by J A Whiting
The air in the bedroom turned hazy as smoke poured under the door. The angry roar of the flames growled at the walls and Olivia wondered how long it would be before they crashed into the room.
“A few stupid sheets won’t be long enough to tie to the bed and use to climb down to the yard.” Kayla’s voice shook. Sweat ran down the sides of her face.
“Just tie one end to the leg of the bed. Tight. We are not dying here,” Olivia muttered as she moved through the haze to the closet and flung open the door. She rustled through the plastic bins on the floor of the closet searching for more sheets, and finding some, dumped the contents of the bin onto the bedroom floor. Reaching for one end of the sheet to start to tie the ends of the clean ones to the one she pulled from Melissa’s bed, something on the floor of the closet caught her eye.
Thundering snaps and cracks could be heard in the hall.
“Hurry!” Kayla backed towards the bed, her face white. “Olivia! The flames! They’re breaking through the door!”
Olivia stepped inside the closet and bent to pick something up. She nearly wept with gratitude. Crazy Melissa. Olivia smiled and backed out of the closet, turning to show Kayla what she had in her hands.
“What the hell?” Kayla gaped.
Olivia stood holding the axe that Melissa had brought back from her visit home.
“Forget the sheets.” Olivia kicked the plastic bins out of the way. “We’re going to bash through the closet into my room. There are metal rungs attached to the side of the building outside my window.”
Kayla didn’t need to hear it again. She rushed to the closet and pulled the clothes off the bar that ran the width of the space. “Here. I’ll make room for you to get at the wall.” She flung the clothes onto the floor of the room. Smoke streamed around and under the bedroom door. Kayla pushed the clothes across the floor, close to but not touching the space at the bottom of the door to try to stem some of the advancing smoke.
Olivia took the axe and swung it with all her might into the back wall of the closet.
“Pretend it’s Eric’s face,” Kayla shouted to Olivia. “Bash it in!”
A few more swings and Olivia was through the wallboard. Panting, she pushed at it with the end of the axe handle scraping away plaster and board. “We can get through.” She backed out of the closet.
Kayla went to the bed to move Melissa. “Come on. We can carry her.”
“Here, Kayla. Take the ropes.” Olivia bent down to spread one of the sheets on the floor. “We can lie Melissa down on this. Then we can each take an end and lift her. Like a stretcher.”
The girls could barely see through the haze in the room. Olivia coughed and hacked on the choking smoke. They moved Melissa from the bed and carefully placed her on the sheet. Each girl grabbed an end and lifted her from the floor. Olivia put the axe under her arm. They shuffled towards the closet. Kayla pushed backwards through the hole in the wall.
“The smoke’s heavy in here, too,” Kayla wheezed. “We need to hurry the hell up.”
Maneuvering the makeshift stretcher through the hole, Olivia hunched over and crawled through just as flames crashed through the door to Melissa’s room. The girls lowered Melissa to the floor.
“How are we going to get Melissa down that ladder?” Kayla’s voice was high-pitched. She hacked on the smoke filling Olivia’s bedroom. Their eyes stung.
Olivia flung open her closet door. She pulled scarves and belts from the hooks and tossed them on the floor. “Use the ropes to tie Melissa to my back. If there isn’t enough, then use the scarves and belts.”
Kayla stared at Olivia.
“There’s no other way. I’m not leaving her. Help me get her up.”
They pulled Melissa from the floor to standing position, holding tight to her arms. Olivia hunched over and shuffled her back up against the front of Melissa’s body. She reached back for her arms and pulled her forward like she would give her a piggy back.
“Tie the ropes and belts around us,” Olivia said. “Wind them tight.”
“How is this going to work? You’re not strong enough to do this.” Kayla wound and tied and hooked the ropes and belts into place.
“We don’t have a choice. What else can we do? We’ll have to make it work. It’s a good thing she’s small. Open the window.”
Kayla pushed the window up as far as it would go. She grabbed the axe and bashed at the window glass and the frame to make the space bigger. Kayla knocked Olivia’s dresser over and slid it close to the window so that Olivia could step up onto it and get through the window more easily.
The bedroom door cracked, flames licked into the room and flashed up to the ceiling.
“Oh, hell,” Kayla shouted.
Olivia stood frozen at the window, hunched over with Melissa on her back, her left hand reaching to hold Melissa’s dangling arm and her other hand clutching the sill.
“Go,” Kayla yelled.
Olivia looked at her. “I’m … afraid.”
“Get the hell out that window or I’ll push you out,” Kayla ordered Olivia.
Olivia swallowed hard. She leaned out of the window keeping her eyes on the escape ladder to avoid looking down. Her heart hammered at her chest. Please let this work.
“Here we go, Mel,” Olivia whispered. She reached for the metal rungs, trying to correctly balance Melissa’s weight to keep from being pulled down backward. She grabbed the first rung. Kayla leaned over the window sill and held onto Melissa by the ropes as Olivia swung her feet onto the rungs. We’re on! We’re out!
“Come on, Kayla! Get out of there!” Olivia wiggled her feet down from rung to rung, feeling with her toe for the next one. Her hands, wet with sweat, slipped on the metal ladder, but she held tight. Her muscles were screaming from the load she carried on her back. Down, down. The last rung was positioned above the first floor windows, so Olivia would have to let go and drop from the bottom of the ladder. She held her breath. When she released her hold on the rung, Olivia tried to crunch forward to keep from falling backwards on top of Melissa.
They plummeted to the ground with a crash that knocked the wind out of Olivia’s lungs. The side of her head cracked against the ground and pain shot up her leg and into her back. She was flat on her side with Melissa still tied to her. We’re on the ground. Relief flooded Olivia’s body. Through the black edges of her sparkling vision, she watched Kayla drop from the ladder and land beside her.
They heard the screams of the fire truck tearing down the street.
Olivia turned her head to Kayla. “Now they show up.”
Chapter 26
Sirens. Feet pounding on the ground. Shouts.
Firefighters pulled hoses from the truck as another emergency vehicle tore around the corner. A police officer ran to the women and knelt beside them.
“Goddamn Eric Daniels did this.” Kayla struggled to push herself to sitting position. “He set the fire. He kidnapped me.” She waved her hand towards Melissa. “He injected her with something. He fucking tried to kill us. He set the building on fire. He killed Christian and Gary and Jack.” Sucking in a gasp, she gripped her right arm with her left hand. “I think I broke my arm.” Kayla leaned back on the grass.
Cops and EMTs swarmed around them. They cut Melissa free from Olivia’s back.
Melissa opened her eyes and moaned. “Liv?”
“I’m here, Mel. Everything’s okay,” Olivia said, still resting on her side.
“You need to find that monster,” Kayla yelled. “Or I swear to God I will hunt him down myself.”
Olivia couldn’t help but grin at Kayla’s ranting, but then her lips turned down. Rolling onto her back and looking up at the building, she watched the angry orange flames flashing against the night sky, the fire consuming her apartment. Olivia shifted her gaze to the metal rungs on the side of the building, grateful to whoever pounded each one of them into the wall. A strange sense of calm overcame her.
The women were placed on stretchers and moved away from the buil
ding to waiting ambulances. Police officers questioned Kayla and Olivia about what had happened as they were being transported to the vehicles. There would be more and more questions once they reached the hospital.
As they were loading her into the back of the ambulance, Olivia pondered the crazy and terrible things that people were capable of inflicting on each other and she realized that there wasn’t a whole lot that anybody could do to stop it.
A tear escaped from her eye and rolled down the side of her face creating a little white trail in the soot that covered her skin.
***
Several days later, Olivia, Melissa, Kayla, and Ynes sat on the two twin beds in the cramped university dorm room eating Chinese food from takeout containers. After the fire destroyed their apartment, Olivia and Melissa were able to contract with the college for a double room to share for as long as they needed it. Insurance would cover the cost of their furniture, laptops, and some clothing.
“I’m really sorry I missed all the excitement,” Ynes joked. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t wait to settle this until I got back from that conference in New York.”
“Yeah.” Olivia wiped some peanut sauce off of her chin, and gave Ynes a pointed look remembering how she had taken out Adam Johnson in the parking lot behind the dance club. “You would have come in handy.”
“You want some more rice, Kayla?” Melissa asked.
Kayla had a broken arm which was elevated in a sling. “Yes, please. It’s amazing how people take the use of two hands for granted.” Melissa scooped rice onto Kayla’s plastic plate. “How’s your ankle feeling, Olivia?” Kayla asked before lifting a forkful of sesame chicken into her mouth.
“It’s pretty good. The ace bandage helps. Even though it’s just a sprain, I won’t be jogging for a few weeks. I’m still limping on it.” Her leg was propped up on a chair. She took a sip of iced tea and looked at Melissa. “I still can’t believe we got down that ladder with you tied to my back.” She grinned. “Next time I’ll land on Melissa, not the other way around.”
Melissa looked at Olivia and was about to say something, but her eyes misted over and she got choked up.
“Uh, oh.” Kayla said. “Melissa’s going to cry again.”
Melissa cleared her throat and waved her hand in the air. “No, I’m not.” Her voice was shaky. She locked eyes with Olivia and then with Kayla. “Thanks, both of you.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “Thanks for not leaving me.” She brushed at her cheek.
Kayla’s eyes sparkled. “I told you she was going to cry.”
“Leaving you was not an option,” Olivia told Melissa. “You’re the sister I never had. I prefer to keep you around a little while longer.”
“So fill in some blanks for me before this gets too mushy,” Ynes said. “How did this all happen?”
Kayla’s face was serious. She gave a long sigh. “I still can’t believe that bastard is the killer. And that I was with him so much and never suspected him.” She moved her plate off her lap and placed it on the bed next to her. “Eric texted me that night. He said he found something that might be a break in the case. He met me at the café. He acted so excited about what he found. He said he used his computer systems knowledge to find it. He wanted me to come with him to his place as soon as I got off my shift. He had to show me what he discovered.” She took in a long breath. “When we got to his building and we went into his room, I almost passed out. While I was staring at the pictures of me and Christian all over the walls, Eric pulled a knife on me. He put his arm around my neck, cut my arms. They were only superficial, but I was terrified. He made me text Olivia to meet me at the café. His original plan was to kill me and Olivia and Melissa at his apartment but when Olivia texted that Melissa was sick, he changed his mind about the location. We took a cab to Melissa and Olivia’s. He threatened me to keep me quiet on the way there. He broke into their apartment. Melissa was asleep on the couch. He stuck her with a syringe. It was a sedative, one of those date rape drugs. It knocked her out. He made me help move her to the bedroom. I didn’t know it, but he had small canisters of gasoline in his backpack. He had planned to knock us all out and then burn the building down.” She brushed her hair away from her eyes.
“I was at the café waiting for Kayla,” Olivia said. “I started to worry. She wasn’t answering my text and the barista said she heard Eric say they were going to his apartment. It was a red flag to me because Kayla told me she had never been to his place, even though they had been friends for a couple of years.”
Kayla picked up the story. “Eric wanted to knock us out one at a time. That’s why he wanted Olivia to be at the café while he took care of Melissa.” She looked at Olivia. “He was enjoying tracking you with his phone. He was amazed that you went to his building. He called you ‘a worthy opponent.’ I wanted to kill him. I tried to fight him when he was going to tie me up, but he said if I didn’t cooperate that he would kill Melissa right then, right in front of me.” A sob caught in Kayla’s throat. Melissa put her arm around Kayla’s shoulders.
“We assume he downloaded the tracking app onto my phone at the hospital when Kayla and I went to the restroom,” Olivia said. She paused for a moment and then went on. “So when I was in his room, I saw the pictures, the computer tracking thing, the ski masks. He texted me. Told me to go home and not to call the police or he would kill Kayla and Mel.” The horror of the night overcame her for a moment. She turned to Ynes. “You know the rest.”
Ynes gave Olivia’s hand a squeeze.
“I should have known it was Eric.” Kayla’s energy had dissipated. She looked so small sitting on the bed next to Melissa. “I should have known he was the killer. The guys are dead because of me.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Olivia said in a soft voice. “It’s easy to look back and notice little things, but when we’re living them, everything just seems normal. Just because he got fired, just because people didn’t like him, those things don’t point to a murderer. And he was always nice to you, caring, kind.” Olivia blew out a breath. “It’s not your fault, Kayla. Not any part of it.”
Melissa said to Kayla, “Don’t ever think that. It’s Eric’s fault. It’s all because of Eric and his horrible obsession with you.”
Olivia added, “If it wasn’t you, Kayla, then it would just have been someone or something else. He was sick.” She sighed. “Obsessions. The all consuming desire for something, and the terrible things that happen when that something is denied.” She shook her head.
“I’m glad he’s dead,” Ynes said. “I’m glad the police killed him. There won’t be any trial to drag you all through it. It’s over.”
Eric was caught outside his apartment building. As the police were placing him under arrest, he grabbed one of the officer’s weapons and killed the cop. Another officer took Eric out.
The girls sat not saying anything for a minute, and then Olivia turned to Ynes. “What about your friend from the gym? Eva. She must be relieved that Adam Johnson is in custody.” Johnson had been charged with the murder of a young man from Dorchester which, to no one’s surprise, was drug-related.
Ynes’ eyes looked heavy with sadness. “Eva went back to Venezuela. She’s afraid of Johnson. Whether he’s in prison, or not. I don’t think she’s coming back.”
A knock sounded on the door. Ynes got up to answer it. The dorm supervisor stood there holding a glass vase filled with pink and lavender flowers. “These just came. They’re for Olivia.”
Ynes took them and placed them on the desk. She sat down next to Olivia and handed her the card that came with the flowers.
Olivia opened it.
“Well, who are they from?” Melissa asked, even though she had a pretty good idea who sent them. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”
Olivia looked up and groaned. “Guess who.”
Melissa chuckled.
“What’s funny?” Ynes asked. “Who sent them?”
“Jason,” Melissa said. “The guy Liv met at the for
mal. She doesn’t appreciate his persistence. Liv was sure that Jason was the one who downloaded the stalker app to her phone. She thought he went into her purse at the formal dance.”
Ynes raised an eyebrow and gave Olivia a sly smile. “So, are you going to give this guy a chance or what?”
“Oh, please.” Olivia rolled her eyes. “Don’t you start hassling me to date him, too.”
Ynes reached for her purse. “Come on. How about we walk, or hobble if you’re Olivia, over to the pub. Drinks are on me. I think we should celebrate.”
“What is there to celebrate?” Melissa asked.
Olivia swung her leg off the chair and stood up. She gave each of her friends a tender smile. “Being alive.”
Thank you for reading!
To hear about new books and book sales, please sign up for my mailing list at:
http://www.jawhitingbooks.com/subscribe-to-my-mailing-list.html
Your email will never be sold, shared, or spammed.
If you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review. A few words are all that’s needed. It would be very much appreciated.
BOOKS BY J.A. WHITING
The Killings (Olivia Miller Mystery - Prequel)
Red Julie (Olivia Miller Mystery - Book 1)
The Stone of Sadness (Olivia Miller Mystery - Book 2)
Justice (Olivia Miller Mystery - Book 3) Coming Spring 2015
Summoning the Earth (Olivia Miller Mystery - Book 4) Coming Fall 2015
About the Author
J.A. Whiting lives with her family in New England where she works full time in education. Whiting loves reading and writing mystery, suspense and thriller stories.
Visit me at:
www.jawhitingbooks.com
www.facebook.com/jawhitingauthor
