Lillian Duncan - Until Death Do Us Part (16 page)

CHAPTER 39

Theresa sat there listening, waiting, and praying.

It had been a long time since the vehicle and her captor had left. Time to get moving
. She was done being a victim, but she needed to be able to see. Her hands were tied behind her back, so that wouldn’t be an easy feat.

But it was doable.

Using the wall as an anchor she began twisting and at the same time moving her arms down below her butt. It was hard work and the heat inside the building was stifling.

Sweat trickled down her back and her face.

But her hard work paid off. Not to mention all the years of yoga.

Her arms slid down and her hands were in front of her not behind her. She reached up and tore off the blindfold. Blinking, she let her eyes adjust to the dimness in the building. Light came in through the one small window.

It looked as if it was some sort of utility building. She shook her head in wonder. Either her captors were just plain stupid or they’d seriously underestimated her.

Hadn’t it occurred to them, just how useful the tools in this building would be? She had no plans of waiting around to ask them. They could come back at any time and she planned to be long gone before they did.

She walked around, her eyes searching the tools.

Perfect.

A saw. She turned it over and within moments her hands were free and then her feet. She moved to the door and pushed. It wouldn’t open. She tried again and again.

It wasn’t opening.

No wonder they hadn’t cared if she was in a room full of tools. All that work and she was still stuck. Still at their mercy. She wiped at the tears of frustration.

Her gaze landed on the window.

It was high up and small.

But she was smaller.

The problem was getting there. She looked around and smiled. Moments later she climbed the step ladder, but could barely reach the window. No way she was going to be able to open the window to slide through it.

It felt as if time was ticking away.

Her captors could come back at any time. She had to get out of this building. Getting off the ladder, she found a hammer and ran back to the ladder.

The glass shattered as she slammed the hammer against the window.

It sounded like thunder to her ears. She prayed there wasn’t a guard out there. After brushing the glass off the sill as best she could, she pulled herself up to the window. It would be a tight squeeze but she could do it.

She looked out.

All she saw were trees.

Unfortunately, that didn’t tell her much.

West Virginia had a lot of trees in a lot of places. She could be anywhere and more importantly, miles away from help.

When she was half way through the window, she looked down. It was higher than she realized. She took a deep breath and slid through.

The ground rushed up to meet her. Hard.

She moaned and allowed herself the luxury of resting
for a moment. Then, she moved to a standing position. Nothing seemed to be broken. Cautiously, she moved to the front of the building. Staring at the door that had blocked her escape, she saw it was padlocked.

No wonder she hadn’t been able to open the door.

There was a small dirt road in front of the building. A part of her wanted to run down the road to freedom, but it would leave her exposed. If her captors came back, she could run right into them.

And since she didn’t know what they looked like. Not a good idea.

She ran into the trees.

CHAPTER
40

Before Dylan could answer, Billy Clyde walked around the corner. A bandage covered the better part of his arm, but a broad smile bloomed on his face when their eyes met. “There’s my girl. Glad to see you awake.”

Through her clear oxygen tent, Reggie po
inted at his arm. “What’s going on?”

Dylan asked, “What did
the doctor say, Billy Clyde?

“Not bad. Only third degree burns. Hardly a burn at all.”

“What about the other thing?” Dylan’s voice was quiet.

“Not a problem.
Dr. Steve’s a good guy.”

She looked back and forth between the two men. The
y were hiding something. She tugged on Dylan’s hand. “What other thing? I want to know what’s going on.”

“It’s nothing
for you to worry about, Reggie.” Dylan gave Billy a meaningful look and a shake of his head.

“Yeah,
listen to your husband. You should be resting. We’ll talk later.”

“No.” She shook her head. Her breath raspy and wheezing.
“Now. What’s going on? Where’s Theresa? Why…did you come down here?” She took several deep breaths and coughed. Each word was a struggle, but she wasn’t going to let them off the hook. Forcing the cough down, she locked gazes with Dylan. “Know something’s wrong. Tell me.”

The nurse
walked in. With a big smile at Dylan, she adjusted Reggie’s oxygen tent. “How are you feeling? Better?”

Reggie nodded. “Much better.”

Billy’s cell phone buzzed. Without looking, he walked out of the room. Dylan looked at her. “Be back in a minute.”

Reggie wanted to scream for the two men to come back in. Something was going on and she wanted to know what it was. She wasn’t some fragile woman who would fall apart at the drop of a hat.

“Get this thing off of me.” She tugged at the plastic prison.

“Sorry. It has to stay on for now. Doctor’s orders.”

“I don’t need…” More coughing.

The nurse turned and smiled at her waiting for the coughing to subside. She arched her eyebrows. “What were you saying about not needing it? Just lay back and relax. You’ve been through a lot and you need your rest.”

She didn’t want to rest
, but she was so tired. Maybe, she would only rest for a minute. She laid her head down on the pillow wishing Theresa was here. If Theresa was here, she could stop worrying. Where was her friend?             

****

Theresa collapsed on the ground beside the brook. She scooped water from it with her hands. First she drank it, then she put some on her face to cool off. She was exhausted and had no idea how long she’d been trudging through the woods. And hungry.

For all she knew, she might have been going in circles for the past few hours.

The woods were Billy’s thing, not hers. Camping and African-American women didn’t go together. At least, not for this African-American woman. After sipping more water from her hands, she crawled to a tree and leaned against it.

Every muscle, every bone in her body hurt
, but nothing was broken. So that was a good thing. Her eyes closed for a moment. Sleep would be a welcome guest.

She forced her eyes open.
It wasn’t time to sleep. She had to get away, but first she needed to figure out where she was.

She sighed and moved to her knees.

Using the tree for support, she stood. Time to get moving. So tired, but she couldn’t stop now. She took a step forward and another and another. It was getting dark. The last thing she wanted was to be in these woods at night.

After walking quite a distance, s
he heard voices.

She moved in their dir
ection, but did so quietly, not wanting to alert them to the fact they weren’t alone in the woods. As the voices grew louder, it became apparent it was a group of teenagers.

Hard to know if they were out partying or were serious campers. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t about to show herself to them, but maybe she’d find help from them without them knowing it.

She moved away from the campsite and waited.

Darkness came and the voices quieted to a whisper.

Staying out of sight, she skirted their campfire, smelling the hotdogs. Her mouth watered. She was starving. A hot dog would taste wonderful, but she kept moving until she came to a car.

Looking around,
the kids weren’t visible. If she couldn’t see them, then they couldn’t see her. At least, she hoped that was true. She tiptoed to the car, staying away from the campfire side.

It was too dark to see anything. Quietly, she opened the door.

A cell phone sat on the front seat. Just the thing she needed.  After picking it up, she closed the door and disappeared back into the woods.

CHAPTER 41

Dylan walked
into the waiting room. Billy Clyde sat in a chair, his head resting against the wall. After dealing with policeman, fireman, and insurance agents half the night, he’d finally fallen asleep.

The situation was unbearable. Something had to give soon.
Billy Clyde was refusing to cooperate with the authorities. No big surprise there. He stonewalled their investigation into the house fire and was refusing calls from his bosses.             

His eyes opened up when Dylan sat in the chair next to him.

“How’s Reggie?”

“Upset and exhausted, but she’s pretending to be tough. Come see for yourself
.” Dylan figured Billy Clyde needed a distraction of some sort.

“Good idea.”

They walked toward her room in the emergency room. The last he’d checked she was sleeping like a baby.

Billy Clyde stopped. “I don’t know how much more I can take of this, Monroe. I haven’t even told the kids what’s going on.
I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

Dylan put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “I know. I can’t see how it will help to tell them
right now. Wait awhile longer.”

“But they need to know. It’s been
three days. It’s very likely, she’s…”

Dylan shook his head. “Don’
t give up hope. We’re going to find her.”

“
How? I doubt if any of the info from the deleted file even survived the fire.”

“
Don’t forget. With God, all things are possible.”

The county sheriff walked out of Reggie’s cubicle.
He was shorter than Billy Clyde but then again most men were. He was in uniform but Dylan wondered if the longish curly blonde hair and mustache were regulation.

He held a tape recorder in his hand
.

He walked up to Billy Clyde
, his face splotched with anger. “Are you ready to tell me what’s going on now, Mr. Addams?”

“I only wish I knew, Harvey. Only wish I knew.”

The sheriff glared at Billy Clyde but Billy Clyde looked like an innocent as he met the man’s eyes.

“I am not playing this game with you.” The sheriff
poked Billy Clyde in the chest, and then pointed toward Reggie’s cubicle. “She told me enough to know that something bad’s going down. This is my county. My job to protect the people, including you and your wife.”

“And you
do a fine job of it, Sheriff.”

The angry red splotches doubled as the sheriff touched the gun at his hip. Dylan wondered if the man was thinking of shooting Billy Clyde in order to make him
cooperate. “I need to interview Mrs. Addams.”

“Not a problem.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s out of town at the moment. And I have no idea when she’ll be back.”

The sheriff sighed. “Her house burned down. I’d think she’d come back fairly soon, wouldn’t you?”

Billy Clyde shrugged. “You would think so, wouldn’t you? But my wife has her own way of doing things.”

Sheriff Dunn glared at Billy Clyde for a moment longer than turned to Dylan. “Your wife didn’t seem to have much information about the situation. Perhaps, you could fill me in. I’d think you’d want to find the people who put her in that closet and left her to die.”

“Oh, believe me, Sheriff, I do.”

“Then, tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t have anything else to add to my statement at the moment. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go see my wife.
” He pushed the curtain out of his way and walked away from Billy Clyde and the sheriff.

The oxygen tent was gone
and she sat up eating. She looked beautiful. Her black curls framed her face. His heart swelled with thanksgiving yet again. So thankful, God had saved her.

“Hey, beautiful. How are you feeling?”

She swallowed the bite of English muffin and said, “Great, actually. As soon as I eat I’m allowed to leave.” Her voice was still hoarse. She took another bite.

Billy Clyde walked in. “Did the sheriff give you a hard time, Reggie?”

“It was fine, Billy. The man’s doing his job.” She swallowed the last bite of the English muffin. “I didn’t lie. I told him about the men and the closet.”

“That’s fine, Reggie. I wouldn’t want you to lie.”

With a finger, she motioned for him to come closer. He did. “Closer.” He leaned toward her. She reached up and pulled him down to her and kissed his cheek.  “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For being you and for building those secret doors in your closets. If Theresa hadn’t told me about it, I would have died.”

Billy smiled. ‘And everybody tells me I’m paranoid.” He cast a glance at Dylan
and puffed up his chest. “Guess I’m not so crazy and paranoid after all.”

Dylan half-hugged his friend.
“I for one will never complain again about your paranoia. In fact, I embrace your paranoia.”

She looked from one man to the other.
“Please tell me what’s going on. Where’s Theresa?”

A phone rang. Billy Clyde pulled it
out of his pocket. He looked at Dylan, shrugged, and walked out of the room. Dylan looked at Reggie. “I need to go. It could be important.”

He looked at Reggie. She sighed with a smile. “Go on. I’m sure you’ll tell me when you can.”

Dylan walked out of the hospital and found Billy Clyde sitting on a bench. He sat down beside him.

“Where are you, baby?”  Billy Clyde hit the speaker phone button
when he saw Dylan.

“I don’t know.” Theresa’s voice was weak and weepy. “
I’m in the woods but don’t know where. I found some people camping and stole their phone.”

“Go back to them, baby and ask them for help.”

“No, I’m afraid to. I don’t want to put them in any danger. And it’s easier to hide if it’s only me. Use your GPS thingie you have to find me before they come back.” Her voice turned shrill and panicked.

“
Breathe Theresa. I need you to stay calm. I’m going to get you, but we have to find out where you are first. I don’t have the triangulator with me.”

“Why not? Where are you?”

“Here’s what we’re going to do. You need to hang up —”

A sob.
“No, Billy. I don’t want to.”

“But you have to, sweetheart. You need to save your battery as much as possible. As soon as I hang up, I’m going to call Mark Johnson and tell him to put a tracer on my phone. Th
en you call me back in about five minutes and we’ll have the location in a jif. Keep moving. Don’t worry, I’ll find you.”

“I know you will, Billy. I love you.”

After the connection was broken, a myriad of emotions played on Billy’s face, then he took a deep breath and reopened his cell phone. He hit a speed dial number. “Mark, no time to explain, but I want you to run a trace on my phone. Find the location of the next phone call I get.”

Billy paced as the man on the other end apparently asked him questions. “I said I don’t
have time to explain. You get me the location of the next phone call. Get it set up. Now.”

He looked at Dylan. “She sound ok
ay to you?”

“
She sounded wonderful. A little upset which is understandable.”

The phone rang.