Time Thieves (16 page)

Her phone rang. Cautiously, she picked it up. “Hello?”

“Well, there you are. I heard you’d moved back to your father’s house. Wondered if you’d contact me.”

Sari frowned, her gaze automatically going to her email. “Who is this?”

“Your old friend Brodin Wilson.”

*

Ward knew he’d
been shuffled out the door; he just didn’t know why. She’d seen something. Understood something. Something she hadn’t wanted to share. He understood – somewhat. But his curiosity had been piqued.

She’d kissed him to throw him off.

And it had worked. He’d walked out like a love-struck puppy.

She’d done it on purpose. Not that she’d been uninvolved in that kiss. She might have started it that way, but she’d not been as unaffected as she’d started out to be by the end.

Good.

But what had she been up to? He pulled into the parking lot at the office and parked. Walking in, he said hi to several friends. Jeremy looked up. “There you are. I figured you’d gone home to sleep.”

Ward shook his head. “I wish. I went back to Sari’s house from the hospital.” Sitting down, he filled Jeremy in on the passageway. “At least we know how Madge made it into Sari’s bedroom.”

“Now that is a weird house. She should have someone go through that place and see if there are any other hidden corridors.” Jeremy shook his head. “Can’t say I’d feel very comfortable sleeping in there myself.”

“It is weird. So,” he turned to face him. “Any news on Madge?”

“Nope. I called a half hour ago and she was still asleep.”

“And that’s another weird thing about that house. How the hell did that tiny woman get into Sari’s house, through the shop, find the ladder, and climb up it? Who’d have even known about the attic? Christ. You’re sure Sari isn’t some kind of hidden psycho that kidnaps people and keeps them as a captive?”

The smile fell from Ward’s face. He glared at Jeremy. “You might be joking, but I don’t want to hear that ever again.”

Jeremy held up his hands. “Sorry. I know she isn’t. But you have to admit that whatever is going on is weird. And it surrounds her.” He dropped his feet and leaned forward. “Think about it. The house has been empty since doomsday. She comes home, what…four to six weeks ago? Then within two weeks, there’s a break-in, you’re attacked, now an old woman is found hiding out and strange corridors show up.”

Laid out that way, Ward could see his point. “Have there been any break-ins at her house over the last umpteen years?” He clicked on his computer and logged in. “I don’t remember anything about it.”

“I already checked. No incidents involving that address between Sari’s father’s disappearance and Sari’s return.” He grinned. “You gotta admit it’s beyond weird.”

Ward didn’t have to admit anything. Staring at his screen, instinct kicked in yet again. Sari knew more than she was sharing. That would have to change.

She could be in danger. He’d lost her once; there was no way he was going to let her go again.

“B
rodin Wilson?” Sari
said. “Really?” She hadn’t even had a chance to answer his latest email. Speaking of which, why’d he call? She hadn’t given him her number, but her mother would have in a heartbeat. She laughed. “What’s up? Must be big for you to call me.”

“Yes.” The voice sounded quietly amused. “But only to check up on you. I hear you’ve moved back to your old home. Greg’s home, Sari.”

“It sounds odd to hear his name. I keep forgetting you knew my father,” she replied softly, pensive. How many of her father’s old friends knew about what had happened to him? She hadn’t informed anyone.

“I knew him well. We were joined by a common interest. Even on that last day we were supposed to work together, but he disappeared before I returned.”

Sari straightened in her chair. She’d had so few details of her father’s last day. He’d disappeared right before her, so she hadn’t considered what might have happened before her arrival home from school. “When that day?” She tried to minimize the sharpness of her tone and failed.

He laughed. “The last thing he said to me was he wanted to finish studying the watch before you got home.”

She swallowed heavily. “I wished I had seen the watch better. I only have his old notes to go on.”

“Old notes?” he asked curiously, his voice slightly raised. “Figures. That watch fascinated him. He said he’d found something very special in it. He often took pictures and notes with unique items.”

“I haven’t found most of them.” Her gaze went to the dusty bookshelf. “But the ones he made of that watch were as detailed as any I’ve seen,” she admitted softly. Her gaze kept drifting to the safe that held her latest acquisitions, including the watch her father had given her mother for safekeeping. “Only they are unfinished.”

“Unfinished?” Brodin asked, his voice sharp, cutting across the miles as if it were nothing. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Too bad. I wish mine hadn’t been stolen. I can’t know for sure it was identical, but with his notes, we could have had a comparison. Now we have nothing,” he said, a tinge of bitterness in his voice.

She understood. There was more than a tinge of it inside her. “Sorry. I’ve been looking but haven’t seen anything like it.” She wondered if she should mention the one she got from her mother.

“It’s probably sitting in a private collection. Collectors are an unscrupulous lot.” Brodin laughed. “At least that’s the term your father would have used.”

“And you – what would you call yourself?”

“Obsessed.” His voice turned flat. “Weird things happen around obsessed people.”

“Tell me about it. I’ve had enough weird things happening in the last week for a lifetime.”

“Like what?” he asked worriedly. “Nothing dangerous, I hope.”

“A break-in after I returned from purchasing a second watch like my father’s. One of the men was a redhead. His partner attacked a cop on a street outside my house. Then I wake up to a strange little old lady hiding out in my attic.” She sighed. “So I don’t know that any of it is dangerous, but it’s definitely weird.”

“Wow.” There was an odd silence as they both digested the strange mess of happenings. “I don’t know if it’s related, but your father’s research bordered on the shady side.”

“Shady?” Sari was outraged. “There’s no way my father was involved in anything illegal.”

“I didn’t mean illegal, but his interest…our interests…were a little odd.”

“Odd?” she asked cautiously. “How odd?”

“We were fascinated by the concept of time. I admit I still am.”

“Oh.” Relieved, Sari gave a small laugh. “That’s what you meant.”

“Not many people shared our interests.” He laughed, a mocking sound that made her wince. “Your father’s particular interests were time and dimension.”

She stared at her phone. Had he been that obsessed? She’d been too young to know at the time. “At least he didn’t hurt anyone with it.”

“Just himself. And tore his family apart by disappearing into his obsession.”

With that, Brodin hung up.

Sari stared at the phone in shock. “Wait…” But she was way too late. He was gone.

Could her father have really disappeared into the watch? No, what had Brodin said? Something about her father disappearing into his obsession. His obsession had been about time and dimension. So had her father disappeared in time? Like a black hole. Or traveled in time? Dimensions. What did she even know about dimensions? She understood the basics, but that was it.

She turned to stare at her father’s bookshelf. They should be able to tell her what she needed to know. She strode over and grabbed the first three and sat down to read. After an hour, she sat back and stared off in space. Could other dimensions exist in the same place? Simultaneously? According to this book, there were places where the distance between dimensions were thinner than other places. Where some overlap could occur. There were locations all around the world where there’d been issues of this type; towns that were on meridian lines that made them more likely. The book listed several likely locations. Her town wasn’t one of them.

Duh.

She slammed the book close, watching as dust floated into the air. This was too bizarre.

Even if the layer between time, dimensions, or whatever you wanted to call it was thinner here, did she really think her father had crossed to some other reality? That he was living with another family, or even alone, living out an existence on another plane – happily? No, not happily. Her father would be trying to get back to her.

*

Ward worked his
way through the emails stacked up in his inbox. He’d been at it for a good half hour already. “Hey, buddy.” Jeremy said. “The hospital called. The old woman is awake.”

Ward glanced over, his mind not computing the shift of topic from the emails to Jeremy’s conversation. “What?”

“Let’s go to the hospital. Madge. Now.”

He blinked and stood up. “She’s awake? Great. I was afraid she wasn’t going to make it.”

“I wouldn’t count on it still. But if we can get her to talk, maybe we can find out who the hell she is.”

True enough. With a last backward glance at everything on his desk once again left in limbo, Ward shrugged and raced outside. Priorities.

At the hospital, they walked in and went straight into Madge’s room. Ward frowned as he realized no one stopped them or even questioned their presence. Cutbacks these last couple of years had been brutal, but surely there should be someone around here.

At the doorway to the room, he stopped and studied the tiny woman. She didn’t look awake to him.

Then she shifted slightly and opened her eyes. She stared straight at him.

Her gaze widened. She made a tiny squeaking sound and huddled against the headboard.

He held up his hands. “Sorry, we didn’t mean to startle you. Madge, do you recognize me?”

She made a tiny head shaking motion, her fingers gripping the sheet up close to her chin.

“I’m a police officer. Sari called me when she found you hiding in her house.” His words had no effect; she stared at him in confusion. He tried again. “I’m here to help you. Do you have any family we could call for you? I’m sure someone must be worried about you.”

He didn’t think it was possible, but her gaze widened yet again. She didn’t answer.

Ward approached the bed cautiously. She looked like she was ready to bolt.

“Madge? That’s your name, correct?”

She gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.

“Good. What’s your last name?” He’d almost reached the chair sitting beside her bed. “Do you remember your last name?”

“Harrods.”

“Harrods?” As in related to Sari? He frowned, watching the expressions flit across her face: surprise, confusion, doubt. “Is your name Madge Harrods?”

She gave another nod, but with a hint of hesitation behind it, as if she didn’t really know.

“Good. Now, do you have a husband, Madge? A child? Someone close to you that we can call?”

She frowned slightly then shook her head.

Not good. “Do you live alone?”

She shook her head.

Ward tried to relax his shoulders and appear less tense. His partner walked up beside him. “Hi Madge, I’m Jeremy. I’m Ward’s partner.”