Page 20 of Vanish From Sight (High Peaks Murder, Mystery and Crime Thrillers #2)

T here was no signal.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” she said, holding up the phone and moving down the aisle while pups barked around her. There were a couple of dirty, cobweb-covered windows but they were higher up.

Trapped inside the outbuilding, Lena figured it would be easier to contact Noah and kill two birds with one stone.

He would swoop in, arrest the farm owner and maybe even get charges of trespassing dismissed.

She figured, under the circumstances, that the last thing they would care about was someone who had risked their life to gather evidence against an illegal breeder.

In that moment that’s what she believed they were. Even if they were doing everything above board, the conditions the dogs were being kept in were far from ideal.

“C’mon. Not even one bar! ”

As darkness enveloped the building, the temperature began to drop.

She shivered and decided to call 911. Regardless of shabby service or no plan or even a SIM card, phones were meant to go directly through to 911. It was required for all phones in America, except for some reason it wasn’t working.

“This cannot be happening.”

Nothing. She held the phone high.

It had to be the building or her location to the nearest tower.

After multiple attempts from different locations in the building, she gave up and surveyed the darkened space.

With evening in full swing, very little light from stars entered.

The dogs were in complete darkness, afraid, cold, just like her.

That only gave her more sympathy for their plight.

Using the flashlight feature on her phone, she shone it around trying to get a better feel of what her options were.

She tried to remain calm and composed as she searched for a possible weakness in the walls or door.

Nothing. The only thing that was dilapidated was the roof and the two windows that were high up.

Even if she could reach them, there was no way she could squeeze out, they were too narrow.

She berated herself for even stepping foot on the farm.

In all the years she’d been a reporter, she’d been careful not to get too close to a story.

Noah had warned her after seeing journalists wind up the target of those they were investigating.

Still, if no one did anything about the individuals stealing pets, it would just fall between the cracks, overlooked, and become nothing more than a small article in a newspaper or a social media post that people would scroll by.

Lena returned to the steel door and pushed hard against it. It was like beating a dead horse. It wouldn’t budge. She wanted to scream in frustration but that would only draw attention and that was the last thing she needed .

As she crossed to the stacked-up tires, an idea formed in her mind.

She’d seen the weathered roof from the outside, back when there was daylight. All that stood between her and freedom was weathered plywood and rotten shingles.

She coughed hard, placing a hand over her mouth.

The air was thick with the scent of wood and rust, and the only moonlight filtered through cracks in the roof.

Casting the flashlight beam around her prison, looking for a tool she could use to punch her way to freedom, she felt like a caged animal.

What to use? she thought.

Rusty old chains, hooks and a length of rope, frayed and worn from years of use, were hanging from the rafters.

An old pulley system was mounted high up on the wall for hoisting heavy objects up and out of the barn.

A tractor was gathering dust in the corner.

Near the back, there was a trailer filled with hay and straw.

A crowbar or a tire iron would have been handy but there wasn’t either.

Moving around the tractor, shining the light across it, she found a small toolbox near the front.

She dug inside and brought out a flathead screwdriver.

It wasn’t much but it would have to do. She knew time was running out; if she didn’t act fast, they’d either find her or she’d succumb to the cold.

Returning to the old tires stacked up in one corner, she began dragging them over to the wall where she could use them to climb. She stacked them as high as she could, using all her strength to push them into place and create a makeshift ladder.

With her heart pounding in her chest, Lena began.

The tires were unsteady and wobbled beneath her weight, but she kept going, pulling herself up rung by rung.

The roof was old and dilapidated, with patches of rusted metal and holes that let in slivers of light.

She pulled the screwdriver out of her pocket and began to dig at the edges of the plywood, breaking pieces of it away and prying up a section of rusty metal sheets.

The metal creaked and groaned, but she kept going.

A large section broke away and she let it fall to the floor, revealing a space wide enough to get her head through but not the rest of her.

Keep at it, she told herself, digging the tool in and stabbing weathered wood to pieces until she could see more of the light from the stars.

Just as she was making real progress, and figured she’d be able to squeeze out of the hole, she heard voices from the ground below. Her heart raced with fear, she paused and listened, trying to make out what was being said.

As she strained to hear, the voices grew louder, and she realized they belonged to the owners of the farm. They’d heard her and were making their way over to the building.

Lena’s hands shook as she pulled herself up onto the roof just as the main doors opened. She was at least twenty feet off the ground, so jumping down was out of the question. She figured she would find some other way down but under pressure that luxury was now gone.

“Patrick. Go around the outside. They’re on the roof.”

Frantically, Lena gazed down, searching for a way off.

Pitching sideways on the sloping roof, she knew that one wrong step could mean death.

She took a deep breath and made a split-second decision to head across the roof to the other side, hoping there might be a vehicle, hay, anything stacked against the side before…

It happened too fast.

A section of plywood gave way beneath her, and before she could react, she fell through the roof .

She screamed, plummeting down through the air, feeling her body collide with a cage before bouncing off onto the hard concrete floor. Pain exploded through her body and for a moment or two, she lay there, gasping for breath.

Even if she wanted to move, she couldn’t.

Lena wasn’t sure if she had broken her back, a rib or both. All she knew was pain wracked her body. As her vision blurred, she could just make out the faces of the farm owners as they loomed over her.

Over the next few minutes, she heard muffled voices as they talked about what to do with her. “Take her inside the house,” a woman said. “We’ll figure out what to do next. And if she has a phone, destroy it.”

Lena felt a surge of fear and pain wash over her as someone lifted her and carried her over their shoulder towards the farmhouse. She felt the bitter wind on her skin. She couldn’t have struggled even if she wanted to, the pain was too much.

Inside the home, Lena took in her new surroundings.

The farmhouse was dark and cluttered with piles of junk and debris littering the floors.

As they passed a room on her right, she noticed it was dimly lit with worn furniture and peeling wallpaper that was stained with damage.

If anyone lived here, they were disgusting individuals.

A large dog bed sat in the corner, and she could see several older dogs of different breeds sharing it.

In a daze, her eyes roamed, soaking in every detail of the space.

A staircase led up to the second floor. To her left was a doorway that fed into an old country-style kitchen. She caught a glimpse of a sink piled high with dirty dishes and a worn-out refrigerator covered in fridge magnets.

She was set down on a sofa. The hearth of a fireplace on the opposite wall was filled with ashes and debris.

A collection of old magazines and newspapers were stacked haphazardly on a coffee table beside a plate of food and an overfilled ashtray.

Framed photographs of farm owners hung on the wall alongside a deer’s head.

Despite the state of the farmhouse, there was a sense that someone called it home. Any warmth that might have come from that was overshadowed by the grim reality of her situation. She was trapped, and at the mercy of those who had no qualms about breaking the law.

“Little bitch.”

“You know her?” the male asked.

“That’s the same woman who wanted to see the dogs earlier today.”

A door opened. “Teresa. I found this in the barn,” a younger voice said.

All of the activity happening around her was just a blur. The world kept fading in and out, nothing more than a haze.

“I knew it,” the burly woman said, looking at the camera then passing it to the older guy. “Seems we’ve got an animal activist. Is that what you are?” she asked, grabbing Lena by the shirt.

“Please. I need to see a doctor.”

“See a doctor?” The woman laughed.

“No, she’s right, Teresa. Maybe we should drop her off at the hospital. She doesn’t look too good.”

“And you’re not too bright,” she retorted, slapping him around the back of the head. “What do you think she’s going to say to the cops?”

“I won’t say anything,” Lena muttered.

“Of course you won’t, as you aren’t going to speak to them.”

“Teresa. A word over here,” another male said.

He was a stringy-looking fella with an angular face that was weathered and lined from years of working in the fields.

His hair was greasy, with grey intermingled with dark brown.

He reminded Lena of a rat with his slanted forehead and beady little eyes set deep within his skull.

He was wearing a tattered denim jacket with frayed cuffs and a ripped collar.

Underneath, a faded plaid shirt that had seen better days, a few buttons missing.

His jeans were stained or covered in muck with one of the knees torn.

Lena strained to hear the conversation.

While they talked about her and the situation they found themselves in, she could tell that the one called Patrick wasn’t going down for something Teresa wanted to do.

“You are as much in this as I am. If we let her leave now, we are screwed. Forget this little side business. Forget retiring. The only view you will see will be from behind bars,” Teresa told him.

“We move the dogs. We’ve done it before,” he said.

“Yeah, and you know how much that delayed things? No. Not this time. It’s one woman.

We stay the course. It’s taken us this long to make connections.

This place is prime pickings. No one is looking for missing dogs around here.

Tourists, residents, this region is the armpit of Upstate New York, millions of acres of wilderness, plenty of mountains, more than enough space for dogs and people to vanish from sight. ”

Lena wanted to protest but among the many aches and pains, her head was starting to throb hard. She kept fading in and out of consciousness.

“You might be trigger-happy but not me. I say we put it to a vote with the others. We can destroy her phone and camera. Then she has no proof. It’s her word against ours.”

“She knows where we are, bonehead!”

“Fuck you, Teresa!”

“Hey, guys, chill.”

“Don’t tell me to chill. She’s a problem,” Teresa said. “One woman. That’s all. ”

“One woman whose phone will be tracked here if we don’t let her go. Haven’t you ever watched any crime shows? They will ping that phone off the towers and triangulate on this place. Then try explaining that,” Patrick said.

Teresa seemed overly confident. “That’s simple.

We sell dogs. We are a legal breeder. Just like anyone else.

Just people don’t know where we get our main dogs from or the high-priced ones that sell.

The rest, they are just a litter. So, she came out to see me about a dog.

I showed her, she couldn’t make up her mind and left.

You take the phone and dump it in a lake, off a cliff, I don’t give a fuck. But anywhere but here.”

Patrick laughed. “You must think cops are stupid. The last place she was seen was us. Even if they don’t arrest us, they will stick a cop in an unmarked car outside the farm and watch us day and night.

Then how are we going to conduct business?

Huh? Yeah, just like I thought. Who’s the bonehead now! ”

Teresa lashed out, cracking him with a right hook and knocking him to the floor. He bounced up about to retaliate but the third guy intervened. “Stop. Enough. This isn’t helping. You’re both right and wrong. What’s done is done.”

The front door creaked open. “Hey Teresa.”

“What is it, Magnus?”

“I think I found her vehicle. It’s parked down the road, off to the side.”

Teresa marched over to Lena and dug her grubby little fingers into her pockets, searching for keys. Lena couldn’t have resisted even if she tried.

“Please, I work for the newspaper. People will be looking for me.”

“What?” she asked, pulling out a set of jangling keys then tossing them to someone off to her left.

“The Adirondack Daily Enterprise.”

Teresa looked back at the others .

“Fuck!” Patrick said as he kicked the coffee table then plowed a fist into a photo frame on the wall, cracking it.

Teresa grinned. “So? You think that changes anything?”

“My ex works for State Police.”

Lena tossed everything and anything she could at them, realizing that this wasn’t going to end well if she didn’t try. They would have to work fast and get rid of her. They had no intentions of keeping her around. Time was their enemy and as long as she was alive, they could go to jail.