Saving Shadows

by Kathleen Brooks

  “That sounds like a good plan,” Agent Castle told her, and Gavin felt her relax a little under his touch.

  “I’ll drive,” Wade said before opening the door and pulling down his tailgate. His truck was backed up to the door and all they had to do was crawl in. Gavin leapt up first and offered his hand to Ellery. In seconds, they were under the tarp, listening to the rain pelt the plastic as Wade drove them from the base, past Ellery’s house, and into the suburb where Mark lived.

  “This wasn’t exactly how I envisioned tonight,” Castle said with a little chuckle that had them all laughing. “Pirates, secret tunnels, smugglers . . . I knew I’d like Charleston when I was assigned here.”

  “Then I’ll hook you up with Skeeter to take you on a Shadows Landing Pirate Ghost Tour. He also has a pirate living in his house. He calls him Eddie,” Gavin said from under the tarp. Ellery was lying on his arm as he held her close to him. She was quiet, and he was worried she was thinking of running away instead of running toward the darkness. Not that he’d blame her. He’d help her run if that was what she wanted.

  Before he could ask her about it the truck slowed down. They all stopped breathing as they heard the door open and suddenly the tarp was pulled back. The rain fell on them as they all sat up and blinked into the night. Street lamps provided a soft glow but left room for many swaths of darkness.

  “It’s right across the street. We’re going to cut through this yard to get to it. I didn’t want us to be seen if they’re monitoring the house. Apparently there’s a shrine of sorts started. At least that’s what was reported in the news,” Wade said, motioning them across the backyard of someone’s house. The four of them kept to the shadows and stopped at the side of the house, looking across the street at Mark’s place.

  “There’s no cobblestones,” Ellery whispered to herself, but they all heard it.

  “So, this isn’t the place?” Agent Castle asked.

  Ellery looked around slowly but shook her head. “No. I don’t think I’ve ever been here before. Nothing looks familiar.”

  “Your car was parked in the driveway,” Agent Castle told her as he pointed to the driveway.

  “No. I’m sure. I’ve never been here before.” Gavin heard the insistence in her voice and believed her. Someone had moved her car in hopes of framing her.

  “Then let’s head to the gallery,” Wade suggested.

  “Wait,” Ellery said, stopping them. She dug around her purse and pulled out a pen. In the night she wrote, RIP to a great man and talented artist. Ellery, on the back of one of the index cards Castle had given her. She looked around and darted across the street. Gavin watched as she looked around and found a clear plastic bag a mourner had left with a note inside. She stuffed her own note in the clear plastic so the rain wouldn’t ruin it and set it front and center of the house. “Let’s go,” she called out as she ran back across the street to join them in the shadows of the house.

  * * *

  Castle was grinning as they walked back to the truck and this time got inside the cab. Ellery assumed that meant he liked the calling card she left. They had agreed to cat and mouse games and Ellery was ready to play.

  It took twenty minutes but soon enough, they were pulling to a stop where Castle instructed Wade to drop him so he could get his car. “Come on,” Castle said as they got out of the truck. “I’ll drive you to the gallery.”

  “I’m coming too,” Wade told them as he leaned out the driver’s window. The rain was falling in sheets, and Ellery and all the men were soaked, but no one seemed to care. They were on a mission, at least that was what it felt like to her. She liked having them with her, as if they were her team.

  “Okay, follow me,” Castle ordered.

  Gavin held the door and she slid into the car. The windows were fogged and it took a moment of them sitting there before they pulled from the curb. “That was a nice move with the note,” Castle told her.

  “Thanks. I thought I could leave them all around, but it started raining.”

  “Leave one on the front door of the gallery. Turn to the upper left of the door and smile. There’s a security camera there,” Castle explained. “We can’t park out front, but we can come in from behind. The back camera’s visibility is only around the back door, and I’ll try to cover it so they can’t see you.”

  “How do you know that?” Gavin asked.

  “I used my badge and talked to the security company who installed it.”

  “Then did they see what happened the night I went missing?”

  “No. The cameras weren’t on.”

  “But I saw Hollis arm the security system,” Ellery said with frustration. She knew she saw him do it, or were her memories false?

  “I’m sorry, but according to the security company the cameras were all off.”

  Ellery was quiet as they drove the short distance to the gallery. It seemed as if it had been a lifetime ago she’d last been there, but then she stared at the back of the historic building from the lot behind it. Castle left the car on and turned off the lights as Wade pulled in next to him.

  Ellery almost jumped when Wade knocked on the window. “I have raincoats for y’all,” he said, holding up three raincoats, but Ellery’s mind was already running into the darkness as she opened the door and got out. Her eyes never left the back door of the building. Wade must have pushed a raincoat in her hand, but she dropped it on the ground as if someone was pushing her toward something—toward something no one had let her see.

  “Ellery!”

  She heard Gavin call out her name, but it seemed as if he were a mile away as she stepped into the back parking lot. She looked down at the cobblestones and felt the pressure squeeze her chest to the point she thought she’d black out.

  Her heels teetered on the uneven cobblestone, but she ignored the twisted ankles as she raced for her car. She had her hand on the door when she looked into the window and saw it was too late.

  Ellery stumbled forward, her feet carrying her quickly to the back door. She rested her hand on the door as the rain washed away the fog and the memories flooded her mind.

  Ellery tossed her purse in the passenger seat of her car and pulled away from her condo. In less than five minutes, she was back at the gallery. And not a moment too soon. The rain and wind were really picking up. Ellery pulled into the narrow alleyway at the side of the building leading into the back parking lot. The tires bumped along over the old cobblestones as she pulled to a stop next to Hollis’s luxury SUV and Mark’s older sedan. She wasn’t expecting anyone to be at the gallery, but with the three of them lowering the shutters, they’d be done in no time. It appeared everyone had been on the same wavelength tonight about protecting the valuable art inside.

  Ellery grabbed her white raincoat from the backseat and slipped it on as she got out of her car. She was going to grab her purse to dig around for the gallery key when she noticed the back door was already open. Leaving her purse and keys in the car, she dashed across the small cobblestone parking lot and into the dryness of the gallery.

  The lights in the back weren’t on and Ellery was reaching for them when something made her stop. The sound of harsh voices arguing made her. Ellery didn’t know if she should make her presence known, but when she heard the sound of glass breaking, she rushed forward along the back hallway until she reached the curtain that separated the back from the exhibit hall.

  “I made you, and you better not forget that,” Hollis hissed.

  Ellery slowly pulled back the curtain to see Mark with his hands on his hips and a broken whiskey glass shattered against the wall. Hollis stared Mark down with his arms crossed over his chest. He’d changed into a pair of perfectly creased blue jeans and a designer black T-shirt, but Mark was in the same suit he’d worn to the gallery opening.

  “I made myself and you took advantage! You bought all my old work slowly, week after week, before you offered me the Mimi Hollis grant. A grant that I didn’t realize gave you fifty-one percent owners
hip of any work I created for five years! That’s insane and downright illegal. You have no ownership rights to my work!” Mark yelled.

  Ellery blinked with surprise as Mark pushed Hollis, causing him to stumble against a smooth marble statue of a palmetto tree. Hollis’s hand clasped the teetering statue to prevent it from falling to the floor as his face flushed red with anger. “I told you to get a damn lawyer to review the contract, but you couldn’t wait to get your grubby hands on the ten thousand dollars I was giving you. It’s no one’s fault but your own.”

  “You tricked me!” Mark yelled as he shoved his pointer finger into Hollis’s chest, causing him to grunt. “You are now selling those old paintings of mine for fifty to ninety thousand dollars. Paintings you bought off me for a hundred dollars. That money should be mine, yet you aren’t even giving me a cut of it, since you claim they are privately owned. Not even the paltry forty-nine percent. And I’ll make damn sure everyone in Charleston knows you’re no friend of the arts. You’re an extortionist of the arts, stealing from artists to line your own pockets. And after tonight everyone will listen to the hottest new American artist since Norman Rockwell. You and your little gallery are done, Hollis.”

  Hollis slowly smiled as he shook his head. “Mark, you should have taken what you were given and be happy I gave you anything to begin with. Artists like you are a dime a dozen. This gallery is a drain to my finances, but according to the trust I have to keep it running to have access to the Hollis fortune. You want to take that from me, and I won’t let you. I’ll just replace you and continue making money while you struggle as another starving artist.”

  “Take your trust from you? Hollis, you have millions in a separate trust fund that you could live off. I don’t have that and you’re stealing my livelihood!”

  “Do you know what makes art valuable?” Hollis asked calmly. He didn’t wait for Mark to answer, but Ellery already knew. He’d told her this before. “It’s what people will pay for it. I could draw a line on a piece of paper and call it art and if I sold it for three million dollars, then that’s what it’s worth. You are worth nothing. Whatever your art is bringing in is because of me. Because I’m telling people what it’s worth, and I’m selling it at that price. Without me, you and your art are worthless.”

  “It’s still my art, Hollis,” Mark said, crossing his arms over his chest. “And I deserve that money. You deserve your twenty percent, per normal terms, but not fifty-one. It’s theft!”

  “You know what else makes art valuable?” Hollis asked, ignoring Mark. “Knowing there will never be any more paintings made. Van Gogh only sold one painting while he was alive. The rest were all sold after his death when he finally became famous. Why? Because there would never be new artwork produced. The art world loves a good story. It drives the cost of the paintings sky high, especially when you’re at the stage of your career that you’re at. A rising star with demons he can’t shake. That’s the narrative that will be told. The promising artist who succumbed to his personal demons. It’s just too bad everyone saw you tossing back drink after drink tonight. They were asking me if you were all right. I covered for you, of course, but I could see it in their eyes. The gossip. The questions . . . if you were losing your mind like so many artists have done before you.”

  The sound of the wind picking up should clue them into the storm approaching outside. Ellery narrowed her eyes as she watched Mark shake his head. What was Hollis up to? Should she tell them she was here? But something kept her back. Something kept her quiet as she waited for Mark to storm out. He did like his dramatic exits.

  “Hollis, I’m not going to die. I’m just pissed off, and I want out of my contract. Even I remember that clause in the contract that states if I die, you own one hundred percent of my artwork. It’s not going to happen, and neither is your ownership of me anymore. I’m taking you to court and shutting you down. You’ll have to live with ten million dollars instead of the hundred million you have access to if the gallery is open. Face it, Hollis. I’m taking you down.”

  Ellery almost opened the curtain so Mark could make his dramatic exit. Mark turned around toward her and Ellery opened the curtain, but before she could say anything Hollis lifted his arm and swung the palmetto statute.

  “Mark!” Ellery screamed as the statue crashed into Mark’s head. He dropped to the ground as blood poured from the gash on the back of his head and pooled on the antique wood floor.

  “You killed him,” Ellery gasped and then realized her mistake. She was still standing there talking to a murderer. Her heart began to pound so loudly she didn’t hear what Hollis said to her. She saw his lips move and then he shook his head. Before her body and mind could react he was striding toward her.

  Ellery stumbled out of her shock and screamed. Hollis raised his hand and swung the statue. Ellery leapt back, feeling the breeze from the statue cutting through the air where she’d been standing. Her body slammed into the wall behind her as the statue ripped into the curtain, tearing it down from the rod above them. As Hollis struggled to free the statue from the curtain, Ellery ran. She bounced her body off the walls in the hallway as if she were a pinball. Her legs, mind, and body were all going in different directions. Her shoulders slammed against the brick as she zigzagged her way to the back door. The wind was howling, and the rain was falling as she slammed into the back door. The door flew open, and Ellery stumbled outside into the dark rain.

  Her heels teetered on the uneven cobblestone, but she ignored the twisted ankles as she raced for her car. She had her hand on the door when she looked into the window and saw it was too late. The palmetto statue arced through the air and then there was nothing but blackness.

  * * *

  Ellery was sucking in gasping breaths of air as she opened her eyes again. She had to see inside. The time had come for her to know if Hollis had killed Mark and tried to kill her. Ellery fought the door, but it wouldn’t budge. The sounds of her friends shouting were in the air, but she ignored their questions as she ran back to them.

  “Give me your gun,” Ellery ordered. She knew she was losing control, but she couldn’t stop until she knew it was true.

  “No,” Castle said calmly. “What’s going on?”

  “I know who killed Mark, but I have to be sure. I have to get inside.”

  “Who killed Mark?” Gavin asked before Agent Castle could.

  “Hollis,” Ellery said as the tears began to fall. “Hollis chased me out here. Hollis hit me with a Julia Duran statue of a palmetto tree.”

  “What are you looking for inside?” Castle asked as he tossed her a loose cobblestone. “Break the camera.” She caught the cobblestone and with her middle finger raised to the camera, bashed it with the rock. And then Castle reached up to grip her arms. She realized they were all covered in hooded raincoats while she was soaked to the skin. She should have been cold, but instead she felt numb. Numb in her body and her heart.

  “Blood. He hit Mark in the head, and I saw the blood pool. It should be on the statue and on the floor. Mark also threw a glass and shattered it. I have to know if what I saw in my flashback was true. You have to understand,” Ellery practically shouted. Desperation filled her. They had to understand.

  “Security could be here any minute if they bothered to look at the camera being out,” Castle warned, but Ellery was growing near frantic. They weren’t going to let her inside. She could break out the front window, but then the police would be there in less than a minute. The station wasn’t that far away. “So, we better hurry.”

  “What?” Ellery asked, her breath stopping in her chest as she though she misheard.

  “You two stay here. Let us know if anyone is coming.” Castle ordered.

  Ellery shifted from foot to foot as Castle made quick work of the lock. The door opened, and the beeping of the alarm sounded. Ellery rushed past Castle and entered the code and the beeping stopped.

  “Unbelievable. He didn’t change the code,” Castle muttered.

  “W
hy would he have to? He thought we were all dead.” Ellery’s stomach rolled as Castle followed her down the hall. The curtain was fixed. “It’s a new curtain.” She gasped as her shaking hand reached out to pull it back. Still a black curtain, this one had an inlaid pattern on it. The old one didn’t. And she could prove that from the pictures at the party. She pulled back the curtain, and she could see them standing there. It was as if she were back there again.

  “Ellery,” Castle snapped, bringing her back. “I don’t see a palmetto statue.”

  Ellery looked around, and there was now a statue of a sea turtle on the pedestal the palmetto had been on. “It had to have been sold or put away.” But now she was frantic again. Was she making this all up?

  Ellery rushed to the spot Mark had died and ran her hands over the old wood floors. “This was where Mark was killed.”

  It was too dark, and she couldn’t tell if there was any blood. Castle turned on his flashlight but said nothing. The floor spoke for itself. There was no blood.

  On hands and knees, Ellery crawled to the other side of the room. “What are you doing?”

  “They might have cleaned up the blood, but they would have just swept up the broken glass,” Ellery said as she put her nose to the ground. Both relief and doubt filled her. “Does this smell like whiskey?”

  Castle crouched down next to her and flashed his light. She didn’t need for him to answer because there it was, a tiny shard of glass.

  “Look. I’m not crazy. It was Hollis,” Ellery said, grabbing hold of Castle’s strong arm as if to force him into believing her.

  “You’re right. Ryan Parker will be here tomorrow morning and we’ll serve a warrant on the place. Hopefully our lab team can find some blood to sample. These old floors will probably have some evidence in the cracks. You did it, Ellery.”

  Ellery felt like crying, but there was still one more thing she needed to do. “Come on. The records are in Hollis’s office. Let’s see if I can find that statue.”