The Bridge (Para-Earth Series) (39 page)

             
Alex was about to go and try to help them, when a large hand clamped down on his shoulder and spun him around. 

             
Roy was staring hard at him.  There was no warmth or friendliness in his face.  “You got a lot of explaining to do son.  Starting with…” his voice suddenly trailed off for an instant, and then he cried, “ALICE?”

             
Turning, Alex saw his friend’s wife looked up at the sound of her name.  But then her eyes fixed on him, not her husband, and she started pointing and screaming, “ALEX! YOU’RE THE ONE… YOU’RE THE ONE… STAY AWAY, STAY AWAY….”

             
Before he could speak something cold and metal was jammed against the back of his head.  It was followed by a loud click.  “Take one step towards my wife, and I’ll blow your fucking psychic brains out,” Roy hissed.

             
For a moment no one moved.  Then Alice lost consciousness. 

             
Immediately, Roy abandoned him in order to rush to her side, while screaming for someone to call for an ambulance. 

             
Alex remained motionless, but it did him little good.  An expertly placed foot sweep took his legs out from under him, and he went down face first into the wet grass.  A moment later a large boot was placed squarely between his shoulders, while his arms were grabbed and placed roughly behind him.  They didn’t even bother reading him his rights until Casey coughed loudly, reminding the officers there were witnesses present.

             
From then on Alex found himself treated more gently and placed in the back of a waiting patrol car.  As the vehicle pulled away, he glanced out the back window and spotted a large white dog watching him from the bushes. 

              Three hours later Cassandra put away her cellphone.  She had just sent for a lawyer to arrange bail for Alex, provided one would be set.  “I can’t believe any of this is happening,” she murmured, it felt like she was caught in a bad dream.  She had to force herself to not look down at her blood-stained clothing.

             
Behind her, a door opened and Julie stepped in.  Her eyes were still red from crying, but she seemed more composed.  Cassandra went over and held her close.  The big girl didn’t resist.  Instead she pulled the heiress closer.  “They think Alex killed Uncle Jason,” she muttered.

             
“That’s insane, he’d never do something like that,” Cassie replied reaching up and stroking Julie’s hair.

             
“I know,” her friend nodded. “So I told them where they could stick their theory and that I’d be testifying for the defense.  They didn’t like that.”  She gave a small hollow laugh and said, “I can’t believe he’s gone.  Or what happened to him.  Who could’ve done something like that?  And how…” her voice trailed off as the tears came again.  “For God’s sake he was crushed flat!” the big girl cried and sat down.

             
Cassandra sat next to her and took her hands reassuringly.

             
Julie glanced at her and sighed, “And you, you poor thing.  You’re the one who found him.”

             
The heiress nodded.  They had just arrived at Jason’s ruined house and had spotted the two vehicles nearby.  Since neither had police markings, the two of them had decided to investigate. 

             
The first thing they’d discovered were the bodies of two men in hazmat suits floating in the stream.  Then they’d heard a faint moan from the far shore.  Immediately, they raced across the bridge to see if they could help, but the rain started coming down harder drowning out the moans.  So they split up in order to cover more ground faster.  If someone was in trouble, they needed to get them away from that stream as quickly as possible. 

             
After a few moments, she’d heard Julie talking to someone and had turned to see who it was.  But, her foot caught on something and she fell.  Although she landed on something wet and squishy, she’d quickly realized that wasn’t grass or mud.

             
Then she’d looked down and saw a dead eye staring back at her.  It took her brain several moments to register what she’d landed on. ‘I’m on top of a man.  But he’s flat and there aren’t any bones so this can’t be what I think it is.’  Then her eyes spotted the organs that had spilled out where the skin had ruptured. 

             
It was only when a hand had fallen on her shoulder, and the screams that had been building up inside her came rushing out. 

             
Within moments Casey had appeared on the scene and lifted her off the remains, and they faced the owner of the hand.  It was a woman and her outstretched hand had not moved.  It still hovered in mid-air, touching nothing.  

             
Casey, a former green-beret who had seen combat, quickly figured out that the woman was in shock. 

             
By then Julie finally caught up with them and took in the scene.  The big girl was naturally horrified at seeing the bloodstains covering her, but was even more shocked when she spotted the crushed remains.  She had already recognized the flattened features of her missing uncle and lost it for a few moments. 

             
While she rushed over to comfort Julie, Casey had carefully picked up the stranger and instructed the two of them to follow him up to the manor.  He told them they needed get out of the rain and to a phone so they could call for help.

             
His words had had the desired effect.  She and Julie had just started to follow him, when Alex appeared on the scene along with Chief Peterson and his crew.  Then everything went to pieces.

             
Julie interrupted her reverie by saying, “You look like Hell.”

             
“I feel like we’ve both been through there,” Cassie nodded.

             
“Why don’t you come home with me tonight?” Julie suggested, “You can shower off, and we’ll find you some clean clothes.” 

             
“Are you sure you want company right now?”

             
“I need someone to be with me,” the bigger woman confessed, looking more vulnerable than Cassie had ever seen her.  Julie had always seemed so confident and strong.  “Please?”

             
“Of course,” Cassie nodded.  She wanted to be with someone herself after all this.  She felt Julie slip an arm around her and lead the way down the corridor and towards the main doors.

             
They were just passing the front desk when the blonde dispatcher waved at them to stop.  “Alice Peterson’s conscious and she’s talking,” she cried excitedly.

              Alex sat alone in a cell, meditating.  He had been kept away from the other prisoners, per Roy’s orders.  No charges had been brought against him, yet.  But word of what had happened had made the rounds.  Tongues were wagging throughout the station, but only a few were speaking out in his defense. 

             
Veronica’s was not one of them, but only because she was not there. 

             
The moment he’d been hauled in she was informed, by one of the arresting officers, that she had been removed from the case.  Also, she was forbidden to have any contact with the prisoner.  That was when she’d stormed out of the station, jumped into her patrol car, and headed for the hospital to see her boss.

             
From the window of his cell, Alex could hear the first rumblings of thunder.

              At the hospital, Veronica arrived just in time to find a very worried Roy talking to his wife.  They both saw her in the doorway and urged her to join them.

             
“Would you tell Ronnie what you just told me?” Roy asked his wife.

             
She nodded, “I saw Rachel… She just rose up out of the water like in a movie or something.  Only she was dead, and she was wearing Alex’s jacket…”

             
“How did you know it was his?” asked Veronica. 

             
“Roy told me about the girl Alex met on the bridge and tried to help.  So I assumed it was his.”

             
Ronnie nodded.  “So what happened then?”

             
The woman’s face took on a haunted expression, “I don’t know.  It was like she was talking to me, without moving her lips.  She’s been trying to reach Alex, to warn him…” her voice trailed off at the memory.

             
Roy took her hand, “Warn him about what, Sweetheart?”

             
“Something down by the bridge is after him… something horrible.  It killed Jason and those men from the lab.  When I saw Alex I wanted to tell him to get away from that place.  But I couldn’t speak I was still too… I just…” the woman sobbed and shook her head. 

             
Roy took her in his arms and said, “So you weren’t accusing him, you were trying to warn him?”

             
She nodded, “I’m terrified for him, Roy.”

             
“We all are,” he replied looking apologetically to his Sergeant who quietly nodded and exited the room to wait in the corridor.

             
A few minutes later, Roy joined her. “I just called the station,” he was saying. “Jack is taking Alex back to the manor to pick up his car.  From there they’ll head back to your place, where he’ll stay with the Youngster until you get home.”

             
“Thanks,” she replied evenly.

             
“I’m sorry about locking him up.  But…when I saw Alice in such a state and she started screaming and pointing at him.  I…” his voice trailed off and his face crumpled.

             
Immediately, Veronica put her arms around him.  In all the years they’d been together, she’d never seen him like this.  The man was actually shaking with emotion.  “It’s okay,” she told him, her annoyance forgotten.  “I would’ve done the same thing in that situation.” She felt him hug her back and then straighten up.

             
Regaining his composure, Roy said in an authoritative voice, “Now, we know Alex didn’t have anything to do with what happened to her or those men in the water.  The County Coroner said they’d been dead for over two hours before we found them.  And he was with you all morning and then at the station.  Plus, he was inside the mansion when we arrived, I saw him coming out of there myself.  So he’s in the clear on this one.”

             
This was music to Ronnie’s ears.  “So he’s off the suspect list?”

             
Her boss looked at her and frowned, “I don’t know.  I want to, but...”

             
“But what?” she asked quietly.

             
Roy looked back to the door to his wife’s room, “I’m not sure if she really saw Rachel, or another hallucination.”

             
“Why do you say that?”

             
“She said Rachel was wearing Alex’s jacket, but I sent it to the lab for testing after I found the dry cleaner’s body.”

             
“Are we sure the jacket’s still there?”

             
Frowning Roy pulled out his cell phone. A few minutes later they had their answer.  “They sent it back to the station this afternoon,” he told her. 

             
Grabbing her shoulder radio Ronnie contacted the station. 

              “Yeah, I put it in the Chief’s office,” Pam was saying, while she pushed a piece of paper towards Julie. 

             
As Jason’s only available relative, she had been designated to handle preparations for the release of the body.   She had already talked with her cousins in California, who had told her their father’s long-standing desire to be cremated when he died.  They would come out as soon as possible to take the ashes back to California with them and hold a memorial service. 

             
Julie felt Cassandra putting an arm around her and giving her another hug.  She was glad the girl was going to stay with her tonight.  It would make getting the arrangements set a little easier to deal with.

             
They had already seen Alex being released and escorted out of the building, which was another relief.  That had been almost half an hour ago, so he should be at home by now.  But then she noticed Cassandra was looking a little troubled.  “Something wrong?” she asked.

             
“I’m not sure,” the petite girl replied. “I’ve got that same feeling I get when that man is nearby.  But I don’t see him.”

             
Julie looked around.  “Well, I don’t see him either and you haven’t said anything about him lately.”

             
“That’s because he hasn’t shown up since the day we met and…” Cassie paused and sniffed the air.  “Do you smell something?”