Back from the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page A

and she was lifted out and carried, felt the rug tilt up as they went up a couple steps, entered a room and put her down. Then she was spinning as they unrolled the rug. Colette, dizzy, trying to focus, seeing white walls and a brick fireplace. She was on the dusty wood floor, in a house, shades covering the windows. The two men were dark shapes in the dark room, the sour smell of sweat and cigarette smoke clinging to them. “Sprechen sie Deutsch?”
    “No, we don’t sprechen sie no Deutsch,” the one wearing a red cap said. He spoke with a southern accent.
    “What do you want?”
    The one in the cap moved behind her, holding her biceps. The second one picked up her legs. “We’ll let you know,” he said.
    “Ain’t suppose to talk at her,” the one in the cap said.
    “Don’t worry about it, okay? Just pick her up.”
    The one behind her had his wrists under her armpits now, hands holding her breasts.
    “Well lookit her, will you? Don’t like nobody touching her sweater pups,” the one in the cap said.
    “Pup’s ass, Squirrel, them’s full grown.”
    Colette started to twist and kick.
    “We got us a little cougar, ain’t we?” the man behind her said. “Full of piss and vinegar. I’m going to drop you on your head you don’t stop squirming.”
    Colette went slack and they carried her along a hallway, through a door, down a narrow staircase into the cellar, tied her tight to a chair, arms behind her back, her legs bound to the chair legs. When her eyes adjusted she saw the furnace and hot-water tank on the other side of the empty room that had unpainted block walls and high windows on both sides covered with newsprint.
    “Don’t y’all go nowhere,” the one wearing the cap said. The gamey smell of him made her sick. He touched her breasts, hands hard and rough. “I be back for some of your sweet, sweet cooze.”
    Colette watched them walk up the stairs, already uncomfortable, arms and shoulders aching.
    She must’ve dozed off. The sun had moved over the house and the light was brighter coming through the papered windows on the west side of the room. She heard footsteps on the stairs and saw the one in the cap appear and move toward her, grinning. Colette could smell him before he reached her, an odor so foul she had to breathe through her mouth. He walked around behind the chair, placed his hands on her shoulders and started to massage her.
    “All them German girls stacked like you?”
    He reached over and pulled the top of her blouse open. Two buttons popped off and hit the floor. Colette felt her pulse race. He dug down and pulled her breasts out of the cups of her bra, squeezing them with callused hands.
    Colette screamed, hoping the other man would hear her and come down.
    He put his greasy hand over her mouth, pawing her with hard thick fingers. She tried to bite him and he slapped her across the face with an open hand.
    “What the hell you doin’ down there, Squirrel?” the other man said from the top of the stairs. Colette heard him come halfway down.
    “Nothin’.”
    “Get up here.”
    Squirrel leaned in with his face close to hers. His breath had a bacterial reek that made her gag.
    “I’ll be back,” he said and walked up the stairs.
    Colette had fallen asleep and woke to the sound of footsteps on the stairs. The light in the windows was fading. She felt herself start to wind up again, thinking Squirrel was coming back for her. But it wasn’t him. A tall man in a black leather jacket appeared with a folded lawn chair. He opened it and sat a few feet from her.
    “You are from Munich, I understand.”
    Colette stared at him.
    “Would you like to come upstairs, have something to eat and drink, use the toilet? You have been down here a long time. All you have to do is tell me what I want to know.” He paused for a beat and said, “Where is Ernst Hess?”
    Harry pulled in the driveway, parked and went in the side door. He expected to see Colette in the kitchen, starting dinner.