Tales of Chills and Thrills: The Mystery Thriller Horror Box Set (7 Mystery Thriller Horror Novels) (85 page)

He stepped down into the room, placing a hand on his lower back
as he straightened up. He flashed the penlight onto each cement wall, then down
at the floor and up at the ceiling. It was all cement. He scanned the shelves.
They held a couple of plastic jugs that were empty. There were no tools. There
was no food or water.

He swallowed and looked over at Riley who still stood by the
desk. “We’re trapped.”

Riley took the fedora off his head and played with the crease.
“They’ll come back.”

Bowden wondered about that. “To make a deal or to see if I’m
dead?”

“I think they’ll let you sit in the dark for a while, and then
come back and talk.”

Chase shook his head in disgust. “Who designed this thing? The
door should open in so you can’t get trapped like this. What an idiot! Hell,
I’m an idiot. I should have grabbed the painting and taken it out of here.”

Riley poked the fedora onto his head. “Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
It’s all second guessing and won’t do you any good.”

“You can’t open the door, can you?” Bowden asked wishfully.

“Can’t even push on it. I’d just go right through it.”

Bowden stuffed his hands deep into his pockets. His head dropped
down onto his chest and he started pacing. He realized that he had just
immersed himself in blackness and took the hand holding the penlight out of his
pocket. The beam caught the desk and he went over to it. There were two drawers
in it that he opened. Both were empty.

“I can’t believe this!”

Riley looked up.

Angry at himself, Chase flung one of the empty drawers against a
wall and it splintered, sending bits of wood sailing back at him. He ducked,
then snatched the second drawer free and hurled it to the ground. The drawer
cracked. The back and one side fell off and he kicked the rest of the drawer
with his booted foot. The drawer slid across the cement floor and banged
against the wall on the other side.

Except for Bowden’s heavy breathing, there was no sound in the
concrete vault.

He fixed his gaze on Riley. “What are you still doing here?”

“I was…”

“Get out of here.”

“…waiting to see what you…”

“Now!”

“…were going to do.”

He glared at Riley. The ghost stared back.

Three minutes passed in silence and neither broke the gaze.

“All right,” Bowden said at last. “This isn’t getting us
anywhere.”

Riley nodded.

“So, what do we do? Wait?”

“I think someone will come back and let you out with some
demands. If that’s the case, we’ll know at least one of the people involved in
this. But they’ve already killed one person and they might leave you down here
for four days and come get you when you’re dead.”

Chase bit his lower lip then walked to the base of the stairs
and glanced up at the door. He looked back at Riley. “Can you go up there and
take a look around?”

Riley nodded.

He stepped to the side so Riley could step past him, and watched
as the ghost walked up the stairs and right through the metal door.

10

Riley walked out of the concrete vault and stood in the small
room behind the bookcase. The steel door had been dropped into place and a
two-by-four wedged between the door and an exposed floor joist overhead. Riley
kicked at the board and his foot fluttered through it. He kicked at it again,
much more violently, achieving the same results.

He shook his head in despair.  A four year old could have
knocked the board down, and he was helpless. But Tara would help him. He knew
that he could go to her, even if Bowden didn’t trust her completely.

Riley stuck his head into the office and saw two men standing in
the room between the door and the desk. One was Barry, who gestured with both
hands. His pudgy cheeks flapped as he yelled at the man across from him. Riley
took a second look at the other man and realized that it was Andre Fonck. He
took a chance that the two men wouldn’t see his shadow while he watched them
closely.

“I told you not to come back,” Barry yelled.

“The police think I killed Adam. They came out to my office and
questioned me.”

“You could have called me.”

“They probably bugged your phone.”

Barry glanced at the phone, then walked over to it. He picked up
the cordless phone and looked at it, finally opening the back and taking out
the battery.

“Well, maybe it’s a wire tap,” Andre suggested.

Barry put the phone back together. “Did anyone see you come in?”

“I don’t know. I thought I was followed to work, but then no one
followed me into the parking lot. I think I’m seeing things.”

“I don’t like this.”

Andre’s mouth fell open. “You don’t like this? You? I’m the one
they suspect of murder. They want to know how I happened to find the body, if I
didn’t kill him. They want to know what I was doing in the house.”

Barry pulled at his fat lips. “So, do they have any other
suspects?”

“They arrested some guy who came into the house after I did, but
then let him go.”

“Why?”

“He came in after I made the phone call from Issaquah. I
reported Adam dead before this other guy broke into the house.”

A knock on the office door ended the conversation.

“What?” Barry yelled, grasping his thinning hair in both hands.

“The door’s locked.”

Riley recognized Kay’s voice.

Barry shouted at her through the door. “It’s locked for a
reason.” He looked at Andre and shook his head, muttering, “Women.”

Andre smiled, and nodded in understanding sympathy.

Kay replied, “Your boss is on the phone and wants to talk to
you. He says it’s important.”

Barry stuck his chubby hand on Andre’s back, and pushed him
towards the door. “I got to take this call.”

Andre tried to stop, but Barry pushed harder, keeping the
momentum going.

“I didn’t hear the phone ring,” Andre mentioned, his head cocked
off to the side.

Barry glanced back at the phone on the desk. “Um, maybe the call
came through when I had the phone apart.”

He opened the door and shoved Andre out. The two men left the
room and three seconds later the front door slammed. Kay rushed into the office,
followed by Barry.

“Who’s down there?” she asked desperately.

He responded by shaking his oversized head. “I don’t know. I
thought it was Andre until he showed up at the front door.”

“What did he want?”

“He’s scared because the police think he killed Adam.”

Kay gasped. “Oh, Barry. No!”

She collapsed into the chair behind the desk and spun it towards
the hall, her blond hair smashed against the headrest.

“I don’t think he did it,” Barry said. “He doesn’t… I don’t
know. I just don’t think he could.”

Kay sat forward. “How did you know someone was down there?”

Barry pointed at the window. “The blinds. They are never closed.
I came in and had to open them, and it dawned on me that someone had been in
this room. I thought I’d better check on the painting, and heard voices.”

Kay gripped the edge of the table and her heavily shadowed eyes
widened. “There’s more than one?”

Barry nodded and his jowls swung with the motion.

“What are we going to do?”

“I’ve got to think about it. I’ve got to think.” Barry started
pacing.

Riley closed his eyes and pulled back behind the bookcase. He
wasn’t going to have time to enlist Tara’s help. He needed the darkness and it
wasn’t here yet. He wondered how dark the little room he stood in was going to
be when the bookcase was opened. Would they be able to see him easily?

He looked back into the office. Kay had left and Barry sat on
the edge of the table deep in thought, staring at his shoes. Riley walked back
into the basement and found Bowden leaning against the wall at the base of the
stairs.

Bowden glanced up eagerly. “What’s going on?”

“They think two people are down here. They’re afraid to open it
up.”

“Who’s afraid?”

“Barry and Kay.”

Bowden scratched his chin. “Okay. You’ve got to make them do
it.”

“I can’t until it gets darker.”

Bowden glanced at his watch. “Right.”

“You nervous?”

“Hell, yes.”

“Don’t worry about it. If they don’t let you out, I’ll get Tara
to do it.”

Bowden pushed himself off the wall. “Yeah. I know you’ll try. I
just don’t have control of the situation, and I can’t stand it.”

Riley nodded and smiled. Bowden had just described the same
feeling that he had felt a few moments ago when he tried to move the
two-by-four. “You can rely on me.”

Bowden scowled. “I don’t rely on anybody!”

“Maybe this time you’ll have to.”

Bowden turned and kicked the wall.

The sound bounced around inside the concrete room. Riley wished
he could do that. He walked up the stairs and looked into the office. Barry was
gone.

Riley stepped through the bookcase and into the room. He glanced
at his feet and noticed that he was beginning to take on form. He stayed close
to the wall in case someone came in. He knew that he could step into the wall
to avoid being seen. He looked through the wall into the hallway.

Barry stood at the front door with a coat in his hand. The door
was open and the wind whipped in. Kay held his arm, begging him not to go.

“I’ve got to get a gun,” he explained harshly.

“Don’t leave me alone with them in there.”

“I can’t take you with me.”

“Then I’ll leave. I’ll go to the mall.”

Barry struggled to put his coat on as Kay gripped one of the
sleeves. “I need you here when I get back,” he said.

She shook her head. Her blond hair bounced across her shoulders.
“I’ll just call the police. They can get them out.”

“We can’t call the police. I reported the painting stolen and
they’ll find it, then I’ll go to jail.” Barry jerked the sleeve free of her
grasp and shoved his arm through it.

Riley watched quietly. What he heard confused him. He had always
considered Barry to be a suspect in Adam’s murder. The conversation that Barry
had with Andre hadn’t alleviated that suspicion. It looked like Barry might
even try to set up Andre, the way he had rushed him out of the room.
But what about this
conversation with Kay?

Maybe Kay didn’t know who killed Adam, but she was aware of the
cellar and the fact that the picture had been hidden in it. Maybe Barry did it,
and was keeping Kay in the dark.

Barry slammed the door and Kay stared it at for several seconds.
Riley slid into the wall just as Kay glanced down the hallway. She disappeared
into the kitchen and returned with an eight-inch knife. She stalked into the
office, pausing just inside the door to look around and listen. Then she walked
around the desk and pushed the chair out, rolling it to the middle of the room.
Holding the knife in her right hand, she sat down and stared at the bookcase.

Riley frowned. Kay had selected the same type of weapon as the
murderer. It cast a shadow of doubt on Kay. Did she grab the knife because she
was afraid, or was it something that had worked for her before?

 Riley glanced at the ceiling overhead and wondered if Tara
was home. He ran silently up the stairs and down the hall to her room. Night
was moving in fast and Riley’s strength was growing. He hoped it would be dark
before Barry returned.

Riley raised his hand and knocked on the door, his knuckles
disappearing into the wood. He shook his head in wonder. It had been a long
time since he had done something like that, but old habits die hard. He stepped
through the thin piece of wood into Tara’s room. The lights were off. She
wasn’t home.

Riley sat down on the edge of the bed and took the fedora off.
He ran the rim through his fingers, spinning the hat in a slow circle. How was
Andre involved? The nephew had come to his uncle for help and been brusquely
ushered from the office. Barry hadn’t indicated any belief in Andre’s guilt or
innocence in the murder. He also didn’t reveal the fact that someone was
trapped in the cellar with the hidden painting. So why had Andre come to Barry
for help?

Riley stared at the gray fedora in his hands and frowned. Too
many pieces were missing. Riley felt sure of one thing. Everything was tied to
the painting.

A car drove up the driveway. It was too soon for Barry to be
returning. Riley walked over to the window in Tara’s bedroom and looked down at
the driveway. The car’s headlights swept across the front of the house as it
turned and parked. It was Tara’s car.

He smiled expectantly and rubbed his hands on the front of his
overcoat. It was funny that he felt an attraction to Tara, especially knowing
that it could never be.

As he watched, Tara stepped from car and ducked her head against
the rain. She pulled the collar of her jacket up around her ears and slammed
the car door. A moment later she was out of view and Riley heard the front door
close.

“Hello?” Tara called out.

“I’m in the office, dear,” Kate replied.

Riley walked to the head of the stairs and looked down. The
light in the office was on and he could hear the faint voice of the two women.
He had just decided to go down and listen when Tara walked out of the office
and started for the stairs. She had hung her coat in the closet and wore a red
turtleneck sweater and black slacks. Her hands held a pair of black boots.

Riley ran back to Tara’s bedroom and looked for a place to wait.
He heard her footsteps in the hall outside the door, so he sat on the edge of
the bed. The door opened a second later and Tara stepped into the room and
stopped, her blond hair settling around her shoulders.

Her mouth opened as she started to say something. She stopped
and pushed the door shut.

Riley stood up, his hands dropping in front of him. His lips
trembled as he tried to think of something to say. “Hi.”

Tars crossed the room and stood in front of him. She stepped in
close and looked up into his face. “What are you doing here? What’s wrong?”

He looked down into her brown eyes and sighed. He still wasn’t
sure where to start.

She lifted her left hand and reached toward his chest, her palm
facing him. Her hand stopped and hovered an inch from the jacket as she stared
back into his eyes.

“You know about the painting being stolen?” he asked.

Tara nodded slightly, questioningly.

“It wasn’t stolen.”

He expected her to back away, but she just blinked.

“I’ve found it here in the house,” he continued. “Barry and Kay…
um, your mom and dad, hid it in the cellar.”

Tara pursed her lips. “We don’t have a cellar.”

Riley nodded, convinced of her innocence in the scheme. Her red
lips were six inches from his and he dipped his head, turning it slightly. He
desired the warmth and the softness of her lips, the fullness of her love. He
stopped and swallowed hard, then took a step back to remove himself from the
temptation.

A spark in Tara’s eyes flickered out, and her head dropped. This
crushed Riley. His head fell to his chest, hiding his eyes from her with the
fedora. When he finally looked up, Tara stood with her back to him, her arms
wrapped around her chest.

“There is a…” Riley’s voice broke and he cleared his throat.
“They, your mom and dad, have locked Chase Bowden in the cellar. You remember
him?”

She turned and nodded, her arms still wrapped tightly around
her.

“Your mom is in the office, where the entry is, watching to make
sure Bowden doesn’t get out. Your dad went to get a gun.”

Her gaze fell to the floor. “Why would they want a gun?”

“They don’t know who’s down there. I need your help getting
Bowden out.”