String of Tears, page 19
She stared at the bread, looked at him, shook her head, and went back to working on the two slices in front of her. “As long as you can eat them, it’s okay with me.”
After a moment, as they fussed away on the sandwiches together, he said, “They’ve been tethered to the pearls, and, if we undo the tether, I don’t know what happens to the souls.”
She shuddered in front of him.
He nodded. “Exactly. “At least tethered as they are, we have a way of knowing who they are and where they are. I feel like, if we break that tether, we’ll lose that.”
“Grant?”
“Stefan is calling him now.”
“Great,” she muttered, half under her breath. “I heard you talking in the bathroom.”
“Yes, Stefan was talking in my mind, but I was still too burned out to reply the same way.”
She shot him a look, and he just gave her a droll smile. “Come on. Don’t tell me that you didn’t contact Maddy the same way.”
“Of course not,” she declared, looking at him, startled. “I called Maddy. On the phone.” And then she stopped, pulled her phone from her pocket, stared at it, and hit Recent phone calls. “At least I thought I called her—or yelled out for her.”
“You did call for her,” he agreed comfortably, as he reached for the ham, placing two slices on each of his sandwiches. “But you called her through your mind.”
She slowly put down her phone and stared at him, disconcerted. “How would I know to do that?”
“That’s the million-dollar question,” he stated, as he slapped cheese on top and then lettuce and tomatoes.
By the time he had the three sandwiches on a plate, all cut so they fit, he looked around for where to eat. Either the two stools at the counter or the bench seats at the dining table or the coffee table in the living room. He snagged a bottle of water and sat down in the living room. She came over and sat beside him, with her single sandwich.
She sat sideways on the couch, picking up half a sandwich and took a bite, chewing slowly, but her gaze was intent on his face. He deliberately didn’t look at her but continued to focus on his plate of food. He had burned through way too much energy, and that fact had terrified him more than anything because he didn’t think that was normal.
“Why did you burn through all that energy?” she asked him. He shot her a surprised look. She shrugged. “You say how you do this a lot, and, if you do this so well, then how is it that this time you ran into a problem?”
He snorted. “There can always be a problem,” he muttered. “No way to know from one scenario to the next what I’ll come up against. In this case, I encountered something that wasn’t expected.”
“And that was what?”
“The souls,” he stated succinctly.
“What difference does that make?”
“You asked how I ran out of energy or how I burned through so much energy. I think they were taking it from me,” he replied. “Those souls, they’re looking for energy, a source, from anybody who has it to offer. They really aren’t asking,” he added, his tone hard. “They’re demanding it and taking it, whether you want to give it or not.”
Chapter 17
It had been several hours since Hurricane came out of the vortex session, or whatever he wanted to call it. Just as Jewel sat down, studying her designs and trying to get her mind to focus on anything other than what had just gone on, his phone rang.
Turning to look over at her, he put it on Speakerphone and said, “It’s Grant. He wants to talk to both of us.”
She shrugged, joined him on the couch, and replied, “Hi, Grant. It’s Jewel. Nice to meet you.”
“Hi, Jewel. How are you feeling?” he asked, his voice unexpectedly gentle.
Because of the gentleness, it was much easier to answer him. Yet she hated that softness and how she wanted to give in to his tone. “I’m doing okay. Can’t say this is something I’m particularly used to.”
“That’s good,” he muttered. “Seems like everybody around me is used to this stuff way more than I am.”
“Yet they always seem to think that I know something about it.”
“Do you?” he asked.
“I don’t think so, but I don’t know,” she muttered. “I’m still missing just so much in my memory banks.”
“That’s part of what I wanted to talk to you about,” he began. “There were no marks on you when initially found. There were no personal effects. We have nothing except an image of the person who brought you to the hospital. … I’m not sure if you’ll recognize him at all.”
“Either way, I’d like to thank him,” she noted. “He saved my life.”
“I have an image and a name. I’ll send it to you, when I’m done with this phone call. Now let’s focus on those women in your and Stefan’s drawings.”
“Yes, did you find any of them?”
“I found two, two more rather, since we already had a couple. The question is, and maybe this one should be more directed at Hurricane, considering he got sucked into whatever it was. Is there any way to know if those souls have been dead for a very long time? Do they look any different?”
“Ah, yes,” Hurricane replied in a slow tone. “Generally they do, but I can’t guarantee that all of them do.”
“Do you guys ever give straightforward answers?” Grant asked in disgust.
“Rarely, as you well know.”
“I do know,” he muttered. “However, in this case, I was hoping for a little more.”
“Why?”
“It seems like one of these cases was an unsolved murder victim, from fifty-two years ago.”
“Oh my God,” she cried out. “Don’t tell me that she’s been locked up in that pearl for fifty-two years.”
A moment of silence came from the other end. “That part is well beyond my expertise,” Grant muttered. “And, yeah, I’m just as horrified at the thought as you are. I want you to have a look and to see if it’s the same woman you may have seen before, Jewel. I have several images that I’ll email to you. A couple that I think we’re pretty close on, but all I have is a picture, no DNA collected back then, and we just have anecdotal evidence about what happened to her. I guess part of the reason I’m calling is to see whether this is even something that’s possible or if it’s just too far out there to be connected with Jewel’s case.”
“It’s all too far out there,” she snapped, “but then nobody’s listening to me.”
At that, Grant gave a lusty laugh. “I feel your pain,” he replied, his tone commiserating, but comfortable.
“But you seem to be okay with all this,” Jewel told Grant.
“Experience has given me a very different viewpoint. And my experience is completely tied up in the things that I have seen with my wife.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty freaky. I mean, not everybody has that kind of exposure like you do, so maybe it’s a blessing for you.”
“Maybe, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like it.”
“Yeah, I hear you there,” Jewel agreed. “So, what is it that we’re supposed to do now then?”
“I’ll keep tracking down these other names. I’ve got the files on the first four who have been ID’d the conventional way. I’ll send those over to Stefan and to Hurricane. Go over the details, see if anything gets your attention. See if anything makes any sense. Ultimately we’re trying to figure out if it’s possible to figure out who did this and if the same guy killed all these women.”
“Of course, and that’s where the problem lies,” she immediately interjected. “If somebody killed a woman some fifty-two years ago, we’re assuming they must have been at least sixteen years old, and that would make them sixty-eight now at the least.”
“Yes, and, if they are still alive, I’d be surprised, but it’s possible.”
“Do we really think that this same person killed all these women and somehow found a way to tie them up into the pearls on the necklace?” Jewel asked him.
“That’s what Maddy and Stefan are suggesting,” Grant confirmed. “For me, I’ll keep an open mind. It’s better than thinking only along that one line.”
“No, I agree with you there,” she muttered. She looked over at Hurricane, who was even now still munching away on a sandwich. “Hurricane doesn’t appear to be terribly bothered by any of this.”
“Hey,” Hurricane piped up, “it’s not that I’m not bothered, but I’ve seen a little bit more than you guys, and, if this is what it is, this is just what it is.”
“But it can’t be,” she argued. “He’d be too old.”
“No, I don’t think so, not at all. And given the time frame we have, it is feasible that he was sixteen, yet not likely, but even if he was twenty, twenty-two, twenty-four, I mean, even that is not out of the realm of possibility. We have a lot of serial killers who have escaped detection for that long and more. Right, Grant?”
“Yes, unfortunately, and we’re still looking for quite a few who have yet to be caught. Anytime we would get a lead on some of these, something happens, and they manage to slip away.”
“Do you think they could be using energy to get away?” she asked.
“I’m not saying yes, and I’m not saying no. All I can say is they have escaped detection, and it seems like there was absolutely no reason for it, yet they found a way to do so.”
“Right, so if there was a way to do it, this guy may have found it.”
“Exactly. But you also have to consider that, depending on what he did for a living back then, he may not need to do very much to escape detection. If he traveled a lot, or frequently relocated, he could remain under the radar. Plus we didn’t have DNA, nor internet, some fifty-odd years ago, nor any communication between the different authorities within counties. I mean, disappearing under the radar could have been a pretty simple case for him.”
“That’s a scary thought too,” she muttered. “Okay, I’ll take a look at the file when it comes in.”
“Good enough. And consider the fact that one of the things we need to determine is the timing of the death of his most recent victim. Is this something that he has continued to do, or is this something that he did in a crazy spree and then stopped doing some years ago? Like maybe he lost the ability or something like that,” he muttered.
She laughed. “You’re stretching. I think you’re looking for an answer just as much as I am, and one that has nothing to do with the boogeyman.”
“I’m always looking for an answer that shows me a flesh-and-blood criminal,” he stated. “I leave the spooky wispy ones to my wife.” And, with that, he hung up.
She looked over at him. “Does Dr. Maddy really deal with these awful criminals?”
Hurricane smiled at her. “Very few people can even comprehend that a criminal element happens to be on the other side of flesh and blood,” he shared. “So, if such a thing exists, you must have people who can look after, or at least find some way to protect, people on this side.”
She gave herself a hard shake, and he nodded.
“I know. Nobody wants to think about it, and that’s fine and dandy, until you come up against something, like you just have. Things that go bump in the night make no sense, so we still have to come up with answers to try and keep people sane and to not have them freaking out every time they turn around.”
“I’m in the freak-out category right now,” she stated, staring at him. “The fact that people even exist, doing what you do, is just terrifying.”
He smiled at her. “And yet if I didn’t …”
She nodded. “If you didn’t, there wouldn’t be anybody to fight the evil energy workers. I get it.”
“And I know you don’t want to hear this, but I’m still not at all sure that you’re as innocent in all of this as you say.”
At that, she glared at him.
“I know, and I’m not saying that you killed anybody. I’m not saying that you had anything to do with these people being locked up in the pearls, but I am concerned that something is going on here at a much bigger level, involving you, that even you don’t understand.”
“It would have to be something I don’t understand because no way I would be involved in something like this if I did understand.”
“That’s all good to know,” he said.
“Did you ever doubt it?” she asked, staring at him. And then she frowned. “If you don’t believe me, why is it that you would even have anything to do with me?”
“I didn’t say I didn’t believe you,” he stated, “and what you do consciously versus what your body and your mind are doing subconsciously is a completely different story.”
She winced at that. “We’re back to that whole taken under somebody’s power thing, aren’t we?”
“Not even that so much as understanding what you have a will to do, what you might have done willingly, and what you don’t have any will to do, and what you might not know to be doing willingly.”
She frowned at him. “My eyes are crossing on that one.”
He burst out laughing. “Yeah, I’m not sure that was terribly clear for you or for anybody, honestly,” he admitted. “But, the fact of the matter is, sometimes people are under the control of somebody else, and they don’t know it.”
“Like this killer guy?”
“If he has imprisoned these women into the pearl necklace and bracelet, obviously he did it without their permission. Agreed?”
She nodded slowly at that. “Agreed, and that’s something at least.”
“Exactly. And, if something like that has happened, then he had abilities to make them do something. Now I don’t know whether he murdered them and somehow captured their souls or somehow got their cooperation to do some ritual ahead of time, so that, when he did murder them or they died, maybe even by their own hand, he ended up getting control of their souls regardless.”
She winced. “That’s almost like a devil’s pact, where you get my firstborn son if you give me unnamed riches.”
“People have signed up for things like that generation after generation,” he noted smoothly. “I’m not saying that would do it. I’m just saying that maybe, in a case like this, something more is here that we need to examine.”
“You go ahead and examine it all you want.” She stared at him and then looked back at the safe with loathing. “I’d just as soon have nothing to do with any of it.”
“You may not want to, but you will have to deal with it. It has a hold on you,” he stated.
“Says you. I only have your word that I walked in my sleep.”
He smiled. “I have separated them, so we’ll see later today how that works.”
“I’m not exactly sure what that means,” she noted, “but, if you’ve separated the necklace from the bracelet, and so far it’s been fine, then nothing should happen tonight.”
He shrugged. “We’ll see.”
She nodded. “I’m almost ready for bed anyway.”
And, with that, she took her plate into the kitchen, washed up the dishes, walked back toward the stairs. “I’ll have to check out my show setup later. I’ll just have a shower and crash.”
“You do that. After that vortex session today, I’ll be up for a while.” He followed her to the stairs.
She hesitated, then asked, “Are you sure that you’re really okay?”
He looked up, reached out a gentle hand to capture one of hers, and said, “Yes, and thanks for caring.”
She stared down at their hands. “I’m not sure exactly what brought you into my life, but thank you for staying. I don’t want anything to happen to you because of me though.”
“I appreciate that.” Pulling her into his arms, he gave her a gentle hug, dropped a kiss on top of her forehead, and said, “Now go to sleep.”
She laughed. “Now I feel like a child, being sent off to bed.”
“Hardly a child,” he noted, with a twinkling gaze, “but certainly, for the moment, it’s much safer if I think of you that way.”
Snorting, she looked at him. “Yeah, I highly doubt you’re looking at me any other way, particularly if you think I’m involved.”
“I don’t think you’re involved,” he clarified. “Still, something is definitely going on.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what that could be.”
And, with that, she turned and headed upstairs.
*
Hurricane watched Jewel as she went to bed. She might not know what it could be, but an element inside her energy was fighting for something. He just didn’t know what it was fighting for, making him beyond wary. She was a fascinating woman because she was this constant contradiction that fascinated him, yet worried him at the same time.
He pulled out his laptop, wondering why she had ignored the facts that she wanted to visit her show exhibit and see the files that were coming in from Grant for her review—or maybe that much was willfully sticking her head in the sand on her part. He’d seen people much stronger have their stomachs turned by some of what they would be looking at now because, if these were murders, chances are they were hardly the take some pills and die in your sleep type.
People had a tendency to get violent, and, once that violence erupted, things got ugly quickly. He sat down and pulled the laptop toward him, then downloaded the zipped files from Grant. As soon as Hurricane opened it up, he found twelve separate folders. He went to her case first and scanned through it, finding everything was as he already had pretty well known. Nothing terribly surprising in there.
Another file identified a C. Hardy as the man who brought her supposedly dead body to the hospital.
She could contact him later and thank him, if she still wanted to when this was over. She had mentioned thanking him at one point, and maybe that would be something she’d follow up on. Hurricane didn’t know. Then he started in on the murder cases.
He had the files for Rhea and Anna in front of him. He opened them up and saw that Rhea was murdered twenty-seven years ago in Maine, and the other one murdered seventeen years ago out in California. When he read the even older murder files, strangulation appeared to be the favorite killing method. Strangulation was also up-front, personal, and took a great deal more skill and strength than most people realized, and that was something to consider.
