by Steven James
She pointed to the police cruiser where her attacker was being held. “That’s him over there.”
“Can you give me a second?”
“Yeah.”
Just then, Detective Dunn came stalking up to me. I was about to ask what he was doing here when he blurted out, “Heard your name on dispatch, thought I’d come to help.” Dunn leaned close and pointed to the suspect. “You want me to give you a few minutes with him?”
I knew what he meant. “Yes. I do.”
Dunn stepped aside, and I hobbled over to the kid sitting in the car. He looked at me through the window with a mixture of defiance and fright.
I felt tension growing in my shoulders, in my arms.
He was going to rape Tessa. You need to make him pay.
Tension. Tension.
I remembered Melice talking about Cain, and the Lord’s warning about sin crouching beside him, wanting to have him. And as I stood there I could sense it crouching beside me too. It’s part of who we are, part of the human dilemma, but we must master it.
I tried to. Really, I did.
But I couldn’t.
Not after what this guy had tried to do to Tessa.
I reached for the door.It feels good, doesn’t it?
Yes, it does.
You’re not like them, are you?
Yes, I guess I am.
My fingers found the handle.
Christie used to say we can’t reach the Light on our own, but the Light can reach us. As I clicked the car door open, I thought of that, and of what Calvin had told me—that maybe we are all monsters.
He was right. We are. None of us make it past the abyss without peering inside. Without stepping inside.
The dark space inside of the car spoke my name and I knew that I would kill this boy, tonight, right now, with my bare hands.
I couldn’t say no, not on my own. Not tonight.
I slid into the car and stared at him, cornered in the backseat, delivered to me. I felt rage.
Fear.
Horror.
Not just because of his choices, his abyss, but because of my own.
And in that moment my heart cried out for courage, cried out to the only one able to bring light to an abyss as deep as me.
We are all monsters, all of us, but we were meant to be so much more.
And as I reached for the kid and saw his trembling eyes, I made a decision.
I leaned back, stepped out, and closed the door. Dunn was standing close by, ready to block the view into the car’s window. When he saw me leaving he gave me a quizzical look.
“I have a better idea, Detective,” I said. “Let’s book him. Pros-ecute him—”
A grin slithered across Dunn’s face. “And send him to prison full of guys who are always thrilled to have new mates to play with.”
“That’ll work.”
106
Thursday, February 19
9:30 a.m.
Lien-hua’s hospital room.
I was amazed at how well she was doing for someone who’d just died the night before. Weak, tired, but recovering.
Now she slept and I sat by her side.
Ralph and Tessa had left to get some breakfast and run a few errands twenty minutes earlier, leaving me alone with Lien-hua. Before they took off, Tessa and I had agreed to wait until we returned to Denver to talk about her ditching the flight. We both knew she shouldn’t have done it, but after what she’d been through last night, punishing her wasn’t at the top of my to-do list.
Earlier in the day we’d also found out Ralph’s luggage had arrived late last night—in twice as many pieces as it should have. Most of his clothes were shredded or missing, so he’d bought a Hawaiian shirt from the hotel gift shop and was wearing it proudly when he arrived at the hospital. “I like this style,” he announced, rolling his shoulders back and forth. “Gives me an island mentality.”
“It kinda looks like a rainbow threw up on you,” Tessa said.
“Great,” he mumbled, deflated. “Now I’ll think of vomit every time I wear this shirt. Thanks for that.”
“You’re welcome.”
I decided to intervene. “Maybe you can help Ralph pick out a suit,” I said. “For the funeral this afternoon.”
Tessa looked at his shirt again. “Well, it’s evident he could use some fashion advice.”“You just don’t appreciate good taste,” Ralph muttered.
Then they left and Lien-hua slept and I let my thoughts meander back to the case.
Terry had been one of my best friends over the last three years.
He was one of the few people I really trusted, one of the few people who knew just how much Richard Basque bothered me, haunted me. In fact, Terry knew me better than almost anyone. But now I realized I’d never known him. Not really.
I heard Lien-hua stir. “Pat.” It was a relief to hear her speak.
“Shh,” I said. “The docs tell me you’re supposed to rest.”
“Some water.” Her voice was course but resolute. “Please.”
I brought a glass to her lips, and after a small swallow, she reached for my hand. As she took it, she spoke again, her words intense and urgent, but also tender, “Thank you for last night. For all you did.”
She was amazingly coherent for having just woken up. Maybe she’d been awake for a while but I hadn’t noticed. “You’re welcome,” I said.
A faint grin. “I always wanted two broken ribs.”
Well, at least her wit was on its way to recovery. “Don’t mention it.”
She took a thin breath. “Really, I wish I could find a way …” She swallowed some air. “To thank you. I don’t know what to say.”
“Maybe we can find a way that doesn’t require words,” I said.
And I wasn’t necessarily thinking of sign language.
That brought a smile. “I’m serious.”
“So am I. Anytime you need someone to give you mouth-to-mouth again, just let me know.”
Another smile, beautiful in its gentleness. “OK, I’ll do that.” She paused. “Margaret stopped by earlier.”
“Margaret Wellington? I don’t believe it.”
“She brought me a card—”
“Incredible.”
“And then told me I’m still suspended.”“What! No. I’m not going to let this happen.” I went for my cell phone but Lien-hua stopped me with a squeeze of her hand and a shake of her head. “Leave it for now. It’s OK. It’ll give me a chance to visit Redmond.”
Lien-hua had been born in Redmond, Washington. I wondered if that’s where her sister was buried. “Chu-hua?”
She nodded. “I think I’m finally ready. I need to set a new flower arrangement on her grave. One that catches a little more light.”
Then she asked for another sip of water, and after I’d given it to her, I realized there was one more thing I needed to say, but I wasn’t quite sure how to do it. Finally, I decided to just be straight with her and get it out in the open. “Listen, I need to tell you something.
For a short time I thought you might be Shade.” I held her hand lightly. “I’m sorry.”
I wondered if she would be upset or disappointed with me, and when she was slow to respond, I realized she probably was, but at last she whispered, “Don’t be sorry. You were only looking for the truth.”
“I know, but—”
“It’s OK. It’s who you are. It’s what you do.”
Hey, wait a minute. “Do you know, that’s almost exactly the same thing Tessa told me the other night? Have you two been sharing notes?”
She smiled slyly. “Maybe we just think alike.”
“That’s a scary thought.” I liked that she was still holding my hand. “So, still friends?”
She signed “yes” to me with the hand that held mine. And I signed back “thank you.”
“OK,” I said. “Now, you need to rest.”
“Wait. One more thing. In the room … the hotel room … when I taught you the alphabet, you remembered
the letters, didn’t you?
The first time through?”
“Yes.”“But you stopped at Q, then M. Why?”
“Honestly?” I asked.
“Honestly.”
“I wanted the lesson to last as long as possible.”
“Hmm,” she said softly as she closed her eyes and relaxed back into her pillow. “Ulterior motives.”
“Guilty as charged.”
I held her hand and watched her drift back to sleep and wished I could do the same. Rest. Sleep. Relax. But as tired as I was, as much as the gunshot wound on my leg was bothering me, something else was at the forefront of my mind. Terry’s words: “I was just sent in to confirm it was there.”
Who sent you to the evidence room, Terry?
If only he weren’t in a coma I could’ve asked him.
But he was in a coma. And according to the doctors, he wouldn’t be coming out of it any time soon.
A few minutes after Lien-hua fell asleep Ralph and Tessa arrived.
Tessa went in to sit with Lien-hua, and I tottered into the hallway to talk with Ralph about the case.
After we were alone I asked him about the Project Rukh researchers. “Are they all OK?”
“Yeah, I just talked to Margaret. They’re all safe. Being debriefed as we speak. Except this one guy, Kurvetek. Osbourne mentioned him. We haven’t been able to track him down yet.”
I let that sink in.
“And, by the way, Margaret told me why it’s called Project Rukh.”
I didn’t even want to think about Margaret, but I was curious about the name so I took the bait. “Why is that?”
“Turns out rukh is a Persian word. Back when chess was invented, it was the name of the piece we call a rook. It used to mean either ‘war chariot’ or ‘hero,’ and later, when chess made it to Europe, the piece morphed to look like a siege tower. The idea was the same, though—by using your rukh, you could slip past your enemy’s defenses and then take him out before he even knew what hit him.”
“And that’s exactly what the device does.”
“Right.”
“Slipping past their defenses, taking them out unaware,” I said.
“Maybe they should have called it a Ralph.”
“Kind of you to say so.” He drained the last few drops of his extra-large breakfast Mountain Dew. “Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Graysmith and Dunn are looking into another homicide—General Cole Biscayne was shot in the head last night. No leads yet, last I heard. One bit of good news though. That girl, Randi, she was just hiding out at a friend’s place, afraid of the ‘terrorists.’ She’s all right.”
“Good. What about the device?”
“You’re a good shot, Pat. It’s destroyed. And, although most of the files are gone, Margaret is going over the ones Drake didn’t have a chance to shred.”
“I’m sure she is. And Cassandra?”
“She’s fine. Spent last night and this morning in a safe house. I guess she’s gonna take some time off work to recover. Last I heard, they were dropping her off at the aquarium so she could say good-bye to her friends and some guy named Warren Leant.”
I began to press out the last few wrinkles of the case. And I didn’t like where they pointed. “She’s at the aquarium? With Leant?”
He shrugged. “I guess.”
“Ralph, have those agents stay with her.”
“Why? Melice is dead, Terry’s in a coma—”
“No. Trust me. Don’t let them leave her alone with him.”
“Why not?”
“A blind spot. Let’s go.”
He put the call through to the agents, I ducked into Lien-hua’s room and told Tessa I’d be back in an hour or so, and then Ralph and I headed for the car.
107
Warren Leant met us at the door of the Sherrod Aquarium, and I politely requested that he lead us to the animal husbandry area.
“Is everything all right?”
“We’ll see,” I said.
A few moments later we entered the husbandry area, and he asked if we wouldn’t mind to please hurry. “I have a board of directors meeting. A man was eaten by sharks here last night and it’s a public relations nightmare. I’m sure you understand. We meet in half an hour.”
“You might be late.” I eyed the pool where Lien-hua had drowned staring at the surface, straining toward freedom. “I’d like to look around for a minute. Ralph, can you wait with Mr.
Leant?”
“Sure thing.”
I whispered something to Ralph and then the two of them left together as I scanned the room. The criminalists had spent the night processing the site, and the only person they’d allowed back here was Cassandra, who I noticed was clearing out her office. On the ride to the aquarium Ralph had told me that the two field agents guarding her were still with her, but I didn’t see them in the room.
Cassandra recognized me and set down the box she was carrying.
“I need some time away,” she explained. “Some space. This whole thing, it’s too much for me.”
I nodded. I understood.
“You OK?” she asked, eyeing the crutches.“I will be. What about you?”
“I think so. Once this is all behind me.”
“That may take awhile,” I said. “Because you made one mistake.
Or maybe two.”
Just a glint of bewilderment in her eyes. Just a glint. “What are you talking about?”
“You looked at the camera, Cassandra. None of the other women did.”
Her right index finger became restless against her leg. “What camera?”
“Cassandra, please.” I leaned unsteadily on my crutches. “From where you stood in the tank, it wasn’t possible to see the camcorders. I know, I checked. All the other women stared toward freedom, but you stared at the back wall of the warehouse. You told me yesterday you didn’t know what Melice was doing while you were in the tank. But you did know. You made it easier for him to make the video by staring at one camera and then the other. You knew where they were because you put them there.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” But her eyes betrayed her.
“I’d assumed Shade was one person instead of two. That’s what threw me off, but now I get it. You, or maybe Terry, switched the chains. It was that simple. I counted the links. The other women had a shorter chain. You’re nearly six feet tall, and the chain on your ankle was long enough for you to reach the surface, even when the tank was full. You put on a good show though, gasping for breath like that, but I’m guessing that after all your years of scuba diving and running triathlons, you can hold your breath pretty well too.
Maybe two, three minutes? Plenty of time, even while we were there trying to break you out of the tank. So tell me, did you buy the warehouse, or was that Terry?”
“You’re insane.”
Cassandra looked past me toward the door. I thought maybe she was going to rush me. On crutches I knew I couldn’t either run or defend myself.
Where are those two agents?
Before she could try anything, I went on, “I’m guessing the security at the base was too tight for you to get into Building B-14.
That’s why you and Terry couldn’t steal the device yourselves. So, who found Austin? Did Terry? Or did you? Either way, you seduced Austin, gained his trust, his love, and the rest is history.”
“Why would I let myself get kidnapped?” She began edging toward the staircase beside the acclimation pool.
I took two feeble steps toward her on my crutches.
“Answer me that,” she said. “Why would I stand in that tank for twelve hours?”
I watched her carefully. “To get the one thing that matters most to you.”
“And that is?”
“I have no idea, I’m not too into motives.” And then, she bolted toward the stairwell beside the pool, but Ralph emerged from the mouth of the stairs where I’d whispered for him to have Warren Leant lead him. The two agents followed closel
y behind.
Cassandra made the mistake of trying to shove Ralph back down the stairs but he grabbed both of her arms, whipped her around, and had her on the floor and cuffed before she knew what hit her.
Project Ralph.
She struggled uselessly against him for a moment, then as he helped her to her feet, she leered at me, an unholy darkness descending across her face. “You still don’t understand.” Her voice, which had been relaxed and normal just a few moments earlier, now seared the air between us. “You have no idea what we have planned, Agent Bowers. No idea.”
“You’re right,” I said, “I don’t. I’m just an investigator not a mind reader. Take her away, Ralph.” I began to hobble toward the door. “My leg is really starting to hurt and I could use another cup of coffee.”
108
Twilight
Tessa and I would be flying back to Denver tomorrow morning, so after the funeral we decided to visit the beach one last time to watch the sun set over the ocean.
With my crutches, I couldn’t walk on the sand, so we found a paved path that led to a park bench beside the beach at Mission Bay.
It seemed like there was so much to talk about, but that it was OK, too, if we didn’t say anything at all.
Knowing how much Tessa hated dead bodies, I was surprised she’d decided to attend the funeral earlier in the afternoon. “You didn’t have to go today, you know,” I told her as we sat down.
“I was right there when it happened. I wanted to go.” She toed at the sand. “So did you ever meet a living person named John Doe?”
“Not yet. Only dead ones.”
A moment passed. “Jose Lopez,” she said. “It’s good to know his name.”
