Alien Rites (24 page)

Miriam's voice had gone down an octave. She sounded professional, serious. “I wish I knew, David. I was on my way out the door when I got Annie's message, so I called her back. But Angie Nassif answered the phone and … what?”

“The social worker,” David said. “So she was at Annie's that night?”

Miriam nodded. “Annie was doing something with the baby, so that Nassif woman picked up the phone. Not my favorite person. I needed to see Luke, so I decided to go to his place first. He's in the dorms, so it was on my way.”

“Why see Luke?” Mel asked.

“I wanted to talk to him about the teddy bear. And I think he had whatever it was that killed Annie's baby. He'd been sick for a while and was getting sicker. I wanted to test him.”

“She's scared to death she'll get it,” Janet said.

“It's not serious for women,” David said.

“What about pregnant ones?” Mel asked.

Miriam put a hand on her belly and bit her bottom lip.

“Good move,” David said. “Keep talking, Miriam. What happened when you saw Luke?”

“I parked my car, and heard voices, saw Luke arguing with three Elaki, right next to that car of his. So I went over and … They were formidable. The Elaki. And well-armed. They, um, they made Luke get in the car. And they stuffed
me
in the trunk!” She sounded indignant, but David heard the quiver underneath.

“I was sure they were going to kill him, and then me. They were … they were angry. Hard-acting. I don't know how to explain it, but those guys meant business. I figured if I waited till they let me out, I was dead anyway. So I found this crowbar and tore my way into the back seat of the car.”

Janet was shaking her head. “You believe this?”

Mel tried to smile. “Tough girl.”

Miriam chewed the end of her reddish-brown hair. “It wasn't hard, guys—there's really nothing but fabric and insulation on that model car. I heard shouting and … Luke was bleeding, struggling with one of the Elaki. I started hitting them.” She rubbed her face with her hands. “The driver got distracted; he was turned around, trying to help and I kept hitting with the crowbar. I figured my only chance was to cause a car wreck, but try getting a driver screwed up enough to get a car off-track.”

“It worked,” David said.

She gave him a grim look. “Yeah. Right at the Elaki-Town exit. We went over that guardrail into the weeds, and the next thing I know, we're surrounded by an Elaki mob.” She shivered. “It was so weird. They were kind of quiet, but
there
. Like, pulsing with rage. About half of them had their backs turned, and the others didn't.” She laughed harshly. “And some of them couldn't make their minds up, so they kept doing their little circle dance.” She took a breath. “It was damn scary. There were so
many
of them. Luke was dazed—he had some cuts—and they dragged him out of the car. They were rougher with him than me.

“I thought I was dead, I really did. And then this Elaki comes out of nowhere like the Lone Ranger. Wades right into the crowd. He was so … so calm, but, I don't know, he had presence. And energy. I'm not explaining it right.”

“Charisma,” Mel said.

“Everybody listened to him. He even made them laugh a couple times, which, believe me, was amazing. He diffused things. But he argued too. They all talked fast, and I couldn't understand. I know he pointed to me a couple of times. But whatever they said, he wouldn't back down. I thought they were going to kill all three of us.

“Then, I don't know what he said, maybe something like ‘shame on you.' He turned his back on them. So, before he's like standing in front of me, like a shield. And now he's facing me. And he's talking real soft, and I realize he's talking to me in English. It took me a minute. I was … stunned, I don't know. Not exactly on top of things.

“And he says to me … ‘Are they turning their backs?' And I realize that's what they're doing. And he says, ‘Can you walk about a half mile, if your life depended on it?' I nodded at him, like a dork, and he kind of politely wants to know if I mean yes by the head bobbing, and I say, ‘Yes.' So he says as soon as all the backs are turned, go down the ramp and go left and don't look back. And there'll be a taco stand called One-Eyed Jacks, and to tell the Elaki there that Sifter Chuck said for them to take me anywhere I want to go, and to do it fast.”

“Then what?” Mel said.

“That's what I did.”

“Where'd you go?”

“Bus stop. I didn't want anybody to know where I went. I called Janet and came here. Been here ever since.”

“Why didn't you call me?” Mel said.

“It was a blood sanction kind of deal, Mel. Best if everyone thinks I'm dead. I didn't know if Luke was killed or not. If he was, then obviously I'm next. There are Elaki all through the department. If I call, even if they don't know where I am, they're going to start watching Janet. Which puts her and me in that much more danger. If you don't act worried and look for me, same thing. What
did
happen to Luke?”

“We don't know,” David said.

FORTY-EIGHT

They had waited supper for him, Rose and his little girls, though it was late to be eating dinner, and a school night at that. Kendra had cooked homemade mashed potatoes.

David forced down the food and smiled at his daughters. They were up too late, and wound up tight, so they carried the conversation with a great deal of noise and enthusiasm. A good thing. David was too tired to talk.

Afterwards, they left the dishes in the sink, and Rose and David sat on the stoop of concrete that made up the back porch.

He noticed a small green tomato plant coming up by the edge of the porch. He knew he hadn't put it there. He looked around the yard. It was not his imagination; produce was coming up, albeit in random locations. The dog had not eaten his plants, she'd just moved them. There was a time when the disorder would have made him crazy, but he smiled inwardly. He would take his garden as it came.

Rose squeezed his hand. “So Miriam is okay?”

David looked at her, startled.

“Mel called and told me.”

“Rose, I'm sorry. I can't believe I forgot to tell you.” He was cold, but the heat was starting up, and he dreaded the fluttery, tight panic in his chest. Within seconds, he had broken a sweat. How could he have forgotten to tell her? Was his mind going?

“David, you want to go to bed, it hurts to look at you.”

“Don't look at me.”

They were interrupted, mercifully, by the slamming of the back door, and a parade of children fresh and clean from their baths, ready for bed and bearing gifts.

Lisa beckoned to Mattie, who put a box wrapped in gold foil at their feet.

“Open it.”

David looked at Rose. “You.”

She gave the girls her sideways, playful look. David had not seen that look in ages.

“It's dirty socks,” Rose said.

“Pig chow,” David guessed.

The foil revealed a cardboard box. Rose lifted the top.

“Because you broke all the dishes,” Kendra said.

Rose laughed. David peered into the box. Paper plates, plastic cups. He smiled and gave his daughters extra long hugs, but he got the message. Rose herded the girls off to bed.

Mattie lagged behind. “Daddy. Can you read the story tonight?”

He wanted to pick her up, but he didn't have the strength.

Rose's voice came in through the screened door, saying Daddy didn't feel good, so give him an extra kiss and come on.

She knew the right things to say to make it all better for the children, David thought.

He missed Teddy. He wanted to talk to her. Sometimes he touched the phone and said her name, but he was kidding, because he had no intention of picking it up. What if he died and never saw her again?

He had waited too late. He closed his eyes, wishing she would call him, imagining the phone ringing, himself saying hello. But all the time he imagined it, he knew it wasn't going to happen.

FORTY-NINE

He had gone to sleep thinking of Teddy, so when the phone rang, he was sure it was her.

It was Dispatch.

“Detective Silver, sorry to disturb you, but we've had an emergency call from the home of Angela Nassif. Do you know a young woman named Crystal?”

David sat up. “Yes.”

“I'm sorry, sir, the situation is a little … What I know is we've got blood trails and a young woman who seems very shocky. She refuses to talk to anybody. She asked for you. We thought—”

“I'll be right there.”

Rose propped herself up on one elbow. Her eyes were dark with exhaustion. He wasn't the only one not sleeping.

“Want me to drive you in?” she asked.

She was good, David thought. No questions, just pure practicality.

“No thanks,” he said.

The street looked different at night, busy with patrol cars, and an ambulance poised and waiting. The uniforms had cordoned off Angie Nassif's yard as well as the one next door. David thought about blood trails.

He sent his car to find a spot farther down the block, walked up to the unmarked car. A woman in sensible shoes turned, looked at him as he clipped his ID to the waistband of his jeans.

He saw from the ID on her grey blazer that she was Sergeant Courtney.

“You're Silver?”

He nodded.

“Good of you to come. Look, I know you're here to talk to this girl, but you better get grounded first. It's a mess.” She headed for the open front door without a backward glance, and he dutifully followed.

The first thing he noticed, after the blood, was the sliding glass doors open, curtains torn and pulled away. Moths, drawn by the light and possibly by the smell of blood, had congregated on the ceiling. A pink dress-shoe lay on its side by the couch.

“You have any idea what happened?” David asked.

“Obviously from the blood and tissue, somebody was fatally attacked. How exactly … kind of hard to imagine at this point. I'm assuming the attacker used something big and sharp, maybe a machete.” She pointed to the overturned couch, the broken lamp. “There are parts over there.”

David took a quick look. Saw two toes, still connected, lying next to a blood spattered barbell. The severed edge of the toes was ragged, the flesh torn. Not clean enough for a machete, David thought.

“God,” he muttered.

“Yes. Sorry to drag you into this.”

“It's okay.” He focused on her face, the nicest thing to look at in this room. She'd be close to retirement, black hair liberally streaked with grey, small half-glasses on her nose. A bit on the thin side, David thought. Worked long hours, skipped meals.

She moved in an aura of energy and competence he found attractive.

“Where's the body?” If Crystal had asked for him, it had to be Angie who was dead.

Sergeant Courtney grimaced. “This way. Trail starts here.”

The blood glistened wetly on the carpet. David followed the dark line out the sliding doors onto the small patio and into the grass. The blood-soaked mate to the pink shoe had caught in a crack between patio tiles.

The smears of blood thinned and widened. The grass was torn and scuffed.

“Dragged?” David asked.

“Yes. Look at this.”

The yard was fenced in by an eight-foot wood privacy job. One of the planks had come loose and sagged to one side. Someone or something had forced their way through, splintering the wood. Bits of tissue and blood were clotted on the jagged edges. A snag of material—pink cotton—hung limply from one of the broken slats.

“Nasty, isn't it?” Courtney said.

David followed her to a back gate that hung open. The other side of the fence was bordered with a flower garden, thick with begonias. Humped up against the fence where the wood had broken through was what was left of Angie Nassif.

She had not changed out of her work clothes—stayed late at the office, perhaps. Both lapels of her pink blazer were slippery and red. She was on her back, cushioned by pink and white blossoms, face up, unfortunately. Her legs were bent and twisted, one foot mangled, and her right wrist ended in a well of blood.

David wondered where they'd find the hand. Or if they'd find it.

She had been disemboweled, stomach torn open, ropy coils of intestine spilling over the sides. David asked Courtney for a light, and shined it into the open body cavity.

He looked up. “Not a machete.”

“Yeah, it would be clean cuts and these aren't. This one's really got me rattled.”

David switched off the light. “She's been mauled. Looks like whatever tore her up was feeding. There are … parts missing. Internally. And smears of blood here, around the ribs.”

Courtney shook her head. “But what—a lion, do you think? Because if so, we need to get people dispatched to catch this thing.”

David hesitated. He hated interdepartmental secrecy, because it put people at risk.

“I think it's a trillopy.”

“A
what
?”

“It's an Elaki thing.”

“But—”

“Smuggled in someway—I don't know how yet, but I will.”

“How did—”

“I'm sorry, Sergeant Courtney. I really don't have any useful details. I've never even seen one of these things. I just know they're predators and, clearly, dangerous as hell. If you have an Elaki advisor, give him a call. And, this is important, Sergeant—the animal may be infected with a potentially lethal viral bacterial hybrid. For all I know, the corpse may be contaminated. Have your people take precautions.”

She shook her head. “You
look
sane.”

“This is complicated. It's tangled up with a missing person case that's turning into a homicide.”

“Why do I have the distinct feeling you may be in hot water for telling me this?”