Trapped Under Ice (36 page)

Once outside, she ran straight to Roger’s bus and pounded on the door, calling his name and Chad’s. Lights came on immediately inside, and within seconds Roger opened the door. He stood inside with a pair of jeans on and no shirt.

“Beth, what’s—”

“Is Chad here?” she panted, her eyes wild.

“Chad?”

“They’re gone. Oh, Roger”—Beth was crying now—“someone killed Dante.” She swayed and reached for the stair’s railing to steady herself.

Roger, afraid she was going to topple down the stairs or pass out, grabbed her by the waist to support her. She clung to him, still trying to make sense of everything. “Beth, tell me exactly what happened.”

She took a deep breath and tried to sort through the rapid fire images in her head. “I woke up. Chad was gone and so was Pete.” She started crying again. “I-I was going to get Cali, but it wasn’t Cali.” She peered up at him, unable to communicate the horror she had witnessed. Roger gazed into her deep green, horrified eyes and tried to comprehend her garbled statements. She glanced toward the other bus. “Dante…there was so much blood!”

All of a sudden, they heard the sound of pounding feet. Roger, unsure of who was approaching, shifted so he was standing in front of Beth to protect her. Around the far side of Chad’s bus, two police officers raced into view. “What’s going on?” they yelled, recognizing Roger in the parking lot’s lights.

“I’m not sure. I think someone may be hurt on that bus. Do you know where the others are?”

By this time, Keith and David stood just inside the door to the bus, looking on with confused expressions.

“Mr. Evans and Mr. Harris went into the stadium together. Shortly after that, the outside guard went inside the bus, and a woman came out, following the first two men into the stadium.”

Beth was trying to scramble past Roger. “Chad’s in there,” she mumbled more to herself than to him.

He spun around and gripped her by the shoulders, bending down to look in her eyes. “You can’t go in there.” Still watching Beth, he called back over his shoulder. “We need to go into the stadium and make sure everyone is safe.”

“I’m afraid we can’t do that until backup arrives. We called for another squad car. They should be arriving soon. We’ll need to get some more information. Who’s in charge here?”

Roger nodded at David, who slipped out of the door and put his arm around Beth while Roger stepped down to speak with the police officers. One of the men was taking notes while the other one questioned him. After Beth reassured David that she was okay, the two ventured down the steps to stand behind him.

Beth’s eyes kept sliding to the stadium door. There was a killer lose, Chad was behind those doors, and all these men were going to do was take notes. When she was certain David was distracted by the conversation, she inched away.

Roger relayed as much as he understood from Beth to the officers, then he turned around so she could confirm he pretty much got the gist of it, and found she was no longer by David’s side. He immediately checked the door to the stadium and saw a glimpse of her before she disappeared behind it. David followed his gaze.

“Shit!” they said in unison.

***
              

Chad and Pete retrieved the singer’s guitar and were heading back to the buses. Chad tried to listen patiently to Pete’s lecture about personal safety, but he was going to be glad to just sit outside with Dante and play some guitar. It was what he tended to do whenever he couldn’t sleep.

“Hey, man, can I stop really fast before we go outside?” Chad said indicating a bathroom. “I had a lot of beer. You can stand outside and guard the door, and I’ll be right out.”

“Okay. But make it quick.”

The door had no more closed behind Chad when Pete thought he heard a sound from the dressing room a couple of doors down. Cautiously, he crept forward, thinking it was probably a mouse or some other small animal, but you could never be too sure. When he got to the door, he saw it was open a crack. He pulled his gun and gave the door a push, letting it swing open of its own accord. Seeing nothing out of place, he entered the room.

Cali sat with her back to him on the couch. She turned when he entered. “Pete. Hey.”

He holstered his weapon. “Cali, what the hell are you doing in here in the middle of the night?”

“Well, I thought I might have a little more privacy if I took a shower in here.”

Pete strolled around to the other side of the couch. “Yeah, I’m really sorry about earlier—” His words caught in his throat as he saw what she held in her hand.

She smiled at him. “I’m sorry, too, Pete,” she said sweetly, and shot him. He fell against the coffee table and slid down to the floor, staring at her with wide eyes.

***         

Chad came out of the bathroom. “Okay, I’m read—” He looked around confused, no Pete. He heard a noise from the dressing room. Was Pete just checking in there to make sure everything was safe? Or was something wrong?

He entered the dressing room. “Hi, Cali. What are you doing up?”

“Just couldn’t sleep.”

“You probably shouldn’t be here by yourself. Pete and I will walk you back,” he offered, coming around so she wouldn’t have to stretch her neck to talk to him. “Have you seen Pete?”

“Yes, actually,” she said just as Chad rounded the couch to see Pete slumped against the table, blood covering the front of his jacket. He was breathing with difficulty, and his eyes were open wide, but he didn’t speak. Cali held a gun in her hand, which she now pointed at Chad. “I’ve been waiting for this for a while, Chad.”

Cali? Cali was the one who wanted him dead? “Why?” was all he could manage to say.

“Why not?” she replied, laughing without joy. “Oh, you’re serious. Because, Chad”—her voice turned harsh—“you just wouldn’t listen. When you treated Beth so poorly, as I knew you would, and she came to me upset, I told you then you weren’t good enough for her.” She rose from the couch with lethal grace, keeping the gun trained on him. “She told me what you did to her was just an accident, but we all know it’s not true. Even Pete here, right, Pete?” She kicked the bodyguard as she passed him, moving toward Chad. Pete grunted, following her with his eyes, but he seemed to only be able to concentrate on his breathing.

“So you want to kill me because you feel I’m not worthy of your friend.”

“No. I’m
going
to kill you because I have to keep you from hurting Beth. She was there for me when Tony cheated on me, when I”—her voice broke for a minute—“when I was in the hospital. I’m going to make sure she never goes through that with you. She’s not as strong as I am. It would kill her.”

“But, I love Beth, too. I would never do anything to hurt her.”

“Yeah. Like Tony didn’t feed me the same line of bullshit.” Her eyes flashed.

Chad couldn’t see how he was going to get out of this one. She stood between him and the door. He only knew, the longer he kept her talking, the longer he lived. And he wanted to live. Besides, it could buy some time for someone to come to his aid. Although, would anyone even be up right now?

“Yeah,” he murmured. “Beth told me about that. He wasn’t there for you when you lost your baby.”

She seemed to falter for a moment, the gun in her hand wavering slightly, but then she pulled herself together. “That’s right. Because he was too busy screwing my best friend.” The bitterness seemed to ooze from her pores.

Chad wasn’t the only one to see it. Out in the hall, Beth peeked into the room, hidden by the door. She heard voices as soon as she entered the building. She heard Cali speaking distinctly, but it wasn’t her Cali. The voice was harsh, with an edge to it she had never heard. And now, as she peered in, she saw her friend holding a gun on Chad. She gasped involuntarily.

Both Cali and Chad turned toward the noise in the hall. “Who’s there?” Cali called out. They both heard someone scurry away. “Dammit!” she screamed. She moved behind Chad, keeping him in her sights. “You go in front of me, Chad. Start walking!” She jabbed the muzzle of the gun into his back and shoved him with her free hand. He stumbled forward, but caught himself. He glanced at Pete again, their eyes locking for a minute, each wondering if they would ever see the other again, before he was pushed beyond the couch.

***
         

Roger was in the bus, putting a shirt on as he talked to David. A second squad car arrived, and the police searched Chad’s bus, finding Dante’s body. Beth’s story proven true, they decided to wait and call for more backup before heading into a large stadium where a madman could be hiding anywhere.

“We can’t just sit around and wait while Chad could be in there...” David didn’t want to complete the thought. “And Beth. Someone has to look out for Beth. You guys need to keep the police occupied while I sneak in there.”

“No way, man. It’s my turn to do the stupid and foolhardy thing,” Roger stated. “You already did that when you stood in front of Chad at the concert.”

David looked like he wanted to argue the point, but a policeman stuck his head in the door. “We have a few more questions.”

David and Roger sat staring at each other for a minute. “Okay,” David finally backed down with an air of disgust, “I’ll be right with you.” The officer left the bus. David put his hand on Roger’s shoulder. “Be careful, man.”

“I intend to.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Chad entered the hall with Cali trailing him. Who had been outside the door? And where did they go?

Cali threw a glance to her left. Not far away was the door leading out of the stadium. But she didn’t think they went that way. She hadn’t heard a door close, so she pushed Chad to the right. When they came parallel to the men’s bathroom door, she ordered Chad to stop. His guitar was propped against the wall where he had left it.

“Open that door.”

He obeyed her and she leaned into the room, listening for the sound of someone breathing. Satisfied no one was hiding in there, she continued down the hallway in the same way, stopping to check on doors here and there, finding most of them locked. In a few minutes time, they covered the distance of the hall and came to the curtained area backstage. Her eyes continually scanned in all directions, but Cali could not find the person she heard in the hall. Coming to a lighting board, she switched on several rows of lights. In an instant, the stage was flooded with brightness.

“Come on!” She alternately nudged and pushed Chad until she had him center stage. “Get on your knees,” she ordered. He reluctantly did what he was told. He felt the gun pressed against his temple. “All right. No more games!” Cali shouted into the empty stadium, her voice pinging off the metal catwalks holding the lights. “Come out where I can see you, or you can watch me shoot this man.”

Beth was crouching in front of the stage. She searched around for anything she could use as a weapon. All she saw were amplifiers, wires, and the pyro board.

“I’m going to start counting,” the voice warned. “One, two—”

“Okay. Okay.” She rose.

Chad’s heart sunk when he saw her. What was she doing in here? Their eyes locked and he swallowed. All he could think about was how much he loved her.

Cali, too, was unhappy to see her. “Beth, I didn’t want you to see this.”

“Cali, what are you doing?” She studied her friend with a sad expression.

“I—” She started to move forward, forgetting momentarily about Chad. “Get up,” she instructed him, her voice reclaiming its edge. He got to his feet. When she turned to Beth, her attitude changed again. “I know you don’t understand this right now, Beth, but this is for your own good.”

“Cali, you’re right, I don’t understand. Chad is the best thing to happen to me in a long time.”

“You think that now, but he will break your heart. Trust me, Beth.”

“Cal, he’s not Tony. Can’t you see how happy he’s made me?”

“Yeah. And the bigger the height, the harder the fall, girlfriend. You’ll thank me for this someday.”

Beth blinked in disbelief. Could Cali really believe she would thank her for killing the man she loved?

“Cali, please, this doesn’t make sense.”

“Not now, maybe. But it will someday, I promise.”

She stood with her mouth open, at a loss for words. She could see there was no way to talk her friend out of her madness, so she would simply have to find a way for them to escape. “Cali, you have always been such a good friend to me,” she stalled for time, focusing on discovering a way out. “You always make me laugh.” Cali smiled at her words. “You’ve been there with me when I cried. I don’t know how I would have gotten through losing Paul without you. I’m pleading with you now, please,
please
, Cal, let him go.”

Chad could see Beth clearly from his position in front of Cali. He saw now that her fingers were on the
pyro board. She gazed at him intently, and all at once he realized what she wanted him to do.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Beth,” Cali remarked with sadness.

“Please, Cali, if you’d only listen to me and—NOW!”