Nary took over the body a minute later. "Contrary wouldn't let me back in. She was being contrary. Did she send you a message?"
"Yes, but not in words. An image of a deer, then a bigger deer. ... Oh, my. Contrary's hungry."
Nary nodded. "Meat," she said. "She needs meat."
"She doesn't eat people, does she?"
"Why wouldn't she? You're meat to her."
"Nary, I'm heading out to buy some meat right now. Tell her that."
# # # # # # # #
At 3:35 that afternoon, Nary received a mind message. Nary, do you know how to fly yet?
She looked in her mind and saw Doc's face. Hi, Doc. Yolanda helped me learn.
Remember when you were in the cell and you smelled that poison that the bad people used on Shango. Do you still remember the smell?
Sure.
How'd you like to practice some flying?
Sure.
William is on his way to the ship and then he'll fly back with you to Mavis' home. She has a lot of waterproof bags here. We'd like you to smell them.
OK.
We're in a rush. You'll have to fly fast.
Can I fly all by myself in my sling?
Sure.
I'm ready now.
William is almost at the ship.
"Sorry, Azure," Nary said. "I can't read to you anymore. I have to go smell something."
"I'll come with you."
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Chapter 9
It was Sunday, December 29 at 4:00 p.m. Snoozer and Mavis had left the courthouse after watching the last drops of Sunday's bag of poison disappear into Lucas' body. He had now been poisoned for 72 hours. The judge and his buddies expected him to die within the next 24-30 hours. Snoozer had wheeled in a cheap wooden coffin and placed it in the adjoining cell in preparation for the happy event. The Wilizy had overheard Snoozer and Mavis discussing the bets. Slider had the earliest bet: Monday, 2:00 p.m. The Rescue Team knew that Lucas would last past that time because they had been giving him liquids and nutrition. But they also had heard Snoozer and Mavis planning to arrive at the cell Monday at noon and they'd stay until Lucas died. If the Wilizy were planning to sneak Lucas out of the cellblock, they had to do that before noon on Monday Otherwise, the rescue could get messy.
The entire rescue team met in Lucas' cell as soon as Snoozer and Mavis had left. Winnie sat in her customary position, but waited for Nary to smell Lucas' body before putting her hands in place. Nary pointed at Shango's ribs. "Here and here," she said. "This is the worst."
"Mac," Yolanda asked as she watched Doc and Granny manipulating Lucas' limbs. "The poison bag that Mavis used today is the poison bag that Nary had smelled for you. Right?"
"Yeah," Mac said. "Nary found two bags with this poison. Mavis' laboratory had other bags with other solutions and none of them were labelled in ways we could understand. Nary could smell the poison she was using on Lucas. Doc expelled all the poison in this bag and the second bag as well. Lucas received pure saline today. We left the second bag in Mavis' lab and that's what she'll bring to the cell tomorrow."
"She has a laboratory?" Granny pursued.
"It's a second bedroom converted to a chemistry workshop," Mac said. "Who knows how this witch uses the other bags. They're not full of vitamin supplements, that's for sure. Theo, how many paralysis murders have you seen now?"
"I haven't reached current time yet, but I've seen twenty-nine murders with the poison. The judge talks with all of the victims after they're drugged, so I hear why he's killing them. I believe he enjoys showing them how smart he is. The trials are not just for people who won't pay for their insurance or are threatening to reveal what they've learned. Incidentally, I found out why we found no dust in the cellblock. Snoozer vacuums the place after each murder so that no signs of their presence were left behind."
"The judge is careful. You flagged all the murders?" Mac asked.
"Yah. I'll give the bots to Melissa plus a note on each flag and what day and time she should look at. I should be done in a couple of hours."
"OK. You go ahead and finish. I'll call you when Lucas is awake."
That call came at 8:30 that evening.
# # # # # # # #
Theo came back to the cellblock to find William and Wolf propping Lucas up, his arms draped over their shoulders, his feet mostly dragging on the cement floor. "Arnnf," Lucas said.
"Right back at you, older brother," Theo answered and they sort of fist bumped.
Doc and Granny were sitting on top of Lucas' empty coffin in the next cell. "He can't talk yet and he has no coordination, but we have plenty of time," Doc said. "Let him sit for fifteen minutes, boys. Yolanda has some soup."
At 9:30 p.m., they all flew to the ship. Lucas would be allowed to sleep until 9:30 in the morning and then they'd return him to the cellblock. They hadn't figured out how he'd escape yet. There was still only one plausible way out of that cellblock – walking out. But Mavis and Snoozer locked both the stairs and the elevator when they left the basement. There was no credible way that Lucas could get out of the cellblock on his own.
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Chapter 10
Maddy woke Sunday morning and found herself still in the pink bedroom. She was hungry, but she had a little of Pililiani's food in her backpack, so she ate that. Then she started playing with the toys and reading the books. The books had pictures of funny looking animals and told a story. Maddy couldn't read all the words, but her reading skills were actually quite advanced because of Pililiani's instruction. She could understand most of the stories. Just like she had been able to understand Pililiani's note to Hanna telling her to keep her in the nursery. That note meant that Maddy could sneak into the copter without being caught.
Maddy enjoyed reading the picture books. The time passed quickly. Yes, she became hungry again, but she had been hungry before. Picture books were new and there were a lot of them. Plus, the room had blank paper as well as lots of crayons and felt pens with different colours. Later that day, she lifted the lid of the toilet, wrote her name on the underside of the lid, and went back to her reading.
That evening, she heard noises coming through the wall. A slapping sound of some kind. And a woman's voice. Crying. The slapping noises got louder and harder. The man was yelling, "Don't talk back to me." The woman's voice got louder too. So did the man's voice. "Don't talk back. Don't talk at all. Keep your mouth shut!" Then she heard sounds of a woman screaming. A man's deep voice was laughing. At times, there'd be a pause and she could hear a low murmur from the man talking to the woman. The slapping sounds soon resumed and the woman began yelling and howling in pain. At some point, those howls of pain became howls of passion. But Maddy didn't know anything about howls of passion. A howl was a howl. She had heard that slaves could be whipped; she had seen the whipping post at Ranch #4. She concluded correctly that the woman next door was being whipped in some fashion. She didn't know that the woman was enjoying it. Maddy had a troubled sleep that night.
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Chapter 11
Mavis arrived at the front door of the courthouse at noon on Tuesday but had to wait for Snoozer to arrive with the key. They were downstairs in the cellblock by 12:10. Snoozer went to get the vacuum while Mavis put the last bag of poison onto the floor of the cell and checked Lucas' pulse. She looked at her pinky ring, noted the time, and made an entry onto a piece of paper on a clipboard. That paper showed the five bets and at what point in the day, each might become the winner.
"He's still alive," Mavis said as Snoozer put the vacuum down outside the cell. "Mavis, is that you?" Lucas said and sat up in the bed. "I dozed off waiting for you." Lucas hopped off the bed, fished in the front pocket of jeans, produced a gold coin, and put it on Mavis' clipboard. He would have put it into one of her hands, but Mavis' eyes were the only part of her body that was still functioning at that point.
"One gold coin as we agreed for substitu
ting water for the poison. I don't know if you're planning to tell the judge that I died or I escaped. I don't care. I'm leaving Ontario and he'll never find me."
Lucas stepped out of the cell but paused as he reached Snoozer who was staring at him, the vacuum cleaner still in his hand. Snoozer didn't have a lot of fully functioning body parts at the best of times. Right now, he was frozen in place – perhaps by arthritis, perhaps not.
Lucas grabbed Snoozer by the throat and pulled him upright. The vacuum clunked to the cell floor. "Mavis says that she won't have any problems with you becoming a tattletale. I would have split the bribe with you, but Mavis said it wasn't necessary. She said that if she ever became worried about you telling on her, she'd slip something into the thermos you bring to work. Instantaneous death. Mavis knows her poisons. You should keep your mouth shut, Snoozer. Don't say anything about me walking out of here. But if you do talk, don't drink or eat anything ever again."
Lucas turned on his heels and walked out of the cellblock. As I said, there was only one way out of that basement. Walking out. Winnie had thought of a way to make it work.
# # # # # # # #
The Rescue Team had discussed Winnie's idea at some length the previous evening. Not whether or not it would work. They all were confident it would work. Neither Mavis nor Snoozer carried weapons and Lucas would have most of his strength back when he awoke from being almost dead. Neither jailer had the strength or the bravery to stop him. But one of them was probably going to die after Lucas escaped. And that death would be because of the picture that the Wilizy had painted.
Enough fluid was left in Monday's poison bag for a technician to determine that it was harmless. Tuesday's poison bag lying on the cement floor of Lucas' cell contained harmless water. If Snoozer had the inclination, and a quick hand on his pinky ring communicator, Mavis would die for something that she didn't actually do.
Or Snoozer would agree to keep quiet, perhaps for half of the gold coin's value. But he was slated to die too. Mavis would certainly kill to keep Snoozer quiet. The Rescue Team was setting him up to be murdered.
However, Theo's research showed that these two were involved in a huge number of murders. Was dying for a failed attempt on their latest victim justice? The Rescue Team thought that it was – given the long list of murders. The reader may have a different opinion. Or the reader might be thinking about Mavis in the same way that Marie and Nary were thinking about Mavis.
# # # # # # # #
Maddy was sitting cross-legged on the cover of her bed that Monday evening. She had already coloured on some of the papers in the bedroom. She had read some more. She had played with some toys. She had hugged a bunny stuffy. The day passed slowly and she was becoming increasingly hungry. She was listening to the man's low voice in the room next to her now. The slapping and the howling began again. There was a small hiding place under her bed, but the Big Daddy would easily find her. She hid there anyway.
# # # # # # # #
Nary was sitting cross-legged on the cover of her bed that Monday evening. This would be her last chance to learn things from Azure. Her wing would be healed by tomorrow morning and then she'd be gone. Azure would have a new human to guard now that Lucas was safe. "Do you think I should sleep in the bed, Azure?"
Azure was sitting on Nary's shoulder so that her voice could reach Nary's ear. She was still visible in her pinky-finger size. "Definitely. Just because you always slept on the floor of your hut before, that doesn't mean you have to sleep on the floor forever. The bed is more comfortable. You'll sleep better. You should try it."
"OK."
"You have to try other new things too. Like your clothes. You only wore one piece of clothing when you were on the island because that's all you had. That doesn't mean you have to wear these blue jeans until they fall off you. You shouldn't be wearing them to bed. You'll get all hot and sweaty. Wear a loose pair of shorts and a top. If you're too cold, ask Yolanda for another blanket."
"They have more than one?"
"Sure they do. And change your clothes from one day to the next. That way, you can always wear clean clothes. You'll smell better. And wash the clothes regularly and use soap. I've shown you where that is"
"OK. We didn't have any soap and we only had the one bucket to wash in."
"Nary, that was horrible, but it doesn't mean that you have to live like that always."
"OK. What else?"
"Your hair. You have to brush it regularly to undo the tangles. Wash it with soap too. You have nice curly hair. Don't let it hang in front of your face. Use Yolanda's bobby pins to pin it back. Ask Winnie to help you find a pretty way to wear your hair. Winnie's nice. You'll like her."
"How do you know about Winnie?"
"I'm an angel, remember. We're too modest to brag, but we know things."
"What else should I do, Azure?"
"You know about using your knife, fork, and spoon. When you eat, chew with your mouth closed. After something is in your mouth, don't take it out and look at it."
"You saw me do that?"
"I may have peeked at the family once or twice, but only to make sure that everybody was ready to rescue Lucas. Nary, you have to eat your vegetables or else you won't grow up strong. Even if you don't like them at first, you'll get used to them. If I have something to eat that I don't like, I eat it first and save the best food for the end. My mother taught me that."
"Angels eat?"
"Of course we do. We need energy to guard people, right?"
"I need to eat meat for Contrary."
"Fine. But don't forget to eat for Nary too."
"Did you say that you had a mother?"
"Yah, and a father too."
"Angels have parents?"
"Of course. How else would there be new angels like me?"
"So, since you're a new angel, that means that your parents had...you know...."
"Sex. Yes. I learned that in my biology class."
"You go to school?"
"Angel school."
"I don't know anything about having sex."
"Are you asking me to tell you stuff about sex?"
"Well...yeah."
"OK, but first I have to draw you something."
# # # # # # # #
"Nary, this place here is home plate. Over here is first base, and then second base, and then third base. Say you're at home plate and you're holding your boyfriend's hand. If you go to first base, that means you can kiss. First base means kissing. The next base is..."
# # # # # # # #
"Thank you. That was very useful, Azure. How do you know so much?"
"I'm an angel; we know things."
"But you're too modest to brag."
"Right."
"Will we see each other again?"
"Yes, I'm sure we will."
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Chapter 12
The Wilizy from the satellite compound left Toronto on Tuesday morning, December 31, 2085. Theo had handed the drone from the prison cells to William with all of the paralysis murders flagged. Thirty-seven innocent people had died. Theo had asked William to be sure to tell Melisa that these murders were only what he had found in the cellblock. "There could be more murders from other types of killings. Run away horse-drawn carriages, bombings, and snipings to name only a few. We may never find them all."
"Melissa will welcome a challenge," William revealed. "We've been trying for baby #3 for over a year now and she's getting frustrated. It doesn't help that Mac is four months along with their second."
That revelation brought Doc's head up from his whittle stick. He was working on a panther sculpture. Contrary was sleeping on the deck and serving as an unsuspecting model. Winnie was sitting across the room and working on her own panther stick. She didn't look up. She wasn't much interested in new babies. Winnie was interested in how Nary and Theo were getting along. But Theo would be giving Granny, Hank, and Yolanda a guided tour of the slave island this af
ternoon. Nothing would be happening on the Theo-Nary front for the afternoon.
Marie was back at that slave island sleeping. Her absence didn't have anything to do with the new beds, which Nary and Marie did like. She just needed to sleep – it was her way. "Perhaps we'll see Marie at the island," Yolanda wondered.
Nary said nothing. Yolanda had as much chance of seeing Marie sleeping as Nary had of understanding why these people would want to make sticks look like a panther. Nary had difficulty understanding something else too. Mavis had tried to kill Lucas and she was still alive. In Pantherland, when one carnivore tries to kill another carnivore, at least one carnivore dies right then.
# # # # # # # #
Have you ever watched a barn cat wait for a rat to emerge from a woodpile? The cat knows that the rat is in there; she can smell it. The cat just needs to lie in wait patiently – out of smelling range and out of sight. Eventually the rat will come out to feed – usually in the darkness of the night.
Mavis and Snoozer had come to an agreement about Snoozer keeping his mouth shut. She would give him 25% of the bribe if he helped her dispose of Lucas' imaginary body in the usual fashion. That usually meant manhandling the body into the coffin, visiting a certain Toronto funeral home in the middle of the night, turning on the crematorium fire, and placing the coffin onto the conveyor belt. This time, no body would be in the coffin but they had to go through the motions in case the judge checked. For reasons that were not completely clear to Snoozer, he ended up volunteering to be the body in the coffin. That willingness might have had something to do with the mist of spray that Mavis had produced from a bottle that looked like it had once held perfume. Eau de Murdeur, perhaps.
Mavis told the judge, the prosecutor, and Slider that Snoozer had won the bet, collected the pot, and had decided to visit a niece in Ottawa for a couple of weeks. She figured Ottawa would be a safe place for his hypothetical visit because it was mostly deserted. What few people still lived in the capital of the former nation of Canada were descendants of civil servants. That meant they had been genetically trained to see nothing, do nothing, and say nothing. Mavis kept the gold coin along with Snoozer's winnings and considered herself safe. Late that Tuesday night, she developed a hankering for some popcorn. A 24-hour convenience store was two blocks away.