Cold Image

by Leslie A. Kelly

  That didn’t mean the same thing would happen for him, however. “We’ve only known each other a week and a half.”

  “I’m pretty sure Aidan and Lexie moved in together at a week and a half.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Well, they definitely were in love by then.”

  He barked a laugh. “Love? Remember who you’re talking to?”

  He’d had some relationships, but he’d never fallen in love in his life. Yeah, he was developing unexpected feelings that went beyond lust for the stunning, red-haired doctor. But love? Shit. Derek wasn’t even sure he was capable of the emotion when it came to romantic entanglements. He sure knew he shouldn’t be.

  Julia literally growled at him through the phone. “Stop that, Derek Monahan. You are perfectly capable of falling in love.”

  “Maybe. It’s the ‘willing’ part I’d argue.”

  “Then you’re a fool.”

  They’d had this argument before, and he almost reminded her she had no room to talk, considering she was having an intense, emotional affair with a dead guy. But Julia knew that. Pointing it out was mean. Julia would experience major heartache one of these days; he wasn’t about to pile on.

  “Will you just do the background check for me?” he finally said.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I know I need to mind my own business.”

  His silence was answer enough to that.

  “Okay, we’ll get to work right away. Give us an hour or two.”

  That was cutting it close, since it was now twelve-thirty and boot camp started at 3. It was, however, far more than he could do on his own. “Great, thank you. Keep an eye out for any hints about old patient records, too.”

  “Will do.”

  Having gotten Andrews’ address from the faculty directory, he knew it was only about a twenty minute ride. He made it in fifteen. The teacher lived in a nice neighborhood on the northwest side of Savannah, with pretty, tree-lined streets. Not expensive, but not cheap, either. Neat yard, flowers in the front. The lawn backed up to a greenbelt, and he saw a swingset and a sandbox. So the guy had little kids.

  It all painted a picture of a young, responsible, hard-working family of average income, living a normal life. That didn’t exactly jibe with what he knew about the staff at Fenton, but it did make him suspect Eli’s instincts were good.

  Knowing Andrews had only joined the staff this year, and that he was obviously concerned about the supposed runaways, Derek had high hopes for this evening’s meeting. The teacher might not know much, but he had to know more than Derek. He also had access Derek did not—including relationships with the faculty. At the very least, he could offer his impressions. Derek only hoped he would be willing to.

  Next on his list: a meetup with Kate. Stopping at a gas station on the outskirts of town, he called to see if she was available.

  “I’m actually down at the Historic Savannah Foundation office,” she said once he asked her if he could swing by the hospital to talk to her.

  “On York?”

  “Yes. It would take me a while to get to my car and then to my office, or yours. There’s a coffee shop up the block. Why don’t you come straight there since you’re in a hurry? You could grab a bite to eat.”

  Not a bad idea, considering Derek had trashed his own lunch as soon as Andrews had left the teacher’s lounge. He’d hadn’t wanted to waste time eating.

  “Sounds good. Why are you there?”

  “I know I can’t help on site,” she replied. “I also know you don’t have a lot of time to keep digging into the academy’s past. I thought about it this morning and figured if there was one place that might have more information than we’ve found online, it was this one.”

  Great idea. He wished he’d thought of it last week. “Any luck?”

  “Some. They do have old clippings about the hospital and asylum.” She sniffed in audible distaste. “I can’t make copies, but I’m sneaking pics whenever the attendant’s back is turned.”

  “If you see anything resembling blueprints, grab them for me, would you?”

  “Of course.”

  “Heading there now.”

  He gunned his engine, knowing it was another twenty minutes to downtown. Meaning it would be forty back to the school. That left him about one hour to talk to Kate and look at whatever she’d found this morning. It was doable, and, he hoped, would be worth it.

  Gunning it down 515, toward Bay Street, he shaved a few minutes off the trip. He was lucky—until he neared the historic district. The area was tourist heaven. Lines of school kids streamed in and out of museums, and buses stood like caravans in the public lots. Fortunately, the coffee shop had its own small parking lot in the back. He was inside, greeting Kate, twenty-five minutes after he’d hung up from their call.

  As always, when he saw the sun shining on that stunning red hair of hers, and the way the afternoon light caught the sparkles in her soft green eyes, he had to stop to remind himself how to breathe. Damn, the woman did manage to steal his breath without saying a word. Now that he’d touched her, held her, seen her face lit up with passion, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to look at her again without wanting her.

  Seeing him, she waved him over to her table. Derek spotted two cups of coffee and took the seat opposite her.

  “One spoonful of raw sugar, right?”

  She remembered how he took his coffee. The woman paid attention. “Yeah, thanks.”

  “I also ordered you a sandwich. They’ll bring it out as soon as it’s ready.”

  Again Kate proved herself incredibly efficient and forward thinking. “Did you learn anything interesting this morning?”

  Kate pulled an iPad out of a book-bag hanging on the side of her chair. “I got some blueprints for you. They’re not in very good shape and are really faded because they’re from the construction of the hospital more than a hundred years ago.”

  Derek’s jaw dropped. He’d been looking for those damn things for a week—including stopping by the county records office one morning. She’d zeroed right in on the perfect place to find them and hit pay dirt.

  He glanced at the iPad, scrolling through the images with the tip of his finger. Kate leaned over the table to look, too, which was unfortunate. Because, while he was focused on the faded images, he was also distracted by the clean, cinnamony scent of her hair, which matched that perfect deep red color, so reminiscent of fall leaves.

  “I imagine they’ll be easier to look at on a bigger screen.”

  “I’ll go by the office tonight and enlarge them.” Too bad Mick was away—he probably would have been able to clean them up. Damn it, was he really coming to appreciate the dude? “Did you find out anything else?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Yes. In between stints as hospital, asylum, and school, the place served as: military training camp, orphanage, and temporary jail.”

  “I knew about the camp part. The rest…Jesus, let’s take the most blighted spot in the state and use it for even more awful purposes.”

  “Have you ever had a case with a damned location? Do you think there are such things?”

  “No. But given the stuff I have seen since starting to work with Extrasensory Agents, nothing would surprise me anymore. I met a girl last fall who could.…” He paused, remembering the fate of that girl.

  Kate tilted her head, waiting.

  “She could see into the future. Really see it. But only about three minutes ahead.”

  “That doesn’t sound very helpful, unless it enables you avoid a mugger or something.”

  Wishing he hadn’t even brought up the subject, he muttered, “Unfortunately, it didn’t help her avoid a murderer.”

  Her lips parted and a low gasp emerged. Reaching across the table, she dropped her hand on his and clenched. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I didn’t know her well, I only met her once. It was Mick’s case. But it was damned tragic. I heard the grief ended up killing her mother, and her younger brother disappeare
d.” He immediately regretted saying that, remembering who he was talking to and why she had come to them. “I mean, he intentionally left the area…”

  “It’s all right, Derek,” she murmured, her lashes half-lowering to conceal her eyes.

  Before he could reply, a server came over carrying two plates with Panini sandwiches that smelled better than good. Derek bit into his, watching as Kate started eating too.

  After a few bites, she said, “I am also going to email you some stuff I found out about Richard Fenton.”

  “From the local historical place? He’s not from Savannah.”

  “No, this was from some medical sites I have access to. Message boards—doctors do gossip sometimes, too, and the family is still well known and discussed in the northeast. Did you know his mother committed suicide?”

  He shook his head. “That could explain why he’s so fucking cold, especially since we’ve already established his father was a real bastard.”

  “Poor little rich boy?”

  “Cry me a river. Anything else?”

  “Out of curiosity, I also reached out to a doctor I know in Europe. Just wanted to check out this story of a Swiss hospital for our boy Richie.”

  “You are so on the ball. Can I hire you full time?”

  She laughed softly. “Well, I don’t have a full-time job right now.”

  “I asked Julia to get what she could from the state on the old hospital and asylum records. Now I wish I’d asked you.”

  “If she needs help, I’m there. I feel pretty useless waiting around for you to call.”

  “You’ve been very helpful, Kate.”

  “It doesn’t feel that way, not when you’re the one putting yourself in danger every day,” she insisted, studying his face, hers expressing concern.

  “It’s my job, not yours. And I’m fine. Believe me, I can take care of myself.” Remembering the primary reason he wanted to speak to her, he asked her about her brother’s relationship with Sam Andrews, if there had been one.

  “I remember Isaac mentioning him once. Although my brother wasn’t in any of his classes, Mr. Andrews did run an after-school Shakespeare club.”

  Derek cocked a brow. “How…normal. Whenever I hear the school does something like that, I’m surprised.”

  “Don’t be too impressed. It didn’t last long. Isaac went a few times his first month of school, and then the head of the English department found a reason to discontinue it.”

  Of course he did. “Did Isaac say anything about Andrews specifically?”

  “Only that he liked him. He actually asked Isaac to help tutor a couple of the younger students who were struggling. He did that, every week, until he disappeared in November.”

  “The more I hear about that brother of yours, the more I wish I’d met him. He sounds like a really good young man.”

  She nodded, and again those lashes went down. “He is.” Shaking her head, she forced out, “I mean, he was.”

  Her certainty made him ache for her, especially because, every time she repeated it, she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else. Kate might claim she was sure her brother had been murdered. Derek suspected, however, that a tiny bit of hope she wouldn’t let herself feel was buried deep within her heart.

  Seeing how luminous her eyes became, he was about to return the hand-clasping favor. Before he could do it, something at the window beside their table caught his attention. A person had stopped on the sidewalk outside the coffee shop, and was staring in. Right at him and Kate.

  “Holy shit,” he muttered, staring at Eli Winston’s surprised face.

  She jerked her head to follow his stare. “I’ve seen him before.”

  “He’s a student at the academy,” Derek said, wondering what the odds were that he and Kate would be seen by someone from Fenton. Slim, that was sure. Having heard the school sometimes allowed their underclassmen to go on field trips at the end of the school year, he had to imagine that was what was going on here. Talk about bad luck.

  Eli looked back and forth between them, his eyes almost as round as his open mouth.

  “Has he ever met you?” Derek asked urgently.

  “I’m not sure. I did recognize him, though. So it’s possible he might recognize me too.”

  “Hell.”

  Kate didn’t wait to be warned of the consequences of them being seen together. She abruptly stood and beelined toward the restrooms at the back of the café. Meanwhile, Derek gave Eli a quick, forbidding shake of the head and stared at him, hard. He didn’t want the boy’s curiosity to draw the attention of any other students, or whatever members of the faculty were chaperoning.

  Eli gave him a surreptitious thumbs-up and melted into a crowd of boys walking along York Street. Seeing old Mr. Leggett, the military history teacher, Derek had to assume they were on their way to or from the Webb Military Museum.

  Wanting to watch without being seen, he pushed his chair back. He was out of sight from them, but was able to keep an eye on the class as they trooped by. He recognized one or two of the kids—boys he’d seen Eli hanging around with. Right now, they had their heads together. He hoped Eli was not telling his friends what he’d just witnessed.

  Derek needed to talk to the kid, as soon as possible, knowing the genie had to be put back in the bottle. He knew Eli was worried enough about Charlie MacMasters that he wouldn’t blab all over the school. But even telling a few friends that Derek was involved with the sister of another missing student would be risky. The more boys who knew, the more word could spread.

  Worse, the more who knew…the more who could be in danger.

  CHAPTER 10

  Now that Eli knew Derek Monahan was an undercover secret agent, he felt a lot better about having trusted the man with his suspicions. It was hard to keep the secret from his friends, but he also felt cool being the only one at school who knew about it.

  Although better than sitting in Leggett’s class, the field trip had been boring. Eli was over anything to do with the military. He would rather have gone to see paintings by old dead guys than guns and stuff used by racist assholes who’d fought to keep his ancestors in bondage.

  The best part of the day had been seeing Derek with the pretty woman in the cafe. Once he placed her, everything made sense. He knew the older sister of one of the “runaways” had made a lot of noise last fall. Lots of students had heard her and the Head arguing. Eli had even seen the arrival of police cars when she was ordered off campus.

  The missing kid, Isaac Lincoln, had been pretty decent for a senior. He’d even tutored Charlie in English. Hearing he had run away, Charlie had been sad for his own sake, but happy Isaac had escaped. Back then, even Eli believed the disappearances had a normal explanation.

  Now, with two more kids gone, including Charlie, Eli knew there was nothing normal about any of it. He might only be fifteen years old, but he knew fucked-up when he saw it, and this place was all sorts of crazy. Knowing the real reason Derek was here, and that Isaac’s sister hadn’t given up, gave him the first hope he’d had since the morning Charlie disappeared.

  His excitement about it made him a little bouncy in his seat at dinnertime.

  Somebody noticed. “Mr. Winston, is everything all right?”

  He jerked his head up, terrified it’d be the Devil, but saw his English teacher instead.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Andrews nodded. He opened his mouth again, but then closed it. The other boys at the table were watching, and, of course, listening.

  Eli’s heart raced. Mr. Andrews wanted to talk to him about something. Since he knew Derek had intended to approach the teacher, Andrews might even be in on the whole investigation. Maybe he was an undercover cop too! He could have gotten his job here at the beginning of the school year, and been on the case the whole time. That would be why he warned Eli to be careful when he’d talked to him about Charlie.

  Thinking about trying to get a word alone with Andrews tomorrow after class again, h
e remembered the track meet. Before now, he’d been super excited to get off campus two days in a row—once for a field trip, once for a meet. Now, he was a little frustrated. So he dug down and found some nerve to break the silence and asked, “Uh, sir, you wanted to talk to me about that homework I didn’t turn in, right?”

  Andrews jerked and looked around the caf. Other teachers and kids were watching. Eli wished he’d kept his voice quieter, but he’d been trying to help with the cover-up. They would both need an excuse if they left the cafeteria.

  He wondered if his teacher would out him—what homework?—or if he’d go along. If Andrews played dumb, Eli would be in for it from the other teachers. Or, God, Mrs. Brewer, who was glaring at him from over by the food line.

  Clearing his throat, Andrews replied. “Yes, young man, I certainly do. I expect you in my classroom five minutes after dinner break ends. Not a moment later! And you can forget about free time tonight.”

  Eli shivered for a second, as everybody did when teachers spoke in that you’re-a-bad-kid-and-you’re-gonna-pay voice. He’d never heard it from this one. Of course, he suspected he knew why he was hearing it now. Andrews was going along.

  Pretending he was scared to death, Eli nodded and mumbled, “Yes, sir.”

  Andrews walked away. All of Eli’s friends gave him pitying looks. Nobody knew Andrews to lose it, and they were all probably imagining he was going to dump a whole school year’s worth of aggression on Eli.

  Although he was 99.9% sure that wasn’t the case, Eli couldn’t contain a tiny tremor of nervousness when he arrived at Andrews’ classroom four-and-a-half minutes after the bell rang signaling the end of the first dinner shift. His friends had whispered questions to him as they made their way to the individual dorm rec rooms for the nightly half hour of free time. Eli ignored them and peeled off on the second floor.