Slowly he slid back into his car. He gripped the steering wheel with both hands and stared sightlessly ahead. What now? He’d fully expected to find Roberta at SUFOW, pounding out a story about him and Erik and Allie. A story that would have lit her enthusiasms, that would have seemed a repudiation of all the ridicule she had suffered, and a vindication of all her hopes and dreams.
All her hopes and dreams. Cody grimaced. In her enthusiasm, in her hunger to make her mark, would she fail to see the potentially devastating effects on Allie, Erik, and their daughter? Would she ignore the fact that he, Cody, didn’t want to be publicly branded as an alien abductee? That his mind, his senses, his heart and soul were struggling to come to terms with the unbelievable, to accept as true something that as little as a few hours ago he had not only considered incredible, but laughable.
He gritted his teeth. Roberta didn’t have a mean bone in her body. But would the stars in her eyes, the excitement of finally having her dream within reach, overwhelm her kindness and her common sense? Could she possibly believe she could pull off this career coup without causing any harm?
If she was, indeed, writing a report on his abduction and return, he had to find her. He had to find her before she told Garnet and set off a chain reaction that could destroy them all.
* * *
Despite more than twenty-four hours without sleep, Roberta all but skipped into the office. Immediately she popped a disk into her computer, and printed out the summary she’d stayed up all night to produce.
Humming, she put the pages in order, then inserted them into a gold folder. She still lacked many details—she could get those later from Allie and Erik—but the broad outlines of Cody’s abduction, as well as the more startling information concerning the presence of aliens and their mixed Earthling/Alien children living right here in Chicago were all there.
Now all she needed was Garnet’s input on how best to present this discovery to the world. No doubt they would have to be careful. It would require a delicate balancing act to provide both the need for proof of some kind and the confidentiality and anonymity that she knew Allie and Erik, and most likely Cody, would demand. Who better to advise her than Garnet, who had brought not only his own story, but those of many other abductess to the world?
Roberta frowned. Perhaps Garnet had done it in a more melodramatic fashion than she would have chosen, but, well, that was a personal choice.
She glanced at the clock. Ten to nine. She should make coffee. Garnet would arrive any minute.
She filled the coffeemaker with water. Her hands shook when she measured out the ground coffee. She laughed nervously. It was just adrenaline. Adrenaline and lack of sleep.
The door swung open; Roberta jumped, then beamed at Garnet.
Garnet shot her a dirty look and dumped his briefcase on her desk. He clenched his fists. “What’s going on with you and that maniac reporter?” he demanded angrily.
“Ma—maniac reporter? What are you talking about?”
“You know who. Walker. Cody Walker. That reporter from The Streeter that you brought in here.” Garnet strode jerkily across the narrow room then whirled about.
He waved his hand in her face. “D’you know what that maniac did last night?”
Roberta frowned. What was going on? “No, I don’t.”
“He called me at two a.m. Two in the morning, Roberta. He called me at home. On my unlisted number.” Through his glasses, Garnet’s eyes flashed anger. “And do you know why?”
“Not really.”
“He was looking for you. You! I told him I wasn’t your keeper. To try your home. But he insisted you were with me.”
Garnet appeared more agitated than Roberta had ever seen him. He waved his hands in the air again and stomped his feet. “Then do you know what he had the gall to do?”
Garnet barrelled on, propelled by growing fury. “He showed up at my door forty-five minutes later. Still asking for you. Still demanding to see you. And the fellow wouldn’t even tell me why.”
Roberta had to suppress the urge to laugh. Instead, she tried to sooth Garnet. She did, after all, need his reasoned opinion and thoughtful advice. As long as he was in such a foul mood, it was unlikely she’d get it.
“I’m sorry, Garnet. I don’t know how Cody got your phone number or address. I didn’t give it to him, I can assure you. And I’m sorry you were disturbed last night.”
She paused, choosing her words carefully. “But I think I know why Cody wanted to find me.” She reached for the gold folder sitting on her desk. Holding it in both her hands, she looked at Garnet. “This is a summary I wrote last night. A summary of an alien abduction—Cody Walker’s abduction, to be precise.”
Garnet’s sharp intake of breath was audible. His eyes narrowed. “I thought we’d determined he couldn’t have been abducted by aliens. Abducted, yes, but not by aliens.”
“I’ve got new evidence, new proof. I hypnotized him again and discovered several new facts about his abduction. Facts corroborated by witnesses living right here in Chicago.”
“Witnesses, huh?” Garnet’s lips narrowed. He seized the folder from her, picked up his briefcase, and headed for his office. “I’ll read it right now. Bring me some coffee.”
Roberta stifled a twinge of indignation at his peremptory manner. He would have been wounded if she’d reacted that way when he’d come in with the big story of his abduction. She’d had to hold his hand for the better part of a day while he relived the terror over and over.
She tamped down her indignation. Oh, well. That was Garnet. He’d change his tune as soon as he read the summary. Then his seasoned analytical mind would go to work on how best to present the story to the public. A story that would have earth-shaking effects on what was currently believed about aliens visiting the Earth as well as the purpose of their visits.
Roberta hummed as she prepared the coffee. A moment later, still humming, she brought a cup of steaming brew to Garnet, along with her own. Garnet looked up from the summary only to nod and raise the cup to his lips. Then he resumed reading.
Pride and anticipation grew in equal measure, giving Roberta a warm feeling inside. She drummed her fingers on her knee, waiting for Garnet to finish. Would he recommend writing a book? Or would they introduce the idea of humanoid-type aliens visiting the Earth via UFO journals and newsletters first? How would they maintain the confidentiality she was certain Allie and Erik and Cody would demand? And what, she suddenly wondered with a new stab of worry, what if they wouldn’t co-operate?
Suddenly the fears she’d pushed aside earlier in her eagerness muscled their way back in. What if Cody refused to accept his abduction by aliens? What if he began to believe once more that she had used him, that her only interest in him was as a “case”? Even if she protected his identity, if she didn’t expose Erik and Allie and their daughter, would he ever trust her again? Certainly running out as he’d faced his worst fears could hardly have inspired increased trust.
Gripped by worry, Roberta didn’t hear Garnet address her. It was only when he slapped the folder on his desk that her unhappy thoughts abated.
“Oh, yes,” she stumbled. “Well?” She nodded at the folder.
Garnet steepled his fingers and sat back in his chair. “Where did you get this from?”
“Hypnosis, the psychic, and the two people I referred to as A and B. They—”
Garnet slammed his hands on the desk and leaned towards her. The folder slipped off the desk and onto the floor. “I’ve never read such drivel in my life. Humanoid aliens, blue lights! None of this ties in with any of the cases documented in recent years.”
“But what difference does that . . .”
Garnet continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “That reporter put you up to this, didn’t he? I wondered why you wanted me to hypnotize him, and now I know. You’re setting me up so he can make me look like a fool.”
“What?” Roberta stared at her boss. She couldn’t believe his response. That he could not only
dismiss her work but turn it around to look like an attack on him.
“This has nothing to do with you, or making you look foolish,” she retorted. “Cody—that reporter was suffering because he didn’t know what happened to him when he was missing last year for six weeks. You read what I wrote. All his recent symptoms were in keeping with radiation sickness—the same symptoms that you and most of the people you’ve accepted as abducted by aliens have suffered. Why is it so unbelievable that he could have been abducted by aliens?”
“There are no documented aliens that look like human beings! It’s an impossibility. Besides, even if it isn’t just ridiculous drivel, who’s going to believe you? Especially,” he sneered, “since it appears you have some kind of personal relationship with this guy.”
Roberta ignored Garnet’s last jab. She clenched her fists to keep from leaping over the desk and slapping him. “The same people that believe you will believe me,” she grated out. “I’m a graduate of Chicago State. I helped write your last two books—the ones, I remind you, on which we have a private, legal contract giving me a portion of your royalties. I’m perfectly capable of carrying out some simple research. I did most of the research for your last two books!”
Garnet sat back in his chair and smiled expansively. “None of that matters. I’m an expert. I’ve got a doctorate, and am published in respected journals around the world. I won’t allow drivel like that to be published by anyone associated with me or SUFOW—especially not my assistant.”
“Fine. You won’t have to be worried about being embarrassed by me.” Tight-lipped with fury, Roberta bent to retrieve her folder from the floor. “I quit.”
She stalked out. At the door, she turned. “And I’m taking my abduction case to the Society for the Study of Aliens and UFOs. I know they’ll be interested.”
* * *
Roberta stopped at her desk only long enough to yank her diskette out of the computer. She shoved it and the folder into her briefcase and headed for the door.
She ran down the steps and the walk to her car, which she’d parked out front this morning. Garnet shot onto the porch as she opened the door.
“You can’t quit now,” he shouted. “We’re in the middle of promotion for my new book.”
Roberta ignored him. She threw her briefcase onto the passenger seat, hopped in and started the car.
“I won’t give you a reference!” Through the roar of the engine, she heard Garnet’s shout. She ignored him and pulled away from the curb.
Garnet’s threats didn’t frighten her. She had her royalties. She had skills that she knew other organizations in the field needed. She’d be able to get a job, anytime. She’d stuck with Garnet because, despite his patronizing, superior attitude, she loved the work and she believed he knew his stuff. And he needed her help. Details escaped him and he had trouble organizing anything beyond the day’s wardrobe. Few people knew he’d hired another Ph.D. student to help him attain his doctorate.
None of that mattered now. The Society for the Study of Aliens and UFOs had an office on the other side of the city. The director knew Roberta and Garnet, and the miracles she had performed behind the scenes to maintain Garnet’s public persona. Roberta had no doubt he would be more receptive to this case.
Still fuming, Roberta maneuvered her car in and out of traffic. “The nerve of Garnet,” she muttered. “Four years of my life slaving away for him, helping him out in every way, and he acts as if I’m the enemy.”
At the last minute she noticed the traffic light had turned red. She slammed on the brakes. “Imagine Garnet accusing Cody of setting me up to make SUFOW look foolish. Imagine—”
Her rant stopped dead. The troubling thoughts that had surfaced earlier, when she’d paused to think, pressed upon her again, this time too loudly to be ignored. Worries about exposing Cody. Cody and Allie and Erik. Thoughts about trust. Cody’s trust in her and hers in him. Trust and love and keeping him safe. About what Cody was doing right now. How had he reacted to the news he really had been abducted by aliens? Why wasn’t she there to hold him close? And how could she tell this story that the world needed to know without exposing him? Without turning him against her forever? Without revealing their personal relationship? Her head started to ache with the conflicting clamors for attention, clamors that had been kept at bay until now by sheer excitement.
A horn blared behind her. She looked up. The light had changed. With a squeal of tires, she took off, heading in the direction of the SSAU offices.
* * *
Cody twisted the doorknob, but the door to SUFOW’s offices wouldn’t open, despite the fact it was twenty to ten. He rang the doorbell, jingling the change in his pocket while he waited. No one answered. He rang the bell again. Still no answer.
He peered in the window to the right of the door. File cabinets obscured his view; from the little he could see, it didn’t look as if anyone was in.
Swearing under his breath, he hopped the porch railing and jogged down the alley between the two houses to the parking lot in back. A sky-blue Mercedes, looking as if it had just come from the car wash, sat in the shade of the lone tree. Roberta’s car was nowhere in sight.
Where is she? Cody glanced back at the house. The only opening was a windowless door to the basement. He strode over to it, and banged on it three times. He waited, but still no one answered. He put his ear to the door and listened. Nothing.
Cody jogged back around to the front of the building. With a last look at the empty porch, he got into his car and retrieved his cell phone from the passenger seat. He dialed SUFOW’s number and waited, watching the front door.
The phone rang four times before transferring over to voice mail. “The Society of UFO Watcher’s. No one can take your call at the moment. Please . . .” Roberta’s melodic voice urged the caller to leave a message after the tone.
Cody punched off, then started the car. Where was she? And why the hell wouldn’t that moron Garnet open the door? Cody had no doubt Garnet was in there, but refusing to answer the door and phone out of sheer perversity.
Or because he was furious. Garnet’s response to his phone call in the early hours of the morning had been glacial, despite Cody’s attempt to explain the urgency. Showing up on his doorstep forty minutes later had infuriated him; he had refused to answer any questions, much less suggest where Roberta might be.
Perhaps Garnet had been telling the truth. Perhaps he hadn’t known, Cody acknowledged, though it seemed unlikely. Finally, Cody had been forced to return home. Every few minutes he’d phoned Roberta’s apartment. Sometimes he went into the hallway and rang her doorbell. He’d gone down to the parking garage to check whether her car was parked in its spot. It wasn’t.
In between he had paced. Paced and worried. Worried about what had happened to Roberta. Was she okay? If she was okay, what was she doing? Could she be telling the story of his abduction—and of the other parties to the abduction—to the likes of Garnet? Or worse, to someone else? She knew the dangers, better than anyone. But she also knew the rewards.
Time and again, he had shut his eyes against the idea that aliens had abducted him. It couldn’t be true. He didn’t want it to be true. But he kept running into the hard fact that what he’d seen and heard made it impossible to be anything but true. That Allie, whom he trusted implicitly, confirmed it was true. And that Roberta, who loved him and had suspected he’d been abducted all along, knew it was true, too. Why else would she have left, except to tell Garnet?
Finally he had sat down to rest. Much to his amazement, he had dozed off, only to awake to full sunshine and the ringing of the telephone. It had been a freezer salesman—and ten after nine in the morning.
Now Cody cut from one lane to another without looking, ignoring the sharp complaint of several car horns and the shouted imprecations. Where was Roberta?
More worried than ever, he pulled the car into the apartment’s underground garage. He wheeled sharply around and into his parking space. As he turned off
the ignition, he glanced at Roberta’s space, and started. Her car was there; she was back!
Relief surged through him, followed by the urge to kill. He leapt out of the car and raced for the lobby and elevator. He shot out of the elevator and down the hallway to her door. He rang the doorbell and knocked at the same time. No one answered. “Roberta!” he yelled.
He rang again and waited impatiently. “Roberta!” He rattled the door knob. “Roberta!”
He swung over to his own door and unlocked it. He ran through the living room to the sliding doors, tossing his keys on the table. It wasn’t until he reached the doors that he registered the briefcase. He looked back at the dining room table. A burgundy leather briefcase sat open on the table top.
He halted. Was that Roberta’s? Slowly he walked back to the table. Beside the briefcase lay a gold duo-tang folder. On its gummed label was the neatly-typed title, “Alien Abduction, Chicago 1998”.
Cody grew still. In the silence, he could hear his own breathing. He stared at the folder. He didn’t want to pick it up. He didn’t want . . . .
He heard a rustling noise, followed by a long murmur that could have been a sigh. It came from his bedroom.
Not certain what he would find, he headed to the bedroom. His eyes widened as he entered the sun-filled room.
Roberta lay in the center of his bed, her shoulders bare above the pulled-up cotton sheet. She raised her arms in a languorous stretch, and smiled lazily. “Mmm, I thought you’d never get here. Don’t you ever go to bed?”
Struck speechless, Cody could only stare. Finally he found his tongue. “How’d you get in here?” he asked stupidly.
Roberta inclined her head to the sliding doors. “You really should lock those doors.”
Still stunned, Cody shook his head. “What? Where were you last night?”
Crazy in Chicago Page 22
