Grave Doubts (A Paranormal Mystery Novel) (26 page)

Stunned, Lee raised herself to her
knees and spit out sawdust and dirt. She glanced around a little dazed.
Overhead pipes and machinery surrounded her in deep shadow. A path opened up to
her left and extended back into the mill. Perhaps she could find the door she’d
entered through and escape to her car. Her fingers touched the pocket of her vest
where her car keys lay hidden.

The thought of safety motivated her
to get up and sprint carelessly forward. She ran directly into a heavy valve
that stuck out from a huge cylinder. It bounced her backwards, and a searing
pain shot through her forehead. She teetered for a moment, thinking she
actually saw stars. Before she knew it, she was on her hands and knees again,
feeling like she might throw up.

She stayed there, trying to swallow
the bile that billowed up in her throat. When it subsided, she got her left
foot underneath her, and was about to push herself up, when her right hand
brushed against something near the bottom step. It was the handle of the
picaroon. Her fingers laced around it, just as a voice behind her sent chills
to her very core.

“I kind of like you on your hands
and knees in the dark,” Maddox chuckled.

Every one of Lee’s muscles
tightened at the sound of his voice and an intense feeling of hatred swelled
inside her. She remained in a crouched position, one knee on the ground, one
foot planted underneath her. Then she twisted away from Maddox and toward the
pick. Slowly, she drew the lethal weapon towards her, counting on the fact her
movements would be hidden in the dark. She concentrated through her dizziness,
trying to calculate the space available to her. She would have one chance at
this. That was all. Just then, Andrew called out above and she paused.

“Bud! Where are you?”

Lee could tell that Bud was
directly behind her. She secured her left foot, and then reached over slowly
with her left hand, using her body to block her movement.

“We’re down here,” Maddox shouted
back.

In a single fluid movement, Lee
swung the pick around at full force. Maddox had pivoted towards the stairs, and
the pick slammed into his back, imbedding itself a good six inches. He froze in
place, a wheeze escaping his lungs. His reaction was hidden in the dark, but
the gurgling sound that came from his throat told her she’d at least hit a lung,
if not other major organs. A moment later, he toppled forward onto the stairs,
his head rebounding off one of the steps with a metallic twang.

Lee stood absolutely still, panting,
and feeling an odd sense of detachment. She’d just killed a person. A man she
detested, but someone she knew. Yet, she had no remorse. She didn’t even feel
anger anymore. He was just gone.

“Bud?” Andrew called again.

 It was time to go.

She had a raging headache. Blood ran
down her forehead, and her vision was a bit blurry. But she knew she had to get
moving.

She turned and moved forward,
carefully this time, using her hands as buffers. Within a few feet, she came
out into an open area with only the barest amount of light. To her right were
the stairs they had taken down to the chipper. She tried to picture their short
tour that afternoon, and remembered there was a ramp down there that lead up to
an exit on this floor. She raised her head and squinted into the darkness.
Tucked behind some large mechanical apparatus about a hundred feet ahead of her,
was the faint green glow of an exit light. Her heart fluttered. She had a
chance.

As quickly as she could, she made
her way towards the exit. She was more unsteady on her feet than she realized,
and her progress was slow. Behind her, she heard the catwalk rattle, then the
stairs. Andrew would find Maddox. She had to speed this up.

The word, “Shit!” echoed behind
her.

“Goddamn it…I’m coming, Lee! I’m
right behind you.”

Lee tried to run, but the world
kept tilting. She had just about made it to the exit, when she banged her left
shoulder into a conveyor belt. The noise was loud enough to alert the Fifth
Infantry, so she decided to make a run for the door. She willed her legs into a
lopsided gate and zigzagged around machinery until she hit the exit bar on the
door. No alarm sounded, but she emerged into the foggy night, gulping down the
sweet fresh air.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE

The fresh air filled her lungs,
helping to clear her head. She was at the back of the mill. A chain-link fence ran
along the property in front of her. Beyond it were two parked cars − a
blue Honda Civic and a brown pick-up truck. To her left and right were more buildings
and alleyways. She didn’t think it made much difference, so she stumbled down
the stairs and lurched to her right. She began to run with more confident
strides, practically skidding around the corner.

She headed for the front of the
building and her car. Low clouds had moved in, blocking the moon and bringing
in a heavy mist that hung between the two buildings. The mist obscured the security
light at the far end of the building, so that it glowed like the beacon from a
lighthouse. She couldn’t see well, but began to jog toward the light. That’s
when the sound of tires on gravel broke the silence, and headlights flashed
across the alley. Someone had pulled up to the front of the mill. The sound of
a car door slamming confirmed it.

Lee skidded to a stop. Who was this?
No one else was scheduled for the photo shoot. That meant it had to be someone
Andrew had called out to for help. Lee backed up against the wall of the opposite
building, hiding in the shadows. Now what? She could wait until that person
went inside and then run for her car. But when a door slammed from behind her,
she knew her options had just evaporated. Andrew had followed her out the back
door.

Her hands began searching the walls
on either side of her. When her fingers looped around a door jam, her heart
leapt. Lee grabbed for the door handle. To her relief, she found the door
unlocked. She ducked inside, closing it behind her as quickly and quietly as
possible. She moved blindly into the musty interior of a room filled with boxes
and metal canisters. She groped in front of her, looking for a place to hide,
her feet sliding over a dirty, cement floor. When a shadow flicked past the outside
window, she panicked and began to look for another exit.

A crack of
light underneath a set of barn-like doors, and the sound of a motorized
conveyor belt drew her forward. Maybe someone was working in there. Lee grabbed
the large metal handle of one door and pulled it sideways. The door slid open,
exposing a two-story room she recognized as the fuel house. At least this was
familiar territory. Masterson had said someone in the boiler room operated the
crane on a twenty-four hour basis, so with luck, she might get his attention.

A blast of the
fragrant fresh bark hit her as she stepped inside and bark chips continued to drop
from the ceiling, landing in the huge pile in the far right corner. She
searched the wall to her left for the camera she assumed the operator used to
move the crane. But the crane was quiet now, positioned in the middle of the
room like a dinosaur on display. A momentary panic seized her as she
contemplated the possibility she was still alone out here.

Across the room
was the door Masterson had used to exit through that afternoon, along with a
floor-to-ceiling roll-up loading door. Both exits were closed, but her only
chance of escape seemed to lie in that direction. She would have to zigzag
around the crane and the end of the chain to the door. Once she made the
commitment, she would be stuck. Either the door was unlocked, or it wasn’t. And
if it wasn’t, she’d be a sitting duck in here. There was no place to hide unless
she wanted to bury herself in the bark pile.

The grinding
noise of the chain grated on her nerves like the dull clanging sound of a pipe
organ out of tune. When Andrew suddenly laughed behind her, she whipped around
with a gasp.

“Too bad, Lee. You were almost
home-free.”

Lee hardly recognized her fellow
administrator anymore. He looked like some misshapen monster. His left eye was
swollen shut and had turned an ugly eggplant color. Blood oozed from the corner
of his eye and ran down his cheek, and his upper lip was swollen. Spittle
glistened as he spoke, and his right arm was bent at his waist as he tried to
cradle his broken wrist. But the gun was firmly seated in his left hand and
pointed directly at her.

“You killed Maddox,” he said
matter-of-factly. “No great loss. All I have to do is create a new scenario.”
He attempted a lopsided smile. “Lee Vanderhaven went crazy and attacked both of
us. I had to kill her. I had no choice.”

“No one’s going to believe that.”

“Maybe not. But I’ll think of
something. I’m better at this than you think, Lee. Let’s go,” he gestured with
a flick of his wrist.

Her feet didn’t move. She couldn’t
go with him. It wasn’t in her nature. She glanced behind her, wondering if she
could make it to the door.

“Don’t even think about it,” he
snarled.

Andrew had moved up behind her and
was looking past her at the drag chain with a kind of reverence.

“This place is amazing,” he
whispered. “So efficient. The hospital ought to work this well.”

“If it doesn’t, it’s your fault,”
Lee shot at him. “You’re in charge of Operations.”

He turned to look at her with his
good eye.

“You think I have any influence
over anything? Martha makes all the decisions. It’s Martha this, and Martha
that,” he sneered. “She just wants someone to take the heat so she doesn’t have
to. The doctors hate her, you know. There are rumblings of a vote of no
confidence. That would surprise her,” he chortled. “The great and mighty Martha
Jackson.”

He took a step to the right and
gazed again at the bark pile and chain. His expression made her skin crawl; she
could see he was devising some sort of plan. Lee took a step forward so that
she was further in his blind spot. It was time to take a chance. She suddenly
darted toward him, and then around his back. He jerked awkwardly trying to
follow her, swinging the gun to the left. But by the time he’d made a full
circle, she had made a run for the door.

She skidded around the crane just
as a bullet ricocheted off the bucket. She flinched, but kept running. She circled
around the end of the guard rail and bounded up the few steps that led to the
door. The door was locked. She banged on it frantically, and Andrew’s cruel
laughter rang out behind her.

“Too bad, Lee. Caught like a mouse
in a trap!”

A bullet slammed into the wall
right next to her, sending cement chips flying. She ducked and jumped off the
steps and tried the metal roll-up door. Locked!

“Give up, Lee. I’ll make it quick
and easy,” he shouted.

Lee turned, breathing hard. There
was no exit other than past Andrew, who now stood on the far side of the guard
rail. Thank God he was right-handed. Between his broken wrist and bad eye, she’d
been lucky. But he was beginning to move along the guard rail, albeit slowly.
If he got too much closer, her luck would run out.

She turned to her left and spied a
pipe ladder mounted into the cement wall. It led to the rake carriage above.
While Andrew negotiated his way around the chain, she ran for the ladder and
began to climb, hand over hand. The steel rods were cold to the touch, but she
made it to the top and stepped onto the carriage before Andrew could stop her.

“That won’t make a difference, Lee,”
he called from below. “Bullets can still reach up there. Wanna see?”

He raised the gun and fired. The
bullet came frighteningly close to where Lee stood, forcing her to step back.
Her foot slipped over the edge and she grabbed the railing to catch herself.
The entire rake carriage shook precariously. With caution, she stepped further
onto it, trying to find a way to hide from Andrew. But there were breaks in the
planks, and he was almost directly below her now. A lucky shot could kill just as
easily as a well-placed one. She had to figure something out.

She stepped to the far side of the
platform and carefully moved forward to where the planks were solid and blocked
her from view. Just then, a bullet smashed through a floor plank and nicked her
earlobe, sending a shock wave through her entire body. She ducked down and
grabbed her right ear.

Damn! Her ear burned with pain, and
blood flowed freely down her neck into her blouse. She had no way to stop the flow
other than to put pressure on the injury, so she backed up against the crane
and squatted down. She took off her vest, wadded it up, and pressed it against
her neck and ear.

“C’mon, Lee. I hit you, didn’t I?”

She waited him out. If she didn’t
move, maybe he wouldn’t know exactly where she was. But then she glanced down
and realized there was a gap between the carriage and the crane. She could see
him. He had moved to the far end of the crane and was looking up at the
carriage, trying to find her. He riveted his head one way and then the other,
scanning the platform with his good eye.

 It was eerie watching him. He
shuffled around like a zombie, unsteady on his feet because he couldn’t see
well. Suddenly, he saw her and lurched forward, bringing up the gun. But he didn’t
see the base of the crane, and his right foot caught underneath it, throwing
him to the ground. The gun flew out of his hand, landing on the floor and
sliding under the guard rail, towards the chain. It stopped only a few inches
from where the drag chain disappeared into the small opening in the floor.

Lee cursed. Why couldn’t it have
just gone in? When Andrew realized the gun had stopped just in time, he hooted.

“Oooooh, too bad, Lee. Did you see
that? I almost lost it. But fate has saved me once again,” he cackled.

He stumbled to his feet and
scuttled over, crablike, to where the gun lay. He looked up to where Lee
watched him, displaying a leering grin. When he turned back, he reached out
with his good hand, but miscalculated the distance and bumped the butt of the
gun before he could grab it. The gun tipped over the edge and into the hole.

Andrew froze, empty fingers
outstretched. A full five seconds passed. Then, he threw back his head and
howled. The desperation in that cry chilled Lee to the bone. She leaned back
against the crane, shivering.

A moment later, she heard something
that stopped her heart. Andrew was climbing the ladder. She shoved herself up,
still putting pressure on her ear. The top of Andrew’s head appeared at the far
end of the carriage as he struggled up the ladder using only one hand. Lee’s
heart began to race.

She looked around again, wondering
how the hell she could get off this thing. Even though the crane extended to
the floor, there wasn’t any way to climb down. But underneath the carriage, the
two wheel tracks ran the length of the building, one on each side of the crane.
The rake carriage was attached to them by steel wheels. One of the beams was
about ten feet to Lee’s right − in between her and Andrew. Without a
second thought, she dropped the vest, ripped off her shoes and socks, and ran.

She had just thrown a leg over the
railing of the platform above the cross beam, when the rake carriage shook. She
glanced to her right. Andrew was standing at the end of it. She was out of
time. She swung the other leg over and started to climb down.

“Where are you going this time,
Lee?”

Lee looked over at him. He reached
behind him, and Lee panicked. Did he have a second gun? No. Instead, he brought
forward the ball peen hammer. His eyes never left her face as he began to move
towards her. She had to move, too, and fast.

The beam ran to the back wall where
it intersected with the rest of the structure supporting the platform. If she
was lucky, she might be able to slide down one of the support beams to the
floor. It would be risky, and she might break something in the process, but she
had no choice.

She climbed off the railing and
onto a small ledge, grabbing onto a steel pipe for balance. She placed her left
foot forward onto the beam and tested it. It was solid and nearly the same
width as a competition balance beam. The balance beam had been her best sport,
but the memory of the accident flashed into her mind, and she momentarily
panicked.
No, not this time
, she stopped herself. There was no room for
doubt right now. She shut it out.

She took a couple of tentative
steps forward, focusing on the beam and allowing a familiar feeling of
confidence to take over.

“You won’t make it, you know,” he
said quietly from behind her. “You’ll fall. You have to. It’s too narrow, too
slippery.”

She paused. He could be right. Her
heart was pounding, and one misstep would send her into the chain below. A
glance past her toes made her stomach turn. The two-foot wide chain lumbered
relentlessly across the floor to cascade into the black hole, disappearing to
depths unknown. It would rip and tear her flesh apart, crushing bone and
marrow.

She lifted her chin and took a deep
breath. She’d be damned if she would die that way. She’d once bled through her
socks just to prove a point. She wouldn’t give up. She would focus on the back
wall, hold her arms out to her side, and keep going.

With a grace that belied the
situation, she placed one foot in front of the other, toes reaching out for the
beam, and began to move again. All thoughts of the noisy, sawdust filled lumber
mill faded away, and she was in the middle of a competition again. She could
almost hear the hushed voices of the spectators around her and the voice of her
coach in training, “
Don’t look down, Lee. The floor isn’t going anywhere, so
you don’t need to check on it
.”

Time slowed, and she was alone with
the beam. She was almost a third of the way across when she heard Andrew
whisper an expletive. Then something slammed into her right shoulder.

She flinched to the left as the
ball peen hammer spun end over end to the back wall. A cry escaped her lips, and
she started to fall, the world swirling around her. But years of training
kicked in, and she immediately twisted her upper torso sharply to the right and
grabbed the beam with both hands as she came down. She swung under the beam,
her feet coming up on the other side. Her fingers looped around the lip of the track,
allowing her to anchor herself so that she could jackknife back up. In an
instant, she was laying across the beam on her stomach. A moment later, she’d
swung her left leg up and over, and she was straddling it. The cold steel dug
into her inner thighs, and her shoulder ached, but for the moment, she was
secure.