Time Thieves (20 page)

She stared. “Is that what you were looking for that first night?”

“No. I wanted the damn book you brought back from France.”

Jed smirked. “Jordan thought you might have had it when you moved here until we heard you talking to your mother. And realized she had them.”

“You were listening in on my phone calls? How?” She was horrified. But at their exchanged smirks, she realized how close they’d actually gotten and how very dangerous they really were. Had they been in her house during those calls? Physically close enough to listen in? Her blood raced, and she had to close her eyes and work on controlling her breathing.

Sirens sounded in the distance, slightly muffled as if layers of cotton was between her and the noise. “The police are here,” she cried out triumphantly.

“Ha, it won’t matter. They won’t find you here.”

Her heart clenched. She had to be found now or else she’d never be found. “You don’t understand Ward. I told him about all the hollows and hidden places in this house. He’ll come with a sledgehammer and break the wall down if that’s what it takes to find me.”

Just then a series of knocks and taps could be heard beside them. She grinned. “Like I said.”

“Shit.” Jed reached out and grabbed her jaw. He pinched her lips open and poured a few drops of something into her mouth.

She struggled against his restraints but she was getting weaker, his face getting blurry. “What did you do?” she whispered. She never heard his answer as the drugs took over and she knew no more.

*

Ward groaned as
he repeated the same story over and over again as another cruiser and another team showed up. By rights, Sari needed to be missing for twenty-four hours to be reported as a missing person. But these circumstances were unusual. He didn’t know what the hell was going on.

How could she have disappeared just like that? He couldn’t stop berating himself for letting her enter the house first.
Think, damn it.

Jeremy reached across and squeezed his shoulder. Concern radiated from his friend. “How are you holding up?”

Ward dragged a hand down his face. “I’m okay. I just…” Words failed him. Just like he’d failed Sari. “I just can’t see how she could have gone anywhere.”

“That brings up my next question. I know that you found the one hidden passageway and that weird attic space. Is there any chance that there are more of these so-called hidden spaces in this house?”

“Who knows?” With a head shake, Ward said, “I wouldn’t have known about either of the two places we found if it hadn’t been for Sari.”

“Then let’s go room by room and wall by wall and see what we find,” Jeremy suggested. With two other friends and officers, they started at the kitchen where Sari had disappeared and systematically searched the entire downstairs. They crawled in cupboards and tapped on back walls. They stood on chairs and rapped on the walls above the cupboards. They opened the pantry and when they found it to be a separate unit, they pulled it away out so they could check the wall behind it.

Nothing. The kitchen done, they moved on to the dining room. Again, nothing. Ward pointed to the stairs going up. “What’s the chance there’s an open space under there?”

The men swarmed the wall. They tapped, rapped, searched, and listened. Then when all efforts had been exhausted, they turned to face Ward.

Shoulders heaving, head down, desperately trying to think positive, he didn’t know what to do next. The team that had gone out looking hadn’t reported back. He felt no inclination to go. The house held the secrets. He knew it.

But he couldn’t prove it.

Then in the silence, he heard it.

He ran to the wall supporting the rising staircase and put his ear against it.

“Wh—”

“Shh.” He motioned to Jeremy to come and listen. The three men surrounded him, ears pressed to the wall.

Ward held his breath, the pulse pounding inside his head interfering. He strained harder. Then almost giving up hope, he heard it again.

A moan, soft and gentle behind the wall. Sari.
Oh thank God.

Jeremy spoke, determination and relief in his voice, “I heard that. Okay, she’s here somewhere. Do we rip out the wall?”

“Can we be sure she’s behind the wall? What about below? That last sound was strong enough we could have heard it from several feet away. If there are hidden tunnels, the echo would amplify sounds.”

The four men stepped back and walked around the staircase. Built into the wall, there was little to examine. Tight and well-built, there were no doors, obvious breaks in the wall or moveable parts. A carpet runner covered the center of each stair all the way up the first landing. Jeremy ran to the first landing and checked that wall out carefully. Pete, one of the two that had stayed to look, searched the inside wall of the stairs. Stan, the other man, stood back and looked at Ward.

“What’s up?”

Ward pointed at the bottom of the stairs. “I’m just remembering the attic and the drop down staircase. If that was true, why can’t the reverse be true also? Is there any way those stairs lift?”

“Lift?” Pete stopped what he was doing and stomped on the stair he was standing on. Instead of the solid thunk, there was a hollowness to it.

“Oh, that sounds positive.” Pete jumped down.

Ward bent to run his fingers along the bottom seam between the floor and the bottom of the stair. Even as his fingers reached the farthest corner, there was a sharp click and the bottom of the stairs rose slightly.

“Wow.” Ward sat back in a crouch and looked up to see Pete grinning and pointing to a button in the ornate support bolted to the wall to hold the railing up. Carefully Ward eased the stairs up, which moved as a single unit upward. They opened up like butterfly wings on an exotic sports car.

Pete whistled. “What a place.”

Inside the space, huddled on the floor and tied up, lay Sari.

An hour later, Ward was at Sari’s side in the emergency room where she was sleeping off the effects of the knockout drugs.

“Sari.” He stepped closer, his hand instinctively reaching out to smooth her hair back off her face. “Sari, it’s Ward. Are you awake?”

“Ward?” she whispered.

“Yes.” The relief in his voice brought a smile to her face.

“Hi. So glad you found me.” She opened her eyes and stared at him. A weak smile emerged as her eyes drifted close.

They stayed closed.

“No. Sari, honey, I know you’re tired. I know there are likely drugs in your system. Please fight. Just for a few minutes. We need to know who did this.”

She snuggled deeper into the sheets.

“Sari. Please talk to me. Just tell me who did this. Did you recognize the men?”

She yawned, a deep, bone-racking action that made her whole body shake. “Men. Two men,” she whispered. “From the truck.”

“They were the men who were following you?”

She didn’t answer.

He reached over and gently shook her shoulder. “Sari?”

Her voice was so gentle and so soft, he leaned close enough that his ear almost touched her lips. “Yes.” Her answer came out on a sigh as she dropped off to sleep.

“Sari?”

A gentle snore was his only answer.

Jeremy piped up, reminding Ward he wasn’t alone. “Sounds like she’s not going to be much help over the next few hours.”

“I know.” Ward gently stroked her silky cheek. “I’m just happy we found her.”

“I hear you there. Come on, buddy. Let’s see if the prints found in her hidden cell led to anything.”

“Good idea.” Ward smiled, a determined look on his face. “Let’s go.”

S
ari woke up
and stretched. She tried to open her eyes, but the bright light hurt. She closed them again and rolled over. Sleep sat beside her, not quite wrapping her in its comforting embrace. She stirred restlessly, and a stiff wrinkling sound followed her movements. She frowned. She wanted to forget.

The voices in her head, the memories prodding at her. She had something important to do. Someone important to see. Now if only she could remember who. She stirred restlessly again then bolted upright. She grabbed her head with both hands.

“Ohh,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

She flopped backwards, gasping at the boom in her head.

“When you wake up, you really snap awake, don’t you?”

Ward. She rolled over slowly to face him. “I hadn’t expected the massive headache.” She winced. “Even now I can’t quite believe it. Why?”

“Probably the drugs. The doctors said you’d been given something to keep you quiet.”

“Figures,” she muttered. “How did you find me?”

“It wasn’t easy,” Ward snorted. “That house of yours is mad, and the staircase is insane.”

A small smile peeped out. “I’d totally forgotten about the hidey-hole under the staircase.”

Ward leaned forward, astonishment on his face. “You knew? Jesus. It took us hours to find you.”

“I’m just glad you did. The two men asked me a bunch of questions about my father’s book. I presume they took it with them.”

“A book. That’s what this is all about?”

“Maybe. Then again, I wouldn’t count on it.” She gathered her energy and explained what she’d found in the one book. “I haven’t checked the other books out.”

“Any idea what the markings mean?”

“No. Some kind of formula. I didn’t understand it.”

“Formula? As in a chemical compound?”

“No, as in an equation. For time travel.” That should do it. He’d really think the knock on her head had done her in.

“Are we back to that? Seriously?”

She closed her eyes as pain radiated from her head down her neck. With difficulty, she tried to focus on Ward’s question. “I can’t see any other explanation for my father’s disappearance or for Madge’s appearance.” So maybe the drugs were making her say more than she’d intended.

“Time travel.”

“Crossing dimensions.” She coughed to clear her throat. “The men said my house was a way-station.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“I’ll have to give you some of my books to read.”

“A short synopsis would help for now,” he suggested quickly. “I can read the books later.”

She took a deep breath. “There are conflicting theories—”

He snorted.

She glared at him. “Do you want to know or not?”

“Not. But I need to.” He threw up his hands. “I’m sorry. Please, go ahead.”

She sent him a warning look and started again. “I can’t go over all the different theories. However, my father and the two men apparently—”

“What? What does this have to do with the two men and your father?”

“Damn it, Ward. Do you want to hear or not?”

He subsided, glaring, arms crossed on his chest. “Proceed.”

“If you interrupt me one more time,” she warned.

“I won’t.” He waited, but his glare didn’t calm down.

She sighed. “The men mentioned something about the dimensional theory and it sounded something like what my father always said.” She took a deep breath. “He believed that at certain parts of the world, places where Earth’s meridian lines cross and intersect, the energy was special. Lighter, more vibrant. Thinner. Resonating at a higher frequency than all the other places.”

Ward tilted his head. “Don’t tell me he said that your house was on one of those lines.”

“The whole area is. There are many such places around the world. Take the town of Grand Forks at the Canada/US border. It’s long been known to have special energy for a similar reason. Now I haven’t found any research to corroborate my father’s theory about where I live – in fact, energy being energy, the area in question should be miles across.”

“So it’s not your house?”

“In his notes, my father talks about a portal originally being opened by an ancestor. Since then…” She shrugged. She winced only slightly this time at the movement. Great. Moving gently, she shuffled higher up the pillows. “In the attic were large piles of belongings. Remember, you helped me bring down some of it.” At his nod, she continued. “From what I’ve seen, each pile belongs to a specific person.”

“As in these people stored their stuff there?” His tone of voice said he was trying for patience…and failing.