Half Past Mourning (34 page)

“Don’t try it,” the voice beside him commanded. “I still have Nina and Lassiter.” Peter, not recovered from the blaze in his knee, struggled but couldn’t escape. The cord around his wrists tightened as it was wrapped around a sturdy pipe above his head. With infuriating ease, his captor twisted the cord around Peter’s hands again and tied it, leaving him dangling, furious but helpless. “That should hold you till I get the other two in here.”

Peter writhed in ineffective wrath as his captor withdrew. He could hear the man’s thudding footsteps grow fainter on the concrete floor of the cavernous shop. Pulling on the cord, he found, resulted in tighter knots and more pain. Reaching up as high as he could eased the strain on his arms but wasn’t a posture he could maintain for very long. He twisted around, looking for an object, a stool, a box, anything he could stand on to ease the stress, but he found nothing. As he rotated to search the other direction, he heard the soft whisper of the wheelchair and steps returning.

“Brought you some company.” The blithe tone suggested a genial host bringing guests together. The wheelchair rolled across the room, its occupant slumped in a loose-boned mass, oblivious to the danger surrounding him.

“Eldon? Are you all right?” Peter’s internal alarms went off as the figure in the chair stayed motionless and silent. Lassiter’s withered feet dangled between the footrests like slack wires.

The man behind the chair snorted. “He’ll be fine in a while—or maybe not.” The wheels scraped on the floor as they turned. “He got a little extra dose of his sleeping medicine tonight. It dissolves nicely in a late-night cup of coffee when somebody suggests a couple of cinnamon buns as an evening snack. He should wake up in a while…if I didn’t lose count of the pills. Can’t be sure how some people react to that sort of thing. Told him to stay away from the paint shop. He could get hurt out there. He didn’t listen. Too bad his lap dog Tinker didn’t stay around tonight and keep him out of my way.”

The callous tone infuriated Peter further, and he lost all sense of caution. “What do you have against a helpless man, a man who gave you the chance to make something of your useless life, Reeves? You’d be serving time at Huntsville if this man hadn’t gone to bat for you.”

“You know me, do you, Professor? Well, that can’t be helped at this point, I guess.” He shrugged and pushed the wheelchair as far from Peter as the room permitted. “The old man came out snooping and saw the Corvette. Thought I had him convinced it was a different car, not the judge’s little toy, but I couldn’t be sure. Can’t leave him to think it over and get suspicious, now can I? Snoopy old man always did ask too many questions,” Reeves muttered as he left his captives alone.

“Eldon!” Peter called to the shape across the room, “Can you hear me?” He thought he saw a bit of movement, a stirring or shifting.

“Hear you,” came the mumbled answer.

A scuffling, dragging sound came from outside the room. A snarl and the sound of flesh striking flesh followed.

“Always knew you were a wild one.” The man’s voice grated, and his breath came in labored grunts. Dark moving shapes shifted in the doorway beyond the light. “Brought your girlfriend to keep you company, Shayne. Somebody should have slapped some manners into the little witch before now. If she’d married me, we could have avoided all this. But no, she thought she was too good for that. Should have taken the offer I made her.”

Peter heard Nina’s muffled tones and knew the man must have gagged her to keep her from warning him. A moment later Reeves appeared at the doorway with a scrabbling, scratching, kicking Nina struggling in his arms. Her bound hands and the ugly bruise marring her cheek told the story.

“If you’ve hurt her...” Peter began.

“Less than she hurt me, with those heels and claws,” Reeves snapped. “She was in the broom closet. Maybe I should have done something a little firmer to corral her temper.”

Ignoring the pain wrenching his arms, Peter tried to kick out as Reeves came closer. He made no contact. The man went about his business, ignoring his male captives and dodging wicked high heels as he bound Nina, her arms stretched high, toes above the floor, to an overhanging duct.

Peter was stricken to see Nina, her eyes wide with a combination of terror and sheer fury, her skirt ripped from the waist in two places, bound and helplessly hanging by her wrists from the fat tube over her head. Eldon Lassiter lolled in his chair, both arms bound, head rolled to the side as if his brief moment of consciousness had faded.

Reeves glanced around in satisfaction. “Guess it’s about time for me to hit the road. Just a couple of details to finish up here.”

With no further explanation, he ambled over to the Isotta, thumbed at a smear of road dust on the body, then opened the door and climbed in.

“You aren’t taking that car! You’d be a fool to do that,” Peter exclaimed. “You couldn’t get far enough away to keep from getting caught in something so easy to spot!”

Reeves gave him an amused glance. “Isn’t it the damn truth? Best piece of work I ever saw, worth enough to keep a king for a lifetime, and I’ve gotta leave it behind. But it’s going to serve a purpose. Keep the law off my tail till I can get out of the country.”

Peter didn’t understand the man’s words, but he knew there was a threat implied somehow. As he watched, Reeves started the car, revved the engine, and slid out, slamming the door and giving his captives a wry grin.

“See y’all sometime,” he said and lifted one hand in casual salute. Without looking back he strolled across the floor, stepped into the shop beyond, and slid the bay door closed behind him. It snapped shut, leaving just the seductive purr of the Isotta’s engine behind him. The danger didn’t register with Peter at first; just for an instant he didn’t realize what Reeves had done. Then it hit him. The bay was virtually airtight. The car engine was running. Soon the room would fill with carbon monoxide and the three people trapped inside would be breathing it. Reeves had set up a murder by automobile, and unless one of them could get free to shut off the car, nothing would prevent the plan from succeeding.

Bathed in cold sweat, Peter struggled to break the cord binding his wrists. Jerking the cord again and again, he felt it bite into and scrape away skin as blood trickled down his arm. He cursed and jerked again. No matter how he wrenched and pulled, the bindings only drew tighter. Consumed by his efforts, Peter didn’t hear the garbled sounds Nina was making. At last, something reached him and he looked across at the bound girl in the opposite corner.

“I’m trying, sweetheart, I’m trying to get loose.”

“Nhhnahhh!”

He looked up again and saw her shaking her head. “No?” He waited. “No, don’t try to get loose?”

Nina nodded.

“We have to try, Nina. Otherwise...” He couldn’t finish the thought.

Nina shook her head. As he watched, his panic subsided. Nina knew what she was doing. She pulled up and caught the cord binding her. In a deft twist she wrapped it around her hands. As Peter looked on, unable to touch her or even offer advice, she began to swing her legs, those long, athletic legs that had spent years running for bases, chasing after exuberant fourth graders, and climbing up trees and down hills. Using the leverage she gained swinging from the rope like a gymnast, Nina raised her feet higher with each swing until she could touch the conduit above her. She caught the tubing with one leg and held on, wrapping first one leg, then the other around it. By inches she rolled her body over until she lay horizontal on the cylinder that ran only inches from the ceiling.

“Nina, that pipe,” Peter called, his heart in his mouth. “It’s shaking like it could break loose,”

Nina nodded and inched forward until her hands were level with her mouth. Cautiously she slipped a finger up till she could reach the gag and remove it.

“I can do this, Peter.” Her voice, little more than a croak, reassured him.

“She’s half monkey.” The slurred whisper from the wheelchair made him look again at the third captive in the room.

Peter was relieved to know Lassiter was beginning to rally, but he didn’t spare a second glance for the older man. Nina had freed herself from the gag and now was trying to loosen the knotted cord with her teeth.

“It’s too tight, no play in the knots. I have to cut them,” she gasped.

Peter looked at the area around her. Nothing, not a single useful object was within her reach.

“I can get it.” Nina sounded calm and assured. Stretching one leg forward until she had executed a perfect gymnastic split, she extended her fingers and worked her skirt up high above her knees. With careful, tiny movements, using fingertips and her nails, she tugged her bonds down the pipe till she could touch her knee. Twisting the garter that held her ragged stocking just below her knee, she eased two fingers under the garter and triumphantly pulled loose Danny’s tiny red-and-silver knife.

“Nina, careful!” Peter held his breath as the girl fumbled to release the catch on the small blade.

She shook her head, ignoring him, and forced the blade into the knot of the cord binding her. It didn’t give, and she sawed at it frantically.

“Nina!” Peter kept his voice level, but his alarm came through. “Sweetheart, that duct is beginning to sag.”

“I know,” she answered but didn’t look up. “I’ve almost cut through the first knot.”

Peter risked a look at Lassiter and saw the man was fighting to maintain attention.
The carbon monoxide will probably get to him first. Nina and I are higher up, and we aren’t fighting the effects of drugs.
Concern for the older man warred with his worry for Nina. Was she going to get free before that pipe fell? Mouth dry and pulses pounding, Peter looked again at the girl above him.

“I’ve got it, Peter! Just a second more and I’ll be loose.” He saw Nina tug at a bit of cord, and then she waved an arm. “I’m nearly there, Peter. Nearly!” Her movement jarred the flimsy tubing and it bent at an alarming angle.

“It’s pulling free, Nina!”

Nina, engrossed in her task, seemed not to hear his anguished cry. She pulled, wiggled, and strained to cut the cord. Peter could only watch from the side and pray she’d get free in time. A grating sound all but stopped his heart. The cylinder creaked under her weight and had swung completely free at one end, with Nina dangling by one wrist, her feet still above the concrete floor. Certain the pipe would fall and she’d be trapped under it, Peter struggled once more to break his own bonds. Just as the pipe shuddered and gave way, Nina got free and slid down the pipe feet first to the ground. The pipe thudded harmlessly beside her.

“Peter!” Nina coughed and waved away the dust settling around her. Eyes streaming from the irritation, she careened across the floor and wrapped her arms around him. “I’ll get you loose as soon as I shut down the car, hold on.”

“Shut down the car, but don’t open the door!” Peter put all the force he could into the words. “Reeves probably headed for the paint shop as fast as he could when he left us. He won’t hear the car engine stop, but if he left the outside doors open, he might see the lights. He’s got a gun. He’d come back if he thought one of us got loose. Shut off the lights before you get the bay door open.”

Nina nodded, comprehension clear in her face, and ran to the car. The engine stopped. She turned aside to the work area along the wall.

With mounting concern Peter watched as Nina scattered loose items over the workbench, her fingers searching among the tools. He prayed Reeves had left the building. The man might feel compelled to use that gun if he heard the Isotta’s engine stop or the noise of the falling pipe. Nina freed a heavy pair of shears. Peter nodded.

“Good enough, Nina. Give me the shears and run for a phone. I’ll get your uncle out of here. You call the sheriff. Tell him Reeves has the Corvette and is leaving town with it.”

Nina tugged her uncle’s chair forward. Standing on the footrest, reaching over her head, she cut one of Peter’s hands free and pushed the curved handle of the shears into it.

“I’ve got them.” He squandered a second to kiss her. “Get the sheriff, sweetheart, and I’ll take care of things here. Don’t worry—and Nina, remember, don’t turn on any lights, not even in the office.”

Nina sidestepped the wheelchair and hurried to the bay doors. With one hand on the handle and one on the light switch, she sent the room into darkness again. Peter listened for the grate of the opening door. At first she seemed unable to move the heavy slab. He heard the sounds of Nina struggling against its mass, but then the rattle of the door sliding against concrete reassured him. The shop was a black cavern outside the enclosed bay. He saw only her shadow as Nina put her shoulder to the door. She gave one more push, a wider fan of deeper black appeared, and she lurched into the gloom beyond.

****

Though it took everything she could muster, every drop of courage she could find, Nina tore herself from Peter’s side and stepped into the darkness. The floor was gritty under her feet, and she flinched at the thought of what might be lurking along the path to trip her. Pushing images of lost nuts, stray screws, and dislodged nails from her mind, she made her long legs stride for the hall to the office. The hallway had never seemed so endless.

There, that’s it. That’s the doorway. And Uncle Eldon’s phone will be on the desk; I don’t need a light. Uncle Eldon never moves anything in the office.

Nina stumbled into the corner of the desk and reached across. The telephone, just a blacker blot on the slick surface, shifted as her groping fingers found it. It took a moment for her shaking hands to dial zero and ask the operator to connect her to the sheriff’s office. Using both hands around the receiver to hold it against her ear, she tried to listen above the pounding of her heart. The rasping burr of the connection reassured Nina, and on the second ring, the sheriff himself answered.

“It’s Nina, Sheriff Hayes,” she stammered. “I’m at the museum. Ron Reeves is the car thief, and he has the judge’s Corvette. He’s planning to leave town—may have already left—but if you hurry you might still catch him.”