What Burns Within (31 page)

“With your case.”

Ashlyn looked at him. “What makes you say that?”

He nodded at the coffee table. “Files, calendars, notepaper…You’re working.” He held up his hands. “Relax. I’m not here to give you grief.”

“Good. I heard more than enough from Tain and Daly yesterday.”

A shadow crossed his face, his eyes betraying some darker thoughts that had surfaced in his mind, but the look passed almost as quickly as it appeared. “So, the forty-day month thing? How does that tie in?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. It might not be the calendar. I’m looking for anything significant about forty-day time frames.”

“You mean like it raining for forty days and forty nights?” he asked.

“What’s that from?”

His eyes widened. “Never heard of Noah’s Ark?”

She felt her cheeks flush. “Of course. It’s on Mount Ararat or something, but every time people try to prove it’s there, they get shot at or kidnapped or struck by lightning.”

Adrian leaned back for a moment, looking at her without speaking. Finally, he gave her a small smile. “Is it the job?”

“Is what the job?”

“The skepticism? I didn’t peg you for such a cynic.”

“I don’t know much about religion. Noah’s Ark is—” She shrugged.

“Biblical.”

“I think even I’d worked out that much. What else can you tell me?”

“Just that when God judged the world, He sent rain for forty days and forty nights. I vaguely recall something about other references to the number forty, but it’s been a long time since I was in Sunday school.” He shrugged, smiled and stood up to leave. “I’d say you should talk to my cousin, but I think you deal with enough nutcases in your job already.”

“Your cousin a priest or something?”

Adrian laughed. “You equate priests with crazy people? You really are a skeptic. No, my cousin was pretty hardcore. Spent a fair bit of time with the born-again Christians before getting drawn into some fringe group.”

“Born-again Christians aren’t fringe?”

“Okay, before getting into an even more bizarre group than them. Satisfied?”

“So he knows a lot about biblical…stuff?”

Adrian shrugged. “Spends a few hours a week loitering around the station working on his car, telling me about the wickedness of the world and how we’re all going to be baptized to be purified before God.”

“Family dinners must be fun.”

The smile was back. “Slightly better than a root canal.”

“Yes, but the department has a dental plan. Eradicating religious programming isn’t covered.”

“Does that mean I couldn’t persuade you to come over on Sunday?” Before she had a chance to respond he put up his hands. “Look, if you’re interested you know where to find me.”

He walked out of the room, and she listened as the door opened and shut behind him, then got up to lock the door.

Daly gripped the arms of his chair, venting his anger into his fingers as Lori jumped to her feet.

“You’re just saying that because you never wanted me on this case,” she said.

His words came out controlled, calculated, despite her purple shade. “Sit back down and be glad I’m willing to overlook that remark, all things considered.”

Lori did as she was told, her back as rigid as ever, shoulders squared, but some of the color had faded from her face.

“You aren’t ready to come back to work.”

“I disagree.”

Daly ignored her. “Even if you were ready, you would have to be reassigned.”

“That’s ridiculous! Nobody knows more about this case than I do.”

“And nobody is more likely to let her emotions override her judgment.”

“When have you ever seen me do that on the job?”

“This isn’t about your track record, Lori, which I have to say isn’t stellar. You and Craig have had problems since the beginning.” He held up his hand to silence her. “Right now our priority is solving this case as quickly as we can and making sure that we can get a conviction. Your participation in the investigation now would compromise that. A good defense attorney—”

“Fucking lawyers.”

“We have to be realistic here. Your participation in this case could jeopardize an arrest.” Daly stood, moved around to the other side of the desk and perched on the edge of the desk near her. “Go home. Take care of yourself. Spend some time with your family, friends, people who care about you and can support you.”

She looked up at him, her eyes blazing, her cheeks ghostly white. “Don’t make me go over your head.” She hissed the words.

He lifted his hand. “There’s the door. I’m not going to be coerced or pressured into making a decision that I know is wrong.”

Lori stared at him, her mouth drawn in a harsh line, her back stiffening even more. She stood. “This isn’t over,” she said. She yanked the door open, then slammed it behind her with enough force to rattle the windows.

“Wha…what do you want?”

Tain noted that Alex Wilson’s shoulders tensed, that his hand had dropped and not opened the screen door once he recognized the person standing on the front step, and the quick glance back toward the room he’d come from, as though hoping what ever was in there was securely hidden from a nosey police officer’s eyes.

“Do you mind if I come in for a minute?” Tain reached for the handle.

Alex hastened to open the door and stepped outside instead, blocking the handle from Tain’s reach. “What’s this about? I told you everything.”

“Just some follow-up questions. You have a membership at the rec center, the one on Twenty-fourth Ave.”

“So?”

“Go there often?”

Alex Wilson folded his long, thin arms across his chest. “What are you? The bulk-up patrol?”

“It was just a question.”

They stared at each other for a moment before Alex shrugged his right shoulder. “Often enough.”

“Sunday night?”

“What about it?”

“Were you there Sunday night?”

“What do you care if I was?”

“A girl went missing from Southside Recreation and Fitness Center on Sunday night.”

“I didn’t find her brother in the parking lot.”

“Nobody said you did.”

“Then what do you want?”

All the anger and suspicion Tain had expected in their first encounter that hadn’t been there, that had been suppressed under some form of guilt and fear, was surfacing now. Alex Wilson seemed to feel more comfortable on his home turf.

“Well, you’re a member of that fitness center, and we’ve been trying to eliminate people from our suspect list for abducting Lindsay Eckert.”

“What’s that got to do with me?”

“We recovered some fingerprints from the scene, but, you know, there’s plenty of passing traffic and such in a place like that. I was wondering if we could take your prints for the purpose of eliminating you, so we don’t waste time looking for someone we know couldn’t have taken her.”

Alex’s mouth hung open, a thin slit of darkness against his pale skin.

“Would that be okay?” Tain asked.

“Oh, I uh, I thought…Do I need a lawyer?”

“You didn’t grab Taylor or Lindsay or those other girls, did you?”

He shook his head.

“Then there’s nothing for you to worry about, is there? Just come down to the station and give them this,” Tain said, removing a letter from his pocket. “Then, hopefully, we won’t have to bother you again.”

Alex took the letter and disappeared inside his house, promising to stop by on his way to work.

Tain walked back to the car. There was something going on with that guy.

“Now, you girls stay right here and don’t move.”

At first, nothing seemed unusual about that order to Taylor. There had been a few times that he’d made them sit for hours on the cold floor, usually after repeating the Pledges, as he called them, over and over and over again until the only thing she could hear in her head was the same words ringing in her ears.

Delilah—Lindsay—had even done well at sitting still this time. Taylor guessed the sores made it hard, but she was really trying. She hadn’t been lashed yet today.

The door opened again, and a girl—the same girl Taylor had seen once before—walked in, carrying a tray.

She had long black hair and enormous dark eyes. Her skin wasn’t dark-dark, not like what Taylor’s mom called black, but it wasn’t white either.

The girl set the tray down in front of them and then sat down on the ground, passing out the fancy cups and plates.

“You are ready now,” she said. Taylor thought she sounded smug, like a schoolteacher who thinks you’ve finally got something you should have figured out ages ago.

The girl passed out the plates, thin wisps of steam rising from the bread, which smelled so good Taylor’s stomach actually gurgled. There were pats of butter on the side of the plates, with small, flat wooden spoons.

“You can spread your butter on like this,” the girl said, demonstrating how to use the flat spoon with the butter.

Taylor glanced at Lindsay and then reached for her bread.

The first bite seemed to dissolve on her tongue. Within seconds, the warm bread was gone.

She glanced at the door, then at the face of the girl who she’d almost begun to believe she’d dreamed about.

“What’s your name?” Lindsay whispered.

“Hannah.”

“Not your new name. Your real name.” Lindsay reached for her bread.

“Hannah is the only name I need now.”

“Don’t you want to get out of here, go home?”

The new girl, Hannah, stared at Lindsay, who stared back at her. Then Hannah smiled. “I am going home. He says I’m almost ready. Like the others who used to be here. When they were ready, he took them home too.”

“Ready for what?” Taylor asked.

“Ready to be pure before God.”

“He’s not sending you home. He’s a sick person. He’s going to kill you.”

Hannah yanked the bread from Lindsay’s hand. “Liar! You’re the liar. Lies are the devil’s work. She’s evil,” Hannah yelled, grabbing what was left on the tray and running from the room.

Once Hannah had disappeared, the man came and stood in the doorway. He shook his head.