Beach Thriller(98)
Holly stormed down the stairs, her back aching, heart pumping, and lungs sucking in air, in time to see Ethan chasing Conrad out the front door. She followed because Conrad held the key to locating Jade. She could barely keep up. They galloped at the speed of horses. From the corner of her eye, she saw Serena and Gail, just outside the entrance, mouths agape, but she didn’t pause to explain. Piano music spilled out of the open tower door, clashing with the sound of jazz emanating from the beach below.
Plunging ahead, Holly descended the outside steps as if she were flying.
Conrad was sprinting full speed, Ethan close behind. To Holly’s surprise, Conrad wasn’t heading away from the estate or toward a car to escape. Instead, he ran down the red carpet toward the staircase leading to the party. Confused, Holly kept chasing after them as quickly as she could.
She reached the staircase. Stopping for a moment to catch her breath, she saw Ethan slip on the uneven steps and tumble down a flight. Ahead of him, Conrad vaulted over the railing near the bottom of the stairs, landing in the soft sand.
Where was he headed? Down the beach? Into the ocean? Nothing made sense.
Holly hurried down the stairs, being mindful of her footing. Below her, Ethan clambered to his feet before jumping the railing as Conrad had done. Sand flew up behind him as he continued his pursuit. For the first time, Holly wished for help from the Beauport police, but the officers had left their post by the stairs and disappeared into the crowd, all of whom were staring in disbelief at the ongoing chase.
It looked like Conrad was slipping away until he glanced back and stumbled, his feet catching in the loose sand. Ethan closed in. Before Conrad could regain his footing, Ethan leapt through the air, arms outstretched, tackling him just outside the party tent. They collided with the buffet table, then slid over the top like a pair of intertwined figure skaters, knocking off fruit skewers and spilling plates of shrimp before crashing into the punch bowl and landing hard on the sand.
Guests shrieked in astonishment.
Ethan landed on top of Conrad, pushing his face into the sand.
Tommy Boy appeared out of the dark. He lumbered over, reaching the mayhem at about the same time as Holly.
Dr. Hill brought up the rear. He was breathing harder than anybody. “He tried to kill Elizabeth,” Hill told Tommy Boy, with his hands on his knees, wheezing out the words.
The cop sprang into action, grabbing his cuffs and reaching for Conrad. At last, it seemed, Tommy Boy was good for something.
* * *
The jazz music had stopped. The party guests were stunned into tense silence. Everyone was uncertain what to do and couldn’t look away from the scene before them. Only the flickering tiki torches and gentle sound of ocean waves proved that time was still moving forward.
Conrad was handcuffed and dazed, propped up against the leg of the buffet table, his bruised face dotted with a five o’clock shadow made entirely of sand. His shirt was dyed red from the fruit punch, which intermingled with the very real blood from his neck wound.
Dr. Hill applied a gauze bandage to Conrad’s injury—he had retrieved a first-aid kit from behind the bar, and it lay open at his feet. It was heartening to see the doctor care for the person who just moments ago had tried to kill him.
Little by little, an uneasy chatter filled the air. Holly wanted to grill Conrad for information about Jade’s whereabouts, but Tommy Boy used his impressive girth to block her way. “Give the fella a second to catch his breath, will ya?” he said.
Holly got in his face—or his chest, he was that much taller. “Jade might be in danger. He knows where she is. Let me talk to him.”
“Right now he needs medical attention. If there are questions to ask, leave it to us.”
“I don’t think you understand me. He knows about Jade. I need to talk to him now.” She tried to push past him again, but Tommy Boy wasn’t budging.
“You might have questions for Conrad, but I’ve got some for you. What the hell happened? Big author brings big chaos?”
Holly pressed her hands to her eyes, her head pounding, but she tried to answer him as succinctly as she could. “Conrad attacked Dr. Hill, I saw it all—and he’s been keeping his wife—at least I think it’s his wife—locked up in the tower, heavily medicated.” She’d read crazy stories of people being held in captivity, sometimes for years, but never thought she’d be involved in one. “Whoever is up there, you need to check on her right away, make sure she’s okay. And he may have taken my friend, Jade Jensen, but I don’t know where.”
Tommy Boy looked disapproving. “Still on that, are we? I thought I made it clear—runaways run. But I’ll send someone to check on the woman in the tower.” He waved to the second officer working the party, a young woman, possibly new to the force. He briefed her, told her to go check out the scene, and report back as soon as possible.
Before Holly could make another plea to Tommy about Jade, the busker sauntered toward them. He approached from the direction of the stairs, carrying two bags full of ice. Holly released an audible groan. He had on his tattered scally cap, which clashed terribly with his Hawaiian shirt, but Maeve wasn’t around to scold him for his attire.
He came to a stop beside Holly, setting the bags in the sand.
“What about you?” asked Tommy Boy. “See anything unusual up there?”
The busker stared down his pinched nose at Holly and the cop before pointing toward the house. “Only thing weird I’ve seen up there is a generator.”