by Dale Mayer
He beamed and opened his arms. She threw herself into them, and he hugged her tight. “I didn’t think you’d forget me,” he said, against her hair.
Tears were in her eyes when she stepped back and looked at him, holding him close. “Dear God,” she said. “I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“I know,” he said. “I just had to have a life of my own.”
“And how is that?” she asked. “It seems that you dated everybody I know.”
“That was a long time ago,” he said, “although I have reconnected with a few people since then.”
“Such as?”
“Just a few friends,” he said coyly.
She chuckled. “I see you’re still the same. Untamable, never one to have a relationship for long.”
“Is that wrong?” he asked. “I know it’s not fair to ask you to ditch all these people, but I was really hoping to spend some time with you before I leave tomorrow morning.”
“I can’t,” she said regretfully. “Are you really. Tomorrow? Where to?”
“Yes,” he said. “England.”
She took another step back, and a waiter stepped to her side, taking her empty glass and leaving. She smiled up at Kenneth and said, “Come join the party, if you want, Kenneth.”
He regretfully shook his head. “I can’t quite do that yet.”
“Okay,” she said.
As she turned to walk away to follow the waiter, Kenneth called out, “Oh, wait.”
She turned in surprise to look at him, unhappy to feel the room swaying. He laughed, then reached out, and grabbed her gently. “I think you’ve had a little too much champagne.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she said. “I never drink too much.”
He quickly helped her over to a bench off to the side. “Obviously tonight you did.”
She sat down with a hard thump as she stared up at him. “What did you give me?”
“Just something to help you relax,” he said. “Don’t you want to join Elena?”
And that was the last thing she heard.
*
Evil. Evil was stirring. He could feel it. See it. As if he had tuned in to it.
He watched the man’s huge shadow disappear across the street. Recognition hit him.
Evil.
He knew that face. Knew that smell. He’d lived with it for a long time.
He had to stop him. Help her.
Pretty lady. Painting. Evil painting. No, pretty painting. Evil woman. No. Pretty woman.
He struggled to his feet and took several stumbling steps after the trail of evil.
It was time. Time to stop this.
Clutching the cross against his chest, he crossed the street and entered the building. There he stopped and listened.
And heard it.
Footsteps on the stairs.
*
Richard answered his phone, hearing Frankie’s panicky voice on the other end. “She’s gone,” he screamed. “She’s gone.”
“Who? Where?”
“Cayce! She was here. Everybody was around us. It was fine. I went over to check on my girlfriend for a moment, and, when I came back, she was gone. Somebody said they saw her walking toward the hallway. A waiter said he took her empty glass, and there’s no sign of her anywhere.”
“And where could she possibly be?” Richard asked, already motioning at Andy, as he raced from the station.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know. Did you find Kenneth?”
“No,” he said in frustration. “We did talk to Derek and his boyfriend though.”
“And is Kenneth here?”
“Apparently,” Richard said. As he hopped into Andy’s car, he kept Frankie on the line. “Lock down the place,” he said, “and make sure nobody leaves.”
But Frankie was past talking.
“Get me security,” he said urgently to Frankie.
Suddenly another man spoke on Frankie’s phone. “Security here. We’ve done a full search of the building. No sign of Cayce.”
“I want all the camera feeds from inside and outside, available on all street corners,” Richard said.
“We’re already pulling that together,” he said.
“I’ll have a full unit down here within minutes. Where was she last seen?”
“On the northeast side of the building. A section where somebody said they thought she was sitting on a bench with a man.”
“And we need to know about that man.”
“Oddly dressed. In a suit that was slightly wrong.”
“Slightly wrong? What the hell does that mean?” he asked in frustration.
“Well, they couldn’t quite say, but he didn’t look like he quite fit the suit.”
“So, like an ill-fitted suit?”
“No, no. Something more than that. But again they couldn’t explain.”
“I don’t have time to talk to everybody there,” he said. “When my team arrives, make sure they interview everybody.”
“Absolutely,” he said. “We’ve already locked down security and explained what’s going on.”
“Are people pissed off?”
“No, not at the moment. I think they’re all just horrified. Cayce is very special to this group.”
“Right,” he said. As he hung up, he closed his eyes, acutely aware of how special she had become to him.
“It’s Cayce?” Andy asked.
“Yeah, she’s missing. Last seen sitting on one of the side benches, with a man. Next thing they knew, she’s gone.”
“Drugged?”
“It would make sense.”
“How?”
“Champagne,” they both said immediately.
“So now what?”
“Redirect,” Richard said. “Let’s get to Kenneth’s apartment. A team at the ice installation will take statements. They’re collecting all the video camera feeds they can. We’ll get that routed through immediately, but my instincts are telling me to get to Kenneth’s apartment.”
“And where is that?”
He looked at Andy and said, “Two blocks from here. Just two blocks but he couldn’t have carried her though.”
“No,” he said, “It’s not very far but that would be very conspicuous. So, I mean, if he had a vehicle …”
“I don’t know how he got her there, but maybe he walked her up here. Maybe it was that simple.”
“Only if he had a weapon.”
“Cayce would do it in a heartbeat to keep everybody else safe,” Richard said. “Plus he’s an old friend. Maybe no weapon was needed.”
“Yes, I agree with you there. She would cooperate.” Andy drove toward the apartment, parking on the street. They both exited quickly.
Richard turned and looked back at the installation, saying, “Wait. It’s not two blocks. Look.” At that, they stopped and took in their surroundings. They were at the corner at the back of the building. “He only had to get her through the back of the building and down an alley.”
Richard raced across the street to the back of the adjacent building, checked to see if the door was locked, but it opened. And right in front of them was a shopping cart, like a homeless person would have. The two looked at each other and raced up the stairs toward Kenneth’s apartment. “Let’s go, go, go.”
“Yes,” Andy said, “but I’m calling for backup.”
Richard stared at him in frustration.
Andy shook his head firmly. “No point barging in there and him killing her and getting ourselves taken out in the process.”
Richard knew his partner was right, but he hated it. He continued up the stairs, and, on the next floor, a lady came out of an apartment on the same floor as Kenneth’s. “Excuse me,” he said. “Do you know the guy who lives in 224 B?”
She looked back that way, as if mentally counting the doors, and nodded. “Very strange guy,” she said. “Kind of getting stranger by the minute too.” She laughed. “Those artists.”
“What do you mean by getting stranger?”
Richard nodded. “Did he ever appear dangerous in any way?”
“No. God, no,” she said. “Although he did surprise me. He seemed like he wasn’t very tall, and then, when I saw him the next time, he was rushing across the street, and he seemed like somehow he had straightened up.”
Tucking that away in the back of his head, Richard walked up to the apartment. Andy quickly joined him. Richard said, “And?”
“Backup is on the way.”
“That’s nice.” He turned the knob ever-so-gently and found that it was locked. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a small wire and quickly picked the lock. He looked at Andy, and they both pulled their weapons. He inched the door open just slightly.
Immediately the smell wafted toward him. Grimly, the two of them opened the door a little bit wider. In the background they could hear music, eerie instrumentals that set him on edge. As he pushed, the door opened a bit more, something kicked him in the foot.
He glanced down to see a young man tied up and gagged on the floor, his eyes wide and rolling in terror. They quickly picked him up and moved him out of the apartment, cutting his bonds.
“He is crazy, man,” he whispered. “He’s completely crazy.”
“Where do you live?”
“Right there,” he said. “I’ll be right over there.” He bolted to his feet and darted into the apartment and slammed it shut as quietly as he could.
Andy and Richard looked at each other. Richard shrugged and said, “Not exactly our normal procedure, but Cayce is our priority right now.”
They stepped back across the hall and pushed the door to 224 B slightly wider, then closed it behind them to stop the light from being detected by Kenneth.
The detectives crept forward, the smell filling their nostrils and making their stomachs heave. As they moved into the living room, they noted that the windows had been covered in some light-blocking material. As he stood in the gloominess, studying the layout, Richard focused on finding where the music was coming from, and he also heard a voice.
“You were supposed to bring me milk for my tea,” she said in that querulous voice.
“I did bring you milk, Mom,” he said ever patiently. “I brought it to you yesterday, and I brought it to you again today.”
“Well, I’m out,” she said, in a sad voice, denying the evidence in front of them, which was that she couldn’t remember anything.
“Open the fridge, and you’ll see the milk in the left-hand door.”
He heard her shuffling across the room, heading to the fridge, and the small click that said she had opened it.
“Oh, you’re such a good boy,” she said. “The milk is here. I just didn’t realize you came and went without stopping to visit.”
“Mom, I came and had lunch with you.”
“Are you coming today?”
“If I do, it’ll be late.”
“That’s okay,” she said in delight. Her words were followed by the click of a phone.
Silence. Then …
“You were supposed to bring me milk for my tea,” she said in that querulous voice.
“I did bring you milk, Mom,” he said ever patiently. “I brought it to you yesterday, and I brought it to you again today.”
Richard followed the voice to a side hutch where a recording played on infinite loop.
And then, through the multiple layers of noise, another voice came from a different room.
Cayce’s voice. And another man’s voice. Dear God, how many people were here?
Chapter 25
Cayce moaned as she shook her head, getting her bearings. She lay on a floor somewhere, in a room off a kitchen, but it was hard to see without any lights. But what she saw broke her heart and shook her soul. “Kenneth?” Surely not. Surely he wasn’t behind all this evil. Yet he didn’t look the same from all those years ago. It’s as if he’d deteriorated in the last decade to the point where she barely recognized him.
“Yes,” he cried out in delight. “You do remember me.”
“Of course I do,” she said, when, in fact, he looked like nothing she’d seen before. However, his voice, that she recognized. How long had it been? Only eight years ago, when she and Elena had lived together? Or fourteen years ago, when she had been eighteen and attacked by her fiancé? That was a part of her life she’d desperately shut down. “You held me close when I was hurt. You made sure I got to the hospital. That I was taken care of. How could I not remember you?”
Dear God, what had happened to him? Where had he been all this time? Elena had mentioned something about going to visit somebody overseas, maybe in Dubai? But it was a one-time thing, and Cayce had nodded but hadn’t asked for details, being busy at the time.
“You went to a home in Washington, didn’t you?”
He shook his head. “No that was my brother.”
Brother? Stumped, she stared him. “I thought your brother was …” and she stopped. How could she ask about his hospitalization? “Is he doing okay?”
“He should be. I have no idea.” Kenneth shrugged his shoulders. “After Mom died, the family broke up.”
Duh, his stepmother had been a sadistic bitch, married to an even more sadistic husband. Both had beaten Kenneth and his brother, Heath, from an early age. Elena and the boys had been foster kids to these same evil stepparents. Elena’s biological father was a violent criminal currently jailed somewhere or, if they were lucky, had died. Elena’s “stepfather,” her foster father, had sexually attacked Elena that terrible night so long ago. The two girls had been on the phone, besties forever already, with Elena crying great big sobs as she tried to explain what was wrong. Her foster father had come in, roaring at her.
Cayce had heard through the phone and had raced to her friend’s side. She’d rung the doorbell several times, then barged in and dashed to her friend’s bedroom to see the foster father pulling his pants on as he left the room. She’d dragged her friend out of the house and straight to the hospital.
Cayce would never forget standing in the ER, two little girls, preteens, Cayce supporting Elena, who was bleeding all over the floor—or the nightmare that came after that. Cayce had no idea her actions would spawn a series of events that would take Elena from her for years. But, by the time the police, the doctors, and social services took over, no one would let Cayce know anything.
Until she’d found herself in a horrible position years later with her own fiancé.
Elena had contacted Cayce one day out of the blue and told her that she needed to get out of that relationship. When Cayce had tried to leave, her fiancé had come home and caught her packing.
Elena had showed up with her “siblings” and had rescued Cayce. The next few months had passed in a blur, but Kenneth had put that paintbrush back in her hand and had painted at her side, while she filled canvas after canvas with black and red as she purged her soul of everything that had gone wrong. She had two broken ankles, compliments of her ex, and had been stuck in bed for months. That’s when she’d spent so much time with Kenneth.
It wasn’t long afterward that the two women had gone to Dr. Maddy, at Elena’s suggestion and with Cayce’s money. Not that she’d had much back then, but she’d had more than Elena. And they’d both been in such need …
Kenneth had had access to her early designs. Not from her safe over the recent years but from many years earlier, as she had created them. “What happened to you?”
He looked at her in surprise. “Nothing. I’ve developed my skills, the same as you have. Of course I started from a bit further behind, but I’m there now.” He sat back, rolled his shoulders, and said, “It was hard after I saw what happened to y
ou. And Elena. I made a point of trying to fix things. But when I killed my stepfather for what he did to Elena and then I killed your fiancé, for what he did to you, I realized that, by doing so, I was bringing in my soul thing, … people I didn’t want to have there.”
She studied him closely. She could see flashes of the younger man she’d known and flashes of a strong very together man, but they were hard to see with his fanatical gaze locked on her.
“How did you learn that soul thing?” she asked slowly, not sure she wanted to know. But anything she could do to delay the inevitable gave her more time for Richard to reach her. Surely he’d be here soon. When she heard something from the other side of the apartment, hope surged. Surely that was him?
“Heath showed me the initial path. Then you showed me the rest.”
She stared him in confusion. “Heath?”
“Yes, he killed our mother. She deserved killing, you know?” he said in a contemplative voice. “She was worse than him. She abused all three of us but only the two of us sexually. Still, she was our mother—or all we knew as a mother. We loved her. After Heath killed her, he kept a part of her soul inside. And she’s in his head all the time now. I keep her close but not like he does.”
At that, a face appeared around the corner from the kitchen. A scarred face with tormented eyes.
Kenneth turned and said, “Heath, why are you here?”
“Evil,” he whispered to his brother. “Evil.”
“I know. I’ll save her. I don’t want you to be a part of this. You’ve got Mom, and you got overwhelmed,” he said crossly. “I’ve got Dad and Elena and the others. You’ve got all you can handle with Mom. You don’t get Cayce too. I do. And we’ll paint together forever.”
*
Those words of reality, Cayce’s current reality, repeated in Richard’s mind, bringing with it fear but also a wave of relief.
Cayce was still alive and, from the sound of her voice, not badly hurt. But, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he sucked in his breath in horror. Andy reached out and grabbed his arm, pointing …
Not only were many stretching bars all around the place but it was obvious that they contained some of the pieces missing from the corpses in the morgue that Richard was looking for. Indeed, he saw far more pieces than he had bodies. He exchanged a hard glance with Andy as they realized just what the hell was going on. When they crept ever closer, Cayce’s voice called out, “You didn’t have to hurt everybody.”
