Mender (The Ashport Mender Series Book 2)

by G. K. Lund

  What was there to say to that? She was likely right. It was at least what certain people had tried with me throughout the years. I drained the mug and sat there, keeping it between my hands, feeling the last of the heat retained by the porcelain.

  “Let me know when Eddie’s ready,” I said after a while. “But I’m not leaving until I’m done with my work here.” I could not leave before Andrea and the three young men were safe. I didn’t have it in me to walk away. I also knew this likely meant one or the other of my enemies catching me. It was a chance I’d have to take, though.

  “That’s understandable,” Annalise said. “I expected that.”

  She probably didn’t like it, but she knew I wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise, either.

  “I won’t like seeing you go, kid,” she added, “but I’ll be glad to know you’re safe.”

  I shrugged. “For a couple of years, maybe,” I began as we heard someone pounding on the door. Excellent timing, I thought. The detective must have gotten himself into a cab.

  “Is that the cop?” Annalise asked as she got up. She didn’t look happy.

  “I suppose so,” I said, leaning forward and putting the now cold coffee mug on the table. I didn’t get up or turn around for their awkward, and frankly speaking, a little hostile meeting. She didn’t like him on principle, and he was pissed. I saw that after a few moments when he came into the room, eyes narrowed and looking at me. Yeah, he wasn’t too happy about me leaving him behind. Maybe a little miffed about the handcuffs, too.

  I simply shrugged and pointed at the coffee mug. “Needed some coffee,” I said as a way of explanation.

  “Since you’ve given my name and address,” Annalise said as she came over, “I hope that means he’s tame.”

  “Nope,” I scoffed and shook my head. That’s when I noticed her eyes widening in shock. I was up and standing before Hansen managed to finish his sentence.

  “Wait, that’s what Rob asked when—”

  I heard myself shouting “No,” but Annalise didn’t even flinch. She turned toward Hansen and raised her hand a little before flinging him against the wall. I had seen her do things like this before, but it was absurd seeing him fly over the coffee table and hit one of the bookshelves, face first, as books piled down around him.

  “Annalise, what the hell?” I shouted at her. She turned back toward me, hand stretched out toward Hansen, keeping him in place a couple of feet above the floor.

  “Clearly, he can’t be trusted,” she said, voice steady, but hard. “And you bring him here?”

  “You guys told me to—”

  “Not to do this,” she chided.

  “Will you let me the hell down?” we heard Hansen say.

  Annalise simply made a little flick of her hand and he was turned around, his back crashing into the bookshelf, a few more books dropping to the floor. I could see his face turning red. He was having trouble breathing.

  There was little I could do. One step and she would do the same to me, no matter us being friends. She’d dealt with cops in her youth, and as far as I knew, she didn’t have particularly good memories.

  “Annalise,” I said, trying for reason. “He isn’t here to make your life difficult. We’re here about those three men, remember?”

  She looked at me and the disappointment in her eyes was unmistakable. The kind of disappointment kids dread from their parents, I guess. I wouldn’t really know, as all I could remember from my own was fright.

  “The police need to be tame or somewhere far away,” Annalise said. At the same time, the look in her eyes became uncertain, like something was wrong. It took me a moment to realize her hand had started shaking. She tried overlooking it, but the small tremors manifested themselves on Hansen who started shaking as well. Then Annalise lost control and he fell to the floor.

  I exhaled, relieved as he landed on his knees, drawing breath. Annalise let him be, trying to steady her shaking hand with her other one. She looked furious, but now it wasn’t Hansen that was on top of her list.

  “Oh shit,” Hansen coughed. He turned around, slumping down on his back, only his bent knees showing over the table. I silently and gently took Annalise’s arm and guided her over to the chair I’d been sitting in.

  “Now I get it,” Hansen wheezed from the floor. “The active versus passive thing.”

  Annalise looked at me with scorn again. “Weren’t you supposed to tell him these things?”

  “Haven’t had the time,” I said, taking her shaking hand in mine. “He seems to figure these things out himself anyway.”

  Hansen put his elbow on the table before he eased himself up a moment later. “And I bet you used to be a mender,” he said while looking at Annalise before blinking hard several times, trying to focus properly. She had not gone easy on him.

  “How’d you know?” Annalise asked.

  “Your equally pleasant dispositions,” he said, pointing at us both with an unsteady finger, actually looking a bit drunk. That made Annalise snicker, though. A good sign, I hoped. He was, as a matter of fact, right. Before her academic career, she had done the same as me for years. It was one of the reasons we got along so well. We had a lot in common.

  “See?” I told her and let go of her hand, walking around her chair, looking down at Hansen who was slowly getting up from the floor.

  “Are you all right?” I asked, and got a thumbs-up instead of a verbal answer as he managed to get to his feet, before passing Annalise and collapsing into one of the other chairs.

  Annalise turned in her chair, looking up at me, her eyes wide again. The feeling of dread managed to grow at record speed in me before she got a word out.

  “My God, Maggie, you slept with a cop?”

  “What?” I actually squawked the word out. Was she psychic now as well?

  “Cops are to be avoided,” she said as if I hadn’t heard her earlier, and as if there wasn’t one seated three feet away from her. “You don’t do that by taking them to your bed.”

  I simply gave up. Nothing got past her. “I think it was the other way around,” I murmured.

  “Not the second time,” Hansen commented.

  “Maggie!” Annalise exclaimed with disapproval.

  “Oh, thanks for your help,” I snarled at him.

  “You’re welcome.”

  I sighed, exasperated, and sat down on the armrest of her chair. “How did you know?”

  “I can smell your perfume on him.” She shook her head and patted my arm. “This isn’t good.”

  “Calm down,” I said, looking down at her lined and worried face. “It’s just sex. And we have other problems, remember?”

  “Seems we got a little sidetracked,” Hansen said, politely using ‘we’ instead of Annalise. He made a grimace of discomfort as he changed his position a little, causing less strain on his back. Other than that, he seemed fine. Not being able to breathe properly had likely been worse than the collisions with the bookshelf.

  “Please, Annalise,” I tried again. “There are three young men trapped inside their bodies. I have no idea how to help them even if we do find their attacker.”

  “And you think that this person will do this again?” she asked.

  “Three victims is not a coincidence,” Hansen chimed in. “If there are more like them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re in danger.”

  She gave him a stern look but considered what he said nonetheless. “Are you saying you need someone to be bait?” she asked and looked up at me again. There was something in her voice that told me her help on this depended on what my answer to that was. Something more important than the three men and their current situation.

  “I’m not going to deny that. This attacker goes after affiliates with very dangerous abilities. If you know about someone in town that fits into that category, they’re going to be targeted whether or not I need them as bait.”

  She didn’t say anything at first. She knew I was right, of course, but there was something holding her back. S
he noticed her shaking hand again and moved it under her thigh. Out of sight was better, it seemed. “There is one person in town that I think might peak this attacker’s particular interests,” she said. “An affiliate who can embed images of such horrors in a person’s mind it has the possible capability of…well…”

  “Scaring people to death?” Hansen asked.

  Annalise nodded.

  “Yeah,” I said. “That sounds like something our attacker might be into.”

  “Something odd strikes me about the person doing this, though,” Annalise said. “I think he believes he is doing good in preventing these affiliates in using their abilities. People like that are more dangerous than a deranged person doing the same.”

  “I’ll take that into consideration. First, we have to find him, though. Who’re we looking for? And where? We need to get ahead of this.”

  “Don’t you think I’ve already checked if this affiliate is safe?” she said, sounding a bit insulted. “Apart from abilities, the profile doesn’t fit,” she continued. “It’s not a he, it’s a she.” She still seemed worried about telling us, but she knew that not doing so could end up worse for this woman.

  “Her name is Eloise,” Annalise said, “and she celebrated her eighth birthday last week.” She shook her head as my heart sank at the realization. You couldn’t use children as bait, but as it was, I saw no other way out of this. I guess it was a small comfort that Hansen didn’t immediately protest. Even he could see it. We had one chance at this. And we could not fail. If we did, this girl would end up in a living nightmare of her own. One that was impossible to escape from.

  Chapter 13

  “You know, there’s actually a bigger chance of us being noticed than the attacker trying something here.” Hansen looked at his phone, now dead to the world. He put it back in his pocket with the battery and sim card still taken out. Smart choice. My guess was that Larkin wasn’t too happy with either of us.

  I looked back at the gated school. High fences, lots of children and grownups outside in the schoolyard as it was recess at the moment. No way would the attacker be crazy enough to try taking a child from there.

  “So you’re agreeing with Annalise?” I asked, despite doing so myself. There really was no point in sitting around until the kid’s school day was over.

  “Sure. She’s a… peachy lady.”

  I snorted at that and then saw who I was looking for. “That’s her, isn’t it?” I said, pointing at a little girl who was engrossed in a game of tag with several other children. Dressed in purple pants and a yellow sweater, her light-colored pigtails didn’t exactly scream dream-monster.

  Hansen looked at the photo of the girl that Annalise had printed for us and nodded. “That’s her. Doesn’t look like a killing machine, though.”

  “Not at this age, no,” I said and started the car. “That usually depends on how these kids are raised and treated in life.”

  Since Hansen didn’t have stashes of clothes around town like me, and his car with extra gear was still parked near Mona’s house, I followed his instructions and drove to his place. It was closer than Mona’s.

  He lived in an apartment building about ten minutes from the town center, a nice area, but pretty much every area in Ashport was nice. That didn’t tell me much. I have to admit to curiosity as he unlocked and opened the door, but a bark and a flurry of white fur caught me off guard as two paws landed on my shoulders. I looked straight into a sharp-toothed canine mouth that kept barking in joy as I staggered back a bit, trying not to fall on my ass.

  “No, Kona,” Hansen yelled. “Down.”

  The dog did as told, and let me go, her front paws now on the floor as she backed into the apartment. I followed and bent down to greet her better, seeing her happy movements, tail wagging at high speed.

  “Hello, girl,” I said, guessing on account of her name. “You’re beautiful aren’t you?” She really was. Bigger than what I was used to from that breed. Her fur almost exclusively white though with some hint of a golden tone.

  “I swear if someone ever breaks in here she’ll give them a guided tour of the place.” Hansen shook his head at the dog that was licking my face while I scratched her behind her ears.

  “Maybe you should have trained her different,” I said, glad he hadn’t. The dog clearly liked people.

  “I didn’t,” he said. “She was delivered fully altruistic.” He scratched her head absentmindedly.

  “Well, good for you, Kona. If this guy had trained you from a puppy you would have been a total bitch, wouldn’t you? Yes, you would.” Kona gave a short bark at that. I laughed and saw him stare down at me, eyebrows raised a little before shaking his head.

  “Okay then,” he said, “give me a second. Don’t steal my dog, and there’s probably food.” He headed further into the apartment. I sat with the dog a couple of minutes. She calmed down after a while and enjoyed being petted.

  “I’m so tempted to steal you,” I said to her, “but I think your owner would catch on as to who did it.” Kona double-barked at that. “Yep,” I agreed. “Not as stupid as he looks.”

  I looked around then and sat on the floor for a moment. What I had expected was something off-white, neat and orderly, almost like a hospital. But the home I was in actually had colors in it. Light colors on the walls, yes, but blended with hardwood floors and mostly differing tones of blue. It gave off a pleasant atmosphere. Not as many knickknacks as I had. It was tidy, of course. If it hadn’t been I would have been shocked. With Kona by my side, I walked on into the next room, which was the kitchen. It was dominated by a big ass kitchen island, barstools placed on one side. White walls in there, but the stone counters and backsplashes dominated the room. They had a deep-gray color with lighter veins. It was all neatly put together, and I stared in surprise before remembering that cooking was this meditative thing for him. Of course, he would live somewhere with a large kitchen.

  With nothing better to do, I opened the fridge and saw what put my own to shame.

  “Probably food?” I mumbled. It was fully stocked, making me a little ashamed that mine had only contained expired milk and a few ingredients for scrambled eggs along with other things that might soon walk away on their own.

  I was hungry but felt more like an intruder than anything. I had a glass of orange juice, enjoying the strong flavor, while Kona kept me company. I noticed that both her food- and drinking-bowl were filled. Her owner had not been the one doing that these last twenty-four hours. In fact, a happy, healthy dog like Kona, was one that was walked, fed, and talked to on a regular basis. I caught myself wondering who did that for him. Wondering if it was a girlfriend, then reminding myself that was none of my business. It would be weird, though, my treacherous mind kept on musing. He really wasn’t the type to be sleeping around with others if he was in a relationship. Although, you could never truly tell with anyone.

  “Come on, Margaret,” I mumbled to myself. I had told Annalise there was nothing to worry about. There wasn’t. No one on this planet was without some curiosity. Perfectly natural.

  All in all, it took him about fifteen minutes to shower, shave and dress. Apparently, he was nothing if not effective. As he came into the kitchen, Kona forgot all about the new person in the room and ran around the island to greet her owner.

  “No jumping,” Hansen told her and I could hear the pitter-patter of her paws moving on the floor as she couldn’t stand still, but at least remained on all fours. “Good girl,” he said.

  “Why didn’t you become a chef or something?” I asked. Isn’t that what they say? The happiest people are the ones who have their hobbies as their jobs?

  “What?” he said in response, straightening up. Then he scoffed at the thought. “Too stressful,” he said and added, “let’s go,” before leaving the kitchen.

  I scrambled off the counter stool and walked after him. “That would be too stressful? You work for the police.”

  “Yep,” he said, Kona running back and forth bet
ween him and the door. Apparently, she knew her owner was leaving.

  I caught up as he found some shoes and a gray jacket and suddenly felt like I’d been caught in his orbit in some way. God, he smelled good. Whatever scent he used, blended well with what I guessed was soap and shampoo.

  “Come on,” he told me while telling Kona to stay where she was.

  I mumbled; “okay,” enjoying passing him in the doorway and then came to my senses. What the hell? I felt like I was following the pied piper there for a moment, wondering who that made me? A rat to be killed or someone never to be seen again?

  What was going on? It’s not like I was stupid. Obviously, I was attracted to the guy, but this was getting ridiculous.

  Luckily, he was oblivious as he kept asking questions about the Community as we drove back into the town center. At this point, I realized I kept glancing over at him in the passenger seat, annoyed at all he demanded to know and yet wanting to stop the car and climb on top of him. Seriously. Like some stupid teenager. This was not something that happened to me. Of course, I didn’t usually bring men I had any kind of entanglement with around with me on my jobs, either. Nor did I bring anyone who didn’t trust me. I guess it was new times all around.

  I did, however, find a way to distract myself from any lascivious thoughts as we got to the police station. I didn’t want to go there for obvious reasons, but also because of Agent Larkin. The station was his hub in town and I told Hansen as much as we walked over to the building.

  “What’s he going to do?” Hansen said. “Not like he’s here on any official business, is it?”

  “Doesn’t mean he can’t cause problems,” I argued.

  “No, but…” he trailed off and stared over at the police parking spaces. There was the gray sedan he and McAllen used—parked. Last I had seen of it was outside Mona’s house. Hansen shook his head and got his phone out, reassembling it as he walked.

  “And that is a good idea?” I pressed. I couldn’t see the black car the FBI agent used, but alerting him to where we were, was perhaps not the best way to go?