would kill me, wash away the evidence of what he done, except I lived, I managed to get high and climb onto a part of the wall that sticks out, I laid up there for hours while the water washed everything else away, it nearly took me, I could feel the water seep under my body but then the storm broke and the water slowly slipped away" Mary spoke softly, her voice trembling at the memory.
“We need you to tell us this back at the station, that way we can get you the help you need" Claire told her, taking another step closer and suddenly Mary hissed at her, warning her to back off.
“I know you" she said suddenly and Claire gasped, she wasn’t expecting that in the slightest and she froze where she stood.
“Claire, your name is Claire right?” Mary asked her and Claire nodded slowly, not knowing what would come of this.
“I’m sorry for what happened to you and your family, I feel now that it had been a horrible thing that happened, but you turned out strong, returning here, I hope you can finally get some peace" Mary said to her, however she didn’t admit whether she bad taken her parents or what, she had just said she had been sorry for what had happened, not that she caused it.
“Do you know where my parents are? Are they here?” Claire asked curiously, she couldn’t hold the question back any longer and she frantically looked around, looking for any sign of them, of a corpse.
“They were, their not now" Mary finally replied and Claire let out a sob, tears meeting her eyes, finally getting an answer, Mary was the one who had taken them.
“Then where are they?” fear flushed through Claire’s entire being, fear that they had been washed away and she would be doomed to never find their bodies.
“I couldn’t leave them down here, not when I saw you, not when I saw what I had done to you, I had to make it right, I had to make a way to say sorry to you" Mary babbled, causing Claire to get even more impatient with the suspense.
“Where are my parents? Where’s my mummy and daddy?” Claire cried, tears streaking down her face as he knees nearly buckled underneath her but she forced herself to stay upright, she had to know she needed to know.
“I buried them, out the back of your house, under the big oak tree" Mary admitted and Claire collapsed, Tony quickly catching her.
“Mary Scather you are under arrest for the multiple murders and kidnappings, you have the right to remain silent....” Bob began reading her Miranda rights as he approached her, she didn’t fight it, she waived her rights all while Claire tried to process what was happening.
Her parents bodies were buried under the big oak tree of her old house, the oak tree which she knew they planted she they found out her mother was pregnant with her, that tree had represented Claire’s life and now it was a grave marker for her parents.
Slowly when Claire had enough strength, what little was remaining in her they climbed out of the cave, up the ditch and Tony untied them, Mary handed and Bob holding tightly onto her.
“I’m so sorry Claire, I tried to make it right for you, give you a place to grieve, I gave you their rings back" Claire gasped when Mary admitted she had been the one who delivered the rings to her at the cabin and Claire felt sick, it had been Mary’s own twisted way of trying to make it up to Claire.
“I knew you would be the one to solve it, that you would be the one to save me, I will tell you everything, anything you want to know" Mary told her, practically promised her.
“Why all the victims? Why not just go straight for Hardgrove when he was here?” Claire asked as they walked down the trail back towards town.
“I couldn’t bring myself to go after him, I was too afraid of him after what he did to me, and he wasn’t the only one who had some part in it" Mary stated and Claire looked at her confused.
“What do you mean? Who else had part in what?” Claire asked, her anger growing, if Mary was trying to say that her parents had somehow been a part of this Claire was going to burst.
“They didn’t know it, but in some way they helped Hardgrove do what he did to me, Keith Rowe, he taught Hardgrove how to hunt and he used what he had learnt from him to torture me" Mary told her and Claire gasped shocked.
“Katherine Pearl?” Claire asked curiously, wondering what part she could have had.
“She let Hardgrove borrow a book that taught him all sorts of horrible knots, the ways he tied me up, it was horror" Mary replied, a sob escaping her.
What about Eric Sale? What did he have to do with it?” Claire nearly growled, she had taken and killed them over such trivial things, things they didn’t even know the reason to what was happening behind them, they couldn’t have known.
“He also had tools, handmade tools that he let Hardgrove borrow, ones that inflicted the worse pains, even worse then the ropes and tools he bought" Mary cried softly.
“And Helena Goldsburgh and my parents?” Claire asked, her voice trembling as they continued to walk, Claire’s knees shaking under her.
“The other tools he used to torture me with, and the ropes he tied me with, your parents and Helena sold them to him, everything he needed to kidnap, rape and torture me" Mary answered and Claire’s knees buckled underneath her, her body slamming to the ground, the last thing she heard was a clunk and felt a white sharp pain in her head before everything went dark.