The Vengeful Dead (25 page)

Chapter 31

McManus could not believe his ears. A hundred, or so it seemed, gang members and not a peep or clue, and then this random old man walking down the sidewalk from the liquor store to his house, which happened to be across the street from the bar he had been visiting.

“You speak decent Spanish for a fed,” he said to McManus. “Suppose you’re looking for who killed that Rosa Sanchez girl. Or who’s left of them.”

“I am, sir,” McManus said, “and thank you. Eight years of Gang Enforcement in San Francisco. Moved here to be near my daughter.” He looked up and down the sidewalk and then back over to the bar. “Nobody’s going to mind you talking to a fed?”

“Ha!” He waved his cane toward McManus. “Nobody round here is going to fuck with me. Gangbanging little shits know better, unless they want to end up minus a few body parts.”

“I see. I suppose I should know who you are then.”

“And I’m supposing you don’t,” the old man replied. “You’re looking for Rennie Vasquez and whomever is left of his crack-smoking little posse.”

“That I am, sir.” McManus got the feeling the man had to be related to a gang member, likely a leader of some sort if he had no fear of retaliation. “You know he killed Rosa Sanchez?”

The man looked taken aback. “Boy, you know that saying, ‘Not a jealous bone in his body?’”

“I do.”

“Rennie Vasquez is the goddamn opposite of that,” he said, emphasizing his words with taps of his cane on the cement. “Rosa got pregnant with some rich boy’s kid, left Rennie after he tried to kill her. She got even by ruining his bid to become leader of this part of town, cost Rennie a lot of drug money and made him look weak. One thing you don’t want to do to a crazy little shit like that is make him look weak. He gathered up some boys and took her down. Sad,” he said with a shake of his head. “Rosa was no saint, mind you, but killing a pregnant girl ain’t right for any reason. And now looks like he stirred up someone’s righteous fury from what I seen on the news. Hope he gets his.”

“Would prefer if we could put him behind bars for the rest of his life and let him rot away a little bit at a time,” McManus said. “I can’t let a vigilante keep running around killing people, sir.”

“From what I saw, you all got the boy who was doing that. Cop wasn’t it?”

“It was. You happen to know where Rennie is hiding out, sir? That would go a long way toward helping us if you did. Think there might be a reward out for information leading to his arrest.”

“You don’t say?” The man smiled. “Guess I could use a new TV. I like them new flat ones you hang on the wall. It’s like looking through a window.”

McManus dug out his pen and pad. He loved when grinding things out paid off. You talk and talk and talk until someone you didn’t see wants to talk to you. “You tip us off to Rennie, and I’ll take you shopping for it myself, sir.”

He laughed. “I’ll hold you to that—Agent . . . ?”

“McManus. Ryan. And I’m certainly pleased to meet you today. The gang boys are a silent bunch.”

He shrugged. “Sticking together is what they do well, even if one of their own is gone bad.”

“Mind if I ask how you are privy to all of this information?”

“I helped run the damn thing, back when it was more about Latino pride than what they’ve turned it into.” He shook his head in disgust. “Enough said, boy. You let me know if I’m shopping for a new TV. I live right up there on the left, in the blue bungalow.”

McManus took down the address the old man figured Rennie might be staying at. It wasn’t an address that had been on their search list. “You take care, sir. I’m much obliged for your help,” McManus said, and he truly meant it. Hard to find anyone these days that didn’t either fear or loathe the FBI.

The sound of screeching tires turned him around toward the bar. A familiar, black Durango had just lurched to a stop at the curb. At the wheel, he could see the tousled mess of auburn hair that immediately identified Agent Rutledge. “Jack?” McManus rocked back on his heels for a moment in disbelief before crossing the street. What in God’s name was she doing out here?

Jackie slammed the door shut and hopped down to the sidewalk as McManus trotted up to her. “Jack! What are you doing here?” She ignored him, marching toward the door to the bar. He hurried up to her and reached out to touch her arm. “Hey, Jack. Shouldn’t you—”

She wheeled around, eyes wild and bright. “Hands off, asshole!”

McManus noticed the clenched fists and took a quick step backward. “Shit, Jack. Calm . . . down,” he began, but then stopped. The wild-eyed look remained. She didn’t recognize him. “I thought you were home sleeping off that concussion?”

The tension dissipated. Her fists unclenched. “Oh, yes. I was, but the painkillers started working so, I wanted to come out and see if I could track down Rennie.”

She looked like hell, her eyes sunken and dark. The bandage on her head was gone, and the pink, stitched welt marking the side of her shaved head made her look like someone escaped from the psych ward. “You should be resting, Jack. You look beat to hell.”

“I’m fine!” she snapped. “Don’t you have something better to do than stand around and harass me?”

Man! She was in a fine mood. “Sorry. Christ. You don’t need to be out here though. I think we finally got a good lead.”

“What?” Her hand shot out and grabbed a handful of his shirt, thumping his chest with painful force. “You found Rennie?”

McManus stared down at the fist clenched in his shirt, so tight the knuckles were turning white. She really was starting to lose it. “You mind letting go?”

“Where is he? Where’s Rennie?” Her hand shook against him, refusing to release.

“I’m not going to tell you shit if you’re going to go ballistic on me,” McManus said. “So why don’t you let go and maybe we can discuss what we’re going to do next?”

For a moment, McManus didn’t think she was. Her mouth drew into a tight, bloodless line, as if the subject was actually something to debate, but then finally let go. “There. Happy? So, where is he?”

McManus reached into his jacket and pulled out his notepad. He was going to have to call Pernetti in on this first. No way was he taking Jack out there like this. She was in no state to be confronting a murderer. “You know, Jack. You’re probably not in the best state to be going—”

The rest of his sentence rushed out with the air from his lungs as Jackie’s fist buried itself into his solar plexus. He dropped to a knee, a swirling wave of nausea overwhelming him. “Jack!” he managed to gasp out. Her face was twisted into smiling, wicked sneer, but it was in the eyes that McManus saw the truth. Jackie no longer stared down at him. “Rosa.”

She reached down and snatched the notepad from his hand while he sucked air like a beached fish. What was she doing?

“Huh,” she said from somewhere above him. “I’d have never guessed, the little shit.”

McManus turned and looked up. “You have to . . . stop, Rosa.”

She bent over until her face was only inches from his. “Thanks, Agent Whoever-you-are, but I need your gun now.”

“Rosa . . . no.” He clamped his hand down on his holster, a feeble effort at best without any breath to fuel his defense.

McManus turned just in time to see her steel-toed hiker come sweeping through the damp air, and he kissed it goodnight.

Chapter 32

Nick thrust his keys into the ignition of his Porsche outside Jackie’s apartment and then froze. The whisper of Deadworld blew through him, tingling his blood. The scent of it was all too familiar, as her blood still coursed through his body.

He glanced up, looking around at the street. “Jackie?” But no, she was not close. Nick closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath, focusing on the feeling of her spirit touching him. He turned until the sensation, faint and subtle though it was, became strongest. Home. What had happened? How could he be feeling this?

Nick’s heart leaped up into his throat. Dear God, could something dreadful have happened to her?

The ring of his cell startled him back to reality. It was Shelby. “Nick! Laurel’s back! I can—”

“The house,” he replied, and swallowed hard. “I think they’re back at the house.”

“What? But . . . how? Jackie? Shit, Nick. What the fuck’s going on?”

“Rosa. God damnit! Rosa got to her.” Nick gunned the engine, his hand suddenly clammy with sweat fumbled at the shifter before he launched the Porsche out into traffic. “Meet me there.”

The normal thirty-minute drive took nineteen minutes. A million panicked thoughts raced through his brain during that time—what had happened to Jackie? Could Rosa have possessed her, taken her out somewhere, looking for Vasquez and been killed? If Rosa still had her, then how could her spirit be roaming around freely? She should have been locked away, forced into submission by Rosa’s dominant force. He had feared it might happen, suspected Rosa has done something to her when Morgan was killed, but there had been no way to know. Jackie was certainly in no state of mind to be dealing with Rosa. Her will had been battered and beaten down to nothing. He should have never let her stay in her apartment alone.

Whipping through the curves up to his house, hands clenched around the steering wheel slick with sweat, Nick knew for sure Jackie was there. He could even feel Laurel, much weaker, but definitely present. A single light flashed behind him as Shelby’s BMW flew up behind him, hugging the curves with physics-bending force. They slid to stop in his driveway together, running to the door side by side.

Once inside, Nick crossed the foyer and came to a stop in the archway leading to the living room, his breath locking up inside his lungs. He knew what he was going to find, but it still stunned him. There on the hearth of stone stood Jackie’s gray, translucent figure. Laurel, far less visible, reclined on the sofa beside her.

Jackie gave him a feeble wave and her voice cracked. “Hey. Got a small problem here.”

Shelby rushed over to the couch and knelt down beside Laurel. “Baby! Thank-fucking-God. I thought you were dead. I mean, really dead.”

“I’m OK now,” she said, “but we need to help Jackie before it’s too late.”

Nick staggered into the living room toward Jackie, his legs loose and rubbery. “Too late for what?”

“Rosa said I wouldn’t get my body back.” Jackie shrugged and sat down on the slate apron of the fireplace. “Think she plans on wasting my body once she’s done with me.” Her voice quavered. “How does this even happen? It’s because I’m fucking broken, isn’t it? Goddamn Deadworld bullshit.” Her voice rose an octave. “What the hell is wrong with me?”

Relief flooded through him. Rosa still had her body. She was alive and yet somehow her spirit roamed freely. A choked laugh escaped his lips. “You’re not dead.” Her fists were clenched together in her lap. Nick walked over and sat down beside her. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Jackie.” He rubbed his hands over his head. “And thank God you’re not dead.”

She cocked her head and looked up at him. The fear and anger in her face melted away. “You thought . . . oh. No, Nick. I’m not dead, not yet anyway. I’m just, um, I’m missing my body.” She tried to smile but failed. “So, how do I get my body back?”

He heaved a sigh of relief, regaining his composure. A monumental failure had been averted, at least for now. “We need to get Rosa out first,” Nick said. “Then you can go back, just like crossing over. That part should be easy. I just don’t get why you’re here and not trapped in your body.”

“Me either,” she said.

“The bonds are broken,” Laurel replied.

“What?” All three of them said in unison.

Laurel sat up straight. “The bond between her body and spirit has been broken. Rosa didn’t trap her because she didn’t have to. She just shoved Jackie over to Deadworld.”

Jackie’s fists clenched in her lap. “She came while I was sleeping. The bitch invaded me while I slept.”

“Ah,” Nick said, nodding. It made some sense now. That was why she could open the door to Deadworld so easily. “Well, we need to encourage her to come back home then.”

“Her baby,” Jackie said, shoulders slumping. “We have to go threaten her baby again.”

“Worked before. No reason to think it won’t work again.”

Shelby looked skeptical. “Can you handle her, Nick? You said before that she might be stronger than we can deal with.”

“Before?” Jackie wondered. “What before?”

“Cynthia went to see if Rosa was at home,” Nick said, “and nearly got strangled. This must have been before she came and took you.”

“Oh. Can you handle her?”

“Between Shelby and me, we should be able to hold her for the few seconds you’d need to cross back.”

“And after that? How do we keep her out?”

Nick gave her a grim smile. He had no ready answer for that one because he honestly had no idea if Jackie could hold Rosa off. “We’ll keep an eye on you until this Vasquez guy is tracked down and caught. Speaking of which, I should call McManus and warn him that you’re out there looking.”

Jackie shook her head and then put her face in her hands, mumbling something Nick could not quite understand. He punched in McManus’s number, who sounded like he had just woke up when he answered.

“McManus? Nick Anderson.”

“Hey . . . Nick? We’ve got a big ol’ cluster fuck going on here. I’m pretty sure Rosa has Jackie.”

His stomach tensed. “You’ve seen her, then?”

“You could call it that. We need to find her quick. She sucker-punched me and took my gun.”

Jackie’s head snapped up. She had heard McManus’s message. “Oh, shit. I’m so screwed.”

Nick raised a finger to her to be quiet. “Do you have any idea where she was heading?”

“Jackie!” Laurel shouted or tried to, but her strength was not up to it. “We’ll figure this out.”

“Yeah, she got me right after I told her where Vasquez might be,” said McManus.

Damn. “You found him?” asked Nick.

“Maybe. Reliable source, but still have to check it out.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Ten minutes, maybe,” McManus replied.

“Try and find her,” he said. “I’m going to see if we can get Rosa out, so she might be back to the same old Jackie we know and love.”

There was a pause on the other end. “Get her out, Nick? Where you at?”

“Home.”

Another pause. “OK, then. I wouldn’t mind being clued in a bit more on this.”

“Soon. Call me if you find her.” Nick hung up. “We need to act fast. Jackie, I’m going to need you to help pull Shelby and me across. Think you can do that?”

Laurel sat up. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Nick.”

“We go after Rosa’s babe, she comes back. We need to do this now before Rosa kills someone else. She may know where Vasquez is.”

Shelby stood up. “Nick’s right. Five minutes ago would’ve been better.”

“You want my help?” Laurel said.

“No,” Nick replied. “Stay here. This shouldn’t take long and I don’t want to risk you with Rosa again.”

Jackie waved her hands in warning. “Wait a sec. Laur, what about that thing we saw?”

The nervous, wide-eyed look concerned Nick. “Thing? What thing?”

Laurel shook her head. “No idea what it was. It wasn’t human, though.”

“What?” Nick and Shelby asked simultaneously.

“It was black with these long spindly arms and covered in something . . . spikes or quills, I don’t know, but it had these huge, green eyes and gave me the damnedest look when it saw me.”

“It come after you?” Nick wondered. There was something non-human in Deadworld? How was that possible? What could it be? At the moment though, it did not matter. They had to get Rosa out of Jackie’s body immediately.

“Yeah,” Jackie replied. “Freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“All right,” Nick said. “We’ll deal with that later, since I’m not even sure what to say about that. This won’t take us long, if the last time is any indication.”

Jackie sighed. “It freaks me out more knowing my body is out there being used by someone else.”

A clap startled him. Shelby grinned and rubbed her hands together. “Let’s do this. Jackie, you know how to open the door?”

“You could say that,” Laurel said quietly.

“Apparently I do,” Jackie said with a shrug. “But I didn’t actually do anything. It just happened.”

Nick raised an eyebrow with surprise. “You must have done something, Jackie.”

She motioned with her hands, flustered. “Not really. I just . . . um . . . closed my eyes and pictured the door and it was there.”

“Seriously?” Shelby said. “Show us, Jackie.”

“But I don’t”—she started and then shrugged—“OK. No guarantees. I have no clue what I’m doing.”

She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. Nick watched her intently, focusing his senses on the space around them, ready to add his own strength to hers, but it was not necessary. It only took seconds. In the air behind Jackie, the world cracked open and the rush of Deadworld’s air hit him in the face. It wasn’t a door being cracked open like he was used to, a heavy weight to be forced open with great expense of energy. This was a sliding door, wheeled back on greased rollers, effortless and opened wide.

“Good God,” Shelby whispered in awe.

Nick couldn’t agree more. “Incredible.”

Jackie turned and stared through the opening, arms folded across her chest. “Yea for me.”

Nick laid a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll figure this out. Don’t go anywhere once we’re over.” Nick stepped forward wincing at the pain of transition, the instant cold ache in his bones. A moment later they were all through, standing in the monotone gray, Deadworld version of his living room. “Now then. I imagine this is going to be quick. Jackie, I don’t want you inside. Stay out of her house.” She nodded in agreement. “Once Rosa comes back, you should be able to go right back to your body.”

“How?”

“Rosa won’t be blocking your way,” he replied. “Just keep trying once we get over there. Once you’ve gone we’ll leave.”

“Don’t you think she’ll attack?”

“She will. Rosa thinks that I can drain her. She might be angry but she’s not stupid.”

Jackie appeared worried. “Can you? Drain her, I mean.”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Nick said. He hoped it did not come to that. “I’m counting on the threat being enough to get us out.”

Shelby took a hold of her hand. “Important thing is getting you back, and making sure she doesn’t get to you again.”

“You going to keep me awake for the rest of my life?”

Always the smartass. Nick gave her a fleeting smile. “No. We’ll just keep you under watch until Vasquez is caught. I think Rosa will be done once the source of her rage is dealt with. You ready to go over there?” They were wasting precious time. Nobody knew how close Rosa was to confronting Vasquez.

“No, but let’s do this. I want my body back,” Jackie said.

Nick reached out and took her hand and offered his other to Shelby. Jackie’s cold hand felt incredibly small and frail in his grasp. If Rosa proved a problem, he would have to take her out. He would not let her get close to Jackie. “Here we go.”

They arrived together on Rosa’s front steps, engulfed immediately by the baby’s keening wail. Was it any wonder Rosa was driven to kill those responsible? Jackie flinched and pulled away from his grasp. “What is it?”

“She knows we’re here,” Shelby said. “And not happy about it.”

Nick walked up and opened the door. “Stay here, Jackie. Be ready. I’ll get a hold of you as soon as I can after we’re done.”

She nodded, arms folded over her chest. She looked like a lost, homeless waif, battered and shrunk in on herself. “Be careful,” she said.

Shelby followed him and they went quickly up the stairs. He figured it would not take Rosa long to jump back and she proved him right. Her presence lit up the bedroom even as he was opening the door.

“Get out!”

“Rosa—” he began, but it was as far as he got. She leaped at him, hands extended like claws, reaching for his throat. The speed at which she moved took him by surprise and she was on him before he could even get his hands up to protect himself.

“Stay away from my baby,” she screamed. Her legs clamped around his waist and the momentum carried them tumbling backward into the hall.

“Nick!” Shelby cried out, leaping to his aid.

The hands at his throat were digging in with ferocious tenacity, cutting off his air. “Rosa,” he gasped, but it was all he could muster. Shelby’s arm came around and hooked around Rosa’s throat, trying to pry her loose, but even her blood-fueled power could not pull the vengeful woman free.

“Goddamn, Rosa,” she grunted. “We’re not after your baby.”

Nick felt the power of a doorway opening nearby and then abruptly close. Jackie’s presence was no longer nearby, which hopefully meant she had returned to her body. Rosa noticed, too, and the pressure around his neck abruptly subsided. She reached up with one hand and grabbed Shelby by the hair, flinging her down the hall to crash on the floor.

“No!” Rosa let loose a tirade in Spanish and turned her burning gaze back to Nick. She balled up one small fist and cocked it above his face.

“Shel! Go!” Nick turned and brought up a forearm to block. The force of her blow snapped his arm back into his face hard enough that he heard something crack in his nose. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the hallway was now empty. Rosa pivoted and brought her other fist down, but Nick was ready for this one and caught it in his hand, diverting the blow away from his face. “Don’t force me to drain you, Rosa. I don’t want to.”