Snake Skin (17 page)

"Ashley?" he said again, slumping back into
the chair, his face falling into the shadows.

His father made a strangled noise but
remained frozen as Lucy stepped past him and approached Bobby
Fegley. When she drew near, she saw his tears. Twin tracks of
anguish more heart-felt than any of the wailing she'd witnessed
from the Yeagers.

"Bobby, I'm Lucy Guardino. I work with the
FBI and I'm the one in charge of finding Ashley. Is there some
place we can talk? I need your help."

He nodded, torquing his face far enough to
one side to wipe it against the roll of terry cloth that covered
his neck support. Using two fingers, he maneuvered the chair's
controls, spinning it ninety degrees and propelling it through the
kitchen. His father's clomping footfalls sounded behind her and she
turned.

"He's a minor, I should be there, watch over
him." He strung the three sentences together into one exhalation,
his expression a mixture of anguish and confusion.

"No, Pop. This is private," Bobby said
without pausing or turning around. He crossed over a wide threshold
into another room.

Instead of following Bobby, Fegley stopped
at the kitchen table and turned to them, hands held palms up.
"Someone's gotta work, ya know? And he's so damn independent, he
don't need me—"

She caught Burroughs' eye and inclined her
head. He engaged Fegley's attention while she sidled to the side,
out of his line of vision, listening. Fegley sank into a chair and
Burroughs took the seat opposite him.

"Bobby's seventeen?" Burroughs started.
Fegley nodded. "Technically he doesn't need a parent present unless
he requests it. And he hasn't done anything wrong, right?"

"Of course not! How could he? Look at the
kid why don't cha?"

"What happened?"

Fegley blew his breath out, his face
dampening to neutral. "His mom and him, in the car. He was twelve,
so she lets him sit in the front seat, special treat, ya know?
Anyway, they never saw it coming—eighteen wheeler lost his brakes
on the hill coming into Murrysville. Her airbag didn't help her
none. His worked too damn good, snapped his neck."

Burroughs nodded in unison with Fegley's
bobbing head, his body language mirroring the other man. Lucy left
them and crossed into the next room. Originally a dining room, it
had been converted to a bedroom suitable for a wheelchair bound
boy. A hospital bed with an electric lift took up most of the
space. But the center of attention was a large flat screen computer
monitor rivaling anything they had at the Federal Building.

"My tech guys would love this," she told
Bobby, watching as he stretched his thumb and first two fingers to
manipulate a mouse. The screen came to life and with it Bobby's
expression.

"Yeah, I use it for school, so my dad lets
me dip into the settlement money for upgrades."

"You don't go to regular school?"

"I tried. At first. But," his voice caught,
"it just didn't work out. So I do cyber school."

"Isn't that lonely?"

His right shoulder twitched, she guessed it
was the closest he could come to a shrug. "Frank and Andy are here
most of the time. And there's Dad."

"Frank and Andy?"

"My personal care assistants. They help me,
ah," he glanced in the direction of a doorway leading into a large
bathroom, obviously not part of the original house design, "get
around and stuff."

She noticed the clear tubing running from
beneath the leg of his shorts and down into a plastic collection
bag. Kid had it rough, but he seemed to handle it all right. Better
than his dad, five years later. She reminded herself to call Megan
again as soon as they were done here.

"How did you meet Ashley?" She drew up a
wheeled desk chair and sat beside him as he fiddled with the
computer controls again. The screen filled with a graphic: Shadow
World.

"Here. It's a MPRPG," he added.

"You lost me already."

"A multi-player role-playing game. The
DM—domain master—creates a world and the rules and anyone, anywhere
in the world with a computer can create a character and join
in."

"Both you and Ashley played this game?"

"I play lots of these. This was the only one
Ashley played—she was kind of obsessed. Ran five different
characters."

"It was a way to be anyone she wanted?" Lucy
hazarded a guess.

"Right. To tell the truth," his cheeks
colored with a blush, "that's why I like SW best. Maestro, the DM,
he's set it up so girls really get into it. It's not about killing
monsters as much as being smart, working together, that kind of
thing. Shadow World has more female players than any of the others,
except for Sims of course."

"Of course," she agreed, having no idea what
Sims were or why girls were drawn to them. "Can I see Ashley's
characters?"

"I can show you the data sheets and avatars,
but wouldn't you rather see the way she drew them? They're so
life-like, it's amazing."

"You have copies of Ashley's artwork?"

The chair whirred as he toggled a switch to
elevate him and extend his arm far enough to snag a handle. A
large, shallow drawer popped open between them, revealing a stack
of sketches inked with vibrant colors.

"She mailed them to me a few weeks ago. That
was the last I heard from her. I figured it was her way of saying
good-bye. After she found out the truth." His gaze dropped down to
the disappointment his body had become. "I understand. I mean, what
girl..."

"You and Ashley met in person?"

"No. We've talked on line for almost a year,
also on the phone and texted each other. Then she said she wanted
to meet, that she needed my help. I sent her my address, told her I
had a disability and couldn't leave the house easily. That's when
the pictures came in the mail. I figured she must have come by,
seen me, and freaked. I never heard from her again. She wouldn't
answer her cell, my emails bounced, nothing."

"This was when?"

"Six weeks ago."

The week before Ashley ran away to her
father's house.

"How did she act before then?"

"All summer she's been kind of weird. Making
up new characters, then dropping them. She was doing great in the
game—on track to win it all real soon. But somehow that freaked her
out, like she thought she'd lose me or something. I told her we'd
still be friends. But there were others hassling her. See, Shadow
World is different than any other game out there. Maestro has his
domain set up so that when someone wins the Crown of Symyria the
game stops and all the other characters die in a cataclysmic
battle."

"But this is all make believe, so why were
they so upset?"

His eyes widened as he shook his head at her
ignorance. "You don't understand. Some of these guys have been
playing SW since it started. To have a girl, just a kid, come along
and win it? Not to mention losing characters that they've created
and built—some of these characters were selling on eBay for like
hundreds of dollars. But as soon as Vixen won the crown, they'd all
be dead. Worthless."

"Vixen?"

"Ashley's main character. That top one."

Lucy slid the first sheet of sketch paper
from the drawer and held it up. A muscular young woman, brown hair
and brown eyes like Ashley's stared back at her. There the
resemblance ended.

Vixen's eyes were slanted, exotic looking,
blending into swept-back hair and high arched cheekbones, making
her look like she was part fox. Her costume continued in the fox
motif: fur pelts as bra and skirt, long talon-like nails, a
bandolier weapons belt held a snaggle-toothed barbed sword over one
shoulder, a curved dagger hung at her hip and she was barefoot. Her
expression was one of haughty confidence, bold, daring—a lot like
Melissa Yeager's runway photos.

Very different from the self-conscious, eyes
averted, Ashley captured in the few family photos Lucy had seen.
"Tell me about Vixen."

He rocked his neck from side to side until
it cracked. "She was Ashley's favorite SW character, but not mine.
You know the stories about boys raised by wolves? Think girl raised
by foxes. A loner, cunning, no loyalty. She won by hiding in
shadows, deception, taking advantage when others were chivalrous,
swooping in for the kill if others hesitated. She stole, broke all
the rules of civilized behavior—"

"Did she follow the rules of the game? Or
was she cheating?" Lucy could well see the Ashley she was growing
to know compelled to win at all costs, but she didn't think the
girl would cross the boundaries and break the rules of the domain
master.

"Oh no. She never broke any of Maestro's
rules. But there are unwritten rules, you know? Lately, she didn't
even seem to care about her allies. Only about winning. At any
cost." His voice dropped.

"What was the cost, Bobby?"

"After she created Vixen, about five months
ago, she killed off her other characters like they were cannon
fodder. Good characters—people I considered friends. Then she led
Draco to the slaughter."

From the tone of his voice, this fantasy
world was more real than the world he found himself imprisoned in.
Lucy shuffled the pages of artwork. She held up another sketch,
this one of a woman in leggings and a heavy cloak, holding fire in
the palm of her hand. "Who's this one?"

"That's Enchantra. She was the last to go.
She was a powerful mage, could transform any element into its
opposite: water to fire, earth to air, that kind of thing. She used
her power to save people from the demons of Ocre. Destroying the
demon king was one of the final challenges in the quest for the
crown. Draco and Enchantra faced him together, side by side.
Together they mortally wounded him. But as he lay dying, Vixen
rushed in and beheaded him, dealing him the killing blow. All his
power transferred to her."

Lucy remembered the drawing in the back of
Ashley's notebook. The one that seemed so powerful yet so sad at
the same time. "That's when she betrayed you? You're Draco,
right?"

He nodded, his lips curled down as if trying
to swallow a bitter pill. "I was Draco. Enchantra was wounded. We
could have escaped together. But Vixen killed the king and
unleashed his hoards of demons, trapping Enchantra. I tried to save
her, but we both were killed."

His voice grew heavy as if he spoke of real
people. Lucy looked away while he composed himself and turned to
the next drawings. More prototypes of warriors similar to Vixen,
but the final one intrigued her. It was a lovely, almost
Raphelesque sketch of a woman with wings. "Who's this
character?"

"Angel. No weapons except for her mind. She
protected the innocent and avenged them by forcing villains to
relive their crimes over and over every time they slept. My
favorite of all Ashley's characters. I tried to encourage her to
develop her, but she dropped her without even trying her in the
game. Said she was too lame, too weak. That dreams never solved
anything."

Lucy glanced at the date at the bottom. May.
The same time Ashley created Vixen and embraced her dark side. The
same time Melissa Yeager noticed problems with Ashley. "May. End of
the school year, everyone's feeling the pressure. Did you notice
any changes in Ashley? Did she confide in you at all?"

His finger twitched the toggle switch,
sending the chair back and forth in a rocking motion. Bobby's
version of pacing.

"Ashley had it rough last year. She
transferred to Gateway from Plum, so she was the new kid. And she
kind of had a crush on this older guy. She must have been obvious,
'cause some of the other kids were teasing her. Then the guy's
girlfriend and her friends jumped Ashley in the girl's room one
day."

"Was she hurt?" Lucy well remembered how
vicious junior high girls could be.

"Not physically. Emotionally she was
trashed. Then the bullying continued—there were MySpace pages
dedicated to outing Ashley as a lesbian, a whole cyber-smear
campaign."

"Do you know who was behind it?"

"Ashley had some ideas but she didn't know
what to do about it. But I did." His eyes lit up with the gleam of
a true champion. "I spend all day with computers, so I'm pretty
good with them. I set a trap—set up a voice mailbox and email addy
using Ashley's info. When they started spamming it with hate mail,
I traced it back. Two girls."

"Think they're involved in Ashley's
disappearance?"

A smile quirked at his lips. "I doubt it.
They've moved on to high school this year. And I zinged them good.
Stole their address books and spammed the hell out of everyone it
in—with all the evidence leading back to the girls. They got
cyber-slammed by their friends but good."

"So that made Ashley feel better?"

He lowered his gaze, long, blonde eyelashes
caressing his cheeks. "I wish. She felt kind of embarrassed by all
the attention. I don't think she ever even told her parents about
it all. But that's when we started getting more serious—I mean,
don't get any ideas, nothing creepy, how could there be?" His gaze
swept the length of his motionless body. "Ashley, she's so special,
how could a guy not like talking with her? She's bright and funny
and talented. If only she weren't so down on herself all the
time."

"Did she ever email you any photos?"

"Photos? No. We talked about setting up a
web cam but I didn't want her to see—you know. Frank helped me send
her a photo of me, only my face. So she wouldn't know the truth.
She used it to come up with Draco's look. Mainly we just chatted.
Until she sent me her drawings."

As he spoke, he flicked the computer mouse
and a tall, handsome boy with blond hair and piercing blue eyes
appeared. His hair was long, tangled around his head in spikes
ending in flames. His torso was naked except for a sash made of red
and gold dragon scales that held a long-sword. His breeches were
also made of dragon scales and his dagger was a dragon's claw.