HOUSE OF BROKEN SOULS Part 42
Warnings: This Chapter: None. Overall: Slash, sexually explicit content, graphic violence
The fiction includes a mental illness storyline. I am not qualified in mental health, everything I know about it is googled. It's fantasy folks, please don't shoot me though helpful criticism is always welcomed.
*Not real. The folks aren't mine. No damage intended.
Lia (Cheebles) is still with me for help & support for which I am very grateful (hugs)
It was 10.00 when Jensen walked through the concourse at BWI. He retrieved his weapons and checked his phone. He had a short text xx spoke to Misha. Speak soon? All's well. Kate says hi xx. He noted the use of the K in Kate and knew it was deliberate. They had told Kate and she hadn’t freaked out. He hailed a cab and asked to go to Johns Hopkins Hospital. They turned onto a main street in disarray, traffic spewed fumes and stretched ahead in a slow moving crocodile. The driver swore under his breath. “If you’re prepared to take a longer route I can get us out of here. It’s a bit unconventional.”
Yes, yes, do it. Oh wait, it doesn’t actually go off-road or the wrong way down one way streets does it?”
He raised a laugh from the driver as he glanced at him in the mirror. “No. It takes us out of the area and back in on the other side.”
“In that case just go for it.” They turned away from the traffic congestion and into free flowing traffic.
***
Caitlin straightened Jared’s jacket and smoothed his tie. She purchased a large coffee and sat with her puzzle book with her back to the wall, in a nook of the hospital café. “Knock ‘em dead, because your design is awesome.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Any worries, buzz the pay-as-you-go twice. It’s on vibrate and it’s in my pants pocket so it’s going to get my attention.”
She grinned at him. “If I buzz you six or seven times I’m just teasing you.”
He wagged a finger. “Don’t you dare!”
She was deep in concentration when the man sat beside her. She looked up apologetically “Sorry, it’s taken, I’m waiting on a friend.” He didn’t move and her head started to pound, she found herself reaching for her belt but there was no weapon there. What made her think there would be? He placed a yellow stained hand on her arm and she wondered why she wasn’t screaming. She put her feet to the floor but she didn’t run.
“Hey there Emma. I brought ya summat.” He surreptitiously palmed a thin, smooth object into her hand. She fingered the leather, felt the fastener and tested her grip on the handle. She popped the fastener and withdrew the blade from the leather, keeping it hidden from view, under the table. It was smooth and cool, a good weight and easy to grip in her small hand.
“It’s beautiful.” she breathed. She fastened the holder on her belt and slipped the blade in. She drew her hoodie over it and zipped it up. “Thanks”
“You was best of ‘em all Emma.”
“I said he’d come. Never figured it’d be this soon. He’s already on his way.” Emma’s smile was cold and dark. Laing slipped away and Emma continued sipping her coffee, waiting on Jared’s return.
Kate drifts in the blue, she watches Emma from afar. Caitlin is gone, maybe permanently this time. She thinks Emma is inept and clueless, but they both appreciate a well made knife.
***
Jensen watched the cityscape pass by. He fidgeted with his phone. It was an exercise in self restraint to not ring his boyfriend incessantly. They moved slowly toward a junction, matching time with lanes of growling vehicles on either side spewing carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. His eyes rested on a sign as they stopped for a red light once more.
NEWLY REFURBISHED. HIGH CLASS OFFICE SPACE FOR LEASE.
The building was large and freshly painted. New windows gleamed in six stories of a relatively modern building. There was a label to the side of the main entrance “Site Office.” Jensen rubbed his eyes and looked again. The traffic lights turned green and they started to move. “STOP!”
“What?”
They continued moving and Jensen tugged at the door. The driver hit the brakes and Jensen was thrown forward as his belongings slid on the floor.
“Are you nuts? You said Johns Hopkins.”
A cacophony of horns blared behind them.
“I need to get out here. He threw a hundred dollar bill at him. “Keep the change.” The driver stared in disbelief and turned it in his hand looking for signs of forgery. “It’s real. Just let me out here.” He flashed his badge at him and the door was released. He dodged traffic, cane in one hand, belongings in the other. There was the squeal of brakes and several motorists voiced their low opinion of him but he made it to the kerb and crossed the sidewalk to the newly refurbished building. He dug into his case for a file and drew out a piece of paper. He compared the sketch elevation to the building in front of him. “Snap!” he said.
***
Jared was on a high when he returned to collect Kate, he had to keep reminding himself that she had a name now. She was staring aimlessly at a page and he had to reach and touch her shoulder to rouse her. “You OK?”
She shook herself, yawned and rubbed her eyes “Early morning! Think I dropped off for a while there.” She took a moment to look at his face, he was flushed and his hazel eyes glinted. She squealed and hugged him. “It went well.” she said. “I can tell it went well.”
“It went well. He span her around and kissed her on her cheek. “Thanks for believing in me.”
“I did it for the shopping.” she said playfully, “Now, show me the way to the mall. I need to spend money and I have a date with some elves.”
“I’m ahead of you.” he teased holding up a small bag “There was a little gift shop, so I have my first present for Jensen.”
“You big girl! Lets go then!”
***
Jensen’s phone rang. He fumbled hurridly in his pocket and pressed it to his ear. “Jay?” His voice cracked a little as he spoke.
“Jen. I hear you couldn’t resist the shopping in Baltimore.”
“Is Misha very pissed at me.”
Jared laughed. “I didn’t ask, but I sense, yes, big-time.”
“I was going to meet you at the hospital but I’m guessing you’re all done there. How did it go?”
“It was good. We have shopping to do. Caitie, ” he corrected himself “Kate has the intention of spending a lot of money, the plane may not get off the ground on the way home.”
There were whispers in the background as Kate grabbed the phone. She sounded carefree and full of fun. “I’m going to buy candy for Jared so he can hyper out and bug you.” Her voice dropped a little and became serious and emotional. “Jensen, Misha told us what you found. I can’t say how much it means to me. Thank you. I have a name and since I apparently have two houses I’m going to be an optimist and spend money that I might have. If I don’t, I will be paying Jared back forever.”
“You’re welcome Kate, we’ll work it all out after Thanksgiving right? Let me speak to Jay again so I can find you to help carry the bags.”
Jared took the phone from Kate and stepped away. “Jen. You’re not sounding so good.”
“Watch yourselves closely Jay. I didn’t want to text it, I don’t think Laing was looking for me or you at Glenview. I think he was looking for Kate.” He lowered his voice. “Keep to the malls, stay in well populated spaces. Don’t let her go anywhere on her own. I’m gonna be a while, I have something to do. When you reach a mall text me with the details and I’ll come and join you. Do you get all that?”
“I get it all.” He spoke softly “We’re going to be careful but promise you will be too. I love you Jensen Ackles, I’m not about to lose you. OK. Now breathe.”
Jensen hadn’t realized he was holding his breath. He let it out in a sigh. “See you soon Baby.”
***
The room labelled Site Manager was empty. Jensen followed the noise of chatter and pushed the door into a room where a number of men in dusty overalls, sat, feet on tables coffee mugs in their hands. Break time. “I wanted to speak to the site manager.” he said.
“Sales office is back the other way.” a tall, bald man commented helpfully.
“No, I wanted to speak to the builders‘ manager.” Jensen got his badge out.
The tall man looked at it. “You’re a long way from Texas.”
“I know. There’s no obligation. I just wondered if you could help.” They looked like decent blokes, he decided to try for sympathy. He gauged Tall Man as either the manager or foreman. “It’s just I saw the building and I have this lady who is ill, she’s lost her memory. She drew this.” He placed the drawing on the table.
“Good drawing. It’s us.” The men who couldn’t lean over to look, stood up and came over. There were raised eyebrows, so he continued. He placed the picture of Caitlin on top of it. “Does anyone recognize her?”
Two answered at once, Tall Man and a round young man with a mop of curly hair.
“It’s the sandwich lady.”
“It’s Kate Riordan.”
They looked at each other then back at the picture. They tipped their heads studying it again. “ Damn. We always did say if they dressed alike we wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. So go on, which one is it?” the round man grinned at him, waiting for an answer.
The other tradesmen looked askance at the Tall Man. One quipped, “You had hot chicks working here?”
He shrugged at them “It was during the demolition phase. You wouldn‘t have liked her, she would have made you work.” They laughed at what was clearly an in-joke.
“Like I say. She’s lost her memory. Can I speak to you some more in private? I appreciate that time is money and all that, but it 's possible she’s in danger and it is very important. I can come back with Baltimore PD but that’s even more of an upheavel for you.”
Tall Man got up and indicated the other man to come with them “If Kate’s in trouble there’s not a guy she’s worked with who would refuse to help.”
“She’s popular?”
“She’s golden. Got us out of some fixes. An absolute bitch to work with on occasion, but the devil of it is, she’s always right. She’s scary in a good way.” He looked at the drawing again. “It looks like one of her sketches. Is she OK, will she recover?”
“She’s getting better all the time.” They were taken into the Site Manager’s office and he took the proffered seat.
“So what do you need to know?”
“When did you see her last?”
He stared into space calculating “Just less than a year, like I say, she did the demolition phase. She specializes in the removal of hazardous materials so it’s rare to see her once demolition is complete. We had some nasty stuff, heavy metals and asbestos which she project managed. She would have finished in late December or January. I can get the office to pull the records if you like.”
“Thanks, I might ask at a later stage. Tell me, does the sandwich lady still visit, the one who looks like her?”
He scrunched his nose in thought. “No, that firm stopped coming. Actually it was about the same time, maybe a fortnight later. There were some comments because we lost the two pieces of eye candy at the same time.” He waved his hands in defense. Sexist but true.”
He pressed on. “Did you use scaffolders on the demolition phase?”
“Yeah. She had a team working with her. They moved on before her.” he tapped his fingers on the desk “actually there was a hullaballoo about that too. Police came looking for their foreman.”
The round guy interjected, excited to have something to add “Jake, he just disappeared one day from the site across town. Went out for lunch, never came back. They were asking to speak to Kate but when she left here she just had a few days left on the House of Broken Souls and then a contract in the UK. She works on refits of ships, submarines, that sort of thing.”
The Tall Man continued “They may have got in touch, but if she’s on an operational ship she’ll be out of contact for months at a time.”
“What’s the House of Broken Souls?”
“It was the old Roosevelt Asylum, it was empty for years, spooky as hell. The local kids gave it the nickname and it kinda stuck. It’s gone now, they took it back to the floor. They had issues with the basement, most of that’s probably still there, freaking out local teenagers.”
“Did Jake do something to her?” the round man shifted uneasily.
“Why do you ask that?”
“I mean it’s not that he was ever nasty to her, just the opposite. He had a thing for her. Actually her and the sandwich lady, must have been a brunettes thing, but with Kate it was sort of hero worship too. He thought she was a bamf.”
His phone beeped twice in quick succession, he looked down at the screen. “I’m just stepping out to take this, will you be able to continue after?” Both men nodded.
He leaned on a wall and kicked a pattern in the floor dust as he opened a text from Jared. It was a photograph of the inside of a mall. There was a cute scene of Santa’s Cottage, surrounded by dancing elves. xxElves dude. Elvesxx with a mall name and street. He smiled. Typical Jared, his fingers tapped at the keys. xx Santa better have a good present for me xx I’ll be about an hour xx
The next message was from Chad.
Xx Prelim Lab results. ring me URGENTLY, AWAY FROM KATE . Drop EVERYTHING xx
Chad NEVER used caps. Jensen ignored the ass-kicking he was about to receive and dialed.
“Where the hell are you Jenny? Forget that, I can guess. You better not be stepping on Baltimore PD’s toes. You’re sure as hell not there for the shopping. You hate shopping. Are you trying to get yourself killed? You don‘t just take off like that on new evidence.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this Chad. I’m worried about Kate.”
“You better start worrying about Jared and yourself. Where is Kate now?”
“She’s with Jared. He gave the name of the mall. What did forensics find?”
“I’m getting the PD there now. Ring him and tell him to get her somewhere quiet, away from the crowd. We‘ll use the mall cams to locate them. He has to stand down and let them take her.”
“Chad? The forensics? He was sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, head cradled in his hand, he didn’t understand what was going on but Chad’s instructions scared him.”
The Painters' van is covered in blood. I mean covered Jen. We’ve identified blood from James Painter, blood that matches the DNA profile of the second perpetrator in the Fay crime-scene, blood from Jake Abel and Kate‘s blood too. There are fingerprints from James and our accomplice, but only one set of fingerprints is made with the blood of all those people. They’re Kate’s Jen.”
Three cards for this…
Jensen’s stomach roiled. He dropped the phone. He couldn’t move. He didn’t know how long he sat tracing in the dust with his finger. How could he have misjudged things so badly again?
“Jen, Jenny, Jensen!” Chad was shouting.
“Yeah. OK. You go do that.”
“Jensen. Don’t you dare go running off to the mall. Give me your location and when it’s over we’ll get a car to you. Sit tight and let Baltimore PD do this.”
“Um, I’m not sure where I am. I’ll get back to you on that. I’ll ring Jared now.” Jared’s phone rang unanswered. He tried again. No answer. Pay-as-you-go he thought and dialed. “This phone is switched off.” He wouldn’t switch it off. Not today.
He pushed himself up and somehow stumbled into the site manager’s office. The man hurried around his desk to grab him and guide him to a chair. “You’re white as a sheet, man. Take it easy.” He turned to the round man “Go get some water.”
Color returned to him gradually. His phone rang again. “Chad?”
“Jen, are you sure it‘s that mall? We have every cam in view, they’re not there.”
“I haven’t spoken to him yet, his phone is off. He’ll be in the crowd. They’ll be in the crowd.” He repeated it willing it to be true, it had to be, he had the picture.
“Hang on, he was by the dancing elves. He took a photo.” He scrolled the picture into view and looked affectionately at the message. He forwarded it to Chad and continued to stare it it. Mechanical puppet elves danced around a polystyrene- decked shed, surrounded by fake Christmas trees and plastic snow. Shoppers milled about in the background. Lights blurred around lavishly decked shop fronts. There was one undecorated unit, a somberly clad bank with an old fashioned clock display. He squinted at the clock, he could just make out the angle of it’s hands. According to the clock, the photograph had been taken at 9.00.
They weren’t there. They’d never been there. The world stopped turning for him.
Continued in chapter 43 here: anniespinkhouse.livejournal.com/12649.html
The fiction includes a mental illness storyline. I am not qualified in mental health, everything I know about it is googled. It's fantasy folks, please don't shoot me though helpful criticism is always welcomed.
*Not real. The folks aren't mine. No damage intended.
Lia (Cheebles) is still with me for help & support for which I am very grateful (hugs)
It was 10.00 when Jensen walked through the concourse at BWI. He retrieved his weapons and checked his phone. He had a short text xx spoke to Misha. Speak soon? All's well. Kate says hi xx. He noted the use of the K in Kate and knew it was deliberate. They had told Kate and she hadn’t freaked out. He hailed a cab and asked to go to Johns Hopkins Hospital. They turned onto a main street in disarray, traffic spewed fumes and stretched ahead in a slow moving crocodile. The driver swore under his breath. “If you’re prepared to take a longer route I can get us out of here. It’s a bit unconventional.”
Yes, yes, do it. Oh wait, it doesn’t actually go off-road or the wrong way down one way streets does it?”
He raised a laugh from the driver as he glanced at him in the mirror. “No. It takes us out of the area and back in on the other side.”
“In that case just go for it.” They turned away from the traffic congestion and into free flowing traffic.
***
Caitlin straightened Jared’s jacket and smoothed his tie. She purchased a large coffee and sat with her puzzle book with her back to the wall, in a nook of the hospital café. “Knock ‘em dead, because your design is awesome.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Any worries, buzz the pay-as-you-go twice. It’s on vibrate and it’s in my pants pocket so it’s going to get my attention.”
She grinned at him. “If I buzz you six or seven times I’m just teasing you.”
He wagged a finger. “Don’t you dare!”
She was deep in concentration when the man sat beside her. She looked up apologetically “Sorry, it’s taken, I’m waiting on a friend.” He didn’t move and her head started to pound, she found herself reaching for her belt but there was no weapon there. What made her think there would be? He placed a yellow stained hand on her arm and she wondered why she wasn’t screaming. She put her feet to the floor but she didn’t run.
“Hey there Emma. I brought ya summat.” He surreptitiously palmed a thin, smooth object into her hand. She fingered the leather, felt the fastener and tested her grip on the handle. She popped the fastener and withdrew the blade from the leather, keeping it hidden from view, under the table. It was smooth and cool, a good weight and easy to grip in her small hand.
“It’s beautiful.” she breathed. She fastened the holder on her belt and slipped the blade in. She drew her hoodie over it and zipped it up. “Thanks”
“You was best of ‘em all Emma.”
“I said he’d come. Never figured it’d be this soon. He’s already on his way.” Emma’s smile was cold and dark. Laing slipped away and Emma continued sipping her coffee, waiting on Jared’s return.
Kate drifts in the blue, she watches Emma from afar. Caitlin is gone, maybe permanently this time. She thinks Emma is inept and clueless, but they both appreciate a well made knife.
***
Jensen watched the cityscape pass by. He fidgeted with his phone. It was an exercise in self restraint to not ring his boyfriend incessantly. They moved slowly toward a junction, matching time with lanes of growling vehicles on either side spewing carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. His eyes rested on a sign as they stopped for a red light once more.
NEWLY REFURBISHED. HIGH CLASS OFFICE SPACE FOR LEASE.
The building was large and freshly painted. New windows gleamed in six stories of a relatively modern building. There was a label to the side of the main entrance “Site Office.” Jensen rubbed his eyes and looked again. The traffic lights turned green and they started to move. “STOP!”
“What?”
They continued moving and Jensen tugged at the door. The driver hit the brakes and Jensen was thrown forward as his belongings slid on the floor.
“Are you nuts? You said Johns Hopkins.”
A cacophony of horns blared behind them.
“I need to get out here. He threw a hundred dollar bill at him. “Keep the change.” The driver stared in disbelief and turned it in his hand looking for signs of forgery. “It’s real. Just let me out here.” He flashed his badge at him and the door was released. He dodged traffic, cane in one hand, belongings in the other. There was the squeal of brakes and several motorists voiced their low opinion of him but he made it to the kerb and crossed the sidewalk to the newly refurbished building. He dug into his case for a file and drew out a piece of paper. He compared the sketch elevation to the building in front of him. “Snap!” he said.
***
Jared was on a high when he returned to collect Kate, he had to keep reminding himself that she had a name now. She was staring aimlessly at a page and he had to reach and touch her shoulder to rouse her. “You OK?”
She shook herself, yawned and rubbed her eyes “Early morning! Think I dropped off for a while there.” She took a moment to look at his face, he was flushed and his hazel eyes glinted. She squealed and hugged him. “It went well.” she said. “I can tell it went well.”
“It went well. He span her around and kissed her on her cheek. “Thanks for believing in me.”
“I did it for the shopping.” she said playfully, “Now, show me the way to the mall. I need to spend money and I have a date with some elves.”
“I’m ahead of you.” he teased holding up a small bag “There was a little gift shop, so I have my first present for Jensen.”
“You big girl! Lets go then!”
***
Jensen’s phone rang. He fumbled hurridly in his pocket and pressed it to his ear. “Jay?” His voice cracked a little as he spoke.
“Jen. I hear you couldn’t resist the shopping in Baltimore.”
“Is Misha very pissed at me.”
Jared laughed. “I didn’t ask, but I sense, yes, big-time.”
“I was going to meet you at the hospital but I’m guessing you’re all done there. How did it go?”
“It was good. We have shopping to do. Caitie, ” he corrected himself “Kate has the intention of spending a lot of money, the plane may not get off the ground on the way home.”
There were whispers in the background as Kate grabbed the phone. She sounded carefree and full of fun. “I’m going to buy candy for Jared so he can hyper out and bug you.” Her voice dropped a little and became serious and emotional. “Jensen, Misha told us what you found. I can’t say how much it means to me. Thank you. I have a name and since I apparently have two houses I’m going to be an optimist and spend money that I might have. If I don’t, I will be paying Jared back forever.”
“You’re welcome Kate, we’ll work it all out after Thanksgiving right? Let me speak to Jay again so I can find you to help carry the bags.”
Jared took the phone from Kate and stepped away. “Jen. You’re not sounding so good.”
“Watch yourselves closely Jay. I didn’t want to text it, I don’t think Laing was looking for me or you at Glenview. I think he was looking for Kate.” He lowered his voice. “Keep to the malls, stay in well populated spaces. Don’t let her go anywhere on her own. I’m gonna be a while, I have something to do. When you reach a mall text me with the details and I’ll come and join you. Do you get all that?”
“I get it all.” He spoke softly “We’re going to be careful but promise you will be too. I love you Jensen Ackles, I’m not about to lose you. OK. Now breathe.”
Jensen hadn’t realized he was holding his breath. He let it out in a sigh. “See you soon Baby.”
***
The room labelled Site Manager was empty. Jensen followed the noise of chatter and pushed the door into a room where a number of men in dusty overalls, sat, feet on tables coffee mugs in their hands. Break time. “I wanted to speak to the site manager.” he said.
“Sales office is back the other way.” a tall, bald man commented helpfully.
“No, I wanted to speak to the builders‘ manager.” Jensen got his badge out.
The tall man looked at it. “You’re a long way from Texas.”
“I know. There’s no obligation. I just wondered if you could help.” They looked like decent blokes, he decided to try for sympathy. He gauged Tall Man as either the manager or foreman. “It’s just I saw the building and I have this lady who is ill, she’s lost her memory. She drew this.” He placed the drawing on the table.
“Good drawing. It’s us.” The men who couldn’t lean over to look, stood up and came over. There were raised eyebrows, so he continued. He placed the picture of Caitlin on top of it. “Does anyone recognize her?”
Two answered at once, Tall Man and a round young man with a mop of curly hair.
“It’s the sandwich lady.”
“It’s Kate Riordan.”
They looked at each other then back at the picture. They tipped their heads studying it again. “ Damn. We always did say if they dressed alike we wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. So go on, which one is it?” the round man grinned at him, waiting for an answer.
The other tradesmen looked askance at the Tall Man. One quipped, “You had hot chicks working here?”
He shrugged at them “It was during the demolition phase. You wouldn‘t have liked her, she would have made you work.” They laughed at what was clearly an in-joke.
“Like I say. She’s lost her memory. Can I speak to you some more in private? I appreciate that time is money and all that, but it 's possible she’s in danger and it is very important. I can come back with Baltimore PD but that’s even more of an upheavel for you.”
Tall Man got up and indicated the other man to come with them “If Kate’s in trouble there’s not a guy she’s worked with who would refuse to help.”
“She’s popular?”
“She’s golden. Got us out of some fixes. An absolute bitch to work with on occasion, but the devil of it is, she’s always right. She’s scary in a good way.” He looked at the drawing again. “It looks like one of her sketches. Is she OK, will she recover?”
“She’s getting better all the time.” They were taken into the Site Manager’s office and he took the proffered seat.
“So what do you need to know?”
“When did you see her last?”
He stared into space calculating “Just less than a year, like I say, she did the demolition phase. She specializes in the removal of hazardous materials so it’s rare to see her once demolition is complete. We had some nasty stuff, heavy metals and asbestos which she project managed. She would have finished in late December or January. I can get the office to pull the records if you like.”
“Thanks, I might ask at a later stage. Tell me, does the sandwich lady still visit, the one who looks like her?”
He scrunched his nose in thought. “No, that firm stopped coming. Actually it was about the same time, maybe a fortnight later. There were some comments because we lost the two pieces of eye candy at the same time.” He waved his hands in defense. Sexist but true.”
He pressed on. “Did you use scaffolders on the demolition phase?”
“Yeah. She had a team working with her. They moved on before her.” he tapped his fingers on the desk “actually there was a hullaballoo about that too. Police came looking for their foreman.”
The round guy interjected, excited to have something to add “Jake, he just disappeared one day from the site across town. Went out for lunch, never came back. They were asking to speak to Kate but when she left here she just had a few days left on the House of Broken Souls and then a contract in the UK. She works on refits of ships, submarines, that sort of thing.”
The Tall Man continued “They may have got in touch, but if she’s on an operational ship she’ll be out of contact for months at a time.”
“What’s the House of Broken Souls?”
“It was the old Roosevelt Asylum, it was empty for years, spooky as hell. The local kids gave it the nickname and it kinda stuck. It’s gone now, they took it back to the floor. They had issues with the basement, most of that’s probably still there, freaking out local teenagers.”
“Did Jake do something to her?” the round man shifted uneasily.
“Why do you ask that?”
“I mean it’s not that he was ever nasty to her, just the opposite. He had a thing for her. Actually her and the sandwich lady, must have been a brunettes thing, but with Kate it was sort of hero worship too. He thought she was a bamf.”
His phone beeped twice in quick succession, he looked down at the screen. “I’m just stepping out to take this, will you be able to continue after?” Both men nodded.
He leaned on a wall and kicked a pattern in the floor dust as he opened a text from Jared. It was a photograph of the inside of a mall. There was a cute scene of Santa’s Cottage, surrounded by dancing elves. xxElves dude. Elvesxx with a mall name and street. He smiled. Typical Jared, his fingers tapped at the keys. xx Santa better have a good present for me xx I’ll be about an hour xx
The next message was from Chad.
Xx Prelim Lab results. ring me URGENTLY, AWAY FROM KATE . Drop EVERYTHING xx
Chad NEVER used caps. Jensen ignored the ass-kicking he was about to receive and dialed.
“Where the hell are you Jenny? Forget that, I can guess. You better not be stepping on Baltimore PD’s toes. You’re sure as hell not there for the shopping. You hate shopping. Are you trying to get yourself killed? You don‘t just take off like that on new evidence.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this Chad. I’m worried about Kate.”
“You better start worrying about Jared and yourself. Where is Kate now?”
“She’s with Jared. He gave the name of the mall. What did forensics find?”
“I’m getting the PD there now. Ring him and tell him to get her somewhere quiet, away from the crowd. We‘ll use the mall cams to locate them. He has to stand down and let them take her.”
“Chad? The forensics? He was sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, head cradled in his hand, he didn’t understand what was going on but Chad’s instructions scared him.”
The Painters' van is covered in blood. I mean covered Jen. We’ve identified blood from James Painter, blood that matches the DNA profile of the second perpetrator in the Fay crime-scene, blood from Jake Abel and Kate‘s blood too. There are fingerprints from James and our accomplice, but only one set of fingerprints is made with the blood of all those people. They’re Kate’s Jen.”
Three cards for this…
Jensen’s stomach roiled. He dropped the phone. He couldn’t move. He didn’t know how long he sat tracing in the dust with his finger. How could he have misjudged things so badly again?
“Jen, Jenny, Jensen!” Chad was shouting.
“Yeah. OK. You go do that.”
“Jensen. Don’t you dare go running off to the mall. Give me your location and when it’s over we’ll get a car to you. Sit tight and let Baltimore PD do this.”
“Um, I’m not sure where I am. I’ll get back to you on that. I’ll ring Jared now.” Jared’s phone rang unanswered. He tried again. No answer. Pay-as-you-go he thought and dialed. “This phone is switched off.” He wouldn’t switch it off. Not today.
He pushed himself up and somehow stumbled into the site manager’s office. The man hurried around his desk to grab him and guide him to a chair. “You’re white as a sheet, man. Take it easy.” He turned to the round man “Go get some water.”
Color returned to him gradually. His phone rang again. “Chad?”
“Jen, are you sure it‘s that mall? We have every cam in view, they’re not there.”
“I haven’t spoken to him yet, his phone is off. He’ll be in the crowd. They’ll be in the crowd.” He repeated it willing it to be true, it had to be, he had the picture.
“Hang on, he was by the dancing elves. He took a photo.” He scrolled the picture into view and looked affectionately at the message. He forwarded it to Chad and continued to stare it it. Mechanical puppet elves danced around a polystyrene- decked shed, surrounded by fake Christmas trees and plastic snow. Shoppers milled about in the background. Lights blurred around lavishly decked shop fronts. There was one undecorated unit, a somberly clad bank with an old fashioned clock display. He squinted at the clock, he could just make out the angle of it’s hands. According to the clock, the photograph had been taken at 9.00.
They weren’t there. They’d never been there. The world stopped turning for him.
Continued in chapter 43 here: anniespinkhouse.livejournal.com/12649.html