Arresting Developments (13 page)

Footsteps pounded on the wooden floor again, from the direction where he’d just come from. He raised his gun and aimed it at the corner. He kept his finger on the rail beside the trigger, waiting, waiting.

His nemesis rounded the corner at full tilt. Dex jerked his gun up toward the ceiling just as Amber barreled into his chest. He grunted as he caught the full brunt of her to keep her from crashing into the wall. She let out a little shriek of fear a second before she recognized him.

After quickly stowing the gun, he cradled her against him, his hand shaking as he rubbed it down her back. If he hadn’t hesitated long enough to realize she was far too small to be the man he was after, he could have shot her. And, at this close range, he wouldn’t have missed.

“Dex, ease up. I can’t breathe,” she choked.

He forced himself to relax his grip, but he couldn’t bring himself to let her go. “Amber, what are you doing in here? I could have killed you,” he rasped.

She pushed against his chest and he reluctantly let her go. “I’m sorry. I heard shots. I thought you might be hurt, or need help. I was so scared.”

“Scared for me?”

She nodded. “Of course.” She ran her hands up and down him as if searching for wounds.

“I’m fine. He didn’t hit me. But he got away. I chased him around this corner, but he was gone. There must be another panel here somewhere.”

She sat back on her knees. “You saw him?”

“Only in shadow. But I can rule out everyone but Garreth and Mitchell. I’m leaning more toward Garreth now.”

“Why?” she asked, as he stood and helped her to her feet.

“Because I called out Mitchell’s name and whoever I was chasing laughed.”

She shivered. “Creepy.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” He felt along the walls. “The panel has to be here somewhere. He couldn’t have gotten back down the passageway past me.” He ran his hands along the walls, looking for a seam.

Amber stepped farther back toward the corner. “Dex, there, look. I can see some light under the wall over here.”

He bent down and studied where she was pointing. “You’re right. But I don’t see a seam in the wall. It’s all drywall.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think the panel is in the wall. It’s in the floor.”

He backed up, and, sure enough, there was a darker square of wood in the center of the floor. Once he bent down and studied it, the opening mechanism was immediately clear. A wood knot had been removed and in the depression was a small, round knob no bigger than a quarter.

“You okay covering me?” he asked, holding up the revolver.

She rolled her eyes. “Is a spatterdock yellow?”

“Well, since I have no clue what a spatterdock is, I really couldn’t say.”

“Of course I’ll cover you.” She took the gun.

He hesitated. “Be careful. Stand back.” He grabbed the little knob, then flung the wooden panel up on its hinge and stood back, expecting the gunman to be hiding below. But no shots rang out. He eased back to the edge and leaned down to get a look inside.

“It’s a short tunnel, more or less about ten feet long. Goes in only one direction. Back toward the way we came. Wait here.”

“No way. We’re doing this together. No more running off into danger without me. We’re a team, Dex.”

He didn’t like the idea of putting her in danger, but leaving her behind while he continued deeper into the bowels of the house didn’t feel safe, either. “All right. But I go first. And before you say it, no, you keep the gun. No arguments on that.”

She didn’t appear to like his conditions, but she gave him a tight nod.

He braced his hands on both sides of the opening and dropped down into the cramped space, which was only about three feet tall. As soon as he did, the opening above him shut. He glanced up in surprise, noting the ropes and pulleys that had automatically closed the trapdoor and the rubber gasket on this side around the opening, which had stifled any sound.

The door opened again, and Amber looked down at him. “What was that about?”

He motioned toward the pulley system. “Looks like your grandpa designed the door to close on its own so he wouldn’t have to close it himself. Assuming he ever ran around in these corridors.”

She lowered herself over the opening and Dex grabbed her around the waist. He gently set her down and the trap door again quietly but quickly closed behind them.

“Cool,” she said. “I can’t believe he built all of this and never told me. I would have had so much fun as a kid in here.”

“Maybe that’s why he didn’t tell you. He didn’t want to worry about you running around in the walls and maybe getting lost or hurt. But why would he even build these tunnels?”

“He was always a bit paranoid. Maybe he thought they’d give him a way to escape if an intruder ever got into the house. Who knows? Do you see another way out?”

He nodded. “This is apparently a short crawl space beneath the floor above, but it’s not low enough to be on the first floor or we’d be in water right now. There’s another panel on the ceiling, at the end. Probably opens into another passageway. Do you have any idea where we are right now?”

“If I had to guess, from the directions I ran above, we’re somewhere near the second-floor library.”

They moved to the end of the crawl space and Amber reached up for the panel above them, but Dex pushed her back.

“I go first,” he said. “If the killer is waiting for us on the other side, I don’t want you to get shot.”

“Well, hello, the feeling is mutual. And I’m the one with the gun.”

“Doesn’t matter. Step back, Amber.”

“You’re being a Neanderthal. I can protect myself, you know.”

He cupped her face in his hands and leaned down to give her a soft kiss. When he pulled back, he searched her eyes. “I know you can protect yourself. You protected
me
back in the swamp. In fact, you saved my life. Now it’s my turn, okay? I couldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you.”

Her eyes turned misty. “You say the sweetest things.” She pulled him down for another kiss, and this one wasn’t soft. By the time they broke apart, both of them were panting.

Dex was left resenting the killer even more, because if it weren’t for him, he’d be back in the bed with Amber right now showing her just how sweet he could be.

He forced himself to step away from her and temptation and studied the panel above him to see how to open it. There, on the top corner, another knot had been removed and there was a knob. At least Grandpa was consistent. Dex reached for the knob.

A muffled scream sounded from above them.

Dex shared a surprised look with Amber, then shoved the knob. The panel flew open, the pulley system helping raise it quickly and silently like the other panel. Dex stood up, noting Amber had been right. This was the library, and the opening was back in a corner surrounded by floor-to-ceiling bookcases. He quickly hopped out and braced the panel to keep it from automatically closing, while Amber followed close behind.

The scream sounded again.

Dex and Amber took off running down an aisle between bookshelves and came out into the end of the library, close to where they’d been sitting earlier that morning.

Aunt Freddie was sitting on one of the couches, her face ghastly pale. Buddy was using a magazine to fan her. Derek stood beside them, and all three stared at Amber and Dex in surprise.

“Where did you two come from?” Derek demanded, his surprise turning to suspicion.

Amber gave Dex a puzzled look as they hurried to the group.

“What’s going on?” Dex asked, not bothering with explanations. “Who screamed?”

Aunt Freddie pushed Buddy away and shakily rose to her feet, half leaning on him as he helped her up. “I did.” Without another word, she pointed across the room.

Dex and Amber both followed the direction in which she was pointing. There, on top of a side table next to a chair, was a bunched-up white blouse with red splotches on it that looked like blood.

“It’s Amy’s,” Freddie announced. “And she’s missing.”

Chapter Fourteen

Everyone started talking at once.

Dex held his hands up. “Hold it. Everyone quiet.”

The library fell silent. As one, Aunt Freddie, Buddy and Derek looked at Dex. He lowered his hands.

“Okay, I’ll start. Amber and I noticed the guns were missing from the trunk earlier, as we were all escaping the floodwaters to go upstairs.”

Derek fisted his hands beside him, his jaw tight and angry. “And you didn’t think it was a good idea to tell the rest of us?”

“I didn’t want to panic anyone. We knew the killer already had a gun somewhere, so it didn’t really change things.”

“Except to make you the only one with access to a gun.” He waved at the Colt that Amber now had tucked into her waistband. “Or the two of you. Hell, maybe you’re both the killers.”

Buddy stepped forward, using his bulk to force Derek back a few feet. “No one is going to blame Amber again for another murder, so you can just stop that right now. And as far as that other lady goes, like I already said, Dex and I reached the room at the same time. He couldn’t have killed her. Plus, I know who took the guns.”

“Who?” Dex and Derek asked at the same time.

“Me. I didn’t cotton to the idea of the murderer being the only armed one around here, so I hid them in case we needed them. Looks like that was a good idea after all.” He eyed Derek with distaste. “Except I’m not sure who to trust around here.”

Derek’s eyes narrowed. “Are you accusing me of something, old man?”

“Well, you were the one getting cozy with Amy earlier. And now she’s missing.”

Derek stepped forward, his hands in fists.

“Stop it, you two.” Dex shoved Derek, who glared at him in return. To the others, Dex said, “Derek isn’t the threat here.”

“And how do you know that?” Aunt Freddie chimed in, standing close to Buddy in a united front against an angry-looking Derek.

“Because someone opened a hidden panel in Amber’s room a little while ago. And I’m pretty sure I saw another panel open in Mallory’s room earlier and just didn’t realize it at the time. The killer is using hidden passageways to get around the house. And I saw him. He’s definitely not Derek.”

“You saw him?” Derek asked. “Who is it, then?”

“One of the only two men not in this room, Mitchell or Garreth. I only saw him in shadows.”

“Then how do you know it’s not this guy?” Buddy waved at Derek.

“Because the man I saw was—”

“Taller,” Derek said, sounding weary. “I’m the short man out. I get it. Fine. So it’s Mitchell or Garreth. One of them has Amy. I say we tear this place apart and find them. After we get those guns.”

Buddy shook his head. “Nope. Like I said, I don’t trust you. I’ll give Freddie a gun, and Dex, though.”

“You’ll give me one, too.” Derek drew himself up as if to intimidate Buddy, but the old man just ignored him. “I’ll go get them.”

“Wait.” Dex held up his hand. “Buddy, Derek arrived in that hallway outside Mallory’s room at the same time that we did. And he’s not the man who shot at me in the passageways. So I think we can all agree he’s not the killer. Derek needs to protect himself, too.”

“There are only three guns,” Buddy grumbled.

“I’ve got my knife,” Amber said. “And I’ll give Dex my gun. You three get the rest of the guns. And we all stay together. We’ll all be safe that way.”

“She’s right. As long as we stay together, we should be safe,” Aunt Freddie said. “Give him a gun too, Buddy.”

“Oh, fine. Come on. They’re over here. I hid them in one of the bookshelves when we brought the food up here.” He led them to a shelf at the other end of the room and pulled out the guns. “I don’t have any extra ammo, so if we get in a shoot-out, we’ll have to be careful.”

“Good grief,” Dex said. “There’s not going to be a shoot-out. If those guns are the types with safeties, keep the safeties on.”

“Only a sissy needs a safety.” Buddy passed the guns around.

Dex had a very bad feeling about everyone around him being armed, but he couldn’t exactly justify being the only one with a gun. “Everyone, please, be careful. I don’t want anyone getting shot by accident.”

“Son,” Buddy said, “the only ones around here who might be careless with firearms are the townies like you and this Dexter feller.”

“Derek,” Derek corrected.

“Whatever.”

Derek shook his head and gave Dex a pained look. For whatever reason, Buddy had taken a dislike to him and wasn’t going to drop it.

Dex figured it had to do with the way Derek had been cozying up to Amy earlier. He remembered how the town had been against Jake as an outsider when he’d first come here. But they now considered Jake to be one of their own. They had their hearts in the right places, being protective of one other. But he could well understand Derek’s frustration. If it weren’t for his own ties to Jake, they’d probably be treating him the same way.

“Okay, when Amber and I got here, we’d just heard you scream, Freddie. So what happened?”

“Something woke me up. I’m not sure what. And I got up and looked over there and saw Amy’s blouse, all cut up.” She shivered. “Then I went looking for her on the couch on that other side of the room where she and Dexter had been earlier—”

Derek rolled his eyes.

“—and he was lying there asleep but Amy was gone. That’s when I screamed.”

“So no one saw Amy leave? Or anyone else in here?”

They all shook their heads.

“Maybe she went back to her room,” Amber said. “And the killer put that blouse there to scare us?”

“What about the blood?” Derek asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Let’s go to Amy’s room and see if she’s there before we go down that line of thought,” Dex said.

As one they headed toward the door. Dex made them wait while he looked out in the hallway. Clear. Lightning lit up the windows behind them, casting eerie shadows down the hall. But so far the generator was keeping up and the sconces down the hall showed enough that he felt it was safe to step outside.

“Which way?” he whispered to Amber.

“She was in the west wing, a few doors down from...Mallory’s room.”

He nodded and headed out, with Amber keeping pace with him. The others followed close behind. Dex tried not to think about the fact that they had guns in their hands. His back itched, expecting someone to stumble any minute and shoot him.

“Keep an eye on the doors, and listen for anyone else,” he whispered back to them.

Buddy gave him a salute as if Dex was a general, and he whispered to Freddie. She nodded and the two of them aimed their guns at either side as they made their way down the hall behind him. Dex noted that Derek kept his gun shoved into his waistband and stayed well back from Freddie and Buddy, apparently as nervous as Dex was with the two Mystic Glades residents walking around with their guns out.

They passed the open railing that looked down on the foyer below and, as one, they paused. Amber gasped and clutched Dex’s arm.

He could well understand her surprise and dismay. Water covered the bottom two steps of the staircase and lapped at the third. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know this is your family home.”

She nodded, looking miserable. “I never thought I’d see the day when the water would rise like this. We’ve had floods in the past, but they never got this high.”

“I think the rain’s letting up,” he said, trying to make her feel better.

She looked out the windows above the front door. “You’re right. That’s something to be grateful for, at least.”

“Come on.” He urged her forward, not liking that they were essentially targets out in the open two-story foyer. If Mitchell or Garreth was bold enough to shoot at him, then he wasn’t going to assume the man would be worried about getting wet down on the first floor. The attacker could be behind an archway even now, waiting for a good shot.

They passed the open railing and Dex breathed a sigh of relief with walls on both sides again, blocking any shots from below. When they reached Amy’s door, Dex didn’t bother knocking. If the killer was inside with her, he wanted to use the element of surprise to put the odds more in his favor. He drew his gun, carefully turned the knob, then shoved the door open and ran inside.

Another scream met him as Amy backed up against the wall, clutching a towel against her naked body, her hair dripping water onto the floor.

Dex lowered the gun and shoved it into his waistband. “Are you okay?”

She blinked at him and looked at Amber. “Why does he have a gun? What are all of you doing here?”

Amber hurried to her and gave her a fierce hug before pulling back and answering. “We thought the killer had you.”

She frowned. “Why would you think that? I was just taking a shower.”

Freddie and Buddy stepped up beside Dex. “One of your shirts was in the library, with blood on it.”

Her face turned a light pink. “Oh. Sorry. I scratched my arm against an old nail on one of the bookshelves earlier this morning when I woke up before everyone else. I had a tank top underneath, so I took off my shirt to stop the bleeding. I forgot and didn’t take it with me when I left later to take a shower.” She frowned. “Where’s everyone else?”

Dex shoved his gun into his waistband. “I’m not sure where Garreth and Mitchell are. We think one of them must be the killer. Now that we know that you’re okay, our next stop will be to look in Garreth’s and Mitchell’s rooms to see if either of them is there.”

“Okay, but where’s Derek?”

Her words seemed to sink into everyone at the same time. They all whirled around.

Derek was gone.

* * *

D
EX
STEPPED
OUT
of Garreth’s closet and crossed the bedroom to where Amber was rifling through Garreth’s suitcase.

She looked up and shook her head. “I don’t know what he brought with him, of course, but everything seems to be in order. No obvious gaps like anything’s missing. What about that briefcase he had with him?”

“It’s in the closet. I couldn’t open it since it’s locked. But it’s present and accounted for. Unlike Garreth.”

“And Mitchell and Derek,” she added.

“Told you I shouldn’t have given him a gun,” Buddy grumbled from his position on the other side of the room next to Amy and Freddie.

“He’s not the killer,” Dex said. “It has to be Mitchell or Garreth.”

“How tall am I?” Buddy asked.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, son. How tall am I?”

Dex considered him for a moment. “Five-eight?”

Buddy drew himself up, and Dex immediately realized his mistake. Buddy had been slouching.

“Closer to six foot,” Dex admitted.

“Five-eleven,” Buddy confirmed. “You willing to bet your life, and ours, that you were right that the man you saw in those hidden passageways wasn’t that Dexter fellow?”

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have made any assumptions. The hallway was dark. And he was far away. I have to allow for the possibility that the killer could be anyone, including
Derek
.”

“You mean the killer could be anyone except us.” Amber waved her hand to encompass everyone in the bedroom.

“I’m not assuming anything at this point,” he said.

Buddy gave him an irritated look. “We’re going back to the library.”

“Wait.” Dex hurried to the door. “The library isn’t a safe place to stay. It has one of the passageway entrances. Amber, is there some other room we can all easily fit in, somewhere more defensible?”

She shook her head. “Other than the bedrooms, there are no other big enough rooms upstairs where we could gather.”

“Then we need to search the upstairs library to make sure we know where all of the passageway entrances are and block them off. If we have to, we’ll scoot furniture on top of any trapdoors or throw a pile of books on them. Before we go back, does anyone need a bathroom break or anything from their rooms? I don’t want anyone wandering around on their own.”

Amy shook her head no.

Buddy and Freddie both raised their hands like children in a schoolroom.

“Bathroom,” Freddie said.

“Me, too,” Buddy chimed in.

Dex sighed. “Amber? Where’s the nearest bathroom?”

“Just down the hall.”

They went through the same routine, Dex looking down the hall and then everyone keeping behind him as they headed out the door. But this time, both Amber and Dex kept looking back to make sure they didn’t lose anyone.

Once they were finally in the library and Dex was satisfied that they’d located the only passageway entrance—the one he and Amber had used earlier—and it was covered by a very heavy couch that had been difficult for all of them together to scoot over to the trapdoor, Dex pulled Amber to the side away from the others.

“I need you to stay here and keep an eye on the others, make sure they don’t try to go anywhere. Lock the door behind me.”

“Hold it.” She put her hand on his arm to stop him. “Where do you think you’re going? The rain has stopped, yes, but the water won’t recede for a while. We need to wait here until we can get back to town and call the police. Even then, we’ll likely have to pile into a canoe to get there since the cars are probably all flooded out.”

“A canoe? You have one around here?”

She shook her head. “No. I was being facetious. I wish I had a canoe. I could get us out right now, since the lightning has stopped. But I don’t.”

His excitement at hearing her mention a canoe took a nosedive and cemented his earlier decision. “Okay, let’s take a hard look at what we’re up against, then. There are three men out there somewhere—two of whom are either already dead or could be soon if I don’t find them, and the third is armed and has already killed once for sure and tried to kill me in the passageway. Amber, I can’t sit here and wait an entire day for the water to go down while two people are somewhere at the mercy of a killer. I have to search for them.”

“Fine. Then I’m going with you.”

He grabbed her arm this time. “No. You’re not.”

“You listen to me, Dex Lassiter. I survived in a dangerous swamp for over two years. Trust me, it’s not just the reptiles and wild animals that I had to watch out for. Drug dealers and other unsavory people use those swamps as their personal hiding place and sometimes as a route to ship their illegal cargo. I’ve had more than a few run-ins with them and I’m still standing here to talk about it. Don’t assume that I’m not good in a fight just because I’m a woman. You need someone to watch your back, or you can watch mine. But, regardless, I am going with you.”