Top of The Edge - Who's There?

Suddenly Smith and Tuttle heard another shriek of pain coming from what sounded to be a man's voice just beyond the door to which they were now standing adjacent. As Smith started to knock on the door, Tuttle stopped him, and keeping his voice low said, "If we get involved in whatever is going on beyond this door, we may as well abort our primary purpose for even being here. We need to stay focused on Michaels. I'm pretty certain that he has our bicycle girl somewhere on this floor."

Smith nodded in agreement, "You're right, her safety is paramount, but I don't agree that getting involved here necessitates having to abort our original mission." Now they heard a female voice coming from beyond the door. "You, sorry sack of worthlessness! When I get done with you..." At that moment Smith knocked loudly on the door. Then there was silence followed by the man inside screaming, "Help! She's trying to kill me."

"Whoever you are in there, you need to let us in."

"Or?" the female voice responded.

"Or we can get hotel security to let us in."

"Who are you?"

"We're with law enforcement Miss, and you need to open this door now."

The door opened slowly as Nadean Wycliffe stepped to one side. When they saw what was lying on the floor Smith was speechless as he just stood there with his jaw dropped open and eyes widened. Tuttle smiling and shaking his head in disbelief said, "Well, well Professor Michaels..." The professor was lying on the floor with his feet and hands pulled behind him and tied together. The bicycle girl about whom Smith and Tuttle had been so concerned, had hog-tied the good professor.

Smith sat down at the foot of the bed and showed Nadean his FBI credentials and asked, "Can you tell us exactly what happened here Miss...?"

"I'll tell you." Professor Michaels blurted out between groans. "She robbed me, and she was about to kill me. Thank goodness you guys..."

"Shut up!" Smith said as he gave the professor a swift kick in the side. "I'm not talking to you. You'll have plenty of time to talk once we get you down to the police station." Nadean smiled at that and began her explanation, "My name is Nadean Wycliffe. I am a freshman at the College of Charleston, and this sorry excuse of a human being lying on the floor is my philosophy professor, Professor Michaels. He's the piece of trash that raped my mentor and friend."

"Who is your friend that he allegedly raped?" Smith asked. "Do you think she would be willing to testify against him?"

"Allegedly!? Oh, he raped her. I'm certain of that. And I don't know whether she would be willing to help you or not... or if she is even able. From what I've heard, she's in a pretty bad way and not talking to anyone."

"Who is she?" Smith asked again, although he was all but certain he knew to whom Nadean was referring at this point.

"Susie Altman." Nadean answered. Upon hearing Suzy's name, Professor Michaels began to desperately exclaim. "That's a lie! I don't even know who this Suzy person is."

"I thought I told you to shut up." Smith said again as he angrily gave Michaels another swift kick in the side. "I don't want to have to break one of your ribs."

Responding to Nadean Tuttle empathically stated, "We are familiar with Miss Altman's situation."

"And what makes you so certain that Professor Michaels is responsible for what happened to her? Smith asked."

"Are you kidding? I watched him that night as he dumped her off at her dorm."

"You watched him? And you know for certain that it was him?"

"Oh, I'm certain alright. When he left Suzy, he scurried away like a scared dog with his tail between his legs. He passed right by me, and I followed him straight to his car."

"Where were you exactly that you could see all of this without him detecting you?" "And without us detecting you?" Smith thought to himself.

"I was sitting on the steps of my dorm when I first saw him practically carrying her up the steps of her dorm. It was at that point that I relocated myself behind the Azalea bushes out front. Actually, I couldn't tell who he was until he passed by where I was hiding. He passed within 3 feet of me. I knew then exactly who he was, even if he had his hat pulled down and his collar turned up to hide his face. But just to make sure, I followed him and watched him doff both his hat and coat before getting into his car. There was no mistaking it, I would know that beady-eyed, needle-nosed, impish sneak anywhere.

So, when he... attempted to proposition me by telling me that the only way I was going to pass his class was if I 'got together' with him. I saw it as an opportunity to... handle the situation."

"That was very risky and dangerous." Smith said admonishingly. Nadean looked at him incredulously and replied, "For who? Me or him? I can take care of myself, thank you very much."

Tuttle had been on the phone and as he hung it up said, "The police are on their way, and with your testimony ma'am he'll be spending some time behind bars." Nadean's expression was one of disappointment as she apprehensively said, "but... uhm..."

"You're not considering not testifying against this cockroach... are you?"

"Oh no, nothing like that. It's just that... he claims to have pictures of me... and... not fully clothed from a department store dressing room. He has yet to: 1) show me these lurid pictures, 2) tell me how someone was able to take these pictures, and 3) the name of the perverted photographer that took the pictures." Smith gave the professor another kick to the side, much harder than the previous kicks, and asked, "Where are these pictures, Michaels?"

"I beg your pardon sir." Nadean quickly interjected. "If these pictures of me do exist, I don't want anyone to see them... including you. I know I'm asking a lot, but if you could just leave me alone with him for a few more minutes..."

Smith stood shaking his head and said, "I'm going down to the lobby to wait for the police to arrive." As he stepped out of the room, Tuttle smiled and said to the professor, "As much as I would like to stick around and watch this young lady extract that information from you, out of my respect for her, I'm going to have to take a little walk down to the lobby myself." Then he looked at his watch and addressed Nadean, "The police should be here in about ten minutes. I'll be back up in 9. Is that enough time?"

Nadean smiled and nodded once, and as Tuttle was leaving the room, Professor Michaels began pleading with him, "Please, please don't leave me alone with her."

Flare contemplation

"We need to hurry back to camp and fill Maryanne in on what we saw." Cherry said as she prompted Ranger to pick up his pace.

"Shouldn't we send up a flare?"

"If we had both seen it, yeah, I would say let's send one up, but since I'm the only one that seems to have seen anything, I think we should just keep our eyes peeled. Maybe it was nothing at all, but if it was something, we need confirmation."

"Stop!" Robyn said, "Listen. Do you hear that?" Cherry brought Ranger to a full stop as Robyn had done with Blue. "It sounds like an angry man yelling at somebody." Cherry said, "It's coming from back where we just turned around."

"Let's check it out", Robyn said as she turned Blue around and prompted him to a full gallop. Robyn was right behind her.

Louise was pleading with her husband. as he continued to pull her toward the water by her hair. "Please Ralph honey, please, you're going to miss your opportunity to shine... why...why... Hitler himself will probably want to thank you personally, and I'm certain that your cousin Henry will want to talk to you about how you helped the third Reich achieve goals toward defeating the U.S."

Considering what Louise was saying, Ralph suddenly released her hair. His blind rage was now replaced by a keen sense of purpose and self-importance. He looked at Louise with contempt and said, "Quit dawdling Louise and let's get moving. We need to find our man."

That's when they heard the sound of horses galloping in their direction. Instinctively they quickly ran behind the dunes and ducked down for cover.

As they brought their horses to a halt neither Cherry nor Robyn said a word. They just listened. Finally, after a good 10 minutes or so, Cherry said, "I don't hear anything now, but the sound of the surf."