Michael (9 page)

“Kim, it’s just not safe—”

“How ‘bout shut up, Michael!” Her red hair swirled in a frenzy around her animated face. “If you think for one second that you have the right to tell me what to do, you’re freakin’ crazy!”

“Kim,” I tried interjecting, “he kinda has a point here…”

“What?!” she was furious. “Airel, how could you? Don’t you see what’s going on here? He’s trying to separate us. I’m trying to guard your back.”

“What?” I was shocked. “What for?”

“Seriously? You’re joking, right?”

“Aw, Kim! I thought we’d been through this already…”

“Ladies, please…”

“Shut up, Michael!” Kim said. “After all you’ve done!”

“Enough!” I said. “Kim, you’re crossing the line.” I glared at her.

She glared back. “Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be.” She turned to get into the kidnapmobile. Over her shoulder she said, “But guess what, lovebirds! You’re stuck with little miss third wheel! Kimmy ain’t goin’ nowhere but wherever you two are. End of story.” She climbed in and slammed the door.

“Michael…” I began.

“I just think she’s really scared,” he said.

“Uhm,” was all I could manage.

“No big,” he said, grabbing my hands. “I should know better than to try to control Kim, but it was worth a shot.” He opened the passenger side door and he helped me up and in. “I’ve got you now.”

Massive waves of déjà vu swept over me, and I couldn’t help but be transported back to our first date, that night, how he looked at me, how we had made such innocent plans, and how they had been so cleanly blasted away. Perhaps this was the perfect opportunity to start over, forget the past, move forward?
He had compared me to Audrey Hepburn…!
A smile crept into my heart and spread across my face as I came back from that moment. “Well, mister…are we going or not?”

He smiled and nodded. Mr. Smooth was here. As he closed my door and walked around to the driver’s seat, I couldn’t help but imagine all kinds of delicious and fantastic things were destined to happen between us. But maybe that was just the irrational little girl speaking.

CHAPTER XII

Boise, Idaho, present day

“REID HERE,” GRETCHEN SAID as she picked up the phone. The voice on the other end belonged to an overworked Boise PD detective, and it didn’t take much to be able to tell. Gretchen Reid had been around the block long enough. She listened as the fatigued voice told her about a case he was handing off to her; BPD was basically asking the FBI field office for help. “This is a first,” she said.

And it was a first. They usually saw her as a threat; they didn’t like to share, much less volunteer brand new cases. She told herself they hated her because she was young, feminine and attractive; that she headed up the local FBI field office. Part of her just loved rattling the local authorities any chance she got. Jurisdictional pissing contests, nine times out of ten, were won by the FBI.

“Okay, secure fax me the docs and I’ll have a look. Meanwhile, I’m going to need the case file number at least, via email, so I can start my own file.” Gretchen nudged her new assistant and kept talking. “Okay, thanks, Detective Vukovic. Good day.” She hung up. Turning, she said, “All right, Harry. BPD is faxing us a new one.”

“What is it?”

“Missing persons.”

“Cold case?”

“No way. This one hasn’t even had time to get lukewarm.”

“Really?”

“Yep,” she said, bustling through the empty office toward the mailroom. She wore a gray pantsuit and short heels that hit the floor in little staccato cluck-clocks that struck terror into the hearts of every admin drone ever to have the misfortune to do a tour in the Boise Field Office: Special Agent Gretchen Reid’s domain and undisputed kingdom.

“Must be important,” Harry said, tailing her like a pet. He was the new guy, just learning the ropes.

She didn’t respond. “Okay, Harry, when this is done coming in, you make copies for yourself and get the originals straight to my desk. Understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good, Harry. You’ll do well here. Just keep doing as you’re told.” She looked at him. “It’s not too late for you, is it? You didn’t have plans for tonight, did you?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Good, because I
can
replace you; it’s just inconvenient for me right now. I don’t want to have to wake up agent-next-in-line and wait for him to drag himself back to the office.”

“It’s fine, ma’am.”

“Good, Harry. I like the way you think; not bad for a rookie. I want to get on this ASAP, like right now.” Gretchen moved to take her leave, noting that it was after midnight but deducing that the parents of the missing girl would probably be up fretting anyway, so no worries.

“After that—”

“Get to work on whatever they’re giving us via email. Compile. Collate. Fix their screw-ups. Research. And call me if you find any leads,” she waggled her phone at him. “I’m going to interview the parents right now.”

“Victim’s name?”

Gretchen stopped and thought for a moment, looking up and left. “Actually, two. Both Borah High students. Amy? Ariel the mermaid? Something like that. Missing for about 24 hours. Suspect is male, about the same age, driving a late model white 4x4 pickup. I need to talk to the parents; apparently they know about both of these girls.”

Harry nodded and turned back to the fax machine and watched as page after page came in.

There was more than the usual swarming of discordant thoughts in Gretchen Reid’s head as she walked to her plain brown wrapper government Ford sedan. She had been on the phone with Timothy Darden in Portland about a couple of unusual blips that had come up on the wire. That was the reason she and Harry were working late in the first place.

Both incidents were in the region: one in Portland’s Pearl district, a bar fire; the other way out in the sticks somewhere. But that was a fire as well, and both sites were looking like arson; unknown chemical accelerants. And anytime there were ways to link events together, she indulged herself for a while, working like mad to try to prove herself wrong. In the end, if she couldn’t do that, she knew she was onto something.

And she was onto something here. It was more than Detective Vukovic’s exhausted voice over the phone. It was more than what he had told her; that the dad was just about homicidal himself. All of that was possibly understandable, if all was as it seemed. But she had a feeling…a gut reaction… there was something different about this one. She had to find out, dig deeper, see the root cause with her own eyes.

CHAPTER XIII

Sawtooth mountains of Idaho, present day

“LOOKS LIKE KIM’S OUT cold,” I said.

Michael looked over his shoulder. “No kidding,” he replied. “Maybe you should get her a drool cup.” He smiled wickedly in the dark.

I rolled my eyes. “That’s my Kim.”

“You think she’ll ever forgive me?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Yeah. In time. But she’ll fight it, make you think she’s still mad at you. Just how she is.”

“Good to know.” He paused. “What about you?” He cringed as he asked.

“Huh,” I said, “Michael, my forgiveness for you was total before I…before I drowned in the water.”

“What?” He looked genuinely surprised.

“It wasn’t hard to do. I was just looking up at you and saw you for who you are. It’s never hard when you can see things—see people for who they actually are.” I touched his shoulder. “You’re…I mean…” I was stumbling for words. “You’re amazing—but I’m a girl, and sometimes what I really believe and what I feel may not be the same. I know. It sounds crazy even to me, but it is what it is.”

Michael nodded as if he understood what I was saying. “About all this, the fight, the killing, and you…I want to fix it, to make it better.”

I wasn’t sure about any of that. Part of him honestly repulsed me when he acted like that. It was like when he just kept apologizing over and over. I just wanted him to get over it. “All right, dude,” I said, trying to change the mood a little bit. “Tell me something.”

“Uh-oh.”

“When did you know?”

“Know what?”

“That I was different; one of the—what do you call them?”

“Them? The Immortals.” He paused for a moment, eyes on the spray of light made by the headlights as we drove along the twisty two-lane road. “I was suspicious when you fainted at football practice. On our date, I put it together. The kidnapping too…pretty much gave you away.” He smiled.

I kept on. “And when did you decide to not kill me? To betray your father?”

Michael sighed. “I thought I would be able to clear my head when I left. You know, when I disappeared?”

“When Kreios let you go, you mean?”

“Sure. Stanley was furious, though. He got me to tell him where you were…but when he left to go after you…I knew that I couldn’t allow him to do what he wanted to do anymore. I had to resist him. On some level I knew that it would require force…I knew that there would be consequences. I just never knew how deep all of it would go.”

It was hard to hear him talk about it, but I needed to process. “Well, I’m…I’m sorry you had to kill him…”

“He was dead already, really.” Michael’s eyes were narrow, piercing the darkness as it came at us over the hood, smacking the windshield, rushing around the doors and swirling into and through the wheels as we sped on through it. “The Bloodstone took over his mind. It will eat you from the inside out. It’s just too much. Too much power.”

I reached out and found his hand. He interlaced his fingers with mine and everything felt right again. I could feel my pulse quicken with his heartbeat through his hand, as if we had the same heart.

I thought about asking how many people he had killed before me. But I didn’t. I wasn’t ready for what he might say, I decided. I didn’t know if I would ever be ready to hear that. “This is all so much. I don’t understand even what I am. I mean, I have pieces of the puzzle. But so much is dark. Hidden somewhere. I don’t know where to look.”

“Maybe it’s not important right now. I wish I had the answers. But I’m looking for my own answers too.” He was quiet for a moment. “Just remember that you’re special.” He squeezed my hand.

“It’s funny. I always wanted that, looking back. Though I never would have admitted it. I would have said to anyone who asked me that I only wanted to be real, normal, find my own way to fit into the world. And now that I
am
special…different…there’s no going back. And that’s
real
clear. It feels like all I want is whatever I can’t have. I just feel so unsafe.”

“I know exactly what you mean.”

“Really?”

“Totally,” he said.

“I guess I can see that. I mean, see how you could. You’ve been through a lot. We both have. You probably more than me.”

He was silent for a moment. “I know sometimes life makes you break your word. No one can say what they will or won’t do. Not with any guarantees.” He was silent again for a moment. “If I know anything, I know that most of the crap we’ve been fed is a total lie. You know, like you were talking about.”

“Like what? I bet you really want to tell me.” I smiled at him. I could tell he was getting riled up, that side of his personality I had seen so briefly on our first date.

“Well…okay, I know you well enough to know that you’ll appreciate this. Let’s just look at our cultural obsession with fame. That whole
American Idol
thing. I mean, the minute anyone shows the slightest talent for singing, and this is just a little for-instance here, but people always just assume if they have talent that automatically means they should be rich and famous. But that’s stupid. There’s all this pressure to do the impossible. I mean, whatever happened to singing a song just because you want to express a feeling, tell a story, enjoy doing something well?” He took a breath. “People just don’t think. They don’t realize what they give up to chase after stupid stuff.”

“How about you sing me a song right now, then?”

Michael grimaced.

“No?” I was enjoying making him squirm.

“Um…nope. I just love you. Do you believe me?” He looked at me with those eyes and I melted a little.

“I believe you. I do.” I was overwhelmed by my feelings again. “I mean, I tried so hard to turn my back to you, force myself to stop caring about you, but I just can’t! And I don’t care if…”

“If what?” he asked.

“What is it about you?” I said.

“Airel…”

“Okay, here it is. I don’t care if…if in the end it doesn’t work out like we planned.”

We were both quiet then.

“I mean, I just want to be with you, get to know you more. And if we end up one big fat mess, at least the ride will be fun. You gave up everything you ever knew for me. I mean…that’s true love, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Sure sounds like it to me.” He looked at me and squeezed my hand. He brought it to his lips and softly kissed me there, making me crazy. “Well,” he said, “Here’s to today.”

“And living in the now. Right now. Right?”

“Right,” he said.

“Deal. Sun Valley up ahead. Wanna stop?”

“Sure,” I said, looking at the clock on the radio and trying to breathe. “Almost midnight.”

“I guess we should get a midnight snack or something…but what’s open?”

“Maybe a convenience store?”

Michael pulled into a gas station and parked under the lights, shutting the engine off. “Man, that’s nice and quiet,” he said. He looked at me, mischief suddenly in his eyes. He turned back to Kim and shouted at the top of his lungs, “HEY, KIM!”

She jumped out of her seat, screaming, “Bogo! It’s Bogo! Bo…. Wh—where?”

Michael just laughed, slapping his thigh as he got out of the car and stretched.

I shook my head at him. “That’s real funny, funny man.” I turned to Kim. “Sorry, Kim. You can kill him later.”

She wiped the drool from her mouth and got out, mumbling.