Possession

Chapter Fourteen

When Cait headed back into downtown a little after ten o’clock, there was no traffic getting in her way, no messenger bikes weaving in and out in front of her, no buses crowding the four-lane surface road route. Nothing but a couple of red lights, and a cop car that went screaming by her.

It was as she pulled over to the side to let the CPD unit pass that she realized she was on Trade Street. And what do you know … she was right in the midst of all the clubs.

Not far from one specific club, as a matter of fact.

As she hit the accelerator and got back in her lane, she told herself there was no reason to slow down in front of the Iron Mask. But a couple of blocks later, she found herself letting up on the gas and coasting into her second pullover.

No cops going like a bat out of hell this time.

Just Duke’s supposed workplace.

With her foot on the brake and staying there, she checked out the scene. She’d never been to the club before. For one, it had opened up after she was out of college and past her barhopping days. For another, going by the black facade and the Gothic lettering? Didn’t exactly look like her kind of venue.

And yup, the long wait line at the double doors confirmed the extrapolation.

Right, the last time she’d seen that much drippy black hair and clothing? A Nick at Nite Munsters marathon. In fact, it was like her vision had gone fifties monochrome on her.

Strange to think that somewhere inside the low, windowless building, that man was working—at least in theory.

She had Googled him.

As soon as she’d gotten back to her house, she’d gone to her laptop, fired up Internet Explorer, and typed in “Duke Phillips, Caldwell, NY.” The good news? No articles about him murdering or stalking anyone, no mug shots, no crime-blotter mentions—and there was a picture from an old Union College yearbook that indicated he had at one point been premed. No address or phone number, but he could be a renter and only have a cell phone. No LinkedIn profile. Nothing on wife or children or parents.

She’d even gone on Facebook and searched under the name. No profile that matched him.

G. B. Holde on the other hand? After doing a search on him, she found that the guy had nearly nine thousand followers on Facebook—almost ten thousand on Twitter. No college profile for him, but plenty of articles on his singing, shows, and fans.

Cait frowned. The club’s entrance was being manned by two guys, and as one of them walked over to address somebody, she realized … it was him.

Her mystery man.

Okay, not hers.

And yeah, big surprise—he was not taking any lip from the Goth aggressor who’d stepped out of line, literally. He marched right up to the vampire wannabe, his arms hanging loose, his jaw clenched, his height acerbated by the ass kicking he was clearly prepared to dish if that was the way things went.

Except what do you know. Mr. Darkness Personified with the walking cane and the pseudo-Victorian leather duster backed down, his eyes dropping away as Duke got up into his face and stayed there.

Cait braced herself for a fight, but there wasn’t one coming—once Duke had established his dominance, the drama was over. He went back to his post, and the guy with the mouth turned into a pussycat with an anachronistic collar.

Pulling herself out of stalker mode, she got back on the right path, heading down Trade and navigating Caldie’s grid pattern of one-ways. Her second foray through the Palace’s parking garage wasn’t quite as successful as her first. The only vacant spot she could find was waaaaaay up on the top floor that was open to the elements, and when she got out, a stiff, cold wind shaved her head. Burrowing into her coat, she hurried for cover, jogging around to the way she’d just come up because that was closer than the stairwell.

Sure, the ramp was for cars, but she was not going to ruin her blowout by staying in that stiff breeze any longer than she absolutely had to—

Shoot. She was turning into a chick.

As she emerged onto the level below, she was at the far end, the red Exit sign to the stairs and elevator glowing in the distance. But at least the wind-tunnel effect wasn’t happening down here.

With any luck, she’d gotten back in plenty of time. She’d be waiting for G.B. in the lobby if she could get inside, or the outer foyer if she couldn’t—

A second set of footsteps joined her own.

Cait frowned and looked over her shoulder. Someone had come down the ramp also, the dark figure about ten yards behind her.

She could not make out the face … or much of anything else. It was almost as if a haze had settled in and thickened the air between them.

Cait picked up her pace, the sound of the hard soles of her loafers like a heart beating faster and faster. Glancing around, she realized there was no one else in the vicinity—and there wasn’t going to be for a while. The concert didn’t end for a half hour, and no one was going to be parking or unparking a car anytime soon.

The person behind her sped up, walking more briskly. Keeping up. No, zeroing in.

As she broke into a jog, she felt a little paranoid—she’d probably been dwelling too much on Sissy Barten’s story. But then she looked back again…

They were coming even quicker.

Panic surged, and as she wrenched back around, she locked eyes on that Exit sign like it was a safety hatch—except if she got into the stairwell, what then? Would they chase her down it?

Even faster. She went even faster, her shoes smacking into the concrete, her arms pumping—and right behind her, whoever it was sped up, too. Terrified, she took her purse off her shoulder, and held it in front of herself because it was the only “weapon” she had—wait, she should go for the eyes, right? The groin of the head—

Was she really channeling Dwight Schrute at a time like this?

Just as she came up to the heavy steel door of the stairwell, the elevator next to it binged and opened. No one was in it. No one had punched the down button, either.

Who the hell cared?

Cait tripped as she jumped inside, and threw herself at the lineup of buttons on the panel to the right. Punching the number “1” over and over again, she looked out of the open doors. The dark figure was running, closing in on her—

“Please, please … please…” she gasped.

Cait hit that lit numbered button with both hands, her purse smacking against the elevator’s wall, her breath exploding out of her mouth.

“… please … shut … oh, God…”

Her eyes shot to the row of numbers that glowed up above. The number “4” was lit—

Abruptly the wind shifted direction, hitting her in the face even harder than it had up top—as if that figure, racing for her, coming at a dead run, was a menace from the Old Testament, its presence marshalling the elements, and sucking the illumination from the fluorescent lamps that glowed on the columns—

The lights flickered over her head, strobing everything as the parking lot ahead of her abruptly went dark.

Evil was coming for her.

Blinded by the blinking lights above, she couldn’t see its form, but vision was unnecessary. Her bones, her very soul recognized the threat as time slowed to a crawl and reality twisted into a nightmare.

Was this how it went down for people? When a victim was struck, did they all feel this careening terror, this tunnel vision, this sense of, No, not me, not now, how is this happening?

As if her brain were retreating to safety, flashbacks of earlier in the night flickered through her consciousness, images of her in her car, of her at a stoplight, of her in front of the Iron Mask … of her turning into the parking garage one hundred and twenty seconds ago … tantalized her with the false idea that she could somehow go back in time.

If only that ticket had been waiting for her at will-call, this would not be her destiny. She’d be safe in the theater, listening to music along with five thousand other people who didn’t have a clue about what she was actually facing.

Tragedy was about to happen.

If only she had not stopped to look at that man at the club. Or if she had decided to try to park on the street. Or if—

“Please, God … close—”

The doors abruptly got with the program, shutting so fast it was as if they were spring-loaded. Thump. Ding.

Whoosh.

The elevator began its descent.

Backing up against the poster-size ad for the theater’s new season, she focused upward on those numbers overhead, praying that the lift didn’t misfire again and stop at the floor below. One flight down the stairs was no big distance to cover…

Every creak of the car was magnified until her ears burned like she was at a concert. Each foot down was like a mile at walking speed. Moments stretched into hours, days. Hands cramping up, fingers cranked into claws, her body was in full fight-or-flight—

The phone, she needed to get her goddamn phone. With a jolt of action, Cait fumbled in her purse, things falling out; she didn’t care what—

Ding.

Bump. Halt.

Cait’s head jerked up to the doors as the “3” lit up, and the descent stopped. “No … no…!”

Lunging forward at the panel, she hit the bright red stop button. As a ringing alarm exploded into the enclosed space, she had no idea whether she’d shut down the opening mechanism.

Phone—where was her phone! Shoving her hand back into her purse—with enough force to break one of the straps—she rummaged around until her fingers ran into the thing. But she couldn’t keep hold. As she brought the cell out, it slipped away from her, bouncing across the floor, sending her on a goose chase as she fell to her knees to catch the—

Are you sure you would like to make an emergency call? the screen asked her as she got it and began working the screen.

“Hell, yes!” She nailed the green button and put the phone up to her ear, staying frozen in that crouch, her eyes locked on the double doors as she prayed they’d stay shut—

“Yes!” she shouted over the din as she plugged her free ear. “I’m in an elevator in the Palace Theatre’s parking garage.” What was the address? What the hell was the— “Yes! On Trade! Help me—there’s someone trying to—”

Above her head, the inset lights in the ceiling started to flicker again.

“I’m alone, yes—I’m in the elevator!” She kept shouting, because the alarm was still going off loud as a jet plane—and because being scared shitless really wasn’t conducive to library whispers. “I’ve stopped it at the third floor—what? That’s the alarm, ringing—no! It wasn’t a malfunction—I stopped the elevator! There was someone chasing me and I ran into—excuse me?” She actually took the phone away from her cheek and glared at it. “Are you kidding me—lady, no offense, but he would have just followed me down the stair—no! My car was on another level.”

Was this woman on the other end actually critiquing her choice of escape?

“Thank you—yes, I would like the police!” Much preferred over an embalmer at the end of all this. “Thank you!”

As they went around in circles for what felt like an eternity, Cait told herself to try to reel in the frustration. Not a good idea to fight with the source of the cops. But for godsakes…

“No, there’s no telephone—wait, there is a call button, yes.” Why hadn’t she noticed it on the panel? “Yes, I’m hitting it now.”

A buzzer cut in through the alarm. And then … a whole lot of nothing but that screaming, ringing sound. Maybe the security guard was on break?

“No, no, answer—oh, God, please just send someone—”

Pounding on the double doors made her scream.