A Dark Mind

by T. R. Ragan

  He was born and raised in Sacramento. The city was known for many things, including its colorful government bureaucrats, allergies, and, most recently, its abundance of housing foreclosures. He laughed to himself as he jumped on the bike and began to pedal. The sky was filled with dark clouds that looked ready to burst. He hadn’t ridden a bike in years. He felt like a kid again, which prompted his thoughts to become darker than the clouds hovering overhead.

  Mother, Mother, Mother.

  Everything had been perfect until the day he found her in the barn.

  He pedaled faster, hoping to outrun the memories. His eyes stung.

  He refused to cry.

  Nothing that had happened to him was his fault. Rarely did he feel guilt or remorse; only when he thought of his mother. He didn’t like to think about her because he knew he should have tried harder to make her understand. He told her he hadn’t done it. But then she had called him names, all sorts of horrible things, and even told him that his therapist had said he was delusional, which meant he twisted the truth until lies became reality. That was rubbish.

  He pedaled faster. He knew that if he pedaled long enough and hard enough, the darkness would pass. And it did.

  With two miles left to go, he thought of Lizzy Gardner instead and his mood lifted. He’d thought that a break-in would throw her off balance, take her out of the game for a bit, but he’d been wrong about Lizzy. The police had gone to the house, she filled out a report, and that was the end of it. She was back on the news the very next day! He couldn’t believe it when he turned on the television and saw Lizzy Gardner exiting the California State Prison. Once again, the media was all over it. The woman didn’t know when to quit.

  It wasn’t good enough that she talked to Lieutenant Greer about Dalton’s supposed innocence. The bitch needed to talk to Michael Dalton, too? Who did she think she was, anyhow? The goddamn mayor of Sacramento?

  His insides began to quiver with anger.

  The idea of Lizzy Gardner, a nobody, getting deeply involved in his business was too much. Perhaps she wasn’t teetering as close to the edge as he’d first thought. But she would be soon. Nobody was safe in this cow town…especially Lizzy Gardner. It was hard to believe she’d gotten the best of Spiderman. The woman was a pale, tiny thing—five foot four inches at most. She liked to wear her dirty-blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. She had a decent mouth. Not full pouty lips, but soft pretty ones. He wasn’t sure of the color of her eyes yet, but he was in no hurry. There was time.

  She enjoyed sushi and she liked to run at the park most mornings. Other than that, she didn’t seem to have a set schedule. Every day was random. He liked watching her do surveillance because he could tell by her movements that she didn’t like sitting in her car for too long. It made her antsy. He had to admit he was enjoying waking up every morning, wondering what Lizzy would do that day.

  She spent a good amount of time in her office on J Street. According to articles he’d read, she used to live in an apartment with her cat, but not any longer. Spiderman had taken care of the poor little feline. Unlike Spiderman, he would never kill a poor defenseless creature.

  The fact that Lizzy lived with an FBI agent really made things interesting. Getting an FBI agent into his cage was not going to be easy, but nothing was impossible, and he was certainly up to the challenge.

  Since breaking into the house, he’d learned more about the crazy girl who lived with them, the one who’d come after him. He prided himself on his research, and it bothered him that he hadn’t known about the girl before he entered the house. Her name was Hayley Hansen. She was damaged goods. Who wasn’t? This particular young woman had recently done time for cutting off a man’s penis.

  Ouch.

  He made a mental note to stay away from that one.

  CHAPTER 15

  I haven’t blocked out the past. I wouldn’t trade the person I am, or what I’ve done—or the people I’ve known—for anything. So I do think about it. And at times it’s a rather mellow trip to lay back and remember.

  —Ted Bundy

  Davis

  Friday, May 18, 2012

  Hayley called her mom. Still no answer. She looked at her ankle. If she could get the damn thing off, she could check on her mom herself.

  To hell with it. She picked up her cell and dialed Jessica’s number.

  Jessica answered on the first ring.

  “It’s Hayley. Where are you?”

  “More surveillance. Same-o, same-o.”

  “Povo?”

  “No, some other loser.”

  “Can you do me a favor?”

  “Of course, anything.”

  “I need you to check on my mom. Lizzy was driving by and keeping tabs on her while I was away, but I’m worried. Mom hasn’t been answering her phone. I was hoping you wouldn’t mind going to her house and knocking on the door or peeking through a window. If nobody answers, she keeps a spare key under a decorative concrete rabbit near the front door.”

  There was a long pause before Jessica said, “If she doesn’t answer the door, you want me to go inside the house?”

  “Yeah, that would be great.”

  “If she doesn’t answer, shouldn’t I call the police?”

  “I’d rather not.”

  Hayley heard Jessica sigh.

  “Never mind,” Hayley said. “It’s probably not a good idea for you to go there alone. Forget I asked.”

  “No, I’ll do it tomorrow…Saturday.”

  “Cool. Thanks.”

  “Not a problem,” Jessica said, but they both knew that was a lie.

  Hayley clicked her cell shut and began to pace. Tommy was supposed to have come over days ago with her new monitor, but he was a no-show. What if he couldn’t figure out a way to make it work? What would she do? She needed to get out of the house once in a while. How much longer could she sit in her room doing nothing but filing and reading?

  She might as well be at the detention center. Ever since someone had broken into the house, Lizzy wanted the curtains and blinds shut tight. Hayley found herself spending a lot of time staring out her bedroom window. Freedom was right there for the taking, and yet she couldn’t walk more than a mile without the light on her monitor flickering and beeping.

  The sound of a car outside drew her attention. She went to the front window and peeked through the curtains. It was Jared and Lizzy—at two o’clock on a Friday. What are they doing home?

  She returned to the couch, opened a file, and pretended to be working when they walked through the door. Raising a brow, she feigned surprise. “What are you two doing home so early?”

  Lizzy headed for the kitchen and set her purse on the kitchen counter. “I had to drop my car off at the shop. Jared picked me up and brought me home.”

  She’d forgotten all about Lizzy’s mangled car. “How bad was the damage?”

  “Over five thousand dollars’ worth of damage.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Insurance will cover it, but I’m sure they’ll raise my premium.”

  Jared was already upstairs, checking windows. Every window throughout the house had been hooked up to a cool new device. If anyone so much as touched the latch, inside or outside, an alarm sounded, a barely perceptible beep that would send a text message to Jared’s and Lizzy’s phones.

  The ring of the doorbell caused Hayley to hold in a groan. Shit. It better not be—

  “It’s Tommy,” Lizzy said as she looked through the peephole, her face brightening. Lizzy opened the door and let him in.

  Hayley shut the file and stood up. “Hey, Tommy.”

  “Hey.”

  Of course, Jared strode downstairs to see what all the commotion was about.

  Lizzy introduced Tommy to Jared and that should have been that, but Jared and Lizzy were acting like nervous parents who wanted to make sure everybody was getting along. Lizzy knew Tommy and liked him, so she was fine.

  Jared, on the other hand, was staring at Tommy, sizing the p
oor guy up with one long, hard stare. If Tommy wasn’t here bearing gifts of freedom, she would have enjoyed the scene. But he was and so she wasn’t.

  Hayley massaged her neck as she waited for the awkward moment to pass.

  “Can I get you two something to eat?” Lizzy asked as if she’d suddenly turned into June Cleaver. “Crackers and cheese? Cookies and milk?”

  Jared locked the front door and made his way upstairs again without another word. Clearly, he was not impressed.

  “Cookies and milk sounds great,” Tommy said as he followed Lizzy to the kitchen. Hayley hovered over Tommy and watched him eat cookies and wash it all down with a glass of cold milk. The entire process felt like an hour but in reality lasted only ten minutes. “Come to my room,” she said the minute he finished the last cookie. “I want to show you something.”

  Lizzy was trying to busy herself around the house, but Hayley could tell she was all ears. She was acting weird, making Hayley think she had a problem with Hayley taking a boy into her room, but that was too bad.

  The moment Tommy stepped inside her bedroom, Hayley locked the door and then turned on some music just in case Lizzy decided to try to listen in on their conversation.

  “Did you bring it with you?”

  One corner of his mouth turned upward, a cross between a smirk and a smile, as he pulled a black plastic strap out of his pant pocket.

  “We can’t possibly do this with Jared upstairs,” Hayley said. “That’s Lizzy’s boyfriend and he works for the FBI.”

  “Awesome.”

  “No, not awesome. If the alarm goes off, he’ll find out what we’re up to.”

  “Chill. My little brother could do this blindfolded.”

  “Can you come back tomorrow?”

  “I can’t. I would if I could,” he assured her, “but I’m leaving town for a few days.”

  “When?”

  “Tonight.”

  Hayley’s arms dropped to her sides. Screw it. There was no way she had the patience to wait any longer. “OK, then, let’s just do this.” She took a seat on the edge of the bed and pulled up her jeans so he could get the monitor off her ankle.

  He looked around the room.

  “What do you need?”

  “My tools. I left my backpack by the stool in the kitchen.”

  Great. Just great. Hayley pulled her pant leg down, and then stood. “Stay right there,” she said before she headed out the door.

  Lizzy was folding laundry on the couch.

  Jared had reappeared and was in the kitchen, fixing a sandwich.

  Hayley picked up Tommy’s backpack and headed for her room.

  “What are you two doing in there?” Jared asked.

  God, I really hate living with the guy. Hayley lifted the backpack. “He made me a CD and we’re going to listen to it. Lizzy’s the one who forced the guy on me. She likes to play matchmaker, so if you have any questions about Tommy, ask her.”

  “Go,” Jared said. “Have fun.”

  Hayley returned to her room and locked the door behind her. Tommy must have figured out her password, because he was sitting at her desk, playing on her computer. Hayley took a seat on her bed with her back resting against the headboard. She pulled up her pant leg again. “Let’s hurry up and do this before June and Ward Cleaver decide to kick you out of here.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “Let’s just say they’re not very trusting.”

  “Lizzy likes me,” he said.

  “But her boyfriend doesn’t.”

  “Is that why you want this thing off? Are you going to run away?”

  “I’m not going to run away. I simply need to visit a few people, that’s all.”

  He laid out his tools on her bed next to her foot. “We could have used a thirty-dollar plastic box to jam the GPS, but that would have been chaos: air-traffic controllers would be peering at malfunctioning monitors, emergency pagers would stop working, people would find that they had no signal on their cell phones, and ATMs could even stop giving out cash. The feds would be on to us within a few days, especially with your FBI friend upstairs. Instead, we’re going to do this a little differently. It’ll still be easy, just not as fun.”

  “Yes, please, let’s keep the military and the feds out of this.”

  He didn’t waste any time getting to work. Using pliers and another tool she didn’t recognize, he had the bracelet off her ankle in less than two minutes. She stretched her leg and wiggled her ankle. “Excellent.”

  He held up a hand to stop her from saying anything more.

  “Stay right where you are and don’t move. We’ve got to work fast. I have no idea how often the GPS tracks the coordinates.”

  She remained silent after that and watched him examine the box and reconnect the band he’d just taken off. Then he placed the new and improved fake band around her ankle and used metal rivets he’d brought with him to connect it. It looked identical.

  Impressive.

  Once he was done with her leg, he carried the original ankle bracelet to the computer and began to click away on her keyboard.

  “What are you doing now?”

  “I still need to assign your monitor an IP address.” He pulled a device out of his backpack. “This Ethernet switch supports IP multicast. The switch will use the IP addresses and the IGMP for controlling of the multicast routing but will use the MAC addresses for the actual routing.”

  “Oh,” Hayley said, although not one word of what he’d said made much sense. And she had a feeling he knew that.

  He continued to work as he talked. “If they had used checksums in lieu of faster routing, we might have had a few problems. Nothing I couldn’t handle, but there are so many issues of reliability that I could talk about it all day.”

  “Please don’t. My head would explode.”

  He hit a couple of keys and then signed off. The screen went blank. “It’s simple,” he went on as he collected his tools. “The IP has two functions. Addressing hosts and—”

  She tossed a pillow at his head. “OK, well, now you’ve asked for it.” He stood.

  She pointed a finger at him. “Stay away from me.”

  He picked up the pillow and tossed it back at her, but she was too quick. She rolled over and the pillow missed her completely and knocked over a picture frame instead.

  She laughed. “Lizzy is not going to be happy with you if you break her lamp.”

  He was staring at her.

  “What are you looking at?”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you laugh before.”

  She looked away from him and slid off the bed. “Yeah, well, it’s been known to happen.”

  He scratched his head.

  That they were experiencing an awkward moment would be putting it mildly.

  He began to pack up his tools.

  Once he was done with that, she followed him out of the room, glad to see that Lizzy and Jared had disappeared upstairs.

  Shutting the door behind her, she followed Tommy to the curb and watched him climb on his motorcycle.

  The perky neighbor, Charlee, was watering her flowers and she waved.

  Hayley waved back.

  “So, it’s all taken care of?” she asked Tommy.

  “Well, you do owe me a ride on the back of my motorcycle.”

  “Yeah, yeah, we’ll do that later, but what about my monitor? Am I free to roam?”

  “The bracelet with the packet needs to stay in your room at all times. It’s in your top drawer. I suggest you hide it somewhere.”

  She nodded. “I can go anywhere I want without any alarms going off?”

  “I guess you’ll find out.”

  “You’re not sure?”

  His laugh was a low rumble under his breath.

  She shook her head at him. “Have fun on your trip,” she said as she headed for the front door. “And thanks for the CD,” she shouted in case anyone in the house was listening.

  Sacramento

&nbs
p; Saturday, May 19, 2012

  The house where Hayley’s mom lived was one of the smallest homes Jessica had ever seen. It was literally a pinkish stucco box with tiny square windows. She’d been sitting there staring for ten minutes now and she had to force herself to get moving.

  There were no cars parked in the driveway or at the curb. No neighbors were out walking their dogs or enjoying the fresh air. It had been raining for most of the day, but at the moment, it was more of a light drizzle. It was by far the gloomiest springtime Jessica could ever remember experiencing. Where were all the May flowers and sunshine?

  With a sigh, she climbed out of the car and shut the door behind her. As she headed up the cracked walkway, she tried to imagine growing up in the neighborhood. The thought of all that Hayley had been through saddened her. She peeked through the garage window. The place was filled to the brim with boxes and plastic bags. There were rusty old bike parts, a twin-sized mattress with the stuffing coming out, a stack of tires, and a broken chair. An endless assortment of crap stuffed into every crevice.

  She pulled away from the window and inhaled.

  Standing before the front door, she counted to three, collected herself, and then knocked. Get this over with and get out of here.

  As she waited for someone to answer the door, she took inventory of the mess. It was hard to miss. There were beer cans scattered around the walkway and a zillion cigarette butts. A dark sheet was hung from the inside, covering the front window, preventing her from seeing through to the main part of the house.

  Jessica shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she prayed Hayley’s mom would answer the door soon, because she was quickly losing her nerve. But nobody came to the door, not even after Jessica’s third attempt at knocking as hard as she could.

  Damn.

  She tried opening the door, but it was locked. She looked around for the decorative rabbit Hayley had mentioned. For a brief moment, she thought luck was with her because there was no rabbit to be found. But then she spotted it—its grayish concrete ears peeking out from behind a clump of high weeds. The rabbit wasn’t exactly ornamental. She headed that way and tried her best to avoid disturbing all of the gigantic, intricately made spiderwebs. She squealed when a lizard raced out from under the rabbit and found a new hiding spot beneath the house.