Modern Magic
Page 15
Laura shook her head slightly. “That was weird. I guess I tripped, but it felt as if someone tugged on my ankle.”
“Are you okay?”
She reached up her hand and stroked his cheek. Mike couldn’t help but smile; her touch felt so good. “I’m fine. I won’t win any awards for my gracefulness, I’m such a klutz,” she chuckled, “but I’m fine. Don’t be too late.”
Mike checked in on her a few minutes later, she was tucked away in bed, sound asleep. Anubis, curled up at the foot of the bed, watched him with slitted eyes and purred. He nodded to the animal. “You keep her company, buddy. I need to go out to my car and pick up some files.”
The files in question were those of the Woodland Heights kidnappings; Mike’s obsession was becoming a joke at the station, but he couldn’t shake his gut feeling that the investigation had just missed something. Maybe it was Laura’s sharing of the gossip about the previous owners; or maybe the game of Aunt Dolly the girls had been playing the other night. And maybe it was just spending time in this house, one of the few in the neighborhood that had been here five years ago. He felt the answers there, just below the surface of the thousands of details and interviews that had been collected at the time. Someone just needed to look at it with new eyes. He didn’t imagine the children were still alive, but he’d like to find out what happened to them, if nothing else, he’d like to find the remains. That, at least, would provide closure for the families.
And then we could all move on. An unsolved case like this always seemed to linger, settling over the area, like a dense fog, clouding vision and judgment. The uncertainty disturbed him. Like a fog, he thought, or like a ghost. Mike shook his head and gave a soft snort as he opened the car door and pulled out the folders. I might believe in all sorts of intangibles – gut feeling, hunches, intuitions. But ghosts? “That’s just too much,” he laughed to himself and let himself back into Laura’s house.
Hours later he set the files back down onto Laura’s coffee table. He wasn’t getting anywhere, but he knew he was missing something, something important, something that tied all these children together. A common ground that might explain why them and not some others. In Mike’s experience there was always a reason why. One that might not make sense to him or to others but seemed perfectly reasonable to the one responsible.
The six missing children had come from fairly different backgrounds and circumstances. One had just completed extensive chemotherapy and radiation treatment for leukemia; one had been in and out of juvenile hall for drugs and petty burglary. Two were twins, a brother and a sister, from a family with an abusive father, a man who’d been considered the prime suspect for a while, but whose alibi held tight. One was the son of a junkie, and the last, a girl whose parents were in the process of a nasty divorce.
“Such a shame,” Mike said, looking at the pictures of the unlucky six children. “Like your lives weren’t hard enough already.” He marveled again how the last child taken, with her long, straight dark hair and slender build, so closely resembled Laura’s girls, especially Lizzy. If they’d been here five years ago, who knows?
Bingo. It was almost as if Mike’s mind made an audible click. There was the connection, each of these children taken had had decidedly miserable lives, either from sickness, circumstance or parental interference. And they all suffered from, not just your general childhood woes, but what could be considered life-shattering or threatening situations. What if the person taking them had been trying to help, what if in some bizarre and twisted way they’d thought they were giving the kids a better life?
Better off dead.
Then he shook his head and dropped the pictures back onto the coffee table. What possible difference could it make? The children were still missing, most likely dead. The crime was five years old; the kidnappings, just another folder tucked away into the unsolved cases files. He was putting too much effort into something futile; although the mystery nagged at him, deep down inside he knew that it was way too late to make any sort of difference. It’s all over and done with, I really should just give up and move on.
Mike checked the front door lock and the thermostat, which now seemed to kick itself off only half of the time since his friend Stan had fixed it. The trick, he’d discovered was keeping it a degree or two cooler than wanted. He turned out the lights and went back into Laura’s bedroom. She still slept, so he quietly took off his clothes, left them neatly folded on the chair in the corner, and crawled in next to her.
She rolled over to him and snuggled up against his chest, still asleep. Mike lay awake for a while, listening to the sounds of the house. Its shell might make it appear to be a younger house, but the inner structure knew the truth. It creaked and groaned and the damn cat door drove him crazy, clicking open or shut, startling him awake. He couldn’t blame it on the cat – Anubis lay curled up at the bottom of the bed. Must be a draft, he thought as he finally fell asleep.
The clock read 3:30 a.m. when Laura sat up with a quick gasp. One second later the phone rang. Laura answered it and Mike could hear an agitated woman’s voice in the background.
“Yeah,” Laura said. She listened for a long time to the caller, whose voice seemed to grow angrier with every word. Laura’s cheeks flushed red and she cleared her throat, to interrupt the tirade. “Look, Carolyn, I’m sorry this happened. I’ll be right up to get them.”
She shook her head and rolled her eyes when she hung up the phone.
“What’s wrong, babe?” Mike asked.
“Lizzy had one of her nightmares, followed by a screaming fit.” She put on her pink robe then sat down on the bed to pull on a pair of sweat pants. “Carolyn wants them to come home – they’re apparently a bad influence on the other girls and I’m a terrible mother. So I’m going to go up and bring them back here.”
“Bad influence?” Mike pulled on his clothes. He was angry now. In his opinion, if anyone in that group of girls was a bad influence it sure wasn’t either Amanda or Lizzy. He followed Laura out to the living room and watched as she put on her snow boots and coat. “Maybe she should take a good hard look at her precious little Brittany, instead. I’ll go up for them and give her a piece of my mind while I’m at it.”
Laura touched his shoulder gently. “Thanks, Mike, but I’ll manage.”
“Then I’ll go up with you.”
“Not necessary. Really. You can make some cocoa, though, for when we come back.”
Mike put the kettle on the burner then stood at the door to watch Laura make her way up the street. He was still angry. Trouble with the neighbors was the last thing Laura needed, especially on this last night with the girls here. He knew she worried about whether Tony would allow them to come back; having them tossed out of a slumber party might be the last straw. Although Mike knew that none of this was Laura’s fault, nor was it the fault of the girls, all that he’d heard about Tony led him to believe that the fault would eventually be made to lie on Laura’s shoulders. She didn’t need any more guilt, undeserved though it may be.
He heard Laura’s voice raised in argument with Carolyn, then heard a door slam. Two seconds later, Laura and the two girls came into view, walking sideways down the street, so as not to slip on the icy road surface. Even with this ungainly stride, Mike could tell Laura was fuming. She held Lizzy close to her while Amanda followed closely behind, carrying both of their back packs. When they got near enough so that Mike could make out their expressions, he could see Amanda was furious as well.
He opened the door and let them in, offering an arm so that Laura could remove her boots. “What happened?”
Lizzy turned her tear stained face up to his. “I had a bad dream and screamed and woke everyone up.”
“It wasn’t her fault,” Amanda said indignantly. “Brittany and the others were telling ghost stories.”
“What did you dream about, Lizzy?”
“Aunt Dolly.” Lizzy trembled and Mike lifted her up, carrying her to the couch.
Laura scowled at
him. “Do we really need to get into it?”
“It always helps to talk about things,” Lizzy said. “That’s what Susan says, anyway. If you tell the dream, it loses power.”
Laura sighed. “Talk about it if you want, honey.”
The kettle whistled and Laura got up to make them all a hot drink.
“I was in this house,” Lizzy said, her voice quavering. “A nice old lady invited me in, to talk. It wasn’t really me, but some other girl,” she amended, “You know how dreams are.”
Mike nodded and tightened his hold on her hand.
“Anyway, she gave me a cup of cocoa. It smelled funny and I didn’t really want to drink it. But she insisted and I didn’t want to be rude. When I drank half of it, I started to feel sick and really sleepy. She picked me up and carried me down the stairs to a little room. It smelled funny, kind of like worms after rain?”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Mike said.
“She put me on a cot and tucked a blanket up under my chin. ‘You’ll be better off, sweetheart. You’ll see.’ Then I noticed that there were other cots in the room with other kids sleeping in them. When she closed the door, I tried to get up off the cot, but couldn’t move. I called out and none of the other kids answered. Or even moved. So I called louder and louder. But no one came. My eyes felt funny, sort of fuzzy and everything got blurry.”
“And then?” Mike asked.
“Then I woke up. And when I woke up, I realized that none of the other kids in the dream were sleeping. They were dead.” Lizzy sniffled a bit. “It doesn’t sound so scary now, I guess.”
“Scary enough,” Laura said as she came into the living room with a tray of mugs. She pushed aside the folder laying on the coffee table and the papers fell out.
Before Mike could pick them up, Lizzy saw one of the pictures. He felt her stiffen next to him, then reach down and pick them up. “This,” she said, holding out a picture of a little girl, just a bit younger than her, “is the girl.
“What girl, honey?”
“The girl I was in the dream.”
Mike tried to take the pictures away from her, but she held onto them tightly as she looked through them. She came to another one and gasped, dropping them all. She started to cry again. “And that one,” she said choking back a sob and pointing to the uppermost picture, “that one is Aunt Dolly.”
“Really?” Mike’s interest was piqued by this identification. “Do you remember anything else?” He didn’t know how, but it seemed like Lizzy had had some sort of first-person vision of one of the missing children. “Do you remember a man in the dream?”
Lizzy started to sob in earnest now. “I don’t remember anything else.”
“Are you sure? It’s important, Lizzy. Try to remember.”
The girl dissolved into a torrent of tears.
Laura came over, picked Lizzy up and held her close to her. Mike now noticed the anger on her face.
“She doesn’t remember,” Laura said. “And it’s just a dream, anyway. Let it go, Mike.”
Mike shook his head. “But this sounds like it is related to—”
Laura cut him off. “Don’t say another word.”
Mike never remembered seeing Laura this angry before. And had never expected her to turn it on him.
“But, if Lizzy can…”
“That’s it. I think it’s best if you leave now. And take your papers with you. That’s probably where she got all this stuff anyway. How dare you bring this into my house?”
Mike stood up, gathered his folder and gently touched Laura on the shoulder. “Laura? Calm down. It’s okay.”
Her eyes seemed cold and unfeeling, viewing him as if he were a stranger. Mike felt confused.
“It will be okay when you quit hounding my daughter. This has nothing to do with you. Please leave.”
He thought about the ring in his pocket. He thought about how this night had not turned out at all as planned. He went to kiss Laura on the cheek, but she pulled away from him. I have no idea what’s gotten into her. But maybe she’s right and I should leave.
He got his coat and walked to the door. “I’ll call tomorrow and make sure everyone’s okay.” Not waiting for a response, he got out as quickly as he could. He quietly closed the door behind him, got in his car and drove home.
Chapter Eighteen
The house felt very lonely and cold without the girls. And without Mike, Laura thought. She missed all three of them. Several times she picked up the phone to call Mike, then thought better of it and hung up without dialing. She knew she’d overreacted, but he’d been so cold, so ruthless that last night he was there, she felt betrayed. His work, apparently, came first with him. Even a dead case, five years old.
You’re better off without him. We don’t need him here.
Laura went to work on Monday and attended a meeting with Renee afterwards. When the two of them arrived back at Laura’s house, Cassie’s car was in the driveway. Cassie seemed more relaxed than previously and she and Renee hit it off instantly, making for a pleasant evening of coffee and conversation. Laura felt pleased with the distraction, since she didn’t want to talk about Mike. But soon enough, Cassie excused herself and went to bed.
Renee carried their cups to the kitchen and began to wash them out.
“You don’t need to do that, Renee,” Laura said.
Renee turned and smiled at her. “I know. I want to. I’m feeling a bit jumpy tonight and keeping busy helps.”
“Yeah,” Laura agreed. “I often feel the same.”
Renee dried her hands on a kitchen towel, then turned around, looking Laura straight in the eyes. “So what happened?”
“What happened?”
“With you and Mike? He’s been really grouchy and you seem subdued.”
“We had a fight, I guess.”
“Yeah. I figured as much. He said something about having pushed you a bit too hard. And that he wanted to give you time to cool off. Have you?”
Laura thought about that for a moment. “I think so. He wasn’t pushing me – I wouldn’t mind that so much,” she gave a self-depreciating chuckle, “most of the time I need it – but he was pushing Lizzy. Apparently, I’m like a mother bear. I probably overreacted. And said a few things I didn’t really mean. But…”
“I know. Just don’t let it go too long. I may decide to take that boy for myself.”
Renee gave Laura a quick kiss on the cheek. “You tell Cassie I said goodnight. And pass that kiss along to Mike. Sooner rather than later.”
Laura sighed, she really did miss having him around. “I will.”
After Renee left, Laura locked the front door, checked on the thermostat – it had stayed on all night, for which she was extremely grateful. Then she switched out the lights and knocked lightly on Cassie’s door. When she didn’t answer, Laura went to bed. She tossed and turned and finally got back up at around midnight, going out to the kitchen to make herself a cup of herbal tea. She stared at the phone, then picked it up and dialed Mike’s number. What the hell, she thought, I’m getting good at this apology thing.
Mike answered the phone after one ring.
“Hi,” Laura said hesitantly. “Did I wake you up?”
“No. I just got in a few minutes ago.”
“Good.”
There was a silence for a while, then they both said simultaneously, “I’m sorry.”
Both of them laughed and the very atmosphere seemed to relax.
“I overreacted,” Laura said, “I know you weren’t trying to hurt or scare Lizzy.”
“No,” Mike said, “You didn’t do anything wrong. I shouldn’t have asked so many questions. I can’t help it sometimes.” He chuckled, the sound of his laughter over the phone warmed Laura. “They call me the bulldog at the station.” He paused. “I’m glad you called, though, I wasn’t sure how long I should wait. You’re not getting away from me that easily.”
“I don’t want to get away.”
“Want me to come over?”
Laura considered. “No, it’s late and Cassie’s already asleep.”
“She back?”
“Yeah, she was here this afternoon when I got home from work. She and Renee and I had a nice visit after the meeting.”
“No dire predictions of doom and gloom?”
Laura laughed. “No, not at all. She seemed quite relaxed, actually. You were right all along. We were both having trouble adjusting.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come over?”
Laura gave an almost involuntary sigh. Every inch of her wanted Mike here with her tonight and the feeling frightened her quite a bit – it felt like a craving as strong as the one she felt for alcohol, or for her precious little blue pills. “You’re dangerous.” She whispered the words, but he heard.
“Why?” he asked.
“You’re an addiction, as bad as the ones I’m fighting.”
He gave a low laugh. “Oh, but it’s a good addiction, right?”
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“On how hard the twelve step program is afterwards.”
Mike paused. “Maybe there needn’t be a program. Maybe I’ll be around forever.”
He’s lying. Laura startled at the thought, so loud and clear and completely at odds with her emotional response to Mike’s statement. They never stay around and they’re all liars.
“Laura, are you still there?”
“Yes, I’m here. Listening.”
“I wondered; the phone line sounded kind of funny, full of static and sort of screechy.”
“Must be a problem with your phone – everything is fine on this end.” Despite her words, she felt the skin crawl along her arms and neck; she’d heard that static on the phone line before – to her it always sounded like whispering. “Creepy.”
“Yeah. Are you sure you don’t want me to come over?”
Laura smiled to herself. “I’m fine, Mike, really. Just a little tired. And we both have to work tomorrow. How about a rain check? Tomorrow night maybe?”
“Sure, that would be good. Sleep well.”
“You too.”