INK: Vanishing Point (Book 2) (21 page)

He looks down at me with a hint of
anger. “There is no need to patronize me. I let her down.”

McNab is holding up some sort of box
thing with a screen on it showing a blob of purples, pinks, oranges
and reds. “Look at this!”

Pitch and Quag gather behind him,
looking at the screen. “Do you see this? Is it a replay or real
time?”

After studying the screen for a few
minutes, Quag answers. “We can’t tell until we study the
motions for repetition.”

Peeking over them, I’m trying to
see the screen. It looks like some kind of weird cartoon outline of a
woman. “Pitch, I want you to do the analysis on this. I want an
hour of data before we try to come up with any findings. Are there
any EVPs?” McNab taps the screen.

“Not yet sir, but we’re
monitoring for them,” Quag says, tapping something on the
tablet.

“What is an EVP?” I ask.

“Electronic Voice Phenomenon.”
His tone is impatient.

“What’s that thing?” I
refer to what he’s holding.

“This is a thermal camera. It
records movement and temperature and extrapolates the two data sets
to form the images.” He turns and looks at me. “Eli, I
don’t have time for lessons right now. If we are going to get
her back, we have to monitor fluctuations in this fissure. We may be
able to send someone through to get her.”

“Through to where?”

“Carl, can you please take Eli to
the living room and explain some of this to him.” McNab returns
his attention to the bedroom. “Or better yet, Eli, why don’t
you take a look at that backpack? I’m sure we’re both
very curious as to its contents.”

The backpack; shit, I had momentarily
forgotten about it. Carl leads the way to the living room and
explains to Harry and me what everything is and what they are trying
to do. I can’t wrap my brain around all of this. Different
dimensions, Shay entering some sort of alternate plane of existence
and we have no real way to know whether or not we can get her back.
My head is swimming and I can’t understand how Harry is taking
all of this in stride. My eyes keep going to the backpack. Carl notes
my discomfort and lack of attention. If he reads minds, he also knows
that I don’t believe any of this shit. I don’t know what
happened to Shay, but I’m going to find out. I’m going to
find her.

“You know, Eli, it doesn’t
matter what you find in that bag. I know you didn’t kill
Taffy,” Carl says quietly as he leans back on the couch.

“What do you mean?” Harry
looks from me to Carl.

I release a long breath and start.
“Harry, Rex vomited up a breast implant.”

Harry’s eyes round out in shock.
“What?”

“Look, you have to believe me; I
don’t know where it came from.” I plead with him.

“What are your plans? I’m
assuming you’ll be bringing this to Glass.” Harry’s
tone is insistent rather than questioning.

“I don’t know. There’s
been so much happening since we discovered her missing I haven’t
had time to think about it.”

“If you want to keep your job,
you’ll do the right thing and turn in this evidence.” He
leans forward to drive his point home.

“Yeah, well it’s a little
late for my job.” My lips pull into a thin line.

“What happened?” Harry asks,
and Carl’s expression drops even more.

“Preston suspended me, but he
suggested I start looking for work elsewhere and I should forget any
hopes I ever had of running for the D.A.’s office.” I run
my fingers through my hair. It’s the first time I’m
saying it out loud. This has been an epically shitty day. I look over
my shoulder at the back door. It’s dark now and I can’t
see the bottle, but I know it’s there.

“Look, none of that’s
important right now. We need to find Shay and make some decisions on
whether or not we need to report her missing.” The hesitation
in my tone causes the words to drag on my teeth on the way out.

“I’m not sure what the best
move is.” Harry rests his head in hands. “If we call her
in missing, we have to wait 48 hours before we get any help. On the
other hand if we call her in, since she’s a person of interest
then Glass will be all over this.” He pauses, then looks up at
me. “As her attorney, what would you recommend we do?”

“I just want to find her. Damn the
court, damn the police, I just want to know she’s safe,”
I answer hastily.

Harry gives me a stern look. “Eli,
we need your level head right now. I know my feelings on how much of
this is happening, and none of it is going the way I would want it
to. People should call it in when someone goes missing and turn in
evidence to a murder.”

“My inclination is to not call in
the missing persons. As far as the evidence, we need to turn it in.
This is a direct line to obstruction charges.” I let out a
breath. “Besides, Shay technically isn’t missing; I mean,
she’s sending text messages.”

Carl perks up, remembering. “Wait,
I got that text too. But her phone was in the bedroom.” He
reaches into his pocket and pulls out her phone to scroll through the
texts. “She didn’t send any of the texts.”

“What do you make of that, Harry?”
I ask.

Carl stands to get McNab. “There’s
been so much happening that we haven’t had time to talk to
McNab about the texts.”

McNab comes from the hallway with his
nose buried in a tablet. “I’ve been trying to work out
the text messages, but I already knew she hadn’t sent them. We
just have to figure out who did. More importantly, we need to figure
out why they were sent and why everyone was supposed to congregate
here.”

A memory comes back to me. “‘The
collection is almost complete. Only a few missing,’” I
mutter out loud.

“What was that?” McNab looks
up from the tablet.

“I don’t know, something I
heard.” I’m really puzzled. I have no idea where it
actually came from. It’s familiar, but fuzzy, like trying to
remember something that happened when I was five.

“Carl, I need you to do a deep sea
dive on Eli.” McNab nearly barks the order to Carl, then turns
to leave.

“Whoa, what?” I protest.

Carl looks at me with sympathetic eyes.
“It won’t hurt.”

“Hurt? What the hell is a ‘deep
sea dive?’” I ask.

McNab turns momentarily. “We need
to find out what happened to you, why Carl couldn’t read you
and what you remember from the encounter.” His phone rings.
“You’ve got McNab, what’s got you?”

He pauses, listening; and his face
contorts in surprise. “Nigel, I need you to slow down.”
McNab walks quickly for the door and steps out front.

Carl is still looking at me. “Eli,
this will only take a minute.”

I put my hands up in front of me and
stand from the couch, backing away from Carl. “Just explain to
me what you are going to do first. Am I going to feel anything?”

Harry is looking from me to Carl. “What
did I miss?”

Carl’s face drains of color and he
sits back on the couch. “Okay.”

“Tell me what you are going to
do,” I say, still backing away.

“I’m done.” Carl
stands and heads toward McNab.

“You’re done?” I ask,
bewildered. “What exactly did you do?” I follow after
him.

We open the door, and McNab is on the
phone giving someone my address. “I’ll see you in a few
hours.” McNab hangs up the phone. “Eli, please call the
guard gate and put Nigel on the approved list.”

“Who’s Nigel?” I ask.

“He’s a reporter, Eli, a
reporter that has had contact with Shay. He just told me that Aiden
tried to kill him.” His tone is deadpan; there’s no
emotion behind it.

“What?” I’m shocked.
“Wait, we met a Nigel at the hotel. He was a reporter?”
Now my head is swimming just trying to keep score of everything
that’s happening in this moment.

Harry opens the door to be in on the
conversation. “What’s going on?”

“Yes, and Aiden would want to kill
him, but I don’t think this was Aiden. As a matter of fact, I
know that it wasn’t. Aiden isn’t even in the country
right now,” McNab answers. Carl stiffens.

“So you do know where Aiden is.
I’m very disappointed, McNab,” Harry says, pulling his
mouth to the side in a grimace.

“Yes, Harry, I do know where he
is. He is somewhere that is keeping Shay safe. But he didn’t
try to kill anyone, including Shay.” McNab defends his
position. He turns to Carl. “What did you find, anything?”
He cracks a smile, glancing in my direction.

Carl’s demeanor remains stiff.
“Yes, he’s been visited.”

“‘Visited?’”
Harry and I both say at the same time.

“What the fuck?” I’m
losing my patience with all of this now. “What do you mean by
that?”

Carl describes a scene. Someone
whispering in my ear, and Trish slapping me. The memory comes back.
“So what was that?”

“Basically, you were visited by
the Specter.” He looks from me to Harry, waiting for a
reaction.

“The Specter? From the comic?”
I raise my eyebrows.

“Yes,” McNab answers. “Carl,
as you know, has certain abilities. He can get a reading on people’s
thoughts, but he can’t do that when the Specter is present. He
can, however, extract memories.”

I look at Harry. “Harry, are you
buying into this?”

“I don’t know; it all seems
a little farfetched.” Harry gets up from the couch. “Look,
this has all been a bit much. I’m going to go and see if I can
find her. I’ll check in later.”

“Okay, I’ll keep you
updated.” I stand and give him a hug. He looks like he could
really use one.

“Eli, do the right thing.”
He looks down at the backpack leaned up against the wall, then back
at me. “Or I will.”

Shay

His eyes are boring into me with the
familiar intensity that embodies Aiden especially when he’s
trying to dodge a question. With his jaw set firmly, in spite of how
he looks so frail and old, he seems strong and unrelenting. He has no
intention of answering me. But I think I have every right to know. In
the end, it’s his eyes that betray him, swirling with confusion
and fear.

My lids feel heavy and hood my eyes to
shield me from his powerful gaze. I ask again quietly, “Aiden,
please, I want to know.”

Aiden inhales a fortifying breath.
“Shay, please, I don’t think this is a good time.”
He turns his back to me, looking out onto the water.

“It’s the best time, because
there is apparently a good reason that a man who professed his
undying love to me tried to kill me.” My tone is sharp but
still quiet. I know the quickest way to lose Aiden’s attention
is to act too upset.

“It won’t do any good for
you to know, so just drop it.” He tries to get up quickly but
is unsuccessful and needs my help up from the dock. As soon as he’s
upright, he snatches his arm from my grasp. “I can stand on my
own; I don’t need your help.”

“Aiden.” My eyes widen with
concern. “Please let me help. You don’t have to do this
on your own. We’re in this together.” I try to wrap my
arm around him, but he won’t have any part of it.

“Would you stop feeling sorry for
me,” he snaps, and then leans over on the railing of the dock
for support.

“Look, you can sit here and have
your pity party if you want. But I’m not going to stop until
you tell me why you shot me.” I fold my arms across my chest in
defiance with my feet firmly set.

Aiden’s head droops in defeat. He
begins low. “I really just don’t know.”

My head tilts in disbelief. “You
don’t know? You shoot someone twice and you don’t know
why.”

He turns, squaring his shoulders. “I
think I panicked.” That confession was hard for him to make. I
can hear the anguish in his voice. His Adam’s apple rises and
falls as he awaits my response. When I take too long, he tries to
fill in some blanks. “There was a lot happening in those few
moments. It’s kind of a blur. I still don’t believe it
myself.”

“How can you not remember why you
shot me?” It’s so hard not to scream and lash out at him.

“How can
you
not remember getting shot?” he fires back.

“Because you fucking shot me in
the head, asshole.” As soon as the words fall out of my mouth I
regret them.

Aiden can’t look me in the eye and
hangs his head lower. “I’m sorry.”

The wind begins to howl; it’s
heavy with sorrow, as though despair itself has gone to seed. Aiden’s
frail frame shivers in the cold. I wrap my arms around him. “I’m
sorry Aiden, I just want to understand what happened.”

He looks up at me with watery eyes that
carry an incredible pain I’ve never seen before in him. It’s
as though something fundamental in him has changed. “This is my
fault, and I’m sorry for all of the pain I’ve caused
you.”

My embrace firms around him as much as I
can without feeling as though I’m going to hurt him. “I
know you are. I know you’ve never meant to hurt me.”

He barely whispers. “I love you
and need you to love me.”

“I do love you.” My response
is quick and reassuring.

“How could you? Look at me. I’m
old and can barely stand on my own.”

“Aiden, don’t you think that
every time I agreed to marry you that I knew one day you would be old
and decrepit just like this?” I motion to all of him and
continue with a heartfelt smile. “I made the choice to
keep
loving you. Not because of how you look, but because of how I know
you can love. Because of what’s in here.” I rest my hand
on his chest and watch his expression for enlightenment. “Because
somewhere deep down inside I’ve always known we belong
together.” My head falls at the shame of my own mixed feelings
and half truth I just told in the interest of providing him with some
hope.

Aiden lets out a barely there whisper.
“Shayden.” After he takes a few minutes to bring himself
back to center, he pulls me down to the dock. “Let’s get
some rest.”