He said, “You stay here in case the dog comes this way.”
I gave another shaky nod. I knew it made sense for us to separate, though I wasn’t happy about it. I watched him sidestep the pile of bricks and enter the side tunnel, which was in total darkness and extended who knew how far. I saw a small, bright light and knew he’d switched on his little flashlight.
“Hello?” he called. “Can you tell me where you are?”
I heard the faint voice again, shrill and agitated. It was definitely female. One person came immediately to mind and I felt a glimmer of hope. Nina Wallace might not be my favorite person, but she didn’t deserve to be murdered. As for the other missing creature…
“SB!” My voice cracked. Sweat dried on my skin, chilling me. “Come, boy. Come to Mommy so I can wring your little neck.”
Martin’s voice reverberated off the brick walls. “Keep talking,” he told whoever was back there. “I’ll find you.”
The response was a hysterical outburst, still muted.
Less than a minute later, which felt like an hour as I continued to plead with Sexy Beast, I jumped at the sound of some kind of impact deep within the side tunnel. Then another. I cupped my mouth. “Martin? What’s going on?”
He yelled something, but he was too far away for me to make it out. I ventured about twenty feet into the dim passage, glancing constantly in the other direction in case SB ran past, and called out for him to repeat his words.
“Call nine-one-one,” he said. “Nina’s locked up in here.”
She was alive! Automatically I reached for my tote bag before remembering that I’d left it back at the stairs. I told him I didn’t have my phone.
“Come get mine,” he hollered. “I’m busy with the lock.”
I forced myself to forget about Sexy Beast for the time being. Freeing Nina took priority. I made my way down the side passage, which quickly went from murky to pitch-black. No lights here. I felt fallen rubble underfoot and suspected the ceiling was in even worst shape here than in the main tunnel.
Nina’s voice became progressively louder. She was sobbing, cursing, screaming hoarsely over and over, “Get me out of here!”
I picked up my pace and promptly tripped over an unseen rock. Gravel bit into my palms, and I didn’t want to think about how many rat turds now adhered to my jeans and shirt. I found my feet and hurried ahead, my eye on the firefly glow of Martin’s flashlight.
The side tunnel was about fifty yards long. When I reached the end, I found Martin crouched in front of a rough wooden door set into the bricks. His compact lock-pick set lay on the ground and he held the flashlight between his teeth, illuminating an antique-looking lock. Both hands were busy manipulating two of the slim steel tools inside the keyhole.
He spoke around the flashlight. “Tried to kick it in. Almost caused a cave-in. This rusty old lock’s a bitch.”
“Where’s your phone?”
“Right front pocket.”
He shifted his weight to give me access to the pocket. I slipped my hand in and felt around. It was a pretty deep pocket and I found myself groping the padre in a most unladylike manner before I finally managed to grasp the phone and pull it out. The scrap of paper with the giggler’s phone number came out with it. I accidentally dropped the paper and then accidentally ground it into the dirt under my shoe.
Nina, meanwhile, never ceased her caterwauling from behind the thick wooden door.
“Nina, it’s Jane. Jane Delaney.” I pushed random buttons on the phone until the screen lit up, displaying a close-up of a beautiful young woman. Who the heck was that? Meanwhile I kept talking. “We’re going to get you out of there, but you have to calm down so Martin can concentrate on the lock.”
The door rocked under three savage kicks from the other side, which caused a hail of dirt and gravel from overhead and made one of the picks slip from the lock and land in the dirt. Martin felt around for it, muttering ripe curses under his breath. Something told me this wasn’t the first time Nina had been called those particular names.
I swiped my finger on the smart phone and was rewarded with a display of icons. “How did you end up in there?” I asked Nina. If I could get her talking, maybe there’d be less kicking.
“How do you think?” she screeched through the door. “Jonah tricked me.”
“Tricked you how?”
“By pretending to change his mind, that’s how. When I first told him about the baby, he was all upset. Wanted me to let Mal believe it was his and go on like nothing happened. Didn’t want to leave his insipid wife and her money.”
After some trial and error, I located the icon for making a phone call and tapped in 911. Then it was my turn to say a bad word. “No phone service,” I told Martin, as he abandoned one lock pick and selected another. “We must be too far underground.” His response was a growl of frustration. I shoved the phone back into his pocket, took the flashlight out of his mouth, and aimed it squarely at the keyhole.
“Don’t leave me here!” Nina sounded on the verge of a breakdown.
“I’m here, Nina,” I said. “We both are. We’re not going anywhere until we get you out of there, I promise. Have you been here since last Thursday?”
“Yes! Jonah brings me food and water every day, otherwise I wouldn’t even know how long I’ve been here. There are no windows, no clock, nothing.”
A sliver of light shone under the door, so at least she hadn’t been in darkness this whole time.
“So Jonah pretended to do an about-face?” I asked her. “He said he wanted to leave Rachel and marry you?”
“It was all lies to keep me quiet,” she said through sobs. I heard her slide down the door and pictured her slumped against it, exhausted, betrayed, terrified for her life.
I whispered to Martin, “What’s taking so long? You had that other lock open in about five seconds.”
“I’m almost there,” he muttered. “Keep that light steady.”
To Nina I said, “When was this? That he said he was leaving Rachel?”
“Wednesday,” she said. “He had me come in for an office visit. Acted all apologetic. Said the news about the baby freaked him at first but that he thought about it and was ready to leave Rachel. Said he wants to be with me for the rest of his life. And I believed him.”
I thought of the sexy surveillance photos Ben had taken through the blinds of Jonah’s exam room. Jonah had been putting on a lovey-dovey act for Nina, making her think he was with the program.
“And he told you to meet him down here the next day as usual?” I asked.
“Yes. He told me not to say anything to Mal yet, that we had to wait for the right time. But I was so excited, Mal could tell something was up. So I told him I was leaving him, and about the baby. He wanted to know who the other man was, but I wouldn’t say.”
“Nina… how long does Jonah intend to keep you here? Did he mention?” It was better than asking, Why are you still alive?
“I don’t know! I thought he wanted me to change my mind, to tell him that everything would stay the way it was. So that’s what I did. But he could tell I was lying. Plus Mal already knows about the baby, that it isn’t his. Jonah can’t let me go now. He knows I’d run to the cops, no matter what I told him.” After a few moments she said in a trembling voice, “Jane?”
“Yes, Nina. I’m here.”
“He’s acting weirder every day. I think he’s really losing it. I think he’s trying to work up the nerve to kill me.” Her voice broke. “He doesn’t want to because of the baby. I think that’s the only reason I’m not dead yet.”
I took a deep breath and let it out. What was I supposed to say? That she had to be mistaken? That the man she’d loved, the father of her unborn child, would never do such a thing?
Before I could figure out how to respond, Martin said, “Yes!” He turned the knob and the door swung outward.
I blinked against the sudden glare from inside the room as Nina spilled through the open doorway. Martin s
teadied her and helped her to her feet. Never had I imagined Nina Wallace could look so bedraggled: her clothes a wrinkled mess, hair lank and greasy, no makeup to conceal her pallor or the dusky circles under her eyes.
I returned the mini flashlight to Martin and gaped at the love nest turned prison cell, complete with whitewashed brick walls, a colorful area rug, and a plank ceiling showing signs of recent repair. The light source was another bare, dangling bulb. A king-size air mattress dominated the room, its covers rumpled. The only other furnishings were two folding chairs matching those we’d seen in the storage room, a bakery rack, and last and indisputably least, a tin bucket in the corner. Yeah, you know what the bucket was for. You don’t need me to spell it out.
Some honeymoon suite.
Martin poked his head into the room, clearly fascinated by the cavelike refuge. A wrapped deli sandwich lay unopened on the bakery rack, along with boxes of cereal and crackers, spray cheese, three bottles of water, and the white paper sack from Susanne’s. Jonah had been taking good care of his pregnant mistress while he summoned the backbone to do what needed to be done: eliminate her just as he’d no doubt eliminated Irene.
Obviously Jonah had been there minutes earlier, dropping off the food. He had to know we were in the tunnel, considering the racket we’d made trying to find Sexy Beast. A chill scampered down my spine. “Guys, let’s get out of—”
I yelped as a muscular arm whipped around me from behind, dragging me a few stumbling steps from the others and pinning my arms.
Nina whimpered, her eyes huge. Martin started to lunge toward us but stopped short. That’s when I felt what they’d both seen: the tip of a needle nudging the side of my neck. I cut my eyes in that direction and saw a hand holding a hypodermic syringe filled with a clear liquid.
“You called it right, Nina,” Jonah said as his arm tightened around me. “I let maudlin sentiment sway me for too long. I should’ve buried you five days ago.”
Through tears Nina said, “Jonah, I love you—”
“You love yourself,” he barked. “This is all your fault—you gave me no choice. Get back in there.” I felt him nod toward the room’s open doorway. “You too,” he told Martin. “But I’ll take those lock picks first.”
“Listen, man.” Martin raised his palms. “So you kept your girlfriend here for a few days. Sounds to me like some kind of kinky sex game. That’s how anyone would see it—if Nina even told anyone about it, which she’s not going to do, and neither are we. Right, Nina?”
“I won’t tell anyone, I swear,” she sobbed. “Please don’t put me back in there.”
“Nice try, sweetheart,” Jonah sneered. “I heard you tell them you’d run straight to the cops.”
I wondered how long he’d been silently creeping up the dark side tunnel, sneaking up on us. He’d probably heard our whole conversation.
To Martin he said, “I’m not going to ask how you tracked us down here. I’m not in the mood for more lies. The lock picks?” He gave the needle a little jab, making me gasp. “Don’t make me say it again.”
“Here.” Martin quickly retrieved the set from his pocket.
Jonah loosened his hold on me long enough to catch the card-sized set as Martin tossed it. The presence of the needle tip pricking my neck was enough to keep all of us under control as Jonah thumbed open the small case one-handed. He shook the five miniature picks into his palm and pitched them over his shoulder. I heard one of them ping against a rock.
He repeated his order for Martin and Nina to get into the room.
Martin and I locked eyes as he pushed a sobbing Nina into the room and backed in after her. In his gaze I read a plea for forgiveness, though we both knew he had no choice. If he went for Jonah, the contents of that syringe would be racing through my veins before he took a single step.
But there was more than apology in Martin’s grim features. It was the most candid I’d ever seen him, the message clear and unambiguous. Save yourself. Do whatever you have to, but get out of this place alive.
Somewhere along the line, I’d gotten under his skin. The thought shouldn’t have warmed me, considering our dire situation, but it did. The last thing I wanted to do was let him down.
He turned to Jonah. “Put Jane in here, too.”
I wasn’t surprised when Jonah said, “Not a chance.” In the short time he’d been in Martin’s company, he’d obviously sized him up and knew better than to underestimate him. Jonah would never be able to shove me into the room and lock the door before Martin charged him.
Nina collapsed on the bed, hugging herself and crying. Martin backed up to the far wall and knelt on the rug. “I’m not going to try anything, man, I swear. You’re better off leaving Jane with us.” He must have figured that my chances of survival were better inside a locked room with him and Nina than outside the room with Jonah and his needle.
In response, Jonah marched me to the door and kicked it shut, plunging us into pitch darkness. He immediately turned the lock and pocketed the key, then banded his arm even tighter around me.
“Let her go, Jonah!” Martin yelled from behind the door. “She’s not going to give you any trouble.”
“It’s t-true.” The velvet blackness before my eyes only compounded my terror. “I have nothing to tell anyone. Nina’s okay. You didn’t do anything that bad.”
“Treating me like an idiot is not in your best interest, Jane.” He traced the tip of the needle over the tender skin of my neck, making me stiffen. “I can make your death much more unpleasant than it needs to be.”
This was my cue to turn on the juice and fight like hell. I’d run out of options, and I’d be damned if I was going to passively stand there and wait for Jonah to snuff out my life. I twisted and kicked, but I was no match for his superior size and strength.
“Don’t do it, Jonah!” Martin pounded the door, bellowing a promise. “If you hurt her, I’ll make you wish you’d never been born.”
Jonah ignored him. “You’re a meddlesome bitch, just like Irene.” I felt him adjust the needle’s angle against my neck and knew he was positioning his thumb on the hypodermic’s plunger. “And you’re going to die the same way she did.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the stab of the needle.
A frenzy of barking erupted at our feet, startling us both and causing Jonah to loosen his hold for a split second. It was all the time I needed to knock his hand away from my neck, drive my elbow into his solar plexus, and break free. As I turned to run, I heard the hypodermic bounce on gravel.
Jonah was in great shape and he was a runner. I had scant hope of making it out of the side passage, much less all the way to the bakery to get help, but I had to try. I assumed SB was sprinting with me toward the distant light of the main tunnel—until I heard his sharp yelp echoing off the bricks.
“Say goodbye to your dog,” Jonah yelled, as SB emitted yips of fear or pain or both.
I stumbled to a halt. “No! Jonah, please don’t hurt him.”
“Get back here now or I’ll bash his brains out on the wall,” he said.
“I’m coming, just… please don’t do anything to SB.” I retraced my steps back to Jonah. I couldn’t see him, but I could hear his harsh breathing and SB’s whimpers. The only light was the faint glow at the bottom of the door.
I pictured Sexy Beast squirming against Jonah’s hold. Hot rage rose up within me like some relentless force of nature. With effort, I reined it in. An impotent display of emotion would solve nothing and could tip him over the edge. Nina had said he was losing his grip on reality, and from what I could see, she was right.
“Where are you?” he growled. “Get over here.”
Before I could move toward his voice, his free hand found my arm in the dark, gripping it with bruising force. I cried out as he flung me like a rag doll against the wooden door. I slid to the ground as pain exploded in my back.
“Jane!” Martin called from inside the room. “Are you okay?”
I fough
t to suck in air. “Yes,” I croaked, pretty sure I was lying.
At least Jonah was now unarmed. I doubted he’d get on his hands and knees to search for his hypodermic in the dark, and I was right. His voice was already retreating toward the main tunnel. “If you move from that spot, if I see you or hear you trying to come out, this animal is dead. Understand?”
“Jonah, leave SB with me. We’ll stay right—”
“Do you understand?” He was officially unhinged.
“Yes. I won’t move. You have my word.”
I listened to SB’s whimpers grow fainter as Jonah jogged out of the side tunnel. I’m sorry, SB. Please forgive me.
Martin said, “Is he still there?”
“No. He’s gone.” I choked back a sob. “Martin, he has SB. I think he’s going to kill him no matter what.”
“Is he out of earshot?”
He didn’t try to console me or offer lame reassurances, and for that I was grateful. As heartbroken as I was over the prospect of my precious Sexy Beast meeting a grisly end, his fate was now out of my control. I had to keep it together for all our sakes.
“Yes,” I said. “He can’t hear us as long as we keep our voices down. How’s Nina?” I asked.
“Practically catatonic. I assume Jonah took the key?”
“Of course. I’m going to give him a few minutes to get out of the tunnel, then I’ll go for help.” And pray I wouldn’t encounter SB’s lifeless corpse along the way.
I remembered the padlock on the door to the tunnel. Jonah would no doubt lock it on his way out, but as long as he didn’t make off with my tote bag, which contained my cell phone, I should be able to get a signal there and call 911. If not, I’d pound on the door and holler until someone heard me.
Jonah’s voice suddenly reverberated down the side tunnel, hurling vile curses at my dog. This was followed by vigorous barking, which grew louder as SB raced to return to me.
He leapt on me in the dark and I scooped him up and rained kisses on his furry little head. Never in my life had I been happier to have a dog lick and lick and lick my face.
“What did SB do?” Martin asked through the door. “Take a chunk out of his hand?”
Undertaking Irene Page 25