a week ago, when she and Drayton had been caught in here. When they’d . . .
Theodosia came to a dead stop and forced herself to concentrate. She stared up at the sky, noted that a film of clouds had slipped in. Taking a deep breath, she thought harder. Seconds ticked by. A thin line etched itself between her brows as she patted the left pocket of her slacks, then reached in and pulled out her tea strainer.
Theodosia spun on her bare heels and headed back toward the entrance to the maze.
It didn’t take more than ten seconds to find what she was looking for. The old grate, sunk into the ground.
Dropping to her knees, Theodosia labored to work one end of the tea strainer into the sod and under the edge of the grate.
At first it didn’t want to go. The earth was packed hard, had probably been that way for some time. Years maybe. Gritting her teeth, Theodosia bent forward, put her entire body into it. Her shoulders ached, her fingers went numb. But slowly, the edge of the tea strainer slid under the grate.
She could hear Bobby Wayne stumbling up the hill, not fifty feet away from her. His angry muttered curses filled the air. Theodosia knew that this time he wouldn’t miss. This time he’d shoot to kill.
She’d dug halfway around the grate now and had pressed her fingers underneath, hoping to gain leverage. Straining harder, Theodosia focused every ounce of strength she had on her task. And was rewarded when one corner of the old grate lifted upward.
She had one end of the grate up now, was laboring to leverage it higher. And then it was starting to heave up out of the soil, the black depths of the old cistern yawning at her.
“There you are,” said Bobby Wayne, his voice dripping with menace. “Wait until I get my hands around your throat. I’m going to . . .”
“What?” barked out Theodosia. She was standing no more than ten feet away from him. She could just make out his faint outline in the dark. “You’re going to what?”
“Snap your neck like a wishbone,” snarled Bobby Wayne.
Theodosia stared at Bobby Wayne, praying the moon stayed behind the clouds. Praying he wouldn’t see where he was walking. “Then let’s get to it,” she dared him in a low, mocking tone.
With an angry, strangled scream, Bobby Wayne rushed at her full tilt. Theodosia could make out the twisted anger on his face, put up a hand as if to ward him off. And then, suddenly, there was a mad skittering of shoe leather against earth and a strangled cry as Bobby Wayne plunged down into the cistern.
A dull slosh sounded. Followed by an abrupt silence.
Theodosia blinked, almost not believing her trap had worked. One minute Bobby Wayne had been a hideous, menacing crazy man, rushing to wrap his fingers around her neck, the next second he’d dropped out of sight. It was like Bobby Wayne had suddenly jumped on an express elevator and dropped straight to the subbasement.
Theodosia’s brain wasn’t so quick to believe her eyes.
She crept over to the side of the cistern, dropped to her knees, and peered down tentatively.
Bobby Wayne was down there all right, like a tiger who’d fallen through one of those bamboo jungle traps.
Only there were no pointed spikes at the bottom of this pit.
Only muddy, stinking water.
Bobby Wayne suddenly broke his stunned silence. Began thrashing around wildly, screaming his fool head off.
“Get me outa here!” he shrilled. “You hear me, woman? I’m talkin’ to you!”
Theodosia’s head spun dizzily. She felt a brief moment of triumph, but she also felt like she was going to faint.
“I know you’re up there!” screamed Bobby Wayne. “I can
Theodosia pushed back from the edge as a rotten egg smell wafted up to her. With all the willpower she could muster, she forced herself to get back on her feet. She scanned the ground around her, finally found what she was looking for. A good-sized pebble.
With a flick of the wrist, Theodosia tossed the pebble into the cistern. Then she waited until she heard a faint splash.
No ghostly arms would reach up to grab hold of her legs.
“What was that?” Bobby Wayne called suddenly, his voice rising in hysteria. “What was that you threw in here? What are you doing?”
Theodosia sighed heavily as she stepped carefully across the gaping hole in the ground.
“Don’t leave me!” Bobby Wayne’s voice drifted up from below, almost drowned out by the shrill of sirens as fire engines rushed toward Carthage Place.
Theodosia wrapped her arms around herself, trying to quiet her shaking. “Shut up, Bobby Wayne,” she called over her shoulder.
Then she trudged slowly across the rolling lawn, damp with evening dew, toward the twinkling lights of Miss Maybelle Chase’s plantation house.
28
Miss Maybelle Chase turned out to be a real peach. She wrapped Theodosia in a warm blanket and gave her a pair of cozy terry-cloth slippers to wear. Then she got on the phone and called Sheriff Billings, and located Drayton at the Heritage Society.
One of the firemen who’d come screaming up in a rescue squad, had gently led Theodosia into the kitchen where he’d applied antiseptic to her head wound and put a clean white bandage on it. He’d checked her blood pressure, pronounced it okay.
When she came limping back into Miss Maybelle’s antique-filled parlor, Theodosia was surprised to see Sheriff Billings, Drayton, Haley, and Parker peering at her nervously.
And of course they all shouted questions at once.
“Are you hurt?” asked Haley.
“Do you need anything?” Drayton wanted to know.
“How did you get away?” asked Sheriff Billings.
“Sweetheart,” moaned Parker Scully.
Theodosia had a few questions of her own.
“Where’s Bobby Wayne?” she demanded of the sheriff.
“Don’t you worry about him,” said Sheriff Billings. “My deputies pulled him out of that cistern and carted him off to jail.”
“He tried to kill me,” said Theodosia. Her knees were still shaking.
“We know that, ma’am,” said Sheriff Billings. “Do you feel well enough to tell us exactly what happened?”
“Shouldn’t she go to the hospital first?” asked Drayton. “Get a CAT scan or something?”
“Absolutely she should,” agreed Parker.
“Wait a minute,” said a still subdued Theodosia. “How did you guys even know I was missing?”
Drayton gave a slight chuckle. “Bill Glass saw you slip away with Bobby Wayne. He assumed you two were
