“What?”
“My PSTD got worse, but I suppressed all of it, the entire experience. Eight years of past, eight years of future, eight time my perceptive range external and internal. It’s in there.” He tapped on his skull. “But it’s locked away fighting every second of my life to escape, like a caged beast.”
“What happens if you remember?”
“If I start screaming uncontrollably, we’ll know.”
“How horrible for you.” she leaned her head on his shoulder.
“That’s why you have to leave and stay away from me.” He said. “I could have hurt you just then.”
“Pshaw! You were having an attack and the only thing you thought of was keeping me safe. I couldn’t be safer.” She stood up and grabbed his hand, pulling him up. “Come on, my turn to look after you. Get a shower and get to bed. I’ll keep guard in case anything happens.”
“You?” he asked.
“Sure, the door’s secure, I’ve got your gun and I’ll wake you if it looks like you’re having nightmares.”
The look on her face allowed Matt no room to debate, and to be honest he really didn’t want to. He quietly walked off to his shower. The water flooded over him, easing his stressed muscles. When he came out of the shower, the room was cleaned up and Jill was sitting on his chair. She rose when he opened the door.
“There you are,” she smiled. “You look, and smell much better.”
“Thanks I think.”
“Now, off to bed.” she gently shoved him toward his bed. Once in his bed she set on it beside him. “Don’t worry, it’s my time at guard duty.”
“If I have an episode, it may not be safe to be with me.”
“I can take care of myself, I’m a big girl.” She tucked him in and then lay next to him until he went to sleep.
Matt, didn’t have nightmares that night.
Chapter 33
For the first time in many years, Matt was awakened with a kiss and a sweet soft caring voice. “Matt, sorry, but it’s time to get up.”
Matthew Dales responded with the graceful tongue of a poet, “Huhuguh!”
“Come on, the office called. It’s time for you to get to work. They didn’t say why, but it sounded urgent. I told them I’d have you out the door within ten minutes. You like me too much, I hope, to make a liar out of me.” Jill shook him gently.
“Up,” Matt started. “I’m up.” He felt more rested, more in control than he had in a long time.
“Your uniform is clean, and on the end of the bed. I’ll get you something to eat.” she walked into the kitchen area, leaving him to get himself together.
Matt walked to the table to see it cleaned and set, as much as his meager dishes collection would allow and set with coffee, and toast with jam and peanut butter. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I opted for carbs protein and caffeine. Sorry you didn’t have much in the apartment, and with your state of mind this afternoon, I didn’t want to go out lest you awaken to an empty apartment and go out to try to save me again.”
“That’s not funny.” Matt said. “Look, it’s possible that the person who killed the man in the pond is fixated on me. He might go after anyone close to me.”
“And I was the first one you worried about.” she flushed and bounced to the sink to clean her hands. “After you shift tonight can we get together?”
“Don’t you have to teach?”
“I’ll get a substitute.”
“On one condition.” Matt told her.
“Name it.”
“Stay around people all day, I mean a lot of people at least three or four at all times.”
“Sure, I go to the cinema.” She joked.
“Not what I meant, stay visible.”
“Yes, sir.” She gave him a mock salute.
“Great.” He said strapping on his gun belt. “Now, I’ll drop you somewhere. Where?”
“I’d like to take a long walk in the moonlight.” Matt glared and she smiled at him. “I’ll go shopping.”
“Okay then.” he bent over to kiss her, and she let him.
Chapter 34
At the station, everything was bustling. If he didn’t know better, Matt would have sworn that he walked into a military operation. As far as he could tell, every officer on the force was at the station. At the front of the entryway, Rishards stood, clipboard in hand handing out duty assignments. Matt stood with his back to the wall near the main doorway.
He walked along the walls toward the rear until he reached the restroom. He found an empty stall and locked himself in, took a deep breath, and reached into his pocket for one of his pills. Fumbling with the package, his shaking hands managed to put one of them into his mouth. The stall next to him closed unexpectedly. He had assumed it was empty. The shock ran through his system, his jerking hand released the package it slid across the stall.
The walls closed in on him. He could feel the cold steel of the padded sleep tube as the keenly as he had when the ship’s medic closed it on him, after giving him his injection of the drug to protect his brain from the Mind Rip, the drug that he’d been short dosed. His hands gripped tightly to the toilet set on which he sat. He couldn’t go out there, with the officers mobilizing, he couldn’t face the people in the Dallas street again, so much death. An image of the girls face exploding was all he could see. The sounds of the group beyond the door, officers arming to face the rioters.
“Dales,” the desk sergeant’s voice broke his dark reverie. “You in here?”
“Yeah,” he responded still focused on the scattered pills. “Be out in a minute.”
“Hurry up,” he said. “You have a visitor. And for the record, you don’t merit a find like her.”
“Jill?” Matt tried to keep his voice steady even as the walls of the stall closed in on him like a casket. He tried to imagine himself back on the beach.
“She didn’t give a name. Cute, wavy hair. I think I’ve seen you with her a few times this week. Don’t tell me you got more than one like her. That would be just plain greedy.”
“Tell her I’ll be out in a moment…Please.”
“Sure, you feel alright?” He asked.
“Ate something, it’s not agreeing with me.” He focused on visualizing the waves lapping over his body, the sound of the ocean, and the cry of the seagulls. Pebbles on the beach, pills on the floor. Matt fell to the floor, retrieving the package, he he’d been taking a lot as of late. There were only five left. He’d need to make an appointment with his psychiatrist; he’d need a stronger prescription. For the first time, he doubted his ability to do the job. After it was over, he’d ask for a desk job.
He breathed and visualized; sun on the water, girls in the bikinis. The more he blocked out his surrounding, the more the faces at the beach became Jill’s. It comforted him, with her he felt safe. All right then, he thought. Focus on her. He remembered the feel of her body on the bed next to him, the warmth of her body seeped through the thick blanket between them. He struggled to remember the feel of the kiss he was awoken with, and the smile that greeted him with breakfast. Was this what love felt like, or was she just a diversion from the impossible situation he’d been promoted into. He should never have accepted the job.
No, focus on Jill. Did she love him? The thought made him feel warm and calmer. Whether or not she felt that strongly about him or not, the thought that she might was helping him to regain control. He took several more deep breaths and focused on the thought that she waited for him in the chaos behind the door. For her, he could face it. He flushed the toilet and walked out of the stall. The restroom was now empty, he washed his hands and face and left the room confident that he was going to her, not back to the pain and insanity of Dallas.
The room was a less crowded. Matt assumed that the officers had been issued their assignments and left the station to attend to them. Jill sat smiling, on a bench along the back wall, her eyes lit up when she saw him. “It’s about time.”
“You are supposed to be shopping.” Matt said.
“I said that, didn’t I?” She replied. “I’m on my way. I just wanted to give you something.” She pulled him down to her and kissed him passionately. “And to tell you I pulled the ‘I’m a stressed out crime victim’ card and I have the next few days off. I’ll be waiting for you to finish your shift, give me a call. We have some stuff to talk about.”
“I haven’t had a chance to check in yet.” Matt scanned the room. “Something is up, I don’t know when.”
Jill held up a finger playfully to shush him. “When you are done I’ll be waiting for your call.”
“Waiting where?” Matt asked. He didn’t want her to be alone, even for a moment. He couldn’t drive the image of the bloody chip or her falling to her death.
“Some place with a lot of people.” She said in a monotone. “I’ll go shopping, then hang out some place at the mall.”
“Don’t trust any message from me unless it has the word …” he struggled for an obscure word from his memory that wouldn’t sound too ridiculous. “Pacific in it.”
She eyed him for a few moments. “You really believe the person who killed the man in the pond might come after me, just to get at you?”
Matt looked into her eyes in an attempt to show her he was serious. “What is the word?”
“Pacific.” she said plainly. “Maybe you should look for a different job; this one is making you paranoid.” She stood up and kissed him again.
You’re preaching to the choir
, Matt thought. She waved goodbye and walked out, with a gesture to remind him to call her.
“Seriously, Dales,” the desk sergeant grumbled. “First the promotion, then a girl like that. The world is not fair.”
“You can have the job.”
“Screw the job,” the sergeant laughed. “I want the girl.”
Matt felt only that whatever they were feeling for each other, it was stronger than any bond he’d had with a woman for a very long time, possibly stronger than he’d ever felt for any woman. “Not sure she’d go for that. She seems to like the fixer up models.”
“Yeah, sometimes my greatness is a burden.”
“Yes,” Matt agreed. “For us all. What’s my assignment?”
“You, detective, have a meeting in seven minutes in the conference room.”
Matt scowled; seven minutes wouldn’t be enough time to get a cup of coffee or a pastry. It was good that Jill thought to make him coffee and toast for breakfast or he’d have to go through the danger with a grumbly stomach. It was strange to have someone taking care of him, strange but comforting at the same time. She was good at planning, he thought. Earth boy scouts had nothing on a colonial grade school teacher. Matt walked toward the elevator, realizing that he was actually relaxed. Were the pills kicking in or was he under the effect of more natural drugs, endorphins?
Chapter 35
The briefing was short and boiled down to a simple truth: the powers that be were freaking out. No one in the Governor’s office nor the corporate board rooms were happy with the lack of progress the department had made with finding the serial killer. The last killing was hard to hide, they tried to pass it off as an accident, but several witnesses, including Jill, had seen too much for that. The populace realized that the man had been killed. The governor, every CEO and representative wanted something done immediately; they wanted the people to see something being done. The Governor was going to have to make a public statement soon.
Until that declaration, the department needed new tactics to protect the people. Detective Rishards came up with the plan. The killer always sent a message via the public communications panels, then during the next black-out an officer would be stationed at each public access terminal. They would watch each carefully. They may not be able to stop the next killing, but the killer’s compulsion to send calling card would lead to their apprehension. It would soon be over. Matt was not ecstatic with the thought of ‘giving’ the killer another victim, especially when that victim could very well be Jill. There was also another problem, there just wasn’t enough manpower within the department to protect the people and cover every station, when face with no choice the killer might decide to wait until the surveillance ended to send the message.
Rishards had though that through also and the chief agreed. He called in every member of the department to guard and patrol. To assist in watching the public terminals, high standing members of the colony should also be recruited. These members would have to be pulled from those segments with a stake in maintaining stability and the status quo. These people wouldn’t have to know the whole history of the case, just enough to realize when they see the killer leaving their message. Each one would be given an old style radio communicator. There would be static on the line because of the solar radiation present during a black-out, but they would work well enough.
Matt felt that the plan was the best one they’d had. It might just work and only cost a human life. For his part in the operation, he, and Detective Rishards would be co-coordinating the teams and maintaining contact with all groups, governmental and civilian, during the course of the black-out. Each observer was ordered to be contacted every ten minutes. Four officers assigned to them to keep calling the volunteers.
From the moment the black-out occurred, Matt became the messenger for every bored executive and homemaker’s call. They saw culprits in anyone that wanted to access the city com system. It would have made the situation easier if they could forbid the use of the system for the duration of the event. To do that, however, the government would have to notify the public and declare martial law. It had never happened in an off world colony and the governor of Sirius didn’t want to make history.
By their sixth false alarm call, Matt and Rishards were exhausted. The chief told that it was going to be a long black-out, ninety-seven minutes long. Matt looked at his chronometer. He never knew time could move so slowly, while false alarms continued to jam the lines. Thus Matt and Rishards were nearly insensible when the new officer approached them with a concern ninety-one minutes into the black-out.
“Ma’am,” the officer approached Rishards instead of Matt. He was pacing and obviously not in the mood for another false alarm. “I’m not sure if this is important. I haven’t had contact with one of our volunteers for over twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes?” Rishards yelled. “Why did you wait?”
“She said she was going to the restroom. When she didn’t answer, the first time I assumed she was still in there. I got worried when she missed the second call ten minutes later.”
“So you haven’t heard from a volunteer for almost thirty minutes.”
“Which volunteer?” Matt demanded.
“One from the executive’s.” The officer’s voice was week.
“Which one?” Matt yelled at the officer.
“Mrs. Travis. At box seventy nine.”
Matt was running as fast as his tired legs could carry him. It was extremely unlikely that the killer could have predicted the exact one volunteer out of a hundred who would abandon her post to go to the bathroom at the exact time they were hunting their next victim. Was it possible that they set someone up as a victim? The patrols were watching civilians, not observers. They wouldn’t have been in a position to hear her screams. Vivid images of a dead woman splayed on the ground flooded his imagination as he ran. He ran until his side hurt and the breath burned his lungs. He could hear Rishards panting just a few paces behind him.
The two detectives rounded the corner at full sprint. Matt nearly collapsed, he settled instead for bending half over, struggling to catch his breath while viewing the bloody scene from tilted head. The body lay flat on the ground. The woman’s expensive black silk dress was cut down the front, from top to bottom, and left open to display the open chasm where her organs once resided. The organs now decorating the ground around the body. Her open palm still bled from where her identification chip had been removed.
“Adria Travis.” Detective Rishards indicated to the woman of Matt’s dreams, splayed out as he had seen her in his vision. “Wife of Mikael Travis,” She stopped to take a few deep breaths. “Executive vice president of ES mining Corp; she was our volunteer and we couldn’t even protect her. Dammit, we served her up on a platter. What do we have to do? This thing, it’s not human, Dales, it’s not!” Rishards put her face firmly into her hands so as not to see the spectacular demonstration of her failure on the ground before them.
“This just happened,” Matt, observed. His skin crawled with the feeling that the killer, at that moment, could be watching them. He scanned the area looking for anything moving; unfortunately, the crowds of police officers and observers were moving all over the city. How could he tell what was out of the ordinary when everything was?
All of the activity had obscured all the footprints. Perhaps, he reasoned, he might have better luck if he tried to track back to the communications panel. It was on the side of a multi-level building about twenty yards from the body. He moved slowly toward it, scanning the ground as he did so. Three steps and he saw the small bloody device, lying on the ground at the base of the wall that held the terminal. His stomach turned as he saw the item. They were powered by micro fuel cells powered by the person’s body temperature. The power on this chip had not yet faded. “Rishards, I need an evidence bag.”
A shadow crossed over the chip.
“Thanks.” Matt held his hand up to receive the clear plastic bag.
“Hold on Dales,” Rishards’ voice met his ears from a distance. His partner was still at the body.
Matt looked upward, for a microsecond he saw a shadow move on the balcony above. He was on his feet and running. There was no way he could have known, but still he was sure. The shadow belonged to the killer. “He’s on the balcony!”
Matt reached the top floor and ran onto the balcony. He’d seen no one along the way and the balcony was empty. He was pacing back and forth over the surface when Rishards arrived. “I missed him, I saw him, and he was watching us. He’s getting more brazen.”
“What did he look like?”
“Don’t know, the sun was in my eyes.”
“Then how…?”
“I was in his shadow, damn he moved fast. It was him, I know it.” Matt walked around. “We need an evidence crew up here, now. That bastard just made a mistake. We’ll get him.”