The Darkroom

When I woke up I couldn’t see anything in the black air all around me. My head felt as if it had been cracked in two.

…What I am doing here?...

I tried to move but found that my hands and legs had been tied with something sharp and my breathing was limited for the tape that was strapped around my head and my mouth. That’s when, with a stabbing pain that jumped from my chest up to my mouth I realised…

…Trent Murdoch! ...

I remembered the conversation at work over the water bubbler when he told me his address and I knew exactly where he lived. It was across the bay in a prominent house on my horizon. One of those houses that always made me curious. Like it had been vacant for so long, why was that? And how could someone afford to live right there on the edge of the bay on our salary? It looked like a prominent house of parliament or something. Like it might be heritage listed and untouchable. Made me wonder about this colleague from work and what his connections were?

“Why don’t you call over and visit sometime…?” It was awkward. He was awkward. I wasn’t sure if he’d only asked me to be friendly or if he meant it? But, he had asked … and I found myself looking over there and wondering when I had nothing better to do. And recently, in the warmer weather, I had taken to going to sleep without lowering the blind. Always quiet and from what I could see from the other side of the bay, only ever one light on. That’s when I started asking myself questions. Was he in a relationship? Did he have any friends? And when I finally fell into my dreams of that house they would always revolve around a green light.

“You’re awake!”

Oh my God! It was him. A small flashlight lit up the room. Was it a torch or his phone? I couldn’t tell but I could see his face light up above it like in a B grade horror movie. My head ached and my eyes hurt from trying desperately to adjust to the room’s darkness. He was in the room with me. I tried to speak words to him but they just sounded like loud humming noises and then when I tried to move my legs I discovered I was like a trapped animal in a noose.

“Why did you have to be such a sticky beak? …Hey? Don’t you know … Its bad manners to come and see someone without calling first?”

I squirmed and writhed on the floor making muffled screaming sounds until…

“STOP!” He was above me now and he’d grabbed my ponytail and pulled hard behind me.

I had to get out of there! This Trent guy was clearly insane. I could feel liquid running down from my temple into my eyes and I couldn’t work out if it was just sweat from the hot black room or my blood? Again I tried to pull my hands apart and gain some slack on what felt like grip ties around my wrists. It was no use. I needed the light on so that I could see the things around me and maybe find something to use as a weapon? I had to be smart. And so… it took everything I had inside of myself to make myself relax. I let myself breathe in and out slowly through my nose against the quickening beat of my heart. And I lay very still, until finally, he let go.

That’s when it all changed for me.

He switched the light on. It was a single green globe without any light fitting that hung down low from the ceiling on an electrical cord. And it occurred to me, this might be his interrogation room and others had been here before me? That’s when I looked around and made my aching eyes study the room. I was not going to be another one of his statistics. I would have to play the sick, twisted mind game of Trent Murdoch.

I must have fallen asleep. Because when I woke my mouth was dry and I desperately needed water. I remembered the drugs I had seen when I had first approached the house. White stuff, in small rectangular bags being loaded from the old boatshed into the tray truck. That must be why he knocked me out and brought me to this room? The tape around my head and mouth had been removed, along with the grips around my wrists and ankles. He must have taken them off. The green light was switched off but I knew he’d be back. It was now or never, so I lunged forward into the darkness for the light globe … and missed… with only raised male voices coming from outside. I decided to take it slower then. Counting my steps and feeling my way for the thing. And once I had a hold of it, I pulled on it with all my weight and all my might until the cord snapped and I had the thing warm and safe in my hands behind me.

The loud motor of the truck started up and the front door slammed hard before he came for me…

“Right!” He said as he swung open the door, making several clicking sounds trying to turn the globe light on from the switch. And then, “What the hell have you done?”

That liquid started running down from my temple to my cheeks again. But, I did not panic. I stayed very still. It would be all about timing and I knew that I only had one shot.

“Trent…” I said sweetly in almost a whisper. “I’m so glad you asked me over.”

“What?”

And before he could do anything. Before he knew what was coming. I counted my steps to where I was sure I knew where his voice was coming from and I bought that light bulb up above my head, before smashing it down and shattering the glass violently over him. Not sure where I got him? Was it his chest? His head? It didn’t matter. I could hear him groaning as I ran for the door. And then ran for the front door … and over the rocks and into the water …I just kept going… I did not stop running.

I knew of a little tinny boat that I’d seen when I had embarked from the ferry earlier in the afternoon. I ran to it and only from its safety halfway over to the other side of the bay, with the pain of my injuries coming in did I dare to look back at the house over my shoulder.

Trent Murdoch had no idea that I was an undercover detective for narcotics. Turns out I had a nose for this stuff… and he would be going down. I could only see one light on in the house now from my vantage point in the bay. And this time it was red.