“Oh my gosh.” He started to feel dizzy.
Derek came behind him and stared around the corner. “Sam, calm down. Getting hysterical isn't going to help anything. We have to think.”
“Think?” Sam moaned. “How can I think? You know what happened to the marshal? They killed him. What do you think they'll do to a girl and a photographer if they killed a federal marshal?” He put his head in his hands. “We should never have come up here. What were we thinking?”
Derek paced around, staring up at the building. The brilliant orange in the sky was already beginning to fade. “It's getting dark, but the message said that the buyers aren't coming until midnight, so we should have some time.”
“Time?” Sam raised his head. “Time for what? How can we possibly do anything? They have guns.”
“I have a plan,” Derek said, confidently.
“No way. No more of your plans. That's what got us in this mess.”
“Well what do you want to do, Sam?” Derek hissed. “We can't just sit here and cry. We have to try to save them.”
Sam shot an angry stare at his brother. “This is all your fault. I told you we shouldn’t have come!”
Derek bent down and looked Sam in the eyes. “Do you have a plan?”
Sam thought about it for a moment then wearily shook his head. He really didn't know what to do.
“Okay then, listen to me,” said Derek. “I need you to stay here. I'm going to run down to the road and find some help. That's the only way.”
Sam looked up at his insane brother. “You want me to stay here alone? Are you kidding?”
“If we both leave, those men could take Caitlin and Mr. Murphy somewhere else and we wouldn't even know it. One of us has to keep watch, and one of us has to go and get help. Remember that store we stopped at down the road? Would you rather go?”
Sam forced himself to think it through. It made sense for Derek to go. He was a faster runner, and he had a good sense of direction. Sam didn’t trust himself to find the store they’d stopped at earlier. He’d probably end up wandering lost through the woods, and that wouldn’t help them at all.
“No, you go. I’ll stay here.”
Derek nodded. “Just stay hidden and you'll be fine. I'll be back in no time. It’s not that far.”
“Yeah, if you can find it in the dark.”
“I'll find it,” said Derek. “Don't worry. Just keep watch, okay?”
Once again, Sam didn't like the plan, but he couldn’t think of anything better. “Okay, but hurry.” He stood up and gave his brother a good luck pat on the shoulder. “And Derek?” he said, as his brother began to walk away.
Derek stopped and looked back. “Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
Derek nodded, then bolted for the trees. Sam watched him run along the edge of the grassy yard to the driveway that led down the mountaintop toward the road.
Sam wondered how his brother could be so brave. Sure he was goofy and annoying most of the time, but he always seemed to pull it together when things got tough. Sam hoped Derek would be all right. He hoped they'd all be all right.
When Derek was out of view, Sam stood up and looked for a better hiding spot. He spied a clump of overgrown bushes along the house, and began slinking quickly toward them. He was halfway there when headlights came up ahead of him from the driveway. He dropped to the ground.
For a split second, he hoped it was Derek bringing help, but he knew there hadn't been enough time for that. He crawled cautiously through the grass toward the mansion to get a better view. It was the pickup, pulling to a stop near the front door.
The man from the tower stepped out of the truck and was greeted by the man with the gun. Sam shuddered, clearly remembering them both from Maymont. It was the two killers. He listened carefully to what they were saying from his hiding spot in the grass.
“I just heard from the buyers,” said the gun man. “They're moving things up from midnight.”
Sam gulped at the news. He thought back to the message on the phone about the buyers coming to the Dooley mansion at midnight. By now, there was no question they were at the right mansion, but they might not have as much time as they thought. The deal could be happening any minute!
He looked back down the driveway, hoping to see Derek appearing with help, but it was like he'd been swallowed up in the darkness. Could he get help in time?
“Moving up? Till when?” the man from the truck asked, his hands on his hips.
“Dunno. But we need to be ready.”
The truck man nodded with a grunt. “Good. The sooner we can get these things out of here the better. I don't like the heat that's coming down on us, Dex.”
“Also, we had some unexpected visitors,” said the man named Dex. “But don’t worry about them, they're secured upstairs.” He turned and pointed up at the mansion. “One of those kids from Maymont and her dad.”
The other man shook his head and began pacing nervously in the driveway. “What are they doing here? You said this was going to be easy, Dex!”
“Hey, let's just get this deal done. Then we won't have to worry about anything else except counting the waves on the beach.” He patted the other man on the back.
“I don’t like this, Dex. I still have some animals out in the cottage. If they're coming earlier, we need to hustle and get them all over here.”
“Better get going, then.”
“I'm not doing it by myself, man. Come on, give me a hand.”
As Sam listened in the grass, he felt something moving beside him. He glanced back at his legs. A snake was slithering toward him! He gasped, jumping to his feet, and ran behind the corner of the palace.
“What was that?” he heard one man say.
“Go check it out. Then meet me by the tower,” Dex answered. “And Cody?”
“Yeah?”
“I don't need any more surprises.” The pickup door slammed and Dex drove off.
Sam's eyes opened wide, still looking for the snake, but also now hearing the footsteps of the man named Cody as he moved toward him on the gravel path circling the mansion. Time to hide!
Sam ran along the rear of the building until he saw a recessed side door. He backed into the doorway, his hand shaking as he felt for the knob. A shadow appeared on the ground at the corner of the building. It grew closer and closer as Sam found the handle and pushed the door open. He slipped into the mansion, shutting the door softly behind him. He crouched down against the inside wall, listening to the footsteps crunch right outside the door.
12
Inside the mansion, Sam pressed himself against the wall as the footsteps walked past the door on the other side. Was the man still there?
Sam counted to fifty and then again to twenty, just to be safe. He inched his nose to the windowsill, peering through the dusty glass. The man seemed to be gone. He was safe for now.
He let out a deep breath and tried to take in his surroundings. Sam guessed that he'd entered a back dining hall or study. The room had high ceilings, decorated with wood trim carved into shapes like honeycomb from a beehive. A wide fireplace filled one wall, while the others were covered with gold wallpaper that was probably once fancy but had grown old and torn. The cream-colored floors seemed like marble, the pieces arranged in square patterns. It was all fancy looking, but clearly hadn't been cared for in a long time.
Sam moved to an inner doorway, staying in the shadows close to the walls. He’d never planned on hiding inside the mansion, but now that he was there, maybe he could find Caitlin and her dad. Maybe even help them escape. But he had to move quickly before Dex and Cody came back.
Sam leaned through the doorway into a large hall. A few dim lights from another room cast creepy shadows everywhere as he tiptoed into the main entrance foyer. On one side was the front door that he'd seen Caitlin and her dad enter. A wide marble stairway with gold-colored iron railings with red velvet handrail covers rose up to the second floor on the other side of the foyer. Remembering
that the man said he'd locked Caitlin and her dad upstairs, Sam quickly scampered up the first tier of steps. He didn't want to be standing in plain view if the men suddenly walked in.
At the staircase landing, two sets of stairs flowed in opposite directions to the second floor. Before he could decide which to take, he looked up and nearly lost his breath. The ceiling was painted like the sky but filled with angels, and the entire wall in front of him was stained glass. In the glass was a picture of a woman standing amidst stone columns in a colorful garden.
“Sallie Dooley,” Sam muttered. It was like she was the queen presiding over the palace. Or a ghost. He preferred to think a queen, since this was her house and he didn't like ghosts. He remembered the fancy swan bed back at Maymont that the tour guide had said was originally located at Swannanoa. Sallie Dooley must have been something else.
He picked the stairway to the right, tiptoeing into another hallway lined with doors. Which one could be holding Caitlin and Mr. Murphy? The first door was locked, but so was the next, and the next, and the next. Where could they be?
“Caitlin,” he whispered as loud as he dared.
“Hello?” a voice echoed back. “Sam?”
He jerked his head in the direction of the voice. “Caitlin?”
“Sam, is that you? Can you hear me?” She sounded far away.
He backed down to the end of the hallway. “Caitlin?”
“Sam, are you there?”
He realized the voice was coming from a heating vent in the side of the wall. He bent down to the floor. “I hear you! Where are you?”
“We're locked in a room in the tower. Can you get us out?”
“I can try.” He spoke into the vent, trying to keep his voice down. He glanced up to make sure no one else was coming. “Derek's gone for help. I'll try to find you.”
“Sam, be careful. They have guns.”
He nodded then remembered she couldn't see him. “I know. Hang on, I'm coming.”
He tried to think about where the tower could be. Caitlin's voice was echoey and could be coming from anywhere in the big mansion. She couldn't be in the tower they saw in the woods since it wasn't connected to the building. He hurried to a window at the end of the hallway, craning his neck upward. There was a small stone tower extending up above the regular roofline. He suddenly remembered seeing the two towers on the building when they came in.
Sam stepped back, noticing a narrow set of stairs to the left of the window. They were built into the curve of the wall, hidden from view unless you were standing directly in front of them. Sam bolted up the winding stairs two at a time until he came to the top.
A heavy, wooden door on wide, black iron hinges blocked his path. He turned the handle, but it was locked too, so he leaned over, peeking through an old fashioned keyhole, the kind you could actually put a metal key in.
“Caitlin?”
An eyeball eye came into view on the other side of the keyhole. “Sam!”
He exhaled. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but Daddy's hurt,” Caitlin said from behind the door. “He twisted his ankle when they pushed him up the stairs, and he can't walk very well.”
“How do I get this door open?” asked Sam. He turned the handle harder but it still wouldn't budge. He looked at its heavy wooden planks and metal frame, thinking about kicking it down like they do in the movies but realized he'd probably just break his foot.
“There's a key,” answered Caitlin. “That's how they locked it.”
An engine rumbled closer outside. “I'll be right back,” Sam promised, and then ran down the stairs to the hallway. He looked out the window again past a small balcony. The pickup truck he'd seen before was parked outside. There was just enough light from the truck to make out Cody carrying a cage from the back of the truck bed. But where was Dex?
The front door banged open. “I'm going up to check on them. I'll be right back,” a voice from downstairs echoed through the hallway. Footsteps clomped up the marble stairs.
He had to hide and quick! Sam looked around, but he was trapped between the entryway stairs and the tower. Those were the only two ways out. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.
As the clomping steps grew louder, Sam spied a dark, receded doorway on the other side of the hall from the tower staircase. It wasn't a great hiding spot, but it would have to do. He rushed into the shadows, pressing his back tight against the hard wood of a door. He prayed that his heartbeat, that seemed to him to be sounding like a car alarm, wouldn’t be heard by Dex.
Sam held his breath as the man walked right past him through the dark hallway. It was the closest he'd been to Dex. When he turned up the tower staircase, Sam let his breath out silently. He hadn't been seen.
When Dex was out of sight, Sam crept over to the tower staircase, leaning his head around the corner just enough to see him pause at the big door at the top. Dex reached above the doorframe and then placed something in the door. The key!
“Everybody behaving themselves in here?” Dex called as he stepped into the room.
“When are you going to let us out of here?” Caitlin answered.
“Please, just let us go, we didn't mean to get in your way.” That was Mr. Murphy's voice.
“I don't believe you for a second,” Dex replied. “You're forgetting that we saw your little girl at Maymont. Her and the other two. Don't try to tell me that you both just wandered way up here by accident. I'm not stupid.”
Sam gulped. They had recognized Caitlin. This was bad.
The door banged shut, sending Sam backpedaling down the stairs as he heard the key being placed back on the doorframe. He looked again for somewhere to hide. His last spot wouldn't work because the doorframe was clearly visible from the direction Dex was coming now. He was about to flee to the main stairs until he heard a voice yell from downstairs.
“Dex, let's go!”
Cody was in the foyer, he’d see him for sure that way. Sam raced back to the window at the end of the hall. The small balcony outside the window might be wide enough to hold him. The old-style window had squares of glass fitted into iron frames that split down the middle. Sam quickly raised the latch handle and the right side swung open toward him on a hinge.
He scrambled over the windowsill onto the narrow balcony. As he lowered through the window and onto the balcony, his shirt caught on the edge of the frame, yanking the glass shut. He heard the latch fall into place, locking it tight. He ducked down as he saw Dex step into the hallway.
Sam didn't dare look, but he sensed Dex standing at the window. He must have heard the bang when the window shut. Sam wondered if he was visible on the balcony if Dex looked down. He didn't move a muscle and this time counted to one hundred before carefully peering over the windowsill. Dex was gone, but the window was locked tight, with no latch on the outside to open it.
He was trapped. Again.
13
In the twilight, Sam glanced around the small balcony he was standing on, his knees pressed against the stone railing. He fit, but just barely. It was only a little bigger than a flower box, no more than one foot wide by two feet long. He was one clumsy step from falling to the stone patio below. He could just make out the ground below him through the darkness, but he tried not to think about how far down it looked.
One of the towers rose up a single story above him. He thought he could see Caitlin's shadow at the window. She must have been surprised to see him out on the ledge. She didn't call out to him, despite only being a short distance away, so he assumed the windows in the tower didn't open.
He bit his lip, trying to think. He had to do something. He couldn't sit out on the balcony all night. That wasn't going to save anyone. He scanned the roofline, the cool air and the sounds of the forest all around him. A dark cable stretched out from the corner of the roof tiles a foot away from him, running downward at a slight angle. It looked like it headed toward the fountain in the gardens.
A thought flashed into his mind, but he didn't l
ike it and quickly tried to push it out of his head. He remembered Derek sliding down the zip line at Maymont. Could the cable on the roof work like a zip line and get him down from the balcony? He studied it more carefully. It looked more like an old support cable than an electrical line, but it was hard to tell for sure.
He remembered his friends saying that if you touched a power line, you'd be zapped by a thousand volts. But that couldn't be right, since he'd seen birds sitting on power lines right outside Mrs. Cleary's math class plenty of times. They were often more interesting to look at than math problems, and he'd never seen the birds fry themselves. Maybe it was not touching two different power lines at once. That made more sense.
He tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he tapped the cable with one finger, jerking it back quickly in case it shocked him. His hair didn't seem to be standing on end, so he cautiously touched it again but still felt nothing. It must not be a power line.
Sam stared down at the ground, his stomach tightening. There was no way that he could jump off the ledge. This was more like one of Derek's stupid ideas than something he would usually think of.
The door creaked open below him, and Sam crouched back down against the wall.
“We're going to have to take care of them,” Dex growled.
“What do you mean?” Cody answered. “It's just a dad and a little girl.”
Sam inched over to the corner to see below him. In the shadows, Dex stood with his hands on his hips, looking at his partner. “I mean, take care of them. We can't afford to have any witnesses. We're almost done with this.” He climbed into the pickup. Cody shook his head but followed Dex into the truck.
When the truck pulled out of sight, Sam stood up on the balcony. They must be going off to get more animals from the cottage. He had to act quickly. They could be back any minute. He tried not to think about what they had meant by “taking care of things.”
Midnight at the Mansion (The Virginia Mysteries Book 5) Page 7