Sarah Armstrong - 01 - Singularity (31 page)

“Mrs. Armstrong, what can I do for you?” Mrs. Hansen said, rather breathlessly. “You’ve caught me at a busy time of the school day.”

“The children are still there.”

“Yes. Of course.”

“That’s great,” I said, relief flooding through me. “Mrs. Hansen, I need to have you keep Maggie with you, supervised, until I get there. I’ll be there in…” I looked at the pilot who mouthed “forty-five minutes.”

“I’ll be there in less than an hour to pick her up. Don’t let her leave with anyone. Don’t let her out of your sight. In fact, I’ll have Tomball RD. send squad cars to surround the school, to stand guard until we get there.”

She hesitated a moment, then said, “But Maggie’s not here, Mrs. Armstrong.”

How could that be?
I thought.
That just can’t be
.

“You just said the children are still in school,” I shouted, the terror I’d tried to suppress rising in my chest.

“Don’t you remember? Your mother picked up Maggie and Frederick nearly an hour ago.”

“Mom and Strings?”

“To go to the University of Houston. Surely you remember. To meet with Dr. Mayer at the university.”

No, I thought.
Please, no
.

“Mrs. Hansen, this is important. How well do you know Dr. Mayer?”

“Only by reputation.”

“You’ve never met him?”

“No. But he called yesterday and inquired about Maggie. Said he’d heard about her project, and that’s such a great honor, you know he’s—”

“So, a man called you, introduced himself as Dr. Mayer, and asked about Maggie?”

“Yes, he heard about the Science Fair and said he was excited about her project. He seemed anxious to have you bring her to the
university to meet with him. He said he wanted to congratulate you on your work.”

“My work?”

“I assumed he meant in raising such a fine daughter.”

Stunned, I said nothing.

Mrs. Hansen stammered. “But don’t feel bad. I’m sure Dr. Mayer didn’t mind that your mother and Frederick went along instead. After all, it was Maggie, not you, he really wanted to meet.”

Dreading to hear the answer I felt sure would come, I asked, “So, you never talked with this man until yesterday, and except for what he told you on the telephone, you have no way to be sure the person who called you was actually Dr. Mayer?”

“Well,” Mrs. Hansen stammered, “I guess. But why would anyone else call about Maggie’s science project? Who would…? Is something wrong?”

“How long ago did you say they left?”

“Maybe forty-five minutes. Mrs. Armstrong, I’m so sorry, if there’s—”

There’s still time to stop them. Mom always drives slowly, and with a little congestion downtown, it could easily take her that long to get to the university
. I clicked off the radio connection with the school. Immediately, the captain’s voice filled the chopper. He’d been listening. “Sarah, what’s wrong?”

“Captain Williams, have them connect me with Mom’s cell phone,” I said, rattling off the number. “Now.”

The telephone rang, and rang, and rang, and rang.

“No answer, Sarah. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Captain, please, try one more time. Mom always has her cell phone with her,” I pleaded. “Please, try again.”

This time someone clicked on after the third ring, but no one spoke.

“Mom, is that you?”

Again silence.

“Is Maggie there? Strings? Where are you?”

The voice that spoke next was low and flat, with just the shadow of an East Texas drawl.

“You were supposed to bring her,” he said. “Why didn’t you come? Aren’t you a good mother? You left your child unattended.”

“Doyle, please…”

“Doyle?”

Pulling myself together, I started again. “I meant Gabriel. Am I talking to Gabriel?”

“Yes, Sarah,” he answered. “You are.”

“Wonderful. That’s good. I’m so glad we can finally talk and get to know each other. I’ve wanted to meet you,” I said, fighting to keep my voice level and light. “We both know that you don’t want Maggie and the others. They’re children, an old woman. We both know you really were hoping for me, weren’t you?”

“But you’re not here,” he answered. “And they are.”

“For the sake of God,” I pleaded. “Please…”

“Yes, for the sake of God,” he answered, his voice cool, calm. “For the sake of God, I’ll wait for you. But not long.”

“Thank—”

“You have one hour to get here. If you arrive on time, you can join me, and your family will go free. I’ll let them go.”

“Gabriel—”

“But if you’re not here on time, Sarah, your daughter and the others will take your place.”

The thought of the children and Mom at the mercy of that monster horrified me. Yet I needed time, time to get there, time to gather help and form a plan. I had no illusions that turning myself over to a madman would ensure anyone’s safety. If I did as Gabriel wanted, what would prevent him from killing us all? Annmarie Knowles caught his eye, yet when he had the opportunity, he killed Edward Lucas.

“Please, Gabriel. I’m in East Texas. I’ve just gotten into a helicopter to come to Houston. We’re just getting ready to take off. I’m sure you can hear the racket, so you know that’s true. It’ll take two hours for us to land. One hour is…it’s impossible.”

Silence. When he spoke again, he said, “You’ve been to the Thicket.”

“I—”)

“That’s why you know his name.”

“Whose name?”

“The boy’s name.”

Square one and I’d already blundered, blurting out his real name. I should have known better. Gabriel could never accept any connection with someone like Doyle Tyler.

“Yes, I’ve been to the Thicket. We’re just leaving. That’s why I can’t be there in an hour.”

“He doesn’t exist anymore, you know,” the voice said.

“Doyle doesn’t exist?”

“That’s right. He’s gone.”

“I’m glad you told me, Gabriel. I’d like you to tell me more,” I said. “I want to understand.”

“That’s good, Sarah,” he said. Then, after a hesitation, “I assume you met his mother?”

He’s
testing
, I thought.
He wants to know if I’ll tell him the truth
.

“Yes, we found her.”

“Ah, you know it all then. Terrible, perverted person she was, yet to be killed by one’s own son…”

“Gabriel—”

“Now you know everything. You’ve discovered all the boy’s secrets.”

But what about Maggie, Mom, and Strings, I wanted to scream. What about them?

“Gabriel, please, I’ll be there—don’t hurt anyone. Two hours and
I’ll be there. I’ll do anything you want. Absolutely anything. You have my promise. My word.”

Only silence, a long, empty, horrid silence. Then his voice again, quiet yet churlish: “I’ll wait ninety minutes, Sarah. It is, of course, you that I’ve been sent for, not the children and the old woman,” he said. “But, Sarah, if you’re not here when the time’s up, I won’t wait a minute longer.”

Don’t think about what he’s capable of now
, I told myself.
Focus. Focus on finding a way to stop him
.

“Gabriel, I need to talk to my mother,” I said.

Again only silence.

“I’m sure you’d never lie to me, but you’re asking me to turn myself over to you. It’s not unreasonable to want to talk to them, to know you really have them and that they’re still alive,” I said, straining to sound as respectful and calm as possible. “I just need to be sure, before I come to you.”

Dead air hung between us. Then, a voice resembling Mom’s but different, pitted with fear.

“Sarah, it’s me, dear. We’re here with this gentleman. Mr. Gabriel.”

“Are you all right? The children?”

“So far, but—”

Mom’s voice vanished and again Gabriel spoke. “Ninety minutes, Sarah, starting now. You’d better hurry.”

“Where are you?” I said. “How will I find you?”

“I’m disappointed, Lieutenant. Up until now you’ve been so smart, haven’t you? Figuring everything out. If anyone did, I thought you understood my mission. Then I saw the article. Those hateful things you said….”

“Gabriel, I didn’t understand. I’m sorry.”

“How fitting for you to come to be with me now, when it’s coming to an end.”

“Coming to an end?”

“Yes.”

No, I thought.
Please, this isn’t happening. It’s not real
. “You’re at the university, Gabriel?”

“Very good, Sarah. Very good.”

“But where? Please. Tell me, where.”

Again a maddening silence. I wanted to scream, to curse, to sob wildly, and to hide. Instead, I waited. “Gabriel, please, if you want me to come to you, you have to tell me where you are,” I pleaded.

“You already know.”

“Help me, Gabriel. Please. Help me come to you.”

“One minute gone. Eighty-nine minutes left. No more. But I’ll give you a clue,” he said. I could almost picture him smiling. “It’s a place with a view of the heavens.”

T
he pilot put the helicopter down in a lot south of downtown Houston. The captain waited, accompanied by a squad of HPD officers, who escorted us to the university in a motorcade of unmarked, white Crown Vies, no sirens, only flashing lights. We drove between the marble obelisk split in two, one on either side of the thoroughfare, like sentries guarding the edge of the University of Houston campus. On the grounds, I passed buildings I knew from my years as a student, yet I felt no interest in the surroundings, my mind filled with thoughts of Maggie, Mom, and Strings.

God
, I silently prayed.
I’ve already lost so much. I’ll promise you anything. Just please, please protect them
. Then, just in case,
Bill, if you’re up there and you can hear me, please help!

We pulled up next to a beige brick building with columns of smoky dark windows I recognized as SRI, Science and Research Building One, and ran through the courtyard toward the center entrance. The azaleas bloomed bright pink, but the rows of crepe myrtles remained barren from the winter, their naked trunks protruding from the ground like spears. The last thing I passed before I
jerked the door open and ran inside was a sculpture of a woman perpetually caught inside two open squares.

Inside SR1’s marble-paneled lobby, students and professors were quietly and efficiently evacuating. No screaming or shouting. The officers had the scene under control, escorting groups in orderly lines.

“We have all the civilians exiting through the east doors. Gabriel shouldn’t be able to see anything out of the ordinary,” explained the captain. “We’re keeping everything very quiet. We don’t want him to know we’re here. And we especially don’t want him to know that you’ve arrived.”

“Are we sure that’s where he is, and that he has Mom and the children with him?” I asked.

“All four of them were seen on the sixth floor, walking toward the stairway that leads to the observatory,” he said. My heart sank when he added, “It’s likely Gabriel made up some con, like being a student assigned to take them to see Dr. Mayer, to get the children and your mother to go with him. At that point, they didn’t appear frightened. In fact, they walked past a professor who said they all appeared happy. Maggie was laughing.”

My thoughts flashed back to Maggie and Mom at the dinner table, so excited, talking about their trip to the university. Maggie bubbled with enthusiasm. And Strings, that dear sweet child, with his rebellious streak. Why hadn’t I gone with them?

Just then, a diminutive man, bald with a well-trimmed salt-and-pepper goatee, wearing round glasses and a spotless white lab coat, exited an elevator and bustled toward us. “I’m Dr. Norton Mayer,” he said, pumping my hand and appearing highly agitated. “I told the police. I know nothing about this man who has your family. I’ve never seen him. I didn’t invite your daughter here to the university. Why, I—”

“It’s all right, Dr. Mayer,” I said. “I know this has nothing to do with you. This man just used your name to lure them here.”

“That’s what I told that FBI agent,” he said, incredulously. “How could anyone believe I was involved, after all—”

“What FBI agent?” I interrupted.

“I believe his name is Scroggins,” said the doctor. “Horrible man. Why he as much as suggested that I was somehow involved in all this. I’ve never in my life…”

I felt sickened when I realized that Scroggins had arrived and already insinuated himself into the situation.

“Please, Professor, don’t let it bother you,” said David, who’d been standing behind me. “I’m sure Agent Scroggins was simply ruling out that possibility. We have no reason to believe you’re involved in any way.”

“Well then, as I was telling that disagreeable man, I am eager to help,” he said. “I know the observatory better than anyone. I’ve held classes there for nearly thirty years and helped design the facility.”

“Then come with us,” said the captain, who held open an elevator door.

Nearly all the players in the drama of the past two weeks had already gathered when we arrived at the fourth-floor physics department offices—two floors below the observatory—hastily commandeered to be used as a temporary command center. The reception area resembled most academic offices, piled high with papers and books. The walls were covered in framed posters of milestones in the history of physics and tacked-up notices of changes in room assignments. Scroggins sat half-on half-off the corner of a cheap brown metal-and-Formica desk, as cocky as ever, and accompanied by two men and a woman I pegged as members of an FBI SWAT team. Detective Nelson had tagged along, probably to gloat, I assumed. But then I noticed he’d lost his swagger. Even more red-faced than usual, he
looked perplexed when I walked into the room, as if he couldn’t decide whether to hate or pity me.

Then I noticed Captain Jim Perkins, head of Houston P.D.’s SWAT and hostage negotiation teams, my first good news. Jim had been one of Bill’s best friends for more than a decade, and our families were so close that I’d stood up as his daughter’s godmother at her baptism five years earlier.

“Thanks for coming, Jim,” I said.

He slipped his arms around me. His badge pinched my cheek, but I didn’t pull back. “When I heard, they couldn’t keep me away,” he whispered. “Don’t worry. We’ll get them out.”