“I love you too.”
Movement to my right, and I remember Dani is there. Her hand touches my shoulder and then two fingers on my neck. “His pulse is steady. But he’s injured.”
“Broken ribs.” I cough. “He gave me something right after I got into the car. For the pain, he said. I trusted him. I knew what he’d done, and I still trusted him.”
“So did we,” Jaymee says. “Dani probably got us all killed, she trusts him so much.”
“I saved us. He’s not a killer. He’s a coward. He’ll run.”
“You may be the sister I always wanted, but I swear to God, if you’re wrong, I’ll strangle you before he gets the chance.”
“Fine.”
Their irritated banter actually brings tears to my eyes. I don’t know how many days have passed but being locked in this room, in the dark, with no damned sounds other than footsteps and the occasional worried ranting of Jeb nearly drove me crazy.
“Dani, you have your keys, right? With the little flashlight?” Jaymee asks.
There’s shuffling and then a bright glow fills the room. Dani holds the keys high, glaring at Jaymee, whose eyes are on me. Her fingers brush my lips; they’re still swollen from the force of the air bag. “Hey. Long time no see. Lost a shoe by chance?”
I wiggle my sock-covered foot and start to laugh, but the pain in my ribs stops me. Jaymee tugs at the rope on my wrists, the force tearing my skin. I don’t give a shit. Finally my hands are free, and I can put my arms around her. Which hurts like hell too. Next are my feet, Dani still holding the keys.
“What’s this about you and a fire?”
Jaymee’s eyes flicker to Dani. “You’ve missed a lot of things.”
“So catch me up.”
I sit in silence, Jaymee tugging on the knots around my ankles, and Dani tells me the story of the Ashers, the mafia, and the fire that nearly killed the woman I love.
It’s unbelievable the trouble a single email caused. And timing had to be some sort of fate. I swallow and start to talk. “I’d been chasing the fraudulent antiques for a while—that’s why I hid them at Magnolia. I finally found out Ben Moore was involved and decided to contact him about it.”
“You thought he would admit to it?” Dani asks.
“Of course not. I wanted to rattle him, see if I could find out about his partners. I had a gut feeling he wasn’t the only one involved, and I was right. He emailed me several pictures of his fakes and told me to take a closer look.”
“You discovered the Dixie Mafia connection?” Jaymee runs her fingers through my hair.
“I discovered Wyatt Booth and Norton were somehow involved. But then I recognized the cartridge case and forgot everything else.” My ribs seize, and I want to howl in agony. “Not two days before Ben Moore sent me the email, I read about the Emery Lewis case for the first time in years. I saw the picture of him with the cartridge box, grinning and smug. When Ben’s pictures came, I never bothered to look very deeply into the rest.”
“Yeah well, everything happens for a reason,” Dani says. “This whole mess may have saved a lot of people’s lives. And hopefully puts Booth behind bars.”
Jaymee finally frees my feet. “And what about us?”
“Cage will get the voicemail. Whatever Jeb does, Cage’ll be here.” Dani angles the keys toward me, the bright light hurting my tender eyes. “What exactly happened to Emery Lewis? Did Jeb tell you?”
“He did. How much do you know?”
“We know that Lewis dated Margaret Asher, who’s a crazy bitch, by the way,” Jaymee says. “And he was probably killed in the cave Booth wants to mine. And obviously, Beau and Jeb did it.”
“Along with Matt Hastings.”
“The reporter?” Dani’s eyes look like a bat’s glowing in the dark.
“The short version, because that’s all I can manage right now, is this: Jeb and Beau are cousins, used to be close. Ran around with Matt Hastings, although he was more of a follower. In 1964, Lewis shows up. The entire state is in an uproar because of civil rights and tensions are high.” I take a shallow breath. My ribs are killing me, but I need to tell them. “They didn’t like Lewis from the beginning, and his dating Margaret set Beau off. They waited for him one night and ambushed him. They were only going to beat him up, but according to Jeb, Beau got out of hand. Then they realized Lewis wasn’t breathing. So they buried him in a cave—which turns out to be the one you’re talking about. You say you found the axe handle?”
“It’s in the truck,” Dani says. “Naturally.”
I nod. “They beat him with it. Guess that’s why they left it in the cave. They agreed to keep what happened secret, with Beau warning the others his family had enough power to get him out of it and pin it on the other two guys. Even though Jeb’s a cousin, his dad was the black sheep. So they complied.”
“Why did they strip him?” Dani asks.
“Less chance of identification if the body was ever found,” I answer. “And Beau Asher probably wanted to humiliate the man in death.”
“Sounds about right. And decades later,” Jaymee runs her soft fingers through my hair again, sending a beautiful sensation across my scalp, “you figured it out and thought you could talk to Jeb about it.”
“I’ve dealt with real villains. Jeb isn’t one. I figured…if he could tell me honestly that Beau was the ringleader, we’d expose the story with Jeb as an anonymous source. If he got sucked in, and he and maybe even Matt were willing to testify against Asher, we could keep Jeb out of jail.”
“But he never gave you the chance.”
“And now here we are.”
“Something’s been bugging me,” Dani says. “How did your shoe end up in the creek?”
“It cuts across Jeb’s property. He parked in the garage, and I tried to make a run for it. I was half drugged and dealing with broken ribs. He caught me in the creek. I don’t think either one of us realized I’d lost my shoe until we were down here.”
Footsteps above tell me Jeb is still here. “He’s probably gathering a few things,” Dani says trying to convince herself. I have faith in Cage too. But I don’t have any hope for the man rattling around above us. His common sense has evaporated.
“Isn’t moving too quickly,” Jaymee says. “You’d think he would if he planned on running.”
“This place has ovens.” I say the words without thinking. The thought has besieged me since I realized where I was. Burning alive. I’m sure that would be second in horror only to being buried alive. Either seems like an option right now.
Jaymee gasps, but Dani, eyes still impossibly wide, shakes her head, stone-faced and resolute. “He’s not that guy. I’m telling you.”
Something in the other room groans and rumbles. I’ve heard the sound a few times over the last few days, and every time panic nips at me. It’s not the normal sound of a house settling or water rushing through old pipes. It’s bigger, louder. Something trying to get free or worse—break through.
“What’s that?” Dani’s words are coated in dread. She’s twisting her neck, trying to get a view of the nothingness we’re in, and I’m pretty sure she’s more freaked out about where we’re trapped than the fact that we actually are.
“Probably a ghost.” Jaymee grins, but I can tell she’s serious. “We’re in a funeral home.”
“So what?” Dani says. “Why do people always think funeral homes and cemeteries are haunted? You’d think a spirit would linger where the life actually ends, not where their body goes to be tortured for burial.”
“Because they’re creepy as hell. Those steel tables and that drain. You know what goes down that drain, right? And this place is old, so the septic system is probably full of hazardous chemicals and shit. The air is probably putrid.”
“Jeb’s not sick.”
“He is in the head,” Jaymee snaps. “I can’t believe you’re defending him.”
“I’m not. If you would just—”
The rumbling comes again, louder. This time, it’s more than sound. The floor actually shakes.
“Does Mississippi have earthquakes?” Dani whispers as though anything louder would make the shaking worse.
“It’s happened before, decades ago,” Jaymee says. “There’s a fault line—the Madrid something. I think scientists thought it would have a big quake in the 90s, but nothing ever happened.”
“This isn’t an earthquake.” The words barely escape my mouth before a powerful rumble tears through the basement, followed by the sound of something heavy breaking, falling, and cracking. The girls scream. Another heavy drop, the harsh bang of steel against steel, and then a scraping noise, as if the metal tables were being dragged.
“What the hell?” Dani’s on her knees at the door, shining the little flashlight into the small crack between the pressed wood and concrete. Her breath comes in rasps, nearly louder than the splintering noises. Her right hand clutches her keys like they’re a life source. “Oh my God. The floor’s collapsed—like a sinkhole. And there’s water. Water coming into the basement!”
F
ear has a
way of making a rational person crazy. For a moment, I think that’s what’s going to happen to Dani, that she’s going to completely lose it at the prospect of drowning in what are essentially human remains. One glance at Jaymee tells me she’s still processing. She turns her head to stare at me, lines of confusion across her forehead.
“We’ve got to get out.”
The words barely slip out of my mouth, and Dani is on her feet, the light rising with her. Her voice is soprano-high and off key, screaming at Jeb. But her words are very clear.
“Jeb! The basement’s collapsing! We’re going to drown. You have to let us out.”
Jaymee stands too and begins pounding on the door, the booms in sync with Dani’s cries. I take Jaymee’s hand and try to pull myself up. My ribs argue by jamming themselves into my lungs. My legs, cramped from being in one position for so long, stagger and nearly collapse. Jaymee steadies me, pulling my arms until I’m on my feet, leaning against the wall and making a feeble attempt to bang on it. Every breath hurts so much I think I can’t take another. I’m pretty sure a rib has punctured a lung.
Beyond the locked door, the cracking starts and stops, accompanied by a gentle sound that absolutely terrifies me: trickling, gurgling water. Rank water, contaminated with chemicals and body fluid, is rising and bringing with it the foulest smell I’ve ever encountered.
“Holy God.” Jaymee sticks her face in her elbow, one hand still on my arm, the other slamming the wall in a rhythm that’s gaining speed.
Dani is screaming the same words over and over again, coughing and half-choking, her mini light jerking with every heave of her body. The movement creates a trick of light that makes me dizzy.
Another crack, this one as loud as a detonated bomb. It’s followed by a much faster rush of water. Somewhere in the embalming room, metal groans, presumably succumbing to the power of the water. A shattering immediately follows.
“The porcelain sink,” Dani says. “Be careful when we get out of here. Don’t cut yourselves.”
“We’re not getting out unless Jeb gets his ass down here!” Jaymee is screaming now.
My sock is wet.
“Oh God, oh god.” Dani is thrashing. I’m sure images of what’s in the water are assaulting her just as they are me.
Jaymee bangs again on the wall.
Now the water’s at my calf.
“I’m coming.” The new voice is a blessed sound, although Jeb’s clearly as scared as we are. “I’ve just got to figure out how. The whole floor is going.”
“Get something to hold on to,” Dani yells. “Something to keep yourself from going down.”
“I’ve got a rope. It’s tied to the banister. Hope it holds.”
Something hard and cool touches my leg. Images of scalpels and saw blades rush me. Grabbing Dani’s wrist, I angle her light toward the rising water. It’s dirt brown, slivers of bark and concrete and other debris I don’t want to imagine floating in it. Something hard, white, and glowing is caught against my pants.
“It’s a chunk of porcelain from that sink,” Dani says. “Hope to God none of us have any open sores.”
“We get out of this,” Jaymee says, “I’m taking a swim in the tetanus vaccine. And anything else I can think of.”
There’s a thud against the door, then a grunt. “I’m here.” Jeb’s out of breath.
The key clicks into the lock and then the door swings open. Water rushes in and knocks all three of us back. Pain shoots through my chest as Jaymee lands against me and Dani bounces off my shoulder. They both grab me before I lose my footing and end up fully submerged in the water, which is now waist deep. It’s surprisingly cold. Chill bumps erupt across my skin.
In the gleam of his flashlight, Jeb looks scared shitless. Blood trickles from a fresh cut on his forehead. He’s out of breath and sweating, a shock of white hair sticking to his pasty forehead. “Listen. Keep to your left. There’s only a couple of feet of floor left. Hang on to the handles of the body lockers.”
Closing his eyes, he shakes his head. “Sorry. Smacked my head against the wall when the second part of the floor busted.”
He’s teetering, and I wonder if he’s got a concussion. Water pushes him into the closet with us, and Dani catches him. “Jaymee, get Nick upstairs. I’ll handle Jeb.”
“Not a chance. We’re all going together.”
Dani doesn’t argue. Wrapping her arm around Jeb and clutching the rope, she takes control, leading him out of the closet.
“I’m too heavy,” he says. “You all go on. I’ll manage.”
“I’m not leaving anyone.” Dani presses ahead. The water is rising fast, and the tips of her long blond hair are wet. Trying not to make Jaymee carry all of my weight, I sludge forward. My ribs hurt so much I’m afraid I’ll pass out soon.
We’re moving against a powerful current, pressed against the steel lockers that once housed death. I cling to the handles as Jeb instructed. Jaymee’s wet hand is shaking in mine, and I wish I were strong enough to pull her close, carry her out of here.
Not far now. Although it’s covered in water, I see the stairway, with the blessed light from the ground floor beckoning us. Suddenly, Jeb slumps against the lockers. The water’s at his chin and the blood seeping from his forehead is mixing in with the brown water, creating a nauseating color. He’s gasping for air.
“My chest is tight.” Jeb is breathing hard. “Vision keeps blurring. Y’all go ahead.”