Chapter 6
Kara woke up with a start, every nerve on high alert as she realized something bad had happened. It took her several minutes
to get her bearings.
Where the hell was she?
Faint lighting illuminated a small room that looked like a freight elevator. It was an elevator, she realized, about six feet wide and eight feet deep. The light came from a sickly yellow strip at the top on
one side. The light strip on the opposite side flickered on and off.
She slowly pulled herself to standing. She felt ill, her head pounding, her stomach empty, her mouth dry.
How did she end up here? One minute she was having brunch and mimosas with Matt on their patio by the beach, the next . . .
They’d been poisoned. She remembered trying to force herself to throw up, but collapsing instead. Was Matt okay? Where was
he?
Determined to get out, she pressed the buttons and the box didn’t move. She pulled the alarm button. Nothing.
The elevator doors were propped open about four inches, stuck between floors. Looking out into the dark hall, she figured the floor was about a three-foot jump. If she could pry the doors open, she could slide out. She’d rather find a staircase than risk this rickety elevator.
She thought she heard something in the distance, but couldn’t quite make it out. She didn’t shout, fearing that whoever had
taken her was somewhere in the building. Her best option was to get out of this box, find an exit, get to a phone, call Matt.
Which wouldn’t do any good if he was trapped in this building with her.
Was he even alive?
Kara studied the doors, figured if she had the strength she could push them open just enough and slide out into the hallway.
She stretched, loosening her limbs.
Deep breath. Count to three.
Kara put her hands into the opening and pushed.
They were stuck. She wedged her shoulder in and used all her strength to split the doors open . . .
The elevator fell.
She screamed and jumped back barely in time to avoid having her arm severed as the hall floor came rapidly up toward her.
As it was, she hit the elevator floor so hard, her breath was knocked out of her. Fortunately, the floor stopped moving. She
was wedged to one side because there was a tilt that hadn’t been there before. The hall floor was now above her. Barely enough
room to crawl out . . . though the door had fully opened.
But she couldn’t move. Had she broken her back? The fall wasn’t that far.
She took small, slow breaths and slowly tested her limbs. Then her head, body. Nothing broken, but she felt like she’d been
used as a punching bag.
“Kara!”
Matt? Sounded like Matt, but so far away and the ringing in her ears from the rickety elevator told her she must be hallucinating.
She looked at the opening. A cable had broken. How many held her up? Two? One? Could she move? Or was she just delaying the
inevitable fall to her death?
The elevator was still stuck between floors, but now she would have to pull herself up and out. If it fell again, she’d be
dead.
At peak health, she could do a couple pull-ups, but right now she had little strength.
“Kara!”
“Matt?” Her voice was hoarse. She coughed, cleared her throat. “Matt! I’m in the elevator!”
She heard him now, running down the hall.
“Stop!” she shouted. “Be careful.”
“Kara?” He was above her. He knelt and she saw his face in the near dark.
She was relieved she wasn’t alone, grateful that Matt was alive.
“I got the doors open, then the elevator fell six feet. Don’t touch them.”
“We have to get you out of there.”
“Give me one sec.”
“Take my hand.”
“Stop!” she said. “Just wait. I think—I need to pull myself up without touching the sides of the elevator.”
“Why?”
“It might be booby trapped.” The more she’d thought about how the elevator fell when she was trying to get out, the more she
thought she heard a pop, like something gave way. As if her actions had disengaged something that caused the elevator to fall.
Maybe not a booby trap, but considering she had no idea why they were here or who brought them here or where they even were, she didn’t want to take any chances.
“Tell me what you want me to do,” Matt said.
“I need to pull myself up, but I don’t know if I have the strength,” she admitted.
“I’m going to lie down, I’ll reach in and—”
“No. If the elevator falls, you’ll be killed.”
“What choice do we have?”
He was right. She had to get out. Her fear was paralyzing her.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “I can get myself partly up, then you grab me and pull me out, fast.”
He knelt. “Okay. Your call. Tell me when.”
Just do it. Do it, do it, do it, she repeated.
Fear pumped adrenaline in her veins.
Now or never, she thought.
She jumped and grabbed the floor above her, using her legs to push against the cement wall in front of her to give her some
leverage.
She heard a pop, the same sound she’d heard last time before the elevator fell.
“Matt!” she shouted and as she pulled herself up, his hands wrapped around her biceps and pulled her out.
The elevator brushed against her foot as Matt yanked her across the floor and into his arms.
The scrape of metal against metal sounded as the elevator plummeted, with a final crunch and thud as it hit bottom.
Her heart pounded as she clung to Matt. He was talking, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying through the ringing in her
ears.
“Kara!” He shook her.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she repeated.
Then he hugged her again as they sat in the dark for several minutes. With the elevator gone, so was most of the light.
“What the fuck, Matt?” she finally said.
“What do you remember?”
She thought. “We were eating. I felt odd, and then . . . I think—well, I tried to puke but I don’t think I did.” She rubbed her temples. “My memory is all blurry.”
“You told me we were poisoned, then I felt a sting on my shoulder. I think we were tranq’ed.”
She rubbed the back of her neck. “That would explain this welt. It still hurts. Do you know what time it is? It feels late.”
“My watch. Totally forgot to even check it.” He adjusted, pressed the side of his watch to light up the LED screen. “Well
shit. It’s after nine.”
“We were out for nine hours?”
“Nine in the morning,” he said.
She sat up. “The whole night? We were out for a full day?”
“Do you remember anything else? Did you see anyone? Hear anything?”
She thought. “No, but . . . I sensed something. Right before I felt sick, I thought someone was watching me. But I didn’t
see anyone.”
“We need to find a way out.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice. Lead the way.” He didn’t get up. “Matt, are you okay?”
“I need another minute.”
They leaned against the wall and Kara found Matt’s hand, held it.
Matt said, “It was pitch-black, but now there’s a faint light.” He gestured with their joined hands at the area on the far
side of the hall, past the elevator. The light flickered, but it only turned the black to dark gray.
“Maybe the elevator crashing set off an alarm or hit some switch or I don’t know, jostled a wire?”
“No light the way I came.” He gestured down a black hall.
“I say we go toward the light, but with extreme caution.”
“Okay. Just a sec. I thought—hell, Kara, I thought you were dead.”
“I feel like I was hit by a truck, but I’m alive.”
She felt his lips on her forehead.
“Any chance Garrett Reid was released from jail?” she asked.
“They would have told me,” Matt said.
Again, silence for a long minute before she asked quietly, “Did we arrest the wrong guy?”
“No,” Matt said. “We caught him in our room. He put ketamine in our food—we have the tests to confirm.”
Matt was right, though Kara had a bad feeling they’d missed something.
“The question,” Matt continued, “is were we targeted because we’re cops or for another reason?”
“Two killers targeting newlyweds?” Kara said with a bitter laugh. Then she stopped. “He has a partner.”
“Oh, shit,” Matt said. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Catherine never talked about him having a partner,” Kara said. “Maybe we’re thinking about this all wrong. Maybe this is someone else after us.”
She didn’t believe that. Who knew where they were? Who knew how to get to them?
“No, I think we’re right.” He touched her face. “You okay? I mean, nothing broken? Not bleeding?”
“Just sore with a pounding headache. I want to get out of here.” She hated being trapped, not knowing where she was or what
dangers she faced.
“Stick close. We don’t know what condition this building is in, or if whoever brought us here is still around.”
Matt got up, then helped Kara stand.
“What floor do you think we’re on?” Kara asked. “The elevator hit pretty quick.”
“My guess is the elevator fell two to three stories. This is some sort of multilevel warehouse. Maybe a factory. Abandoned.
I woke up in what seemed to be a break room. Tables and lockers, but mostly empty, and there were no windows. Ready?”
“Yeah,” she said and squeezed his hand as they walked cautiously down the hall toward the flickering green light.
There was nothing distinguishing on the walls to tell them where they were—no signage, no names, no directions. They tried
each door that they came across and found them locked. At the end of the hall they turned and saw that the flickering was
an exit sign.
“Staircase?” Kara said.
The door was different from the others; this had a push-in handle.
“I think so,” he said and reached for it.
“Wait!” she said, pulling his hand back. “Remember, I think the elevator was booby-trapped, set up to fall when I opened the
door.”
“It’s old. Maybe your added weight compromised the already decaying mechanisms.”
“No. There was a popping sound. Twice. It felt like it was sabotaged. We really have to be careful, Matt. We have no idea
where we are.”
Matt didn’t say anything, and she wondered if she was completely off base.
“We were separated for a reason,” she continued. “If you’d found me first, you would have tried to pry open the doors and