Shadow Play

by Iris Johansen

  “Very sparse, I’d say.” He paused, then said harshly, “I can’t deny I’m disappointed as hell. But whether you can do anything more or not, thank you for what you’ve already done. You’ve been the only one in my corner since the night I found Jenny. Maybe they’ll believe me and move on this after that driver was killed.”

  “Maybe. Good-bye, Nalchek. I’ll get back to you.” She hung up.

  She doubted if Nalchek would get anyone to push forward on a cold case when they didn’t have proof of identity. It had been her experience that any excuse was good enough for manpower-strapped law-enforcement departments to file away the records in a bottom drawer and look the other way. But they’d had a chance with that reconstruction, dammit. She defied anyone to look at that face and turn away.

  I won’t let it matter, Jenny. I won’t let what he did make a difference.

  Somehow, I’ll make it work.

  * * *

  “You’re very quiet,” Joe said as he pulled her closer in bed that night. “Depressed?”

  “Yes.” She stared into the darkness. “And angry. I can’t let him get away with it, Joe.”

  “I knew that was coming.” He paused. “We have a chance. I found tracks of a vehicle near the road and sent the imprints to the lab. That may help, but what else are we going to do about it?”

  “We? It’s my job.”

  “Not with a killer out there.”

  She would feel the same way about him. “And I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I’m trying to put something together. I feel as if the rug’s been jerked from beneath me.” She was silent. “I was so sure that I was doing the right thing sending the reconstruction back to Nalchek. I wanted desperately for Jenny to find her family. She seemed so … lost.”

  “Lost?”

  “When Bonnie first came back to me, she wasn’t like Jenny. She was just the way she was when she was alive. Oh, she had things she didn’t know, like about where she was, and a few lapses of memory about how she died. But she knew me, she knew what we were together.”

  “And Jenny isn’t like that?”

  She shook her head. “She doesn’t remember her parents. She doesn’t remember anything about who killed her. She has only fleeting memories about anything connected to her life. As for her afterlife, that’s terribly vague. She only knows she’s been waiting.”

  “Waiting to know who killed her?”

  “I don’t know, Joe. Maybe waiting for her parents to bring her home? Though I think that things were starting to come back to her.” She paused. “That last day I actually saw her.”

  “What?”

  “I saw her. I’d said something about how happy I was that I knew what she looked like after I finished the reconstruction. And later I saw Jenny in her white dress and black, patent-leather shoes. She wanted to please me. She was so sad when I told her I was sending her away.”

  “You actually saw her? The way you see Bonnie?”

  She nodded. “I was surprised, too. She said that she’d thought she might be able to do it, so she tried. I think that she was exploring, stretching…”

  “Since she was no longer lying in that grave, waiting,” he said bitterly.

  “I don’t believe that’s what she meant.”

  “You’ll have to forgive me. Your Jenny is a little out of my experience.”

  “And mine.” She closed her eyes. “Hold me tighter, Joe.”

  His arms closed around her. “There has to be some kind of cosmic justice for kids like Jenny. I don’t believe God would saddle you with that responsibility. She’s kind of out of our jurisdiction.”

  “How do you know? Jenny was sent to me. Maybe that’s a sign that I’m the one who should help her. Oh, I know I did my best with that reconstruction. But it wasn’t enough, was it? She’s back with that monster who killed her.” She shuddered at the thought. “And that’s not justice, cosmic or otherwise. That’s a horror story.” She opened her eyes as a thought occurred to her. “Or maybe it’s payback time. I had a miracle come into my life, and her name was Bonnie. Even when she was taken from me in the cruelest way possible, she was allowed to come back and visit me. That was a miracle, too. Perhaps I’m being tapped to return the favor.”

  “Perhaps you are.” His lips brushed her temple. “In any case, you’ve convinced yourself that it’s possible. Now go to sleep, and we’ll start planning what to do in the morning.”

  “Okay.” She nestled closer. She doubted if she could sleep, but she mustn’t keep Joe awake. She’d try to persuade him to go to work in the morning. It was foolish to expect him to hold her hand while she was trying to think of a way to trap that bastard. “When is the report on those tires supposed to come in?”

  “Tomorrow sometime. As soon as I get it, I’ll try to match it to a vehicle, then visit the properties on our road and the farms to the north and start questioning. He was operating in broad daylight today. Someone must have seen him.”

  She could only hope. The lead was flimsy at best.

  But at least it was a lead. Not someone creeping up in the dark woods to kill, then vanishing as it had happened in California.

  And she’d take whatever she was given.

  Because it just might take her to Jenny.

  * * *

  It was chilly sitting here on the porch swing. Eve tightened the belt of her robe and stared out into the darkness. It was a little after four in the morning, but there was no light on the horizon.

  No light on the horizon. It seemed a fitting phrase at this particular moment.

  No, dammit. She wouldn’t accept that defeatist attitude.

  If she couldn’t see a break in the darkness, she’d blast one through herself.

  How?

  Joe was relying on tried-and-true police work, and that was sensible and logical.

  But she wasn’t Joe, and she had only one asset that Joe didn’t possess.

  Jenny.

  This was all about Jenny, who was once more a victim.

  And her reconstruction and computer photos that were in the possession of that murderer.

  If they hadn’t already been destroyed.

  Assume it hadn’t happened yet. Assume that Jenny had gotten a break in that cosmic justice scenario Joe had talked about.

  There was only one way to be sure.

  Try to reach Jenny.

  Again, how?

  She had never tried to reach out and contact. Jenny had just been there.

  “Jenny?”

  She concentrated. Thinking.

  Nothing.

  The skull. Think about the face that she’d been so close to during the reconstruction.

  Nothing.

  The little girl in her white dress smiling at Eve across the room.

  She tensed. Something different was there.

  Something …

  Bewilderment. Darkness.

  But no fear.

  “Jenny?”

  “Here!”

  “Jenny, listen to me. I don’t know what’s happening with you, but I want to help.”

  “Sent me away…”

  It was Jenny.

  Excitement surged through Eve. “I know, and I was wrong. I thought it was for the best, but it didn’t turn out that way. We have to make it right.”

  “He won’t let us.”

  “Who?”

  “Walsh.”

  Darkness. Evil. Fear. So much fear.

  “Who is Walsh?”

  “He’s here with me now. He shot that driver.” Ugliness. Evil. Fear.

  “Is he the man who also killed you?”

  “Yes. He hates me. He wants me back in the dirt where he buried me. He keeps thinking about it. He’s angry with you, angry at the police who found me.” She paused. “But most of all, he’s angry with me. He’s scaring me, Eve.”

  “You don’t have to be frightened. He can’t do anything to you, Jenny.” She added gently, “It’s all been done. All the fear and suffering is over.”

&nb
sp; “I don’t think so. But I can’t let him see he’s scaring me. He likes it too much. I have to pretend to him, just like I did before.”

  “Before?”

  “It’s not the first time. I told you, I think … he’s the one.”

  The one who had killed her. The one who had thrown her into that grave. “How do you know that man’s name is Walsh, Jenny?”

  “That’s what he signed on the credit card slip at the gas station. He scrawled it, but it was clear enough to read the last name. He bought groceries and smiled at the girl behind the counter. She thought he was nice. He’s not nice, Eve. He was thinking terrible thoughts about what he’d like to do to her.”

  “You can tell what he’s thinking?”

  “Sometimes. It goes in and out. I don’t want to know. I have to force myself. It scares me.”

  She could tell that from her voice. Try another path.

  “Where are you now, Jenny?”

  “Car. Trees. Lake. Dirty. Not pretty like your lake, Eve.”

  “You’re aware of all that?” She tried again. “Why are you still with him? Is it because of the reconstruction?” She held her breath. “Does he still have it?”

  “Yes, he put the box in the backseat.”

  Yes.

  “And the computer?”

  “I think so.”

  But Jenny was certain about the reconstruction. She asked again, “Is it because you have to stay with that reconstruction that you’re still with him? Because it’s part of your earthly body?”

  “No, why should I have to do that? That’s kind of silly. I don’t believe that makes any difference any longer.”

  “If it doesn’t make a difference, why did you follow that skull to my home? Why did you appear to me after I created that reconstruction?”

  “I told you, I didn’t know you wanted to see me.” She was troubled. “And I didn’t follow the skull. I just came to you. I knew I had to come to only you.”

  “And tried your best to ram that reconstruction through at record pace.”

  “I thought maybe that was what I was supposed to do, why I was there.”

  “Then if you don’t have to stay with the reconstruction, why are you still with that killer?”

  “Because that’s what I’m meant to do. That’s the one thing I’ve always known. Everything else is still confusing, but I was sent to stop him.” She added simply, “Besides, you sent me away.”

  “To Nalchek, to someone who would help you, not to that monster.”

  “But I’m not important now. Every minute makes that more clear.” She paused. “But I’m glad you’re here, Eve.”

  “I’m glad I am, too.” She drew a deep breath. “And I’m a little confused myself. But I know we have to work together. Will you help me, Jenny?”

  “I’ll always help you, Eve. What do you want me to do?”

  “The reconstruction. I don’t want it to be tossed away or destroyed. It’s important. I think that he’ll try to do that.”

  “I think he will, too. He took it out of the box and looked at it. He hates it as much as he hates me.”

  “It could be proof of who you are. I’m surprised he hasn’t done it already.”

  “He keeps thinking about burning it. He sees it burning, Eve.”

  “But he’d have to have time to do that. It takes a long time to completely destroy bones by fire. Maybe he’s waiting until after he’s far enough away from here that he feels safe. We can’t let him do it. I need that reconstruction.” She paused. “If he tries to do it, you have to stop him, Jenny.”

  “I don’t know how to do that. How could I stop him?”

  “Big problem. As far as I know, spirits can’t use force to make their displeasure known. At least, in my limited experience. Let me think a minute.” She was silent, going over options in her mind. There weren’t many.

  But there might be one possibility.

  “Jenny, when you appeared to me in that pretty white dress, you said you thought you could do it, so you tried. And then you managed to do it. How?”

  “I just knew. I concentrated, and it happened.”

  “Because it was me and we’ve become close?”

  “No, I don’t think so.” Silence. “I guess it could be, but it felt … right. It had something to do with why I’m here. It’s a gift. Like the music.”

  “Do you think, if you concentrated, you could make Walsh see you?”

  “Why would I want to do that? I don’t want him to see me. It would be like that other—” She stopped. “I feel safe where I am now, Eve.”

  “And you almost remembered something that wasn’t safe at all,” Eve said gently. “I hate having to remind you of that time. But you think that there’s a reason that you’re with Walsh now. You said you have to stop him. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Bonnie, it’s that she doesn’t believe anything is random after you cross over. There’s a kind of order.”

  “I don’t know about that.” She was silent a moment. “But he does have to be stopped. Why would letting him see me help to keep him from burning the reconstruction?”

  “Most people are frightened of ghosts. I think Walsh would be afraid of you, particularly if you’re his victim. Maybe you could intimidate him into not destroying that reconstruction.”

  “He’d be afraid of me?” she asked doubtfully. “I don’t believe he was afraid of me before. I’m just a kid.”

  “Not just. And you’ve grown more mature during those years. Reach down inside yourself for strength. You probably have a few powers that you didn’t have in life. Use them.”

  “I don’t even know what they are.”

  “Stretch. Think. Feel your way.”

  “I’ll … try.”

  “That’s all I ask. I don’t know how much time we have.”

  “Time,” she repeated. “Yes, it’s all about time. He wanted to kill you, but there wasn’t time. He kept thinking how you’d interfered with him. He’s intending to go back to you … afterward.”

  “After … what?”

  “The little girl…”

  Eve felt a chill. “What little girl?”

  “I don’t know her name. He just thinks about her as the little girl. But she’s special to him. He keeps thinking of her as ‘the one.’ He’s been searching for her for a long time, and now he thinks he may have found her. Special. Not like the others who are all the same to him. Not important. With them, it’s what they make him feel that’s important.”

  And eerily similar to the psychological philosophy of every serial killer she’d ever heard about. “Jenny, is this little girl still alive?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what does Walsh intend to do to her.”

  “What he always does,” she whispered. “It’s always bad things. He had it all planned before they found me. He was thinking that she might be the one, and he was excited that the hunt was almost over. He was in Carmel, then he had to drop everything and rush back to the forest to make sure that he was still safe. He was in a panic because no one should ever have been able to find me. It was important I never be found. He’d be in trouble if they knew about it. He was scared and angry.”

  “So angry he abandoned a potential victim?”

  “He didn’t totally abandon her. He couldn’t. He has to go back to Carmel because she’s on the list. He’s marked her.”

  “Marked?”

  “I don’t know what he meant. But she’s one of the reasons why I have to stop him. She may be the most important reason.”

  “I don’t understand about this … hunt and why Walsh was disappointed.”

  “Neither do I. All I can tell you is what he was feeling. That’s all I know about her, Eve.”

  And Eve knew far more than she wanted to know.

  Except that little girl’s name.

  Except a way to save her.

  “Do you know how many … little girls … there have been, Jenny?”

  “I don’t know any nu
mbers. Lots and lots. And not only children. He likes them best, but it’s the kill itself he likes. Do you have to know?”

  “No, of course I don’t.”

  “But one of them was me?” A pause. “Then why can’t I remember it? You’d think I’d remember.”

  “Perhaps … mercy?”

  “I guess so.” A silence. “There are so many things that I don’t know. I suppose you’re impatient with me, but things are becoming clearer. The longer I’m with Walsh, the more memories are coming back to me. I’m changing, Eve. I can feel it inside. It’s as if I was asleep, and now I’m beginning to wake. You woke me, Eve.”

  “The reconstruction?”

  “No. Oh, maybe, a little. But I felt as if I were meant…” She stopped. “There’s so much I have to learn. It’s all coming at me now like a giant wave. I’m getting stronger and stronger. That little girl … If she was the reason that I’ve been waiting. Maybe I was meant to help her, Eve?”

  “I don’t know.” Yet Eve had said much the same thing to Joe about Jenny. “If that’s true, I do know it’s worth doing. But Walsh has to be caught first, or that can’t happen.” She added, “And I’m not forgetting you. We’ve got to bring you home to your parents. You’re important, too, Jenny.”

  “Am I?” Her voice was fading away. “I told you, I don’t think so. Not yet…”

  “Jenny, I’m losing you!”

  “I can’t … help it. As I said, I’m in and out…”

  She was gone.

  Eve drew a shaky breath. Those moments had flown by, and yet she had to go back and try to remember every word that had been uttered. As Jenny had told her, she was learning, changing, moving back and forth from child to adult, from weakness to strength. And Jenny wasn’t the only one who was learning every minute.

  And the primary thing Eve had learned from that conversation was a name.

  Walsh.

  * * *

  “Walsh,” Joe repeated. “No first name. Initials?”

  “Don’t be greedy,” Eve said. “We have a name. What are databases for?”