by Diane Hester
As for Jennifer’s disappearance … Though she hated to admit it, she couldn’t really blame Mac for thinking she was involved this time. He’d told her once he didn’t believe she’d killed anyone but merely fed information to the killer—a one-woman victim selection committee. To Mac’s way of thinking it no doubt made sense she would chose a girl she didn’t like before any other.
But even knowing that wasn’t true, it seemed just as incredible to her that Jen of all people should be the next victim. What were the odds the killer would choose someone she had long-standing issues with? Could it really be chance? If not, what did that leave?
Slumping forwards, she rested her forehead against the doll’s house. God, maybe she really was involved. Maybe she’d totally lost her mind. What if all these years her visions had just been psychotic episodes? Just like her parents had always feared.
She sat up and shook her head. No. Her visions had shown her things. Things she’d rarely wanted to see but to which she could’ve had no possible connection whatsoever. And as bad as things had got with Jen over the years, she’d never have wished …
She closed her eyes, trying, as she had a dozen times already, to recall the dream she’d had that night, but as always the substance of it remained elusive. Oh, she could catch snippets of movement, fleeting glimpses of Jennifer’s face, the nebulous impression of a dark, empty, echoing place. And an overwhelming sense of fear. But nothing she could clearly decipher.
She was certain now it was the sleeping pill Ikeman had all but insisted she take. ‘You’ve had two bad scares in twenty-four hours. You need a good rest.’
Touched by his concern, she hadn’t resisted. One little pill could do her no harm. Yet somehow that one little pill had smothered her vision. The very thing she’d been trying to achieve. That at least was worth knowing—if she ever wanted to trade having visions for a lifetime addiction to sleeping pills.
She glanced at the clock, feeling an icy chill sweep over her. Nearly thirty-six hours had passed since her run-in with Mac in Ikeman’s lab. Why hadn’t he gotten back to her yet as he’d said he would? Had something else happened? Had they found a new suspect? Had Jen been located safe and well?
Or like the two young victims who’d come before her …
Blocking the image before it could form, Lindsay stretched out her mind to the doll’s house.
Peace descended. She stood in the living room, the gold and burgundy Persian carpet thick underfoot. Nan smiled down at her from the picture mounted above the hearth. Firelight, caught by the crystals of the couch-side lamp, danced in myriad pinpoints across blue floral wallpaper. So vivid, so real, so far from danger.
She started towards the opposite door, eager to see again the walnut dining table with its red-cushioned chairs, china plates and platters of food. She reached for the cut-glass knob and turned it.
Her smile died as she stepped through the door. This wasn’t the dining room. This dark narrow passage reeking of age and urine and neglect had never been a part of her special world.
Nor had the hound, standing there waiting.
Footsteps echoed from the depths further on and the creature turned, ran towards the sound, pulling her with it.
Shadows churn the darkness ahead. A second figure. A woman fleeing, stealing glances back over her shoulder, eyes huge in the grip of panic.
Her way suddenly blocked by a door, she pummels the barrier, hurls herself against cold steel. Steps to the window in the wall beside it.
And screams as she drives both fists through the glass.
***
The tall lean figure standing at the lobby desk had shed a few kilos since last she’d seen him. Shaunwyn came through the building’s front door and started towards him across the foyer.
‘If you’re after Lindsay she should be upstairs. I only popped down to the shop for a minute and she was there when I left.’
Mac turned from scanning the security ledger, revealing dark circles beneath bloodshot eyes and skin the colour of library paste.
Shaun arched a brow. ‘Not getting much sun these days, eh detective?’
‘I need to see her.’
‘She said you might be getting back to her. Well, come on then.’ She started up the hall without looking back.
‘You in some kind of hurry?’ he said, catching up to her.
‘I don’t like leaving her alone too long. Between those spells she’s been having, a psycho stalking her and you harassing her, she’s not in real good shape at the moment.’
She punched the lift button, the doors opened and they stepped inside. ‘Have you found out anything more about Jen?’ She hit floor two.
‘No. As of this morning she’s officially missing. But we did find Jason.’
Her gaze snapped towards him.
‘Three days after leaving campus he checked into a hotel and swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. Fortunately he was discovered in time and taken to hospital where he’s recovering.’
‘Bloody hell. Poor Jason. I mean the guy was a royal pain in the ass but … So was he the one who trashed our room?’
‘He admitted to that, yes, but he denies stalking Lindsay. We’re checking his alibi for the time she was attacked in the recital hall, but seeing as Jason was already in hospital when she was chased in the gallery it seems likely he’s telling the truth.’
‘And since he was in there when Jen disappeared, he can’t be the killer.’
‘Unless it turns out she isn’t a victim.’
The lift doors opened and they started up the second-floor corridor. ‘Well I sure as hell hope you’re here to give Lindsay police protection.’
‘She’s already got it. We’ve got someone stationed outside your building all day and night now.’
‘That’s not going to help her walking around campus, is it. Oh, but I forgot, you still think she’s a part of all this. What does an accomplice need with protection, right.’
‘What I think doesn’t matter.’
Shaunwyn frowned. Something in his tone … ‘Are you saying you don’t think Lindsay’s involved?’
‘I’m not saying anything.’
‘Yes, you are. Just by the fact you haven’t denied it.’ Her frown lifted. ‘Why, Detective Macklyn, you’re actually starting to believe her, aren’t you?’
‘It doesn’t matter what I believe, only what I can prove.’
‘I think it might matter a great deal to Lindsay.’
As they neared the corner of the hall of her flat, a scream resounded up the empty passage.
***
Someone shook her. Touched her face. For an instant she fought the hands on her arms. Then slowly the voices seeped through her panic.
Lindsay opened her eyes and blinked. ‘Shaunwyn? Mac?’
A haze seemed to clear and the room came in view. She drank in the sight of the two worried faces. Clutched at their arms, laughing and crying.
Until she remembered.
‘Oh god, she’s dead. Jen’s dead, I saw it! He had her in some kind of abandoned factory. All boarded up. No way out. She …’
But they weren’t listening, weren’t even looking. How could they ignore what she was telling them? And why the horrified look in their eyes?
She followed their gazes. The palm-shaped prints she’d left on their clothing. Something strange had happened to her hands. She was wearing gloves. Gloves that were wet and warm. And red.
Chapter 34
Mac came out of the treatment room and started up the hospital corridor. He spotted Shaunwyn slumped on a bench still holding the wad of bloody towels. As he neared her she roused from her daze and rose to face him.
‘The doctor wants to keep her in overnight,’ he said. ‘Just for observation.’
‘She’s not going to like that. She hates these places. All those tests she had as a kid.’
‘I know.’ He frowned, recalling Lindsay’s voice in the car begging them not to take her to hospital. As if she hadn’t been th
rough enough. ‘They gave her a sedative. They’re just finishing the bandaging now, then they’ll move her to one of the wards.’
Shaun looked down at the towels in her hands. ‘So much blood.’ She lifted her anguished gaze to his. ‘You don’t think she tried to …’
‘I had a quick look around before we left your flat. I didn’t see anything she could’ve used. There were knives of course but nothing with blood on it. Besides, the cuts were to her hands and arms, not her wrists.’
‘So what the hell happened? If there was nothing sharp lying around how could it even have been an accident? I mean no-one else could’ve done it to her—we’d’ve seen them leaving the flat.’
Mac raked a hand through his hair. When you eliminate all other possibilities… ‘Lindsay’s had other injuries lately,’ he prompted cautiously.
‘Those bruises on her neck you mean. The cut on her temple. She told me she got those in fitness class.’
‘You believe that?’
She frowned. ‘You don’t? Why, how do you think she got them?’
‘I don’t know.’ Shaking his head, he turned away.
Shaunwyn stayed with him. ‘You’re thinking something though, I can see it. Damn it, Macklyn—’
‘I don’t know what’s going on.’ He lowered his voice. ‘I don’t even have a workable theory. All I can tell you is the injuries Lindsay sustained are exactly the same as the marks on the two murder victims.’
‘My god. You think the killer—’
‘No. That’s the only thing I am sure about. Her last lot of bruises and the cut on her temple appeared out of nowhere. No apparent cause. I know because I was there when it happened.’
He relayed the incident of Lindsay’s fainting spell, of finding the body of Bethany Willas in the park shortly after, and of Sam Gifford’s theory that Lindsay acquired her wounds spontaneously as part of her psychic link with the victims.
Shaunwyn stared back, her freckles having grown more pronounced as her colour drained. ‘In the car on the way here … Lindsay kept saying Jen smashed a window to escape the killer. With her bare hands.’ She lowered her gaze to the bloody towels. ‘How is this possible?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Well, you’ve got to stop him! What if next time he stabs the girl, or slits her throat?’
‘Killers don’t normally change their MO. This guy strangles, that’s his thing. The other injuries the victims sustained were incidental, arising from their efforts to escape.’
‘And what if the next girl jumps out a window to get away from him?’
He had no reply.
‘Catch the bastard,’ she said through clenched teeth. ‘Catch him and make Lindsay safe again.’
A nurse emerged from the treatment room pushing a gurney into the hall. The pair drew apart as it approached, then fell in on opposite sides of the bed.
Shaun tucked the towels beneath her arm and took the bandaged hand Lindsay held out to her. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘I don’t want to stay here. Please, I’m fine, let me come home with you.’
Mac’s chest tightened. Her words were controlled but the edge of fear was still in her voice. He prayed the sedative would soon take effect.
‘It’s just for one night,’ Shaunwyn soothed. ‘Let them look after you and tomorrow you and I’ll get the hell out of here. Wherever you want. Just hop in the car and get as far away as we can. That’s a promise.’
Lindsay lay back, more in exhaustion than acquiescence.
They entered a dim, unoccupied room. As the nurse locked the wheels on Lindsay’s gurney, Shaun looked down at the towels in her hands. ‘I’m going to go get rid of these. I’ll be right back.’
She and the nurse walked out together, leaving Mac standing awkwardly beside the bed.
Lindsay looked up at him, her eyes half closed, fighting the effect of the sedative. ‘They think I tried to top myself, don’t they?’
‘Not that anyone said to me.’
She smiled faintly. ‘Just as well they didn’t or you’d have told them, eh Macklyn.’
‘Told them what?’
‘About me being a total nutter. Visions. Fainting spells. Suspect in a murder case. No telling what I’m capable of, right.’ She grimaced and turned her face away. ‘I guess I made a bit of a spectacle of myself carrying on like that in the car. And then with the doctor.’
‘Understandable given the circumstances.’
Her throat worked as tears streamed down her face. ‘Jennifer’s dead.’
‘Yes, you said that.’
‘I saw her running away from the killer. She was so scared.’
‘Did you see who was chasing her?’
‘No, just shadows.’
‘Did you see where they were?’
‘Nothing I recognised. Just a long dark corridor. I got the sense it was part of a much larger building, some place long abandoned.’
‘You mentioned a factory.’
‘That’s what it felt like. She ran down the hall till she came to a door. When it wouldn’t open she broke the window.’
He waited. ‘Then what?’
She swallowed. ‘He killed her.’
‘How?’
‘Like the others.’ Her answers were coming slower now, her voice growing hushed.
‘Strangled?’
‘Yes.’
Her eyelids drooped further. He wouldn’t get any more from her tonight. ‘I’ll let you sleep.’
‘No, don’t go.’ She smiled drowsily at his expression. ‘I don’t want to be alone in this place. Even an enemy’s better than nothing.’ Her eyes closed and didn’t reopen.
Mac stood a moment staring down at her. ‘Is that what we are to each other, Lindsay? Enemies?’ He settled into the chair beside her. Almost of its own volition his hand reached out to stroke her brow.
‘She says not to worry.’
He leaned in closer. ‘What was that?’ He’d thought her asleep.
‘She’s okay, she’s in a good place.’
Frowning, he brushed the fringe from her face. ‘Yes, I’m sure that wherever Jen is now she’s—’
‘No, not Jen.’
A crawling sensation moved over his skin. ‘Not Jen. Then who?’
‘She wants you to know everything’s all right. It always was. You did what you thought you had to do. She doesn’t blame you.’
He sat back, slowly withdrawing his hand. ‘Who doesn’t—’
‘She knows that what you did, you did out of love. But she can’t move on until you forgive yourself.’
Mac stared, his mind racing. How could—? The answer smacked him up the side of the head. Sam. Bloody Sam. He must have told her.
A last whisper sighed from her lips. ‘Let it go, Beau. Please, let it go.’
He froze at the name. Only his mother had called him Beau. And there was no way Sam could possibly have known.
***
From the doorway, Shaunwyn stared into the room. Mac was sitting in the chair beside Lindsay, leaning forward with his arms and forehead resting on the bed. To her utter astonishment he appeared to be crying.
She eased back a step, not wanting to interrupt whatever was going on. What could reduce a cop to tears? Fear for Lindsay’s safety? Self-reproach over not having caught the killer by now?
Whatever the cause, the man clearly possessed deeper sensibilities than she’d given him credit for. Still, she doubted he’d be keen on her witnessing his un-cop-like lapse.
She withdrew completely into the hall and stood debating. She’d offloaded the towels only to have acquired a second bundle from one of the nurses—Lindsay’s coat and hat.
Conditions seemed to be nudging her in a clear direction. In her hurry to get her friend to hospital she hadn’t even thought to put on her own coat. Lindsay was asleep and Mac was there in case she woke up; they didn’t need her.
She turned away and started up the hall, sliding her arm in the garment’s sleeve. She pulled on the
beanie and tucked her hair up under it.
Their flat was only four blocks away—four blocks of brightly lit city streets. She’d wear Lindsay’s coat for the walk back and return tomorrow before Lindsay was released. That would give these two ample time to sort out whatever issues they needed to.
***
A lone silhouette appeared in the doorway and stood unmoving for several moments. Mac was just starting to get a bit anxious when the person stepped forward into the light.
‘Pamela?’ He rose as she moved to the foot of Lindsay’s bed. ‘It’s after midnight, you should’ve called. You didn’t need to come all the way down here.’
‘Mum rang me after getting your message. She and Dad don’t like driving at night so they asked me to check that Lindsay was okay.’ She regarded her sister impassively. ‘What happened to her?’
Mac cleared his throat. What indeed? ‘An accident. She cut her hands.’
‘How?’
‘To be honest we’re not sure. No-one was with her when it happened and … well, Lindsay doesn’t remember much.’ To his surprise she accepted this without further question, as though it were nothing out of the ordinary.
‘Your message said it wasn’t serious.’
‘Just some stitches. Ten in one hand, twelve in the other. Thankfully no nerve or tendon damage. Nothing that will affect her playing.’
‘Then why is she still here?’
‘They’re keeping her in for observation. She lost a fair bit of blood.’
She looked back at Lindsay and shook her head. ‘Never thought I’d see her in a hospital again.’
‘She wasn’t crazy about the idea. In fact they sedated her. Which unfortunately means she won’t be waking until some time tomorrow. I’m sorry you made the trip down for nothing.’
‘I didn’t come to talk to her, just to make sure she was all right. Now that I have, I suppose I can turn around and drive home again.’ She looked over at him. ‘It’s a miserable night out there. Buy me a coffee before I leave?’
‘Sure. The cafeteria’s closed but there’s a machine just up the hall.’
They left the room, got their drinks and settled on a couch in a tiny lounge.
Pam took a sip from her paper mug. ‘I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into, Mr Macklyn.’
