Flood Zone

by Dana Mentink

  EIGHTEEN

  Cold. It shivered through her body as she swam into the dark water. Juno paddled ahead, turning once in a while to be sure she was still following along. Dallas kept level at her side. She suspected he could easily outpace her, but he, like Juno, was keeping tabs, ever her faithful guardian.

  Her muscles fell into a desperate rhythm. Each stroke, every kick and breath brought her that much closer to Gracie. She would force herself to cross this endless watery barrier between herself and her daughter. Despite her effort, goose bumps prickled her skin. Clearing the water from her eyes, she realized she was still no more than halfway across the expanse. Arms tired, legs leaden and she stopped, treading water.

  Dallas was next to her in an instant. “Need a rest?”

  She was too winded to respond.

  He offered his back. “Hold on. I’ll tow you for a while.”

  Sucking in a breath she shook her head, not wanting to add weight to a man she had already burdened so heavily. “I’m okay.” She plunged ahead. More minutes, inching along, the void fighting against her in a strange nocturnal race. There was just the frigid water and her weakened body, battling for each and every stroke. Her heart traveled on ahead, calling Gracie’s name into the night.

  She remembered Hector and Gracie splashing in the warm Miami waters.

  “Blow bubbles, bebé, like a little fishy.” He’d held Gracie against the foaming sea and laughed at the baby kicks and clumsy wiggles she’d tried. “She’s going to be a great swimmer,” Hector announced, his face shining with love.

  Gracie’s soft voice echoed through her memory. My daddy’s a bad man.

  Hector was a man who had done very bad things, but also a man who loved Gracie Louise quite possibly as much as she did. It was a fact she had forgotten, or perhaps, she had not wanted to accept. Maybe someday the Lord could make Hector’s path straight, too.

  And hers. If she could just get to Gracie. There were so many things she had to tell her, to love her through, comfort her against and lift her over. So many waves to be traversed. Lord, help me, help me.

  Water broke over her face and she sucked in a mouthful. What if Dr. Elias had hurt her? Or worse? Fatigue and fear started to paralyze her limbs. Her teeth chattered. Wind-driven waves splashed again, sending her into a coughing fit.

  His arms twined around her, lifting her head out of the water. “I’ll hold you. Rest a minute.”

  She tried to protest.

  “We’re in this rescue together, remember?”

  “Old habits...”

  He kissed the tip of her nose and for a moment, she thought he might press his lips to hers. Expectation rippled through her body, but then he turned and she clung to his wide shoulders, feeling the muscles moving along his back. Cheek resting against him, she watched the moonlight catch on the surface dappled by the pattering rain. Almost there. What would they find? She pressed her face harder into his back, strong and soothing, a partner in the lowest moment of her life.

  Oh Lord, I don’t deserve this man who’s risking everything to help me. I have been hard-hearted to him and to Hector. Hector was a criminal, yes, and maybe he always would be, but at that moment with the water lapping against them, she prayed he would be redeemed. He was a sinner who could be good with God’s help. Just like a small woman in a very big lake whom she now understood was just as much in need of a savior.

  “Almost there,” Dallas murmured, calling Juno closer as they neared the other side.

  “And Lord, thank you for Dallas,” she whispered, completing the prayer and giving it to God.

  The wall of the cabin facing them had no windows, except a small one cloaked by heavy curtains. They climbed up on what used to be a wraparound porch which was now covered by six inches of water. Juno levered himself out of the water next to them, immediately shaking his sodden coat with such violence both Dallas and Mia threw up their arms for cover.

  Dallas peered around the corner, Mia crowding next to him to see.

  A motorboat was tied to the porch rail, and a faint band of soft golden light shone from under the drapes in one of the front windows.

  “There’s a bag and supplies loaded into the boat,” he whispered in her ear. “He’s ready to get out of here.”

  The front door was thrown open. Instinctively, Dallas moved Mia behind him.

  “Don’t be shy,” Dr. Elias called. “Come on in.”

  Mia pictured Gracie inside. What had the monster done to her? She pushed forward but Dallas stopped her.

  “If we don’t leave with Gracie in a matter of minutes, the police are coming in,” Dallas shouted back. “It’s all over for you.”

  “Nice bluff,” Elias said. “But it’s not going to fly. I’ve been tracking you with binoculars since you started your swim. Now get in here before I lose my patience.”

  Mia’s heart sank. It was a trap, and there was no choice. What had they expected anyway? To surprise the doctor? Snatch Gracie from under his nose? They splashed along the porch until they reached the door.

  Dr. Elias held a small lantern in one hand which added a pool of meager light. He wore jeans and a flannel shirt. His face was marred with stubble and darkened by shadows that added years. He looked nothing like the self-assured doctor, a man respected by the townspeople. He looked, in fact, like a man on the edge of desperation.

  He pulled the gun from his pocket. “Inside. Now.”

  Mia went first, Dallas and Juno following.

  It was a small cabin, three rooms, a ratty sofa and an old rocking chair, the only furniture. A fire in the small stone fireplace gave off sooty smoke that burned her throat. “Where’s Gracie?” Mia demanded.

  “In a minute.” Dr. Elias gestured to Dallas. “Put down the pack.”

  Dallas did so.

  “You’d better have the photo I requested.”

  Mia hurried over, wrenched open the pack and thrust the plastic bag containing the picture. “There. I brought what you asked for, now give me my daughter.”

  Elias took the bag, flicking a glance inside, while keeping the gun leveled in their direction. “Ancient picture. Old lady was thorough. I wonder where in the world she unearthed it.” He tossed it into the flames. “The trouble is, of course, other people could follow the same trail Cora did. Maybe you even made copies before you came.”

  “We didn’t,” Dallas said. He wondered if Catherine had, for an extra bit of insurance in case Elias resurfaced in her life someday.

  Elias sighed. “In this age of technology, you can’t really obliterate anything can you? It’s best if I disappear.” He shook his head. “Such a waste. I created a good life here, a thriving practice. Raised my kids in Spanish Canyon. I hate to leave it, and them.”

  “Don’t you dare talk to me about your children, after what you did to my child. I want my daughter,” Mia shouted. “Where is she?”

  Elias laughed. “I have always admired your spunk, Mia Verde Sandoval.”

  Mia started at a run toward the closed bedroom door which opened abruptly.

  “She’s here with me,” Susan said, stepping over the threshold, holding Gracie’s hand.

  * * *

  Mia screamed and ran to Gracie, snatching her from Susan’s grasp and sweeping her into a smothering embrace. “Oh, Gracie, my sweet Gracie.” Mia cried so hard the tears spilled over onto Gracie’s cheeks as Mia planted kiss after kiss on her baby’s face.

  Gracie looked bewildered, but not physically injured. She wrapped her small arms around her mother and smiled. Dallas’s heart tore a bit to see that innocent smile.

  “Mommy, you’re squishing me,” she said. Juno poked a friendly nose at Gracie’s leg. “Hiya, Juno.”

  Mia looked her over. “Are you hurt? Did he hurt you in any way?”

  She shook her
head. “No, but I want to go home. I don’t like it here.”

  Dallas heaved a sigh. Gracie was safe and his spirit spiraled at the joy of it, but he could not ignore the dread that rose in his stomach as the cost of his error came to light. Somewhere inside, Dallas had known the truth about Susan. Why had he not thought it out before? “You rendezvoused with the doctor when you gave Antonia the slip by pretending to look for a room, I take it.”

  She nodded. “Easy.”

  “And you and Dr. Elias killed your husband together, didn’t you?”

  “That’s so heartwarming, like something you’d see on the big screen.” Susan was smiling, watching Mia and Gracie as if she was an adoring aunt, not a murderer. “Yes, we plotted to kill Asa together and afterward, I made the biggest mistake of my life. I bolted.”

  “Leaving me holding the bag,” Elias snapped.

  “I was young, and I didn’t know what I wanted. I apologized for that, Thomas, over and over,” Susan said. “I panicked. But I never stopped loving you, not for one moment in all those years.”

  So it was some twisted form of love that brought her back to Spanish Canyon. The loathing in the doctor’s eyes revealed it was purely one-sided. Whatever fondness Dr. Elias had felt for Susan once upon a time, had evaporated when she collected the insurance money and ran.

  Elias’s nostrils flared. “You should have stopped loving me. You should have gone on and lived your own life and left me to mine. That’s what I told you when you came back but you would not listen.”

  “I couldn’t do that. Our love is too deep.” A strange guttural noise came from her throat. “Only I came back to find you had married someone else.” Her eyes went hard and flat.

  “Catherine is a good woman.”

  “She’s a snoop. If she hadn’t taken the photo out of Cora’s file, things would have been much simpler.” Susan considered a moment. “Well, we’re all entitled to a mistake now and then.”

  Elias groaned. “If you’d stayed away, everyone would be better off. You got Cora’s suspicions up and filled her head with stories that police were corrupt until she decided to confide in these two.”

  “And Peter?” Dallas asked. He darted a glance around the dismal room, trying to figure out how to keep Gracie and Mia out of the line of fire. “Did he get scared and threaten to tell?”

  “He wouldn’t have,” Elias said, white-knuckling the gun. “Peter would not have said anything no matter how much these two pried, but you arranged for him to die anyway, didn’t you?”

  Susan gave him a wide smile, sidling around and putting her hand on his cheek. He flinched away. “It was prudent. When Dallas and Mia are gone, we’ll have a clean slate. Peter might have decided to spill the beans someday. That’s why we arranged this little kidnapping, remember? To clean up the loose ends, as they say in the TV shows.” She laughed.

  Dallas bit back a groan. She was the one who had, no doubt, alerted Elias when they’d retrieved the picture from Finnigan’s, and who’d called the trailer park to arrange the kidnapping. There had certainly been plenty of time for her to do so while Dallas and Mia dealt with the mudslide.

  Water crested the threshold, sending the first gush over the floor. Dallas looked for something he could use as a weapon. He saw nothing within easy reach.

  “Floodwater’s rising,” Elias said. The waves quenched the flames in the fireplace with an angry hiss. “Reservoir’s full, and it’s dumping into the lake.”

  Susan’s eyes were dreamy, her face soft. “We can go anywhere in the world, Thomas. I’ve still got plenty of money and we can live the life we were meant to. Finally, after all these years. That’s what you want, too, isn’t it?”

  “Too late to ask me what I want.” Elias pointed to a narrow ladder in the corner. “Get up in the attic, Mia. Gracie and your hoodlum friend, too.”

  “You can’t,” Mia started.

  “The guy with the gun makes the rules,” Dr. Elias said, “so that means I can. You get up in that attic and take your chances with the floodwaters, or I can shoot you.”

  It would not be much of a chance, Dallas knew. Locked in the attic, they would drown. No question about it. Antonia would tell the police what she knew, but by then Elias would be gone. “You’re a doctor,” Dallas said, edging closer and stepping in front of Mia. “You took an oath to save lives. Didn’t that mean anything to you?”

  A flicker of emotion rippled across his face. “I was a good doctor. I helped a lot of people, and they loved me in this town. I just made a mistake a long time ago.”

  Susan stepped back, frowning. “Our love wasn’t a mistake.”

  He ignored her. He gestured with the gun for Mia and Gracie to start up the ladder. The water was now at shin level and climbing fast. Mia took Gracie’s hand, fear strong in her eyes as she helped her little girl. “It’s okay, honey. I’m right behind you.”

  “I’m sorry, Mia,” Dr. Elias said.

  She turned. “But you’re going to murder us anyway?” Mia’s chin jutted, her voice low so Gracie would not hear.

  “As I said, I’m sorry. I really mean that.”

  Mia gave the doctor her back and continued up to the attic. Dallas figured he had one chance to turn the tide in their favor, but he had to make sure Mia and Gracie were far enough away.

  “Up, Juno,” he commanded.

  Juno scrambled up the ladder with the ease born of hours of training in every possible situation from planes to boats to escalators. The dog sensed no danger, only another adventure awaiting him.

  He heard Gracie giggle from up in the attic. “Good job, Juno.”

  The tear in his heart widened. They could not die. He could not let them drown.

  “Now you,” Dr. Elias said, swiveling the gun not to Dallas, but to Susan.

  Her mouth fell open. “What? What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying,” Elias said, fury kindling on his face, “that you ruined me, my career, my marriage, everything. Getting involved with you was the worst day in my life and having you show up in Spanish Canyon was the second. You’re going to die along with them, Susan. You should have died a long time ago.”

  Horror dawned in her expression, creeping up to overtake the love that had been there a moment before. “How can you say this to me? You are the only man I’ve ever loved. I killed Peter Finnigan and got these people here so we could have a future.”

  “I never even told Peter you were in on Asa’s murder. He didn’t even know we hatched that little plot together. He did not have to die.”

  “Well, he’s dead, and that can’t be changed,” she said. “We have to think about the future.”

  “We have no future. Can’t you understand that?” he said, voice like the last peal of a funeral bell. “You will climb the ladder and die with the rest of them.”

  The color disappeared from her face. “But I love you. We have a whole life ahead of us.”

  “I had a future and I threw it away for money and because I thought I cared about you. After I killed your husband, you ran. And you know what? I deserved that because it showed me I never really loved you at all.”

  “That’s not true,” she protested. “You did. You did love me.”

  “You were a means to an end, Susan, a shortcut I never should have taken. That’s all.” The words dropped like bullets.

  With a cry, Susan took out a knife, the one she had stolen from Dallas’s kitchen, and sprang at Dr. Elias. He deflected her, dealing a blow to the side of her head that made her cry out and fall backward, grabbing the rocking chair for support.

  Dallas used the moment of distraction to launch himself at Dr. Elias.

  He threw a fist, aiming for the doctor’s face, but an incoming gush of water knocked him off target. His punch connected with Elias’s temple, but not hard enough to do the job. Eli
as fired. Dallas felt a sharp trail of fire shoot through his body as he splashed backward into the water.

  NINETEEN

  The shot exploded through the cabin, and Mia felt as if the bullet bisected her own body. Instinctively, she shoved Gracie farther into the attic, the floor of which had been covered with plywood to provide a surface for storage.

  “Dallas,” she screamed, grabbing at the barking Juno to prevent him from going back down the ladder. He whined and looked from her toward his fallen master. She strained to see into the dim space. Had Dallas gone under? Had the bullet passed by him?

  “He’s not dead,” Susan snapped. “You shot him through the shoulder. Terrible aim.”

  Mia’s breath squeezed out in panicked bursts. He was not dead. Dallas was still alive. Her thoughts focused on that one paramount fact.

  “I’m a doctor, not a sniper. Help him up the ladder, Susan,” Elias commanded.

  “I won’t.”

  Juno continued to bark.

  “Shut that dog up,” Elias shouted, “or I’ll shoot him, too. I can’t think with all that racket.”

  Mia stroked Juno’s head. “It’s okay, Juno,” she whispered. “Quiet now.”

  “Don’t cry, doggie,” Gracie added, petting his trembling flanks with her tiny hands. The lamplight glinted off the gun as Dr. Elias pointed it at Susan.

  “Yes, you will get him up that ladder, because if you don’t, I will kill you down here, and I don’t think you want to be shot, do you?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Do you?” he demanded, louder. “You’ve never liked discomfort, Susan. Always enjoyed the nice things, the easy answers. I don’t think a bullet hole would suit you.”

  Susan splashed over to Dallas and took his arm. His groan of pain shot through Mia.

  “Gently,” she could not stop herself from saying.

  “This is crazy,” Elias said with a strangled cry. “The whole thing is insane. How did it come to this?”

  “You can stop it,” Mia called. “You are an excellent doctor and you’ve helped lots of people. Catherine said you are a good father, too.”