Satan's Mirror (9 page)

He smiled. “I’ll walk you to the door.”

She got out of the car, fumbling through her pockets for the key. She kept her gaze down, but still noticed there was a new chain and padlock on the gate and the door of the house was closed.

She met Officer Harris in the street. “No crime tape?”

“Officially, there’s been no crime. I’ll file the missing persons report tomorrow.”

She nodded. “Thanks for the ride.” She unlocked the van’s door, and he held it for her as she climbed inside.

“Look. I believe you saw something last night. I don’t know what, but I aim to find out. There’s nothing more you can do here, understand? Go ahead home.”

She stammered. “It-It’s just that I don’t know if Dan’s alive or—”

“If he is, I’ll find him.” He wrote on the back of a business card. “Here’s my cell. If you think of anything, call me. And I’ll let you know any information I dig up.”

“All right.” She returned his smile.

He closed her door, gave it a pat, and walked away. She noticed he was still sitting in his squad car when she drove off a moment later, and wondered if he was watching to keep her safe or making sure she didn’t re-enter the house.

Her inclination was to leave the area as fast as she could, but she didn’t. She drove beneath the speed limit as she took streets at random, sitting forward in her seat and glancing about.

She searched for Joey. She didn’t know what she would do if she saw him. Would she march him to the police? Follow him to his next victim? She had a flight out at noon—she should be packing. She should be thinking about going home. Yet she canvassed the city.

Traffic grew. She received a few honks and dirty looks from drivers as they sped around her. She barely noticed. Hunched over the wheel, aching with fatigue, she scoured the streets and alleys. She passed the warehouse, the coffee shop, the marina, and the park. Joey had disappeared as if he were a ghost.

She glanced at her watch for what seemed the thousandth time. The morning was getting late, and she was no nearer an answer. What happened to Dan? Was the Mirror an illusion, as Officer Harris believed? Joey knew—and so did one other person.

She braked with a screech in front of Vanessa’s
Psychic Parlor
and leapt from the van. She opened the parlor door with such force it slammed against the wall and knocked a string of bells to the floor.

Vanessa sat at the table with a woman in her late forties. They drank tea.

“Where is he?” Emily shouted.

Vanessa cocked her head. “Your boyfriend?”

“No!
Your
boyfriend. Don’t pretend you don’t know what is going on.”

“I always know what is going on. I am, after all, a seer.” She smiled at the woman beside her, who tittered into her hand.

“I am going to ruin you,” Emily growled, seething with rage.

“Vanessa, I’ll just go,” said the woman, standing.

“No, no, Minerva. Wait while I see Emily to the door.” She grasped Emily by the elbow and spun her around, hissing in her ear. “Do you think you are the first to threaten me? I am better protected than you will ever know.”

“Protected against a kidnapping indictment? Or how about a murder charge?”

She laughed. “No one has died, silly girl. On the contrary. Your friend now enjoys eternal life. He resides in Wormwood.”

“Where’s that?”

“Not where. What,” she said, her face beatific. “Wormwood was a star. A glorious star that fell from the heavens. It struck our barren ground with such force the crater became a lake of fire. Its banks sprang up as a mighty fortress filled with pain and delight.”

“What are you talking about? There is no place on Earth like that.”

“Not the Earth you know.”

“That’s crazy,” Emily muttered, and then realized just how crazy it was. Vanessa was insane. “Where is Joey?”

“I told you he was mine. You should have stayed away from him.” Vanessa hustled her out the door.

“Where is he?”

Her gaze dropped. “He isn’t here. For all I know, Joey has gone to hell.”

ELEVEN

Emily expected to feel thankful to return to New York, but as she walked the long hallway of the television studio, dread edged into her thoughts. Ross would want her account of everything that happened in Saint Augustine—and she didn’t know what happened. The details were fuzzy. Her mind balked whenever she tried to recall them.

She received friendly acknowledgments from staff members as she passed offices on either side. She offered a strained smile in response but declined to stop and chat. Evidently, word had not yet spread about their fiasco in Florida. That surprised her. In the past, when a job went bad, crew and staff alike were required to sign affidavits that they would not leak information to the press.

The door to Ross Devine’s office was open. He was reading copy by the light of the window, his back to her.

Emily gulped. How would she explain things to him? She didn’t get the story, didn’t uncover the truth. What sort of reporter was she?

She gave the doorframe a timid rap.

Ross glanced around, and his face fell. “Come in, Em. Have a seat. You look awful. I called Dan’s ex about his disappearance. She wasn’t interested, but I thought his kids should know.” He closed the door behind her and ushered her to a chair.

Emily collapsed into the arms of the wingback, too exhausted to speak. She avoided Ross’ gaze as she massaged her temple.

He sat in the opposite chair. “I have the police report. Now I need your version.”

Emily winced, bracing herself. She didn’t want to remember, couldn’t live through it again. “We had a lead on the Mirror, so we broke into an abandoned house to look for it. We found rabbits loose in the halls.”

“Rabbits?”

“Someone was breeding them. A few were mutilated. Sacrificed. We saw a patch of light on the wall. It drove my ELF meter wild. Then a face appeared.”

“You saw it? What did it look like?” he said, leaning forward.

She glanced at him, surprised at his tone. “It looked like a devil, the kind you’d see in a cartoon—horns, red skin.”

“Let me get this straight. When you got to the house, the Mirror had already been conjured?”

Of course! That proved someone was in the house with them. Why hadn’t she realized it before?

“Did it speak?” Ross asked. “Could you understand it?”

“The words didn’t match the lips. I thought it was a hologram, and checked the hallway for equipment. When I looked back, a second Mirror had opened. A demon leaned out and grabbed Dan.”

“What? It was corporeal?”

“Yes. Maybe.” She covered her face. “I don’t know for sure.”

“Who would know? Dan?”

A frown crossed her face. “I wonder now if it was an illusion, if behind the hocus-pocus was a flesh and blood man.”

“A person? To what end?”

Maybe he liked to frighten his victims half to death before murdering them. She shuddered.

“Then what?” Ross asked.

“Dan screamed,” she said, her voice far away. “I grabbed him. I tried to pull him away from the thing, to make it let go, but I couldn’t. He got smaller and smaller as if dragged backward through a long tunnel. He was still reaching for me.”

Ross blew out a breath, shaking his head. “Did he get any photographs?”

“A video. It needs some clean-up work. And I took about a hundred shots of a figure on the porch. The police kept everything. They said it was evidence, and I could have it after my hearing. Ross, I don’t want to go back there. I couldn’t stand it.”

“You won’t have to make that court date. We’ll send so many lawyers they won’t know what hit them. We need that video, though.” He grinned. “It looks like we finally have a real phenomenon on our hands.”

She stared. “Is that what this is all about? You wanting something real? You ship us down there with no information, no idea of what we’re up against—”

“You don’t get it. We
need
something unsolvable. There’s talk that all our stories have been put-up jobs. The ratings—”

“How can you care about ratings? Dan is missing. He might even be dead.” She leapt to her feet. “And what makes you so sure it’s a real phenomenon? Magicians have been making people disappear for years. We don’t know if Satan’s Mirror is a porthole to hell or an elaborate hoax pulled off by a deranged carnival worker.”

“Em, calm down.”

“Dan was my friend. He didn’t want to go into that house, but he went—because I told him to. I shouldn’t have left Saint Augustine without knowing what happened to him.”

“No, you did right to come home. The police are on the case.”

Emily shook her head. “They think it’s a publicity stunt.”

“I spoke to the person in charge just before you came in. He assured me he is taking the missing person case seriously.” Ross took her hand and patted it. “If Dan can be found, we will find him.”

She sniffled. “I had to leave all his things at the bed and breakfast.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it.” Ross hugged her. “I’m putting you on leave of absence, effective immediately. Take as much time as you need.”

“But I can’t. Not now.”

“We’ll re-run an episode or two, call them the people’s picks. Maybe we’ll even let the public vote for them on the Internet. You rest for a few days, put everything out of your mind.” He walked her to the door and called to his production assistant. “See about getting a cab for Emily.”

* * * *

The lock clicked loudly as Emily turned the key and opened the front door of her home. Waves of relief washed over her. Here was sanctuary. Here she didn’t have to explain, didn’t have to pretend. She dropped her bags to the side and leaned on the door until it closed.

Esmeralda came out of the kitchen. “You’re home. We didn’t expect you so soon.”

“We had some problems.”

“Sorry to hear it. You didn’t call April last night. She waited up for you.”

Emily groaned. She slumped into the living room and fell upon the couch. “I spent the night in jail.”

“Again?”

“I’ll explain it to her.”

“Good. I’m sure little April will feel much better knowing that getting the story is more important to you than she is.”

“You don’t understand.”

“No. You don’t understand. I love that girl as if she were my own child. When she hurts, I hurt.”

“I see. Then should I apologize to you or to my daughter?” Emily shouted.

Esmeralda’s eyes flashed. She snapped up a sweater from the stairwell. “I promised to pick up your daughter from school.” She rushed out the door.

Emily dissolved in a fit of tears. She buried her face in the crook of her arm. Over her sobs, she heard Dan screaming,
help me, don’t let go
, heard the devil say,
do you fear me now?

“Stop it,” she blubbered.

She went into the kitchen, blew her nose on a paper napkin, and then drank a glass of water. Opening the breadbox, she took out two slices of bread and ate them dry—she hadn’t had anything all day but a package of pretzels on the plane. She blew her nose again and sat at the table.

She didn’t really blame Esmeralda for speaking out of turn—she was more than hired help. She was a friend and confidant; Emily had always encouraged her to speak her mind. She wished she’d had a chance to explain, though. Esmeralda was going out with Dan, and she should know that something happened to him.

Ross’ reaction to Dan’s disappearance puzzled her. It was as if he’d expected something horrible to happen, maybe even hoped it would. Damn him and his ratings. He knew more than he was telling, she was certain of it—and she intended to find out what it was.

That thought brought her to Joey Mastrianni. He would also enter into her investigation. What was his background? She’d surprised herself by referring to him as a deranged carnival worker, but it was entirely possible. That might make him harder to trace—no tax records.

The front door opened.

“Mommy,” April called from the living room.

Emily walked out of the kitchen to greet her.

April launched into her arms. “I’m so glad you’re home.”

“How was your day at school?” Emily asked.

“Great! I got an A on my math homework, and the teacher gave me a sticker for spelling.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“Esmeralda said we could go out for dinner anywhere I want. I chose the pizza place with all the games. Do you want to come with us?”

Emily groaned inwardly. She ached with fatigue from head to foot. “Of course I do,” she said, hugging her daughter.

* * * *

Emily sat bolt upright in bed. She felt as if she’d just gotten to sleep. What had awakened her?

“Mommee!”

“April.” Emily rushed to her daughter’s bedroom. By the glow of the nightlight, she saw April in bed with her eyes wide and her cheeks shining with tears. “Baby, what is it?”

“A monster,” April said. “There’s a monster under my bed.”

Emily wrapped her arms about her. April trembled, and her nightgown was damp with sweat.

“It’s all right,” Emily said. “It was just a dream.”

“He was real.”

“Is this the same monster that was under your bed at Christmas time last year?”

April made a face. “Mom, I never had a monster under my bed before. That other one was in my closet.”

“I remember.” She kissed her forehead. “Well, I think all the monsters have left for now. It’s time for you to go to sleep.”

“Don’t leave. He might come back.”

“Honey, it’s very late.”

“Can I sleep in bed with you? Please?”

“All right, just this once,” Emily said, exasperation creeping into her voice. “But, April, I thought we were over this. There is no monster under your bed.”

“Was, too. He talked to me.”

“He did, did he? What did he say?”

“He asked if I feared him.”

Emily stared at her.

TWELVE

Emily awoke before the alarm and watched the shadowed ceiling. April slept beside her, tangled in the sheets. The girl’s nightmare about a monster disturbed Emily, not only because she hated to see her daughter frightened, but because of the words the monster used.
Do you fear me
was also what Emily’s monster said.