No Safe Place

by Mary Head

  “I’m going with you,” David said, turning to head for his office.

  “David –” Juliet began, starting after him.

  He whirled on her, his eyes hard. “Juliet,” he said in a low voice. “I’m going.”

  ◊◊◊

  Chris took a deep breath as he pushed into the autopsy room, swallowing as he glanced around. The drive to Manassas had been torture, his thoughts spiraling out of control, afraid that this would turn out to be Hannah, and terrified of the idea of having to tell David.

  “You don’t know it’s her,” he had kept muttering to himself, wishing his brain would just shut up.

  There were bodies on the other exam tables in varying stages of autopsy, but the young pathologist beckoned him over to the body covered in a white sheet.

  “Dr. Woodhouse,” the pathologist murmured, understandably not holding out her hand for Chris to shake.

  “Agent Tyler,” Chris replied, swallowing again.

  “Ready?” Dr. Woodhouse asked, glancing up at him.

  “No,” Chris muttered, taking a deep breath and gesturing for her to pull back the sheet.

  “This your girl?”

  ◊◊◊

  David and Juliet hurried through the corridors of the medical examiner’s office, Juliet trying to keep up with David’s rapid steps. He was a heartbeat away from running full out.

  They rounded the corner and saw Chris just stepping from the autopsy room, his expression unreadable as the door swung shut behind him. He looked up at the sound of their footsteps and frowned.

  “What’re you doing here?” he said to David, flashing Juliet a quick annoyed look.

  “What do you think I’m doing here?” David snapped, starting to push past Chris.

  The younger agent caught him with a hand on his chest, and David looked up at him, eyes flashing.

  “Calm down, David,” Chris said evenly. “It’s not her.”

  “Are you sure? How do you know?” David asked, looking cautiously relieved.

  Chris nodded. “Her face is pretty beat up, but it’s not Han. Eyes are a different color, and she doesn’t have that birthmark on her hip or the tattoo on her abdomen.”

  David nodded, his breath leaving him in a whoosh, and then he paused, narrowing his eyes as he looked back at Chris.

  “How do you know about her birthmark or her tattoo?”

  Chris rolled his eyes. “Well, you can see her birthmark when she wears a bathing suit, and they’re both listed on the missing person’s report.”

  “Right,” David muttered, glancing at Juliet before lowering his gaze to the floor.

  Chapter 38

  Eddie sat on his bed, leaning against the headboard with a photo album open in his lap. He could hear the TV out in the living room and knew Jackie was parked on the couch like a damn sentry, eyeing Eddie every time he passed through.

  Eddie wondered if maybe Jackie had heard him as he left the basement earlier. It would explain the suspicious look on his brother’s face when Eddie reemerged from his bedroom after putting the unfired gun away.

  After a quick breakfast, Eddie had retreated to his bedroom once again, lighting a cigarette and taking a couple of deep drags before laying the cigarette carefully in the ashtray on his nightstand and pulling the photo album from the bottom drawer of his dresser.

  He settled on the bed and stared at the pictures at the beginning of the album, photos of himself and his wife, individually and together: the two of them at their high school graduation, young and happy and in love, and her on her first day of community college, smiling broadly in the doorway of their tiny apartment. There was one of just his legs sticking out from under a ratty old truck, given to them by a friend, making one of several repairs to keep the damn thing running long enough until they could afford to buy something better. He flipped the page and traced his fingertips along the edge of the plastic, closing his eyes for a moment against the photo of the two of them at the courthouse after they got married. She was leaning against his chest, and his hand rested on the just noticeable swell of her stomach.

  Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and turned ahead several pages in the album, stopping on a photo of her laying in a hospital bed, a tiny baby boy in her arms and a radiant smile on her face. Under it was a picture of him the day they moved into their new house, passed out on the couch with one large hand resting on his infant son’s small back.

  With a sigh, he snapped the photo album shut and reached for his cigarette again. His life had never been easy, but there had been a time where things were good, when he was happy. Then a drunk in a fucking Chevy ruined everything, leaving him with a funeral he could barely afford, a four-year-old son with no mother, and a brother in a dangerous foster situation.

  When he turned eighteen, Eddie had tried to obtain guardianship of Jackie, but without a steady income and only a tiny, one bedroom apartment, he’d been unsuccessful.

  Jackie was twelve years younger than Eddie, the product of a brief relationship their mother had with a man who hung around for a month or so before skipping out, leaving her high and dry and pregnant.

  Flawed though she was, their mother had loved her boys, and they her, and she tried to give them as normal and easy a childhood as she could, until she got sick not long after Eddie started high school. Though he constantly asked, she would never tell him much about her illness, but when he was older, he figured that it was the years of working in a factory that had done it. She died when Eddie was sixteen and Jackie just four.

  Eddie got out of foster care two years later, but Jackie bounced from home to home until he was fourteen.

  The night Jackie’s foster sister turned up at Eddie’s door stood out starkly in his mind, catalogued right next to the memories of his wedding day, his son’s birth, the call that Molly had been in a car accident, and a half dozen other things he would never forget as long as he lived. Jackie’s foster father had nearly beaten him to death, and Eddie had shown up just in time; another kick to the stomach or punch to the head could’ve meant the difference between life and death.

  Once it was assured that Jackie would be okay, Eddie fought tooth and nail to gain guardianship of him, and, eventually, he won. Jackie came home and slowly but surely things started to get better.

  Then five years ago there was a murder, and a trial that ended abruptly when Luke took his own life. It had effectively been the end of Eddie’s life as well. The pain was still as fresh as it had been back then, as was his anger over the whole mess.

  There had been something wrong with Luke, a reason for why he had done what he did, but Eddie had only been able to do so much on his own. The public defender they’d been saddled with didn’t care, and Agent Cole sure as hell didn’t care either. He needed someone to blame, and Luke was the easy target.

  For years, Eddie had harbored his anger, letting it stew and simmer, but hadn’t known what he wanted to do about it until he ran into Cole’s daughter in the hallway at her school while working with the crew doing renovations on some of the buildings. He saw her name printed neatly at the top of a few of the papers he handed back to her, and though her last name wasn’t exactly uncommon, it sparked something in his mind. It had taken an afternoon in the library to find out that Agent Cole did, in fact, have a daughter, and the pretty, young blonde whose notes Eddie helped pick up was her.

  The plan had taken shape almost immediately: kidnap Agent Cole’s daughter and hold her a few days, let him get a taste of what it was like to be without her, and then take her away for good so that he could spend the rest of his life living with the same pain and loss Eddie was.

  Getting Jackie to go along with the plan had been the next step. Eddie knew his brother would refuse outright if he knew the ultimate goal, so he had fudged the details a little, convincing him that it would be harmless, that they would just hold her a few days and then let her go. Eddie knew that once they were in the thick of it, Jackie wouldn’t back out. He had learned to manipulate
his brother over the years, and could guilt him into going along with anything.

  Sometimes, he wondered if he truly loved his brother. He cared for him, but it felt like his ability to love at all had died along with Luke. He felt like Jackie was keeping him from crossing a line, though, felt everything lessen just a little bit when Jackie was there, and thought perhaps that was why he had been unable to pull the trigger earlier.

  Eddie’s resolve hadn’t changed though. He still had the anger, and the need for vengeance, the need to pay Agent Cole back in spades for everything he had done.

  Eddie blew out a cloud of smoke and watched it dissipate before stubbing the cigarette out in the ashtray.

  Come Tuesday night, the other man would finally know what it was like.

  ◊◊◊

  David stared out the window as he and Juliet drove back to the house. She glanced over at him from time to time, wondering what he was thinking.

  They slowed to a stop at a red light, and she looked at him fully, mouth open to speak, but he spoke first.

  “I was thinking,” he murmured, still staring out the window, “about when you said they found a body. The only thought in my head was that it was her.” He turned his head to look at her briefly before turning his gaze to the windshield, reaching up to tug absently on his earlobe. “And it scared me to death. The idea right then that I had lost her, that that was it.”

  “David –” Juliet began softly, but he raised his hand to cut her off before gesturing to indicate the light had changed.

  “It made me think,” he continued as they started forward again, “that if it had been her, today’s date would be forever burned into my memory. It would be as significant as her birthday. And then I thought about the date he gave. Tuesday.”

  Juliet’s expression cleared. “You think it could be the day somebody died.”

  David nodded quickly. “Or the day someone went to prison. This is too personal, Jules. This has to be some friend or family member of someone I put away. I mean, why take Hannah? Why not just come after me directly?”

  “It makes sense,” Juliet murmured, nodding.

  “Drop me off at home, and then head back to the Bureau. It has to be fairly recent, so find anything you can in my cases of something happening in this month over the last five years, and then bring the files to me.”

  “It’s gonna take a while,” Juliet said uncertainly. “And I’ll have to tell Chris.”

  “I know,” David said quietly. “But he’ll want to go through each one, and he won’t be familiar with all of them. He might miss something important without realizing it.”

  Juliet nodded. “I’ll bring them over tonight.”

  “Thanks, Jules,” David said softly.

  She glanced over at him, noticing his slight smile, and couldn’t help returning it.

  Chapter 39

  “Is she awake yet?”

  Jackie looked away from the TV to glance up at Eddie, and his shoulders rose in a small shrug.

  “Dunno,” he murmured, shifting a little. He’d actually been about to go check, and fix her something to eat if she was.

  Eddie rolled his eyes and started for the hall.

  “Well, check,” he said, his voice carrying down the hall as he moved towards the kitchen.

  Jackie dropped the remote on the couch and stood, heading for the basement door.

  “And if she is,” Eddie continued, emerging from the kitchen and walking towards Jackie, “give her another dose.”

  Jackie saw the syringe in his hand and a sinking feeling settled in his stomach.

  “Eddie –”

  “If you don’t do it, I will,” Eddie warned, staring hard at Jackie.

  “Why do you want to drug her?” Jackie asked, unable to keep the plaintive tone from his voice. “She’s not doing anything. She can’t go anywhere. She hasn’t moved in two days.”

  “For Christ’s sake, Jackie,” Eddie snapped, “one way or another the bitch is getting knocked out. Why do you care so much? Man the fuck up, and do it. Or I will.”

  Jackie stared at his brother a moment, his fists clenched at his sides, and Eddie’s lip curled as he glanced down.

  “You wanna hit me, Jackie?” he said softly, his eyes meeting Jackie’s once more. “Do you really think you have the balls to take me down?”

  Jackie’s hands tightened, his jaw tensing as thoughts tumbled around in his head. The temptation was there, the desire to make the bruise that Hannah left on Eddie’s cheek Friday afternoon significantly larger, but the fear remained. He worried what might happen to him, and in turn, what might happen to Hannah.

  After a tense moment, Jackie’s hand shot out, snatching the syringe from Eddie’s hand and looking away when he smirked.

  “I’m going to get dinner,” Eddie muttered as he pushed past Jackie. “She better be out when I get back.”

  Jackie stood still as Eddie left, waiting for the sound of his van pulling out of the driveway, and then turned to go down into the basement.

  Hannah was awake, though she appeared to be a little groggy, her eyelids heavy as she watched Jackie descend the stairs. Her eyes flicked to his hand when he reached the floor, and the change in her expression was instantaneous when she noticed the syringe.

  “No, Jackie, no,” she pleaded, fresh tears shining in her eyes as she tried to shift away, though it seemed she couldn’t really move much yet. “Please don’t.”

  He shook his head as he kneeled beside her, reaching forward hesitantly to push back the section of hair that threatened to fall across her face. She shied away from his touch, and he pulled his hand back, sighing softly. Her trust in him was tarnished, but didn’t seem to be completely destroyed yet.

  “I’m not going to,” he assured her. “But he’ll be back soon, and if he comes down here, I need you to pretend like I did. Can you do that?”

  She bit her lip, staring anxiously at him as a tear slid from her right eye and over the bridge of her nose, falling soundlessly into her hair.

  “I’m not going to let him hurt you, Hannah,” he promised softly.

  It was the first time he’d said her name since that very first day, and just as he had hoped, it seemed to lessen her fear just a little bit.

  She took a breath and nodded, whispering, “Okay.”

  Jackie flashed her a smile. “Do you think you can eat?”

  She nodded again and he pushed to his feet, telling her he’d be right back.

  Hurrying into the kitchen, he paused just long enough to empty the contents of the syringe down the sink, and then grabbed a granola bar from the box on the counter. He didn’t think there’d be time for him to make her a sandwich and her to eat it before Eddie came back, but hopefully this would be enough until he could give her something more substantial later.

  He took the bar and a fresh cup of water down to her and helped her sit up, checking the cut on her heel while she ate and thinking he might change the bandage later as well.

  When she finished eating, he took the wrapper from her and then the cup shortly after and set them on the floor to help her lie back down, trying to make sure she was as comfortable as she could get.

  “He probably won’t come down here, but if he does, you just lie still, okay? He’ll probably stay just long enough to make sure you’re out, but I’ll be here.”

  Hannah nodded, still looking fearful, and Jackie tried to smile.

  “He has to work in the morning, so he should go to bed sort of early. I’ll come back to check on you when he does, and bring you something else to eat. Okay?”

  Hannah nodded once more, and Jackie gave her the best smile he could muster before straightening and climbing the stairs out of the basement.

  As he threw the granola bar wrapper away and set the cup on the counter, he could feel the rapid beating of his heart competing with the anxious rolling of his stomach. He didn’t know what might happen if Eddie found out about their deception, but the guilt from drugging her the day before
still pulled at him, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it again.

  When Eddie returned a short while later, he did nothing more than poke his head into the basement and stare at Hannah’s unmoving form for a moment before shutting the door again. He and Jackie divvied up their food and then settled on the couch to eat their dinner in heavy silence.

  Chapter 40

  Juliet stepped carefully from David’s office, a stack of files in her arms. It had taken a few hours, but she had several suspects that would hopefully prove promising, and though she felt a little guilty about going behind Chris’s back after promising she wouldn’t, she tried to tell herself that the time spent going over the files with David was time saved on the official investigation.

  After carefully locking the door to David’s office and slipping the key back into her pocket, she balanced the files once more and turned to head for the elevator. She was almost there when she heard soft footsteps in the nearly deserted office, and she turned, startled.

  Harry was behind her, and she blew out a slow breath, though she didn’t necessarily feel relieved.

  “Agent Grayson,” he said quietly by way of greeting.

  “Hello, sir, I was just –”

  “Taking those files to Agent Tyler?” Harry finished, raising his eyebrows.

  Juliet didn’t reply and Harry considered her for a moment.

  “We’ll pretend,” he said finally.

  Juliet bit down on her lip as she tried to think of something to say.

  “Sir, it’s just that these are David’s files, his cases,” she said in a rush. “He knows them better than anyone. He’ll know what’s important.”

  “I’m not denying that,” Harry said softly. “But do I need to remind you of what happened the last time you helped him like this? It nearly destroyed your career, not to mention almost cost you your life. David’s a fantastic agent, but sometimes he leaves behind a lot of collateral damage, whether he means to or not. I just don’t want to see you get caught up in it again because of the way you feel about him.”