by J. J. Stone
James nodded.
“When you walked away, he kept taunting me about it. Then he told me his name.” That white-noise blood rush started to fill her ears again. She instinctively pinched her arm and the short burst of pain cut off the panic’s progress.
“It was Sakima. Wasn’t it?”
Grateful for James’s perceptiveness, she nodded loosely.
“You know I’m going to get Seattle PD to assign you an escort.”
Ada blanched. “What? No. James—”
“He knows where you live, Ada,” James said, his voice rising. “Hell, he followed you around town.” His mouth hung open as he attempted to keep his outburst in check. “I don’t know why you’re so interesting to him, but his fascination has gone up a few levels, obviously.”
Even though she knew he was right about Sakima’s threat level graduating to a more serious state, something in the back of her mind loudly and repeatedly protested in fear now. “I don’t need the police to babysit me.” James started to speak but she silenced him with a raised hand. “I’ll go stay with Uncle Mike over the holidays.”
“Why would you think Sakima doesn’t know where Mike lives?” James was growing more and more agitated. “You’re just going to put him at risk.”
“You know, this Sakima person has never done anything except write notes.”
“And shoot out the tires of a car you were in.”
Ada knew she was losing this battle. “I just don’t want some cop following me around all the time.”
“Too bad.”
Ada sprang to her feet and started for the door. What had started as a friendly reunion was now reverting back to their ugly days. She ignored the first few times James called to her, but stopped when he raised his voice to a mild roar. She faced him reluctantly, one hand resting on the doorframe. “What?” Her voice stayed curt.
James had seated himself on the edge of his bed. His legs hung over the side, bare from the knees down. He looked ridiculous in a hospital gown, Ada mused, wishing she had her phone. “Why are you so against having protection?”
“This isn’t protection, James. This is …” She couldn’t think of a fitting description.
“I’m not suggesting this because I hate you.” James tenderly wrapped an arm around his torso, holding his aching ribs.
Ada softened, her hand slipping off the doorway. “I know.” She took a few steps back toward him. “I’m sorry. You just have to respect that I don’t want this.” She reconsidered her words. “I can’t have this.”
“So you’re willing to dangle yourself out there for him? Like it’s nothing.”
Ada ducked her chin toward her chest and drove her fingers into her hair, gripping her scalp with the pads of her fingertips. “I just can’t.”
“There’s no way—”
“I can’t!”
They both flinched at the icy harshness in her voice.
She pulled her hands away and straightened her neck. “I … will not have another psycho turn my life upside down.” Her voice was firm and true despite the tears welling up.
James caught on and dipped his face to look at his hovering feet. “I’m trying to prevent that, Ada.”
“I can’t have my life controlled by something like that again. My father did it once and I got away from it. I’m not about to jump back into it.”
“If something happens—”
“Then I’ll agree to the escort.”
James looked back up, and Ada blinked at the amount of agony striped across his face. “It’ll be too late at that point.” He looked like he was about to slide off the bed to stand up but then thought better of it at the last second. His hands clapped down on the edge of his mattress and squeezed. “I can’t just sit on my hands and not try to prevent something happening to you.”
“What are you doing in here?”
Ada let out a small yelp and jerked around to face the glowering nurse standing a few feet behind her in James’s doorway.
The nurse stiffly flapped her fingers at Ada. “Let’s go. Visiting hours have been over for a while now.”
“She’s fine—” James started but was swiftly silenced by the nurse’s other hand.
“Agent, you need to be lying down. She”—she cocked her head toward Ada—“ is impeding your recovery.”
James glared at the nurse but kept his mouth shut.
Ada thought about ignoring the nurse and going back to her chair by James. Then she felt the nurse’s hand firmly clamp down on her arm and ever so slightly pull her toward the hall.
“Let’s go, miss.” The nurse commandeered Ada through the doorway.
Ada cast one last look at James before he disappeared. He met her gaze then squeezed his eyes shut and turned away, frustration clenching his jaw. Then Ada was shuffling down the hallway toward the elevator, leaving their conversation hanging unfinished in the stuffy hospital air.
——
“Do not take your eyes off of him,” Dade said to the female officer standing watch outside of Eli’s holding cell. “If he so much as sneezes wrong, call me.”
“I’ll miss you too, princess,” Eli taunted from the cell’s bench.
Dade slid a finger toward the burly hunter. “Try something. Please give me a reason to beat you senseless.”
“That sounds like police brutality.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I’m not a cop.”
Eli snapped his mouth shut and glanced away from Dade.
“Exactly.” Dade raised his brows at the officer, who nodded once at him and turned to face Eli. Satisfied, Dade quickly left the holding area and went off to find Brenda.
As soon as they had arrived with Eli, the police station had become ground zero for every media correspondent in the Milwaukee area. Brenda had done her best to fill James’s shoes and keep the press at bay. Dade was glad she had stepped into the moderator role. With the amount of tension his nerves were coiled under, Dade ultimately would have chased the reporters off with a shotgun instead of listening to their yammering.
He found Brenda stomping snow off her boots just inside the station’s front doors. She shook her head as Dade approached. “How many ways can you tell someone that you don’t have any information? I do speak English, right?”
“Mostly.” Dade playfully flicked her in the shoulder and received the reluctant grin he had been rooting for. “Any news on a helicopter?”
Brenda shook her head. “It’s a long shot with the snow. I’m going to give them a few more minutes and then call again.”
“I want to get this guy on a plane back to DC as soon as possible. If we have him on our turf, the less likely someone from the cult will be able to do something.”
“I’ll call them again.” The weariness in Brenda’s voice was contagious.
——
Eli flung himself onto his cell cot and pressed his head back against the cold cinderblock wall. His stress level was reaching boiling point. One of the first things Sakima drilled into his followers was to never get caught. Getting caught meant putting the mission at risk. He could punch himself in the jewels for not keeping his pill on him. That was another thing he’d been taught at initiation: never be without your way out. He’d gotten sloppy in the cabin, let his guard down. Now, instead of keeping the situation under his control, Eli was a prisoner of the FBI with no way of cementing his silence.
He didn’t think he would break. Travis might have broken, but Eli was sure he could get into the right mental state. Interrogation training had been one of Eli’s strong suits. He could outlast just about anyone in the group. Part of him wondered if that’s why Sakima had given him the pivotal side mission of capturing the analyst. The risk level of what he had done had left him susceptible to being caught. A creeping feeling of betrayal rumble
d in the pit of his stomach. Maybe that was why he was now sitting in a holding cell. It was where Sakima wanted him.
The officer keeping watch over him waved to someone out of sight. Eli watched her in his periphery. “Hey, can you get me a candy bar or something?” The officer called to whoever she had gotten the attention of. “I can’t leave,” she said, pointing at Eli’s cell.
“Yeah, hold on a sec,” said a male voice a few cells down. A buzzer reverberated through the cell block and a door croaked open before slamming shut.
The officer popped her neck to the left and right then straightened back against the wall across from Eli’s cell. He could feel her eyes boring into him.
“Candy bar, huh?” Eli lolled his head to the left and flicked his gaze up to the officer. “How do you look so good eating crap like that?”
The officer’s cheek twitched, but she didn’t respond.
“I’m kind of hungry myself, actually.” Eli cupped his gut for emphasis. “Think you could ask Candy Bar Guy to grab another one?”
The officer finally looked him in the eye. “I’m under strict instructions—”
“To make sure I don’t kill myself, I know.” Eli stood and made the two step journey to the barred cell wall. He wrapped his hands around two of the rungs. “I’m diabetic. If I don’t keep my blood sugar up, you’re going to have a situation on your hands. One you probably don’t want. That FBI meathead will probably have your job if you let me go into shock.”
The officer’s reasoning process flittered across her face like a movie. Eli watched in amusement, knowing that she was gullible enough to eventually come around to what he wanted. To give her a last little shove in his direction, he hissed and pressed his fingertips to his temples. “Ahhh, that’s not good. The headaches are starting.” He changed his breathing to a more shallow rhythm. “Please. They’re going to lock me up on a plane soon. This might be the last chance I have to get something in my system.”
The officer took a few steps toward him, the conflict in her features giving Eli the satisfaction that his plan was working. He stumbled back to his cot and half collapsed down onto it, shoving his head down between his knees.
The cell block door buzzed and groaned open again. Eli heard heavy footsteps make their way toward his cell. “Here, this is all we have left,” the male voice from earlier said. “What’s his deal?”
“He’s diabetic,” the female officer said. “Go grab another one of these.”
“I’ll see if someone has one.” The footsteps started again as the male officer left. “I’ll grab the med kit, too.”
“OK.” Something tapped against the metal bars and Eli raised his head slowly. “Here, take a few bites of this.”
Grinning like a cheeky two year old, Eli reached and took the candy bar from her. “Thank you,” he whispered and sank back onto his cot. His hunger spiked at the sight of the brightly colored wrapper.
The female officer stepped back from his cell but kept her intent eyes on him.
Eli went to rip open the candy bar when he noticed what kind it was. He was opening his mouth to ask what his other candy options were when a small light bulb lit up in his mind. This was his plan B. Literally handed to him by the police. He didn’t have to worry about interrogations. He would never see one.
Sorry, Mom, Eli said silently as he pulled the corner of the wrapper open. The peanut scent that escaped made his stomach turn. A brief flash of fear hit him, but he quickly swallowed it down. Was this the most ideal way to go? No. But at least it was on his terms.
——
Dade glanced up as an officer rushed past him and headed into the break room. He watched the officer dig through a couple of cabinets before finding a large med kit. The officer then stomped over to a vending machine and quickly dumped change into it.
“Everything OK?” Dade asked as he stepped into the doorway.
The officer glanced at him and finished punching in the number for his candy. “The suspect is diabetic, so Officer Stevens is trying to get his blood sugar back up.” His selection dropped into the vending machine’s tray and he quickly stooped to retrieve it.
“What are you talking about?” Dade demanded, blocking the officer’s exit from the room.
“The suspect stated that he’s diabetic, so Officer Stevens gave him her candy bar to try to help his blood sugar levels.”
“Dammit!” Dade bolted away from the break room and raced toward the station’s cell block. Once he got there, he slammed his hand against the metal door at the cell block entrance until someone released the lock. As the door buzzed, Dade glanced through the door’s small window and saw Officer Stevens’s mouth drop as she rushed to Eli’s cell, fumbling with the keys on her belt clip.
Dade rammed the door open and sprinted to the officer’s side. He looked through the bars and was greeted by Eli convulsing on the floor, his skin bright red and pimpled with hives. His hands were around his throat as his body started to swell, his face becoming less human by the second.
“Open the door!” Dade shouted at the officer, which made her hands tremble even more.
“I’m trying to find the key,” she said, voice cracking. After a few tries, a key sank in and the door’s lock clicked.
Dade burst into the cell and shoved Eli flat on his back. He tipped his head back and reached into his mouth to fish out whatever was causing the reaction. “What did you give him?”
“A candy bar.” The officer remained outside the cell, clutching her stomach.
“What kind of candy bar?” Dade asked as his search of Eli’s mouth came up empty.
The male officer from the break room arrived and cursed under his breath when he saw Eli.
“A peanut butter bar.” Officer Stevens leaned against the open cell door. “Is he alive?”
Dade ignored her and pointed at the male officer. “Look in there and see if there’s something for anaphylactic shock.”
The officer dropped to his knees and yanked the med kit open. He dug around furiously, spraying the contents all over the cell floor. Dade started CPR on Eli, shouting as he watched the hunter’s eyes roll white. Between chest thrusts, Dade glanced back at the officer. “Well?”
“We had a pen, but someone must have used it.” The officer looked forlornly at the medical supplies scattered around him, utterly helpless.
“Call it in,” Dade said to both officers as he doubled his efforts on Eli. “And get Agent Stine.”
——
Brenda slid to a stop in front of Eli’s cell, Officer Stevens right behind her. Her breath caught as she found Dade slumped against the cell wall, his head in his hands. Eli’s enflamed body was stretched out beside his cot, every visible part of his body swollen at least double in size. Brenda heard Officer Stevens whimper and turned to see the woman’s eyes glistening. “I didn’t know. He just said he was diabetic.”
“I’m going with peanut allergy. The candy bar put him into shock,” Dade said quietly, not lifting his head. “He’s gone.”
Officer Stevens rushed out of the cell block, leaving Brenda staring slack jawed at the scene before her. “This is unbelievable,” Brenda said, shaking her head as she stepped into the cell.
Dade finally lifted his head. “I give up with these people.” He shook his head at Eli’s corpse. “No matter what we do, they find a way to off themselves.”
Brenda sat down on the edge of the cell’s cot and looked down at the phone in her hand. “I’ll let Deacon know.”
At the mention of their superior, Dade squeezed his eyes shut and rammed his head back into the cell’s wall in defeat.
CHAPTER 18
Ada tucked the comically long tails of her shirt into the waistband of her slim sweatpants. She looked at herself in the hospital room’s squat mirror and blushed. The hospital had provided her wit
h a few items of mismatched clothing to leave in. No one had brought her bag over from the station, so Ada hadn’t had much choice. She pulled on the thick wool cardigan and winced as its coarse texture tortured her even through her long sleeve t-shirt. She adjusted the legs of her pants in her snow boots, the only things the hospital hadn’t taken when they’d admitted her.
She switched off the bathroom light and stepped back into her room. After learning that flights out of Milwaukee were still delayed indefinitely, Ada had pestered one of her nurses into surrendering her smart phone to her for five minutes. After sending a quick email to the dean’s office about her continued battle with pneumonia, Ada had sent Tiffany a slightly longer email explaining that she was stuck in Wisconsin and might not be back for another day or so. She told her that she was using a different phone because she had lost hers. The part about a serial killer taking it and destroying it she would save for when she could tell Tiffany the story in person.
Casting one last look around her room, Ada headed for the elevator. The cardigan was insulating her a little too well. She could feel sweat starting to bead at her hairline but resisted wiping it away with her itchy sleeve. When the elevator arrived, Ada stepped into it and almost pushed the button for James’s floor. Having left a bad situation between the two of them before, Ada didn’t want an encore. But she also hadn’t given much thought to what she would say to him. Her mind made up, Ada pressed the main floor button and sagged back against the elevator wall as the doors shut.
When the elevator opened again a few seconds later, a pair of nurses were rushing past. Ada frowned and stepped out into the corridor that led to the hospital lobby. It was then that she heard someone in the lobby raising hell, their shouts traveling all the way down the hallway to Ada. She stepped to the side as a doctor jogged down to the lobby, another nurse trailing him. Curiosity piqued, Ada quickened her pace.
As she stepped into the hospital’s crowded lobby, the first thing she saw was the waiting room full of gawkers. Everyone that could stand was on their feet, necks craned toward the front desk. Ada rounded a corner and stopped short when her eyes found the cause of the chaos.
