She hung up on him, her lips curling in disgust. In her mind, Conrad was now forever conflated with the despised man, and when the phone started ringing in her hand she almost threw it against the wall. Instead, she turned it off and put it away in her bedside drawer, along with the intention of ever seeing Conrad ever again.
By the time the end of the week finally arrived Layla had put the whole thing behind her, waking up on Friday morning with a renewed sense of well-being. She was bubbling over with anticipation, fussing over what outfit to wear and daydreaming about kissing Ramon again. She spent the entire day in a daze, thinking about how his hands felt on her, and willing the hours to pass as time slowed down to a crawl.
~
Agent Kim let herself in to her tiny apartment, kicking off her shoes and heading straight for her computer desk. She logged into the game, disappointed to see that Wall Street Wizard wasn’t on line yet. She’d been buried in paperwork all day, and was in the mood for a good battle. She had acquired a few new weapons for her arsenal, and she was just itching to try them out.
Frustrated, she wandered to the kitchen to pull a frozen dinner out of the fridge. She peeled back the cover and popped it into the microwave, going back to her desk while it heated. She felt kind of foolish for being so disappointed. After all, there were plenty of other players that she could engage with.
Back online, she got a little thrill of excitement when she saw that her favorite opponent had just logged in, flipping her long ponytail over her shoulder and rolling up her sleeves.
“Game on?” she typed in, waiting.
“When?” Wall Street Wizard responded.
“There’s no time like the present,” she typed in, signing it “Mulehead”.
The bell on the microwave sounded, but her meal sat forgotten as she immersed herself in a fantasy world of trolls, necromancers and venom-spitting dragons. She laughed and cursed out loud, succumbing to a poison spider bite only a few points away from unlocking a flaming battle-axe. She crossed a rope bridge to unlock a secret cave, stopping to lick her wounds.
“You okay?” Wizard asked, making her smile. As fierce a fighter as he was, he could never bring himself to be entirely ruthless with her. She liked having him as a friend.
She realized that feeling like she knew someone from playing an online game was ridiculous, but she couldn’t help it. She was attracted to the Wizard’s competence and the obvious intelligence in his play; she couldn’t help but wonder what kind of person he was in real life. For all she knew he was a teenager, or some creep living in his grandmother’s basement. Heck, she thought, he might not even be a he.
Only the insistent buzzing of her phone drew her attention away from the battle, and she glanced down to see that it was a call from the San Francisco office. She paused the game and answered immediately, slipping back into her clinical, rational, investigative mode.
“Agent Kim here.” She listened, sitting up in her seat. “An abduction? I see… I can leave right now and be there within the hour.” She listened, her mouth twisting into a frown. “But… but… Yes sir. I’ll be there first thing in the morning.”
She set down her phone in frustration. She’d graduated the academy with high hopes of a career filled with excitement and adventure, only to be sent to a backwater of a field office in a small city with nothing much going on. Now she finally had a case she could sink her teeth into and she was being forced to wait.
She considered going against a direct command and leaving right away, but she realized that she would need a good night’s sleep to do her best work tomorrow. She was anxious, raring to get started with her first real investigation. Instead, she turned to focus back on the game, pouring all of her attention into the battle with a renewed sense of urgency.
Tomorrow would arrive on its own schedule.
~
Layla sat looking out of her bedroom window, and when Ramon’s police cruiser pulled up she jumped to her feet with a thrill of excitement, racing down the stairs and out the front door to intercept him. She was in no mood for any more teasing from either Cal, and besides, she didn’t want to run the risk of Ramon mentioning anything about her ill-advised trip to the city. She was fully aware that her cousin need only glance at her to know for certain that she was hiding something.
She hopped into the passenger side happily before Ramon even had a chance to step out, but the smile on her face died after she took one look at him. “What happened?”
“Is it that obvious?” he asked.
She nodded solemnly. His colors were a muddled blend of black dread, cold green fear, and helpless resignation. The car was filled with the horrible bitter taste of disappointment, but above everything, he was feeling very, very sad.
He heaved a defeated sigh, “Do you mind if we skip the movies tonight? I’ve had a really bad day at work… I don’t feel like going out anywhere right now.”
She felt her eyes sting with disappointment, and she fumbled blindly for the door handle. “Okay… Alright… Some other time then.”
“Hold on!” he reached over to clutch her arm. “I was gonna ask you if it was okay if we just grabbed a pizza and hung out …” His voice cracked a tiny bit. “I’ve been looking forward to seeing you all week.”
She looked down at his hand on her arm and lifted her eyes to see the naked longing in his. Without thinking, she launched herself across her seat and into his open arms. He hugged her close, pressing his face onto her shoulder with a sigh.
She stroked the bristly back of his head, surprised by how much her touch was comforting him. “It’s gonna be alright,” she told him.
He shook his head no, his voice muffled in her hair, “I’m afraid not.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered into his ear.
He sat up with a groan, “No, I’m sorry. It’s been a terrible day,” he said. “The worst ever.”
“Is there anything I can do?” she asked.
He smiled sadly at her, “You’re already doing it. Now put on your seatbelt.”
He drove her into town, pulling up in front of the nearest pizza parlor with a sigh, “Do you mind if we order it to go? I really don’t want to have to talk to anyone else tonight.”
She placed her hand on his, fighting the urge to simply make all of his sorrow go away. It would be so easy, and she could hardly bear to witness his suffering for one more minute. “That’s fine with me… But will you please tell me what happened?”
He exhaled hard and nodded. “A kid in town has gone missing. Little Amy Rivers. Only ten years old. Never made it home from the bus stop after school.”
“That’s terrible,” Layla said. “What happened?”
He frowned, and his frustrated colors flared again. “Nobody knows for sure.”
“But you have your suspicions… don’t you? What do you think happened?”
He looked surprised at her perception, and as much as he didn’t want to burden her with the whole terrible story, he found himself spilling his guts, telling her everything.
“I think someone took her,” he said grimly.
“Who?”
“That’s the worst part. I’m pretty sure, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
She sat up, alarmed, “Why?”
“There’s this real creep that has a place just outside of town. Name’s George Williams, and he’s a registered sex offender. He got caught trying to drag a girl into his car in Reno two years ago, but she got away… and he got parole.”
“And you think he took Amy?”
“Someone saw a car that matches the description of his leaving the area, and he called in sick to work. We brought him in for questioning, but he’s already lawyered up and clammed up.”
“That’s not right!” Layla was indignant.
Ramon nodded. “Sherriff Brown dug up an outstanding speeding ticket. It’s enough to keep him overnight, but that’s it.”
“That’s awful…” she started thinking. The horror of the situ
ation was now hers as well, but another emotion started to override the shock. Outrage. Followed by anger.
“Yes. It is.”
“We have to make him talk,” she said firmly.
“I wish it was that easy.”
Layla’s face was grave, her voice firm, “I can do it. Can you take to see him?”
He smiled sadly at her, “Layla…”
“I’m totally serious! Take me to him.”
“He’s disgusting. I don’t want you anywhere near him.”
She shook her head vehemently. “You don’t understand. Do you remember how I stopped the fight at your mother’s house? I can make people… I can make them change their minds. I can make him tell me what he knows.”
His voice was gentle, “Layla… It’s no use, the guy knows his rights. He won’t talk.”
“I’m serious. This is what I do. This is what I’m good at!” Her voice rose.
“I know you are, but it’s no use.”
“Listen to me!” she cried, surprising him with her intensity. “There are things you don’t know about me. Things I’ve done… Things I can do. I can make him tell me whether he wants to or not!”
She could see his skepticism. “At least let me try,” she pleaded. She’d never felt so strongly about anything… So certain that it was the absolute right thing to do.
“Layla, this guy’s a real creep.”
“All the more reason to let me see what I can find out. What harm can it do to let me try?”
He looked down, thinking. When he looked back up he surprised her.
“Okay, let’s go right now.”
~
Chapter Seventeen
DISCOVERY
~
Ramon led her past the receptionist and down the hall to the police station’s small holding cell, where a lone man sat on a cot. He looked up and glowered at them, exuding a foul green malevolence. “What do you want?”
Ramon looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was coming. “We have a few questions for you.”
The man scowled, but he couldn’t resist coming close enough to get a good look at Layla. “I don’t have to talk to you. Where’s my lawyer?”
“That won’t be necessary… Will it?” Layla asked, locking her eyes on him. She sent him a powerful shock of cold white fear, surprised when he absorbed it, smiling an evil black-toothed grin back at her. “Hey Red. Does the carpet match the drapes?”
She looked at Ramon in shock, her mind racing. His evil aura was palpable, his reaction to fear, unnatural. Layla had never encountered someone so completely devoid of a normal response. It was sickening to imagine how his mind worked, and more than a little fascinating. Fear would definitely not work with him.
Ramon’s jaw clenched in anger, and the man smiled broader, taunting him. “Did you bring me this nice little piece of trim to keep me company until my attorney bails me out?”
“Let’s get out of here,” Ramon said, his voice tight.
“Hold on,” Layla motioned to Ramon, turning her attention back to the prisoner. “Look at me,” she snapped her fingers. She took a deep breath and focused, winding up like a pitcher to deliver a blistering dose of pitch-black despair. His breath caught in his throat and he froze like a deer caught in the headlights.
Ramon’s anger turned to stunned surprise when the man’s face fell, his smile slowly replaced by a quivering lower lip.
“Come closer,” Layla commanded, and he did, receiving a follow-up blast of agonizing deep blue grief. She dredged her deepest reservoirs of sadness and disappointment, delivering the most painful emotions possible with a precision that would have impressed Cali had she been there to witness it.
Ramon watched in wonder as the man fell to his knees with tears streaming down his face. He started bawling like a baby, and Layla crouched down to continue her torments, cooing with saccharine sympathy, “There there… Now look at me… Good.” She was ruthless now, completely oblivious to the fact that Ramon was witnessing the whole thing, “I can make it all go away, but you need to tell me something.”
“Wh-wh-what?” he sniffled.
“Tell me where Amy is.”
“No!” he wailed, throwing himself onto the cement floor. “Don’t make me!”
“George,” she said in a sweet voice, “If you tell me, you’ll feel better.”
He looked up as to seek comfort, but all he got was more gut-wrenching sorrow. Layla kept up her steady questioning while Ramon watched in shocked wonder. Finally, from his hands and knees on the cell floor, George Williams told the truth.
“She’s in the b-b-barn,” he blubbered, snot hanging from his nose as he wept. “But it’s probably too late.” He fell over and curled into a fetal position, sobbing too hard to speak.
“What barn?” Layla asked. “Where?”
“I know where it is,” Ramon said quietly.
Layla looked up at him, coming back to reality. “Then let’s go.”
~
They drove out into the country, down overgrown backroads that wound deep into the woods. Ramon kept casting sideways glances over at her, and her heart sank. She’d tipped her hand too soon, and he’d seen the whole freakish truth all at once. She could feel all the unanswered questions hanging in the air between them, but when he started to speak she stopped him.
She placed her hand on his arm. “Let’s just check it out first… okay?”
There would be plenty of time for telling lies and erasing suspicions later. She needed to focus on the task at hand, and not worry about the rejection that was sure to come. She’d been hoping that she might be able to break the news to him one day, but she was afraid that it was too much all at once. She could temporarily confuse him, but she couldn’t go back and erase what he’d just seen with his own two eyes.
Ramon’s police cruiser finally pulled into a dark clearing. It was a moonless night, and Layla could just barely make out the outline of a house.
“What is this place?” she asked, goose bumps rising on her arm.
“It’s his property. When old Mr. Williams passed, this guy showed up to claim his inheritance. He’s been nothing but trouble ever since he showed up in town.”
“I can imagine,” Layla said, thinking the same thing could be said for her.
Ramon parked, leaving the headlights on. He grabbed a flashlight from the glove box and they climbed out, walking on the rutted, uneven dirt of the driveway. He led her to a weathered barn that was off to the side of a ramshackle old house, shining the light on a double door, its hardware secured with a chain and padlock.
Ramon tugged at the handle, but the chains kept it from opening more than a few inches.
“Amy?” he called into the dark, pausing to listen for a response. An owl hooted in the black void behind them.
“We have to look inside,” Layla said urgently.
“This is gonna be breaking and entering,” he muttered under his breath. “Wait here.” He trotted back to the patrol car, returning with a pair of bolt cutters. He cut through the lock and opened the doors wide, shining the light inside.
“Oh my God,” Layla gasped.
“His father was a cooper,” Ramon explained.
The old barn was crowded full of wooden wine barrels, draped with cobwebs and stacked precariously high with narrow pathways between them. It was an eerie sight, illuminated only by the thin beam of Ramon’s flashlight. He pointed it all around and above them, and they both looked up to see a teetering wooden beam dangling from a hole in the caved-in roof.
“Amy? Amy Knight?” Ramon called out. A few bats roosting in the crumbling rafters spooked, flapping past them and out into the night.
Layla stepped in hesitantly, her heart pounding in her throat. She started picking her way through a maze of barrels, followed by Ramon shining the beam of light ahead of her.
He took her by the arm, holding her back. “This place is too dangerous… We need to go.”
“Wait!” she cried, scanning ev
ery barrel desperately.
Then she saw it, and her heart leapt. A faint aura of color was leaking from a small hole in the side of one of the barrels on the bottom of a pile. Layla raced over to put her hands on it, turning to Ramon in the darkness. “She’s in here!” she cried. “And she’s alive!”
He looked at her in disbelief. “Layla…”
She started pushing at the barrels on top, unable to budge them an inch.
“Stand back,” Ramon handed her the flashlight and came over to move the barrels that were stacked high, pushing them off to send them crashing to the ground with giant clouds of dust. He coughed and waved at the air, starting to think he was crazy to be humoring her.
The bottom barrel uncovered, Layla clawed at the lid frantically. “It’s nailed shut!” she cried, “We need something to pry it open!”
“Are you sure?” Ramon asked, his yellow skepticism growing stronger.
“YES! Open it now!”
Ramon spoke softly, afraid of her disappointment when their search proved fruitless. “Okay, okay… But Layla… We tried our best.”
A tiny scratching sound came from inside the barrel and Ramon’s eyes flew open wide the exact instant that his aura bloomed a shocked neon orange. “Oh my God!”
He raced over to retrieve the bolt cutters, handing Layla the flashlight while he struggled to pry the wooden lid up.
“Hurry!” she urged. “Please.”
He finally got the lid off, tossing it aside to reveal a child wedged inside, curled in a fetal position. Her mouth and ears were covered with duct tape, and her swollen eyes started blinking in the flashlight’s beam.
Ramon reached in to gently lift her out, rushing her out of the barn as Layla followed along behind them. He placed her on the hood of his police car, working to untie the ropes that bound her wrists and ankles while Layla gingerly peeled the tape from her face.
“It’s going to be alright now Amy,” Layla told her. “He’s a policeman, and we’re here to help.”
When the tape was pulled from her mouth Amy sucked in a breath. “I want to go home,” she croaked.
Ramon retrieved a bottle of water from his car, watching as Layla helped the child to drink, telling her what a brave girl she was. He rushed back to his car radio, calling for an ambulance and backup while Layla continued her soothing words, topping them off with a calming cloud of tranquility.
The Caledonian Inheritance (The Athena Effect) Page 15