“You shouldn’t be standing, much less running around the city in…” The woman seemed to see what Mala was wearing for the first time. “Bloody clothing that I can only pray is borrowed or stolen. Please, girl, tell me you did not buy yourself acid-washed mom jeans.”
Mala shook her head, a slight smile playing over her lips, feeling the exhaustion of the last two days washing over her as the adrenaline began to fade. Holding out her arm, she moved toward her friend.
“Take me to Darc. And my daughter.”
“I should be taking you straight to the hospital.”
“But,” Mala insisted, “you’re not going to, are you? You’re going to take me to my family.”
Cat sized her up once more.
“Fine. Yes. And then… vodka. Or the hospital. Either one.”
Mala could only nod her head in agreement.
* * *
When the lights had gone out, Janey had a hold of Darc’s hand, so the impact was a lot less than it could have been. A lot less that it had been for Popeye, apparently, who hadn’t stopped screaming his head off since it happened. That was annoying.
She tried to block out the sound as she tucked her bear under the arm that was holding onto Darc. With her other hand, she reached out to find Trey.
It wasn’t that hard. The shorter detective was flailing around so much that he managed to jam Janey’s finger. She winced, but it was pitch black, so she was pretty sure Trey wouldn’t see it. Their hands finally connected, and the three moved forward in the dark, linked to one another by love and limbs.
After a moment, Trey pulled out his cell phone and used the light of the screen to illuminate their path. But just as he did so, they stumbled over a soft obstacle.
It was a body.
Trey shone the light on the man’s face and drew in a quick breath. Leaning back, he held his hand over his mouth for a moment before he spoke.
“Not positive, but I think we may have moved into the firstborn plague.”
Darc gave Trey a look that, at least in the dim light, seemed to be asking the shorter detective to elaborate. Trey let out a big sigh.
“The only name we knew him by was First. As in, the first child out of eight in his family. Their parents kind of numbered them.”
Janey thought about that for a moment. First wasn’t so bad, but she would hate to have the name Second. Seven might be pretty cool, but Third wouldn’t really work for a girl, would it?
Popeye said that only humans would be stupid enough to name someone after a number. Janey didn’t want to point out that he was named after a cartoon character, and that she didn’t see how that was any better.
Besides, Janey was using the names to keep herself from thinking about all the bodies they had to climb over in the blue light from the phone. Darc and Trey could pretty much step over them, but Janey had to scramble to get over. Once, she almost tripped and fell on top of one of the dead guys.
“How did they die?” Trey whispered. Why did people always whisper in the dark? That was a weird thing Janey had noticed.
Darc leaned closer to one of the bodies. “More strangulation. Petechial hemorrhaging again.” Then he moved his face even closer. “It appears that at least some of these bodies have been refrigerated.”
So someone had already killed these people, and then brought them here, specifically to serve as a trap for them.
Wait.
It wasn’t really a trap, was it? There had been no real attempts on their lives since they’d arrived at the funhouse. Or the State Fair itself.
Actually, now that she was thinking about it, Janey was pretty sure that no one had really tried all that hard to kill them from the very beginning. The one time it had seemed close, those dogs had gotten called off.
She turned and faced Darc, tugging on his hand to get his attention. Peering deep into his eyes, she squeezed once more. As he gazed into her eyes, Janey looked at each of the bodies in turn, then pointed up at the ceiling, then raised her shoulders in a questioning shrug.
Darc seemed to understand right away.
“I know,” he said. “I have noticed.”
“Noticed?” Trey asked “Noticed what?”
“There have been no direct attacks on our lives since this case began,” Darc intoned, his tone as flat as Janey had ever heard it. “It has become more and more clear as we’ve been here at the fair.”
“What are you talking about?” Trey screeched, his expression incredulous. “We were attacked by rabid dogs and almost got killed. Someone shot Mala and she almost died. People are always trying to kill us.”
“Us,” Darc corrected. “Not Mala. Her, they seem to want dead. The rest of us seem not to matter as much.”
Trey seemed to be unconvinced, but Janey could see the pattern. It didn’t make sense, unless them continuing to live was factored into the equation.
Then every piece of data fell into place.
But why? And even more importantly, who?
Darc turned around and walked back to the nearest intersection of the maze. Moving with precision, unerring, Darc went the opposite direction of where they had come from.
“You know the way out?” Trey squeaked. If things hadn’t been so serious, Janey would have said he sounded like the mice, too.
“Yes,” came Darc’s response.
“Then… then… what were we doing in here?” he yelled.
Darc seemed to give the equivalent of a mental shrug. “I thought the killer might have remained behind to appreciate his work. But this was never about the murders.”
“It wasn’t?”
Shaking his head, Darc slammed his body against a wall, causing it to give way and open into another corridor. He moved swiftly along it.
“This was a distraction.”
Janey felt her heart quail within her. It had been her instinct which had caused Darc to question what they were doing, but to hear it in plain language frightened her.
They had left Mala and Carly on their own, while they were off chasing after some nonexistent goose. They had done exactly what the killer had wanted them to do.
And what was to say that what the killer wanted now was for them to leave the funhouse? Now that the Master’s play was in motion, it might be that there was nothing left for them to do. That they had already failed.
But Janey couldn’t accept that. Not even with Popeye muttering in her ear that she might as well give up and go get him some ice cream.
Janey hoped they were going to find Mala and Carly. It would be good to have her family around her. But one way or another, she trusted that Darc knew where to go.
And then they were taking this bad guy down.
* * *
It didn’t seem to matter what the case was, Trey always felt like he was three steps behind. At least. And that was when he had a handle on things.
This time? He wasn’t even sure where the starting gate was.
He rushed out after Darc and Janey, blinking in the sudden light. Before his eyes even had a moment to adjust, he was off and stumbling after them as they headed to his Land Rover.
At least there was that one equalizer. It wasn’t like Darc could hotwire the car and just leave without him.
Wait a minute. Could he?
Trey stepped up the pace a little bit. Wouldn’t do to test that theory out right now. His partner had a bee in his bonnet, no doubt about it. Not that Trey blamed him. The man was worried about his wife. Almost-wife. Whatever.
That made Trey think about Maggie and little Darcie. He’d bolted only a little while after their daughter had been born. And there was nothing he wanted more than to get back to that little lizard.
Maggie, Darcie and Mala. That accounted for almost everyone.
Except for Carly.
All of a sudden, alarm bells were ringing in Trey’s head. After getting the third degree from Darc, it hadn’t even crossed his mind to talk about the suspicion that had been cast upon Janey’s half-sister.
He wasn’t even sure how to bring it up. Janey was right there.
But if there was a possibility that it was Carly who had taken Mala… and also left the message for Darc… They could be walking right into a trap.
Man, this sucked. Big time.
Plus, there was the question of who had planted the suspicion about Trey in Darc’s head. It was possible that it was just someone who had noticed the pattern. But this felt like a setup. All of the murders, conveniently pointing to Darc’s partner, right after his soon-to-be-wife had been gunned down at the altar.
Trey could think of no better way to taint a partnership. There was no other way. He was going to have to talk to Darc about it.
“Hey, hold up!” he called out to the bald detective. “Darc, I know you want to get out of here, but this is important.”
Darc swiveled on his heel, the look on his face bordering on dangerous. At least he’d lost some of that I’m going to kill you now edge.
“Who was it that told you to watch out for me?”
There was a pause as Darc seemed to process the question. Trey had to admit that it must seem like a strange question to ask right now, when they were about to go off to rescue Mala, who was still only a few hours post-op.
“It was Commissioner Laurent.”
The information felt like an icy bath, shocking Trey into silence for a moment. Then he got control of himself enough to speak.
“Captain Merle passed on information to me that he said came from Laurent,” he confessed, his voice shaking in spite of his best efforts to calm it. “He told me I should be keeping an eye on…” Trey glanced at Janey and cleared his throat. “…Carly.”
Nothing changed on Darc’s face, but there was a distinct shift of energy in the air between them, like a static charge was building up. Trey held his breath, waiting for the discharge of all that pent up tension.
Then, without another word, Darc turned and raced toward the car once more. No words. No indication of whether or not their destination had changed.
But Trey knew one thing. Someone was about to suffer the full brunt of Darc’s wrath.
And that someone just might not survive the encounter.
CHAPTER 13
Now the chase began in earnest. Everything was finally falling into place.
Darc and Trey with the girl, trapped in a funhouse of terrors, trying to figure out a puzzle that was a dead end. The half-sister, still lingering around the maternity wing of the hospital, taking care of Maggie.
Mala was not yet dead. That was true. But the Servant had plans where the doctor was concerned. She would not be an issue much longer. Not unless the Master chose to step in once more.
The praise that would be heaped upon the Servant’s head was beyond measure. But that was not the motivation. Well, not all of it.
The world would change. It would have to.
This final piece of the plan, the part of the path forward that no one would expect, would bring Seattle and its corruption onto the world stage. No one would be able to look away as the city burned, the wicked writing in the pain caused by their guilt.
Strange, that it had taken something intensely personal to cause the Servant to come over to the Master’s way of thinking. But that experience had been one that would carry forward into the destruction of the entire city.
No one would escape the cleansing. None of the guilty, at least.
Yes, innocents would die. And for that the Servant was truly sorrowful. But greater sacrifices had been made for less worthy causes. Those innocents would not stay innocent long with the filth that was allowed to walk free on the streets of the city every single day. The thought of it was sickening.
But now it was time to focus. Just a little more… and then the mask could come off and the Servant could reveal what lay behind.
Just a little more.
* * *
DSHS. Janey looked at the ugly building that she hated so much. It had never been a good place, as far as she was concerned. But now she had even more reason to never want to come back.
Mala was not here.
And the thing that scared Janey the most? Popeye had stopped complaining. For once, he was silent.
Popeye loved Mala. Was in love with her. That he wasn’t saying anything was somehow terrible to her.
After they had combed through the entire building, Trey asking questions that sounded more and more frantic by the moment of the staff who were there, it had become clear that no one had seen her. The only one who seemed unsurprised was Darc.
He knew something, but so far hadn’t said anything. She stared up at him, her eyes asking the question.
Finally, he nodded. “She is not here. I did not think she would be.”
“Dude, what the freak?” Trey demanded. “Then why did you let me run around like a chicken with its head cut off?”
“It was necessary to make sure,” Darc responded, his expression softer than Janey was used to seeing it. “The message came from Mala. She was here.”
“But then…” Trey began, but Darc raised a hand.
“We need to find Laurent,” he stated.
But Janey noticed something about the way Darc spoke about the Commissioner. There didn’t seem to be any anger there. When Trey had mentioned Laurent as the man who had warned him about Carly, Janey had seen a flash of determination in the bald detective’s eyes. But no rage.
And the bands of color in her mind didn’t point to Laurent. They should have. But they didn’t.
Janey wasn’t positive what was happening. But she knew that Darc was in control of the situation now.
That was enough for her.
* * *
The Land Rover screeched up to the central office of the Seattle PD, and Darc was out of the car before his partner could say a word. Even with as fast as he was, Janey somehow managed to get out of the vehicle and keep up with him.
The strand of logic hummed softly, their vibrations harmonic inside Darc’s mind. All the colors of his inner network, supported by posts built up of light and dark working side by side. The entire system, pointed right here.
This was not the final destination. It was the place they needed to be right now.
The person Darc sought was not difficult to find. Unnecessary to storm through the offices looking for him. The man happened to be coming out of the building. Headed directly toward Darc.
Before Darc had a chance to say anything, Trey darted past him, rushing straight at the man. In an instant, the Commissioner of the Seattle Police Department was on the ground, Trey’s arm pressed against his trachea.
For once, Darc was surprised. He knew Trey to be capable of this kind of action, but the ferocity with which the attack had been made spoke to his partner’s love for Mala.
Laurent struggled to push Trey off, but Darc’s partner shifted his weight, placing even more weight against the man’s windpipe.
The Commissioner choked, trying to reach his hands up to free himself, but Trey had done his work well. The man’s arms were pinned at his sides, and the hands slapped ineffectually against Trey’s midsection.
Darc stepped forward, placing a hand on his partner’s shoulder. Trey glanced back, his face hard.
“Don’t try to stop me, Darc. He knows where Mala is.”
“No,” Darc corrected him. “He does not.”
Confusion seemed to cause Trey’s face to go slack. He took his arm off Laurent’s neck, shifting his weight back on his knees.
Darc took Trey’s hand and helped him off the Commissioner. Laurent, for his part, stayed on the ground for a moment, rubbing his sore neck. Then, after a moment or two, he stood.
“Where is he?” Darc demanded.
A flicker of surprise seemed to appear in the man’s eyes. “I thought for certain you would be coming here for me, too.”
“Yeah,” came Trey’s sullen voice from behind Darc. “So did I.”
But Darc shook his head. “I knew you were not the one.”
&nbs
p; “Wait. What?” Trey asked as he came up on Darc’s right side. “What are you talking about?”
“There isn’t just one,” Laurent answered without ever taking his eyes off Darc. “You know that, right?”
“Of course,” Darc responded. “But there is one at the top. And there are only two options there. I ask again. Where is he?”
Laurent’s expression shifted. Darc watched, fascinated, as the supports made up of the silver links and the dark tendrils sorted out the information flowing from the Commissioner’s body.
Confusion. Anger. Shame.
Shame won out.
“I don’t know where he went,” the Commissioner finally admitted. “I had stayed with him for so long, tracking almost every move he made. But…”
“It does not matter,” Darc said. “It would have been easier this way, but it is not necessary.”
Laurent nodded. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“No. Stay here. If he arrives, contact me immediately.”
As Darc turned away, Trey grabbed his arm. “Dude, what the hell are you doing right now? We’re just giving him a bye? That guy lied to me. Said I should be looking out for Carly.”
The Commissioner stepped forward. “I’m sorry about that. I needed to keep up the ruse.”
“Ruse?” Trey asked. “Darc, do you have any idea what he’s talking about?”
“I do.”
Trey shook his head. “Of course you do. I don’t know why I even ask.”
Darc’s partner turned around, muttering to himself, as he walked back to the Land Rover and climbed into the driver’s seat. At Darc’s side, Janey looked up at him and gave him a smile. Then she slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze.
The message was clear.
It was time to go find the Master.
* * *
Mala sat in the passenger seat of Cat’s convertible Mustang, glad that for once her friend had opted for the sensible choice of going with the rooftop up. Seriously. Who drove a convertible in Seattle?
“So where is Darc?” Mala asked.
The 2nd Cycle of the Darc Murders Omnibus (the acclaimed series from #1 Police Procedural and Hard Boiled authors Carolyn McCray and Ben Hopkin) Page 65
