The Depth of Darkness (Mitch Tanner #1) (30 page)

Any air in Debby’s lungs escaped with the
sound of a whimper. It felt like an elephant sat down right on her
chest. Her head ached and her fingers ran along the back of her
skull feeling for blood. The flashlight had become dislodged from
her grasp. She looked to her left, then her right. She’d managed to
switch it on before dropping it. The light rolled along the floor
and settled against the side wall. She tried to get up so she could
grab it. The pain in her chest and stomach kept her from doing
so.

Another thud crashed against the front wall.
Bits of the interior fell to the floor and bounced and scattered
like someone had tossed gravel across the room.

Debby stretched her arms out as far as she
could. Finally, when she thought she could last no longer, air
rushed through her mouth and into her lungs. It hurt more than when
they were deprived, but it allowed her to get up off the floor. She
raced toward the light, grabbed it and aimed it toward the front of
the room. She saw the little hole in the wall.

Who was out there? Could it be the cops or
her mom and brother or anyone who wanted to save her?

“I’m coming for you,” the man said. “Just sit
tight you little bitch.”

She realized that this was no rescue attempt.
Debby fought off her tears. She swung the light toward the back
wall. The hole she’d created looked wide enough to accommodate her
slender frame. Surely, the man on the other side would not be able
to get through. Although, he did have something, a sledge hammer
perhaps. If he could get into the room, he could get through the
wall. That didn’t matter. Debby had to go through the hole and take
her chances on whatever was on the other side. She’d yet to climb
through, only managing to finish earlier that day.

She took a sip from the water bottle then
tossed it through the opening. Her hands followed, bracing against
the other side. It felt like needles jabbed against her palm at the
spots where splinters remained. A cool breeze met her face as she
stuck her head inside the hole. Did that mean that it led to a way
out? There wasn’t time to wonder about that. She jumped up and
patted her hands further along the other side of the wall until she
teetered against the opening at her waist. With her hands out in
front of her and the flashlight in her mouth, Debby gave one last
swing of her body and toppled through the opening. She tucked her
chin to her chest and rolled through as her body dropped to the
floor. Her feet came to rest against the far wall. She grabbed the
flashlight and swung it to her right. There stood a wall. She
looked to the left. The space extended out five feet or so, then
curved around.

“Where are you?” the man yelled from the
other side of the opening.

A beam of light penetrated the hidden chamber
from the hole above her head. Debby gasped, rose to her feet and
started to her left. She followed the curve of the room. The breeze
hit her in the face. Freedom lay around that corner. She was sure
of it. Her light hit the end of the passage, revealing not a wall,
but a door. Freedom ahead, yes! Debbie picked up her pace. She hit
the door going full speed, slamming into the handle.

It didn’t move.

She bounced off the door and took a step
back. She traced the outer edge of the frame with her light. There
were no locks inside. She pushed against the handle again. It
depressed fully, but the door didn’t budge more than a few
centimeters. “No,” she whispered. She kicked at the door, slammed
into it a few times, but nothing helped.

“There’s no way out,” the guy yelled.

Debbie turned and leaned back against the
door. She cut the light. Her body slid down, coming to rest on the
floor with her knees to her chest and her arms around her knees.
This was where it would end.

Roy Miller took his time inspecting the room.
It was obvious where the girl had gone. Through the hole in the
wall. He’d seen the plans of the water tower, though, and he knew
that the space behind the room had only one exit. An exit that he’d
locked himself. There was no way a child would break through that
door.

He saw several full water bottles placed in a
straight line in front of the wall to his left . He went over,
grabbed one and opened it. As he lifted the bottle to his mouth, he
realized it did not contain water. The girl had urinated into the
bottle. He tossed it across the room. It hit the wall and fell to
the floor, the first few splashes of urine against the floor were
audible. The girl had been more resourceful than he’d realized.
Perhaps he should speed this up.

“Come on, girl,” he said. “I’m not going to
hurt you. You and I are going to leave this place. Someone owes me
something, and if they pay up, you’ll be free.”

Not to go, though, he thought. He only wanted
his share of the ransom money. Brad McCree had stiffed him and
fled. By taking the girl, Roy could threaten to implicate the man
and state that he had been forced to take part. And look at the
goodwill he’d show by returning the girl unharmed.

Thus worked the mind of a killer.

“This will be much easier on you if I don’t
have to break that wall down,” he said. “So why don’t you come on
over and I’ll pull you through.”

The girl’s soft cries echoed through the
chamber. He smiled at the sound, waiting a few moments before
proceeding.

“Okay,” he said. “Have it your way.”

He reached down and grabbed the handle of his
sledgehammer. He used the heavy end against the floor like a cane,
setting it out in front of him. It clapped against the concrete
with an ominous warning. He stopped at the far end of the room and
shone his light through the hole the girl had made. It was wide
enough for him to stick his head through, but nothing else, and he
couldn’t see anything.

“Last chance,” he said.

The girl screamed a curse word back at him.
He smiled.

“Have it your way.” Miller took a step back,
lifted the sledgehammer and slammed it into the wall. He would not
stop until the opening was large enough for him to slip
through.

Judging by the cloud of dust, we reached the
water tower parking lot only moments after Bridget Dinapoli. Her
government sedan was parked diagonally in front of the entrance.
Its headlights lit up the front door, which stood wide open with
Bridget heading toward it. She had on jeans and a blue FBI
windbreaker. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail that rose and
fell with her steps.

I pulled to a stop in the middle of the
parking lot. Beyond the water tower, the sky was dark except for a
thin band of light blue close to the horizon. Sam and I stepped
outside and rushed toward the entrance. The lot was empty aside
from Bridget’s car and mine. I presumed that she had not called
this in either.

I yelled for her to wait for us, but she
ducked inside the building anyway. I broke into a run and entered
the tower a few seconds later. The room was dark, still and quiet.
I flicked on my flashlight and slowly panned around.

“The other day,” I said, “I thought this
place looked different, ‘cause of the light.” I glanced in
Bridget’s direction. She stared at me. “But it wasn’t the
light.”

“What was it?” she asked.

I directed my light at her, then to a spot on
the floor. “There was a pile of bricks there the first time I was
in here.”

“Where are they now?”

I spun around, hitting the wall with my light
and stopping at the gaping hole in the wall. Strewn about the floor
were bricks, both whole and shattered. “There.” We reached the hole
at the same time. “Call this in, Sam.”

He didn’t, though. Instead, he was on my
heels as we squeezed through the opening. I panned my light across
the floor. So did Sam. There were bread crusts near a bunch of
water bottles, some of which appeared to be filled with urine. The
room smelled of feces and sweat. Our flashlights shone on the far
wall at the same time, revealing another rugged opening. A shovel
handle was propped against the wall. A muffled scream slipped
through the hole.

I pulled my gun and sprinted across the room,
reaching the opening first. Whoever had gone through had been much
smaller than me. I stuck my right leg through, twisted and managed
to get my torso through. The moment my head slipped past the wall,
I had both arms out, aiming with the flashlight and my pistol. To
my right, the small corridor dead ended. I headed left, following
the curve of the wall. I saw Roy Miller-Michael Lipsky, his back
against a door and his arms around Debby Walker’s neck. It appeared
that his only option for escape was to go through me or bust down
that door. I wasn’t going to let either happen.

“Not another step,” he said. “I’ll snap her
neck, ass—”

I pulled the trigger. The bullet slammed into
his forehead, knocking him back against the door, then forward.
Debby wriggled out of his grasp and ran toward me. Sam pushed me
aside and scooped up the little girl. His eyes were wide and he
looked between me and the dead man on the floor.

“Okay,” Sam said. “We found him like this.
Someone had—”

“Sam,” I said. “Don’t.”

Bridget said, “Get her out of here, Sam.”
Then she forced her way in front of me and turned around.
“Mitch?”

I blinked a few times and then met her
gaze.

“He threatened the girl, Mitch. You thought
he had a weapon in his hand, and he was threatening her life. He
said he’d kill her, and you swear that you saw the glint of a knife
blade or the dull reflection off the barrel of a pistol. He moved
to hurt her. You got that? You had no choice, so you fired your
weapon to save the girl.”

I reached back and grabbed a handful of my
hair. I hadn’t thought at all, I simply reacted. The thought that
troubled me was that perhaps I had shot him willingly. I would have
done so even if he’d stuck his hands in the air in surrender.

Bridget reached up and placed her hand on the
side of my face. “You did what you had to do.”

Sirens echoed through the small corridor. The
flashlight illuminated the space. I looked directly at Bridget.
“Did I?”

She nodded and wrapped her other arm around
my shoulder, lightly gripping the back of my neck. She lifted
herself up and into me, pulling me toward her. Her damp forehead
met my sweat-soaked cheek. Her breath felt hot on my neck.

I grabbed her hands and pulled free from her
grasp, taking a step back. “Bridget…” I didn’t know what to
say.

“I’m sorry,” she said as she pushed past
me.

I followed her out of the corridor and
through the room where Debby Walker had been kept. Inside the main
area of the water tower, a few members of Bridget’s team gathered.
Red lights bounced around the room. I glanced outside and saw an
ambulance and fire truck in the parking lot on either side of the
Boss. Maybe I shouldn’t have left it sitting in the middle of the
lot. Hopefully they hadn’t scratched it. Two paramedics checked out
Debby Walker while she rested on a gurney. I nodded at Bridget as I
walked past her and through the door.

“You okay?” Sam asked.

I’d just taken a life. Never an easy thing to
do, even when the life was already owed. “I’ll be all right. I had
no choice. He threatened the girl and I thought he had a
weapon.”

“I heard him say it, Mitch. He said he’d cut
her neck.”

“He said he’d snap—”

“He said cut, Mitch. I heard it.” Sam dipped
his head and locked his gaze on me.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s what he said.” I
turned my attention toward the girl. “How is she?”

“Hungry. Tired. No obvious injuries except to
her hands. They’re all cut up and blistered and full of splinters.
She made that hole in the wall. At least initially she did.
Apparently, Miller showed up a bit before us. She climbed through
for the first time and found the door, but it wouldn’t open. He
busted through the hole she made and came after her. We arrived a
couple moments later. Had we not, he’d have busted down that door
and taken off with her.”

I stared past Sam, past the water tower. My
head shook involuntarily. “This whole time, she’s been right
here.”

Sam walked past me. I followed him to where
Debby Walker sat. “Mind if we talk to her?” Sam asked.

The medics nodded, rose and walked away.

“Do you know how long you’ve been in there?”
Sam asked.

The little girl shook her head. Her eyes
welled with tears and her bottom lip quivered.

“Think for me, Debby. How many times did
you—”

I reached out and grabbed Sam’s shoulder. He
stopped mid-question and looked at me. “Not now,” I said. Then I
turned toward Debby. “What is it?”

“Did you find Beans?” she asked. She bit her
lip, then added, “Did they kill him?”

I leaned over so that I was eye level with
the child. “He’s at home with his parents, Debby. And I saw your
mom there, too. She was sad, worried, crying, and praying for you
to come home to her.”

She burst into tears, sobbing heavily. I
imagined that the entire time she’d been staying strong for
Bernard, and now that she knew he was safe, she could let go.

I straightened up and turned back to Sam.
“There’s plenty of time to question her. For now, why don’t you
compare those bricks in there to the ones we brought with us?”

Sam nodded and headed toward the Boss to
collect the samples. Around that same time, squad cars started to
arrive and I did my best to get out of the way. Soon enough they’d
descend upon me. Technically, I had no business being out here. I
should have never been in a position to discharge my weapon. I had
a bad feeling this wouldn’t shake out in my favor.

Bridget stood off in the distance, alone. I
headed in her direction, organizing my thoughts along the way. What
was there to say? Things had happened so quickly between us. There
was no denying a connection existed, but how strong was it? Could
it withstand any of this?