Snake Skin (27 page)

"Who is it?"

"Draco598. From an internet café. He says,
call me and lists a number." Taylor was already reaching past
Burroughs to use the computer terminal, his fingers dancing over
the keys. He shook his head, clearly unhappy by what he was seeing.
"No go. The phone's untraceable, prepaid cell. Bought with
cash."

"Draco was the name Fegley used in the
online game he played with Ashley."

"You sure he's not our guy?"

"Trust me, this guy isn't capable of
swatting a fly. But…" He trailed off, remembering what Guardino had
told him about Shadow World, the online fantasy game Ashley had
lost herself in. "It had to be someone else from that game, someone
who knew Ashley had a thing for Fegley—"

"You mean Draco."

"Whatever. Can you check out the names—the
real names, like on this planet—of the Shadow World players?"

"Already started." Taylor beamed, his
exhaustion faded. Burroughs couldn't help but smile at the younger
man's enthusiasm. Christ, he didn't think he'd ever been that young
or naively optimistic.

"Hey, Taylor." Taylor jerked his head, his
eyes not leaving the screen, his fingers never pausing in their
rhythmic labor. Burroughs slid the donuts over to him. "You did
good, kid."

In her dreams, Ashley had been underwater. It
was still dark, but cool, so much better than the stifling stench
of her waking here and now. The water had been her friend, she
could move anyway she wanted, free of pain or fear.

Then something hit her body. Slapping her
awake.

Before she could respond or wonder, another
object thudded against her, then another and another. She screamed,
flailing her arms, trying to kick the writhing, coiling, spitting
creatures away from her. She'd come awake trapped inside her
greatest nightmare.

Snakes. Raining down from above. No matter
how far she moved, they kept on coming, sometimes just one or two,
other times a whole group. As if the heavens above had opened up
and released the wrath of God.

She cried and pled with the unseen puppet
master who delighted in torturing her. "Stop it! Please, please."
Her voice was worn down to a shadow of a whisper. "Please, I'll do
anything."

Her answer was a coiled mass of reptilian
flesh hurled at her face.

Snakes surrounded her, biting her flailing
limbs, whipping their bodies against hers. Anytime she moved,
another sank its teeth into her flesh.

Curled up in a ball, arms wrapped over her
face, she no longer dodged the reptilian missiles, merely flinched
and shrugged as they pummeled her.

An awful thought occurred to her. At first
she banished it, it was too awful to imagine. But she couldn't
ignore it, not as snakes curled around her swollen ankle, crawled
up under her pant legs and shimmied down her neck.

"Daddy?" She dared to peer into the darkness
above. "Daddy? Is that you? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please.
Daddy?"

A torrent of a dozen serpents was her only
answer.

"What do you want?" she tried one last
desperate gamble. "I'll do anything. I'll strip naked, I'll suck
your cock, I'll—" She paused, trying to imagine what a pervert
would want from her. "I'll let you fuck me. I'll do anything, just
make it stop!"

Thunk, thump, thwack.
More snakes hit
their target, hissing in anger. She moaned and rolled on the
ground, trying to dislodge them, only to land in another coiled
mass. The chain jerked, halting her movement.

"Please."

Her pleas went unacknowledged. Her invisible
God continued to hurl snakes down on her, she couldn't say how long
it lasted—minutes, hours, days? Time had lost all meaning.

Finally she curled into a tight ball, no
longer flinching while the snakes explored her warm body. She
didn't even feel it when they bit her. Didn't care as they
slithered beneath her clothing, their cold, dry skin pressing
against hers, their tongues tasting her sweat.

She drifted away for the longest time, not
feeling a thing…not a thing.

She became nothing.

Chapter 24

Sunday, 10:23 am

Megan's laughter carried from her room two
doors down as Lucy emerged from the restroom, still shaky. It was
the sweetest sound Lucy had ever heard. She closed her eyes,
listening hard, imprinting the sound on her memory. A gift to be
unwrapped later.

A sudden image of Melissa Yeager, so
beautiful and helpless to do anything for her daughter, flit
through Lucy's mind. She choked on a sob before swallowing it down.
Megan wouldn't have to worry about going through this alone. Nick
and Lucy would never abandon her. Not like Ashley's parents
had.

Ashley. She couldn't forget Ashley—not while
Lucy was her only chance.

The desk clerk waved at her. "Mrs. Callahan?
I have Dr. Scott on the line for you."

Finally, a chance to get some answers.
"Hello?"

"Mrs. Callahan, I'm so sorry that I haven't
had a chance to get up there and meet you in person, but I wanted
to call and fill you in on Megan's condition."

"You found out what's going on? Why she's
sick?"

"No, I'm afraid it's one of those good
news/bad news situations. Her CT confirmed an enlarged spleen and
liver, but it didn't reveal any other abnormalities other than
several axillary lymph nodes."

Axillary—that meant armpit. Wasn't that
where Hodgkins' Disease started? Lucy hugged her free arm around
her chest. "Are you telling me she has cancer?"

"No, no. I'm telling you that there are some
worrisome symptoms, but that so far we do not have any confirmation
of the cause. It could be as simple as a virus or infection—"

"Or it could be cancer."

He hesitated, obviously not appreciating her
blunt style. "Well, yes."

"So what's the plan?"

"I'm going to repeat some of the blood work
in the morning. And by then we should have some of our other tests
for infectious diseases back. If nothing shows up or if anything
looks worrisome, then we'll need to discuss the possibilities of a
lymph node biopsy."

Lucy's breath escaped her in a whoosh that
made her head rush. She sagged against the counter. "More tests but
no answers."

"I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do for
now."

"If it is," she swallowed hard, "cancer, can
you treat it? Have we caught it soon enough?"

"Depending on the pathology, I'd have to say
Megan's prognosis would definitely be favorable. But nothing is for
certain until we know exactly what we're dealing with."

Lucy was silent, trying to process the
information.

"I'll come up as soon as I'm done here in
the ICU and go over everything with your husband and Megan. But in
the meantime, I didn't want you to be unnecessarily worried. All in
all, the fact that we haven't found anything seriously wrong is an
excellent sign."

An excellent sign. But no guarantee. "Thank
you, Dr. Scott."

She was surprised to find Nick and Megan
engrossed in a video game when she returned. Their household was
not big on TV, instead focused most of their free time together on
physical activities, reading, cooking, gardening, talking.
Hopelessly old fashioned and out of touch with reality, as Megan
constantly reminded them. As if spending actual face time with her
loving parents was a punishment, unimaginable extreme cruelty.

Yet, here she was, gleefully teaching her
father how to zap aliens and strategize as they plotted their way
through a labyrinth. Nick was stretched out on the bed beside her,
his teeth worrying his lower lip as he concentrated.

Lucy stood beside the bed, watching,
wrapping one arm behind Megan. She asked Megan to pause the game
while she filled them in on what Dr. Scott had told her.

Megan quirked her mouth, considering the new
information. "No needles until tomorrow?"

"Unless something changes."

"Can you be with me when they do the
test?"

"We'll ask Dr. Scott to be sure, but I'll do
my best."

"Can I have a kitty when we get home? I read
that pets boost the immune system so people don't get sick so
often."

Nick looked away, one hand covering his
grin. It was so typical of Megan to consider all sides of the
problem and quickly turn it to her advantage. Lucy rumpled her
hair, drawing a look of disapproval.

"No pets," she gave Megan the same answer
she had for months. "Not until we get settled and you show that
you're responsible enough to take care of it yourself."

"But, Mom..."

Lucy's heart squeezed in agony. God, it was
so hard to say no when Megan turned those big, dark eyes on her.
Especially when she'd been so brave and when she was so sick. Megan
had never had more than the stomach flu before now.

"We'll see."

"All right!" Megan bounced with triumph and
grabbed her remote. "Come on Dad, I'm going to kick your butt."

"Not if I blow away all your goblin
hoards."

The screen filled with an explosion of light
and zapping sound effects as lightning bolts criss-crossed. A few
minutes later a tinny version of Taps sounded.

"Dead again, Dad," Megan crowed, bouncing in
a makeshift victory dance. "Want to come back as a mutant zombie or
start the game again and be human?"

"I was trying to get killed. Zombies have
way more fun," Nick said. He reached his left hand up, stroking
Lucy's arm. "You okay? They brought a lunch tray if you want
anything to eat."

She glanced over at the two trays sitting on
the windowsill. Megan's was empty except for what looked to be
remnants of a chicken finger smothered in ketchup and mustard, the
"adult" tray with its roast beef slathered in congealed gravy was
barely touched. "Thanks, I'm fine." She squeezed his hand, silently
asking him the same question: are you okay?

He considered the answer for a moment, their
eyes locking behind Megan's back, and slowly nodded. But his smile
had vanished.

Megan reset controls on the game. There was
some complicated scrolling and clicking until she was
satisfied.

"Did you teach yourself how to play this?"
Lucy asked.

"Sure. It's easy."

For a twelve-year-old. Lucy thought of
Shadow World, the game Ashley had buried herself in. "So the
computer generates all the scenarios, makes all the decisions?"

"With just the two of us, yeah," she said,
leaning to one side as she piloted some kind of sled pulled by
were-wolves through an ice field. Rumbles and crashes of falling
icicles reverberated from the speakers as she dodged deadly shards
and avoided falling into chasms. "But you can also play with a
group, have one person set up the universe, control
everything."

An evil cackle sounded as an army of
vampires attacked. Megan deftly out ran them, leaving in her wake a
frozen track of holy water that vaporized any who followed. Nick
was hunched forward, waiting for the right moment to unleash his
mutant zombie.

"How does that work? Does the person in
control just set things in motion and everything is decided with a
roll of a dice? Or could he set things up differently for different
players? Customize it?" A glimmer of an idea was forming as she
watched Megan and Nick fall under the spell of the game. "Could
they maybe even communicate with individual players?"

"A conversation with God," Nick mumbled as
his zombie tackled one of the werewolves and began to eviscerate
and eat it. Complete with slobbering sound effects. "Sounds like
fun."

Both he and Megan were silent for a moment,
fighting their way into a dark cavern, scattering hoards of
goblins.

"Look out above!" Nick shouted, almost
bouncing off the bed. A swooping form of a vampire bat filled the
screen, quickly followed by cries of pain and the funeral dirge.
"Ah, Megan, eaten by the Queen of the Vampires, what a way to
go."

Megan flounced back on her pillows. "Better
than being a carrion eating zombie."

She released the controls while Nick re-set
the game. "If there's one person in charge," she said, "why
wouldn't they try to make it harder for some players, the really
good ones, and make the game last longer? Doesn't that make it more
fun for everyone?"

Which was exactly the opposite of what the
creator of Shadow World had done. Lucy stared at the screen, now
filled with character options and world building suggestions, neon
colors spinning and flashing as Nick tried various
combinations.

Shadow World was designed to attract female
players, Bobby Fegley had told her. Yet, in the end, the domain
master had eliminated all but one player—Ashley. What had he called
himself? The Maestro.

"Megan Constance Callahan, you are a
genius!"

Both Nick and Megan looked up in surprise.
"Why? What'd I do?"

"I think you may have just helped me crack
this case."

"That girl you're looking for? Ashley?"

Lucy hugged Megan hard, making the pulse ox
machine sputter and alarm. Nick quieted the monitor. "I have a new
idea that might help me find her. Thanks to you." She grabbed her
cell phone and dialed. "Taylor? How'd you like to do some field
work?"

His adrenalin buzz crackled through the
handset. "I'd love it. What'cha need? Should I get my vest, sign
out any weapons?"

"Sign out a vehicle, bring your laptop and
meet me in front of Three Rivers in ten minutes."

"Will do!"

With the opportunity to take action, to
actually accomplish something more than waiting in dread for
answers she couldn't control, Lucy felt a little better.

She hugged Megan again, mussing her hair and
earning a scowl. "I'm going to leave for a short while, but I
promise, I'll be back tonight. Is that okay?"

"You're going to go find that girl? Because
of what I said?"