Abithica (31 page)

“What is it?” I pressed.

“Were
you
involved in that Tucson thing?” she probed. “Please tell me you weren’t.”

I swallowed, automatically shaking my head. No, of course I wasn’t involved, not even as Sydney, but… oh, no! There was no way of knowing with certainty what role she might have played after I left. What could I say to Dr. Williams that wouldn’t lead to more questions, and more after that? I decided to say nothing.

“Well,” she sighed, “the attempted robbery was made by members of your gang, there.” She pointed at my hand. “I knew they were active here in Seattle, down in California and St. Louis, but it appears they’re everywhere now. They’ve been spotted as far east as the Mississippi, and—”

My heart was pounding now. “Was anybody hurt?” I interrupted.

“There was a… yes, later there were some deaths. Five, I think.” She was choosing her words cautiously, as if she’d already decided I might be in on it somehow in spite of what she’d just said. “Apparently someone tipped off the police.”

I shot out of bed and grabbed her wrists. “Who was killed? Do you remember?”

She took a step back, surprised. “The gang members. They didn’t give any names. Are you—”

“What do you mean by some deaths
later?
Was anybody else hurt?”

“No,” she said, prying my hands from her arms and stepping back another step. “Please get back in bed, Ms. Doe.” She waited until I eased back onto the mattress. “That’s better. It’s too soon for you to be leaping around that way. Now, they say the case is still being investigated, but the really weird thing was that the five robbers were killed
after
they were jailed. It was as if something had destroyed them from the inside of their bodies, without it being visible to anyone. Autopsies just yesterday showed that all five died from cardiac arrest and massive internal damage. Police are speculating they were done in by other Legnas so that they couldn’t be questioned, but how? You wouldn’t happen to know about any of that, would you? Since you knew about—”

“You said someone tipped off the police? What about them?”

“Okay, now listen. I read these things as a doctor, so what I’m telling you is simply what I chose to remember, which isn’t much. I think the callers were anonymous, which isn’t surprising. They might not last very long otherwise. Are you
sure
you don’t know anything about…”

Her words went unheard. I was having trouble breathing. Did it mean Sydney was safe? What were the odds of my two lives being tied together like this? Was it something new or had it happened before and I’d never realized it?

“—for those papers,” Dr. Williams concluded. “In the meantime, you get some rest.”

I waited for her to leave, then checked my hand once more. Once the scabs fell off, it would be close enough to call the same as the one on Sydney’s hand. Was she still in trouble? Was that why my new life was still tied to hers? If only I had a phone, I could call Faith, but what could I tell her that she didn’t already know? And how would I explain who was calling?

Well, no need to worry, since no Jane Doe would be given a telephone. In fact, Jane Doe appeared to warrant very few of the gadgets that had been in the room much earlier. They’d all been wheeled out.

The next morning there were three newspapers lying on my nightstand. I began reading as soon as my mental cobwebs were gone, forming an accurate picture by the time I’d finished the last article. One of the Tucson police detectives filled in the bulk of it. He figured the anonymous tip came from
within
the Legnas organization, sort of a territorial dispute.

“It is hard to say how long the Legnas have been around,” his statement ran. “They started making news in Tucson about a year ago, starting off in petty crimes before escalating to more serious crimes like grand larceny, auto thefts, and minor drug busts. We know little about them because they are almost cultish in their secretiveness. The rumor on the streets is that they are some sort of religious gang, and that other gangs are terrified of them. The Legnas are definitely the alpha dogs of the scum world.”

Dr. Williams was standing in the archway. “Pretty nasty group, aren’t they?” she said, entering with her trademark clipboard. She paused just long enough to glance at my chart. “What the articles don’t say is that they’re recruiting runaways. At least the Seattle branch is. They feed on the desperate and lonely, giving them a family and a place to belong. Drugs are the order of the day. It keeps the new recruits dependent, because a drug addict is willing to do anything for a fix. We see meth more than other drugs, but the whole idea is the same even if it’s heroin.”

“What are they after?” I asked. “What do they
want
from all these recruits?”

She looked uneasy, checking the archway to make sure nobody was listening before she answered. “Some say they’re a satanic cult. The real thing.”

“
What?
Who is saying that?”
Oh, my God! What have I gotten into? Maybe I was right after all. Maybe it’s not God. Maybe it’s…

She sat next to me. “Look, Ms. Doe, we’re releasing you. You’re free to go. You’ve detoxed to where the hospital doesn’t have an excuse to keep you any longer, and we need your bed. Now when you came in here you said you were all alone, remember? Do you have a place to go when you leave here, anyone you can talk to, somewhere to stay? You had no ID on you, and the EMS crew found no money or anything that once held money, like a purse or wallet. You claim to have no memory of who you are, and yet you remembered something about Tucson, enough to agitate you, and now you overreact when I mention satanic cult. What am I to think?”

“I don’t know. Everything is so confusing.”

“Do you remember how you got in that alley where you were found?”

“No.”

“Nothing before that? No?” She sat there, just looking at me. “Okay, then I have a proposition for you. If you
promise
me here and now that you are done with the Legnas and whatever drugs you’ve been using, I
may
be willing to help you with a place to stay until you get back on your feet. It’s up to you, so convince me.”

“You would do that for me? Why?”

“Let’s just say I’m drawn to you for some unknown reason.” She moved the peppermint in her mouth from one cheek to another. “It’s like the Almighty dropped you in my lap and told me you were another of my chances to make amends. You see, I haven’t always been a doctor. I’ve done some pretty bad things in my life, but I was offered a second chance ten years back, by a man I never knew. He pulled me out… out of a really bad place, kicked me in my fat ass real hard, and pulled some strings to get me into medical school. Paid all my bills, honey, every last one! Do you know how much medical schools cost, let alone how hard it is to get into one? I never found out who he was, but I sure found out
what
he was. He was my personal savior, that’s what. He saw something in me I didn’t see in myself. He believed in me when I didn’t believe in anything. Maybe that’s why I can empathize with you. I’ve been trying to erase some of my wrongs ever since. And you talk about drugs, you’re looking at someone who’s been there.”

“But you don’t even know me, and you do know a lot about these Len-gas.”

“Legnas.”

“Yes, them. You know they’re dangerous. You said so. Why would you put yourself in danger for me?”

“Like I said, there’s something about you. I’m willing to take that risk if you promise me you won’t
ever
go back and that you’ll do the same for someone else one of these days. Think about it. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”

The Legnas Lair

Samyaza used anger to add bite to his words. As usual, Crocell had been overly impulsive in blaming the boy.

“The fault was not his, Crocell!” Samyaza stated, using just the right emphasis to quiet his deputy. “We all agreed that young Eliam should dump her in exactly the manner he used. Further, we concurred that she’d go running to her preacher father as fast as possible, and that our aims would be well served by his suffering, along with hers, as well as his remorse, his shame, the tearing apart of his insignificant soul. Is this not our higher goal for all humanity, starting with religions?”

He waited, seeing each of the two black hoods nod slightly.

“Crocell, you wanted to punish the boy, to strip his soul. You still do. Save your appetites for others less useful. I say we need more like him in this organization. He has all we want—attitude, mockery, cruelty, and strength. And he is receptive to our orders.”

“I agree,” Uvall said. “He learned quickly not to ask questions.”

“The fault was ours,” Samyaza continued. “We drugged her beyond her tolerance, and she collapsed instead of running, whereupon she was discovered and taken to one of the hospitals. By the time we found which one, she’d been released. One or two more hours and we could have terminated her there, but no. Further still, she has not contacted her father, nor was he in any way notified of her hospital stay. This in itself is a mystery.”

“We will find her,” Crocell stated, eager to show his support now that he’d been chastised.

“There may be a link to someone in that hospital,” Samyaza went on, “someone who offered her help. If so, we will seek him out and destroy him. Perhaps she can then be recovered in our usual way, brought back into our influence and reoriented. I must report this failure to High Chancellor Pharzeph immediately. Thanks to factors out of my control,
he
seems to have taken a personal interest in our chapter and its rapid progress. He will want to know why we failed. He may punish us all.”

“Then what do you propose we do?” Crocell asked.

“We need to find where Sarah Cummings has gone, find who has helped her, and remove him permanently. We have searched her mind and have the names of all her friends. One of them must have offered her shelter and comfort.”

“Do we use the boy for that? Use Eliam?”

“No. He may be too easily recognized, clever as he is, or she may run from him. I will ask the Oakland chapter to loan us Raphael, their most accomplished disciple. If anyone can find where the girl is staying, he can. In view of a possible visit by our chancellor, it would be best if we are not involved in any hospital killings at this time. Pharzeph prefers… alternate methods, do you all agree?”

Once more the two black hoods dipped in unison.

“Raphael may not be available for some time. Meanwhile, let us turn our attentions to our newest candidate, Gloria. Properly prepared, she may offer us even more satisfaction than the Cummings girl. She is not only five years younger… a most delectable age… but her father is the TV evangelist Joshua.” He paused. “Perhaps we can even offer her to Pharzeph,
after
each of us has sampled her.” He paused again. “After all, we
must
be sure she’s of the highest quality, do you agree?”

The Williams’ Residence

I was to call her Marge, not Dr. Marge or Dr. Williams, just Marge. Since I hadn’t a clue to my new name, we both called me Annie–like Little Orphan Annie. Annie Smith. I supposed that to mean I’d be Anne Smith for anyone who wanted to know. I’d have chosen a different name, but Marge liked Annie, so that settled it.

My payment for room and board consisted of two assignments, neither of which I considered chores. First, I’d take care of Trudy, Marge’s pet iguana. Second, I’d volunteer twenty hours a week at a local homeless shelter for teens. Marge was there at the shelter whenever she wasn’t working at the hospital. The kids there called her Saint Marge, mostly behind her back since she didn’t care for the title.

“Nobody’s a saint,” she’d scold, if one of the kids slipped and used the name around her. “Some of us just try harder to be better, that’s all.”

Her words, her attitude, her examples were like a soothing ointment to my wounds. Days turned into weeks, but I hardly noticed. My anger toward Sydney all but disappeared, and in its place was compassion. I even felt more kindly toward myself. Twenty hours a week stretched into sixty. I had nowhere else to go anyway, and the kids were helping me more than I was helping them.

I thought about Lane constantly—every laugh, every kiss, every promise. He came to me in my dreams. Sometimes I’d hear him calling for me in a crowded auditorium, or convention center, even a football stadium, but I could never find him. Other times we would actually see each other. He looked so happy when our eyes met, but then we’d lose each other again in a sea of faces. More than once I woke up crying out his name. Thankfully, Marge didn’t hear me, or pretended not to.

I knew in my heart that Lane must be happy. How could he miss something he didn’t know existed? And Shae! How lucky she was to have a big brother like him. Being with the kids at the shelter was like spending time with her, but it was bittersweet compared to my definition of happiness.

Bittersweet or not, even that was about to collapse around me without warning.

I’d been washing dishes in Marge’s tiny kitchen, a room so small I could put plates, cups, and silverware away without moving my feet. Even the sink was small. It suddenly occurred to me that, small as it was, the kitchen had under-counter room for a dishwasher.