“So, how was he?” Ellis asked.
“He was a man, which is what I most desperately needed at the time,” Claire replied.
While the married couple ironed additional wrinkles into their dirty linen, I allowed Alex and Sterling to hoist me to the ceiling. There I pushed the access hatch open and cringed when it clattered onto the top of the elevator. Alex and Sterling nearly threw me through the opening once it was clear. I landed on my hands and knees in muck and dust to the side of the access hatch. My stockings were ruined.
The light in the elevator shaft was poor, but after a time my eyes adjusted and I began to see things. For one thing, I saw that there were no doors nearby to pry open. For another, I saw that there was a ladder attached to one of the walls leading up and down the full length of the shaft. I was still studying my surroundings when Tiffany rose through the hatchway and came to her feet beside me. She bent to help Elmore through the hatch while the married couple continued to exchange heated words below. Looking further above, I saw what I took to be light shining through the elevator doors on the luxury suite floor. I kicked off my high heels before mounting the ladder in preparation for an ascent.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Elmore challenged.
“I’m going to climb this ladder to the doors to the suite floor,” I explained softly.
“Oh, I wouldn’t suggest that.”
“What do you want to do, Elmore? Stay here and go down with the elevator?” Tiffany asked.
Elmore apparently got her point since he remained silent while I turned back to the ladder and grabbed on with my hands.
The rungs of the ladder were heavy with grime and slippery to the touch. I tested my full weight on it and it seemed to be stable. As I began to climb, a single rung at a time, I heard the argument below come to a close and assumed that either Ellis or his wife had made it to the roof of the elevator. I didn’t look down to confirm my suspicion, but instead continued my ascent. I didn’t make it very far before I felt someone’s hand brush my foot. I did look down then to find Tiffany hot on my heels.
“Hurry it up!” she exclaimed. “I want out of this pit as soon as possible.”
I faced back up the shaft and continued to climb. My arms became shakier the higher I went. After what seemed like an eternity spent climbing, I had to loop my elbow around a rung and take a rest.
“What’s going on up there?” I heard Ellis call from below. “Keep climbing.”
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Tiffany called back down. “We’re going as fast as we can.”
It was encouraging to hear that Tiffany apparently needed the break as well. Regardless, I unhooked my arm from the ladder and continued to climb. I was nearly to the doors leading to the executive suites when I heard the elevator engage with a click and a clank and the cables snap taught and begin to sing. The elevator car was on the move. I pulled myself in close to the ladder and felt a strong wind at my back as the car passed on its way to the roof. A loud screech echoed down the shaft as the elevator came to a sudden halt. I was still clutching the rungs, my body leaning against the ladder, when the elevator car passed going the opposite direction in free fall. This time I heard a scream of someone still on the roof of the car falling along with the clattering deathtrap.
There was no screech of rapid deceleration this time. Instead, the elevator car crashed to a halt when it hit the ground floor far below. Its impact with the bottom of the shaft sounded like an explosion that reverberated back up to me, shaking the ladder. I looked down to see a cloud of dust and debris heading fast in my direction. I closed my eyes just in time as the concussive shockwave washed over my body. I had no choice but to breathe in a lungful of dirt and dust that instantly made me start hacking. I heard the others coughing below me.
“Is everyone alright,” I eventually managed to choke out.
“Sterling,” Alex called back. “He was still on top of the elevator when it took off.”
I said a silent prayer for our fallen colleague, at the same time wondering how we were going to keep Ellis in line without him.
“Oh, my God, we’re all going to die,” I heard Elmore scream.
“Shut up, Elmore,” Ellis demanded.
“Hold on, Mr. Frye. I’m going to get us out of here alive,” I insisted.
“Please, call me Elmore,” a shaky voice replied after a few gasps.
“Right,” I told myself as I resumed my ascent.
It didn’t take long before I reached the light streaming through the elevator doors on the executive suite level. There I found a ledge that snaked its way around the shaft to the doors. There was little room on the ledge for my feet and nothing to hold onto with my hands. I felt myself shiver at the prospect of continuing forward.
“Chloe, can you make it to the doors?” Alex called to me.
“I’m going to try,” I responded.
But still I hesitated.
“Go ahead,” Tiffany urged from below me. “I’ll hold onto you in case you start to fall.”
Her words of support failed to instill confidence in me. Still, I placed a bare foot on the ledge and began to inch my way across. I pressed my body and my face hard against the rough wall, giving scant thought to what the contact was doing to my makeup. I had shimmied several feet onto the ledge when I felt myself overbalance and begin to fall. I was surprised and relieved when I felt a hand press against my lower back to steady me. I faced back to see Tiffany at the top of the ladder, reaching out an arm to hold me in place.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Keep moving,” she prompted.
I turned to face the other way and kept moving. Negotiating the corner was tricky, but I somehow managed to round the bend and found myself now facing the wall containing the elevator doors. Shimmying further, I was able to grab on to the edge of the door opening and from there onto the opening mechanism hidden on the backside of the elevator doors. The ledge was wider here, which was a huge relief. I took a moment to catch my breath.
“Chloe, can you get the doors open?” Alex called to me.
“Give me a moment and I’ll try,” I replied in an exhausted pant.
Shifting to the center of the opening, I damned my manicure and stuffed my fingers into the crack between the doors, pulling as hard as I could in either direction. My muscles were strained to the snapping point, but eventually the doors began to part. With a little added effort I was able to jam my body between the doors and push until my back and arms were fully extended. The doors were now wide open, but I realized I had a problem. How was I to keep them open?
“I’m going to have to let the doors close while I search for something to help you up,” I called down the shaft.
“Don’t leave us,” was Elmore’s plaintive reply.
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” I assured him, and then I rolled out of the way and let the elevator doors snap shut.
Looking up from my seat on the suite level foyer floor, I instantly saw what I needed. A fire hose was rolled up behind a glass door, and better yet, there was a fire ax hanging inside the box beside the hose. I figured that people could tie the fire hose around their bodies to keep from falling, or even climb up it, and that I could use the fire ax to pry the elevator doors back open. Then there was the matter of Ellis to consider. I assumed the fire ax would come in handy when dealing with that situation as well.
My next problem was that the glass door covering the fire equipment was locked. Fortunately, I had a ready solution to that problem. I put my back to the glass door, raised my arm, and drove my elbow into the center of the glass. The door shattered, sending shards of sharp glass raining to the floor. In the process of breaking the door, I cut my arm pretty badly. It stung and I looked down to see blood seeping from my wounds. But I didn’t have time to address that now. Instead, I grabbed the fire hose and pulled it through the broken glass to the elevator doors. There I gathered a small mound of slack hose at my feet. Then I ran back to collect the fire
ax.
I jammed the blade of the ax into the crack between the elevator doors and started to pry. The gap grew wider. I eventually pulled the doors apart, making the gap wide enough to lay the ax handle on the floor between them. With the doors open, I grabbed several loops of the fire hose and prepared to throw them to Tiffany, who was clinging to the top of the ladder.
“Me first, if you don’t mind,” Ellis called from the shadows.
“Don’t you dare,” Tiffany warned in a desperately pleading tone.
Looking down the shaft, I saw that Ellis was the last person on the ladder and that he was pointing his pistol at Alex directly above him. I had no choice. I tossed him the fire hose. I was pleased to see the brass nozzle nearly hit him in the head. Unfortunately he ducked. He pulled in all the slack until the hose went taut against the water coupling. It was good he didn’t have to depend on me to hold the other end of the hose since I might have intentionally dropped him.
Ellis tucked the pistol into his belt and deftly swung out onto the hose. His feet landed flat against the near wall and he started to climb. I didn’t help him to lever himself through the opening and onto the foyer floor. As soon as he was off the hose he was on his feet with the pistol back in his fist. He backed away to the far wall to watch.
“I’m next,” I heard Tiffany call.
Leaning into the elevator shaft, I began swinging the hose until Tiffany was able to reach out and grab it. Her ascent didn’t go as smoothly as Ellis’. First off, she had less hose to swing on to reach the near wall, so her impact was more jarring. She almost fell, but managed to hang on. It was obvious from her screams and gasps that she wasn’t going to be able to climb. I pulled the hose up a single tug at a time until her head appeared above the lip of the opening.
“Help me get her over the edge,” I called to Ellis as I strained to hold onto the hose.
Reluctantly, Ellis slipped the pistol back into his belt and came forward to lift Tiffany by her hands over the lip of the abyss. She lay crying on the floor after he released her while I flexed my hands trying to get the blood flowing. Ellis drew his gun and backed away. I decided that I’d better bring Alex up next so that I’d have someone strong I could depend on by my side.
“Alex, you’re next,” I called out.
“No, take Mrs. Ellis first,” he replied.
“No, I’ll need someone to help lift her,” I told him, feeling no need to add that I didn’t trust Ellis to do it.
“Right,” was Alex’s simple but grim reply.
I tossed the hose down. His ascent was not as graceful as Ellis’, but at least I didn’t need to hoist him up. I helped him over the lip and onto the floor. He lay panting heavily from the exertion. I left him to recover and started swinging the hose again.
“You’re bleeding,” he said suddenly.
“It’s nothing.” It wasn’t nothing but we had to ignore it.
“Lady Ellis. You’re next. Tie the hose tightly around your waist and we’ll pull you to safety.”
Alex was preparing to hoist Ellis’ wife up the shaft when she cast off from the ladder and planted her feet firmly against the near wall. From there, she began to walk up the wall to the opening. Alex helped her onto the floor. That left Elmore.
“I don’t think I can do this,” I heard Elmore say in a terribly shaky voice.
“Just tie the hose around your waist and we’ll pull you up,” I told him.
I swung the hose to him and Elmore caught it, clumsily. I wasn’t confident that he could tie a decent knot, but had no choice but to depend on him to tie himself off. I gave him what I thought was enough time to work it out on his own.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
I could barely see Elmore nod his head in the gloom. I forwarded the nod of his head to Alex, who started to pull him up. Elmore screamed when his feet left the ladder. He bounced against the near wall and began to roll, holding onto the hose for dear life. A set of badly skinned knuckles was surely the result. An ugly scraping sound followed as he was raised. Claire helped me to pull him out of the shaft.
“I thought I was going to die,” Elmore said, rising to his feet.
Quickly, before anyone else could react, I pulled the fire ax from between the doors and turned to confront Ellis. He was, of course, fully prepared; not that it required much of him to prepare to face a lone ax-wielding woman. He simply pointed his pistol at me.
“It would seem you too are armed, Chloe Boston,” he said with a smile. “However, I do believe my pistol trumps your ax.”
He was right, but I felt better for holding the thing anyway.
“Drop it,” he ordered, waggling the barrel of his pistol at the floor.
I dropped the ax. I should have felt worse for its loss, but noticed that my futile show of resistance had allowed Elmore to creep toward the door of his suite unnoticed. It wasn’t until Elmore slipped his card key into its slot and the door lock clicked that Ellis took notice of his actions. By that time, the door had been thrown wide and Elmore and Claire were gone inside the suite.
“Run for it!” Tiffany screamed, dashing for the closing door.
Alex and I ran for it. Ellis turned in our direction and fired his pistol. The report from the weapon was deafening in the tiny vestibule. I almost stopped running when I heard the sound, but Alex kept dragging me forward by the hand. Tiffany was knocked face first to the floor of the suite by the force of the slug that embedded itself in her back. Alex and I dodged around her fallen body and threw the door shut behind us.
“Good Lord, he shot her,” I heard Claire exclaim as she rushed back to the door to kneel by the fallen woman’s side.
I joined Claire on the floor and together we tried to ascertain Tiffany’s condition. She cried out in pain as we worked, and blood welled from a neat hole in the back of her dress. She had been shot in the shoulder. I hoped that the proximity of the wound indicated that the bullet had missed all vital organs. I felt beneath her to determine whether the bullet had passed through her body. I felt the exit wound in the front of her shoulder with my fingers. Having determined the wound went clean through, I ran to the bar after a towel to compress the wound.
“How is she? Will she live?” Alex asked as I passed.
“I think she’ll be fine if we can stop the bleeding,” I replied.
“Quickly! Let’s barricade the door,” Elmore declared.
As Elmore lifted a small chair to use as a barricade, I heard the door lock click in response to yet another keycard being inserted. Elmore was halfway back to the door with his light burden when the door opened and Ellis stepped into the room unhindered and brandishing his weapon.
“Reginald, you pig. You shot this poor girl,” Claire scolded.
“I fired out of instinct. Besides, she shouldn’t have run from me,” was all he had to say in his defense.
Returning to the fallen girl, I pressed a bar towel against the wound in her back and positioned another below her exit wound. Tiffany screamed at the intrusion. I could feel that the oozing of the blood was already slowing. I smiled to Claire to let her know that the girl would be alright. We then looked up in unison to consider what to do about Ellis. He was looking decidedly nervous and pointing his weapon between us.
“This woman needs medical assistance,” Claire said. “Elmore, call 911 immediately.”
“No phone calls,” Ellis warned, directing his firearm toward Elmore.
“Elmore, make the call!” Claire insisted.
“But he’s pointing a gun at me,” Elmore pleaded.
“Smart lad,” Ellis observed.
There was a pause in the action while everyone considered their situation.
“Now what?” Alex asked in frustration.
Ellis continued to survey the scene and finally looked as if he’d come to a conclusion. He directed his attention toward me.
“You there, the investigating meter maid,” he called. “Since you’re so smart, perhaps you can tell us where we’ll find
the party who’s been playing with us this evening.”
I thought about it for only a moment. No ANALYTICO was required. The answer was obvious.
“The roof.”
“Why the roof?”
“The elevator control station. It’s on the roof.”
“Right,” Ellis said with a contented smile. “Let’s go, the lot of you, we’re headed for the roof.”
“But the girl can’t be moved in her condition,” Claire argued.
“The girl can stay. The rest of you are coming with me.”
Ellis stepped to the door of the suite and opened it. He then waggled the barrel of his pistol at us.
“Do you think the girl will be alright here?” Claire asked.
“Safer than she would be with us, I’m sorry to say,” I answered. “Besides, it looks as if we have no choice but to leave her.”
Looking back down at Tiffany, I placed a hand on her arm and squeezed in a feeble attempt to convey reassurance.
“You’re not leaving me, are you?” she managed to moan.
“I’m afraid we have to,” I explained. “But don’t worry, you’ll be fine while we’re gone and we’ll be back soon to get you to a doctor.”
Tiffany tried to lift herself off the floor but failed.
“It’s best if you don’t move,” I cautioned.
I rose to my feet along with Claire and we grudgingly joined the group filing out the door. We gathered in the foyer to await further instructions. Ellis looked confused and unsure of himself when he appeared, then he spotted the door adorned with an elegant brass plaque identifying it as “Roof Access.” As soon as he spotted that door he strode purposefully to it and tried the knob, but it was apparently locked.
“You there,” he said, pointing to Alex. “Grab that fire ax and open this door.”
Alex did as he was told. Being a reinforced fire door, it required numerous swings of the ax before it burst open. Sparks flew as steel impacted steel. Alex was sweating by the time the task was done. He stood back and dropped the ax to the floor. Ellis peeked up the stairwell to ensure the way was clear then motioned with his pistol for the rest of us to ascend the stairs. Being the closest thing to a trained police officer we had to offer, I felt responsible for our party, so I took the lead. I ascended the stairs a single step at a time, keeping a wary eye out for booby traps and ambushes.
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