Shadows of the Past (Logan Point Book #1): A Novel (33 page)

Her mom rocked on her heels. “I couldn’t leave you, and when I ran into Pete . . .”

At least her mom’s hands were loose, but the look in her eyes . . . Taylor had found a trapped fox once with the same look. “He came to help?”

“Ethan’s dead. Pete shot him.” Her mom spoke in a monotone.

“Pete?” Taylor struggled to get up. The scent of Old Spice pervaded her senses.

Her mom buried her face in her hands. “I think Jonathan is dead too.”

“Having a bit of trouble, Taylor?”

She jerked her head toward Pete’s voice and gulped at the .40 mm Glock pointed at her.
Stay calm. Act as if everything
is normal
. She lifted her gaze to his face and stared into dead black eyes. The eyes of a psychopath. Ethan had been frightening. Pete terrified her.

“The Old Spice. It was you . . .”

“Nice touch, huh?” Pete’s mouth curved into a sneer.

“How did you know?”

“Overheard you tell Livy one time you hated that scent, that it reminded you of your dad.”

Taylor lowered her gaze.
Talk to
him . . . connect with him.
She sucked in a breath and forced her body to relax, especially her vocal cords. She spoke softly. “Thanks for saving my life.”

“He wanted me to kill you in Newton.” Pete smiled. A dead man’s smile. “Didn’t mean to hit you so hard that night, but I had to make Ethan think I tried.”

“Why?”

He gave her a puzzled look. “That should be obvious. To stop you from looking for your father.”

“But why did he wait until May? I asked Jonathan about my dad at Thanksgiving.”

He laughed, the sound dry, humorless. “Jonathan never told him. Ethan found out when your friend on the Memphis Police Department sent a request to the archives.”

“How did he know Livy—”

Pete rubbed his thumb and finger together. “Money buys information. All these years, Ethan had someone in the archive department keeping tabs on different cases. Of course, your father’s was the only one he was concerned about.” He stared at her, his eyes softening. “I’ve actually been protecting you, Taylor. Now we can be together.”

She fought to keep from screaming. Where was Livy? “Did Scott help you?”

“You’re better than that, Taylor.” He puffed out his chest, tapping it with his free hand. “Or maybe I’m the one who’s better—if you actually believed that drunken kid could take those photos without getting caught. And the poem . . . that was a stroke of sheer genius. Scott bragged about his big brother, showed me a story he’d published. And you really should have better security on your email. You made it so easy.”

“No, you’re just smarter than I am.”

His eyes hardened and he grabbed her hair, yanking her face close to his mouth. He laid the gun against her neck.

Her mother screamed.

“Don’t try to snow me now.” His whisper rasped against her ear. “Ethan believed he was smarter than me too. See where it got him.”

She shuddered as he stroked her cheek with the gun.

“Do you remember laughing at me, Taylor? I asked you to go to the school dance—you thought it was so funny, you and your friends.”

“Pete, I never . . .” A memory flashed through her mind. She stood in the school cafeteria with Robyn and Livy . . . Pete, red-faced and stammering, asking her to go to the sophomore dance. She
had
laughed in his face. The memory made her sick. “I was a snotty fifteen-year-old. I’m so sorry . . . don’t do this—”

“Don’t do this
.
” He altered his voice to sound feminine, frightened. “You sound just like Beth Coleman. By the way, I loved the look on your face when you read my note at the crime scene.”

Taylor studied his features, and an image floated to her mind. Longer hair, camouflage jacket, and pants . . . the guy with search and rescue. “You were there,” she whispered.

The sweet wail of sirens reached her ears, and Pete jerked his head up.

Livy understood!

“Come on! You’re coming with me.” Pete grabbed her by the arm, yanking her up. “You too, Ms. Martin.”

He pulled her toward the tunnel door, past Jonathan’s body, where a pool of blood seeped onto the concrete floor. Was he moving?

Pete motioned with the gun for her mother to open the door.

“No! I’m not going in the tunnels.” Taylor jerked away from his grasp and shoved him.

Suddenly, Jonathan rose to his knees, bellowing and tackling Pete’s legs. He kicked free and turned, firing his gun.

The bullet missed, and Jonathan lunged for Pete, knocking him to the floor.

“Come on!” Taylor pulled her mom toward the stairs.

“No! We’ll never make it up the stairs. He’ll catch us.” Her mom grabbed her arm and tugged her toward the tunnel. “This way.”

The tunnel door.

No.

She couldn’t.

The darkness would swallow her.

Her mother pushed her through the entrance. “Taylor, trust me.
I know the way.” She shoved the door shut, cutting off all light. Stagnant air touched Taylor’s cheek as darkness shrouded her. Her feet refused to move. Her chest tightened with the rapid-fire beat of her heart. She thought it would explode.

Breathe.

She couldn’t. The tunnel smelled like a freshly turned grave.

“Taylor.”

She almost jumped out of her skin.

“I’m going to bar the door, and then I’m going to take your hand, and we’re going to walk out of here through the caves.”

The sound of wood sliding on wood grated against her ears.

“I . . . I can’t.” Just like Taylor couldn’t move the night Sheriff Atkins almost died. Maybe if she touched the wall. She reached out, touching the slimy dirt, and jerked her hand back.

The door rattled.

Taylor sucked in her breath.

“Pete’s trying to get it open,” Mom whispered.

A bullet thudded into the wood.

Another.

Then quiet . . . until a dull thump shook the door. Pete must have found one of Jonathan’s two by fours.

She’d heard the sirens. Where were Livy and Nick?
Nick.
Had he come for her?

“Take my hand.” Her mother’s fingers locked around Taylor’s. “We have to get past where the tunnels cross before he gets the door down. Even if he knows the tunnels, he won’t know which way we went. Trust me, Taylor.”

If it wasn’t so dark . . . if only she could see a spark of light.

“I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness . . .”

God?

Yeah, using her mom’s voice.

Her mom squeezed her hand. “I know you thought God didn’t care, but Taylor, he protected you from Ethan all these years. He
hasn’t brought you this far to let you die. Come on. We have to get farther into the tunnels.”

She tried, but she couldn’t move. It was like chains held her to the floor.

Suddenly her mom grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “You listen to me, Taylor Martin. I want you to take my hand and come with me. Or we will both die right here.”

A thud punctuated her mom’s words, and Taylor jerked.

“Come on!” Mom tugged her hand.

Taylor licked her parched lips. Then clasping her mother’s hand, she took a step in the pitch-black darkness.

T
hat’s gunfire!” Nick leaped from the trailer. Livy and Ben followed.

Another shot echoed.

“It’s coming from Oak Grove.”

Nick ignored the SUV and ran the short distance to the house. Ben and Livy caught up with him as he took the porch steps two at a time.

“Wait,” Ben yelled. “You can’t go in there.”

“The woman I love is here somewhere. You’re not keeping me out.”

The sheriff eyed him. “Stay out of the way, then.”

Nick followed as they went in, sweeping the house. Clean. Livy eased down the basement steps with Ben and Nick on her heels.

“I see a body,” Livy said. She knelt beside it. “Ethan. He’s dead.”

“Jonathan’s over here. Looks like he’s been shot too.” Ben felt for a pulse and spoke into his shoulder mic. “Need an ambulance at Oak Grove.” He looked at Livy. “He’s hanging on. Barely.”

“They’re in the tunnels.” Nick pointed to the battered door. “Where do they end?”

“Ben, you know these tunnels,” Livy said. “What do we need to do?”

“Only two of the tunnels are still functional. They both end at
the caves by the bluffs.” Ben held out his hand to Livy. “Nick and I will cover the caves. You take this end. And be careful.”

“Taylor!” Pete’s voice echoed down the tunnels. “You can’t escape me.”

He’d gotten through the door. Taylor looked over her shoulder. A thin light glowed behind them. He had a flashlight.

“We should almost be to the cross tunnel.”

“How do you know?”

“I know the tunnels like the back of my hand. I always counted how many steps I took—I had a flashlight then, but I was scared it’d go out and I wouldn’t be able to get back.”

Taylor stumbled and fell forward, losing her mother’s hand. Her knee hit the hard dirt. The darkness pressed in like a pillow, smothering her. She clawed the dirt.

“Taylor, where are you?”

The whispered words calmed her racing mind. “On the floor,” she whispered back.

A hand touched her shoulder, rubbing it. “You’re okay. Get up. We’re almost there.”

Taylor’s hand raked over something cold and hard and round. “Wait! I found something.”

She ignored the faint light as it drew nearer and dug dirt away from the cylinder until she wrapped her fingers around a pipe. She pulled, and it popped out of the ground.

“Come on, Taylor,” her mom whispered. “He’s getting closer.”

She scrambled up, holding the pipe, and grabbed her mom’s hand. Her mom pulled her inside another tunnel. “We’re safe. We can get to the lake from here.”

She hoped her mom knew what she was talking about. Taylor glanced from where they’d come. The faint light grew brighter.

Mom gasped.

Taylor bumped into her mom. “What is it?”

“I hear you . . .” Pete’s taunting voice echoed in the darkness.

“The tunnel. It’s blocked. We can’t go any farther.”

Her hope plummeted.

“You can’t run, Taylor. I’ll find you.”

Not without a fight. She pulled her mom close. “When I divert his attention, go!”

“I can’t leave you.”

“You have to. I can reason with him, but not if I’m afraid he’s going to kill you.”

Without waiting for an answer, she gripped the pipe and crept back to the cross path. He was almost there . . .

“Taylor! Are you in here?” Livy’s voice echoed through the tunnel.

Pete’s light swung around.

Now!
Taylor rushed toward the light, swinging the pipe.

She connected.

Pete yelled. The light flew to the floor.

“We’re here!” Taylor screamed. “Go, Mom!”

She swung the pipe again.

He grabbed it, pulling her off balance. “I have you now.”

Once again she felt the cold steel barrel of his gun against her neck.

N
ick brushed cobwebs from his face, and using the flashlight he’d found in Ben’s pickup, he shined light around the tunnel wall. The sheriff had told him to wait for his deputies, but as soon as Ben disappeared into the tunnels, Nick had followed. Ahead the passage narrowed and became lower. He stooped and crept through the shaft, his ears straining to hear Taylor’s voice . . . anything.

A path intersected the one he was on, and Nick hesitated. Keep going or take this path? Ben had said there were half a dozen tunnels crisscrossing to the caves, most of them blocked.

Footsteps. Someone was coming his way. He flicked his light off. The sound grew closer. The figure was so slight, he almost missed it. Certainly wasn’t Connelly. “Taylor?” he whispered, his voice carrying in the damp air.

The woman yelped, and Nick shined the light on her. “Allison?”

“Nick!” She fell into his arms, sobbing. “You have to save her.”

“Where is she?”

“At the end of this tunnel. At least five minutes away. Is anyone with you?”

“Ben is in one of the other tunnels.” He held her at arm’s length. “Go on to the cave entrance. Ben’s deputies should be here any minute.”

“No! I’m going with you.”

“I need you to tell the deputies which way to come. Now go!”

Nick gently shoved her in the direction of the cave. “I’ll find her, Allison. Don’t worry.”

If only he had some way to communicate with Ben. He shined his light on his cell. No service. Nick kept his flashlight on and aimed at the tunnel floor and crept forward until he estimated three minutes had passed, then he flicked it off. He didn’t want to give his position away. His progress slowed in the dark as he felt his way along the slick wall.

Voices reached him. A man’s voice . . . a woman’s . . . didn’t sound like Taylor. He stumbled and almost fell, stirring up musty spores on the tunnel floor.

“Let her go, Pete.”

Livy. Relief swept over him. At least he didn’t have to be the Lone Ranger.

“You come one step closer, and I’ll blow her head off.”

Not good. Pete sounded panicky. It wouldn’t take much for him to follow through on his threat. Nick assessed the situation. Taylor was in another tunnel, one that intersected Nick’s.
Be nearby, Ben
. Nick eased toward the voices. Finally, a faint light glowed to his left.

“You do, and you won’t leave here alive, Pete.”

“Don’t make me do it, then. I don’t have anything to lose.”

Nick dropped to his knees and crawled until the tunnels crossed. He stuck his head around the corner, and his heart leaped in his throat.

Livy’s flashlight illuminated Pete and Taylor’s silhouette.

Pete held a gun to Taylor’s head.