Dark Visions

by Jonas Saul

  "Write something," he said, tossing the implements at her.

  He bent down and used a key from his pocket to undo her leather strap. It took him a long frustrating minute maneuvering the rope to get it undone.

  "What?"

  "WRITE SOMETHING!"

  He saw her jump back. She was startled by his shout. Fumbling with the pad, she opened it and got her pen ready.

  "What do you want me to write?" she asked in a whisper.

  "Whatever your informer gets you to write."

  "It doesn't work like that."

  "Today it does."

  Gert lunged forward and grabbed her neck. He tightened his grip enough to close her windpipe. She slumped down, gasping for air. She was trying to speak, but nothing came out.

  "What'd you say?"

  He released her enough to talk.

  "Only...when I...blackout..."

  "I can help that along."

  He let go of her neck and yanked his gun from his waistband.

  "No," she stammered. "Not knocked unconscious...involuntary blackouts." She struggled to sit upright, holding her neck. He reached out and forced her back down.

  "The blackouts come and go. Sometimes once a week, sometimes more. I never know when until I look in my notebook and see a message there. If you'll let me keep this pen and paper, I'll be able to write something when the next blackout comes."

  "I'm not going to give you much time." He stood up and looked around. "Make me happy, Sarah. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

  He smiled as he thought most people escape their nightmares by waking up.

  Sarah escaped hers by going to sleep.

  Chapter 41

  Sam pulled his car alongside Sarah's parents. Dolan watched as Sam and Caleb rolled their respective windows down at the same time.

  "You guys hanging in?" Sam asked. He said it as if they were high school chums years ago and this was a routine 'how are ya?'

  "I don't want to give you a hard time detective," Caleb said. "We just want our daughter back safely. And I appreciate Dolan," he said this, averting his eyes around Sam, "that you've jumped on the investigation. I guess we thought this would come together quicker than it has. I mean, I've heard about some of your successes, Mr. Ryan. It's just hard for us to not see Sarah here."

  Dolan nodded. He caught a glimpse of Amelia wiping a tear from her cheek.

  "We probably put too much stock in Dolan coming up with this location so fast."

  Dolan flashed back to the note he found when he was wandering the Roberts' house looking for something to attach himself to, something to cue his gift into action. When he was touching things in Sarah's bedroom he came across an envelope under her pillow. He'd pulled it out and saw his name on the outside. It wasn't sealed, so he pulled the paper out and unfolded it.

  The letter had been from Sarah. She said she knew something dangerous was working its way towards her, but it was unavoidable. She had to try to stop a kidnapping. She had no choice as she was pulled by her conscience. Sarah had written a line twice and Dolan wasn't sure if she was trying to convince him or herself. The line said that whatever trouble came her way, she felt she'd make it because the one who writes through her wouldn't send her to death after all the good she'd done.

  Dolan had folded the note up intending to share it with everyone, but got distracted. He figured now wasn't the best time to bring it up. Not with people putting less faith in him as it is.

  "We're all doing our best. We will catch this guy. We're on our way to talk to a woman who saw your daughter and her kidnapper just a few hours ago. We've got a description and which direction they were headed in. We also know the vehicle and plate number the perp is driving. Hang in there; this may come together faster than you think."

  "We're following you to this woman," Caleb said.

  "I can't let you do that. I'd lose my badge."

  Dolan read persistence on Caleb's face.

  "If this woman was the last known person to see my daughter then Amelia and I want to talk to her too," Caleb said.

  "Well, you can't come with us, but it's a free country. I'm not able to stop you if you were to go to Liberty Memorial to see Denise Hall. That's up to you."

  Sam dropped the cruiser into gear. Dolan turned around to see Caleb reversing onto the shoulder of the highway and stop there.

  The rain had subsided when they were still at the cabin, but the road was wet. Sam flipped the wipers on as they came behind a tractor trailer.

  "She gonna make it Dolan?"

  He looked over at Sam. "Can't tell for certain."

  "What can you tell for certain?"

  Dolan detected an edge of hostility in Sam's voice.

  His cell phone rang. It was Alex, his assistant. Dolan updated him on the situation and when he'd get back to the fair.

  If not today, this would probably be over by tomorrow, he told him.

  Chapter 42

  This was the first time the message was prophesying murder. Reading the note in her hand, Sarah found two things peculiar.

  One; after months of getting cryptic messages about people in peril, and herself feeling honor bound because of what happened to her sister to do something about it, she was sent out like a fly that has now gotten caught in this web. Although she knew there was always a possibility things could get scary, she never expected them to get personal.

  Two; the message on the paper in front of her was the most serious one yet. If she wasn't being held against her will at this very moment, she would be quite upset about being sent precognitions regarding murder.

  Sarah sat in the backseat of the SUV. They had been traveling all day. The sun had gone down. He'd pulled over to grab food and twice to let her go pee in the bushes.

  She'd fallen asleep for a while and now when she looked over the seat, the clock on the dash said it was after one in the morning.

  They were going the speed limit. For the last hour he sat up front, listening to the radio and talking to himself. She worried as his actions grew increasingly harried. He was coming undone.

  Sarah looked away and tried to focus on the note in the dark backseat.

  Could this be a test? Maybe she was being elevated to handle bigger and more serious tasks when this was all over. That thought offered hope. It would mean she was destined to get out of this alive. How come the message giver didn't tell her how things were supposed to be? It's unfair to play with her like this. How much trauma could she take? Especially since she's prone to depression.

  Sarah leaned back and stared at the note. It came in three parts with one of the parts fading away.

  Don't thump, rip and tear, better to be savage.

  The second part was the murder prophecy;

  Gert's boss will kill him.

  And the third line was the one that ran out;

  Gert's boss works with police.

  The "c" was half written and the "e" on police was not there.

  Sarah considered how much of this she wanted to give Gert. She knew she had to show him something, but what?

  What if he thinks she just made it up, to undermine him?

  It's better to show him all of it so he could see the mystery of the first riddle. Maybe seen as a package it would lend more credence to the message.

  Sarah rubbed at the leather strap wrapped around her wrist. The skin was red and itching. It almost felt at times like little critters were crawling around, trying to burrow into her arm.

  With her right side feeling the effects of sleep, she maneuvered around and leaned on her left. When she did that, the paper left her grasp. She reached down to retrieve it and noticed something written on the backside. It was a name; Vivian Roberts.

  This was the first message that pertained to the here and now. One that was relative to the situation she was facing. It coincided with Gert's warning and timeframe. He'd ordered something written and now he will get it.

  Messages couldn't be relied upon. They held a random existence. C
ould this process be a part of her and because she knew she needed something, the messenger came through?

  Or was Sarah the messenger through some subconscious place? The part of her that wakes up when her conscious mind passes out?

  She dismissed that idea. How could she know where to be when people were in trouble? How could she know to bring a hammer that day? Unless she was psychic and in the infancy of the gift, but she didn't think so.

  She recalled reading somewhere that sleepwalkers could open doors, drive cars, and even commit murder while remaining asleep. People have used somnambulism as a defense in court and won.

  Could she be sleepwalking, just with a different method to it?

  She brought her legs up under her and hugged them. The floor was cold. A sheen of sweat covered her body.

  She had to get away from Gert.

  She would either have to rely on the Other Side for directions, or handle it herself.

  She just hoped she wouldn't have to kill again.

  Chapter 43

  Amelia thought the house looked different as they approached. Something about it at night made it look sad.

  Caleb put the car in park, flipped off the headlights and sat back.

  It had been an exhausting day. When they finally got to talk to Denise Hall, she was being sedated for the pain. The relentless interview schedule with different police agencies had worn her out. Amelia and Caleb only got a minute out of her before she fell into a drug induced sleep.

  Amelia sat and went over what this stranger had said about her daughter. She was okay, a few bruises. She looked tired. She was missing a certain amount of hair.

  She opened the car door and stepped out. Caleb did the same. They walked up and entered their house which didn't seem like it was theirs anymore. It felt foreign with the police officers milling around, sipping coffee.

  For as many people that were there, the house felt empty.

  Amelia stepped away from Caleb. "I need to be alone for a little while."

  She saw him nod and turn for the kitchen.

  She took the stairs slow, like her soul was burdened by the weight of grief. When she entered the bedroom, Amelia flopped on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. She felt so helpless and exhausted. There was nothing she could do but wait for other people to do things. It was starting to drive her crazy.

  She got up and walked into the bathroom. The mirror reminded her she hadn't applied make-up since the morning of the Psychic Fair.

  She left the bathroom only to collapse on her bed, tears streaming down her cheeks. She wondered how she could stand to lose another child. She would certainly become a different person, she thought. One very closed to the world, turned off.

  This was the second time a daughter of hers was kidnapped. She would do whatever's necessary to make sure this won't be the second time a daughter of hers gets killed.

  She fell asleep crying into her bed sheets at the chaos her life had become. She wept because she couldn't put it back together again.

  Chapter 44

  Caleb walked through the main floor of the house and stopped in the kitchen where he grabbed a small glass and opened a bottle of brandy. After two quick shots, he left the kitchen and approached the stereo in the living room. He turned it on to the local rock station and turned up the volume. Not loud enough to bother anyone, but high enough to drown out what he was going to do. He didn't want Amelia to hear.

  An officer stood flipping pages back and forth on a clipboard. He was beside a temporary workstation set up by the kitchen phone line.

  "I need some answers," Caleb said. "I need to know what we're doing here. I don't want to be told that we're sitting on our fucking asses waiting for some kidnapper to call."

  Caleb figured these guys deal with angry people for a living. To him, Caleb was just another upset father.

  "We're here in the hopes that we intercept a call. Most of the time, in cases like this one; we get a call with a list of demands."

  "Most of the time," Caleb mocked. "This isn't most of the time because there's been no call. There are no demands. So why don't you all just leave."

  The officer set the clipboard down on the table behind him. "It would be better if we stayed. Things will go downhill fast if we were to leave and then the call that saves your daughter comes in with no one here to monitor it."

  "I understand that you guys are the experts and that you've done all this before, but it's different this time. The kidnapper is more aggressive. He's got my daughter and he's out there killing people."

  "Every cop in the country is looking for him. He shot one of ours. He raised the stakes, so there'd be no way we could abandon this post knowing that the one person he has with him, lives here."

  He didn't want to hear anything more the cop was saying, but he couldn't stop talking. "What about Dolan? I thought he could help, so I practically begged – "

  A knock on the door silenced him. He spun and started for it, but the cop grabbed his arm.

  "You weren't expecting anyone, were you?"

  Caleb mouthed the word 'no'. They started for the door, with the officer putting himself against the wall behind it.

  Caleb stood a little off center. "Who is it?" he shouted in a stern voice.

  "FBI. Open up."

  The cop reached past Caleb and looked out through the small window beside the door. Then he unlocked and opened it.

  Caleb watched as they showed identification and stepped in.

  "My name is Special Agent Jill Hanover and this is my partner, Special Agent Fergus Mant. We're in charge now," she was talking to the cop. "Your Task Force is being dismantled. Everyone pack up and leave. I'll have my own people handle things from here."

  Chapter 45

  Sam jolted awake. Something woke him up but he wasn't sure what.

  His cell phone rang. He fumbled in the dark trying to remember where he'd placed it in this shoddy motel room.

  His hand found the light switch of the bedside lamp on the third ring. The cell was on the floor. He bent down, snatched and flipped it open in one movement.

  "Detective Sam Johnson here."

  "We've got a problem."

  "What's the problem?"

  "It's Mike. We're dismantling all our equipment and leaving the Roberts' house."

  Sam was wide awake now. "Why are you doing that?" He swung his legs off the bed and sat up.

  "FBI is taking over the case."

  "I am the FBI. The task force was commissioned by the FBI. This can't be happening."

  "It is. You better get here fast before this Roberts guy gets arrested. He wants everyone out. The Special Agent in charge is trying to calm him down."

  Sam raised his free hand to his forehead. Why was the FBI sending a team to take over a kidnapping case from the multi-jurisdictional task force set up to handle the kidnapping cases?

  "I'm on my way."

  Sam slammed his phone on the bed and looked across the room at the door that stood between his and Dolan's room. It had to be Dolan. Whatever the problem was he was sure Dolan was at the root of it.

  He knew there was something different about this case. And he knew that difference lay with Dolan.

  He got up, stretched, and walked over to the door. He heard nothing coming from Dolan's room. His hand was in mid air, about to knock when the door unlocked and flipped open from the other side.

  "I'm ready to go," Dolan said.

  "It's four-thirty in the morning. I thought you'd be sleeping."

  "I was, but when I found out the FBI was taking the case from you, I got up and dressed."

  "How did you find out?"

  "Come on Sam, how long have we been doing this? You know I have my ways."

  Dolan stepped away from the door and grabbed his duffel bag. He called over his shoulder to meet him in the coffee shop in the lobby when Sam was ready.

  Sam shut the adjoining door and started getting dressed, thinking about the questions Dolan was going to have to answe
r soon.

  Chapter 46

  Sarah felt something tugging on her wrists.

  Her hands fell free of restraint. She rolled her head to the side and got her eyes open enough to guess the time as early morning. The sun was up, the air cool. Birds flitted past the open windows of the building she sat in.

  How many days had it been? How long before it was all over? She couldn't continue this way. She was the one in charge usually. She was the one helping people, not the person who needed the help. She wondered if her message giver knew what was going to happen to her when she sent her to stop the kidnapping on Birk Street.

  Was all this part of the process? Was this the plan?

  Instead of stopping the kidnapping from taking place, maybe she was supposed to be taken so her actions would get these guys caught.

  But it probably wasn't the case, because too many people have been killed. The message giver from the Other Side wouldn't send her into this knowing so many people's lives were in danger.

  A hand wrapped around her arm and lifted her. She was surprised with his strength and equally aware of the loss of strength in her legs. She could barely hold herself up. Pain shot from her ankles. She looked at her feet as they hustled along but lost her balance and fell head first to the dirty wooden floor.

  With both hands he yanked her up and started her walking again. They went down a flight of stairs, around a corner and out of the building through an old loading dock.

  A black van sat idling, its side door slid open. He pushed her in the back and slammed the door shut. Sarah leaned up on an elbow and started to massage her right wrist. The driver's side door opened and Gert got in.

  Within minutes they were on the highway. Sarah looked behind her and saw a small wooden bench along the backdoor of the van. She edged over and sat up on it.

  He hadn't set any restraints on her wrists or ankles. Sarah was sure he didn't forget. There was a reason. She was zapped of any energy and she knew he wasn't afraid of her.