by Dee Davis
Harrison closed the distance between them, his hands covering her shoulders as he started to pull her into an embrace. But she jerked away, ignoring the flash of hurt in his eyes, certain that, if she let him touch her, she’d break into a million pieces.
“Hannah, I—” he started, reaching for her again, but she held up a hand, shaking her head.
“I can’t. Not here. I shouldn’t… we shouldn’t… Look, maybe this thing between us is a mistake.” She regretted the words the minute they came out, but she also knew there was truth in there somewhere. “Let’s just let it go. Okay?” She blew out a long breath, waiting as his gaze probed hers, a little muscle in his jaw telegraphing his disappointment.
“Hey,” Casey called, cutting through the tension stretched tight between them. “I’ve got blood in here.”
Harrison searched her face for another long moment, and then, apparently not seeing what he wanted to see, mumbled “whatever” and walked from the room, leaving Hannah feeling as if she’d lost her best friend. Then again, maybe she had. Clearly she was too messed up to ever be the kind of woman Harrison deserved.
Tears pricked the back of her eyes, but she rubbed them away, reminding herself that this wasn’t about Harrison. It wasn’t even about her. It was about Tina. And right now, that’s all that mattered.
“So what have you got?” she asked as she walked back into the foyer where Harrison and Casey were kneeling on the floor.
“Blood,” Casey said, shining his flashlight downward. “There’s a pool of it here just inside the door. We missed it coming in because we were focused on looking for people. There’s also a bloody print on the wall.” He stopped, exchanging a glance with Harrison, who shrugged, then nodded his head. “It’s too small to have been Reid’s.”
Hannah’s gut clenched as she pictured her friend trying to flee the apartment—a madman in pursuit. “So we think the blood is hers?”
“There’s no way to know for sure until Tracy has the chance to run some tests,” Harrison said, his tone coolly professional. “But clearly something went down here.”
“So where are the bodies?” Casey asked. “I’d swear on my life that no one could have gotten into or out of the building without our seeing them. Especially if they were dragging something.”
“I guess that’s what we’ve got to figure out,” Harrison said. “In the meantime, we need to call it in. Casey, you touch base with Bill to see if he can do something about the lights and then call Avery. He’ll take care of the rest.”
The man nodded and walked back into the living room.
“Is there blood in the hall?” Hannah asked, pushing past Harrison to check for herself. There was nothing on the carpet, at least just outside the door, but the wall above it, to the left of the door, was smeared with blood—what looked like bits of skin sticking to the cracked plaster.
“Looks like someone was slammed into the wall,” Harrison said, coming to stand beside her as she shown her light on the stained area. “Could be Reid.”
“Not likely.” Hannah frowned. “Reid’s over six feet tall. This mark isn’t more than sixty or so inches from the floor, and assuming the vic was shoved backward…” She trailed off, still studying the mark.
“You’re thinking it’s Tina?” he asked.
“It seems more probable. Which means that whatever happened here took place outside the apartment. That’s why there’s no sign of a struggle inside.”
“So we’ve got an overturned chair. A pool of blood in the entry hall and signs of a struggle here in the hall—most likely not Reid. Ignoring the fact that the unsub managed to get into the building completely unnoticed, how does that play out?” He crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her thoughts.
“I don’t know.” She frowned, trying to envision the series of events. “Maybe he surprises Reid out here. Tries to incapacitate him, maybe even kill him, but Reid manages to make it inside, and conceivably warn Tina.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain the handprint,” Harrison said. “Seems more likely that he made it inside, but collapsed, then Tina stumbles over Reid, he’s either dead or dying so she—”
“—panics,” Hannah interrupted, “and puts her hand on the wall, and then tries to make a break for it.”
“Only she’s intercepted by Walker when she heads out into the hallway,” Harrison continued. “He grabs her there, and when she fights, he slams her into the wall.”
“So where are they now?” she asked, her frustration evident. “And why wouldn’t Walker just leave Reid? I mean I get why he’d take Tina, but Reid’s just collateral damage. He’s not part of the fantasy.”
“Maybe he did leave him,” Harrison suggested, the two of them working in tandem now. “It makes sense if he thought Reid was dead. But maybe he was just knocked out, and he came to and tried to follow Tina and/or the unsub.”
“Except that there was no sign of anyone leaving the building,” Casey insisted again, pocketing his phone as he stepped out into the hallway. “Bill’s got school maintenance working on the lights. And the rest of your team’s on the way. Avery said for you guys to stay on the scene until they arrive.”
But Hannah wasn’t really listening. “If you’re right,” she said, expanding on Harrison’s earlier thought, “then there should be more blood. Somewhere here in the hallway, or maybe on the stairs. There was a lot of blood in the apartment’s foyer. There’s no way Reid could have moved without losing more.” She waved her tac-light down the hall to emphasize her point.
And as if on cue, the hallway lights flickered on.
“Score one for Sunderland maintenance,” Harrison said as he followed Hannah down the hall. “I’m not seeing anything.”
“It’s got to be here,” she said, sweeping her gaze across the floor and up the walls and then back again as she moved. “Wait.” She dropped to her knees, bending to touch a wet spot on the carpet. “Here.” She checked the surrounding area. “And here. I was right. There’s more blood.”
“It could be Tina’s. Or even Walker’s.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s a trail. And with any luck, it’ll lead us right to them. But I’m still thinking it’s Reid,” she said, pushing back to her feet. “If it was Tina or even Walker, he’d have tried to stanch it, knowing that otherwise we’d do just what we’re doing.”
“Follow him,” Harrison agreed. “But it’s also possible that this is exactly what he wants us to do. That he’s jerking our chain again.”
“Only one way to find out.” Hannah lifted an eyebrow, the gesture meant as a challenge. She and Harrison might not be able to work out their personal life, but professionally they meshed perfectly.
“Right behind you.”
The next stain was on the stairwell, just before the third-floor landing. And there were four more spots on the flight heading down to floor two.
“You’re right, this is like following breadcrumbs,” Harrison said as they continued to move downward.
“Yes, but they’re getting more frequent, which can’t bode well for Reid, assuming it really is him.” She quickened her pace, urgency pressing her onward. They rounded the second landing and headed down the main stairs, the droplets showing up on almost every stair now. In the dark, they’d been invisible, but with the lights back on, they shown like beacons, the increasing frequency only adding to Hannah’s fears.
They reached the foot of the stairs, and for a moment, it seemed that the blood had disappeared.
“It’s just gone,” Hannah said, frustration cresting as she turned in circles, trying in vain to pick up the trail again.
“He didn’t just vanish.” Harrison walked around the end of the staircase toward the hall that led to the back of the building.
“But why wouldn’t he head for the front door? If for no other reason than to call in reinforcements?”
“Maybe there wasn’t time,” Harrison said, gesturing for her to follow. “Hang on. I think I’ve picked up the trail.” H
e touched a spot on the floor and lifted his finger to his nose. “Definitely blood.”
“So where the hell is he going?” Hannah asked with a frown, bending down to check when she reached yet another spot.
“I don’t know. But I’m not getting a good feeling about this. There’s only one way out of here, right?”
“Yes,” Hannah confirmed. “The door. I suppose they could have used a window, but I honestly don’t see how Walker could have gotten Tina out that way with nobody noticing. Especially since Casey said that the bulk of them have motion sensors.”
“So maybe he didn’t take her out of the building.”
She’d had the same thought, but was almost afraid to let it formulate. If Tina was still here, then she was most likely dead. The idea of her being taken was frightening, but the alternative was far worse. She sucked in a breath for courage. “So we keep following the trail.”
Harrison nodded, his eyes already scanning the floor for more blood.
“Over here,” Hannah said, frowning as she looked down. Instead of the spattered blood droplets they’d been following, there was a small pool. She stepped back to examine the wall, surprised to see the outline of a door in the wallpaper.
“What the hell?” Harrison asked, the question clearly rhetorical. He reached up, running his fingers along the lines in the paper until his thumb hit a crevice. “I think there’s a latch here.”
“It’s a door to the basement,” Avery said, as he and Simon came down the hall, halting beside Hannah. “It was hidden sometime in the fifties. When the building was remodeled. I guess they thought it was elegant to hide the back rooms of the building.”
“Did you say a basement?” Harrison said, his face tightening with concern.
“Yeah—complete with boiler and washroom. Why?”
“Nothing,” he said, still working along the edges of the doorway.
Hannah fisted her hands, her gut churning again. “He’s thinking that both Sara and Jasmine were killed in cellars. And we’ve got blood here.” Hannah waved at the stain on the floor.
“You think it’s Tina’s?” Simon asked.
“No.” Harrison shook his head. “It’s most likely Reid’s. We think he tried to follow Walker when he took Tina. But we really don’t have anything to substantiate the theory except the blood and the fact that both Tina and Reid are missing.”
“It’s a logical conclusion,” Avery said as Harrison pulled the latch and slid open the door.
Steps stretched downward. Hannah pulled her gun and flipped on the tac-light, shining the beam on the stairs as Harrison started down, Avery right behind him. Hannah followed, with Simon staying up top on the off chance that this was some kind of set-up. There were about fifteen steps and then they hit the concrete flooring of the basement.
At first, it seemed as if the room was empty, only the hulking shape of the boiler looming out of the shadows. Then Harrison hit the light switch, the flickering pall of fluorescent light filling the room. And in the corner they saw him.
Reid.
CHAPTER 21
He’s dead,” Harrison said, anger rising as he knelt to examine Reid’s body. “Looks like his throat has been cut.” Reid Kotchner might not have been A-Tac per se. But he was CIA, and as far as they were all concerned, he was one of the team.
“There’s no way he could have made it all the way down here with a severed artery,” Simon observed, his fists tightening as he dealt with his own rage.
“Looks like he was stabbed in the gut,” Harrison said. “I’m guessing that’s what brought him down to begin with. Walker must have left him for dead.”
“But I was right,” Hannah sighed. “Reid must have followed him downstairs.”
“And the son of a bitch ambushed him,” Simon said. “Then dumped him here.”
“Except that it doesn’t make sense that he’d leave the body upstairs when he first thought Reid was dead and then take the time to hide the body when he resurfaces downstairs.” Avery knelt beside the corpse, staring down at it as if willing it to share its secrets.
“Judging from the spatter, I’d say he was killed down here,” Harrison said, pointing at the wall in front of them.
“So maybe he was ambushed outside the doorway,” Hannah postulated. “Which would explain why there’s more blood at the door.”
“And then Walker forced him down here for the kill,” Harrison added. “But that still doesn’t make sense, unless…” He trailed off, looking toward the small doorway that led to a second room, his stomach sinking.
He was closest, but Hannah was faster, stepping into the room on a sharp intake of breath. He followed behind, wanting to help, but knowing she wouldn’t let him. She’d made her feelings more than clear back in the apartment.
“She’s not here,” Hannah said, her voice shaking. “I was so afraid that I’d see… that I’d…” She trailed off, and Harrison was transported to another house—another cellar—his sister strung from the rafters.
“There’s more blood,” Harrison said, pulling his thoughts away from the past. Maybe Hannah was right, maybe neither of them was capable of a lasting connection.
The rest of the team followed them into the room, shoving the two of them closer together. So close that Harrison could feel the warmth of her arm pressed against his, his body reacting even as his mind rejected the notion.
“So where the hell is she?” Simon asked, turning to examine the room.
“I think I might know,” Avery said, his attention locked on the far side of the room. The wall there was constructed of bricks covered in part by old wooden planks. The masonry was crumbling, and on closer inspection, one of the planks appeared to be loose.
Harrison crossed over to it and yanked hard, half of the planks pulling free, the motion revealing hidden hinges.
“Son of a bitch,” Simon whispered, as the improvised doorway swung open to reveal a cavernous hole. “What the hell is that?”
“Tunnels,” Avery said. “All the original buildings at Sunderland were connected with them. Some people claim we were a stop on the Underground Railroad, but there’s never been anything to support the notion. More likely they were built for storage and to help students move easily from building to building in the wintertime.”
“Then why have we never heard of them?” Harrison asked, moving closer, shining his tac-light into the dank darkness.
“They were closed off in the seventies. The infrastructure was falling apart. It was getting more and more dangerous for students to use the tunnels. And despite an attempt to raise the money to repair them, it just proved to be too expensive. So they were sealed off, the entrances boarded shut.”
“Except this one,” Hannah said, the words a statement, not a question, as she nodded at the plank door.
“Looks that way,” Avery agreed. “Although it’s possible that someone else found it and reopened it. It’s the sort of thing that would appeal to students.”
“And serial killers.” Harrison frowned. “But how the hell would he know this was here?”
“He’d have to have done his homework,” Avery shrugged. “But it’s not impossible for him to have found it. The original blueprints are on file with the county.”
“So Walker’s got Tina down there somewhere?” Hannah whispered, her fear for her friend evident.
“Not likely,” Avery said. “As I say, most of the tunnels are sealed off. I’m guessing he just used it as a means to get in and out of the building without anyone seeing him.”
“Avery’s right,” Harrison said. “If this guy really wanted Tina, he’d have seen our sequestering her as a challenge. This is exactly the kind of thing he gets off on. Finding a way to make us look like fools.”
“So where does this one go?” Simon asked, nodding toward the opening.
“It links to a structure that served as a vent on the far side of campus. Near the girls’ dorms. Where the old infirmary was. If someone was determined enough, it wouldn’t b
e that hard to get it open. Simon, you head for the vent, and if we’re right, maybe you can pick up the trail from there. I’ll coordinate with Drake and Tracy here. She’s going to need to see Reid’s body.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Harrison said. “And in the meantime, I’ll check out the tunnel. You’re probably right about his only using it for transport, but we need to be sure.”
“I’m coming, too.” Hannah’s eyes dared him to argue with her, and he swallowed his protest. Challenging her wasn’t the way to win points. And besides, he wasn’t trying to curry favor anyway. Just get the job done.
“Fine.” He nodded, gesturing to the opening, ignoring the little voice insisting that she stay here where she’d be safe. “You lead.”
The passage was dank, the smell of mold pervading every corner. The shiplap walls, originally plastered, were sagging from the pressure of the earth behind them. The beams that shored up the roof were rotting and slick with moss, the tin tiles that had once decorated the ceiling hanging drunkenly at angles that resembled some kind of macabre art installment.
The beams from their tac-lights glanced off the moisture-slick walls, highlighting the broken limestone flooring. What had once been a serviceable passage had now become a dangerous obstacle course, every movement threatening to bring the place down.
“I can see why they closed the tunnels,” Harrison said, his voice echoing down the corridor. “This place is a death trap.”
Hannah nodded but didn’t answer, her eyes on the floor of the corridor as they walked, clearly looking for some sign that Tina had passed this way. They stopped once, what looked to be a handprint catching their attention. But in the light, the resemblance faded, and they had to accept that it was nothing more than a trick of the shadows.
Then as the passage turned sharply to the left, there was a wet spot that they thought might be blood, but again their eyes proved faulty, a sniff and a taste identifying the moisture as nothing more than rusty water. And still Hannah pored over every nook and cranny. About halfway along, a second passageway veered off to the left, but it dead-ended no more than twenty yards after they’d turned to follow it. There was the rotting frame of a doorway, firmly sealed with some kind of metal plating.
