His running footsteps were practically on my heels. I might have been twenty years younger, but he’d been a professional athlete for longer than that.
“Just wait, will you?” he called.
He was approaching fast. Maybe I could slide a little way down the edge of the bluff, crab sideways to a friendly neighbor, and call the police from a nice safe cottage with a loud security alarm. I glanced down.
Nothing but air. This part of the bluff was close to vertical.
I spun around in a half crouch. I was small and quick. When he made his move I’d dodge to the side, give him a push, and send him over the brink, just as he intended on doing to me.
“Look,” Greg said. “I don’t know why you’re running, but I want to talk to you, okay? This has been bugging me. I hate lying to anyone, let alone someone like you.”
Which meant what? That he hated lying to the people he was about to kill? How commendable. I stayed in my crouch, tense and ready.
“It’s about that Carissa.” He adjusted his hat. “I kind of lied about knowing her,” he said, taking hold of his camera and fiddling with one of its many buttons. “But that doesn’t mean I had anything to do with her death.”
Not necessarily, but the evidence wasn’t looking so good, buddy boy.
“And I didn’t kill her,” he was saying. “Why would I? So, I mean, yeah, I knew her, kind of, but lots of people did. You’re not going to tell anyone, are you?” He wasn’t moving, but the emotion in his voice was sharp and deep. “All I want is to be left alone,” he said. “Is that so much to ask?”
Not in my book, because what I wanted most at that very moment was for him to leave me alone.
“Say something, will you?” He held his hand out.
I jerked back, afraid of his touch, afraid to die, afraid that what had happened to Carissa was going to happen to me.
“Minnie, will you just—”
I was still moving back when I heard a noisy trickle of sand. I looked down. In my retreat, I’d reached the edge of the bluff. The crumbling edge. The ground beneath my feet was vanishing fast, dropping down, down, down, tumbling at a speed that made me dizzy.
The only thing I felt was fear. I was caught between a killer and a crumbling cliff. Not good odds, either way, but maybe I could…
Suddenly there was no time for decision-making. Square yards of ground were heaving and sliding and falling. I had to move, had to do something, couldn’t just stand there and die.
Faster than I’d ever done anything, I summoned all my strength and all my power and all my will to jump to solidity and safety.
But even as my feet left the ground, I knew there was no way I’d make it.
Chapter 15
All of my senses were on full alert. I heard the sound of sand cascading out from underneath my feet. Felt the sickening emptiness where ground should be. Smelled my own terrified sweat. Tasted the tartness of adrenaline. And I saw the wonderful sight of a hand reaching out to me.
“Grab my hand, Minnie!” Greg shouted. “Now!”
I reached, flailed, felt the whispering brush of his fingertips rushing past mine. Felt myself falling falling, falling. Saw my future end in a very short time. And then I saw him lunge forward and his strong pitcher’s grip was circling my wrist.
“Hang on,” he said from above me. “I’ve got you.”
I looked up. Greg was laid flat out on the bluff’s edge, hanging on to me with one arm. Under my feet was… nothing. My mouth opened, but no words came out. I felt nothing. I heard nothing except the sound of my heartbeats. And there was nothing I could do to save myself.
“Just stay still,” Greg ordered. “I’m going to pull us back. Stay still.”
I closed my eyes. If I looked down, I’d see my feet dangling in thin air, freak out, and do something stupid, like move. If I looked up, I’d see the man who, mere moments ago, I’d thought was going to kill me. Then I’d freak out and do something stupid, like move. So I did what Greg said. I stayed still.
From above I heard grunts and groans and scrapings of feet and then I felt myself pulled higher. A few grunts more and I could feel my face being shoved against the glorious dirty sand. More grunts and my shoulders were scraping against the edge of the bluff. A couple more and my hips were pivoting past the danger point. Then my knees came up and over and cleared, then my ankles, and finally, happily, thankfully, my toes.
He dragged me a few more feet for good measure, then released me and rolled onto his back. “Man,” he breathed. “Good thing you’re little, Minnie. If you’d been much heavier I never would have been able to haul you over that edge.”
I flopped onto my side, then sat up. From head to toe I was covered in sand, dirt, and bits of leaves and grass. I brushed off my face and looked at Greg. He was just as dirty as I was, if not more so.
“Thanks,” I said. “If it hadn’t been for you, I would have fallen for sure.” Then again, if it hadn’t been for him I wouldn’t have been skating the edge of the bluff in the first place, but I couldn’t see how it would be a bad thing to offer up some gratitude.
“Hey, no problem,” he said, his breaths already slowing to normal speed. “Glad to help.” Then he gave me a look that seemed to be half question, half wondering if I was bat crazy.
If he was Carissa’s killer, surely he would have let me drop. But he’d risked his own safety to secure mine, so he probably deserved an explanation.
“Well,” I said, “for a second there, I thought you might have killed Carissa. And that maybe I was going to be your next victim. Sorry about that.”
“Huh.” Smoothly, he sat up into a cross-legged position. “I guess my feelings should be hurt, that you’d think I could be a murderer, but you know what?” He grinned. “It’s kind of cool that you’d think I could be a dangerous bad guy.”
I blinked. Men were mysterious creatures. Not as mysterious as cats, but close.
“Thing is,” he said, “I have a great alibi for the murder. I had to call the veterinarian and he was out here all night. Dr. Joe, do you know him?”
The vet? What on earth was he talking about? “Sure, but what does that have to do with anything?”
Greg rubbed his chin, considering me. “Tell you what. Pop your bike into my rig and I’ll take you over to the house. You can get cleaned up and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Oh. Uh…” Was this the proverbial offer from a stranger? What was he going to do next, offer me candy?
“Come on.” He jumped up easily and held out a hand to me. I took it and he lifted me to my feet as if I weighed nothing. “It’s just down the road.”
I dusted off my shirt. My shorts. My arms. Legs. Face. Dusted some more while thinking about how to turn down his offer without seeming ungrateful for saving my life.
“I haven’t told hardly anyone any of this,” he said, “but Chris Ballou says you’re okay. He said that if any woman can keep a secret, you can.”
“Chris said that?” I looked at the sky and all around. “Where’s the lightning? It must be about to strike.”
Greg laughed and bumped his fist lightly on my shoulder. It was a brotherly sort of gesture and it comforted me in an oddly deep way. If he was willing to trust me with his secret, whatever it might be, maybe I should be willing to trust him.
At least a little.
“Hang on.” I trotted over to my bike, upzipped the handlebar pack, took out my cell phone, and pushed at the buttons. “Hey,” I said loudly into Kristen’s voice mail. “I’m headed to Greg Plassey’s house. I’m on my bike, so if I’m not home by dark, come looking for me, okay?”
I thumbed off the phone and looked up at him. “Ready when you are.”
• • •
The wide gates at the entrance to Greg’s driveway swung open slowly. My jaw dropped at approximately the same speed. How on earth had he done that? There were no humans, or even elves, around to do the opening, and his hands had never left the steering wheel.