by Martha Carr
Alexis knocked on the open door. “Gina, it’s me again and I’ve brought the people I told you about. They’re here to help you.” She paused and when there was no response, she sighed and stepped back to let Lisa and Johnny through. “I don’t know how much you’ll get out of her right now, honestly. Please, be gentle.”
“Not a problem.” The bounty hunter stepped into the room and paused.
Gina McKinney sat on her bed, huddled against the headboard in an oversized t-shirt and sweatpants with her knees pulled up to her chest. She had the same thick, curly dark hair and wide brown eyes as her sister, although hers were dulled by the dark, baggy circles beneath them. Her curls fell across her shoulders in an unwashed, tangled mess, and she stared at the bedspread in front of her. She didn’t look up when the dwarf entered or when Lisa followed him and stepped aside to give Alexis a view into the room.
“Gina?” Agent Breyer called softly. “My name’s Lisa. This is Johnny. We wanted to ask you a few questions about the night you went out with your sister. Is that okay?”
The woman nodded vaguely but still didn’t look up. Her lips parted and moved like she was whispering something, but no sound came out.
“Anythin’ you can tell us will help us to help you, Gina,” he added.
Slowly, the woman raised her head and gazed at each of them. “You’re not from the hospital?”
“No.” Lisa took another step toward the bed centered along the opposite wall. “We’re with the FBI.”
Gina’s eyes widened and she raised her head even more to study the newcomers. “So you’re trying to find her? Do you think you can?
“Who might that be?” Johnny asked.
“Her.” The woman glanced briefly at the window where the shades were closed completely against the bright summer day. “She’s trying to find me. That’s why I came to stay with Alexis.”
“Who is she?”
“You don’t know? No, of course you don’t. You’re supposed to be good at finding people, right? And you came here to talk to me about finding her.” She scoffed. “The FBI can’t find a demon. I don’t think you can help.”
“But you’ve managed to avoid her by staying with Alexis for the last month,” Lisa said to play into the delusion while she tried to not make it sound condescending. “That’s more than many other people managed so far.”
Gina grimaced. “There are others?”
“Yep. Seven other folks we’re tryin’ to help too,” Johnny confirmed and narrowed his eyes as he studied the room. “Exactly like you.”
“Not exactly like me. I can’t—” The woman exhaled a heavy, helpless sigh and pulled her tangled mess of curls away from one side of her neck to push them over the opposite shoulder. “They gave me meds I don’t need. Did you know that? They don’t keep her away and all they do is make it so hard to think. I’m not normally…this slow.”
The two visitors exchanged and glance when the side of her now-exposed neck revealed the same mark they’d seen on Christopher Folsum. Lisa nodded.
As he stepped toward the bed, Johnny pointed at his neck. “What’s that there below your ear?”
“What?” The woman’s hand brushed against the mark before she looked at her fingers and shook her head. “There’s nothing there.”
“There’s a small mark, darlin’. Have you taken a good look in the mirror recently?”
“No, mirrors are the worst.” Gina shrank against the headboard again. “That’s where she can see me—where she can look inside me the easiest.”
“Did anyone mention that mark to you, though?” He pointed at her neck this time. “Maybe your sister said somethin’ ʼbout it? It’s hard to miss when your hair ain’t coverin’ it.”
“I don’t have any marks,” she whispered. “I don’t even have tattoos. What are you doing? No. Stop. Don’t come any closer.”
“I only wanna get a better look.” Johnny raised both hands. “Is that all right with you?”
“No, it’s not okay. You don’t need to look at my body. The doctors already did that.”
Lisa spread her arms placatingly and remained where she was. “Gina, if we can have a closer look, we might be able to—”
“She sent you, didn’t she?”
“Now, that ain’t anywhere close to the—”
“She did. She sent you!” Gina pressed herself against the headboard and pointed a shaking finger at one, then the other. “Alexis can’t tell the difference, but I can. You’re here to take everything from me. Tell that demon I won’t fall for it. I won’t! If she can’t find me at my apartment, good. And you can’t make me go back.”
“Gina, we’re not working for anyone but the FBI,” the agent said quietly and lowered her hands.
“You’re lying!” The woman clamped her hands against her ears and clenched her eyes shut. A low, anxious moan escaped her as she began to rock against the headboard. “Don’t listen. Don’t listen to the lies. My name is Gina McKinney. I’m thirty-two. I have a good life. I’m happy. I have friends, I’m talented, I’m funny, I can…I can handle anything.”
“Gina?” Alexis stepped into the room with them and pressed a hand to her mouth as she watched her sister descend into another episode. “Hey, sweetie, it’s me. Can you hear me?”
“I like fuzzy socks and vanilla candles. My sister loves me.”
“That’s right. I’m right here.”
“Alexis! Alexis!” Gina hunched over, her eyes still tightly shut, and screamed at the top of her lungs. She removed her hands from her ears and batted violently at the air in front of her as she shook her head vigorously. “Alexis! She’s trying to get in! She’s gonna find me!”
“No, no. I’m right here.” Her sister darted toward the bed, climbed onto it, and shuffled toward her sister. “Hey, it’s me. It’s okay. Everything’s okay.”
She avoided the wildly slapping hands and managed to pin her sister’s arms at her side in a tight hug.
Johnny frowned and watched the terrified outburst. “You see that mark on her neck too, right?”
“He’s lying!” Gina screamed.
Alexis shushed her and hugged her even more tightly as she stroked her hair. “I think you guys should go downstairs.”
The bounty hunter gestured toward the terrified woman. “Do you have any idea what this demon lady looks like—”
“Now. Please.” The woman darted a warning glance at him before her features softened when Gina subsided into sobs in her arms. “I need to calm her. Wait for me downstairs and we can talk. Shh, sweetie. It’s okay. Everything’s fine. No one’s trying to break in, I promise.”
“Johnny.” Lisa nodded toward the hallway. “Come on.”
With a grunt, the dwarf turned grudgingly and followed her into the hall. “Don’t it smell a little funny to you that she can’t even acknowledge that mark on her neck?”
“A little.” She gestured down the stairs for him to go first. “That doesn’t mean we need to push her on it.”
“It makes it seem like she’s hidin’ somethin’.”
“Johnny, she’s terrified. And it’s not hiding something if she can’t remember what happened to her.”
“Huh. She could talk fine.”
They reached the main floor and turned toward the couches in the living room. “I think the issue with that mark on her neck is one of those traumatic blocks,” she continued. “Like with Folsum. He made all those drawings because he wanted to remember the figure in the tunnels but couldn’t. I think subconsciously, Gina knows about the mark.”
“Are you sayin’ we should get her to draw it?”
They sat on the couches and she shook her head. “No. For her, I think that would simply make it worse. It would push her again and that’s not the right way to go. But I’m starting to think the marks are more related to the victims’ memories than anything else—like a wrench thrown into the gears.”
“It made Folsum explode, draw the same thing over ʼbout a hundred times, then try to k
ill himself. And it makes this lady upstairs refuse to look at what’s right in front of her?”
“I don’t think she’d be able to see it even if she were looking for it, Johnny. That’s the block.”
He grunted and tugged at his beard. “Well, she’s certainly the same level of crazy he is but a different kind. No drawings. No obsessive whatever-you-call-it.”
“No, hers manifested differently. Folsum didn’t have any fear of leaving his house. He didn’t struggle with the paramedics when they took him to the ambulance.”
“Naw, his issue was still bein’ alive.”
Lisa glanced warningly at him. “There’s a better way to say that without making it sound so heartless.”
“The truth is what it is, darlin’.” He shrugged. “I ain’t tryin’ to make it anythin’ different.”
With a sigh of acknowledgment, she leaned back against the couch cushions.
“So he had a fear of everythin’ he loved bein’ taken from him. Of not bein’ happy. And Gina McKinney’s afraid to go outside.”
“She’s afraid of being followed and found. She thinks she’s safer here than in her apartment.” Lisa drummed her fingers on her thighs. “The curtains are closed and no one comes in or out. She won’t go out back with the dog—”
“And how is that like the other cases, huh? Other than the fact that these folks are scared outta their minds and blamin’ it on a demon lady?”
Her grim frown was determined. “That’s why we’re here.”
The bedroom door upstairs shut softly, followed by Alexis’ slow, hesitant footsteps down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she pulled her curly hair away from her neck and shoulders and let it fall down her back. “I think I have her down for now, although I had to give her another dose of the benzodiazepines the doctors prescribed. She hates them but it’s the only thing that works.”
“Alexis, we didn’t mean to upset her so much,” Lisa said as she started to stand.
“No, it’s okay. And you don’t have to go if you still have questions.” With a final glance at the staircase, she sat on the couch across the coffee table and sighed. “Trust me, that was mild compared to some of the worst days.”
“Has she ever said anythin’ ʼbout that mark?” Johnny asked.
“No. And I learned very quickly to not ask about it. She did the same thing when I tried to work out what it was. I spent an entire day trying to convince her I was truly her sister and not some demon lackey in disguise. She’ll be okay.” She looked at them with tired but hopeful eyes. “Did you get any of your answers?”
“Well, we do know she ain’t drawin’ on the walls.”
“I’m sorry?”
Lisa frowned at him and shook her head. “It was certainly helpful, Alexis. Thank you.”
They fell silent for a moment. Johnny rubbed his mouth, then pointed at the woman. “I’d like to have the names of all the places y’all went to that night. Do you think you can remember them?”
Alexis’ tiny smile broke through her obvious exhaustion. “We didn’t get that drunk. But I already told the police everywhere we went.”
“Well, it’s possible they missed somethin’, darlin’. And like Agent Breyer said, we ain’t writin’ anythin’ off yet.”
“Okay. Sure.”
Lisa retrieved her phone. “Whenever you’re ready, I’ll make a list.”
“Yeah. Um… Let me see. Well, we went to Mandarin House first for dinner and a few drinks. Then we stopped at Dixie Tavern and The Barrel Room. We saw some of Gina’s friends there and hung out for a while. Oh, before that, she wanted to take one of those tours in Old Town. I’m not a fan of horror stories or scary movies or anything, but I thought I could shake off the scare with a decent buzz after dinner, you know? Gina loves that stuff.”
The agent looked up from her phone. “What tours?”
“The, uh…the tunnels. The Shanghai Tunnels under Old Town.” Alexis shrugged. “They revamped it a few months ago. It seems they discovered some other access tunnels and changed part of their story when they lead you through them to include some new information they found about all the awful stuff that happened down there in the 1800s, I think.”
Johnny tilted his head slowly. “Are they still runnin’ these tours?”
“As far as I know, yeah. They’re very popular with people who come through Portland from out of town, but it’s something fun to do if you’re local, too, especially if they change the story. It’s a PG tour, but they don’t exactly try to hide the worst parts. They merely don’t go into too much detail, but it’s easy enough to imagine all the rest.”
“What time were you down there?”
“We took the very last tour of the night. So…I don’t know. Five, I guess.”
Lisa finished typing her notes into her phone and slipped the device into her back pocket. “That’s great, Alexis. Thank you. I think we have everything we need. Johnny?”
“Yep.” The dwarf stood and nodded at the woman, who looked quickly from one to the other. “Thanks for your time.”
“Sure.” Alexis stood and seemed almost disappointed that the visit was concluded. “That’s it?”
“For now, yes.” The agent shook her hand. “We’ll let you know what we find.”
Johnny raised an eyebrow. “We will?”
“Of course we will. Because once we know what’s going on, we’ll know how to help Gina return to her normal, happy, outgoing self.” She widened her eyes at him and warned him to not say anything else.
“Right.” He cleared his throat. “Yeah, you’ll hear about it.”
“Thank you.” Alexis moved toward the glass sliding door. “I’m merely glad to know that someone’s still looking into this and trying to help her. My sister doesn’t deserve any of this, especially not being drugged for the rest of her life because no one believed me when I said it wasn’t a mental breakdown.”
“We don’t think that’s the answer either,” Lisa assured her.
The dwarf joined their hostess at the back door and peered through the glass, looking for the hounds. “Where’d they run off to now?”
The woman opened the door and stepped outside. “Lakshmi? Come here, girl.” She clapped and walked into the yard.
“Johnny!” Rex darted from the other side of the storage shed. “Hey, Johnny. You gotta do something! I can’t stop it.”
Without a word, Johnny stormed across the yard and rounded the side of the storage shed. “Luther!”
A low growl and a sharp yip greeted him before he reached the other side of the building.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” The younger hound struggled to get out from beneath the female Great Pyrenees who’d mounted him from behind. “Ever heard of privacy, Johnny?”
He stared at the spectacle. “What the hell?”
“All right, all right. Jeez. Can’t get two minutes alone.”
“Lakshmi!” Alexis joined him behind the shed and looked both horrified and highly amused. “I’m so sorry. She doesn’t normally do this.”
“Ain’t your fault.” Johnny folded his arms. “There might be somethin’ wrong with one of my hounds, though.”
“Get off!” The woman stepped toward her dog and swatted the animal before she managed to push Lakshmi aside.
Luther scrambled away and slipped behind Johnny, laughing. “Good times, L. Nice knowin’ ya.”
“Go on, Luther. Git.” Johnny pointed toward the back of the duplex, and the hound skittered away across the grass to join his brother. “Thanks again for your time.”
“Of course. Let me walk you to the door.”
“Naw, that’s fine.” He looked at the Great Pyrenees who rolled happily on her back in the grass. “I think that ball of fluff might be a little more than my boys can handle. We’ll see ourselves out.”
He strode quickly toward the open back door, where Lisa waited for him. “What happened?”
“Hound done got himself mixed up with that other one. In more than one way.�
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“Dude, I told you she’s faster than you,” Rex muttered as he and Luther trotted beside their master through the house. “Why didn’t you listen to me?”
Luther panted and paused to sniff the edge of the couch before Johnny snapped his fingers and opened the front door. “Who said that wasn’t the plan all along?”
“Wait, what? That’s not what interrogating means, Luther.”
The bounty hunter pointed through the front door. “Both of y’all. Now.”
His hounds bolted through the door and he shook his head as Lisa stepped out after them.
“Next time, y’all are stayin’ inside with us.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Okay, Johnny,” Lisa said beside him on the sidewalk as they walked toward the center of downtown. “You can’t say these cases don’t have anything in common now.”
“You mean other than the fact that all eight lost their damn minds?”
She glanced at him in exasperation.
“Yeah, all right. We were handed one more connection on a silver platter. Folsum drew all them tunnels, and I reckon he’s drawin’ the same ones the McKinney sisters took a damn tour through.”
“So whoever’s attacking these humans is…what? Attacking them during the tours? We didn’t see anything in Folsum’s house about tunnels under Portland.”
“Naw, he pulled ʼem all aboveground and plastered ʼem to his wall. I call that a lead.”
“And the demon part?”
“I still think that’s merely a side effect at this point.”
Lisa smirked and cast him a sidelong glance. “It’s good to have you back in the game, Johnny.”
The dwarf stopped on the sidewalk and turned to face her. “I’ve been back.”
“No, you’ve been distracted.” She nodded slowly and held his gaze. “And now you’re ready to go after this scumbag terrorizing humans and their sanity.”
He sniffed and resumed his steady pace. “Damn straight. ’Cause now, this case ain’t simply all hooey. Forget the demon part. I aim to get in those tunnels and see who the hell’s been carvin’ out a little trap for unsuspecting folk.”