Kurt swiftly closed the door behind her with a loud thud. “Just checking the tunnels, making sure the access points are secure.”
She heard the latch click into place on the hatchway door. She was locked in! “That Bastard!” she yelled in a whisper. She knew she couldn’t trust him! “Damn it!” The tunnel was suddenly darker than any darkness she had ever seen before. She waited for her eyes to adjust but the absolute darkness remained. She stood still, barely breathing, listening to hear if they were still there. She didn’t dare turn on her light yet. She couldn’t afford to be detected by Perkins. Wouldn’t he be happy if he did? She listened as the voices trailed off. Somewhere off in the distance in the tunnel there was a dripping sound. The familiar damp, musty air of the underground permeated her nose. She waited until she couldn’t stand the dark any longer and pushed the switch so the flashlight came to life. Taking a moment to let her eyes adjust, she glanced around her. Nothing unlike the other end of the tunnel. She took what comfort she could from that. Well, she had wanted to get back down into the tunnels and she did have a good flashlight with her this time. But she was locked in. Maybe Mitchell had her right where he wanted her. Suddenly she wanted to get out of there. Her cell phone! She could call Rashelle to come to her rescue. Her friend could come and let her out. All she would have to do would be to break the lock on the hatchway…Of course, calling her would be very risky. They were probably monitoring her cell phone on GPS. One call and more than just Mitchell would know where she was. “Alright, Elizabeth. Think.” Her voice was barely a whisper. It sounded odd to her. The tunnel suddenly seemed colder and wetter and emptier than before. She shined the flashlight down the tunnel shaft and listened. It was quiet. She put her free hand on the back of her hip while she thought for a moment. Should she attempt to find her way to the main building of the inn? What would she do once she got there—if she found her way there? It didn’t look like she had much choice. There was no leaving through the hatchway. She would have to devise a plan as she went. Then she realized the hand on her hip should have brushed the magazine that she had swiped from the Hutchins’ room. It wasn’t there! Had she dropped it in her haste to get down the hatchway? Did Mitchell slip it out of her pocket? She didn’t want to think about either possibility. It was time to start moving. If she was going to be a target, it would be better for her to be a moving target.
Taking a deep breath, she started hesitantly down the dark, dank tunnel. The trooper’s light was of much better quality that the two rusty cast-offs that Rashelle had rescued from the desk drawer of the office. She was fairly confident that this one might actually stay on. Elizabeth made her way slowly down the tunnel, taking small steps and stopping periodically to listen. Oh, how she hated the tunnels. It’s no wonder why she was forbidden from exploring them as a child. She was barely a few feet from the hatchway when her cell phone came to life in her pocket and made her jump. “Shit!” She plunged her hand deep into her pants to retrieve the noisy offender. One glance told her it was an area code of 917. Drescher again. He was certainly persistent. She had to give him that. Probably the last person she wanted to speak to right now. She just flipped opened the phone and closed it again. She acted quickly enough so that it only rang twice. Was it enough for them to detect where she was? Elizabeth didn’t have time to think about it. She quickly shut off the phone and shoved it back into her pocket.
Elizabeth pressed on, shuffling her feet a few dozen yards, until she noticed the reflection of a light, bobbing along the wall. She quickly extinguished her light and watched the reflection. It was gradually getting brighter and closer. Someone was in the tunnel, coming right toward her. There was nowhere to hide. Nowhere to go. All she could do was to wait until the person reached her. Her breathing quickened. Her palms became damp. She had to focus on not dropping her light. The person was shuffling his or her feet. Almost on top of her. Suddenly there was a light shining in her eyes. She quickly turned on her light and pointed it at the intruder. “M-Mrs. Leibowitz? W-what the—What are you doing here?” Elizabeth couldn’t believe her eyes. There, standing in front of her, in the dark, damp tunnel, was none other than one of the inn’s regular guests, Mrs. L. She stood there in Elizabeth’s light like they were casually meeting in the hall of the inn. Of course, in reality, no meeting with Mrs. Leibowitz was casual. Then Elizabeth noticed she was holding something down at her side. She moved the light lower to get a better look. “A bottle of wine? Mrs. Leibowitz, you’re sneaking a bottle from the inn’s wine cellar?” Elizabeth was incredulous. A long-time guest was using the old tunnels to pilfer wine. She moved her light back up to Mrs. L’s face, looking for a response.
“Bah!” Her free hand gestured as if to say, “no big deal.” “The wine you had sent up earlier was of questionable quality so I thought I would help myself and make my own selection.” Elizabeth couldn’t believe her ears. She had obviously done this before and knew right where to go to find the inn’s wine cellar. Before she could wonder how long this had been going on, the defiant guest pushed past her and headed for the end of the tunnel Elizabeth had just left. Mrs. L. called back to her as the darkness quickly swallowed her up, “I’ll just leave the unopened bottle in my room to be picked up.” Elizabeth watched as her light bobbed for a few seconds and then disappeared out of sight.
“What a bitch!” Her voice was barely a whisper. Elizabeth just stood there alone in the dark shaking her head with her mouth opened slightly. She wasn’t about to do her any favors and tell her the hatchway was locked. She would see her on the rebound. Her feet starting moving again.
Several minutes passed while Elizabeth shuffled her feet, making her way toward the wine cellar below the main building. She couldn’t shake her encounter with Mrs. Leibowitz, but she really needed to be focusing on other matters right now. What or who was she going to find when she got to the cellar? Would Perkins and/or Mitchell be there to greet her? She felt trapped like a rat. She had no choice but to keep moving. Her feet proceeded at a steady pace. Then she smelled it. It hit her in the face like it had before. The odor was so strong, it almost made her eyes water. She slowed her feet until she was nearly standing still. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to see where the odor was coming from but she kept moving. Slowly she crept closer. A few steps at a time. The smell was very strong now. It couldn’t be too much farther. A few more steps. Then her light shined on something dark in the middle of the tunnel. She stopped dead in her tracks. What was it? She held her breath. She took a few more steps closer, squinting her eyes to make out the lifeless form on the floor a few feet in front of her. A few more steps closer. Then she noticed the fur. It was just an unfortunate animal that had met its match in the bowels of the inn. Not a very large animal. Hard to tell what it was and what did it in because it had obviously been there decomposing for a while. She was relieved that the carcass was not human, though. Gingerly, she stepped over it and moved on. The more space she could put between herself and that smelly mess, the better.
Elizabeth picked up her pace as much as she dared, but kept her feet as close to the ground as possible to avoid slipping and falling on the damp, dirt floor. She pressed on, further into the tunnel. Oh, how she just wanted to get out of there. Her thoughts went back to Mitchell. She couldn’t decide if she could trust him. Did he have the Hutchins’ magazine? If so, what was he going to do with it? Would he give it to Perkins so he could use it to charge her with breaking and entering? Oh, she wished she could call Rashelle to ensure someone was going to be on her side when she exited the tunnel. Elizabeth hated to think about what kind of a welcoming committee would be there to great her. She decided to just put it out of her mind for a while and keep going. Suddenly she became aware of her feet. She felt as though they had sped up while she was deep in thought so she reached out with her free hand to run it along the wall. It was cold and damp. All of a sudden the air in the tunnel felt very cold. A shiver ran down her spine. She felt so alone
down below the ground. The urgency to get out of there was stronger than ever, but she stopped for a moment to listen. It was too quiet.
“Get out!” The voice startled her. It was a whisper in her ear. She jumped and turned her head back and forth trying to determine where the sound came from. It was a woman’s voice, but not one she recognized. It certainly wasn’t Mrs. Leibowitz’s. She couldn’t decide if the voice had originated from behind her or in front of her. It almost seemed like it was all around her.
Elizabeth decided to heed the warning just the same and she resumed her trek toward daylight. Her feet started to move at a pace that was flirting with the danger of slipping on the wet ground beneath her, but her desire to escape had never been stronger.
She had covered a few yards when the hand that was running along the wall felt a subtle vibration, which made her stop and listen again. What was that? She took a few tentative steps, keeping her hand on the wall, stopping to listen again. Somewhere near her there was a creaking sound, like a heavy weight was causing something to give under the pressure. Elizabeth blacked out before she saw what happened next.
Chapter 21
Elizabeth was struggling to open her eyes. She became acutely aware that the back of her head ached like she had never felt before. She moaned as she started to stir from her prone position on the floor of the tunnel.
“Liz!! Are you alright?” Elizabeth was vaguely aware that she was hearing a familiar voice. “Lizzi! Oh my gawd, are you all right? Tawk to me.” As Elizabeth slowly regained her consciousness, she strained to see her friend. There was a bright light in her face that was hard to see past.
A gruff voice barked directions to someone. “Get the light out of her eyes, for God’s sake. Give her some room to breathe!” Elizabeth suddenly realized who was speaking. Perkins had found her. Was he responsible for the throbbing in her head? Her stomach turned over and she suddenly felt nauseous. She struggled to remember what had happened and was frustrated that she couldn’t. She knew this couldn’t be good.
“Liz. What happened? Are you all right, girlfriend? Tawk to me. Can you sit up?” Rashelle was desperately trying to help Elizabeth. She grabbed onto one of her arms and tried to encourage her to move.
“Whoa, Miss Harper. Give her a few minutes to gather herself. She’ll be fine. Just give her some time.” What is Perkins up to? He was sounding entirely too compassionate. Elizabeth wondered exactly who was hovering over her. She was becoming aware of several people. It seemed like a crowd that gathers at a car accident. She kept blinking to clear her eyesight while squinting to try to see past multiple flashlights. She wished she knew what had happened. Damn, she could use some ice and several hundred milligrams of ibuprofen. Elizabeth reached with one hand to the back of her head to perform a tactile examination. She felt a large lump that was excruciating when she touched it and her hand felt wet when she pulled it away.
“Take it easy, Miss Pennington. You’ve suffered quite a blow to the back of your head. Take your time. If need be, we can carry you out of the tunnel. Suddenly, she felt the need to sit up and get out of the limelight of a half a dozen flashlights. She tried to sit up and the whole world started to spin.
A very firm hand latched onto her left upper arm to steady her. There was a new voice. “Elizabeth, you heard the lieutenant. There’s no rush. Take your time.” It was Mitchell. She guessed she shouldn’t be surprised that he was with Perkins. But Rashelle?
She took a deep breath and exhaled. “I know, I know. I just would like to get out of here. What happened?”
“We can fill in the details in time. Let’s first get you safely out of here.”
What is Mitchell up to?
“Do you feel that you can stand up?”
“Let’s give it a try. I really want out of here.” There was a real sense of urgency in her voice.
Another unidentified voice broke in. “Actually, sir, we really should vacate the tunnel. It’s not as stable as it once was. We don’t know how long we really have.” As if on cue, Perkins and Mitchell reached down and each grabbed onto her forearms.
“Ready, Elizabeth?”
She nodded her head. “Let’s do it.”
Slowly the two men lifted her into a standing position. Her knees started to buckle so they held onto her until she was steadier on her feet. Her head was swirling after all that movement, but she was so glad to be upright and on her feet. She had had enough of the tunnels. She wanted out. Slowly they made their way toward the exit. Elizabeth pushed herself as hard as she could. She plodded along forcing her feet to move. She was acutely aware that Mitchell was on one side and Perkins was on the other. She wondered if they were taking her into custody. She almost didn’t care. She just wanted out of the bowels of the earth and hoped she never saw the tunnel walls again.
After several yards of shuffling her feet, she felt absolutely drained and started to slow down. The back of her head started to throb. The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She felt very light-headed. Things started to spin again. She started to black out again on her way to becoming a heap on the cold wet floor. Someone scooped her up and headed toward the way out.
Chapter 22
Elizabeth came to, for a second time, in the familiar territory of the sitting room off the lobby of the inn. Someone had applied a bandage to the back of her head while she was unconscious. The pain was unbearable, but she was just thrilled to be above ground again. She could sense there was a lot of commotion out in the dining room. She tried to sit up and see what was going on. As soon as she moved, she knew she needed to take it slowly. A stabbing pain shot through her head. Her body was saying, “SLOW DOWN!” Unfortunately, she needed to push it beyond the edge of the envelope right now. Her body flopped back down on the worn out floral couch that didn’t seem to be near the fireplace where she and Rashelle had talked late into the evening on the first night of her arrival. The room seemed to have been rearranged. It was very different. Even though she was curious about the sitting room, she really wanted to find out what had happened down in the tunnels. Perhaps it was more important to find out what was happening at the inn at the moment. Elizabeth struggled to sit up. She listened closely to the din nearby.
“Elizabeth! The sound of her grandmother’s voice felt wonderful.
Oh, how she wanted to reach out and hug her, feel her warmth inside and out. “Nana! What’s going on? What happened?”
“Are you alright? You look awful. You poor thing! The tunnel you were in had a cave in. You are lucky to be alive!” Amelia was pleased and grateful to see that her granddaughter was going to be okay.
“Nana, I’m okay…I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. What is going on?”
“Liz, the hurricane has taken a turn. It is heading inland…right for us. We need to start evacuating the inn.”
“What about the missing girl?”
“Oh, the officers seemed to think they have—”
“Excuse me, ma’am.” Perkins was speaking directly to Amelia. She turned abruptly toward him. “We really need to get going with the evacuation of the guests.”
“Yes, yes! Of course. I’ll be right there.” She turned her attention back to her granddaughter. Perkins lingered next to Amelia, looking directly at Elizabeth. “I have to help the officers. You need to rest. You stay put and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
The lieutenant finally spoke in his stern voice. “Elizabeth, if I didn’t have more pressing issues to address, you would be back in custody for running off like that. As it stands now, though, the investigation just took a turn which seems to get you off the hook…but I still want to talk with you later.”
He and Amelia turned toward the dining room and disappeared before Elizabeth could open her mouth to ask a question. She felt as though she had been gone a long time and that a lot had happened while she was down under. The throbbin
g in her head made her wish she could take an ibuprofen or two or three. She decided she needed to go find some. Everyone else seemed so busy. She would just do it herself. Slowly she sat up again. This time the room didn’t spin quite so fast. She considered that a huge improvement over her attempt a few minutes earlier. Resting on the couch in a sitting position, she gathered all the energy she could muster to try to stand up. She looked around the sitting room. The furniture was definitely different. She squinted and thought about it for a while and then realized that things had not only been rearranged, several pieces were added. Then she noticed that the furniture had been pushed to one side to make room for the furniture and bikes off of the front porch.
Gingerly she eased herself off of the couch into a standing position. She hung onto the arm of the couch for a while to make sure she wasn’t going to take a nosedive. So far, so good. She started to take little steps toward the registration desk. Rashelle must have something strong stashed in one of the drawers. She got as far as the old, round, wooden table in the foyer, with the large vase of flowers on it, when the world around her started to spin again. Lunging for the edge of the table, she was just in time to grab hold to steady herself until things cleared in her head. Finally, she felt strong enough to do a bee line for the front desk. She let go and fast-walked to the counter, a little crooked, and grabbed on for dear life again. Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself across the counter to see if there was anything obvious on the desktop below. She hung on for a moment while her head throbbed. She blinked, trying to see things more clearly. It looked like there might be something resembling an ibuprofen bottle next to the phone, but she couldn’t be sure. She would have to make her way around to the inside of the office to check it out. That would take some effort. She waited a while to gather her strength, and then skirted around the corner, running both hands along the walls to steady herself. Reaching the office door, her body hit it with a thud. Oh, that didn’t feel very good. She fumbled for the doorknob and managed to turn it enough to release the catch and allow the weight of her body to push open the door. The momentum carried her into the tiny office where she aimed for and landed in the desk chair. She took a few deep breaths and surveyed her surroundings. The drawers. There had to be something in one of the drawers. She swung the chair around toward the desk and started to pull out drawers and look deep into the back of them. She was in luck with the second drawer. A well-worn bottle of pain reliever rattled around inside the drawer when Elizabeth gave it a good tug. She was so relieved. She snatched up the bottle, opened the top, and poured half a dozen gel caps into the palm of her hand. Wondering what she was going to wash them down with, she quickly scanned the desk and noticed a bottle of water sitting on the far side. Under any other circumstances, she would have been totally repulsed by the idea of drinking out of someone else’s water bottle. She had no idea whose it was, but she was desperate and didn’t have time to find out. The six ibuprofen slid down her throat without delay. She longed for them to take effect immediately. She closed her eyes and tried to will her body to rid itself of the pain that was still throbbing in her head. Without realizing it, her body weight eased the chair into a semi-reclining position. Her body shut down for a third time under the stress of her injury. There she lay in the relative quiet of the tiny office. Meanwhile, the rest of the inn was in chaos as the staff and troopers labored to reach every guest and instruct them as to evacuation procedures. A couple of local schools had opened up, even though they weren’t scheduled to start classes for a few more days, to take in evacuees of the impending storm. The meteorologists were suddenly concerned about certain towns along the Maine coast, and Pennington Point was one of them. There was talk of the hurricane maintaining a category four label. Such a strong storm had not hit Maine for as long as even the old-timers could remember.
The Precipice Page 17
