Slumbered to Death

by Vanessa Gray Bartal

  “I want you to give me your keys,” he said.

  “I’m not the one with a head injury,” she pointed out. She reached out to touch his goose egg, but he moved away.

  “Sadie, I’m not having this discussion, period. Give me your keys.”

  She dug her keys from her purse and laid them in his hand. “This is not necessary. I’m fine.”

  “Sure you are,” he said. He walked her to the car and held the door for her. The drive home was silent, but they were both tired. At least that was why Sadie was quiet. Luke was acting odd. “We need to talk about this,” he said as soon as they arrived home.

  She turned and pressed her palm to his cheek. “Luke, not tonight, okay? I’m so tired.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “Definitely,” she said. She leaned across the console and kissed his cheek. He grabbed her and held her close, crushing her in a hug she only vaguely returned. He trailed behind her as she walked into the house, up the stairs, and disappeared into her room.

  “What’s up with her?” Hal asked.

  “She says she’s tired.”

  “But you don’t believe her,” Hal surmised.

  “I think she’s heading for a breakdown. How could she not?”

  Hal shrugged. “I know I am. That was more adventure than I want for a while.”

  “Thanks for going with me,” Luke said.

  “As if I wouldn’t,” Hal said. “Sometimes I don’t think you give me enough credit.” The comment had an edge. Luke guessed they had transitioned to talking about Sadie.

  “What are you talking about? You’re my brother, my compadre; you’re the dumber, geekier, less suave me.”

  “Clearly the bump on your head has altered your reality, although after seeing your secret shooting skills on display, I’m going to slink into the night. Perhaps I’ll go to the hospital and save a life. Maybe I’ll put on the Spidey suit and see if the city needs protecting.” He clapped his hand over his mouth. “Did I say that out loud? Don’t tell.”

  “I won’t; Peter Parker is lame. Radioactive spider bite? What’s that about?”

  “Yeah, Bruce Banner is way more awesome, what with the gamma poison that makes him turn into a green monster. That’s much more normal,” Hal said. He paused. “Someday we should stop talking about this stuff and start to talk about women and other real people.”

  “Someday,” Luke agreed. They bumped fists and Hal went home. After checking on Abby, Luke climbed the stairs to his room. He paused outside Sadie’s room and pressed his ear to the door, but there was no sound from within. Tomorrow, Luke promised himself, I’m going to find out how Sadie is really feeling.

  But in the morning, Sadie didn’t cooperate. “I’m fine,” she reiterated.

  “Sadie, you’re not fine,” Luke said. They sat at the kitchen table together. Abby had already vacated for another day of volunteer work. “Just tell me the truth.”

  “Luke, I am telling you the truth. I’m fine.”

  “You mean to tell me that you cultivated a friendship with a psychotic serial killer, survived his murder attempt, saw two bodies with him, both of which he had killed, became his prisoner, broke free, got shot at, wrestled with him, kissed him, had your room invaded by him, found out he had been watching you sleep on and off for months, and you’re fine.”

  “It sounds bad when you say it,” Sadie said.

  “Sadie!”

  She put up her hands in surrender. “Luke, I don’t know what you want me to say. Yes, it was horrible. I feel like an idiot that I didn’t see it coming, that I let him get a foothold, that I trusted him at all. Yes, it was scary when it was going on. It was especially scary to think he might have hurt you and Hal. But it’s over. It ended, and it ended happily. You’re safe, Hal’s safe, Abby’s safe, and she and Dad made up. Do I wish it had never happened? Of course, but it’s done, and I’m fine.”

  He studied her for a minute. She could sense his frustration. She yelped when he reached out and hauled her into his lap. He pressed her face between his palms. “Look into my face and tell me the truth.”

  For a moment, she wavered. Her eyes welled, her lip trembled, but she stuffed it back down and smiled. “Luke, I’m fine. I swan.” If she thought using Abby’s turn of phrase would coax a smile, she was mistaken.

  “You are not fine,” he said. “I know you.”

  Now she was getting annoyed. “Maybe not as well as you think because there is nothing wrong with me. I’m…”

  “Don’t say it, don’t say that word again, Sadie.”

  “Okay. I’m okay. Really.”

  “Why can’t you be honest with me? Just me? You have to include me in this front you put on for everyone else. Do you know how that makes me feel? I can’t trust you when you do this. I can’t let go of the past when you keep bringing it up with your actions. Please, Sadie.”

  Her lip quivered. She bit it. She swallowed and blinked but otherwise didn’t say a word. Tension pounded between them. They were at some pivotal point. Neither of them could put a name to it, but they both acknowledged the importance of the moment. “Sadie,” he whispered.

  “I can’t…I just…I can’t. I’m fine,” Sadie whispered.

  The front door slammed. “Lucas, I am homing to surprising you early,” Vaslilssa called.

  Luke didn’t budge. He seemed to be waiting, hoping that Sadie would say something or do something, but she couldn’t. “You should go. She’s homing early,” she said.

  “I guess I should,” he agreed. “Since you’re so fine.”

  She eased away from him. He stood and walked out of the room. If the noise in the living room was an indication, Vaslilssa was giving him an enthusiastic greeting. Sadie turned and went up the back stairs. She walked to her room, kicked off her shoes, lay down on the bed, and put a pillow over her ears. I’m fine, she told herself. Maybe if she said it enough times, she could make someone believe it, especially herself.

  Epilogue

  Four weeks later, Sadie and Abby had solved two more cases. Paying cases, Sadie clarified as she did her mental review. They had found Mr. Mason’s pills five times since the awful event. On top of that, they had been hired to track down an ex-boyfriend and tail a cheating spouse. Sadie had also done her own pro-bono case solving. After a bit more time on the computer and some leg work, she had tracked down the errant Erin Jones. Her real name was Louise Palmer. She had left her husband in North Carolina to start a new life. When her smarmy boss hit on her, she realized her old life wasn’t as bad as she first thought and went back home.

  Now that they officially had paying customers, things weren’t as tight as they had been before, but there was still need for fiscal caution. Sadie applied for and received her sub certificate and worked an average of once a week. It was while she was overseeing a study hall at the high school that she figured out that Alana Firestone had been hiding in her boyfriend’s closet for the last few months. That had been a simple matter of figuring out who her friends were and spying on their Facebook accounts. They kept referring to tires. It didn’t take a genius to work out that teenagers didn’t normally converse about tires; in this case it was their codename for Alana Firestone. Sadie had mixed feelings when she called Jenks to report Alana’s whereabouts. On the one hand, it was wrong of the underage Alana to be living in her boyfriend’s closet. On the other hand, Sadie now agreed with Abby: there was something off about Mrs. Firestone. She seemed like a mean, vindictive woman. The law was the law, however, and Sadie didn’t get to pick and choose how it was followed.

  She had learned that from Gideon, just one of many lessons. If he hadn’t showed Luke how to shoot and her how to escape from plastic ziptie handcuffs, they would both be dead. She owed him for that and much more. Today was about making amends and repaving the broken road between them.

  The warm ball of fur wiggled in her arms and whimpered to be let down. “Almost there,” she whispered. She scratched his ears. He licked her nose. She could get used to h
im. She knocked and used her key to let herself in. “Dad, it’s me.”

  “Me who?” he said. If he was joking, it was a good sign. Once his infection went away and he began moving around again, his health and mood improved drastically. Only Sadie knew him well enough to understand that his odd good cheer was a cover. In her opinion, he missed Mary. At the very least he felt guilty about hurting her feelings. Not that he would ever cop to either of those things, though.

  “I brought you something,” Sadie said.

  “It’s never been a good thing when you’ve said those words.” He entered the room wiping his hands on a rag. His eyes zeroed in on the puppy in her hands and he started shaking his head. “No, Sadie. No way. Get that thing out of here.”

  It would do no good to remind him of his hospital confession. He would no doubt deny everything. “Dad, you have never let me have a dog.”

  “And you think the time to correct that is when you’re an adult who doesn’t live here anymore?”

  “Yes, it’s the perfect time.”

  “So take it home and keep it for yourself.”

  “A dog in Abby’s mansion? She would freak.”

  “So would I. In fact, I am.”

  “No offense, Dad, but your junk doesn’t hold a candle to Abby’s priceless antiques.”

  “Oh, no, how would I take offense to that?”

  “C’mon. Look at him. How can you say no to this face?” She held the puppy up for his inspection.

  “The same way I can say no to yours—with common sense. What’s wrong with it, anyway? Those ears are huge.”

  “It’s a basset hound. He’ll grow into his ears.”

  “A basset?” His eyebrows perked with interest before he forced a more ferocious frown. “Doesn’t matter. Get it out.”

  “No.”

  “What do you mean no?”

  “I mean no. This is your dog. I got it for you. If you want to get rid of it, do it yourself.” She set the dog down. He tripped on his ear and fell over.

  “Smart.”

  “He is, and sweet, and cute, and everything a dog should be. I also bought food, a bed, a leash, toys, and bowls.”

  “I will give it a try, but if it doesn’t work out, then you have to find a home for him.”

  “Deal,” Sadie agreed. She knelt to pet the puppy. He eagerly ran over, tripping on his ears a couple more times until he reached her.

  “I talked to some of the guys from the office today.”

  “About love and feelings?” she guessed.

  He snorted a laugh. “Good one. We were talking about your case.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. They’re trying to link the guy to a bunch of other cases around the country. I mean, they have the hair, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”

  “How many do they think there were?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “Who can say? It seems like men were disposable to him. He killed whoever got in his way. The women…”

  “What about the women?” Sadie asked.

  “The women were his real interest. He didn’t kill them immediately. He…You don’t need to hear this.”

  “I do. What did he do to them?”

  “He tortured them. Sometimes for months. They think once he found a victim, he latched on and didn’t let go until she was dead.”

  “Oh.” She picked up the puppy and nuzzled him under her chin.

  “Sadie, it’s over. He’s never going to see the light of day again.”

  “I know. I’m fine.”

  “I know you are,” he said. “I’m making burgers for supper. Do you want one?”

  “Sure. Can I stay and play with the puppy?”

  “No skin off my nose,” he said. He turned and walked into the kitchen, but not before she caught him glance at the dog and give the barest hint of a smile. One point for Sadie, she thought. Then she focused hard on the puppy to block out any other thoughts that might intrude. Later, there would be time to think of it later.

  Luke was sitting in the comfy chair. He wondered why it had taken him so long to discover it. Why had he chosen to spend so many nights sitting on the couch when the giant leather rocker/recliner sat empty? Because you shared the couch with Sadie. Ah, that was the difference. In the last few weeks, they had stopped sitting on the couch together. In fact, Sadie had stopped showing up much at all. She spent a lot of time in her room doing who knew what. When she was there, Luke often wasn’t. Vaslilssa required much of his time now that she was back from Russia.

  But tonight there was no Vaslilssa and no Sadie. It was just Luke and his books and the big, comfy chair. I love this chair, he thought. Still, he glanced at the couch. He missed Sadie more. If he had to choose the chair alone or the couch with Sadie, the couch would win, hands down. She hadn’t been freezing him out lately, but she hadn’t exactly been warm and cozy, either. But neither had he. They had both backed off from wherever they had been heading. It was better that way, or so he told himself. Daily. And with Vaslilssa home to make up the difference, he was doing okay. No, better than okay. He was fine.

  He worked steadily into the night, long after Sadie and Abby went to bed. So intent was he on his studies that it took a few minutes before he felt someone in the room with him. His head came up with a snap. Sadie stood in the entryway looking for all the world like a sleepy toddler.

  “Sade?”

  “I’m not fine.”

  He shoved his books away and held open his arms. She stumbled forward and collapsed into his lap, burrowing her face against his neck. She was shaking. He reached for the afghan and wrapped it tightly around her. Her arms clung so hard that he wouldn’t have been able to pry her off if he wanted to. Good thing for him he didn’t want to. He rocked her and held her for a long time, until long after she fell asleep. He began to drift. I really, really love this chair, was his last coherent thought before he, too, succumbed to the darkness.