DOWN COLDER: A Hallie James Mystery (The Hallie James Mysteries Book 3)

by DK Herman

  We followed Ben back to the break room. He got a hammer and nails out of an open drawer and nailed the window shut. "Now we can get some sleep," he said. "We need to be fresh for morning."

  I nodded. "Let's leave all the lights on and a note for Jessie."

  "We could sleep upstairs in my apartment." Ben put the hammer back into the drawer.

  "That'll work." I yawned and rubbed my eyes. "Thank you, Officer Daniels."

  "You folks can stop in the station tomorrow with a list of anything that's missing."

  Leaving on all the lights, we walked out the front door and locked it behind us. Ralph Daniels said goodnight, and Ben and I went upstairs to his apartment.

  He unlocked the top door, and we stepped inside.

  "Son of a bitch," Ben said, looking around his apartment.

  The intruder had been here too. But again, it was more an angry ransacking than a robbery. Ben grabbed another hammer and nails and secured the window to the fire escape. Another flimsy lock was broken. I vowed to have them all replaced tomorrow and have them wired into the alarm system.

  "I'll clean up later," Ben said. "Let's get some sleep."

  Stepping over Ben's things that had been thrown to the floor, we made our way to his bedroom. I helped him put sheets back on his bed, and we collapsed from exhaustion and spent adrenaline.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I woke up to the sound of rain. Confused, it took a moment to realize I was in Ben's bed, and it was raining for the first time in weeks.

  The rain was coming down hard. Ben wasn't in the bed, but I was comfy in his soft sheets. I rolled over and closed my eyes. Ready to fall back to sleep, my nose twitched when it caught the scent of bacon and coffee.

  My eyes flew open when Ben came into the room with a cup carrier and bag from Brew's. I sat up, and he handed me an iced mocha latte and a hot, wrapped sandwich. I grinned and peeled the waxed paper away from a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel.

  "It's not Liv's food, but its breakfast," Ben said, sitting on the bed with his own cup and sandwich.

  I sipped the coffee and took a bite of the sandwich. It was pretty good. "Thanks," I said with my mouth full. I swallowed the bite of sandwich. "What time is it?"

  "Eight forty-five," Ben answered. "I talked to Jessie. She's taking pictures of the damage for the insurance company. Then she'll start cleaning up and checking for anything missing. She's also going to cancel our appointments for today."

  "I'll eat this and get down there and help her." I took another big bite and stood up, looking for my clothes.

  I got downstairs by nine and looked around at the mess. In the daylight, it looked even worse.

  "Hallie, why did somebody do this?" Poppy asked, her face white with shock.

  I shrugged. "Either they were looking for something, or they were mad at us."

  "I can't find my bracelet," Linda said. "I took it off yesterday and left it in my top drawer. Now it's gone."

  "Is it on the floor?" Ben said, helping her look.

  "I don't see it," she said. "Damn it. It was a present from my sister."

  "Was it the silver bangle with floating hearts?" I asked.

  "Yes," Linda said, biting her lip. "It was my favorite, I wore it all the time."

  "I'll reimburse you for it." I felt bad my employees' belongings weren't safe in their desks.

  "It wasn't your fault," Linda insisted.

  "Insurance should cover it," Jessie said, entering the room.

  "Did anybody notice anything else missing?" I looked around me at the anxious faces.

  "Nothing, they just made a mess," Jessie said angrily.

  Poppy, Rayna, and Linda shook their heads.

  "What the hell! Now, that is just it!" Ben exclaimed from his office.

  We all moved down the hall to see what Ben was upset about. From his office doorway, I saw him cradling his torn, crumpled poster in his arms. He must have not seen it last night.

  "Why'd they destroy Jim?" Ben said, his anger showing on his face.

  I couldn't think of anything to say, but I understood his feelings. The poster could be replaced, but the deliberate destruction felt malignant.

  "We'll get you a new one," Poppy said, slipping past me. She took the poster sections from Ben and picked up his tape dispenser off the floor. "In the meantime, we'll fix this one enough that you can put it back on the wall."

  The agency phone rang, snapping me out of my semi-trance.

  "I'll get it," I said, spotting Ben's extension under his desk. I poked at the blinking light. "James Investigations. How can I help you?”

  "Hallie?" I recognized Andy's voice.

  "Yeah, It's me."

  "I heard you had trouble over there last night."

  "Yes, we did," I said. "Somebody made a hell of a mess, just to steal one bracelet from Linda's desk "

  "If you need to be there today, it's OK," Andy said. "The state police and the FBI are going to help us with the search. And with the rain we're getting, the storm drains are going to be full."

  "You don't want me there?"

  "I can let you watch," Andy assured me. "But, I can't have you underground."

  "How am I going to watch?" I was kind of hurt at being cut out, but finding Lexi was the most important thing.

  "The men going into the tunnels will be wearing body cameras. Mike, Chief Woods, and I are going to watch the feeds on our laptops."

  "When?"

  "They're getting ready now," Andy said. "The tunnels are filling with running water. If Lexi is down there, she could drown and be swept into the river.

  "We'll be right there." I hung up and looked at Ben. "We have to go." I looked at my employees apologetically. "The police are doing a search for Lexi, and I'd like to be there."

  "We can handle this, Hallie," Jessie said while everyone murmured in agreement. "You and Ben go."

  "I've got two teenage nephews who need something to do," Linda said.

  "Give them a call." I grabbed my purse and dug out several twenty dollar bills. "Pay them with this. We will be back as soon as we can."

  Ben and I climbed into my car and drove to the police station. The area was full of police vehicles. I parked a block away, and Ben and I shared an umbrella to walk to the front entrance.

  Inside, a group of men were suiting up in boots and neoprene chest waders. I was surprised to recognize a tall, brown haired, handsome man in a well tailored suit, who spoke quietly to Chief Woods. His name is Eric Jeffreys. He's FBI, and he's from where I used to live, near the Poconos. We dated for a few months until I met Max and was swept off my feet.

  Eric saw me staring and nodded. I smiled and nodded back.

  "Who's that?" Ben asked.

  "An old friend" I whispered. "He's FBI."

  "Good, you're here," Andy said, motioning us over to a desk. "You guys can monitor Phil Stewart and Bill Martin while they're below the street." He pointed at a laptop and two headsets. You'll be able to see what they see and communicate with them through the headsets."

  We nodded. This was a large, well-organized search. For Lexi's sake, I was glad. But I wish they could have pulled this together last night.

  Andy walked over to Phil Stewart and Bill Martin and spoke to them. He pointed in our direction, and Phil grinned, giving us a friendly wave. I waved back and sat down in front of the laptop.

  "OK, people," Eric Jeffreys said, clapping his hands. "It's still raining, and we've got a little girl to find. We've got five teams of two to do the search, and two more rescue teams as back up in case they get into trouble. The water will be rising down there and moving fast. Be careful, and stay in contact with your above street observers."

  We all nodded and the neoprene clad group went out the door with backpacks full of equipment.

  "Observers, get in front of those laptaps, put on your headphones, and keep alert for any sign that your team is in trouble." Eric sat down at the desk next to us. He spoke to Chief Woods, who manned a laptop.

  I
pulled on my headset and heard breathing. "Hello," I said.

  "Yeah, I'm here," a voice I recognized as Phil Stewart's said into my ear.

  "Just making sure," I said, watching the laptop screen come to life with video of the front of a patrol car.

  "We are enroute to our entry point on Seventh Street." That voice I recognized as Bill Martin's.

  "10-4. Be careful guys," I said.

  The split screen allowed us to see from both officer's field of vision. Phil Stewart's camera feed was on the left, Bill Martin's on the right. Ben and I could hear and speak to both men.

  We watched the car park and both men got out. Another man in a slicker had a man hole blocked off with orange cones. He opened the manhole with a long metal tool and placed the cover aside.

  "Here we go," Phil said.

  We watched as both cops descended a metal ladder that was attached to a cement wall.

  "There's about a foot of water on the bottom," Phil said.

  The water looked dark, but it had a slight current. The men shone lights around inside the hole. There were different sized pipes, and different colored wires running in several directions. An arch led into a dark tunnel. I didn't want to admit it, even to myself, but I was glad not to be down there.

  "It looks like we go this way," Bill said. He held a folded map in his hand.

  "Hallie and Ben, are you still with us?" Phil said nervously.

  "Right here with you," Ben said. "We're watching."

  "We are entering the tunnel," Phil reported and let out a gasp. A huge rat scurried along the edge of a concrete walkway, which ran alongside the moving water. The water looked like an underground creek.

  "It's more afraid of us," Bill Martin said, pointing at the rat. I wasn't sure who he was trying to reassure, Phil or himself.

  The men moved down the concrete walkway. A long stick with red markings on it lay at Phil's feet. He picked it up and poked it into the water. It submerged about four feet.

  "This is just runoff," Phil said. "There's the poop pipe," Phil shined his light on a large diameter, metal pipe.

  "You better hope that sucker doesn't break while you're down there," Ben teased.

  The men laughed. "Don't flush till we get back up on the street."

  As the men walked deeper into the tunnel, we watched the cement walls turn into brick and stone. The water level rose another few inches, to just a foot below the walkway the men were traversing.

  Assorted items floated in the water, having been washed down storm drains. I saw a red comb, part of a tail light, scraps of wood, and a child's slipper.

  "Hey, try and catch that slipper!" I said. "Lexi was taken wearing a nightgown. Maybe she had on slippers."

  The slipper looked like it may have been pink before floating in the filthy water. It was the kind with an ankle high sock attached.

  "I don't know if we can," Phil said. He and Bill walked faster, keeping pace with the slipper.

  "Get closer to it with your body camera, and I'll take a screen shot with my cell," I said. "Be careful. That walkway is looking slippery."

  Carefully, the men hurried faster. They caught up to the floating slipper again and got it framed in Phil's camera feed. I took three pictures of it.

  "I got it, guys," I said.

  "Good, because this tunnel joins with the main tunnel in less than a hundred feet, Bill said. "That water is going to be faster. Is it still raining up there?"

  Ben looked out the glass front doors. "It's pouring."

  Now the water was almost even with the walkway. The current caused it to splash up onto the men's feet. When they made it to the main tunnel, the water looked like a raging river of brown water with small white caps. The walkway was disappearing under the murky water.

  The men were under Main Street, and the water was heading for the Susquehanna. Then it would run downstream again, and eventually run into the Chesapeake Bay.

  I could see flashlights ahead of them, bobbing in the darkness. And in their own lights, I saw the water was climbing toward their knees.

  "Get out of there," I said. "It's too dangerous, and if Lexi was there, its too late."

  Chief Woods overheard me and agreed. He gave the order for all the men to be brought above the street.

  Phil and Bill grabbed a nearby ladder in the wall of the tunnel and climbed up out of the water. Then they clung there until a member of the rescue team opened the manhole from above. I watched them emerge onto the street and sighed with relief.

  "Who's going to ask Jane about the slipper?" Ben asked after I took off the headset.

  "I'll talk to Chief Woods. He might want to do it."

  But Chief Woods asked us to follow up on the slipper. So we left for Jane's home.

  I parked as close as I could, and we ran through the downpour. Jane seemed to sense we were coming and was standing at her open front door.

  "I was just thinking of you," she said, opening her door wider for us to get in out of the rain. "I heard the police were searching somewhere. Did they find her?" Jane's eyes brimmed with tears.

  I slid an arm around her shoulders. "No, but want to show you something." We sat down on her couch, and I pulled my phone out of my purse. "Does this belong to Lexi?"

  Jane looked at the picture and shook her head. "No, she won't wear slippers. She likes heavy socks in the winter and bare feet in the summer." Jane looked at the picture again. "What does this mean for Lexi?"

  "It means she wasn't where we looked. Which in this case, that's a good thing," I said and tried to smile reassuringly. "Hang in there, Jane. Tomorrow's Thursday, she'll be home soon."

  "I miss her so much," Jane said quietly. "I wish I'd never won that damned money!"

  "Jane," Gail Kubicki called from the kitchen. "I'm here, dear, and I brought a few things for you to nibble on."

  "Thanks, mom," Jane called back.

  "I'll talk to you tomorrow," I said and stood up. "Call me if you need anything."

  "Oh, you're here," Gail said, entering the living room. "I hurried back so Jane wouldn't be alone."

  "We were just leaving," I said.

  The return trip to the Denali was much drier. The rain had slowed to a drizzle. The sun was trying to push from behind and the clouds, and the air was heavy with humidity.

  I called Jessie to see how things were going. She insisted everything was under control, so I told her I needed to stop at the mall for a new laptop for me, and a printer for the office. The old one had also been broken by the intruder.

  Ben and I made it to The Herville Mall and back to town in a little over an hour. I'm a very decisive shopper. Plus, I asked Poppy which brand I should buy.

  I returned to the agency with Ben carrying the printer, paper, and ink. I had my new laptop, case, and bag. I was impressed with how much had gotten done in my absence.

  Poppy offered to set up the laptop. I handed it to her, then I went back out to my car for the enormous bag of food I'd brought back for everybody. I placed the bucket of takeout chicken, coleslaw, mashed potatoes and gravy, and biscuits on the coffee table.

  "Anybody hungry?" I called back the hallway. I brought lunch!"

  Soon we were gathered in the reception area eating. Linda's nephews seem like polite, hardworking teens. They happily sat on the floor with a plate of food and a soda. I let everyone know how grateful I was for the way they handled the clean up.

  "I was looking through the office emails and found several with attachments from a strange cell number. But the subject line reads: from Hallie regarding Jane," Jessie said, sipping a diet cola.

  "Oh! I forgot about them," I said. "Can you print them when the new machine is set up?" They 're the pictures Aaron took when he was spying on Jane.

  "It's ready now," Jessie replied. "I'll do it as soon as I'm finished eating."

  We happily munched for another ten minutes, the sounds of teasing and laughter echoing through the room.

  "I reached for it first," Poppy said, arguing with Ben ov
er the last biscuit.

  "Fine, we'll share," Ben said. He broke the biscuit in half and handed a piece to Poppy.

  My cell rang as I finished my coleslaw. I washed it down with my soda and answered.

  "Hallie, it's Andy. I heard about the slipper. Did Lexi's mom know if it's hers?"

  "Nope, it's not Lexi's. And she's sure." I picked a scrap of meat off the chicken bone on my plate and put it into my mouth. "Lexi didn't wear slippers."

  "With the flooding down there, that's a good thing." Andy sighed. "Any other ideas?"

  "Not now, but I'll get back to you." I got up and tossed my plate into the trash.

  "I wish I could have put the search together last night," Andy said.

  I walked back the hall. "We weren't sure she was down there. It was just a guess."

  "It was worth a shot," Andy said. "Let me know if you think of anyplace else we could search."

  "I will," I said and disconnected.

  I sat at my desk and looked around my office. It looked good. Everything was back in its place. Someone had even vacuumed the carpet.

  Ben came into the room with a grin on his face. "They really did a terrific job. Except for my poster, my office is back to normal too."

  "I should give everybody a bonus," I said. "Even those boys before they leave."

  "They're gone," Ben said. "They left after they finished eating."

  "I'll give it to Linda." I got up and went to Jessie's office. "Hey, Jess. I'd like to give everybody an extra fifty bucks this pay. And give Linda forty dollars out of petty cash for her nephews. The office looks great!"

  "Thanks, Hallie," Jessie said. "The new printer works well. The pictures are ready for you."

  I scooped them up from the printer. "Thanks again."

  I headed back to my office and sat down on my couch next to Ben.

  "Let's see what kind of photographer Aaron is," Ben said.

  "Not bad," I said, looking at the first photo. "Aaron must have a really high pixel density camera in his cell." The picture was of Jane and Lexi coming out of her house. Jane had Lexi on her hip while Lexi fumbled with a pair of sunglasses.

  The next picture caught Jane, Lexi, and Gail at the supermarket. Lexi sat in the cart that Jane pushed, and Gail was handing Lexi a banana. The trio were smiling and looked very happy.