The Trouble with Andrew (23 page)

She stared at the pictures, touching a face. Yes, the man had been the one who'd come to her house that day. That didn't make him guilty of anything, of course…

But some of the things he said in the article made her suspicious.
“A.J. was such a good man, such a fighter. He didn't worry about keeping his job, like some of us did. He just went right after the big boys.”

Didn't worry about keeping his job…

And some people did. That wasn't a crime, either.

But then again…

“I can't believe it. I was so close to him when it happened. I knew A.J. so well…”

She didn't turn off the machine. She jumped up and ran out of the library, hurrying for the first public phone she could find. She swore when she dropped her quarter.

She dialed Hunnicunn and got Drew's secretary, Jeannie. “Jeannie, I need Drew, quickly, please!”

“Katie, I'm sorry, I can't reach him. He's gone out to the construction area.”

“He's out on a job?”

“No—the construction area in this building. Darn, Katie, he just left to walk out there, he was here just a second ago. Can I give him a message?”

“I—no, yes—just tell him that I'm not at the hospital, I'm on my way over. I'll meet him in his office.” She hung up, ran out to the street and hailed a cab.

Sixty very anxious minutes later, she reached the Hunnicunn offices. She hurried in and took the elevator directly to the executive floor. The receptionist was not at her desk. Nor was Jeannie at hers.

It was lunchtime, Katie realized sickly. She wondered if Drew had gotten her message.

She hurried into his office, but he wasn't there. Frustrated, worried, ready to burst, she sank down on his sofa to wait.

A second later, she bolted up. There was a man in the doorway, watching her.

It wasn't Drew.

“Katie!” he said softly. “How nice to see you again!”

She forced a smile to her lips. She tried desperately to hide what she knew.

“Hi, to you, too.”

“We were so sorry to hear about your accident last night!”

“Yes, well, I'm really fine, thanks.”

“Looking for Drew?”

“Yes.”

She needed to reach the phone. Or the door. Maybe she just needed to scream.

“He's in the construction area. Want me to take you to him?”

“Ah, no, I—I'll just wait. No, you know what? I think I'll just go get some lunch.” She smiled cheerfully and started out of the office.

He stood in her way.

“I don't think so, Katie. I'm so sorry. Really, I am.”

“You wouldn't dare hurt me here!” she said. She tried to make the words forceful.

He smiled. “I don't want to hurt you, Katie. I want to kill you. It's got to be an accident, of course.”

“Sorry, I just won't oblige you,” she began, but then again…

Maybe she would. He had a two-by-four in his hands, a simple construction board. And even as she started to scream, the board came crashing down on her.

He bent quickly, throwing her over his shoulder even as the blackness burst upon her vision once again…

When she came to, it was still dark, and her head was reeling. She struggled and felt rock-hard hands press her down on strong shoulders.

“Almost there!” he grunted.

She ducked as they went through plastic screening hung from the wall separating two areas.

“You don't need to do this!” Katie said. “Roof staples were legal. Drew would never prosecute you.”

She was lifted and set down. She started to twist around, then realized that there was nothing beneath her.

He had carried her out to where the flooring had been ripped away. She was balanced on a steel girder.

And beneath her was darkness, a void, empty…

“This is exactly what you did to A. J. Cunningham!” she whispered.

“So you knew,” Harry Easton said with a sigh, shoving on her shoulders. Katie gritted her teeth, fighting his push at first, then crawling swiftly and for all she was worth along the steel framework. One of her rubber sandals fell off.

She didn't hear it hit the floor below for a long, long time…

“Katie!”

She had moved far ahead. He couldn't see her, she thought. She went still, hoping he might not hear her, either.

“There's no way back in, Katie, except by me. You can't just hold on there forever.”

Yes, she could, she thought, arms and legs wrapped around the girder.

“Katie, I've got a gun. It isn't a magnum or anything. I bought it just because I'm an older man, you know. Failing just a little bit. Out at lonely work sites upon occasion.”

She held her breath and prayed. She wanted to tell him that he'd surely be arrested if he
shot
her, and she wanted to ask him why he had done any of this, but she didn't dare speak and give away her position.

“I'm coming, Katie,” he told her. “I'm out on the girder now myself, and I've been doing this for many years. I've been making a living at it, you know. You just give absolute quality all the time, Katie. You can't make money that way. Drew will never see it, but you're right, he won't prosecute me—” He broke off and started to laugh. “I can see you, Katie. And I'm coming for you. Make it easy for both of us. Isn't the fear terrible? Wouldn't you rather end it without the suffering?”

Yes, it was terrible. It hurt to breathe! She was trembling, sweating. Sweating terribly. She was afraid she'd lose her grip…

But no matter how terrible, life was worth any price. He didn't seem to realize that. Maybe he'd never had a son like Jordan to live for…

Or someone to love, like Drew.

Drew. Who had been so angry with her. Who had wanted so badly to get her away. Who had been so afraid because…

He loved her, as well.

“Drew will know!” she cried out. “He knows last night was no accident, he knows, he'll hunt you down—”

“He doesn't know about his father,” Harry said. “And he'll never be certain that I was anywhere near you—”

Harry broke off suddenly. Katie wondered why, then she heard shuffling. A definite footstep in the darkness. They weren't alone anymore. Someone was with him.

“He knows about his father!” came a deep, husky, masculine voice.

Her heart stopped beating, then began anew in a wild, frantic rhythm.

Drew had come. He had found her. Somehow he had found her out here with this murderer.

“Drew, be careful!” Katie warned. “There's no flooring here.”

“I know, Katie.”

Then she saw him, a swift, supple shadow, bearing down on Harry Easton.

And Harry Easton started backing away from him.

“I can reach her before you can, Drew. I'll kill her, I swear I will.”

“Don't be an idiot. I want to strangle you, but I won't. When you killed my father, it was first-degree, premeditated murder. But you can get a good lawyer, Harry. Maybe you'll get life. But life in prison would be better than dying my father's death, Harry. Falling, breaking, taking your last breath in agony!”

Katie, terrified, winced, feeling the pain of Drew's words seep into her.

“I'm telling you, get away! I'm a damned strong man, Drew, I'll take the girl down—”

Harry broke off again, this time with a scream. He fell toward Katie, reaching out for her. She saw his eyes, saw his fingers stretching and stretching…

She screamed, backing away on the girder with all the courage she could muster. “Drew!” she heard herself crying in terror, for Drew was fighting with the man. The two of them were rolling on the girder.

“No!” she shrieked, covering her ears against the terrible scream that suddenly pierced the air. She couldn't see, it was still so shadowy, but one of the men had fallen over the edge.

The scream abruptly ended with a terrible crash.

One man remained, breathing heavily, gasping, just feet away from Katie…

“Oh, God!” she screamed.

But then she heard his voice. Drew's voice. “Katie?”

“Drew, oh, thank God, Drew…”

“Katie, stay still.”

He was carefully moving toward her. She was still frightened. Shaking. She'd never make it back.

She had to make it back.

The only other way was…

Harry's way.

She felt his hands around her shoulders. “Katie, hold tight to my belt. It's not so hard to walk these things if you're used to them, but they can be treacherous. We'll stay down and take it on our knees. All right?”

She couldn't let him know how terrified she was.

“Yes!”

She inched behind him, holding carefully to him. Once she started to lose her balance and shift to the side.

“Hold, Katie!”

She did. He stayed still until she adjusted her balance. They started moving again. “No one was supposed to be out here. This area was boarded off,” Drew said.

“He must have ripped down the board when I was out,” Katie said.

“You fainted?”

“He—he knocked me out with a two-by-four.”

Drew paused. She felt his tension. “Oh, Drew! I'm so sorry. I didn't really know for sure that he had killed your father, but he had disagreed with him, and he was afraid that A.J. might cost him his job!”

“And he worked with me. For years,” Drew said bitterly. “I loved him like an uncle.”

“Drew…”

“We're here, Katie. Let go for a second.” She did, trusting him. For a moment, it seemed that she was alone, floating in darkness.

Then she was lifted up, into his arms. He walked through the darkness until they returned to the plastic sheeting, then over the board Harry had broken down.

Into a carpeted hallway.

Drew was covered with plaster. She was certain that she must be well powdered with it herself.

Suddenly she felt his arms shaking, even as he held her. He cupped her cheek and kissed her lips very tenderly.

“Dear God, Katie, if he'd managed to hurt you…”

“I'm fine, Drew.” But she wasn't fine. She was shaking. “I love you,” she told him. “I—I love you.”

He smiled, holding her against him as he started down the hallway toward the sound section of the building.

“We've got to call the police. And I'll have to change your flight reservations.”

“Change them?” Katie whispered. “But, Drew—”

“You've got to go to Orlando.”

“But—”

“I know, I'm not your husband, and you're not my wife, and you don't have to do anything that I tell you. That's why I want to change all that. Quickly.”

“What?”

“Well, I really like your dad, even if he is fooling around with my mother. So I think that even if it's small—if that's all right, I just don't want to wait on this—your father and Jordan should be there for our wedding. Not that I think you're ever going to listen to anything I tell you to do after we're married, but then … it's worth a try.”

She stared at him, then smiled very slowly.

“Is that—a proposal?” she asked him.

“It is. Will you marry me, Katie?”

“What a way to get out of replacing my house!” she said.

He shook his head.

“Then…?” Katie said.

He paused and kissed her again.

“Because I love you, Katie. Because I just wasn't whole until after that storm. Until I went out into the wind and rain and found you.”

“Oh, Drew!” she said, and caught his nape, and kissed him hard.

“Say yes, Katie,” he urged her.

“Yes,” she whispered.

He laughed softly, exultantly, and started down the hallway. “This marriage thing might work after all!” he told her.

And for the moment, she didn't protest, she just clung to him and thought about how very much she loved him.

Author's Note

Andrew and its aftermath brought out some of the best human qualities—courage, kindness, and in many instances, valiant sacrifices to the needs of others. Friendships were formed, bonds were made that will never be broken. The face of South Florida will never be the same.

I managed not to be home for Andrew—the storm struck in late August and my family and I were on our way home after the summer vacation. Early Saturday morning, I had spoken with my mother and we knew there was a storm out there, a small one at that time, and perhaps heading anywhere from the Keys to the Carolinas. Andrew grew to intensity with amazing swiftness—and aimed directly at Dade County. We came into our Virginia hotel room that night just in time to learn that our home might well be demolished. From our distance, we had electricity and television, and painful, terrible glimpses of what was going on. The morning was a horror as we tried to get through on the phone to family and friends; we were frantic just to see if they had all made it okay. We were lucky; we were able to get through and find out that our family and close friends were all right, just dazed and stunned, and trying to pick up some of the pieces. Despite everything that we had seen and heard, coming home was still a shock. Andrew's power was simply extraordinary. It truly looked as if bombs had gone off in many areas of Dade County.

A newspaper reported that thirty-five lives were lost directly to the storm—people struck by debris, crushed, drowned—and another eighty-five lives lost to the terrible circumstances surrounding it, including a large number of tragic auto accidents. Over eighty thousand homes were lost. And there are still countless miles of destruction to be seen. It will take years to rebuild. Some people have moved out, and some will stay.

We have learned some lessons from this storm, lessons that some people have known for years, and others just learned in a most painful fashion. Nothing could have changed the force of such a storm, but it is equally true that some of the terrible devastation could have been eased if building codes had been more vigorously acknowledged, and if many builders had not only tried to adhere to the codes, but remembered that our houses are our homes and our
shelters.
My father-in-law is a retired electrician. Years ago I can remember when some of his co-workers were speaking together at a picnic. “One big wind,” they had said. Andrew was all of that and more, an incredible force, and yet we can only hope that in the future, we will do all that we can to minimize the losses, human and material, of such a force.