Frost

by Phaedra Weldon

  It'd all been such a relief when I came to and Crow told me Sarah was alive and Bishop never touched her. "I'm glad he didn't get to you." I reached out and touched her stomach. "Everything okay?"

  "Yes." She put her hand on mine and pressed my palm flat against her. "You stopped him from hurting us."

  "He—he tried to drug me. I don't understand that." Wow it was getting harder to put thoughts together. "He…he stabbed Donna. Why try and knock me out?"

  "They found the cloth. It was soaked in chloroform. You'd have been out for hours if you'd have inhaled it." Sarah reached down and moved my hair from my cheek. "Your hair is even whiter now than before."

  Because I'd used the power again. If there was any poignant part of the event it was seeing Bishop's frozen hand in mine. The frost in the window, the ice on the glass—such little bits of a power that was greater than me. I'd broken off a man's hand. And no one else knew that but Bishop. I was sure he wasn't going to let that go. He'd be back.

  And I would have to face him.

  But first I wanted Sarah protected.

  "Jack—"

  I refocused on her. "Sarah—I need to talk to Crow—"

  "In a minute," she put a hand on my chest. "I need to ask you something and I want you to answer me honestly."

  Her tone was a little alarming and in the past usually precipitated me doing something for her she knew I didn't want to do. Like—meeting her parents. Normally I'd back out of the room, but this time she had a captive audience. "Yes?"

  "Remember I said I saw the two of you fighting?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Jack—I saw the whole thing."

  Her point didn't reach me for several seconds, and when it did, panic set in like a sharp stake through the heart. "Oh. So when you hit your head—"

  "That was me freaking out and tripping when I tried to make a run for it."

  I swallowed. She didn't let go of my hand, and she wasn't backing away. I needed to make sure she'd seen what I was afraid she'd seen. "So you saw me…ah…you saw Bishop's…"

  "Hand. I saw his hand break off." She said it in a rush with very little pausing between words. "And I saw it was frozen."

  What was I going to say?

  "Jack—you froze that man's hand and it snapped off."

  "And that's what freaked you out."

  "You froze his hand," she stared down at me. "I'm not crazy and I know what I saw. So isn't there something you need to tell me?"

  Fuck.

  She touched my hair. "It's got something to do with this, doesn't it? And your problem with heat?"

  I still didn't know what to say. But she waited patiently for me as I cleared my throat and said, "Jack Frost."

  The curtain to the closed off area slid back with the impact of a gail force wind to reveal Captain Rucker. "Dr. Heine—I need to speak to Frost."

  Sarah looked a little irritated but nodded, squeezed my hand and left the little enclosure. Rucker marched up next to me and filled the space Sarah vacated. "Now, detective Frost. You are going to tell me exactly what happened."

  When I was finished her expression didn't change, except for a slight narrowing in her eyes. "Bishop's still looking for his ex-wife and daughter. We found Blankenship's office ransacked. If anything was taken we won't know until her assistant catalogues it. Following the timeline he attacked you after he went through that office—so I'm assuming he hasn't found it. So he came after you."

  "But why me? I don't have access to where his wife and kid are."

  "The fact he tried to drug you with chloroform suggests to me you were a target for kidnapping so he can get the information."

  That wasn't a scenario I'd thought of. "Me? Why kidnap me?"

  "He obviously knows Dr. Heine and you are a couple, which isn't a secret. Everyone in the precinct knows you're getting married Christmas Day. If he believes Dr. Heine has access to the information about his wife and kid, he could have used you as leverage to get it."

  As a cop I'd never thought of myself as kidnap material before. I found the thought—ridiculous.

  "Given this information I'm ordering you and Dr. Heine into protective custody until we catch this mother."

  "No!" The word came out a bit more forceful than I intended and she arched her eyebrow down at me. "Please…don't do that. Don't take me off this case. He's still out there—"

  "And he has your gun, Frost. He got into your house and managed to put a bullet through you—" she put her hands on her hips. "What if he'd shot Sarah? Did you think about that? What about your unborn baby? And don't even get me started with your heat issues."

  "But this isn't normal," I tried to push myself up on my elbows, but with my left arm bound to my chest and my right hand in a wrap of bandages, it wasn't easy. And it proved her point. "Ma'am, it's just been exceptionally hot these past few months and I haven't been able to regulate my body temperature. Once it cools down things will be fine."

  "Frost—where have you been the past ten years? This is Global Warming happening around us, or haven't you been reading? This isn't going to get any better. Which means you're just going to become more of a liability."

  "Ma'am, I'm not—"

  "Can it, Frost. You've been in a hospital six times in two months. Two of them in the past two days. I can't predict the weather, and I can't have a detective out there who faints the moment he starts sweating. I won't lose you to some nut-bag either."

  "Captain—"

  "Frost, I'm sorry. This might be the best thing for you. Right now your mother might be stalking you and I'm pretty sure this Bishop is going to come at you again. I need you, and your wife, safe and out of their reach."

  With that she turned and left the area.

  I collapsed back on the gurney. How did this happen to me? I really didn't have much of an argument against her decision. For five years I'd been able to do just fine with my heat exhaustion, but with the weather the way it was…

  I balled my hand into a fist but couldn't hit anything with it because of the sling holding it in place.

  Crow stepped back in. "Bishop wants you admitted. Figures this is the safest place for you. They're taking Heine to another safe house—and I can attest to its safety having guarded it before." He reached over and helped me sit up and I cursed at feeling so damn dizzy. Within seconds I had to lay back down again, exhausted. "You lost a lot of blood, Jack," it was almost as if he could read my mind. "That would make anyone weak and irritating."

  "You mean irritable?"

  "No."

  That brought a smile to my face. A very small one. "So you get to babysit me?"

  He pulled up a stool and sat down. "Yep. Which means I got lots of time and you can regale me with how you kicked the son of a bitch out of your house." He winked. "And don't omit the details."

  -13-

  I don't remember the night and I think that was a good thing. The drugs knocked me out fast. I don't think I dreamed.

  The morning news reported another scorcher, the temperatures climbing into the low hundreds all along the east coast. Crow came in with a frappuccino and news two of the hospital's air conditioner units went out and one of them was for the children's wing. They were moving as many of the kids as they could to cooler areas, many of them to the lower floors away from the heat. The repair crews estimated it might be a week before they could get even one of the units running again.

  Crow volunteered himself and didn't object when I offered to help where I could at evacuating kids from the higher floors. With my arm tucked tightly to my side—which I think Crow enjoyed adjusting with relish—I wasn't good for much else. My right hand looked more like the end of a cotton swab. Thinking about the empty floor where Jason had been and remembering how much cooler it'd been down there, I made the suggestion to a few of the staff. They went down to take a look and found several rooms and offices viable. And much cooler.

  I caught sight of Amelia in the middle of several kids in the rec-room where Santa had visited. She w
ore her hat and her gloves and a thin sheen of perspiration on her upper lip. Her eyes were sunken and her cheeks hollows in her face. She looked worse than a day ago and Sarah's words about Amelia's health haunted me. Damn Jason and his empty promises.

  "But Amelia," one of the smaller kids whined. She had a head of thick black hair and wore a cotton jumper with teddy bears on them. "My grandma says it's not going to get any cooler. There's no way it's going to snow 'cause the sun would eat it."

  A few of the other disbelievers nodded as they looked up at the little angel in the chair.

  The smallest one spoke in a soft lisp, "We have to go down stairs. It's too hot up here."

  Amelia looked upset. She caught sight of me standing there and a wide smile spread over her face. "Detective Frost is here and he was hurt saving doctor Sarah."

  They looked at me and cheered. The little one, Mae, came bouncing over to me and put both of her tiny hands on my bandaged right hand. "Oooh…this looks like a bad hurted."

  I went down on one knee, wanting for all the world to take her into my arms. When she smiled at me, the world felt much better. She gestured for me to stand back up and she led me by my injured hand into the room.

  Amelia was talking. "I know what it seems like now, but you wait till tomorrow. Tomorrow the sky will crack and grow dark and we'll see snow. The windows will cover over with ice crystals and Jack Frost will make it a beautiful white Christmas.

  Damn it, Jason. Why'd you have to do this to this kid? How could he have have promised something like this?

  I wished I could have met him. Talked to him. Known what was in his mind. Because right now, it all seemed like such a waste.

  "You're crazy, Amelia," one of the older kids said as he stood up and turned away. "You said Jason was Jack Frost, and he's dead. That means winter is coming." The boy stomped past me and my gaze fixed on Amelia. She and I locked eyes as I came close.

  The other kids smiled up at me as I spoke. "Kids, Dr. Sallinger and Dr. Rostenkowski are waiting for you by the elevators. We have to get you out of this heat." As if to make a point I unconsciously wiped my forehead with the back of my bandaged hand. A layer of perspiration covered my own lip. The heat was climbing and it wasn't going to get better. The kids needed to go downstairs.

  Everyone left but Amelia. She looked away from me and turned her wheelchair to face the windows. The glitter covered snowflakes hung still without the air conditioner to blow them and I lifted the arm with the injured hand and wiped at my forehead and face in the crook of my elbow. There wasn't as much sweat as I thought there'd be. The temperature in this wing of the building had to be in the 80s. "Come on Amelia. I'll take you down stairs."

  "I'm not going down there."

  "You have to," I said as I moved into her view. "We need to get you out of the heat."

  "No. I'm fine up here. And besides, there aren't any windows down there."

  "How do you know?"

  "Because Jason told me there wasn't." Her gaze slid from the window to me and I was struck with the level of hope I saw in them. "He said it made him sad to live down there because he couldn't see the sky. But that also made it easier for him to stay human."

  I licked my lips. "Amelia, why did you say Jason was Jack Frost?"

  "Because he told me he was." Her serene expression cracked as she looked up at me so I knelt down in front of her and put my bandaged hand on hers. "He promised me that if I could survive until Christmas Day I'd see snow. He promised," tears sprang from the sides of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. "He promised me. He promised me!"

  I leaned forward and took her into my arm, careful not to hold her too tight. She was nothing more than bones where the cancer had ravaged her body for so many years. Why did this happen? This cruel turn of events? That I lived a normal, healthy life and someone as sweet and kind as Amelia wouldn't?

  I let her cry—knowing it was the best thing for her. I felt her frustration, her anger, her hurt, her rage, everything spill out in that cry even as she started to fight me. She hit and hit and struck the bullet wound.

  I let her, because the pain kept me focused.

  Crow came to the door and stood watch as Amelia released on me. I knelt there for her in a place her parents had never been.

  Finally when she'd collapsed against me Crow came closer and knelt beside me. "You need to drink water. Jack—whenever you're not sweating more than me I should panic. Well…I'm panicking. Let's get her downstairs and you over to the ER."

  "I'll be fine, okay?"

  He shook his head. "No, it's not okay. I'm gonna go get help." He stood and put a hand on Amelia's shoulder. The little girl didn't move as she clung to me. Crow shook his head as he left the room.

  Several minutes passed before Amelia spoke, and when she did it was muffled by my shirt. "He's not going to come, is he?"

  I pried her away from me but kept my bandaged hand on her shoulder as our eyes met. I shook my head.

  She nodded and the hurt so evident in her eyes bruised me inside. I reached up to straighten her hat. "No, Amelia. He's not coming."

  My heart broke along with hers. I wanted her to be happy in her last days.

  "Is he here to help too?"

  "Who?"

  She pointed past me to the door. "The guy with the missing hand."

  -14-

  Brian Bishop stood in the door to the room, my gun in his remaining hand, pointed at Amelia and I. "Nice to see you again, Detective Frost. You and I have some unfinished business." He brought his other arm up, his right one, the stump swathed in bandages. I doubted he went to any reputable doctor or physician to get it bandaged. "You're going to tell me how you did this. But first, we're going to get out of here and you're my ticket."

  The cop part of me already had a visual in my mind of the exits. Besides the one Bishop stood in front of, another door faced it behind me. That door lead out into the corridor and was visible from the nurse's station. Other than that—the only other exits were the windows. And there was no way Amelia was going to be able to run out of any of them.

  It was up to me to reason with this twat and then somehow kick his ass in my less than limber state.

  Sweat beaded up on Bishop's face and his hair stuck to his forehead. My vision blurred for a second and I blinked to refocus. I was very aware I wasn't sweating as much as I should.

  And that was bad.

  "I don't know what you mean," I prompted. Maybe I could keep him talking and someone could come in. There was the fifty fifty chance that someone would get shot, unless I tackled him myself and drew his attention to me.

  He took two more steps toward us and held up his stump. "You did this. I took that hand to a doctor and he said it was frozen all the way through like it'd been in the deep freeze for weeks. All you did was touch it."

  "You saying I froze your hand? You know you sound really crazy, don't you?"

  "Maybe. But that doesn't change the fact you did it. That's not right, Frost. It ain't natural. So I figure you gotta be unnatural."

  "Bishop—whatever beef you have with me, it doesn't involve her. So let her roll out of here so you and I can talk."

  He laughed. And it wasn't a good laugh. "I need her here to keep you in line, Frost. Think about it. I considered using Dr. Heine, but I figured out that it wouldn't have the same impact if I killed her. But, if you failed to do what I want, killing this frail little sick kid would hurt you the most, wouldn't it?"

  I felt I should be relieved that he hadn't targeted Sarah, not with our child growing inside of her. I figured he didn't know she was pregnant and thanked whatever powers there might be she wasn't showing.

  "Jack," Amelia's voice was barely a whisper behind me. "Is he going to kill you too?"

  "Not till he gives me what I want," Bishop said and stopped two feet in front of us, his gun still aimed at my chest. I could see the sweat on his brow, rolling down his neck and staining his shirt. "Now, Detective. You're going to pick her up and take her where I tell y
ou."

  I started toward him and he shifted its barrel from me to Amelia. "Don't. I've been practicing since yesterday. And at this distance, I can't miss. Pick her up."

  Turning back to Amelia I winked at her as I bent over and scooped her out of the chair and into my good arm. She weighed next to nothing and the sudden movement sent her into a coughing fit. I spotted blood on my sleeve and leaned my head to her as she wrapped her arms around my neck. "Use my sleeve if you need to."

  She looked at me with luminous eyes, the blue of her hat accenting the blue in her eyes. "Can you do it? Did you freeze his hand?"

  I didn't want to lie and I didn't want to tell her the truth because the last thing I wanted to do was feed this man's delusions. I'd noticed his sort of erratic movements and assumed he was on some pretty power if not illegal drugs to stop the pain from his missing hand. So I didn't answer. But I was pretty sure Amelia figured it out.

  "Good boy. Now, go around me and know I've got the gun on her face. Go back through the door I came in and turn right."

  I did as he said and once in the hall I turned right. No one stood around because they'd vacated to other floors. He pressed the gun into my back. "Forward until I say stop."

  Bishop led us down the hall to the stairs. Amelia turned the door knob for me as I shifted and pushed the door open with my hips. I assumed he wanted to go down. So when he said to press the button for the top floor I felt an even greater pang of panic.

  "Jack," Amelia whispered. "You look awful. And your skin's all hot. Are you okay?"

  I wasn't. But I had to hold on long enough to keep her safe. I had to make sure Amelia wasn't harmed by this asshole. If I passed out now she'd fall and possibly break her neck. And if she didn't, she'd be at the mercy of Brian Bishop. I'd read the report and knew what'd he done to his own daughter.

  It was unacceptable.

  The building was four stories and once we got to the roof he had me push it open. He'd already unlocked it. The heat from the sun reflecting off the roof was too much and I stumbled. Dizziness took me down to my knees and I could feel the heat through my jeans, imagining it searing the cotton fibers.