Touching Silver

by Jamie Craig

  “What do you want? I’ve already risked my neck too many times for you.”

  “Who’s Marisol?” The line went silent. “Rico? Who is she?”

  “I wondered when you’d start asking about her.”

  Olivia was glad they were having this conversation over the phone, because if they were sitting face-to-face, she might have punched him. “Why didn’t you mention her sooner?”

  “I didn’t think it was important.”

  His voice had wavered. She’d heard it, clear as day. Bingo. “Well, I think it is. Who is she?”

  “She’s Gabriel’s cousin. We think. They have the same last name and she’s not his sister or his wife. She lived with the girls, for the most part.”

  “She took care of them?”

  “I guess. She didn’t like them, though. A few of the girls tried to be nice to her, tried to make her happy, but she didn’t want anything to do with them. Hated living in Twenty-Nine Palms. Unless it was bath time. It was creepy. I tried not to spend any more time in that house than I had to.”

  “Did you ever see her hurt the girls?”

  “No. But Marisol wouldn’t do anything like that in front of us. We all had pretty strict orders about how the girls should be treated. Is that all you wanted from me?”

  “Do you know where she is now?”

  “Probably with Gabriel. They’re pretty close.”

  “Do you know where Gabriel would be?”

  “If I knew, I would have told you by now. He has a dozen homes in the city, and that’s just what I know about. He doesn’t stay in one place for too long. You know that. And now I’m done. Don’t call me. Don’t let any of your cop friends call me.”

  “Thanks, Rico.”

  But he had already hung up.

  Marisol de los Rios. Did she share her cousin’s obsession with the Silver Maiden? Did she stand to gain something as well? Gabriel hadn’t kidnapped the girls himself. That didn’t fit his profile. He rarely did anything himself. If nothing else, the man knew how to delegate. There had been no sign or evidence of a struggle when the girls disappeared. They just disappeared. Gone from the street, gone from their homes, gone from their schools.

  Until that moment Olivia hadn’t believed Marisol was the eighth girl. Their evidence was circumstantial at best, but her gut told her Marisol wasn’t a mere caretaker or accessory to a crime.

  She was Gabriel’s partner.

  “Marisol took them,” she said out loud. They weren’t violently kidnapped and shoved into the back of a van. They weren’t assaulted. They probably didn’t even realize what was happening until long after it was over. She lured them, tricked them, kidnapped them, and then held them. For her cousin. For herself.

  “Knock knock.”

  The familiar baritone jolted her concentration. Isaac stood at the door to her cubicle, a large envelope dangling from his hand. In spite of her grim focus on their case, her heart skipped a beat at his easy smile. It wasn’t just seeing him. It was knowing he was as determined as she was to put Gabriel behind bars for what he’d done to the girls.

  He ventured a step inside, his gaze going to the pictures of Tiberius and her family she had tacked up on her walls. “You know what we need? A picture of the two of us.” His smile shifted into a naughty grin. “Two, probably. One for you to put up, and then one just for pulling out of my wallet whenever you’re not around.”

  “I don’t take that sort of picture until at least six months into the relationship. It’ll give you something to look forward to.” She leaned back in her chair. “I talked to Rico. He thinks Marisol is Gabriel’s cousin, or related to him in some way.”

  “That matches what I found.” Opening the envelope, he slid out a single sheet of paper and dropped it on her desk. It was a photo, grainy and from a distance, of a young woman in profile. She was getting into a car in front of a large, very expensive house, and from the angle it was clear she didn’t know she was being photographed. “There are no other known Marisols in Gabriel’s immediate operation, so I extended the search to family. She’s a first cousin, been in the country for about six years, but other than that maintains a very low profile. No record, clean credit history, and the only picture we have on file is this one.”

  “I think she took the girls, Isaac. In fact, I think she came to this country specifically for those girls. If Stacy can confirm Marisol is the one who grabbed her, we’ll have enough to arrest her now.” She frowned. “If we can find her. But if she is the eighth girl Gabriel needs, it’ll stall his plans indefinitely.”

  “If we get the ID, it’ll be easier to make finding her a priority. Right now, she’s a ghost.” He jerked his head toward the door. “Let’s go. If we’re wrong, we’ll still have the rest of the night to find another Marisol.”

  She led him out to the parking lot and her car, stopping first to grab his winter coat. Isaac maintained a professional distance the entire time, but once they were both in her Sequoia, he leaned across and caught the back of her neck, pulling her closer for a swift kiss. “I’ve wanted to do that all day,” he said as he sat back in his seat. “I think the hardest part about working with you is not giving in to the urge to drag you into a closet someplace and kiss you senseless.”

  “I guess it’s probably a good thing we work on opposite sides of the building, then.” She put the truck into reverse. “Otherwise we wouldn’t get anything done, and then we’d both be fired.”

  He grinned. “Admit it. You just don’t want to be stuck with me twenty-four/seven. I’d drive you crazy.”

  “Oh, no. I wouldn’t mind being stuck with you twenty-four/seven. If you were naked. With a ball-gag.” She looked at him from the corner of her eye. “I have a few.”

  “Me gagged and you cuffed? Sounds like an interesting night.”

  “When did I agree to be cuffed? I think that’s a better look for you.”

  “We had a deal, remember? I wear the nurse’s uniform, you wear the cuffs. Plus…” His eyes were twinkling. “You said you don’t break out the cuffs until the third date. The way I figure it, dinner at the Barn was number one, the gondola ride to see the lights was two, and last night was three. You owe me.”

  Oh, Christ. I told him I loved him after three dates? And he’s staying with the crazy woman…why? Her sisters would be horrified if she ever confessed her sin. Not the sin of falling in love, but the sin of saying the words far too soon.

  “You forgot about my parents’ Christmas party. I guess I better not tell you what I do after the fourth date.”

  His smile softened, and they drove along in silence for a few minutes, the quiet comforting in its ease. They were stopped at a red light when Isaac spoke up again, but his tone lacked the playfulness of their earlier banter.

  “So I’ve got people discreetly looking for Parker,” he said. “In case what we’re trying with Gabriel doesn’t pan out. One way or another, this stalking thing should be over very soon.”

  “I guess that means you’ll be able to move back to the comfort of your own apartment, then. It’ll be nice to not have to deal with Tibby’s hair getting all over your clothes.”

  There was no missing the glance he shot her. “Your place is plenty comfortable.”

  The light turned green, and Olivia looked away from him. She didn’t normally second-guess herself, but she did now. Her head still ached, her stomach still throbbed, she had been mulling the previous night’s conversation and alternately feeling pleased and foolish, and she didn’t want to accidentally push too far, for too much. “I think it’s very comfortable. But your apartment is very…you. I imagine you spent years getting it just the way you like it. Plus, it lacks the aforementioned hair.”

  She wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or not when he nodded in agreement. “I’ve got an extra room too. If you ever wanted to spend the night, you wouldn’t have to worry about what to do with Tiberius.”

  “Tiberius would appreciate having new territory to explore.” Fresh pain bloom
ed behind her temple, and she gritted her teeth. “Isaac, I’ve got some painkillers in the glove box there. Can you get a few for me?”

  He rooted around for a moment among the extra napkins and doggy bags she kept in there before pulling out the bottle. Shaking out two, he passed them over with a frown. “I thought you said you were feeling better.”

  “I was.” Olivia swallowed both pills dry. “At least I’m not puking, right? Not that there’s anything left but…” She grimaced. “That’s gross, sorry. I am feeling better, it’s just a headache. Maybe the stress of the past week is getting to me.”

  His mouth settled into a firm line she was beginning to recognize all too well. It meant he was about to give an order.

  “I’m taking you home after we’re done with Stacy. And you’re going to have a long bath and then get a decent night’s sleep. And anything else you usually do to relax.”

  “Tracking down Marisol de los Rios will help me relax. In fact, I can’t think of anything more soothing. There’ll be time for a long bath and sleep after she and her cousin are in jail.”

  “And you’re not going to do the investigation any good at all if you make yourself sicker by refusing to take a break when you obviously need it.”

  “What if it’s…connected to the missing girls?” Olivia asked. “I mean, I don’t know how or why, but this all started today when Stacy mentioned the soaps and lotions Gabriel brought them. I smelled it…like I smelled it in my vision…and I didn’t feel sick until she mentioned her scar…I don’t think taking a break will help.”

  The intensity of his attention was an electric wire strung between them, his concern etched in every line of his face. “Why didn’t you say something about this earlier?”

  “Because I didn’t want you to be more worried about me than you already were. It’s not like I know what’s going on. It’s just a…theory.”

  “Did you mention it to Nathan?”

  “No.” She suddenly felt like she was ten again. Not because of anything Isaac said—his tone was more conversational than accusatory—but because she didn’t have a good answer for any of his questions. “It didn’t come up.”

  “He’s our resident expert on the coins. He might know why this is happening.”

  “I’ll tell him,” Olivia promised, hoping it would distract him from his need to send her to bed. “We can go by their apartment after we talk to Stacy, and I’ll tell him everything that happened today.”

  “Good. I can’t risk losing you over a stupid magical coin.”

  As she pulled up in front of the safe house, she muttered, “I wish I’d never seen that stupid magical coin.”

  She noticed the silence as soon as she stepped out of the car. The house was on a quiet block, but this was different. Olivia glanced over to see if Isaac noticed the same thing, but he approached the door like nothing was out of the ordinary. She shrugged her unease away and followed him inside. Where, if anything, the silence was more oppressive.

  “Where are Pete and Ross?” Olivia looked for the police guards they’d left on watch earlier that day.

  Isaac frowned and disappeared into the kitchen. It took only a moment for him to come back out, his hand already reaching inside his jacket for his gun as he bolted for the front door.

  “Go check on Stacy,” he barked.

  Olivia raced up the stairs without asking any questions, her gun drawn by the time she reached the landing. Stacy’s door was ajar. She could see the empty bed from the hallway. She brought the gun to the ready and released the safety before pushing the door open and burst into the room.

  The empty room.

  Olivia checked the bathroom, the closet, under the bed, the window. There was no sign that a girl had ever been in the room. Except for a thin line of blood stretching from the bedroom to the hallway.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Gone? What do you mean she’s gone? You can’t protect one fucking girl?”

  Isaac ground his teeth at the furious tone of Remy’s voice. Only Nathan’s hand on her arm kept her from turning this into a physical altercation, and frankly, Isaac didn’t need her shit right now. He was already wound too tightly from the mess at the safe house. With Olivia blaming herself for Stacy’s abduction as well, it was all he could do to keep a level head.

  “The department has made this a top priority,” he snapped. “We’re going to get her back.”

  Remy’s eyes flashed. “The only reason she’s getting the treatment now is because Gabriel fragged two cops getting her out. Maybe they should’ve made this a priority while she was still safe.”

  “I should have moved her to a new house this morning.” Olivia didn’t seem to be responding directly to Remy, so much as talking to herself. “But I got all caught up in finding Marisol…”

  Nathan pulled Remy another step back, as if putting more space between her and Isaac would somehow diffuse the growing anger. “We need to focus on getting her back now. You can yell at Isaac later.”

  “How the hell are we going to get her back? We don’t know where he took her. She could be anywhere.” She whipped around to face Nathan. “Anywhen.”

  “Not yet.” Olivia looked up, her blue eyes wide in her ashen face. “He was anointing them. He’s not going to send her away as soon as he gets her. She’s not ready. Whatever he thinks he has to do, whatever ritual they have to go through, he’ll do it first.”

  He had no idea how she’d reached that conclusion, but he wasn’t going to argue. Her connection to the coin, to this whole situation, defied any kind of reasoning he might be able to muster. Of course, time traveling defied reason, as well. And Nathan didn’t seem surprised by her statements at all.

  “So that gives us a little time,” Isaac said. “Which means we need to all be on the same page. Olivia, tell Nathan what happened to you today.”

  “Isaac, I don’t think that really matters.”

  “It might,” Nathan said. “Did something happen when we were interviewing Stacy?”

  Olivia sighed. “When she mentioned the lotions the first time, I smelled them. I mean, in my dream, or whatever it was. I smelled something green. When she said those words, I had some sort of olfactory flashback. I was still feeling a bit overwhelmed by that when she mentioned the scars. The more upset she got, the sicker I felt. My headache came back when we were on our way to see her. The blood…” She swallowed hard. “The blood was still fresh on the floor, so maybe my headache came back around the same time they took her.”

  “Did you have those sorts of reactions around her before?” Nathan asked.

  She shook her head. “No. I’ve had headaches the last few times I stopped to check on her, but I get headaches when I’m under stress.”

  “But why would you think this has anything to do with Stacy?” Remy asked.

  “She was in really bad shape the night you brought me to meet her,” Nathan said before Olivia answered Remy’s questions. “Did it make you sick then?”

  Olivia shook her head. “No, it wasn’t until after…”

  “It wasn’t until after the first vision, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  Isaac grimaced, trying not to lose his temper with the whole situation. He had never hated an inanimate object as much as he did the Silver Maiden. “It all comes back to that damn coin again. It did something to you.”

  “Apparently. But what? I mean, do I have some sort of sympathetic psychic connection with her?” She rubbed her forehead. “Oh my God, I cannot believe that question came out of my mouth.”

  “And if you do,” Nathan continued, “is it just with her, or is it with all the girls he took, or just the girls you had visions of?”

  None of those options sounded good to Isaac. “You expect her to tune into Stacy or something? She’s not a crystal ball.”

  Nathan shook his head. “Nobody’s suggesting she’s a crystal ball. But she, or the second coin, might have a connection to Stacy now. Something we can use. And it’s better than th
e nothing we’ve got to work with.”

  Remy looked to Olivia. “How do you feel right now?”

  Olivia took a deep breath. “It still hurts, but it was like earlier today, before Stacy was taken. More of a vague pain than anything.”

  “So if there is some kind of connection, that means Stacy’s still okay,” Remy finished. “That gives us time.”

  “Gabriel couldn’t have taken her far,” Isaac said. “He brought those girls to L.A. for a reason. If he’s sending them somewhere in time, he’s doing it local.”

  “Rico told me Gabriel’s been divesting himself of his property,” Olivia said. “He made it sound like he was selling everything he could. It’d be easy enough to find out what real estate he still owns.”

  “Right,” Nathan said. “I can get those records faxed over here. We can compare a list of his previously known properties to what’s been sold and narrow down his possible location.”

  “What about when you saw the girls? You saw me in the Silver Maiden’s temple. Where’d you see them?”

  Olivia closed her eyes. “It was someplace…dark. I mean, darker than the city. Some place in the hills. Some place far enough away from Los Angeles to be quiet but the lights…I mean, the sky was still orange. No stars. So it couldn’t have been that far away. The house was big. There were numbers.” Her eyes fluttered open and it was Isaac she addressed, not Remy. “I don’t remember what they were, though. I’m sorry.”

  “That’s okay.” He rested a careful hand on her shoulder and squeezed. A house in the hills was still far more than they’d started out with. “Then we’ll work the real estate angle—”

  “If she saw Stacy when she was holding the coin…” Remy wasn’t letting her go. “Maybe it’ll happen again. We might get some new details that way.”