The Imaginary (The Imago Trilogy Book 2)

by J. J. Stone

  “I have never gone and I don’t plan on changing that,” Ada said as she squatted down to inspect the variety of rice options available.

  “Stop by for one drink.” Tiffany plucked a box of angel hair pasta from the shelf and added it to her growing cart. “I just want you to meet him.”

  Ada made her choice and stood. She heaved the giant bag of white rice onto the bottom of her cart. “Do you really need my stamp of approval, Tif?”

  Tiffany gave her a genuinely hurt pout. “Well, I thought that’s what friends do. Get each other’s opinions on guys.”

  “Why don’t we go out for coffee or something, then? Something less Christmas party.”

  “You’re becoming a recluse again,” Tiffany said as she pushed her cart down the aisle.

  Ada inwardly groaned and followed after her.

  “You’ll know everyone there. It’s going to be faculty from Fine Arts and Sciences. Not like I’m asking you to mingle with a room full of strangers,” Tiffany said as she curved her cart down into the next aisle.

  Ada came to the conclusion that this was a battle she was never going to win. She held out a few more seconds before relenting. “What time?”

  Tiffany’s cart stopped short as she whirled around with a small squeal. She grabbed Ada into a bouncy hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She pulled out her phone and tapped away. “I’ll send you the event info.”

  “I’ll come by for a little while, meet the new Romeo,” Ada said, ignoring Tiffany’s glare. She perused the different gravy options and was reaching for a jar when her phone went off in her purse. Ada forgot the gravy and dug into her purse for her phone, reminding herself yet again to invest in a more compartmentalized bag. “Are you calling me?” she asked Tiffany, wincing at how obnoxious her phone was becoming in the crowded store.

  Tiffany frowned at her. “No. I’m texting it to you.”

  Ada finally located her phone and victoriously yanked it from her purse. Her entire face changed when she saw the caller.

  “What?” Tiffany asked as she took a step toward her. “Who is it?”

  Ada carefully swiped a finger across her screen and raised the phone to her ear. “Hi, Dade.”

  ——

  Dade ducked into the empty office and made sure the door was shut behind him. “Hey. Long time, no … talk.” He cringed at the stupidity of his word choice.

  Ada didn’t respond for a moment. When she spoke, he could hear the caution in her voice. “Yeah, it’s been a while now. I thought maybe you’d forgotten about me.”

  “You know we wouldn’t do that.” Dade raised one of the blades of the office’s blinds and scanned the hallway. It was comfortingly empty.

  Four seconds of painful silence. He heard Ada clear her throat. In the background, he heard a rattling noise that sounded vaguely like a shopping cart. “Sorry, this probably isn’t a good time to call. It’s late there, isn’t it?” Dade crossed the office and sat down in the stiff desk chair.

  “Not as late as it is there,” Ada said.

  Dade huffed a short chuckle. “Yeah. We’ve been trying to keep this case alive thanks to the sudden absence of new murders.”

  “Maybe we were only dealing with a three-member cult.” There was a sharp scraping noise, and then Dade heard Ada’s muffled words directed to someone.

  “Hey, it sounds like you’re busy. I’ll call you later.” All the better, since he didn’t have a clue what he was doing anyway.

  “No!” Ada’s response was quick as she placed the phone back near her mouth. “It’s fine. I’m just out running some errands with a friend.” Dade heard quick footsteps and then a rush of air.

  Dade tipped onto his elbows, wincing at the cold glass of the desk. “I really don’t know how else to do this, so I guess I’ll just jump right in.”

  Ada loosed a nervous giggle. “That doesn’t sound ominous at all.”

  Dade traced his fingertip against the desktop. “We think we may have a case. Brenda’s been keeping an eye on things and brought us the case today.”

  “Since when is Brenda fielding cases?”

  A cheeky grin sprouted on Dade’s face. “Since Janice got the boot.”

  He almost laughed out loud at Ada’s immediate, sharp gasp. “What? When? Why?”

  “You want to just finish that out and ask ‘who,’ ‘where,’ and ‘how?’” Dade said, leaning back as best he could in the chair. “I still haven’t really heard the details, but she left Sacramento before the rest of the team and we haven’t seen her since. James had a trainee clear her desk about a week after we got back.”

  The line went dead quiet. For a moment Dade thought the call had dropped. Then he heard Ada pull in a deep breath. “So, you need me for this case?”

  Dade winced as the subject shifted from the more fun topic of Janice’s demise to the more sensitive topic at hand. “Technically, yes,” he said slowly.

  “Technically?”

  Dade cleared his throat, buying time for his nerve to collect. “Look, I know something happened back in Sacramento. Like I said, I haven’t been told anything and I’m not calling to ask for an explanation.” He paused for a moment and chose his next words. “We’re headed to Wisconsin in the next couple of hours.”

  “So you need me to come?”

  “James didn’t ask for you.”

  “Oh.” The amount of hurt that infiltrated Ada’s voice in the span of a second struck Dade. “Then why are you calling?”

  “Because I don’t really give a damn what happened. I know this investigation will go a million times slower without an analyst, especially if we have to pull in someone new.”

  “So you’re going behind his back?” Ada asked.

  Dade shrugged and switched his phone to the opposite ear. “I’ll deal with Deacon. If you’re game, I need you on a plane to Milwaukee within the next few hours.” He waited a few moments and when she didn’t respond, he carefully prodded. “Are you OK with that?”

  “I just feel like this might be a really bad idea.” Ada sounded like a child weighing the pros and cons of taking the last cookie.

  “Everything will be fine. I promise.”

  “If you think so …”

  Dade grinned and pumped his fist in triumph. “I’ll find you a flight and text you the details.”

  “I’ll see what I can do with work.”

  “If all else fails, cough really loud when you ask your boss for sick time. That always works for me.”

  Ada giggled again, this time without the nervous shiver. “You and your humor have been missed.”

  A flash of warmth pressed against Dade’s heart. “Make sure you pack for ungodly amounts of snow. Gotta love a killer with a penchant for Wisconsin in December.” A rapid burst of knuckles rapped against the office door and broke Dade’s mood. He leapt from the chair and lowered his voice. “I’ll get you the flight details soon. I’ve gotta run.”

  ——

  Ada stared at her phone, her brain struggling to process what had just happened in the span of two minutes. She leaned back against the brick wall of the storefront and squeezed her eyes shut. A mental list of everything that needed to happen for her to leave rushed through her mind. She didn’t hear Tiffany approach her and nearly bolted from her skin when the blonde tapped her shoulder.

  “I guess you’re leaving?” Tiffany grinned at Ada’s jump.

  Ada slipped her phone back into her purse and covered her face in her hands. “I don’t know how I’m going to leave. I used up all my vacation time,” she said.

  “You’re sick,” Tiffany said, squeaking out two comically high-pitched coughs.

  Ada shook her head and gave her friend a sly grin. “If Romeo doesn’t work out, I have just the guy for you.”

  ——


  James gave his always-packed go bag one last look through and zipped it up. He glanced through his glass wall and saw that the rest of the team were still gathering up their things. Antsy, he opened the drawer he’d stuffed his personal cell phone into. Without hesitation, he smoothly slid back into his desk chair and retrieved the phone.

  He opened his last text conversation and quickly typed out that he was going out of town and might not be reachable. He sent the text then scrolled back up through the conversation history. His contact was closing in on Julia. For the first time in years, James felt a small surge of hope.

  That hope then opened up his mind to wander into the “What then?” stage of the situation. Julia had gone to every length to hide from him. Ever since she and Olivia had vanished, the possible reasons behind their leaving had constantly rotated through James’s head. Maybe she was embarrassed about Olivia’s father. Maybe she had been strong-armed back to the life she’d tried to escape. Maybe the friction between her and James had only grown with time, and she had stayed with him only as long as she could stand.

  When he did find her, what would happen? James’s main motivation in finding Julia had always been to ensure Olivia’s safety. She hadn’t asked to be placed into the kind of life she was likely living. She was an innocent child who deserved better than a thug father and a strung out mother. James had court connections. He could easily obtain custody of his niece.

  But could he strip Julia of her daughter? If push came to shove, could he yank away the one bright spot in his sister’s life? His mind reverted to the list he’d come up with over the past few years. Did she have dangerous habits that needed to be kicked? More than likely. Was she unfit to be a mother? Currently, yes. With the proper care and rehab, however, all of that could be remedied. If she got clean, Julia could easily make a new life for herself and Olivia, James would make sure of it.

  A small flash lit up in the recesses of James’s mind. Instead of ignoring it, he sought it out. The flash was a brilliant reminder that a growing part of him didn’t want things to work out with Julia. This part of him wanted to find his sister, have her put on such a disdainful show of reluctant parenting that CPS wouldn’t bat an eye at James’s request for guardianship. Then he would step into Olivia’s life and mend the damage from the horrible beginning of her short life. He would fill a void for her and she would do the same for him.

  James swallowed hard and pushed his phone into a side pocket on his go bag. As much as he had tried to cope with and substitute it over the years, James had a deep-seated craving for family. The notion of a family had never really been “normal” for him, but he felt he had a decent grasp on what a family could, and should, be. His mother had fought so hard to provide that for him and Julia. Despite her valiant efforts, though, the Deacons had never been a solid family unit. It had obviously affected Julia, and there were times when James was not ashamed to admit that it had and was affecting him.

  Instead of resigning himself to the fact that he came from a twisted upbringing, James transformed what he hated about family into what he would do right with his own. Olivia was a chance to put all of his aspirations to use. Healing for her would be a sort of healing for him, and the more he dwelled on the idea the more he wanted to find her.

  Dade strode past James’s office, and his movement brought James back to the task at hand. He squeezed his eyes shut and forced his focus to the case, to his team, and to getting one step ahead of a cult that had evaded him more times than he could stomach.

  ——

  General Mitchell International Airport greeted Ada with echoey silence as she stepped into the gate arrival area. Not that she had expected a hive of activity. She checked her phone to see if Dade had gotten her further directions. She frowned when she saw exactly zero unread texts. A pit began to grow in her stomach.

  After retrieving her suitcase from baggage claim, she pulled out her quilted parka and shrugged it on. She had subconsciously shuddered when the pilot announced on descent that the temperature was a balmy four degrees. After pulling on the pair of fleece gloves she’d stowed in the jacket pocket, Ada headed through the automatic doors of the airport entrance and stepped out into the biting Milwaukee air.

  The cold sliced into her and her lungs forgot how to function. As she fought to regain her breath, Ada scanned the snowy airport drive for any sign of Dade or Brenda. There were no black SUVs; in fact, there were hardly any cars at all. A security guard sat comfortably in the warm cocoon of his white sedan at the far end of the sidewalk, and a man and woman were saying their goodbyes a few yards from Ada. Other than that, the exterior of the airport was as much of a ghost town as the interior.

  Shivering from head to toe, Ada spotted a bench a few yards away with a heater stationed near it and decided to shuffle her way down to it. She was just lowering onto it when a police car crunched into view, its tires slowly pulling the salt-covered sedan through the compacted snow of the airport drive. When it pulled to a stop in front of Ada, she frowned and slowly stood. A middle-aged officer with a comically full mustache hopped out of the patrol car and expertly navigated the icy slush to the sidewalk. A bright grin erupted below the mustache as he approached Ada, his hand reaching for her bag.

  “Welcome to Milwaukee, Miss Greene!” the officer greeted cheerfully. As he lifted Ada’s suitcase onto his shoulder, he extended his free hand to her. “Hope you weren’t waiting too long.”

  Ada accepted the officer’s handshake and gave him a cautiously friendly smile. “I take it you’re my ride, Officer … ?”

  “Hunt,” the officer said. “Agent Wylan sent me. He also told me to apologize that he wasn’t able to make it himself. Things are a little crazy at the station, as I’m sure you can understand.”

  Ada nodded and trailed behind Officer Hunt as he brought them back to his idling car. “Is everyone at the station?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Got in a few hours ago.” The officer valiantly opened Ada’s door for her then stowed her suitcase on the backseat. As Ada tucked inside the car, Officer Hunt shut her door and jogged around the front of the patrol car to his door. “There’s a big storm coming through here in the next few days, and your lead agent is trying to be out of here by then. He has everyone working full steam ahead,” Officer Hunt said as he settled into his seat and put the car in gear.

  Ada gripped the armrest of her door as the patrol car shuddered away from the airport. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen this much snow,” she said tensely.

  “Eh, this is nothing. We’re actually a foot less than we were last year this time.” Officer Hunt maneuvered onto the main road and joined the scant traffic of cars heading toward Milwaukee. “This storm that’s coming is supposed to be historic, though. Dump probably another couple feet of snow at least.”

  Ada looked out at the world of white around her and tried to imagine another two feet of white. “No wonder James wants to be out of here by then.”

  Officer Hunt chuckled, his mustache wiggling a little. “You two on a first name basis?”

  “Not like that,” Ada said.

  “I’ve only heard ‘Agent Deacon’ from the rest of the crew. It’s weird to hear his first name, that’s all.”

  They drove in silence the rest of the way, the police radio chattering on with random bursts of transmissions. The feeling that she was about to step on a hornet’s nest seeped through Ada as the patrol car rolled into the police station parking lot. As Officer Hunt pulled the car into a parking spot and cheerfully instructed her to “make herself comfortable inside the station,” Ada was not surprised to find herself having to force her body to leave the car.

  “Everyone is probably in one of the interview rooms in the back of the station,” Officer Hunt called to her as he grabbed her belongings from the back of the car.

  Ada nodded, hardly hearing him. Her eyes widened as she stepped into the station
and waited to see a familiar face. A sleepy-looking officer glanced up at her from behind the front desk. “Can I help you?” she asked, stifling a yawn.

  “I’m, uh, here with the FBI,” Ada mumbled, removing her gloves.

  The woman waved at a door to her right. Ada nodded in thanks and headed to it. As she entered the long hallway beyond the door, her ears listened for any clue on the whereabouts of the team. She heard some shuffling and muffled conversation at the far end of the hallway and decided that was her destination. She was three doors away from the noise when someone stepped out into the hallway behind her and gasped.

  “Ada?!”

  Ada whipped around, her heart about to thump out of her body. She nearly collapsed in relief as Brenda rushed to her and clamped her arms around her. She felt a quick flash of worry that Brenda was surprised to see her.

  “What are you doing here?” Brenda asked. She glanced Ada up and down.

  Ada motioned to the looming door at the end of the hall. “The case.”

  Brenda frowned and crossed her arms. “Deacon called you after all?”

  Ada flushed and shook her head. “Dade did. Last night.”

  Brenda’s eyes widened as the color left her face. “He’s going to kill him.”

  “Brenda, where are those copies?”

  Brenda’s mouth flopped open as she struggled to whip up a response to the new voice in the hallway. Every cell in Ada’s body wanted nothing more than to stay cemented where she was. But to her horror, she felt her feet shuffle her around to face James. She tensed as she waited for the inevitable eruption.

  James remained frozen and silent, one foot in the hallway while the other remained in the room. His face became a billboard of emotional play-by-play. Shock turned to confusion which turned into simmering fury. His nostrils flared as he called to Ada, “What are you doing here?”