The hands let me go. The flashlight that had been sitting on my lap was nowhere to be found, but enough light shone through the broken windows of the office that I could make out the enormous shape of a man blocking my only way out of the office. Slivers of the sun’s rays backlit his red hair, but his face remained in the shadows. Could he see me clearly?
I scrambled to my feet, my hands touching something wet on the floor. I shivered to think what that might be. “Billy, what are you doing?”
“Why are you here?” His words slurred and his breath reeked of alcohol.
I wiped my hand on my jeans. How many empty beer bottles had I counted in the second office? Fifteen? Twenty?
He swayed. “No one was supposed to find me here. Everyone was supposed to leave me alone. Why are you here?” He bellowed the question again.
I took a huge step back and my heel connected with the corner of a cot. I spun around and squinted in the gloomy space, able to make out an army cot and two plastic rolling crates. One crate overflowed with enough rolls of duct tape to wrap me into a human cocoon. I faced Billy again. Even in the dim light, he didn’t look so good. Definitely drunk. Sober Billy had been affable and endearing. I had no idea what drunk Billy was like and had no desire to find out. “I’m here with your friend, Timothy.”
He ran his hands down the length of his face. “He won’t be my friend when he knows what I’ve done.”
I shivered. “What have you done, Billy? Do you mean Katie Lambright?”
“No,” he bellowed. “I had nothing to do with that Amish girl.”
“Do you mean—”
“Chloe!” Timothy voice sounded muffled and far away. “Danny’s on his way.”
Billy launched at me and pressed his meaty hand across my mouth. His other arm wrapped around me, pinning my arms to my side.
“Chloe?” Timothy’s voice pitched up an octave.
I struggled against Billy’s grasp, smelling the alcohol on his clothing and his breath. I bit the inside of his bare hand. It tasted like salt and dirt. I gagged as Billy yowled and yanked his hand away. He bent over, nursing his injured hand, and I pushed him aside. He barely moved an inch, but it was enough for me to squeeze by him and throw open the office door. I half stumbled, half fell on to the narrow landing.
Timothy stared up at me. “Chloe, what’s going on?”
I gasped for breath. “Billy. In. Office.”
Timothy ran to the spot just below me. “I thought you said no one was up there.”
“I guess I was wrong.”
Behind me, Billy cried in anger. I dashed out of the way of the doorframe. With nowhere else to go, I ran to the end of the railing as Billy stumbled onto the landing. The mesh metal surface groaned under his added weight. Could it hold the both of us?
In the light, I saw Billy’s bloodshot eyes. His clothes were caked with dirt and dust from living inside the warehouse, and the sleeve of his coat was torn. He gripped a roll of duct tape in his hand as if it were a life preserver. Billy had some of the most creative uses for duct tape, and I hoped he didn’t have me in mind for any of them.
Billy took another step onto the landing. The metal screeched in protest. I moved to the far end of the platform, below a twenty-foot drop to the unforgiving floor.
Timothy’s voice was tight. “Billy, stop. The landing can’t hold both of you. Go back into the office.”
Billy’s eyes flicked away from my face and down to Timothy. “What are you doing here? You don’t belong here. You’re going to tell the police where to find me.”
Timothy held out his hands. “Billy, please, what do you plan to do? Chloe’s done nothing to you.”
“She’s here. You’re both here, and now my one safe place is no longer safe. You are forcing me to leave.”
“No one is forcing you to do anything. Chloe is your friend.” Timothy’s voice was confident, commanding, yet I could see the fear in his eyes. “You don’t want to see her hurt, do you? If you keep walking on that platform, it’s going to give and you both will be seriously hurt—or worse.”
I leaned up against the railing with my back, and it gave a fraction of an inch. It was in as good of shape as the stairwell—which lay in pieces on the floor. Could I escape to the first office to hide? Did the door lock work? I couldn’t remember if I saw a lock when I searched the room earlier, and the last thing I wanted was to be trapped in another office with Billy. I darted a glance toward that office. I had to try. Timothy was right—the landing couldn’t hold the both of us much longer. I inched toward the first office door, roughly ten feet away from me.
Halfway along the landing, Billy’s eyes seemed to focus on me, so I stood still, trying to steady the rise and fall of my chest. “Billy, you said that you had nothing to do with the death of the Amish girl. If something happens to me, no one will believe you. You will be charged with both crimes.”
“Billy, she’s right.” Timothy’s voice was tight.
I began inching to the first door again.
“I didn’t hurt that girl.” He closed his eyes for a moment as if reliving the discovery of Katie’s body behind the Gundy barn. “She was already dead, long dead before I found her.”
“Why didn’t you tell the police?” Timothy asked. “Why did you run?”
I held out my hand. It was one arm’s length from the doorknob.
He rounded on me, and I froze, still too far from the office door. His eyes clouded over. “Because I knew what would happen. This is actually what would happen. They would find out about my past and believe I did it. But I tell you I didn’t.” His voice rose. “I promise you I didn’t. You know I’ve been to prison, don’t you?”
“I . . . well . . .” I stumbled over my words.
“Billy, whatever you did years ago doesn’t matter. What you do today does.” Timothy voice was growing hoarse.
Billy’s eyes grew sober. “You’re wrong. The past does matter. I know the police chief believes I did it. She took one look at that barn and knew I was the one using it for storage. I have been for years. No one knew or cared what I did in the barn. There are no animals, and the Gundys have been gone for a long while now. I would never hurt anyone.”
“Prove it by not hurting Chloe.” Timothy’s voice wavered ever so slightly.
Billy’s eyes flashed and his brows lowered, but just as quickly the anger in them faded away. He slid to a seated position on the landing in front of the second office door. “How are we going to get down?” Billy moaned. “You’ve destroyed my sanctuary. This was my escape from all the bad in the world.”
“You climbed the stairs to the landing?” Timothy asked.
Billy nodded. “Yes. I knew they were weakening and tried to only go up and down once per day.”
My hand closed around the doorknob and I threw the first door open, only to discover my worst fear—a broken lock. My safe haven had disappeared. Billy may have seemed harmless sitting defeated on the landing, but his mood was unpredictable. And he still had the duct tape.
I shuffled back to my place at the end of the landing. I pressed a hand to my chest and felt the rapid beat of my heart. Danny was on the way, but would he arrive before the landing gave away completely?
Timothy held his useless cell phone in his hand. I knew what he was thinking. Was I safe enough for him to run outside and call Chief Rose? Like me, I was sure that he regretted not calling her from the very beginning. I cringed to think of the chief’s reaction to our stupidity.
Billy pointed a sausage-like finger at his friend. “Don’t call the police. I will throw her off this landing if you do, and you’d better hope you are a good catcher.”
My stomach roiled. How could Billy say that to his friend? Timothy’s lips stretched into a thin line as he tucked the phone back into his pocket. “What happened to you?” The sound of betrayal was thick in Timothy’s voice.
Billy dropped his hands to his lap and refused to look at Timothy. Instead, he turned his gaze on me. I shivered in light of his wild expression.
“Should I call you Walter, then?” Timothy asked, making a grab for Billy’s attention.
The larger man’s head snapped around. Timothy’s ploy had worked. “I don’t go by that name any more. That was my past. I’ve changed.”
“Have you changed, Billy? If you are willing to put Chloe in harm’s way like this, I don’t think you’ve changed at all. It looks like you are still living a life of crime. I don’t know you at all. You really are Walter. Billy is gone.”
Billy shook his head like a stubborn child, his chin lowered toward the floor. “No. No. I’m not like that at all. I’m not that man anymore. I made mistakes, and I paid for them.”
Timothy tilted his head back farther. “If you paid for them, why is there still a warrant out for your arrest twelve years later?”
Billy struggled to his feet, his movement too much for the already taxed platform. The landing underneath my feet groaned, followed by an awful snap as the support gave way. Billy clawed the air for something to hold onto—and found nothing.
I squeezed my eyes shut and gripped the rickety railing, willing it to hold me. I whispered a prayer. Billy and his portion of the platform crashed to the floor, dust billowing into the air.
“Chloe!” Timothy screeched.
I waved the dust from my face, and coughed. “I’m okay. I’m still on the landing.” I coughed again. “Where’s Billy?”
Billy let out a deep, torturous groan. At least that told us he was alive.
Through the haze the dust created, Timothy knelt beside his friend. “Billy?”
Billy whimpered.
At this point, the platform was too unstable for me to take one step away from my little corner. The cloud of dust in the air was too thick for me to see how badly Billy was hurt.
Billy said something in a choked sob, but I couldn’t understand what. The sound of screeching metal and his crash landing played over in my head.
Timothy coughed. “I think his leg is broken. It’s at a weird angle, and he has a gash on his head that’s bleeding pretty badly.”
The dust began to settle enough for me to see their faces. Timothy ripped off his black wool winter coat and wrapped it over the wound on Billy’s head. “This is not going to stop the bleeding without some pressure,” he said.
I knew he was right. “Go call for help, then. But return as fast as you can, so you can hold that to his head.”
“Right.” Timothy jumped up and sprinted from the factory.
“Billy? Billy, it’s going to be okay.” My teeth chattered.
He moaned softly. I took any noise he made as a good sign. Billy’s face was turned away from me, and I couldn’t see his expression. I felt helpless trapped twenty feet above while Billy could be bleeding to death.
Timothy ran back into the factory. He fell to his knees beside Billy and held his coat down on the man’s wound. “Paramedics and the police are on the way.”
“Did you speak to Chief Rose directly?”
“No, I got Officer Nottingham. I’d still be on the phone if I had spoken to her. She’s going to chew me out. That’s for sure.” Timothy glanced down. His tan sweater was soaked with blood. “Head wounds bleed a lot,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it’s life threatening.”
I didn’t know if Timothy said that more for my benefit or for his.
Danny walked into the room carrying a ladder. He set it on the ground. “Whoa. Looks like I missed all the fun.”
“Emergency is on its way,” Timothy barked.
“Um, Tim when you called and said that you needed me to bring a ladder to get Chloe down you didn’t say anything about Billy bleeding from the head, and man, his leg don’t look so good either.”
“It just happened,” Timothy said through gritted teeth. “Can you help Chloe down, please?”
“Oh, right.” Danny picked up the ladder and placed it against the open end of what was left of the platform. “How’d you get up there?”
“Stairs.”
He arched an eyebrow.
“There used to be stairs.”
“If you say so.” He raised the extension, and locked it at the proper height. “All you have to do is climb down.”
Easier said than done. “How do I do that?”
“Swing your left leg around the side and then the right.”
I gripped my railing, reluctant to let go of it. “Will it hold me?”
“This ladder holds good old boys four times your size for hours on end. Of course, it will hold you. Now, move it because I can’t say the same for that platform.”
The sound of sirens broke the air. I wanted to be down on the ground before Chief Rose showed up. She would not be a happy camper.
I swung my left leg onto the ladder. It didn’t budge, but I wasn’t as confident about moving my right leg. The platform under it wobbled. Before I could change my mind, I swung that leg onto the ladder too. A toaster-sized piece of the landing crashed to the floor.
Timothy watched me, gap-mouthed.
I waved at him from the security of the ladder.
Voices shouted back and forth to each other, and the sound of running footsteps echoed through the cavernous building. The cavalry had arrived. Carefully, I progressed down the ladder. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw three EMTs push Timothy away and start working on Billy.
“Will he be okay?” Timothy asked.
Three rungs from the floor, I heard, “Humphrey, you better have a good reason for this mess.”
I hopped off the last rung to face Chief Rose, her face redder than I had ever seen it. If smoke began to pour out of her ears, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.
Timothy wrapped his arms around me, whispering in my ear, “Thank the Lord you weren’t hurt.” Dirt and dust caked his white-blond hair, giving it a grayish cast. He turned to the chief. “This wasn’t Chloe’s idea. She wanted to call you. I didn’t. I was stubborn.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I find that hard to believe. Typically, it’s Humphrey getting you into trouble, not the reverse.”
Timothy shook some of the dust from his hair. “It was my idea to come here and look for Billy. I knew this was the only place he could hide in the county. Anywhere else someone would have seen him in an instant.”
Behind Timothy, an EMT gave Billy a shot in the leg. The mechanic cried out in pain.
Chief Rose’s face was impassive. “I’d say you found him. I won’t bother telling you both how stupid it was for you come into this deathtrap looking for him or that he may have been armed or that you are lucky that he’s the one they are loading on the stretcher and not you.” Her yellow-green eyes bored into Timothy. “Troyer, I thought you had grown up over the last few years. I’m disappointed to see that I was mistaken, sorely mistaken. I can’t even look at either of you. Nottingham will take your statements and then you can go.” She stomped away.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that angry,” I said.
“She has every right to be. Everything she said was true. I let my pride get the best of me. I thought I could find Billy and talk him into turning himself in.” His entire body shook, his voice uneven. “When I think what may have happened to you . . .”
I wrapped my arms around him. “Timothy, I’m fine, I’m safe. It was my idea to go up to the landing, remember? I can be just as stubborn as you can.”
He pulled my arms away from him. “I’m sorry. I can’t. I need to be alone.”
“Alone?” My eyes traveled around the room. How did he expect to be alone? The place was crawling with police and emergency workers. In addition to Chief Rose and her crew, county deputies had arrived since technically they were outside of Appleseed Creek’s village limits and the chief’s jurisdiction.
Timothy’s lips were pale. “I did it again.”
Hoping that he wouldn’t push me away a second time, I gripped his hand. It was ice cold. He had lost his gloves when he had tried to help Billy. “Did what again?”
“Paralyzed someone.”
I shook my head. “No. Is that what the EMTs said?”
“They don’t have to.”
Five burly EMTs carefully rolled Billy onto his back. After strapping him into place, they lifted him onto their shoulders and slowly picked their way over the littered floor and out of the factory.