Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
Jesslyn had been working for what seemed like an eternity, but the clock on the wall said it had been an hour and twelve minutes. The molding was off, her fingers sore and bleeding in some places, but she’d found a ballpoint pen to help pry some of the wood loose. She listened. Faint sounds from above reached her, but Derek didn’t appear to be coming back anytime soon. Maybe he had more customers. If she made a lot of noise, would someone hear her? Yeah, Derek. And then he might come back down and...
She set the tank lid aside and considered putting her jacket back on. Derek had promised to keep it cool inside and had definitely followed through. And if she hadn’t been able to get out of the coat, she’d be glad of it.
She took off her boots, then kicked off the heavy pants. Her station gear underneath wasn’t exactly the height of fashion, but the polyester and nylon material might offer her some protection against any glass shards.
Guess she was going to find out.
She slipped her boots back on, then tossed the pants and jacket through the window’s opening and well away from the broken glass.
“Well, here goes nothing,” she muttered. She checked once more for any glass sticking out, then turned sideways and stuck one foot through, sucked in her gut, and pushed her upper body through. Her full hips might be her downfall. She pressed hard against the opening.
Please, God, get me out of here. Don’t let me get stuck.
But it was going to be tight. She wiggled and rocked and broke out in a sweat, but with one final twist that must have pleased whatever physics rules were necessary to torque her way out, she was through the opening and standing next to a stack of boxes as tall as she was. Pool chemicals.
She glanced around, ears tuned for Derek’s return. To her left was a worktable loaded with more boxes of chemicals. Chemicals, chemicals everywhere. And he kept matches in the desk drawer.
Idiot.
Jesslyn walked through the stacks of supplies and chemicals, realizing there was order in the chaos. She found a door in the far wall of the windowless room but, after close inspection, realized it was reinforced steel. Not going out that way. She wove through the chemical maze, noting the pool nets, PVC piping, pool floats and toys, and more until she finally found the bottom of the stairs. The door was shut at the top. Okay, that was her way out, but first a weapon. She searched for a moment, every ticking second a scrape along her nerves. Nothing was going to work. Everything was unwieldy and awkward.
She paused.
Except maybe the PVC pipe. A piece the size of a baseball bat would do the trick. Jesslyn managed to find one that was a tad shorter than she had in mind, but it would work.
With the piece of pipe gripped in her right hand, she took a steadying breath, realized her nerves were just about shot, and started up the steps. Lord, please, I need your help, your wisdom how to get out of this situation, your—
The deadbolt unlocked.
“Yes, we have everything you need in stock,” a voice said from the other side of the door. “I’ll have it ready when you get here.”
She spun and hurried back down the steps as fast as possible with as little noise as possible. At the bottom, she swung behind the nearest stack of boxes and willed her heart to slow down.
Stay cool, Jess, stay cool. Keep it together.
The door opened and heavy footsteps started down. Okay, he’d check on her while he was down here, see she was gone, and ... what?
He didn’t seem like he’d thought this whole kidnapping thing out very well. The room he’d kept her in had been fairly easy to escape. Anyone wanting to keep someone should have thought about the window. Or maybe he just didn’t think she could squeeze through it. And if she hadn’t lost the few pounds from being sick, she might not have.
Thanks, God, for knowing what I need when I don’t have a clue.
A door slammed overhead and the footsteps paused, then continued on. Derek muttered to himself, walked right past her, and grabbed something off the top shelf of the stack. When he turned, she whacked him in the head. He went down with a thud.
“Derek!”
The shout came from the top of the stairs, and for a moment Jesslyn thought she’d been seen but realized the person was looking for him upstairs.
“Derek! Where are you? I need to talk to you now!” The woman’s voice came closer. “Derek!”
Did she dare hope that this was someone who could help? Or should she stay hidden and wait for the person to leave?
Possibly locking her in once more.
Jesslyn stepped into view as footsteps started down the stairs. “He’s a little incapacitated right now.”
The woman let out a low cry and planted her hand over her heart. “What are you doing down there?”
“Derek Morgan kidnapped me. Who’s he to you?”
“He’s my brother.” She narrowed her eyes. “Why would he kidnap you?”
Derek’s sister? The one who wanted her dead? Uh-oh.
“What are you doing here so soon?” Derek rasped behind Jesslyn.
Jesslyn whirled to see Derek awake and holding a hand to his head, his eyes dark and furious.
“Soon?” the woman asked.
“I-I haven’t called you yet. I was just getting ready to, but ... how did you know to come here?”
“Because this is where you work when you’re not at the school?” Her tone implied he was an idiot.
“B-but you never come here.”
“Derek! Pay attention! Why is she here?”
“Because I want to be free of you, Sam!” He waved a hand at Jesslyn. “You want her dead, so here she is. My gift to you. But not here. You can’t do it here. It’s too dangerous. Too many chemicals.”
“Are you out of your mind?” the woman yelled.
“I’m trying to help you!” Derek’s shout echoed.
“You’ve never wanted to help me in your life. Why start now?” Before the man had a chance to answer, she said, “You’re the dumbest—” She growled. “I had everything under control and you had to go and interfere! I told you to stay out of it and now I have to fix it!” She pulled a weapon from her pocket and turned it on Jesslyn.
Jesslyn moved even as the woman’s finger was tightening on the trigger. “Don’t shoot! You could send this whole place up!” The words flew from her lips as she ducked behind the nearest stack of boxes.
Boxes that wouldn’t stop bullets. “Stay at the steps, you idiot,” Sam said to her brother. “Don’t let her up. She can only hide for so long. I’ll find her and be done with it.”
“You could at least be grateful,” Derek said. “You kept trying to kill her, and with each failure, you became nastier and nastier. Here she is. You can stop blackmailing me now. I can’t live like this anymore!”
As far as she could figure, the siblings had both been after her, with Samantha starting the fires, tossing the bombs, and trying to kill her and Derek trying to take her. So his sister could kill her? Jesslyn wanted to ask so many questions, but keeping quiet was the only way she was going to get out of this alive. Who was going to be on the way? What did a check have to do with anything? She was confused but couldn’t worry about that now.
She had to figure out a way to get the path to the door free because she was pretty sure it was still open.
NATHAN’S PHONE RANG while they pulled out of the day care parking lot, desperately trying to figure out their next move. “Carlisle.”
“Detective Lee here,” the voice said. “I took another look inside Derek Morgan’s home and came across something interesting.”
“What’s that?” Nathan had a tight grip on his emotions and managed not to yell at the man to just spit it out.
“A paycheck from a pool supply company, but it’s not the one the Ashcroft woman sent you to.”
“Okay. So, you’re saying she lied about Derek working there?” Nathan asked.
“Looks like it.”
He caught Andrew’s gaze. “Samantha Ashcroft played us.” Back into the phone, he said, “What’s the name of the company on the check?”
“Bowman’s Pool Supplies.”
“Definitely not the pool company Samantha sent us to,” Nathan said.
“Because she wanted to get to Bowman’s first?” Andrew asked.
Nathan nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.” He said goodbye and hung up.
Please, God, keep her safe. Nathan spun the car around and breathed the prayer with every ounce of faith he had. Please let us be in time.