And yet the smell almost didn’t penetrate through the sight of what he was seeing in front of his eyes. There, in the back of the bar, was a plastic bag.
In the bag lurked a severed human ear and few strands of what looked to be dog hairs. And alongside the ear, a strip of paper on which was written a note.
I’ve lent you an ear. Now come and meet me in hell. It’s time to bury Caesar.
* * *
Had jumped backward as Joshua swung his arms about, bellowing like an enraged bear. The former agent’s fist almost connected with Had’s nose, but the motion propelled him toward the bed, where Joshua began to throw items around the room.
Both Coop and Reggie moved in to grab a hold of his flailing limbs, Reggie nearly getting clocked in the process. Joshua was incoherent, raging about death and dogs and daughters. It was a reaction they’d never seen before in the former agent, and from the looks on Coop and Reggie’s faces, they had no more idea of how to handle it than Had himself did.
Joshua yanked his arm out of Reggie’s grasp and made a grab for one of the bedside lamps. Pulling the light fixture cord out of the wall outlet, Joshua hurled the lamp at the window of the room. The lamp shattered apart as it made contact, the heavy curtain shielding the window from most of the blow.
Had wasn’t sure what to do, but he knew he had to do something. Joshua was out of control. Throwing himself at the former agent, Had took a fist to the left eye, but managed to tackle Joshua to the ground.
As they rolled about on the floor, Had could hear Joshua’s labored breathing, coming out in rough gasps that sounded more like sobs. The sound tore at Had’s heart, making him ache for the broken man who had lost his best friend.
“Joshua. Joshua,” Had said, trying to soothe the thrashing man beneath him. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
The ragged breathing resolved itself into something resembling human speech. “Bella. He has Bella.”
“She’s okay. It was just a couple of hairs.”
The thrashing stopped in an instant, and Joshua’s gaze pierced Had to the core. The former agent’s eyes were bloodshot and filled with tears.
“You don’t know that.”
“Why would he do it?” Had said to the man he considered a near brother. “Why would he hurt Bella? He knows she’s the best way to control you.”
Joshua groaned and rolled back over. “Because he’s done it before.”
Instead of more logic, Had just lay with Joshua, holding on to him, giving him support, letting him cry. For now Joshua was weeping in earnest, the ragged breaths giving way to bouts of sobbing.
They lay that way for what felt like several long minutes, Had feeling more helpless than he had for as long as he could remember. The pain evident in Joshua’s voice was like the blade of a saw, running back and forth across his sensibilities, leaving a deeper and deeper cut that was ragged around the edges.
And then the sobs began to subside, and Joshua spoke in a voice that was little more than a whisper. Had strained to hear.
“Get me out of this room.”
“I will,” Had replied. “Just give yourself a second.”
“No, you don’t understand.” Joshua voice was stronger this time, more insistent. “I can smell the whiskey.”
Now Had understood. The bottles that had broken on the floor must be acting like a siren song for the distraught alcoholic. They needed to get him away from the temptation as fast as they could.
“Coop?” Had called out. It would be better if she would be the one to take him away. First, she had more experience dealing with Joshua while he was in his addiction. Second, Had wanted to take a stab at the crime scene.
Nothing would help Joshua more than getting Bella back. And in order for that to happen, they had to have information.
Agent Cooper seemed to understand his plea, as she gently disentangled Joshua’s limbs from Had’s and helped the former agent to his feet. Moving at a snail’s pace, she walked him to the doorway, where Reggie opened the door for them both.
“Let’s get you out of here,” she murmured to Joshua as they left. And then the door clicked shut behind them.
Had sprang to his feet, rummaging around the hotel room in search of something he was fairly certain was there. Reggie looked on with an expression that seemed to be a combination of interest and shock.
“What are you doing? This is a crime scene.”
“I know,” Had answered. “But it’s one that Joshua’s already trashed.”
“Okay, that may be true,” she acceded, “but that doesn’t mean you can trash it more.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan.” Had found what he was looking for and held it up, triumphant. It was a blood testing kit.
“What the hell are you going to do with that?”
Had looked at Reggie like she was crazy. Did she not see what he was holding?
“It’s a blood testing kit. I’m going to test the blood. Duh.”
Had opened up the Hexagon OBT test box. It was used to make sure the blood was human. While it might not do much to ease Joshua’s mind, if Had could show the spatter definitively belonged to a human being, he could at least tell his friend that Bella hadn’t been hurt while she was being taken.
Reggie was right. He really shouldn’t be mucking around here. But they needed information, and they needed it fast. Waiting for the nearest crime scene unit to arrive would take way too much time, and as long as Reggie didn’t say anything, no one would have to know. The scene was way too much of a mess, and a good portion of it was made up of Lobo’s tools.
Had looked up at Reggie, holding her gaze. Putting as much confidence in his voice as he could muster, he answered her unspoken question.
“Don’t worry. I watch a lot of CSI.”
* * *
Sariah got off the phone with the crime lab, fighting down the urge to run Had through the wringer. When she’d come back in from dealing with Joshua and found the young man performing tests on several droplets of blood that he had found on the smooth surface of the nightstand, she had thought that she would blow a fuse. Had knew better than to tamper with a crime scene.
But at the end of the day, he’d been careful. He’d only disturbed one tiny area in a crime scene that was already almost hopelessly contaminated by Joshua’s mental break. And the information he’d manage to glean had been useful in helping the former agent to calm down. For all Sariah knew, it was the only thing that had kept Joshua sober last night.
Sariah glanced at the clock radio on Joshua’s nightstand. She’d stayed here through the night, taking the couch after putting the former agent to bed. It was now past 9 in the morning, and Joshua was in taking a shower.
When he’d awoken this morning, he hadn’t said a word to her. Just stared at her for a long moment, nodded, then shuffled off to the bathroom.
His ankle bracelet hadn’t been triggered, so she knew he was still sober. Before putting him to bed she’d swept his minibar to make sure there was nothing in there that would tempt him. Nothing but peanuts, bottled water and candy bars had stared back at her once she was done.
The door to the bathroom opened, and Joshua strode out, clothed in a bath towel. He was lean, almost to the point of being gaunt, the slight fleshiness he’d had when Sariah had first met him having been stripped away by months of sobriety. He was in his mid to late forties, but just looking at his frame, he appeared to be a man of almost ten years younger.
Until you looked into his eyes.
Without any word or warning, the former agent dropped his towel and began getting dressed. Sariah averted her eyes and almost laughed. That was so like Joshua.
In a towel? Got a guest in your room? Screw it, go ahead and get dressed. If they’re uncomfortable, it’s their problem.
As he dressed, he spoke. “What did you find out?”
Sariah glanced back at him, forgetting his nakedness for a moment. “How--?”
“I heard you get on the phone befo
re I got into the shower.”
“But…” She’d heard the shower running for a full minute or two before she’d made the call to the lab. What had he been doing in there?
Joshua seemed to see the question in her face. He tossed her something, which she caught by instinct. It was one of those small hotel bottles, and this one was filled with mouthwash.
“I was debating whether or not I should drink the complimentary mouthwash,” he stated in a flat tone. “Just in case you were thinking that I was doing okay.”
The bottle appeared to have been opened, but was still full, or mostly so. “Did you…?” she began, not sure she wanted to know the answer. His bracelet monitor hadn’t gone off, but…
“No,” he responded, a bitter note creeping into his voice. “But not from any sort of personal willpower.” He pointed at the bottle in her hand. “It’s the kind that doesn’t have any alcohol in it.”
Sariah opened her mouth to comment, but then let it shut. The only way he would know that was if he had tasted it.
“Yeah,” he said, answering her unspoken question. “It’s that bad.” He cleared this throat, pulled on a t-shirt over his head, then turned back to face her. “So tell me what you found out.”
Shifting gears, Sariah spelled out the basics of what she’d discovered. “The hair was from a canine… but you already knew that.” She rushed on, not wanting to linger on that point. “The ear was from a female, and the blood type matches the one we have on file for Lobo. It’s gotta be her.” Then she added one thing more. “Joshua, there was no trace of canine blood anywhere.”
Joshua nodded, his eyes softening for a brief moment. “Thanks.” Then his face hardened again. “So Salazar’s the mole.”
Sariah shifted in her chair. “We don’t know that for sure.”
“What do you mean? Who else could it be?”
“I don’t want to say yet. We need to talk to the rest of the team.”
Grimacing, Joshua nodded. “I guess that has to happen sooner or later. Bring ‘em in.”
His statement caught Sariah off guard, until she remembered that Joshua had struck Had yesterday. “He’s fine, Joshua,” she assured him, as she texted Had and Reggie, telling them to come to Joshua’s room. He just grunted in response.
Sariah could almost feel the pain and fear radiating off the man in front of her. He was broken, hurting, and yet all she saw when she looked in his eyes was a numbness that frightened her with its emptiness. It looked like Joshua had gone dead inside.
And somehow, that was worse than seeing him lose it in Agent Lobo’s room last night. Far, far worse.
There was a knock on the door. Reggie and Had must have been waiting just outside the door. She strode to the door to open it, and the two officers spilled inside within seconds.
Had rushed over to Joshua and wrapped him up in a huge hug. The young officer’s left eye was swollen mostly shut, and a bruise had begun to form around the injury. He looked like a beaten boxer.
Joshua seemed to fight the embrace for a moment, then let go, allowing Had to hold him. As he hugged the former agent, Had spoke into Joshua’s shoulder.
“I was so worried about you.”
After a moment, Joshua disentangled himself. “Okay, all right, you can let go now. I’m fine.”
Had looked into Joshua’s face and shook his head. “No, you’re not. But that’s okay. We’re going to find Bella. I think I know where to look.”
“Where?” Sariah cut in. Any information they could get on Agent Lobo and Bella’s whereabouts was vital.
There was what looked like a brief flash of excitement in Had’s face that he quickly quelled. He glanced from her to Joshua and back again.
“We’re going to have to go to Centralia.”
And then it clicked in Sariah’s mind. The message in the bag that had contained Bella’s hairs and Lobo’s ear. It had said, Now come and meet me in hell.
Hell. Pretty good descriptor for a town that was burning from an eternal underground fire.
But there was another, more difficult conversation she needed to have with Had right now. She held out her hand toward the officer.
“Had, can I see your phone?”
The young man looked over at her, his eyes wide. “Why do you want to see my phone?”
Sariah just held her hand out, waiting.
After another minute of squirming, Had pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and handed it over to her. As he dropped the phone in her hand, he spoke.
“Before you look, I’ll tell you. I texted Nadira.”
On hearing those words, Joshua went still. The lack of movement was not one of peace, but one of extreme tension. The waves that were coming off the former agent were palpable, the energy dark and angry.
“I’m sorry, Joshua. I really thought…” Had began, but then trailed off. “I don’t think it was her. I really don’t. But if I was the reason…”
“Get out,” Joshua said, his voice not much above a whisper.
“Joshua, we--” Sariah began.
“Get. Out.” His voice turned into a low growl, the sound of an animal about to attack.
Had nodded, his face miserable. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He walked out of the room, his head hanging low. Reggie followed close on his heels.
But Sariah stayed right where she was. Joshua lifted his head, his eyes burning coals of fury.
“I said, get out.”
“I heard you,” she replied. “I’m just not going.”
The muscle in Joshua’s jaw worked as he clenched his teeth so tight that Sariah was sure he was going to shatter them all. But she still didn’t move.
“What do you want from me?” he gasped after a long, tense moment.
“Had screwed up. Big. But that doesn’t matter right now.”
“Doesn’t--?”
Sariah cut him off, her tone sharp. “We’ve got a fellow agent and your dog to rescue. We don’t have time to waste on the blame game. We needed to know whether or not Nadira might be involved. That’s it.”
For a second, Sariah thought that Joshua was going to attack her, the look on his face was so filled with fury. But then he nodded his head, once. A jerk of the strings by a master puppeteer, who wanted it made clear that while he might be giving assent, he was not letting go of his rage.
Reaching down to her lower leg, Sariah unbuckled her ankle holster that carried her spare gun she kept there. Holding the weapon and its holster by the muzzle section, she handed it to Joshua, with no discernible reaction present on his face.
“Just in case. You’re the only one on the team who isn’t carrying,” she said, then stopped and gave him a look. “Just don’t use it on Had.”
It might have been her imagination, but she could have sworn Joshua’s lip twitched. She hoped it was that, and not that he was seriously thinking about it.
Sariah straightened her shoulders and turned to follow Had and Reggie out of Joshua’s hotel room. It was time for her to have a chat with Had.
She wasn’t looking forward to it. Not at all.
* * *
The silence in the car was oppressive.
Reggie had just read a sign warning those who would venture into this area of the potential dangers. Underground mine fire. Walking or driving in this area could result in serious injury or death. Dangerous gasses are present. Ground is prone to sudden collapse.
Pennsylvania was doing what it could to make this place sound attractive.
The terrain was an odd mixture of lushness and bleak wasteland. Areas of jagged cracks had appeared both off the road and on it, the breaks in the earth fuming with foul and toxic smoke. They had long since rolled the windows up, but the air coming through the vents smelled of sulfur and smoke.
Had shifted in his seat to Reggie’s right, his face a sagging study in remorse. Reggie had seen Coop talking to Had before they’d gotten into the car. The conversation had not seemed like a pleasant one.
Reggie reached ove
r and gave Had a playful punch in the arm. He started up, surprised, and for a moment looked like he thought the jab had been for real. When he realized that she was joking with him, he gave her a tentative smile.
“What do you know about Centralia?” she asked, knowing the cop was holding onto some primo factoids about the place where they were headed. Who knew? Maybe they’d prove to be useful.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, Reggie caught sight of Joshua’s face. He was not happy. Whether that was an extension of his problem with Had, or if he was mad at her for talking with the enemy was up for debate.
Had opened his mouth to answer, when the car lurched underneath them. Reggie had just enough time to think that they must have hit something when there was a huge crack from out in front of the car.
Reggie stared in horror as the earth opened up in front of them, a gaping mouth ready to swallow them whole. Slamming on the breaks, Reggie yanked the wheel to avoid the expanding hole in the middle of the road.
And it worked. To a point.
The car was going too fast and she had pulled the wheel too hard. For an earth-shattering moment, she felt the momentum of the car pull them away from horizontal and time slowed down to allow her to feel the full panic of the vehicle beginning to roll.
And then time sped back up to normal and beyond, with the road and the horizon and the sky exchanging places faster than Reggie could keep up. Something struck her in the side of the face, but she barely registered the impact as the car flipped over and over, the moment seeming to extend into infinite space.
There was nothing on which she could focus. Every detail of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell rushed by with the speed of each revolution of the car. Without warning, and with no apparent logic, the airbags deployed, enveloping Reggie in their hard cushioning strength. She felt violated by them, pinned for a moment against her seat.
There was no time. There was eternity. And trapped in between was the horror of knowing that she had killed them all.
If she had been paying more attention, been less engaged with Had at the moment, been a better driver… the mantra of her failure played out in her mind. When the car struck something solid, the car’s momentum was stopped in an instant and Reggie’s consciousness was snuffed out like a candle’s flame.
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