Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Carlos noted that the name plate on the door buzzer read EHBJ. Eliana Hope Banbury Jaxton. Not Hope Adams, as she was in the museum. Maybe she paid for this place with cash, trying to stay under the radar. That would make a whole lot of sense.
If any of this made sense at all.
Carlos decided to withhold judgment until he saw the inside of her apartment, but this place was pretty rundown. His house wasn’t much better, though he’d been spending all his spare time outside work fixing it up. It was harder to do that with an apartment.
Eliana’s parents would—
No, he wasn’t going to think that either. He didn’t need his dad sticking his nose in every part of his life. Lia probably didn’t need her parents doing that either.
In the end, she would do whatever she wanted anyway. This apartment in this building was a prime example. Meanwhile, Carlos followed orders.
At least she’d agreed to go get Luci with him.
It was a family matter, and only the family would resolve it.
In doing so, he could prove that he and Eliana could coexist. That there could be harmony between them.
He’d be able to walk away, certain that the friction was a thing of the past, and get on with his life.
“Yes?” Eliana’s voice sounded tinny through the small speaker.
“It’s me.”
“Third floor, second on the right.”
The door buzzed, a sound akin to a prison door unlocking. He didn’t like the connotation, and thankfully the lobby didn’t smell like incarceration.
Carlos jogged up the steps even though he’d forced himself to go for a run this morning. None of it helped him burn off the frustration of not knowing where Luci was or how to contact her.
He heard shouting before he even got to the second floor. A door flung open and the sound increased until he made out a man’s voice.
“I said, ‘Get!’ Useless piece of trash.”
A woman hurried out of an apartment to the left, a cloud of musty scent coming with her. The distinct glaze of Elysium in her eyes.
Carlos stepped up to the landing on the floor and paused.
The woman grabbed the rail but still turned too fast. Dirty jeans, silver strappy shoes. A stack of necklaces that hung low on her small frame. Hunched shoulders and a tight shirt under her pink jacket.
He caught her arm. “Careful. You’ll take a tumble.”
She stared at him, confusion in her expression. “Huh?”
“You wouldn’t want to fall down the stairs.”
“Oh.”
“Babe.” The guy stood at his front door. Jeans and nothing else. Bare feet. Bare chest. “What are you doing?”
She almost flinched. Didn’t look at the guy. “Nothing. Going to get more drink like you said.” Animosity laced her tone.
Carlos let her arm go, and she scurried down the stairs.
The guy clenched his fists. “You look like a cop.”
“Is that any of your business?” Carlos rounded the stair rail and headed on up.
“I’ll be watching you,” the guy called up.
Carlos waved a hand over his shoulder like he just wanted to be left alone. He didn’t need a couple of junkies trying to be all up in his business—or Eliana’s. Still, he dragged out his cell from his pocket and sent a quick text to the department tip line with his badge number.
He went to the second door, which opened before he could knock. “Hey.”
She stepped out, tugging on her coat, and called back, “See you later.”
Before he could wonder if she had a boyfriend that he didn’t know about, someone called back, “Okay, dear.” A decidedly older, feminine someone.
Carlos didn’t want to be as relieved as he was. A boyfriend would only cause problems for him, because the guy would insist on going with them, and Eliana always got whatever she wanted.
Eliana shot him a look, pulling her braid from the back of her jacket. “Ready to go?”
“I am. Are you?” He wanted to ask which apartment hers was or whether she lived with an older woman. This was about Luci.
Eliana patted her pockets. “Shoot.”
He didn’t have to ask. She’d have to go back inside and he would go with her. He’d get a look at her place. “Forget something?”
“You suck.”
He grinned, but they both knew it was really gloating.
She went to the third door and used a key to enter. Not the usual thumb print entry or a typed-in code. Some places even had an app that unlocked the door when a person got close. No, this was one of those old brass keys of all things.
So analogue. He had to shake his head. “You told me to show up at someone else’s apartment?”
“You can come in,” she said. “I only need to grab my purse, though.”
True to her style, it was really a tiny backpack she slung over her head so it lay across her body with her personal belongings close to her front, keeping them secure. The cop in him appreciated the care she took with her personal safety. Especially living in a place like this.
“Had any trouble since you moved here?” he asked. “Chicago is a whole lot different than small-town Wyoming.”
“I like the feel of being surrounded by humanity. The press of people going about their lives. No one knows who I am.”
He followed her into the kitchen, trying not to look around like he was curious about where she lived—which he was.
No TV on the wall. A couch covered with a throw, blankets, and multiple pillows.
And a coffee table with a couple of low stacks of paperback books.
That was as much as he could see before she lifted an insulated travel cup.
“Coffee?”
“Am I a cop?”
She used her machine to fill two. “Is drinking coffee part of the job description?”
“There’s a reason I started drinking it at the age of nine.” He’d known even back then he was destined for one thing. Much to his mom’s displeasure.
Thinking about her hurt still, even if it had been many years since her heart attack.
“Your mom?” she said softly.
He cleared his throat. “We should get going.”
Eliana slid her arm through his, and they walked to the door.
“She would’ve been so proud seeing you take the oath and receive your shield.
She would’ve grumbled later to your dad about you being in danger, but she’d have a tissue in her hand in all the photos.
And you know she’d have told all her Bible study lady friends about you, just in case they have eligible daughters. ”
Carlos chuckled, but that last part wasn’t true. She’d been convinced Eliana was his soul mate, which was nonsense he didn’t believe in.
She got her front door secured, and they headed down to where he’d parked out front. He slid out his phone and unlocked the truck so she could get in the passenger side.
She looked up at him from the seat. “That app can be hacked, you know.”
Carlos thought she was cute. “Tuck your feet in.” He shut her door for her and went around to the driver’s side, sliding in behind the wheel. “So you’ve gone all analogue?”
“Not as far as some people, but aside from calls and messages, I watch a little TV on my tablet and that’s pretty much it.” She shrugged, sipping on her coffee. “I have an app that alerts me to any mention of my parents online. How else would I know how it’s going with their case?”
Carlos started the truck with a push of the button. “What about your groceries?”
“I go get them myself. For me and my neighbor, Patience.”
“Your bills?”
“I pay them online like everyone else. If it makes life easier, I probably use it. Who has time to actually go to the bank?”
He tapped the microphone button on the screen and told the car where he wanted to go, then pulled out into the flow of traffic while it calculated the best route. “Back to your neighbors… Do you know anything about the Dreamers on the floor below you?”
She let out an audible sigh, just like her mom did. A kind of pressure release. Letting go of tension. “Not much. I keep to myself and I watch out for Patience. The guy creeps me out.”
“Good plan to steer clear of them.” He didn’t want to tell her this but figured she should be forewarned.
“There have been some violent crimes across the city recently. Less than half a dozen so far involving Dreamers high on their Elysium. Whatever the app showed them interacted with the drug in their system in a way that turned them violent. People got hurt, and a guy even died.”
“I thought Elysium was supposed to be bliss. This immersive, customizable experience that may in some cases lead to psychosis.”
Carlos caught the irony in her tone. “Sounds like some people in the hyperrealistic dream state the drug gives you ended up reacting to it. Maybe it’s an allergy, or it’s a suggestion from the app. Either way, the brass is worried that more users will wind up hurting people.”
The substance, like a lot of narcotics, was legal but incredibly addictive.
“That’s really sad.” She glanced over. “Maybe that’s what happened to Doctor Splitfield. Someone on Elysium could’ve killed him.”
“Could be. Good thinking, I’ll mention it.”
She might want nothing to do with the case, but he intended to make sure there wasn’t a killer stalking the halls of the Shrine. After all, if he did nothing and Eliana was hurt? He would be the next victim, courtesy of any one of her family members.
Eliana shifted in her chair and looked out the windshield. The Chicago skyline stretched behind them as they traveled west out of the city. “Tell me about this place where we’re going?”
Carlos had been expecting this. “I don’t know for sure that she’s there. It could be a long shot.” He changed lanes and took the turn that spat him out onto the three-lane highway, a concrete barrier separating them from oncoming traffic.
Gray clouds in the sky dampened the whole world, as if there was no sun anywhere.
He shook off the morose thoughts. “I spoke to her roommate. She was staying with this guy in West Englewood. He said she got into a women’s group that was all about feminine empowerment, and after that she was hardly ever home. Eventually, she never came back.”
“How’d you find the location?” Eliana sipped her coffee and glanced over.
Even just that look was enough to reassure him that bringing her was better than coming alone. In the end, she would do what was best for the family. It was everything up to then that he had an issue with.
“Carlos,” she prompted.
“The guy remembered seeing a map on her phone. She was looking up a location, figuring out how to get there. It was right before she left and didn’t come back.”
“Did she leave her things or take them?”
“She packed for a few days.”
Did Eliana want to hear that he thought she would’ve made a half-decent investigator? Instead, she was poking her nose around at the Shrine. Wearing a wig, like that was enough to keep people from finding out who she was.
He continued, “It’s a compound or resort type of place. Owned by a corporation that has it listed under shell companies owned by other shell companies. I was thinking about sending the information to Maizie. Or Zeyla. Seeing what they could find out.”
“Maizie flat out refuses to break the law since she’s a police captain, suburban soccer mom these days. It’s incredibly disappointing to the rest of the family.”
Carlos smiled. “Cop to cop, that could work for me.”
“Zeyla is on a job with Ramon. If we told them about it, they’d rush right over to blow the place sky-high. It’s basically date night for them.”
Carlos chuckled. “Not my idea of a good time.”
“No? Could be interesting.”
“Have you…had an interesting dating life lately?”
All the humor in the cab of his truck evaporated, and Eliana shifted in her seat. “Do I have to answer?”
“Not if you don’t want to.” Why had he asked?
“There isn’t really anything to tell. I work, and I watch out for Patience. She’s eighty-two and doing great, but everybody needs someone.”
He got the distinct impression there was more to her life here that she wasn’t telling him. Carlos wanted to interrogate her further—without her realizing that’s what he was doing, of course.
The clouds broke around the same time he spotted the signpost for Reverence Sisters Community and took the exit. According to his GPS, they had eight minutes until their arrival.
As soon as they crested the hill just off the highway, he saw it.
Carlos scanned the whole valley, driving along the winding lane on the back side of the hill. “Look at this place.”
Sparse buildings. Creepy vibes, and a desolate air to the whole place. Birds circled one of the far buildings, and on the asphalt lane through the property a bag swirled in the air, then skittered toward a building.
She placed her coffee in the cup holder with a sigh. “As much as I want to find Luci, maybe it’s better if she isn’t here.”
Carlos didn’t want to agree. He just wanted his sister back.