The Precipice (15 page)

Chapter 19

E
lizabeth and Rashelle were left standing alone in the lobby of the inn, but not for long. Soon they could hear footsteps heading up the porch steps toward the front door of the inn. The door was opened by an unidentified hand that held the door while Amelia stepped inside. She was soon followed in by Kurt.

“Girls! There you are. Kurt has some information for us. I thought you would want to hear, too.” As Kurt started to explain, Amelia discreetly left and headed toward the dining room.

“Ladies, I was just telling Amelia about the man found dead in the kitchen.” Lizzi was not sure she wanted to know any more about him. The less she knew the better. But he continued anyway. “Rashelle had told me that he had registered as Joseph Stevens with his wife, Suzanne, from New Canaan, Connecticut. This all checks out. He is an accountant, a CPA, with clients in the Tri-state area; greater New York City, New Jersey and Fairfield County, Connecticut. I spoke with one of the partners in his firm who knew he was heading up to Maine for a long weekend but was, of course, shocked when I told him what had happened to him. He couldn’t think of anyone who would have had a grudge against him. I also asked him about any extra-marital affairs he might have had that could have caused a very angry husband to get revenge. He referred me to another partner who was closer to him. I haven’t been able to reach her. In the meantime, I’ve asked for a complete client list so we can get started trying to find a possible connection there.

“State police ran the prints found on the knife and only Tony’s were identified. Unfortunately, we can’t eliminate him just yet. Before Mr. Stevens passed out he was able to type a few numbers into his cell phone. We are still trying to identify what the numbers mean.”

Elizabeth was following along very closely. “What were they?” She felt she could help solve this as much as the next guy.
Bring it on
.

Mitchell examined her face to see if she was serious. Upon realizing she was, a discreet smile pushed up slightly on one side of his face forming a dimple in his left cheek. He looked pleased she had asked. “Let’s see.” He looked closely at his notes and then to her from across the clipboard.

She was starting to feel uncomfortable again. He was taking too much time to answer the question.
Can we get on with it already?

“8, 7, 0, 7….8707.”

“Well, it’s not a seven digit number like a regular phone number.”

“No, it’s not.” Mitchell agreed.

“Maybe it’s just part of a phone number because that was as far as he could get before he died.”

“Could be.”

“What about the letters on a phone that represent each number pad? Maybe he was trying to spell out something.” Rashelle joined in and was thinking out loud.

Elizabeth wrinkled her forehead. “That would have taken a tremendous amount of concentration to spell something out while he was busy dying.”

Rashelle shrugged her shoulders. She was just trying to help.

“It had to be something he felt comfortable with, something he has done many times before. It was second nature to him.” Elizabeth was staying focused.

There was a moment of silence while everyone tossed around those last couple of thoughts. Finally, Lizzi’s face lit up. “Rashelle, you have an adding machine in the office, don’t you?”

“Yes, it’s right on the desk.” She led the way to the door into the business office, behind the front desk, with Elizabeth following behind her. Lizzi pulled her cell phone out of her pants pocket and flipped it open. She looked from the phone to the adding machine and back again several times. The other two waited in silence while she sorted through her thoughts.

“That’s odd…”

“What’s odd?” Rashelle took the bait.

She turned and looked directly at Rashelle. “Did you ever notice that the keypad on the adding machine is backwards from the keypad on any phone?”

Mitchell and Rashelle looked at each other and then at Elizabeth, with looks that indicated they had never made that observation.

“See...the top row on the phone is 1, 2, 3. But the top row on the adding machine is 7, 8, 9. Think about it. This was an accountant. He was probably quite familiar with the adding machine. It was a tool in his trade. But he probably also used his cell phone a lot, too. What if he was trying to leave a clue as to his killer’s identity but did it as if he was using an adding machine instead of a cell phone, even though he was using a cell phone? After all, we should cut him some slack. He was dying and he probably knew it.”

“Okay,” Kurt was willing to play along. “So what are the equivalent numbers on the adding machine?”

“Let’s look.” Elizabeth quickly compared the two. “2…1…0…1.” The three thought on this for a moment. No one was coming up with anything obvious.

“Maybe it’s a date.2/1/01. That could be a significant date to this man.” Rashelle offered. Elizabeth and Kurt nodded as they considered this idea.

“February 1st, 2001…or could it be 1901?” Kurt added.

Lizzi threw in her two cents. “What if the first two numbers are the day and the last two digits are the month? Sort of in European order. That would make it January.”

“Or it could be that it’s not a date at all.” Kurt was turning the discussion upside down. “Could it be part of a license plate or a room—?”

“Miss Pennington!” The lieutenant’s voice boomed from behind them. He stood at the reception desk counter. “You need to come with me.”

“Wh-what?!”

“I’m afraid you are coming with me. This is the end of the road for you.”

Rashelle sprung to life. “Lieutenant! What are you talking about?”

“I need you to come out from around there.” He had his eyes focused on Elizabeth.

Rashelle followed Elizabeth out to the lobby in time to see Perkins pulling his handcuffs off of his belt. “OH MY GAWD!!” Her accent shone through in her excitement. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU DON’T NEED TO DO THIS!”

Amelia couldn’t help but notice the commotion in the lobby and came running from the dining room. “What is going on?” She saw Elizabeth standing there with her hands behind her back. Perkins was behind her clamping on the cuffs. “Lieutenant! What are you doing? This is not necessary! Take those off of her! What do you think she has done? Take them off! They are not necessary!” Panic was in her voice and terror in her eyes.

“I’m sorry ma’am. There is too much evidence against her to just let her stay here—” Elizabeth figured that Perkins must be getting pressure from a superior to get someone in custody and get the situation under control. He was only making the situation worse.

“Evidence?! Your evidence is WRONG!! She hasn’t done anything! You are taking the wrong person! For God sake, take off the handcuffs. She is not a criminal!”

Perkins had heard his fill so he turned away from Amelia, grabbed Elizabeth by the arm, and started heading for the door.

“NO! NO! Lieutenant, you listen to me!” Amelia was approaching hysteria at the thought of her granddaughter being dragged away like a criminal. “There is no need for this…if you are going to take her, at least take off the cuffs. Who is the bigger person here? Look at her. Do you really think she could overpower you? Please! I beg of you!”

Her comments must have hit a nerve with him. His shoulders dropped and he reluctantly shoved his right hand into his uniform pants to retrieve the handcuff keys. Skillfully he slipped the key into the cuffs and he popped them off quickly. Elizabeth took a moment to massage her wrists where the cuffs had been while he replaced them on his belt. Then he guided her through the front door and to the right side of a waiting squad car without looking back. He opened the back door and motioned for her to get in. Looked like she was going to find out what it was like in the rear of the car after all. Amelia was at their heels with Rashelle right behind her. “Where are you taking her? For God sake, please don’t take her! She hasn’t done anything. I need her here.” Amelia continued to implore him.

The lieutenant closed the door on Elizabeth and then turned around to address Amelia’s hysteria. Once again Elizabeth was alone in the squad car. She took a deep breath. This couldn’t be happening. Leaning back, she remembered she had shoved something into her back pocket to look at later. She reached behind her and pulled out a magazine, a random snatch from the Hutchins’ coffee table. She unrolled it, flipped it over to the back cover, and gasped. Quickly, Elizabeth shoved it back into her pants pocket. She needed to get out of the car!

While the lieutenant was still tied up with her grandmother, she quickly slid across the seat to the other side of the car, away from Perkins and Amelia. Thank goodness Amelia had convinced Perkins to let her out of those cuffs. Suddenly she realized she needed a flashlight. The trooper must have one somewhere in the vehicle. She peered through the cage separating the back seat from the front and scanned from right to left, noting a sturdy metal flashlight tucked neatly in the pocket on the driver’s door. Quietly she let herself out on the left side of the car, crouching to stay out of sight. She didn’t close the door tightly, so as not to alert them of her escape. She grabbed the handle on the driver’s door and listened for conversation on the other side of the car.

“We will bring her back just as soon as we can.” His voice was suddenly getting louder. He was rounding the back of the cruiser. In a desperate move, she hit the ground and rolled under the car. She held her breath. Listening closely, she could tell he had opened his door, but hadn’t entered the vehicle.

“WHAT THE HELL!”

Not much gets past him
.

“WHERE IS SHE?! DAMN IT!” Footsteps led away from the car. Elizabeth lay as still as she could muster, listening for voices. After what seemed like an eternity of quiet, she scooted back out from under the car, looked around for any movement. It seemed clear. She still needed the flashlight. Perkins had left the driver’s door ajar so she pulled it open just enough to reach the flashlight on the door. She reached in slowly, trying not to set off the overhead light in the cruiser. On a gray overcast day like this, she couldn’t be too careful of having anyone notice the light. She was getting closer. Her fingertips touched the end of it. She pushed her arm further. She could almost reach enough of it to grab it. One more inch and she would have it. Finally! She had the tips of her fingers around the flashlight. She looked up and realized the light was on inside the car. It wouldn’t matter how much more she opened the door, the light would still be on. She opened it wider, grabbed the flashlight, and then returned the door to its original position, hoping no one had noticed the light at all. She had to get moving. She kept low and headed straight for the woods.

Elizabeth knew she had lost precious time retrieving the trooper’s light, but she would need it later. Her feet carried her swiftly to the woods, allowing the trees to swallow her up and hide her from all of the police she had left behind, scattering at the inn. By now everyone was aware of what had happened outside the front of the inn. She needed to redefine the word “disappearance.”

Once in the woods, she pushed through the trees with both arms out in front of her. Her feet were moving quickly, small steps, one in front of the other. Her eyes were focused on her feet so as not to trip over an errant root, glancing up periodically to avoid running head long into a tree. Twigs were snapping beneath her feet. The further into the woods she went, the darker it became, as the daylight was waning. The woods became very thick soon after entering. Her feet came to a stop and she listened to the woods for a moment, becoming aware that she was the only one making any noise. A silvery gray mist hung in the air. The woods were eerily quiet, like something evil had happened or was about to happen. A shiver ran down her back. The thought of going deeper made her stomach turn over. She had no choice. She couldn’t retrace her steps. She had to put as much distance as possible between her and the commotion behind her. She took a deep breath and started to move her feet again, glancing left to right to detect any unexpected movement.

Escape while in custody. Elizabeth tried that on for size. A bit of a sticky situation, but she couldn’t worry about that right now.
One foot in front of the other
. She had to keep—thud! Her right hand, which held the flashlight, hit a tree. The light was knocked loose and landed in the brush below. “Shit!” She dropped to the ground on her hands and knees groping for the flashlight. It had to be right there. Did it bounce? She widened her circle. Her hands patted the ground frantically. It was prickly with dried pine needles, sticks, and pine cones. Where was the light?! Panic was creeping into her mind. She stretched further to reach under a big, old pine and hit metal. She found it! “Yes!” Grabbing it tightly, she backed out from under the conifer and stood up into someone’s arms behind her. A hand clasped firmly onto her mouth, letting out only a muffled scream. She quickly surmised that it was a man who had her in a tight hold. He was very strong. She struggled to pull free. She heard the flashlight make contact with the ground for a second time. So
much for using that as a weapon.
She kept trying to scream and wriggle out of his grasp. Her muffled shrieks drowned out her captor’s words. Finally she stopped struggling and took a breath.

“Elizabeth!” His voice was barely above a whisper. Her eyes opened wide. It was Mitchell. “Shut up already…hold still and I will let go of you!” Her body relaxed and she stopped trying to scream. Kurt stood there with his arms around her and one hand over her mouth. “Okay? You’ve calmed down? Remember I’m on your side.”

Elizabeth wasn’t so sure about that but she was willing to pretend if it meant he would let go of her. She nodded her head. Slowly he removed his hand from her mouth, paused, then slowly released his vice grip from around her upper body, keeping one hand on her upper arm as insurance that she wouldn’t run.

“Alright, already. I’m not going anywhere!” Her voice was barely a whisper. She jerked her arm out of his grasp. If it wasn’t so dark in the woods she would have seen a red spot on her arm where his large hand had been. She rubbed it to relieve the pain. She turned and pretended to spit to her side. “And where has that hand been, for God’s sake! Wash them once in a while!”

“What the hell are you doing?! You were in custody! Perkins will be having a canary about now.”

“A canary? Kurt, no one says that anymore.” She didn’t really give a damn about Perkins right now. “Mitchell, I need to get back into the tunnels. And I can’t help my grandmother if I’m in custody. I don’t care how mad Perkins is. I’ve just got to steer clear of him for the moment.”

“Well, the tunnels would be a good place for that. Let’s go.” He grabbed her arm again.

“Wait!” I need the flashlight.”

Mitchell pulled a miniature light out of his pocket and snapped it on. Elizabeth was relieved to see it shed a narrow band of concentrated light. Kurt scanned the ground around their feet until he located the larger light. She reached down and snatched it up.