The Dark Rift: Ascension (The Dark Rift Book Series 1) (11 page)

"Yes, I was following a man named John Nelson for quite a few years. He wouldn’t have been born yet when your cousin was taken, though."

Leah sighed. "Over all these years, I never really had the feeling that a serial killer, or somebody like that, took Kari. I don't even know why I feel that, but I do."

"Well, I can’t tell you what happened to Kari, either. But, I do think something related to your burns is going on right now. Noah, his friend, and I all came into contact with deceased persons and we all have the same condition to varying degrees, although mine is fairly minor."

"But I didn’t come into contact with any dead people. I never found Kari, only her shoe. Are you telling me you think she was killed that day?"

"Leah, all I'm saying is that I think we all might be looking for answers from the same place. Did you keep anything -- the shoe, photos, newspaper clippings, information from your investigation -- you could share with us?"

"You know, I never told anyone I found Kari’s shoe until yesterday when I talked with Christy. I’ve still got it, but I'm not sure if it will tell you anything. I didn't keep it in a bag or protect it in any way. As a little girl, I kept it under my bed. Then, later, I threw it in one of the boxes I used to collect newspaper clippings and internet research about missing children. I sort of gave up looking, so I packed everything away until I saw the newspaper article with Christy and her son's picture. What are you looking for?"

"I don’t know. A common theme, something that doesn’t fit, something we haven’t thought of yet," Jodie answered.

They all turned as Officer Wending’s cruiser pulled into the driveway. Bob got out of the passenger side and stood by the car. The look on his face told Jodie he had news. "Excuse me, I think I’m needed at the moment," Jodie said, exiting the porch. She walked to the cruiser. "What is it, Bob? You look like you saw a ghost."

"I got the call on the way over here. They found a decomposed body floating in the bay this morning. The field office is requisitioning Nelson's dental records. There’s not much left of the body, but they’re pretty sure it's him."

Jodie felt light-headed. A mixture of relief, loss, disbelief and a hundred other emotions swept through her. She stared at Bob, not speaking.

"I knew you’d want your own verification, so Isaiah's gonna do that. He took the charter flight we called for earlier. He should have some answers for us later today or early tomorrow morning."

Jodie sat down hard on the curb.

"Are you okay?" Bob asked.

"Yeah. I always knew this day would come, but I guess I was never prepared for it like I should have been. Where exactly did they find him?"

"About two hundred yards east of the marina. They think he got caught up on one of the piers somehow, maybe on a line or an anchor chain, and his body was battered against the pier column at high tide every day. He finally came loose and floated up by some people having a party on a sailing yacht."

"That’s disgusting. Those poor people. I hope that son of a bitch suffered before he went." Jodie pictured Nelson's decaying body and still felt like she'd like to shoot him. Just once. Well, at least once.

Officer Wending got out of the cruiser. Thankfully for Jodie, he said nothing, just nodded and looked away.

"If it is him, it’s unlikely we’ll ever know exactly how he died. A lot of the body is missing. Apparently, he made good fish food. You probably saved a lot of lives, you know, Jodie. If you hadn't worked the Nelson case so hard, we might never have found him. I wish we could have taken him alive, but dead is good, too."

Jodie stood up, not knowing what she should feel more - happy about Nelson's death or concerned about the confusing circumstances they were in. "I guess we’ve got to re-think some of what went on here. I was starting to question whether Nelson was involved. None of this ever seemed to be a good fit for his MO, but I’m certain the recent deaths here are related to each other somehow. Also, possibly the disappearance of a little girl over forty years ago. And who in the hell is following us?"

"I can't even guess who it could be. Maybe we'll get some answers from the State Police. They took over the investigation of the coroner’s death. They'll be doing the autopsy, too. Isaiah couldn’t determine the cause of death, but did see a tiny bruise at a puncture mark on his neck. Looks like somebody gave him an injection."

Bob's phone started ringing. "Bob Cramer. Yes, that is my inquiry. What did you find out?" Jodie tried to read Bob's face as he listened to whoever was on the line. "Nothing other than that? Okay, but no felonies? Okay, thanks. Please let me know if you come across anything else." He snapped the phone shut.

"I take it you found out nothing unusual about Leah Fenton?"

"Nope. Nothing at all. Just one small possession arrest two years ago. Do you want to go talk to her?"

"I need a minute. Why don't you go on ahead?" Jodie said.

"Okay. You gonna be okay, boss?"

"Yeah, I just need some air. I'll be with you in a few minutes." Jodie moved over to the back of the cruiser, where she couldn't be seen. The throbbing in her head was relentless. She knew something wasn't right about anything that was going on. At least, the entire world would breathe a sigh of relief at the news of Nelson's demise, if it was true. For the first time in years, Jodie allowed herself to relax. Just a little. But, this trip was turning into a nightmare of its own. Best to stay focused right now, she thought.

Christy stood on the screen porch, watching Wending and another man walk up the sidewalk. The man with Wending introduced himself as Bob. Wending just nodded at her. Christy responded to Wending with a curt nod back. Leah introduced herself to the two men and Christy gestured them toward the table. "I better put on another pot of coffee," Christy said. She left them on the porch to get acquainted. Christy walked into the kitchen in time to see Noah peeking into the refrigerator. "Looks like someone is feeling a little better, huh?" Christy said. She felt relieved to see him up and moving around.

"I woke up really hungry. Who’s on the porch?" Noah asked.

"The woman from the FBI we met yesterday came to try to help us. Remember, her name is Jodie?"

Noah nodded.

"She’s got another FBI agent with her, named Bob, and she brought Officer Wending, too."

Noah made a face of disapproval at the mention of Officer Wending. Christy silently agreed with the expression.

"There’s also a woman named Leah, who saw your picture in the paper. She said she was burned when she was a little girl and the burns looked like yours." Christy thought, hopefully, the way Noah was being treated by his physician wouldn't result in the kinds of scars Leah had to bear.

"Can I see her?" Noah asked.

"Well, how are you feeling? Still hot?" Christy said, placing her hand on Noah’s forehead, relieved to feel the coolness of his skin.

"I feel okay. I’m just hungry."

"Okay, I’ll make you a peanut butter sandwich and I need to get some coffee going. You can come out to talk to them when you finish your lunch."

Christy made her son’s lunch and took coffee out to her guests, in time to hear Wending say, "Well, I don’t see what in the Sam Hill any of what happened over forty years ago has to do with two missing bodies and a dead coroner --"

"And don’t forget, three missing people, who you’re supposed to be looking for, too," Christy interrupted.

"Well, I haven’t exactly had time to start searching yet, Mrs. St. John, what with all the suspense around here," Wending said.

Christy thought he looked like a bratty child. More like you haven't tried to look for them at all, she thought.

Jodie stepped onto the porch. "Christy, right before Leah came, you were going to give me something that was on the man in the river. You said there were numbers."

"Yes, I’m sorry. I forgot." She pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Jodie, thankful that at least one person in this group knew how to run an investigation.

"You got that off of the dead guy in the river?" Wending said, his face puffy and red. "How could you have done that? His body wasn’t retrieved until the next day. Then somebody stole it."

"I didn’t get them. Tim Martin got them off the back of the man’s watch," Christy said, careful not to provide too much detail. She remembered her lecture to Noah about the watch, but was starting to realize the information he gave her might be their only lead to find the Martins.

Jodie looked at the paper and handed it to Wending. "These numbers are the same as what was written on the evidence you collected from the woman I hit. Maybe the numbers are coordinates. You know, latitude and longitude. We need an atlas or a globe to see where this location is."

"I can take care of that." Christy went into the house, came back out with an atlas and set it on the table. Wending pulled it in front of him and paged through it, comparing the numbers on the piece of paper to the coordinates shown in the atlas. "Looks to me like these folks are from China. Maybe them Chinese are droppin' radiation on us," he said.

"There are two hemispheres, you know." Christy was startled at the sound of Noah's voice. She turned to look at him. His eyes were narrowed and fixed on Officer Wending. "We live in the western hemisphere. Our latitude is north and longitude is west. China’s is north and east, but the numbers are like ours here. I learned that in the third grade."

Jodie smiled at Noah. "Well, hi again, Noah. I didn't realize you were out here." She pulled the map in front of her. "He’s right. The number 415645 is probably 41 degrees, 56 minutes, 45 seconds north and the other number is probably 123 degrees, 52 minutes, 16 seconds west. That would put us about right here," Jodie said, pointing to an area in the mountains, southeast of Crescent City and her cabin. "Looks like it’s in the Klamath National Forest, east of the road I was on when I had my accident."

Noah wove his way over to Leah. "Are you the lady who got burned, like me?" he asked.

Leah nodded and pulled up her sleeve. Noah's eyes were big. "Don’t worry, this happened to me a long time ago, when they didn’t know anything about how to treat it or really even what it was. Your skin probably won’t look like this."

Christy smiled at Leah, thankful for her efforts to set Noah's mind at ease.

"My friend, Fester, got burned too, I think," Noah said.

"Hi, Noah." Bob moved over next to Noah. "I’m Bob. I work with Jodie." He extended his hand and Noah shook it. "Looks like you might be smarter than anyone here."

"Hi. Did anybody find Fester yet?"

Christy St. John went to her son. "Not yet, honey. Officer Wending, can you give us an update on what your plans are in regards to looking for the Martins?" she asked.

"Well, if we’re done here, I’m gonna go and meet up with the State Police. We’ll take a ride over to the house and take a look around … see if we can find out if they went on vacation or something else happened," Wending said.

"They didn’t go on vacation," Noah said, glaring at Wending.

"Okay, well, nice talkin' to you folks. I’ll let ya know if I find anything," Wending said, exiting through the porch door.

They watched as Wending made his way to his car. Jodie looked at Bob and said, "I don’t know why I’m surprised, but he didn’t even want to know what would be up in the mountains at the location Noah figured out."

"Don’t be so sure. I expect he'll tell the State Police he’s solved the whole thing. By later today, he'll probably have everybody ready to run right up the mountain with him," Bob said.

"That territory’s a little rough for a guy like Wending, isn’t it?" Jodie said.

"That’s one of my favorite places in the world," Leah said. "I used to drive as far as I could up the old logging roads, then hike up about a mile and sit on a bald spot to watch the dragonflies. It’s beautiful up there."

Christy pulled the atlas toward her and pointed to the area corresponding to the coordinates. "There used to be a military facility near there," Christy said. "I’m not sure what it was for, but there was an underground installation that was created by a tunnel boring machine. The military calls the machines TBMs. My husband knew about it. Anyway, these underground installations are all over the country." And it really is beautiful up there, she thought, remembering picnics with Tom, watching the rays of sun streaming through the trees.

"You’re kidding. How big is something like that?" Bob asked.

"You’re the FBI guy, you tell me. Aren't you FBI people supposed to know about those things?" Christy asked.

Bob remained silent, his face reddening.

"I did some investigating a few years ago and these installations can be miles deep into the earth and cover many acres, all depending on what they’re used for," Christy said.

"I thought that was a UFO folklore thing," Jodie said. "Are you saying these areas really exist?"

"Yup. Your tax dollars at work. I’m not saying the one up in the mountains here is still being used for anything, but it sure appears like everything is pointing in that direction."

"Well, we'll need as much information about that facility as we can lay our hands on," Jodie said.

"I've got a file on it, although I think most of the really useful information is still classified," Christy said. So much for government transparency, she thought. It seemed as if the FBI agents had no knowledge of the mountaintop facility. Christy realized they would be starting from scratch to figure out what was going on. She had an uneasy feeling as she went to her office to retrieve her file.

* * *

Jodie sat down at the table, waiting for Christy to return, listening as Leah and Noah compared their injuries. She tried to concentrate on relaxing to stop her head from throbbing and jumped a little when Bob's phone rang. He stepped out onto the sidewalk to answer it.

As he spoke, his voice began to rise. "Yeah, but ... no, I understand, but I'm not leaving here ... yes, that's fine. I can't think of any better place to spend my vacation days ... yes, sir, I will." He snapped the phone shut and walked out by the street where he made another call. A few minutes later, Bob came back onto the porch. "Jodie, can I speak with you for a minute?"

Jodie followed Bob outside to the Camaro. "McKinley sends his regards. Isaiah just arrived at the field office, so we should know something soon about the body found in the bay," Bob said.

"Did I understand what I overheard? They want to pull you off of this thing?" Jodie asked, wondering if Bob really had promised to stay on the case and use his vacation pay to do it.

"Yeah, McKinley is convinced the floater was Nelson, even without verification. I guess, from what they described, I think it's him, too. He says we don't have any business investigating anything else up here. Says the State Police called him and said Wending was complaining that we're impeding his investigation. I called the State Police and they're following Wending's lead. They don't think we belong here," Bob said, audibly grinding his teeth.

Jodie's face started to feel hot. "I need to go and have a talk with that puffed-up little prick Wending. I've put up with him for a day now, thinking I didn't want to make too many waves and have the news of me falling asleep at the wheel with a trunk full of wine get back to the field office. I think McKinley already thinks I've gone of the rails. There's no way they'd let that one go, even if the woman was dead. But I don't care anymore. I think these people are in danger. We have to protect them."  

"Well, can you promise me one thing, Jodie?"

"Sure, what's that?"

"When you do tell off that SOB, please let me be there. In the meantime, I'm on vacation. Let's go explore."

Jodie grabbed Bob's arm. "Thanks." She felt overwhelmed with relief that he was staying. "Have I ever told you what a great guy you are?"

"Why, no, Jodie, you haven't. You're great too ... even if you are two-timing me with that EMT."

"What are you talking about? I just met her. I don't know anything about her." Jodie wondered how Bob could already know what was in her head.

"All the longing gazes, I guess. I wouldn't mind being present for that either --" Jodie slugged Bob in the arm, cutting him off before he could finish that sentence.

"How can anyone so wonderful be so awful?" Jodie realized she was becoming very transparent. But Bob knew her better than anyone did. When she thought about it, he was the only real friend she had. She sensed that she might be adding more people to that list, though.

They walked back up to the porch and went inside. "Well, folks, looks like the investigation is now in the hands of your local law enforcement," Bob said to the group.

Jodie could see the disappointment wash over Noah's face. Anxious glances spread through the group. She knew she couldn't let these people down. "But, Bob and I have decided to spend a little vacation time, hiking into the mountains. Where did you say you wanted to go, Bob?" Picking up the map they looked at earlier, Jodie said, "Was it 41 degrees, 56 minutes, 45 seconds north by 123 degrees, 52 minutes, 16 seconds west, by any chance?"