Permanent Vacancy. Katy Lee

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СКАЧАТЬ interest in the outcome of this project. This is my home, but in four weeks, it will also be my business and my future.”

      Colm sputtered, “Love, I hate to tell you, but there’s no way you’re opening in four weeks.”

      “Your director promised me three. I’m holding you all to it. Now, if you’ll follow me upstairs, I’ll show you the guest rooms you’re to start with. Once you’re finished upstairs I can begin decorating.”

      “Seems like you have things all planned out.”

      “I’m in charge now, if that’s what you mean.” Gretchen stepped past him. “This way, Mr. McCr— Aaah!” Splintering wood smothered her scream. One moment she stood in her foyer, the next, her floor swallowed her whole.

      * * *

      “Gretchen!” Colm dropped to his knees and approached the gap in the floor where less than a second ago the home owner with her mass of golden curls fell through. “Are you all right?”

      “McCrae, Irish accent,” Nate said from behind. A quick glimpse showed the camera still rolling. Colm clenched his fists and jaw. The show was the last thing he cared about at the moment. Nate’s raised bushy eyebrows reminded him what he cared about didn’t matter. He wasn’t the boss.

      “Goldie, love, are you all right?” He pushed out the thick brogue, hating it more now than ever—but not as much as the fact that she didn’t respond. Please, God, be with the young woman.

      Colm peered past the broken boards into a dark and dank cellar. His eyes adjusted quickly enough to capture Gretchen lying right below. She didn’t look to have fallen far, from what he could tell by the low basement ceiling, but he couldn’t be sure. “Our home owner has taken a tumble through her foyer floor,” Colm said, trying to play his part for the camera, when really he wanted to jump in after her. “This could be right serious and just woeful. She’s not responding to my call.”

      Colm stood abruptly, knowing Nate would follow on his heels. After two years of working together on the show, they’d learned each other’s movements, even though nothing like this had ever happened on location. Sure, there were mishaps, but those were minor or typically used for commercial breaks. Viewers liked the excitement of staying tuned in to find out what happened. And when the accident had been remedied and all was well again, they sat back on their couches and watched on. Minor mishaps worked great, but a serious injury could ruin him. It could send him back to the place he never wanted to go again.

      But it would be so much worse for Gretchen.

      Colm ran to the back of the house and located the door to the basement. His boots hit the stairs in a rapid cadence that matched his heartbeat. What would he find below? Her neck twisted in an unnatural way?

      Please, God, let her be well, he prayed again. Be with me so I can help her. A twinge of guilt gripped him when he realized he had been worried about his job a moment ago. Gretchen Bauer could have broken her neck in the fall, and he was worried about being fired. What kind of person did that make him?

      As if he didn’t know.

      Nate followed behind, his camera light illuminating the dirt floor as Colm’s feet hit the compacted earth. He had been correct about the low ceiling. The way he had to crouch told him less than six feet stood between floor and ceiling. At least it was a short fall. Thank You, Lord, for old houses. He ran toward where Gretchen lay.

      A groan came from that direction. She was alive. Colm allowed a little relief to come, but only a little. She could still be quite hurt. He prepared himself for the worst and pulled his phone from his pocket, ready to call 911. “Gretchen, hold still,” he called.

      The camera light made finding her easy in the dark. He reached her as she pulled herself up to a sitting position. “Don’t move!” he shouted and knelt to stop her. “You shouldn’t move until emergency personnel have had a chance to check you out. I’m calling 911.”

      “No.” Gretchen grabbed his hand, her touch not delicate as he’d imagined, but rough and strong. She turned away from the camera’s light, putting half her pale features into the darkness. “Don’t call the sheriff’s office,” she said. “I just had the wind knocked out of me.”

      “Do you need your inhaler?”

      She reached behind her, pulling out a smashed container.

      “I’m calling,” he announced, his finger about to hit the number 9.

      “Please don’t,” she whispered. The camera wouldn’t have picked her voice up without her hooked to a microphone, but Colm heard it loud and clear.

      For some reason the idea of notifying the sheriff’s office scared her more than her fall, more than the inability to breathe.

      “Are you positive? Sometimes we don’t feel an injury until later.”

      “I’m fine.”

      Colm studied her for a moment in silence, searching for any injury she might be hiding or not know of yet. She flexed her shoulders and moved her head a bit to demonstrate that she was uninjured. Colm’s own adrenaline sank back to a normal level and when he looked up at the camera, he saw it continued to roll. Nate had filmed the whole scene. Colm wasn’t surprised. He knew Troy would expect it. The director was sure to eat this incident up. Probably use it for pre-ads to the airing to create some excitement for the upcoming episode. Colm also knew what the director expected of him. Troy would want him to wrap up this scene with a nice little bow. The fact that Gretchen was unhurt meant Colm could continue doing his job. He could now add a little of the humor he was famous for without feeling guilty.

      Colm grabbed a piece of floorboard that had come down with Gretchen. He lifted it to the camera. “I don’t know about you, but I can say for sure it wasn’t our home owner’s weight that sent her through the floor. I’ve seen more meat on a chicken’s forehead, if you’re following my drift. I’ll also say her decision to call Rescue to Restoration may have saved her life if the condition of these floorboards means anyth—”

      Colm stared at the board in his hand, unable to continue with his monologue. He may be just a host for the show, but long before his time in front of the camera, he had spent many hours beside his da in his woodshop. Colm studied the wood.

      Sharp angles, rough edges. Too perfect to be a break.

      He looked over the piece at Gretchen Bauer. She dropped her gaze to her hands in her lap. Was this why she didn’t want the sheriff’s office notified? Did she wonder the same thing he did? Or did she already know the answer to his unasked question?

      “This was no accident, Miss Bauer, was it? Speak to me, Goldie. Who’d want’cha dead?”

       TWO

      “Dead?” Gretchen gasped. “Nobody wants me dead.”

       Do they?

      No, of course not. She fought with the doubts that had appeared in her head the moment her back had come into abrupt contact with the dirt floor. “Why would you say such a thing?” Her words rose in defiance as she pushed her sore body up to stand, biting back the aches. “I’ve lived on Stepping СКАЧАТЬ