“I do I get the picture, but you’re not hearing me Finneaus,” I said. “They don’t respond to me. I respond to them.”
“They responded to my thoughts bitch. I think they can respond to his screams.” He pushed the gun into Kevin’s foot. Kevin screamed something I couldn’t hear.
I didn’t write. I spoke. I have no recollection of what they said or how long they talked. I blacked out the minute they began. I had a vision that I was sitting in a darkness filled with the most beautiful silence. I felt safe and protected. Utterly alone. No thoughts invaded the silence of that space. No proof of existence remained in me, yet I have never felt more certain of life.
21.
The first sound I heard was Kevin calling my name. “Shanna, come back to me.” I heard other voices in the room close by me, but I couldn’t understand the words. I felt a hand on my cheek, and opened my eyes. The room was full of commotion. I focused on Kevin’s face.
“There she is,” he said. “She’s awake. Don’t clean that—it’s mine. Don’t forget the pee bucket.” People were rustling around the room. I listened for him, but not one of the voices I heard belonged to Finneaus.
“I’ll get her to the car,” an unfamiliar voice said.
“Make sure you get the tape with her hair on it,” another voice said.
“Let’s hurry this up guys,” Kevin said.
“Kevin?” I said. My throat was scratchy. “I’m thirsty.”
“Get some water,” Kevin told someone who quickly handed him a bottle of water. “Here you go. Drink it slow. Alpheus is going to get you out of here.”
“Nice to meet you,” Alpheus said.
“Pleasure,” I whispered.
“Everything is good, I’ll meet you in Abilene.” He pressed his warm cheek against mine and whispered in my ear. “We did it.” I sipped the water as reality came back into view. My head was throbbing. It felt like I was surrounded by a million-member drum core, and they were beating out an annoying rhythm. I focused on the room. I hadn’t been moved, but the tape no longer bound me. I looked to my left and saw Kevin. He was happy, elated to be exact. I turned to my right, and saw a man at the desk typing on the laptop keyboard, next to him was another man. I didn’t know either of them, but they both smiled at me briefly before turning their attentions back to the computer. Another man was sitting on the floor across the room. Alpheus was kneeling by my side, and on the floor next to him was the dead body of Finneaus Albert.
“The church?” I asked.
“The church is safe,” Kevin said as he carefully turned my face away from the bloodied corpse. “No more deaths today.”
“What’s next?” I asked. I was ready to move, and more than ready to get out of that house. I stood and Alpheus helped me balance.
“Steady yourself for a second before you try to walk,” Alpheus said.
“Megame and Durgin will take care of the digital trail,” Kevin pointed to the desk, and the two men waved.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, and waved. It felt normal, waving hello to someone new, but nothing about it was normal. They both glanced my way for a second and waived back.
“Braindead is in charge of the removal of all physical evidence,” Kevin said, and pointed to Braindead who didn’t look up as he continued picking up small pieces of tape and hair from the floor. “As soon as you get your balance, we need to get you out of here. Alpheus will drive you to the hotel. Pack, check out and head to Abilene.” I sat on my knees in front of Kevin, and we held each other.
“We did it,” I said. “It’s over.”
“You did,” he said. “You were amazing, but it’s not over yet.”
“What are you going to do? What about your foot? You need a doctor.”
“I’m fine don’t worry. No more worries.”
“We should get going,” Alpheus sheepishly interrupted. He shook Kevin’s hand, and we were out the door.
Alpheus drove. Not a word was spoken by either one of us during the short trip to the hotel. I went up to the room alone. Alpheus waited in the lobby. All I could think about was standing under a hot shower and letting the water wash the bad away. Within seconds of entering the room my thoughts were put into action. I locked the door, turned on the hot water and waited for the room to fog up before taking off my clothes. I stood under the hot water. I scrubbed my body. My mind was wracked with questions. What did the crew say to reverse the situation? When did the Crewbies arrive? How was Finneaus killed and who did it? Kevin said it was me. Did that mean I killed him?
Why did Finneaus believe it was necessary to murder hundreds of children? He never gave me an answer. Why? Was the crew a solution to a problem, or the creator of it? There were no easy answers to my questions, then or now. There would never be a perfect answer, but I hoped for a better one. I scrubbed the filth of Finneaus from my body, but I couldn’t get him out of my soul. He would forever be a shameful mark on my spirit, one I can never forgive. After my body was clean I could no longer hold back the tears.
My heart ached. I cried for Finneaus out of pity for the things he couldn’t control. I didn’t want to carry the hatred I felt for him, but I didn’t know where to put it. I cried for the families torn apart by the senseless acts of a lunatic. Most of all, I cried for the children; the innocence lost. A river of tears would never wash away what had happened. Tears didn’t relieve the guilt I felt for not stopping him sooner.
I dressed and made sure nothing was left in the room before leaving the key on the nightstand, and going to the lobby to meet Alpheus. I found him with the three other Crewbies. All of them jumped to help with the bags. I drove my car with Alpheus and Megame as passengers. Durgin and Braindead followed behind in their car. I forced my curiosity to wait until we had entered the highway.
“What happened?” I asked. They both began to speak simultaneously making it impossible to understand either. “Slow down and start at the beginning. We have a thirteen-hour drive ahead of us, plenty of time to tell every side.”
“We heard yelling,” Megame was the first to speak. “We tried the front door with no luck and went to the back. That’s when we heard the gun shot, and the next thing I know Kevin’s yelling for us to break the door down and get our asses inside.” Megame and Alpheus shared a laugh.
“What time did you get there?” I asked. “Could you hear anything that was going on inside?”
“We got there around six-fifteen. We could hear yelling, not like someone screaming but more like disciplining. You know like a mother does with her child,” Alpheus said.
“Who was yelling, Finneaus or Kevin?”
“You were,” Megame said.
“Could you understand what I was saying?”
“No, not really.”
“Not really? I need to know what happened, and how it happened. Maybe I should just wait for Kevin to answer my questions,” I said peevishly.
“What I mean is,” Megame continued. “We could hear the tone of your voice but not the exact words you were saying. We heard the gunshot, and Fat Boy started yelling, you stopped. When we got inside you were out cold.”
“We broke the glass door and went inside,” Alpheus said. “Finneaus Albert was dead on the floor. Fat Boy was holding the gun. You were slumped over, at first we thought you had been shot but you were just sleeping. Then, we got started.”
“Started on what?” I asked.
“Getting that video off the web,” Alpheus was careful not to look at me as he spoke. “The one with the writing. We deleted it. That part was easy, but it had already been downloaded repeatedly. We couldn’t get it off the net completely, and probably never will.”
“What else?”
“The whole house was wired with nanny cams. We had to search out and destroy all of them,” Megame said. I watched him through the rearview mirror as he talked. He was focused on Jima’s ring.
“We got it all. I’m sure of it,” Alpheus said.
“We’ll see Al, we’ll see,” Mega
me argued. “We tried to leave nothing in the house with your hair or prints on it. We didn’t wash it down, but we got the obvious. It’s not like the guy’s going to be able to tell his story. I think it’s safe to say no one will ever question Fat Boy.”
“Hey Meg, don’t talk about that,” Alpheus said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Fat Boy wants to keep things under wraps,” Alpheus said. “We shouldn’t discuss it.”
“There’s no rules about what we can or cannot discuss,” I said.
“But Fat Boy said,” Alpheus started.
“Fat Boy’s not here man. What’s his story?”
“I’ll let him tell you, besides it’s probably all over the news by now,” Megame said. Alpheus turned on the radio and tried to tune in an AM news station.
“You won’t be able to get a station while we’re in the desert.” I turned off the radio. “Speak.”
“He’s going to say he became suspicious of Finneaus after going through Frank Argot’s files. He put two and two together, and came up with the solution.” Megame was keeping it simple, careful not to give up the ship. He was being loyal to Kevin, and I respected him for that.
“He’s trying to protect me. He could lose everything, but he insists on protecting me,” I said.
“It’s unlikely,” Megame said. “He’ll probably get a raise and promotion. Finneaus had the bombs set up to respond to a phone call. The final two phones were in his desk. One for the church, and the last one was for the house.”
“Kevin saved a lot of people,” I said.
“You both did,” Alpheus said. “It’ll save the government a boat load of money not having to prosecute the son of a bitch. They’ll love Fat Boy. They’ll for sure question his story six ways to Sunday, but in the end he’ll be the hero.”
“As it should be,” I said.
A few hours later, we began to see the rock gardens of Albuquerque. A sign had been erected commemorating those that had died in the children’s museum. Pink and blue ribbons were tied on the trees, telephone poles, fence posts and anything else that was stuck in the ground. No more death today, I told myself as we pulled into a rest stop inside the city limits. The guys filled the cars with gas and bought some snacks. I went inside to relieve myself.
The Crewbies were huddled in a tight circle and obviously speculating about the day’s events and my role in them when I rejoined them outside. They quickly changed the conversation. “Would you like me, or one of us to drive?” Alpheus asked. “You must be exhausted.”
They were being overly cautious around me, choosing their words carefully. I wasn’t exhausted. I was however, more tired of wondering and not knowing. I felt as though I were the bride at a wedding but missed the kiss. I needed to have the ending to end it. Otherwise, the whole ordeal was ongoing and I was still running. “I’ll drive, Alpheus you ride with the others and Megame will ride with me,” I said. Alpheus looked a little pissed by his demotion, but took the orders in stride and got in the back seat of the chase car. Megame was cautiously thrilled and took his place next to me.
“What do you know about me? What has Fat Boy told you?”
“A lot less than that ring tells me. You want me to be honest?”
“That’s all I want.”
“I had most of it figured out by the time we got to the house. I’ve been reading your sessions as fast as Fat Boy could send them, and I knew that the seven crew members were part of one. I didn’t know what or who that one was. I didn’t know how they spoke either.” Megame looked out the window in thought. “Just between me and you?”
“Of course,” I assured him.
“Fat Boy’s not a big talker, he keeps things close to the vest. He’s going to make damn sure no one knows anything about you. He’s going to explain the link between that CIA agent, and his wife to Finneaus. He’s planted evidence, created some letters and other email documents using your phone because it was linked to Agent Todd’s account. I know because I’m the one who showed him how. There’s more, but I’ve said enough to get me killed already.”
“So why stop now?” I asked.
“Because that’s all I really know. Like I said, Fat Boy’s not a big talker.”
“What’s his reasoning?”
“He wants to keeps them off your trail for a while, they’ll have their hands full questioning Tim.”
“Tim’s got all my sessions. All he has to do is give one to someone at the CIA and they’ll be looking for me.”
“Kevin took care of that in the emails. Tim and Marla used you and the crew as code names for themselves and Finneaus. Kevin left the last pages you wrote on Finneaus’ desk. He’ll tell the investigators that he saw Finneaus writing it, and they’ll think the sessions Tim gave them were written by Finneaus.”
“Do you think the CIA will believe it?” I asked.
“It’s possible.”
“I’m not leaving until I see Kevin,” I said.
“He won’t like that, he wants you gone before he gets home,” Megame said.
“I don’t care what he wants. I’m not leaving until I see him so you might want to get that message to him.”
Megame took out his phone and started texting. “There’s no guarantee he’ll get this anytime soon.”
“He’ll get it.”
I turned on the radio as we left Albuquerque. There was no need to search for the news. Every station was airing the latest reports surrounding the death of the baby bomber, and the hero that killed him. Detective Kevin Stewart was trending and well on his way to becoming a household name.
“We can confirm the name of the baby bomber is Finneaus Albert,” Sonya Turner from KRBC radio said. “He lived and died on a quiet residential street in Sedona, Arizona. The police line starts six houses down from the crime scene on Jacob Lane. It’s a typical blue-collar neighborhood. We have not been given an exact address nor have we been given access to the neighbors. The CIA and FBI are both involved here, as it appears to have some connection with the arrest of former CIA agent Timothy Todd, and his wife Marla Todd. They have demanded that no one even remotely involved in this case speak with the press, but our sources tell us that there are also connections between Finneaus Albert and former agent Todd’s partner who was killed in a car bomb a few weeks ago.”
“Question for you Sonya,” Bill the news anchor said. “The Internet is buzzing about the Patient: Crew books that Doctor Marla Todd wrote. Some are claiming them to be prophetic. The bloggers are saying that Patient: Crew predicted the bombings, and even talks about a person named Finn. Have you heard about this or heard anyone else discussing this?” I turned off the radio.
“I guess it shouldn’t surprise me,” I said.
“Does it frighten you?” he asked.
“It does. What does your mother call you?”
“Huh?”
“What’s your name? Your real name?” I asked again.
“We don’t give real names.”
“Why?”
“It’s safer that way.”
“Why? The first time I asked I was trying to pass time, but now I’m genuinely curious.”
“We all talked about it and decided it was safer this way,” he said.
“You’re telling me you don’t know any of their real names?”
“I know them and I’m sure they know mine, but we don’t communicate that way—we’re not friends we’re colleagues—and it’s better if we don’t use real names with digital communications.”
“So it’s a nerd thing?” I asked while holding back a laugh.
“I don’t know,” he said with a pause as if he had done something wrong.
“Don’t worry about it Megame, I’m just teasing you. Trying to lighten things up a little. I feel a need to be happy. I’m alive, and it’s a good day to be alive. A good day for us, and the people in that church.”
“We saved almost as many as we lost,” he said. “I guess we broke even.”
“That’s ri
ght,” I said, and suddenly felt a sadness wash over me. My body slumped with grief.
“I’m not good at the winning part. You should have ridden with Alpheus. He says you win some you lose some. I think about the losses, he’s all about the wins.”
“I didn’t want to ride with Alpheus. I wanted to ride with you.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Ed.”
“Ed?”
“My name is Ed, that’s what my mom calls me,” he said.
“Well then Ed, my name is Shanna. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too.”
“You’re right we didn’t save enough if we didn’t save them all. Nonetheless I know that it could have been worse, and we could be dead now and then I would have broken two promises. I know now that I don’t want to go out that way. I want to leave without debt, you know, without hanging promises. Does that make sense Ed?”
“It makes sense to me.”
“Tell me about the Crewbies, about the website.”
“We have dedicated our lives to Patient: Crew, the writings and to making sure we save them all.”
“You’ve dedicated your life to them?”
“Yes. I study them, sometimes obsessively.”
“I don’t know who’s the bigger nut. Me for hearing voices, or you for studying those voices.” I laughed so hard he had no choice but to join me. We laughed a while, took some drinks of our soda and opened a bag of chips. The laughter healed both our souls a little more. It was much needed medicine.
“I met the guys on another prophecy site we were following.”
“What prophecy site?”
Patient: Crew (The Crew Book 1) Page 28