by Hunt, Angela
She turns her head at the sound of a creak—Eddie is coming her way, supported on two push-broom crutches, the bristles under his arm thoughtfully cushioned with linen napkins Isabel found in a closet. Sadie follows him, as devoted as ever.
Michelle smiles, then points at the road below. “My car’s gone. I parked it right down there, and it’s vanished.”
“Probably swept away.” With an effort, Eddie sinks into a chair, drops his makeshift crutches onto the floor and surveys the damage with a rueful expression.
Michelle nods. “I know. It’s…unbelievable.” Though she has lived in Florida for years, she has never imagined seeing anything like this. The moving water below is filled with debris—bits of plants, broken glass, wooden planks and police barricades—but no bodies, praise God.
At least, not yet.
She brings her hand to her mouth as the thought unsettles her stomach. As long as they remain in this building, they can’t escape the specter of death.
As soon as Eddie woke this morning, he insisted that she help him to the eighth-floor elevator landing. Gina might still be trapped, he said, and by now she ought to be desperate to climb out of the car.
Using a special tool from his pocket, he opened the doors to the center express shaft and searched for the car that had held them prisoner for so long.
He finally spotted it far below. Covered with water.
No one has mentioned Gina or Parker since that grim discovery, but thoughts of them haunt every conversation and memory. Death lives in this building, and Michelle can’t wait to leave.
Eddie watches her, his face displaying an uncanny awareness. “You feeling okay?”
“It’s…morning sickness.”
He looks toward the window. “I see.”
“I don’t think you can…understand.” Michelle closes her eyes, assaulted by mixed emotions and a deep sense of shame. “Let’s just say that my past…Well, when we get out of here, I’m starting over.”
Eddie nods, then hooks his arm over the back of his chair. “I’ve started over before. It takes time, but things do begin to look better.”
She looks away, embarrassed by the relief his words give her. She scarcely knows this man, but she owes him her life. She bullied him into coming to Tampa, to an area that isn’t even his territory, and yet he’s still willing to sit here and comfort her.
She turns, suddenly curious. “I was wondering.”
“Yeah?”
She studies his face another moment, then shakes her head. “Why’d you come for us, Eddie? You didn’t have to. We shouldn’t have been here, but you risked everything—”
She stops when a dusky red tide advances up his neck. For a moment he says nothing, then he clears his throat. “I thought I came because I owed a debt…but in that shaft, I realized the debt I owe can never be repaid. My life, your life…we really don’t control the big picture, do we?”
She turns the thought over in her mind. “So…you came here for nothing?”
When Eddie’s gaze moves into hers, his eyes are compassionate, tender and understanding. “I wouldn’t say that. I came for you.”
OCTOBER 29
9:00 a.m.
CHAPTER 28
Wrapped in the remnants of a dream, Michelle opens her eyes and stares at the ceiling until she remembers what day it is. She reaches for the remote on the nightstand and powers on the television, tuned to the local news channel. A somber-faced young man appears before the Lark Tower, which still bears the scars of Hurricane Felix.
Not needing to be reminded of the storm, she turns down the volume, then drops the remote and eases out from under the comforter. In bare feet she pads toward the bathroom, where she knows she’ll find a shower and sink and toilet, all of which will run with blessedly clean water.
After showering and drying her hair, she slips into a loose-fitting dress and calls a cab.
When the taxi drops her at her destination, she pauses to knit the raveled fabric of her nerve before exiting the vehicle. She hasn’t been to this part of the city since a rescue boat pulled her from the Tower three days after the storm struck.
Even now, memories of the elevator haunt her dreams.
Her therapist says it’s only natural that she should be experiencing an emotional roller coaster. On one fateful day, she faced several earth-shattering revelations and bonded with strangers, one of whom died in a macabre accident. In time, the therapist keeps promising, life will return to normal.
Michelle isn’t sure she wants normal. She knows she doesn’t want the life she had. In the elevator she chose to trust Eddie Vaughn; now she’s choosing to trust the Savior her grandmother had talked so much about.
And she is keeping the baby.
She steps out of the cab, smooths her jacket over the slight bulge of her tummy and hooks her purse over her shoulder. The asphalt is cracked in several places and the live oaks are gone, but the city’s landmarks are still recognizable. From across the street she scans the Lark Tower and notices that nearly all the upper-floor windows are covered with plywood. According to her claims adjuster, her office suite, along with Parker Rossman’s and several of the attorney general’s, is a ruined shell. Her company’s files and papers—those that haven’t disintegrated or been washed into the bay—are drifting in the currents of the Hillsborough River.
She accepted his assessment without argument because she’s in no hurry to return to any elevator in the Lark Tower.
She swallows hard, her nerves at a full stretch, but as the cab pulls away she sees a man waiting on the opposite curb. At the sight of his crutches, she quickens her step. Sadie stands by his side, joined to him by a pink-and-purple leash.
The glow of the man’s smile overcomes the slight October chill.
“Hello, Eddie.” She enfolds the man in a gentle embrace, then bends to fondle the dog’s ears. “Hi, Sadie. Love the new leash.”
Eddie chuckles. “I would never have bought anything with pink in it, but you convinced me she needs a little more pizzazz in her life.”
“She deserves it.” Michelle wipes her hand on her skirt. “So—how’s rehab going?”
“Fine.” He looks down at his leg and bends his knee. “The doctor said you did a great job of setting that bone.”
“Beginner’s luck, I think.”
“Give yourself a little credit. It was more than luck.”
“Well…” Michelle tilts her head toward the building. “You ready to go inside?”
“I was waiting for you. Isabel and Carlos are already in the lobby.”
“Any news on Isabel’s situation?”
Eddie shifts his weight on the crutches. “She and Carlos went to the police and explained what happened. The detectives took her statement, but they’re not going to file charges because there’s no evidence to prove Parker’s death was anything but an accident. They did place a call to the DEA, who alerted the Mexican authorities to Ernesto Fuentes and his operation. He won’t make it over the border again.”
“That’s a relief.”
Michelle adjusts her step to match Eddie’s as they walk toward the revolving doors that lead into the first-floor lobby.
“I hear—” she brightens her voice “—that the mayor wants to present your award. I threatened to arm-wrestle her for the honor, of course.”
Eddie scowls. “I still think this is all a waste of time. I wouldn’t have come at all, except—”
“Except what?”
He stops in midstep, his eyes searching her face. “I had to see how you girls were doing.”
Michelle lifts her chin. A few weeks ago she would have bristled if anyone described her as a girl, but from Eddie’s lips the term feels…flattering.
He hesitates. “Did you go to any of the funerals?”
“I went to the Rossmans’ service, more for Gina’s sake than Parker’s. It was hard to see them be buried. I felt horrible about the way she died. I should have forced her to come with us.”
&nbs
p; “That lady was determined,” Eddie answers. “And she probably thought she made the right decision. I heard that the medical examiner’s office found no signs of a struggle, apart from a few bruises on her hands. She drowned, pure and simple.”
They take several steps in that special silence in which difficult words are sought and carefully linked together. “I heard,” Michelle finally says, “that Gina’s sister took a leave of absence from her medical practice and has come to live with the kids. They’re still adjusting, but I hear she’s committed to sticking around for a while.”
“That’s good.”
“I thought so, too. Change can be beneficial. That’s why I’m moving my business.”
Is that a flash of disappointment in his eyes?
“Not far,” she hastens to add, “but to a smaller office in a shopping plaza not far from here. I thought I might downsize, see what I could do to find real jobs for real people.”
“Aren’t CEOs real people?”
She laughs. “Sure they are. But they don’t need as much help as other people do.”
A trace of unguarded tenderness lingers in Eddie’s eyes when he smiles at her. “I’ve missed you. I guess you can’t spend seventy-two hours with someone and not get to know them well.”
Not quite ready to share her hero with the world, Michelle stops on the sidewalk and looks into the face she’ll never forget. “I’ve missed you, too.”
“So…you won’t mind if Sadie and I drop by for a visit? Or take you out to a movie?”
She looks at him, her heart brimming with a feeling she had thought long dead. Eddie is so unlike Parker and the other men she’s known. He is…sweet.
“In Bald Knob,” she says, grinning up at him, “we call it the picture show. So sure, you can take me to the show as long as you’re okay—” she runs her hand over the bulge at her belly “—with everything.”
He looks at her, his gaze as soft as a caress. “I’m okay with you, Shelly.”
Unspeakably grateful for this reassurance, she places her hand tight against his cheek, then thrills when he turns his face into her palm and kisses it.
He might have kissed her again, but the revolving doors are turning, spilling a wave of photographers, cameramen and reporters. A dark-haired couple sweeps out with the crowd, and at first Michelle doesn’t recognize the attractive woman in a tailored pantsuit. But when the man next to her lifts an adorable dark-haired toddler into his arms, the pieces fall into place.
“Isabel!” Michelle hurries forward to embrace the Suarez family.
The four survivors exchange greetings, then Carlos wraps his arm around his wife and together they move into the marble lobby.
Dear Reader,
We hope you have enjoyed this thought-provoking book by Angela Hunt.
Overleaf, we have provided some discussion questions on The Elevator that will hopefully increase your enjoyment and understanding of this book.
The Editors
MIRA Books
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Deception is one of the themes of this novel. In what ways do each of the characters deceive others? In what ways have they deceived themselves?
Have you ever been stuck in an elevator? How did you get out?
When the women are waiting in the elevator, Gina tells Michelle that Eddie Vaughn is not coming. How is Michelle’s faith in Eddie rewarded? Why is Gina reluctant to trust the mechanic? Who—or what—would she rather trust?
If Parker had not been married to Gina, would he have been a good husband for Michelle? Why or why not?
Michelle begins her life of deception by switching price tags at Maxim’s department store. How does she continue to “switch price tags” in her life? For what things does she pay too much, and what things does she undervalue?
If this novel were a movie, who would you cast as the principal players?
Could you identify with any of these women? In what way did you relate to them?
Even though Isabel is safely and legally living in a free country, Ernesto’s lies have kept her in a state of fear. What sort of lies prevent people from enjoying true liberty in their lives?
At one point, Gina compares her daughter, Mandi, with Isabel at the same age. Gina realizes she would do anything to erase trauma from Mandi’s life, while Isabel has had to live with her mistakes. Would Isabel be better off if her mother had been more like Gina? Why or why not?
How does the author demonstrate that Gina, Michelle and Isabel are ultimately responsible for their individual fates?
What role does the setting play in the story? Could the story have been set elsewhere and worked as well? How did the author prevent “reader claustrophobia,” even though most of the book is set in a small elevator?
What literary devices (flashback, point of view changes) did the author employ to enhance the story and maintain suspense?
ISBN: 978-1-4603-0160-9
THE ELEVATOR
Copyright © 2007 by Angela Elwell Hunt.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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