Return to the Shadows (9 page)

“Earl? No. Not that I saw, at least. Ashley
woke up around two in the morning.”

“I had a bad dream,” she piped from the back
seat.

“Right. She had a dream about the man who
showed up at her school and told her that he knows me.”

“Earl,” Mike nodded, and turned left onto
Sepulveda Avenue.

“No.” My voice was quiet. “Not Earl. I asked
her to draw a picture of the man who told her his name is Earl. She
drew a picture of Officer Jones instead.”

“Shit,” Mike swore.

“That’s a bad word,” Ashley chastised.

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“He showed up today at her school. As the
D.A.R.E officer for her class.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Mom, is that a bad word? Because it kind of
sounded like it. But I don’t know that one.”

“Mike,” I warned.

“Sorry.”

“I think he bugged my house, because after I
tried to call you, my phone lines were cut. A few minutes later, we
lost power. They disarmed the security system after that.”

“They?” Mike’s hands tightened on the
steering wheel.

“Don’t creeps always travel in packs? We were
ready for them. I suspected what was going on as soon as the phone
line was cut. We staged a diversion and escaped out my bedroom
window as they were coming in. We hid in the neighbors hedges long
enough to see three men burst into the bedroom. I don’t know what
happened after that, but I imagine they left shortly after. The
security company would have notified the police when they couldn’t
get ahold of me. I imagine Officer Jones and his cohorts would have
known that. Anyway, we slipped into Mrs. Flores’s backyard, through
the alley, and headed straight to Sycamore.”

“Were you followed?”

“I don’t think so.” I bit my lip. “No, I’m
certain we weren’t. If we had been followed, we wouldn’t be here
right now.”

“You think that’s what they were there to
do?”

“Who else goes to the trouble to break in
during the middle of the night?”

“Unless….”

“Unless?”

“What if they wanted something else?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.” Mike shook his head and
frowned thoughtfully. “But I find the timing to be strange. If they
were listening to you, and chose the exact moment when they knew
their cover was blown...”

“I see what you mean.”

“So what did they want?”

“I don’t know.” The denial hung in the air
between us, because suddenly I did know. “Oh no,” I breathed.

“Claire?”

“I think I know what they may have
wanted.”

“And?”

“Don’t get mad,” I warned.

“Wha-oh no. No.” Mike shook his head. “I know
that look. Damn it, Claire. That’s why you were asking so many
questions about Terlain, wasn’t it?”

“Well…”

“Tell me I’m wrong. Please, tell me I’ve got
this all wrong, Claire. We destroyed those keys. We burned them
last year. I still have the ashes. They’re gone. Right?”

“Yours is gone.”

“And yours?”

“No.” I swallowed hard. “Mine is not
gone.”

“How? I saw you toss your half of the key
into the fire.”

“No, you saw me toss a carefully crafted copy
of the key into the fire. I had a metal worker a couple of towns
over make a copy as soon as we got back. After you said we had to
destroy the key.”

“Well, that explains how Jones knew you had
the key.”

“I know. I just thought of that. John was
probably still having me followed.”

“Right.”

“Damn it.”

“You left the key, didn’t you? It’s still in
your house, isn’t it?”

“Yep.” I let my head fall back against the
seat.

“That’s two more bad words,” Ashley
announced. I glared at Mike.

“Mama, is this what you’re looking for?”

“No, it’s something I left at the house,” I
responded automatically as I leaned back to see what she was
holding out. “Oh my God.”

“What?” Mike glanced my way.

“That’s it. The key.” I took the ornate half
circle from Ashley. “How did you know where this was? How did you
know to pack this?”

“I found it in a drawer under a bunch of
stuff. It was glowing so I took it. Is it important? Can I keep
it?”

“Glowing?”

“Are you sure, sweetie? It was glowing?”

“Yep. That’s how come I saw it. The drawer
was glowing. It was so bright.”

“Did yours ever glow?” I turned questioning
eyes to my brother.

“No. What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. Maybe…”

“Claire, don’t even think it. Tell me you’re
not thinking of going back there.”

“What else could that mean?”

“I don’t know. But not that.”

“Maybe it means exactly that.” I sat up
straight, my mind racing.

“And maybe it doesn’t.”

“Well, the fact is Ashley and I aren’t safe
here.”

“You think you’ll be any safer there?” Mike
was incredulous.

“At least I know who not to trust over
there.” I twisted around in my seat to face him. “Mike, one of the
men with Officer Jones was Grant Hillson. I didn’t recognize the
other man.”

“Grant Hillson? Are you sure?”

“Yes. The new chief. How far up does this go?
And why were they after us? For this key? Do they even know what it
is, what it means? Are they simply John’s hit men? Why?”

“I don’t know. Damn, I’m getting sick of
saying that.”

“Me too. So who do we call? Where do we go?
How am I supposed to make sure we’re safe here?” I demanded in
frustration.

“We’ll call another department. We’ll go
higher up.”

“And how do we know they haven’t been bought
too?”

“Fine,” Mike bit out. “But I’m going with
you.”

“To Terlain? No, I need you here. I need you
to figure out what’s going on.”

“And you and Ashley need to disappear for a
while?”

“Exactly.” We pulled into the parking lot of
Mike’s apartment.

“What are you going to do?”

“We’re going to catch a flight this morning.
Or pay someone with a plane to take us. I have some cash, our
passports. Credit cards.”

“They’ll be able to trace the cards and the
flight.”

“They will probably figure out where we are
going soon enough anyway. We’ve got a head start. And I know the
way. We can stay a step or two ahead of them. Once we’re there, I
can find people who will protect us.”

“What about the guards? They know where the
entrance port is now. You’ll be ambushed this time.”

“It’s been over a year. It won’t be heavily
guarded by now. And if it is…” I trailed off and patted the bag
that held my gun.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yes. See what you can do about the mess
here, okay? But don’t let them know you know anything. Tell them
you got a message from me that made no sense, and that when you
woke up, your car was gone. Tell them I stole your car. File a
report if you have to.”

“Okay. When are you coming back?”

“Three months. That’s when Ashley is supposed
to start school again.”

“Well, that’s one hell of a summer
vacation.”

“Tell me about it.” I sighed. We were going
back to Terlain.

Chapter Five

No Ordinary Voyage

Traveling with a child was never an easy
task, or so I’d always been told. By the end of the next day, I
felt that I could safely confirm that particular statement. I could
not imagine what some parents went through, for I knew that Ashley
was a good little traveler and mature beyond her years.

Even so, getting us to Africa was no easy
feat, I reflected later the next day. Our encounter with Officer
Jones and his men the night before was a shock that was hard to
overcome. Although to my way of thinking, the events of the
previous night really shouldn’t have come as a surprise. I was
getting used to being the hunted. But one look at my daughter
reminded me that I had to stay strong. There was always a way out
and I made a silent promise to her that I would find that way. The
decision to take her back to Terlain was not one that was made
lightly, even if I had felt—for a long time anyway—that Terlain was
where I wanted to be. And it seemed that every step I took tied me
to that strange place even more, invisible silken threads that
twisted and turned and pulled until the moment was upon me. That it
had all led to this moment. To Terlain.

Yet the logical part of my brain insisted it
had been sheer luck that we’d escaped with our lives the first time
around. I briefly wondered if we were crazy for going back. What’s
done is done, I reminded myself as I watched Ashley sleep in our
hotel room. We had arrived in Zaire only hours before, thrust into
the middle of heat and light and the dust.

I was still counting my lucky stars that we
had managed to escape the previous night with—for the most
part—everything we needed. I considered us extremely fortunate to
have not only my purse and our passports, but also cash, credit
cards, and a weapon. Truth be told, I was doubly thankful for the
weapon.

We had driven early into the morning,
arriving at the congested, overcrowded airport just after daybreak.
Our good fortune had further held when I’d found a private pilot,
albeit a shady-looking one who appeared to be in his mid-forties
and wore darkly tinted glasses, and arranged for him to fly us to
Zaire. The rate was reasonable and he had not asked too many
questions. I’d found him skulking around the outskirts of the
airport, schlepping his pilot services for cash, and I had the
feeling that he wouldn’t have welcomed prying questions any more
than I would have at that particular moment. No matter. It was what
I had been hoping for all through the long, desperate night, and
was probably the best option that we’d had available to us. I
hadn’t wanted the hassle that would have gone hand-in-hand with a
commercial flight, not to mention booking a flight with the airline
would have left a paper trail.

A record of our activities was the last thing
I wanted to leave behind. Although it was inevitable that we would
eventually be tracked, it was always best not to blatantly invite
trouble. Plus, we would need all the time we could get. In
situations like this, every second truly counts, I thought with a
hint of dread, remembering my first trip to Zaire, and the
terrifying trek to the Cave of Shadows. I had been followed that
night, deep into the cave, by John’s hired guns. The fact that
people had been sent to kill me, had been paid to literally snuff
out my life, still weighed heavily on my mind at times. I figured
it to be a pretty normal reaction, though, all things considered.
Who wouldn’t be a little on edge after something like that?

One of the many men who had been sent to
trail me that night had caught up with me during the last leg of my
journey, in the two-mile long tunnel that was too narrow to stand
in. I remember crawling the duration of the confined space with
fear and uncertainty dogging my every move. I was grabbed as soon
as I had entered the chamber that housed the carvings and the
hidden portal. John’s men could have nabbed me at any time that
night, but following strict orders, they had waited and stalked and
watched, holding off until I had led them to the cave and its
elusive inner chamber. At that point, I was of no use to John
Hanlen if I were dead. At least not before I had led him to the
portal to Terlain and he had taken what he wanted from me. That
would not be the case this time around, I reminded myself, resigned
to the unfortunate fact. John was serving a prison sentence that
meant he would likely live out at least the next twenty years of
his life in a jail cell behind a set of thick steel bars. Terlain
and its riches held no real value for him, not anymore. Sure it was
always a possibility that one of his hired killers would have heard
of the legend and realized the significance of our location, of
what we had in our possession, but I was forced to admit that the
scenario was highly unlikely. A more probable outcome would be
something along the lines of me and Ashley taking a bullet behind
the ear should we allow ourselves to be tracked and cornered. Maybe
the key would even be hocked at some pawn shop for the equivalent
of a new television and a case of beer, maybe a gold watch or a set
of cuff links. Most likely, the man, or men, sent to do us in this
time would have only been given the traditional fifty percent of
their pay up front and one very simple set of instructions; kill us
both and dispose of our bodies, which wouldn’t be all that hard to
do in the African wilderness. We couldn’t afford to let anyone get
close enough to get a shot at us. Period.

Even though it was unlikely, I knew that had
we taken a flight through the airline, Lance Jones and the others
who were after us could have traced us in a matter of minutes and
been waiting when the plane touched down at Zaire International. We
would have been cornered and defenseless.

Finding a hotel had been a cakewalk as well.
I used a fake name and even paid in cash for good measure. We
checked in at three twenty-five in the afternoon, and even as
Ashley had protested being forced to take a nap, her eyes were
closing. I knew the signs; she was on the verge of exhaustion and
fighting it to the bitter end. I was near collapse myself, but
didn’t dare close my eyes and go to sleep. The journey ahead of us
would be long and physically taxing. I also knew that at some point
Ashley would have questions about the night before and if I knew my
daughter at all, I was banking on having to answer those questions
sooner rather than later.

I drew the curtains tight against the window
and gazed down at her sleeping form, long lashes resting against
her heart-shaped face, her mouth curled into a tiny crescent-shaped
bow. So peaceful; so still and not a care in the world. It was
soothing to see her like that. And then I thought about how she had
looked the previous night, and a sigh broke free at the memory of
the fear and shadows that had played in her wide dark eyes. She had
reacted swiftly, doing everything I’d asked of her. And while it
was true that she wasn’t the average child, I knew her well enough
to know that she had been terrified.