The Precipice (17 page)

Chapter 22

E
lizabeth came to, for a second time, in the familiar territory of the sitting room off the lobby of the inn. Someone had applied a bandage to the back of her head while she was unconscious. The pain was unbearable, but she was just thrilled to be above ground again. She could sense there was a lot of commotion out in the dining room. She tried to sit up and see what was going on. As soon as she moved, she knew she needed to take it slowly. A stabbing pain shot through her head. Her body was saying, “SLOW DOWN!” Unfortunately, she needed to push it beyond the edge of the envelope right now. Her body flopped back down on the worn out floral couch that didn’t seem to be near the fireplace where she and Rashelle had talked late into the evening on the first night of her arrival. The room seemed to have been rearranged. It was very different. Even though she was curious about the sitting room, she really wanted to find out what had happened down in the tunnels. Perhaps it was more important to find out what was happening at the inn at the moment. Elizabeth struggled to sit up. She listened closely to the din nearby.

“Elizabeth! The sound of her grandmother’s voice felt wonderful.

Oh, how she wanted to reach out and hug her, feel her warmth inside and out. “Nana! What’s going on? What happened?”

“Are you alright? You look awful. You poor thing! The tunnel you were in had a cave in. You are lucky to be alive!” Amelia was pleased and grateful to see that her granddaughter was going to be okay.

“Nana, I’m okay…I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. What is going on?”

“Liz, the hurricane has taken a turn. It is heading inland…right for us. We need to start evacuating the inn.”

“What about the missing girl?”

“Oh, the officers seemed to think they have—”

“Excuse me, ma’am.” Perkins was speaking directly to Amelia. She turned abruptly toward him. “We really need to get going with the evacuation of the guests.”

“Yes, yes! Of course. I’ll be right there.” She turned her attention back to her granddaughter. Perkins lingered next to Amelia, looking directly at Elizabeth. “I have to help the officers. You need to rest. You stay put and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

The lieutenant finally spoke in his stern voice. “Elizabeth, if I didn’t have more pressing issues to address, you would be back in custody for running off like that. As it stands now, though, the investigation just took a turn which seems to get you off the hook…but I still want to talk with you later.”

He and Amelia turned toward the dining room and disappeared before Elizabeth could open her mouth to ask a question. She felt as though she had been gone a long time and that a lot had happened while she was down under. The throbbing in her head made her wish she could take an ibuprofen or two or three. She decided she needed to go find some. Everyone else seemed so busy. She would just do it herself. Slowly she sat up again. This time the room didn’t spin quite so fast. She considered that a huge improvement over her attempt a few minutes earlier. Resting on the couch in a sitting position, she gathered all the energy she could muster to try to stand up. She looked around the sitting room. The furniture was definitely different. She squinted and thought about it for a while and then realized that things had not only been rearranged, several pieces were added. Then she noticed that the furniture had been pushed to one side to make room for the furniture and bikes off of the front porch.

Gingerly she eased herself off of the couch into a standing position. She hung onto the arm of the couch for a while to make sure she wasn’t going to take a nosedive. So far, so good. She started to take little steps toward the registration desk. Rashelle must have something strong stashed in one of the drawers. She got as far as the old, round, wooden table in the foyer, with the large vase of flowers on it, when the world around her started to spin again. Lunging for the edge of the table, she was just in time to grab hold to steady herself until things cleared in her head. Finally, she felt strong enough to do a bee line for the front desk. She let go and fast-walked to the counter, a little crooked, and grabbed on for dear life again. Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself across the counter to see if there was anything obvious on the desktop below. She hung on for a moment while her head throbbed. She blinked, trying to see things more clearly. It looked like there might be something resembling an ibuprofen bottle next to the phone, but she couldn’t be sure. She would have to make her way around to the inside of the office to check it out. That would take some effort. She waited a while to gather her strength, and then skirted around the corner, running both hands along the walls to steady herself. Reaching the office door, her body hit it with a thud.
Oh, that didn’t feel very good
. She fumbled for the doorknob and managed to turn it enough to release the catch and allow the weight of her body to push open the door. The momentum carried her into the tiny office where she aimed for and landed in the desk chair. She took a few deep breaths and surveyed her surroundings. The drawers. There had to be something in one of the drawers. She swung the chair around toward the desk and started to pull out drawers and look deep into the back of them. She was in luck with the second drawer. A well-worn bottle of pain reliever rattled around inside the drawer when Elizabeth gave it a good tug. She was so relieved. She snatched up the bottle, opened the top, and poured half a dozen gel caps into the palm of her hand. Wondering what she was going to wash them down with, she quickly scanned the desk and noticed a bottle of water sitting on the far side. Under any other circumstances, she would have been totally repulsed by the idea of drinking out of someone else’s water bottle. She had no idea whose it was, but she was desperate and didn’t have time to find out. The six ibuprofen slid down her throat without delay. She longed for them to take effect immediately. She closed her eyes and tried to will her body to rid itself of the pain that was still throbbing in her head. Without realizing it, her body weight eased the chair into a semi-reclining position. Her body shut down for a third time under the stress of her injury. There she lay in the relative quiet of the tiny office. Meanwhile, the rest of the inn was in chaos as the staff and troopers labored to reach every guest and instruct them as to evacuation procedures. A couple of local schools had opened up, even though they weren’t scheduled to start classes for a few more days, to take in evacuees of the impending storm. The meteorologists were suddenly concerned about certain towns along the Maine coast, and Pennington Point was one of them. There was talk of the hurricane maintaining a category four label. Such a strong storm had not hit Maine for as long as even the old-timers could remember.

Chapter 23

E
lizabeth awoke to her cell phone ringing. She lurched forward in her chair and grabbed the phone out of her pocket out of habit, before she was fully conscious. “Hel…hello!” Elizabeth was trying to clear her head while listening to the voice on the other end. Suddenly she realized it was Vera.
Oh my God, why did I answer the phone?
“Yes…Yes. Vera is that you?”

“Well of course it is me! I have been trying to get a hold of you for quite a while. I think Drescher has too. What the hell is going on?”

Elizabeth was regretting answering the phone while still semi-conscious. It was bound to happen, though. She had been dodging Vera since she arrived. This was not the responsible Elizabeth Pennington, the professional interior designer that Vera knew and loved…well, knew.

“Vera…I’m sorry! Things are a little crazy here right now.”

“I don’t want to hear that! I’ve got Drescher on my back looking for design ideas for his new building. He wants to meet tomorrow afternoon! What am I supposed to tell him, Elizabeth? Sorry, my top designer was busy over the weekend and couldn’t be bothered to spend time for our most important client?!”

“What?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing and she certainly didn’t have time to deal with it.

“Look, Elizabeth! I need your designs!”

“Vera, there is a hurricane headed our way! We are currently conducting a complete evacuation of the—”

“Fax me what you have!”

“I can’t right now! I have to go!” Lizzi flipped her cell phone closed. She could not believe that Vera was being such a bitch about this.
Is
New York City that far away that she and Drescher had no idea what was happening in Maine?
She sat for a moment to reflect on the brief, but ridiculous conversation. She conceded to herself that it was probably grounds for dismissal. She may have just lost her job. Elizabeth had had enough of her boss and she really needed to focus on the inn and the impending hurricane at the moment. She needed to help with the evacuation. Lizzi struggled to her feet and headed for the door. Her head was starting to spin so she grabbed onto the door frame for support and took a moment to gather herself. Then it hit her that she had turned off her phone when she was down in the tunnel. She wondered how it could have gotten turned back on.

Chapter 24

E
lizabeth stepped out into the lobby and could sense the commotion in the dining room. She peeked in and it became clear that the room had been turned into central dispatch. Everyone wanted to make sure that everyone got out safely and that no one was left behind. She listened in to see how things were going.

“We tried that door. No one answered. How are we supposed to know if they have already left?”

“Amelia has the master list of guests checked in for the weekend. She is also maintaining a tally of who has left, when they left and who has yet to check out. Let’s ask her to give us a list of those who are still here and what rooms they are in, so we can divide and conquer. We need to accomplish this as quickly as possible.”

Sounded like things were under control, even under the circumstances. Elizabeth could certainly lend a hand, though. She decided to head outside. It wasn’t clear if she should still steer clear of Perkins. Better to play it safe. The fresh air would do her good.

Once at the bottom of the porch steps, she took a deep breath which felt so good. The sea air was always refreshing to her. A light rain was falling. Heading around the side of the inn, she figured she would aim for Moosehead to start knocking on doors. She would just have to keep track in her head who she was able to reach and which doors were unanswered.

She was approaching Acadia House when she realized that she wasn’t thinking clearly. She didn’t know what the evacuation instructions were. That bump on the back of her head must really be affecting her. She slowed her steps to think for a moment. She could at least direct the guests to central dispatch in the dining room; she wanted to be of some help. Resuming her pace, she rounded the back of Acadia House and started up the sidewalk between the back of the building and a long narrow strip of pines that ran parallel to the building. Before she got to the end of Acadia she started feeling lightheaded and decided to grab onto the nearest stair railing, taking steady breaths. The rain had become heavier. The drops on her face felt good. They were helping to clear her head, but she also knew they were just the beginning of a tremendous storm that was barreling toward them. She was tempted to sit on the back steps for a moment, but didn’t dare. She knew it would be difficult to get up again.

Behind her was the sound of a door latch. She turned to see who it was. Suddenly she realized where she was standing—at the bottom of the back steps leading to the Hutchins’ room. “Oh, you must be Mrs. Hutchins; I didn’t mean to disturb you. Surely you are aware that the hurricane is—” Someone had grabbed her from behind. Strong hands had pulled her arms behind her so tightly that they ached. She felt something sharp at her throat. A soft gasp escaped her mouth. She could still see Mrs. Hutchins standing at the top of the stairs looking down at them. Her face remained motionless. She couldn’t understand why she wasn’t reacting to what was happening to her. She had to know the person who had grabbed her. Elizabeth was convinced from the strength that the person was exerting on her, it could only by a man. She was guessing it was Perkins…or Mitchell, depending on whose side he was on at the moment. She didn’t have the energy to struggle this time. “Okay, already. You don’t have to be so rough. Ease—”

“Oh, yes I do. All the other tactics don’t seem to be working.”

Elizabeth’s eyes got wide. She didn’t recognize the man’s voice but it wasn’t Perkins or Mitchell.

“For God’s sake, Elizabeth, why did you even come up here? Everything was going swimmingly into turmoil and then you arrived to save the day.”

She looked to Mrs. Hutchins for a response. Still no reaction. She swallowed hard. It was hard for her to breathe. The man’s hand, with what she imagined must be a knife, was pressing hard against her neck. Elizabeth struggled to speak. “Wh-what are you doing? What is going on?...How do you know who I am?”

Perkins had appeared from around the corner at the end of the building where Hutchins room was, with his gun drawn, facing Elizabeth and her unknown assailant. “Hold it right there.” The man tightened his grasp and pulled her closer to him, the knife still pressed to her neck.

“Don’t come any closer! I will slit her throat with your next step!”

“Hey, just take it easy.” His voice was assertive and deliberate. “You don’t have to involve Eliz—”

“
I
don’t have to involve Elizabeth! She already has herself involved.” Elizabeth didn’t like the sound of his voice. He sounded desperate. “She should have left well enough alone and stayed in New York City. After all, she does have enough work to keep her busy for a while. But she chose to put that all on the back burner and run to her grandmother’s rescue.”

Elizabeth was trying very hard to figure out who had her by the neck.

“So…you may have underestimated how close she and Amelia really are. Obviously the bond of love shared by these two is very strong. But you planted evidence on her just in case she did decide to head up to Maine to try and stick her nose into things.” Perkins was fishing, hoping to elicit a response that would provide him with information he needed.

“Evidence?” Lizzi could barely utter enough sound to make the word heard. She was gasping for air. The man’s grip was getting tighter.

“Yes, Miss Pennington. There was a package planted on you before you left the city.”

Elizabeth racked her brain to think. What package? Then it dawned on her. She had all but forgotten that Lenny from the mail room had brought a manila envelope to her just as she was pulling out of the parking garage.

“It was still on the front passenger seat when we impounded your car. So we took the liberty of opening it for you. In the process, we were able to lift prints from the packing tape used to seal the box. It was a long shot, but we decided to give it a try and run them through the FBI’s database. Inside the box was a girl’s necklace, the description of which the Hutchins’ had given to us with the description of their missing daughter. We were disappointed not to find any DNA on the necklace, but our disappointment turned to suspicion when the jacket found on the breakwater, didn’t have any DNA on it either.” We should be hearing back from the FBI very soon to verify who is involved in this mess. But we did determine that the couple who had checked in as Mr. and Mrs. Hutchins are really James and Ann Rizzo. Isn’t that right, Rizzo?”

Elizabeth listened intently to the Lieutenant. Rizzo was the addressee’s name on the magazine she picked up in the Hutchins’ room. Elizabeth was very scared. The man’s grip tightened as Perkins talked. She took shallow breaths to keep from passing out. The rain was starting to get heavier. The wind was picking up.

Perkins continued. “Alright Rizzo, it’s over. Give it up. This is the end of the road.”

“Oh, no....” His voice was still remarkably calm, but firm. He spoke as if he was the one in control. “This is certainly not over, is it Elizabeth?” He pressed his face up next to hers which gave her the creeps. Her stomach turned. How did he know her? She thought she was going to get nauseous. This just couldn’t be happening. She needed to get out of his grip. His knife was starting to cut into her neck. This was a nightmare. God help her.

Suddenly, the man’s arm pulled away from her neck and she was knocked to the ground. The world was spinning again. She blinked her eyes and shook her head, struggling to stay conscious. She could sense a scuffle on the ground next to her. It was Rizzo being tackled by Mitchell. Kurt easily overpowered him long enough to slip on a pair of cuffs, and then pulled him up to a standing position. A couple of beat cops rounded the corner on a dead run and came to a screeching halt when they stumbled onto the scene. Two more followed behind them. Elizabeth looked up to the landing where Mrs. Hutchins/Rizzo had been standing. Perkins had her in cuffs and was leading her down the steps into the custody of the first two officers to arrive. The other two officers took Rizzo from Mitchell. Elizabeth struggled to her hands and knees. Rizzo had to have the last word. “Oh, and Elizabeth. I took a look at your initial sketches of the lobby. They are disappointing, at best. Definitely not your best work. Too bad you hadn’t stayed in the city where you could have stayed focused.” The two suspects were swiftly led around the corner, presumably to waiting squad cars.

Kurt immediately kneeled next to Elizabeth. “Are you alright, Liz?” He firmly grasped her shoulders and lifted her slightly to look into her face. “Talk to me!” He noticed the gash on her neck from Rizzo’s knife. It was glistening with blood. “Are you okay? Lizzi?” The wind was starting to pick up in gusts.

She was finally catching her breath. Kurt had rescued her from an uncertain fate. God, she was so thankful to him. She was beginning to like him after all. “Yeah, Kurt. I’m okay…or at least I will be. Just help me up, please.” She stood up on her own two wobbly feet with his help. She rubbed the front of her neck and noticed a smear of blood across the palm of her hand. There didn’t seem to be too much damage. She dismissed it with a swipe of her hand down her pants’ leg. It felt good to have the Rizzos, or whoever they were, out of her sight. “What the hell just happened? What is going on?” Suddenly, Amelia and Rashelle appeared around the same corner from which the officers disappeared with the bad guys. They were a sight for sore eyes. Elizabeth desperately wanted to run to her grandmother and give her a hug. Unfortunately, there were more pressing matters, like getting out of there before the full force of the storm hit.

“Alright Lieutenant, we have checked and double checked every room.” Amelia had to shout over the wind and rain. “All guests have been evacuated. The only staff left are the ones you are looking at. Everyone else is safely at the shelter or is on the way.”

Perkins looked relieved. The stress of the past couple of days was starting to show in his face. “Right, then. Let’s get out of here! Mitchell, you see that Amelia and Rashelle get to the shelter. Elizabeth your car has been returned to you. It’s parked out front where you left it. Are you up to driving or do you need someone to take care of that for you? I’m assuming you wouldn’t want to leave your car here, with the hurricane coming.”

Elizabeth had never let anyone drive that car before this and she wasn’t about to let that happen now. It was bad enough that the police had snatched it out from under her nose without her consent. There had better not be a scratch on it. “No, I’m good. I’ll drive. Thanks.” In frustration and confusion she asked, “But could someone explain what just happened?”

“Miss Pennington, I’m sorry. That is just going to have to wait. We will rendezvous at the shelter and debrief you then. Okay? Let’s move out!”

Elizabeth could feel her frustration building. Everyone else seemed to be clued in. She couldn’t stand it, but she was going to have to wait to hear the details. She wanted to know if the girl had been found and if she was alive. She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her behind. The last five people at the inn headed around to the front of Acadia building toward the main building of the inn. Mitchell and Rashelle led the group. The two Pennington ladies were in the middle. Perkins brought up the rear. As they were walking, Amelia put her arm around Elizabeth. “Are you sure you are alright, honey?” She was yelling to be heard above the roar of the wind. Elizabeth nodded her head in response. “Are you okay to drive?” She nodded her head again. “Alright, well I’m going to go with Kurt and Rashelle. I will meet you at the shelter. Okay?” Amelia never had felt comfortable in Elizabeth’s little sports car.

“Okay, Nana.” She was yelling back at her grandmother. “No problem. I will see you there.” She lunged forward and grabbed Mitchell’s arm in front of her, stopping him momentarily on the walkway to the inn. He turned back toward her and Rashelle stopped to see what was going on, too. “You take care of her. Do you hear me? Take care of my grandmother.”

“Got it, Liz. She’s in good hands. Now let’s get out of here before it’s too late to leave.” They all picked up the pace. They were almost jogging when they reached the front of the inn. The wind off the ocean was incredibly strong. It hit them right in the face. They had to lean forward to walk against the wind. In the semi-circle in front of the inn were three cars. Mitchell’s very modest Honda something or other was located furthest down the drive, with Lieutenant Perkins’ squad car and Elizabeth’s Z4 closer toward the front porch of the inn. Lizzi was thrilled to see her pride and joy again. She couldn’t wait to get in it and become free again. She glanced over to see Amelia walking between Kurt and Rashelle toward his car, their ticket out of there. Apparently, Rashelle had wrapped her car around a tree during the summer on her way back from a night out at a local bar. She had to rely on others for transportation until she could get a new one.

Elizabeth suddenly gasped. She turned to Perkins who was behind her. “Lieutenant! There is one more guest left at the inn!”

“What!?”

“Yes! I am absolutely certain! Come with me! I’ll need your help.”

Elizabeth set out on a dead run with the lieutenant right behind her. She led him around the corner of the Acadia House back to the spot from where they had just come. Perkins was getting very anxious. She had better be right. They were running out of time. Elizabeth ran right up to the hatchway that Mitchell had locked behind her earlier. She turned to Perkins. She had to shout for him to hear her over the wind. “Mrs. Leibowitz is still in there. I passed her in the tunnel when I was heading toward the main building of the inn. She was walking in the opposite direction. The hatchway was locked so she couldn’t have gotten out, but she couldn’t have made her way back to the inn because of the cave-in.” She stopped to take a breath. Perkins was considering everything she had just yelled to him.

He knew there was a possibility that Mrs. Leibowitz had perished in the cave-in. No one knew the extent of the damage in the tunnel. On the other hand, she could have been spared any injuries and was down there trying to figure out how to get out. There was one way to find out. Without wasting any time, he drew his revolver out of its holster and took several shots at the lock on the hatchway. Elizabeth cowered behind him to avoid any shrapnel. She opened her eyes to see him opening the door. There, sitting halfway up the steps, was Mrs. L holding an empty bottle of red wine. The neck of the bottle had been broken so she could access the wine. The front of her shirt showed evidence that she had missed her mouth a few times. Lt. Perkins grabbed her firmly by the arm and helped her quickly up the steps. She was obviously feeling no pain. She was walking like she couldn’t feel her feet. When she reached the top, he snatched the bottle out of her hand and threw it aside. Slamming the door to the hatchway, he shouted to the ladies that they needed to clear out quickly. Elizabeth grabbed onto Mrs. Leibowitz’ other arm to speed up the process. They started to make their way back to the last two cars in the circle in front of the inn. She was a little wobbly on her feet, but they got her through the wind and sleet to the circular drive in front of the inn. They loaded her into the back seat of the cruiser. Perkins slammed the door and turned around to address Elizabeth.

Lt. Perkins grabbed her by the forearm and pulled her closer to his face. He spoke urgently. “YOU HAVE TO GET OUT NOW. NO ONE STANDS A CHANCE WITH THIS STORM! GET OUT NOW!!” He loosened his grip and she pulled away from him. He quickly turned away. He had done his duty and he was leaving.