Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
What seemed like an hour later, Eliana walked Carlos back to her apartment. “We should grab your duffel so you can stay the night on my couch.”
He stood on the doorstep, silent.
“Or we should pack some of my stuff, and I’ll sleep at your place.” But she didn’t want to leave Patience.
She opened her front door and locked it behind them.
The Dreamer woman had been taken to the hospital under arrest. The paramedic on the medic team who’d shown up declared there to be nothing wrong with Carlos, and the Elysium test was at such a low level it indicated the drug was almost out of his system.
Which might be the problem.
“We were gonna order a pizza, but I have some chicken in the fridge. Want me to cook?”
He gave a half shrug. “Thanks.”
Eliana retrieved two glasses from the cupboard as Carlos slid onto one of her barstools. “I get that you cooperated because you were supposed to, right? But will you get in trouble for supposedly being on Elysium?” She filled both glasses with water and handed him one.
“Thanks.” He drained the glass in a few gulps.
“Someone will be looking into it, no doubt. But if the compound from this morning is confirmed to be Elysium or a derivative, I should be cleared. I have no idea when that will happen, or what hurdles I’ll face before I can go back to work without this cloud. ”
She refilled his glass and set it in front of him. “Plenty of cops were hit with it today.” She stood across from him, her hands braced on the counter. “You’ll all be in the same boat.”
“That’s why I’m not as worried as I could be. But it’s still bad.” He took a sip of water. “You okay?”
“I’m okay.” She sipped from her glass. “For the record, Patience didn’t reply right away, which worried me.
I half wondered if I was going to find her murdered.
” She needed a second with that one. “Patience was tidying in her bathroom, so I helped her with that and got her situated back in her chair. She turned on the news.”
Eliana grabbed the chicken and a container of potatoes she’d made a few days ago and needed to use up. Veggies from the assortment she had, though she was running low. After placing a cutting board and knife on the counter, she got to work putting something together.
She wasn’t even sure she wanted to talk about what had been on the TV.
But who else was she going to share with that would actually understand what she faced?
Because she’d been right when she told that officer she had been there for Carlos’s whole life.
Okay, not literally. But it felt that way to her.
Who else would get it?
She looked at Carlos. “Can I tell you something that has nothing to do with murder or Elysium?”
“Yes, please.” He sounded relieved.
“At the hospital earlier, there was this woman in the lobby, with whoever was doing that press conference, and they said she was a lawyer.”
Hopefully, he was following her train of thought so far.
“I felt like I knew her from somewhere. Then she was on the news report when I was with Patience. Talking about what happened today. She sounded like some community leader trying to get people help and coordinate the response to today’s tragedies.
” She repeated some of what the woman had said.
“I really felt as if I knew her from somewhere. But I haven’t met her since I moved here, and where would I have seen her before? ”
“Want to look her up?” He slid the phone from his pocket and set it on the counter.
“Oh, I guess we could do that.”
“Still thinking in analogue terms?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll have you know I looked up the Reverence Sisters today in the Dominatus database.
” So much had happened that she couldn’t even assimilate it all.
Maybe they both needed sleep, not just something unrelated to talk about.
“Not that I found out anything. I’m just making conversation. ”
Better than thinking about how she couldn’t talk to him about what had happened in the vault today.
Eliana concentrated on chopping her veggies rather than dwelling on memories she’d rather forget, because otherwise she was going to cut herself.
The rhythm of the action let her focus, and some of the confusion and stress slipped away.
Too much was going on right now. Scary things were happening.
She still wanted answers and couldn’t help wanting to write off all the danger and tragedy as a distraction.
But it wasn’t as if God was trying to get her attention with other people’s pain or trying to make her lose focus on her goal.
She had work tomorrow, or she’d want to spend some time with her journal. Processing her thoughts about what was going on around her while she struggled to make sense of the questions that had no answers.
She prayed for Carlos, that the consequences of today didn’t derail his career or cause him to lose his job entirely.
Then she prayed for Luci to be found safe, and free of someone who might mean her harm.
That made her think of the Dreamers, one now dead in an ugly way. So similar to Doctor Splitfield. She’d seen the nails and the way he was left. It wasn’t lost on her, and she’d heard Carlos mention the app.
Eliana bit her lip. Not my fight. Not my case.
And yet, it was going on around her, which meant she couldn’t escape it.
Don’t let me get caught in this web. Whatever it is.
She wanted to do her job, take care of Patience, and learn what she could about Dominatus and her connection to it.
Was that too much to ask?
She didn’t want to be famous or some kind of hero like her parents.
She didn’t want to singlehandedly fight crime.
She wanted to live a quiet life where she could make a difference, but every sermon she had heard lately was about doing great things for God.
Like she had to have a calling, the way Carlos did.
That her life should be defined by amazing feats for the Lord, not just by living a humble life.
Knowing what she didn’t want to do, or what she’d been taught not to want, wasn’t really all that helpful.
She wanted to be inspired to do something, preferably without seeing dead bodies.
Maybe she would always wrestle with this.
But it seemed like she needed to figure it out before she could let go of the restlessness—the part of her that felt as if she hadn’t found the answer.
Eliana dumped the veggies in the pan with the chicken and stirred.
“Here we go.”
She turned, and Carlos held out his phone, the screen facing her.
“Is this her?” he asked.
Eliana wiped her hands on a paper towel and took his phone. “That’s her. Lydia Rosenberg? The name doesn’t seem familiar. Why do I feel like I know her?”
Carlos took his phone. “Says here she was born and raised in Chicago. Went to Harvard, studied law, and graduated top of her class. No siblings. Parents are deceased. There’s a whole article about her on the city website.
She’s a community liaison, and she’s the one who negotiated that agreement the pastor was talking about between the religious leaders in the community. To get them to work together.”
“So she uses her powers for good.” Eliana stirred the food in the pan while it hissed and sizzled. “That’s useful to know. However, I feel like I know her, or if I don’t, it seems like she’s doing good for Chicago.”
“Maybe she came through the museum, or you passed her at the grocery store, and she stuck in your mind.”
“Could be. It feels like something I should remember, but I don’t.
” Like a dream she couldn’t quite recall.
Certainly, an odd feeling. “Turns out I’d rather puzzle over the mystery of where I know her from than think about dead people across the hall.
Or the craziness of today.” She shut off the burner and pushed the pan to the back of the stove, turning to Carlos. “Am I in denial?”
He got up and came around the counter. “I don’t know, are you? We could be in denial together.”
She rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t help.”
He managed a diminished smile and tugged her into his arms. “That’s the denial part. Where you pretend it does help, and you ignore the disconnected feelings.”
She wound her arms around his waist and tucked her head against his shoulder. “Fine.”
“Thanks for inviting me in.”
She knew he meant more than just her apartment today. “You’re welcome. I wish we had a better idea how to find Luci.”
“If either of us is facing craziness across the city, or dead bodies, I’m glad we’re doing it together.”
“Me, too.” She looked up at him but didn’t leave the comfort of his arms. “Should I be worried that two deaths have occurred in close proximity to me?”
He didn’t bother to hide the wince. “It’s possible the detective will have questions. We can find out more tomorrow, since they’ll be working the scene for hours yet. But it’ll be routine checking boxes. Since you didn’t kill anyone, you don’t need to be worried.”
“The truth will out.”
“Shakespeare?”
She shrugged. “I saw it in the Dominatus database and it stuck, I guess.”
“Thanks for looking for anything about that group, the Reverence Sisters, in their database. You never know when you’re going to find information that will give you a lead.”
She squeezed his waist, then stepped out of his arms. “I’ll keep praying for Luci.” She divided the food into two big pasta bowls and placed them on the breakfast bar, then took the stool beside him. “Is it always like this?”
“What?”
“The things you see at work. Then you come home, and it’s supposed to feel normal while there’s all this…chaos and death swirling in your head.”
“Yes, it’s often like this. Not always.” He shrugged. “It’s the job.”
“So you just stuff it down and pretend you’re fine?”
Carlos laughed, looking a bit surprised. “Not really, because then you end up with a stomach ulcer or a drinking problem. It’s better to deal with it, but without dumping on the people you care about so they’re dragged down with you.”
“Okay, so what’s the solution?”
“Maybe the answer to that is the answer to you.”
She eyed him. “What do you mean?”
“You understand police work and investigation in a way most people don’t. At least the kind of person who does the job. Have you thought about becoming a counselor? Talking people through things like what you’ve experienced the past couple of days?”
She didn’t want to dismiss the idea out of hand. “Might be worth thinking about. It takes a certain kind of person to do a job like that.”
He nudged her with his shoulder. “This is good food.”
She smiled around a bite of her own, enjoying the moment despite all the problems swirling around them. But maybe that was the point? To share peace with someone you cared about, who cared about you, despite what was happening.
Thank You.
She’d needed the reminder that peace was found even in the middle of chaotic circumstances and so much uncertainty.
No matter what happened around them, amid all the death and mayhem, she knew where to go to find calm. The kind of peace He gave was the only kind that could actually settle a person facing anything like what had been thrown at her lately. It was a wonder she’d be able to sleep at all.
But God.
And wasn’t that the way? No matter what, He was the one who made a way. All Eliana had to do was trust that He had written her path for her—and walk in it.
One step at a time.