She laid her head back on her rolled up blanket, enjoying the soft cushions of the bench. The dim lighting and the soft place to lay promptly encouraged her to drift off asleep. She wasn’t asleep for long when she heard the bathroom door open and a woman’s voice as she walked in, her high heels clicking on the marble. Charlie laid absolutely still and tried her best to hold her breath, just in case the other person had super-power hearing, which was absurd.
“Is anyone in here?” She heard the voice ask out loud. “Hello is anyone here?
She heard the high heels go down the row to each of the stalls opening them and looking in. “Here we go,” she thought, “it’s not time to get caught.”
She heard the doors opening on the stalls and then the footsteps stopped outside of the one she was in and heard the voice say, “Out of order,” followed by a laugh, “Soldier boy must have used this one and clogged it up.” She rattled the door and then kicked at the plastic sheeting under the door. Charlie held her breath and waited for the alarm but none came.
The remaining five stalls were checked and she heard the woman report to a man outside. “There’s no one here. I’ll use the bathroom and then I’ll be out.”
“Ok,” he responded. “Make it quick so I can lock up.”
“Big ape,” she heard the lady say. “Don’t they know I’m a trained gemologist and not a security guard?” So, the security guard got a woman from the diamond brokerage to come check the women’s restroom for stragglers. He apparently didn’t want to go in himself.
She heard the woman enter the stall and then heard a zipper traveling, followed by the crack of knee joints as the lady squatted to do her business. She passed some gas and made a rude comment which almost made Charlie laugh and give away her hiding spot. She clamped her hand tightly over her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut. She’d laugh later.
Soon the door opened and the male voice boomed, “Would you get a move on?”
“I’ll be right there!” She replied angrily and Charlie then heard the toilet paper roll moving and then the toilet flushed. It was automatic of course.
She heard the lady clip-clopping in her high heels toward the door of the bathroom, “I’m coming, keep your shirt on.”
“Yuck she didn’t wash her hands! How disgusting!” Charlie thought as the lady pushed open the door.
“Here I am!” she heard the lady say as the door closed behind her. “Hey what’s that for?” There was a pause then she heard more voices through the large brass slotted vent in the door. “What’s going on? Don’t push! You don’t need to do that!”
Charlie heard a really loud noise and then something slammed into the bathroom door, making Charlie jump and gasp. She heard a couple of women and a man scream. “Stop hitting him!” one of the women yelled.
She heard the same authoritative voice bark orders to others in the room and then said, “Take them to the back and lock them in the vault room. Take their clothes and their phones.”
“No wait,” she heard one of the women say, “you don’t need to do that to us. We won’t tell.” She was pleading.
A different male voice joined in, “you follow directions and you’ll be safe. He tried to grab my gun. Let that be a lesson in cooperation for you.”
The first voice again, “Now move!” His tone then changed talking someone else. “Move them back. I’m going to lock up out here and then we can get to moving those gems.”
“What about him? He needs a hospital!”
“Leave him. We won’t be taking him to Paraguay with us.” They both thought that was funny and laughed. “Cuff his hands behind his back, just in case he decides to wake up on us.”
Charlie heard a key slide into the lock on the bathroom door and click closed. She was locked in now, whether she wanted to be or not. The lights all shut off in the bathroom, soaking her in darkness except for some ambient light from somewhere outside of the stall.
She laid there for a few minutes desperately wishing that she could wake up from this horrible dream she was caught in. She also wished that she could have gone home, gone to Florida, or even tried to spend the night at the mission or Mrs. K’s; anywhere but here. She knew that she could hide in here until Monday when it was time to open back up, but she didn’t know if they would let her. She worried that one of the women would have to go to the bathroom and they would bring her in.
She slipped her shoes off in the dark and put them on the bench beside her and made sure that nothing was on the floor by hanging her pack on the coat hook on the side wall. She carefully and quietly unlocked the door, flinching at the clicks the double locks made. The door swung open quietly, Charlie saying a silent prayer of thanks for the high quality piano hinge on the door.
She crept across the floor toward the light coming through large brass vent slats in the door. The slats were angled down so if she squatted and put her eye up against them, she could see outside of the door. Someone on the other side could lay down and look up through the vents and see the ceiling in the bathroom. She knew this from years of spying on her parents hiding her Christmas presents in their basement. She’d squat in the bush outside of the house and look in through the basement window. One day, mom turned the blinds the wrong way and she couldn’t see in.
She got as close to the door as she could to look through the slats without actually touching it. On her hands and knees she pushed her right eye toward the top slat and looked out into the lobby and found her view obstructed by something. She knew the higher her vantage, the more she could see. Getting closer to the floor lessened what she could see but she had no choice so she looked lower. She put her eye by the slat and nearly screamed when a bloody, battered face stared right back at her. She fell back on her hands and backside, feet slipping on some fluid on the floor that was coming under the door.
She frantically backed into the darkest corner she could find and caught her breath. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, hugging herself tightly. She was starting to hate the city. People had always talked about how violent the city was but until the night before, she’d never been exposed to murder. Now it was right in front of her.
Once she got control of her breath and stopped the tears of fear and distress, she realized that no one was pounding on the door trying to come in and get her. She slowly crawled back and saw her footprints on the marble. What had she slipped in? On hands and knees again, careful to avoid the small puddle, she slowly looked through the slats and saw the same unmoving face. She didn’t have to fight the urge to scream this time and stared at him. Oh what she would give for a cell phone at the moment to call for help.
“Well at least the guys are off to Florida. Two bodies in two nights isn’t what I would call a great tourism promotion!” she whispered to herself. She was famous for her false-bravado and this time she was even trying to fool herself. She wasn’t suited for violence, no matter how tough she acted or intellectually she approached a harsh situation. She reminded herself that she wasn’t a hardened television Texas Ranger, but instead she was just a girl, trying to figure out her way in life, without any support system.
She became almost frantic when sudden silence assailed her. She wildly peered through the slats in the door, trying to see if someone was coming from the lobby toward her. She hadn’t paid any attention before, but there had always been an ambient background music playing throughout the mall, including the restroom; some formless, instrumental music. It was one of those things you realize is there but almost instantly dismiss and ignore – until it shuts off suddenly. The silence was deafening. Charlie immediately held her breath, afraid that someone could hear her.
She realized that she could hear yelling and screaming from a hysterical woman. It seemed to be coming through the wall vents behind the si
nks. She quietly crawled over to the wall and put her ear against it, trying to hear what was going on. The wall below the sink was a horrible sound conductor and all she heard was muffled noises. It was clearer near the door. She stood and sat on top of the sink counter, pressing her ear to the mirror. The voices were much clearer now and she could make out what was being said if she held her breath and ignored the heartbeat pounding in her ears.
The security guys seemed to be arguing among themselves and then yelling at the women who shrieked in return. She heard over and over about a code to a door. The men were yelling at the woman. No, it wasn’t code, it was combination, that’s what they were yelling about. They were trying to get the combination to the safe in the diamond brokerage.
She heard the voices shift as they moved from right to left, toward the front of the store – toward the lobby and the restroom! She jumped up and ran back to the stall where she’d stashed her stuff and closed the door behind her. She managed to fasten the last lock just as the lights clicked back on in the restroom. She heard the woman yelling out in the lobby.
“He was the only one who knew the code to the safe!” she shrieked.
“Well he’s out now, which is what you’re going to be if you don’t come up with that code.” One of the thugs yelled back at her.
“Search his pockets and his billfold. This place is new. Maybe he wrote it down so he wouldn’t forget it.”
“No,” the woman cried, “He said he’d never write it down because then someone could find it.” Her breath hitched. “Like you. He hid it from people like you!”
Charlotte heard a meaty noise that probably meant the mouthy lady had just gotten a hand to the head or face.
“What about if we just break in?” One of the men asked. “We could blow the door off.”
“I don’t have dynamite, do you?” The other man asked sarcastically. “We could break in through the walls though.”
“Hold on,” the man now standing just outside of the door says. “I have the building plans. I can tell you where we can get in. Don’t move!” She hears him running off and then shortly returning. The voices fade as they move away. Charlie takes a deep breath and calms herself for the umpteenth time in a few days.
She stands up from the bench and is about to unlock the stall door when there is a thud against the door outside. She heard grunting and then voices, “Comatose guys are heavy! Help me slide him away from the door.”
She hears a key going into the exterior lock and then the restroom door slams open and the voices are just a few feet away.
“Look, look right here.” She hears paper rustling, “If we punch through this wall, it’ll be right into the vault room.”
“So you’re telling me that we can go through a bathroom wall and end up in a vault holding more than thirty million in diamonds? That doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“No one expected this to happen. The walls are poured concrete and reinforced with steel rods. See right here, the drawings say so.”
“Where does that leave us?”
“We make a smaller hole. There is a utilities chase that runs through the wall most of the way. It’s small enough for a small person to fit through and open the door from the inside with the emergency codes.”
“I’m not small and I don’t know the codes. I bet you don’t either.”
“No but Gail does. We can hold a gun on her friend, and then have her go through a hole and open the door from inside. All we need are some sledge hammers and some pry bars.”
“I don’t have any of those either. I must have left them with my dynamite.”
“I’ll go get some! I won’t be gone more than an hour.”
“Alright, I’ll stay and keep the ladies company.” He laughs wickedly.
“We need them healthy, one of them has to crawl through for us. They should both know the emergency code to release from inside.”
“Do it.”
Charlie can’t help herself and peeks through a very small slit in the plastic around the bottom of the stall door. She sees three men, two inside with her and the other standing in the door aiming a wicked looking gun at two women nearby.
Before the one leaves to go gather tools to tear down the wall she overhears him speak lowly to the other, “Once this is over, there aren’t any witnesses. Know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I got you. I’ll take care of it.”
“I figured you would. What about the other two who were in the stairwell the other day?”
“I took care of that mousy designer in the park the other night.”
“You said there were two.”
“The other was some equally mousy model that was with her. They went up the stairwell to look over the railing. I ran them off.”
“You took care of one you said?”
“The old one-two-three-four punch did.”
“You mean the old one-two?”
“No, she got all four.” He laughed.
“The other got away?”
“I ain’t found her yet but when I do, she’ll get all four too.”
Charlie sat back suddenly, not even worrying about noise, even though she didn’t make any. “He killed Adrianne! That’s who it was in the park.”
She started to silently cry, “Poor Adrianne, she’s gone!” She thought back how she’d looked at the body under the shroud without realizing that it was her friend. She had even laid down on the spot on the sidewalk where her friend died. Her heart ached.
“You need to find the other one fast.”
“I’ll find her in the morning. I know where they work. I followed her the other day and it’s at a shop owned by an old Korean lady. I’ll get rid of her and probably the old lady at the same time. It’ll help the cops think it was the Koreans that broke in here and killed everyone.”
“I like it!” The other growled. “We’ll get away clean. Go get the stuff. We’ll start hammering as soon as you get back.”
• • •
The snick of the door lock was loud in the now-quiet bathroom. Charlie knew she was in deep trouble and only had a little while to escape. The front door was locked. She thought about hiding in the stalls until they were finished and just left, but she could very well be caught. She opened the door and looked around as much as she could, thankful at least that the goons left the lights on this time. They were certainly planning on coming back.
Charlie frantically looked around the bathroom for some other way to escape. She noticed what looked like a maintenance access in the ceiling of the last stall in the line. Hoping that it was another way out, she closed and locked the stall door behind her and climbed up on top of the toilet and then put her feet on coat hooks bolted to the walls. She reached up with both hands to try and lift the access panel up.
A cloud of dust and debris rained down on her, filling her open mouth and eyes with grit. She gagged, spitting it out and frantically rubbed at her eyes as she slid the panel to the side. The pain in her eyes was almost overwhelming, nearly causing her to fall from her precarious perch atop the coat hooks. Once she was able to see again and the tears had washed her eyes clear, she looked up into the hole. She saw the bottom rung of a ladder within easy reach.
The tunnel through the ceiling was dark and dusty and went straight up. She saw a dim light at the top that had a red tint, probably a fire system warning light or something like that. She climbed as far as she could in the dark, the red light offering no relief. She encountered several hatches or doors but they were all locked or bolted shut. She tucked in beside one large pipe that was labeled “hot water” and had an arrow pointing down. It was warm and wrapped with some sort of tape that looked like a plaster cast she’d had on her arm w
hen she was a kid.