Paradox (FBI Thriller 22)

“Already did. Sorry, guys, nothing there. If she did do something criminal when she was a teenager and was arrested, her photo should have been in the database, unless it was sealed by the court. I couldn’t find her. But you do have enough to take her in for questioning. I’ll follow up with you tomorrow about the belt buckle.”

When he’d clicked off, Sala said, “The only reason for her to re-create herself is if she had something to hide, something that could ruin her life, maybe someone else’s life. Maybe something criminal. Or was she running from someone who scared her so badly she had to disappear her old life completely? Or what? Get sent to jail?”

Ty sighed. “Why did she move to Haggersville? And what did it have to do with Mr. Henry? And she attacked Leigh Saks because she was afraid of what Leigh would tell the hotline about the belt buckle? It belonged to an Israeli colonel. How did the colonel’s belt buckle get to Mr. Henry? It’s all about the dratted belt buckle, Sala. It’s at the core of all of this. If we find out why, we’ve got our motive.”

Sala said, “But that’s the point. We still have no motive and no proof. If we confront her with what we know, she could run.”

“As of this afternoon, she was keeping all her appointments, working at the crematorium, business as usual. It wouldn’t be easy, packing your suitcase while your husband is standing at your elbow, wondering what’s going on.”

“We need something more to hold her on,” Sala said.

Ty thought there was something more she did know, something important, but she couldn’t quite grasp it. She had to settle, maybe get some sleep.

69

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Ty was sitting on the top stair of the massive staircase at Gatewood mansion. She heard voices from downstairs, from the living room, a shout of laughter. She wanted to walk downstairs and join them, wanted to get closer because they were enjoying themselves so much. But she couldn’t move. She tried again, heaving with the effort, but it was like some great force was holding her in place. She felt something that made her afraid, saw something dark casting shadows on the high ceilings downstairs in the entrance hall, darkening its corners. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew it was evil. And it was coming closer, to her and to the happy voices talking and laughing. She wanted to warn the voices, but she still couldn’t move. She tried to shout to them to run, but nothing came out of her mouth. She covered her eyes with her fists, wishing she could will herself away from there because now she was so afraid, she was scared to even breathe. She felt movement beside her and would have screamed if she could. She opened her eyes and saw a pretty young girl standing over her on the staircase. She wasn’t looking at Ty but down the stairs, and she seemed focused on the laughing voices, just as Ty had been. Ty said, “I wanted to go down and laugh with them, but now I know there’s something evil down there. It won’t let me move. Will it let you move? Can you warn them?”

“I can move, but it doesn’t matter, not now. You’re right, he’s here. They’ll all be dead soon.” She paused, cocked her head. Ty felt the evil coming toward them.

“No!”

“Ty, wake up!”

Now the pretty young girl was huddled down above her, her back pressed against the staircase wall. Then she ran, up the stairs to the third floor.

“Ty, come on, wake up!” He shook her shoulders, and she moaned, convulsing with fear, trying to pull away.

“He’s coming, he’s coming! But I can’t see his face! Why can’t I see him?”

Sala shook her once again, harder this time. Ty snapped awake, her vision blurred, her brain churning. Slowly, the pretty girl faded away, the terrifying blackness faded away. The laughter and voices were last, but then they too disappeared, leaving only Gatewood, standing gray and tall and empty on Point Gulliver, in a soundless world. Ty sucked in air. She stared up at Sala, his face dim in the night. She recognized his scent, his voice, and quieted. She whispered, “He killed them, Sala, and there was nothing I could do, nothing she could do.”

She was icy to the touch, and Sala imagined her pupils were dilated from the shock of it, the fear. He grabbed up the single blanket and wrapped it around her, then pulled her against him, rubbed his hands up and down her back. “You’re all right, you’re okay. You had a doozy of a nightmare, sounded as dramatic and scary as any of mine. That’s right, Ty, take slow, deep breaths. I’ve got you.”

She whispered against his neck, “Sala?”

“I’m here.”

Slowly Ty pulled back. She was still breathing hard, almost panting, remembering the awful fear, the helplessness.

“Who killed them, Ty? Who were they?”

Finally, she began to calm. She said, “I was at Gatewood, Sala, sitting on the landing stairs, and they were downstairs laughing and talking. I wanted to go down and be with them, but I couldn’t move, and I knew something was holding me there. I couldn’t escape it. Then a blackness came, and it spread all over the house. And she was there, and she knew as well as I did it was coming. Then she ran away to hide.”

As she spoke, the girl’s words were beginning to blur and fade away. Ty leaned against him, finally felt her breathing even. Sala said nothing more.

She said against his shoulder, “Sala, before I went to sleep, I was thinking about Gatewood, and I could see the outline of the belt buckle in the water off the end of the dock. And the bones, stretching out, almost to infinity. Then I dreamed I was there, Sala, and the girl at Gatewood was there, too—I know who she was.” And Ty told him the story every citizen of Willicott knew, a terrifying story still told to keep the kids away from Gatewood. “She was only fifteen when a madman murdered her father, her mother, her brother, stabbed them and threw their bodies off the Gatewood dock into Lake Massey. They couldn’t find her body, though, and some people came to believe she’d murdered them and run away after stealing the money her father kept in his safe.”

Sala said, “But she survived.”

She settled against him again, nodded against his neck. “Tomorrow morning, before we go back to Haggersville, I want to make a stop at Charlie Corsica’s house. I think we’ve found her.”

70

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KOUGAR'S PHARMACY