Trapped Under Ice (37 page)

Chad ran and jumped off the stage just as Beth ignited a ten-foot high jet of fire a foot to their right. He grabbed her hand, and they ran as fast as they could up an aisle between sections of seats. Cali was temporarily blinded and almost knocked off her feet by the heat. They heard her scream with rage as they broke through the doors and emerged into a wide hallway.

He tried to circle back in the direction from which they came, to the left, but within seconds he heard Cali slamming open the metal doors that they had just come through. Without thinking, he ducked into the next door. They found themselves in a dark commercial kitchen, the only light emanating from a bank of glass-fronted refrigerators on the far side of the room. The light played across the stainless steel tables dividing the room. Knowing she was seconds behind them, they hid behind a row of trash cans and tried to still their breathing.

She burst through the door. Sardonic laughter filled the room. “Now wouldn’t this just be the ironies to end all ironies. Chad Evans shot by the lunch lady in the kitchen.”

She flipped on a set of light switches to the left of the door. To the couple’s relief, the lights were the fluorescent-type, which took a lengthy time to reach their full illumination. Chad tried to remember if there was a back way out of the kitchen. He had played this auditorium many times before, but all of the stadium kitchens seemed to blend into one another, and his anxiety over their safety didn’t help his recall much either.

Cali inched farther into the room, checking behind tables as she did so. He decided the only sure way out was the way they came in, so slowly, trying not to make a sound, they duck-walked in the direction of the door they entered through.

“Chad, you might as well give up. You’re only prolonging the inevitable. So why don’t you save us all the trouble and just come—OUT!” She sprang forward behind the trash cans they had vacated seconds before. Chad took advantage of her distraction and bolted for the door. He heard the metallic ping of a bullet hitting the door as they whizzed back out in the hall.

With the pursuer on their heels, they had no choice but to cross and enter the concert hall again. Ducking low, they ran behind rows of seats, heading left again, toward the backstage area. This time, they got a bit of distance between themselves and Cali, who took too long to locate them upon entering the inner ring of the stadium. But as he was looking ahead, he realized, with dread, he had made a bad decision. The section of seats they were running along dead-ended before it reached the backstage area. Before them was a short concrete wall, beyond it, a forty-foot drop to the section below. Beth seemed to realize their predicament at the same time. They searched around for another way out.

“Chad. The catwalk.”

Spanning the stadium was a huge, black catwalk supporting the numerous stage lights for the concerts. Beth reached it and immediately scrambled up the ladder, and out onto the skinny bridge. He followed behind her, glancing back to see their tormentor gaining on them. They ran, their feet banging on the metal, across the bridge, the stage lights that Cali turned on swinging crazily below them, shooting beams of light in a haphazard fashion. They reached the far end, and started running down a zigzagging staircase just as Cali reached the top of the catwalk on the other side.

As she ran, Beth heard a zing, and then Chad cried out. She turned to see him slam hard into the far railing, his momentum carrying him over it.

“Chad!” she screamed in terror. She rushed to the edge and saw him sprawled on a lower landing of the staircase. As she watched, he struggled to pull himself up the railing to a standing position. Beth glanced up to see how close Cali was. She had stopped to take aim at Chad again. In desperation, she seized a microphone cable that was hanging down from the ceiling and tried to swing it at Cali. The cable was too heavy for her to actually hit Cali with at her distance, but the movement caught Cali’s eye and might have been enough to throw her aim off. In any case, Beth saw Chad clear the last flight of steps and safely make it behind the thick curtains along the side of the stage.

Cali screamed in fury, her rage distorting her features, and took up her pursuit again as Beth continued to spiral down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she took off in the direction she thought Chad took, but couldn’t find him. She came to a door and entered a hallway she didn’t recognize. She stumbled onward, her legs beginning to tire, her breathing jagged. Somewhere behind her, she heard a door open. Blindly, she entered a wide set of doors on her left.

The room she entered was dim, but she could see the outlines of a large skating rink in front of her. Before she could make a move, someone grabbed her from behind, clapping a hand over her mouth.

“Beth, it’s okay. It’s me, Roger,” a familiar voice whispered in her ear.

He let her go and she whirled around. Beth grabbed him and buried her head in his chest. “Oh, God, Roger. I’ve never been so glad to see someone.”

“I know, Beth.” He kissed her head. “Where’s Chad?”

She gazed up at him, fear clouding her eyes. “I don’t know.”

They heard someone approaching in the hall. Roger pressed Beth back into the shadow provided by the wall just as the door opened. They both immediately recognized the figure in the doorway. Beth threw herself on him. “Chad! Chad!”

“Beth.” He sighed in relief, but then hastened to add, “Come on. She’s right behind me.”

The three ran the short distance to the rink, although Beth saw Chad was dragging one of his legs. He opened the door to the ice, and Beth and Roger stepped through. He closed the door behind him, and the three ducked down behind the baseboard circling the rink.

“The first chance we get, we’ll jump her and get the gun,” Roger whispered.

Chad shook his head. “I can’t hit her.”

“Why not?” Roger and Beth asked incredulously.

“I can’t hit a woman.”

“Well you sure picked one hell of a time to get all noble on us,” Roger snapped in irritation.

They hushed their conversation, hearing a noise. They saw a line of light on the ice from the crack between the doors. It grew wider as someone opened the door. Huddled with their backs against the wall, they listened, all three faces tense, exchanging anxious looks as they waited in the semidarkness. Lights clicked on in quick succession all across the room.

“Next time you want to hide from somebody, Chad, don’t leave a trail of blood.” Cali’s face appeared above them, her gun pointed at him. “Of course,” she said dryly, “there won’t be a next time. Get up. All of you.”

The trio steadied themselves against the boards as they reluctantly stood up. Cali motioned with the gun for them to come off the ice. They stepped out onto the concrete floor one at a time.

Beth could not believe this was happening. Could her best friend really be intending to shoot her husband? None of it made sense. It was like being in some surreal dream, and she kept hoping the alarm clock would go off. But images of Dante’s face with his unseeing eyes kept reminding her, this was all too real.

“Beth, you need to go. You don’t want to see this.” Cali’s voice was paradoxically kind.

“I’m not going anywhere, Cal!” she shouted, catching everyone off guard. “If you’re going to do this to him, you better be prepared to do it to me, too, ‘cause I’m not going anywhere.”

“Beth, you should go,” Chad stated, his voice soft and resigned.

“No!” she screamed in shock.

Chad looked at Roger. He gulped, but put his hands on Beth’s shoulders.

“No! No, Roger, no!” She looked at him, her eyes pleading.

“Beth...” His expression showed how much he dreaded the action he was about to take.

“No!” Beth started screaming. He grabbed her around the waist and half-dragged, half-lifted her toward the door. “Chad! Don’t do this! Please!” She was crying hysterically and struggling against Roger.

Cali was staring at Chad, as if she were glad he finally came to his senses, when suddenly, Roger pushed Beth to one side and lunged at the madwoman. He grabbed her arm and brought her wrist crashing down on the top of the boards forming the wall of the rink. She cried out in pain, and the gun fell from her hand, sliding several feet across the ice. Chad immediately began to hobble over to the door of the rink. Cali snarled with rage, and catching Roger by surprise, grabbed his head and slammed it into the top of the boards beside her. With a groan, he slid to the ground.

She rushed onto the ice, pushing the injured Chad down before he could reach the gun. She put her heel on his leg, trying to determine by the amount of blood on his pant leg just where the bullet entered him. She put her weight down and was gratified when he screamed in agony.

The pain was so intense that Chad thought he was going to vomit. Discovering the location of his wound, Cali decided to drop to a knee on his leg with all her weight. Again, he cried out in anguish. He stretched his hand out toward the gun, but it was at least a foot away. As he watched with swimming eyes, somebody picked it up.

“Get off him, Cali!” Beth shouted in fury.

“Oh, come on, Beth. Like you would use that on me.”

“I sure don’t want to, Cal, but I will if I have to.” Her face displayed a fierce determination.

“Like you even know how to work it,” Cali responded, though her confidence was wavering.

“My dad taught me. Two-time State Champ.”

Cali eyed her intently, trying to determine whether or not she was telling the truth. In the end, she decided to give up, making sure to grind her knee in one more time as she stood. She backed up against the boards.

Chad rolled over on his back with a groan. He was panting with his eyes shut and his face pinched with pain.

“Are you okay, babe?” Beth asked, chancing a quick glance at him.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, his eyes still closed.

“I’m going to check on Roger. Back up, Cali.”

She did as she was told, stepping through the doorway and onto the concrete. Roger sat up, shaking his head, a large gash open on his forehead. Beth bent down to help him and Cali took the opportunity to run from the room. They looked up just as the door closed behind her.

“It’s okay, Beth. Let her go. The cops are probably out there in mass by now.”

She helped him, shakily, to his feet. Glancing over the boards, she saw Chad was sitting up. “Maybe I should leave you two here and go get you some medical help.”

“No way!” Roger insisted. “We’re not splitting up.” He grinned through his pain.

“Okay,” Beth said, grinning back. The two of them managed to get Chad on his feet, or one foot anyway, and they made their way slowly, but surely, out to the stage area, where they could hear a lot of commotion.

When they entered, they could see a lot of policemen standing in a circle. One of the men shifted his weight and Beth spotted a foot with a familiar shoe. She rushed forward, forgetting for a moment she was helping to support Chad. The men parted as she came up behind them, revealing her friend’s broken body lying on the stage, limbs jutting out at unnatural angles.

Beth fell to her knees beside the lifeless body. “Oh, Cal,” she whispered in despair. She reached out and held her hand, bringing it up with her hands as she sought to cover her eyes. Her shoulders began to shake as she cried for her friend. The men stood around respectfully, but after awhile, exchanged uncomfortable looks with one another. Chad and Roger shuffled over. Chad put a hand on her head, wishing he could scoop her up in his arms, but his injured leg made it impossible. She placed Cali’s hand across her friend’s chest, then laid her head down on top of it and started weeping anew. Her naked grief was about killing everyone in the room, especially those who loved her. Chad looked at Roger, a helpless expression on his face.

Roger signaled to a police officer to take his place supporting Chad. He squatted down beside Beth, rubbing her back. Two men arrived with a stretcher, but hung back, giving her time to say her goodbyes. Roger gazed down at Cali’s face, so pretty now that it wasn’t disfigured with rage. He had really begun to like her, and could not reconcile the fun-loving Cali of the night before with the murderous one of today. He couldn’t even imagine what Beth must be going through with all the memories the two of them shared.

After several minutes, she finally pulled away from Cali, lifting her chest as if it was made of lead. Beth peered into her face again, and felt a fresh wave of grief push into her heart. She turned and sobbed as Roger wrapped his arms around her, placing his cheek against her temple. The stretcher attendants looked at him, and he nodded. They began to load the body and prepare to take it away. A second set of attendants arrived to take care of Chad.

“Sir, we need to get a look at your leg.”

Chad seemed unwilling to leave Beth’s side. “In a minute.”

“Sir, I think we need to attend to it now. You don’t look good.”

It was true; he was as white as their shirts. Beth stirred and Roger helped her to her feet.

“We’re going to need to treat that cut, too,” they said to Roger. Two EMTs helped Chad onto the stretcher and started to check his vital signs. The paramedics, who had finished loading Cali’s body onto a gurney and covered it with a sheet, now turned to Roger to examine his wound.

“Come here, babe,” Chad called out to Beth.