“I love you, too, my scared little Storm. don’t you worry about a thing. we’re going to be just fine.”
“That’s better than okay.”
Megan’s smile deepened as she lay on the couch and pulled Delta down next to her. “Yes, sweety, it is. Will you lie with me awhile before you go?”
Delta glanced over at the clock. She was already late. “Connie . . .”
“Already called and told me to keep you here until school. You’re mine for the morning.”
Laying her head down on Megan’s chest, Delta sighed and clung to her like a soft raft. “She takes good care of me.”
“Yes, she does. But it’s my turn now.”
Listening to the slow, steady tempo of Megan’s heart, Delta’s muscles relaxed as Megan stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. As her arms and eyelids got heavier and heavier, Delta forgot all about a man named Elson and a bizarre murder case. The only thing she cared about at that moment was hearing the rhythmic beating of a heart she loved more than anything else in the world.
“Any progress on the game front?” Jan asked as she started the engine.
“Not much. Connie and I worked all afternoon trying to figure out what to do with those damned gloves, but we’re stumped.”
“How frustrating.”
“And exhausting. Knowing that every minute brings us closer to another murder drives Connie like nothing I’ve ever seen. She subsists on coffee and nerves alone.”
Jan cut her eyes at Delta. “And how are you?”
Delta shrugged. “Scared. Angry. There are a lot of weird emotions tumbling around inside. According to our info, he’ll strike again tonight between ten and one. We spent the last two days mapping, playing, and researching, and still, we don’t have a clue.”
Jan blew a hard breath out of her mouth. “Great. We know he’s out there, he’s coming, and he’s going to hurt someone, and there’s not a damned thing we can do about it.”
Delta nodded. “It’s not for lack of trying.”
“What’s the hold-up? With a brain like Connie, I would have thought you’d have it by now. I mean, the game can’t be that hard, can it?”
“The problem is, we don’t have a key. You know, all those dumb games have one thing that tips the scales in the player’s favor. There’s something that ties the game together but we just haven’t found it. Connie’s exhausted and I . . . well, if I never see another computer, it will be too soon for me.”
“That bad, huh?”
Delta nodded. “That bad. If we don’t break a major clue soon, I don’t know if anyone will be able to stop him.”
“Leonard has nothing?”
“Nothing we can use. As long as he insists on tying Elson’s crimes with the shooting, he’s lost in a cornfield. We can count him out for awhile. For now, it’s just the five of us and Eddie.”
As the night wore on, Delta’s senses got keener. She was like an owl in the dark; she could see things in an alley a hundred feet away that most people would miss right under their noses. She could distinguish between a man, a hooker, a crossdresser, and a pimp without looking twice, and she practically knew by the smell when a street hood was carrying a piece. There was a draw, a sense that allowed her to creep through the night, like a cat on a fence, through a hostile and frightened city. She relied on her intuition, her gut feelings that told her when danger was present, or when she was close to her quarry. It had never failed her yet, and she always listened to it.
Like now.
It was ringing like a boxer’s bell.
“Jan, stop!”
Jan slammed on the brakes without question. “What?”
Delta shined her spotlight at the base of a huge bronze statue of a cowboy standing with a lariat in his hands. “I, I don’t know.” Something deep inside her was trying to push its way through.
Jan waited.
As the spotlight waved across the massive statue, Delta stared at it. There was nothing unusual about the statue, but for some reason, it drew her attention. She’d seen it a thousand times, yet she’d never really looked at it.
Why was she looking at it now?
“Del?”
Delta did not answer. There was something picking at her subconscious, but it was, as of yet, unformed. Try as she might, she couldn’t bring it to her consciousness. But it was there. She knew it. She could feel it.
Ever since Elson’s cold, metallic eyes had first targeted her, she felt a bizarre sort of energy from him. It wasn’t that she felt watched, but she felt . . . hunted. Yes, that was it, it was as if he were hunting her. Like a snake slithering through the grass, he was watching her and waiting for the moment to strike.
Delta finally turned from the cowboy and faced Jan. There was something about the damned thing that was pulling at her, trying to get her to see something beyond her vision. Closing her eyes, Delta opened her mind and allowed her thoughts to bump into each other, hoping they might jar some idea, some picture loose in her mind.
It was like having something on the tip of her tongue, and then forgetting it; the more she thought about it, the harder it was to retrieve. Instead, she just stopped thinking about it and let her mind find it itself. There was something Connie said about cowboys, but she couldn’t remember what it was or why it was important. Was it Connie who said it, or Megan? Maybe they both did. But what was it, and was it of any importance?
Next, Delta saw herself with her father when she was a kid. They used to walk down to a small corral around the corner of their house and watch the local riders jump and barrel race. Her dad would lift her up to the fence and they would sit and bake in the sun, as the gleaming horses kicked up the red clay dirt beneath leather-clad riders.
Delta loved those days. The days before the good and the bad found their way into her heart. The days when corruption and evil happened only in cartoons. She always rooted for the local rider who rode the black horse, and wore the shiny black chaps and expensive leather boots. That horse would sweat so much, it looked glossy, like someone had painted it with varethane.
And the rider. What a rider she was. She could maneuver her horse around those barrels as easily as a race car driver races around a track. She would give her horse one swift kick to start it in motion, and then, with reins firmly grasped in her left hand, her right hand would . . .
Her right hand.
“That’s it!”
“What?”
“Pull over. I think I have it. Let me check with Connie and I’ll be right back.” Jumping from the car, Delta raced over to a payphone and dropped some coins into the phone and waited for Connie to answer.
“Con, it’s me. I think I’ve got it.” Delta’s chest heaved with excitement. “We’ve been taking the wrong approach here. We’ve been trying to beat that one-horned beast.”
“Of course we are. That’s the point.”
“Is the game on?”
“Yes. Been working all morning, and it feels like I’m never going to break through to the next level. If I didn’t love Eddie so much, I’d put my fist through his monitor.”
“Well, hang on, because I may have our answer.” Delta could hear Connie typing away at the keyboard. “Is Dori wearing the gloves?”
“She’s done everything but eat them. And to be perfectly honest, she’s tried that as well.”
“Hear me out on this, will you? We’ve been approaching the game from Elson’s standpoint. So far, we’ve tried killing everything we run into. That’s not our way, that’s his way.”
“Yes, but it’s
his
game.”
“True. But does he want us to think like him or think like us?” Delta waited for an answer and heard Connie breathing into the phone.
“Tell me what you’re thinking, Storm.”
“What if the gloves were used like a cowboy uses gloves? You know, to rope, to catch calves, to—”
“To ride? Not a bad idea, Del. It’s worth a shot.”
Delta held her breath while she listened to Connie pounding the keys. Looking at her watch, Delta cringed. It was 9:30. “Con?”
“I know, I know. It’s almost ten. I’ll give it everything I have. I’ve got to get close to it first. You go back to work, and I’ll beep you the moment I have anything.”
“Great. I’ll be waiting.” Delta heard her own heart pounding in her ears as she hung the phone up. It was a long shot, but then long shots were her standard operating procedures.
“Well?” Jan asked when Delta returned to the car.
Delta folded her long legs into the passenger seat. “For some reason, that statue caught my attention. I thought back to when I was a little girl, and I used to watch the barrel racers. I remembered the gloves the riders wore, so I thought—”
“Maybe that’s what the chauffeur’s gloves were for?”
Delta nodded. “We’ve been trying to kill it. I guess that’s what these computer games are all about. Anyway, Connie mentioned something about cowboys the other day, so when I saw the statue, it triggered a memory of mine. Instead of trying to kill the beast, I thought maybe we should try to ride it.”
Jan cocked her head in question. “Ride it? What kind of animal is it?”
“It’s a big, hairy, four-legged animal with a horn coming out of the middle of its head. You should see it. It’s horrible looking. Looks kind of like a buffalo.”
Suddenly, Delta felt her pager vibrate, and she jumped back out of the car to make the call.
“Yeah?”
“You were right.” Connie’s voice was filled with excitement. “I’ve managed to get Dori to mount it. And you know what? It really isn’t a beast at all.”
“What is it?”
“A unicorn.”
“A unicorn? Excuse me a minute, Connie. You may be the brain in the family, but even I know that unicorns are beautiful white horses with a golden horn. That beast couldn’t possibly be—”
“But it is! Megan did the research and found out that your description is how modern man views unicorns. The ancients envisioned them much differently. They saw them as having the head of a horse, a lion’s tail, stag’s legs, and sometimes being quite hairy. It was believed to have been very ferocious and catchable only by putting a virgin before it.”
“So? What happened when you rode it?”
“I didn’t say I rode it. I said I got on it. As soon as I did, the screen changed.”
“Another level?”
“I wish. Another challenge.” Connie sighed heavily. “Every time
Dori tried to make it go somewhere, she fell off. But we’re on the right track. I’m sure of it.”
“What should I be looking for?”
“Can’t say. How about low-flying Ninja weapons?”
Delta winced. “Not funny. I wish I could do more. I feel so helpless out here.”
“Helpless? Del, you got us on the unicorn. You’re doing more than your fair share. Right now, it’s my turn. You just be careful out there.”
“Always.” Waiting to hear the dial tone, Delta bowed her head against the glass. A unicorn, a rider with gloves, and still they had nothing to go on. It was all so maddening. What was worse was feeling him skulking around in the shadows of the night. She could smell his gruesome presence as surely as one smelled a broken sewer line. He was out there, watching, waiting, and getting ready to make his next move.
And they were not ready.
Six blocks away, the luminescent lights pierced through the darkness and glowed as moonlight glows off a sleeping pond. From the distance, amid the blaring car horns and screeching tires, loud booming voices and thunderous noises could be heard across the cityscape.
“Damn.”
Delta opened her tired eyes. “What?”
“I promised Mariah that I’d take her to the carnival before it ended.”
Delta sat up and glanced out the window at the crowd of people streaming away from the light show that exploded above the dark city. Delta hated when carnivals came into town because so many riff-raff came with it or were attracted to it. While Delta personally loved carnies, she had to admit that crime went up when one came to town.
“So, when does it end?”
“Tonight. Tonight’s the last night. Shoot.”
Delta felt for Jan. She couldn’t imagine how hard it must be to work full-time and keep track of family activities of three children and a husband. It was all Delta could do to remember to feed the cats. “You were only taking Mariah?”
“Yeah. It was supposed to be our monthly mother-daughter thing. Originally, when she brought it up, I was glad she wanted to go and not the boys. They love all those rides where your stomach is forced out of your mouth and you don’t regain your equilibrium for a week. Mariah’s idea of a wild ride is the merry-go-round. Thank God for small favors.”
Delta nodded, implying she understood, when she really didn’t. She loved wild rides. “Too bad you missed it.”
“Yeah, well, maybe next time. Their schedule is pretty regular.”
“Think she’ll notice?”
Jan smiled. “Unfortunately, yes. Just the other day, Samantha, her best friend, was telling her how much fun she and her family had there. When Mariah found out there was a dragon on the merry-go-round, she went wild.”
Delta remembered Mariah’s collection of dragons. “She still collecting dragons? I figured she’d grown out of it.”