“It’s him?” Richards asked and glanced at Treble.
“She accused me right after she accused Janice Peaks and her ward.” Treble shook his head at Richards. “Don’t talk to her for too long or you’ll be the next person she accuses. Or maybe she’ll try and pin it on Fredrickson. Who knows at this point?”
“You were the one who called Sean out of the filing room,” I said.
“When was this?” Richards asked me.
“This morning,” I said. Had that only been this morning? It felt like years ago now.
Richards glanced to Treble. “You told me you had a couple of meetings at head office this morning,”
Treble nodded. “I did. And then I came back to Arrivals and I—”
“And what?” Richards asked.
“And I saw Janice,” Treble finished.
“Oh, now you think it’s Janice,” I muttered.
“Convenient that you’ve just remembered that,” Richards said.
“She was the one who told me about the passengers.” Treble shook his head at me. “You were right. I can’t believe you were right.”
I made a non-committal noise. I wasn’t trusting Treble’s sudden revelation. Even if Janice had told him.
Richards nodded but didn’t take his eyes off Treble. “Okay. Well, we’ll drop her off at evac point B and then we can go and check in with head office and you can make a statement saying that.”
Treble shrugged. “Okay.”
Richards nodded. “Okay.”
Treble gestured toward me. “Grab her and let’s go.”
Richards waved the metal bar he’d stolen from me. “Hands are full. You grab her.”
“How about nobody grabs me?” I said but neither man heard me. I shuffled back a step. No one noticed. I shuffled another. Still they didn’t notice.
“So put it down and grab her. It’s not like you need to keep hold of it,” Treble said.
“You’re closer, though,” Richards countered, taking a step back and not dropping the bar.
I looked between them. They were fully facing each other now. So much for Richards believing in Treble’s innocence. Richards was bigger than Treble but Treble was sinewy. I kind of had the feeling that, despite Richards holding the metal bar, if it came to a brawl, Treble might win. I decided that I didn’t want to be around for that. So I ran.
A quick check over my shoulder told me no one had followed. I hightailed it to the back of the store and charged up the back staircase, heading for the lingerie floor. Nothing could go wrong if I was surrounded by pretty underwear, right?
I edged the door open and peeked out onto the floor. It looked empty. Grunting noises travelled up through the open escalators column. I grabbed another metal arm from one of the fixtures, just in case, and hid behind a stand filled with towelling bathrobes. From there I had a clear view of the escalators, the door to the back stairs and the elevators without being seen. I put Oz’s whistle in my mouth and blew out a silent tune while I waited for someone to come and try to kill me.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Ms Sway?” Richards shouted from the ground floor. “It’s safe to come out now.”
“Pffft. Right,” I mumbled around Oz’s whistle, which I was still blowing intermittently.
“Ms Sway? It’s safe now. I’ve incapacitated Officer Treble. We need to get you to evac point B so I can get a medic to come and check him out.”
“Whatever you say,” I mumbled and blew my whistle again. And then stopped. Only my parole officer could hear it, right? Oz had never told me that anyone other than him could hear it. But maybe GBs could tune into the frequency. In emergencies. I let the whistle drop from my lips. Best not to chance it.
“Ms Sway?” Richards’ voice came up from the escalators. “Ms Sway? It’s safe now.”
“Safe for you to murder me,” I mumbled.
“Officer Treble hit his head pretty hard when he fell. He might have murdered people but he needs to be alive to pay for his crimes.”
“Why can’t you leave to get a medic?” I whispered. I knew he couldn’t hear me but it was still a valid question.
“I can’t leave you here alone in case I get held up somehow and Officer Treble wakes up and hurts you while I’m gone.” There was a pause. “It’s unlikely but I don’t want to take that chance with your safety. Especially since Officer Treble knows you can implicate him.”
There was no way he’d heard me. GBs didn’t have superpowers. Unless you counted manipulation. And I was pretty sure that was only Officer Leonard.
“Ms Sway?” Richards’ voice came from the escalators. He was on the same floor now. “You can trust me. Please. Come out. I know you’re afraid and I understand. If you have any sort of weapon to protect yourself you can keep hold of it but I need to get you out of here.”
Okay, realistically what were my options? Stay here and wait Richards out. If he found me and he was the good guy, there would be no consequences because he was the good guy. If he found me and he was the bad guy, then he’d try and kill me. But Richards had said I could keep hold of my weapon. A bad guy wouldn’t say that, right? And I didn’t want to be waiting around for someone to find me and kill me. If Richards was a bad guy, surely it was better just to get it over with, right?
I stood up. “I’m keeping my weapon.”
“That’s okay, Ms Sway. You can do that.” Richards’ voice was thick with relief as he headed over to me. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“I would like that very much,” I said and moved into the centre aisle.
He winced at my bruised neck. “That looks sore. Strangulation’s no fun.”
“No, really? I was having the time of my life.”
He stepped closer and offered me his hand. “Let’s get you out of here.”
I don’t know why at that moment I chose to look at his shoes but I did. I’d like to think that some part of me was used to recognising murderers. Not my conscious active brain that couldn’t pick them out of a lineup and steer me safely away from them, but some part of my gut that recognised danger. Regardless of why I looked, I did. On the hem of his trousers was a faint print of the pattern of the sole of my shoe. From where I’d stamped on my strangler’s foot.
“What?” Richards looked down at his shoes.
“Nothing I just—” I cut myself off as I stared over Richards’ shoulder. “Treble?”
Richards spun around to find there was no one behind him. Not Treble. Not anyone. By the time he realised I’d tricked him and was turning back around I was already swinging the metal bar at his head. It connected with a meaty thud, the impact reverberating along my arms. Richards dropped to the floor in a crumpled heap. I grabbed the silk tie from a nearby dressing gown. I rolled him onto his front and wound it around his wrists with an urgency of not wanting to be strangled to death.
“That’ll teach you to underestimate a girl,” I told him as I bent his right leg up and tied it up to his opposite hand. “‘Keep your weapon, Bridget. I’m a good guy, Bridget,’” I mimicked as I finished tying the knot. “If you’re such a good guy, how did you get my shoe print on your trousers, hmm? I suppose I could’ve let you try to explain but the only time you could’ve got it on you was when you tried to strangle me and I stamped on your foot. Explain that away. You can’t, can you? Because there’s—” I slumped in on myself. “Because there’s no way you could’ve got it on you except for the other time I stomped on your foot when you took the metal bar away from me.” I patted him on the back and stood up. “Oh, well. No good crying over blows to the head now.”
I dusted down my jumpsuit and tried to work out the best way to escape. I was fairly certain Treble was unconscious like Richards had said. Unless he and Richards had been in on the whole thing together and were trying to confuse me. But there’d been a definite vibe of suspicion between them so I doubted that. Depending on where Treble was downstairs I could try and sneak past him and out of the front doors. I was guessing the blocki
ng prevented misting and all the fire doors would be locked because no one was supposed to be in the store. And I doubted I’d be able to break the window. Although, I had a metal bar bat—maybe that would work.
I grabbed another dressing gown tie so I could use it to restrain a hopefully still unconscious Treble, because I was not taking the ribbon from my hair. Priorities and all. I was still fighting with a dressing gown that didn’t want to give up its tie when, for the second time in ten minutes, what felt like a freight train launched into my back.
I hit the floor hard. I didn’t wonder who it was. I didn’t care. All I knew was that if they were tackling me then they deserved whatever they got. I threw my head backward and the base of my ponytail hit something but I felt there was more damage to my hairstyle than my attacker. A hand reached out to grab for one of my hands. Just as it was gripping my wrist I pulled my hand to my face and bit down on their hand so hard I actually tasted blood. A scream echoed in one of my ears and the weight lifted off me. I rolled onto my back, pulled my knees up to my chest and then shot my feet at the face of my attacker.
Fredrickson saw the move coming and dodged, landing awkwardly on his side. He tried to push himself back up with his hands but he put his weight on the one I’d bitten and he crumpled forward again. I was already on my feet so when he fell forward I jumped on his back. After looping the centre of the belt around one of his feet a couple of times I pulled his good hand behind his back and tied them together.
When he was secured, I scrambled off his back and wiped at my tongue with my cuff, trying to get the taste of blood out of my mouth.
“You’ll never get away with this,” Fredrickson grunted at me.
“Funny, I was about to say the same thing to you. And do you guys get any type of training at all? Because that was a poor show by you.”
“I was trying not to hurt you so you would be able to immediately stand trial for your crimes,” he said.
“Yeah, rugby tackling a girl definitely has that ‘trying not to hurt you’ vibe.” I gave him two thumbs up. “Good job. Wait. What crimes?”
“You assaulted two GBs!”
I frowned at him and glanced around the floor and then pointed to Richards. “I only see one. How hard did I backward headbutt you? Is your vision blurry? How many fingers am I holding up?” I held up two fingers and waited for him to answer. I was ninety percent sure the back of my head hadn’t connected with him at all—just my ponytail.
“Officer Treble downstairs. He said you attacked him.”
“I did no such thing!” I snapped. “I don’t just go around attacking people.”
“You attacked me. And Richards.”
“You attacked me!” I screeched, then reined in my attitude and stared at him from the corner of my eyes. “You’re in on this, aren’t you? You were all for swelling the medium ranks of the GBs. Was it you who got Treble to call Sean out of the room so you could frame Treble? Treble tried to implicate Janice but I thought that was just to distract Richards. Or did you tell Janice to tell Treble to tell Sean? But that would only work if you killed Janice before she could say it was you. If Janice was involved in this at all. Are you in it with Richards?” I asked. I had no clue who was the good guy and the bad guy anymore.
“Treble was the one who gave Sean that message?” Fredrickson asked. He tried to scan around us while still on the floor. “You need to untie me. We need to get you out of here so you can make a statement.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Is that right?”
“You need to untie me so I can protect you,” Fredrickson insisted.
“Think I’m doing okay on my own, thanks,” I said, backing away from him. The plan was still to get out of the front door before Treble woke up. Although, depending on whether you believed Fredrickson or not, Treble was already awake. Unless Fredrickson was in on this too. Did that mean Treble was still unconscious?
“Ms Sway. You don’t understand how dangerous this situation is. You need to untie me. I can help you. We can work together and resolve this nightmare,” Fredrickson shouted as I headed toward the escalators.
I spun back around to frown at Fredrickson and his sudden desire to work together. “Where did that come from? First I need to stand trial from my crimes. Then I need to untie you so you can protect me. Now you want to work together?”
And then, once again, I knew someone was behind me. Anyone who knew me would’ve called out to me. So that meant another bad guy. How many were there? Fredrickson’s attention jumped over my right shoulder.
I dropped into a crouch and spun around, metal arm in my hands and aiming for the shins of whoever was behind me. I’d managed to incapacitate two GBs so far. I didn’t think my luck would hold out for a third. The metal bar connected with the shins of my new attacker. They yelped in pain and bent forward to grab their legs. Fredrickson was shouting something behind me but I focused on securing this new threat.
I popped upright and darted behind him while he was still gripping his shin, hooked my heel across the top of his ankle and pushed him forward to trip him. He fell forward but landed on his hands and knees. I fisted my hands in the hem of each leg of his jumpsuit and pulled his knees out from under him. He landed on his stomach with a grunt. I yanked a dressing gown from its hanger and, dressing gown still attached, I looped the belt around one of his feet. I pulled back his opposite arm back and tied them together.
It was over in a matter of seconds. I stood up and stepped back, dusting my hands and admiring my work. I was becoming quite proficient in the hogtying game. Was it pretty? No. But it was secure.
“What are you doing?” he cried.
“Saving myself.” I picked up my metal bar and gestured to the newest member of our hogtied crew. “Neals, right?”
“You’ll never get away with this,” he cried.
“Why do people keep saying that to me? Get away with what? Defending myself? And let me guess, you were trying to help me, right? Like all three, no, four of you aren’t in it together.”
“It’s Treble,” Fredrickson said to Neals. “She said she heard him talking to the induction officer to get him out of the file room.”
“How do you know she’s not lying to deflect blame?” Neals asked, twisting to look at me over his shoulder.
“She mentioned it in passing. She didn’t know the value of that information,” Fredrickson explained.
“Maybe she did and she’s playing us,” Neals countered.
“Okay, boys. It’s been a delight but I’m leaving now. Am I likely to meet any more of you on my way out?” I asked and then shook my head. “Never mind. I wouldn’t believe anything you told me anyway.”
“Ms Sway, you need to release me so we can get to Treble before he escapes,” Fredrickson insisted.
“Yep, well, I’m thinking I might escape first, Fredrickson, if it’s all the same to you.”
“What if he kills us? We’re sitting ducks like this.” Neals wriggled in his binding to emphasise his point.
“Yep, and what if you guys are all bad guys and I let you go and you kill me? See my problem?” I continued toward the escalators with the hogtied GBs shouting after me. I was halfway down the escalator and scanning for Treble when the shouting stopped. I was about to go back up and make sure they weren’t dead but if they’d stopped yelling because they were dead then they were already dead and I couldn’t help. And if they’d stopped yelling for some other reason I was pretty sure I’d find out what that was soon enough.
I crept down the escalator. I couldn’t see so Treble I made a dash for the front doors.
“Ms Sway? Is that you?” Treble stumbled into my path. He had one hand pressed to his right temple and was staggering slightly.
“Yep. I’ve incapacitated the killer,” I said.
“What did you do to him?” Treble took another step forward and I gritted my teeth as if that would help my feet not shuffle back. Treble might be the killer. Or he might not be the killer. All I knew was tha
t he was standing in my way.
“I hit him over the head with a metal bar and then hogtied him.”
“Why?”
“Well, I realised he was the killer, not you, so I knocked him out and tied him up so you could take him in, or do whatever it is you do to unruly GBs.”
“Okay, well … that’s good.” Treble reached out a hand to me. He was an arm’s-length away. On the inside of his wrist there were fresh scratches. Like, from fingernails when the person you were strangling was trying to get free. I didn’t think I’d scratched my attacker but it had all happened so fast. And now I didn’t even care. I wanted to get out of the stupid department store. Next time I wanted new clothes I was ordering from a catalogue.
“Yeah, there’s one thing, though,” I said.
Treble frowned at me, his hand still extended. “What?”
I lunged forward and to the side, swinging the metal bar as I moved. I winced in empathy while I did it, but I still swung the metal bar at his shins with all my strength.
He screamed and snapped over at the waist to grab his legs. I leapt up, grabbed a wraparound dress with a tie waist, which I’d been eyeing on that first shopping trip that now felt like a gazillion years ago. I threw it over Treble’s head, hooked my foot in front of his and pushed him forward while pulling my foot back to trip him. Just like Neals.
Treble fell heavily to the floor, wraparound dress still over his head. I grabbed another dress and dropped down onto his back. I looped the tie around his ankle and knotted it, dress still attached. Then, while he was still trying to grab the garment off his head, I grabbed one of his flailing arms and pulled it back. I wound the other end of the tie around his wrist and then knotted that too.
“What is wrong with you?” he yelled.
“Mainly I’m tired of people trying to kill me.”
“I thought you said you believed it was him?”
“Yeah, well, I lied.”
“You lied?”
“Yep, it’s like the opposite of telling the truth,” I explained while adding another tie to the already terrible mess that was his hogtie. At least Sabrina wasn’t here to see it. She’d never let me live it down. But then, I had taken on four GBs and won. I was pretty sure she’d forgive the terrible hogtying for that.
Dead and Buried: A Bridget Sway Novel (A Paranormal Ghost Cozy Mystery Series Book 4) Page 24
