Out of the Dark

by Sharon Sala

  Luke saw the flash of sunlight in his rearview mirror as it glinted off the windshield of the car behind him. Out of habit, he noted it was a gray, late-model sedan and then returned his attention to his driving. Jade was counting and recounting the twenty dollar bills they’d taken from an ATM. He wished he’d had a camera to capture the shock, then delight, when she came away three hundred dollars richer than she’d been when they arrived. It wasn’t as if she’d never seen ATMs, but she’d never had the opportunity to see how they worked, and it was obvious she was fascinated.

  “We’re almost at the mall,” Luke said.

  “Oh! Okay,” Jade said, and quickly put the money back in her purse.

  As Luke turned off the street into the mall parking lot, he noticed that the gray sedan was still behind him. However, at least two dozen other cars were also signaling a turn into the mall, so he ignored its presence.

  “We’re looking for socks, right?”

  She nodded. Conscious of the large amount of money in her purse, she clutched it close against her chest.

  Luke circled an area of the parking lot twice before he found a parking place near the wing closest to JCPenney’s. It was as good a place as any to buy some men’s socks.

  “Ha! There’s one!” he crowed, and wheeled into an empty parking space that a woman in a PT Cruiser had just vacated.

  Jade almost smiled. “It doesn’t take much to please you, does it?”

  Luke arched an eyebrow in pretend dismay. “You wound me, woman. Are you insinuating that I’m shallow?”

  She laughed aloud.

  Luke shuddered and then quickly looked away. Her laugh made him feel naked—stripped to the bone by the joy in the sound.

  “Okay,” he said shortly. “Let’s go buy some socks.”

  Jade tightened her grip on her purse and got out of the car.

  Johnny Newton saw them park and get out. He watched as they crossed the parking lot and then disappeared inside the mall. He’d had a brainstorm as he’d watched them circling the lot, but without knowing how long they would be inside, he didn’t have time to waste. He knew they were on their way back to the hospital, but he needed to slow them down so he get to Raphael without interference. He parked in the first parking place he found, and as soon as they were out of sight, got out on the run. Moments later, he was beside their car. With a quick glance around to make sure he was unobserved, he took a knife from his pocket, dropped to the concrete, rolled onto his back and then pulled himself as far under the front of the car as he could go.

  The concrete was hot against his skin, even through the layers of his clothing. The acrid scent of burning oil and hot rubber seared his nostrils as he reached for the brake line. He heard voices and the sound of someone laughing as he thrust the knife into the line. A thin smear of fluid coated the knife as he pulled it out. Without wasted motion, he closed the blade and slid out from under the car. As he jumped to his feet, he startled a pair of teenage girls who were on their way back to their car.

  They gasped in unison, eyeing him nervously as they clutched their bags and increased their stride.

  “Boo!” he said, and then wiggled his hands toward them, as if he were putting them under some spell.

  They screamed and started to run.

  Johnny laughed aloud and then cut across the parking lot back to where he was parked. He was in his car and gone before the girls reached their vehicle. His plan hinged on getting in and out of Raphael’s hospital room without having too many people running interference, and he had just given himself the time and space to do it.

  Jade kept looking for a clock. The longer she stayed away from Raphael’s hospital room, the more anxious she became.

  “What time is it?” she asked, as they hurried down the mall with her purchases.

  Luke glanced at his watch. “Almost ten.”

  “Oh God…I’ve been gone three…almost four hours. What if—”

  “Raphael is all right,” he said.

  “How do you know?” Jade asked.

  “Because if he wasn’t, the hospital would have called Sam’s house. And Sam knows you’re with me, so he would have called my cell phone. So since Sam hasn’t called us, we can assume Raphael is okay. That’s how I know.”

  “Oh.”

  It made sense. It also gave Jade permission to relax.

  “Sorry,” she said. “But every moment I’m away from him is a moment I can never get back.”

  Her voice broke as she looked away, and when she did, she saw a little girl standing up against a storefront. She was standing with her back to the windows, and Jade could tell by the look on the child’s face that she was frightened.

  Before she could say anything about her, Luke saw her, too.

  “Jade, look. I think that little girl is lost. Do you see any adults nearby that she might belong to?”

  Jade quickly searched the area but didn’t see anyone who fit the description.

  “No, I don’t, do you?” she asked.

  “No,” he said, and without hesitation, walked toward the girl. As soon as he reached her, he went down on one knee so that they would be speaking face to face. “Honey…are you okay?”

  The child couldn’t have been more than four. When she saw Luke, she hid her face in her hands.

  “My name is Luke,” he said, then motioned for Jade to come closer. “This is my friend Jade. Are you lost?”

  There was a moment when all they could hear were the quiet sounds of stifled sobs; then, slowly, she lowered her hands and studied Luke’s face. Something she saw there prompted her to answer.

  “No, but my mommy is,” she said.

  “Ah…so what’s your name?”

  “Melissa Joan Carter, but my daddy calls me Princess.”

  Luke dug a handkerchief from his pocket and carefully wiped at her tears.

  “So, Melissa Joan Carter, what do you say we find a nice policeman who will help us find your mommy?”

  “Yes, please,” she said, and then snuffled through a few lingering sobs.

  They led her to a nearby bench, then all sat down together.

  “Do you know your mother’s name?” Jade asked.

  “Mommy.”

  Jade frowned, then thought to ask the question a different way. “What does your daddy call your mommy?”

  “Sugar…but my Grammy calls her Faith.”

  “Good work,” Luke told Jade, then he looked at the little girl. “We’re going to find your mommy, okay? But first we have to tell a policeman that she’s lost.”

  “Okay,” the child said, and before Luke knew what was happening, she’d crawled up into his lap.

  Without thinking, he swiped at a stray tear that he’d missed, then kissed the side of her cheek.

  “Don’t cry, baby girl. We’ll make everything all right.”

  Then he turned to Jade. “Honey, run in that store and ask the clerk to call security, will you? I’ll wait here with Melissa, just in case her mommy shows.”

  Luke watched as she hurried into the store, then began talking to the clerk. When they looked his direction, he waved. The clerk immediately waved back and reached for the phone.

  Jade hurried back to where Luke and the child were sitting.

  “He said for us to wait here.”

  “We’re waiting, aren’t we, Melissa?”

  The little girl nodded.

  “Want me to hold you?” Jade asked, thinking that the child might be afraid of Luke and be more comfortable with a woman.

  “No,” the little girl said. “I like him.”

  Jade was a bit startled, then smiled.

  “You do, huh?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why is that?” Jade asked.

  “Cause he’s higher than you and he smells nice…like my daddy.”

  “Oh.”

  Luke winked at Jade and then smiled.

  “As you can see, I am much higher than you.”

  “And you smell.”

  Lu
ke looked a bit taken aback, and then it hit him that she was teasing. He thought it was a first.

  “That’s not what she said,” he muttered.

  “Sorry,” Jade said. “I guess I didn’t hear her right.”

  “Hey, look!” Luke said, pointing down the mall. “There comes a policeman now. I’ll bet he’s going to be able to help us find your mommy.”

  The child nodded sagely, as if suddenly Luke’s word was law. Her innocence made Jade sick. She knew how naive a child that age was, and how easily it could have been someone less trustworthy than she or Luke who had found her.

  Then the officer arrived and introductions were necessary again.

  He eyed Luke closely. “I’m Officer Reyes. Who do we have here?”

  Luke quickly flashed some identification. “My name is Luke Kelly, of Kelly Securities here in St. Louis.”

  “Oh! My brother-in-law, Mel Holmes, works for you!”

  Luke nodded in recognition. “Yes, he does, in accounting,” he added; then he turned to the little girl. “Tell the officer your name, sweetheart. He can help you find your mommy faster.”

  Suddenly intimidated by too many strangers, she ducked her head, hiding her face against the curve of Luke’s neck.

  Luke eyed the officer, then shrugged. “She was talking a few minutes ago. Said her name was Melissa Joan Carter but her daddy calls her Princess.”

  The officer smiled. “So, Princess, how about we see if we can find your mommy? Want to come with me?”

  She clung to Luke’s neck and shook her head.

  Jade laid her hand on the little girl’s back and felt her trembling. Her heart instantly went out to her. She could well remember what it felt like to lose Mommy. The only trouble was, hers never came back. She turned to the security officer.

  “Maybe it would be okay if we went with you? Her mother is probably frantic.”

  “Oh, yeah…by the way,” Luke added. “I think her mother’s name is Faith. We’re assuming that it’s also Carter, although these days, you can’t be too sure.”

  “Yeah, sure, why not?” the officer said, and led the way back down the mall toward the security office.

  As they were walking, the officer’s radio began to squawk. He slipped it out of the case on his belt and keyed up the mike.

  “This is Dwight.”

  “Yeah. Dwight. We got a woman here who’s reported a missing child. Thought I’d double-check and see if your kid is a match.”

  “What’s her name?” the officer asked.

  “Faith Carter.”

  The officer grinned at Luke and then gave him a thumbs-up.

  “Yeah, tell her we got the kid. We’re on our way now.”

  Luke breathed a sigh of relief and then winked at Jade.

  “See, miracles do happen.”

  She nodded, yet all the way to the security office, she couldn’t help but wonder what her life would have been like if Sam had been able to find her this easily.

  By the time they reached the office, Luke and the child were fast friends. Her tiny hand was fisted in the collar of his shirt, and she was telling him about her pet fish named Harry.

  Suddenly a woman darted out of the doorway and snatched the little girl from Luke’s arms.

  “Missy…missy…you scared Mommy to death.” Then she looked at Luke and Jade and started to cry. “I can’t thank you enough for finding her. One minute she was right beside me, and then she was gone.” She closed her eyes momentarily and laid her cheek against the child’s silky hair. “Oh God, oh God. I was so scared. I thought…I was afraid…I didn’t know if I’d—”

  Jade touched the woman. “You were lucky this time. A really nice man found her, but it doesn’t always happen that way. Trust me, I know.”

  Suddenly the woman gasped. She looked at Jade as if seeing her for the first time.

  “It’s you, isn’t it? I saw your picture in the papers. You’re the little girl who’s been lost all those years.” Then she started to cry all over again. “Oh my dear, my dear…what you must have gone through.” Still holding her daughter in one arm, she wrapped her other arm around Jade’s neck and gave her a hug. “Welcome home, dear, welcome home.” Then she turned Jade loose and hugged Luke, as well.

  But it was Jade who was speechless as they walked away. It took her a few seconds to realize that Luke was holding her hand, and when she did, she didn’t bother to pull it loose. Instead she curled her fingers around his and held on tight.

  Luke had been covertly watching her expression throughout the entire ordeal and had been fearful that it would resurrect some bad memories for her. He’d taken hold of her hand because taking her into his arms was out of the question, yet fully expecting her to pull back. Instead she’d tightened her grip, and when she did, he thought he knew what was going through her head.

  “Hold on tight to me, honey,” he said softly. “I’ll make sure you’ll never be lost again.”

  Jade took a deep, shuddering breath, shifted the sack with Raphael’s socks to a tighter grip and led with her chin. He was right. She didn’t have to be afraid. There was nothing left to hurt her but losing Raphael, and she wouldn’t let her mind go there.

  Johnny loved this part of his job. In another life, he wondered if he might have been an actor. He liked the costumes and the disguises that he often used to get to the hit. This time he had filched a lab coat, a pair of surgical gloves and a mask, and sauntered through the halls of the hospital, blending easily into the dozens and dozens of health care workers who, at any given time, would be on a floor. Knowing that the ward he needed to get to was a sort of quarantine, he even had some disposable footies over his shoes.

  He did wonder why they had Raphael in quarantine, since he’d found out the guy was dying of liver cancer, then decided it was probably more for the patient’s protection than the reverse. If he was critical, even a sneeze from an unwitting passerby could trigger a bout of pneumonia for him, and it would be all over. So he entered the ward without hesitation, confident that, within minutes, it would be all over. He thought about how he would tell Frank Lawson the job was done, and then decided that he might wait an extra day or so before letting him know, just to make him sweat.

  When he reached the room, he pulled the mask up over his face, threw back his shoulders and pushed the door inward, striding as confidently as any doctor in the place. He was a bit taken aback by the presence of a private nurse, then decided it was all for the better.

  She looked up and then, not recognizing Michael Tessler behind the mask, frowned.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “How can I help you?”

  Johnny pointed to the IV, then took an empty hypodermic syringe out of his pocket and held it to her.

  “You can shove this in his arm, or get out of the way and let me do it,” he said.

  The nurse gasped as the masked stranger started toward her. She reached for the phone to call security but was not fast enough. Johnny broke her neck as silently and swiftly as he’d broken Mabel Tyler’s, then let her limp, lifeless body drop beside the bed.

  “Okay now,” he muttered, as he fiddled with the IV attached to Raphael’s arm. “One good shot of air into this baby and, buddy, you’re toast.”

  Raphael had heard the stranger’s voice as well as the implied threat. Struggling to pull himself out of a drug-induced haze, he felt along the side of the bed rail, trying to find the button that would ring the nurses’ station. Instead the man shoved his hand aside and started to jab a needle into the IV shunt.

  Raphael sensed something was terribly wrong and cursed his illness, as well as the medicine that had left him so weak.

  “Who are you? What do you want?”

  The man laughed, and the sound made the hair on the back of Raphael’s arms stand on end.

  “Don’t take this personally,” the man said. “It’s just a matter of business.”

  Raphael finally focused just as the man thrust the needle of the syringe into the shunt. When he re
alized that there was nothing in it but air, he knew his time on this earth was over. Someone was going to kill him. But why? Immediately he thought of all the news coverage and of Jade and knew that it had to be someone from their past. Someone who didn’t want them alive to tell any tales. Then he knew that if they were going to kill him, they would kill Jade, too.

  Desperate to save her and knowing that it was going to be impossible, his last thought was to make the killer’s life a living hell.

  Before Johnny Newton could react, Raphael had yanked the IV needle out of his arm. Blood spurted everywhere. On the bedclothes. On the floor. And all over Johnny.

  Johnny cursed. The air bubble he’d shot into the line was now as useless as a fart. Who could have known that this dying son-of-a-bitch would fight back?

  “You stupid bastard,” he growled, and yanked the oxygen tube from Raphael’s nose, then threw it in the floor. Then he wrapped his hands around Raphael’s neck and started to squeeze.

  Raphael dug his fingers into the man’s hands, peeling back surgical gloves and flesh with his nails. The blood was still spurting from the open vein that the IV needle had been in, and now it was all over them both.

  Johnny suffered the pain in his hands as he tightened his grip around the man’s neck. But instead of fighting, the man suddenly stopped. Then, even with the air being choked out of his body, he smiled. It rattled Johnny Newton more than staring down the barrel of a gun might have done, and still he squeezed. He pushed and pushed against the larynx until the smile was gone and the man’s eyes had rolled back in his head.

  Suddenly it was over as quickly as it had begun.