Ben was absolutely and completely confused. He’d walked in expecting, at the very least, massive guilt, and at the worst, arrested and accused of murder. Instead he was being led to Albert’s most comfortable chair he used for telling family members about their loved ones who died.
Ben felt the cushion beneath the chair sink deeply as he sat, and he almost groaned at the comfort. He’d been on the go for so long, and even though they’d been in the city for nearly a week, he hadn’t had much rest or time to recoup from everything that had taken place. He felt the pressing urge to close his eyes, to lose himself in the familiar sounds and smells of the station, to pretend he’d never left, Abby had never died, and none of this had ever happened. It was too tempting, and therefore too dangerous for Ben to be there for long.
He was getting distracted by the small things, however, and he forced himself to look at Albert, who was now fiddling with the flat-screen television mounted against the far wall. He seemed nervous, which was odd, considering as long as Ben had known the captain, he’d been one of the calmest people, even in the most stressful situations. Albert was just not the kind of guy to be shaken up. He was the one who told the spouses of fallen officers about their husbands and wives, how their loved ones had died, the one who always did the emotional jobs because he could keep it together. Ben was very worried about Albert’s state now. What could that DVD possibly show besides Ben, Mark, and Judas escaping the building with an unconscious woman in tow?
Albert’s fingers were shaking slightly as he shoved a DVD into the side compartment on the TV, and he turned to look at Ben, his face drawn and worried. “Before I play this,” he said and walked across the room to the chair behind his desk, “there’s something you should know.”
Ben rubbed his face and wished he had a strong cup of coffee, or possibly scotch, right in that moment. Albert was stalling and Ben was starting to feel antsy. “Just out with it, okay? It’s been the most fucked up couple of weeks.”
“Well I’m sorry to do this to you, but I don’t have good news for you,” Albert replied after a moment of tense silence. It was that speech, the, “I’m sorry to tell you this, ma’am, but I’m afraid there was an accident.” Ben raised an eyebrow, and when it became clear Ben had nothing to say, Albert went on. “Before your sister uh…”
“Blew up?” Ben offered at the hesitation, feeling a little childish at the statement, but he was tired of Albert dancing around the subject.
Albert winced and cleared his throat. “Before the incident at the compound,” he amended, “did you notice your sister developing any contacts with people who were not in her usual social circle?”
Ben frowned, completely unsure where he was going with this. It was obvious the department had figured out something, but Ben didn’t know what just yet. “My sister was one step away from being a nun, Albert. She didn’t have a social circle. Well, apart from that Mark guy.”
Albert gave a hum, scratching at his chin. “We’ve uncovered some security footage, Ben, and you’re not going to like it.”
Ben gave a sigh, sat back and threw up his hands in protest. “You keep saying the same thing over and over, so just get it over with, Albert. It’s not like you to try and mince words.”
The captain gave a stern nod. “I wouldn’t be so hesitant if it was anyone but you. You’re my best detective, and hell, Stanford, when your sister died, we all felt your grief.” He sat back and shook his head. “I realize how alone you felt, and probably still do, but we were all right there with you. She was as much a part of our family as you are, so this isn’t easy. This isn’t something that just comes naturally to me.”
Ben heard the raw emotion in his voice, and he felt terrible, but at the same time, he just wanted to know what Albert was getting at. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I know, Albert. I do, and if it weren’t for this family here, I probably wouldn’t be okay. I realize whatever you’re going to show me isn’t going to be easy, but I can take it. She was my sister, but I’m still a cop. A homicide detective. It may hurt, but stalling isn’t going to make the blow any easier. So please just…out with it.”
“We’ve uncovered some disturbing security footage that leads us to believe that your sister not only survived the blast at the compound, but is, in part, responsible for some of the missing patients in your investigations.” The words poured forth from his mouth, in an almost-rush, like if he spoke faster, it would be less shocking. It wasn’t though, and Ben was floored.
He had not been expecting that at all. He wondered if maybe they’d caught an image of her on some tape in the compound, or perhaps on the street view camera in San Diego, but he had no idea how she could have been implemented in the hospital disappearances. Abby hadn’t been possessed by Nike during most of the missing patients, and Ben felt a sudden fear that maybe Abby had been possessed long before they noticed the symptoms. Maybe before Mark came into the picture, and before Ben had been healed. “Show me,” he said eventually. When Albert hesitated, Ben smacked his hand on top of the captain’s desk, “Do it!” He was panicked now, and scared, but he needed answers.
Albert tapped the button on the remote and the TV on the wall flared to life. Much like the video Ben had seen initially showing Mark and Jude being dragged into the building, the grainy footage showed the street. It was at night, and the small date in the corner indicated to Ben that the footage was from the night he had rescued Mark and Jude.
Ben frowned as the time ticked by with no movement on the screen. Would this be the moment that Albert revealed Ben was on the tape, too? That directly after Ben had escaped the building with Mark and Jude in tow, a dead body had been discovered?
With bated breath, Ben watched as the door to the building swung open and the arrogant goddess, Nike, swaggered out. She looked up at the camera and Ben saw the telltale flash in her eyes as the goddess revealed herself. There was no sound, but he could see her chuckling, shaking her head just a little.
Nike paused at the top of the step, turned her head and shouted something, and as she walked down the three steps to the sidewalk, two men hunkered out of the building, dragging the dead man between them. She was barking instructions at them, pointing off in the distance, and Ben wished he could hear what she was saying.
He watched as she wagged her finger over at one of the larger bins meant for material from the renovations, and the two men, obviously vessels, grabbed the body and hurled it over the side. Ben sat back, his hand pressed lightly to his mouth to keep from saying anything stupid.
He was horrified, yes, but unsurprised that she was so careless. It was obvious she wanted to be found out, and he glanced over at Albert, who had his eyes fixed on the screen. How was it possible that this captain, the man who never missed a thing, didn’t suspect Ben? How was it possible the earlier footage didn’t show Ben on there at all?
Ben opened his mouth to inquire about earlier footage when something caught his eye. Headlights lit up the screen, and after a second, a car pulled up. One man and a tall woman got out and the man reached into the backseat, retrieving a person who seemed barely conscious.
It was a woman, Ben could tell, but her back was to the camera. Still, she had long hair, and something about her looked extremely familiar. He watched as Nike approached the woman, grabbed her by the chin and lifted her face to give her a good look.
After a moment Nike nodded, grabbed the woman’s bound hands and whirled her around, full on to the camera. Ben had to physically stop himself from gasping aloud. It was Olivia. The unsuspecting woman who had been nearly killed by Nike. The woman who had been possessed by Thor, and who had, just hours beforehand, been left on her porch to recover.
Ben felt sick. Bile rose into his throat and he couldn’t bring himself to look at Albert. He didn’t dare give anything away, but his head was spinning. How could they have left her in danger like that? How did any of them not know that Nike’s moronic goons had trailed them to Olivia’s house? Why had none of them s
uspected that Nike would take this woman the first chance she got?
He felt so stupid. Letting out a breath, Ben turned to Albert who was now watching him with some trepidation. “I’m sorry, Ben. I’m so sorry.”
Ben rubbed his eyes and then pinched the bridge of his nose as he desperately tried to come up with something to say. He was lost, and part of him wanted to just spill his guts to Albert. He felt so alone and dear God what he would give to open his eyes and be back in his office, waking up from some ridiculous nightmare.
“I uh…I’m not sure what to say,” Ben finally mumbled.
“We have other footage from a few months earlier, just after the explosion,” Albert said slowly. “It was at a hospital in San Jose. Now, the events went off like all of the others, power cut, security cameras going down. Only this time, whoever it was took a route through the parking garage and they didn’t disable the cameras down there. The footage has several rapid shot stills of your sister helping to load a partially conscious man into a large SUV. Based on that assessment, we have reason to suspect your sister was in on this the entire time, and she was using your status as a detective to keep suspicions off herself.”
Ben gave an almost hysterical sounding laugh and shook his head. “I’m not sure what to say.”
“You don’t need to say anything,” Albert replied. “We just need to know if you noticed anything, even the smallest detail, we might have missed. Anything at all that can give us some clue about who she’s working with, what they’re up to, what the point of all of this is. If it’s a serial killer, we need to know where they’re going to strike next.”
Ben wanted to jump up, grab Albert by the front of his shirt and scream, “They’re gods! They’re fucking Greek gods trying to take over humanity!” Instead he rested his elbows on his knees and let out several breaths. “The um… the uh…” he cleared his throat and started again. “The earlier footage from this tape? What did it show? Who she was with, maybe? When she arrived, how she arrived?” He was trying to sound casual, sound like a detective, but he really needed to know how much the station had on him and the others he was with.
Albert shook his head. “Most of the tape was missing. The only reason we got this was the tape had reset its loop and began recording again on the backup. We’ve been scouring for any footage but we’ve found nothing except this small piece. It was almost like she wanted to be seen.”
“Seems so,” Ben muttered, shaking his head. He stood up and gave a groan. “Well if that’s all…”
“No that’s not all,” Albert said firmly, and Ben sat back down. “We have the small matter of you disappearing and not returning any of my calls.” Albert leaned across the desk and looked Ben directly in the eyes. “Is any of this news to you, Ben? Did you know about any of this? Suspect that your sister was involved in something she shouldn’t have been? I know your instincts are to protect her, but I need you to be a detective right now, okay?”
Ben’s head swam. Of course none of it was news, but the very idea of trying to explain to Albert that it wasn’t Abby in that body was laughable. Ben still barely believed he wasn’t suffering a psychotic breakdown and stuck inside of his own fantasy world. There was no way he could get Albert to believe him.
So his real choice, it seemed, was to lie to Albert, or to tell him that yes, he knew about Abby’s involvement. It wasn’t a choice, though, not really. Ben couldn’t risk being put under surveillance, not if they were going to stop Nike.
He was still reeling from seeing Olivia on the tape, and what he really wanted to do was get the hell out of the station and get back to the safe house. If the other gods knew Olivia had been taken, he wanted to know why they hadn’t told him before. And if they didn’t know… well he wanted to know why they’d missed being tailed.
Leaning across the desk, Ben gave a shake of his head. “To tell the truth, Albert, I don’t know if this is news to me. There was something so wrong about that god damned compound explosion, and the fact that they couldn’t find Abby...” Ben trailed off, and when he spoke again, his voice was elevated with his stress level. “No one listened to me, everyone thought I was insane!” He rose from the chair and began to pace in front of the desk. “For months I told you all she was still alive. There was more to it, she wasn’t just dead. For months I told you that the clean-up was too neat, and you all treated me like I was a nutcase. Now look where we’re at!”
Albert let out a puff of breath and lowered his eyes. “You’re right, and I’m so sorry. We should have listened to you.”
Ben threw up his hands and let out a harsh, barking laugh. It had worked, channeling those emotions had worked, and Albert had been thrown off. “So now what?” he asked. “Any leads on her? Any idea of where she might be? Who she’s associated with? Do you have her prints on file? Any witnesses? Anything at all?”
“I’m afraid not at this time,” Albert said.
“I can’t take this case,” Ben said, leveling his finger at Albert. “You know that I can’t take this case.”
“We’re not asking you to take this case. Frankly we thought you were dead and we reassigned all of your cases,” Albert said, sounding a little put out. “In all honesty, I thought maybe she’d killed you.”
Ben gave him a wry smile. “I don’t care what kind of killer my sister has become, she couldn’t take me down.” He hesitated, and then feeling bold but trying to keep the situation feeling real, he asked, “And you never suspected I was in on it?”
“No,” Albert said plainly. “Martinez did, and Smith, but they couldn’t gather up enough evidence on you, and I was pretty vocal about my support right from the beginning.”
“Well at least people are doing their jobs,” Ben grumbled.
“Aside from a few suspicious circumstances, you were clean,” Albert said. “They had the case file from the San Diego PD when that John Doe went missing, and that woman who had the detectives pulled off of your case and your name cleared, Stella Horvath? She disappeared around the same time we thought we’d lost you.” Albert paused with a frown, and then shook his head. “But no, Stanford. Nothing could shake my faith in you.”
Fool, Ben thought, but he allowed himself to sit back down and with a heavy frown, he pressed the now crumpled letter of resignation on Albert’s desk. “I’m sorry.”
“What the hell is this?” Albert asked, refusing to touch it.
“I should have given you more notice, but I just can’t hack it anymore,” Ben said, and that much was absolutely honest. “I wasn’t totally sure about resigning when I came in here, but now with this tape of Abby…” his voice began to shake and he cut himself off. Clearing his throat, he pushed the paper closer to Albert who still refused to take it. “I’m going to have a breakdown, man. I just… I can’t do this right now. Or ever. It’s too much.”
“No,” Albert said, and he deliberately looked everywhere but at the letter. “I’m sorry Stanford, but you’re my best detective. You were born for this job.”
“Yes but-“
“But nothing,” Albert cut him off. “We all go through shit, Ben. We all watch people die, most of us get shot at some point, and not all of us make it out alive. Cops or not, we all lose people close to us, and we all find out that someone we love isn’t the person we thought they were. But you’re not quitting. You go take your leave of absence. Come back in one year, or five—hell come back in ten years, I don’t care. You’re not quitting and there is no letter on my desk.”
Ben was torn between wanting to argue, wanting to just shove the letter at him and run, or wanting to break down completely and cry. He was a detective, it was the only thing he’d ever been good at, and before Jude healed his brain and Mark strolled into his life, being a detective was the only thing that really mattered.
Now, he was in love with a woman possessed by some ancient thing, he was traveling with a band of immortals and Norse gods, he was hunting some psychopath possessing his sister. Whether he accepted it or not, he n
o longer belonged in the world as he once knew it. It was too much for him to take. He was tired, and he wasn’t sure that he was going to make it out alive.
The leave of absence was an out, though, Ben realized. There would be no one tailing him, no responsibilities, and if one day, he woke up and this was all over and he wasn’t dead, he might be able to return to his life. He might, even if there were only a few years of his life left, be able to return to the things he once knew and loved.
Rubbing his face, he let out a breath and very slowly, removed the letter from the desk and shoved it into his pocket. “Don’t expect me to check in.”
“I don’t.”
“Or stick around.”
“Hadn’t crossed my mind.”
“And if you never hear from me again—“
“Ben, I understand what you’re going through and I don’t have any expectations of you. I realize you need to deal with the fact that your sister might be alive, and if so, we have to do our jobs and bring her in.”
Ben’s throat tightened a little and he cleared it roughly. “Right. Look, if you somehow manage to get ahold of her just…”
“I’ll call. Personally,” Albert assured him.
With that, Ben walked to the office door and pushed it open a few inches. He hesitated and then turned back to Albert. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for all of this trouble.” And then he was out. He didn’t want to give Albert time to respond, and he didn’t want to deal with the backlash if Albert figured out that Ben was lying right to his face.
They’d always had a close relationship and the last thing Ben wanted to do was lie to the man, but he just didn’t have a choice. Not anymore. He hadn’t asked for this to happen to him, but he couldn’t deny the events in his life any longer. Whether he lived or died at the end, he was going to stop Nike and end the madness.
Cry, Nike! (The Judas Curse) Page 2