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.
For the first time I noticed that I’d scraped the skin off the palms of both of my hands. After what we’d just been through it didn’t seem like a big deal. I shook my head. “I’m all right. That’s just from getting out of the well.” I pointed at Hope. “I think her ankle is broken and she has some kind of head injury.”
The paramedics had Hope on a stretcher and they were both bent over her. Elliot was walking toward us with a bottle of juice in his hand.
“He put you in a well?” Marcus said. His free hand clenched into a tight fist and he tightened his grip on me with the other.
Roma closed her eyes for a moment. “The old cistern on Ruby’s property.”
I nodded. “What saved us was that as far as I can tell it’s partly filled with gravel. It was only about twelve feet or so deep.”
“Only?” Roma said softly.
“What saved them was Kathleen,” Elliot said. He handed me the juice. “Drink,” he ordered.
I did. No glass of orange juice had ever tasted as good.
“She got both of them out of that hole in the ground,” Elliot told Marcus and Roma.
Hercules was at my feet and he meowed loudly, unhappy, I was guessing, at being left out of everything. I bent down and picked him up again. “Hercules was in Hope’s car. He somehow managed to get out when John took it.” I looked at Marcus. “Your father found him here. He came looking for us. Hope was unconscious. He carried her out. I wouldn’t have been able to do that.”
Elliot gave us a small smile. “Somehow I think you would have managed.”
Marcus turned to his father. “Thank you . . . Dad,” he said. He swallowed a couple of times and then wrapped his father in a hug. Elliot’s eyes were bright as he hugged his son back.
One of the paramedics was coming toward us. As he got closer I realized it was Ric Holm. He’d come to my rescue before.
He smiled at me. “Hi, Kathleen,” he said. He raised an eyebrow. “We have to stop meeting like this.”
“Her hands need to be cleaned and bandaged,” Roma said. She caught my free arm and held it out so Ric could see.
I gestured at Elliot. “Look at his face first, please. He took a branch in the eye.”
Elliot held up a hand. “I’m fine. Take care of Kathleen’s hands first. They’re going to get infected.”
Ric laughed and shook his head. “Both of you, stop being noble.” He caught my fingers and rolled my hand over for a closer look. “We’re going to have to pick some splinters out,” he said. “How did you do this?”
“A wooden cover over a well.”
He winced and turned to check the side of Elliot’s face, probing gently with his fingers. “I can clean that but you should be checked out by an eye doctor just to be safe.”
Elliot opened his mouth, to object I felt certain.
Marcus nodded. “I’ll take care of that, Ric.”
Elliot turned to look at his son.
“Don’t start, Dad,” he said. “You won’t win this one.”
Ric raised an eyebrow at Roma. “We’re getting ready to transport the other patient. Can you give me a hand?” He looked at me. “That okay with you, Kathleen?”
Roma was a certified first responder as well as a vet and this wouldn’t be the first time she’d taken care of me. I smiled. “It’s fine.”
We walked over to the ambulance. Hope was wrapped in a couple of blankets on the stretcher under the care of the other paramedic in attendance. Her eyes were half open and as I came level with her one hand reached out and touched my arm. “Kathleen,” she said in a low voice.