Deadly News: A Thriller (11 page)

Abby turned her attention to Fe. “Sorry, I didn’t even think about that. Are you okay?”

“Me? Of course. I was shielded from it all. Got some dirt on me, nothing more.”

“Good,” Abby said, letting her eyes drift closed. She took a deep breath and sighed. “Anything about them? About Ecks?”

“They called your phone afterward. They—”

“What’d they say?” Abby’s drowsiness vanished and her eyes popped open.

“They said,” she paused, “in their message, because the lieutenant wisely didn’t want to give us away—even though I don’t know how much good that will do given what it seems like they do know. Anyway, the message they left said that Ecks had a job to do, and to ‘Hit her up’—it was a women, leaving the message.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Do you know who they are, or where? How am I supposed to hit her up?”

Fe shook her head. “They haven’t given us a lot to go on. The one lead we had has disappeared.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a lead?”

“Are you sure you don’t have a concussion?”

“What?”

Fe laughed. “Good one.”

Abby had no idea what she was talking about, but just stared expectantly.

“You know, the lead you gave us? The cab guy.”

Abby stared.

“Uber.”

“Oh. Right. He’s missing too?”

“Something like—”

“Hey hey hey, I brought cake,” a man’s voice boomed.

Fe and Abby turned their attention to the door.

Fe spoke first. “You know I love cake. I’m not even gonna ask why you decided cake would be a good thing to get.”

“Hey, you’re happy,” the man said.

Abby finally realized it was Detective Masterson.

“Hope you like chocolate,” he said to her. “Got you some ice cream too.”

Fe’s head moved back in surprise. “Cake and ice cream? You trying to woo her?”

He set down the box, along with the grocery bag he carried, and shrugged. “Consider it a ‘Sorry I wasn’t there for you’ cake.”

“Thanks,” Abby said. She was quite hungry. And she did like chocolate.

“Very welcome. A few other officers will be here soon to relieve the rookie,” he said to Fe.

Abby should have been mad that a rookie was guarding her, but she wasn’t. She hardly felt anything.

“Good, he was on overtime already.” Fe opened the box with the cake. “So, any news?”

Masterson removed the ice cream and a package of plastic plates. He looked around. “Any spoons? I forgot spoons.” He looked at the box of cake. “And a knife.”

“Good one. So, news?”

“Huh? No.”

“Sorry for asking.”

He shook his head. “It’s just, I could have sworn I bought them.”

“Oh my God, I’ll go get some.” Fe got up and left the room.

“You feeling better?” he asked Abby while they waited for utensils.

“Now that you brought cake I am.”

He smiled.

Fe came back a few minutes later with actual metal utensils and two uniforms in tow.

“That looks delicious,” one of them said.

“Hey,” Masterson said, looking at Fe.

“What?”

“I was gonna bring the leftovers home.”

“You still can,” the other uniform said, cutting into the cake with a large pie server. He grabbed a plate, put the slice on it, and handed it to Abby, who smiled. “It’s just all that will be leftover is the box.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “And some crumbs.”

“You’re hilarious, you should quit the Force and do standup.”

“I already did that, other way ’round though.”

Soon the cake was doled out, along with the ice cream, and for a few minutes Abby wasn’t thinking about anything, wasn’t worrying if Ecks was still alive. Which, she thought as she finished her cake, was probably the point of it.

“Tell me what you’ve found out so far,” Abby said after the worst of her hunger had abated.

Everyone paused their cake consumption.

“You know everything we do,” Fe said. “Other than the message they left, nothing has happened since you got here.”

“A hell of a lot has happened,” Masterson put in, cake in his mouth. “Just nothing relevant.”

“Thanks for pointing that important fact out.”

They went back to eating their cake and ice cream. It no longer tasted good to Abby. She had a sinking feeling in her chest, and though she dutifully shoveled spoonfuls into her mouth, she didn’t want to be eating, didn’t want to be here. All she could think about was finding Ecks, or finding out if he was alive. Not knowing was horrible. And at this thought, came another: that knowing might end up being much worse.

Soon after, a nurse came in to check on Abby. She seemed uncomfortable around all the officers. This was somewhat odd, given that nurses usually interacted with police often, but maybe she was new, or maybe it was just how cramped in was in the room with four other people around Abby’s bed.

The nurse did her best to work around them, and then left.

Fe got up and shut the door afterward. When she sat again, Abby saw she had a frown on her face. “Stop me if I’m being crazy, but did she seem sketchy to anyone else?”

The others looked up from their plates, which still had some crumbs. Masterson stopped licking his and gave Fe a quizzical look. “Who? Abby?”

Fe sighed. “Men. No, the nurse. Didn’t you notice how strange she acted?”

“I did,” Abby said, but before she could say any more, the door opened again, and a smiling doctor entered. Or at least, Abby thought, a man who was smiling, and wearing what looked to be a doctor’s attire and nametag. Now she couldn’t help but wonder if the name she’d see there, when he got closer, was his real one.

If it wasn’t, he didn’t seem to have any harmful intent. He informed everyone that Abby would be able to leave tomorrow, that he wanted to keep her for observation, and that someone had brought Abby’s clothes.

When another nurse, a man who seemed perfectly at ease, came in minutes later with a bag of clothes, it turned out that they weren’t Abby’s.

“These aren’t mine,” she said, peering into the bag. They looked and smelled new. The bag was white, and thick, and from somewhere Abby hadn’t been.

The nurse smiled. “Yeah, they haven’t gotten up to your room. It’s blocked off. Luckily you weren’t there when it blew. The cop who brought these in said he went to the store to pick them up for you.”

“Oh,” Abby said, surprised, and wondered who had gotten them, and how he’d known what size she was.

“All right. I just came on shift, so if you need anything, I’m just a buzz away.”

Abby smiled in response.

When the nurse was gone, Fe turned to Masterson. “I want you to check out that nurse, the one who was in here before.” She shook her head, squinting. “Something doesn’t feel right about her.”

“Yes, Captain.” He smiled. “Oh, wait a sec, when did you get promoted?”

Fe sighed.

Masterson waved a hand at her. “Don’t worry, I’ll look into it. I’m a detective, I detect.”

“So you say,” Fe said under her breath.

When there was nothing left but empty cake box and ice cream containers, Abby was left alone to get some rest, though both Masterson and Fe assured her that the two cake-loving officers would be left guarding her door through the night, and that Fe would be back first thing in the morning to pick her up.

When they were gone, Abby turned on the TV. She no longer felt tired, and doubted she’d be getting any sleep. She looked around for her cell phone to check the time, but of course it wasn’t here. It, with her purse and everything else was still in the hotel room. Or blown across out all across the street. Soren’s keys, she thought. She hoped they were still there. She still might need them.

After watching TV for a few minutes, a commercial came on, a type of programming she’d forgotten how much she disliked: she usually used Netflix, or just watched YouTube videos. This thought reminded her she that she would probably need to buy a new laptop.

Despite not feeling tired, she had underestimated the tranquilizing effect of late-night television, and soon was fast asleep.

The next morning, Delano and Fe came by to pick her up. She was taken down the floors in a wheelchair, her protests that she was capable of walking tastefully ignored.

Another unmarked vehicle, a van this time, awaited them. She was helped in, and then they were off.

“Where are we headed?” Abby asked from the second row.

Fe was driving, so Delano turned in his seat to respond. “We found Ecks.”

Abby’s entire being froze. The way he’d said it.

Just ask, she thought, just ask. “Is he alive?”

“We don’t know.”

Abby stared. This was too much to process, and his response didn’t make sense to her. “How can you not know?”

“We managed to find some video with that cab, and were able to trace it to a building. We think that’s where he was taken to. We’ve been watching it for the past several hours, and no one has left. The car is still there, and heat signature says there’s people inside.”

“Heat signature?”

“Dammit!” Fe slapped the wheel as the van rapidly decelerated.

Abby looked through the windshield to see they were stopped at a red light.

“Jesus woman, you’re going to kill us,” Delano said.

“You should have seen how fast that thing changed.”

Delano shook his head. Once the light turned green and they were through the intersection, he faced Abby once more. “This is pretty big, Abby. They blew up a building. The FBI is involved now.” He took a deep breath. “Which circles back to where we’re headed.”

After a pause, Abby said, “Okay. Where?”

“A very insistent agent of the FBI wants to talk to you. They feel your previous statements are”—he flattened his lips—“light.”

“Light or not, it’s all I know.” She paused and looked out the side window. Trees flew by in a blur of green and gray. “I wish I knew more.”

“I know, I know. But it would make things go a lot smoother if you talk to them of your own accord.”

“I’d be forced to if I didn’t?”

Delano shrugged, and half turned back forward. “I don’t know. But if someone like the FBI wanted to talk to you, it would be hard to get out of.”

This was stupid, Abby thought. All of this. She clenched her jaw to prevent the tears that were beginning to form. All she wanted was out of this, to know Ecks was okay, and to get far away from everyone. Maybe a secluded cabin where she could be alone.

But of course she couldn’t have that. Not with the way everyone was chasing her and wanting to talk to or kill her. Not without that key ring.

“It seems like you know what those keys are for,” you say.

Abby looks at you, and you continue. “You’ve been hinting at it. I don’t mean to pry, I’m guessing it’s painful for you—”

“Painful?” Abby interrupts.

“You’ve been avoiding telling us about it, and then the way you seemed to know what— what that guy wanted you to do, it seemed like something happened.”

“Oh,” Abby says, shaking her head. “Rape. Yeah.” She looks away from you. “I was raped, it was on my first story.”

The champagne woman and the doctor’s wife let out simultaneous exclamations.

Abby went on. “I was out the whole time. It’s… not ironic, I don’t know, but I was covering a rape that had happened, they had tied the woman to a bench,” she pauses. “And then raped her.” She closes her eyes. “There were other things, things that made the media want to cover it. You can look it up if you want.” She laughs. “If we get out of here.” Another pause. “But yeah, I was trying to interview some of the men who had been suspected of it. They all seemed great, like, no way it was any of them.” She shakes her head. “God I was stupid. It was a party that I was interviewing—just talking, really—to people at. I was offered a drink.” She looks around the circle. “I was just a dumb kid, I’d just finished college, and had no idea. So, I accepted, kept interviewing people.

“When I woke up, I was hanging upside down, my head touching the ground enough that when I first woke, I couldn’t tell. It just felt like I was lying in bed. Then I opened my eyes, and saw I was not in my bed.

“It’s kind of a blank after that. I was found by a group of kids—I think they were more scarred by it than I was, seeing a naked woman with blood dripping from between her legs—”

“Egh!” The thirteen-year-old cringes.

Abby nods. “Exactly. They didn’t know what to do, but eventually one of them called their parents. It didn’t take long after that.”

You feel your eyes burn, and look away from her.

“My God,” the scruffy man says, a quaver in his voice. “That’s awful. People like that—” He shakes his head. “Tell me they caught them.”

“Oh yeah, there was plenty of DNA.”

The doctor makes a noise.

You look at him, and are surprised by how repulsed he looks. For some reason, you expect doctors to be immune to these kinds of things. Though maybe it really is only psychopaths who are.

“Did you,” the long-haired man begins. “You don’t have to answer, but, see anyone? I mean, for—” he stumbles over his words.

“I didn’t see a psychologist. I read a lot, case studies. For me, what worked was just going over it, trying to imagine the worst that could happen. For a while, it was bad, some STDs can take some time to show up. But after that, I’d replayed it so many times…” She looks around. “I don’t know, it stopped bothering me. It’s something that happened, and I wasn’t going to let it ruin my life. That would just be giving them more power, and that was the last thing they deserved.”

The scruffy man wipes his eyes.

You take a deep breath, swallow.

“You’re really tough,” the thirteen-year-old says.

Abby smiles at her. “Thanks. And hey, you seem pretty tough yourself. I was a lot like you at your age.”

“Thanks,” the girl says, a sense of awe pervading her voice.

Abby laughs, a real laugh this time.

It makes you feel better, if only briefly. You catch the eye of the nearly silent woman across the fire, then look away.

“What happens—happened to Ecks?”

“Ecks,” Abby says, quietly. “I can tell you what I know.”

No one says anything, but Abby begins anyway.