Water Proof

This story is by Nathan Cross and was part of our 2017 Winter Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here.

The chaplain rushed into the interrogation room, slamming the door behind him; where homicide detectives had shackled the suspect to a polished steel table thirty minutes earlier.

“How can ya sleep at a time like this man?” he demanded in a thick Irish brogue.

“Whaddya talking about. What’d ya wake me up for?”

“Sleeping the sleep of a psychopath were ya?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the detainee replied. “I was sleeping the sleep of an innocent man, is what I was doing.”

“Ya telling me ya weren’t at all troubled from your slumber?”

“From what?”

“From that shaking just a few seconds ago,” the chaplain said.

“I never felt a thing.”

“It felt like the hand of God Almighty Himself was pulling the place apart. It wasn’t as bad as when that New Madrid Fault split the country in half and drained the Great Lakes into the Gulf of Mexico. Still, any shaking of mother earth makes me as nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”

“I never felt nothing–shit, what was that?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, my boy.”

The room shook, tilting back and forth, throwing the detainee from his chair, leaving him dangling from the table.

“Feeling it now, right laddie?” asked the chaplain, helping the suspect back into his chair. “Chaplain Declan Carmichael,” he said, extending a hand. “And you are?”

“Uh, uh, Mason. Mason Shaver. I don’t think I’m supposed to be talking to anyone…my attorney is on his way right now. Those two detectives said they were going find him and bring him to me. I haven’t seen them for hours I think. Could I get some water, Father?”

“Oh my boy, the last thing either of us will be needin’ is more water right now. There’ll be plenty of that real soon. Don’t call me Father. I’m a Catholic chaplain, but I’m not a priest any longer.”

The room shuddered, up and down this time, darkened for a moment then lit back up with the emergency lights.

“That’s not good. No, that’s not good at all.”

“Why’s that, Father, and why can’t I have any water?”

“Told you, Mason, I’m not a priest now. Call me Declan,” he said, removing his chaplain collar.

He pulled off his shirt and pants and stuffed them under the door. “I’m afraid I have some bad news, Mason. What’s your attorney’s name?”

“I don’t know, Declan. The detectives locked me to this table, read me my rights and then said they were going to try to find me an attorney. I–I never asked for one, they just offered. I think they said his name was Lincoln. Lincoln town…town…”

“Townsend?”

“Yeah, that’s it I think.”

“Well, that’s what I’m telling ya. The detectives and Townsend are all dead. Water came up too fast. I almost didn’t make it out of the basement level myself. It was close on my tail. That’s why I jumped into this room. We have a real problem here, Mason. They earthquake proofed all public buildings after the great quakes of 2025. This building cannot fall down or break apart. The water main broke when the ground split and it is a twenty-four inch main down there. The water will just keep rising and fill us up just like a big glass of water. It was bad enough down there when the pumps were working, but now that the power is out, I’m not sure we have much time.”

Water sloshed against the outside of the door and, within a few minutes, crept a foot above the window frame.

“See that, it’s rising fast,” Declan said.

“I can’t swim,” Mason screeched.

“I can swim like a dolphin, but that’s not going to make much difference,” Declan said.

“You mean we’re going to die in here,” he asked with a catch in his throat. “I’m only twenty-seven. Oh shit, are they dead?” Mason asked as they both watched the detectives’ bodies float by the half-submerged window.

Water rushed under the door even though Declan continued kicking his pants and shirt tightly underneath.

“Son, we’re running out of time,” the chaplain said, pulling out his cell phone. “Is there someone you’d like to have a word with…you know…say goodbye to?”

“Y–Yeah, my mom, I think.”

Declan handed him the phone while continuing to kick the door. Mason dialed his mom’s number and listened as the phone trilled.

“We’re sorry, all circuits are busy; if this is an emergency, please dial 911…”

“This is freakin’ bullshit,” he said redialing.

“We’re sorry, all circuits are busy; if this is an emergency, please dial 911…”

“No!” he screamed, dialing again…

“We’re sorry, all circuits are busy; if this is an emergency, please dial 911…”

He threw the phone into the rising water and began thrashing around the table trying to free himself from the chains. “Help me get out of these; don’t you have the keys man? I don’t want to die like this!” he screamed, slipping into the hip-deep water.

“I’m just an employee of the state. I don’t have keys to anything. Here, swing on up to the table. Look here lad, I don’t want to die like this either, but you know what’s been botherin’ me just a wee bit?”

“What’s that Declan?”

“More than not wantin’ to die like this, I don’t want to be dyin’ with all my secrets. Ya know I was a priest once, but I let my cravings get the best of me. I hurt a lot of children they say. That’s just because they don’t understand my kind of love.”

“The world thinks that having a mom and a dad is all a child needs, but they need so much more. Children need someone who is there for them on their schedule, not a few hours on the weekend. They need someone to hold them and love them proper like. I know there are a lot of people that are just like me. I was stupid though, Mason. I shouldn’t have let them go after they got too old. Some of them never understood what I had given them. They got me into a lot of trouble. I shouldn’t have let that happen, Mason. I should have figured out a way to keep them quiet or something. I was so stupid, Mason…”

“Stupid, Declan? Stupid? You’re a freakin’ moron!” he sputtered as the water began lifting him several inches above the steel table. “You don’t never leave any witnesses. They’ll talk…they all talk. How’d you never figure that out? I killed all six of mine. Drowned them right in the quarry. Cops never could have proved anything. The only reason they dragged me here was because of my idiot mother. Dumb bitch had to call and tell the police she thought I was spending too much time with the neighbor kids. The only thing she ever knew I did was buy them ice creams and play video games with them all the time down in our basement. These dumbbells here had nothing on me, and they knew it…”

“The water is almost up to your neck, Declan. Do you think you could have called this any closer?” boomed a voice from the ceiling as the lights returned to normal.

“You said it yourself, Lincoln; we only had one shot at this. I just wanted to get it right.”

The ceiling voice said, “Hydraulics, reset the room to square; aquatics, let’s get that room drained; their lips are turning blue.”

Mason started flopping around cursing and screaming. “You can’t do this; this ain’t right! You’ll never get away with this!”

The two detectives on floating duty entered the room after the water subsided and informed Mason that he was under arrest on six counts of first-degree murder, along with a litany of other charges.

FBI profiler, Aurora Townsend, high fived her father, District Attorney Lincoln Townsend, as they sat in the control room where she had been feeding Chaplain Carmichael the right words to say and when.

“Well, Lincoln,” Declan said, “you’ll be the first DA in the country to file charges using this psyop technique. Do you think it will work?”

“He never asked for an attorney, you never asked him one question and he confessed of his own free will. It’s ironclad.”

“What if he starts screaming to the media about this; we risk never being able to use this very expensive room again?”

“We can cut a deal where he goes to the Club Ped facility here in Cincinnati. His alternative is placement in gen pop at one of your private prison facilities where all the big meanies are. The shelf life of a pedophile is quite short in those places. He’ll take the deal. Besides, it’s 2030. It’s time for a fresh approach to putting these guys away. It’s worth the risks.”