Come and Find Me A Novel of Suspense - By Hallie Ephron Page 0,85
decision to do it, she was on the wall, grabbing hold of the U-shaped end of one of the rebars. She stepped up onto another one at knee height and pulled herself up.
If she’d been the invincible Nadia, she could have done this easily. Dressed as Nadia, she’d have had a better shot at it. But Nadia’s leather jacket was on the floor where Daniel had been sleeping.
BAM. Then a clatter. She looked over, and though she couldn’t see it, she knew that a screw had fallen from the bolt or door hinge.
“Diana! Come on!” Daniel said.
She craned her neck and looked up. He sat on the ledge, swinging his legs, perched there like a lost boy.
He stretched out his arm to her. “I love you.”
The words struck her like dissonant chords. She swallowed tears. “You don’t, you know. I’m not even sure you can.”
Daniel looked at her, as if seeing her for the first time. “I need you.”
There. That was more like it. Daniel had faked his own death, erased his fingerprints, embarked on a plan to discredit DNA. But he needed a partner with at least one foot in the real world in order to set the stage for the mayhem he intended to unleash next. She’d robbed him of Jake. She was his last hope.
Just focus on the moment, she told herself as she climbed up to the next rebar. Grabbed a higher handhold. Then climbed higher. And to the next and the next, until she was halfway up the wall.
Again there was a crash, then a metallic screech, as if a hinge had come loose.
Diana froze. She clung to the wall.
“Come on! You can do it,” Daniel said. “You can do whatever you set your mind to.”
She started up again. “I’m coming. Wait for me outside.”
She looked up again and he was gone. When she reached the hatch, she heard Daniel outside, his footsteps on the metal platform at the top of the outside stairs. Waiting for her. Sure that she’d be by his side in moments.
“Sorry, Daniel,” she whispered. “You’re on your own this time.”
She held on to a rebar with one hand, and with the other, she slammed the door to the hatch shut and drove the bolt home. Then she hung there for a moment, panting.
From the other side of the hatch she heard Daniel banging. “Diana!”
“Go!” she screamed. “They’re here!”
There was another crash from below. “Daniel!” Jake’s voice was so loud it sounded as if he was in the silo. Looking down, she could see that the door had buckled. It was seconds from giving way completely.
Diana took a tentative step down to a lower rebar. The tables and chairs and computer equipment looked so far away. She hung on, disoriented, as the world pinwheeled.
She couldn’t lose it now. She had to center herself. Get a grip. Don’t overthink it, babe.
She stared straight ahead at the plaster wall inches in front of her nose, at the dimples and irregularities in the surface that were invisible from below. She envisioned the rebars, above and below her, studding the wall at regular intervals. They were goals, and hitting them would trigger jingling coins like the ones in the first video games she’d played as a kid. Each one she triggered would increase her point count.
If . . . no, when she reached the floor, she’d finish liberating the princess from the clutches of the trolls.
Chapter Thirty-Six
When the silo door burst open, Diana was crouched under one of the tables. Her scream was genuine as the fire extinguisher went careening past her and bashed into the wall.
She’d had barely enough time to set all the system clocks back to the correct time and disarm all the doors in the complex. She’d sent Pam an urgent text message telling her to restore the live feeds from the mill’s surveillance cameras. She needed to touch base with Ashley, but Jake’s returning nearly two hours ahead of schedule had thrown everything off. Her only hope was to keep Jake guessing.
“Daniel!” Jake cried as he burst into the silo. He stopped in his tracks. “Daniel?” He turned in a full circle, finally spotting Diana cowering under the table.
“Jake?” Diana crept out. “You’re alone? I thought . . . thank God it’s only you.” She stood, holding her hand to her throat and panting for breath. “I bolted the door. I was afraid—”