Mender (The Ashport Mender Series Book 2)

by G. K. Lund

  “Seems I was mistaken when I thought you were investigating her,” Larkin finally said, looking at Hansen.

  “No, you weren’t,” he answered.

  “What did you find out then?”

  “She’s not guilty of what I suspected,” Hansen said, not looking at me. Interesting way of putting it, I thought.

  Larkin smiled a smile I didn’t like. Knowing and condescending.

  “And what did—” he began, but I was tired of them both now.

  “I’m right here, you know. Unless you want me to leave so you can speak for me?”

  Larkin only smiled wider. “You’re as pleasant as your file indicated, Ms. Evans,” he said.

  “Yes, well, the last agent sent after me was also a fucking asshole. I don’t like those.”

  “That agent was to persuade with words first…and I am not that agent,” Larkin said. There was no shame to trace in him. I was not surprised. He’d attacked first and was now talking. No, he was sent to take me in. Make sure they didn’t lose sight of me like last time.

  “It’s been five years since we lost track of you. Not one person suspected of knowing you in Seattle said a word. Admirable in its way, I suppose…”

  Hansen tensed beside me. He had not known this.

  “How did you find me this time?” I had begun to think I was safe in Ashport during the last couple of years. It had been five years altogether with no agents coming for me.

  Larkin shrugged. “Yorov.”

  I nodded. They had found me somehow, and the FBI had gotten knowledge of this. Whether they had spies or they had intercepted some information, well, it didn’t matter to me. They had found me. The damage was done.

  “So you know Yorov has taken Ms. Kirby?” Hansen asked Larkin.

  The agent nodded and then gave Hansen an astonished look. “Yes. I’m surprised you do. Your colleagues don’t.” His eyes swerved back to me. “You told him. Huh…I understand that you people are notoriously hard to get information from.”

  I didn’t answer him. I realized it kind of proved his point, but what was there to say?

  “And you’re here under the pretense of investigating a kidnapping and you’re not doing anything?” Hansen continued.

  Larkin shrugged. “This is more important,” he said, sounding like they were disagreeing on football teams.

  His words made an impact, though. We had seen Andrea. Seen how terrified she was. Hansen, who’d been resting his hands on his thighs, clenched his fists at this. The skin turned white before he got himself under control and forcibly relaxed his hands.

  “What’s she wanted for?” he asked Larkin, indicating me with a sideways tip of his head.

  I snorted at this. “Nothing. Not a damn thing.”

  Larkin nodded. “That’s true. My superior wants her under control, though. Do you know what she can do?”

  Hansen nodded but said nothing.

  “Well, imagine her working for the wrong side. Imagine what she could bring to the table for us.”

  “You could find out about a lot of crimes before they happened,” Hansen said so matter-of-factly it gave me shivers. “Of course,” he continued, “that would expose her to the wrong side, as you put it, as well as other…interested parties.”

  Yeah, not something I wanted. Not in the least.

  Larkin looked at me. I realized he wasn’t afraid of me listening in. He was convinced he was right. He had nothing to hide in that regard. “Sometimes personal wishes can’t outweigh duty,” he told me. I knew this was his asking me in a reasonable way to go with him. He’d tried forcing me with him twice, and that had failed.

  “I know that,” I said. I meant it. Did I not set aside personal wishes all the time? Did I not have to leave a place where I wanted to stay in order to protect both myself and my Community? All because of people like him.

  “Enough of this,” Hansen said and stood up. “You have no reason to arrest her, so we’re going to walk out of here now.” As on cue, I got up as well. “And you are going to do nothing about it.”

  Larkin didn’t move. “I can make trouble for you,” he said and added, “both.”

  “How? The way I see it, you’ve tried to kidnap her twice now. Who do you think my colleagues and friends are going to believe?”

  “Well, you’re not trying to arrest me, either, so it seems neither of us has any warrants or…evidence.”

  Hansen actually smiled at that, though I knew him well enough by now to know he had to be boiling on the inside. “In that case,” he said. “Buckets of putrid chicken will do.”

  The agent’s eyes widened a little before he nodded. “That was you.” It was not a question.

  “Yep,” I said. “That surprised the hell out of me, too, but now that I’ve seen you properly I totally get it.”

  Larkin sighed, making me think of a disappointed teacher. “Allegiance is an important thing, Ms. Evans. It can make your life easier or very, very difficult.”

  “My allegiances lie somewhere else I’m afraid, Agent Larkin,” I said and quickly headed out of the room, Hansen following me.

  Turned out he was right. The suit did not come running after us. What could he do in the station without anyone asking questions? It was not lost on me, though, that Detective Hansen once again disassembled his phone as we left the station as quick as we could.

  Chapter 15

  “Seattle, huh?” Hansen said as the kids were getting on the school buses. It was the first thing he had said since we left the police station. At that point, I would have welcomed awkward silence, but that had not been the case. No, he was angry, and it was directed at me.

  “What can I say?” I turned the car engine on. “I like the ferries.”

  “Could you just, for once—”

  A knock on the window next to his head cut him short.

  “Sometimes you have the best luck in timing, don’t you?” he said as he lowered the window.

  A blonde woman, around forty, dressed in a dark blue trench coat with a beige bag on her shoulder, peered in through the window past Hansen as she looked straight at me.

  “Are you Maggie?” she said with a worried voice.

  I nodded, not quite able to hide my confusion.

  “I’m Amy Boudreau, Eloise’s mother. Annalise called me.”

  I nodded again, a little relieved. “Get in,” I said. The buses were almost full. We couldn’t risk being stuck by the school talking to her.

  Her getting in, however, involved Hansen getting out so she could climb into the backseat, via the same door.

  “I’m starting to hate this tiny matchbox,” he said as he got back in.

  “Really?” I said, patting the dashboard for show. “I’m liking it more and more.”

  “Are you an affiliate?” Amy asked Hansen.

  He scoffed at the question, then seemed to remember that he wasn’t mad at this woman.

  “No,” he answered, as he looked back at her. “My name’s Nate. I’m here to help.”

  Amy nodded, likely too worried about her daughter to consider a non-affiliate with knowledge of the Community, let alone her family. I noticed then that he’d hidden his badge again somewhere between here and the station. Smart. He was learning.

  “Okay,” she said and then pointed at one of the buses that were leaving. “She’s on that one.”

  I started driving. I knew very well which bus her daughter was on. I wasn’t losing sight of that kid.

  “When we get home,” Amy began and scooted over to the middle seat so she could better hear and talk to us, “please don’t scare her with this, okay?”

  “We’ll try not to,” I said. I got why she wanted her kid to take the bus home like any other day. No need to scare her unnecessarily. “What can you tell me about her ability?” I added. I was actually glad Annalise had called her. It had been enough for Amy to wait for us at home. But to not have to explain myself always saved time. I got why she’d come to the school, though. This was about her
child, after all.

  “She’s doing very well,” Amy told us. “I’ve been teaching her. We started early and she’s getting better at controlling it.”

  “You have the same ability?” Hansen asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You can plant images in people’s heads?”

  “Give me your hand,” she told him.

  “What?”

  “Do what she says,” I said, taking a right as the bus in front of us headed in that direction.

  Hansen obliged our passenger and raised his left hand for her. As she grabbed it, it didn’t take long for him to snatch it back.

  “Holy shit,” he cried out, looking like he was trying to move out through the closed car door.

  “What did you see?” I asked. It was clear to me Amy did it by touch, not eye contact. Hansen looked at Amy with awe more than horror as the initial shock gave way.

  “What did you show him?” I asked Amy instead. She was more relaxed about it, telling me how he’d seen her swing a knife straight into his neck, blood spurting all over the car. Apparently, when she did this, the person experiencing it couldn’t distinguish it from reality.

  “Glad you didn’t do it to me then,” I said when she’d finished explaining, “I’d have driven us off the road.”

  “Yeah,” Amy said. “I can give off quite a fright. Give me your hand again,” she added to Hansen. From what I could see out the corner of my eye she got a fool me once kind of look.

  “No, seriously, come on,” she pressed. Hansen, reluctantly, did as she said. This time, though, he didn’t react like he was about to be killed. Instead, he sat still, closing his eyes a moment.

  “Why did you do that?” he asked when she let him go.

  “Do what?” I asked and started to regret being the one driving. I wasn’t getting much from glancing away from the road now and then.

  Amy didn’t answer me. “When you do what I do,” she told Hansen, “it pays to take note of people.”

  He didn’t say anything at first. Didn’t seem angry, happy, embarrassed, surprised, terrified–only thoughtful. “This makes you a target, too, doesn’t it?” he asked. Sometimes I wondered how his brain worked. Whatever she’d shown him didn’t sidetrack him. I had a sudden urge to listen in at this point. To both of them.

  Try to be a decent person, will you?

  I couldn’t help scolding myself. It was a slippery slope if I started listening here and there. Soon the boundaries would become blurry. I knew that from experience.

  “She’s not a target,” I said, stopping the car as the bus did the same further ahead. “If that was the case, Annalise would have told me.”

  I saw Amy nodding her agreement in the rearview mirror. “That’s true,” she said. “I’ve known Annalise for years. From what she told me, I’m not who this guy’s after.”

  “But…with what you can do?” Hansen protested.

  “I can only transfer images for...fifteen seconds? No more. That’s certainly not enough to kill someone. Eloise, though…she can do it for a prolonged amount of time.”

  “How long?” I asked.

  Amy sat back in the seat. “Hours. Don’t really know how long. She’s never grown tired.”

  That shut both me and Hansen up. This kid had the potential of torturing people if she so chose. No wonder her mother had started training her at a young age.

  We followed the school bus all the way to the Boudreau home, a nice little blue house on the outskirts of town. We watched as Eloise exited the bus and went into the house. After that, we parked in the driveway and entered ourselves.

  It was a nice house. Lovely, actually. With its warm, yet light colors, tidy décor, photos, children’s toys and drawings all around, it practically screamed family home at any who entered.

  Eloise herself looked like the epitome of innocence up close. This smiling little girl with her pigtails that got a little shy as she noticed two strangers as well as her mother in the house.

  “Do you work with Mama?” she asked us after establishing that her mother hadn’t been home as usual because she’d gotten a ride with us.

  “Yes,” I lied, thinking that was a better explanation than the real reason for us being there.

  “How many have you sold in the last month?” Eloise asked, quite serious.

  It dawned on me I had no idea what Amy did for a living. Before I could make a fool of myself, though, she luckily stepped in.

  “They’re part-time realtors, Elo. And it’s rude to be nosy,” she told her daughter.

  “Sorry,” Eloise told me, looking down at the floor.

  “It’s okay, kid,” I said, getting distracted as Amy took her trench coat off. A definite baby-bump made it clear Eloise would not be an only child for more than a few months.

  “How far along are you?” I asked moments later after Amy had told her daughter to stay where she could be seen. We followed her into the kitchen where she gave us the offer of waiting for dinner or heating up leftover Chinese food. Lack of sleep and little food in the last twenty-four hours made us go for the latter. I had no shame in accepting food and drink from affiliates I was helping. If I didn’t, I would have starved ages ago. It was one of the few things I was allowed to accept in terms of favors. So, we ate kung pao chicken while Eloise remained in the living room, drawing or doing homework on the table. I couldn’t quite tell.

  Her mother was twenty-two weeks along. Apparently, they’d never had more children because of Eloise’s difficulties. That wasn’t unheard of among affiliates with the more dangerous abilities. Now, with her daughter doing all right, and Amy’s age, it had been the last chance for one more. Her husband, who worked in Ashdale, was only an affiliate by marriage. Chances were that the new baby would end up with the same ability. Or perhaps not. Maybe it would be weaker. Hopefully not stronger than its sister. One could never know in advance.

  “I don’t understand why this man is targeting my daughter,” Amy said, watching Eloise go into the backyard. We could see her all the time through the large windows connecting the outside garden with the living room as well as the kitchen. The kid had a cage with a black rabbit in it. I saw her picking dandelion leaves and feeding the little animal through the chicken wire. For a moment, as I watched her do this, it was very hard indeed to answer Amy’s question. It didn’t seem personal, though. This man was going after affiliates who could be threats to others. So far, there had been no indications they had ever done anything wrong in that manner.

  “I understand that,” Amy said after I explained, holding her hands around a cup of lemon tea as she leaned back against the kitchen counter. “But Eloise is at least ten years younger than the others. How does he even know about her? It’s not like she’s been spending time with them.”

  I nodded and then shrugged. “Don’t know that yet. It has to be connected to this guy’s ability, though.”

  “How so?” Hansen asked, chewing around a piece of chicken.

  “Not like any of them have been announcing what they can do, is it?”

  “Unless it’s a local who knows about them?” Amy asked.

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “Surely Gerard, Annalise, or any of the other seniors would know. They would have told me.”

  “Seniors?” Hansen asked.

  “Not now.”

  “Okay,” Amy said, putting her teacup down. “So how do we go about this?”

  “I say we make it easy for him to break into the house when he comes.”

  “And you’re sure he will?”

  “Not a hundred percent, but pretty sure, yeah. We know his M.O., so we use the darkness to our advantage.”

  “The best thing would be for you and your daughter to go to bed early. That way we can lure him into the house quicker,” Hansen chimed in. “He’s bound to be staking out the house for some time before he comes in.”

  I could see Amy shiver at our words, but she kept it together.

  “He won’t come near Eloise,” I said
and hoped I sounded reassuring. “We won’t let him.”

  “Never mind that,” Hansen suddenly contradicted me. I turned to correct him, an unhappy temper building up in me, as I saw him leave the kitchen at a run.

  I blinked once. Saw the takeaway box he’d eaten from fall to the floor as his hand dropped it, food and chopsticks spreading out on the tiles as I heard his footsteps vanish into the living room. Heard Amy’s sharp intake of breath as I turned my eyes to the little girl in the lovely garden, and saw her blissfully ignorant while feeding her little bunny. A man wearing a ski mask came climbing over the fence. In broad daylight.

  I remember shouting something, but not what, as I started running myself. Through the living room, through the sliding doors that led outside. I saw Hansen ahead of me as he ran to intercept the masked man, who was headed straight for the oblivious girl. Saw the detective reach for his gun as he ran, then luckily discarding the weapon. Not like he could look at the attacker and not fall victim to the man’s ability. Saw that the masked man was bigger than me. Depending on his skill, he could be hard to subdue. I was already in pain from my last violent interaction. I noticed all of this in the few seconds it took me to reach them. Saw the masked man grab Eloise by the shoulder, heard her scream at the sight of the black mask in her face. Saw Hansen go for the simplest solution as he came as a surprise to the masked man. I could see the man’s eyes widen as the large detective simply ran into him, pulling him with him as they both slammed into the ground a few feet away from Eloise. Grass and dirt flew around them, and I heard the masked man cry out in pain as he crashed, Hansen slamming into him at the same time. The detective had both height and weight on him.

  I ran past the girl, prioritizing as I went. The masked man needed to be restrained first before we all fell victim to him.

  I reached the two men and saw the struggle. Saw Hansen be overpowered as he kept his eyes closed, fighting blindly and viciously on the ground. I didn’t stop to watch, though. As the masked man started getting to his knees, I ripped my jacket off and jumped onto his back. I threw it over his head and pulled it back, like I was reining in a horse. The man shouted something, but I couldn’t understand. Didn’t care, either. I clamped my legs around his waist and hung on for dear life as he started fighting me, trying to get hold of me. He managed to grab my hair, making me cry out in pain as he pulled at it. I didn’t let go, though. Knew that if I did, he would be able to see. To entrap us all, if he wanted. I pulled hard on my jacket as he grabbed it with his free hand. It was pulled too tight for him to rip it off. I felt myself falling backward, taking him with me. He hit at my legs with desperation now, trying to get free from my hold on him. The subdued thumping noise seemed to reach me seconds after the blows.