Once Shadows Fall (23 page)

O
n the other side of the highway, the tunnel began to rise. Oddly, they encountered another flow of water coming at them from the opposite direction.

Not good
, Beth thought.
That means a second leak
.

From the expression on Jack’s face, he’d reached the same conclusion. Young Aaron, who had been so brave and stoic throughout the ordeal, was at the point of exhaustion. He was fighting hard not to show it but losing the battle.

When Jack picked him up, the boy didn’t resist.

“Let me give you a hand there, buddy.”

Aaron closed his eyes and put his head on Jack’s shoulder. After a minute, he went to sleep, still clutching his sailboat. Pam Dorsey gently pried it from his fingers.

The second stream of water was far stronger than the first and rising quickly. Despite the rubber boots, Beth could feel her legs going numb. They should have reached the maintenance door by now.

Somewhere, a digital timer was counting down.

We need to move quicker
.

“There’s the ladder,” Jack said, drawing her back to the moment.

Beth checked her communicator again. The signal indicator read one bar. It might be enough for a call. Steve Jamison answered immediately. His words were filled with static.

“Thank God,” he said. “Where are you?”

“Almost at point five on the map,” Beth said. “We have Aaron and his mother. Repeat. We have—”

“You need to get out of there now. I just hung up with the water company. Pressure all over the city started dropping about eleven minutes ago. We think your man tampered with a number of lines.”

Beth said, “You may be right. When we got down there, the water was coming from behind us. Now it’s in front.”

“Shit,” Jamison said. “That could mean the reservoir. The water company’s repair crew is standing by.”

“Tell them to hold off,” Beth said. “We have a bigger problem.”

She quickly told Jamison about the timer Pam Dorsey had seen.

“It’ll only take us a few minutes to shut down power. I’m making the call now.”

“Good. We’re starting up the ladder—”

Beth’s words caught in her throat as a tremor shook the ground under her feet. The muted sound of a distant explosion followed.

“Are you there?” Jamison asked.

“Something just happened,” Beth said. “An explosion—”

“Out! Out now!” Jamison yelled. “If he blew the relay and those lines come in contact with the water—”

“On our way,” Beth said.

Jack told Pam Dorsey, “Up you go.”

Aaron finally lifted his head and looked around confused.

“Can you climb, son?”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s just like the jungle gym at school. Follow your mom. I’ll take the sailboat and be right behind you.”

Jack removed his protective jacket and wrapped it around the boy, then hoisted him onto the ladder and told him to keep his hands inside the sleeves. Beth gave her jacket to Pam Dorsey, who began to climb with surprising ease.

“You’re next,” Jack said to Beth.

Before she could reply, a rumbling noise from deeper in the tunnel snapped both their heads around. One after another, the safety lights two hundred yards in began to go out as a torrent of water came rushing at them.

Jack put the sailboat down, grabbed Beth, and swung her up onto the ladder. The water was on them before she had gone three rungs. So great was its force that it nearly tore Jack’s grip loose.

“Jack!”

A head emerged followed by a hand and then the masts of a toy ship. Incredibly, he’d managed to retrieve the stupid sailboat.

“Go!” he yelled up at her.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the water started to fill their escape route. It was up to Jack’s neck.

Beth began to climb. She trained her light upward and could see the top of the ladder and an opening where it terminated. The water continued to rise. Try as she might, she couldn’t shake the memory of Sandra Goldner dying beneath Buford Dam.

Don’t try to outrun the juice. You can’t do it
.

Hand over hand Beth climbed, steadily gaining on the access room.

Fifty feet. Forty feet.

Dry skin isn’t a great conductor. But wet skin is another matter
.

The opening was only about twenty feet away. Aaron disappeared into it. Pam Dorsey scrambled in after him, then reached back to help Beth the last few feet. Below her, she saw Jack come to a halt. The expression on his face seemed confused. He blinked several times and looked around him, clinging to the ladder, shaking his head as if he was trying to clear it.

“Are you all right?” Beth called back.

Jack hung there, not moving. For a moment he appeared not to have heard her. She was about to start back down when he recovered and started to climb again.

“Everyone keep your hands and feet away from the ladder,” Beth said as Jack tumbled through the opening. He still appeared disoriented. There was no time to ask what was wrong. The water was still rising.

Beth swept her Maglite beam over the walls and quickly spotted the access panel. The area they were in could hardly be called a room. Fortunately, the utility pipes and electrical conduit were far below them in the tunnel. She tried the door. Like the others, it was locked from the outside. Beth drew her gun.

“Cover your ears,” she instructed. The muzzle flash lit up the room for an instant, and the resulting bang echoed in the narrow confine. The door stayed locked.

Using both arms, Beth took aim again and was about to pull the trigger when someone on the opposite side of the door shouted.

“Hold your fire!” It was Childers’s voice. “We’re right outside the door.”

“Jesus. Did I hit anyone?”

“No, but the maintenance guy just had a heart attack. Hang on. We’ll have you out in a minute.”

As soon as the door opened, Jack instructed Aaron to go first and help his mother through. He told Childers, “This lady needs medical attention.”

Beth started to call Steve Jamison about the power when the situation changed for the worse. A buzzing sound filled the room. A second later, both the ladder and the metal door frame around it turned blue.

The buzz morphed into a crackling sound as a jagged bolt of electricity appeared out of nowhere snaking its way across the metal frame. Moving. Changing shape. Like something out of a Star Trek movie.

Childers reacted quickly. He pulled off his rubber jacket and tossed it to Beth.

“Put that on,” he yelled.

Jack appeared to have recovered from the fugue he was in. His eyes were glued to the electricity shifting in front of them, seemingly with a life of its own. Beth slowly put her arms in the jacket. The arc flash or whatever it was changed shaped again, extending completely across the frame, moving first upward, then down again.

In the hallway outside, Childers was shouting over his com unit for Jamison to kill the power.

Slowly, cautiously, Jack and Beth began to inch toward the access panel, never taking their eyes off the metal frame. Time seemed to stretch. Then finally, without warning, the blue snake winked out of existence, leaving an acrid smell in the room. Beth let out the breath she was holding and slid down the wall to a sitting position. She drew her knees up to her chest. Hugged them. Jack dropped down next to her. They looked at each other for several seconds before she rested her head on his shoulder. After several seconds, she looked up at him. When she replayed that moment in her mind, and she would do so many times, she knew the decision had been reached. Jack brought his mouth down on hers and kissed her. She responded by wrapping one arm behind his neck, the other going to the side of his face. The kiss continued.

“Jeez, get a room, you guys,” Childers said from the doorway.

The world stopped spinning as they separated. A smile spread across Beth’s face and crossed over to Jack. They both began laughing.

“We have a room,” Jack said.

O
nce they were outside and dried off, Childers informed them Pam and Aaron had been taken to Piedmont Hospital for treatment. The stocky detective looked at them and shook his head.

“Good work. You need a lift to the station?”

“I brought my car,” Jack said.

“Pappas drove me,” Beth said.

Childers further informed Beth that Noah Ritson wanted her to handle a press conference the following morning. She thought that was odd, since Jack had been the one talking to the media, but didn’t comment. The detective said good-bye. They were alone on the street.

Jack was about to do the same when he noticed a toy sailboat leaning against the building.

“Uh oh, that won’t do,” he said, picking it up. “C’mon.”

There were already two news trucks at the hospital. Reporters started shooting questions at them as they approached the entrance.

Jack slowed. “Detective Sturgis, the team’s investigative leader, will hold a conference tomorrow. Both kidnap victims were recovered and appear to be in good health. There were some injuries to Mrs. Dorsey’s hands, which the doctors are looking at now.”

Aaron was in the waiting room with his father. He jumped up as soon as he saw Jack and Beth get off the elevator and ran to them.

“I think this belongs to you,” Jack said, handing him the sailboat.

“Thank you. The doctor’s fixing my mom’s hands. They were hurt real bad.”

“We know,” Beth said, dropping down to his level. “Your mom’s really brave and so are you. She’ll be just fine.”

They spent a few minutes talking to the husband before excusing themselves. When they were at the elevator, the sound of running footsteps caused Jack and Beth to turn. Aaron Dorsey came charging up and threw his arms around Beth’s thighs, then did the same for Jack.

*

“I look like a drowned rat,” Beth said, seeing her reflection in the side window of Jack’s car.

“You look fine,” he said. “Get in. I’ll take you home.”

“What about Dan?”

“He has a home.”

“Jack.”

“I texted him a few minutes ago. He said he’ll see you tomorrow.”

Jack was quiet on the ride to Beth’s house. He appeared to be preoccupied, which wasn’t unusual for him as Beth was coming to learn. She attributed this to him thinking about the case and didn’t try to force the conversation. She was thinking about their kiss, the way he smiled at her in the elevator and put his arm around her shoulders as they walked back to his car. Something had changed, something fundamental. She wanted to know what was going through his head. But he wasn’t talking. He’d come out of it when he came out of it. Maybe he was thinking about the kiss, too.

At home, she fixed him a Scotch with a little ice and told him to make himself comfortable in the den while she showered and changed clothes. Peeka the cat jumped up on the couch and sat beside him.

*

Ten minutes later, they were still sitting there when he heard the water come on. What happened in the tunnel had rocked him. Not a panic attack exactly. More a recognition about what was causing them. It was the trigger he and Moe Shottner had been searching for. He’d been so unprepared for it he nearly lost his grip on the ladder and was certain Beth had noticed. She would have questions. Any partner might. But what to tell her. Jack took a sip of the Scotch. It produced a mixture of sensations. Clean and smooth in his mouth. Warming as it went down.

He was still immersed in his thoughts when he heard a noise to his right and turned to see what it was. Beth was standing in the doorway with a towel around her that came barely to the top of her thighs. Jack’s drink nearly went down the wrong way.

“Care to join me?” Beth asked.

Jack slowly put the glass down on the coffee table and got up. They stood staring at each other for several seconds before Beth smiled and held out her hand.

As they lay in the bed afterward, Jack decided, all in all, it may have been the best shower of his life. Maybe the best shower in history. He’d nearly drowned trying to be creative.

Beth had fallen asleep on his chest. Her mass of brunette hair was a tumble around the pillow. When he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, she smiled, made a little contented noise, and snuggled closer, molding herself against his side.

Through the window, he could see the lights had come on in her garden. Water poured from the lion’s mouth of her fountain into a catch basin below it, creating a series of shadows. A mild rain had begun falling. Drops slid down the windows and off the plant leaves. If there was anything better than lying there together like that, he didn’t know it. He felt at peace.

*

At eight o’clock that night, they finally stirred. They went down to the kitchen to fix a bite to eat. Beth made omelets, which they ate at her breakfast table.

Beth said, “The last time we were here, we were talking about relationships and I asked you if you’ve been lonely.”

“You did.”

“And you said, ‘Some.’”

“I did.”

“So there’s really no one special in your life right now?”

“I’m having dinner with her,” Jack said.

The compliment produced a smile, but then her face became serious. “We might as well get this out of the way right now. I really care for you, Jack, but I’m not good at sharing.”

Jack blinked. “Well . . . neither am I.”

“Good,” Beth said, with an emphatic nod.

“Good.”

There was a pause. They sat facing each other.

“Did we just decide something?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“I need to tell you something before you make your decision,” Jack said. “I have a problem with panic attacks, and I may take my pills more than I should.”

“Okay,” Beth said. “We can deal with that.”

“And there are times that I drink too much.”

Beth stood, walked around the table, and picked up Jack’s wine glass. Along with hers, the contents were emptied down the kitchen sink. Jack frowned.

He was still sitting there when she returned and sat down.

“So,” Beth said, “did we just decide something?”

A smile slowly spread across Jack’s face. “Yes, ma’am. I believe we did.”