Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tony Verrazano rolled to his back, trying to figure out where he was and what had happened to him.
He was outside. Yeah. He’d been on patrol at The Mansion.
But now he was lying on the hard ground with his head aching like a son of a bitch. His gun was in his hand, and he didn’t remember drawing it. In fact, he couldn’t call up any memories from the past few minutes.
How had he gotten here?
He struggled to pull anything recent into his mind, but nothing would come to him. In a panic, he sat up too quickly and winced at the stab of pain. After checking the safety on the gun, he stuffed it into his shoulder holster, then pulled up his knees and clasped his hands around his legs. Lowering his head, he ordered himself not to start shaking.
Something frightening had happened, and he didn’t know what it was. Worse, he didn’t even know how he’d gotten here. Yeah, he’d thought that before, didn’t he?
Still clenching his hands around his legs—he carefully went back to the last thing he did remember. He’d had a meal in the kitchen of the whorehouse where Lang kept the girls he’d imported from Eastern Europe. Then he’d gone out on patrol.
He’d been walking around the grounds, and something must have happened to him.
But what?
Had he seen something in the woods? Gone in here to have a look? And then what? Or could he have gone in here to take a leak? No, he remembered doing that after his meal.
Nothing like this had ever happened to him before, and he struggled to damp down the fear coursing through him.
Should he tell someone? What if an intruder had invaded the property? Like the woman who had been here a week ago. She was still on the loose, and the boss had ordered all the guards to be extra vigilant.
But he didn’t think she was here now. Or at least, he didn’t want it to be true. He got up and brushed off his clothing, feeling a lot of dirt on the back of his pants, like he’d been dragged into the trees. Could that be true?
Fear trickled down his spine as he scrambled to devise an alternate scenario. Maybe he’d been investigating something in the woods, tripped over a tree root in the dark, fallen, hit his head, and knocked himself out.
Clumsy of him.
Well, he wouldn’t say anything about it and risk getting fired from what he considered a very good job.
“Now what?” Elizabeth asked as they put distance between themselves and The Mansion.
“We shut the place down.”
“I hate the idea of letting that house of horrors operate for even another day, but there’s a second reason we can’t just go to the police. Those women are in the U.S. illegally. Probably, they’ll all be deported if we just call the cops.”
“Yeah, even if they were brought here under false pretenses, they could be caught in thesystem.”
She sighed. “I wish I knew more about it. I don’t want to get them deported because I’m trying to help them.” She thought for a moment. “Maybe my best bet is going back to Sabrina and finding out if there’s some way her friends in Baltimore can shelter them.”
He made a rough sound. “We’re getting ourselves in deeper every time we turn around.”
“I know. But I want to get the women out of there—then find a way to destroy Lang’s whole operation.”
“That’s a tall order. How long has he been in business?”
“I don’t know exactly.” She gave him a pleading look. “I realize this whole thing is a mess, but I want to see it through. Not just for me. Polly died because I was stalking Lang.”
Relief flooded through her when he said, “Okay.”
“I think we have to go find Sabrina.”
He tightened his hands on the wheel.
She put her fingers on his arm, and she knew she didn’t have to speak out loud for him to pick up what was in her mind. He turned off onto a two-lane road and slowed, finding a clearing to pull off the blacktop.
“You want to talk about how we’re going to work it when we return to the house?”
“Yes.”
“What was your original plan?”
She flapped her arm in frustration. “I wish I knew. Probably, I hadn’t come up with anything definite, which was why I hadn’t acted.”
“But you’re thinking about something that might help.”
She grinned. “You read me so well.”
When he’d cut the engine, she unbuckled her seat belt and leaned toward him. They clung together, both thankful that they’d gotten away from The Mansion.
She pulled away so she could look at him. What if we have a technique we can use?
He knew she was thinking about a book she’d read—about a girl whose parents had been part of a government drug experiment in college. The people who survived came away with superpowers. For example, the girl’s father had been able to influence the actions of others.
Have you read it?
Yes. It’s by Stephen King.
In the book, the father called his power giving people a push—influencing their actions and perceptions.
And you think we can do that? Isn’t that a little grandiose? he asked.
We won’t know until we try it.
“We’d have to practice to be sure we can do it,” he said.
“Of course.”
“Who do we practice on?”
“I don’t know yet.”
He switched topics and asked, “Do you know the part of Baltimore where you met with Sabrina?”
“Yes. I think that’s where I was going when I crashed my car. She gave him directions, and they drove back to the city.”
“But you don’t know exactly where to find Sabrina,” he said as they approached the right part of town.
“I think I only knew her through Wendy—the woman who adopted a child and was one of my clients.”
“Then we’ll start there.”
They drove to a neighborhood of typical Baltimore row houses, some with brick fronts and some faced with a man-made material that was supposed to resemble stone but looked more like something from a kid’s construction set. Elizabeth had always wondered why anyone would want to put that stuff on a home.
“You know which house?” he asked.
No. But I think I’ll recognize it when I see it.”
He drove up and down several blocks, and she scanned the facades, looking for some kind of clue.
Finally, she saw a house with a planter full of geraniums beside the marble steps.
“That’s it!”
Matt found a parking space around the corner, and they walked back, then climbed the steps.
Elizabeth rang the bell, then waited with her heart pounding because she didn’t know what the woman inside looked like, but she was pretty sure she’d recognize her when she saw her.
The door opened, and Wendy stood on the other side of the storm door, an expression on her face that was a mixture of astonishment and anger.
“You said you’d come back days ago,” she accused. “Where have you been? We’ve been waiting and worrying. I called social services, and they said you had … disappeared.”
Elizabeth swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. Can we come in?”
Wendy looked like she was about to refuse.
Matt pressed his shoulder to Elizabeth’s, and she suddenly knew that he was going to use the technique they’d discussed . Don’t turn Elizabeth away. She had a good reason for not coming.
Elizabeth fought to keep her gaze on Wendy. They’d only speculated about trying this, and Matt’s doing it now had taken her completely by surprise. But had it worked? Especially since she hadn’t even thought about giving him extra power.
“Is there a good reason why you didn’t come back?” Wendy asked.
“She was in the hospital. I’m her doctor.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Wendy said. “You’d better come in.”
They both stepped directly into a small living room with a bay window that looked onto the street. The room was cluttered with toys. When Wendy knelt to sweep some blocks into a pile, Elizabeth knelt to help her, remembering the little girl who was so lucky to be living here.
“How’s Olivia?” she asked.
“She’s doing great. She’s already in bed.”
Elizabeth picked up a floppy stuffed rabbit from the sofa and stroked it.
“I remember this room,” she said.
“What do you mean?” Wendy asked.
“I had amnesia. That’s why I didn’t come back. Matt—Dr. Delano is helping me recover my memories.”
“Oh, you poor thing,” Wendy said. “Where are my manners? Please sit down.”
Elizabeth and Matt sat together on the couch. Wendy looked at Matt, then Elizabeth, then back again. “You look more like her lover than her doctor.”
Elizabeth flushed at the directness of the statement.
“We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well,” Matt said. “Elizabeth was on the way here to your meeting when she was in an automobile accident.”
“I didn’t know.”
“She was banged up, but the main problem was the amnesia. It took a while for us to put you and your friend Sabrina back into the picture.”
Wendy nodded.
“We’ve been working on her memories, and she finally recalled coming here.”
Again Wendy nodded cautiously.
“But there are things we can’t piece together.”
“Like what?”
“Sabrina said that friends of hers are being held at a house owned by …”
Wendy glanced toward the door, like she expected thugs to come charging in. “Derek Lang,” she whispered.
“Yes. I didn’t know how much I’d told you,” Elizabeth said.
“A lot of it. Not everything.”
“We need to talk to Sabrina.”
Once again, they met resistance.
“I don’t know,” Wendy said. “It was hard enough for her to come here the first time. That Lang man is dangerous.”
“Believe me, I know,” Elizabeth murmured as she gripped the floppy rabbit she was still holding.
Beside her, Elizabeth heard Matt’s silent suggestion. Why don’t we try again to influence her?
All right.
She looked at Wendy, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t get back here sooner. Just now, Matt and I went out to the property and confirmed that the women were there. We need Sabrina’s help to get them somewhere safe.”
“You mean to the shelter where she is now?”
“Yes.” Elizabeth had forgotten that Sabrina had hooked up with a secret welfare organization that was willing to take in illegal aliens. Thankful that that problem had been solved, she silently urged Wendyto get up and call Sabrina. Tell her that I’ve come back, that I was in an accident, that I had amnesia and couldn’t make it here sooner.
She felt Matt adding power to help her project the unspoken message. Her pulse was pounding as she waited to find out what would happen. After a few seconds, she saw Wendy’s face change.
“I guess it’s not your fault that you didn’t meet up with us.”
This time, Mattsent the message. As soon as she heard it, Elizabeth sent him power to help project the suggestion.
Yes, that’s right. Tell Sabrina to come right over. Tell her we need to speak to her. Wendy stood up. “Let me go phone her.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth answered.
We got her to change her mind, she said to Matt.
But we don’t know how effective we were. All we know is what she did. She could have made the decision on her own.
But she was reluctant even to let us come in before you—pushed her.
We’ll see.
Harold Goddard hadn’t forgotten about Matthew Delano. He had a Web service checking for any mention of the man’s name, and so far, it was like the doctor had disappeared from the face of the earth. Harold would have liked to think that no news was good news. In this case, he couldn’t convince himself it was true.
So he kept checking and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like what was going on with the woman named Jane Doe? Who was she really? He had a pretty good idea. Not her specific name. But he wouldn’t be surprised to learn that her mother had been treated at the Solomon Clinic.
There was no proof yet, but he was willing to bet there would be.
And if there was one thing Harold didn’t like, it was losing control of a situation. He’d deliberately thrown other couples together so he could watch what happened. Now, he was pretty sure two others had gotten together on their own, and there was no telling where they were or what they would do. But he had the feeling he’d better be prepared for trouble.