Heart of Fire (23 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

Danni blinked back the tears as she thought of the last statement he said, “We are not sure if it is acute, chronic, permanent, or temporary, it’s too soon to tell.  Right now, we are medicating her and she is not responding to the meds we are giving her.”  She was numb and the freezing fog wrapped around her like a blanket, the everyday familiar sights of the street lay mysterious, hiding, looming out at her in their whitened haze at the last minute like images from some half-forgotten dream.  She held out her hand in front of her and watched it become partially obscured.  She imagined herself chanting spells, conjuring the mist like a deranged witch drunk on her own powers.  If only, she thought, Annabel would be well again.

A black mist of despair swirled at the edges of her mind, drawing it into the open arms.  The numbness quickly began to wash away and anger came in its wake.  Danni felt her head throb and her heart beat quickened as panic began to set in.  Her lip curled and her face contorted into an expression of rage.  She swore she would hunt down the monster that
did this, and she would watch as the life drained from her body as she did to all the poor souls she killed.

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

The stillness of the room filled with despair as Danni explained Annabel’s prognosis.  He couldn’t listen as guilt swept through him like a black cloud.  He scolded himself silently for not listening to her.  She was the rational one, she told him they should have called for back-up, and because of his haste and lack of judgment - she suffered the ultimate price, her mind.

He screamed again, not caring who heard him.  Still no tears fell, though; it wasn't sinking in properly.  All he could think was
it's not fair, it's not fair.  He rolled onto his back, kicking out at the wall again.

The memory flashed in his mind and made him cringe.  They both sat helpless bound awaiting death that taunted them.  Rage surged through him once more, and the cold fury threatened to take over his body.  Sobs began to shake his body, and it was then that the reality of what he had done hit with devastating force.  Gripping his head, a shrill scream ripped through his throat, cutting into the night. 

Danni tried to console him, but he looked past her and let out another cry.  He couldn't talk to anyone right now. 

“I’ll leave and come back later,” Danni reluctantly spoke knowing he had not heard her.  Danni stood and looked down at him.  She touched his shoulder gently.  As she was about to talk a set of knocks came on the door.

A man similar in age to Frank with similar striking features stood in the opening, carrying a box in his hands.  “My wife made you a pie.”  He hesitated when he saw the angry look in Frank’s eyes.  “She said it was your favorite,” he said hesitantly ready to retreat.

“
What do you want?” Frank growled.  His face was bright red, and he clenched his teeth so hard they threatened to shatter in his mouth.  He felt ready to explode, ready to fall apart, and he did not want anyone to see him this way.  In a moment of weakness he cringed, allowing himself to drop back against his pillow.  It was all going so fast, and the world was spinning around him.  He wrapped his hands around his legs, trembling.  Nothing mattered right then.  Absolutely nothing mattered, and nothing could possibly be real.  This had to be a dream, had to be some cruel nightmare he'd been dropped into – but he knew it wasn't.

The tall man rushed to his side and took his hand in his own.  “It’s okay Frank; let it go, let it all out.” He cried as he sat there watching his brother in turmoil. 

Only minutes passed before he sat upright and looked toward Danni.  “I’m Ted, Frank’s brother,” he said flatly extending his hand to her.

“Nice to meet you,” she smiled.  “I’m Danni I work with your brother.”  It was an awkward moment.  She fought the urge to excuse herself as he dismissed her introduction and moved closer to his brother.

“Tiffany called and gave me the rundown.”  He sighed afraid to ask what happened.  “She said you would be out of commission for a while and that you and I need to take that fishing trip we’ve been talking about.”

Suddenly the mood in the room lightened as if someone pulled the dark cloud away.

“Did she now?” Frank smiled and looked down at his bandaged leg.  “What else did she tell you?” he asked masking his frustration.

“I told him you were going to take a month of overdue vacation and recover,” Tiffany answered for him as she filled the space between Ted and Frank.

“That’s not going to happen until we catch that BITCH!” he snarled his objection.  He could feel his blood pressure rise, and if he could walk he would step out of the bed and hunt her down like the animal she was.

“Shut up! I am so tired of getting late night calls and stand there scared half out of my wits that they’re going to tell me your dead,” Tiffany sarcastically snarled.  “You’re a stupid jerk,” she snapped and walked to the front room.  “I don’t have the tears to cry anymore, I need my husband Frank, I need you.”

His face softened and remorse for all he put her through set in.  “I’m sorry honey, you have to know there is nothing I wouldn’t do for you, but right now, I have a murderer to find.”

“Whatever!” she expelled the words that he knew would cost him in the end.  She tried to suppress her anger when she realized Danni was in the room, but it was beyond retrieving.  She had years of frustration, fear and anger pent up and it forcing its way up and threatening to explode from her.  She felt empty inside.  Hollow, yet at the same time she felt like her body was filled with lead.  Her heart was where her stomach belonged and her stomach was in her hollow, lead-filled chest.  Her thoughts were manic, scrambling in a dozen directions.

He knew that look, it was the same look she had the night she first knocked at his door.  Fear and confusion crept into his heart.  He could not hurt her, but he could not let anyone else get hurt.  “Give me one week babe,” he forced the words.  “If I have not made an arrest, I will take all my vacation.”

“Yeah okay” she mocked.  “I'll believe that when I see it!”

“In twenty-eight years, have I ever lied to you?”

“Yes.”  She glared at him unwilling to accept the fact that she was wrong.  He never lied, he would only make plans and then they would unavoidably get broken.  She could not argue with that, she knew what it took to be the wife of an FBI Agent.  “No, Frank, you never lied to me,” she finally said inhaling an inward breath.

Frank smiled as he looked into her hazel eyes, even with the coming of middle age; she was still an attractive woman.  He loved her long jet black hair and he could but lately see signs of age and the hardships of her life had begun to show.  Her body was stout of good build with muscles toned from use.  She was unusually tall for a woman, standing at five eleven.  She loved to dress in elaborate garments of colorful skirts and blouses, with adornments of jewelry, bangles worn upon her arms, hoops dangling from her ears which blended perfectly with her tanned skin from spending time in the outdoors.

It annoyed him at times when she would become too stubborn for her own good and rarely admitted when she was wrong, even if her very life depended upon it.  But, at times like this he admired her patience, which she has had to have over the years

Frank’s heart filled with love as he looked in her eyes.  “I love you!”  He smiled as he lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed each fingertip as had done so many times over the years.

The intimate moment was smothering, Danni stood frozen, and she needed to excuse herself.  She managed to get out a slow practically inaudible murmur as the color drained from her face.  She could not believe how he easily managed to turn an argument into a love story.  She was in utter admiration how even though he had been injured and beaten he was willing to get his man.  She knew sadly there was no way around it.

The happy couple simultaneously peered at Danni as she fidgeted.  Tiffany smiled and nodded her head.  “I know you have a lot to talk about, so I’ll leave you too it.”

She stood and grabbed her car keys. 

“I’ll drive,” Ted interjected and grabbed the keys from her hand.

Once they were alone in the room, Danni sat in the chair next to his bed.  “So, what’s the plan?”

He had not given it much thought yet, but he liked the distraction she was leading him off to.  “I was planning, wait...I mean of course!” he said in a sincere and nervous tone.  “But what are you- no, no, I mean we,” he corrected.  “What are we going to do?” admitting he had no plan.

Danni had to try not to laugh; she looked over to the pump of painkillers and made a mental note to never try to make a rational decision under the influence.

She cleared her voice, still trying not to laugh.  “Why don’t you just tell me what happened to your leg, and what your recovery time is going to be?”

His face paled as he recalled the moment leading up to the attack.  He explained it was mostly a blur, but what he remembered was the blood that dripped from the pipe like a slow stream into a puddle on the floor next to him.  The look in her eyes haunted him.  She smiled with a cruel fire in her eyes all the while his body convulsed in pain on the floor.  A large marring slice dominated his stomach and chest as he went into detail.  He had no idea why she still stood there, panting in her rage.  It was like she took enjoyment watching him suffer. 

“We’ve got to stop her,” Danni choked out the words.

“She is pure evil Danni,” he said and looked away.  “I’ve never gone after someone who was so calculated,” he finally admitted what he had been thinking from the beginning of the case.  It is what intrigued him, he admired her, and that made him want to take her down all the more.

As the minute on the digital cell phone screen changed Danni gave him a warm and loving embrace.  She needed to go up the few flights of stairs leading to Annabel’s room. 

“Are you going up to see Flanery?” He gave her a look of empathy.

“Yeah, but with my luck, I’ll be told to go home,” she flatly said and rolled her eyes.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

Danni stood outside the elevator nervously waiting and could feel the muscles in her neck twitch.  Lieutenant Hagerty called her earlier to meet him at the Federal Building.  The only thing he would tell her after moments of continuous questions was that Frank would be off on administrative duty, so as her commander he needed to meet with them to introduce her to her new partner she would be working with.  The only thing he knew was they were flying a veteran agent with the bureau from Washington. 

The decision to replace him was understandable, he could still be valuable behind a desk, but she worked well with Frank, and she was in no mood to deal with a pompous ass Yankee who would try to take over, and knew nothing about the case other than what he read.

The doors opened and she stepped out looking around.  She could see from her advantage point the team was already seated in the conference room.  She pushed forward and smiled as she walked in.  Her usual seat was already taken by a woman she had never seen before.  She eyed her curiously as she looked around and placed each name with a face but hers.

She did not say anything when she found a seat next to her lieutenant.  No one in the room talked as the director stood at the end of the table going over the case as it transpired.  Something she had done in the same spot in the past.  The strange woman shuffled to her feet and then replaced the director.

“I’m Special Agent Stevens,” she introduced herself flatly.  “I will be replacing Special Agent Alexander as the lead investigator on this case.”  She looked around the room as if she was waiting for a response but none came.

Danni admired the hard angles of her handsome face and thought she would be extremely attractive if she just smiled. 

“Is there something you would like to share?” Stevens eyes shot daggers as she looked at Danni, knowing she was sizing her up.  It was a typical response she got each time she had to step in to help on cases.  She thought she would be used to it by now, but it still bothered her.

“No.”  Danni quickly added in a calm even tone, “Just listening.”  She had to look away when their eyes connected.  She found them unsettling when is occurred to her they were mismatched.  The right eye was as blue as ice, and the left eye bright green.  She wondered how she answered the topic if asked, which Danni assumed she had been asked one too many times. 

Stevens went on as if there was no interruption; she walked from one side of the room to the other going over details.  Her five foot five inch frame glided with authority.  Danni could tell she was in good shape, as her muscles flexed as she leaned on the table ensuring she had everyone’s full attention.  Danni knew that only came from hours spent in the gym working out.

“Let’s take five, then we will pick it back up,” Stevens commanded as she sat down and took a sip of her coffee.

During the break, Danni learned Stevens was a skilled tracker, something she learned at a young age from her father, and was as competent a fighter as any of the men.  She grew up on the reservation with her parents and their parents.  She had acquired a keen sense of navigation, and knew how to travel by the stars, as well as read landmarks, and had never been taken by surprise.  Her stature and odd eyes made sense now to Danni.  She had met several Native Americans over time with different color eyes.  Of course their reasoning for it was far-fetched other than the main reason caused by genetics.

In the solitude of the empty room, Danni approached Stevens who was still seated.  “This has been my case from day one and I would like to be included on everything,” she said in the calm steady voice that Stevens already found annoying.

“This is not a pissing competition Pacelli; we all have the same goal here,” she said in her arrogant triumph, and then smirked - just a small pouting of the lips and a narrowing of the eyes.  She tilted her head, subtle at first.  It infuriated Danni who caught a glimpse of it after making the foolish mistake of trying to claim her collar.

Danni’s lip curled and her nostrils flared.  Her mind felt as if lead were coursing though it instead of blood, and when they made eye contact she thought she might vomit.  She rested her forehead briefly against the cool wooden window frame.  The cool air blew at her face through the shutters, rich with the scent of pine and dew.  Behind her, Stevens appro
ached and gently laid a hand on her back.  “We will get her together,” she reassured and walked off.

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

It was difficult to see in the darkness, and the light of the moon was dim above, Stevens did not dare get near enough to be in visual range of the others and allow herself be discovered.  She crouched on the ground just near enough where she could hear what was said clearly.  She deduced there was three female voices speaking, but did not know which was her suspect.  She stalked closer in the dark with her hand gripped tightly on her gun to get a better look.  She figured there were three females talking but she could not get a clear enough visual to tell which one was the suspect.

She was not accustomed to harboring any real fear of other people, regardless of who they might be, and she did not scare with any great ease, but she was not foolhardy either.  She read the reports and what was not written; Danni filled her in on the rest.  After a week of waiting, they finally had a good lead.  The waitress at the bar called Danni the second the woman walked in, she told her she was not waiting by the phone this time; instead she pulled up a table and ordered a drink.  They had no idea the window of time they had, so they had to act, and act fast.

Danni held her place in the shadows to the left, closer to the window.  She gave the signal that the Suspect was in the building.  Time neared to take her down, but she couldn’t risk charging in and causing another person to die in the process.  The arrest was not going to be easy, but if they kept cool heads, they could get her with no casualties.

It was time to move in.  She called Danni over the radio to tell her to get in position. 

Danni looked down at the radio.  Is she fucking crazy?  Danni thought and crawled over to where Stevens knelt.

“We agreed to not risk anyone’s life, we don’t know if she’s armed.”

“She’ll have no idea what is happening, it should be an easy take,” Steven whispered.

“I say we follow the original plan.  It will be perfect,” Danni inputted knowing what the woman was actually capable of.  “If we follow her, and wait until first light, we’ll take her by surprise, and we will sweep through before she even knows what is going on”

“Why wait?  Or take the chance of being seen and losing the element of surprise?  We should just take her right now.”

“No, there’s more risk of her getting away in the dark.  We go with the morning, before the sun fully shines.”

Stevens played every scenario in her mind.  Danni was right, she was ready to go on instinct, and there was too much riding on this to start being careless.  “I agree, let’s not make a foolish mistake now, not with her so easy for the picking.” 

Danni heard as much as she needed to and turned to draw away; retracing the steps she took to slide back into place.

She was annoyed with Danni’s rational advice but she was right.  This meant in the morning Stevens would have to rework her route.  Anything she attempted tonight would be putting her in more risk than any possible gain would give her.  She was neither a hero nor a saint and did not profess to be, but she was no fool. 

A voice cut through her calculating thoughts and she froze, and felt a brief moment of panic.  She could not see her in the dark, and she could not afford now to make a mistake.  Her heart drummed in her ears in that frightening way that made a person wonder if others could hear.

Danni slid into position, she waiting for the right moment to start her car.  She waited patiently as the suspect climbed on her bike, and took a sharp left.  One, two, three, she counted in her head to allow enough time between her and the perp.  She followed slowly, but not giving enough distance that she would lose her.  Stevens in position, she turned off the side road just as the suspect passed.  That was Danni’s cue to turn off on the next road, that way if the Suspect noticed her, she would not be alarmed.  The plan worked perfectly, as the woman casually rode occasionally waving her hands in the air to her side as she picked up speed.  She rode like she did not have a care, unaware she was being followed. 

The pursuit did not end in vain as she pulled to her right and up the driveway where she dismounted and strolled through the front door of a home on the corner of Fairmont and Eleventh.  Stevens turned off her lights and stepped out of the vehicle to get a better look at the small home and took a mental note of the address and tiptoed back to her car. 

The silence gave an eerie persona as Danni sat just down the street and waited for Stevens to join her.




It was only hours later sitting in the car, watching as the gray light of morning bled through the Western sky.  After a long cold night the daybreak brought glimmers of warmth.  The golden light softly caressed the land and ignited the birds into a chorus of melodies.

Danni drew a fierce deep breath as she looked at the still home.  She could taste the revenge, for all the lost souls that would not rest until the madness ended.  Her heart burned with fire as she thought of Annabel still a week later in the catatonic state.  She tried to reach her, but there was not a glimmer of hope in the blue eyes that once looked at her with love.  She was lost, and she feared she was lost for good. 

When she broke down and cried Stevens had consoled her.  She learned in those few hours in a heartfelt conversation that Stevens knew her pain only two well.  She had lost her wife and son a few years back when the Suspect she was hunting down retaliated and found her family and killed them unmercifully. 

She explained his real name was Gill Thomas, but in the papers he was known as “The Gentleman Killer,” because he always sent flowers to the family of his victims. She explained that was his biggest mistake, because one day, instead of paying in cash in person, he called over the phone and made the purchase with a credit card.  That was his first mistake; his second was killing her family.  She made it her mission to hunt him down but he was hard to catch because he wore fake hair, glasses, a mustache, and uneven teeth.  He was always described as being a fifty-years-old transient who was in reality thirty.  The day he was apprehended she thought she would find closure, but she found none.

She admitted the job had been her savior, without it and the distraction she would have gone insane.  They developed an unspoken respect for one another within that time, two souls in kinship that only they could recognize.  Danni realized she opened wounds that Steven had buried so deep that would take years to heal, but ripped of the scabs to help her.