Page 25 of One Cry Too Loud (Coastal Crime Unit #9)

W hile we both kept our wits about us and our guns at the read, Charlie and I both moved toward Eli. That was how it worked. When someone was hurt, especially hurt as bad as Eli seemed to be, you needed to move quickly.

Of course, Charlie and I weren’t the only ones who were moving quickly. “I’m getting an EMT to this address now,” tag said into my ear, having seen what I was seeing through the irritating contact lens.

“Good,” I muttered. Letting Charlie take charge in covering me from anyone who might remain unseen in this house, I rushed into the elevator.

Siding into my knees, I settled in front of Eli.

He looked to be in shock. He didn’t meet me with his eyes.

Instead, he looked forward, his mouth agape and his body shaking a bit.

“You’re going to be okay,” I said, searching his body for the source of this blood.

God, there was so much blood. His clothes were practically caked in it.

I could see his face, his neck, his forearms, and-given the fact that he was wearing short, his lower legs as well.

Though there was blood all over him, I could tell that the flow wasn’t active from any of those places.

It had to be coming from either his chest, his abdomen, or his groin area.

“I don’t know,” Eli said in a shaky voice that sounded stronger than I expected. Maybe Eli was stronger than he looked. Maybe he had the capacity to fight this as hard as he needed to in order to survive.

“I do. You have to stay strong. You have to stay with me. Help is on the way. An ambulance is coming,” I said.

“He’ll never let that happen,” Eli said. “He’ll never let the call get out.”

“He’s right,” Tag said into my ear. “Or, at least, he’s right at the moment. Something is blocking outbound calls, including calls to emergency services.”

“I thought you said he couldn’t get into your system,” I reminded the kid.

“I said he couldn’t get into my internal system, and I’ll be damned if he does. This is outbound, though. It’s an entirely different thing.”

“Can you break through it?” I asked.

“Does a grizzly bear piss in th”

“Be serious!” I shouted.

“I can break through it. It’ll take me a couple minutes, though,” he answered.

“Good. get to work,” I muttered, turning my attention back to Eli.

Charlie was in the elevator now too, looking down at the wounded man as he spoke. “He found out.” Eli’s voice was still shaky, but it was also still strong. “I don’t know how he knew. I don’t get it. You guys said you were careful. You said-” His words cut off as he descended into coughing.

“Where were you hurt, Eli?” I asked, feeling his chest and finding no entry or exit wound. “Where is the blood coming from?”

He didn’t tell me. He still seemed in shock as he gathered himself and mumbled. “I should have known better. I should have just stayed out of it.”

“Eli, we’re going to save you,” I said, looking up at Charlie.

As I did, the doors of the elevator slammed shut and the metal contraction started moving.

It went up, jostling a bit as it did. More than that, the gears and levers seemed to screech out in pain.

How long had it been since this thing had been moved?

“I shouldn’t have told you anything. Maybe he would have left us alone. Maybe Alice and I could have started over,” Eli said.

“Don’t say that,” I answered. “We’re going to find Cindy.

We’re going to bring her home, and an ambulance is going to come for you.

” I looked up at Charlie. “When the doors open, you stay here with him. I’ll deal with Joe.

” I swallowed hard. It was clear to me now that, if Joe was in here, he was the person responsible for all of this.

He was Nefarious, and he very likely had Cindy with him.

All of this could be over as soon as those doors opened.

“No!” Eli shouted, his eyes suddenly focusing on me. “He said he’d kill me if everyone in the elevator didn’t get out! He knows you’re both here. He knows where everyone is all the time. You have to get out! Otherwise, I’m dead!”

As he spoke those words, the doors opened. I looked out, finding a dark room that was lit only ambiently by a few nightstand lamps that had been placed on the floor.

“Go!” Eli begged. “Please, just go!”

I looked up at Charlie, nodding at him. “Fine,” I muttered. “But stay awake. Stay strong. You are going to make it through this. I promise you.”

I stood and, with Charlie, marched out of the elevator. Charlie already had his gun at the ready. I had stuffed mine back into its holster as I started to help Eli. Now that I was moving out of the elevator, I reached for it.

The room was dark, but bright enough that I could see it was mostly large and empty. There was a television on the wall. No, there were two. Wait. No. There were much more than that. There were at least five, six, seven televisions placed along these walls. What the hell was going on?

I lifted my gun to my hand, and as I did, I caught the whiff of something sweet.

My eyebrows furrowed. What was that? It wasn’t coming from the room.

It was coming from me somehow. It was coming from my hands, but how could that be?

My hands were covered in Eli’s blood. I leaned toward my outstretched palms, and didn’t find the metallic scent of blood coming off them.

Instead, I smelled something sweeter than that, something artificial.

“Is that corn syrup?” I asked myself.

Spinning around, I saw Eli standing up. His hand was no longer cuffed to the bar in the elevator. Though he was still standing in the elevator, he wasn’t trapped there. In truth, it seemed he never really had been.

“What’s going on?” I asked, pointing my gun in his direction.

“He said he’d give her back to us,” Eli said, sniffling.

“I found Nefarious on the dark web. He was auctioning off a favor if someone would just kill you. I told him that you were there, in Alice’s house.

I told him I didn’t have the stomach to kill you, but he said I didn’t have to. All I had to do was lure you here.”

“And you did,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry. He said he’d give Cindy back to us if I did this,” Eli said, blinking back tears. “I know you’re good people, and I’m sorry, but she's just a child. She’s a kid. I have to get her back.” He shook his head. “I really hope you make it out of this.”

“I bet you do,” I said. “But why are you here, Eli?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “We were already on the way. Why did you physically come here?”

“This place used to be a bank,” he said. “And in old banks, the lever to the vault is manual. It’s in the elevator.” he sighed. “I’m so sorry.”

His hand jerked, and as it did, a large metal wall came slamming down in front of him, blocking our view and sealing us in this room.

In the end, it turned out we were the ones who were trapped.