by Judith Mehl
Oh well. The deed was done and now she was free to meet Katharine. That woman was such a fool. Nobody was going to blame hers truly for Ed’s death, least of all that prying meddler. Meeting her at the construction site at the university was a problem though. She’d planned on something near the mall, not a place so close to her own home. But it took her longer to kill that man of Detective Burrows’ and she was short on time. The construction site was nearer home for a quick getaway, and certainly full of useful traps.
THE VOICE RASPED as if over hot coals. “Several students decided to rappel down the south tower of the new fine arts building. They attempted to climb the construction scaffolding to the top floor. Two of them fell. The police are on the way but I thought you would want to know.” The phone went dead.
A return to the office after dinner usually provided Kat some peaceful time to write and gather her thoughts. She did that occasionally on nights when Nick was occupied. Lately, she’d lost many hours because of the investigation, the funeral, and her own sick time. No one begrudged her the time. She knew what needed to be done and the havoc it would cause if it wasn’t. Fortunately, she was just minutes away from the site. She was lucky they caught her at work at that hour. The voice didn’t sounded familiar but Kat had no time to speculate who it was and why they didn’t identify themselves.
Before moving from one spot to the next these days, Kat always called Nick and if she couldn’t reach him, left a message as to her new location. She did so now on her cell phone as she sped to her car and over to the new building. Where were the sirens, the lights? It was only dusk but there was no parking lights or special lighting on the site yet. A wooded section provided background to the fine arts complex but with no housing nearby, no lighting filtered out to show Kat what was happening. There must be construction lighting somewhere. Hadn’t they found a way to turn it on? Campus security would know how. Where were they? Kat circled the construction area, carefully searching the scaffolding, the partially constructed walls, the rubble lying about. Where were the bodies, the people who found them? Finally, off to one side, she saw a figure. She halted her car and raced out. At the last second she screeched to a stop as fast as her feet would allow. It was Lauri Carmichael.
Lauri didn’t give her time to ask questions. “Hurry, they’re over here.” She grabbed Kat’s arm and ran forward. Kat dug in her heels but slid forward anyway. She looked around carefully as they entered the open skeleton of the new foyer. Puzzled, Kat attempted to jerk Lauri back to a stop and to ask some questions. Why weren’t the injured students outside? Where were the rescue people? The woman moved ahead as if possessed, Kat’s pull making no headway.
Kat wanted to stop and think. Burrows’ warning loomed large in her head. Lauri being the only one here was too coincidental. Caution urged her to withdraw. The opportunity for finding an answer to everyone’s fears slowed her retreat, but she searched the corners for a weapon at the same time. She needed closure and so did her friends. She took solace in knowing that the detective was having the woman followed and that someone must be around watching. Strange that they didn’t appear. Maybe their instructions were to stay out of sight. Still, she worried.
All Lauri would say is, “Up here. Up here. Come up here. You will see.”
But once inside Kat realized they were entering an open-sided construction elevator used to haul equipment to the upper levels. Instantly, Lauri had them both inside, the lever pushed. The elevator plodded upward as Kat’s doubts soared.
The other woman’s agitation grew as the space from the ground increased. She gripped Kat’s arm as if to fling her into open air. Worse, she didn’t speak a word.
Panicking appeared high on the list of reaction possibilities. She considered it, but as the daughter of a former policeman, Kat held strong. Her cell phone nestled in her pocket, but darkness shrouded the area. Could she turn it on without Lauri seeing her fumbling around, and whom would she dial? Nick already knew where she was, if he’d only pick up his messages.
Kat reviewed her self-defense skills and vowed to return to practice. Lauri stood mute. Kat sought to assess the woman’s purpose by checking out her eyes, but they shifted rapidly and didn’t settle. Should Kat try to escape the crazed woman at the top long enough to call 911 and hope they could tell enough to seek out her location and rescue her? If she speed-dialed Burrows, his booming voice would give her away. Useless things, cell phones. And they were advertised as lifesavers in an emergency. Maybe most people didn’t have her kind of emergency.
Stress oozed from her pores. She plotted her next move. Move she must. Her survival depended on it, but the wrong move would liken the acid flowing into her stomach to a stroll through the meadow. Meanwhile, Lauri’s impatience wore thin. The elevator stopped and she’d marched forward anxious to proceed. Kat didn’t follow.
Realizing her few second’s advantage, Kat switched the lever to down and hoped that Lauri didn’t have a gun. She was a virtual sitting duck in the open car. Her luck held only until Lauri lunged at Kat’s hair as the elevator descended. Kat hit the floor. She wanted to be as low a target as possible for the woman who clawed at her with anger bordering on hatred. Her garbled words made no sense.
Lauri lost her perspective. Katharine was getting away.
Anger boiled, congealing in veins, tightening Lauri’s chest. Pain sparked in little starbursts, radiated outward, along tiny nerve endings, their acute sensitivity belied by their size. Then it was over. She wouldn’t let pain take away the prize. Breathe eased, starbursts rounded, mellowed. A whole breath escaped the bonds. Her loss of control deprived her of advantage. The elevator plunged lower. She’d missed the opportunity to leap aboard.
Unable to recognize defeat in such a crucial enterprise, Lauri raced across the building. There must be an internal stairwell somewhere. She wasted precious seconds making the wrong turn before she spied it in the darkening gloom. It was only partially constructed, but sturdy. The steps would bring her to her foe if she could beat the slumberous elevator to the ground floor.
Kat heard the loud tapping of the frantic woman’s heels on the metal rungs as she rapidly descended, opposite of her own progress in the construction elevator which made its tedious way down. Did the men have it rigged so they could take a coffee break before they hit the ground? Lauri’s sounds echoed hollowly in the empty building. Where was everyone? Even if there were no over-ambitious students in grave danger, where was the guard Detective Burrows said he’d placed on Lauri? Where was Nick? What good did it do to leave messages for him if he never checked in? Kat’s mind moved a zillion times faster than the cranky elevator that jerked but fortunately did not stop at every level.
Kat followed the crazed sounds of Lauri sprinting downward on the stairs. Often her view was obstructed by the interior construction in progress as the elevator groaned to a stop on the ground floor.
Her thoughts turned to formulate a plan for when she left the elevator, but her normally organized brain operated like mush. Her mental hard drive shut down around the third floor. Her operating system felt like it functioned on old-fashioned fuses. Where was her back-up when she needed it?
Grateful for the silence of her butter soft leather mocs, she decided to keep them on rather than risk tetanus. Near the bottom she could no longer see or hear Lauri. Had the woman managed to pull out ahead of her? Could she be lying in wait for her when the elevator opened? Which way should Kat go?
No hiding places existed in the elevator. No one would be there to help her. Where were Burrows and his men?
WHEN BURROWS’ MAN didn’t report in on time, a car went to check out the cause. What they found was grizzly in appearance and scary in its methodical cover-up. Galvin was found in the woods, just far enough away from the home to be out of sight. He was a large man. It must have taken determined purpose to move him. He’d only been dead minutes when found.
Burrows called Kat’s home immediately, then her office, then Nick’s. He finally reached N
ick’s cell phone. Burrows wanted to warn Kat to be especially wary of Lauri Carmichael. He explained briefly.
Nick had known to check Lauri’s fake request before he responded. Fortunately it was routine procedure. He risked a call to the Wentworth home. The daughter, Melissa, answered. Priscilla had been in the Bahamas for the past two weeks. Wasn’t due back until next Friday. No one else had called from their home. No one was there but her and the butler. Since Priscilla claimed to want a meeting at her home, it appeared the call was a diversion, but for what? He’d set about finding out.
After Nick heard Kat’s message he and his men rushed toward the construction site. Burrows’ call, received in route, lent impetus and Nick floored the accelerator. The detective confirmed there was no report of a student accident. He agreed to send a car to meet them and headed there himself.
A STORM BREWING to the west earlier now crashed over campus. Lightening struck a nearby tree. It was a true August storm—quick and strong. Hot and heavy raindrops pelted the construction site. The elevator’s extended roof protected Kat from the worst of it, but the shifting wind and the lightening played havoc with her senses, causing even more shadows in the darkening gloom.
Was that another figure rushing towards the stairs on the first floor? Kat could barely see past the girders. Thunder rent the sky. It drowned out footsteps. The storm’s flickering lighting caused spectral shapes to appear where possibly there was nothing but concrete tubs and brooms, but Kat couldn’t be sure. As the elevator lurched to a stop she could still hear no sound from Lauri on the stairs. She lowered herself to the floor and rolled out of the elevator, hoping it would take the woman by surprise if she was lying in wait.
The shadows worried her. Maybe there really are students here, playing dumb games and in danger. And maybe Lauri did just bring her here to help. Why couldn’t she believe that?
She rolled to the left and bumped into the high-heeled feet of Lauri before she could aright herself.
Lauri gripped her arm with talon-like claws and screeched. “Now we have to start again. This time, you won’t get away.”
With the broom that stood next to the pillar nearby she could have wacked the woman behind her knees. The fall would provide the edge she needed. Before either woman knew what was happening, the shadowy broom figure materialized and moved. He tugged Lauri away from Kat with a strangle hold on the crazed woman’s neck. Kat recognized Carl. The parking lot lit up like a stadium as all the police cars and Nick and his men converged on the area, headlights all trained on the building.
All three of them halted as if caught on stage in a ménage à trois. Seconds later everyone moved frantically, including the men in the cars. Lauri struggled for release; Kat, free of the woman’s pincers, didn’t know which way to run. With the lights from the cars shining on them, she couldn’t see that it was Nick and friends heading her way. Carl, however, was a port in a storm. As the lightening flashed and the sky let loose a flood, she chose to stay near him, just not close enough for Lauri’s reach.
Detective Burrows and his men took the stance and drew their guns. Nick shouted, “Take it easy detective! That’s my wife and man in there.”
Kat heard his voice, saw the guns and was afraid to move. Carl knew not to. Again, motion halted. Lauri, however, appeared energized, crazed to get at Kat. Carl held tight.
Detective Burrows motioned his men forward cautiously, shouting. “Carl, it’s Okay. Hold tight to Lauri Carmichael. We’re coming to get her. She’s wanted for murder.”
Kat suspected they’d finally found evidence to convict her of the murder of Ed Ambrose.
Lauri didn’t waiver, still ranting how Katharine didn’t understand what it was like being destroyed by Ed. She’d made the horrid realization that she had given away her family’s beloved land for a no-good womanizer. That he didn’t even love her but was just playing her along.
“And then when I found out about that Cindy whore! How could he?” she screeched.
Lauri continued to wail as they cuffed her and dragged her away.
The rain soaked them all as they walked back outside. No one noticed. Nick’s arms eagerly surrounded his wife, his eyes seeking out Carl with thanks. As his men led Lauri into the squad car, Detective Burrows turned to Kat. He halted her progress by gently reaching for her arm. He felt he should inform her before she heard it elsewhere, though it hurt him to talk about it.
“My man, Galvin O’Sullivan, was shadowing Ms. Carmichael. They found him dead in the woods.” His professionalism took charge and kept the shudders at bay. He merely explained, “There were signs in her home that she killed him.”
Sadness at all that had happened seeped from her. It was as if her bones could no longer keep her upright.
Burrows continued, “She’s babbling now about Ed. We’ll take everything down tonight. I know you’re tired, but can you come to the police station and tell us what happened here?”
She told her tale, repeating it often though much of it didn’t make sense. It seemed that Lauri lost her sanity rapidly once she’d met Kat at the fine arts building.
Nick’s story of Priscilla Wentworth rang with coherency and astute planning. Somewhere in between then and Lauri’s arrival at the fine arts building, her brain cells must have started to unravel. Maybe the bloody murder of Galvin worked on her subconscious, though her mind seemed obsessed with Ed’s defection and crimes.
Tomorrow was soon enough to understand.
Chapter 28
Handwriting is chock full of apparent inconsistencies. An expert in analysis will find the guiding image that helps identify and clarify the opposing forces. Peace reigns.
Nick took her home to heal. Kat despaired at the great lose of life, of Ed Ambrose, of Detective Burrow’s officer, of Lauri’s future life. Understanding didn’t come. Maybe it never would, and for now, the pain etched its way into her soul.
Nick drew from the rich legacy of one of their favorite Canadian poets, Alden Nowlan, who said, “Each can bear but a particle of pain that is not our own.” Kat knew that Nick was right, that she could only absorb so much and let the rest pass. Eventually, she slept.
The days that followed brought more introspection, frequently in nightmares when thoughts ran free. Any storm would trigger them, though sometimes her subconscious conjured one on its own. She invariably found herself high up in the fine arts building, hanging over a partially constructed wall into a dark abyss. Nothing really resembled the new building, which rapidly neared completion, but her dreams unerringly knew her location. Her screams brought rescue in the arms of Nick who soothed away her jitters.
Nick lingered near, night and day. The crush of work disappeared in a new perspective. Loved ones stayed close to help deal with any repercussions, to aid recuperation of body and mind. They trooped through her home and office like well-wishers but more subdued. Even Glinna came to the house and brought John her feared enemy turned friend. It cheered Kat to see her friend’s joy in the man’s presence.
Matthew Hightower stopped in her office, thanking her for her support when he was under suspicion. They discussed the problems with students like Marie, who needed better preparation for college life, and counseling when they were here. Matthew told Kat that he was donating a start-up fund to open a center on campus that would provide that needed service.
Careful questions served their purpose. Several people used them as a strategy. Glinna was one of them. The Apothecary owner, who sought no inside information, was not a rumormonger. But she knew to draw out the poison by pulling it into the open. By coaxing Kat to talk about the incidents and the pain, the poison dissipated, through a drawn-out process that overrated openness and underrated the lingering effects of personal demons. Her feelings on the surface differed from deep down scars. Those frightening possibilities that lodge in the mind, unrelated to real events, cause more consternation than factual occurrences. Glinna attempted to clarify the differences for Kat.
She probed, “How did y
ou feel when Lauri had you pinned at the construction site?”
The terror returned before the words came. Once Kat voiced the fears, she stabilized. She explained how she was cautious when she arrived at the construction site, and alarmed but unable to draw away when Lauri materialized. Her dread that Lauri was unhinged brought the greatest concerns. She didn’t know how to plan an escape when dealing with someone unbalanced.
“I was stymied because I couldn’t organize a response. She wasn’t functioning logically. It wasn’t clear what brought Lauri there or what induced her to lure me there.”
Kat and Nick spoke often. He needed to purge his fears as well, to find some form of relief in airing them. He attempted to voice how he felt not knowing if he’d get there in time. Danger permeated his past life. He’d faced worse situations daily. What he’d never confronted was peril for someone he loved profoundly and without measure.
This time he received no flack for having her followed. She voiced gratitude toward Carl, but knew that if he hadn’t arrived she would have found a way to halt Lauri and her ravings.
Dealing with Burrows and his interminable questions brought despair this time. She lived through murder investigations before, had exposed killers on her own, but this time, the questions frustrated and confused. The difference this time was intangible, and therefore worrisome. Had the killer come too close? Left too much of an aftermath of dread? Would she ever be able to walk comfortably through the fine arts building without apprehension?
Though she’d returned to work, her mind drifted to thoughts of the detective’s findings, seeking solace in information, in facts that clarified Lauri’s involvement. Relief came with the knowledge that her prodding brought justice to a killer, and peace to the campus. Others could now walk without fear.
