The Devil's Closet (22 page)

“Pay attention, Cecelia. This is how it works. I can either shoot you first, or Brooklyn, or the rope that holds the captain. You pick the order. Any order you wish.”

Brooklyn was howling now, her screams echoing throughout the falls. I looked at the rope that held Naomi and then at the little girl. I looked at Michael, then back at the rope.

“Make your choice now, Cecelia, or I will make it for you.”

I thought about when Carl had my face over the edge of the cliff earlier. Knowing it was my only chance, I did the only thing I could do.

I looked at Michael and mouthed
I love you
. I watched as he grew deathly pale, the blood draining from his face. He knew exactly what I was going to do.

“Well, Cecelia? Who’s first?”

“Shoot the rope.”

In the split second that Carl shifted the gun from my forehead to the direction of the rope, I moved.

“CeeCee! No!” I heard Michael scream.

Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions; and into the den did Daniel fall.

Grabbing the barrel of the gun with one hand, I pushed it to the side. Then, with all the strength I had, I stood up and grabbed Carl tightly, and pushed us both over the edge of Lyon’s Falls.

Normally there was no water at the base of the falls, but we’d had a large amount of rain this year, so there was a small basin that had filled, the middle darker than the edges. At its deepest point, I estimated the water to be seven to eight feet at the most, if I was lucky. If I landed in the water at all.

There was no way to push Carl over the side without going over myself. The amount of strength I had to use made my own momentum impossible to stop. What I needed to do was fall as far to the right as I could.

When I grabbed Carl, I shoved him to the left, toward the rocks, before I let go. If I landed in the deepest part of the water, I would most likely break every bone in my body, but the possibility of survival was still there; a very slight possibility. This was the only way. Otherwise we would’ve all died.

From Michael’s vantage point, he couldn’t see the pool or even assume one was there. As I soared over the edge, I could hear him screaming. My arms were flailing in the air, and I was trying to turn myself. As I fell closer to the deepest part of the pool, I flipped over at the last minute, my body hitting the water in a v-shape, left hip first.

The water was ice cold, and it shocked me as I went in, knocking the wind out of me. But luck happened to be on my side, because the water was closer to nine or ten feet deep. It wasn’t deep enough to prevent me from slamming onto the bottom, but it
was
deep enough to keep me from dying, and that was all that mattered.

I hit the bottom with my left hip, shattering it instantly. The searing pain caused me to scream out all my air, which resulted in me sucking in water.

With my right leg, I pushed off the bottom as hard as could, driving my head directly into the bottom of the sand rock that jutted out underneath the water. Woozy, now I was taking in too much water and getting disoriented, not knowing up from down.

I was panicking and started to black out before I felt a pair of arms around my waist, pulling me to the surface. Thinking it might be Carl Malone, I began to fight with what little consciousness I had left. The arms wouldn’t let go and when we broke the surface I heard Michael yelling next to me.

“CeeCee! It’s me! Stop!”

Once I hit the air, I was desperate for breath and began spewing out water. I continued gagging while Michael pulled me up to the shallow part of the pool. He turned me over immediately, so I could get all the water out of my lungs.

My hip was in horrific pain, which made my gasping worse. I cried out. The blood continued to pour from the place on my head where Carl had hit me, and now from the new wound I received when I hit the sand rock.

Michael took his shirt off and wrapped it around my head. I grabbed on to him as tight as I could, my face resting on his lap. He held me. I don’t know which one of us was shaking more.

“Oh my God, baby! You’re okay, you’re okay, and I’m here.”

I was still having a hard time catching my breath, but somehow managed to get out the most important question.

“Michael! Where is he? Where’s Carl!”

“Dead, Cee. Shh. He hit the rocks.” He was gently rocking me back and forth.

As my head cleared a bit, my next thoughts were about Naomi and Brooklyn. I tried my best to sit up and had to lean on my right side to keep my left hip from paralyzing me with pain. I held Michael’s shirt, which was now completely red, to my head before looking up and seeing Naomi still hanging.

“Help Naomi, she’s not dead! I’m okay, but please get her and Brooklyn down from there!”

“All right, you sure you’re okay?” He was shirtless, covered in my blood, soaking wet, and had nothing but concern for me on his face.

“Yes, go!”

Michael ran over to the bottom of the falls that led up to Brooklyn and Naomi. Coop was already halfway up. I started looking around to find where Carl had fallen, but didn’t see any sign of him nearby. When I looked up toward the large sand rock that Michael had been standing on, I saw the blood dripping over the side. Carl and I had fallen perfectly; me into the pool and him to his death on the rocks.

Michael and Coop were at the top now and out of my sight, but when I heard Brooklyn start to cry, I knew she was okay. She would have to stay put a few minutes more until they pulled Naomi up.

Then I saw Coop’s head and shoulders appear over the edge of the falls, and he called down to Naomi. She didn’t move. Coop yelled back to Michael to start pulling before getting up off the ground and helping. They did it slowly, obviously taking into account the condition of the rope. As soon as Naomi’s hands were within six inches from the top, Coop reached down and grabbed them both, leaning backward to pull her up over the cliff.

Naomi came to again, screaming in pain. With both arms dislocated from her shoulders, having them pulled on even more would be unbearable.

Michael appeared at the edge, helping Coop. They were both making me nervous standing at the brink of the falls like that. I hadn’t realized I had been holding my breath until I saw Naomi’s feet disappear over the top. Only then did I let out a long, deep breath. All I could hear was Coop yelling after seeing the condition Naomi was in.

Once again, Michael appeared at the edge, calling to the other agents to get up there and get Brooklyn down. I watched as they made the climb and then as they helped the child down to safety.

“Bring her over here!” I called to them.

They walked Brooklyn over, and she promptly sat down on the rock next to me, still crying. I reached out, took her hand, and squeezed.

“Honey, my name is CeeCee. I’m a police officer and a friend of your parents. We’re going to get you home soon. I promise, okay?”

She was frantically looking around, and I realized she was looking for Carl. Since I was alive after going over the falls, she must’ve assumed that he was too.

“He’s not going to hurt you anymore, honey. He’s dead. You’re safe.”

She looked at me with wide eyes and disbelief before she clung to me for dear life. I held her tight while she cried into my shoulder. She eventually quit crying, but she never let go of her grip. This was fine by me because I had no intention of letting her go of her either, unless it was to her parents.

Michael and Coop were still on top of the falls performing, I assumed, some basic first aid on Naomi before carrying her down. I heard her cry out a couple of times, but it was music to my ears. We had all survived except Carl. I wouldn’t have settled for any other outcome.

When I took the shirt away from my head, I saw the bleeding had started to slow considerably. One less thing to worry about. My attention was focused on Michael and Coop carrying Naomi. Coop had his shirt off, too, and I saw pieces of it holding her arms down as well as wrapped around her head. Coop’s hands were under her back while Michael was supporting her legs. They were side stepping toward the crude stone steps that would take them down. I didn’t think it was possible for them to carry her back that way, so I was in utter amazement when they reached the bottom. They laid her down right there, and Coop cradled her in his arms.

The severity of it all kicked in now that she was safe, and Coop leaned over her and sobbed. I’d known him for thirteen years and had never seen him break down like that. I was so absorbed watching them that I didn’t notice when Michael arrived at my side. Seeing Brooklyn in my arms, he bent down and smiled.

“She okay?” he asked quietly.

“She’ll be fine. As you can imagine, she’s terrified. How’s Naomi?”

His smile faded. “She’s not good, Cee. He beat the hell out of her. The biggest problem is it looks like he smashed the entire right side of her head in. It could be her hair is just matted with blood, but I can’t tell right now. I don’t know how she’s alive, let alone half conscious. She doesn’t know where she is or even who she is right now.”

Please, let her look worse than she is
, I thought.

“Coop isn’t doing so well, either,” I said.

“No, he’s not. When we pulled her up, you should’ve seen his face.” He sighed. “Your bleeding looks like it’s slowing down.”

“There’s a positive sign…. The bleeding may have stopped, but my head and hip are absolutely killing me.” My voice was scratchy.

The other agents came over and said help would be there within half an hour. They would be sending ten emergency medical technicians in, with backboards, to carry me, Naomi, and Brooklyn out. Two ambulances would be waiting at the entrance to the trail for me and Brooklyn, and a Life Flight emergency helicopter was going to land right in the parking area to fly Naomi to Cleveland. I hoped she lasted another half hour. I felt Brooklyn lift her head from my shoulder and saw she was looking at me.

“When do I get to see my mommy and daddy?”

“Soon, honey, very soon.”

She laid her head back down and closed her eyes. It was when she fell into a light sleep, exhausted from her ordeal, that Michael had a chance to find out all that happened.

“CeeCee, honey, I’m sorry, and I know you’re in a lot of pain, but I need to know, what in the world were you thinking when you did that?” he said, referring to my nosedive over the side of the falls.

“That was the only choice. He was about to kill all of us. We’d be dead right now if I hadn’t.” In her drowsy state, I felt Brooklyn shudder and I held her tighter.

“I honestly believed I would never see you again. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life. Ever.”

I reached out and put my hand to his cheek. He grabbed it tightly, holding it there, before putting it to his lips.

“Michael, how did you guys figure this out? I’m assuming the messages I left you and Coop had something to do with it.”

It did. Michael said he found my note and didn’t quite have it figured out, until Coop came looking for him. At first, Coop didn’t pick up on it either. He was explaining to Michael my message about the Falls when Michael asked what that was.

As soon as Coop told Michael the real name of the place, it all came together. Michael was running out the door as he was explaining it to Coop.

Two other agents just happened to be standing in the parking lot when Michael and Coop were leaving. Michael yelled for them to follow him.

On the way, Michael called for more help until his cell went out of service. The help had yet to arrive. He said they literally sprinted down the trail and just got to the opening of the falls when Michael heard me screaming. He didn’t see Carl Malone push my face over the edge, but heard the terror in my voice.

“CeeCee, when I heard you scream like that, I thought for sure we were all too late, especially when I saw Naomi hanging there.”

Michael had tried to climb the sand rock to get off a good shot at Carl, but he couldn’t. Carl spied him. I knew the rest.

“CeeCee, who the hell was that? That wasn’t Jim Carlson, was it?”

“It was Carl Malone, the owner of the stolen van and the rented houses. He also went by the name Jim Carlson.”

I saw Michael silently curse himself, just as I had done, when he found out the large mistake we had made. I then began telling Michael my own story, of how I got here and everything that had happened.

“Is that why your knuckles are all cut up and your face scratched?”

I nodded. I omitted the part about Carl throwing the mice at me. I knew Michael would get even more upset than he was now.

“You forgot the part about the mice,” Brooklyn lifted her head and exclaimed. Ah, children. You gotta love ’em.

“What’s she talking about?”

I told him, matter of factly, and went on to add that maybe it was the best therapy ever. It was the ultimate test in facing my fears. Michael knew that was nothing but pure bullshit. Predictably, I felt him get angrier and angrier.

“There’s nothing you can do about it now, Michael. He’s dead.”

“Not at first he wasn’t,” Michael mumbled, turning to look at the blood starting to coagulate on the sand rock.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing, except that I made Carl Malone a promise and kept it—that’s all.” His face showed no expression.

I didn’t ask what he meant. I already knew. When Carl hit the sand rock he was still alive. Barely, I’m sure, but he was breathing. Michael was in the water within seconds pulling me out, so whatever he did to Carl was quick. I’m going to go out on a limb and say he snapped his neck, but I don’t, nor will I ever, know for sure.

We heard voices coming down the trail at long last and prayed it was the medical personnel. Ten to fifteen cops ran out of the trail. I’d say they were a little late. There was a lot of yelling, mostly by the cops, and stern voices from the agents before things started to quiet down. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see the sheriff.

“Please, tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m fine, Sheriff.”

He actually trembled when he saw Brooklyn in my arms, and he gently patted her back.

“I called your dad, CeeCee. He’s on his way. Alex and Jean Phillips should be here any minute, as well. When we called them we didn’t know what was going on down here yet, so we had to be somewhat vague. They’re certainly going to be two happy people. As usual, a job well done, Sergeant.”