by Dana Mentink
Rosalind shushed him sharply. “There’s nothing to fix. Quiet now.”
Sage wanted to press, but as the minutes ticked by she grew more and more terrified that Trey had not returned. Sloshing closer, she tried to feel around for him, but her grasping fingers found nothing.
“He’s not there,” she said, seeing her own fear mirrored on Antonia’s face.
Suddenly Trey burst upward out of the water, coughing and sucking in an enormous breath. “Water carried me past him down the spillway. I barely made it back.” He wiped his face with the crook of his arm. “Stop moving,” he barked at Derick.
“I can’t, something is cutting into my legs, biting at me. It’s the rats.”
Rosalind looked at Sage. “I think he’s delusional.”
Trey moved to within a foot of Derick’s face. “Listen to me, Derick. You stop thrashing around and I’ll get you out. If you don’t, you’re going to drown here. Got me?”
The hard tone seemed to bring Derick back from the brink. He nodded meekly.
Trey tied a rope around an iron ring fixed into the wall and went under the water, and Sage could feel him fighting to keep from being swept through the floor drain again. Suddenly, Derick jerked under their grasp.
“One of my legs is free,” he cried, breath coming in pants. Trey came up for air again.
“Hold tight, the water is going to work against us,” he said.
Sage nodded and gripped Derick’s wrist harder. Another movement from underneath and Derick’s other leg came loose. Sage and Rosalind pulled Derick away from the drain, and Trey helped when he resurfaced again, but Sage noticed he paused, looking back toward the floor drain as he untied himself from the rope.
With painfully slow progress, they fought the tugging water until they reached the door and squeezed by. In the outer tunnel the water was slower, and all five of them stopped to catch their breath. Rosalind kept her arm under Derick’s shoulders since he looked like he was about to collapse.
“Where’s my cousin?” Sage said, panting. “Tell me what you did to her.”
Derick leaned his head against the stone wall. “I will never ever set foot in this death trap again. I think it’s haunted.”
Sage moved close and stuck her face in his. “Tell me right now, Derick. Where is Barbara?”
He opened his eyes and stared at her as if they had never met. “Are we back to that again? She’s in Santa Fe.”
“Why did you come down here?” she cried, looking from Antonia to Derick.
Antonia’s hands were shaking as she shoveled wet hair out of her eyes. “I heard him get up and leave the hotel. He was being so quiet and sneaky. I knew then that he really had done something to Barbara, so I followed.”
Lifting his foot out of the water, Derick examined a set of deep scratches to his shin. “This theater. It’s ruined my life,” he moaned.
Rosalind took hold of his shirt with her free hand. “Enough, Derick. Don’t be so melodramatic.”
“We’re still waiting on an explanation from Sly Steel here,” Trey said, arms folded across his chest. “Why did you come back? And maybe you could explain about Fred’s murder while you’re at it?”
Derick’s eyes opened wide. “Murder?”
“He was shot,” Sage said, wondering if the reaction she saw was real. “Why did you come down here?”
“To cover it up,” he half sobbed.
Rosalind shushed him again.
Sage felt her stomach drop to her feet. “To cover what up?” she said, a hitch in her voice.
She heard Trey’s sudden intake of breath. “Oh, I see. I should have figured that out sooner.”
“Figured out what?” she snapped.
“The gas cans.” He shot a disgusted look at Derick. “I wondered why I kept smelling gasoline. You were going to burn down the Imperial. For the insurance settlement?”
Derick laughed. “The insurance payout wouldn’t even come close to the money I’ve funneled into this dump. I just wanted to end it so Barbara wouldn’t ruin us.”
Sage’s mouth dropped open. “You were going to torch the place? Why not just tell Barbara you couldn’t afford it?”
“Because,” Derick shouted, his voice rising with every syllable. “I love her and I didn’t want to admit that I’m broke, okay? I made plans to burn the Imperial down, but the earthquake messed things up. I wanted to come back and remove the gas cans in case the insurance investigators or the police found them.”
They all stared at him and Rosalind closed her eyes and sighed. “I told you,” she said. “He loves Barbara. He’d never do anything to hurt her.”
“You knew he was going to burn it?” Trey said.
Rosalind sighed. “I had my suspicions when I saw the muddy shoes.”
“And that was okay with you?”
“Of course it wasn’t,” she spat, “but try talking him out of anything.”
“But the prenatal vitamins,” Sage pressed. “Fred was holding Barbara here.”
Derick cocked his head. “What are you talking about? Fred Tipley? What did he have to do with Barbara?”
Rosalind looked away.
“Time for the truth,” Sage said. “Rosalind, what was Fred Tipley’s connection to Barbara?”
Derick pulled out of her grasp, steadying himself against the wall.
Rosalind straightened to her fullest height and gave them a look of scornful strength. “I’m sorry, Derick, but Barbara was having an affair and Fred Tipley was the one who helped her cover it up.”
Trey had experienced shocked silence before, but this one was the capper. Even Sage appeared to be speechless. It was Derick who finally broke the spell.
“Barbara would never cheat on me, Rosalind,” he sputtered. “You’re completely wrong.”
“I wish I was,” she said miserably. “I overheard a phone conversation between Barbara and a man. It was obvious that they were...intimate.”
“When was this?” Derick demanded.
“About a year ago.”
“A year?” His eyes rolled in thought. Trey could see him doing the mental calculations. “About the time she became obsessed with restoring the Imperial,” he finally said.
“Yes. She would meet him at the theater.” Rosalind said. “Fred would arrange it and let him in. The business trips she took, the weekends without you. I’m sorry, Derick, but she was with another man.”
Derick’s mouth twitched. “Why didn’t you tell me? You are my closest confidant, the person I can count on the most. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to hurt you. I know your career slowdown has been hard to take, and I wasn’t sure how much you could handle.” She sighed, a pleading tone creeping into her words. “When she became pregnant, I thought things would change. She was going to be a mother and she was staying home more, skipping her weekends away. I thought she’d ended it with the guy.”
“What’s his name?” Derick whispered, hands balled into fists.
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do,” he hissed. “Tell me right now.”
“No, I didn’t want to know. When she went to Santa Fe, I was hoping she would get her head together and come home and commit to your marriage. I don’t know anything about having kids.” Her face grew sad. “But I’d always heard that it changed a person, being a mother.”
“Maybe she was going on the trip to meet him,” Derick said, voice thick with rage. “Maybe she found someone else to bankroll her theater project. Someone with a deeper wallet than mine.”
“I’m sure that wasn’t what happened,” Rosalind said, but her voice betrayed uncertainty.
Trey tried to put the pieces into place. “Why the prenatal vitamin in Fred’s pocket?”
Rosalind shrugged.
“Leftover from an earlier time? I can’t say for sure. I wanted to fire him, but Barbara wouldn’t hear of it. The only thing I could do was forbid him to allow anyone into the theater, but Barbara’s orders always countermanded mine.”
Derick collapsed then, sliding down the wall until he hit the floor, shoulder-deep in the water.
Rosalind cried out and grabbed at him.
Trey hoisted him up in a fireman’s carry. He was completely limp, blood dripping in rivulets from his injured leg. “He’s in shock. We need to get him out after I bandage this.”
With the women’s help, he got Derick propped awkwardly on top of a crate. Rosalind supported his back while Trey fished a roll of plastic-wrapped gauze from his pack.
“Hold the light?” he asked and Sage waded forward and trained the flashlight on Derick’s wound. He knew her mind was not on the first aid but struggling through the revelation from the past few minutes.
Barbara’s affair.
Derick’s attempted arson.
Antonia’s stubborn belief that the actor was a killer.
Rosalind’s equally determined opinion that he wasn’t.
And Fred, killed by a looter? Some unidentified squatter? The man Barbara was having an affair with?
He started at the ankle, just above Derick’s sock, wrapping loops of gauze around the wounds, replaying the past few minutes in his mind.
I think it’s haunted.
He got to his feet wondering if he should trust his senses or his logic.
He might still be in the grip of paranoia born in battle.
Sage stared at him. “What is it?”
He turned to Derick and shook his shoulder. “Derick, can you hear me?”
Rosalind pushed Trey’s hand away. “Stop it. He’s hurt. We have to get him out.”
“I need to ask him something.” Trey crouched down to look into Derick’s half-open eyes. “You said you thought the theater was haunted. Why did you say that?”
His head rolled back and forth. “When I was stuck in the drain I heard noises, moaning and wailing. I hate this place. I hate it.” He slumped against Rosalind, who tried to chafe some warmth back into his arms.
“He’s nuts,” Antonia said.
“I wouldn’t argue under normal circumstances.” Trey applied some smelling salts from his pack, which revived Derick enough that he was able to stand with Rosalind’s support.
Trey made his decision abruptly. “Can you three get him out? Retrace your steps back to the ladder.” He handed Antonia the radio. “You should be able to contact Emiliano as you get closer. Call him if you run into a problem.”
Sage grabbed his arm. “Wait a minute. Where are you going?”
“I need to check something.”
Sage blocked his way. “Don’t shut me out of it. We’ve been through enough by now, haven’t we?”
He kept his voice low and even. “Just want to take a look down there.”
Rosalind began to splash across the floor with Derick. “I could use some help here. He’s heavy.”
Antonia reluctantly positioned herself underneath his other arm.
“Not you,” Rosalind snapped. “I need a man’s muscles.”
“Well, you’re stuck with a woman’s, so deal with it,” Antonia snarled.
“I’m staying with you,” Sage said to Trey.
“Rosalind and Antonia need you.”
“They can handle it.” She moved closer so he could see the curve of her lips, the soft, silky skin of her cheeks. “I’m not going to throw a fit and demand you fill me in this time. I’m just asking. Please tell me, Trey.”
Antonia, Rosalind and their injured patient were several yards away now. He weighed the decision. Tell her and risk stirring up a swirl of emotions that would probably lead to nothing? Or keep it to himself and get her out of the Imperial as soon as possible? The uncertainty created arcs of tension in his gut. In the army he was always sure of himself, confident in his ability to lead. A planner, a commander, a winner.
Years before, when he’d let himself get sucked into gang life, he’d come home late one night and found Dallas still awake, sneaking cookies from the cabinet and eating them by the light of a stubby candle. With the scent of alcohol still on his breath, he’d looked at Dallas, the little kid with trust shining in his eyes. Dallas was an innocent, removed from the dark world of petty crime, violence and drinking. Trey should have gotten out before that life could get its hooks into his younger brother.
It seemed in that moment in the darkened kitchen, he’d had a choice. He made it and he’d abdicated his role as leader. He’d been trying to make up for it every day since. Now, as he looked into her eyes, he saw that she, too, trusted him, not the army captain, but him, Trey Black, the man with a full complement of sins and foibles, the man who had failed his brother. It warmed him inside and he swallowed back the unaccustomed tide of feeling. The question was, how much would he reciprocate?
She’d been through so much and he did not know if one more disappointment would be the proverbial straw that broke her. All he knew in that moment was that he did not want her to walk away, to go through whatever lay ahead on her own. “Sage...”
He spoke softly, pulling her close and trying to keep his senses from being addled by the softness of her body against his. “When I got sucked down through the drain, I thought I heard something or someone.”
Her lips parted and she inched closer until his skin prickled. “What do you mean?”
“I thought I imagined it, but Derick heard it, too.”
She stiffened in his arms. “Are you saying what I think you are?”
He whispered in her ear, “Someone is down there in the drainage system.”
SEVENTEEN
Sage’s legs refused to cooperate for what seemed like minutes. Shivers coursed up and down her spine, though she tried her best to hide it from Trey. They sloshed to the door, a gas can floating by, bobbing lazily. Barbara was all she could think about. It was too far-fetched to believe her cousin was trapped in the drainage pipes, but if Trey was right and someone was down there...
“Could it be your brother? You said he was going to check out the storm drains again.”
“Don’t know, but I need to find out.”
Rosalind’s voice carried over the sound of Sage’s beating heart. “You two aren’t really going down there, are you?” she shouted.
“Go on,” she called back. “Get Derick to a doctor. We’ll follow as soon as we can.”
“You’re both crazy, you know that?” came the peevish response.
Rosalind was probably right. Sage tried to move as fast as her chilled limbs would allow. Trey pushed through the door once again and they slogged their way to the place where Derick had been stuck.
Trey took a breath and sank under the water, leaving Sage to listen to the sounds of rats clicking overhead and the soft clank of the flotsam bumping together in the dark void. Thirty seconds later he came up, heaving in a breath.
“The opening is circular, about two feet wide. Through it there’s a chute that leads down to a spillway and flattens out from there, which is as far as I went earlier, but I couldn’t see any farther.”
Sage nodded. “We swim through the opening and down the chute.”
“That’s about the only way,” he said. “Water’s moving at a pretty fast clip. Scared?”
Her instinct was to lie, but her mouth took a different tact. “Terrified.”
He started to respond, but she cut him off. “Scared or not, there is no way I’m leaving Barbara, your brother or whoever that poor soul is to drown in the darkness. I’m going to do this.”
Something like respect shone in his eyes, or so she imagined, the kind with which he had regarded his fellow soldiers, the pride she had
n’t realized she’d craved until just that moment.
He stood tall, defying the chaos that swirled around them. “You would have made a fine soldier, ma’am.”
She laughed. “If the captain would only do things my way and quit insisting on giving me pesky orders.”
He chuckled and she found herself moving to him, swept close. Tentatively she put her hands on his shoulders, running them up to his cheeks, wiping away the water from his temples, forehead, the strong planes of his cheek, the smooth curve of his lips. He closed his eyes and, standing on tiptoes, she pressed her mouth to his.
His military posture melted into an embrace and he returned the kiss with such intensity it took her breath away. Delicious currents of warmth cascaded through her until Trey pulled back, his expression full of half wonder and a good measure of panic. “Was that for luck?” he said, voice hoarse.
Suddenly she didn’t know. Her mind was playing tricks on her, her fear pushing her into the arms of a man who was only there by happenstance, only doing his duty, a man whom she had openly defied. Uncertainty pooled in her stomach and spilled upward into her lungs. “Sure, just for luck,” she said, stepping back into the shadows. “You first?”
He paused a minute, as if he wanted to say something. Instead he pulled off his pack. “I’ll check the rope.”
She tried to steady her breathing while he set to work, refastening the rope around his waist. Why had she kissed him? Why had he let her? She felt slightly sick at her own boldness and what he must now think of her.
“Wait for me to yell,” Trey said. After another searching look, which she avoided, he ducked under the water and shimmied through the hole, carrying his pack in front of his body to keep it from being caught.
She waited, listening over the rippling water, trying to pull her mind away from the tingles left over after her ill-advised kiss. On the shelves above, she saw several gas canisters that Derick had not had time to remove.
She did not fault him for not having the courage to disappoint Barbara. She’d learned that her own supply of bravery had dried up promptly after Luis died in her arms. Understanding his failure made her feel the tiniest bit better about her own. She could almost relate to Rosalind, who couldn’t bear to break Derick’s heart with word of his wife’s infidelity. If it was true that Barbara cheated on him...if any of it was true. The facts were blurring together in her mind the longer she stood there, cold and covered with goose bumps. Had it been a full minute yet?
