Free Once Shadows Fall by Robert Daniels Page A

left the vehicle without another word. She sat there watching him until he disappeared into the house. When the lights came on, she started her car and pulled out of the driveway.
    Maybe my cat’ll be happy to see me .
    *
    The fog surrounding Sandra Goldner slowly lifted as she regained consciousness. Her head was throbbing and her vision was still blurry. She tried moving her arms and found she couldn’t. They were secured aboveher head by a pair of handcuffs looped over a metal pipe. Before passing out for the third time, she’d yelled for help until her voice was hoarse in the desperate hope someone would come.
    The murky darkness enveloping her was terrifying. There was barely enough light seeping through the opening of a huge iron door to see by. It was nearly twenty feet across and at least that much in height. Behind her was another door identical to the first. The floor she was sitting on was cement and incredibly uncomfortable. She tried shaking the pipe. It was firmly anchored and wouldn’t budge. All she managed to do was rub the skin around her wrists raw.
    Calm , she told herself. Stay calm. Panic is the enemy now . As the assistant general manager of a bank with fifteen employees, Sandra considered herself someone who didn’t panic easily. You had to be.
    Think. There’s a way out of this mess. Use your intelligence. Even the most challenging situation has a solution . But intelligence didn’t cover being kidnapped from a public parking lot. The last thing she remembered was walking to her car before a searing pain hit. Her shoulder still bore the mark where the electrodes had attached themselves. After that—blackness.
    Sandra screamed as a tiny animal skittered across her legs, drawing them back out of reflex. In the deathly silence, her hearing had become acute. Though she could barely see it, the sound of the little rodent’s nails running across the floor were clear enough. At first her mind refused to accept this was happening. Now that she had time to think, she was completely focused on survival. It was the only consideration.
    Six weeks had passed since her divorce from Chad, a womanizing, cheating, low-life drunk. She was just beginning to feel human again. With some trepidation, she accepted Betsy Ann’s invitation to come with her to Atlanta and meet her new boyfriend and his buddy. She’d known Betsy Ann since middle school and her friend assured her the guy was all right, a respectable stock broker.
    On the whole, the evening had been a success, but it was too soon. She needed more time to recover from the breakup of her marriage. Even friendly divorces, and hers would hardly qualify as that, took their toll. It was like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer. The only good thing was that eventually you stopped. Jerome’s friend was divorced himself and seemed to sense her discomfort. He told her he hoped they could get together again but didn’t ask for her phone number when they said good night. Hopefully, there’d be a lot of nice guys in her future.
    When this nightmare’s over , she told herself, I’m taking that vacation to Italy I’ve been promising myself .
    She gave the pipe another shake. Nothing.
    Occasionally, there were other noises in the strange room. She considered it further and decided it was really more like a cylindrical space that reminded her of the inside of a grain silo. Creaks and groans came from beyond the back door, as if something was pressing against it. The door was so massive Sandra couldn’t imagine what that could be.
    She gathered herself once more and tried yelling for help. The only response was the echo of her voice bouncing off the walls.
    Does anyone know I’m here? Are they even looking for me? Sooner or later, someone will come and take me away from this terrible place . She clung to that thought like a drowning person clings to a piece of driftwood. Someone had to come.

Chapter 16
    T he following morning found Jack Kale sitting in a