Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Box Set

by Willow Rose

  “You’re sick,” I said. “Do you know that? I’ll come after you. I’ll hunt you down and kill you. You hear me?”

  I yelled at the top of my lungs, but it was too late. Helen stared at me, then took in a deep breath and held it, while lifting a small knife in the air and poking it through the plastic bag. I whimpered as I watched the hole grow, and the liquid inside of it start to move. For days, I had read about this type of gas and just what it did to the body. I knew this was definitely going to kill us both if I didn’t act fast.

  “Bastards!” I screamed as the two women rushed to the emergency exit at the other end of the room and left.

  Chapter 104

  “What are we going to do, Mom? What do we do?”

  The panic in my daughter’s voice didn’t help make me calmer. I was struggling with the duct tape while trying to not breathe in too deeply. Meanwhile, the liquid had reached the carpet now, and it was beginning to sting my eyes. So far, only a small amount of the gas had made it out of the hole. I didn’t know how much of the liquid it took to kill us, and I wasn’t planning on sticking around to find out.

  I moved my hands back and forth, getting the tape loose, and soon pulled my hands out. I removed the tape from my feet then rushed to Olivia and started pulling at hers.

  “How did you do that?” she asked. “How did you get your hands out?”

  “When they tied me up, I made sure there was a good gap between my wrists, so they didn’t fully touch,” I said. “They didn’t notice, luckily, since they were so busy talking. Once they left, it was easy to pull off since it was so loose. Here. Now, you’re free too.”

  We sprang to our feet, and I pulled my daughter away from the gas. It was stinging my eyes severely now, and I felt like my throat was closing up. It had to be the worst feeling in the world, not to be able to breathe properly. Panic erupted in me as we rushed across the room.

  “Mom,” Olivia said. “I don’t feel so good.”

  “I know, sweetie. We just need to get to the emergency exit. Hurry.”

  We tried to run, but it was hard when we couldn’t breathe properly. I gasped for air and felt like my lungs were collapsing.

  We reached the door to the emergency exit, then tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Mom? What’s happening?” Olivia said. “Why won’t it open?”

  “They must have… blocked it somehow,” I said and tried again, pushing it hard.

  It didn’t move.

  “What do we do?” Olivia said.

  “We’ll try the elevator,” I said and pulled her by the hand. We reached the elevator, where Christopher’s dead body lay on the floor. I stepped in some of his blood and felt like I had to throw up. Olivia came inside with me, whimpering as she tried not to look at him. I pressed the button, but nothing happened.

  “Mom?” Olivia said. “Why doesn’t it do anything?”

  I pressed again, then again and again. Nothing.

  I stared into the apartment and realized there was no light on in any of the lamps. I couldn’t hear the AC running either. I walked out and flipped a switch, but nothing happened.

  “What’s going on, Mom? Mom?” my daughter shrieked.

  “They turned the power off. So, we couldn’t get down in case we escaped somehow. They’re smarter than I thought.”

  “But… but if the emergency exit is blocked and the elevator doesn’t work, then what do we do?” Olivia said. “How do we get out of here before the gas kills us?”

  Chapter 105

  “We’ve been told she’s holding the entire Wellington family captive in the penthouse apartment,” Carter said.

  He looked at Matt, who was standing next to him. Matt held his cuffed hands in front of him. He folded his hands and mumbled a prayer under his breath. He was worried about Eva Rae more than anything.

  “You still believe in her innocence? She’s up there with him, with Christopher Daniels. The bellboy over there told us he helped them get up there, that Eva Rae Thomas put a gun to his head and forced him to take them up there. And you still want to defend her? I’m beginning to think that either you’re very stupid or maybe very blinded by your love for her, or maybe you really are in it with her. But there is no way she’s coming out of that building without us getting her. I have guards at every exit, and the entire area is surrounded. This time, we’ll get her. I just know we will. Her reign of terror is over.”

  Matt swallowed hard and looked up toward the penthouse. He felt a pinch in his heart. How was this ever going to end well for her? Carter had told him that they believed Olivia was there too. The bellboy had said that a young girl was in the elevator with them, and when they showed him a picture of Olivia, he had said it looked like her, only she had shorter hair.

  Matt breathed to calm himself down. At least Eva Rae had finally found her daughter. That provided Matt with some level of comfort. But would they make it out alive?

  “Someone’s coming out,” a voice yelled.

  Please, let it be Eva Rae; please, let it be Eva Rae.

  Carter approached the entrance, escorting Matt with him. There was movement behind the sliding doors, and soon they opened. Two women came out, but it wasn’t Eva Rae or Olivia.

  Dang it.

  “It’s the Wellington sisters!” A reporter yelled, and they all threw themselves forward but were stopped by the police barrier they had put up. Officers rushed to the women. Both looked to be in great distress. Tears were rolling from their eyes.

  “We need paramedics over here!” an officer yelled. “Fast!”

  “It’s was horrible,” one of the sisters said. “She tried to kill us.”

  “Eva Rae Thomas did?” Carter asked when approaching them.

  One of the sisters, who Matt recognized as Helen Wellington, lifted her head and nodded. “Her and Christopher Daniels. Christopher killed our parents, and then he killed her too.”

  “Eva Rae Thomas?” Matt asked, his pulse quickening.

  Helen nodded. She struggled to get the words past her lips.

  “Yes. And her daughter. Using nerve gas.”

  Matt didn’t hear anything after that. He gasped for air and stepped backward, hearing only his own heartbeat.

  Eva Rae is dead? She’s dead?

  He could barely breathe and felt dizzy. Carter was busy taking the sisters’ statements, so he didn’t notice him as he stepped out of the crowd to gather himself. He bent forward, squatting down, his cuffed hands held up in front of him and started to cry.

  Carter came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “It’s time to go, buddy. I’m taking you back to the station. You’re of no use to me anymore since Eva Rae is dead.”

  Matt nodded, still sobbing heavily, then rose to his feet. As he did, he threw a glance toward the top floor of the building in front of him. Up there, on the seventy-fifth floor, he could see something moving.

  Was it someone waving?

  No, it couldn’t be.

  Matt squinted his eyes. He always had hawk-like vision, but this was far away. Still, he couldn’t help thinking that someone had opened the window and was waving.

  Could he hear them screaming too?

  “Wait a second,” he said. He stepped forward, while Carter grabbed his shoulder.

  “We need to go.”

  Matt stood still for a few seconds more, staring into the air, then turned to face Carter.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, “But I can’t go right now.”

  Matt then lifted his knee and slammed it into Carter’s crotch, causing him to bend over in deep pain.

  Then, Matt turned around and made a run for it. It took a few seconds before Carter was able to speak and yell to his colleagues, and by the time he did, Matt was already approaching the sliding doors. They took off after him, but he was faster than them, and soon he stormed inside.

  He knew they wouldn’t follow him in, not when they knew there was gas inside of the building and, just as he
thought, they stopped their pursuit at the doors.

  Matt ran to the elevator, but nothing happened when he pressed the button. He found the exit sign, then ran down a hallway and soon reached the stairs.

  Then, he started climbing.

  The first steps went smooth and easy, and he took them two, sometimes three at a time, eager to get up to the penthouse before it was too late. He was certain it was Eva Rae he had seen in the window, waving at him. He might be mad, and it might end up killing him, going up there to the nerve gas without proper protection, but he had to do it. He simply had to.

  As he reached the fortieth floor, he began slowing down, feeling his heart pumping in his chest, and as he reached the fiftieth floor, he had to stop and catch his breath before continuing.

  It took forever to climb this many stairs, especially with no AC, and by the time he finally reached the seventy-fifth floor, he was completely drenched in sweat and out of breath. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting to her. Matt refused to believe she was dead. It simply couldn’t be true.

  He had to at least see it with his own eyes. Even if it meant he died while trying.

  Matt reached the plateau and saw the door. He took in a couple of breaths, then approached it.

  When he stood close to it, his blood froze to ice. The door had been blocked by several big, heavy boxes. The rest of them rested on a pallet against the wall next to it. It was obvious someone had just grabbed them to block it purposely.

  Creating a deathtrap.

  The thought made Matt’s heart race even faster. This meant the two women had blocked the exit so no one else could follow them. No one else could make it out.

  Matt raised his fists and hammered on the door with his cuffed hands.

  “Eva Rae? Eva Rae? Are you in there?”

  When no answer came, Matt started pulling the boxes to the side, frantically carrying them one at a time. It wasn’t easy with his hands cuffed, and them being very heavy, but soon he had pushed them away. He grabbed for the handle, only to realize that there was none.

  “Oh, dear God,” he cried out in desperation. “The door only opens one way!”

  Matt used both his fists to hammer on the door once more.

  “Eva Rae! You need to open it from the inside. Come on, Eva Rae; come on!”

  Matt slammed his fists against the door until his knuckles started to bleed. He cried and leaned against the door.

  “Come on, Eva Rae. Push the door open.”

  He had almost given up hope when a small voice came from somewhere behind the door.

  “M-Matt? Is that you?”

  “Olivia?” he said, his voice shrill. “Olivia? Where’s your mom?”

  “She’s passed out. She couldn’t breathe and fell to the floor by the window. I’m not sure… I don’t… my lungs are burning, Matt. It hurts. My eyes too.”

  “Olivia, I need you to push the door open. I’ve removed the boxes that blocked it, but you need to push it open from the inside. Can you do that for me?”

  A heartbeat went by, and nothing happened. There was a fumbling behind the door, and then it clicked and slowly opened, but only a little. Matt put his fingers in the crack and pulled it all the way open. Olivia fell out in the hallway, her body shaking like she was having a seizure. Eva Rae lay utterly still on the floor by the window.

  “My God,” Matt exclaimed, then looked from one to the other. He stared at the stairs behind him, leading down. There were seventy-five floors. How was he supposed to carry two bodies down all those stairs? How was he supposed to make it in time? With both hands cuffed?

  Matt turned to look at Eva Rae.

  There was only one solution. He’d have to choose between them. He could only carry one at a time. The question was, should he take the woman he loved or her daughter?

  Chances were only one of them would survive.

  Chapter 106

  Matt made it halfway before he tripped and dropped Olivia’s lifeless body. He hit face-first into the ground and screamed with anger and frustration. Olivia’s body slid across the floor.

  He had chosen the daughter. Not that it was an easy choice, but he knew that Eva Rae would kill him if he took her over Olivia. She would want it this way, and he’d have to respect that.

  Matt got up, grabbed Olivia by the arms, and tried to sling her back onto his shoulder. He made a grimace when his back hurt, then was about to take another step, when suddenly the lights in the hallway were turned back on. Matt gasped and looked up at the lamp above him.

  The power is back on! That means the elevator is running again.

  Matt found the door leading to the floor he was on, then carried Olivia inside and down the hallway. He found the elevator, then pushed the button, and soon it arrived. He gasped when seeing the dead body inside of it, but carried Olivia inside, then pushed the button to go down before running out of it and letting it leave without him. He knew that if he came downstairs with her, he’d get taken away and they would never look for Eva Rae. He had to get back up and take her down as well.

  Before it was too late.

  So, he did. He ran back up the many stairs, praying that the first responders would find Olivia and get her the help she needed. Turning the electricity on again meant they were inside the building. Matt guessed there were still many people trapped in their hotel rooms all over the building that they came to get out.

  He had left Eva Rae on the plateau, so she wouldn’t be exposed to any more of the gas, and she was still there as he came back. She was lying on her side, motionless, but she had a pulse when he felt for it.

  He grabbed her by the waist and swung her above his shoulders, then — energized by fear of losing her, he started the climb back down again.

  He made it two-thirds of the way down when he couldn’t walk anymore. He fought to take another step, then another, before he felt like he couldn’t walk anymore. His legs were getting wobbly beneath him, and he was getting dizzy.

  You’ve got to make it, Matt. Just a few more steps.

  At first, he thought he was just imagining things when he heard voices coming from below him, but he peeked down to see the first responders arriving wearing their hazmat suits, breathing heavily inside of them.

  “Sir? Are you all right, sir? Have you been exposed to the gas?” the one who came up to him first asked.

  Matt shook his head, breathing hard and tearing up. He was almost out of strength and hope. They had come at the right time. One more minute and he would have caved in.

  “No, but she has. Please, help. This woman needs medical care right away.”

  THREE DAYS LATER

  Chapter 107

  “When it all comes down to it, you’re in deep trouble.”

  I coughed behind the oxygen mask and fought to breathe. It was happening over and over again. My respiratory system had been damaged, and they didn’t know how badly yet. But I was alive, and so was my daughter. I had been in the hospital for days, and they had given me a reversal agent to save my life. Now, Carter had come to visit and stood by my bed, telling me how much trouble I was in.

  My arms were cuffed to the bed, so I had no way of actually doing it, but I wanted to punch the man in the face.

  “But…” I said between heavy breaths. “But I told you that Helen and Aubrey Wellington…” I lost my breath and wheezed, then took in a couple of deep breaths through my oxygen mask.

  “I know, I know. You stick to that story, but no one believes it. Detective Miller keeps saying the same thing, but frankly, it’s a little too far out to be true, don’t you think?”

  I coughed again, then shook my head. “Not more far out than me being the great mastermind.”

  Carter shrugged. “Well, that’s just too bad, isn’t it? Because that’s what I think. And I have the evidence to prove it.”

  I wheezed again before being able to speak. “You planted that evidence. Don’t you think I know you did?”

  Carter came closer, then leane
d over me and spoke with a low voice. “Between you and me, yes, I did. I took the necklace from your hotel room when we searched it and placed it in Lori Moore’s kitchen. I also used a cloth with the nerve gas that I took from the evidence room, sealed in a bag, and placed it in the trunk of your car. Just to help the case go a little smoother. But you’ll never be able to prove it. It’ll be your word against mine, and who do you think they’ll believe? I’m guessing not the woman who is known as a fraud and who we have on surveillance video assaulting spa owners.”

  “Maybe you should try and guess again,” a voice said coming from behind Carter.