FRACTURED (30 page)

“Ruby?” he asked, sounding oddly cheerful. “I'm surprised to hear from you now. We're meeting in just a few hours. Is there something that couldn't wait?”

“Um, yep. I think you could say that,” I replied, trying to play it cool. “Something has sorta come up, so I can't get down there for our little meeting. We'll have to do it over the phone.”

“I'm afraid that won't suffice.” His voice had a chill to it that contrasted with his original tone. “I need to see you in person.”

“Well, that is no longer an option, so it's phone or nothing,” I blustered, hoping he wouldn't see through my bluff. He knew I wanted answers just as badly as he wanted me down at his houseboat in a few hours.

“Does it have to do with what went down at your apartment last night? I'm so glad you weren't there at the time, though not as glad about where you were instead,” he growled. “Tell me why we can't meet. I'll decide if it's an acceptable reason or not.”

“I'm afraid that's classified, Gavin. You're not the only one with information you'd prefer to keep to yourself.”

“Yes, but the difference between you and me, Ruby, is that I actually
have
that sort of information. You don't.”

“Oh, I think I do now,” I said with a nervous laugh as I panned the room with my newly acquired blur-o-vision.

I could hear him rumble through the phone line. He was clearly displeased with the situation.

“If you won't come to me then I will come to you,” he snarled. “I'll be there in a few minutes.”

“Nope. Bad idea,” I blurted out, moving toward the front door to be certain it was locked. On my way, I crashed into the ottoman that had clearly been moved from its normal position in the room. Its color blended into the floor too easily, and I soon found myself falling awkwardly over top of it.

“What was that?” he asked, his voice alarmed but threatening.

“Who is there? What's happening?”

“Calm down,” I groaned, retrieving the phone that had fallen away from me. Gavin's menacing voice made it easy to find. “I just tripped on some furniture. Nobody is here.”

“You tripped? On furniture?” His voice was dubious to say the least.

“How big was this
furniture
that you tripped on?”

“Um...it was an ottoman. Why?”

“Because it's broad daylight outside and you just managed to ambush yourself with a bench the size of a small person. I don't buy it.”

“What can I say? I'm really clumsy.”

“My ass you are.” I could practically hear him thinking through the phone and I didn't like it at all. Gavin quiet was Gavin at his most dangerous―much like someone else I knew. When I heard the sounds of traffic and gusts of wind in the receiver, I knew I was in trouble.

Hanging up the phone, I scrambled most inelegantly to the front door, feeling my way up to the locks. I fastened every one of them before I shuffled my way over to the large armchair and pushed it back to reinforce the door. It was stupid, really, but I wanted to feel like I had something between me and him.

When that was finished, I paced off my steps through the hall, heading for my room while my hand trailed along the wall for comfort. It was a painfully familiar gesture. I wanted to hole up in my bedroom and pray that I could reach someone useful before Gavin arrived. There was only one person left to call.

Remembering the sequence of movements to engage the voice commands, I finally accessed it and spoke as loudly and clearly as I could into the receiver, hoping that my Hail Mary would work.

29

“
Alan,”
I told the phone, hoping it would recognize the name. I couldn't remember if I'd programmed him into it or not. It wasn't the time to find out I hadn't. I needed a distraction in the worst way, and I figured that Alan would do as well as any since Sean was out of town and Cooper was MIA.

The phone rang repeatedly and my heart started to beat faster. After three rings, his voicemail kicked in and I blurted something barely coherent into it before hanging up. I needed him to know that I was distressed. When the phone rang only a few seconds after I hung up, I assumed my tactic had worked―mission accomplished.

I searched for the button to answer the call, then hit it and immediately started talking into it.

“Alan...Alan I need you to come here right away, it's―”

“Not Alan.” Gavin's voice was rich and warning―his standard order. “Ruby. You're going to do something for me right now.”

I could hear the same blowing distortion in his receiver, so I knew he was still outside. My heart thumped wildly and erratically in my chest.

There was no way out.

“Oh yeah?” I snapped, feigning bravery. “What's that?”

“Go to your bedroom window.
Now.
”

Though I didn't enjoy his tone or attitude, I did like that he wasn't trying to order me to open the door downstairs. I didn't know what angle he was trying to work, but my options were limited, so I decided to play along and prayed that I would find a way to bluff through whatever game he wanted to play. I slowly and carefully made my way to the window seat in my bedroom and perched myself on it.

“Good, now I want you to look down at me for a second.”

It was an ‘oh shit’ moment. He could have been anywhere down there, and though I could make out shapes and objects, it was the middle of the day and people were everywhere. My only shot was to try and locate a body that
wasn't
moving. When I found someone that fit the bill, I put all my attention on him, even putting on an annoyed face for good measure.

“Done. You happy now?”

“No,” he replied coolly, “I'm not. Tell me something, Ruby, what am I holding in my hand?”
Fuck...
My plan had worked up until that point, but I was sunk, and it seemed like I wasn't the only one who knew it either. “Oh, come on now, it's not like it's not obvious. Do you need glasses or something?”

I panicked.

“Or something. Maybe.”

He was silent for a moment and very still, standing under the same street lamp that the Rev had months earlier. It was an unsettling thought.

“So it's happening...,” he said cryptically. It wasn't a question.

“What's happening?” I asked, feeling a rolling sensation in my stomach.

“I feared this would come to pass,” he continued as if I hadn't said a word.

“What?
What
would come to pass, Gavin? What's going on?”

“I'm coming up,” he informed me as he started across the street.

“And you
will
let me in.”

“No. No, I won't until you tell me what the fuck it is that's going on

—right now!”

His blurry silhouette stopped just in front of the parked cars along my side of the road. I knew he was looking up at me, but I still could make out next to nothing.

“You're going blind, Ruby,” he replied flatly. “Just like before.”

I dropped the phone to the floor.

One sentence confirmed what I feared most: that the sole reason I’d gained my sight was because of Scarlet's presence and that her continued absence may lead to its disappearance, and that Gavin knew far more than I had ever begun to bargain for. I could hear him still talking on the phone, but my mind was numb. All I could manage to do was stare out the window at his blurry silhouette and watch as he closed the last few yards to the exterior door.

He had nearly arrived when a car came flying up the street and screeched into a double-parked position outside my place. Someone jumped out and bolted toward my apartment door. My intercom lit up seconds later.

“Ruby!” Alan shouted into the magical box. “Are you in there?”

More of the most-annoying-sound-in-the-world's buzzing blared through my home.

“Ruby, I'm coming in.”

I was half afraid that he was going to bust the glass out in the door to unlock it, so I did my best to hurry down the hall to the apartment door, push the chair back to its original position, and make my way out to the landing. My hope was that he would see me before he did anything too brash. Calling his name several times, I cautiously worked my way over to the long flight of stairs and found my way down them, slowly but safely.

I paced out the four steps necessary to reach the door and fumbled for the handle. Once located, I flipped the lock and pulled the door ajar for Alan, who quickly barged through it like his pants were on fire.

“I just got your message, Ruby. I was on my way over―what in God's name is going on?”

I could hear him moving around behind me. When I turned to face him, it took me a second to locate his outline. I could feel his panic instantly.

“Christ, Ruby,” he gasped, most likely staring at me in horror. “Can you―”

“No,” I interrupted, cutting his question off. “I can't see. I woke up like this and totally panicked. Cooper's out. Sean is gone. I didn't know who else to call.” I started to feel guilty for causing him such alarm, but I had my reasons and he wasn't privy to the why behind them. He was going to want answers though, and I hadn't planned far enough ahead to have some ready.

“I'm taking you to the hospital,” he ordered, taking me by my elbow to lead me outside.

“No!” I blurted out, knowing that was the worst idea ever.

Unfortunately for me, Alan wasn't going to be easy to convince of that.

“You didn't let me finish,” I said with a sigh, trying to think fast on my feet. Cooper and Sean had always maintained that I was a horrible liar. I would soon see if Alan agreed. “After I hung up with you, Cooper called me back. I just got off of the phone with him now.”

“What's your point?”

“My point is that he knew what was going on. He said something about a side effect of a medication I'm on. Something about visual disturbances. I don't know all the details. I was too busy freaking out to listen.”

“Well, you are a shitty listener...,” he mumbled, probably not meaning to say it aloud.

“I know I am. Anyway, he said that it was on one of the labels. If anything like this happened, I was supposed to stop the meds immediately and wait twelve hours for the symptoms to dissipate. If they don't,
then
I'm supposed to go to the doctor.”

“But why wait?”'

“I don't know. It's what Cooper said. I'm sure he'd be happy to explain things to you at great length if you call him. I'm just trusting his judgment.”

“Fine. Can you see anything at all? Are you all right to be home alone?” he asked, genuine concern seeping into his tone and energy, “I could bring you over to the house. Kristy just got back last night...”

“I should be okay here. I can see basic shapes and objects, so I'm not totally incapacitated, and Coop said he'd be home soon. Besides, with all those rooms in your house and baby-toy floor snipers, I'm likely to be far more hurt there than in my own space,” I argued intelligently. They were valid points. “Can you help me up to the couch though? Maybe turn the TV on for some background noise?”

“Of course,” he said, leading me to the steps. He brought me inside and positioned me to his liking on the sofa before announcing his departure. “I'm going to be late for work, but if you need anything else, you call me, understand?”

His voice was kind but firm. He wasn't messing around.

“Yes, sir, officer,
sir!
” I joked, trying to let the smile reach my eyes and set his at ease. I had no way of knowing if my efforts were successful.

“Where's your phone?” he asked, pacing about the room. It took him a minute or so of searching the house to locate it and bring it to me. “Use it if you need to, Ruby. For
anything
. Anything at all.”

“Thanks, Alan.”

He hovered silently for a moment, his energy tentative and uncertain.

“Ruby,” he said softly, hesitation tainting his delivery. “I've got something I've been trying to show you―”

“Ha!” I scoffed, “well that might be a problem...”

“Yes, I see that now―no pun intended.”

“What is it?” I asked, propping myself up on the couch.

“It's a letter,” he said, sitting down on the coffee table in front of me. “It's from McGurney.”

“But he's―”

“Dead. I know. It was sent to me by his daughter,” he explained as he worried the paper in his hands. The crinkling sound it made was calming, but his energy was far from that. “She got it in the mail a day or two before he died. It came to her with my name and address on it and instructions to send it to me if anything should happen to him.”

“What does it say?” I asked, leaning in close to his face, desperate to glean something from the expression I couldn't see.

“It's crazy talk, Ruby. You'll think I'm nuts for even repeating it,”

he started, exhaling heavily. “The point is that something pushed him over the edge. Whatever he found out made him crazy, and he died because of it.”

“Alan,” I said tersely. “What does it say?”

He hesitated before starting to talk.

“He rambles on and on about a conspiracy.”

“And?” I prodded, needing to know more than anything exactly what was written in the madman's note.

“And,” he sighed. “You won't believe the rest.”

“Alan,” I said, grabbing at him. “Try me.”

Before he could answer, footsteps echoed up the stairwell and Alan quickly shot up to his feet.

“Someone's coming,” he said, stuffing the letter into his jacket nervously.

The door swung open. I recognized Cooper's energy straight away, and I sighed with relief.

“I swear on all that's holy, Ruby, there are times when I want to give them back,” he barked, before cutting himself short. “Oh, hey, Alan.

What's up?”

“Nothing much, Cooper. Ruby called me in a panic about her eye situation, so I came over to make sure she was okay. But I've gotta run.

Time for work.”

I was willing Cooper to play along. I couldn't tell if Alan was looking at him or me, but I shot a look in Cooper's general direction that said 'read between the lines please'. He did just that.

“Well, you know Ruby. Drama is her middle name,” he joked, headed toward the couch. I could hear the boys upstairs and prayed they were going to stay there. They may have been pack, but they still didn't know all my nuances.