by Dale Mayer
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. It was a long time ago, and I know I wasn’t in my right mind, but I’m pretty damn sure he picked me up and carried me out. I was a mess though…”
“So you know for sure it was him?”
“Henry? Yes, it was him.” She gave him a hard look. “Where are you going with this?”
He shrugged. “I’m trying to look in places we haven’t looked before.” He waited a beat then asked, “Did Henry arrive with all the other detectives or did he come first?”
“I have no idea,” she said in surprise. “I wouldn’t know.”
He nodded as if that was what he expected then in that voice she was getting very suspicious of, he said, “Maybe you should ask him.”
“Why are you zeroing in on Henry?” She wasn’t going to let him back away on this one. But his answer surprised her.
“Who reorganizes your desk when everything is already neat and tidy?” he said.
“How do you know anybody does?” She shrugged. “My desk is a mess all the time.”
“And yet I saw a vision of somebody rearranging your stapler so it was perfectly aligned.”
“Oh, Henry does that. But then I think a couple of the other guys might as well.”
“Do you see Henry at work often?”
She wasn’t liking this. She knew what it was to have a thought in one’s head and need to keep following the trail, but he was way off here. “Sometimes. I just saw him the other day. But I can go weeks and months without seeing him. I hardly see Charles either.” She turned her head to stare at her coat. “Henry just gave me an invitation to his and Charlie’s engagement party. I remember the oddly embarrassed look on his face.” She smiled at the memory. “I forgot all about it. Henry and Charles got engaged.”
“Does he work full-time? Or part-time?”
“Good Lord, you’re really on about Henry.” She shook her head. Better to satisfy his curiosity now and put the issue to rest. “I don’t know. He’s in more of a liaison position now so has flexible hours.”
She watched suspiciously as Jericho studied her face. When she thought he may have finally put it to rest he asked in a soft voice, “What does Charles do for a living?”
“He runs an IT company. He used to be a cop like Henry, but he burned out. His son runs it now.”
*
Bingo. Shit. No, surely not. They were just guessing here. Pulling at straws. Yet so far this straw kept pulling back. He’d have to make some discreet inquiries of his own.
“So someone to consider as we move forward but not necessarily the right person.”
“Ha, Charlie is not a suspect either. Go look somewhere else.” She turned her back to him.
He could tell she was miffed but in a way Henry was a perfect suspect. Nothing she’d told him made him less suspicious. In his mind he was already comparing what he knew and what he’d need to confirm. She might hate him forever afterwards but at least she’d be alive. He could work on healing the gap later. But he knew time was running out.
“Speaking of which,” she murmured. “I caught sight of something when I was in the abyss last time. I need to go back there. I’d been chasing Anna’s trail but caught a faint line on Sarah.” The gold pathway she’d caught a glimpse of was hers. She was sure of it.
“Sarah? Really?”
“Yeah. I wanted to catch up and question her friends. She spent a lot of time on the street. I’m even more convinced her death had nothing to do with the Ghost. But so far no one will talk.”
“That’s fairly normal, most people don’t want to get involved.”
“Especially when she had nothing to do with adults. She was known to hang around with kids her age and slightly older.”
“She’s fairly young for that.”
“Young, but probably already very sick of the world and the adults in it.” She explained the little bit of background she knew. “And given that she died from a drug overdose, I’m wondering something completely different.”
He caught his breath as the vision hit. A young girl smiling and laughing with other kids. A pile of drugs in front of her. Pills. Booze. A party like atmosphere. “I’m not liking what I’m seeing, but as I’m a pre-cog it could mean many things. Chances are some of the other kids are about to die,” he said in a self-deprecating voice. “But I could see a young girl laughing and joking with friends as they piled up pills in front of her.”
Tavika rolled around to stare up at him. “Actually that’s exactly what I think happened. She was dying,” Tavika said simply. “They’d done everything she’d let them do. The disease would have taken its toll on her system in its own good time. According to the foster families one of the reasons she got moved from house to house was the medical care issue. She’d had enough.”
“And you think her friends provided the drugs so she could take her own life?” He thought about a young girl determined to take such a step but surrounded by friends and family. It said a lot about who she was. He could see that. Especially if she was traumatized by adults who seemed to do things to her that never helped and always hurt. Who made decisions for her and wouldn’t listen to her wishes.
“Taking her own life put the control back in her hands whether the rest of the world agreed or not. That would appeal to the teens. They were on the streets looking for validation in this world while thumbing their nose at the authority they’d had so much difficulty with.”
“Damn.” His voice reflected how he felt. Both sad and yet happy.
“That’s how I feel.” Tavika stared up at him, the corner of her lips turned down. “But I haven’t had a chance to get out and prove my theory yet.”
“And the kids will deny it to their graves. Because it’s just as important to them that they helped her as it was to her that she did this on her own.”
“Exactly.”
He thought about the way she’d been found. “Why do you think her body was moved to the electrician’s house?”
He watched her thoughts tumble and churn behind those huge chocolate eyes. She had a brain he admired. Her way of working a problem, of coming up with answers, was amazing.
“If we think about this from a child’s point of view I’m thinking she knew the electrician. Maybe even heard about his death or found out something bad had happened to him. Maybe she really liked him. And maybe it was the kids’ way of taking care of their friend. Or maybe they were so afraid of authority they didn’t have a clue what to do with her.”
He thought about that and realized there were any number of reasons for the kids to think such a thing. “But getting her there would’ve been a chore.”
“One of the kids likely had a driver’s license. They may even be from the wealthy sector and in their own vehicles. If they were mobile they could’ve taken her there.”
“And the broken neck?” he asked cautiously. That was a little bit more bizarre. He wasn’t exactly sure how or why somebody would do that.
“To throw us off,” she said simply. “Knowing kids they may have thought we’d look at the broken neck, see that as a cause of death and not look any further.”
“If they thought she committed suicide or had drugs in her system they’d go looking for the source,” he said in understanding.
“Putting them in danger of getting caught,” she added with a small smile.
“True. What are you going to do about it?”
She sat up, grabbed a sweatshirt to throw over her shoulders and walked to the kitchen table. She pulled the chair out and sat down. “I’m going into the abyss to find out where they are.”
She bowed her head.
Just like that she was gone.
*
He stared out the window. He hoped he was doing the right thing. That his plan would work. To take these names off his list was his way of letting go. Moving on.
Achieving the life he wanted.
The family he wanted.
This had to work…
There w
as one person in his way. And he had to stop her.
She was a distraction he couldn’t afford. He knew now she was to blame for all the things going wrong. And he knew why.
She was shit out of luck if she thought that was going to save her now. He didn’t know how he was going to go after her, but he’d taken a few days personal leave. That would let him follow her and pick the perfect opportunity.
The place he planned to take her was already there and waiting.
Hell, it had been sitting empty for twenty years.
Now it was time.
Only then could he achieve what he wanted.
He had to take her back home where she belonged.
Chapter 34
Tavika walked into the abandoned warehouse on the corner of First Street and Wicker Avenue. Part of one of the many deserted areas of town that had seen better days at least twenty years ago. Now with the new highways rerouting the arteries through the city some of the streets had been totally abandoned. This was one of those. But she also knew now this was one of the main meeting places for the kids.
Jericho had wanted to come in. And she’d chosen to let him, in spirit form only. The kids would feel intimidated if too many of them showed up. From his point of view she was putting herself in danger because she didn’t know if there were four or forty kids at any one time. And he was right. But as long as she could keep this low-key he could stay under the radar. If they got aggressive then she was going to have to call in backup.
Her footsteps echoing hollowly in the large building, she walked over to the single door in the far corner. On the other side she expected there to be the series of offices that had at one point kept this mill working.
She didn’t give anyone a warning as she approached. She opened the door and stepped inside.
“Hey.” One young male stood up and glared at her.
“Who is she?” called out someone else.
“Lady, what do you want? You aren’t allowed in here.”
She let her gaze drift from one to the other then got sidetracked to the middle of the room. There were photos and candles lit in the center of a large beat up old table. But she recognized the girl in the photo.
And she understood what they were doing.
She let her gaze drift back over the faces of the two dozen kids collected there. She could see a monster of a boy in the back. He had tears in his eyes, but the look on his face was rapidly turning to outrage. Looking like he was fourteen, he had to weigh in at two hundred and fifty pounds and stood over six feet. But he also appeared childlike. Somebody who didn’t know his own strength. Someone who hadn’t grown into those size fourteen shoes.
She nodded. As she suspected. “It’s a nice thing you are doing for your friend right now.”
Silence.
A young girl with blue hair in front of her stood up, an apprehensive look on her face. “What the hell do you know?”
Another girl stepped up with so much anger and hardness on her face that Tavika knew she’d had a tough time in her short years too.
“Get the hell out of here, bitch.”
Tavika shook her head. “No.”
Several of the men stood up. She judged the power amongst them all and realized the odds were really not in her favor.
Beside her, Jericho snorted, adding, Ya think?
She ignored him and kept her attention on the tall, arrogant male in the center of the room with several other young men lined up on either side.
“If I leave now I’ll be forced to come back with a lot of cops as backup. I don’t think you want that.” She turned to the girls in front who were looking at each other. It would always be a mistake to turn her back on one of them. These girls had been raised in the streets and had earned hard knock status in life already. They’d attack as soon as she tried to walk away.
In a calm voice she added, “I’m not here to cause you any trouble. But if you cause me any I’ll come back for you.” Several sneers appeared. She smiled. “Sure you can find another place to hang out and feel cool for a while, but I will find you like I did this time.”
A few kids snorted.
“Or we can have a nice talk and I can leave.” Her words vibrated in the air. She caught sight of tears in the girls’ eyes as they did their best to not panic.
For the males, well their aggression was growing. Energy sparked and fired up from several of their systems. They were at a dangerous level – wanting to protect the females and themselves and having a natural hatred of cops. She was not in a great position.
From the corner of her eye, she watched and waited as Jericho sent out a blanket of calm and peace over top of everyone.
Nice. You need to show me how to do that. It would be great for riot control.
That makes my blood freeze to think of you in the middle of a riot.
One of the girls in front, her hair a dirty blonde, asked, “Talk about what?”
Tavika studied her face, which had been battered and healed. The cheek and eye socket were wonky as if it had been broken once too often and not received any medical care. She could get it fixed. But she had no trust in anyone and at her age it was hard to get anything done without involving the authorities. And it was obvious she’d chosen to go the opposite direction.
Not sure what to say, Tavika opened her mouth and the words that came out surprised her – and them. “I want to thank you.”
“For what?” asked the young man in the center, a confused look on his face, as well as distrust.
He had just enough arrogance to get himself in trouble. All these kids were living on bravado and street smarts. A dangerous combination. At the moment they still weren’t sure why she was there.
“I understand why Sarah felt she had to do what she did, and I understand how she did it. Nice to know that the people in her life cared enough to help her out. To get a hold of the meds so she could do it…” She stopped talking, seeing the several furtive looks amongst the kids. Nobody quite knew what to say or do.
“I don’t know what meds you’re talking about,” said the big guy in the back.
“Prescription drugs, usually for pain relief, also in cough medicine. Harmless on their own but in large proportions and when mixed with alcohol or other medications – deadly. Easy to steal from families and foster homes. Easy to break into houses and raid medicine cabinets.”
More eyes stared at the ground. But many of these kids stared at her belligerently. She understood. They had done what they had to do to help out one of their own. She turned her gaze to the big guy. “At least she was dead before you broke her neck.”
He gasped and straightened up to his full height, panic rising across his face. “I didn’t kill her. I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
Tavika nodded. “I know that. You hoped we wouldn’t find the drugs in her system this way, I suppose?”
“She took them herself. But there’s no way you guys were going to believe us,” blue hair said.
“Sometimes that would be true. You kids like to lie, cheat, and steal and think there are never going to be repercussions, so it makes it difficult to know when you’re telling the truth.”
One of the shorter males in the middle of the room laughed. “There was no way you or any other cop would have believed us if we said Sarah took them willingly.”
Tavika studied him. “Actually I probably would’ve once I realized she was dying and there was nothing the medical profession could do to help her and she’d shifted from foster home to foster home to avoid getting more treatments. At that point it all made sense.”
She let her gaze continue to drift around the room. “Of course we can also tell when someone was force-fed those pills. There’s always bruising, damage to the lining of her mouth and throat. In this case there was nothing. So we knew she took the bulk of the pills on her own. Choosing to do so at her time and place surrounded by her friends.
At those words, one of the girls on the side burst into tears. Anot
her girl wrapped her arms around her and held her close.
“I do, however, have questions. And I do need to get the answers.” She studied the girl with the broken cheek and said quietly, “If you want to get that fixed I’ll give you my support.”
The girl sneered. “And what do you want in return?”
“I can see there’s a hard luck story behind this.” The girl tossed her locks in disdain but Tavika persisted. “What you don’t realize is you’re not alone. Many people have them. You can stay as you are or you can fix it so you make something of your life. It’s up to you.”
She turned her attention back to the big guy in the back room. He was already blubbering. “Why did you turn her head all the way around?” she asked.
The big kid went from blubbering to bawling. He shook his head wildly, and in a harsh whisper punctuated by sobs, he said. “I didn’t mean to. It just went all the way around. Like it was nothing…” And he broke down completely.
Right. As she expected.
She glanced over at Mr. Cocky. “And you? Where did you get the vehicle to move her to Connor Breaker’s house, and why take her there?”
“She really liked him. Every once in a while she’d slip over and visit him,” he said with much of his bravado gone. “When she heard what happened, she was pretty upset. She didn’t want him to die alone. That’s when she made the decision to go.”
“Ah. That explains it. She swallowed the pills at Breaker’s house, didn’t she?”
They all nodded.
Jesus, Jericho whispered. This is unbelievable. They are something else.
Yeah they are. They lost one of their own.
She pulled out a notebook and pen and handed it to the blue hair girl. “Your name. And the name of everyone else here, please.”
Silence. Miss blue hair turned to look at the others, then shrugged. She started writing.
“Don’t make me come back for your correct names. I will not be alone.”
Miss blue hair shot her a dirty look and scratched off what she’d started to write. She wrote down a name and handed it to the next girl. The process continued until everybody in the room had written on it. Tavika knew chances were good she’d get a series of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and any number of superhero names on that list. But there would also be a number of real ones. And she was content to take this one step at a time. She didn’t want these kids to end up like Gordon had. Unfortunately, it was just too damn likely they might.
