Never Alone (43 Light Street)
Page 11
“You were friends with her?” Cal asked.
“Yeah. She was a fun kid.”
Beth wouldn’t have called her a kid, though she knew that was simply Ned’s way of talking. Back in high school, he hadn’t had much respect for women. Apparently that hadn’t changed.
As the conversation turned to speculation about Hallie’s disappearance, Beth watched Cal observing the members of the group without appearing to be particularly watchful. Again he used a natural opportunity to widen the discussion. “You remember Lisa Stapler?” he inquired.
“The woman whose body was found in a drainage ditch?” Alice Carpenter asked with a little shudder. She’d been the shortest girl in the class, and she hadn’t grown any since then.
Cal nodded.
“What does that have to do with Hallie?” Alice demanded.
“I don’t know. But I saw both their names in your yearbook when I was looking to see who might be at the meeting tonight. Isn’t that a little strange for two women in your class to, uh…” He shrugged casually, but Beth knew he was carefully cataloging everyone’s reaction.
You didn’t have to be a psychic to feel the buzz of tension in the room, Beth thought.
“Are you trying to make something of that?” Alice demanded, her chilled voice cutting through the previously friendly atmosphere.
“Uh, no,” Cal answered, apparently deciding that it was better to back off than keep pressing the issue right now.
People started talking again, most on deliberately cheerful subjects. Before they got too far though, Donna banged a spoon against a glass, getting everybody’s attention and saying that they should get the meeting started.
Cal rejoined Beth, taking the chair next to hers as the rest of the group arranged themselves around the table.
When everybody was seated, Donna passed out sheets of paper with her agenda. Cal read his rapidly, then leaned back in his chair, looking totally relaxed and interested in the proceedings.
But he didn’t simply let the business of the evening swirl around him. Once the committee got into full swing, he had several suggestions for locations they might use for the dance and barbecue they were planning.
Beth was relieved that the meeting settled down to an easy give-and-take. When Donna asked her if she was willing to work on the committee sending out promotional materials, she agreed to help, thinking that she could always back out later.
“I want to kick start this reunion celebration,” Donna said as the meeting drew to a close. “So I think we should meet again in two weeks to see what progress everybody has made.”
There were murmurs of agreement around the room. With the official business concluded, nobody seemed to be in a hurry to leave.
People drifted into little groups to chat or congregated around the snack table. And Beth noted with a mixture of disappointment and relief that nobody made an effort to come up to her.
Pretending she was perfectly content to sit where she was, she watched Cal help himself to a buffalo wing, then turn and smile as Dee Dee Johnson came gliding up to him. Dee Dee was a curvy brunette who had been considered sophisticated back in high school. Ten years had only accentuated her charms. She and Cal were on the other side of the room, but Beth could tell from the other woman’s body language that Dee Dee had no compunction about coming on to another woman’s husband.
A jolt of primitive emotion shot through Beth, taking her by surprise. When she realized it was jealousy, she sternly reminded herself that she had no right to be possessive of Cal Rollins. He was only here with her on an undercover assignment. Still, when he glanced in her direction and caught her watching him, he looked a bit uncomfortable. Excusing himself, he crossed the room to her and leaned down.
“Maybe it’s time to go home, sweetheart,” he said, his voice loud enough to carry around the room, his hand cupping possessively over her shoulder.
Knowing that he was just playing a part, Beth flushed. But she stood obediently and leaned into him as he slung his arm around her waist.
Still strung tight as an electrical wire, Beth looked up to see that Dee Dee had followed Cal across the room. With a knowing little smirk on her face, Dee Dee asked, “So how did you two meet anyway? Was it a case of opposites attract?”
Beth’s mouth went dry as cotton. She could no more have answered Dee Dee’s question than she could have sprouted wings and flown around the room. But Cal smoothly gave the response that they’d rehearsed—the story about his coming out to the house in answer to her inquiry about a financial evaluation.
“So you trust him with your money as well as, uh, everything else,” Dee Dee observed sweetly.
“Yes,” Beth managed to say, thinking that the evening had gone pretty well until now.
Prickles of tension gnawed at her, and the headache she’d pushed to the background was suddenly pounding in her temples like a stereo speaker with the bass jacked up too high. With a jolt, she realized she’d been so focused on the byplay with Dee Dee that she’d been ignoring something else.
Something more important. The air in the room was thick with it. Her brain was suddenly thick with it, too.
Cal’s face had taken on a look of concern. Then the feel of his arm tightening around her helped collect her scattered thoughts.
“What is it?” he asked.
His voice seemed to come from a great distance, so that it was difficult for her to focus her attention on him.
“Beth!”
She stared at him, her lips moving, trying to form words, trying to warn him.
“Sweetheart, are you having another one of your migraines?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
Dee Dee made a little clicking sound with her tongue. “In school, she was always having them. She spent more time at the nurse’s office than in class.”
Cal ignored her, his fingers digging into Beth’s arm. “Is something going to happen?” he asked, the urgency in his voice making her focus on him.
She hadn’t known for sure it was true until he asked the question. “Yes.” She forced the syllable through her dry lips. Then, with a tremendous effort, she added, “He’s coming…”
Cal’s features tightened.
“Who?
“I…don’t know. I can’t see his face,” she said.
Before she could say anything else, the lights went out. In the next instant, the sound of a scream filled the air.
Chapter Eight
A jolt of panic made Beth go rigid in the blackness. Disoriented, she could only stand there with her heart pounding until she felt Cal’s hand tugging at her arm.
“On the floor,” he ordered, his voice urgent as he pushed her down and pulled her forward, his hand on the top of her head the way she’d seen officers usher suspects into the back of police cars. But in this case it was to prevent her from banging into the tabletop.
She let him move her forward until she bumped into a curved piece of metal. It must be part of the table leg, she thought inanely as she stroked her fingers over the slick surface, thinking it was too bad she couldn’t pull it off and use it as a weapon.
“Stay here. Stay down,” he ordered, his mouth close to her ear.
Above them in the darkness she heard people crying out. Two voices cut through the babble.
“What’s going on?”
That was Donna. “This isn’t funny. Turn on the lights, you jerk.” That was Ned.
In addition to the voices, Beth could hear scuffling sounds, more screams. In the dark, it was impossible to figure out what was happening. Fighting a wave of sheer terror, she clung to Cal.
When he started to pull away from her, she grasped frantically at his arm.
“I’ve got to find out what’s going on. You stay here,” he repeated, his voice firm.
She didn’t want him to leave her in the blackness with chaos swirling all around, but she knew he was right.
He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze, then let go and was swallowed up by the d
arkness.
Holding back a cry of protest, she eased to her side and pulled up her legs. As she huddled on the floor, she listened to the sounds of panic, trying to picture what was happening.
A heavy body crashed to the floor, landing so close that she felt a sudden breeze fan her skin. A man, she thought, judging from his apparent weight. God, was he dead?
Uncurling her body, she strained to see. “Who is it? Who’s that?” she whispered, but nobody answered.
When she stretched out her hand, she felt a hairy arm. Moving closer, she encountered a knit shirt. Jim Fitch had been standing near her and he’d been wearing a knit shirt.
“Jim?” she whispered. When there was no answer, she crept forward several more inches so that she could press her hand to his chest. She was relieved to detect the beating of his heart. It felt shallow but steady.
He’d been hurt, but he was still alive.
She was wondering what to do for him when a crashing noise to her right made her freeze. In the next moment, she realized that a door had burst open, accompanied by several bright lights blasting into the room.
“Howard County Police. Everybody freeze,” a voice rang out from behind one of the powerful flashlights.
In the next moment, Cal was back beside her, as though he’d never been away from the group, and she realized that he was probably the one who had called in the police. Now he was fading back into the crowd, pretending he was just one of the panicked people who’d been attacked by Lord knows who.
“Everybody put your hands on top of your head,” one of the cops said.
“But we’re the victims!” someone shouted.
“Hands on your heads. Until we sort this out, everyone is a suspect.”
Beth glanced at Cal, saw him comply and did the same. But as soon as her hands were firmly in place, she raised her voice. “There’s a man hurt over here. He needs medical attention.”
In the flashlight beams, she could see an officer crossing the floor, kneeling beside Jim. Then he spoke into his radio.
“Over here,” someone shouted. “We need help over here, too.”
Another officer responded.
“He’s hurt bad,” Candy wailed in a barely recognizable voice.
“Who?” a chorus of voices shouted.
“Ted.”
“No!” Libby shrieked, and the room erupted in pandemonium.
“Quiet!” The command had come from Cal, and the sound of his voice was enough to restore some sort of order. “We’d better do what the cops say,” he added.
There were restless stirrings in the room. Then the overhead lights snapped on, and everybody was blinking in the sudden brightness.
Beth poked her head out from under the table. The room around looked like a set from a disaster movie. Or a hostage scene, she amended.
“It’s her fault. It’s her fault,” Dee Dee shouted, pointing toward Beth, focusing all eyes to the spot where she sat on the floor. “She did it. It’s just like when we were in school. She’d get one of her headaches, and something bad would happen.”
Beth cringed. A denial sprang to her lips, but her mouth was too dry for even one syllable to emerge. Deep down she had known that something like this would happen, had known that nothing had changed in the ten years since she’d last seen these people.
She felt Cal’s arm around her, offering his warmth and reassurance. Then his voice was cutting through the silence. “Yeah, my wife has a headache. She gets migraines. But they don’t hurt anyone besides her. She’s in a lot of pain right now. I’d appreciate it if she could leave the room,” he said, addressing the cops.
An officer pivoted toward Cal, and a look passed between them. When the man gave a quick nod, Cal helped Beth to her feet and started moving her toward the door.
“Why does she get to leave?” Billy Nichols snarled.
Cal whirled, facing the former football player, who had three inches and fifty pounds on him. “You want to step outside with me, and we can figure it out together?”
There was a charged moment during which Nichols glared at him, then he said no in a low voice.
“Anybody else?” Cal asked, pressing the point.
Nobody spoke up.
His hand firmly on Beth’s arm, he led her through the crowd and out of the room.
As soon as she stepped into the hall, she felt as though a thousand-pound weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
“Are you all right?” Cal asked.
“More or less.”
He paused to speak to a detective who was standing nearby. “Where are you doing the interviews?”
The cop pointed toward a door down the hall.
“I’m taking Beth to one of the other party rooms.”
“Sure. But we need to interview her, like everyone else.”
“I’ll do it and turn in a report,” Cal said brusquely.
“That’s not procedure.”
“The hell with procedure. She needs peace and quiet.”
Beth blinked, stunned by the emotion simmering in his voice.
Turning away, he took her arm and steered her toward the end of the hall. The light had a dimmer switch, and Cal lowered the illumination as they stepped inside. Looking around, Beth found the room was about half the size of the one where the meeting had been held. The furnishings were similar, only the tables and chairs were arranged around the room instead of pushed into the center.
Gratefully, she pulled out a chair and dropped like a stone into the seat. Resting her elbows on the table, she lowered her head into her hands. Cal came around in back of her, his fingers grasping her shoulders and massaging her tense muscles. His touch felt good. Wonderful. She closed her eyes as his hands worked their way up her neck, wiping away some of her tension, although it was impossible to banish it completely.
“Better?” he murmured.
“Yes.”
His hands stopped moving, but he didn’t step away from her.
She heard him clear his throat. “I hated like hell to leave you alone in there. I mean, when the lights went out. But I couldn’t just sit there hiding under the table. I had to—”
“Let the police know what was happening,” she finished for him. “I understand.”
“I hope so.”
She raised her head and half turned, “Why did they make everyone put their hands on their heads?”
He came around the table and pulled a chair at right angles to hers. Gently, he laid his hand over hers. “Because there was no way to know what had happened, or if the perpetrator is still in the crowd. For all we know, he could be one of the people who came to the meeting.”
She nodded, understanding better. “Do you think it was someone from the group?”
“From meeting them, I wouldn’t say so. It’s more likely someone who was outside waiting to pull the plug on the lights and come in there.”
“But how did he get into the room? How did he turn off the lights?”
“There are two entrances. One to the outside.”
Beth hadn’t even noticed. “An outside entrance? Where?”
“Behind the curtains.”
She nodded.
“That’s where Howard County’s finest came bursting through. And it’s where I went out.”
“How could you see where you were going?”
“I was here a couple of days ago. I memorized the layout. And I knew where the guys were stationed in the parking lot.”
“If there are police in the parking lot, why didn’t they see him?”
“I don’t know,” he answered, frustration sharpening his voice. “And as for the lights, I can’t give you an answer on that one yet, either.” He pressed his palm more firmly against the top of her hand. “I know I’ve put you smack in the middle of a mess. Not just a mess. I’ve put you in danger.”
“I knew what I was getting into.”
“No, you didn’t. Neither of us knew.”
“I’m doing my civic duty.”
She pressed her lips together, thinking that every time she felt as if they’d connected on a personal level, he switched back into police detective mode. “Is that going into your report?”
“No.”
“Then why are you asking?” she demanded, struggling to keep her voice steady.
“I’m trying to understand what happened. You sensed something wrong?”
“Yes.”
“But not much before the room went black?”
She gave a hollow little laugh. “Maybe I would have. I was pretty focused on Dee Dee. I thought she was giving me a headache. Then I realized it was something else.”
“Something? Or someone?”
“Someone.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“I wish I could. It was just a vague impression of danger. Of a figure moving through the dark.”
He made a frustrated sound. “This talent you’ve got isn’t very dependable.”
Her chin jerked up. “Why should it be? I’ve spent most of my life trying to avoid it.”
“Maybe you should stop ducking away from it,” he said, and she didn’t much like the tone of his voice.
“Are you blaming me for not solving your case for you?”
He scraped back his chair, paced to the end of the room like a tiger confined to a cage, then came back to stand across the table from her. “No.”
But she knew that in a way he was. She’d gotten involved with him in the first place because she’d heard Hallie calling for help. Cal hadn’t believed her back then. Then he’d changed his mind. At least he’d started asking her questions.
“I’m sorry,” she answered in a tight voice. “I have no control over what comes to me.”
She heard him sigh. She had reached the point where her self-control was just about shredded. Tonight had been terrible. Then it had gotten worse, and somewhere along the line it felt as if Cal had stopped being on her side.
“Did you have something else in mind for me?” she asked, unable to keep a sarcastic note out of her voice. “Like maybe you could lead me around the parking lot the way they lead dogs who are sniffing for dope. Only I’d be taking a psychic reading on all the cars, seeing if I picked up any evil vibrations.”