“Your father loves you very much,” a deep voice came from the gloom. That had been Megan’s introduction to ‘The Monster.’
Since that night, almost five months had passed and she was still a captive of his. The farmhouse had been only one of ten places he’d held her and there had also been many nights spent in the various camper vans.
For a while, her captor made her call her father while the news was on the TV loudly enough he could hear it. It was so awful to hear her father’s anguish and then to see on the news what he’d done to keep her alive. The ‘Monster’ never let her hear his part of the conversation with Karl Stanver so she had no idea how many of the murders that came up on the news were his doing.
One evening as Megan scraped with the heel of her shoe at the basement wall in the farmhouse, the door opened and his voice came to her,
“Your father is in jail. He’s completed the first part of his mission. One more thing to do and then you will be released.”
“When!” she called out to him as the door closed and she bent over and sobbed. Her poor father, in jail for murder; would they execute him? Surely not, he could explain that she was being held hostage and that he had no other choice. That wouldn’t exonerate him in anyone else’s eyes, she thought. The best case scenario was that he would be in jail for the rest of his life. Lying there she asked for the ten thousandth time; why is this happening? Why her?
In all the time Megan had been with this man, she had never once seen his face. She could tell he was a very large man and he was able to lift her as though she weighed nothing at all. She was glad of having not seen his face, because in her mind, she felt this is what made it even remotely believable that he could set her free at some stage. She could tell the police nothing about him save a generic description of him and the places he'd kept her. She didn’t imagine any of that would be of any use in finding this man at all. He always seemed so calm and in control of things, and even the time Megan had lost control and tried to attack him, he simply brushed her aside without a word or a gesture of annoyance and went out of the room as he intended to.
What scared Megan most of all, apart from what would happen to her father, was the fact that she had been able to tell over time, that the ‘Monster’ had more people in captivity, just like her. And just like her, she was sure they were being moved around. She didn’t know how many people it might be, but she had seen marks in holding places that she’d not made and also there were hairs and fingernails left sometimes in the farmhouse cellars.
What this meant for the long term, she had no idea, but it steeled her resolve to action. Megan Stanver was no longer willing to just wait to be either killed or set free. She was going to start trying to hatch an escape plan, no matter what the cost might be.
Her captor rarely spoke to her, but she got the sense from his being able to move her around so much so easily that he must be intelligent. He’d figured out some way to move multiple missing persons around and not get caught. But she was also sure he was really busy all the time. It was possible that while he was concentrating on getting his job done, he might not notice, at least at first, her trying to get hers done.
Megan was clever too, and she was determined. She also had two things on her mind that might also give her the edge; firstly, she wanted revenge and secondly, she was fighting for her life.
She would start today, first by searching this cellar for a good place to leave a message or start trying to dig, and then by listening and observing every single thing she could about her abductor and what he got up to. It was a big puzzle and she was sure she was going to be able to figure it out. She just hoped there was enough time left to do it.
Chapter 7
TYLER WAS AT HOME FINISHING up work on a chapter of his book when the landline rang. It was late, close to 11pm, and he wasn’t expecting a call. His heart jumped a beat, could this be the anonymous killer leaving a voice changing message. Not wanting to appear too eager, he let it ring another time and a half as he stood over it before answering. The number on the little LED screen was not one that he recognised but the fact that it wasn’t a private number made him think this wasn’t the call he was hoping for. The killer had been good with phone tech, though, and had redirected calls from old landlines before, so there was still a chance.
“Hello?” he said.
“Tyler,” a female voice, the sound of a bar in the background. For an instant he didn’t recognise it with the noise.
“Sarah?” he asked.
“Yeah, long time no talk,” she said, was she a little tipsy? “How have you been?” she asked.
“I’ve been good,” he replied, “Working on my book and some stories for the paper.”
“I see you’re on the farmer murders,” the sound of cracking pool balls behind her.
“Oh, you mean the ‘Agrarian’ case?” he tested out
