Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Box Set

by Willow Rose

  A sergeant passed him, and Matt stopped him.

  “What’s going on?”

  He shook his head. “You’re not gonna believe it,” he said, eyes flickering back and forth, terrified.

  “Try me.”

  The sergeant panted agitatedly. Matt guessed it wasn’t from running, but from the fear rushing through him.

  “There’s been another attack.”

  Matt wrinkled his forehead, fear and worry spreading like wildfire inside him.

  “What do you mean by attack?”

  He shrugged. “Terrorists probably, what do I know?”

  Matt’s eyes grew wide. “Terrorists?”

  “Listen, all I know is that we have about two hundred people at St. Mary’s Cathedral who have been exposed to some type of gas. Just like it happened on the Metrorail last month.”

  “You’re kidding me?”

  “I wish I were, buddy. I wish I were.”

  Chapter 25

  We left the hotel and drove to downtown Miami. Sydney had bought us each a coffee, and I was slurping mine while looking at the town outside my window. It was Sunday morning, and the streets were nearly empty. High-rises and palm trees surrounded us, and the scorching sun was burning through the windshield. We had put the roof on the convertible to keep the heat out, and I cranked up the AC and made sure the air blew in my face. It was already unbearably hot. Big fluffy clouds were building over land, and in a couple of hours, they would turn black as the day’s first thunderstorm approached.

  The cars on the four-lane road drove slowly and, as we passed one of them, I realized they were tourists busy taking pictures with their phones through the windows.

  We stopped at a red light. A man walking on the side of the road was pushing a rusty shopping cart in front of him. Another was begging for money with a sign around his neck pleading to us passersby:

  I AM HUNGRY

  We passed a Marriott and took a left when I spotted a police car in the side-view mirror. It was coming up behind us.

  “Shoot,” Sydney said when she saw it in the rearview mirror. Her hands with the many rings on her fingers began to shake on the wheel. “What do I do? Eva Rae? What do I do?”

  I looked at her briefly, then at the police cruiser coming up behind us. It turned on the siren.

  “Oh, dear God, he knows it is us; he’s coming for us, Eva Rae,” Sydney gasped. “We’re going to jail.”

  My pulse was beginning to quicken as I watched the cruiser come closer behind us, siren wailing. The sound made my heart pound. Was this it? Was it over?

  There was no way I was giving up now.

  I felt my gun in my holster, clutching my hand on the grip. My palms felt sweaty. I really didn’t want to have to hurt a colleague, but if he stopped us and came to the door, then there was no telling what might happen. One thing was certain; I wasn’t going down today.

  “He’s right behind us now, Eva Rae; what do I do? What do I do?” Sydney said.

  “You slow down, then drive the car to the side of the road and stop. Nice and easy,” I said. “And you remain calm.”

  Sydney whimpered something, then did as I told her. She eased off on the accelerator, then turned the Mustang toward the side and slowed even further till it came to a stop.

  The police cruiser behind us came closer still, and we watched it, hearts beating fast, holding our breaths, till it continued past us, sirens blasting loudly as it disappeared down the road.

  I exhaled with profound relief. Sydney moaned and leaned on the wheel.

  “Oh, my God, that was close,” she said.

  I chuckled and leaned my head back in the seat, my heart finally beginning to calm down. It was like every cell in my body was pumping.

  Sydney held her chest and laughed. “God, I was scared.”

  As we sat there, catching our breath, another police cruiser rushed past us on the road, and then another one and one more. I stared at them as they made their way through traffic, then looked at Sydney.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, but it’s something big. I’ve seen more than fifteen police cars drive by in the past minute or two, and now I can hear firetrucks too.”

  Chapter 26

  We continued, going slowly, trying hard not to attract unnecessary attention. As we came further down the road, we saw where all the police cars were going. They had parked in front of a big yellow church building. There were fire trucks and ambulances too, and the area in front of it had been blocked off.

  “What the heck is going on here?” Sydney asked. “It looks serious.”

  There were hundreds of people outside of the church, most of them on the ground. Some were wrenching in pain like they were having seizures, others throwing up. Most of them didn’t move at all.

  Because they’re dead.

  I bit my lip, feeling anxious. I had seen pictures of situations just like this, many of them — when I went through the FBI files of the nerve gas attack on the Metrorail last month.

  This had to be another one.

  The thought was horrifying. One terrorist attack was a terrible thing, but two within this short period of time? It was going to unleash a panic unlike anything we had seen.

  But that was, of course, usually the terrorists’ purpose. To make people afraid of living their lives the way they used to.

  Choppers were above us now, hovering over the area. Police choppers and news choppers were circling our heads.

  “We should get going,” I said. “Before someone sees us here.”

  “Isn’t that…?”

  Sydney pointed, and I turned my head to look. Right there, talking to someone in a hazmat suit, was Matt, the man I loved.

  What is he doing here?

  “What the heck?” I said.

  “That’s your boyfriend; isn’t it?” Sydney asked. “That detective?”

  I nodded, blushing slightly. I missed him so terribly. I hated myself for leaving him the way I had, for running off. I just hoped he knew that I only did what I had to do. We had known each other all our lives, and I just hoped he knew me well enough to forgive me.

  “What’s he doing here?” Sydney asked. “Did you know he was down here?”

  I shook my head. “I haven’t spoken to him since before I left Cocoa Beach.”

  I stared at my beloved boyfriend, my heart thumping in my chest, then looked at Sydney.

  “We should go before he sees us, or before anyone else does, for that matter. We’re kind of suspicious the way we’ve parked across the street from them.”

  “Right,” Sydney said and put the car back into drive. We drove slowly past the scene, and I caught one last glimpse of Matt. As I did, he turned his head and looked directly at me, and I ducked down.

  “Go faster,” I said. “He’s looking at us.”

  Sydney pressed her foot down, and the car jolted forward in between the tall buildings. Sydney floored it, and soon we were back to blending in among the tourists.

  Chapter 27

  It was like a warzone. Matt would know since he had actually been to one. As a young recruit, he was sent to Afghanistan, and what he had seen there, he tried to keep in the box of things he didn’t like to think about. But seeing all those people on the ground, some fighting for their last breath, others having drawn theirs long ago, brought back some very unpleasant memories and popped that box right back open.

  Two firefighters dressed in Level A Protective Personal Equipment, Hazmat suits, and SCBA, self-contained breathing apparatus, carried a woman out of the church and put her at his feet. Matt knelt down and looked at her face. She was alive but fighting to breathe.

  “We’ve got a live one over here,” he yelled as loud as he could. “Any available paramedics?”

  A paramedic came running to him and took over. Matt backed away, sweat running down his spine and behind the gasmask.

  “It’s a God darn mess,” one of the forensics coming up to him said, while Matt
fought to calm himself down. The woman was fighting for her life on a stretcher, while the paramedics put her on respiratory support, giving her atropine in an autoinjector.

  Matt was wearing a hazmat suit to protect him against the gas, and he had been inside, helping to carry out the churchgoers, trying to get them to a safe place away from the gas.

  “I have never seen anything like it,” the forensic said.

  “Was it Sarin gas like the first attack?” Matt asked.

  He nodded. “In the liquid form again. It’s easier to transport, and fortunately, a lot less deadly, but still enough to kill all these people. Luckily, they have it all contained inside the church. I can’t believe it. What kind of a sick mind tries to kill peaceful people going to church on a Sunday morning?”

  Matt watched as more people were rushed away in ambulances, while the paramedics were fighting desperately to save them in time.

  “It’s like a darn insecticide,” he said. “It’s colorless and odorless. You won’t know you’ve been exposed to it until it’s too late and you feel your throat and eyes burn. Once you’ve been exposed, you have only a few minutes before it kills you. It’s nasty.”

  Matt felt a shortness of breath himself behind the mask when thinking about it. He nodded heavily.

  “When the first responders got here, they thought it was just a couple of churchgoers that had fallen ill,” he said. “They sent an ambulance to deal with it, but when the paramedics arrived, suddenly there were twenty people who had fallen ill, and that was when they knew. The first responders were exposed too, though, and have been taken in for treatment.”

  Matt sighed and walked away from the area when he was told that everyone had been taken out of the church. A group of people who hadn’t been exposed and showed no symptoms were gathered on the other side of the church. They were crying and holding each other. Matt took off his mask and helmet, then continued to where they were standing. Carter was taking their statements along with the other detectives. Each and every one of them had to be interviewed. It was vital to do it now when the memory of what had happened was still fresh to them. Maybe one of them had seen the person carrying the gas inside? Maybe they could get a description of the terrorists this time?

  They had called in everyone from the surrounding departments, and the place was crawling with uniforms and suits.

  “Anyone said anything useful so far?” he asked Carter as he approached him.

  Carter took in a deep breath. “A guy saw a plastic bag on the floor and saw liquid inside of it,” he said. “He didn’t think about it but walked right past it and went to the right front side of the church to sit with his fiancée and her family. When he saw it, the bag wasn’t leaking, so we assume there was no hole in it at that point.”

  “So, you’re thinking that someone placed the bags there, then pierced them with something and left.”

  Carter nodded. “That was how they did it on the train, right? But so far, none of the witnesses remember seeing anyone leave the church.”

  “The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force is here and will be taking over now.”

  Matt nodded toward the big black SUVs as they arrived.

  “That’s our cue, I guess,” Carter said. “They’ll be taking over then. Always know how to swoop right in after all the dirty work is done, am I right?”

  Matt didn’t answer. He was happy to leave it in their hands and get back to searching for Eva Rae. As he turned around, he recognized one of the FBI agents. It was an old colleague of his, Patrick Albertson. Patrick saw Matt too and hurried toward him.

  “Matt, my man, what are you doing all the way down here?” he asked, and they shook hands. “Aren’t you still up on the Space Coast?”

  “I am, but I was working on another case down here when this happened.”

  Patrick nodded. “Eva Rae Thomas, huh? Yeah, I heard what happened. I can’t believe she would go rogue like this.”

  “You knew her?” Carter asked.

  “Not well, but back when she was still an agent, I knew her a little bit. She was so good at her job, though. Never would take her for someone who would go nuts.”

  She didn’t go nuts, you idiot. She’s just desperate.

  “Well, there’s two sides to all stories,” Matt said, calming himself down. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

  Matt turned around to walk away, but as he did, he spotted a car parked across the road from the church, on the other side of the police barrier, where many spectators were standing, along with the reporters and their cameras. It was a yellow Mustang convertible. He didn’t know why, but somehow, he felt like the people in the car were watching him, and he felt strangely drawn to the car.

  Who was in there and were they really watching him or was his mind just playing games with him?

  Just as Matt stopped to get a better look, the car suddenly took off in a hurry, driving fast back down the street it had come from, and soon disappearing between the high rises.

  Could it be… was that… was it you, Eva Rae?

  Chapter 28

  THEN

  “I’m sweating like a pig. Can you tell I’m nervous?”

  Helen looked at Angela, who smiled comfortingly. She reached over and stroked her cheek gently.

  They were sitting in the waiting area in front of Christopher Daniels’ office in his multimillion-dollar estate. It was beautifully decorated with gorgeous art and lots of plants and had a soothing aura to it. The surroundings made Helen feel less nervous, but she still had this sensation deep in her stomach that wouldn’t go away. She was about to meet the man whose books she had read cover to cover, whose classes she had taken. To her, he was the smartest and most enlightened person in the world. He had changed her life.

  “No. You look great, sweetie. Just relax. Christopher is really nice. There’s nothing to be nervous about.”

  “Exactly what is supposed to happen during this meeting?” Helen asked, trying to keep her hands calm.

  “This is how you become a full-blown member of NYX and join the inner circle. It’ll blow your mind. You’ll see. Just go along with it. All of it.”

  Just go along with it? What an odd thing to say.

  It didn’t make Helen feel less nervous, and as the door opened, she hid her shaking hands behind her back, then rose to her feet.

  “Go ahead,” Angela said and almost pushed her forward. “You can go in.”

  “You’re not coming with me?” Helen asked.

  Angela shook her head. “No. This is your time to shine. Go.”

  Helen took in a deep breath, then walked to the door and went inside. A man stood by the window, looking out. He was dressed in white from top to bottom; his long brown hair was hanging down below his shoulders. He had an air of peacefulness around him, and he smiled gently at her as he turned his head. She recognized him from all the books and papers in class.

  It was really him. Being the heiress of a billionaire and growing up in her father’s self-built entertainment empire, Helen had met all kinds of important people in this world, even presidents. But none of them had made her feel the way she felt in this instant. It wasn’t love, not the way she had loved Brian; it was something else, something bigger.

  Infatuation.

  From the moment he put his eyes on her, it was like she was put under his spell.

  “Close the door behind you,” he said, and she did, heart pounding in her chest.

  “Come into the light,” he then said. “So I can get a good look at you and really see you.”

  She did as she was told, and he came closer, studying her, but it didn’t make her feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, she found that she enjoyed it; she liked the way he looked at her with his deep blue eyes.

  “There you go. Now, I see you,” he said. “Now, I really see you. I see so much beauty in you, and it’s time you stop hiding it.”

  Helen blushed. “Really?”

  He came up close behind her, and she felt her stomach flutter. S
he felt his warm breath on her skin and closed her eyes for a second. When he put his hand on her shoulder, it felt like an explosion inside of her.

  Chapter 29

  “Lori Moore?”

  The woman in the white shirt with the yellow scarf tied around her neck stopped in her tracks. We had driven to Bal Harbor in Miami Beach, a small wealthy community at the north end of town. There were tons of exclusive shopping malls and high-end restaurants. The cars were Ferraris, Maseratis, and Teslas. This was the type of environment that Sydney felt at home in and was accustomed to. Not me.

  The woman in the high heels came walking into the lobby of the Ocean View Hotel, a luxury hotel that she owned.

  “Who’s asking?” she said while signing something a young woman was holding out for her. The woman then rushed off with the signed paperwork. Lori Moore gave me a suspicious look. I was wearing a baseball cap and had dyed my hair black on Sydney’s recommendation. Apparently, my red hair was way too obvious now that I was a wanted person. It was the type of dye that would wash out after a couple of days.

  “I want to talk to you about NYX,” I said, leaning forward and speaking in almost a whisper.

  Our eyes met, and hers grew serious. Lori looked around her, then signaled for us to follow her. We took the elevator to the twelfth floor, and she showed us into her office. It had an incredible view of the ocean on one side and Intracoastal on the other, and then Miami downtown towering in the distance. It was quite breathtaking.

  Lori closed the door behind us.

  “Please, sit down.”

  We did, and she sat on the other side of her desk and leaned back with a deep sigh.

  “Why are you here?”

  “We are investigating NYX,” I said. “I know you used to be a member and that you have spoken out against them on your blog. I believe this is their symbol, am I right?”