by Paris Morgan
“Kara?” I called out every so often, hoping that she could hear me. With Lu on the other side, I had to walk back to the trail on occasion to make sure that he didn’t get lost either.
A gazebo was placed strategically where a few of the paths converged. Lu and I made our way to it, looking around carefully.
“It’s not looking good, is it?” Lu questioned.
“No, it’s not. I know she walked, but she couldn’t have wondered off that far. If she was hurt, we’d have seen her. She’s always cheerful, but I never got the sense that she was dumb.”
He shook his head in agreement. “Most people would have stayed on the path. Kara gave me the thought of a prissy girl who wouldn’t want to get dirty. I’m with you on the fact that I don’t think she’d have left the trail willingly.”
Lu was the one that had said it, but I wasn’t going to give up yet. The Zodiac Master’s recruits weren’t known for hiding their deeds, and if they’d taken her to send a message, then it would be right out there in plain sight.
“Let’s keep going, and maybe we’ll still find her. There’s a couple of hours of daylight left.” Lu stood and grabbed one of the bottles of water.
“Um, I know I’m being really paranoid, but I wouldn’t drink that. Anything that isn’t watched could be laced with something, and might be the reason that she’s missing,” I cautioned.
The bottle dropped from his hand as if it was on fire.
“Thanks.” He wiped his hand on his pants as if to get any contamination off. “I’ve always considered myself street smart, but that wouldn’t have occurred to me.”
“Until I started working on this case, I wouldn’t have either to be honest. This guy I’m chasing has made me see evil in the good, ordinary things that we all take for granted.”
“It would be like handing out candy to children as you throw them into a van to kidnap them.” Disgusted, he started walking again.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to disillusion you,” I apologized as I followed after him.
“You didn’t, but it does explain your issues and why you’re having such a hard time with loss. You’re not easy to fool, and so that makes you feel much worse for not thinking of simple things.”
We both walked along the trail, keeping a lookout on our side for Kara.
“Honestly, I’m really amazed that you haven’t gone to the dark side like you’d mentioned, simply because you’ve been training to think like a killer. It’s okay in some senses, but you’ve had to get inside their actual thoughts and actions. That alone would change most people. Combine it with all of the other stuff, I think having your own network backing you is the only other thing saving you.”
“I talk to ghosts. Not as some random idea, but as an actual conversation with the one in my head. I think that might have more to do with it than anything. She wasn’t a nice person to begin with, and while she’s being respectful at the moment, I know that her thoughts are coloring the way I respond to things. Am I crazy?”
Lu turned to stare at me. “No, not crazy, but I’d love to have a conversation with this person at some point if you’re willing.”
“Oh, she just informed that she’d love to talk to you since you seem nice, and I’m clearly holding a grudge against her for killing other people a month ago.” I rolled my eyes in exasperation.
“Ha! Tell her tomorrow, if we’ve found Kara by then.” Lu clapped his hands and started walking faster.
“Great. Not only do you take over my brain, but now I’ve got to translate what you’re saying to living people.” With a growl, I hurried after Lu, determined to find a way to get Mary Ann out of my head.
***
The path we were on went all the way over to the caves holding some of the hot springs.
“I’m afraid it’s time to alert the police and let them put out a search for her.” Lu dropped to the ground by a sign stating which way to go for the different springs.
“Well, I’d tell you we already know, but maybe they’ll be able to put it out earlier since she was supposed to meet someone. Normally, it’s a twenty-four hour wait, but I think I can pull a few strings to make it happen faster.”
Adam appeared just then, but Ryan wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Did you find her?” I jumped up, hurrying over to him.
He frowned. “No. We split up on one of the other trails. I didn’t find anything, and I’m guessing you didn’t either.”
“There’s only one path back, and I suggest that we all head back when Ryan joins us. Then we can call the police, unless they found her on the Happy Hills grounds somewhere.” Lu took the hand I offered to help pull him up off the ground.
“Here he is.” I waved for Ryan to join us.
“Nothing. I didn’t even see any other people on that last trail. I don’t think many people use it.” Ryan bent to put his head between his legs to catch his breath.
The feeling in the pit of my stomach wasn’t getting any better as we started back at a much quicker pace. We needed to let the facility know that we hadn’t found anything as quickly as possible.
More people were gathered around doing nothing as we emerged from the woods, confirming my fears.
Adam took the phone out of his pocket and held it out in front of him until he had a few bars with a signal.
“Agent Watson, we’ve got a problem.” He lowered his voice as we continued past him and onto the main building.
“You weren’t kidding about working with the FBI, were you?” Lu kept looking over his shoulder as he was walking. “Not that I didn’t believe you. It’s not something that I’ve come across very often.”
“Most people use an FBI related person for therapy, but we’re certain that most of what we say in the building is passed on to the very person that we’re trying to catch. Why anyone would go from hunting down criminals to working with them is beyond me,” Ryan informed him for me.
Shelly rushed up to us as we approached the building. “You’ve heard that Kara’s missing, right?”
“Yes. We searched the woods, but didn’t find her.”
“Oh, this is just awful. If anything happens to her, her mother is going to have to move into a home because she can’t take care of herself,” Shelly wailed.
“Let’s not give up hope yet. Maybe you just misunderstood, or something happened with her mom and she had to leave in a hurry.” Lu put an arm around her and began trying to calm her down.
“Ryan, we need to put in a call to where her mother is being taken care of and see if anything did happen. She might not have called if there was a problem, although that seems unlike Kara.”
“On it.” He joined Adam where they were busy making calls to find our missing friend.
“Excuse me.” I approached the lady in charge of things, Patsy. “I’m hoping to help find Kara. Did you see her cell phone in her room when you searched it?” I didn’t want to flash my badge in front of all the other people, and thankfully she didn’t challenge me on it.
“Her phone was lying on the bed, as well as all of her clothes. It’s like she left for a minute and disappeared.” The poor flustered woman waved her hands around in the air.
“Could I see her room?” I questioned. Normally, places like this had a clause that they could enter your room while you were a registered guest, which meant that if Patsy opened the door, I could go inside without any problems.
“Yes, I guess so.” She looked around. “Larry, can you accompany Ms. Boxe up to Ms. Bradford’s room, please?”
“Yeah. Follow me, Miss.” He started over to the elevator. “She’s in room 312.”
The elevator dinged on the third floor, and Larry walked confidently over to Kara’s room. “It’s this one, ma’am.” He knocked quickly as he used the key to open the door.
Kara was lying in the middle of her bed, looking confused.
“Leslie, how did you get into my room?” She saw Larry in the hallway. “Who are you?”
Something was
going on here, and I wanted to question Larry more myself.
“Call Ms. Patsy and tell her to get up here now,” I commanded, holding the door open with my foot, wanting to keep an eye on him.
I sent a quick text to Adam and Ryan: Found Kara in her room #312. Meet me here asap.
“Do all of the staff have universal keys to each of the rooms?” I questioned pointedly, as Kara sat up completely on the bed.
“I believe so, ma’am. A lot of our guests have us bring them meals or check on them for their own safety. Each time we enter a room, it’s logged into the main system. We’re always told to knock so that they know we’re entering.” He shuffled nervously in the hallway.
“Um, okay. Just wait over there, please.” I put the little door holder in place and went back to where Kara was staring with unfocused eyes.
“Kara, do you know where you are, sweetie?”
“Huh? Hey, Leslie, how are you doing?” Kara’s voice slurred as she tried to smile.
“Larry!” I called out in the hallway. “Is there a doctor that we can get to come and check her out?”
Ms. Patsy stood in the door, blocking his response. “Yes, we do. I’ve already sent for him.”
“Good.” I helped Kara lie back against the pillows again. “Now, how on earth could you have missed the fact that she was here in her room the entire time?”
Patsy looked flustered. “When we checked, she wasn’t here. I looked myself. There was no way that we would have missed her, or that someone wouldn’t have seen her come in.”
Adam and Ryan appeared then, but Ms. Patsy blocked the doorway until I gave her a nasty look.
“She’s been drugged. At the moment, she’s not very coherent. Ms. Patsy here has called the doctor, but without a blood test, we won’t be able to determine what she took.”
“We don’t allow drugs in this facility, and I cannot allow you to accuse our residents of that.” She stamped her foot indignantly.
“Oh, Msss Patsy. Why are you dancing? I don’t hear any muuusic,” Kara moaned, trying to focus on what we were saying.
“You were saying?” I gave a pointed look at Kara, and then back at Patsy.
“Should I have called for an ambulance?” she asked, seeming more worried about the facilities’ reputation than about Kara’s health.
“Yes, you can call the non-emergency number. She’s going to need to be monitored for a while,” Adam instructed.
My lips were pressed tightly together so I didn’t tell her what I really thought about the situation.
“I’m pretty sure that someone gave her something, and that she didn’t take it on her own,” Ryan offered from the hallway. “Ms. Patsy, can you take me downstairs? I’d like to look at your logs and cameras to see if we can find out how she got up here without anyone knowing about it.”
The doctor arrived and took over looking Kara over.
“Do we know what she took?” He looked around at those of us standing around her bed.
“No, and we’re pretty sure someone gave it to her without her knowing.”
“Hmm…” He frowned as he shined a light in her eyes. “Miss, can you tell me your name?”
“Kara,” she giggled. “But I don’t know your name.”
A knock from the emergency crew interrupted the exam. “Yo, we got a call for a transport to the hospital?”
“Yeah. I’m not sure who called you, but she’s going to need a full work-up.” The doctor got up and let them inside the room as we moved back out of the way.
“Doc, I’m going to need to have those results sent to me.” Adam held out his badge. “We think this involves a case we’re working on.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize that the police had been called in yet.”
“They weren’t. We were already on site when this happened. Bodyguard to a resident,” Adam offered as an explanation, without telling him who they were guarding.
“You’re not going to be able to ask her any questions for probably the next few hours at least. It might even be in the morning before she knows what’s going on and the drugs are out of her system,” The doctor warned.
“Understood. I’m still going to come with you and stay near her until we know what happened.” He turned to me. “See if you can help Ryan figure it out from this end. I’ll let you know when she’s back to normal.” Adam followed the gurney out as they finished strapping Kara down.
“Got it.”
Everyone had been cleared out of the hall and told that she’d been found, but was being taken to the hospital to make sure that she wasn’t hurt.
Ms. Patsy was wringing her hands as Ryan checked through the security feeds. When she saw me, she hurried over.
“We’ve never had something like this happen before. I just can’t imagine why someone would want to hurt a sweet person like Kara.”
“They wouldn’t,” I answered as I joined Ryan behind the counter.
Thankfully, most of the residents had returned to their activities now that the search was over with, and weren’t paying any attention to the fact that we were behind the desk.
“There.” I pointed to a back entrance with a service elevator off of the kitchen. “He brought her in through there, and then up the stairs after everything had already been searched. That’s why no one was expecting her to be in the room.”
“He waited and watched so he’d know when to come back. We need to search her room,” I declared, heading toward Patsy again.
“I need to take a look at Kara’s room now that she’s not in there. The person who brought her to the room may have left something.” While it was highly unlikely, there was always a possibility that someone had screwed up and we’d get lucky.
She frowned, “That’s not really how things work.”
“So, I guess you want this to happen to another guest? If we don’t find this person, they’ll be back again and again.” I left the unspoken threat of what it would do to her business if all this got out for her own imagination.
“It can’t hurt, I guess.” Without another word, she took off toward the elevator again.
In Kara’s room, I had her stay outside so I could look around without her hovering over my shoulder.
With all the people that had been in and out of the room, I doubted we’d be able to get any hair or fibers.
Her shoes were sitting on the floor next to her bed. All of her clothes were hanging in the closet and the room was picked up, clean and neat. Nothing seemed out of place.
Frustrated, I turned to leave, when I noticed a piece of paper on the dresser. It looked like a menu, but it had my name on it.
All of my earlier doubts returned. This was related to me.
“Leslie, what do I have to do to get your attention?”
“See, that’s what I told you! He wants to date you,” Mary Ann’s voice echoed in my head.
Ignoring her, I read on. “Kara was such a nice girl, which is why I didn’t kill her. After all, I’m not ready for you to know about this month’s killer. In fact, I may keep you guessing all month. I do love a surprise. There is one way you can save all the people here at the facility: stop trying to catch me. I just want to be close to you, and now that you’ve proven even the death of a close friend won’t stop you, I’m so turned on. It’s your persistence and determination that have drawn me to you like a moth to a flame. By the time I’m done, you’ll be begging to be with such a smart man. If not, then I’ll have to turn you loose to pursue the world. We’ll see if you can survive the month first. Just remember, I’m always watching.”
I put the paper down and took a long look at myself in the mirror.
“You’re wrong about one thing. I could never be happy with someone who’s so selfish that they hurt others. You don’t know me nearly as well as you think. You might have knocked me down for the moment, but I’m back, and you’re the one who’ll be begging before we’re done.”
“He can’t hear you, honey,” Mary Ann quipped.
A
smile tugged at the corners of my mouth.
“Oh yes, he did. He’s always watching, right? He heard me. It just hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Chapter 5
Leslie
The next week, I jumped at shadows. Anything that seemed out of the ordinary would look like another threatening thing. While I’d told him I was strong and tough, on the inside I still wasn’t able to see the good in people.
Kara and Shelly tried their hardest to get me to have fun. I’d just forgotten how.
Once she’d gotten the drugs out of her system, Kara hadn’t said much about her ordeal.
Adam had gotten her to admit that she had gone for a walk, but she couldn’t remember how she’d gotten back, or if there had been anyone else around.
“Hey, Leslie, there’s a group of us looking for one more person to play volleyball with us. What do you say?”
I shrugged, not really motivated to play games.
“We’ll get slaughtered if you don’t play with us. No one on our team is tall enough to spike things. Please say yes?” Shelly pleaded.
“Okay.” There wasn’t anything else to do, and unless the Virgo killer walked out onto the court with a gun, we were pretty safe.
By the end of the game, I was laughing with the rest of them. My muscles were sore, and my brain had shut off for just a little while.
I used one of the towels to dry off the extra sweat.
“We’re going to go inside and have them pour us a drink with those little umbrellas,” Shelly whispered loudly. “Are you in?”
I had two choices. I could sit around moping, waiting for something to happen, or I could go ahead and have some fun.
“Yeah, I’m in.” I smiled. “Let’s get something that will make us forget this heat.”
“Whoo!” Kara yelled, dancing in a circle around me. “She is a human. I told you she wasn’t a robot.”
“Ha-ha. Just because I’m not the sunshine’s brightest ray, doesn’t mean I’m a robot. I’m that bad, huh?”
“Well, since that stuff happened last week, it’s been like a dark cloud hanging over your head. I hoped you could work through it, but it seemed like you enjoyed hanging onto it,” Kara replied with a sheepish look.