Meanwhile, she couldn’t quell the feeling that something was desperately wrong. Surely, her mother and grandmother weren’t in immediate danger. If the McGavins wanted to force Jake to help them, John Deere would kidnap her, not go after her mom.
But what if that’s essentially what was happening? What if they’d tailed her to the apartment, after all? As they exited the highway and drew closer to her grandmother’s house, she couldn’t keep her roiling emotions to herself. “Jake shouldn’t have gone for a walk. It was stupid! What if John Deere was waiting for him?”
“I told him that. He wouldn’t listen.”
“Jake could be bleeding on some sidewalk this very minute! Or kidnapped and tortured till he tells them whatever they want to know!”
“Let’s just take this one step at a time, Ellie,” Daniel replied. His calmness was only agitating her all the more.
What if the gunman is dragging Jake to the McGavins right now? They’ll kill him the moment he’s no longer useful to them. “Call him.”
“No. It’s too easy to get mobile-phone tracking devices.”
Ellie realized she was starting to hyperventilate. She gripped the armrests and tried to steady her breathing. “This is the street. It’s on the next block, a brick house on our left.”
As Daniel slowed the car, she stared in confusion through the windshield. Her grandmother’s house should have been right there, one house ahead of this one and directly across the street. But that house couldn’t possibly be her grandmother’s home. That brick house was encircled by a half-dozen squad cars. There was an ambulance in the driveway. An officer was stringing up yellow plastic tape, ordering the seven or eight people watching on the sidewalk to keep back. It looked identical to Ellie’s grandmother’s house, but it was a crime scene.
Daniel parked behind a police car.
“This is a mistake,” Ellie said, still staring out the window. “This can’t be happening.”
“Wait here,” Daniel said.
Ellie ignored him and got out of the car. She ran up to a man with gray hair, his arm around the shoulders of a slender woman who must have been his wife.
“What happened?” Ellie asked, already shaking uncontrollably.
“Someone said it was a murder suicide,” the man answered.
Ellie was vaguely aware that someone strong had grabbed her around the shoulders and was supporting her weight; otherwise she’d have been flat on the ground.
A middle-aged woman turned to face Ellie and declared: “It’s Cassandra Montgomery. Her child and her husband were killed just before Christmas. She must have snapped. She shot her mother, then herself.”
Chapter 28
Ellie didn’t remember getting into the car. By the time she came to her senses, she realized that she was sobbing on Daniel’s chest and his arms were around her. She didn’t recognize this neighborhood. Daniel must have carried her to the car, driven a few miles away, and then pulled over.
She couldn’t stop a hitch in her breathing but she had, at least, managed to quiet her wracking sobs. “They killed my mother!” she cried in a halting voice, Daniel still holding her as close as the awkward car seats would allow. “They killed my grandmother!”
“I know. We’ll get them. We’ll stop the McGavins.”
“How? This was a senseless killing! They’ll do anything! They’ll stop at nothing!”
A thought took possession of Ellie’s brain: I’ll kill them myself!
She grabbed at both sides of Daniel’s jacket. His pockets were empty. “Where’s your gun? Give me your gun!”
“No! I’m not giving you my gun!”
She threw open the glove box. Daniel pushed her back and pinned her to the seat. “You have to control yourself! You have to get through this!”
She tried in vain to shove him away, still trying to find his gun, even though part of her knew that would serve no purpose. “I can’t! I cannot ‘get through this!’”
“You can. Because you have no choice!”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Ellie shrieked. “You don’t know how this feels! Nobody does! Nobody in the entire world has experienced this! Ever! I’m the only one. They didn’t kill Jake’s parents! Nobody wiped out his family!”
I could shoot myself and end this thing here and now!
“You can’t give up,” Daniel said. “There’s nobody to surrender to.”
“Leave me alone! Let me go!” Daniel had pinned her arms and was too strong for her. She was wasting what little energy she had left; she knew she couldn’t bring herself to hit him. She let herself go limp. Maybe she could simply will her heart to stop beating as well.
He released her, and she buried her face with her hands.
When she opened her eyes a moment later, Daniel was standing beside her opened passenger door. He started to tuck her into a blanket that he must have gotten from the trunk. “You’re shivering. Do you want to try to lie down in the back seat? I’ll drive carefully.”
“Mom said that to me over the phone tonight,” Ellie said, reclining her seat as far as it would go. “She told me to drive carefully.” She released her seatbelt so she could curl sideways in her seat, her back toward Daniel. Ellie felt the worst kind of exhaustion—one of hopeless defeat.
#
Ellie was being jostled. She opened her eyes and realized that she had fallen asleep in the car. They must have arrived at their apartment. Daniel was trying to lift her. She shoved him away. “I can carry you,” he said.
“I can walk.” She kept hold of Daniel’s blanket and draped it over her shoulders.
He led the way into the lobby, then into to the elevator instead of the stairs. She didn’t care where she was going or how she got there. She just didn’t want to let her thoughts return. She wedged herself into the corner of the elevator.
“Ellie, I wish—”
“I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to think. You have to tell Jake what happened.”
“Okay.”
“See if he’s got any sedatives. I want to sleep through the next year or two.”
Daniel ushered her to the apartment. The door was locked. Ellie wondered if Jake was being extra cautious or if he was still out walking the streets. She trudged into her bedroom and shut the door. She sat on the edge of her bed, feeling numb, unable now to move.
“Ellie?” Daniel’s voice. The bathroom door was open a crack; her bathroom had two doors—one that opened into the hallway and one that opened into her bedroom. He entered her room. “Here’s an Ambien.”
She extended her palm, and he gave her a small pill, then held out a glass of water. She swallowed the pill along with a couple of sips of water. “Thanks,” she muttered.
“I’ll be right here if you need anything. So is Jake.”
She nodded. Jake can’t even stand to speak for himself? Saying: I can’t talk isn’t the same thing as saying: I don’t need someone’s shoulder to cry on.
Daniel let himself out through the bathroom.
She curled up on top of her covers and cried.
The next time Ellie opened her eyes, she was in bed. Someone was touching her cheek. Although it was dark, she could see Jake’s features. He was kneeling at the side of her bed, smoothing the still-short hair back from her forehead. He jerked his hand away when he met her gaze.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s okay. Too groggy. Doesn’t matter.”
“I’m so sorry, Ellie. I’d have given anything to keep your mom safe. I don’t know why they did this. It was senseless.”
The memories were flooding back like a tsunami. Ellie felt awake and yet foggy. “At the coffee shop, Jennifer McGavin told me she wanted ‘to pick your brain.’ They killed my mother to send a message to both of us—that they’ll stop at nothing to get their way. And they want you to surrender.”
“That’s what I need to do, then. Otherwise, they’ll keep taking one victim after the next.”
“No!” Ellie
cried. “You can’t surrender, Jake. You can’t. They’ll turn you into Ethan. They’ll turn me into Jennifer. You’re the only one who can convince the medical community of what they’re doing. If you don’t stop them, no one else will be able to. Get your parents away, Jake. Get them safe.”
“I will. We’re already on it. Fake sweepstakes’ prize. They’ll be on a Caribbean cruise, that embarks on Sunday.”
In spite of herself, Ellie started to cry. “I have no family, Jake. I have no friends. No connections to my life, not even to the actual body that I grew up in. For the rest of my life, any man who’s ever attracted to me will really be attracted to Alexis Bixby, whose beautiful body we stole.”
He handed her a tissue. “I’ve always thought you were beautiful,” Jake said quietly as she dried her eyes.
Ellie was too stunned to respond. He averted his gaze, and a moment later, he left the room.
He just feels sorry for me, Ellie said to herself.
She shut her eyes. Still. It’s one of the nicest things anybody’s ever said to me. I hope I remember what he said when I wake up.
#
Ellie awoke to menstrual cramps. She glanced at the clock en route to the bathroom. It was almost two in the afternoon. Her eyes were so swollen from crying that she could barely open them. Her entire body ached. She didn’t remember getting undressed, but she was now wearing only her bra and panties. Wondering how she could possibly live through the day, she grabbed the box of tampons she’d stashed under the sink.
When she emerged from the bathroom, she started to go back to bed. Someone was stirring in the living room, she realized. She groaned at the realization that they were supposed to move today. She pulled on jeans and a v-neck top and dragged herself out her door.
Daniel was sitting in the recliner, using the piano bench as an end table while he skimmed a document. He put the paper facedown, looked at her with sad eyes, and said nothing.
She sat down on the leather sofa. “Are we moving today?”
He shook his head. “Not till Monday. We decided to take an extra precaution and get a second place at a different location. I moved some random junk into the first apartment as a fake out this morning. Jake did the same an hour or two ago. He’s probably on his way back by now.”
In other words, Ellie surmised, Jake and Daniel were taking turns watching over her. Most likely, the actual reason they were delaying the move was so that she could regain some fortitude. “Thanks,” she said quietly.
Daniel either read her thoughts or was humoring her, but he gave her a slight nod. “Are you hungry?” he asked. “Can I make you some breakfast?”
She ignored the question. She felt scattered. Part of her wanted to believe that her mother was still alive. “We didn’t talk to any of the police officers last night. Maybe the neighbors were wrong. We don’t even know if there were two fatalities.”
“There were. It was on internet news reports this morning,” Daniel said gently. “I’m sorry.”
“But . . . my mom was really smart. Maybe they used Jake’s device to . . . to . . . .” She let her voice fade. Daniel was already shaking his head.
“According to the police report, both women were shot through the head,” he said gently.
Ellie held her breath to keep herself from crying yet again. So my mom is dead. Maybe my parents are together in heaven. She wasn’t sure she believed in heaven anymore, but she knew that her parents and grandparents had. Heaven could exist for the deeply devout and the genuinely good people—a corollary of Descartes’ Cogito ergo sum—I believe, therefore it exists.
A memory returned from when Ellie was a little girl. Her father had come home from work with a big bouquet of red roses. “What are the roses for?” her mother asked, and he’d replied, “No special occasion. I just wanted to buy flowers for the most beautiful woman in the world.” Ellie had been awestruck: her very own mother was the most beautiful woman alive! Her mother had put her arms around his neck and said, “I’m married to most handsome man in the world.” Ellie knew even back then that her father wasn’t the handsomest man on the block, let alone the world. Yet the way her parents had looked into each other’s eyes, she sensed that they believed their own words.
I’ve always thought you were beautiful. Jake’s words to her last night. He’d sounded sincere. He’d looked into her eyes.
For all his faults, Jake might be the one person in the world who saw Ellie’s face when he looked at Alexis’s pretty features, and truly believed that Ellie was beautiful. “Maybe it doesn’t matter.”
“Maybe what doesn’t matter?” Daniel asked.
Ellie was startled that she’d spoken aloud, but answered, “The fact that when people look at me, they’re seeing someone else. It’s been so hard, knowing I’m just an imposter . . . a plain-looking girl, occupying a pretty girl’s stolen body.”
Daniel studied her features for a long moment, his expression so sad that she couldn’t help but think that he truly felt her pain. “I never met you then, but, for what it’s worth, I honestly wish I had. All I can say is, you’ve got a beautiful soul, Ellie.”
“Thanks,” she replied. She was already wondering, though, if such a good-looking guy would truly have taken a second glance at her some two or three months ago.
“In contrast,” Daniel continued, “I’ve only seen pictures of the McGavins, but I know what they’ve done, and they’re two of the ugliest people who ever lived.”
You can say that again, Ellie thought. “Jake told me you’re getting his folks out of immediate danger with a ruse. We need to protect the Bixbys, too.”
Daniel nodded, but looked slightly pained.
“What?” Ellie asked.
“Your mother and grandmother wanted to believe you’re still alive. Which means your mom would have helped you to expose the McGavins. The Bixbys, on the other hand, want to believe that you’re Alexis. The Bixbys aren’t a threat to the McGavins.”
Ellie shook her head. “That’s only true if I live. If my dead body is identified as ‘Alexis Bixby,’ the McGavins won’t know whether or not I’ve already given the Bixbys incriminating information. The McGavins will kill them just to be on the safe side.”
Daniel closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. She knew he couldn’t argue with her logic, however much he might wish that he could.
“Plant some kind of anonymous tip that will make them think I’m in San Francisco, or Palo Alto,” Ellie said. “And that I want to come home.”
“Will do.” Daniel rose, pulled a cellphone out of his back pocket, and handed it to her. “This has a different ID chip and phone number. We’re on a twenty-four hour, use-then-destroy policy with our cellphones.”
He hesitated as if there was something else he wanted to say.
“What?”
He sat down beside her on the couch. “There is one bright side to spending the rest of your life in someone else’s body.”
“Aside from the fact that ‘the rest of my life’ could mean: twelve hours, tops?”
“You’ve got a clean slate,” Daniel said, ignoring her sarcasm. “You have the chance to figure out who you want to be from this day forward. Once this nightmare with the McGavins is settled, you can move forward.”
She snorted. “I’ll still have the worst nightmares anyone can possibly imagine.”
He took her hand in his. “I don’t mean to minimize your pain, Ellie. But you can combine Alexis’s abilities with your own. You can be all the more extraordinary.”
Jake came through the door. He did a stutter-step when he looked at them. “I didn’t realize you were up,” he said to Ellie in a feeble attempt to cover his concern.
Maybe he really does think I’m beautiful.
“I was just now starting to tell Ellie about what we were discussing this morning,” Daniel said. “About your host-body’s abilities returning to you.”
“I don’t understand,” Ellie said.
Jake reached into the paper bag he w
as carrying and removed a drawing pad, a high-quality pencil, and a soft eraser. He set them on the coffee table in front of Ellie. “If you can draw a portrait of the man in the John Deere hat, maybe I’ll be able to identify him. It’s possible that I’ll have seen him around ABTC.”
Ellie snorted. “I can’t draw like Alexis could. Did I ever show you my drawings from my one session of an advanced art class?”
“Maybe you can draw now, though.” Jake sat down on the piano bench. “I’ve been retaining hyperkinetic memories lately. They’re getting stronger and stronger every day.”
Ellie flashed on her basketball skills from two days ago, but held her tongue.
“When I’ve been out walking at night,” Jake continued, “I never get lost, not even for an instant. I don’t bother to look at street signs. I’ve suddenly got an uncanny sense of direction.”
“The ability to draw a portrait is hardly comparable to having a good sense of direction,” Ellie countered.
“I can do handstands and juggle now. Last night, I went into a breakfast joint and ordered grits and eggs over easy. The night before last, I found myself whistling a tune I don’t remember ever having heard. I can’t whistle.”
Again, Ellie thought about her newfound athleticism. “It’s worth a shot.” Her choice of words reminded her of her mother and grandmother dying by gunshots. Instantly, she felt overwhelmed. “I’ll try to draw him later.” She headed back to bed.
Chapter 29
Annoyed that either Jake or Daniel was knocking on her door, Ellie managed to growl, “Yeah?” She felt more like half dead than half asleep.
The door opened a crack. “Ellie?” It was Daniel’s voice. “We have to move to the new place now.”
“What time is it?”
“Eleven o’clock.”
She could see sunlight through the slats in the window blinds. “In the morning?” she asked even so. “I thought we weren’t moving till Monday.”
“It is Monday.”
She sat up and rubbed at her temples. She glanced at the still-ajar door. “Who am I?”
The Body Shifters (Book 1 Body Shifters Trilogy): A Novel (The Body Shifters Trilogy) Page 19