Dark

by Aleatha Romig

  “I’d move heaven and hell to find either of them.”

  I turned to Mason. “We tried that, remember? But at the time, we were only kids. We did all we could. I remember you searching shelters and streets.”

  He nodded.

  “When Mom finally came home, we told our story to the police.”

  The tendons in Mason’s neck tightened.

  “What do you mean when she finally came home?” Reid asked.

  “Oh,” I said as casually as possible, “Nancy Pierce was gone as much as she was present, or more.” Pity showed from his dark eyes. “Stop. We were fine. We were in an apartment with locks on the door. That was all we needed from her. It wasn’t like she read us bedtime stories or came home with bags of groceries.”

  Mason’s tone lowered. “Lorna, stop. This is why you didn’t need to know about her. None of us need a stroll down memory lane.”

  “We aren’t kids anymore, Mace. What if what I thought was a dream was reality? What if Missy is out there?” I turned to Reid. “You’ve told me that you can do anything behind a computer.”

  He shrugged.

  “This isn’t the time to be modest,” I chastised. “Even Sparrow sings your praises, and in my experience, he isn’t one who gives compliments that aren’t deserved.” No one responded. “I know you want a head on a platter for this...” I waved at my face and body. “I’m healing.” I was. My bruises were lightening. Walking no longer hurt. Learning that I hadn’t been raped renewed an inner strength I hadn’t realized had become depleted. “I want you to find out who did this horrible thing so our lives can go back to normal. But, Reid, I also want to find out if she’s alive.” Tears prickled the backs of my eyes. “She’s my sister.”

  “Use me,” Laurel said.

  “What?” Reid and I asked simultaneously.

  “I told you no,” Mason responded.

  “I’m not asking you,” she said as her neck straightened. “I’m offering. It’s been nearly two weeks. I know I’m not supposed to, but I’ve heard a few things being discussed on 2.”

  Mason and Reid stood tall.

  “I know,” Laurel said. “I’m not trying to eavesdrop. And it hasn’t been a lot.” Before either man could interrupt, she went on, “I know about the” —she paused— “where you were, Mason. And I knew when Araneae offered me space for my lab that they wouldn’t be happy. It now seems, if they aren’t the ones who are after me, then they should be after whoever took Araneae and Lorna.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “I don’t want to say more than I have, but in a nutshell, the organization for which Mason worked has a similar compound to the one I had created and am trying to recreate. Whoever took you has a superior, or at least, more refined pharmaceutical.” She turned to Mason. “If they didn’t want me to work on it, they won’t want this other one.”

  “She’s right,” Reid said.

  “So if there are three players in this game, and I’m one of them, use me to lure out the unknown. They’re not going to find me locked away in a glass tower with impenetrable shields.” It was a joke between all of us women. It started when Araneae arrived. She talked about a force field. “If I am out and about, going to the institute, working with women and children as well as my team of researchers, I will be a target.”

  “No,” Mason repeated.

  Laurel looked at me and then Reid.

  “Look at what happened to me,” I said.

  She stepped forward and reached for my hand. “I’m sorry. It was supposed to be me that was taken. I’m also sorry I haven’t said that before now. I should have. I guess, I’m trying to help you because you’re my sister-in-law and one of my closest friends, and I love and care about you. I think it’s also because I can’t help but feel incredibly guilty that it was you and not me.”

  Releasing her hand, I pulled her into an embrace. “Please don’t do anything to put yourself in danger. I don’t want to be the one home with another one of us gone.”

  Laurel smiled and looked at the men. “I won’t be. This time it will be planned, and I have the best team in the world behind me.”

  Mason ran his hand over his long hair. His boots clipped the tile floor beyond the area rug. “No. I won’t allow it.”

  My sister-in-law looked my way with a wink. “I think tomorrow I’ll be headed to the institute. I can call for a ride. If it doesn’t work, I know someone upstairs who will help me.”

  “Sparrow won’t allow her to get involved in this,” Mason said.

  Laurel looked my direction. In her blue eyes, I saw her unspoken response. Sparrow may be the king, but Araneae was the queen, and as in the game of chess, the queen was capable of more moves. Our money would always be on her.

  “Not tomorrow,” Mason said with an inflection of resignation. “Fuck, if you’re determined to go through with this, we need time to plan. I will fucking have a hundred Sparrows around you.”

  “That won’t be obvious.”

  He shook his head. “And I need to talk to...the organization. We need all players on deck. I’m not taking chances.”

  Laurel walked across the room and laid her hand on Mason’s chest. “I’ll feel safer knowing you’re watching over me.”

  “Fuck, okay. Just give us some time.”

  Personally, I didn’t want Laurel to risk what had happened to Araneae and to me. But that didn’t dim my admiration for her desire to help or her ability to manipulate my brother. And maybe if they identified the kidnappers, we would then be able to concentrate on Missy.

  My gaze went around the room. “So what’s happening with our mother? Please don’t tell me that you’re going to keep her on 1 indefinitely.”

  “Not indefinitely,” Reid said. “We’ve run tests on trace evidence to help us find out who took you. There are just so many variables. Basically, we haven’t learned more than we did from the forensic search of the bunker where you were kept. It makes sense that everything that would identify the kidnappers was in the other bunker.”

  “That’s why they had the explosives on that one,” Mason said.

  Reid again reached for my hand. “Do you want to see her?”

  Did I?

  If I did, I would know if the image in my mind of the thin old woman with faded red hair was the same as reality. Taking a deep breath, I nodded. “I do.”

  Reid

  “Do you want to go see her now?” I asked.

  I tried to assess what my wife was thinking behind her green-eyed stare as she looked up at me. If there had ever been a question regarding Lorna’s strength, it had been put to rest in these recent trials. Truly with her recurring willingness to meet each hurdle, she’d shattered any illusion that she was the weaker sex. While she had ups and downs since it all ensued, I found myself in awe at her fortitude.

  “You know what they say, why put off until tomorrow...?” She looked around the room at all of us. “I assume you’ve all seen her.”

  Laurel nodded.

  “She was with you when the capos found you,” Mason said. “Seeing her was unavoidable.” He forced a grin. “Of course, you could avoid it.”

  “Do we...?” Lorna walked closer to her brother and shrugged. “Should we...do something? Some sort of memorial?”

  “I’d say a party is appropriate, but we should wait a bit before getting shit-faced. There are a few irons in the fire.”

  “There are always irons in the fire,” Lorna replied.

  “Do you think if you see her, you’ll have difficulty sleeping?” Laurel asked. “You said that the sleeping pills have been helping. I don’t want to see you regress.”

  Lorna turned my way, a blush of pink filling her healing cheeks as she undoubtedly had the same thoughts as me. Our recent routine assuring her tiredness before closing her eyes involved more than the sleeping pills. Sex wasn’t unusual for us. It never had been. However, since her rescue, the physical reaffirmation of our love eased her mind, allowing her to slumber.

  A
nd being an accommodating husband, I have been willing to oblige.

  Truthfully, I’d be remiss to not admit that it also helped me. The more dead ends we hit regarding her and Araneae’s abductors and the more winding trails that led nowhere, the darker the world felt. Lorna was my lifeline keeping me from fully submerging into the black-hole abyss.

  Lorna replied to Laurel. “I believe if I don’t see her, it would be more detrimental to my sleep.” Her head tilted. “You have confirmed her identity? This is Nancy Pierce.”

  I reached for her hand. “We have determined that the woman on 1 has statistically significant genetic markers to both you and Mason. We wouldn’t have told you about her if we had doubts.”

  Mason’s gaze caught mine.

  I shook my head. “One thing at a time.”

  “What?” Lorna asked, her arms crossing over her chest. “I’m sick of lies.”

  “It’s not lies,” Mason said.

  “It’s omission and that’s not a gift.”

  My nostrils flared as I exhaled. “Genetically, she’s Nancy Pierce. We have no reason to doubt that. The thing is that any footprint of Nancy Pierce basically disappeared from the world not long after you graduated high school.”

  “Lorna,” Mason said, “we assumed she was dead because everything pointed that direction.”

  “I never looked for her,” Lorna said.

  “Neither did I,” Mason admitted. “I didn’t give a fuck. When I joined the army, I listed you as my only family.” He looked at Reid. “Which means that organization wouldn’t have known about her.”

  “Then why?” We would think about that another day. “I looked for her,” I admitted.

  “What?” my wife questioned. “You never said a word.”

  “What was I supposed to say, ‘Hey, sweetheart, still no sign that your mother is alive’? I looked for her after Mason’s accident and before we married. I thought if she were alive she’d want...”

  “She never wanted anything except to not have three kids,” Mason said.

  That faraway look glazed over Lorna’s expression. “Maybe she wanted us.”

  “What?” Mason asked.

  “Having kids made her checks bigger.”

  Mason exhaled.

  Shaking away whatever she was thinking, Lorna’s expression was resolute. “I want to see her. I think that knowing she’s here and not seeing her would keep me awake with more questions. I want to put an end to questions.” She looked up at me and then to Mason and Laurel. “Would you come with me?”

  Mason’s head tilted left and he stood taller. “If that’s what you want.”

  “You don’t want to?”

  “You’re right.”

  Lorna turned to me. “What about you?”

  There was a list a mile long of work I needed to do on 2. I had programs running on recent crimes with Jettison’s DNA. We had searches going for any information on Nancy Pierce. Where had she been? Was the answer the same as where Araneae’s adoptive parents had gone for years?

  One dead end after another.

  There were other loose ends waiting for us to investigate. And now with what Laurel said, we needed to get in contact with Walters. Securing the institute was another thing. Of course it was safe. Araneae wouldn’t be able to work there if it weren’t, but like Mason’s ranch, with time comes complacency.

  Nevertheless, I answered Lorna with my heart instead of my mind. “Sweetheart, if you want me beside you, I wouldn’t even consider being anywhere else.”

  As the four of us left our apartment, I wrapped Lorna’s hand in mine. It was as we entered the common area that Mason acquiesced. “We’ll go down with you, too.”

  No one uttered a word as the four of us entered the elevator, the doors closed, and we were carted downward. I’d been the one to hit the button. Neither of the ladies had the access ability to make the elevator stop on 1.

  When the doors opened, we all stepped out. Mason moved forward and turned back toward us. The area behind him appeared much like an office complex. In many ways it was. “Stay here with them,” he said to me. “I’ll do a sweep of the floor.”

  Pulling my phone from my pocket, I accessed an app and evaluated our security screens of this floor. With thermal imaging, I was able to see the entire floor and identify where people were located. Being later at night, the floor wouldn’t be as busy as it was during the day.

  This was where other members of the Sparrow outfit met for various reasons.

  A floor plan became visible on my screen. “It looks like there are meetings happening in conference rooms 3 and 7.” I looked up. “Patrick is in 3. Do you know who’s in 7?”

  “Yeah, Garrett is getting the weekly reports from the street.”

  “Oh shit. I’ve lost track of days.”

  Garrett met with different leaders on the street throughout and after each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Especially in the summertime, weekends were when the most street violence occurred. Sparrow was determined to clamp down on the general sense of unrest. Calling out as well as listening to the players involved was key to getting a hold on the disruptions. As the responsibilities the four of us have assumed have increased over the years, we were relying more and more on Garrett. He was getting the reputation as one of the highest members of the Sparrow trusted team.

  “I’m still doing a physical sweep. Just a minute,” Mason said as he walked toward the hallway where the conference rooms were located. There were more than conference rooms. This floor was a living, breathing business space for the Sparrow outfit.

  Much as everything in our world, security was tight. Not anyone could make it up to this floor from the street. Not everyone on the street or even inhabitants of this building knew what happened up here. That said, we kept our wives away from this floor for a reason.

  It often contained men and women who weren’t well known for their charity work. In other words, we dealt with the dregs of the underground because they dealt with us. There was no reason for any of them to know that we lived with our loved ones only two stories away.

  Lorna and Laurel talked quietly as we waited, and I continued watching the thermal imaging, even watching Mason’s image move throughout the floor. A text message came across my screen from Patrick.

  I clicked.

  * * *

  “NEED YOU BACK ON 2.”

  * * *

  Before I could respond, Mason appeared from the hallway. “We’re clear.”

  I held up my phone, wordlessly asking if he also received the text message. A simple nod of his head let me know the answer.

  “Follow me,” he said.

  Without answering Patrick, I placed my phone back in my pocket and took my wife’s hand. There would always be fires, but right now, next to Lorna was where I belonged. As I watched the back of Mason’s head, I knew he’d made the same decision.

  “It feels odd to be here, on this floor,” Lorna said. “In nine years, I’ve probably only stepped foot on this floor less than ten times.” She looked around as we passed by more office space. “Who takes care of this floor?”

  “Sparrow employs a regular cleaning crew,” I offered. “If that’s what you’re asking.”

  One side of her lips curled. “It was. He told me once that he could have done that for upstairs, but he didn’t want strangers in our private spaces.”

  I lifted her knuckles to my lips and brushed them with a light kiss. “He trusted you, sweetheart, even back then.” She smiled as we fell a few paces behind Mason and Laurel.

  They came to a stop by a door. From the hallway, one couldn’t tell what was within. Two weeks ago, it was empty. Today it was a makeshift morgue. The refrigeration unit we’d had on hand was portable. It had been in storage across town. This wasn’t its first use. Over the years, keeping a corpse undercover or available for possible other uses was always a possibility.

  Mason turned back to us. “Are you sure about this, sis?”

  Lorna nodded.

/>   Leaning forward, a sensor near the door scanned Mason’s eye. Milliseconds later, the locking mechanism clicked and the door unlocked. Reaching for the knob, he opened the door and turned on the overhead lights.

  The room appeared clinical, cold, and sterile.

  There was a mobile gurney, the top being a silver shelf rather than a mattress. There were mobile cabinets containing tools that were needed for the extraction of information. In a nutshell, a complete autopsy could be performed in here, the surfaces sterilized and wheeled away for another day.

  Lorna let go of my hand and wrapped her arms around herself.

  Instinctively, my arm went around her. She trembled in my grasp. “You don’t have to do it.”

  “I’m fine. I’m cold. Why is the room so cold? Doesn’t it just need to be cold in there?” she asked, tilting her head toward the mobile refrigeration unit.

  “When the body is brought out to...” Laurel hesitated to give too many details. “It’s better for the room to be cool to maintain the body’s core temperature. Raising and lowering the internal temperature repeatedly affects and accelerates decomposition.”

  Lorna nodded. “That makes sense.”

  We’d been here before with Laurel and all seen the woman Mason was about to remove from the unit. The slab she was on pulled out, much like a shelf from an oven.

  I looked at Mason and nodded.

  My wife leaned into me as Mason unlatched the door, lowered it on its hinge, and pulled out the slab. Lorna’s hand went to her nose as the odor of chemicals and death infiltrated the air. One sheet was tucked around Nancy’s body, covering from her breasts to her feet, and a second sheet covered her face and most of her head. A fine combination of gray, white, and red hair was all we could see.

  Lorna stepped closer and reached for the sheet, slowly revealing the woman beneath.

  Reid

  “I texted Patrick after we got Lorna back up here” —we were on the floor with the apartments— “to let him know we were on our way.”