Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Hutton
Achilles likes to cuddle up to my neck when I sleep in the crawl space at the parking ramp. His purring settles me. I nuzzle my face into his back.
Once it’s dark enough, I can sneak up to her room in the clinic. Sometimes I just read to her as she sleeps. It’s as peaceful as Achilles’s purring, the soft respirations, and the rising of her chest.
I’ve touched her cheek, even rubbed my face with the same fingers. With no ill effects.
It’s been days since I last saw my father. No one has bothered to look for me for testing, either. Number One has been gone and right now that’s the only important thing to know. Without her around everyone is more relaxed… and safe.
Running fingers over the crack in the cement where I’ve shoved paperwork, I slide the canvas used to cover the sailboat over the space, to make sure no one sees it if they look in.
Several inches down inside the crack where it bottoms out with dirt there lies a computer drive.
It’s all on there… everything. If they ever figure out I have it, they’ll kill us all.
Present Day
Matt comes back inside the room after speaking with Rick, my hapless cousin.
“I’m not sure how you figured out the case I’m reopening, but at this point it doesn’t matter since I’m not part of your detail anymore.
I’m asking you as a person that cares about Eden; what do you know about her background that you’re not saying? ”
Oh, he thinks we’re on the same side? He has some things to learn.
“I don’t have any information for you.” I turn my back on him and keep doing pull-ups.
Don’t trust anyone.
No one.
Just Eden.
“Even if I did know something, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Matt slams his hand down on the back of the chair next to him. “Don’t you understand that she’s in danger? You can help her and you’re refusing to.”
Wrong. I’m protecting her. “Listen… I need you to trust me. I could tell when you met her here that it wasn’t the first time. What. Do. You. Know?”
Keeping my face expressionless, I peer at him. A vein sticks out on his forehead. I’m getting to him.
“I have cameras in her room.” He follows me into the bathroom where I pull a cellphone down from the ceiling tiles. I’ve wanted to show him since I checked the feed. As soon as I heard she was taken, I knew. They found us. They knew who she was.
“You… what?” Confused, Matt holds out his hand as he strides my way. “Never mind… let me see.” I pass the phone to him, careful not to touch him.
Not because touch really bothers me anymore, but because I want to control how I’m viewed. Control the information.
He watches the video of Keir sitting on her bed as she gets up to go to the door.
She backs up a few steps with a hint of a smile on her face.
Still, no one enters the camera frame with her.
Keir waves and stands near the bed. Caleb steps into the frame from the direction of the bathroom and he’s pulled from view by someone.
Then Eden’s mouth drops open, and she starts to back away.
The feed ends. Someone found the camera.
“She knows the person who took her,” he states and replays it again.
I don’t say anything. He thinks she knows them. The quiet ones are the ones you learn about too late. If they’re here for her, names won’t matter.
Not this time.
I want my phone back, but I have two more hidden away. I get a feeling he won’t be relinquishing the phone back to me anyway. He pockets it in front of me. “Thank you. Now… tell me how you know her.”
He’s really trying my patience now.
Ignoring his existence, I pull my t-shirt off, wiping sweat from my forehead before dropping it to do pushups. I’ve aggravated him enough that he’s about to lose his carefully contained anger.
Once he loses it with me, I’m in control.
“I don’t know if you’re playing games or if you think you’re protecting someone, but either way your silence right now is only causing us to waste time. Do you understand that?” He tries to get eye contact with me as he squats in front of me, but I look over his head at the wall.
FBI Agent Luke or Matt or whatever his name is today, thinks he can get into my head. It’s not his fault that he’s clueless. I learned by the age of six that no one is safe.
“Don’t waste it then.” I jump back up to sit on the edge of one of the beds in the room. “No one told you it would be a good idea to question me again, did they?”
I want him to leave.
The sooner he gets a move on, the sooner I can break away from Rick. Whoever has Eden didn’t leave in a vehicle, they could be in the area somewhere.
Matt tenses while he assesses me with a thinly veiled rage settling under his skin. I almost like him. His indignation that I might be withholding information to save Eden is … commendable.
“The only reason I’m here talking to you is because I know she’s alive and within five miles of the Center.” He didn’t mean to tell me that, but he covers well. “You might not think I’m decent at my job, but I do have some tools on my side.”
Sitting up a little straighter, I force myself to act disinterested. How does he know that? “Oh? Are you making guesses now?”
Matt smirks at me. “I had access to a prototype of a tracking device. It’s a sticker the size of a piece of rice.
I managed to stick it on Eden’s neck during her sleep a couple of nights ago.
If it comes off, it loses all signal. If her heart stops beating, it senses that.
It can give coordinates of her location with an error rate within eight to ten meters.
I got the signal to come online about fifteen minutes ago. ”
“Impressive. Maybe you’re not completely useless.” I want more information about how he’s tracking the device, but that’ll only require submitting to his authority.
Pass.
He shakes his head at me. “Kid, you might be a genius, but you could use some lessons on persuasion.” Just when I think he’ll continue and give me something more to go on with Eden’s whereabouts, Rick comes back into the room.
“I’ll let you know if I hear anything about Davis or the resident.” He nods Matt’s way. “We still have plans to move Hutton in the next day or two. Mrs. Lassiter has been calling me several times a day to get updated on what he’s doing. Maybe she’ll relax once he’s on one of her properties.”
I’m not going anywhere. When I was exonerated on all charges, the FBI passed along my relocation request that came from Lassiter. It would seem that her money and power make her pushier than most.
“I’m not going anywhere. In fact, I don’t need to be babysat by the FBI, either. When is that my decision? I’m an adult.”
Rick takes a seat at the desk chair. “The threat to you hasn’t been neutralized. I’d argue you’re in more danger than we realized.” His brow furrowed; he looks at Matt to speak up.
“Why won’t you tell anyone who’s responsible for the massacre?” Matt asks me. “You know who it is, and for some reason you’ve never cooperated with the investigation. Why?”
No one would believe it.
Sometimes I don’t.
“I’d say I’ve cooperated by not leaving. I’ve had the ability to ditch you since we arrived, but I haven’t.” I’m the only one that can keep her from them. Unless they really have her this time.
“You need your head examined,” Rick says, exasperated with me. “I’ll pass along your wishes to leave protective custody, but I can assure you that my parents will fight that. You might not care if you live or die, but they do.” I note that he doesn’t say he does.
Turning back to Matt, I make the only concession I’m willing to. “Take me with you to look for Eden, and I’ll share one thing about Camp Carroll and the massacres with you. One thing.”
“Fine. Don’t jerk me around, if you’re coming with me then I expect real information and not some make believe bullshit meant to pacify me.”
My respect for Matt might be growing, or I really do need to have my mental health checked.