Софи Келли - Paws Аnd Effect

I stood up and wiped my hands on my wet jeans, which really didn’t do any good. I looked at John. “Her ankle might be broken. It’s sprained at least. She can’t walk. Just leave us here and go.”

“I can walk, Kathleen,” Hope said. “Let it go.” There was warning in her eyes.

“Let me help you,” I said. I put my arm across her back, taking as much of her weight as I could, and we started moving again.

It was slow going. The rain continued to fall and the ground was slippery and uneven. I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and not letting Hope fall. Her breathing came in ragged gasps. I glanced over at her. She was gritting her teeth and pain was etched in the lines on her face.

She caught me watching her. “Hunt you down like a rabid dog?” she whispered, and her mouth pulled into a semblance of a smile.

“Best I could do in the moment,” I said.

“If you get a chance to get away—” she began.

“—I’m taking you with me,” I finished.

“You two planning some way to best me?” John was right behind us, so close I fancied I could feel his breath on the back of my neck, which in reality was impossible because I had my hood up.

“Yes,” I said.

Hope pressed her lips together. “You’re so bad at this,” she said.

“You set Marcus up,” I said. I wasn’t trying to stall. I needed to hear John confirm everything. I needed to stay angry so we’d stay alive.

“Yes, I set Marcus up.” John’s voice was smug.

“You hacked his phone. You made it look as though he’d sent those texts to Dani.”

“And they say the Internet is a waste of time,” he said.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “What I don’t get is how you planted the key chain?”

He laughed but there was nothing humorous about the sound. “That was just a spur of the moment thing. The drive-in logo broke off my keys. Then I realized I could leave it there and all I had to do was get one from Travis or Marcus to replace mine and send the police in another direction. That night at Marcus’s house when I used his bathroom I saw his keys on his dresser. Since he had taken Dani away from me again, it just seemed like poetic justice.”

I didn’t say anything. It was clear something was broken in him.

We kept walking. I lost all concept of time. We could have been moving for five minutes or two hours. Hope’s face was pale and wan and the rain had washed a trail of blood from her hair down the side of her face. Not only was I fairly sure she had a broken ankle, I thought she had a concussion, too.

I looked around, trying to get my bearings. We were on Ruby’s property, I realized finally, not that far from the old camp, which meant we weren’t that far from Wisteria Hill. The thought gave me hope. I shifted a bit more of Hope’s weight onto me.

“Where are we going?” I said. I could feel John, still no more than a step behind us.

Ding, dong, bell,

Pussy’s in the well.

Who put her in?

Little Johnny Flynn.

He recited the children’s nursery rhyme in a singsong voice.

A well? Was there a well somewhere on this land? All I could think of was a dark, cold, small space. I bit down hard on my tongue so I wouldn’t vomit. Or scream. I was claustrophobic.

“Stop!” John ordered. We stopped walking. Hope sagged and I lost my grip on her. She dropped to the ground. I bent down to help her up.

“Leave her,” he said.

I turned to look at him. I wasn’t a violent person. I believed that words were better for solving problems that fists, but in that moment if John Keller hadn’t had a gun I would have taken a swing at him and not lost a moment’s sleep.

He was using one foot to scrape wet leaves off of something on the forest floor. It was some kind of plank square: the cover to the well, I was guessing, based on the weathering of the wood.

An iron ring was bolted to the middle of the wooden cover. Eyes and gun on Hope and me, John bent down and pulled the cover up. I smelled dampness and dirt and must.

Panic rolled over me like a wave. I squeezed my hands into tight fists. Roma will come home, I told myself. She’ll find the car and Hercules. Someone will find us.

I made myself look at John and fought to keep the panic from carrying me away. We were going to get out of this.

He laughed. The ugly sound wrapped around the trees.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“Your stupid Pollyanna optimism,” he said. “You still think you’re going to get out of this.”

I bent down and helped Hope to her feet again. Her skin was even grayer, if that was possible.

“I know where the two of you parked,” John said. “The lake is very deep, you know.”

I bit down on my lip so hard I drew blood. Hercules could get out of Hope’s car. He didn’t like the rain but he knew the property. He’ll be safe, I said silently. And we will get out of here.

John grabbed Hope’s arm, pulling her away from me. She staggered and he took advantage of her momentum, pushing her down into the open hole. On instinct she grabbed at the ground, her hands clawing the mud, looking for something to hold on to. All she got were handfuls of wet leaves and pine needles. She fell back into the darkness.

“Now you,” John said, pointing the gun at me. I had a fleeting thought that being shot would be better than climbing down into that dark, tight hole. But Hope was already down there and I couldn’t leave her there alone.

I walked to the edge and sat down, dangling my legs in the hole. I couldn’t see Hope and I had no idea how far she had fallen, how far I would fall. Was she already dead? Had the fall broken her neck? Would the same happen to me? I flashed to my father as Henry the Fifth in Shakespeare’s play of the same name as Henry spoke to his army. I could hear my father’s voice in my head and I whispered the words along with it: “Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage.” And then I jumped.

16

I landed on some kind of wooden platform twelve, maybe fifteen, feet down. The fall knocked the wind out of me and I lay there, trying to get my breath. Above us John pulled the wooden cover over the hole. I stifled a scream. It came out like a whimper.

I’d never been in a place so dark. I put a hand out and felt packed earth. It felt as though the ground itself was pushing back. Tears rolled down my face—or maybe it was rain dripping from my hair. I felt around slowly, carefully, for Hope, Please don’t let her be dead running on repeat in my head. My hand touched something that felt like fur. I yanked it back and did let out a small scream. I heard a moan behind me. “Hope?” I said stretching out my trembling arm.

My hand connected with her shoulder. “Kathleen?” she managed to gasp out.

“Yes,” I said. I found her other shoulder and helped pull her into a sitting position. She leaned against me. “We’re going to get out of here,” I said. “I just need a minute to think.”

I looked up over my head. The air was stale but there were small spaces between the planks that made up the well cover. We were getting some air. We could breathe as long as the smell from whatever was decomposing down here didn’t overcome us.

“How far down?” Hope asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said. “Fifteen feet, maybe less. This isn’t a well. It’s a spring or something. I’m guessing it’s been partly filled with gravel. We can get out. It’s not that deep.”

She didn’t answer me. I shook her gently. She groaned.

What had I learned about head injuries in first aid? “You have to stay awake,” I said, giving her shoulders a squeeze. “I’m going to get us out of here but your job is to stay awake.”