by Linda Mooney
Then Sam commented, “Some serious dark in here. They must’ve bulldozed the entrances to make sure nobody got in down here.”
A wind blew over her, light but foul-smelling, as though something passed by. J honed in on the path it had taken, and pointed in the opposite direction. “There.”
They ran around several concrete support columns until they reached the far end of the garage. Kiel held her back, and J heard Sam grunt as his flashlight wavered over the remains of Lawrence Jaynes.
“Sweet Jesus.”
She blinked and focused toward the floor, but there was nothing. Whatever essence had been inside the victim was gone. She could see nothing but a void. Kiel moved up beside her like a shining firmament.
“Can we make a positive I.D.?” Kiel asked.
“It’s hard to tell.” Sam must have crouched down. She heard his knees pop.
“It’s him,” J assured them. “That’s Lawrence Jaynes.”
“At least his fingers are still intact where we’ll be able to pull prints.”
A hand reached out to brush some stray hairs out of her face.
“It’s times like this I’m glad you’re blind,” Kiel said.
His voice was strangled. Forced. She wondered if ghosts could gag. J managed a small smile.
“He has no life force left. The only way I would know a body is here is if I stumbled over it.”
“You can’t smell it?”
“This whole garage reeks, Kiel. Right now he blends in.”
“What about the Shredder?” Sam asked. He was to her right and slightly behind her. J turned to view his deep purple aura.
“I don’t feel anything. Nothing,” she admitted, which was the truth. The acidic darkness that had been here was gone. Any residue left behind was masked by mildew and ancient fumes of gasoline. The Shredder had done his business. All of his men were now accounted for. There was no reason for him to remain on this earthly plane any longer.
Sam stood and walked away from them. “There looks to be more blood over here,” he commented. “Hmm. Odd.”
“Think this place could have been where Conader committed any of the other murders?” Kiel questioned.
Suddenly, he was next to his brother, and J had not heard any footsteps move in that direction.
“What’s odd?” she called out.
“Look here, Kiel. What do you see?”
“Here? The floor’s a different color.”
“Yeah. Near where these stains are.” There was the sound of someone rubbing the sole of a shoe on the floor. “It’s rougher, too.”
“What’s rougher? The floor? Why is that unusual?” J tried again.
“Part of the floor is a different color, and it’s not as smooth,” Kiel told her. “You’re right, Sam. Look. It’s rectangular in shape. It’s been patched, and recently, too.”
“What does that mean?” J asked.
Again, Kiel answered. “It means that someone has come in not too long ago and poured fresh concrete in this area, and didn’t take the time or effort to match the rest of the surrounding flooring.”
“Why would someone do that?” she wondered.
“Could be for a number of reasons,” Sam replied. He moved around, examining the area.
J strained to hear Kiel but couldn’t. “Kiel?”
“He’s gone upstairs.”
She held out a hand. “Take me away from the body, please.”
“Oh. Sorry.” He walked over to guide her elsewhere, when she hesitated. Sam paused. “What?”
“Is there a window somewhere?”
“No. Why? Are you sensing something?”
She sorted softly. “I thought I felt something wet, like rain coming in.”
“Hmm. There’s pipes overhead. Maybe what you’re feeling is some water dripping on you. Here. I’m taking you over to the stairs. It’ll keep you out of the direct line of traffic when the rest of the crew arrive.”
He led her over to the door leading to the stairwell and backed her up until she could feel the cool, hard wall. At the same time, she caught the sound of many feet stomping down the stairs.
“I put you between the stairs and the elevator. You should be okay here. If you need me, yell.” He squeezed her arm as she nodded, then went back to the other end.
Within minutes there were at least a half-dozen more people in the garage. Their glows bounced around like jeweled balls, yet they all paled next to the beacon that was Kiel. J listened closely as they took pictures of the scene and brought in floodlights. The portable generators sent vibrations through the walls and floor, which added to the organized chaos.
At one point Kiel came over to keep her posted. “They’re bringing in a jackhammer to break up that concrete patch. It’s going to get pretty noisy in here. Want me to take you upstairs?”
She shook her head. “No. Please let me stay. Kiel?”
“What?”
“What happens now?”
“Well…” He started to answer her but the jackhammer drowned out his words. They waited for it to cease.
To steady herself, J clutched his arm, and the feel of his strong muscles reminded her of how tenderly they had been holding her an hour ago.
The jackhammer chewed through the cement easily. J overheard someone comment that the patch had been inferior. The concrete crumbled like a dry cookie. Earlier she had smelled the bright bitterness of fresh plastic when Jaynes’s remains passed by in the body bag. A crime scene unit investigator followed soon after, muttering under his breath about old bloodstains.
She tugged on Kiel’s sleeve. “What’s going on?”
“The coroner took the body to the morgue where they’ll do an autopsy on it. Looks like they’re finished blasting through the cement patch. Sam’s over there now helping them sift through it.”
“I thought I heard something about old bloodstains.”
“Yeah. That back wall where the patch is has several old spray patterns on it. We’re guessing this place has been the site of other murders.”
“By the Shredder?”
“Yes. Most likely.”
He moved, and suddenly J felt a shudder run through him. She remembered whenever she used to do that, her grandmama would tell her that someone had just walked over her grave. The memory brought a smile to her face, and J started to tell him about it when the truth slammed into her. She gasped. Air refused to enter her lungs as the cold truth washed over her.
“J?”
“Hey, Kiel! You need to come look at this!” Sam yelled from other side of the garage.
Kiel gently tried to brush away her hand to leave, but she tightened her grip.
“Kiel, no!”
“It’s okay, J. I’ll be right over there. I’ll keep an eye on you.”
“Kiel, no! Stop and think! Old blood. What if…what if it’s—”
It rose up in front of them like an boiling black cloud, without warning and without mercy. Anger and fury burned in the air as a roar as deafening as a tornado’s howl reverberated over and over inside the enclosed structure.
J screamed as the Shredder descended upon the small cluster of people still inside the garage. She had not expected the creature to return. Nothing had preceded its entrance. She had gotten no sense of it, but something had called it back. Something they had done had forced Conader to make himself known. And he was returning, intent on maiming, destroying, killing.
Shredding.
There was more screaming as people scattered. Gunshots exploded. The generators shut down.
J was shoved to the floor, and she knew Kiel had left her. Maybe he thought he could draw the creature away from her. Maybe he thought he could face Conader one-on-one, and keep the spirit away from the others. She yelled his name as something oily rubbed past her and left its smear of decay on her skin and clothes.
Something clogged her ears. It ran down past her lobes and cheeks like a rancid, viscous fluid. Filled with the essence of all the men he had killed, the Sh
redder was able to affect everything around them—smell, taste, sight, and now sound.
Faintly, J heard Sam cry out to Kiel. Pleading for help. Demanding.
Screaming.
Hearing Sam’s shriek of pain, J yelled out his name and started crawling on hands and knees toward him. In the distance she could see his aura, the color of spring violets—
“Feel how soft, how delicate. These are violets, J. They’re purple. It’s a very beautiful color. As beautiful as the flower. If you see an aura that looks delicate, soft, and beautiful, call it purple.”
—was fading. It wasn’t pulsing as strongly or as brightly as it normally did.
She chanced a glance around, searching for Kiel, but the black death that was Conader was obliterating auras. Her body went completely numb as she watched a pale green brightness that was a living human being flare briefly, sparkle, and then was gone. A bubbly sigh followed its extinguishing.
“Kiel, help me!”
“Sam!”
Sam’s voice was weaker, gasping. His purple aura was lavender and fading. J kept crawling toward him, praying she could reach him and somehow drag him away to a spot where the Shredder would either overlook or ignore him. Deep down she didn’t think there was such a place. She held out no hope that anyone would survive this attack.
Behind her she heard the soft, syrupy crunch of flesh and bone. Someone was begging to be spared. It was hard to tell if it was a man or a woman. It didn’t matter. Nothing they said or did would help them now.
The lavender aura was so pale, it was almost white. It was barely the size of a halo. And when she finally found him, he was shivering.
She pulled him into her lap. His blood covered her hands. In fact, everywhere she touched him was bloody. Sam groaned in pain but he didn’t try to stop her.
J leaned over, placing her face closer to his. “Sam? Sam, please talk to me.”
“J, go.”
She had stopped being afraid long ago. The Shredder hadn’t attacked her. Yet. But she assumed it was only a matter of time before he either sought her out, or discovered his oversight. If she was going to die here, she wanted to be with the two men with whom she had grown close these past few days.
She softly shushed him when he struggled to push her away. Sam was dying. They both knew it. Still, he felt the need to protect her, even if it meant trying to convince her to flee. When in truth he didn’t really want her to go. He didn’t want to die alone, and she knew that. And she knew he was aware she had figured it out, too. Inexorably, the aura surrounding him dimmed further.
“J.”
“I’m here, Sam. I’m h-here.”
Her tears were falling, dripping onto him, but he probably didn’t feel them. One weak hand found hers that was gripping his shoulder, clasped it, and gave it a weak squeeze. She laced her fingers through his to help him hold on.
“K-Kiel.”
J sniffed and found the courage to look around. There was no other aura, no other sign of life. Somehow, she knew the Shredder was still in the garage. So was Kiel. The where was impossible to detect.
“He’s okay, Sam,” she said. “He’s facing down the Shredder. He’s keeping him away from us.”
She had no idea if what she was telling him was the truth, but she knew she had to give Sam some sort of comfort, no matter how slight. She couldn’t bear to think of him dying without hope.
Sam’s body shook violently. The aura faded to almost nothing. His breathing and his heartbeat slowed. J pressed his face to her bosom. He was past being able to talk but he hadn’t given up. She could sense him struggling to live.
“J!”
Suddenly Kiel was there with her. He bent over his brother and placed a hand on the man’s chest.
J glanced around the garage.
“He’s gone,” Kiel whispered. “This time for good, I think.”
“Why did he come back?”
“I don’t know. But I managed to distract him long enough for a couple of techs to escape. Reinforcements should be on their way.” His brightness hovered almost directly above the center of his brother’s body. “Sam.”
“He’s dying,” J whispered, then hiccupped.
Kiel patted her and Sam’s hands where they were clasped. “I know.” His voice sounded final.
“What happened, Kiel? What do you think happened?”
“I honestly don’t know. Sam called me over to look at where they’d been busting up the concrete, and just as I got there, Conader showed up and rammed a piece of rebar through the guy with the jackhammer. All I could think about was keeping him away from you because I thought Sam…” He choked, swallowed hard, and continued. “I thought Sam could take care of himself. Oh, God. Hold on, Sam. Help’s coming. Hold on, damn you!”
She continued to rock Sam, who continued to fight for his life. His breathing was labored, yet he seemed to have momentarily stopped his downward spiral. It was as though he was able to draw some small amount of strength from her. Just enough to allow him to keep a tenuous grip on existing. That, and maybe he was just too damn stubborn to die.
“What did he find?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t get the chance to find out.” Sam glanced over his shoulder, at the spot where the cement lay in chunks. He arose and went over to the site. J heard him tossing pieces of concrete across the floor.
He suddenly cried out. She saw his aura spark, flutter, then sputter like a car running out of gasoline.
“J!”
“Kiel?”
“Oh, God! J! J, I…”
His voice was filled with terror. His aura dimmed. J could feel his fear running through her, and she reached out to him.
“Kiel? What’s wrong? Kiel?”
J whipped her head around and frantically searched the area around her, looking for any sign that the Shredder had returned, but the blackness remained black. The iciness freezing her was not coming from an intruder.
“Kiel!”
A breath later he was back, crouching in front of her. He touched her cheeks with both hands as she watched his aura fading like a setting sun. Fading quickly. An almost nonexistent kiss touched her lips.
“Kiel?”
“I love you, J,” he whispered hurriedly. “I’ll always love you. Please, don’t forge—”
Before he could finish, he was gone, leaving her with nothing but silence. The hands were gone. The blazing aura was gone. Completely gone.
All sense of him had vanished, his aura extinguished.
Stunned, J reached out as far as she could, waving it from side to side, hoping she was wrong. Hoping she could touch him again, or snag his jacket or sleeve. Anything.
“Kiel! Kiel, answer me, dammit! Kiel!”
She screamed his name over and over as she willed him to answer.
She didn’t stop screaming until the police burst through the door leading from the stairwell, to face the carnage and its one lone blind survivor.
Chapter 6
Aftermath
“Captain Redd?”
She spotted him when he entered the waiting room. He came straight over to where she was standing at the window. She liked looking out windows. Although she couldn’t see anything, she would play games with herself as she tried to spot the tiny, sometimes pinpoint spots of light floating here and there. The auras of people going about their business. It was something to keep her occupied while she waited for the time when visitors were allowed into the intensive care area.
“Miss Laurent, how are you doing?”
He spoke with genuine concern as he laid a hand on her arm. It was warm and calloused, and the contact felt good.
She nodded. “I’m fine, thanks. But I’m needing some answers, and there’s no one else I trust. Please?”
“Sure. Want to sit down?”
“No. I’m too wound up to sit.”
Miss Cassie had been by a while ago. Or was it hours ago? Damn her inability to distinguish time.
The woman had broug
ht her some clean clothes, then clucked over her like a mother hen while J washed up and changed in the woman’s restroom. After getting her something to eat from the hospital cafeteria, Miss Cassie had taken the bloodied clothes back to the house, leaving J to wait it out to see Sam when the doctors and nurses finally determined the man could have visitors.
“What was it you wanted to ask me?”
She placed a hand over his to help steady her. In many ways, she was still in shock, still in denial. It would only be a matter of time—Minutes? Hours?—before her psyche and her body would step into that bitter pool of grief. She almost felt as if she was about to go tumbling into a deep, bottomless chasm.
She swallowed hard. “What was in the concrete that they busted up?”
She sensed his hesitation. Finally, after some deliberation, the captain answered. “Has anyone debriefed you?”
“No.”
From the time the second wave of police entered the garage to discover the aftermath of the slaughter till now, she had little memory and fewer details she could relate. And when it came down to the truth about Kiel’s disappearance, there was little chance she could tell them the truth. They wouldn’t believe her if she did. Maybe she should let them try to figure it out on their own.
“Let me get someone down here from the station house to take your statement.”
“Captain Redd.” She squeezed his hand as hard as she could. “Please. Tell me. What was underneath the concrete?”
He was breathing heavily. She could hear how fast his heart was beating. She was surprised when his other hand settled on top of hers.
“It was a body.”
J jerked at the revelation. She had known. She had already guessed it, but she had wanted him to confirm it. Still, the answer shocked her.
“Kiel’s?”
“We can’t say for certain until the lab reports—”
“Dammit, Captain! It was Kiel’s, and you know it! Why won’t you be upfront and tell me the truth?”
The tears were falling again. She thought she had cried all she could cry. She was wrong.
It had to have been Kiel’s body under that fresh slab. Why else would he have reacted the way he did? Why else would he have said what he’d said, or tried to say, before he blinked out of existence?