Rukmani shrugged. "If this was Lewiston's doing, he didn't plan too carefully. I thought he was a smart man."
"You know what Lewiston is? He's a very arrogant man. He got away with murder twenty-five years ago—"
"What was this?"
"Linda Hennick," Poe said. "Y's convinced that he killed her, and paid everyone off to cover it up." He waited a beat. "I will say that kidnapping a detective isn't a slick move. The guy must think he can get away with anything. His guys did shoot at me."
"Yes, that was really stupid."
"Lewiston thinks that ordinary laws don't apply to him. And with good reason. No one wants to tangle with a billionaire who brings beaucoup bucks to the city's coffers. Especially the city attorney's office, since Lewiston has money to keep an expensive slander suit alive for years. Not that he's untouchable. We did get a search warrant—"
"That was pretty nifty."
"Mick Weinberg can pull strings." Poe drummed the wheel. "It's the Wild West out here. The local law challenges Lewiston's authority, and now he's demanding a showdown."
Another police helicopter whizzed past, heading toward his house, its searchlight streaking across the ground like a shooting star.
Rukmani said, "Why does Y think Lewiston murdered Hennick?"
"I don't know. He did tell me they were lovers."
"Who? Y and Linda?"
"I meant Linda and Lewiston, but Y and Linda were lovers as well. According to Y, Linda dumped him for Lewiston. Then Lewiston proceeded to dump her. The police report said Linda checked into the hotel alone and committed suicide. But if she did, it wasn't an ordinary suicide. The woman had gone after herself like a crazed maniac."
"She was mentally off, Rom. I've known patients who have flayed themselves to death."
"Well, she didn't do that, but her face and belly had cuts all over them. She also had a couple of black eyes, indicating she had been beaten up. Now Y sees conspiracy in everything, but in this case, I give the story points."
"It does sound violent for a suicide."
In the distance, Poe saw the strobic flash of blue lights. The cops had made it and Mom was safe. From out of the windows of the house came jaundiced light, courtesy of kerosene lamps and candles. Circling copters roared overhead as spotlights swept over night-covered, dusty roads. Sensitive to loud noise after working a decade in dead silence, Rukmani held her ears.
She said, "Why are they looking so close to your house? They should be searching the mountain roads."
"You're right." Poe pulled up next to the two cruisers. The night nurse's car was also there. He got out and turned on a high-powered flashlight, arcing the beam across the dirt as if sweeping for mines.
"What are you looking for?" Rukmani asked.
"Tire tracks." Poe used the beam as a pointer. "These impressions belong to the cruisers. See, they stop right where they parked. These over here obviously belong to the nurse's car."
"Those are from your Honda," Rukmani said.
"Yeah, those are mine."
Poe shined the beam on still another set of indentations. "These go from the road to here…. They're partially obliterated because one of the cruisers pulled up over them. But you can still see how they circle around back to the road. I think these were made by Patty's Saturn. I'll want a plaster impression of these."
Slowly, he walked to the road and back, then circled the house inch by inch, shining the light on the hard, packed sand. Lots of pebbles, desiccated plant matter, rat and snake burrows, and a few stray feathers, but no tire tracks or human footprints other than his own.
"I know it's dark, but I don't see any tire prints from a strange car." He regarded Rukmani. "So how'd the kidnappers get here?"
Emma came out to greet her son. Poe was about to respond when the two uniforms and the nurse emerged from the house.
Showing his badge, Poe said, "Thanks for coming out. I can take it from here. When you pull out, I want you to stay clear of this area." He indicated the spot. "I want to get an impression of these tire prints, so try to avoid kicking up dust when you leave."
"Will do." The officers climbed into their respective police cars and spun out as little dust as possible. Once they hit the road, they sped off. The nurse stood in place. She was in her late twenties, part Hispanic, part Native American. She had a broad brown face and wide dark eyes. Her name was Anya. She said, "Am I in any danger?"
Rukmani broke in before Poe could. "Why don't you and Emma camp out at my place for the evening."
"Fine with me." Anya looked pointedly at Poe. "Her apartment's got air-conditioning."
Emma pouted. "What about Remus? He's coming in tonight."
"Tonight? As in now?"
Emma looked sheepish.
"What? Mom, did you call him?"
"Yes, Romulus, I did. I asked him to take me home. I'll take my treatment up there. Too much going on down here." She looked down. "Besides, I miss Aunt Shirley."
Meaning: I miss the booze she gives me on the sly.
Another helicopter roared overhead.
Patricia, where are you? Absently, Poe said, "When is Remus coming in?"
"Eleven o'clock. He'll stay for the night, then I'm going back to Reno with him tomorrow morning."
"Ma, we'll talk about this later. I've got a missing detective."
She kissed her son's cheek. "There's nothing to talk about. I'm going." Emma held Rukmani's hands. "You're a louse, Romulus, but you picked a good woman. I musta done something right. I'm going in to pack."
Anya remained rooted to her spot. Rukmani said, "Maybe you could help her?"
"Why not?" Anya snarled. "I need my dose of daily insults." She stomped back into his pod.
Poe took out his portable phone. First he rang up the crime lab office, asking the techs to bring out the material needed for casting plaster impressions. Then he contacted dispatch and asked to talk to the helicopter pilots. Once he got through, he told them to search the back roads in the mountains. The last call went to Lieutenant Weinberg. He brought Mick up to date.
After he hung up, he said to Rukmani, "The loo's called an APB on the Saturn with the highway patrol as well as the local law in the bordering Nevada counties. So far no one's spotted anything. I bet they're taking back roads and driving with the lights off." He exhaled, looking up into a full-moon sky. "Weinberg and the captain went over to the Laredo personally. Guess who had to leave on an emergency trip…in his private jet?"
Rukmani clasped her hands. "I'm sorry, Rom."
"Honey's blown up, goons are taking potshots at me, and Patricia's gone. How convenient for him to be out of town." Poe shook his head. "At least you're okay, thank God." Again, he shined the light on the ground. "How did those suckers get to Patricia?"
"She was taking a walk, Romulus. Maybe they found her up the road. The car dropped off a couple of guys, then it sped off. Then the thugs forced her at gunpoint back to her own car and they all drove away."
"Deluca wouldn't have let them get that close. She had her gun—she would have opened fire."
"Well, maybe she did. Maybe there was a shoot-'em-up."
"Sound carries out here. I think my mother would have heard gunfire, even with the radio on." Thoughts flitted through Poe's brain. "Why would Patricia, knowing that I was shot at, take a long hike away from the house? I must be missing something crucial."
Neither spoke. Rukmani followed Poe as he took another trip around the house.
"Offhand, I don't see any big bloodstains. There could be drips I can't see in the dark. But definitely no bloodbath."
Poe took out his pad and started to jot down notes.
"So this is what we know. Patricia and her car are missing. It appears that Patty had her purse and gun. So if she was attacked, someone sneaked up on her like a ghost. But sound travels out here, and there's no place to hide because this terrain is as flat as a tortilla. So how did someone sneak up on her without making noise and without being seen?"
Poe waite
d for an answer. When it didn't come, he said, "What'd they do? Drop from the sky?" Again, he regarded the ground, hoping it would come forth with a clue.
Rukmani said, "Emma said that Patricia went out for an evening stroll, right?"
"Correct."
"I know the ground is hard, Rom, but maybe she left some footprints."
Duh! Poe smiled. "Good point, Doctor." He stepped away from the house, moving the flashlight over the packed sand, hoping to pick up a trail. The full moon was higher in the sky, adding extra illumination. But basically it was Poe and his rods, everything sketched in blacks, whites, and grays. Peering carefully, seeing nothing, but giving himself a monster headache.
The seconds passed, then minutes went by.
"Here!" Poe shone the beam on a tiny impression of swirled sand. "See this? Could be the heelprint of an athletic shoe." He studied the immediate area. "Okay, here's another. I think we've got a trail."
Rukmani squinted at the dent in the ground. "Guess you've got to know what to look for."
Poe said, "We're lucky. Winds haven't kicked up yet."
Methodically, they followed the tiny blips in the sand. The impressions stopped around a hundred yards from the house. Where they ended there was a shallow crater around six feet in diameter, looking almost like a snow angel.
"She must have fallen here," Poe said. "Either fell or was knocked down." He moved the light around the area. "I don't see any other prints. No tire tracks, no footprints. So what am I missing?"
"You're asking me?" Rukmani answered.
"What'd she do? Fall into the earth?" He stared at the crater, his mind fogged in confusion. "If someone took Patricia at gunpoint back to the car, we'd see another set of footprints. Did I miss a set of footprints?"
"Not that I can tell."
"So what's going on? We've got Twinkle Toes for a kidnapper?" Poe bent down and examined the indentation in the sand. He pushed his fist into its center, expecting to hit rock. Instead, his hand sliced through a pit of sand.
"Did she hit a sinkhole?"
He began to dig furiously, scooping sand out of the crater, only to be frustrated by sand filling the hole as fast as he could remove it. Rukmani bent down and dug as well. Impatient and sickened, he stuck his hand and arm down into the ground, burrowing through the grains as far as he could go. Past his elbow, halfway up his biceps, he hit compact dirt.
"It's about two and a half feet deep."
"How wide?" Rukmani asked.
Carefully Poe moved his arm around the sinkhole. "I'd say about two feet in diameter. I sure as heck don't feel a body under there."
"Do you feel anything other than sand?"
"Yeah, there's some junk—"
"Be careful of snakes."
"Yeah, you're right. It could be an animal's den." He brought his hand out, bringing up a fistful of feathers. Poe spread them on the ground.
Beautifully marked long tail feathers. The kind used in Indian headdresses. From a big bird. Like an eagle or a hawk—
Poe blanched.
"What is it?" Rukmani asked.
He had turned speechless. The image—that massive hawk circling above when he was with Rukmani in the car. Squawking at him. As if it wanted to intrude upon his privacy.
Absurd thoughts raced through his brain.
Lashing out at him like some kind of animal. Lashing out at Steve in the same way. Eating Gretchen's raw flesh while costumed like a wolf.
Was it a costume?
The red, pitying eyes of the coyote.
The fierceness of that snake's bite.
The man with the ponytail who repeatedly outran him.
It was too weird to contemplate. Yet, he did.
"Romulus, you're white!" Rukmani said. "What is it?"
"It isn't Lewiston." Poe started to pace. "It isn't Lewiston at all. It's Alison! Steve Jensen owns a four-wheel-drive—an Explorer." He spoke quickly and animatedly as he walked in circles. "Somehow, Alison managed to kidnap Patricia in her own car."
"How could she do that?"
"Same way she got Steve in the trunk of his car," he said, speed-talking. "Alison carries Patty back to the Saturn, drives her off to a hidden spot, then switches to a four-wheeler. Once she's in an off-roader, she can go anywhere…do anything…"
"How'd she get Patricia back to the car without leaving footprints?"
"Metempsychosis!" Poe's eyes were wild. "She flew back."
"Excuse me?"
He grabbed Rukmani's shoulder. "Don't you see? She shapeshifted. She was that hawk that we saw—"
"Rom—"
"She flew Patricia back to her car, carrying her in her talons. Which explains why she used the car. She couldn't carry Patricia a long distance. Too much weight. So she shape-shifted back into Alison or some other human form and kidnapped Patricia in her own car."
Rukmani stared at him. "Rom, I don't know what you're talking about!"
"I'm right about this." Poe clutched her shoulders, digging his fingers into her skin just below the point of pain.
"I know it sounds insane, but I'm right!" Breathing hard, his clothes drenched in sweat. "It's just like Steve said. She's out to destroy anything she perceives as dear to me. And somehow she's got this magical power to do it. Shape-shifting just like in your legends—"
"Rom, they were legends! Which meant they're not real—"
"But what if it is real? All the radiation fallout from the atmospheric shots. I mean, radiation…especially huge concentrations of radiation…it can work havoc on the cells."
"Yes, it renders them useless."
"Not in Alison's case! In her case, it gave her some kind of unimaginable ability to change form." He let go of Rukmani and looked up at the sky as he bounced on his feet. "And that's why the legends always came with a full moon. I mean, just look at what a full moon does. It controls the ocean waves."
"Rom, that's gravity-related, not radiation."
But Poe wasn't listening. "You take massive fallout from an atomic bomb and couple it with radiation from a full moon, who knows what you could produce?"
Again, all Rukmani could do was stare at him. Talking as if he were having a full-blown manic episode.
Still pacing. He said, "We don't have a clue as to what all this atmospheric radiation did to us. Not a clue. The Department of Energy has never been honest with the bomb's long-term effects. They've got thousands of pages of classified documents that we can't even touch."
"I agree with you," Rukmani said calmly. "We haven't been told the full story—"
"I mean, look at all this cloning shit," Poe exclaimed. "Big mammals being duplicated in test tubes. So what's the next logical step…shape-shifting, right? Turning the cells not just from one mammal to another, but turning them between species. Maybe all those legends weren't…legends. Maybe it wasn't lycanthropy at all. Maybe they knew something we didn't."
Again, he grabbed her shoulders.
"I've got to find her, Ruki. I've got to find her, and fast! Before she destroys Patricia!"
Rukmani looked at Poe with intense concern. He was uncontrollably agitated, sweating and ticcing and shaking. Rukmani had seen that look before, the same set of neurological impaired behaviors in mentally disturbed patients right before they took their Thorazine. How could Rom be so logical one moment, searching out footprints with a cold, rational eye, then speak such lunacy?
The scope and breadth of human behavior.
Remain calm.
She said, "Romulus, I'm not debating you. What you're saying…makes sense—"
"In a crazy way, it does, doesn't it?"
"But if Alison's out for you, we should leave the search to someone who's not personally involved—"
"No, no, no, no, no." Poe backed away, spasming as he talked. "I've got to face her. I'm part of it. It's what made me what I am, made Alison what she is." He headed back toward his car. "We're all victims, don't you see?"
"Rom—"
"You take my mother and Anya back
to your apartment and lock the doors!" He broke into a jog. "I'm off to see the wizard. I'll call you from the car."
Rukmani had to run to keep up with him. "Romulus, where are you going? Please talk to me—"
"No time—"
She pulled at his shirtsleeve, but he shook her off. "Romulus, please! You're scaring me!"
Moon Music Page 44