Chapter 25
DIANA
As the doctors and nurses whisk India away in a gurney, I call Storm to let him know that I have found India. I tell him she is unconscious and that I will keep him updated once I know more. He says he will send an officer to keep an eye on her, and asks me to call him the moment I have any news, especially if she wakes up.
When he says he will notify her foster parents I almost tell him he might as well not bother. Clearly those people aren’t interested.
The officer Storm assigned arrives in thirty minutes, but it is another two hours before India’s doctor comes to tell us that India is in a coma. “There are no visible signs of any trauma,” she says. “Initial tests showed no chemical or magical substances in her bloodstream that might be causing the coma, but we are running more tests.”
“So the killer didn’t hurt her physically?” I ask, unable to believe it.
“Her physical condition remains the same as when she was here earlier.”
“What now?” I ask.
“She’s stable enough for us to return her to her private room. We will have to wait and see if she wakes up by herself.”
While the doctor arranges for India to be transferred to her room, I call Storm to update him. I had been too anxious earlier to leave the emergency ward where they had been working on India, so now I spend some time showing people the photo of Hank Lowry. Nobody has seen him here either yesterday or any time before that. I call Storm with the news but end up having to leave a voicemail. I ask him to call me back.
I spent the next hour with India, sitting on the chair next to her bed talking to her quietly, hoping a friendly voice might wake her up. It does not. The machines beep quietly, monitoring her heartbeat. There is another one measuring brain waves or something. But no breathing tube. Whatever has put her in this coma has not stopped her from being able to breathe by herself.
I stare at India’s face. It is wan, her glowing dusky skin dull now. Gone is the bright colorful visage of the cheery girl I had met last Friday. Just six days ago. I wonder if it is a lack of makeup or her ordeal which has made her look so grey.
Her hand is limp and cold. I rub it between mine in a futile effort to warm it up. There had been a time when just this action alone might have sparked a vision. I could have seen where India had been, and perhaps even glimpsed whoever had taken her. If I had been lucky.
That’s the thing with being a psychic, the visions that come to you are whatever want to come to you, never what you ask for.
I reach for my phone almost without thinking about it and dial Theo. When he answers I am momentarily disorientated, not knowing why I called him. Then I say, “India’s in a coma. I just wanted to ask if there’s anything you can think of that might help her? Some wizard-ish magic you could work?”
I almost think he is going to tell me it doesn’t work like that, like I have told people so often about my psychic visions, but Theo says he will see what he can do. Forty minutes later he arrives at the hospital.
It takes some persuading before the Agency officer will allow me to let Theo into India’s room. And in the end, I suspect her acquiescing has as much to do with some mumbled words that Theo had muttered under his breath as my persuasive skills. I raise an eyebrow at him as I shut the door behind us.
He has the grace to blush a little. “It wouldn’t have worked if she really didn't want to let me in,” he says.
“Like hypnosis?” I ask.
“Something like that,” he says distractedly, his attention already on India.
My phone rings, and the lock screen shows me that it is Storm ringing me. I raise a finger to my lips to let Theo know to be quiet while I answer the call.
“Hi Diana,” says Storm. “Are you with India right now?”
I wince. I wonder if he somehow knows that I have let Theo in. It would be just like him. I hadn’t seen the Agency officer making a call on her phone though. “Yes. I’m in her room,” I say.
I’m about to open my mouth to explain why I have asked Theo here, when Storm says, “You asked me to call you back? Has her condition improved?”
“Oh, that. No. I called to say no one has seen Sergeant Lowry. I wanted to ask you what is going on with that. Is he a suspect? Are you looking for him? Have you—”
“Diana,” Storm interrupts me. “I need you to keep an eye on India for me. Make sure Sergeant Lowry doesn’t come anywhere near her. If you see him, call me right away. The officer assigned to guard her also has the same information.”
“Is that really all you are going to tell me?” I say incredulously.
“I’ll keep you updated when I have all of the information,” he says, and to my frustration he hangs up.
I glare in annoyance at my phone. It’s so typical of Storm to tell me to do something but not give me all of the information.
“Problem?” says Theo looking amused.
“It’s fine,” I mutter. Theo is far too observant sometimes. I don’t want him knowing what I might or might not feel for Storm. Or how irritating I think the damn man is.
Theo has already gone to stand over India’s bed, and now he turns his attention back to scrutinizing her. I go over to her and Theo.
“I was hoping you might be able to help her. They said she is in a coma. Is there some kind of magic you could use to help her to wake up?”
Theo is frowning. “Actually,” he says. “I think it might be magic that has been used to do this to her. You said that the hospital said that there is nothing physically wrong with her?”
I nod. “They couldn’t find anything that might have caused her to slip into a coma. They don’t know if she came in by herself and passed out in the waiting room or if someone brought her in. Accident and emergency was so busy that no one noticed. She looked just like another ailing person waiting to be called up. She could have been there for hours. She’s stable, but she won’t wake up. Why do you think its magic? Can you sense something?”
The very first time that I had come into his magic shop Theo had told me that he could sense I had magic. I assume as a wizard that he must be finely attuned to the presence of magic.
Theo nods. “It’s the most curious thing,” he says. “I have no idea how this could be, but it feels like my magic.”
“Your magic? Well, she did come into your store on Friday,” I say. “Could that have left some trace of your magic on her?”
“No. It feels like one of my spells. Like the sort of magic that I would bind into an amulet. It’s localized on her body, but I can’t actually see anything on her.” He raises an eyebrow at me and gestures at India’s prone body on the bed. “Perhaps you can check?”
India looks just like she is sleeping. I hope that she doesn’t mind when I ease back the sheet covering her. The nurses have put her into a hospital gown. I have no idea where she could have come by one of Theo’s amulets, but if he says that is what he is sensing, then I am more than willing to check. Even if it is just to eliminate that possibility.
“She said she’d never been to your shop before Friday,” I say as I look her over. “But maybe someone else got her something from the shop? Maybe they told her about the shop and that’s how she knew about it? It could have been her boyfriend. He could have afforded one of your amulets.”
India’s wrists and her ankles are bare. There are no rings on her fingers. I feel around her throat and chest in case there is a necklace hidden out of sight beneath the gown, but I don’t find any chains there. I pat down her torso and her hips and thighs, but there are no unexpected little bumps.
“There’s nothing,” I tell Theo, in frustration.
I cannot understand how it came to this. She had been talking to me only yesterday. She had wanted so badly to recover her memory. I had thought she would in time. It never occurred to me that she might get worse. Where could she have been? She must have been gone for at least a few hours. Why take her and allow her to escape again? Or maybe she hadn’t needed to e
scape. Maybe she had walked out of here of her own free will.
I wonder if India is the girl that I thought she was at all, or if I had been so eager to make a friend that I had wanted to believe that she is something that she isn’t. I really don’t know what to think any more.
Feeling utterly dejected, I pull the sheet back up in place around India. When I see her foster parents I am going to give them a piece of my mind. I cannot understand why they didn’t come and visit her. She cares for them so much. Do they really think she did that to Rachel?
Theo is frowning. He has moved to the other side of the bed. He gently turns India’s head to the side. He gives a murmur of dismay. I quickly go to his side to see what he is looking at. India’s thick curly hair has been bound into a ponytail. It is held in place by a hair band with two flat stones dangling off it. I recognize one of them. It is a lavastone, a red the color of hot lava, like my own amulet. The other is dark purple.
Theo looks astonished. And angry. He quickly slides the hair band off India’s hair. His fists close around the two stones. He utters a series of sharp words that I don’t understand, and I hear a cracking sound. When he opens up his hand, the two stones have broken into several pieces.
He walks out of the room and all the way down the corridor to a bin and throws them into it with disgust. He returns looking still angrier.
“What was it?” I ask him.
Theo closes the door firmly behind him. He is glowering at me in a way that he never has before. “Did you remove those stones from my inventory?” he says abruptly.
“What? No way. Why would I do that?”
“When this girl visited my shop did you allow her anywhere near the inventory storage?”
“Of course not!”
“Was she out of your sight at any time?”
“No. I was with her the entire time right up until she left.” My cheeks have grown hot with anger and humiliation. It sounds like Theo thinks that I have stolen from him, or allowed India to steal from him.
“Those stones were taken from my inventory,” says Theo grimly. “One contains a powerful memory spell designed to destroy memories, starting with the most recent, and the other is cursed. It’s why your friend is in this comatose state.”
I press my hands to my cheeks in shock. “I had nothing to do with this. Theo, you have to believe me. Can you help her?”
The mixed expression of disbelief and disgusted disappointment on his face makes my insides writhe with humiliation.
“You’re lucky that you asked me to come in, otherwise things would have been much worse for your friend. It’s been only a few hours. I should be able to bring her out of this trance.”
“Thank you,” I say in a small voice. “Will it cause any lasting damage? Or have interfered with her memories of what happened last night?”
“Hopefully not,” he says. “These two amulets should not have been used together. They are not compatible. They were interfering with each other’s designed purpose.”
“And she’ll be okay?”
He nods. “No thanks to whoever did this.” The expression in his eyes lets me know he still thinks it might be me. “After this you and I are going to have to have a serious word about what has happened here.”
I helplessly watch Theo take a piece of leather string out of the bag of supplies that he had brought with him. He threads several small crystals onto it, and then ties it around India’s wrist. He holds both of India’s limp hands. He closes his eyes and seems to concentrate. For more than thirty minutes he chants the same string of incomprehensible words under his breath.
Suddenly India gasps and sits up in bed. She yanks her hands away from Theo’s and clutches them to her chest. She looks at him with wide eyes. “Who are you?” She looks scared.
“This is my friend, Theo,” I say to her quickly. “I asked him to come. I wanted him to help you. You weren’t well.”
She is gasping for breath as if she has had a terrible shock.
“He’s Theo Grimshaw who owns the magic shop,” I explain. “He came to help you.”
I get her a glass of water from her bedside table, and hold it steady while she takes a few sips of it. Theo’s presence here is clearly agitating her. He has backed away from the bed.
“Thank you, Theo,” I say quietly.
I don’t want to discuss what had happened between us in front of India, but I ask him with my eyes to please believe that I had nothing to do with this. “I’ll come and see you tomorrow at the store?”
He gives me a nod before he goes. “Make sure you do.”
I wonder if the only reason he left me alone with her is because of the guard posted outside the door. I hope it is because he believes I would never want to harm India.
“What was that about?” says India when the door has shut behind him. “He looked mad at you.”
“Nothing,” I tell her. “Just a work thing. How do you feel?”
“Really weird. What happened? Is everything okay?”
“You were unconscious for hours. Maybe even all night. They thought you were in a coma. Are you sure you're okay? Do you want me to call a nurse?”
“No, I’m fine,” she says. But then she starts crying. She buries her face into both of her hands and sobs, her shoulders shaking.
I sit down on the bed beside her, hugging her, feeling guilty for thinking that she might have had something to do with what happened to Rachel. “It’s all right, it’s all right,” I say to her over and over until her sobs subside a little bit. Then I ask, “What’s wrong, India?”
“I wish I had never remembered what happened,” she says in despair. “I can’t believe Rachel slept with Charlie. How could she do that to me? It’s no wonder she didn’t want me to move in with him. It’s no wonder she kept telling me that he was no good. And all the while she was sleeping with him.” The words come out in fits and starts, jerky with her anger and rage and grief.
“And I was so angry with her,” she says. “I was saying such awful things to her. And then that man came and killed her. And the last thing I ever said to her were those awful awful things.”
“What man?” I ask her urgently. “Did you remember the man? Do you remember what he looks like?”
But she is not paying attention to my questions. She is shaking her head, the tears pouring down her cheeks. “I don’t even think Charlie wanted me to move in with him really,” she sobs out. “I think he only asked me to make Rachel jealous.”
“India, what man did you see? Tell me!”
But India is shouting now. “Charlie that evil bastard. How could he do that to me? How could he do that to us? She was my best friend! My foster sister! But he didn’t care. I hate him. I hate him so much!”
I grab hold of her shoulders and make her look at me. “India, pay attention. I’m sorry that Charlie and Rachel did that to you. But we need to find the man who killed Rachel. We need to make sure he doesn’t come after you. Who was he? Did you know him? What did he look like?”
She looks confused. “What are you talking about? I told you what he looked like!”
Now it is my turn to be confused. “What?”
“I told you. Dark hair. Glasses. 6 feet tall. I told you yesterday when you took me back to the bar.”
“Me?” I say. “But I never took you anywhere. No one saw who it was. They said the guards were given a potion in their pizza.”
“But that was you,” she says. “You did it. You came to get me. Remember?”
I shake my head. “You’re confused.”
She gives me a funny smile, as if I must be joking. “It was you,” she insists. “You had a black wig on. You were acting really weird. It was you.”
Chapter 26
DIANA
I show India the picture of Hank Lowry on my phone and she is horrified. She confirms it was him who abducted her after killing Rachel. The photo makes her hysterical and nurses arrive to sedate her. I leave her in the care of them and the Agency off
icer, and go to find a bathroom. I make sure all of the toilet cubicles are empty before locking the outer door so that no one else can get in.
I stand over a sink and stare at myself in the mirror. India said it was me. She said I came to get her yesterday. But I had been home. Sleeping. I hadn’t felt well at Agency Headquarters so I had gone home. Hadn’t I?
The thing is that I don’t actually remember going home. All I remember is waking up in my bed late this morning. I had slept seemingly for nearly eighteen hours, and yet I had still felt weary when I awoke. Even now I still feel like someone who has barely slept at all.
Killer Moon Page 16
