by Rob Cornell
He let himself relax a little. She probably walked home. The simple explanation was always the better one. Couldn’t assume, though. He had to know for sure. Which meant tracking down Kate’s new home address.
He headed back into Walkowitz’s office and found him still behind his desk, on the phone.
Walkowitz glared at Lockman when he entered. “Yes, dear. I’ll be home soon. I have to go now. Love you, too.” He hung up the phone. “I thought I wasn’t going to see you again.”
“I need a favor.”
“You’ve got some fucking nerve.”
“I need to track someone down. I hear you’re pretty good at that.”
Chapter Sixteen
Finding someone who isn’t hiding is one of the easiest things to do, given the right tools. These days an internet connection could provide all you needed. With Walkowitz’s help, Lockman not only found Kate’s address, but her married name—Kate Cohen.
He sat in the rental car, parked across the street from her two-story colonial style house with attached two-car garage. The lawn looked as square and the shrubs as trimmed as he expected. Hanging flower pots. Vinyl siding. Everything but the white picket fence.
“Good for her,” he said and could smell the bullshit on his breath. But what could he expect? That she would remain single and pining for him even after all these years? If anything, she probably hated him.
He tried to compartmentalize again. The walls he built in his mind crumbled to sand as soon as he put them in place. This close to Kate, this close to the life he’d abandoned, he couldn’t contain the churning in his chest.
He put his hand on the keys still in the ignition, ready to start the engine and drive away, forget about Jessie and Kate.
Coward.
I have more important things to worry about.
More important than your daughter?
He gritted his teeth, pissed at himself. He could run toward a group of vampires armed with automatic weapons to save Jessie, but he couldn’t face the woman he’d left fifteen years ago.
He pulled the keys from the ignition and got out of the car.
The porch light was on. A swarm of mosquitoes danced around the light joined by a pair of moths that tapped against the clear cover over and over in a suicidal attempt to get at the glowing bulb inside.
He rang the bell. His palms sweat.
When the door opened he felt something catch in his throat, as if his breath had turned solid. She both looked nothing like she used to and exactly how he remembered. In her eyes he saw the same surreal recognition. The doorway between them had turned into a window with a view to their past.
He tried to say something, but found his brain had short-circuited on him. Tears of sweat rolled down the back of his neck at the same time shivers ran up it.
The silent staring went on for what felt like years.
Kate spoke first. “You.”
“Me.”
“You son of a bitch.” She stepped through the doorway, onto the porch, forcing Lockman to retreat. She pulled the door shut behind her, then slapped him. “Where’s Jessie?”
Stunned for a moment, he couldn’t think how to answer her. “You’re mad.”
“Mad? My daughter took off looking for her father, God knows where, and you show up here after fifteen years, for what? A family reunion?”
“No. I had no intention of coming here.”
“Nice. Then why bother, Craig? Because you found out you have a daughter?” She rubbed at her temples. “We don’t need you, if that’s what you think. Don’t feel like you have some responsibility to us. I gave up on you a long time ago.”
His stomach clenched. “That’s not why I’m here.”
“Then why are...” She peered around him. Her face hardened. “Where is she?”
“I hoped she’d come back here.”
“You hoped? She’s thirteen. She can’t be trusted to run around on her own.”
“Then how did she manage to get all the way to California to find me?”
Her eyes widened. Her frown put an accent on the lines around her mouth that hadn’t been there before. But the lines did nothing to diminish her beauty. Even now, in the midst of the clusterfuck he’d found himself, he noticed that beauty.
“She was safe with me until about fifty minutes ago. Then she disappeared.”
“Don’t feel bad. She does it to me all the time.” She shook her head. “Craig, what are you doing here?”
“I wanted to make sure Jessie got home safe.”
“That’s it? She finds you on the other side of the country and you escort her home?”
“There’s more to everything.”
“I don’t even know what to say.”
“I missed you.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“I don’t want to hear that crap. Not now. I’ve moved on.”
He reached out, touched her cheek, fully expecting her to knock his hand away.
She didn’t.
“There’s so much I want to tell you. Kate, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s too late.” She stepped back, out of his reach.
He let his hand drift back to his side. “Are you going to invite me in?”
“My husband’s home.”
“Then introduce me.”
“Right. Hey, hon, this is the guy who knocked me up and disappeared without a word. He’ll likely shoot you.”
“He owns a gun?”
She crossed her arms. “Three of them. Lord knows why.”
“You still don’t like guns.” He remembered her finding one of his pistols at his place when they were seeing each other. He had to make up an excuse about it being a gift from an uncle. He knew she didn’t like guns and he didn’t want her to suspect how familiar with their use he truly was. One of several white lies to keep his secret profession from interfering with their relationship. At the time, he’d thought nothing of it. Now it all felt underhanded. No way to build a relationship.
“I might need to borrow one of your husband’s guns.”
Her brow creased. She leaned away from him even with the several feet already between them. “For what?”
“Jessie could be in danger.”
Her voice shook. “What are you talking about?”
How could he explain a whole world of secrets to her without sounding insane? Should he start with the vampires and work his way to parallel dimensions? Or begin with the top secret government agency tasked with making sure those dark forces weren’t used by terrorists?
“You have to trust me.”
“Tell me where you last saw her and I’ll go looking for her.”
The initial spell of seeing her for the first time in years began to wear off enough for him to notice the differences. The hard set of her jaw. The tight corners of her eyes. The severe slant to her brow. She had lost the softness he always admired. Time had calcified her and Lockman wondered if he had contributed to most of that change.
“You will need my help finding her.”
“What I need from you is to go back to California and stay out of our lives.”
“Kate, you aren’t listening to me. Jessie didn’t just take off. She could have been taken.”
The color in her face drained. “Is this some sick way of trying to burrow your way back into my life?”
“I don’t have time to explain, and if I did you wouldn’t believe me anyway.”
“After all this time, I’m just supposed to take you at your word.”
“For Jessie’s sake.” He took a step forward. “Let me talk to your husband.”
“He isn’t going to like this. He isn’t going to like you.”
“I doubt I’ll like him much either.”
* * *
“Wow. So you’re him.”
Alec Cohen had a greasy look to him. At least, that was Lockman’s first impression. But he didn’t trust his own judgment considering his obvious bia
s. Alec’s hair was thick with hair gel and combed with a neat part. Sideburns neatly trimmed. A thin mouth and dark eyes. He had a model look about him. Not much of a leap to see what attracted Kate to him.
Lockman still didn’t like him.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m him.”
“Have to admit, I expected something different. Something that ... I don’t know ... explained things.”
“You mean Jessie? She might have my eyes and my jaw line, but her personality is all her mother’s.”
Kate cleared her throat and busied herself with putting dinner dishes into the dishwasher.
Alec smiled. “You sure about that?”
They stood in the kitchen. Lockman looked around at the décor. A country theme. Blue and white checkered wallpaper provided the backdrop. A rusty colander sat on a shelf like an artifact on display. A red-painted milk can was tucked in a corner. Plaques with sayings like “Home is Where You Hang Your Heart” and “God Bless This Kitchen” adorned the walls. It looked nothing like what he imagined Kate would have. And Alec didn’t strike Lockman as the down-home country type. Maybe she had hired a decorator. If so, Lockman hoped she’d asked for a refund.
“Not one-hundred percent.”
The smile remained on Alec’s face, but his eyes grew dim and studied Lockman up and down. “So Jessie flew all the way to California to find you. That girl is unbelievable.”
“She’s got heart.”
“You talk like you’ve known her longer than what? Fifteen hours at the most, not counting the time after she slipped away from you.”
“What I saw of her today? I probably know her better than you now.”
Something shattered.
Lockman and Alec both turned toward the sound. Kate stood at the dishwasher, her hands out as if still holding the plate that now lay in pieces on the floor.
“Are you okay?” Lockman and Alec asked together.
She closed her eyes and heaved a large sigh. “Fine.”
Alec went to her, put his hands on her shoulders, and massaged. “Easy, babe. She’ll come back. She always does. At least we know she’s close by and safe.”
She met Lockman’s eyes. He stared back. Looking at her made his chest ache.
“Alec, Craig thinks ...”
“What?” Alec looked at Lockman.
“I believe Jessie’s in danger.”
Alec held up a dismissive hand. “You can stop right there. Obviously, you don’t know Jess as well as you think. See, she has this tendency to take off and make people worry about her.”
“I know she’s difficult. But that doesn’t mean she’s any less at risk. Without taking too much time to explain, there are people after me. People who followed Jessie to my home in California and nearly killed us both in an effort to capture me.”
Kate’s face creased with such agony, she looked like someone had stabbed her. Seeing her like that made him feel a similar stab in his stomach.
“What have you done?” she asked.
Alec put an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t listen to him. He’s crazy.” He pointed at Lockman. “You are crazy.”
He should have known this wouldn’t work, should have walked away the moment he learned Jessie had not returned home like he had hoped. “I’m sorry for your trouble.” He turned and headed out of the kitchen toward the front door.
“Craig,” Kate called from behind him.
“Forget it,” Alec said. “Let him go.”
Lockman felt her hand on his shoulder as he reached the door. He turned. The pain he saw in her face before still marred her expression. But he noticed something more. A fire in her eyes. “Is that why you left? Did you get in trouble with someone?”
“It’s almost impossible to explain.”
“I don’t want an explanation. I want an answer. Yes or no. Is that why you left?”
“It’s not that simple. I—”
“I just made it simple.”
He wanted to reach out and touch her again. Alec stood behind her, glaring at Lockman, probably wishing he had one of his three guns in hand.
“I left because it was best for everybody. And as soon as I know Jessie is safe, I’ll leave again. You don’t have to worry about me burrowing back into your life.”
Her eyes narrowed when he repeated her words back at her.
“Can you think of anything that might help me find her? If she’s still on her own, where would she go if not here?”
“Don’t trouble yourself,” Alec said. “We’re her parents. We can take care of it.”
Lockman ignored him, keeping his attention on Kate. “If the men I told you about don’t have her, they still might try to get her. And if they could follow her to California, they could find her here.”
“So help me if anything’s happened to her ...”
“I won’t let anyone hurt her. I promise.”
Some of the pain left her face. “She has a boyfriend. Ryan. She seems to trust him. I had to guess, she went to his house.”
“Okay, I’ll look there first. What’s his address?”
She went back into the kitchen and wrote the address on a slip of paper. When she handed the paper to him she asked, “What if she’s not there?”
“It will make things harder, but it won’t change my promise. I’ll bring her back safe.”
Alec stepped forward. “Listen here, guy. You might have my wife all worked up and confused, but I know bullshit when I see it. I want you to stay the hell away from my family. That includes Jessie. Or I’ll call the cops. Taking a minor across state lines is a serious offense.”
Lockman stared Alec straight in the eye. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean.”
“It means if you have a problem with me, you’ll have to solve it yourself. The police can’t help you. Not against me.”
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s a fact.” He cupped Kate’s face in one of his large hands. Some of the softness he remembered returned. “I wish ... so many things.”
He turned and left. He barely noticed the humidity. Barely remembered getting in the car or driving. Every one of his senses seemed dim compared to the memory of Kate’s skin against his palm.
Chapter Seventeen
Princess Leia stared with reproachful eyes while Jessie leaned back on the couch and let Ryan slide his hand up her shirt. Han Solo stood next to Princess Leia looking smug. Poor Luke Skywalker lay on his back, his stiff plastic arm holding up his light saber like a surrender flag.
They were in Ryan’s basement. He had one corner of the place set up like a living room, complete with TV, stereo, Xbox, and a coffee table. The coffee table was where the trio from Star Wars stood in their frozen tableau. Ryan insisted he didn’t play with the action figures, but they always ended up in a different pose or position when she came over. Since Ryan was an only child, either he moved them or his mother did.
His fingers touched the edge of her bra.
She chickened out and squirmed away. “You got any new games?” she asked and picked up the Xbox controller from the coffee table.
A small grunt escaped from between Ryan’s lips. “I guess. You want to play Xbox now?”
She shrugged. “Whatever you want.”
“Are you all right?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
He slouched on the sofa, arms flopped at his sides. He puffed out a big breath that ruffled his bangs. “Is it because I tried to feel you up?”
“Forget it, okay?”
“Cause we don’t have to do that. I mean, I want to. But I’m cool with just hanging out, you know?”
She thumbed the power button on the controller and the Xbox hummed to life. The logo looked blurry when it came up on the TV and she realized it was because she had tears in her eyes. Jesus, how much could a girl cry in one day? She turned her head to make sure Ryan couldn’t see and ran her sleeve across her eyes.
“This about yo
ur dad?”
“For fuck’s sake, Ry, I just want to play a video game, all right?”
He held up his hands. “Way to spaz. Sorry I cared.”
“I’ve had a bad day, okay? I came here to forget about it. Not wallow in it.”
“I just expected you to be grounded or something. When your mom showed up here—”
She turned her head so fast the muscles in her neck strained. “My mom came here?”
“She wanted to know where you were.”
“Did you tell her?”
“She was worried.”
“Aw, crap.” She threw the controller onto the coffee table, bowling over Han and Leia.
“Hey!”
“That’s just great. I trusted you.”
“I don’t know what the big deal is. Why didn’t you just ask her about your dad?”
“You don’t think I’ve tried? She wouldn’t tell me anything. She doesn’t know anything.” Jessie stood and paced.
The doorbell rang upstairs.
Ryan got off the couch and moved to block her pacing. “You can’t be mad at me.”
“Why not? You betrayed me like everyone else in my stupid life.” She tried to move past him, but he sidestepped back into her path.
“Can I tell you something?”
“No.”
“Please just listen to me.”
She threw up her hands and rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“You promise not to laugh?”
“I can’t promise something like that. What if it’s funny?”
“It’s not funny. It’s serious. It’s why I told your mom what you were up to.”
She crossed her arms. “Spit it out.”
“I care about you.”
“You got a funny way of showing it.”
He waved his hands as if swatting away a bee swarm. “No. It’s more than that. Jessie, I love—”
The scream from upstairs cut him off and went on a good ten seconds before trailing into silence.
Ryan looked up at the basement ceiling. “Mom?”
Jessie’s heart picked up what felt like a thousand more beats per second. She grabbed at Ryan’s arm with a trembling hand. “We have to hide.”
