Up ahead, Billy and Naomi had already begun the ascent to the top of the embankment. Tom knew better than to offer Rae assistance. She was too proud to accept his hand. Instead, she propelled herself up to the summit like a seasoned climber and stood waiting for him to scramble up behind her. Then they all took a moment to gaze at the Ruins.
Moonlight glinted off the windows, giving the place a strange sense of animation. Of being alive. Tom scoffed at himself. Maybe Rae’s trepidation had rubbed off on him. Maybe he was letting his own imagination get the better of him because if he listened closely enough, he could hear the creak of a door somewhere inside. Or was that the squeal of a rusted gurney? With very little effort, he could conjure ghostly images behind the broken windowpanes and phantom whispers rippling down through the trees. He shook off those visions, reminding himself that a place couldn’t be evil or haunted. The only real monsters were human.
“We’ll check around back,” Naomi said.
Tom nodded. “We’ll take the front. Call out if you find anything.”
“Roger that.”
She and Billy headed off into the darkness and Tom turned to Rae. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait for me outside?”
“No, I need to go in with you. If Sophie’s inside and she sees you come in alone, she might get scared and think she’s in trouble. I don’t want to take the chance that she could run off again.”
She had a point. “Okay, but we need to stick together. And watch your step. I don’t trust the integrity of this place. One wrong move and the whole structure could come down on top of us.”
“It’s been standing for decades,” Rae said. “Even been through a few tornadoes. I think we’re safe enough, but your point is taken. I’ll be careful.”
They entered through one of the archways, pausing to rake their flashlight beams over the graffiti.
“I always wondered what this place was like on the inside. It’s even creepier than I imagined,” Rae said in a hushed voice. Her light lingered on the ceiling mural. “What’s that?”
“Preacher.” Tom swept his light over the demonic fresco. The eyes seemed to glow, but he knew that was only an illusion of paint and moonlight. “So you’ve never been inside before? That’s surprising. Spending time at the Ruins has been a rite of passage in these parts ever since the place closed down.”
“I was never much of a follower, and then after Riley disappeared...” She trailed away. “I’ve been outside plenty of times, but I could never make myself enter. After it happened, I’d drive out after school and walk around the area calling my sister’s name even though I knew she was long gone. I tried to picture where she might be. Tried to put myself in her place, imagine her fear, her screams...”
Tom heard a tremor in her voice. He was having flashbacks of that night, too. He’d been so panicked by the time he entered the building, he hadn’t stopped to assess the risk. On some level, he’d been aware of the structural danger and the possibility of rattlers or copperheads, but the human menace had eluded him until he heard the softest of footfalls behind him. By then it was too late. He was struck across the back of his head, so hard he fell to his knees. Another blow knocked him out cold.
He came to the next morning at the bottom of the rise, his hair and clothing stained with blood. He’d been rolled down the embankment and left for dead, no doubt bleeding so profusely that the assailant hadn’t bothered to finish him off. Tom had found Ellie lying facedown at the water’s edge. How she’d gotten away from her attacker or why she hadn’t drowned was anyone’s guess. Tom had administered CPR and then carried her all the way to the bridge, up the embankment and out to the road where he’d left his vehicle the night before.
Eighteen stitches and a week in the hospital later, he’d still blamed himself for not being able to save the others, even though he knew in his gut that Riley and Jenna had already been taken by the time he regained consciousness.
Beside him, Rae froze as she angled her beam along the cracked floor tiles. “Tom, look at this.”
He came over to stand beside her. Then he squatted, focusing his light on the red droplets.
“Is that blood?” she asked fearfully.
He touched his finger to a drop. “It’s fresh, but there isn’t much of it. Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Too late for that. He heard the sharp intake of Rae’s breath as she swung the flashlight wildly around the crumbling interior, tracking up the stairs and searching in all the dark corners.
“Sophie! Are you in here? Sophie, it’s Rae. Answer me!” He heard another gasp. “I saw something!”
He rose. “Where?”
She positioned the light at the top of the stairs. “Someone was up there watching us. A man, I think.”
“Stay here.” Tom unholstered his weapon as he moved toward the stairs. Running the flashlight beam along the landing, he started up, testing each step with his weight before moving on to the next. When he got to the top, he angled the beam down the long corridor, taking note of open doorways and piles of debris, places from which he could be ambushed.
“Sophie!” he called out. “Are you up here? This is Sheriff Brannon. You’re not in any trouble. Your aunt is with me. We just want to make sure you’re okay.” Gun in his right hand, flashlight in his left, he eased down the corridor, shining the beam inside the empty rooms. He heard footsteps on the stairs. “Rae, is that you?”
“I’m coming up,” she said.
He didn’t bother to argue. “Watch your step. The floor is rotting through up here.”
He heard her behind him, but he didn’t turn. Up ahead, in one of the gloomy recesses, he’d caught the glimmer of human eyes. “Whoever you are, put your hands behind your head and come out where I can see you.” Rae was at the top of the stairs now. He said over his shoulder, “Stay where you are, Rae.”
“Who’s up here?” she asked on a breath.
“I don’t know yet. Stay by the stairs.”
In front of him, a shadow darted across the corridor. Startled, Tom called out, “Freeze!”
A face peered back at him for a split second before disappearing. Just vanished before Tom’s very eyes.
He moved forward cautiously until one foot found nothing but air. He found himself teetering on the brink of the old elevator shaft. A rope swung wildly from a rafter as if someone had rappelled down into the chute. He leaned over the opening, allowing the flashlight beam to peel away the inky layers. Something was down there, crumpled on the floor.
“Tom?”
He threw out an arm to halt Rae’s progress. “Careful. Long drop. Looks like it may go all the way down to the basement.”
“What is it?”
“The old elevator shaft. Someone’s rigged up a rope. I think whoever was up here used it to lower himself down.”
Tom holstered his weapon and reached for the rope, rocking precariously for a moment before Rae grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “Are you crazy? You don’t know how old that thing is. Who knows how much weight it’ll hold.”
She was right. A broken leg wouldn’t help them find Sophie. “Let’s see if we can figure out another way into the basement.”
They backtracked along the corridor, down the stairs and through a maze of hallways to the back of the building. Outside, Tom glanced once again at the sky. The eclipse was nearly over. He wanted to take that as a good sign, but the blood drops inside, coupled with the crumpled form he’d seen in the elevator shaft, didn’t bode well for a happy outcome. Beside him, Rae remained tense and silent.
He could see the deputies’ flashlight beams bobbling in the dark. He called out to them. “Stay alert. We saw someone inside.”
“Any sign of the girl?” Naomi called back.
“Not yet. We’re looking for a way down into the basement. One of you stand guard out here, the other go around to the front. Make sure no one leaves
this place without our knowing.”
They split up, Billy taking the rear while Naomi went around to the front. Tom and Rae searched along the house until they located the outside basement entrance. A set of concrete steps led down to a metal door that hung open on one rusty hinge. He pulled back the door and then angled his flashlight beam into the cavernous space.
An odor of sour mud and dead fish emanated from the cellar, reminding Tom of a bog. He imagined there were plenty of rats and snakes in there, too. He didn’t relish an exploration, but he wasn’t about to delegate that job to a rookie.
He said over his shoulder, “You two wait out here. Keep your eyes peeled.”
“I’m coming with you,” Rae insisted. “Sophie is my niece. She’s my responsibility. I need to help you find her.” She touched his sleeve. “Please, Tom.”
He stepped back. “Can you smell that? You still want to go in there?”
“I don’t want to, no. I want to be back home asleep in my bed with Sophie safe and sound down the hallway. But I’m not leaving here until we’ve searched every square inch of this place.”
“All right, then,” he said. “Let’s get it done.”
* * *
RAE PUT THE back of her hand to her nose as she followed Tom into the basement. That smell! As if she hadn’t been apprehensive enough. The stench of sour mud and rotting vegetation permeated her nostrils and clogged her throat. She swallowed past her gag reflex and braced herself. She had to do this. Now was not the time to go wimpy and squeamish. She had to find Sophie. Nothing else could be allowed to matter.
She cleared her throat, dropped her hand from her nose and took a few tentative breaths until she felt clearheaded and steady. The building was on high ground, but enough rainwater had seeped in over the decades to allow mold, mildew and all manner of creeping things to take up residence. Even now Rae could have sworn she heard dripping water, but they hadn’t had rain in weeks. Maybe it was condensation. The air was damp, and the stone floor felt slippery beneath her sneakers.
She resisted the urge to cling to Tom’s shirt as they made their way through small mountains of discarded equipment and debris. She didn’t want to think about the original purpose of all those old contraptions, but already she had visions of restraints and drain tables dancing through her head. Once upon a time, the hospital had had its own morgue. She wondered if that was where they were now.
The elevator was just ahead. She tried to get a better view, but Tom’s broad back kept blocking her, as if he wanted to shield her.
“What are you doing?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“You keep moving in front of me. Why? What are you afraid I’ll see?”
“I’ve got a weapon and you don’t,” he said. “We don’t know who or what we’ll find down here. It’s best that you stay behind me.”
“You saw something from above, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know what I saw,” he admitted. “Will you just stay behind me?”
“You think Sophie’s—”
“Alive,” he said. “We’ve no reason to think otherwise.”
“Except for the blood we found.”
“A very small amount and could be animal blood, for all we know. Just stay focused. Let’s finish this job.”
They approached the elevator shaft and Rae moved around Tom despite his protests. Her heart thudded when her flashlight beam connected with something on the floor. Tom moved quickly to investigate.
“It’s just a bunch of old clothing,” he said.
Was that relief she heard in his voice? “Are you sure?”
He picked up a metal rod from the floor and prodded the pile. “See?”
No sooner had Rae let out her own relieved breath than a sound brought her up short. She couldn’t identify the direction of the noise. The basement had an echo effect that disoriented her. Why had she insisted on coming down here with Tom? She could have remained outside with the officer and no one would have thought less of her. She hated close places. Hated the dampness even more. Hated the sensation that something or someone lurked in the shadows, just beyond the reach of her flashlight. Rae wasn’t one for allowing her imagination to get the better of her, but this place held too many trapped memories.
Tom called to his deputy. “Billy?”
“Right here, sir.” His voice came from the top of the outside steps.
“You see anything out there?”
“No, sir. Everything’s quiet. What about down there?”
“We’re about to find out,” Tom said.
Rae moved her flashlight beam around the room. Near the entrance, something glinted.
“Tom?” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Someone’s down here.”
Icy fingers slid down her back as she gripped the flashlight. She used her other hand to steady her wrist as she vectored in on a silhouette. Human. Tall, lanky with longish hair and a scraggly beard. She thought for a moment her fear had conjured the man, but then she caught the glimmer of his beady eyes before he dropped to the floor and scurried crab-like back into a yawning black hole beside the entrance.
“Did you see—”
Tom swore under his breath as he sprinted across the room, Rae at his heels. She wasn’t about to be left behind.
A metal gate hung open, revealing the dark void into which the man had scuttled.
“What is that place?” she asked on a quavering breath.
Tom knelt to shine his light back into the opening. “Looks to be a crawl space or a tunnel of some sort. I can see some old pipes. Lots of cobwebs, too.”
“You’re not going in there,” Rae said.
“Get Billy down here.”
“Tom, you can’t—”
“Make sure he knows where I’m going.”
She didn’t argue further, but spun on her heel and ran up the steps. She called to the deputy, told him about the tunnel, and by the time he’d followed her back into the basement, Tom had disappeared.
* * *
THE CRAWL SPACE went on and on. Tom walked hunched over, occasionally dropping to his hands and knees when the floor and ceiling tightened. He’d never been bothered by close places, but the tunnel unnerved him. It was damp and moldy and he could smell something fetid up ahead. Something that churned his stomach and stiffened his backbone.
Dead rodents, he told himself, but the dark passenger of dread climbed upon his shoulder and whispered bad things in his ear. He shook off the presentiment, reminding himself that Sophie had been missing only a few hours. For all they knew, she was out partying with a friend or lying low someplace to teach her parents a lesson. No reason to believe the worst. They still had plenty of time.
But the clock was ticking and the crawl space seemed endless. After a bit, Tom felt a slight ascension, as if he were heading back up to ground level.
Rae called out to him. His muffled name reverberated through the narrow passage, sending a shiver down his spine even as he took comfort in the sound of her voice. “Just stay put,” he called back to her.
He didn’t know if she’d heard him or not. Surely she wouldn’t try to follow him through the crawl space. He couldn’t worry about that right now, though. He had to follow this thing to the end, had to discover the source of that smell.
He plunged on, eventually arriving at another gated opening. Instead of getting closer to the source of the smell, the odor had faded. He could feel fresh air on his face. The crawl space had led him from the main building back to the old boiler room. Tall windows allowed in enough moonlight so that he could make out the metal grates that would have restricted the flames.
Perching at the edge of the opening, he shone his flashlight into the room before he dropped down to the floor and stood gazing around. The space was littered with discarded food cans, an old mattress and what looke
d to be a camping stove. Someone had been living there.
He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and turned just as an emaciated man with a heavy beard leaped out of the crawl space and flung himself at Tom, knocking him off balance. He swore as he scrambled to his feet. Once he regained his equilibrium, he had no trouble fending off the scrawny attacker.
“That’s enough,” Tom said, holding the flailing assailant at bay. Then he pushed him away and the man dropped to the floor, cowering and whimpering.
“I didn’t do nothing. You got no call to hurt me like that.”
“You’re the one who jumped me,” Tom pointed out. “I was just defending myself.”
The man cringed and hid his face.
“Look at me.” Tom trained the flashlight beam on the badge he wore clipped to his belt. “My name’s Tom Brannon. I’m the Nance County sheriff. What are you doing in here? Have you been living in this place?”
The man sat up and scratched a bony arm. “I stay here sometimes when I’m passing through. No law against that, is there?”
“Depends on what you’ve been up to.” Tom flicked the beam around the room. “What’s your name?”
“Marty.”
“You got a last name?”
“Booker.”
“Have you seen anyone else at the Ruins tonight, Marty?”
“Like who?”
“A girl.” Tom had been moving the flashlight around the room, but now he froze the beam on the floor. He used one of the disposable gloves he kept in his pocket to pick up a cell phone in a pink silicone case, gingerly holding it by the edges. “Where did you get this?”
“Found it.”
“Where?”
Marty gave a vague nod toward the door. “Over yonder. Somebody dropped it, I reckon. Finders, keepers.”
The phone wasn’t locked. Tom kept an eye on the man while he scrolled through the contact numbers. Before he had time to get through the list, Rae burst through the door with Billy Navarro behind her.
“We saw a light out here and then we heard voices.” She halted when she saw the stranger shrinking in the shadows. “Who’s he?”
Without A Trace (Echo Lake Book 1) Page 3