“You’re not just feeling—”
“Sorry for you?” Jim shook his head. “No way. There was something happening between us right from the start—don’t tell me you didn’t feel it.”
She lowered her head, hiding her face behind a curtain of hair.
“Let me take you back to Meg’s and then we can try to start over again.”
She looked up at him. “I don’t want to go to Meg’s.”
“But—”
“If you … if you really mean what you’ve been saying, take me home.”
Jim sat in stunned silence. Then a slow smile spread over his features. He reached over and picked up her duffel and sax.
“I liked that picture in today’s paper,” she said as they went to cash in her ticket.
“So what happens now?” Frank asked. “With the Slasher case?”
They were standing outside the 12th Precinct. John was waiting for Thomas in the pickup, parked by the curb.
“We keep working it until it plays itself out and something else comes up to take away the manpower. There aren’t going to be any more deaths, but there’s no way we can put what happened inside that building in a report.”
“What did happen in there?”
Thomas shook his head. “I’m not really sure. All I know is that the kid—the Slasher called her Niki, so we were right about the graffiti being connected—she dealt with him.”
Frank realized he wasn’t going to get any more out of his partner, not right now. But he could give it time. Besides, there were some more immediate concerns that had to be dealt with.
“And the Loot? He’s going to want some answers.”
“I know,” Thomas said. “But I can’t deal with that right now. Tell him I’ll be in tomorrow morning, first thing.”
There was no way they could foresee how it was going to play out, Frank thought, but taking in the shape his partner was in, considering how he’d stayed outside while Tom had gone into the building, he figured he could take the heat for now.
“Are you going to be okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m going to go home to Angie and try to connect myself back into the real world.”
Frank put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze, then stepped aside so that Thomas could join his brother in the pickup.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Frank,” Thomas said.
John drove slowly to Thomas and Angie’s apartment.
“So.” John said after a time. “Does this change anything?”
Thomas looked at him. “What? You mean the fact that all that mumbo jumbo’s for real?”
John shrugged.
“Or about my being a cop?”
John nodded.
Thomas looked out the windshield for the longest time, then slowly shook his head.
“I’m a good cop,” he said. “I know sometimes it doesn’t seem like what Frank and I do makes much of a difference, but the times when we do do some good make up for the times that we don’t. And I believe that I make a good role model for other Kickaha who can’t find a way to fit in on the reserve.” He glanced at his brother. “There’s got to be room for both; people have to choose for themselves. And just because I chose this life, it doesn’t mean I’m any less a Kickaha than someone who stays on the reserve.”
John made no reply. He concentrated on his driving, until he finally gave a grudging nod of agreement.
“We could still use you full-time,” he said. “But we’ll take what we can get. You won’t be a stranger?”
“You think you can get Dad to lay back a little?”
John laughed. “Hell, I’m going to be chief.”
“Like that’d make a difference to him.”
“You’re right. We’ll get Morn to work on him.”
First thing Monday morning, the receptionist for the social services center on Peel Street glanced up to find a young girl standing at her desk. She was a little scruffy-looking with that untidy thatch of short black hair, but at least she was dressed neatly. She didn’t seem to have that finger-to-authority attitude that so many teenagers who came in there had.
“Can I help you?” the receptionist asked.
“I’d like to go back to school.”
Well, that was nice for a change. The girl actually sounded as though she meant it.
“I’ll see if there’s a caseworker free,” the receptionist said as she took a form from a slot and put it into her typewriter. “Meanwhile, let’s get these forms filled out. What’s your name?”
“Niki. Nicola Chelsea Adams.”
THE WONDER IS NOT THAT THERE IS SO MUCH DARKNESS
THE WONDER IS THAT THERE IS ANY LIGHT AT All
ALLEN LEE HARRIS DELIVER US FROM EVIL
BY CHARLES DE LINT FROM TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES
ANGEL OF DARKNESS
DREAMS UNDERFOOT
THE FAIR IN EMAIN MACHA
FORESTS OF THE HEART
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM
GREENMANTLE
INTO THE GREEN
THE IVORY AND THE HORN
JACK OF KINROWAN
THE LITTLE COUNTRY
MEMORY AND DREAM
MOONHEART
MOONLIGHT AND VINES
THE ONION GIRL
SOMEPLACE TO BE FLYING
SPIRITWALK
SVAHA
TAPPING THE DREAM TREE
TRADER
YARROW
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM
Copyright © 1992 by Charles de Lint
Preface copyright © 2003 by Charles de Lint
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
This edition edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden.
An Orb Edition
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
eISBN 9781429911313
First eBook Edition : May 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Key, Samuel M.
From a whisper to a scream / Charles de Lint writing as Samuel M. Key.
p. cm.
1. Children—Crimes against—Fiction. 2. Serial murders—Fiction. 3. Photographers—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9199.3.D357 F76 2003
813’.54—dc21
2002035454
This book, written under the name Samuel M. Key, was originally published by Berkley Books in October 1992.
From a Whisper to a Scream Page 27