Return (Awakened Fate Book 3) (13 page)

A small waiting room lay beyond the glass door. Three metal-frame chairs with fake leather padding crowded the walls of the tight space, while a small chrome table took up one corner. A sad-looking plant sat in the other corner, sagging into the speckled tile floor. To the left of the doorway, an opening in the wall revealed the dispatch officer – a middle-aged and heavily set woman that I vaguely recognized from seeing her around town.

“Gladys,” the chief said to her as we came in. “Could you get these folks anything they need? And have Smith make the appropriate calls. He’ll know what needs doing. We’ll just be back here talking for a few minutes.”

She smiled at us and then rose from her seat, pausing only long enough to push something beneath her desk. A buzzing sound came from the brown door leading to the remainder of the station.

“This way,” the chief said.

I glanced back at the others. I could see the tension on Zeke and Noah’s faces, and the outright worry on Baylie’s.

“We’ll all be here waiting for you,” Sandra assured me with a smile.

I couldn’t respond. With Mom and Dad, I headed after the chief, and tried to ignore the officers who came behind us.

At the end of the narrow hall, Chief Reynolds led us into his office. A cluttered wooden desk took up half the space, reports and folders covering its top while a computer monitor rose like an island from the paper sea. Diplomas, commendations, and family photographs alike hung on the walls, while on the crowded shelving at the far end of the office, everything from books to Little League trophies filled the space.

He motioned us toward the chairs in front of the desk, and then glanced back to follow my gaze to the shelves.

“The Reidsburg Comets Little League team,” he explained. “I coach them during the summer.”

I tried for a smile and mostly failed.

He didn’t seem to notice as he sank into his desk chair, the springs squeaking a bit under his weight.

“So can I ask Gladys to get you folks anything to drink? Coffee, maybe?”

Mom and Dad shook their heads. He smiled again.

“Alright then.” He pulled open his desk drawer and then drew out a small digital audio recorder. “Now, Chloe, I want you to know that I’m going to be taping our conversation, but that’s not because you’re in any trouble. You’re not. It’s just to help minimize the chance you’ll have to go over things again later, okay?”

I shifted a bit in the chair. “Okay.”

He pushed a button on the recorder and then set it down on the desk between us. Leaning forward a bit as though making sure the microphone could hear him, he listed off his name, rank, and the date, and then looked back up to me with a smile.

“Could you give your full name and birthday for the record?” he asked.

I did.

He smiled again. “Thanks. So Chloe, it looked like you were with your friend, Baylie Mitchell, this morning. Were you at her house when the break-in occurred?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you tell me where were you before that?”

I hesitated. I was shaking so hard, and I needed to stop. Focus would get me through this because, really, it wasn’t that bad. As long as I didn’t say anything about, well,
anything
, this would be fine.

Trying to believe myself, I drew a breath. “At home.”

He paused briefly. “At home,” he repeated as if trying to be clear. “And how long had you been at home?”

I looked to my parents, and then gave a tiny shrug.

“You don’t know?”

“A while,” I allowed.

“About how much of a while?”

I gave another shrug.

He glanced to my parents. They didn’t respond. I wasn’t even sure they were breathing.

His brow flickered down and then he returned his attention to me. “So how did you get home?”

I kept my gaze from going to Mom and Dad. They’d made me memorize this.

“My parents picked me up on a road.”

He paused. “What road?”

I shook my head.

His eyebrow raised and his gaze twitched to the recorder.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“How did you end up on this road?”

“I left the gas station and walked down it.”

“Gas station?”

I gave a tight nod. “I called Mom and Dad there. I don’t remember where it was. I… I woke up in a barn. I walked to the station and called them. They came and got me on the road.”

He paused again. “This barn. Where was it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay. Try describing the surrounding area to me. What did you see when you left?”

I worked to keep breathing while I fumbled after the most general description I could think of. “Fields?”

“What kind of fields?”

“I don’t know.”

“Were there any other buildings nearby? Any vehicles, trees or other things you noticed?”

I shook my head.

His brow furrowed curiously. “No, or you don’t remember?”

“I don’t remember. It’s… it’s all a blur.”

“Any sounds around you? Maybe smells?”

I shook my head again. “I don’t remember.”

He nodded. He glanced back to my parents, both of whom were watching us intently.

“Okay,” he allowed. “We can get into that more later.”

He paused again, longer this time, while he scribbled something on the notepad nearby.

My gaze tracked the pen across the page. I wondered what he’d felt the need to write down.

“Now, Chloe,” he said when he looked up again. “I want you to know you’re safe, alright? Whatever happened, you’re safe here now.”

I shifted in the chair again.

“Had you seen the man who broke into Baylie’s house before?”

I gave a small nod. “Yeah.”

“Was he the one who took you in California?”

“H-he, um…”

I trembled, the words feeling stuck in my throat. Mom and Dad had drilled me on this in the car, while Zeke squeezed my hand and wouldn’t meet my eyes. I was supposed to blame Earl. I was supposed to say that he’d taken me from the ambulance, drugged me, and that I didn’t remember anything till I woke in a barn.

But I felt like it wouldn’t matter. Like the whole story they’d insisted I memorize was such a pathetic bunch of lies, a child could see through them.

And like Chief Reynolds already had, with the way his blue, Santa Claus cop gaze just wouldn’t look away from me. Earl had attacked me, it was true. He’d left the bruises that were throbbing in time to my racing heartbeat right now.

But if I blamed him, the rest of it could come out. The part about his daughter dying. The reason he’d wanted to kill us in the first place. As a greliaran, he might believe he had as much to lose as anyone from letting that information out. But he might not. He might start raving about dehaians.

He might let the chief know what I really was. What Zeke was. And Noah.

And everything.

“I don’t remember,” I whispered.

Mom shifted in her seat. The chief’s gaze flicked to her before snapping back to me.

“That’s okay,” he assured me. “But I want you to know, I mean it when I say you’re safe. No one can hurt you anymore.”

I managed a jerky nod, even though the words were totally wrong.

“Where had you seen him?”

“I don’t know.”

“What about the ambulance? Was it there?”

“I don’t know.”

He paused. “Alright, we can get back to that. Let’s talk about the ambulance for a minute. Is that okay?”

I didn’t move. That was the last thing on earth I wanted to discuss, short of what I was or where I’d actually been for the past week.

“Chloe?”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“What do you remember? Anything the ones inside it said? Perhaps something strange about the way they spoke? Accents? Words they used? Names they might have mentioned?”

My heart felt like it would climb up my throat. Why did he want to know that? Did he know they were dehaian? Sylphaen?

I looked to my parents frantically. “W-why–”

“How is that relevant?” Dad interrupted.

The chief glanced between us. “Well, if the man today wasn’t connected to this, then we need any other leads we can get. Speech patterns could help us figure out where they were from. Narrow down the search. Names… well, that’s obvious, isn’t it, Bill?”

Clearly frustrated, Dad glanced to Mom, whose hands were white from clenching them so tightly. She gave him a helpless look.

“I don’t remember,” I said.

“The other EMTs on the scene said one of the men escorted you and Baylie back to the ambulance. What did the man say to you?”

“H-he just asked if he could help us.”

“What did his voice sound like? Midwestern? Southern?”

I shivered. “I don’t remember.”

He studied me for a moment.

“Did his voice remind you of anyone? Like an actor, or maybe someone from the radio?”

“I don’t remember.”

His mouth tightened again.

I trembled harder. I wanted to just say no one took me. I wanted to end this and get out of here. I knew that wouldn’t actually finish anything, but I almost didn’t care.

Helplessly, I looked to my parents.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Dad announced, putting a hand to the desk like he was going to turn off the recorder himself. “She doesn’t remember.”

The chief didn’t seem perturbed. “It’s important that she try, though.” He looked to me. “It’s okay, Chloe. You’re safe now. You–”

“I said she doesn’t remember.”

Chief Reynolds paused. His gaze flicked from my parents to me and back.

He reached out and turned off the recorder. Slowly, he drew a breath.

“Two teenage girls are dead, Bill,” he told Dad quietly. “Someone in California attacked your daughter in broad daylight, and then two more men tried to kidnap her and Baylie only days after that. Now those guys are dead too. I understand you want to protect Chloe. She…” He paused, his gaze returning to me briefly. “She could have been hurt just by going out west like that, even without everything else that came after. But we need her help now. If it wasn’t the man we have in custody, then whoever took her from the ambulance is presumably still out there. And she’s going to have to remember eventually.

“There’s a lot coming down on you folks,” the chief continued. “I know that. And I know it’s just going to increase. In the next few days, there’ll be a number of authorities who’ll need to speak with Chloe, and you both too. She’ll also have to be checked out medically to make sure she’s not injured and that nothing else bad happened to her. We’ll have a psychologist in from Kansas City to help you through all that, and – one neighbor to another – I’ll see what the town can do to help with any long-term needs in that regard as well. But we’re going to have to track down where Chloe was kept and what happened in the time she was gone. That’s important for us, but it’s important for her too, so she can get through this. And keeping Chloe from talking to us isn’t going to–”

Mom let out a desperate sound.

The chief glanced to her and then looked back to Dad. “I can help you all. I know there are… special considerations here. Things that might have made it hard for Chloe to feel quite up to thinking straight in a place like California, or for some time after. But to do that, I need you all to be honest with me. Let Chloe tell me what she really remembers, and where she’s been this past week.” He paused. “I want to do what I can to protect her too, Bill.”

Still trembling, I watched Dad. I needed a way out of here. My arms kept threatening to sting, and only by making myself keep breathing did I seem to be able to hold the spikes at bay.

But I should have gone on running. Stayed away from here and everywhere else.

Though really, that wouldn’t have kept some cop from stopping me on the street and making this all happen anyway.

My stomach wanted to twist into a pretzel at the thought.

“We don’t want any trouble here,” Dad said carefully. “We just want to go back to our lives like they were.”

The chief’s mouth tightened. “I understand. But that’s going to be mighty hard, Bill, just burying this. I know you could try. But the FBI, the sheriffs here and in California… they’re all going to–”

“But Chloe doesn’t remember anything,” Mom protested, still clenching her hands in her lap.

He paused. “That might be true, Linda. And maybe she will.”

His gaze returned to me and I couldn’t look away from his eyes. He knew I was lying. I was sure of it.

“I want to help you, Chloe,” he said. “I–”

The door swung open behind us.

I jumped a mile.

Spikes rushed out of my forearms.

Mom and Dad both moved to block any view of me, trying not to get cut in the process. Frantically, I tucked my arms to my sides and fought to draw the spikes back as fast as I could.

Chief Reynolds surged to his feet angrily as his nephew came in holding a clipboard. “Aaron, what the hell are you–”

The chief caught sight of my arms just before the spikes disappeared again.

“Sorry, Chief, I had the paperwork–”

“Get out, Aaron,” he ordered, not taking his eyes from me.

“I-I didn’t mean–”

“Get
out
, Aaron!”

The door shut as Aaron retreated. Shaking hard, I didn’t look away from Chief Reynolds.

He sank back into his chair, still watching me. “Now that’s, um… not something I expected.”

I swallowed hard.

The chief glanced from me to my parents. “Anyone want to explain what I just saw here?”

Dad’s mouth tightened. “Chloe…” He seemed to struggle to make himself say the words. “Her mother was my sister, and her biological father… he was…”

He trailed off with a grimace.

The chief read between the lines anyway. “And I’m going to guess that’s involved in what happened last week?” He paused. “What
actually
happened?”

My parents didn’t respond.

Exasperation flickered across his face. “Bill. Linda. Please. I… I realize why you probably hid this. It’s not exactly something you can discuss on tape. And besides that, you’ve heard the same stories I have, yeah? What some folks might do to a child in Chloe’s position. But I can assure you, that’s not a concern here.” He paused again. “Unless that’s why people have been after you?”