The Good Die Twice (9 page)

“I do.” Sheila struggled to keep up with
Dagger’s long strides as they climbed the winding staircase. “Where
are you going?”

“I’m looking for Nick.”

“You mean you’re looking for Sara.” Sheila
stopped in front of Nick’s opened bedroom door. “Well, the bed’s
made so I guess her virtue is still intact.” Sheila pulled Dagger
into the bedroom and shut the door.

“Sheila, keep your head on the case, not
sex.”

“What case?”

Dagger unwrapped her arms from around his
neck, her lips leaving a trail down his neck as if marking her
territory. He held her at arm’s length. “Rachel Tyler was alive
prior to four o’clock Thursday morning. She has been missing for
five years. Where has she been and who killed her? I would think
you would be chomping at the bit on this one.”

Sheila rolled her eyes and turned away.
Sitting down on the bed, she said, “Give me something more to go on
than a missing body that suddenly shows up now and is missing
again.” She pulled off her shoes and watched coyly as Dagger sat
down next to her. Turning, she forced Dagger down on the bed and
straddled him. His protesting seemed mute. She was on him like a
raging nymph, forcing her tongue into his mouth and his hands over
his head.

Dagger?
Dagger heard Sara’s voice but
it sounded as if it were in his head.

He broke free from Sheila saying, “Sara,”
like a man calling out a lover’s name in his sleep. He forced
himself up, sending Sheila tumbling off the bed.

Sara, why is it I can hear you in my
head?
Dagger asked in thought only. The voice was more distinct
than just someone listening to his conscience. It was as clear as
if she were standing next to him.

Dagger? Come quick. I’m outside Robert
Tyler’s bedroom at the end of a maze of halls. It’s past an
alcove
.

Sheila crawled up off the floor and blew a
strand of platinum hair from her forehead. “Sara? You’re calling
another woman’s name while you’re kissing me?”

“Not now, Sheila.” Dagger tore out of the
bedroom and down the hall.
Sara, what do you mean you’re outside
of Tyler’s bedroom?

I saw the killers, Dagger. They are in the
room next to Mr. Tyler’s bedroom but I can’t see who they are
talking to.

Why is it I can hear you in my head?

I didn’t know if we could communicate this
way. Grandmother and I were able to whenever I shifted. I guess now
you and I can.

So we can talk to each other in our
heads?
It dawned on Dagger what Sara had said. He opened the
door to Robert Tyler’s bedroom and found Sara’s shoes by the ficus
tree and her nylons and dress out on the balcony. He looked out and
saw the gray hawk in the tree fifty feet away. Leaving the dress on
the balcony, Dagger picked up Sara’s nylons and shoved them in the
pocket of his sportscoat.

I don’t see them anymore.

Sara, get back here, now.

The gray hawk flew back to the balcony. The
shift happened so quickly Dagger couldn’t distinguish at what point
the hawk became Sara. He had even turned away as if she might be
totally nude before putting her dress back on, but the hawk had
somehow drifted into the dress and came up as Sara, fully
clothed.

Stepping back into the room, Sara picked up
her shoes and looked around for her nylons.

Dagger grabbed her by the shoulders, pressing
gently. “Sara, don’t ever do that in strange surroundings again. It
is still daylight outside. Someone might have seen you.” Dagger
looked around the bedroom. “For all we know, he might have
surveillance cameras in the room. Did you check first?” Sara shook
her head no. Her eyes, large and bright, filled quickly and her
bottom lip started quivering. He tried not to focus on her lips.
“What if someone had come into the room besides me? Sara, you have
to think first. Do you understand?”

Sara nodded, turning her bottom eyelashes
into tiny springboards catapulting the teardrops up. They seemed to
be suspended for the longest time before plummeting onto her high
cheeks.

Dagger’s defenses broke down. He gathered her
in his arms and held her tight. He whispered, “Don’t ever do that
again, Sara. Please.”

“I won’t. I’m sorry, Dagger.”

“Well, well. Isn’t this a Kodak moment.”
Sheila stood in the doorway, one fist jammed onto her hip. “You
leave me in bed to come play with your receptionist. How so like
you, you poor excuse for a...”

Dagger broke the embrace. “I left you two
minutes ago, Sheila. I doubt even I could have accomplished much in
that little time.”

“Oh really?” Sheila walked over and pulled
something protruding from Dagger’s pocket. “Looks like you got a
pretty good start.” She held up Sara’s pantyhose.

Sara swiped them from Sheila’s fingers and
retreated to the master bathroom.

“Don’t pretend to be jealous.” Dagger walked
out of the room and entered the adjacent room, not bothering to
knock first. It was empty. “Did you see anyone come out of this
room?”

“What? No.”

Dagger checked the oversized mahogany desk.
Other than a calendar and notepad, it was tidy, a little too neat.
He looked at the high-backed chairs, the barrel chair by the
balcony. There wasn’t a scrap of paper, a burned out cigar, a
jacket, a hint of who might have been there. He opened another door
on the opposite side of the room. It opened to another hallway.

“Just great. Just fucking great.”

“What? Dagger, what is it?” Sheila
demanded.

“Nothing.” He rushed past her but then
stopped. Lifting up her left hand, he eyed the engagement ring she
still wore. “You can take this off now.” He pulled the check out of
his pocket and ripped it in half. “And tell your father I really
don’t need the money.”

“What is this?” She held the two halves of
the check together, saw the check made out to Dagger and signed by
her father.

“Your father tried to pay me to string you
along, assuming, quite correctly, that I am too much of an ass to
go through with the wedding. This keeps you tied up, out of the
dating market, and more likely to stay single and follow in Daddy’s
footsteps at
The Daily Herald
.” He could tell by the look on
her face that she didn’t believe him. “Just ask him.”

CHAPTER 15

At six the next morning, Sara and Dagger
found themselves at Skizzy’s Pawn Shop. A Closed sign was pressed
against the door glass. Dagger rapped loudly.

“Are you sure he’s in?”

“He’s always in. Skizzy lives here.” After
another minute of pounding, the shade lifted. A set of beady eyes
peered out. Chains and bolts were unfastened and the door was
pulled open a scant two inches.

“Are you alone?” Skizzy stretched a bony neck
out the door. His features looked alien, with bulging eyes and a
nose too small for his face. His eyes jerked from side to side.
“Come on in, quick, quick.” He slammed the door shut behind them
and refastened all the chains and bolts. Tufts of short, gray hair
stuck out around his head, and what was gathered in a long pony
tail was attempting to wrestle its way free from the rubber
band.

Dagger held out a large bag and a cup of
coffee. “We come bearing gifts.”

“Store-bought with preservatives meant to
render us like zombies?”

Sara took a step back from Skizzy. Dagger
wrapped a reassuring arm around her shoulder. “No, Sara made the
coffee. The vegetables are from our garden and the bread Sara made
with all natural ingredients.”

Skizzy peered into the bag. “Thank you.
Smells good.” Skizzy stood a little taller than Sara. He wore a
stained tee shirt over a ragged pair of green camouflage pants, and
battered tennis shoes. His conversation then turned private,
carried out in a whisper as if a conversation with himself. “Can’t
have labels in your garbage. Then they’ll know what you eat, what
stores you shop at. They can track your comings and goings.” He
noticed Sara for the first time. “This the subject?”

“Yes. Sara Morningsky, Skizzy Borden.”

“No relation to Lizzy.” Skizzy didn’t even
laugh at his own joke. He just motioned for them to follow him past
the glass cases of jewelry, through a curtained doorway, and into a
small sitting room with a bed, television set, and a wall of books.
Skizzy pressed a button under one of the shelves and the bookcase
opened, revealing a steep staircase.

He led them down to a paneled basement.
Bright fluorescent bulbs illuminated the room. It felt damp in this
makeshift bunker. Shelving units held gallons of distilled water
and canned goods, minus their labels. The cans were marked with a
felt pen.

“Skizzy?” Sara whispered to Dagger. “What is
that short for?”

Her voice echoed off the walls and settled on
Skizzy’s ears. “Paranoid schizophrenic,” Skizzy said. “But I don’t
understand why.” He pointed a black box with blinking green lights
at the walls and did a slow, three-hundred-and-sixty-degree
turn.

“What’s he doing,” Sara asked.

“Checking to see if aliens came in during the
night and bugged the place.” Dagger’s smile toward Skizzy was
genuine, affectionate. Skizzy hadn’t been right since he’d returned
from ‘Nam. He had supplied Dagger with a lot of equipment, all
homemade. Sometimes Dagger thought Skizzy acted crazy so people
would leave him alone.

Sara chuckled. “You are kidding.”

Skizzy turned a beady eye at her, continued
to check the green light on his meter. “Never know how far away
they are. They could be jamming my signal now.”

“Who?” Sara asked with wide-eyed
innocence.

Skizzy’s eyebrow jerked up, his neck
twitched. “You know who.” He focused on his meter again. “They can
monitor our phone calls from blocks away or from a helicopter. But
I’m one step ahead, yes sir.” He seemed to be talking to himself
again, asking questions and even providing the answers. Finally, he
said, “I guess it’s okay.”

Pulling out a drawer, he set several cards
and blank documents on the desk. “So you told me you need a Social
Security card, driver’s license, gun registration, and a birth
certificate.”

“Yes.” Dagger instructed Sara to stand in
front of a white screen.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Sara
clamped her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Don’t do that, Sara. It doesn’t look good on
a driver’s license.”

Sara straightened the eyelet collar on her
floral sundress. Dagger brushed her hair away from her eyes.

“My fake I.D.s always work.” Skizzy checked
the film in the camera.

“Skizzy is the best.” Dagger stepped back
behind Skizzy and motioned with his fingers for Sara to smile.

“I don’t know why we have to go through all
this.” Sara checked the buttons on her dress and clasped her hands
in front of her.

“Trust me. I know Sheila is going to have Sal
Wormley turn every stone in the states to find information on you,
and when there isn’t any, she’s going to get suspicious.”

Skizzy snapped several shots. “Dagger knows
what he’s talking about. He knows how the deceitful mind thinks. I,
on the other hand, know a conspiracy when I see one. Take these new
driver’s licenses, for instance, with these holograms. It’s just
like the metallic strip in the hundred-dollar bills. It’s a way for
the government to track us. They know where we are at all times and
how much money we are leaving and entering the country with.”

Sara’s brows knitted. “Why do they want to do
that?”

Skizzy looked at Dagger as if to ask what
planet he found her on. “That’s how they control us, girl. Big
brother is watching. We have to stay one step ahead.”

Dagger leaned against an X-Files poster on
the wall which read, We Are Not Alone. “Skizzy believes the
government has for years covered up the truth that aliens are
living among us. Soon, we will all be duplicated, just like in the
movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” A wide grin spread across
Dagger’s face.

Skizzy snapped another picture. “Keep
laughing. But I’ll be the only survivor. You’ll see.” He turned his
computer on. “Now give me that dainty little hand of yours, Sara. I
need your prints.” As Sara’s fingerprints appeared on the monitor,
Skizzy continued, “Y’all don’t know it, but every baby born since
nineteen hundred and ninety-seven has had a computer chip implanted
in its neck.” He gave a serious wink and nod to Sara. “It’s another
way for them to keep track of us. And everyone who goes in for
surgery, the government’s having the doctors put a chip in their
necks, too. Can’t trust the government.”

Sara watched in amazement as her picture
appeared on the monitor next to her fingerprints. Then the two
merged. “Is this legal?”

Skizzy and Dagger laughed. Sara’s face
flushed. Skizzy asked Sara, “You’ve been working with Dagger how
long?” The printer spit out the driver’s license and ran it through
a plastic coating machine. “How can someone not have a birth
certificate?” He waved a liver-spotted hand through the air,
saying, “Forget it, none of my business.”

“No problem, Skizzy,” Dagger said. “Sara was
delivered by her grandmother on a reservation. She never had a
birth certificate.”

“I’ll date your driver’s license back a
couple years, your gun registration current as well as your Social
Security card. And I have some yellowed paper I can print your
birth certificate on.”

Sara said, “I don’t understand. All anyone
has to do is check the Social Security and Department of Motor
Vehicle computers and they’ll know I’m not in there.”

Skizzy smiled broadly, revealing a mouth
crammed with teeth fighting each other for room. “That’s the beauty
of it. All the computers will show your I.D.s have always been in
there.”

“Skizzy’s a bit of a hacker and worth every
penny.” Dagger pulled out his wallet and laid five hundred dollars
on the table.