December 17, 2020
Andrews and Sheriff Sharpe pulled Edward Porter up by his restraints and helped him out of the tunnels.
"You know this man, sheriff?" Andrews asked.
"Yes," Sharpe said. "This is Edward Porter, one of our two missing men."
Andrews looked into the eyes of the man and sensed something was off. His expressions showed innocence but his eyes held something deeper and darker. Edward muttered something under his breath and Andrews snapped his fingers at him, trying to grab his attention.
"Hey, can you hear me?" Andrews asked.
Edward's head bounced back and forth before his eyes began to close.
"He must be drugged out," Andrews said. "Let's get him upstairs."
Andrews and Sharpe took Edward by his arms and began pulling the man up the stairs. He was fully passed out now, making him dead weight.
Sharpe chuckled. "He's not quite as big as he was when I met him a few months ago but damn, this man had a little weight on him."76Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUjsfk1g2kF
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A little weight was an understatement. Andrews had to push up on his arm and his leg, while Sharpe pulled from higher up the stairs, just to get him to the top. Although, for a man that was wacked out of his mind, he was surprisingly muscular.
They finally managed to drag Edward to the entry hall where Birke and Sharpe's two deputies, Carver and Smitten, were waiting.
"Holy shit. You found someone?" Carver asked.
"We did," Sharpe replied. "Get this man to the EMTs. I need to speak with the detectives."
Carver and Smitten took up the mantle of hauling away the heavy man, while Birke remained with Andrews and Sharpe.
"What happened to you?" Andrews asked.
Birke rubbed dried blood from his ear and shrugged. "House got angry, decided to scream, and my ear started bleeding."
Andrews laughed. "A likely story."
He looked back to Sharpe who was looking all around them. "Well detective, I think we need to get this man medical care before we interrogate him. Who knows how long he's been in those tunnels."
"I disagree," Andrews pointed to the corpses that were still strung up to the wall. "If he really is the man that did this... Putting him in the hospital is one of the last places I'd want to keep him. Right next to an elementary."
Sharpe shook his head. "I understand what you're saying, Detective, but this man hasn't been proven to be guilty. Furthermore, if there's anything wrong with him, it would be better to get him checked out before trying to drill into him."
"Well, Sheriff, if the paramedics find anything to be wrong with him, then we can go with your plan. If not, he's going to be in for a long night."
The sheriff reluctantly nodded his head before he and Birke walked out the front door to join the deputies, officers, paramedics, and firefighters.
Andrews stood back for a moment and looked more closely at the bodies strung to the wall. They looked like they had moved since he last saw them, which wasn't surprising. However, three of the corpses had their heads bent over, looking at the floor, while the fourth one seemed to be looking right at Andrews.
He took three steps to the left and it seemed to still be watching him. He walked closer to it, nearly able to touch it. A ringing noise hummed in his ear and a static seemed to be swirling around his finger.
"Andrews!" Birke said.
He looked to Birke and then back to the corpse, whose head was now pointing down. "Coming," Andrews said.
They walked out the front entrance and Andrews could immediately distinguish Edward from the rest of the group.
"What's his condition?" Andrews asked the EMT, who looked no older than twenty five.
"He's a bit dehydrated and has mild frostbite on his hands," One of the EMTs said. "He also has several bruises but we don't see any internal bleeding."
"Does he need to go to a doctor?" Andrews asked.
"Well, no," the EMT said. "Not necessarily. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to have him checked up on. There's no telling how long he was down there and if he suffered from any trauma."
"If he isn't in need of any immediate medical care, we'll be taking him. We don't want this man running around."
Andrews looked over to see that Edward's eyes had shut again.
"Well, we taking him to the sheriff's office then?" Birke asked. The sheriff walked up to them and waited for the answer as well.
"Officer Morgan," Andrews said to one of the officers standing over Edward.
"Yes sir?" Morgan asked.
"I need you to deliver this man to the sheriff's office and wait for us to show up."
"Yes sir."
Carver and Smitten helped Morgan bring Edward to his car.
"Sheriff, Birke and I are going to do one more sweep around the area with the rest of the officers and see if we can't find Mr. Matthews. We'll meet you for the interrogation."
The sheriff spit a was of tobacco on the ground. He was obviously displeased with Andrews deciding to take Edward back to the office so early.
"We'll see you there," Sharpe replied.
That left Andrews and Birke.
"Do you think it was him?" Birke asked.
Andrews looked to him and nodded. "Without a shadow of a doubt."
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