Twisted (16 page)

“What are they eating?”

“Ed!”
Sam shouted into the radio. “I can't tell what they're eating, and I don't read lips, so don't bother to ask what they're talking about. I'll call you if anything happens.”

He snapped off the radio before Ed had a chance to reply and shoved it back into his coat pocket. His fingers brushed against the little box. Sam took it out. It didn't look like much.

Sam took a glance at Gaia, then tore at the paper on the outside of the box. Whoever had wrapped it had used plenty of tape. It took him
a lot of tugging and tearing
to get the paper unraveled. Once the paper was crumpled in his pocket, he was left with a featureless box of gray cardboard. He snapped a couple more pieces of tape and lifted off the lid.

The first thing Sam saw inside was a piece of folded paper. At the top of it was written
Sam Moon.
He picked it up, unfolded it, and started to read.

Sam—

I know that you have some connection with Gaia Moore. I hope that you continue to feel affection for her
and that you will take the concerns expressed in this letter seriously.

Gaia is in danger. If I could take direct action to save her, I would, but circumstances prevent my appearance.

Instead I am passing this information along to you in hopes that you will know what to do with it. Watch out for Gaia. She is stronger than she appears to be, but she is not as strong as she believes. She can be hurt.

She needs you, Sam. Don't let her down.

Don't reveal the existence of this package or note to Gaia. For her own safety there are things she cannot know.

By the time he was done reading, Sam's heart was pounding in his ears. He read through the note again,
clutching the page
. There was no signature, no clue as to who had sent the package.

This little scrap of typing paper was about the weirdest thing Sam had ever run into in his life. Sure, he had been standing on the street
playing undercover cop,
but this note was straight out of some spy novel.

His immediate suspicion was that Ed had sent the package. Who else could have known that he was involved in any way with Gaia?
It had to be a joke.
If he called Ed on the radio, Sam could probably get Ed to confess.

But the longer he stood there, the less Sam believed in his own theory. Certain words in the note kept drumming against his brain.

Gaia is in danger
.

She can be hurt.

She needs you, Sam.

He folded the note and shoved it back into his jacket pocket. Then Sam looked inside the little box again. There was another folded sheet of paper.
With shaking hands
Sam pulled it out and found that it was some kind of information form. Name. Age. That sort of thing.

Only this form had been attacked by someone with a big, fat black marker. Whole lines of the form were
completely blacked out
, but Sam could still read a few things.

Eyes: Blue

Several lines below that was another clear line.

IQ: 146

So whoever this sheet belonged to, they had blue eyes and they were smart. Sam wondered for a second if the sheet was about Gaia, but then he spotted another piece of uncovered info.

Height: 6'2”

Gaia was tall for a girl, but not anywhere close to that tall.

The biggest area of readable type was a box of text marked
Evaluation.

Subject demonstrates almost complete lack of empathetic response. Does not act under social
constraints. Does not operate in a frame of behavioral mores. It is our opinion that this subject should be considered deeply sociopathic. Extreme caution is recommended.


Sam glanced back up at the glowing windows of the restaurant. What did any of this have to do with Gaia?

Sam put away the sheet. All that remained in the box was a small black-and-white photo. Sam pulled it out and raised it closer to his eyes.

Sunset was coming on fast
, and the streetlights were just beginning to flicker. In the gloom Sam had to squint to make out the grainy, low-quality photo.

The guy in the photo was young. He had short, wavy black hair and a squared-off chin. There was a flat, angry expression on his face. He seemed a little familiar. Sam knew that he had seen the guy in the photo before.

Then he remembered where.

Sam let the box fall out of his fingers and ran right through the traffic on Thompson. He drew a chorus of horn blasts as he darted between the cars, and a couple of people had to slam on their brakes. Sam didn't care. He charged up the steps into Jimmy's, shoving people out of the way as he went.

But when Sam got inside, the booth at the side of the restaurant was empty.
Gaia was gone.

His eyes narrowed, and his teeth clenched double together so hard, Gaia could see the muscles bulge at the corner of his jaw.

“WHAT TIME ARE THEY CLOSING
the park?” David asked.

“I heard they were closing it at seven,” Gaia responded. “Both the killings happened sometime around eleven or twelve. They probably want to make sure they get everybody out well ahead of that.”

She took a deep breath and watched the fog it caused disappear into the night sky.

“Let's go,” David said.

Gaia looked at him. There was no way to know what he was thinking. His expression
conveyed nothing.

“It's almost seven,” Gaia said. “The police probably won't let us in.” Not that that mattered to her.

“Are you scared?” David asked.

A challenge. Interesting. Gaia felt the skin around her eyes draw tight.

“I'm not scared,” she said.

“Then let's go.” David pointed. “If they have the gates blocked, we can always sneak over the fence.”

Gaia stopped, hands in pockets. She looked him directly in the eyes, giving him a chance to
back out
. “If we go into the park, we'll probably get caught.”

“So?” He kept walking. She followed.

“So, they'll put us in jail,” she said. “Aren't you scared of that?”

“No.” He turned to look at her, walking backward. “I guess I'm just naturally fearless.”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?”

Gaia stumbled to a stop on the sidewalk and leaned against the iron fence that guarded the park's south side.

David shrugged. “I said I was naturally fearless.” He struck a dramatic pose, chin lifted, chest out, eyebrows lowered. “Intrepid explorer David Twain, ready and able to penetrate the deepest mysteries of unexplored regions.”

Coincidence.
That's all it was. It wasn't like
fearless
was a word reserved
just for her.
“You really aren't scared to go in the park?”

“Not me,” he said. He folded his arms over his still puffed-out chest and raised an eyebrow. “What about you, little lady?” he said with a Hollywood cowboy accent. “You a-feared to go in that thar patch of woods?”

There was something odd going on here.
Something had shifted.

This seemed like the same funny, talkative guy Gaia had shared burritos with back at Jimmy's. Obviously it
was the same David. Only now it seemed
like there was somebody else there, too
. Like there were two completely different people looking at her with those dark blue eyes.

“All right,” Gaia said, refusing to tear her gaze from his. “Let's go.”

“Cool,” David said. He stood up on the tips of his toes and looked over her head. “But there's already a cop down by the entrance. You're probably right that they won't let us by.”

Gaia looked up at the fence.
“So I guess we'll have to go in this way.”

She braced herself, bent low, and jumped. Gaia's beat-up right knee protested, but she still managed to grab the top of the fence. A few seconds later she was over and in the bushes on the other side.

David clapped in rapid applause. “I think you're doing the wrong thing by staying in school,” he said through the fence. “You should definitely run off and join the circus.”

“I'll think about it,” Gaia replied. “Are you coming over here, or are you too much of a chicken?”

There was nothing funny about David's reply this time. His eyes narrowed, and his teeth clenched together so hard, Gaia could see the muscles bulge at the corner of his jaw.
He wasn't happy
.

He jumped for the fence. With his longer arms he had no trouble grabbing the iron crossbar at the top. It
took him a little longer to pull himself up, and he wasn't nearly as smooth working his way over the top, but less than thirty seconds later he dropped to the ground beside Gaia.

“I told you,” he said.
“I'm fear1ess.”

Gaia started to wonder if maybe he was telling the truth.

“WHERE'S THE SPOT?”

“This way,” Gaia replied. She circled a small fountain and pushed south past the makeshift stage where bands sometimes played on the weekends. She was moving fast. She wanted to get there and get it over with. “Why do you want to see it, anyway? You're not some kind of
murder groupie
, are you?”

David laughed. A normal laugh. “No. Absolutely not. I just wanted you to know I wasn't afraid.”

“You keep saying that.” She looked toward him, then back at the path, her ponytail of golden hair flipping back and forth as she moved. “Why are you so worried about not being afraid?”

David took a couple of quick steps and moved up to walk beside her. “I just think it would be cool, that's all. Not to be afraid of anything.”

“Why?”

“Because then you'd really be free, wouldn't you?”

Gaia blinked.
Interesting theory.

They passed under a group of oaks, and the shadows thickened around them. “Being fearless wouldn't make a person happy.”

David reached up and snapped off a small dead limb. “Why not?” he said. “It's being afraid of things that makes people sad.”

Gaia shook her head. “That's not true. Even without fear you still get
lonely, or angry, or depressed.”

“There's nothing wrong with angry,” David said. “Sometimes you have to be angry. Sometimes it's what you need.”

Gaia couldn't argue with that. “And what about the others?”

“What? Sad and lonely?” David shrugged. “I don't really feel those things.”

Gaia reached the edge of a concrete path and stopped. “It doesn't sound like you feel much.”

“All I need.”

For a moment the two of them stood in silence, then Gaia turned her back on him, raised a hand, and pointed at the open space on the other side of the path.

“This is it,” she said. “This is where they found the bodies.” She turned back to look at David. She met his gaze dead-on.
“But I think you al ready knew that.”

DAVID REACHED BEHIND HIS BACK
and pulled out a long knife. The blue-steel blade was almost black in the dim light, but the sharp edge caught the glow from distant streetlamps and threw off glittering sparks.

Damn, he loved that.

“You're smarter than I anticipated,” he said. “I like it.” He stretched out a hand to Gaia. “Come on, I'll make it painless.”

“No, you won't,”
Gaia said.

David grinned. “You're right. This is going to hurt like hell.”

There was a wildness in the his eyes. How had she not noticed it before?

“I'M NOT THE ONE WHO LET HER
get away,” Ed's voice crackled through the radio.

Sam glared at the little yellow transistor. “I was distracted” he said. “Besides, it doesn't matter now. We've got to find a way into the park.”

“I'm with you on that,” Ed replied. “So, what's the plan?”

Sam looked across the street. There were now two policemen standing by the nearest entrance to the park, and he didn't think for a moment that the officers were just going to
step aside and let them in
.

“I'm going to have to go over the fence,” Sam said after a few seconds' thought. “I don't see any other way.”

“What about me?” asked Ed. “I don't know if you've noticed, but
I'm not very good at going over things.”

The thought had already occurred to Sam, but he didn't have a solution. “I need your help so I can get in. You come down here and distract the police.”

Ed sighed. “That's me.
Ed Fargo, distraction specialist.”

“What?” Sam asked, confused.

“Forget it,” Ed answered. “Distract them how?”

Sam glanced around and winced. Every second counted. There was no time to argue. “I don't know. Ask directions. Fake a heart attack. Just get them looking the wrong way long enough for me to climb the fence.”

He didn't wait for Ed's reply. Instead he switched off the radio and dropped it into his pocket. He darted across the intersection, took
a last longing look
at the gate, then walked quickly toward the corner where the police would be far away and nearly out of sight.

Sam was only halfway to the corner when he got a break. The sounds of yelling and of running feet came from the direction of the entrance. Sam turned and saw the policemen wrestling a man with a potbelly and a stiff, graying beard.

It was the best chance Sam was going to get
. There was no point in waiting for Ed when there was already a perfect distraction. He hurried across the sidewalk, bent low, then jumped for the top of the fence. His fingers managed to catch the square bar at the top, but the metal bit painfully into his palms.
He started to bleed
. Gritting his teeth, he slowly pulled, kicked, and scrambled his way to the top.