Knowledge is of no value
unless you put it into practice.
—Anton Chekhov
21
Mom was right. There was something
wrong with Katie. She was covered in something red and wet and
slimy. Katie stood in the kitchen, dripping. A pool of red ooze was
collecting under her.
But that wasn’t the weird
part.
It was her eyes. They were locked on
the far wall, the pupils pinpoints. She was trembling, her lips
almost pure white. And she didn’t respond when I called her name,
poked her arm, or shook her.
This isn’t
depression.
It was time to get her to a
hospital.
I tried pulling her toward the door.
She didn’t budge.
I looked at Gabe. Gabe glanced down at
his designer sweater and jeans, scooped the dripping, shaking Katie
into his arms, and hauled her to my car. He drove—I was still a
little groggy from those stupid pills. I tried to get Katie to say
something.
She didn’t.
I soon found myself in familiar
territory, in the hospital emergency room. I could tell some of the
staff recognized me. They gave me a wide berth. Fortunately, it
didn’t impact Katie’s care. She had a nurse and doctor at her
bedside within minutes. The nurse checked her blood pressure and
heart rate, while the doctor asked Gabe what had happened. I took
care of the business end of things, giving Katie’s insurance
information to the lady from registration.
Mom dashed in just as we were finishing
up. “How is she?”
I shoved Katie’s insurance card and
driver’s license into my purse. “We don’t know yet. They took her
back to a room. Gabe went with her to answer questions. What
happened?”
Mom shrugged. “One minute, I was alone,
and the next, she was standing there, just like you found
her.”
I motioned toward some nearby chairs in
the waiting room. “My life has turned into an episode of
Lost.” At Mom’s nod, I claimed a seat facing
the registration desk. “It’s going from weird to
weirder.”
Mom sat next to me. “I’m sure she’ll be
okay.”
“She hasn’t been herself for a while.
I’ve been a little worried about her. But things have been so
crazy, I haven’t had any time to think about what it could
be.”
“You’ve had a lot to deal with
lately.”
I hugged my purse to my chest. “She
either sleeps day and night, or wanders around, sleepless. And then
there’s her room. She’s always been such a neat freak, and now it
looks like a feature on Hoarders. She’s been
super irritable too. I thought it might be depression. I didn’t do
anything. I just left her alone and pretended nothing was wrong.” I
dropped my face into my hands. “I feel like I’ve let her
down.”
Mom wrapped an arm around my shoulders
and gave them a gentle squeeze. “You haven’t. You’re here
now.”
“But maybe if I’d done something
sooner, we wouldn’t be here now. It wouldn’t have gotten this
bad.”
“Do what,
Sloan?” Mom asked.
“I don’t know. Get her to see another
doctor?”
“You can’t make someone do something
they don’t want to do.”
“I know.”
Mom gave me another motherly squeeze.
“You’ve had a rough few days. I think you need some
rest.”
That statement only reminded me that I
could have an unwelcome nocturnal visitor tonight. And now that JT
had stormed off, I had no idea who, if anyone, would be keeping a
watch out for it.
“Sleep is highly overrated.” I turned
to Mom. “Anyway, we didn’t get to finish our conversation. About
Dad? What makes you think he’s still alive?”
“This.” Mom dug into her purse and
pulled out a daisy, dried between two sheets of acid-free
paper.
“Mom ...” It was hardly proof that a
man who’d been believed to be dead for decades was still
alive.
“I know what you’re thinking. Daisies
are everywhere. But here’s the thing. Your father and I met at a
park, and I made him a daisy crown. I wore one in my hair on my
wedding day.”
So far, I wasn’t seeing the
significance. “Yes, and ... ?”
“Nobody knew this about us, but we made
a promise to each other on our wedding night that we would always
be together. Actually, your father made this promise to me. I
thought it was strange at the time, but it was important to him, so
I listened.”
Still, nothing. “Okay.”
“He said, if we were ever separated, by
anything or anyone, he’d find a way to let me know he was okay.
He’d send me ... a dried daisy.”
Now I got it. “You swear nobody else
knew?” I asked.
“No one.”
“Okay.” I sat back and took stock of
the situation. It was an odd coincidence. And there was a sense of
believability to the story. And yet, I had my doubts. “Where did
you find the flower?”
“On my nightstand. It wasn’t there when
I went to bed.”
I inspected the flower closer. It was
fragile. I couldn’t tell how long it had been preserved. “Did you
save any of the flowers from your wedding?”
“Yes, of course, I did. I saved every
single one from my bouquet. They’re safe and sound in my old copy
of The Catcher in the Rye.”
“Maybe you’d better check and see if
one’s missing.”
“Do you suppose someone broke into my
apartment, took one of my flowers out of the book, and put it on my
nightstand? Why would anyone do such a thing?”
“I don’t know, Mom. But before you
start believing Dad’s alive, it’s a good idea to
double-check.”
She shrugged. “I guess you’re
right.”
“You’ll tell me what you
find?”
“You’ll be the first to know.” Mom
stood. “If there’s nothing else I can do, I think I’d like to go
home.”
“It’s okay. Go home. Get some rest.
I’ll let you know when we get out of here.”
Mom and I exchanged a hug—which used to
be very rare. I don’t know if it was the mental illness or
something else, but Mom had never tolerated people touching her. It
was a wonder she’d ever conceived a child. Lately that seemed to be
changing.
Minutes after Mom left, Gabe ambled
into the waiting room and flopped into a chair next to
me.
“How’s Katie?” I asked.
“The red stuff was some kind of paint.
Evidently, she bathed in it.”
“Bathed in paint? That’s not something
a girl does on a regular basis.”
“Yeah. She couldn’t say why either.”
Gabe snatched a copy of Good Housekeeping
off the table next to him and started thumbing through the pages.
“I left when the doctor came in, so I don’t know what’s going on.
Before I came down here, though, I checked with the nurses’
station. The doctor ordered some tests. She’ll be here awhile, at
least a few hours. Are you going to wait?”
“I don’t know. I guess I
will.”
“I’ll stay with you.”
“That isn’t necessary.”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind.” He leaned
closer. “Maybe now you can tell me what’s up with the DNA
analysis?”
“Oh. Sure,” I whispered. I glanced
around. A pair of elderly men sat huddled in one corner of the
room. And a woman was cradling a small sleeping child in another.
None of the people seemed interested in what we were talking about.
“The sample contains insect DNA. They’re running further tests to
try to identify which species. JT thought the unsub
might—”
“JT knows about the sample?” Gabe said
a little too loudly.
I stiffened and checked the men. They
were still doing their own thing, but the woman was looking our way
now. I held an index finger to my lips, warning him to keep his
voice low. “JT was the one who found someone to run the
test.”
A little muscle along Gabe’s jaw
pulsed. “Did you tell him where you got the sample?”
“No. What’s your problem with him,
anyway? I’ve never seen you treat anyone so harshly—except for me,
of course.”
“I told you, I don’t trust him. I
haven’t trusted him since I joined the PBAU. And I trust him even
less now, after what he did to you. By the way, you don’t seem to
be very upset about that.”
“I’m upset. Especially since what he
told them isn’t true. We haven’t slept together. Hell, we haven’t
even kissed.” Hardly kissed. “But I’m having
a hard time believing he’s going around telling people lies. I
don’t see him being that kind of guy, for one. And secondly, that
would put his job in jeopardy too.”
Gabe didn’t look convinced. “You
haven’t known him for long. Maybe you don’t know him at
all.”
“True, but it’s obvious he cares about
his job. I can tell that already.”
Gabe’s mouth thinned. “Whatever.
Anyway, what do you think the test means?”
“I’m guessing the sample was tainted
with insect DNA. Maybe the victim swatted a mosquito?”
“Yeah, maybe.” Gabe looked
doubtful.
“You disagree?”
Gabe shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve been
doing some reading, and ... you’re going to think I’m crazy...
.”
“I’m going to
think you’re crazy? Gabe, did you know I was
prescribed antipsychotic drugs for hallucinations?”
Gabe’s eyes widened.
“What?”
“Yeah. The doctor decided I was
hallucinating, diagnosed schizophrenia, and drugged me
up.”
“No shit.” He gave me an appraising
look, like he half expected to see something had changed since I’d
been diagnosed. “I’d heard you were attacked, not that you’d had
some kind of breakdown.”
“I was attacked.
The problem is, when the doctor saw the video recording of the
attack, there was no attacker.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not schizophrenic.”
“Yeah.”
“I was attacked by something ...
unnatural. Something that isn’t captured with regular
video-recording equipment.”
Gabe didn’t respond right away. “So the
doctor saw you freaking out about something that wasn’t
there?”
“Exactly.”
“Then it’s true,” Gabe
whispered.
“What?”
“Monsters really do
exist.”
“Are you making fun of
me?”
“Hell no.” He was serious.
“I can’t say if ‘monsters’ exist, but I
can tell you this. There are things out there that we don’t
understand. Strange, dangerous things.”
“Maybe you should dig out your dad’s
old papers?” Gabe suggested.
“Yeah, maybe I should.” I leaned back
in my chair, stretching my legs out in front of me, and let my head
rest against the wall.
Sometime later, Gabe nudged me awake. I
opened my eyes to find I’d flopped over and was using his shoulder
as a pillow. I apologized and straightened up, blinking bleary eyes
to try to clear them.
“Katie’s being discharged. Are you
ready to go?”
“Yeah.” I pushed to my feet and
shuffled after Gabe, who was leading the way. Katie met us at the
door. She still had red paint in her hair, and in her eyebrows. All
around her fingernails were stained crimson. “How are you
feeling?”
“No better. I told the doctors
something is wrong with me, but they didn’t find anything.” She
visibly sighed. “I feel like my brain is short-circuiting. My hands
and feet are numb. And sometimes I have this awful itchy-crawly
sensation under my skin.” A tear slipped from the corner of Katie’s
eye. She dragged her hand across her face, smearing it. The
slightest tint of red stained her cheek.
I was petrified for her.
Numbness. Itching. Now, those were
physical symptoms. Vague and unspecific, but still physical. “We’ll
take you to a doctor,” I promised. “We’ll find one that can figure
it out. The numb sensation in your hands and feet ... I wonder
about that.” I put my arm around Katie’s shoulder and walked her
out to the car. Gabe drove us home and parked my car. After making
sure we got into our building safely, he headed home.
Katie went straight to
bed.
Now I was alone. I was scared. All I
could think about was Mr. Stinky’s awful face. And that terrible
voice. When I closed my eyes, I could almost hear him. A little
scratch, the soft pad of footsteps, the creak of a
door.
There was no way I was going to sleep
tonight.
Recalling the conversation I’d had with
Gabe, I snatched my keys and headed down to our building’s
basement. Each apartment had a small storage locker down there.
Somewhere, in the mountain of boxes I’d shoved into the
six-by-six-by-seven space, was a small box with my dad’s notes and
papers. I unlocked the metal gate and opened the locker. My eyes
traveled up, up, and up the stack of tightly packed boxes. This was
going to take a while. And I was tired. But it was better than
going upstairs, falling asleep, and being woken by that ...
thing.
I pulled the top box off the stack and
dragged it out of the way. A quick inspection told me that wasn’t
the box I needed, so I repeated the process with the next one, and
the next, and the next. After intense labor, I had half of the
contents of the locker crammed against the coin-operated washer and
dryer, which nobody used. It took me more hours spent searching to
find the right carton. Of course, it was one of the last ones,
jammed into a small nook at the rear of the locker. I hastily
rammed all the boxes back in place, locked the gate, and carted my
find upstairs. I sat up into the early morning, reading and
munching on nacho chips and cheese dip.
Just after daybreak, a knock on the
front door interrupted my reading.
JT.
I stepped aside. “Hi.”
“I saw lights on. Did I wake you?” He
took a look at me and grimaced. His gaze settled on the top of my
head.
Out of instinct, my hand went to my
head. My hair, I realized, was a mess. “It’s okay. I wasn’t
sleeping.” I motioned toward the couch. “Have a seat. I was just
about to make some coffee.”
JT didn’t move. He was staring at the
couch.
“Sorry. I guess I got a little carried
away with the research.” I rushed to the sofa and gathered up the
papers and folders strewn all over. Dividing them into stacks, I
set these on the floor.
“It’s okay.” JT caught my arm, coaxing
me to stop what I was doing and turn toward him. “I won’t stay
long. I just wanted to talk about what Gabe said
yesterday.”
“Okay.” I pleaded silently,
Please tell me it wasn’t true. I crossed my
arms over my chest.
“I ... um ...” JT glanced down at his
hands, and I got a sick feeling in my stomach.
“It’s true?” I asked.
“Not exactly.”
What did that mean?
“Okay.”
“You know I wouldn’t do anything to
risk your job, or your reputation.”
“I thought I
knew that.” I took a little step back, suddenly feeling like he was
standing too close. “But ... well ...”
“I made the mistake of trusting someone
I shouldn’t have.”
Shit!
My heart started thumping so hard, I
could hear each beat in my head. “First, why would you tell anyone
anything at all? And second, why would you lie? We’re not sleeping
together.”
“I wanted to arrange a surprise for
you. And I needed this other person’s help.”
I shoved my fingers through my matted
hair. “And now, thanks to this ‘other person,’ I’m viewed as the
bureau’s ho.”
“No.” JT reached for me, but when I
flinched, he dropped his arms to his sides. “Nobody sees you that
way. Your friend is exaggerating.”
I wanted to believe JT—I really did.
But why would I? Here I was, the new girl, allegedly already doing
the nasty with one of her superiors. Even if people didn’t say it,
they were thinking I was the office whore, trying to sleep my way
up the ranks.
I guess that left me with two
options.
I could leave the bureau, letting
people believe what they wanted.
Or I could prove them wrong. And the
first step in proving them wrong would be to solve our
case.
Which would it be? Option A or
B?
Option B, of course.
Now I didn’t just have something to
prove to myself. But I had something to prove to a lot of people.
And by God, I was going to do it, creepy monster stalker or
not.
My decision made, I cleared my throat.
“There are a lot of things about you I really like.” His butt, for
one. And his dimples. And his smile. And the way he held me and
made me feel safe. “But if I’m going to have any hope of getting
past this and having a career in the FBI, I need to work hard and
prove myself. I don’t need distractions or rumors or innuendo. I
need a partner I can trust.”
“That, you will always
have.”
I took another step back. “I’m sorry it
has to be this way.” That was no lie. Looking at him now, I felt my
heart ache a little. The truth was, those little moments we’d
shared were some of the most thrilling I’d ever had, with any man.
To think I’d never again see that naughty glimmer in his eye, or
that slightly lopsided evil smile....
Making me feel even worse, I imagined
him giving another woman that lopsided smile.
My heart hurt.
But at this stage in my life, my career
was much more important. And so was his. This thing wasn’t doing
him any favors either, I was guessing. If I had to remind myself of
that from now until the day I retired from the bureau, then that
was what I’d do.
I forced myself to lift my chin and
stand a little straighter. “Now I think I’m going to get dressed
and go for a jog. Is the team still set up over at the bank-owned
house in Clarksville?”
“ No.”
“That’s okay. You can follow me from a
distance. I wasn’t crazy about that stupid wire, anyway. You’re
welcome to help yourself to some water. I’ll be out in a
few.”
“Thanks.” JT headed for the
kitchen.
I hurried to my room, wriggled myself
into a sports bra, and threw on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.
Before heading out to the kitchen for some much-needed caffeine, I
scraped my hair into a ponytail, brushed my teeth, and smeared some
concealer over the huge purple circles under my eyes. It didn’t
help much. I fluffed on a little blush and glossed up my lips in an
attempt to look somewhat presentable. I carried a fresh pair of
socks and my running shoes out to the kitchen.
JT handed me a full mug of coffee. I
thanked him, trying to pretend I hadn’t felt a little something
when our fingertips grazed as he handed me the cup. I dumped a lot
of powdered creamer in the cup and guzzled it.
JT refilled mine and his. He picked a
file off the counter. “I hope you don’t mind. I looked at this
while you were dressing.”
“Oh. Um, no.” I dug in the cabinet for
something to eat and scored a box of Pop-Tarts. I offered a package
to him.
He ripped open the foil wrapper. “This
is very interesting stuff.” He motioned toward the file, which he’d
set back on the counter.
“It’s my father’s research. I’d never
read any of it. But after what’s happened to me, I thought it was
time to take a look.”
“Do you mind if I read a little
too?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Thanks.” He headed to the living room,
while I put on my shoes. He had gathered one stack of folders in
his arms. “I’ll return these as soon as I get a chance to read
through them.”
“Take your time. As you see, there’s
plenty left for me to go through.” I motioned toward the door.
“Ready to head out?”
“Yep.”
We met Mom out in the parking lot.
Evidently, she was still on the job. She waved at us from her car.
I went over and poked my head in the window.
“Hey, there,” I said. “We’re heading up
to the Clarksville house. Are you hungry?”
“Maybe a little.”
“It’s not your favorite, but I supposed
it’s better than nothing.” I handed her a package of S’Mores
Pop-Tarts.
“Thanks, honey.” Wrinkling her nose,
she ripped the wrapper and pulled one of the pastries out. “I had a
feeling you’d go to work today.”
“Yeah, I can’t sit
around.”
“You never could. Just like your
father.” Mom filled her mouth with pastry and smiled. “Not bad. Not
bad at all.”
“Okay, I’m going to head out
now.”
Mom’s expression turned serious. “Be
careful.”
“Will do.”
“Love you!” she called to me as I
hurried toward my car.
JT met me in the middle of the parking
lot. He insisted on driving, so we took his car. During the short
drive, I skimmed some of the files he’d taken. He parked in the
driveway; Mom parked farther down the street, where she’d be less
conspicuous. He and I went into the house.
There was a dead mouse lying on the
foyer floor. Probably the attack cat’s latest victim. JT took the
stiff rodent to the garage, while I reluctantly investigated the
rest of the house. No sign of a cat. No sign of any other visitors
either.
“I’d love to find out where that beast
is hiding,” I told JT when he came back in from the garage. He
looked a little pale. “What’s wrong?”
“I called 911. Come here!” He turned
around and ran back into the garage.
“Why? What is it?” Bracing myself for
what had to be a gruesome sight, to make JT look so sickly, I
followed. Inside the garage, the air was hot, and it smelled like
gasoline and warm rubber. Sprawled on the concrete floor was a
child. A little girl. I recognized the clothes. “Oh, my God! It’s
Tutu Girl.” I rushed to her side and dropped to my knees. “Is she
breathing?”
“Yes.” JT gently rolled her over. “And
she has a steady pulse.”
“I know this little girl. She lives
down the street. She’s the missing child Gabe’s team has been
searching for.”
“Call the chief. And open the garage
door. It’s hotter than hell in here.”
I shot to my feet and went in search of
the button to start the automatic garage door opener. Moments
later, the door lifted, and a cool breeze blew through the growing
gap between the floor and the bottom of the door. Then I went in
search of my purse, which I’d left in JT’s car. I called the
chief’s cell phone. She answered on the second ring, and I told her
what had happened. Meanwhile, Mom came jogging up to me and tried
to tell me something, while I tried to give chief the rundown. As I
shushed Mom and blurted out the few sketchy details I had for the
chief, the ambulance rolled up in front of the house, lights
flashing. I pointed the EMT toward the garage and ended the call
with the chief, following him. A second EMT followed me, pulling a
gurney. Mom hung back, down at the end of the
driveway.
JT and I answered questions as the two
men checked the little girl’s pulse, respiration, and heart rate. A
marked police car rolled up as they were putting in an IV. The
officer asked me questions, and I answered them, telling him where
the little girl lived. He headed down to the house to see if anyone
was home. Feeling helpless, I stood there and watched as the EMTs
lifted the child onto the bed.
“Is she going to be okay?” I asked as
they rolled her down the driveway, toward the waiting
ambulance.
“Yeah, I think so. She’s dehydrated.
Other than that, she looks okay.”
I sucked in a lungful of air. “Thank
you.” I felt JT behind me. He didn’t touch me, but it was still
reassuring having him there. I looked around for Mom, but I didn’t
see her. Probably headed back to her car. I glanced down at my
hands. They were shaking. My insides twisted into a
knot.
I had no idea I could be so upset about
seeing someone else’s child sick or hurt. Made me wonder if I could
handle a case involving a kid, if my emotions would get to
me.
“It’s never easy when it’s a kid,” JT
said, as if he could read my mind. “They get to guys who’ve been on
the job for decades.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“The important thing is how you handle
it. If you can keep doing the job, you’ll be okay.”
If I could keep
doing the job.
“How about we head to the office and
take a look at those files?” JT offered.
“No.” I mentally pulled up my
bootstraps.
JT’s eyebrows rose. “No?”
I hitched up my chin. “I’m going for my
run. And you’re going to follow me.”
“Are you sure? You look like you didn’t
sleep at all last night and—”
“I didn’t. And you know why. But, like
you said, I have to keep doing my job. If I do, I might save
somebody’s life.”
“Okay.” He gave me a pat on the
shoulder. “You’re tougher than you realize. I respect that about
you.”
I tried to pretend I wasn’t blushing. I
gave him a little push and started walking. “Ah, six miles is
nothing.” I started at a walk, swinging my arms to get my heart
pumping a little. My eyes bounced back and forth, from one side of
the street to the other, one house to another, among houses and
trees and parked cars. Everything looked normal. Ordinary. One
vinyl-sided house after another. One manicured lawn after another.
Nothing stood out as I jogged down the winding street, heading
toward the wooded main road. Every now and then, I’d peer over my
shoulder, catching a glimpse of JT’s car. He would drive a little,
then park; drive, then park. I didn’t see Mom’s car following me. I
wondered if she’d given up and gone home.
Falling into a comfortable pace, I
jogged out of the subdivision, turning onto the main street. It was
cooler there, the trees shading the road. My skin, now slick with
sweat, prickled as goose bumps erupted over my arms and legs. It
felt good. I inhaled deeply through my nose, enjoying the scent of
trees and freshly mown grass. I rounded the bend, approaching the
school on my left. There were no cars in the lot, no kids or buses.
By the time I turned back into the subdivision, nearly completing
the full circle, I had started to feel a little tired. I slowed my
pace to a walk as I turned the final corner.
Mom’s car was still parked where it had
been. I peered in the window as I walked past.
No Mom.
Where’d she go?
Mom, not again. Not
now.