Софи Келли - Paws Аnd Effect

“Hope,” I called.

She didn’t answer.

I leaned closer, bracing myself with my hands on either side. “Hope,” I yelled again.

What if she’d collapsed? What if she was lying facedown in that water right now? Just looking onto that yawning opening made me shake, but if I had to go back down into it again then that’s what I was going to do.

And then I heard her. “Kathleen.”

I pulled the scarf I was wearing under my jacket off my neck. I tied a slipknot at one end and tightened the loop. I looked around for somewhere to brace my feet. The trunk of a nearby tree was going to have to do. “I’m dropping my scarf down to you,” I said. “Put one wrist through the loop and pull it tight. I’m going to pull and help you up.”

I hung as much of the top half of my body down in the hole as I dared, planted my feet, toes down in the mud, against the tree and let the scarf down, swinging it a little so Hope could find it. Given the length of the scarf, Hope’s height and my long arms, this should work. Please let the math be right, I prayed. Finally I felt her grab the scarf.

“Keep your weight on your left foot as much as you can,” I called. “Ready?”

After a moment I heard her voice. It may have been weak but I could hear the determination. She began to climb. I pulled and I prayed and somehow by some miracle we did it. One of Hope’s hands was close enough to grab, and then the other, and we screamed with the effort but together we got her over the top. She was on her stomach in the mud and I was on my side and the rain pelted us like tiny stinging fists, but we were out.

It wasn’t until I sat up that I realized Hope had passed out. I felt for a pulse and leaned my face close to hers. Her heart was beating and she was breathing. She was just unconscious. Somehow I had to get her down to Wisteria Hill.

I could make some kind of sled and drag her, I decided. I looked around for a couple of long, sturdy branches, thinking I could tie my raincoat to them and drag her. Off to my left for a moment I thought I saw a wink of light. I shook my head. It was just a trick of my overloaded brain. Then I saw it again. A bobbing light. I wasn’t dreaming or hallucinating. A voice called my name. “Kathleen!”

I stood up and waved my arms over my head. “I’m here,” I shouted, relief making my whole body shake.

The light bounced again and turned in my direction and Elliot Gordon came out of the trees, trailed by a very wet black-and-white tuxedo cat. I pressed my hand to my mouth and sobs shook my body.

Elliot caught me by the shoulders. “Oh my God, Kathleen, are you all right?” he said. He was soaked to the skin, his hair plastered to his skull.

I nodded. “Hope’s unconscious,” I said, gesturing behind me.

“Hang on,” Elliot said. He moved past me, crouching to check Hope.

I kneeled on the ground and gathered Hercules into my arms. He craned his head up and licked my chin. “I’m so glad to see you,” I said, half laughing, half crying. I unzipped my jacket and put him inside, zippering it around him, holding him against me with one hand. Even wet he was better than any electric blanket.

“Can you take this?” Elliot said, holding out the flashlight he was holding. “I’ll carry her.”

He had a gash near his eye, angry and red, I realized.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Don’t worry,” he said with a hint of a smile. “It wasn’t your cat. I had a small altercation with a tree branch. I’m okay.” He was still holding out the light.

I took it from him, swinging it to look down into the cistern. The water had to be chest-height now. I could make out the remains of what looked to be a raccoon on the bottom. My hands trembled and I turned the light away.

Elliot looked at me, horror etched on his face. “Keller put you down there?” he asked.

I nodded. “It’s not as deep as it looks.” Then I realized what he’d said. “Wait a minute. How did you know it was John?”

Elliot wiped the water from his face with one hand. “Long story,” he said. He glanced at the scarf still wrapped around Hope’s wrist but didn’t say anything else. He just untied the sodden fabric and handed it to me. I stuffed it in my pocket.

Elliot slid his arms under Hope’s limp body and stood up. He gave me a look I couldn’t quite fathom. “Let’s get out of here,” he said.

Hercules poked his head out of the front of my jacket and meowed his enthusiasm for the idea.

“John Keller killed Dani,” I said to Elliot.

He nodded. “I know.”

I frowned at him. “What do you mean, you know? And I don’t understand how you found us.”

“Your neighbor, Rebecca. You talked to her about John’s alibi—or, I should say, lack thereof. She came back to talk to you and when your truck was there and you weren’t she called Marcus. He was with Brady Chapman. When they heard Rebecca’s story Brady called Detective Foster. They got John before he could leave town.” His face tightened. “He wouldn’t tell them where you were. Everyone has been looking for you.”

“He set Marcus up,” I said. “He left his own key fob from the drive-in with Dani’s body and then took Marcus’s the next time he was at the house. He hacked his phone to make it look like Marcus and Dani were texting.”

Elliot nodded, his lips pulled into a thin, tight line.

“How did you know we were out here?”

He inclined his head in the direction of the ramshackle camp. “Burtis and I and some other guys we knew used to play poker there. I was driving around trying to figure out where you might be and it occurred to me that Keller had been out in these woods and he’d likely seen the old building.”

I pushed my wet hair out of my face. “Okay, but I don’t understand how you ended up with my cat.”

Elliot looked over at Hercules and smiled at the little cat, who it seemed to me smiled back at him. “The old carriage house on Everett Henderson’s property. I was walking across the field behind it and there he was, heading for the woods. I knew then that I was on the right track. There was no other reason for him to be out here in the rain.”

I leaned forward and kissed the top of Hercules’s head.

Hope was still unconscious. I reached over and felt for her pulse again. It was steady and strong.

“She’ll be okay,” Elliot said. “Help’s coming. I couldn’t get my phone to work at first, but I had a signal just before I found you.”

I looked up at him. I could see so much of his son in his face. “You saved us,” I said in a voice choked with emotion.

He smiled and shook his head. “I think you pretty much did that yourself.”

17

We made it the rest of the way through the trees. It took both of us to get Hope down to the field behind the carriage house but we managed. As we came around the old building I heard the scream of sirens. A black truck I recognized as belonging to Burtis skidded to a stop with a spray of gravel at the top of the driveway. Brady was driving and Marcus was in the passenger seat. He was out of the vehicle before it had even stopped moving.

Hercules squirmed in my jacket. I undid the zipper and set him down as an ambulance crested the top of the driveway followed by Roma’s SUV. And then I ran to meet Marcus, throwing myself into his arms.

Elliot headed for the ambulance. I reached out to touch his arm as he went by and he smiled at me.

Marcus took my face in both hands. “Are you all right?” he said. I could see the fear in his blue eyes.

I nodded, suddenly unable to speak. Roma had parked her car and was heading toward us.

“Kathleen,” she said, and I could see tears running down her face.

I kissed the palm of Marcus’s hand and then I turned to hug Roma. “We didn’t know where you were,” she said. “We thought you were . . .” She didn’t finish the sentence. Instead she gave me a wobbly smile and brushed the tears away. Then her eyes narrowed and she caught one of my hands. “You’re hurt,” she said.