Don't Let Them Find You (The Dyian Series Book 1)

by Brandy Isaacs

  “I guess you read about that in the papers?”

  “It did say there was some mental health issues,” she said gently.

  The woman shook her head and brushed her hair away from her face. “Connor had some anxiety problems and when he was in school he acted out some. It wasn’t that bad.”

  “So, you don’t think he...hurt himself?”

  “No!” Elizabeth breathed. “I don’t. He was happy. He liked his job, he was having fun with his friends.”

  “Why was his behavior classified as erratic then?”

  “His friends said he had been very short tempered and seemed confused sometimes,” she woman sounded dismissive.

  Sydney glanced at Xander and he gave her a knowing look. “Was he violent with any of them?”

  “No!”

  “I’m sorry. I just have to ask.”

  Elizabeth nodded, sounding contrite. ” I know.”

  “Do you know if Connor attended the E4G conference last year in the city?”

  The woman was caught off guard. “Uh, yes, I think so. I don’t know what it was called but he went to some kind of gamer thing there last year.”

  Sydney’s heart flopped and she couldn’t look at Xander or they would both lose their cool. “Did he mention anything weird happening there?”

  “Weird?”

  “Did anyone give him any trouble?”

  “Not that I know of…” the woman brushed at her hair again.

  “Tasha Crowl also attended the convention but she had some trouble there. Did Connor mention anyone following him? Or giving him a hard time? Anyone that seemed like they wanted to hurt him?”

  “I don’t think so…” the woman was starting to get upset. Sydney’s questions were putting new, or renewing old, fears about her son’s safety in her imagination.

  “I don’t mean to upset you ma’am. I’m just trying to see if there are any connections between Tasha and Connor.”

  “Her poor family,” Elizabeth muttered.

  “Right. That’s why we are troubling you. We just want to help them. They hired us because they weren’t having much luck with the police either.”

  “Well, I don’t think I’m being much help.”

  “Of course you are. Did Connor live alone?”

  “No, he had a roommate.”

  “Who is the roommate?”

  “Amber.”

  Sydney remembered the girl from the picture. “Was she his girlfriend?”

  “No,” she woman smiled a little. “I never understood it, but he said they were just friends.”

  Sydney returned the smile. “Do you think she will mind talking to us?”

  “I don’t see why she would. She’s worried about him too.”

  “Can you give us the address?”

  “Sure. I’ll write it down for you.” Elizabeth stood and left the room.

  Sydney and Xander looked at each other. “So, he was at the convention,” she stated.

  Xander nodded but before he could say anything the woman returned.

  “Here you go,” she held out a piece of paper. “I’ll give her a call and let her know you’ll be stopping by.”

  “Thank you,” Sydney took the piece of paper. “We appreciate all your help.”

  “What makes you think Connor’s disappearance is connected to this other girls?”

  “They were about the same age and disappeared about the same time. They also both worked in the same industry.” Sydney didn’t see any point in lying. Besides, maybe the woman would pass along the information to the police handling her son’s case. Maybe it would lead to some good.

  The woman showed them to the door. “Please, if you find anything you’ll let me know won’t you? I don’t have much money, but I can find some...for your services.”

  “Of course,” Sydney brushed off the woman’s offer of money. “We’ll let you know if we find any new information.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Connor’s apartment was on the north end of Chicago and Sydney and Xander had to park several blocks away. The neighborhood was by no means fancy, but it didn’t feel dangerous either. That didn’t stop Sydney from searching the shadows expecting to see Short Man lurking, waiting to jump out at them both. As her paranoia increased, so did her headache. She winced but did her best to not let Xander see it. At the building, he buzzed the third floor and they didn’t have to wait long before a young woman answered. “Hello?”

  “We’re here to see Amber. We just spoke with Mrs. Duggins.” Xander answered and Sydney raised a brow at his taking the lead and he shrugged. There was a loud buzz and click as the door was unlocked remotely.

  Their footsteps echoed as they climbed the three flights of stairs. “Let me do the talking this time,” Xander spoke softly so his voice wouldn’t carry.

  “Why?”

  “I know her type,” he smirked. “She will like me better than you.”

  Syd scowled at him as she tried to work out what he was implying. “You only saw a picture of her.”

  “That’s all I needed,” he smirked.

  Amber was waiting for them in the doorway as they made it to the landing. “Hi,” Xander gave her a thousand watt smile. When he held out his hand to shake, Sydney didn’t miss the fact that he let his sleeve draw back enough that his tattoos showed. Amber noticed too and didn’t even glance her way as she returned his smile and shook his hand.

  Xander gave her the same spiel that Sydney had given Mrs. Duggins and Amber looked appropriately concerned and worried about her friend. She let them into the small apartment and offered them a seat. “Thank you for seeing us,” Xander grinned at her.

  “Oh, you’re welcome! I want to help however I can.”

  “Were you the first to notice that Connor was missing?”

  Sydney had to grit her teeth to keep her smile in place and stay silent. She wanted to say it was because she eager to get answers to their questions, but she suspected it had even more to do with just how friendly Xander was being. He sure can put on the charm.

  “I was. He’s always home by six, but the day he went missing he never came home.”

  “He couldn’t have just met up with friends?”

  Amber gave a half smile. “Connor didn’t have a lot of friends. Most of the people he hung out with he knew through me, and they didn’t really make plans without me.”

  Of course not, Sydney huffed silently. She distracted herself by looking around the apartment. There were lots of pictures on the wall and Amber was in almost all of them. “When did you know something was wrong?” he asked.

  “About eight I started getting worried. I kept trying to call him and didn’t get an answer.”

  “When did you alert the police?”

  “That was Elizabeth. I called her the next morning to let her know Connor didn’t come home and I couldn’t reach him. So she called the police.”

  “Did the police search his room?”

  “Not really,” she shrugged. “They still aren’t convinced he didn’t just run off.”

  “What was Connor’s behavior like before he disappeared?”

  Amber’s pretty face scrunched. “Really weird actually.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, Connor was usually the nicest person you’d ever meet. But about a month, maybe, before he disappeared he started getting really hateful and snappy. He was sleeping a lot and acting really paranoid. He also kept eating all the food in the house,” she giggled.

  “Anything else?”

  “Uh, yeah, he complained of headaches a lot and he kept forgetting things like passwords and plans and he forgot to pay some bills, which wasn’t like him.”

  “What about nosebleeds?” Xander asked her.

  “Uh, I don’t know. He could have and I wouldn’t necessarily know.”

  “Of course,” he grinned at her as if they were sharing a secret. “What do you think was going on?”

  “I really don’t know,” a genuine look of conce
rn crossed Amber’s features. As much as Sydney would have bet against it, she seemed to have really cared about Connor. “He had never really been into drugs before, but I started wondering if that was the case.”

  “Sure,” Xander nodded. “And, just to clarify, he didn’t have a girlfriend?”

  “No,” she giggled again. “I think he always kind of had a crush on me, but we’ve always just been good friends—since college. We met in Chemistry 101. I would never have passed if he hadn’t helped me,” her voice drifted off displaying just how much Amber really was sad over her friend.

  Sydney sighed. Dislikable or not, the girl was actually upset.

  Xander asked another question. “Did Connor ever bring work home with him?”

  “Ah, sometimes,” she offered. “I don’t know how often. He was in his room all the time either playing video games or working.”

  “Is there any way we can look in his room?”

  “Don’t you have to have a warrant for that?” she teased.

  “If we were the police,” Xander grinned slyly. “We are just private investigators—relying on your generosity and kindness,” he winked.

  Amber giggled. “I’m just giving you a hard time. If you think it can help, feel free.” She waved her hand towards the hallway. “His is the first door on the left.”

  “Amy,” Xander turned to Sydney. “Why don’t you go take a look? I have a few more questions for Amber.”

  Sydney tried her best to not shoot daggers at him with her eyes. “Sure,” she grinned through clenched teeth.

  It took a lot of willpower to leave Xander and Amber alone while she went to Connor’s bedroom. She knew that he was just giving her a chance to look at Connor’s stuff without Amber in the way, but it didn’t ease her annoyance.

  Connor’s bedroom was small but clean. She assumed that the police had looked around here, but they probably weren’t looking for the same things she was. She went to his desk first. Looking through papers she didn’t see much that caught her attention. Gamer magazines and a stub from the E4G convention. The rest all seemed to be normal desk type stuff—paper, pens, and random paper clips.

  Sydney turned her attention to his laptop, glad that it was still here and not where ever Connor was. She opened it, crossing her fingers that it wasn’t password protected. She felt like cheering when the home screen loaded without requiring a password. She opened the link to his files and scrolled through. Lots of stuff that looked like it was for classwork or for his job. She was beginning to feel frustrated and the giggling and chuckling she heard from the living room wasn’t helping.

  She opened his recently downloaded documents and finally stuck gold. The top three files caused the hair on her arms to stand on end. They were pdf downloads from scientific journals. That in itself was odd—why was a technical writer and gamer downloading science articles? She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of his screen before opening the first article. While it was strange that he had science journals—the weirdest part was the subject of the articles. Sydney’s heart slammed against her ribs. She wasn’t able to read much of any of them, but all three were about different parasites that affect the brain.

  She was finding it hard to breathe but she made herself continue by shutting down the primal part of herself that was starting to panic. She found his internet history and snapped a picture of it as well. A part of her registered the fact that his most recently visited sites were similar to the articles, but she refused to think about it. She was on survival mode. Document and record but don’t process it. Leave it alone for now. She took a deep breath and shut the computer as she heard footsteps coming towards the bedroom.

  Amber appeared in the doorway with Xander right behind her. “Did you find anything?” she asked.

  Sydney licked her lips and tried to work up enough saliva to speak. “Oh, I’m not sure. I made some notes but it’s hard to say what will end up being important later.”

  “All done?” Xander asked her.

  “Yes.”

  She stood and braced herself with the chair. “Thank you so much for your time,” her voice sounded hollow and breathless even to her.

  “No problem,” Amber glanced over her shoulder at Xander but he wasn’t paying attention. He was staring at Sydney.

  “We will keep you posted if we hear anything,” he assured Amber as she led them to the door.

  “Thank you. Talk to you later,” she called after them.

  Sydney couldn’t get a good breath as they hurried down the steps. Her legs felt like rubber and she knew she was on the verge of hyperventilating. “What happened?” Xander hissed. As they exited the building Xander tossed a piece of paper in the trash and placed his hand on her back. “Are you OK?”

  “No.”

  “What did you find?”

  “Let’s get to the truck first.”

  “Alright.”

  Once they were inside Xander turned to look at her. “OK, spill.”

  In a surprisingly calm voice, Sydney told him about the articles and websites she found on Connor’s computer. She even showed him the pictures on her phone. “Shit,” he whispered.

  “Shit? Shit? That’s all you have to say? Shit doesn’t quite cover it. I might have some kind of fucking parasite in my head.”

  “But how would it have gotten there? And what kind of parasite would make you have the same dream as other people?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Whoa! Calm down. There’s no sense in panicking. Connor could have been way off base. He could have just been guessing. Like we did, remember? We even guessed witches and curses.”

  Sydney took a deep breath through her nose and blew it out through her mouth. Xander had his hands on either side of her face. “You’re right,” she nodded, or at least tried to despite the firm grip he had on her cheeks. “But, fuck! What if you’re not?”

  “No, no! Come back. Just breathe.”

  “What the hell would you be doing if you possibly had a parasite in your brain?!”

  “Hell, for all we know I do. Maybe it only affects some people. Or just hasn’t affected me yet. There is nothing to be gained by freaking out.”

  “Right. OK. Yeah.” More deep breaths. “OK. I’m going to be OK.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Xander nodded reassuringly before starting the truck and pulled away from the curb, glancing at her a few times to make sure she wasn’t going to flip out again.

  “What did you throw away?”

  “When?”

  “You know when.”

  “Yeah...Amber gave me her phone number,” he chuckled. Sydney narrowed her eyes at him. “I threw it away!”

  “Mmmhmmm.”

  “Oh, are you jealous?”

  “Shut up.” Xander continued to laugh and Sydney tried hard to not add this to their tally, trying her best to keep her word to Xander.

  Sydney sighed with relief once they were back at his garage. She didn’t know why but she had continued to feel paranoid and unsettled. Leaving Connor’s neighborhood hadn’t changed anything. Her head began throbbing harder and she could swear she was seeing shadows darting towards the truck.

  “What’s wrong?” Xander asked parking inside the shop bay.

  Sydney didn’t bother lying, by omission or otherwise. “My head’s hurting again. And my vision is weird.”

  “Weird how?”

  “I just keep seeing black shapes from the corner of my eye.”

  Xander circled the truck to look into her eyes, “Your pupils are all pinned out right now.”

  “Dammit.”

  When the shadow moved towards them, Sydney thought it was more hallucinations, until Xander saw it too. A man was running at them from behind the truck—it wasn’t Short Man—but Sydney recognized him from his pictures. It was Connor Duggins.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Sydney was too shocked to react, but Xander recovered quickly enough to step into Conn
or’s path and block him from ramming her. And it was obvious that Connor was coming for Sydney, he never took his snarling gaze from her even as Xander wrestled with him. The two men locked their arms around each other like angry dancers. Xander was taller, but Connor despite apparently wandering the streets for weeks, was heavier and softer from the hours he spent at a desk and computer.

  Sydney wasn’t sure what to do, but she knew trying to get in between them would be a very bad idea. She briefly considered calling the police but knew that wasn’t a better solution. “Connor,” she yelled. His only response was to howl and try even harder to get to her. “Stop!” she pleaded with him. She wanted to help him but he seemed beyond reason.

  Xander managed to wrap his arms around Connor’s and lifted him, twisting in the air like Sydney had seen wrestlers do on TV. She gasped as Connor hit the ground in a bone jarring body slam. He was stunned and his bloodshot eyes stared, unfixed, at the ceiling as Xander climbed off him. He didn’t get far though, before the man on the ground stirred. He rolled towards Xander and wrapped his arms around his lower leg. Jerking hard, he tried to dislodge the crazy man’s grip. When Connor didn’t let go, Xander reluctantly drew his fist back and punched him in the jaw.

  Sydney heard the crack and winced as Connor landed face first on the floor of the garage. “Holy shit,” she panted.

  Xander flexed his hand, “That’s Connor isn’t it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What the hell…”

  “Let’s tie him up?” she decided. Xander looked at her in surprise. “Maybe we can get some answers. It’s not like we can call the cops.”

  A part of Syd expected the guy to be out for an indefinite amount of time, like in the movies. Turns out, it doesn’t really work that way in real-life. By the time she retrieved a chain from a work bench, Conner was already coming to. They barely had time to drag him to a metal support beam before he was struggling against them. It took both of them to secure his wrists behind the pillar.