“Hold it right there!” Jack shouted, and he dashed across the street. But the man didn’t wait for him. He looked startled, his smile slipped, and his dark eyes hardened.
“Now that’s unexpected,” he said, and he ran away.
He ran like a bead of mercury shooting across the floor. Jack thought he could keep up, but didn’t want to leave his friends behind. Slowing down, he let the man vanish around a corner. He didn’t want time to snap back yet, so he hurried. He ran back to Brianna’s side as she stood, frozen, her hand out towards the front door of the restaurant. He’d just seen the Heart Taker, and Jack knew they were in trouble.
“What did he look like?” Brianna asked, once their food came and he’d told them what had happened.
“He was tall, but I couldn’t get a good look at him. He might be Native American, or part Native American, but it was hard to tell. He just glanced at me, and then he ran off.” Jack put his fork down and leaned over the table. “He had tan skin and wore jeans and sneakers, I think, and a brown tweed jacket over a navy blue shirt. His hair was very short, in a buzz-cut, and either black or dark brown I think. It was hard to tell. I never got close to him. He looked like a demon, though, and his eyes are very dark, almost black.”
“He’s not a demon, he’s a mutant.” Mamie Hoya opened her purse and took out a credit card. “No, I’m getting this,” she said to Brianna, who had also reached for her purse. “Jack, do you think you can move as quickly as he does?”
“I’m not sure.” Jack had wondered about that himself. “But one thing I do know. The Heart Taker didn’t expect me to be able to move so fast. I think that now he’ll be careful about what he does.”
“Do you think he’s following Brianna around?” Mamie Hoya sounded upset.
“I’m not afraid. Now we know that if he moves quickly, he’ll switch on your motion sensor and you’ll see him.” Brianna gave him a rather crooked grin. “So let’s not worry about it, all right?”
Jack wasn’t sure he shared her confidence. But he was glad of one thing. The Heart Taker could not go unnoticed by him. Mr. Ling-Li had gotten something right, after all.
****
Late that afternoon, Jeffrey came over to Brianna’s apartment with the results of the fingerprints and the handcuffs. Jack, who was hiding in Brianna’s bedroom, could see a little bit through a crack in the partially opened door and hear every word. There was something oddly familiar about Jeffrey. Jack looked carefully. His hair was very short, and black, and he was tall and looked like a Native American. But his eyes were kind, not demonic, and he wasn’t wearing a brown jacket or jeans. He wore his regulation police uniform and had a black holster strapped around his shoulder. No, he couldn’t be the Heart Taker.
Jack concentrated on his words.
“The fingerprints belong to your ex-boyfriend,” Jeffrey said, handing a sheaf of paper to Brianna. “And here is a report on the latest homicides.”
So his prints were still linked to his identity. Jack didn’t know if that would help or hinder, although he suspected it would prove to be more of a problem than anything else. Jeffrey’s next words confirmed this.
“Where did you get the prints from, Brianna?”
She had been busy scanning the papers and looked blankly at him for a minute. “He was my boyfriend,” she said.
“He’s dead.” Jeffrey didn’t believe in mincing words.
“Why ask then?”
“Because of the papers you’re holding in your hands. They give the statistics for all the murders in this city. As you can see, they are climbing alarmingly. Most of the crimes are pretty gruesome. In fact, if you are paying attention to details, most are horribly gruesome and are either the work of mutants or copycat killers.”
“I noticed.” Brianna put the papers down and leaned back on the couch. She was facing Jack, so he could see her expression. It was strained. “I also see that there are quite a few registered mutants on the list. Do you know if they had criminal records or not?”
“Some of them did, yes.” Jeffrey leaned back too. He was sitting in the wing chair with his back to Jack, so his expression was hidden. “Mutants are required to register; you know that. As soon as one is born in the hospital, the baby is put on a list. That list is growing longer every year. But we think some mutants are not born. They are made.”
Brianna’s eyes never wavered. She stared at Jeffrey. “So you’re saying that maybe the Heart Taker made another mutant like himself. But on the list I don’t see any mention of murder victims with their hearts torn out that weren’t attributed to the Heart Taker. Those murders have all been accounted for.”
Jeffrey rubbed his temples with both hands. “I know. I’m not assuming anything. It’s just a hunch. A niggling little voice in my head that tells me that there is something about the Heart Taker we’ve missed. Something important. Since it all started with your boyfriend and now you show up with his prints as pristine as if he’d just done them this morning ... I just wondered, that’s all.”
“I know. You’re a good cop, Jeffrey. You put things together and get the right answers. But this time it’s just me being paranoid. I’m sure the Heart Taker was at the casino yesterday.”
“I’m still talking about the prints.”
Brianna shrugged. “The prints are old. I took them last year when we started to go out and I had them in my drawer. I’d just forgotten whose they were. My boyfriend is dead and buried.”
Jeffrey leaned forward. “Well, not exactly,” he said.
Jack felt his head spin. A premonition of danger swept over him. He felt a chill run up his arm. Then he looked over and saw Sally was leaning against him, her head resting on his shoulder.
“What do you mean?” Brianna’s composure slipped and her voice cracked.
Jeffrey leaned even further and took her hands in his. “We don’t know what happened. Some joker dug up his grave and stole his body.” He gave a shudder. “A year-old stiff. It must have been ghastly.”
“Has this ... has this happened before?” Brianna pulled her hands free and crossed her arms over her chest.
“A few times. Usually to famous people, famous murder victims, like your Jack Severn, or even famous murderers. Most graves are empty now, their contents moved to other sites so that they can rest in peace.”
“Oh God.” Brianna stood up and started to pace. “I’m not going to think about it. Can we change the subject? My client will be glad to see the statistics. He’s been saying that mutants have been multiplying at a frightening rate.”
Jack turned to Sally and raised his eyebrows. She nodded. Her hand on his arm felt like a block of ice.
“Your client is right. But what we don’t want is people to start panicking and start blind vendettas. Most mutants are registered and live quiet, unassuming lives. The law protects them as well as normal humans.” Jeffrey stood up and stretched. “I have to get going. My wife will wonder where I am.”
“How is she doing?”
“Fine.” Jeffrey said, but Jack detected a strange note in his voice.
Brianna stood up too, and Jack noticed she stayed away from Jeffrey. She went to the front door and held it open. “Thanks for coming over. I’m glad you believed me about the Heart Taker.”
“We’ll have extra agents at the casino, but as you know, there’s not much we can do. I called the manager and suggested he close until after Halloween. He didn’t agree. It seems he weighed a murder against the profits the casino rakes in every night and decided the profits were worth more than a human life.” He sounded disgusted.
“I’m sorry. It must be frustrating working with people like that. But at least you tried.”
“Yeah. Well, I’ll be glad when this season is over.” He paused in the doorway and said, “Take care of yourself. Be extra careful for a while. At least until after Halloween.”
Brianna patted his shoulder. “Trick or treat,” she said lightly. But her eyes were somber.
When the door
closed, Jack came out of his hiding place. “What was that about his wife?” he asked.
“She’s got a wasting sickness, something to do with her heart. She’s in a wheelchair.” Brianna sighed. “It’s very sad, because they married late and both wanted children desperately. When she didn’t get pregnant, they had tests and found out Wendy was ill.”
“Wendy’s his wife?”
“Yeah.”
Brianna looked unhappy, so Jack said, “What is it?”
“I just feel so guilty every time I see him.” She started pacing. “I didn’t know she was sick. I thought she was just one of those high-maintenance wives, you know, the kind of woman who can’t screw a light bulb in by themselves. I can’t stand women like that. You can understand that, can’t you?”
Jack nodded. He could imagine how much a woman like Brianna—independent and useful—would despise that kind of person.
She stopped pacing and looked at him, her expression tragic. “I tried to take him away from her. I tried to seduce him one night. I got drunk. I took him home with me, telling him I couldn’t drive, and I tried to get him to make love to me.” Her cheeks were scarlet, and suddenly Jack understood why she’d kept so much space between her and Jeffrey at all times.
“Hey, don’t feel bad. He’s a guy. That means he was flattered. You didn’t know about his wife being sick. I’m sure he doesn’t hold it against you.”
She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose. Her face was still bright. Jack loved how her pale skin showed her emotions. “He never held it against me. He behaved like the perfect gentleman that he is. I was the one too embarrassed to continue working with him.”
“When did this happen?”
“Just before I met you. I quit the force, I was determined to forget Jeffrey, and I was busy interviewing at agencies that needed bodyguards.”
“Well, it’s all in the past now.” Jack gave her a hug, surprised at the pang of jealousy he suddenly felt. “I’m sure I have things I’m glad I forgot about in my past.”
She looked at him. “Things you’re glad you don’t remember?”
He grinned. “That’s right. Why don’t you show me how to use the cuffs now?”
At Jack’s urging, Brianna gave him her handcuffs. She showed him how to use them, and insisted he handcuff her several times and in several different positions. Then he had to do it while she struggled. When she started to try to escape, time suddenly slowed. Her movements became as slow as if they were encased in amber. He easily caught both her wrists in the handcuffs. As soon as he snapped them on, time fell back into place and Brianna lay on the floor, staring at him.
“What?” he asked. “Didn’t I tell you I could move fast now?”
Her face was very white. “I didn’t realize … it was so sudden. I couldn’t even see you anymore. All I felt was a strange vibration when you touched me. As if you were an electrical current instead of flesh and blood.”
“No blood anymore,” Jack said. He stroked her cheek. “I’m sorry I frightened you. Are you all right?”
She licked her lips and nodded. “I think so.” He helped her to her feet and she managed a faint smile. “Don’t move too fast during your strip tease or the ladies in the audience will be disappointed.”
Jack knew he had to tell her his suspicion, no matter how wild it sounded. He took her wrists and sat her down on the bed. “The Heart Taker looked a lot like Jeffrey.”
Brianna’s face turned white then scarlet. “That is impossible,” she said.
“I’m just telling you what I saw.” Jack felt like a cad. Brianna’s face was a mask of horror.
“Jeffrey?” She got to her feet and went to stand by the window, her arms wrapped tightly across her chest. “It doesn’t make sense. All right, I did call him last night, and this morning I found the note … but why would Jeffrey kill anyone? He’s one of the nicest people I know!”
“His wife is very ill. Maybe that changed him. You said her sickness was in her heart. Do you think that sort of thing could push someone over the edge?”
“No, I don’t think anything could make Jeffrey go over the edge. I’ve never seen him lose his temper, not once. Not even when he caught me pulling off the perp’s pants,” she sputtered.
“Is there any way we can check the mutant directory? When did Jeffrey’s wife get sick, and when did the Heart Taker start to kill?”
Brianna stomped over to him and shoved him hard against his chest, pushing him onto the bed. “Jeffrey is not the Heart Taker. So stop saying he might be. You didn’t get a good look at him. There are tons of guys around here who look Native American. We have a whole reservation just full of them. If I heard the Heart Taker at the casino, chances are he’s a Native American. All right? Forget Jeffrey.” She sat down next to him on the bed.
“Listen, I just think it’s a strange coincidence, that’s all.”
She glared at him. “Drop it.”
“All right. I’ll drop it.” He let a few seconds go by, and then said, “Can we check the mutant directory? There must be mention of someone with super speed. If the Heart Taker’s parents noticed, they would have registered him, right?”
“We looked and looked. No one inscribed anyone with super speed.” She smoothed the covers on her bed. “It’s been one dead end after another, according to Jeffrey. I kept asking him, you know. I wanted him caught more than anything after he killed you, and you better believe I want him caught now he’s written me that crappy poem.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Jack nodded. “Look, I’m sorry. I know I sound … obsessed. But Jim Ling-Li gave me a direct order, and I have to obey. It’s stronger than I am. Every lead, every hint, every idea I get has to be acted on. I can’t describe the feeling I get but it’s strong. I can’t resist it.”
Brianna rubbed her eyes. “Yeah. I know a lot about obsessions.” She gave him a wry grin, and then it faded. “Forget about Jeffrey. Honest. He could never do anything like that. The Heart Taker is a monster, nothing but a monster. I should know. I was there.”
“So was I,” said Jack. He closed his eyes. “So was I.”
****
Brianna hated what she was doing. She’d never snooped around a friend’s affairs. But Jack’s words wouldn’t let her go. When he went to his rehearsal at Dee’s club, she turned on the computer and started to search. It was easy getting into the police files. She’d kept all her passwords and the police never changed any of them. Hacking into the mutant directory was easy too. She wasn’t a whiz with a computer, but she had worked with a couple people who could make their computers practically roll over and beg. They’d showed her a few tricks. She logged into the directory and started scrolling.
No Jeffrey Ashato anywhere. Ashato was his father’s name. What had his mother’s name been? A color, if she remembered correctly. She had a good memory for names. Black? No, White. Her name had been Mary White.
Brianna searched for White, and found a long list with several Marys on it. One caught her eye. Mary White. Born 1952 in Greenville, Georgia. Mutant. The rest of the entry had been deleted. There was no mention of what sort of mutant she had been. She cross-checked the mutant files, but there was no other sign of a Mary White. Usually there were references to the type of mutant, like shape-shifter, werewolf, wall-walker, spider talker … She looked again. Spider talker? Ugh.
Brianna went back and called up Jeffrey’s parents’ information. His mother, Mary White, had been born in 1952 in Georgia. It could be a coincidence. She hated coincidences. She’d been a police officer once, and she knew how to check facts. This was starting to look bad. Why would someone delete Jeffrey’s mother from the mutant file? Unless it had been done to protect someone. Someone in the police department. Jeffrey.
Her hand hovered over the phone. Finally she gave in and called someone she’d worked with ages ago. He didn’t remember her. That was all right. He was eager to show off his talents as a computer hacker. He told her he’d find the i
nformation she was looking for and he’d call her back. She had to repeat her phone number eight times to him. He might be a computer whiz—he was a complete idiot when it came to names and numbers. But he came through. An hour later he called her.
“Brian Murphy?” he said.
“This is Brianna Henley.”
“Oh yeah. The dame with the mutant problem.”
Brianna made a face. The geek talked like someone from an old gangster movie. “Yeah.” She could play along.
“I got the information you wanted. Mary White. She was a mutant, for sure. But everything about her has been wiped clean. No records at all. Except one. I found something mentioned about her in her school report. She got kicked off the track team because she ran too fast.”
“What?” Brianna nearly dropped her phone.
“Yeah. Stupid reason for kicking someone off a track team, isn’t it? I mean, if she was so fast, why call it cheating? It says here she cheated,” he added, and Brianna heard his fingers running over his keyboard like a tap dancing mouse. “Cheating in races. Running too fast. Mary White was kicked off the track team from her all girls’ school in Georgia. No other mention of her at all anywhere.” The tap dancing stopped. Brianna heard a long slurp, as if he drank something thick from a straw.
“Thanks, Mike. I owe you one.”
“You’re welcome Brian.” Slurp, slurp.
Brianna replaced the phone and stared for a while out the window. Why had Jeffrey’s mother’s files been removed? Was mutant speed hereditary? What if Jeffrey was the Heart Taker? Was that why every lead fizzled into nothing?
Her investigation was interrupted by Jack coming back up the stairs with Mamie Hoya. She had gone out shopping, and Jack had met her at the bottom of the stairs and was carrying her groceries up for her.
Brianna didn’t want to tell Jack about Jeffrey’s mother until she’d spoken to Jeffrey. Besides, tonight was Jack’s debut at Dee’s club. He must be feeling nervous. She imagined his stomach was knotted up with stage fright.
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