by Kaye George
Tally waited on the couple, then flipped the sign to close the shop. It was after seven o’clock anyway.
She stumbled into the kitchen, to the corner, and sank into her cozy reading chair, letting her head fall onto the cushion behind her. She felt sick to her stomach.
Chapter 26
Tally and Cole left together out the back door, and she locked her shop up tight. Tally peered up and down the alley to see if Andrea was lurking anywhere. After all, if she’d already killed two people, what would stop her from killing one or two more? It was still light enough to tell that no one was there.
“Where are you headed?” she asked Cole, hoping he’d go to her house.
“I need to give Dorella a ride home from work in about twenty minutes. I’ll see you at home in…maybe an hour? Is that good?”
“Sure.” It would have to be, but she didn’t like it.
Cole walked down the alley and around the corner to retrieve his car from where he’d parked at the curb in front. She got into her little Chevy and locked the doors before starting the engine.
She was afraid.
More than anything, she wanted to go straight home. But no one was there. Maybe that wasn’t a good idea. She’d gotten a phone call in the morning that there was an order at the grocer waiting for her to pick up. She had planned to do that this afternoon while Andrea minded the store, as it was needed for tomorrow. If she opened for business tomorrow. They’d been too busy for her to leave. So it was still waiting at the store, and the store was open late.
She drove out of the alley, turned, and headed toward the grocery store. It wasn’t far. She would pick up her order, then she would go home and take the supplies in to the shop later.
However, leaving the grocery store with her arms full of bags, she spotted a familiar car at the other side of the parking lot. It was Andrea’s mother’s car, the one that often dropped her off and picked her up. She shoved the supplies into her trunk and drove out to the street.
The car followed her.
She tried to see who was driving. Andrea and her mother were about the same height and build. But Andrea’s hair was long and straight, and her mother’s was cut short. The window was down in the car behind her and she could see Andrea’s long hair blowing about in the wind. Tally turned down a side street to drive to her house. Andrea followed her.
She didn’t dare go home. Where could she go?
* * * *
Yolanda had seen Cole go into Tally’s Olde Tyme Sweets out the front window of Bella’s Baskets. She still felt bad about blowing up at Tally over something that happened so long ago. What was wrong with her? Sure, she was feeling awfully sick that night, but still. Was that an excuse? She should have gotten over a high school crush and a petty slight by now. She wanted to wait until she saw Cole leave, then go over and talk to Tally. To patch things up a bit more. Maybe they could talk about Cole dumping her, and maybe Yolanda could be rational about it this time. She certainly owed Tally an apology. They’d been best friends for so many years.
She had another good excuse for talking to Tally. She had finally gone to the post office and picked up the samples of the fake food, the fudge and Clark Bars. She would like Tally to come over to see them. She thought they looked pretty good, but maybe they could be better. If she could find another company that made something similar, she should dig into that.
Her cold was still hanging on, but she felt much better. She’d thoroughly disinfected the three baskets she created today before the customers picked them up.
She hung around, tidying up, waiting to see Cole leave out the front door. Instead, she eventually saw Andrea come around from the alley and get into her mother’s car, which was parked at the curb. Andrea must have driven it today. She didn’t drive off, though. She kept sitting in her car. While Yolanda pondered what Andrea was waiting for, Cole came around from the alley too. He got into his car and drove away before she could consider whether or not she wanted to go out and talk to him. No, she wanted to see Tally first. Then, maybe, Cole.
Soon, Andrea pulled away from the curb and drove slowly down the street.
Now she could go over and talk to Tally. But the shop was dark, and no one answered her knock. Tally must have left. Before or after Andrea? What on earth was going on? She would put it off for a while and call Tally later. She decided she couldn’t do anything more then. She wanted to go home.
Chapter 27
Tally barreled along through the town, going up and down side streets, taking corners too fast, trying to get away. But she couldn’t manage to leave Andrea behind. She was breathing heavily, in short pants, her heart thumping in her chest. The sun was getting low. The rays slanted through Tally’s windshield when she headed west, so that she had a hard time seeing the traffic lights. When they both stopped for a light, a glance in the rearview mirror showed Andrea’s face, caught in clear relief as the fading sun hit it. Nothing about that reassured Tally. Andrea’s mouth was set in a grim line, and her eyes had the glint of a crazed person. Another red light was ahead. Tally stopped, ready to bolt as soon as it turned. This time Andrea rolled forward and bumped Tally’s car. As soon as the light turned green, Tally shot away and made a hard right turn. Andrea followed.
She realized she was headed out of town. She couldn’t go home to her empty house with an angry Andrea right behind her. Tally grew more and more certain the young woman had killed Gene and Mart both.
Her radio played music faintly. She was going so fast she could barely hear it. Hoping it would calm her somewhat, she dialed up the volume. The news came on when it turned nine o’clock.
She listened to the announcer’s grave voice. “Local authorities, responding to a call from a neighbor, found a body in a Fredericksburg residence late this afternoon.”
Another dead person?
“The neighbor hadn’t seen the victim all day and they usually have coffee mid-morning, the neighbor said. The woman, Mrs. Ellen Booker, wasn’t responding to phone calls or texts.”
Booker! Ellen Booker!
“Police broke into the house after seeing Mrs. Booker’s body through a front window. It is thought that she died recently, sometime today. Foul play is expected. Police are looking for her daughter, Andrea Booker, to get some more information. If anyone—”
Tally hit the button to turn off the car radio and stepped on the gas. She needed to turn around and drive straight to the police station.
The traffic was steady coming toward her. She looked in vain for a side street to use for turning around, but was now out of town where side streets were scarce. She was also going too fast to make a turn. Andrea was directly on her tail, occasionally nudging her rear bumper. How could she turn around? What was she going to do? She had to get rid of Andrea and get to the police.
She fumbled her phone out of her purse on the seat beside her and held it up to dial 911. She got the 9 and the 1 pushed, but then a jolt from behind knocked the phone from her hands. Her cell flew to the floor and landed next to the passenger door. There was no way she could reach it.
Tears of frustration blurred her vision. She jerked the wheel to make a U-turn at a break in the oncoming traffic. Andrea swerved to the left to block her. Tally would be T-boned if she continued. Might even roll. She straightened out and sped ahead, driving north. Going faster and faster.
* * * *
Yolanda’s mother called her to tell her that a woman named Booker had been found dead. “Doesn’t someone with that name work for Tally? Andrea?” she said. “Is that the same Andrea Booker?”
Yolanda felt the hair on her nape stand up. “Andrea,” she whispered. “It’s Andrea.”
“Yes, that’s what I said. Andrea Booker. Well, do you know if it’s the same person?” Her mother was getting impatient with her. But that was nothing new. She couldn’t talk to her mother right now.
“Mother, I have to call someon
e. Thanks for telling me.”
Yolanda dialed Tally. No answer. She texted their emergency code, ASAP. Nothing. Where was Tally? Where was Andrea? What should she do?
* * * *
The sun had set. The sky was getting darker. Tally sped through the tiny ghost town of Crabapple. “I’m halfway to Enchanted Rock,” she mumbled to herself. “I wonder if…”
Could she? Could she get far enough away from Andrea to hide at Enchanted Rock? She stepped on the gas, called for every last ounce of power from her little Sonic. It responded and shot ahead. There were finally no cars in front of them as she completely floored it. A glance at the dashboard told her that at least she had a full tank of gas.
She dared a glance in the rearview mirror. Andrea was falling behind. Tally was getting away from her! Her grip tightened even more desperately on the steering wheel. Her arms shook. She kept driving down Highway 965, heading for the state park that she knew so well. She hoped Andrea didn’t know it.
She slowed enough to turn into the entrance to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, as it was called, then careened around the curves to the parking lot at the foot of Summit Trail. She encountered less than a half dozen cars. The park would close soon and, since it was mostly dark now, all but a few stragglers were gone. Her car screeched to a halt. She grabbed her phone from the floorboard and bolted out the door, running for the trail. Andrea wasn’t in sight. She would call 911 as soon as she had enough distance between her and her relentless pursuer.
The trails at the park were marked as well as they could be, but since some of them ran over bare rock, they were hard to follow, even in full daylight. Tally counted on Andrea not being able to make out the trails in the gray dusk.
As quietly as she could, Tally jogged up the trail. It soon became steep. Summit Trail, the most difficult one in the park, led to the top of Enchanted Rock. Soon she was breathing loudly. She had climbed this trail many times, but had never run up it at full speed. Her pants and puffs and gasps were so loud she wondered if she would hear the fabled wailing if it happened that night.
The Plains Indians had been coming to this place for ten thousand years, and legends had built up around the huge granite outcropping. It had become endowed with magical and spiritual powers. One legend was that, if a person spent the night on the rock, he or she would become invisible. Tally wished she could become invisible at that moment, but just for the night, not forever.
Another superstition was that if a person climbed the rock with bad intentions, bad luck would befall them. Surely running away from a murderer didn’t imply bad intent. Being a murderer should count for bad intentions, though.
The one Tally hoped wouldn’t come into play right now was the fable about the wailing woman, a white woman who had been kidnapped by Native Americans and who screamed at night. Skeptics, or maybe scientifically minded people, insisted that the rocks were cooling off at night, or maybe shifting, to produce the eerie noises. Other tales involved human sacrifices. Tally wouldn’t think about any of that right now.
As she ascended, the top of the dome of pink granite caught the last dying rays of sunlight. Tally stopped for a few seconds to listen, letting her breathing regulate, trying to tell if she could hear Andrea behind her. She still gripped her phone in her right fist. She raised it and punched 911. Nothing happened. She squinted at the face of her phone. There was no reception.
A shriek came from below her. Was it Andrea? Or was it the ghost of the kidnapped woman? Or one of the sacrificial victims?
Tally took a huge gulp of cool air. It tasted like the night and like dirt and like dry desert plants. She renewed her efforts and ran on, slipping slightly on the smooth rock every few steps as the darkness made it harder and harder to see her footing. It would make it hard for Andrea, too.
Chapter 28
Yolanda couldn’t sit still. She had to do something. She drove to Tally’s house. The lights were off. It was completely dark. Though she heard the cat meowing inside, no one came to the door. She went past the shop, but it was dark, too.
What to do? Where to go?
She drove to the police station. It was late, and only a few cars were in the lot. When she ran in and asked for Detective Rogers, she was told he had gone home.
“I need to talk to someone,” she said, a sob catching in her throat.
The severe, bespectacled woman behind the glass asked what she wanted to talk about, in a bored tone.
“It’s about the murders.”
“Murders?” She looked mildly interested.
“Yes. Gene Faust and Mart Zimmer. My friend Tally Holt may be in trouble.”
“Trouble? Why do you think that? What sort of trouble?” The woman looked even more interested now.
“I think Andrea Booker may be after Tally.”
“Andrea Booker?” The woman was a regular echo chamber.
“She might be… I think she’s following Tally. I saw her drive away, and I can’t find Tally anywhere.”
The woman had picked up her internal phone. “Where did you see them?”
Yolanda told the woman when and where she had seen Andrea, but that had been at least an hour ago. Where would they be now? She had no idea.
“I’ll call Detective Rogers and you can talk to him.”
Yolanda sat on a hard plastic chair, chewing on her bottom lip until it was about to bleed. She cringed at the thought of bleeding lips. Blood—that horrid, vivid red ooze that frightened her so. With a shudder, she forced herself to clamp her lips together and keep her teeth off them.
* * * *
The summit was in sight. Tally slowed slightly, out of breath now. It had been years since she had climbed this steep trail.
That’s when she heard light footfalls coming up the path behind her. That’s also when she remembered that Andrea was a jogger. This hike had probably given her no trouble, and she had likely been able to follow the sound of Tally’s huffing and puffing.
Tally’s mind raced. She didn’t want to go to the top, where her body would be silhouetted against the sky. Her breath now mostly under control, she stole quietly downward, at an oblique angle to her former path. At this point, there was nothing but bare rock face. No place to hide. If she could get lower, she would encounter some scrub and some scree that might conceal her.
Somehow, after only a few minutes, she managed to reach a jumble of rocks without encountering Andrea. She hunkered down and listened. Did she hear faint footsteps proceeding upward? Maybe. A huge owl swooped out of the sky toward her and she stifled a cry. When she heard the scrambling of a small rodent near her feet, she realized what the owl had been after.
Shielding the screen with her hand, she checked for cell reception on her phone. She had a tiny bit.
She dialed 911. When the operator answered, she whispered her name and said that she was being chased by a killer at Enchanted Rock. She wasn’t sure the woman heard or understood her, but she broke the connection quickly, afraid Andrea would hear her.
Now what?
* * * *
“Ms. Bella, how can I help you?”
Yolanda knew the detective had been called away from something better than this, probably dinner or watching TV. But he was being kind and considerate by coming to the station to talk to her.
“I’m afraid Tally is in danger.” Her breathless words tumbled out. “I can’t reach her. I saw Andrea drive out from the shop, and Tally was already gone. What if she’s following her? Anyone who heard the news about Andrea killing her mother knows by now that she probably killed the others, too.”
“Whoa. Slow down. We don’t know that Andrea is responsible for her mother’s death.”
“Seriously?” Yolanda jumped up and stuck her face in his. “You don’t know that? I do.”
He raised one hand, palm out. “Hold on. Here, come into my office where we can talk.”
She followed him, took a seat, then started to hyperventilate. “I know she’s in danger, Detective. I can feel it.”
“Do you know where she is?”
Yolanda shook her head, and tears sprang from her eyes. “What can we do?”
* * * *
Footsteps. Tally caught her breath. Not too loudly, she hoped. Andrea was heading her way. She had to move.
Tally got up and scrambled, crouching, down the hill, off trail completely, trying to avoid prickly pear cacti and the small depressions in the rocks that caught water. She crept downward as fast as she could, but kept hearing the footfalls behind her.
It was too dark to see the ground now. She was going too fast. She was going to fall or—splash. She stepped in a vernal pool. Andrea had to have heard that.
Tally changed direction and ran across the hill, parallel to the ground. Maybe she could confuse Andrea.
“I heard that!” Andrea shouted. “I know where you are.” Her voice was closer than Tally had thought. “I have a gun. You won’t get away.”
She had a gun! The one she’d used to kill her mother that morning?
Adrenaline surged. Tally moved with lightning speed, zigging up and zagging down. She had no idea where she was now, but she was nowhere near a trail.
* * * *
“Detective Rogers?” The woman from reception was at his door, frowning down at a piece of paper in her hand. “A nine-one-one call came in that you should know about. The caller said she was Tally Holt.”
The policeman jumped up and snatched the piece of paper from the woman’s hand. “Where is she? Did you pinpoint her location?”
“Very strange. It seems to be coming from north of here, maybe around Enchanted Rock. The connection was bad, but it seems she’s in the vicinity of Enchanted Rock.”
“Tally loves that place. She knows all the trails there,” Yolanda said.
Rogers headed for his door.
“I’m coming with you,” Yolanda said, trying to follow him out the door.