Haunting Whispers (30 page)

He kicked the unconscious analyst, rolled him over, and bound and gagged him. He was not yet dead but very close. Why had he not finished the job? Arya hadn’t hesitated to kill the redheaded man who touched her. Perhaps he would die yet. The knots were secured so the man would choke himself if he tried to break free. Gathering the analyst by the collar and belt, Arya shoved him into the bedroom closet and slammed the door. He picked up her panties from the floor and stuck them in his pocket.

Arya took his time retrieving the equipment, careful not to leave a trace in the apartment or his nest. As daybreak dawned he slipped out to find her and begin final preparations. Someone would discover the analyst, alive or dead. Even if he survived, he hadn’t seen Arya and wouldn’t be able to identify him. The analyst was irrelevant; soon he and his beloved would be on their way to a new life.

*

Audrey awakened in the morning to Yasi’s urgent moaning next to her in bed, her face twisted with the kind of torment Audrey recognized from her own nightmares. A light sheen of perspiration covered her face and neck. “Yasi, wake up. You’re all right. It’s a bad dream.”

“No!” Yasi screamed, and immediately six concerned faces appeared at their door.

Audrey purposely didn’t touch Yasi, recalling her own terrifying images of being grabbed. “You’re safe, darling. We’re in a hotel. Remember?”

Yasi’s deep-brown eyes scanned the room nervously before settling on her cirque friends huddled in the doorway and then on Audrey. “I remember.” She took a few deep breaths and waved the others in. “Who announced the curtain call?”

“You did,” Melvin and Tony answered together. They smiled at each other like Adonis bookends.

“Where else would we be? We’re family.” Audrey handed her a glass of water as their friends perched around the edges of the king-sized bed and fussed over her. She held Yasi, rocking and cooing reassurances until she relaxed in her arms.

While the others bolstered Yasi, Audrey thought about Rae and wished she were here as well. Then her family would be complete. Rae and her friends working together, united by the need to protect someone they loved. She couldn’t picture the two coming together for any reason before all this happened. Maybe the division between her disparate worlds wasn’t so great. Love and grief were great equalizers, but what would happen when the case ended?

She’d never felt such a desire to be with someone, to share every aspect of her life, and to plan a future. But she didn’t have anything to offer Rae—not a loving family to dote on her, a large bank account, an impressive career, and certainly not the level of sexual experience she was used to. What would Rae see in a psychic circus brat with a penchant for attracting weirdoes? Her heart ached at the thought.

“Have you heard from Rae?” Yasi asked.

When Audrey returned her attention to Yasi, the others had left the room. As usual when she thought about Rae, her mind wandered and she lost track of time. She wasn’t even able to read the woman beyond her surface moods. How frustrating. “No.”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure she worked all night and will call as soon as she can.”

Audrey wasn’t at all sure what Rae would and wouldn’t do. She could only trust her heart and hope for the best.

“Would you mind helping with my bandage? It’s a bit awkward to handle alone.”

“Of course I don’t mind.” Yasi hadn’t offered to let Audrey see her injuries before. She had hidden them, along with news of the Whisperer, until Rae told her the whole story. Suddenly the task seemed daunting. She was barely able to look at her own abdomen, sliced and scarred by the madman’s blade. Seeing her best friend similarly disfigured would be almost unbearable. Audrey reminded herself of the earlier vow of courage and reached for the wrapping around Yasi’s middle.

“Will you be all right?” Yasi placed her hand gently over Audrey’s.

“I’ll be fine. You’re still you, and I still love you. This is one more thing we have in common, one more reason you’ll never be able to get rid of me. Now lean forward.”

She gave Yasi her bravest smile and unwound the bulky bandage down to the dressings. When she removed the final layer, the nerves in her gut twisted into an angry knot. Yasi’s once-flawless skin was crisscrossed with slashes and patched with a combination of sutures, staples, and skin adhesives. Audrey mapped out in her mind the areas that would heal without leaving a trace and those that would forever haunt her friend. What type of person did this sort of damage?

“Hand me that small mirror on the side table,” Yasi said. “I’d like to look when you’ve cleaned it up a bit. I want to know what someone else sees when they look at me now.”

“Yasi, don’t, not yet.”

“I’ve got to get used to it…and I know it isn’t easy.” Her eyes held both question and apology.

“No, darling, it isn’t.” She gave Yasi the mirror and gently cleaned the wounds before reaching for another dressing. When she looked back, her mind flashed to another time, to a very similar injury.

A cold wind brushed across her face and added to the exuberance of the night. Even the throngs of people pushing in around her didn’t curb her excitement. The show had been perfect, her performance outstanding. She was meeting her friends for a celebratory drink before heading home.

The crowd thinned as she veered off toward the neighborhood bar. Looking up at the quarter moon, she wished it were full. The night would be perfect. She skipped along the sidewalk like she’d done as a child and avoided the cracks. Whistling the theme song of her favorite TV show, she felt totally alive. Being in front of an audience exhilarated her.

She turned down the last side street before the bar and thought how dark it looked. Remnants of the shattered security light littered the path. A sweet smell wafted to her nostrils and she turned to search for the source. From behind, someone placed a piece of fabric over her nose and mouth. The smell grew stronger. Her eyes and nose watered, and the skin around her face burned. Drowsiness oozed down her spinal column and branched out into every nerve. She struggled momentarily before dropping to the pavement. The quarter moon disappeared, replaced by total darkness and recurring pain.

When she eventually tried to open her eyes she had no idea how much time had passed. She could make out only quick splashes of color and an occasional glint of metal in the muted light under the edge of her blindfold. A man’s voice commanded her—to do what? She couldn’t focus. The metal flashed again, burning and stinging. Everything was hard and cold. She felt like she was in a coffin, unable to move and certain of death. She screamed but the sound was muted too.

“Unspoiled,” he whispered. “You are my unspoiled, Sanjana. Unspoiled.” Over and over the same words and a horrible grunting noise.

“Please! No more!”

“Audrey?” Yasi’s tone was urgent, edged with fear. Their friends had heard Audrey’s cries and returned, standing around the bed, concern and uncertainty evident on their faces. “Audrey, can you hear me?”

The heady flash receded as quickly as it surfaced, but the memory remained. “Yes.” Her voice was weak as she tried to recall every point before it vanished like a dream. But this particular vision wouldn’t vanish. Each facet was as detailed as if etched in stone, crystal clear and terrifying. She excavated the facts but pushed the emotions back down, unable to deal with them yet. The feelings would return again, and the visions would be even more defined later. When they reappeared, she wanted to be with Rae. “I remember.”

Sam lightly touched her shoulder. “What do you remember, Sanjana?”

She looked up at him and her heart pounded out of control. Suddenly she felt like a trapped animal. “That’s what
he
called me. You’re the only one who calls me that.” What if Sam was the attacker? What if the others already knew and were protecting him? She felt hot and sick to her depths. She had trusted Sam with her life on many occasions.

Yasi took her hand. “Audrey, you don’t believe Sam…you’re obviously upset. Think about what you’re saying.”

Audrey forced herself to breathe and reflect rationally. Sam would never hurt her and Yasi or anyone else. He was the kindest, most nonthreatening individual she’d ever met in spite of his sizeable physique. Sam was not the Whisperer. The memory that had finally returned after a year had rattled her and she was struggling for understanding. “I remember my attack.”

Her hands shook as she wiped at a tear trickling down her cheek. “I remember everything.” Leaning back against the pillow, she flipped through the scenario again as if reading a book. She didn’t want to lose one tidbit of information that might help Rae’s investigation.

The emerging truth relieved, excited, and frightened her. She quickly read everyone in the room as if tuning into the news channel. Her intuition was razor-sharp and unobstructed.
He
would no longer be able to hide from her. She could read him as well…if she could locate him. Audrey felt a sense of freedom that had been missing for a year, but it came with a price—remembering every minute detail.

“I’ll call your cop friend, Rae. She needs to hear this as soon as possible.” Tony reached for the room phone, started to dial, then stopped. “I don’t have her number.”

Yasi pointed to her cell phone on the bedside table. “Use mine. Speed-dial number two.”

As Tony made the call, Audrey and Yasi clung to each other, and neither spoke. Words could never explain or erase what they’d experienced. They valued the peace and consolation of simply holding each other.

After what seemed a very long time, Yasi nodded toward her still-exposed injuries. “When you’re okay, would you finish my bandages? No rush. I’ll commit each mark to memory.” Holding the mirror in front of her for several minutes, Yasi stared at the reflection. “Oh, my.”

“What’s wrong?” Audrey tried to take the mirror. Seeing yourself carved like a side of meat wasn’t easy.

“Wait. Look at this.” She moved the mirror aside to give Audrey a better view. “When I see the cuts from this angle,” she held her hands out and lowered her head, “it’s upside down and backward. When you see them standing in front of me, you get the image the way he intended, the way he wrote it. That’s what I see in the mirror.”

Audrey tried to follow her logic. “What do you mean,
the way he wrote it
?”

Yasi’s eyes were wide, as if she’d discovered something unique and profoundly interesting. “This is writing, Arabic—crude but definitely symbols representing words. Mine says
traitor
. That’s what he kept whispering. Let me see yours.”

“Yasi, we’re not playing show-and-tell here. Relax.” Audrey touched Yasi’s forehead, certain she’d developed a fever and was overstating the significance of what she’d seen.

“Aud, I’m not kidding. I grew up in Morocco and learned Arabic along with a few dialects. This is definitely writing. Let me see your scars, please.”

Audrey had never shown anyone except Rae the physical reminder of her assault. Now in the presence of these seven people seemed the right time and place. They were facing danger together, and she’d hidden her secret from them for too long. She raised her baggy sleep shirt and pointed to the area above her bikini panty line. One at a time, her friends stepped forward, looked at the scars, then hugged and kissed her. Each one was as wonderful as they would’ve been a year ago, if Audrey had trusted them. She turned to Yasi last. “What do you see?” She still wasn’t making total sense.

“Yours says
unspoiled
, I think. Some of the bits are missing.”

Audrey’s gasp filled the air and hung like a layer of smog, echoing off the walls and reverberating in her ears. How could Yasi know that? She hadn’t yet told her what she remembered. It was the exact word he’d whispered to her—
unspoiled.

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Yes…he kept calling me his unspoiled Sanjana. I’m not sure what it means—that he writes on people. That’s sick—er. Maybe Rae has an idea. I’ll call her again.”

As Audrey reached for her mobile, she heard Rae’s authoritative knock at the door. She jumped off the bed and ran to her. The protection of Rae’s arms helped her make sense of what was happening. Everything seemed to be unraveling at the same time. If they were lucky some of the pieces would fit into Rae’s case puzzle.

She clung to Rae, soaking in the warmth of her body and the steady pounding of her heart. “I’m so glad to see you.” Regardless of what happened after the case was solved, Rae would not stop until Audrey was safe and her attacker behind bars forever. “I remember what happened a year ago—all of it.”

“Are you okay? That couldn’t have been easy.”

“It was frightening, but I’m all right. At least I can actually fill in the missing pieces.”

Rae whispered in her ear, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you. We’ll talk about it in private. I want you to come home with me.” They stood, bound like an entwined ivy wreath, for several minutes until Rae stepped back. “I understand Yasi has some news as well.”

Audrey tried to convey her uncertainty with a look so she wouldn’t upset the others. “You need to ask her. Do you have the case file?”

Rae raised the manila folder and followed Audrey into the bedroom.

Yasi sat in bed, her nightshirt pulled up under her breasts, sheet over her lower abdomen, her injuries still exposed. “Look at this.” She pointed to her abdomen. “I’ve come up with another clue. It’s Arabic.” Yasi explained what she saw, then asked, “Do you have pictures of the other victims’ injuries? I’m willing to bet he did the same thing to them. He was sending some kind of deranged message.”