The Dark: A Collection (Point Horror) Read online

  Doc stood outside the cockpit door like a hovering vulture, unable to come in for the final kill. He was waiting for his prey to come out, the prey that was eluding him.

  "Why didn't you call the police as soon as you'd jumped the pilot and Roscoe? Why did you take off from Smith's Airfield?" Doc questioned Harry.

  "At that point you could still have made a good case for saying that you were flying to London. You could claim you were Dr. Byron Kingsley. You'd done nothing to incriminate yourself yet. Last night you did. I have everything you confessed to Bianca recorded on tape in the cockpit. You admit to the murders. You say you're kidnapping Katie. You claim you're Doc. I couldn't have hoped for more."

  "Oh, Harry!" Bianca couldn't restrain her tears. Had he done this for her after the way she'd treated him? She couldn't believe that anybody could be so heroic!

  Doc quelled her with a look.

  Harry had confessed his suspicions at the Cloister Hotel. He had picked up on the smallest details. No one else had believed him. Harry had stuck to his guns.

  "C'mon!" Doc motioned to the Harry look-alike and Marianna. "Let's break down the door."

  They ran against it with their shoulders. They tried to use the drink cart.

  Harry assured them over the loudspeaker. "I have myself pretty well barricaded. I worked on it yesterday after Roscoe entered the cockpit. It's something they taught us in pilot training. The Shipleys paid to have me learn to protect Little Katie. That's what I'm doing."

  Doc called for the tool chest that he'd brought with him. He tried to take off the door screw by screw, bolt by bolt. He kneeled down on the floor to work on the bottom screws.

  It didn't work, no matter how hard Doc tried. Doc gave up and threw the screwdriver aside.

  "Isn't there something important you're forgetting, Fellini?" Doc challenged him. "I've got Little Katie and Bianca. You might have saved your own neck. But you won't be of much use to them."

  Harry did not answer right away. "I thought we'd be back to the Jacksonville Airport before you caught on. That's why I flew out over the Atlantic and didn't return until everybody was asleep. I hoped you'd wake up in Jacksonville with the police standing over you the next morning."

  "It's not so easy to defeat Doc Ernie McCollough!" Doc proclaimed.

  "I've alerted the police, you know," Harry continued. "I called them as soon as we took off. They believe me now all too well — about Dr. Byron Kingsley, of course. The big shock will come when they find out it's you, Doc, returned from the grave. I suspected it all along myself."

  "You won't win."

  "No? I don't think I've got much to worry about." Harry sounded assured.

  "I could threaten to blow Katie's and Bianca's brains out if you touch down at Jacksonville."

  Bianca held Katie more tightly to her.

  "I don't think you will, Doc," Harry insisted over the loudspeaker. "Bianca and Katie are your whole kingdom, your whole world. You don't have any other subjects except a little baby and the sweetest girl ever to worship you and call you a god. You're nothing without them, are you?"

  Bianca thought, Don't make Doc angry, Harry. He's liable to do anything when he feels cornered.

  "It's rather pathetic, isn't it?" Harry taunted Doc. "You're the one who belongs in the psycho ward, not Bianca. She's one tough cookie."

  Bianca spotted the bathroom door in front of the first-class seats. It was open. She ran for it. She barricaded both herself and Little Katie inside.

  "Bianca, what do you think you're doing!" Doc pounded on the bathroom door. "Open that door at once!"

  "Please don't ask me. I — I can't."

  "Now!"

  "I'm doing it for Katie. If it were just me, I wouldn't care."

  "You always listen to me, Bianca. You never do anything else."

  "Forgive me, Doc. I have to make sure she's safe until we land," Bianca begged in a soft, soothing voice. She didn't want to excite him any more.

  "You're my wife, Bianca. Are you forgetting that?"

  She glanced at the big diamond ring and the matching gold band. A sob caught in her throat. It took all her strength of will to suppress it.

  "No, Doc, I haven't forgotten." She remembered last night. A strand of Doc's hair was sticking to the skirt of her suit.

  "You promised to obey me. Open that door!"

  Doc ran against the door with his shoulder. The door wouldn't open. She could hear him working on the door with his tool kit. She didn't know how to barricade herself in the way that Harry had.

  Doc soon had the door open. He grabbed Bianca by the hand and forced her out.

  "If Fellini wants to land this plane in Jacksonville, we'll take a different flight." He was yanking her away from the cockpit door.

  Had Doc taken leave of his senses?

  "What — what are you talking about, Doc? There isn't any other flight."

  "You show a limited imagination, Bianca. You have to trust me. I'm so much smarter than you are, my dear."

  He pulled her back to the coach section. Doc had packed gear into the overhead compartments. She remembered those boxes he had been buying the day before they'd left. He looked as if he had been buying goods for a lifetime — as if he never intended to return to the United States.

  Doc ordered the Harry look-alike to take down a box. He grabbed equipment from it.

  The others helped him by holding flashlights. They had switched on some overhead lights above the seats and found that it was still too dim. Bianca could not help but shiver at how dark it was up here, though she could see tiny lights way down on the ground.

  "Here, put this on!" Doc fastened something around Bianca's waist.

  "What is it?"

  "A parachute, of course," Doc informed her as he put on his own.

  The other crew members were hastily climbing into theirs as well. Apparently they had come prepared for all eventualities. Lights flicked on up and down the coach section.

  She gaped at Doc. It took her a few seconds to recover her voice. "But — but, Doc, I — I can't jump from an airplane."

  "Your lover boy has left us no choice. I had a royal welcome prepared in Brazil. We'll have to rough it until I can arrange for another flight with a more reliable pilot."

  He acted as if he'd asked Bianca to do no more than descend a stairway. Bianca had become nervous about climbing up on to the stage at school. She felt her head start to whirl around.

  "I'd —"

  "I'll pull it for you."

  "Little Katie would get sucked right out of my arms."

  Doc fastened a special papoose attachment on to the front of Bianca's parachute. He took Katie from her and strapped the child in. His twisted mind had thought of every last, little detail.

  Bianca clutched his hand. "Let's leave Little Katie on the plane. Let's not take her with us. I'll go with you instead."

  It would be hellish to part with Little Katie. But anything would be better than risking her life.

  Doc shook his head. "We can't leave Katie here. She's worth too much. Besides, you like her. She's useful to have around."

  Doc forced Bianca down the aisle toward the back of the plane. She dug in her heels. She lifted Little Katie out of the parachute. She held the bawling Katie with one arm and tried to grab on to every seat back she could with the other.

  The darkness closed in around her. It was like that time she'd been stranded on the roof. She had felt as if she were falling head over heels all the way to the ground. This time she would be dead before she reached it. The fright would kill her. The lighthouse had been one hundred feet tall. She didn't want to imagine how high up she was now.

  She relived her dream. Bianca had pictured herself falling from a great height. How had she known ahead of time that was going to happen? Had Doc whispered to her what he might do when she had been asleep? How would Doc know then that Harry was going to catch him with his pants down? She bet that this time it wouldn't end like her dream. She wouldn't wake up in bed. />
  Doc continued to yank Bianca and Katie toward the hatch in the rear of the aircraft.

  With Katie as her responsibility, she couldn't allow herself the luxury of a swoon. She had to hang in there and fight Doc with everything she had left.

  She couldn't drop Katie on one of the seats. Katie wouldn't be strapped in. She wouldn't know how to take care of herself. Even worse, she might try to come after her "Anca". The toddler would get swept out of the airplane if Doc opened the hatch. Bianca couldn't reach Harry to give the child to him.

  No matter what, she couldn't let Doc pull her out of the airplane as long as Katie was alive.

  "Harry! Help me!" Bianca called.

  "Hold on, Bianca!" he answered. "We're almost back. The police should be out in force. The Shipleys might be back from London. When I radioed the tower the first time, they told me they would inform them. They might have taken a private jet back here. If they left London at once, they should be touching down in Jacksonville right now."

  If the Shipleys were going to be in Jacksonville, Bianca couldn't allow them to hear that their little girl had fallen to her death out of a jet!

  "Doc's trying to parachute out of here. He's taking me and Katie with him!" Bianca screeched as she fought against Doc with every bit of strength that she had left.

  "Not from this height!" Harry practically hollered over the public address-system.

  Doc called out, "I'd rather risk anything than being hauled in by a bunch of stupid policemen who don't know what I'm capable of, who don't understand that the ordinary laws don't apply to me, who will try to pin the rap on me for killing two nobodies who happened to get in my way. YOU have a choice, Fellini. DON'T LAND IN JACKSONVILLE. Then I promise not to jump."

  "I don't have enough fuel to take you to Rio," Harry announced.

  "Take me to any other airport. I'm not picky."

  "There's an alert out at every airport all the way up and down the East Coast. They know the description of the plane. Besides, we're being tracked by radar."

  "Land at Smith's Airfield out in the middle of nowhere. We can escape from there. The limo should still be parked under the tree." Doc's brain worked fast. "The police won't be expecting it and won't have enough time to—"

  The lights went out. The floor fell out from underneath Bianca's feet. Her knees collapsed. She plummeted to the floor along with everyone else. Marianna shrieked. Doc swore.

  Harry was doing a nosedive, racing down out of the skies toward the ground at a record pace. They lost thousands of feet in seconds.

  Doc's iron lock on Bianca's hand had been knocked loose. Her head was whirling around. She was disoriented. She wasn't sure that she was still conscious and that her head hadn't been bumped against something. She crawled down the aisle on her hands and knees with the child in tow. She clapped her hand over Little Katie's mouth to try to avoid giving herself away.

  "Come back here, Bianca!" Doc shrieked. "I don't have time for a game of cat and mouse."

  She thought she saw him get up and move about the cabin behind her, a shadow in the blackness. Doc sounded as if he were feeling along the ceiling for the light switches above every individual seat. He was cursing and swearing under his breath.

  Harry had cut the power to the cabin. Harry wanted to help her escape. That gave her courage. She felt him pulling for her every second.

  The plane dove lower. It flattened her against the floor of the cabin.

  "We've got to jump, Bianca," Doc hissed. "I can't wait. Already I can see the airport lights and the runway."

  Bianca kept mum.

  "Bianca, this is your last chance."

  She bit her lip.

  "All right, Bianca. I'm leaving by myself, if that's the way you want it. I'll be back for you if I make it. I swear it. If I don't make it, think how guilty you will feel. You will have killed me not once-BUT TWICE!"

  Footsteps were heading away from her rapidly. Doc must be walking toward the hatch in the rear of the aircraft. If he opened that hatch, she and Little Katie would be swept out. Neither would stand a chance.

  Bianca scrambled into the first seat she came to. She strapped herself in. She'd better not try to hold Katie. If the cabin depressurized she might not be able to keep the child in her arms.

  Bianca strapped the toddler into the seat next to her so tightly that the little girl protested. She held on to Katie for dear life as she heard a loud, wrenching sound. In her mind's eye she could see Doc force the door open. It felt as if she were in a tornado. Winds tore at her. They pulled at her head. They tried to suck her backward like water going down a drain.

  The air was being sucked out of the cabin as well. Something hit her head. It was the oxygen mask that had fallen down out of the overhead rack. She took Katie's and struggled to position it over the little girl's head so the child could breathe normally. At the last minute, just before she was going to lose consciousness herself, Bianca positioned her mask over her own mouth.

  Out of the corner of her eye, in the bare, milky glow of the approaching airport, she thought she saw Doc leap from the plane. He seemed to be struggling with his vest to open his chute when he disappeared through a cloud. The cloud was just becoming visible in the early light of dawn.

  In her mind's eye she saw him hurtle through the air. She could imagine the look of horror on his face as he realized what was about to happen to his brilliant future. He was about to be really stone-cold dead.

  Her lips moved. She said a little prayer for Doc's soul if the worst should happen. Her heart seemed to stop for a minute. Had he hit the ground?

  "Doc!" She gave a little whimper.

  She felt the air being forced out of Doc's lungs. She felt his bones being crushed as if the same had happened to her. She saw Doc's last flash of consciousness. Then the darkness swallowed Bianca, too.

  No sooner did the plane touch down in Jacksonville than it was swarming with police and searchlights. Even before the police reached Bianca, Harry did. He must have unbolted the cockpit door and raced back to the rear section of the aircraft. When she opened her eyes, his face was the first thing that she saw.

  Bianca reached her arms around his neck and hugged him as he helped her take off her parachute.

  "Bianca, is it really you?" Mrs. Shipley's voice made itself heard over the policemen who were arresting Marianna, the lawyer, the minister and the Harry look-alike, all wearing parachutes. They had chickened out. They had not jumped like Doc. With their oxygen masks on, they sat strapped into seats behind Bianca.

  Mrs. Shipley and Bianca clung to each other and then looked toward Little Katie who sat strapped into her seat wearing her oxygen mask. She was still holding her two favorite bears, TR and Lou.

  "Harry told us over the radio during the last few minutes before landing that Doc Ernie McCollough wasn't dead! You poor thing! How you must have suffered." Mrs. Shipley hugged Bianca.

  Mr. Shipley picked up his little daughter. "Bianca's better than a whole troop of private detectives. She's worth her weight in gold. That's just what you'll get out of this — your weight in gold and diamonds. I hope it compensates you a little for what you've been through."

  Bianca protested. The Shipleys were adamant. On the spot they also hired Harry to be Little Katie's bodyguard. He would draw a top salary while he was finishing surveillance school.

  It didn't matter about his brother. Mike Fellini, the jailbird, had just been picked up. He had been lurking about the Jacksonville Airport, thinking that he would have a chance at Katie and Bianca if they showed up there.

  "You're lucky." The police chief shook Harry's hand. "Instead of coming to arrest you for breaking out of jail, we're here to congratulate you."

  They stood talking in the aisle as the police pushed past with Rick Roscoe and the Brazilian pilot, Manuel, in handcuffs. Rick gave Bianca a dirty look as he stomped by. He mumbled under his breath.

  "Just wait until I get out of jail, bitch!"

  The Shipleys left with Little
Katie, assuring Bianca that they wanted to hear about her experiences as soon as she'd rested.

  Bianca collapsed against Harry. He had to carry her down out of the plane to the cheers of reporters and photographers who flashed their cameras in her face. She kept searching the crowds and the runway, looking for what she didn't really want to see. She had a responsibility to know what had happened to Doc, even if he had turned into a red spot on the pavement.

  Harry walked with Bianca and held her hand. The police took her into a private room at the airport and questioned her about Doc Ernie McCollough and his nine lives.

  "Have — have you found his body?"

  Bianca sat on the edge of her chair. She could barely get the words out of her mouth.

  "We're searching the grounds of the airport."

  "What are the chances of his surviving?" she asked.

  "Was he an experienced chutist?"

  She shook her head — no.

  "I — I don't think so. He might have done it before. He might have taken lessons just like he took Portuguese lessons. He couldn't have done it many times."

  "Then they'd be nil to nothing leaping at night under such bad conditions. He probably landed in the ocean and drowned. That explains why nobody's found his body."

  Bianca closed her eyes in pain at the very images it evoked. It reminded her of her nightmare again — falling through the sky until you hit the sea.

  "Bianca's had enough questions for now," Harry told the police when he saw her wince. He squeezed her hand as he whispered into her ear, "I'm sorry you have to go through this."

  Harry escorted Bianca back to her house as the sun came up. They drove in silence and didn't talk. He gave her a hug before they got out.

  Bianca's parents had been informed of what had happened. They had been lifted by helicopter from their Alaska cruise ship and transported back to Georgia by private, chartered jet at the Shipleys' expense. They were arriving just as Bianca did. She was overwhelmed by hugs and kisses. Her parents made her a quick breakfast with lots of hot tea. Harry stayed to see that she drank every bit. Then she was put to bed.

  Before Bianca went to sleep, she became conscious of something pressing against her ring finger on her left hand. It was the diamond ring and the matching gold wedding band that Doc had given her last night during their wedding ceremony.