Grave Doubts (A Paranormal Mystery Novel) (27 page)

She looked up at Andrew, her breathing
coming in deep gulps. He glared at her, clearly unhinged. She had bested him
once again. It took him only a moment to make a decision.

He grabbed the railing and hoisted
himself over it, wincing when he bumped his wrist. He lowered himself awkwardly
onto the small ledge that ran the width of the carriage, his face red with the
strain. Without a word, he held onto the railing and lifted his foot and
slammed it down onto the beam. The beam shook, and Lee was forced to lean
forward and wrap her arms around it, struggling to keep her balance.

This seemed to please Andrew, so he
did it again, harder.

“What’s the matter, Lee? Having
trouble holding on?”

He sniggered as he did it again and
again. She was forced to hug the beam in order not to slide sideways, and he
began to laugh.

“Maybe one more time. What d’you
think? Send you into the jaws of death below.”

As Lee hugged the beam, she glanced
down. The chain and the small opening in the floor were right below her. She
tightened her grip and her legs circling the beam. The unforgiving steel cut
into her flesh.

“Enough!” Andrew screamed. “I’m
done with you. This ends now!”

Lee lifted her head to watch him. Andrew
turned and extended his good hand to the pipe Lee had used for balance. Once he
was secured, he turned back to her, a fierce look of determination on his swollen
features. He slowly lifted his knee chest high, ready to bring his foot down
full force.

This would be it. She couldn’t withstand
that much of a jolt. She turned away as tears slipped from the corners of her
eyes. It seemed she would die in this horrible place after all. She would never
see Amy again. She would never hear Patrick laugh again. This awful little man,
who had killed Diane, would kill her. And for what? She would never even know.

That’s when a familiar sound rose above
the clanging of the chain. Her head came up with a jerk.

It was the distant
“keer”
of
a hawk. But how?

“Goodbye, Lee,” Andrew screamed.

Andrew yanked his knee up as high as
it would go and then slammed it down − just as something swooped in front
of his face. That’s all it took. Just half a second.

Andrew flinched.

Then his foot missed the beam.

His hand was pulled off the pipe
behind him, and with a sickening scream, he fell away from the carriage. His
head hit the ledge hard, as the fleeting shadow of a bird disappeared into the
rafters.

Andrew landed on his back,
crossways on the chain, right in between the guard rail. Blood gushed from his
mouth. He lay still, too stunned, or too broken to move. His eyes were open, but
they stared lifelessly at the ceiling. Lee thought he was dead, until she saw
his fingers move.

He tried weakly to roll to one side,
but one of the lugs on the chain caught suddenly on his jacket and began to
drag him head first towards the opening in the floor. Lee gasped, feeling her
stomach lurch. Andrew’s legs twitched and his hands fluttered. He knew what was
happening, but he couldn’t move. His head had hit the ledge hard enough to
cause real damage, and his back was likely broken. He was clearly disoriented
and in pain, and seemed to have trouble getting air into his lungs.

But the chain didn’t care. It continued
to move him inch by inch, carrying him toward the hole like a passenger on a
train. Lee remembered what Masterson had said; the hole was too small. A person
wouldn’t fit through it. It would rip Andrew apart.

“Get out of your jacket,” Lee
whispered, horrified. “Please…get out of your jacket!”

But it was too late. He couldn’t
hear her, and he was a mere inches from that black well of death. The pounding
of the chain drowned out all other sounds, as Andrew seemed to surrender to his
fate. The muscles in his face relaxed, and he looked directly up at Lee. As
they made eye contact, for a brief moment, he looked like the man she’d once known.

Two seconds later, his left shoulder
reached the opening in the floor, and Lee shut her eyes, sobbing
uncontrollably. She turned away and tried to cover her ears. But she couldn’t
block the sounds as the chain began to feast on its victim. The air filled with
wave after wave of Andrew’s terrifying screams, until the chain was satiated,
and the screams suddenly stopped.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Lee remained where she was, still
clinging to the top of the beam. At some point her stomach had emptied the
popcorn she’d shared with Marion earlier to create a nice starburst pattern in
the sawdust below. Now that her stomach was quiet, Lee rested her cheek against
the cold steel, arms wrapped tightly around its hard surface. Quiet sobs racked
her body, and tears rolled down her face to form little puddles on the steel
surface. The thought of Bud Maddox surfaced briefly. He was dead, with a picaroon
embedded in his back. Andrew was dead, too. The chain had never stopped. It had
never even slowed down. The events of the last hour stunned Lee.  Life wasn’t
supposed to be like this. Friends weren’t supposed to be murdered, and people
you knew weren’t supposed to be the murderers.

The clanging of the chain began to numb
her brain, and her thoughts drifted. Images surfaced. First hazy, then so clear
they seemed real. She was on the farm where Lee and Patrick had spent the
summer when she was ten. Patrick and a friend were tossing stones at an
overturned bucket next to the old red barn. Lee stood behind them, laughing,
pressing her legs together to control the urge to pee. Finally, she warned the
boys to stay away and ran behind the barn where she pulled down her pants and squatted
in the brown grass. Laughter rang out behind her, and one of the boys yelled,
“God,
look at the glare off that thing.”
Lee screamed and pulled up her pants too
soon, wetting the denim. The boys laughed harder, and she ran away in tears to
climb an old oak tree behind the house hoping to hide. Later, Patrick sauntered
across the yard calling her name, apologizing. Lee squeezed her eyes shut as if
that would make her invisible, but Patrick’s voice kept getting closer.
Finally, she knew he stood in the grass just below her, but she kept her eyes
closed, willing him to go away.

“Lee, I can see you.”

He sounded so close, yet so far
away. Like a dream. She opened one eye to look down into that handsome face,
pinched with genuine concern at the foot of the tree. Then she closed it again.

“Lee, are you all right?”

She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of replying. She’d
wait until he was gone, and then go inside to change out of her wet jeans.

“Lee!”

Lee’s eyes fluttered open.
Remarkably, Patrick stood below her in the sawdust, just as he had so many
years before.

“Are you okay?” he asked again, a
steely edge of concern in his voice.

Her eyes had trouble focusing, but
when she looked again, Patrick really was there. Those days on the farm were gone.

“I’m not sure.” Her husky voice
wasn’t much above a whisper. “I don’t think I can get down.”

“I’m coming up,” he yelled.

It seemed like an eternity, but
finally the carriage rattled.

“Lee, I’m here. I’ll get you off.
Hold on.”

She tilted her head up, resting her
chin on the beam. Patrick had found a thick rope somewhere and was climbing
over the railing. He lowered himself onto the beam and then leaned back against
the carriage. He slipped the rope off his shoulder and tied one end securely
around the beam, making several knots. Then he took the other end and tied it
into a small loop, yanking on it several times to test it. Finally, he wrapped
his legs around the beam, threw the loose rope around his neck and slowly began
to inch forward. It took Patrick only a minute or two to come within reach.

“Okay, you’re going to have to help
me a bit here.”

Patrick held the small loop out for
her to grasp. She didn’t respond. Her eyelids closed again so she could rest
and listen to the chain.

“Lee!” Patrick snapped. “Look at
me!”

Her eyes snapped open.

“We both need to get off this beam.
You have to concentrate. Extend your hand.”

She looked at him, but didn’t move.

“C’mon, Sis. Do it. Reach toward
me.”

It took every bit of energy she
had, but she finally extended her hand along the beam. Patrick slipped the rope
over her wrist and pulled the loop tight, making the rough strands of the rope
cut into her skin.

“Okay, I hope you won’t need it,
but if you fall, it’ll hold you. ‘Course it might separate your shoulder, but…”

He tried a smile, but his upper lip
quivered.

“Okay, now slide forward.”

She still didn’t move.

Just then, the distant blare of
sirens made them both look up. Patrick quickly relaxed.

“It’s the police. I called them when I found Maddox. But it
will take them too much time to find us in here, so let’s keep going. You need
to get off this beam. Trust me, Lee. And keep looking at me. Now, move!”

She flexed her muscles to see if
they would work. Then she began to inch forward. Keeping her legs and feet
tightly wrapped around the beam, she scooted forward like she would if she were
climbing a rope in gym class. Once her feet slipped on the beam, yanking her to
one side, and she stopped in a panic, feeling the bile rise in her throat again.
Patrick froze, too. He wasn’t in a position to help and could only wait until
she regained her composure.

“C’mon,” he chided. “You can do it.
You won a medal once for something that looked much harder than this.”

The remark was enough to get a
rise.

“Shut up,” she snapped. “The
closest you’ve been to a balance beam was walking a straight line when you got
stopped for drunk driving.”

Everything seemed to work in slow
motion, and it was a painful journey. But she kept moving. Her brother inched
backwards. When his feet touched the carriage behind him, he sat up, straddling
the beam. He reached behind him to the same handhold Andrew had used, and with
a strong right hand, pulled himself up the few inches to the carriage ledge
where he waited for Lee.

She continued to inch forward, the clanking
of the feed chain below matching her pace.

“You’re almost there,” he
encouraged.

When she was within a few inches,
he reached down and grabbed her wrist. Just the mere touch of his hand was
enough to muffle the sound of the chain until it finally died away.

“I’ve got you.”

He pulled her gently forward until
she lay below him on the beam.

“I’m going to let go of your wrist
now.”

“No!” she cried.

“It’s okay. You’re still tied off.
Sit up. I’m going to slide my arm around your back. Keep your left hand down to
steady yourself.”

She arched her neck to look into
his eyes, fear spreading across her face.

“It’s okay. Really.”

Her eyes never left his face as she
sat up, both hands resting in front of her, her muscles shaking and exhausted.
Patrick still held onto the bar behind him and leaned forward to slide his left
hand underneath her right armpit, keeping contact all the time until he’d encircled
her with his full arm.

“C’mon, now. I’m going to lift up.
You reach over my shoulders and grab the ledge. You’ll have to pull yourself
over me. Think you can do it?”

Her face was only inches from his.
She knew she smelled of vomit, and her makeup had all but blackened her eyes. But
she didn’t care. More importantly, she knew Patrick didn’t care.

“Yeah, I can do it,” she said
weakly.

“Okay, one, two, three.”

On three, he pulled her off the
beam. Patrick grunted as she reached behind him and grabbed the bar. With quivering
muscles, she climbed over him and up and over the railing, collapsing into a
heap on the other side. In one, swift movement, Patrick was by her side. He
reached out and pulled the rope off her wrist before hugging her close.

“You’re okay,” he whispered.

Tears flowed and she began to
shiver as her body released all the tension that had kept her alive. He just
held her more tightly. They didn’t say a word for several minutes. Finally, her
tears stopped flowing. Then the shivering subsided. Finally, she leaned her
head back against Patrick’s shoulder, wiped her nose and sighed.

“Andrew fell into the chain,” she
whispered, catching a sob.

“I know. I saw,” he said. “But
you’re okay. Don’t think about him now.”

Her shoulders shuddered, and she
wiped her eyes.

“And I killed Maddox.” she exhaled,
grabbing his arm. “I actually killed someone, Patrick. But they were trying to
kill me.” She started to cry again.

“I know. I found him. You had no
choice,” he soothed her.

Lee wiped her eyes and sat back.
They were both silent for a few moments. Finally, she spoke up.

“I’m sorry, Patrick,” she said
softly. “Sorry about all the times you tried to get me to open up, and I shut
you off.”

“It’s okay,” he shushed her.

“No,” she insisted, almost frantic.
“You don’t understand. I need to tell you. Brad wasn’t murdered. He didn’t even
die. He left me,” she choked out, starting to cry again. “I never told you. I
never told anyone. I couldn’t.”

Patrick only listened, keeping his
arm wrapped snugly around her shoulders.

“He was seeing another woman,” she
continued, feeling like a rusty gate had finally opened. “I knew he was
cheating on me for some time, but I couldn’t confront him.” She lowered her
chin and pursed her lips as her sobs subsided again. “Damn him. He cleaned out
our savings. He took every penny we’d saved together, plus the money Dad left
me. He told me he was taking some money out to take me on a cruise. I guess he
concocted the story so people would think he’d been killed when someone tried
to rob him.” She laughed. “What an idiot. Why would he have all that money on
him when he was out fishing?”  She paused again as a painful memory surfaced. “That’s
why he killed Perry, you know. To make it look like murder.” She clenched her
right fist as it lay atop her knee, remembering the dog. “He didn’t realize I
wouldn’t tell anyone about the money. The police assumed it was either murder
or suicide. Without my help, the investigation just faded away. It was easier
that way. I didn’t want people asking questions. I didn’t want to dredge up the
rotten life we’d had together. I didn’t want everyone to say… I told you so.”

“Especially Mom?”

She sighed. “Especially Mom.”

“For the record, I think she knows.
We all suspected it. We were just waiting for you to acknowledge it. I always
thought Brad was a jerk, anyway. I never thought he was good enough for you.
Typical big brother stuff, huh? I was happy when he disappeared. I thought you
lucked out.” He lifted his hand over her head to place it in his lap.

“Who knows? Maybe I did,” she said
wistfully. “I just wish I’d handled it better.”

“We could all second-guess our
lives, Lee − God knows I could.” He paused and sat back a little.

“In a way, this forced me to deal
with some things I’d ignored for a long time. You know, for not having dealt
with Brad. For having argued with Diane. Either I had to see this through or
pay the consequences.”

“That’s pretty severe.”

“I was paying for it with my life
anyway, Patrick. You said so yourself. Something had to give.”

They were both silent for a few
moments. Then Patrick said, “Remember Dad’s nickname for you?”

“Cricket,” she said with the hint
of a smile. “Mom said he named me that because I made a funny sound when I was
a baby.”

Patrick stole a glance in her
direction. “You probably didn’t know it, but he always carried a picture of you
in his wallet. You must have been about six years old. He called it his cricket
charm. Said it brought him good luck.”

Her face reddened and the tears
threatened to flow again. “I didn’t know that.”

“I’m sure there were moments in his
life he wished he could live over again, too.” Patrick reached for her hand and
squeezed it.

Voices outside interrupted them as
police officers searched the large facility. When two officers appeared at the
big double doors with their weapons drawn, Patrick got to his feet and called
down to them, telling them he was the one who had called them. Then he turned
to Lee and held out his hand.

“C’mon, it’s time to get off this
thing.”

She looked up at him, not sure her
legs had the strength to stand. “By the way,” she said, stalling. “Why did you
come here tonight?”

He gave her a rueful smile. “Because
when I was at the house, Alan called to tell you that Bud Maddox had been
implicated in a hit and run. A woman was killed. She worked in the hospital lab
with Maddox and the police are handling it as a homicide. I decided you needed
to know right away. And,” he stressed, “that you needed protection. I guess I
was a little late.”

Lee nodded and took his hand.

“Late or not, I’m just glad you’re
here,” she said, as he pulled her to her feet. “And I’m glad it’s finally over.”