He glanced across at me. It looked like he was smiling.
‘Sure, there’s a blue box in the glove box. Could you pass it to me? My ID’s in there.’
I opened the glove box and spotted the small blue container. It didn’t look like something you’d keep ID in. It rattled as I handed it to him. My nervousness grew to fever pitch. I watched him open the blue box with one hand and fumble around inside. He pulled something out.
At that moment we flashed under a brighter street light at an intersection and I caught a glimpse of what he was holding. It was a syringe. Realisation struck me and I sucked in a breath to scream.
He lunged, trying to empty the needle into my leg. I lashed out at his arm, connecting so violently my hand went numb. The syringe flew out of his hand onto the floor. Both of us dived for it.
The car did a wild zig-zag across the road as we struggled, grunting and puffing. A horn blared as a lone oncoming car skidded off the road to avoid our mad projectory. I ground my fingers against the rough carpet on the floor, breaking nails and banging my head on the dashboard. My seatbelt arrested my efforts with violent jerks. My lungs were brutally crushed in the effort to bend over and I could hardly breathe.
He forced the car onto the verge and stamped on the brakes. My head pounded against the dashboard so hard that my eyesight blurred and I could barely regain focus. I took a breath and lunged down again. I felt a rush of pure animal pleasure as my fingers found the syringe. I pricked my fingers but managed to grab it. I sat up, pushing in the plunger to expel whatever was inside.
Panting, my heart pounding and tears running down my face I threw the syringe away and grabbed the door handle. It wouldn’t budge. I shook it then looked for the door lock. There wasn’t one. Whipping around, I looked at the man next to me, who had gone very still. His face was in shadows still but I knew who he was now. I knew that voice. He’d tried to change it but part of my brain had recognised it on the phone, I’d just been too stupid to realise it.
‘What do you want?’ I cried.
He shook his head slowly then he lashed out. I felt a blazing pain in my left temple and then there was nothing.
I woke up sick and dizzy. I vomited down the front of myself. My head was throbbing with a relentless pain that started at my temple and stabbed at my eyeballs. I lifted my head and tried to work out where I was.
I was sitting on a chair. I tried to move my hands and legs and couldn’t. My arms were tied behind my back and my ankles were tied together and anchored to the chair. The room I was in was very dark, I could only make out shadows. I strained my ears, trying to hear something but all I could hear was the rasping of my own breath and the rushing of blood in my ears. I struggled against the bonds on my wrists but the effort was too much and everything went black.
When I came to again I wasn’t alone. I blinked and realised that he was standing in front of me.
‘Hello, Cassandra, glad you could join us.’
‘You bastard, let me go!’ I screamed.
‘That’s enough!’ He slapped me hard. My head felt like it was going to explode. ‘In my house you will show me and my wife some respect!’
His wife? I was so focused on him I hadn’t realised there was anyone else in the room. I looked at him; the man from my visions who I’d felt kill three different people. He was about my age, his hair was short and brown and his features were regular. He was Mr Average.
I looked into his eyes. That’s where the difference was. There was something wrong about them; too much white showing, not enough blinking. It was hard to pinpoint, but it was enough to make me sick with fear.
‘This is my wife, Virginia.’
He stepped to one side. I jerked back so hard my head smacked against the back of the chair and I groaned, a low guttural sound that was part disgust and part animal reaction.
‘Say hello!’ he yelled.
I tried to swallow. My mouth was bone dry.
‘Hello,’ I whispered.
‘That’s better. Ginny darling, this is Cassandra, the one I was telling you about.’
He walked over to the thing that was propped up in the chair. I forced my eyes back to it — the corpse of a woman. The skin was stretched and dry, pulled tight over the bones. The lips were drawn back over the teeth in a bizarre imitation of a smile. Her long blonde hair looked so brittle and dry it would snap if you touched it. Where the eyes should have been there were empty, black holes.
‘Isn’t she lovely? I fell in love with her the first time I saw her, you know. I knew we were meant to be together.’
‘Lovely,’ I croaked.
‘The only problem is, she can’t see. Every year we have a special celebration for our anniversary and I get her a new set of eyes so that we can have a few days where we can look at each other. Don’t you think that’s romantic?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m glad you think so because that will make it easier for you to understand why I can’t let you ruin it for us.’
‘I understand, really. I promise I won’t tell anyone. I don’t even know your name or where we are. You could just blindfold me and drive me somewhere.’ The words tumbled out of my mouth and tears started to run down my face. ‘Please, let me go.’
He smiled. ‘My name is Brian. You are in Jenson’s Funeral Home and I am afraid that you won’t be going anywhere. You can stay and participate in our anniversary celebrations tomorrow. We don’t normally have guests and Ginny tells me that she would enjoy your company for a little while.’
‘But I don’t have green eyes,’ I said desperately.
He looked at me in surprise. ‘You know?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do the police know?’
‘Yes,’ I whispered.
He paused. ‘Don’t worry about your eyes. You’re right, they’re not the right colour. You can watch me take the eyes from our other guest.’ He pointed behind me.
I struggled to look around but I was tied so tightly to the chair I couldn’t turn my head far enough to see what he was talking about.
Brian walked over and shoved my chair around. There, strapped to a stainless steel table, was the motionless body of a woman.
‘Oh God, is she dead?’ I whispered.
‘Dead? Of course not. The eyes have to be fresh. She’s sedated, that’s all, just like you would’ve been if you hadn’t knocked the needle out of my hand. That wasn’t very nice, you know.’
I stared at him. He was worried that I wasn’t being nice? Any vestige of hope I had was snuffed out and I dropped my head, feeling weary and defeated.
‘That’s right, you rest. I want you to be ready for tomorrow. It’s going to be a big day.’ He forced a gag into my mouth, tying it roughly behind my head. Turning his back on me he went over to the corpse in the chair and carefully picked it up before heading up the stairs. He turned out the light when he got to the top and shut the door hard behind him.
I sat there in the dark feeling small, alone and more afraid than I’d ever felt in my life. I strained my ears, trying to hear the sound of the other girl breathing. Tomorrow I was going to see her have her eyes cut out. Then he would kill both of us. A strangled cry exploded from me and I gave in; huge wracking sobs shaking me as I cried into the darkness.
CHAPTER
28
Ed woke up early Monday morning feeling jangled. The dream he’d been having was still with him. He was searching for Cass. He could hear her calling him and he kept following the sound of her voice but every time he thought he was close the voice slipped away again.
Finally he saw a woman standing at the top of a cliff. The wind was whipping her hair around her shoulders and she had her back to him. He called Cass’s name but she didn’t turn around so he walked up behind her. In the water a ship had run aground. He grabbed the woman by the shoulder, telling her they had to get hel
p for the people in the water. ‘What people?’ she asked and then turned around. He pulled back in shock. Instead of Cass’s face it was Susan’s, but where her eyes should have been there were gaping black holes.
Ed tried to banish the images from his mind. He’d had too much time to think, that was the problem. The weekend had been long and tedious. After he’d dropped Cass off on Saturday he’d gone back to the station and wandered around, trying to find something to do that made him look busy but let him keep an eye on what was going on. He resorted to checking the other stallholders that he and Phil had cross-matched earlier in the day. He looked up their addresses, registered vehicles and any other information he could find. None of them looked half as promising as the guy they had in the interview room. Still, Cass had been so certain he wasn’t their guy.
By four o’clock he was finished and was starting to feel like a spare prick at a party. Only the guy with the sealed juvie record looked even slightly promising. His address was listed as a funeral home in Clifton. The business had a van and a couple of hearses registered to it but there was nothing unusual about that. He had no convictions as an adult and without knowing what he’d done as a minor there was no reason to suspect him.
Having run out of reasons to hang around he’d headed home and spent Saturday night and Sunday resisting the urge to call Phil every five minutes. The only other person he’d spoken to was Cass and that had been over in less than thirty seconds. It was time to call her again and try to rebuild burnt bridges.
It was Anita. ‘Hello?’
‘Hello Mrs Lehman, it’s Ed Dyson.’
There was a slight pause.
‘Yes, Ed, what do you want?’ Her voice was pleasant enough but he could hear an underlying edge.
‘I just wanted to speak to Cass. I feel bad about everything.’
‘Cass will come around, but she was disappointed that it was that other detective that called instead of you.’
‘Other detective?’
‘Yes, to ask her to come and look at pictures of possible suspects after you realised the man you had wasn’t the right one.’
Ed was more than a bit surprised. He was also annoyed that he was finding out third hand that the suspect had been released. He knew he was off the case but surely Phil could’ve told him they’d kicked the suspect loose?
‘Was it Detective Steiner?’
‘No, it was one of those CS detectives, let me think, he did tell me his name …’
‘Detective Byrnes or Detective Rawlinson?’
‘No, neither of those, um, let me think a bit … Richards? No … Richardson! That’s it! Detective Richardson.’
Who the hell was Richardson?
‘You’re sure it wasn’t Rawlinson?’
‘No, it was definitely Richardson. Why?’
‘Did she go to the station?’
‘Yes, he came and picked her up last night.’
‘What did he look like?’
‘Look like? You don’t know him?’ Worry was creeping into her voice.
‘No, I wasn’t in yesterday. Did you meet him?’
‘He didn’t come inside, he tooted and Cass ran out to the car.’
‘Can you go and get Cass for me please?’ The knot in his belly had turned into a fist. He was trying not to worry Anita but he was gripping the phone so hard that his knuckles popped.
‘I think she’s still asleep but I’ll go and see.’ She put the phone down with a clunk and he waited, pacing. After a lifetime she picked up the receiver again.
‘Ed, she’s not there! Her bed hasn’t been slept in.’ She was breathing fast and he could hear the tears in her voice.
The bottom dropped out of his world. He stood there trying to comprehend what was happening. He forced himself to talk to the woman crying on the other end of the phone.
‘Anita? I need you to keep it together. I’m going straight into the station now. She’s probably still there. I’ll ring you as soon as I get there. It’s only five minutes from my place.’
He grabbed his mobile phone and keys and ran for the door. Swearing in frustration, he threw himself into his car and drove to the station at a manic pace, screeching to a stop on the double yellow lines outside the front door. He ran into the squad room. As luck would have it the only person in was Samuels.
‘Is Phil in?’
‘Not yet.’
‘Sorenson?’
‘Same deal.’
‘The CS guys?’
‘Ditto.’
‘Fuck!’
‘Something I can help with?’ Curiosity emanated from his every fibre.
‘Was there a Detective Richardson from CS here yesterday?’
‘Detective Richardson? Not that I know of. I only saw the two of them, Byrnes and Rawlinson.’
‘Did they kick loose the suspect?’
‘I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you anything about the case.’ Samuels smiled as he said it, enjoying the feeling of power, however small.
‘Don’t be a prick, Samuels, I need to know.’ The fierceness of Ed’s response wiped the smile off Samuels’s face.
‘They let him go yesterday.’
‘Did Cass come back last night?’
‘The psychic woman?’
‘Yes!’
‘Not that I know of. Check the visitor log.’
‘I will.’ Why hadn’t he thought of that? He had to get himself together. He was no use to anyone if he was running around in a blind panic.
Ed jogged down the stairs to the front foyer. He swiped into the secured area and grabbed the visitor log. Heart pounding he scanned the entries; nothing. He turned and ran to the car, dialling the Lehman house as he ran. Anita answered on the first ring.
‘Hello?’
‘Anita, it’s me. She’s not at the station.’
‘Where is she then? Oh God, what if —’ Her voice shredded his heart.
‘Shhh, I’m going to find her. I’m not going to let anything happen to her. I’m on my way to your place now. Think back to yesterday, even the smallest detail could be important.’
The drive to Cass’s house felt eternal. He battled with his inner demons the entire way; thinking about what might be happening to Cass if the killer had her, then beating back the thoughts and trying to stay positive. He had to stay positive. He couldn’t let her or her family down.
It shocked him to realise that in the few short days he’d known her he’d started to feel close to her, responsible for her. He liked her and her family. He wanted time to get to know her better. The thought that she might be snatched away by the same person who had taken Susan from him flooded him with a red tide of rage so powerful that he could barely focus on the road.
He screeched into the driveway and leapt out of the car. Before he’d covered the few short steps to the front door, Gwen threw it open and rushed towards him. Her face was pale and tear-streaked. For the first time since Ed had met her she actually looked her age. She threw her arms around him and cried on his shoulder. Her grief stopped him in his tracks and he stood there, helplessly patting her back until she calmed down enough to look up at him.
‘I’m sorry, I just can’t believe it. Please, Ed, you have to find her. She’s our whole world.’
‘I know, I’m sorry.’
‘Come inside, we’ll tell you what we can.’
He followed her inside and into the kitchen. Anita was sitting at the table, gazing sightlessly into a cup of tea. She didn’t look that different but her immobility told the story. Every time he’d visited she’d been either buzzing around the kitchen or off doing something else. Not once had he seen her sitting so still. It was like someone had switched off a bright light.
‘Mrs Lehman, I’m so sorry,’ he said quietly.
‘It’s Anita,’ she said without emotion. ‘M
rs Lehman makes me feel ancient.’
Ed sat at the table and took her hand. ‘I’m going to find her.’
Anita dropped her head and stroked his hand without speaking. After a couple of seconds her grip tightened, she placed her other hand over the top and went rigid with concentration. Ed sat there, hardly daring to breathe. If she was having a vision he hoped to hell it was a good one. Finally she looked up. Her eyes were slightly glazed but she focused on his face quickly enough. He let out a long breath that he didn’t realise he’d been holding.
‘I saw flames.’
‘A fire?’
‘No, it was more like a combustion heater. No, that’s not right either.’ She closed her eyes and frowned. ‘It’s a furnace. The place where Cass is has a furnace. You’re going to go there and find her.’
‘Did you see anything else?’
She thought hard, closing her eyes again.
‘There were containers on a shelf, lots of them.’
‘What sort of containers?’
‘They were odd, some were metal. They were all pretty fancy.’
‘Were they urns? Was it a funeral home?’ Ed felt a flicker of hope. The guy with the juvie record. It had to be him.
‘Could be. I don’t get complete pictures, just glimpses. I don’t see how that helps you though. There must be hundreds of funeral homes out there.’
‘Yes but only one where the guy who owns it also works at expos.’
‘What?’
‘I’ll explain later. I know where Cass is. The sooner I get there the better.’ He jumped up and was halfway to the door before Anita’s voice stopped him.
‘Wait!’
He turned and looked at her.
‘It’s dangerous. I saw you in pain. You need to be vigilant. Cass is depending on you.’
He nodded, not wanting to think about the risk to himself. All that mattered was finding Cass before it was too late. He ran out of the house and threw himself back into his car. He remembered the name of the funeral home. He dialled Phil’s number as he started to drive.
Phil answered on the second ring. ‘Wassup?’
‘He’s got Cass, Phil. It’s the guy with the juvie record. I can’t explain it now. I’m on my way to Jenson’s Funeral Home in Clifton.’
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