Chapter 71 #15
“The road is always there. The fact that it appeared when you lost focus means that, most likely, it’s not a direction that will lead to Kali. But it’s easy enough for a person to become lost in the neighborhoods if they give in to impulse and follow a road or a path that suddenly appears.”
Beth sighed and drank from the other bottle of juice. “Sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. That’s why you’re doing this with me. To learn the dangers.”
“Right. You’re the trainer; I’m the trainee.”
“Rest your brain for a minute. Look at the sky, listen to the birds until you’re ready to focus again.”
She wanted to get out of the car and stretch her legs, walk a bit, but she didn’t dare. Not until she understood how easy it might be to get swallowed up in one of Wyrd’s neighborhoods.
After a couple of minutes, she unfolded the missing person flyer and studied the image of Yaron Kali. “All right. I’m ready.”
Jack started the car. Beth looked up. The fork in the road faded like the Cheshire cat until there was nothing there.
They stopped at villages, at farmhouses, anywhere a handful of people had built a place to live. No one had seen Yaron Kali, and yet they drove over the one road available to them—as long as she didn’t lose focus, didn’t lose her intention to find this one man.
The third time they were confronted with so many one-lane roads, riding trails, and game trails that the impression was one of driving into the branches of trees, Jack held to the road while Beth closed her eyes and struggled to stay focused through a pounding headache.
“We’ll stop here for the day,” Jack said, pulling into the parking lot of what looked like a seedy motel. “The place is cleaner than it looks and has decent water pressure if you want a hot shower. There’s also a pizza parlor just down the street, if that’s of interest.”
“It’s the middle of the afternoon,” Beth protested.
“You’re done, Beth. Staying focused for extended periods of time is exhausting, especially when you’re new to doing it. Stay here. I’ll get us a room.”
It wasn’t until he returned with a key and carried his duffel and her weekender inside that she realized he really meant one room.
“They didn’t have another room free?” She noticed her weekender was on one bed and his duffel was on the other. Still, she hadn’t expected to be sharing a room with Jack.
“You need an anchor,” he said quietly. “And we both need rest.”
“I wouldn’t go anywhere.”
“You wouldn’t mean to go anywhere. That’s not the same thing.”
“But you know this place. Where are we?”
“Don’t ask that question.” The tone of voice was a flat warning.
Are we still on the Isle of Wyrd? Right now, seeing the look in Jack’s eyes, she didn’t dare ask that question.
“If it’s all right with you, I’m going to take something for this headache and then take a hot shower.”
“Go ahead.”
Bringing her weekender into the bathroom, Beth took a couple of pills for the headache, then undressed.
The bathroom’s fixtures were old but clean, and the water pressure was sufficient to help loosen her tight neck and shoulder muscles.
By the time she finished her shower and pulled on clean clothes, she thought she might be ready for some food by the time Jack took his shower.
She sat on the side of her bed and watched Jack walk into the bathroom. She heard the shower. She didn’t hear anything else until two hours later when Jack woke her up and suggested they get something to eat.
56
Tom Castelletti strode into the team’s area of the precinct, swearing under his breath.
Ian Kuhn stared at him. “Did the results from the DNA tests come in already?”
Tom shook his head. “Bonnie Wilson did a runner.”
“What?”
“She was supposed to talk to the mayor, the district attorney, and the chief of police this morning to answer questions about this DNA sample that allegedly came from Beth Fahey. Instead, she packed up and left the hotel very early this morning without settling her bill, and, get this—the credit card she’d provided at check-in no longer had enough of a balance to take care of the room and meals because on her way out of town, she withdrew as much cash as she could from that card. ”
“Is she heading home?”
Tom rubbed his hands over his face. “A cop in her hometown saw something about her on social media and called the precinct early this morning, hoping we could help locate her. Last night there was a storm in that area of the country. Her house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground before the fire department could get the blaze under control.”
“Shit.”
“That’s not all. An anonymous source sent the mayor and the chief of police a list of the casinos where Bonnie Wilson likes to play—and tends to lose. She owes thousands at each of those places—and she plays at places where the debt collectors wear brass knuckles and carry saps…and guns.”
“Why did they let her keep playing?”
Tom shrugged. “Maybe they were pressuring her now that they realized she couldn’t deliver on what she owed.”
Kuhn rubbed the back of his neck. “What if she tried to hold off the casinos by telling them she was coming to Penwych to collect money she was owed? With her being on TV and blabbing Fahey’s name, do you think those people will come looking to get their money from Fahey if they can’t get it from Wilson? ”
Swearing, Tom took out his cell phone and called Fahey. The call went to voicemail. “Fahey, it’s Castelletti. I need you to check in as soon as you get this message.”
“Unless Bonnie Wilson didn’t really do a runner, and there is a reason why Fahey can’t check in,” Kuhn said quietly.
Swearing viciously, Tom called another number—a number he’d hoped he wouldn’t need to call while Captain Forrester was away on vacation.
“Frost.”
“Mr. Frost, this is Detective Castelletti at the thirteenth precinct. I need to get in touch with Detective Fahey.”
“She’s searching for the missing people.”
“I’m aware of that, but we need to contact her, and she isn’t answering her cell phone.”
“Most likely, she’s currently in a neighborhood where that kind of communication isn’t possible. If it’s any comfort, Detective Fahey is working with my brother, Jack. He’ll look after her.”
That wasn’t any comfort at all. All the cops had heard rumors about Jack Frost—rumors that made Jack the Ripper sound like a Boy Scout.
But rumors were all they had. They couldn’t prove anything about anything, and more often than not, there were signs of a violent crime but no body, and without a body, they had nothing.
“If you hear from them, tell Fahey I really need to talk to her.”
“I’ll tell her.” Frost ended the call.
“Should we call the captain?” Kuhn asked.
Tom shook his head. “There’s nothing he could do, even if he were here.”
“So we wait for something else to happen.”
“Yeah. We wait.”
57
Colin stood under the shower and thought he would never take hot water for granted again—or being able to use water that wasn’t rationed by the bucket.
He’d felt sad to leave Llamalidia, especially since he knew it was unlikely he would ever visit there again.
But the cria who had been taking weaving lessons along with him presented him with their work, and the adults had done the finishing so that he had four unique place mats to give to his mother.
They weren’t coordinated or perfect or anything, but he knew she’d get a kick out of them, just like she would get a kick out of the postcards he’d bought at one of the stores here.
He couldn’t tell if the town was retro on purpose, or if the people who lived there felt no need to modernize…anything. He could see how a town like this worked for Tia. It provided everything a person needed, but everyone moved at an easy pace.
It was like a pocket of yesterday, he decided as he dressed to go out for dinner and a movie. His mom had packed one dress shirt when she’d sent the second batch of clothes. It was a bit wrinkled now, but he thought it would do well enough with a clean pair of jeans.
Tia’s room at the hotel was right across from his. When he was ready, he knocked on her door. She wasn’t wearing a dress—he wasn’t sure she owned one—but, like him, she’d dressed up a bit for their final night.
“You want burgers and fries again?” Tia asked. “Or we can go for a steak.”
“Since we got here in time to have burgers for lunch, let’s go for the steak.” Colin thought a moment. “Will we have time to eat before the movie?”
“We’ll have time. And the movie house has two theaters, so neither of us has to pretend we want to see a romantic comedy if that is one of the choices.”
“Action?”
Tia smiled. “You never know what you’ll find when you come here. At least, in terms of movies.”
They found Jaws. Sharing a large tub of popcorn with Tia while the shark terrorized a town, Colin thought it was the best evening he’d had in a long time.
58
Richard turned on the water at a sink in the men’s room, washed his hands, and tried to decide what to do now that the check Bonnie Wilson wrote to cover his expenses had bounced.
The woman had seemed solid when she’d hired him to keep track of her errant “niece,” but when he caught her on the TV, ranting about having proof that the woman he’d been tracking wasn’t pure human, he figured it was best to disappear for a couple of days.
But disappearing required money, and now he was short of cash.
A toilet flushed. A man stepped out of one of the stalls.
The guy looked familiar. Where had he seen that face before? Maybe in the restaurant? Somewhere else?
The man washed his hands and dried them. He smiled at Richard. “I don’t know what you did, but you sure pissed off somebody, and now they want to balance the scales.”
Richard felt cold sweat roll down his spine. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know you.”
“You don’t need to know me. I’m just here to do a job. But you do know what I’m talking about. You helped mess up a young woman’s life. Now it’s time to pay.”