Blue-Eyed Devil (Travis Family #2)(56)

"I thought I loved you," I said aloud, even though Nick couldn't hear me.

But I hadn't known what love was. And I wondered how you could ever be sure, when you thought you loved someone, if you really did.

The next day, it rained.

During the occasional droughts, Houston got so dry that, as a local joke went, "the trees are bribing the dogs." But when it rained, it rained. And as a virtually flat city built around bayous, Houston had major drainage issues. During a heavy downpour, water collected high in the streets and flowed into storm drains, culverts, and bayous that directed the flow to the Gulf of Mexico. In the past, countless people had been killed by flash flooding, their cars overturned or swept away as they tried to cross the rising water. Sometimes flooding ruptured fuel pipelines, sewer lines, knocked out bridges, and made major roads inaccessible.

A flood watch was announced after lunchtime, and later it was changed to an actual warning. Everyone took it in stride, since Houston residents were accustomed to flash flooding and generally knew which streets to avoid during the evening commute.

Late in the day I went to a meeting at Buffalo Tower to discuss a new online system for processing maintenance requests. Vanessa had originally planned to go to the meeting, but she had changed her mind at the last minute and sent me instead. She told me it was mostly an information-gathering meeting, and she had more important things to do than talk about software. "Find out everything about the system," she told me, "and I'll have some questions for you in the morning." I was pretty sure there would be hell to pay if Vanessa had a question I couldn't answer. So I resolved to find out every last detail about the software program, short of memorizing the source codes.

I was relieved but puzzled that Vanessa had not mentioned one word about seeing me at the Harrisburg the previous night. And she didn't ask about Hardy. I tried to read her mood, but that was like trying to predict the weather, an iffy proposition at best. Hopefully she had decided to consider the subject as something beneath her notice.

Even though Buffalo Tower was only a few blocks from 1800 Main, I drove because the rain was coming down in sheets. The building was one of the older skyscrapers, a gabled red granite structure that reminded me of a 1920s-style building.

As I parked in one of the lower levels of the underground garage, I checked my phone messages. Hardy had called, I saw, and my stomach tightened. I pushed a button to hear his message.

"Hey." His tone was brusque. "We need to talk about last night. Give me a call when you get off work."

That was all. I listened to the message again, and I wished I could cancel the meeting and go to him right then. But it wouldn't take long — I would get through it as quickly as possible, and then I would call him.

By the time the software consultant, Kelly Reinhart, and I had finished, it was a few minutes past six. It might have gone on even longer, except there was a call from the security office to tell us that there had been some flooding in the lowest level of the garage. It was mostly unoccupied, since most people had already left for the day, but there were still one or two cars down there, and they should probably be moved.

"Shoot, one of them's mine," I said to Kelly, closing my laptop and sliding it into my briefcase. "I'd better go see to my car. Is it okay if I call you tomorrow about the last couple of points we didn't get to?"

"Sure thing," Kelly said.

"What about you? . . . Are you going to the garage too?"

"I didn't bring my car today, it's in the shop. My husband's picking me up at six-thirty. But I'll ride down with you in the elevator if you want company — "

"No, no . . . " I smiled and picked up my briefcase. "I'll be fine."

"Great. Okay. Call up here or go to the security office off the lobby if you have any problems." Kelly made a face. "The way this old building leaks, your car may be underwater by now."

I laughed. "Just my luck. It's new."

With most of the daytime occupants gone, the building was quiet and a little eerie, doors locked and windows darkened. Thunder was rumbling outside, making me shiver in my business suit. I was glad to be going home. One of my shoes was pinching, and the clasp of my side-zip pants was digging into my skin, and I was hungry. Most of all, J was anxious to reach Hardy and tell him how sorry I was for the previous night. And I was going to explain . . . something.

I entered the elevator and pressed the button for the lowest garage level. The doors closed, and the cab descended smoothly. But as I reached the bottom, the floor beneath me gave a strange lurch, and I heard pops and snaps, and then everything went dead. The lights, the hydraulics, everything stopped. I let out a startled yelp as I was left in complete blackness. Worse, I heard the continuous splash of water, like someone had turned a faucet on inside the elevator.

Concerned but not panicked, I felt for the panel beside the door, pushing a few buttons Nothing happened.

"Phone," I said aloud, trying to reassure myself with the sound of my own voice. "There's always a phone in these things." My groping fingers found an elevator speaker phone with a push button, all of it embedded in the wall. I pushed the button, held it, but there was no response.

I counted myself lucky that I wasn't one of those people with elevator phobias. I was remaining calm. Methodically I went through my briefcase to find my cell phone. Something icy swept over my foot. At first I thought it was a draft, but a second later I felt the wet chill in my pumps, and I realized there were a couple of inches of water inside the elevator cab.