“Are you sure about this?” the driver asked Sable. “No telling how long we’ll be stuck here if we stop now.”
Perry Chadwick cleared his throat, his triple chins jiggling. “I would prefer to stay here indefinitely if the alternative is to plunge off a cliff. I vote we stay.”
“No voting to it,” Simmons said calmly. “We’re staying.”
Murph studied the two men. If someone knew he and Sable were still alive and had taken the bus from Freemont, it would have been easy to follow them to Joplin, buy a ticket, and join them. It also interested him that even Jerri, the bus driver, had been a sudden replacement.
Very concerning. Not only was she overly friendly, but she had gone out of her way to call each person by name, insuring that they knew names without needing to be introduced. Everyone else on the bus had arrived at the Joplin bus station long after he and Sable. What better way to find the secluded Kessinger place—and the evidence possibly stored there—than to tail Josiah Kessinger’s granddaughter?
On the other hand, the men at the canal had seemed convinced that he and Sable had gone down with the car.
The older lady, Audrey, reached forward and patted the driver’s shoulder. “This highway is treacherous in bad weather, especially if you aren’t familiar with it. I’m all for accepting Miss Sable’s offer and getting to it before the road or driveway can collect more ice.”
Sable gestured to the mailbox spotlighted by the bus headlights. Beside it was a narrow drive curving down between bare deciduous trees and green cedars. “You can pull over there, Jerri. We’ll have to walk from here.”
“Walk?” Perry Chadwick’s voice rose to a squeak, his jowly face quivering in alarm as Jerri maneuvered the big vehicle forward. “In this weather? How far?”
“It’s a little over a quarter of a mile,” Sable said.
“Why can't we drive there?” the portly man protested.
“You see this bus?” Simmons asked. “You see that driveway? What we’re trying to do is not plunge to our deaths.”
Jerri parked the bus at the edge of the road. “Okay, folks, we’re parked, but let’s stay here on the bus where it’s dry until the sun comes up in a few hours. I don’t relish walking anywhere in the dark on that ice.”
“You’re not from around here, are you,” Audrey asked.
Jerri hesitated and shook her head. “Moved here from Florida a few weeks ago.”
There was a groan of disbelief from Simmons.
“I’m sorry,” Audrey said, “but speaking from experience, I intend to go now. I recently lost a dear friend who fell and broke her hip and didn’t survive the surgery. The longer we wait here, the thicker the ground ice and the slicker the walk. Sable obviously knows this drive and I have no doubt she can guide us safely down to her warm dry home.”
Simmons got up and retrieved a duffel bag from beneath the seat where he had been sitting earlier. “The lady’s right, that ice isn’t melting. Let’s get this over with.”
A muttered query came from the center of the bus. A shaggy-haired teenaged boy poked his head over the seat and peered at them with sleepy brown eyes. “Are we there?”
“No, I'm sorry Bryce.” Jerri set the hand brake and unbuckled her seatbelt. “Get your coat and umbrella if you have one.” She explained what they were doing.
“In the dark?” Bryce protested. “In the rain?”
“In the freezing rain,” Perry stressed.
“That’s right.” Jerri scanned the tiny group and her gaze fell on Murph. “Mr. Murphy, please check the overhead compartment in the back for umbrellas and the flashlight.”
“I have my little one.” Audrey pulled a penlight from her purse and showed it to the others. “Amazing what a little beam can do in the darkness. I wouldn’t be without it.”
“Better save it,” Jerri said. “We might need the light later. I have one here on the bus. Everybody gather your things while I try to call Dispatch.”
Five minutes later, after Jerri had tried the radio and a cell phone to no avail, it appeared they would be out of touch with the world in the static of the hills.
“We don’t get cell phone reception out here, either,” Sable said. “There is a landline, but it only works when there’s electricity. If the ice gets too thick, we’ll lose even that.”
Perry groaned.
“The sooner we get there, the more likely it’ll be that we haven’t lost power yet.” Sable said.
Perry returned to the front wearing a long coat, pulling a hard-sided case with wheels and a telescoping handle. “I can't believe we're doing this. Did you see those limbs? The ice must be an inch thick already.”
“Sorry, Mr. Chadwick,” Jerri said. “This is now an emergency situation. We are required to disembark as quickly as possible, and in this ice we cannot afford to haul big loads. Carry only the bare essentials, an overnight case if you must, but no more.” She indicated his suitcase. “That’s too much. On treacherous ice it could cause an accident.”
Perry arched a pale eyebrow, surprisingly resolute. “This goes where I go.”
“Then don’t expect anyone else to help you with it,” Jerri snapped. She flicked off the bus lights and turned on her flashlight. “Be careful and stay together.” She pulled the door open to a maelstrom of wind and ice.
Murph stepped out first, catching his breath as the rain pelted his face and neck, slapping softly against the hardening surface of the ground. He stomped into a pile of ice-coated leaves and found traction . . . of sorts.
“Watch your footing,” he told the others. “It’s treacherous.” He turned to help Sable.
She hesitated before she took his hand and he could see the anxiety in her eyes.
“Coming through,” Simmons announced behind her.
Evading Murph’s outstretched hand, the muscular man with the gravel voice landed on the ground with surprising grace.
Perry Chadwick came next. When Murph reached up to help him with his suitcase, he jerked it back. “Important equipment,” he murmured. “Besides, I’ve been warned it’s my responsibility.” He glared back at the driver as he allowed Murph to steady him as he stepped down.
They gathered beneath a clump of cedar trees, which sheltered them from the worst of the rain while they opened their umbrellas. Except for Jerri’s flashlight, the frigid darkness was absolute.
Murph couldn’t help comparing this pre-dawn experience to the one he and Sable had gone through the night before. How much more would they have to endure?
* * *
Sable scrambled for traction along the dark drive. Icy needles of rain, whipped by the wind, penetrated beneath the protection of the umbrella and stung her face.
She cast a sideways glance at Murph, whose footing seemed secure and steady. In contrast, Perry Chadwick clutched his case in his arms, stumbling and sliding with every step. By the time they reached the cliffs on their private drive, a couple hundred feet from the highway, he was puffing and gasping for breath.
The road dipped in a sharp decline, hugging the hillside in a hairpin curve, and exposing them to the ravine below. A sudden gust of wind startled Sable with a blast of cold sleet, attacking her umbrella, nearly jerking it from her grip. Audrey cried out. Perry slid to his knees.
Sable lost her traction and instinctively reached for Murph’s arm.
He caught her and steadied her. “Are you okay?”
“Yes but it’s getting worse. This ice is almost impossible.” She raised her voice to be heard by the others. “Everyone stay as close as you can to the hillside here. And take your time. You don’t want to lose your footing.”
They had only walked a few more yards along the road when Perry gave a startled grunt and stumbled against Jerri, knocking the flashlight from her grip. It clattered to the ground and in a spiral of rotating rays slid over the edge of the cliff into empty black space. In the startled silence the spatter of rain was so loud that they didn’t hear the flashlight hit bottom. The darkness rushed t
o engulf them.
“Idiot!” Simmons snapped.
“Oh no,” Perry said. “I’m so sorry. What are we—”
“Everybody stay put!” Jerri shouted from ahead of them. “Audrey, where’s your penlight?”
“It’s right here,” Audrey said. “Would someone please help me hold my umbrella for a moment?”
Murph had released Sable and stepped backward when someone else—Bryce? Perry?—cried out and fell.
In the blackness, the wind attacked Sable’s umbrella again, wrenching it from her grasp. Then someone shoved her from the right. Hard.
She screamed, flinging her arms out as her feet flew out from under her. Her shoulder slammed against the ice-glazed drive and her slide gained momentum.
She screamed again, grasping desperately for a tree, a bush, anything in the darkness that would stop her descent to the ravine. Rocks gouged at her but offered no handhold.
“Help me!” she cried as she neared the cliff’s edge.
“Sable grab my hand!” Murph shouted.
She reached up blindly through the darkness but her body rammed against a boulder, knocking the breath from her lungs, stunning her with pain. She tumbled sideways. Her arm smacked against something. She grabbed a sapling that halted her slide with a wrenching jolt as her left foot kicked out into open air.
She tried to gain traction with her right foot, tried to dig the toes of her shoe into the earth to gain a foothold, but she could not climb up. Rocks and debris tumbled into the ravine.
“Sable!” Murph called down from above. “Grab something!”
“I…I have,” she said. “But I can’t hold on much longer!” As she began to lose her grip on the sapling, she reached up with her left hand and tried to reinforce her grip, kicking frantically against the ground.
The sapling bent, then snapped. She screamed as she fell.
“Sable!” Murph shouted.
She landed hard on her back on a narrow ledge. Attempting to dig her fingers into the ice, she struggled to catch her breath.
“I'm here,” she tried to call, her voice barely more than a whisper. “Murph, I'm here!” But for how long? How could she climb back up to the others?
Chapter 5
The rocky ledge gouged into Sable’s back as rain slapped her face. She was going to die.
“Sable hold on!” came Murph’s voice from too far above her. “I'm coming down.”
“No!” she called. “There's rope at the house. If you could get there and…” But how could she hold on that long? Her hands were already growing numb.
A small light flickered from above and Audrey called out, “Hang in there, honey, we’ll get you. How far down do you think you are, about twelve feet?”
“At least.” That meant she still had a long way to fall.
“Can you climb at all?” Murph asked.
“No, it’s too slick.”
She heard a frightened blur of voices but she couldn’t catch the words. “What are you waiting for? Go get the rope!”
“We've got something that I think’ll work,” Murph called down. “Hold on for another moment.”
Icy fingers of darkness slithered around her as her tentative grip loosened.
“Sable,” Murph called. “We have a rope of sorts. Reach up and I’ll try to place it directly into your hands.”
Balancing cautiously, she reached upward with her left hand and waited, terrified that the ledge would give way or that the wind would whip her from her unsteady perch.
“Where is it?” she asked.
“It's not long enough,” she heard Audrey say. “How can we make it longer? Hurry, people, think, or she’s going to fall!”
“Sable,” Murph called down. “Can you climb a few more inches?”
“No!” Sable shouted. “You try climbing on this ice!”
“Just do it!” Murph ordered.
Her feet kept sliding and she had to scramble for traction that wasn’t there. She reached upward in the blackness, scrabbling at ice-coated stubble and imbedded boulders. If not for Audrey’s penlight, the darkness would have been complete.
“Hold the line steady,” Murph told the others. “I’m going to use it to climb down to her.”
“No!” she cried. To her amazement, her fingers encountered a dry patch of earth over her head, where the ice must have broken loose. She dug into the soft mesh of roots and dirt, gained a handhold, and pulled herself upward a few more inches.
Again she reached above her head and her fingers touched something mostly dry. She stretched out and grasped the tip. It felt like leather. Was it a belt?
“I’ve got it!” she shouted.
Murph called down to her, “Wrap it around your arm and let me pull you up.”
“It isn’t long enough. I can barely reach it.” She tightened her grip and balanced on one foot as she kicked into a layer of ice to reach the dirt beneath. Miraculously, she gained a toehold and stepped up.
The ledge beneath her other foot crumbled. She grasped the belt with both hands and kicked again at the hillside in one more desperate attempt to gain traction. To her relief, she found another soft spot.
She wrapped the leather around her arm and held on, praying that the leather wouldn’t break, that Murph and the others wouldn’t drop her.
“Pull me up!” Her arms began to quiver. She could find no more toeholds. She could only grip the leather as they pulled, her shoulders protesting in pain as the rocky cliff gouged at her legs and arms. Every second she expected to lose her grip.
“Sable, you're getting close,” Murph called from directly above her. “Reach up and I'll grab your hand.”
With help from Audrey’s light, Sable could distinguish Murph’s dark form as he reached down for her. She kicked against the slick trunk of a cedar and reached upward. Her foot slipped from the cedar and she lost her grip. She felt herself slipping backward and cried out.
Murph caught her and pulled her over the edge and into his arms. For a long moment she buried her face against his shoulder, unwilling to let go.
“What happened?” he asked.
She clung to him until her breathing eased and the horror lost some of its sharpness. “I’ll tell you about it later,” she whispered. “Right now let's get to the house.”
* * *
At least thirty minutes later, wet and covered with ice, Murph followed Sable onto the sheltered front porch of the two-story house. The others joined them.
“Home,” Sable murmured to him. She hadn’t left his side since her rescue from the cliff.
“I thought we'd never make it,” Perry Chadwick muttered. “How anyone could live at the back of—”
“Mr. Chadwick,” Audrey cut in, “Sable was kind enough to invite us to stay here or we would be in dire circumstances.” The lady peered into the house through one of the diamond-paned windows, then turned to Sable. “Honey, is someone at home? Looks like there's a light in there.”
Murph glanced through the same window, then turned and looked at Sable. “There’s a fire in the fireplace.”
“Do you mind if we go on inside?” Perry said with a trace of sarcasm in his voice. “Then we can satisfy our curiosity.”
Murph tested the door. It swung open into the cozy warmth of a large paneled living room. He led the way inside, peering up the curved staircase, studying a hallway that led toward the back of the house from the fireplace to their right. A light glowed from the end of that hall. There was a closed door to their left and another door stood ajar directly beside the long rock hearth.
“This is more like it.” Perry placed his suitcase against the wall carefully, then rushed toward the fire.
Exclaiming with relief, the others followed suit. Murph observed the interplay of people. The driver, Jerri, had fiery red hair and rosy cheeks to match. He couldn’t stop thinking about her revelation on the bus—that she was a substitute.
Sable strolled toward the far right hallway. “Mom?” she called. “Hello? Who’s h
ere?”
Murph pulled off his coat and spread it beside the others to dry at the hearth. He wanted access to his weapon. He followed Sable.
The swinging door to the right led to a kitchen where a light glowed over the sink. The homey warm kitchen was not occupied but appeared as if it had been recently. Murph barely caught a glimpse of it before Sable pressed past him and stepped into what proved to be a family room across the hallway.
Within a few minutes, Murph received an abbreviated tour of the huge house, following behind Sable as she switched on every light in every room, along the upstairs hallway, with a cursory glance up the attic steps. They didn’t find anyone.
He sensed Sable’s growing concern.
“Is there anyplace else someone might be?” he asked.
“I haven’t looked in the basement or the garage.” She shivered. “It’s cold up here.”
“Why don’t you join the others at the fireplace. You’ve been through a lot and we can’t afford to have you sick.”
“Nonsense. I haven’t been exposed to any viral illnesses and no one in our little crowd seems to have the sniffles. I need to know who’s here.”
He grasped her arm before she reached the stairs. She looked at him, her eyes still wide and filled with shadows.
He slid the soaked sleeve of her sweater up her arm and felt the goose bumps on her flesh. He felt a quiver run through her and noticed the icy chill of her hands.
“Stay,” he said. Before she could protest, he grabbed an afghan from the nearest bedroom and wrapped it around her shoulders. “You’re going downstairs to the fireplace right now and I’ll complete the search.”
To his surprise she didn’t protest.
Chapter 6
Shivering beneath the folds of the afghan, apparently incapable of warming her core enough to feel her hands and feet, Sable waited and watched the fire. Murph was checking the garage for automobiles, which she should have considered immediately.
Hidden Motive Page 3
