Touched by Death (33 page)

"Three, so far."

Dane whistled. "Jesus. No wonder Jade is freaked
out. I can ask John if he knows anything about it. He helped move the
bodies. If he saw something, I'm sure he'd tell me." Dane couldn't
let go of that idea as he followed Meg through the crowd. He phoned
John. "Hey. I'm talking with one the team, and they found something
odd in the grave. They found a body with chains on the ankles. Did you
see anything like that when you buried these people?"

Meg dodged around several groups of people standing
and talking. Dane tried to keep her bright blue skirt in sight as she
moved ahead of him. "What was that? Sorry I'm on the street corner
and I can hardly hear you for the vendors hawking their wares. What?"

"Not likely," John yelled.

Dane laughed. "I didn't think so. That's not
something you'd forget."

He picked up the pace to catch up and saw Meg stop
and talk to an old woman.
Magrim.
"Okay, I'll talk to you later. I'm meeting Jade
at the hotel in ten minutes, I'm hoping to spirit her away to play with
me this afternoon. Don't know when I'll be home." He put away his
phone and hurried to hear their conversation.

"She's not talking. Doesn't even respond. I don't
know if she's asleep or what." Meg stared down at the old woman
in confusion. "I don't want to disturb her."

"Did you call her name?" At the sound of
Dane's voice, Magrim reacted violently. She surged to her feet, her
necklaces rattling with the sudden movement, her eyes blind. "Danger.
You must be careful. It's all around you."

"What the...?" Dane stared down at her.
No wonder Jade had freaked out. This was beyond his experience too,
only he was long past the point of letting a pathetic old woman scare
the crap out of him.

"Specifics please, Magrim. You scared a friend
of mine today. I'd like to know what danger you see around me?"

"Little blonde. She's in trouble. Death reaches
for her even now."

Shivers slid down his spine. "
What?
Why are you saying this?" His voice rose, hardened.

A small restraining hand squeezed his forearm. "Easy,"
Meg whispered.

Dane glared down at the old woman. "She terrorized
Jade with her warnings. Why, and for what? If there's a specific danger,
then she needs to say what it is."

"Chains. More chains. So many chains. To bind,
to hold, to keep forever." Magrim cackled like the nutty witch
she was.

Dane threw off Meg's hand. "Let's go. She's nuts."

"Tasha, Emile and Peppe. Tasha, Emile and Peppe."
Magrim continued to parrot the names in a singsong voice.

"Do you know them?"

Magrim dipped her head setting the necklaces rattling.
"Family. Family."

"Oh great, you're related? You're all nuts."

"Careful Dane." Meg turned back to Magrim.
"Is Peppe okay?"

Magrim turned her blind eyes in her direction way.
"Peppe is dead. Peppe is dead. Emile is dead. Emile is dead."

Dane sucked in his breath. Meg pressed the point.
"And Tasha?"

"Tasha is dead. Tasha is dead."

"What?" Meg gasped in horror.

"Don't listen to her. That's what she wants.
Just forget about her." He glared at the gathering crowd.

"Dane. That's a horrible thing to say."
Meg glared at him.

He threw up his hands at that. "Fine. Whatever.
However, Tasha isn't dead. We visited her this morning, for Christ's
sake."

D
ane and Meg hashed the issue over all the way back
to the hotel. Meg suggested, "She might be picking up on Tasha's
withdrawal from the world."

Dane snorted. "All she's doing is repeating herself.
She's a fraud."

They stopped to let the traffic go by before crossing
the road. Meg hopped up onto the curb on the other side. They walked
at a fast clip back to the hotel. "I don't know how you can be
so sure. She did mention chains and that was just freaky."

"Coincidence. She hasn't said anything helpful.
If she'd given names, places, times – then maybe. Instead there's
nothing except conjecture and fear mongering. She lives off scaring
people. Like Jade."

"The locals believe in her. At least according
to the hotel manager, she's held in high regard." Meg related the
conversation they'd had around the dinner table with the manager after
Jade's first encounter with Magrim.

"That's good marketing." Something he understood
and could appreciate.

"What's good about it?"

"It's a business to her. And her strategy works.
You paid her didn't you?" Dane opened the small gate at the side
entrance and waited for Meg to walk through. "I saw you slip her
some money. If you believe she can tell you something that no one else
can, then you'll pay her for more."

"I have to admit that she kind of shook me up."

"See, that makes for a good business. Magrim
just gets to repeat the same information over and over again."
What she'd just said proved his point, didn't it?

Meg tried a different tack to get him to at least
consider the possibility of Magrim's prophecy. "I'm a doctor and
a scientist but even I can't deny the possibility of Magrim's abilities.
The more we learn about our brains and our bodies, the more we realize
we don't know everything. We don't have scientific answers for all aspects
of our knowledge or experience."

He wasn't having any of it. Bruce overheard them and
came out to see what all the ruckus was about. They told him about Jade
and then their visit with Magrim.

Bruce shook his head. "I don't play around with
that stuff. I'm a scientist and shouldn't have any problem shooting
it down – but because I don't understand it, I like to leave the topic
well enough alone." Lively intelligence gleamed in his eyes as
he spoke, reminding Dane how much brain power the team tapped.

The three arrived at the patio still wrangling.

"Jade's got quite the imagination so I can see
Magrim might freak her out a little." Bruce pulled up a chair and
sat down. "Speaking of which, where is she? What did she do, go
get another cup of coffee? Or breakfast?" They laughed.

Jade's lounge chair was there – she wasn't. Dane
turned slowly, looking for Jade. Meg pulled up a chair and sat down.

Dane frowned and looked around. "We left her
right here when we went to talk to Magrim. She said she'd stay here
and wait for us."

"I haven't seen her. I was in the office working
for the last couple of hours. She never came in there."

Meg stood hurriedly. "This was twenty minutes
ago. I'll go check her room." She bolted.

Dane watched her go.

"You don't appear to put much stock in the witch
woman's words?" Bruce propped one leg on his knee and studied Dane.

With a heavy sigh, Dane rubbed the back of his neck,
continuing to scan for Jade. "Hard to when there's nothing concrete.
I hate to give credence to nebulous warnings." He sighed heavily,
finally acknowledging that inside he was starting to wonder. "I'd
feel better if she were standing in front me, right now."

"That's the scientist perspective. Give me something
to prove and if I can go prove it then I'll consider it. For the strong
of faith, they believe that if your faith is strong, you don't need
any proof. For them, asking for proof is doubting your faith."

"Convenient," Dane said, shaking his head.

Bruce grinned. "Isn't it?"

Meg came running out the side door. "She's not
there. I asked Susan. She hasn't seen her in the last half hour either."

"Damn." Dane leaned back and stretched out
his legs. They caught on the table leg. He shifted and tried to stretch
out again and kicked something. Looking underneath, his heart froze.

Reaching down and under, he snagged up a small black
leather bag and tossed it on the table. "Please tell me that isn't
hers."

Jade rolled over, a slight moan escaping. A rumble
under her ear irritated her. It sounded so close and yet so far away.
She groaned and tried to curl up into a ball and go back to sleep. Yet,
she didn't think she'd really been asleep. More like adrift on floating
clouds. Except she wasn't floating in a sunny space. Everything was
gray. Gray light, gray clouds. She'd have shaken her head in dismay
only the thought of doing that stopped her.

It would hurt. She knew that...somehow.

She couldn't seem to reason out an explanation of
how or why.

There was a mustiness to the air – oils, metals?
She almost moaned, but caught it before it slipped out. It was important
not to make a sound.

But she didn't know why.

Tired, confused and sore, she slipped deeper into
the clouds and slept.

Meg stared at the bag, shock, worry and horror mingling
to twist her features. "That is hers." She bent to look under
the table as if thinking she'd find Jade huddled under there.

"And it's been here since we sat down."
Dane stared at it, a sense of unease growing in the pit of his stomach.

"Shit."

"What?" Bruce studied their faces. "So,
she left her purse out here. What's the big deal about that?"

"Maybe nothing – maybe everything." Meg
and Dane stared at each other. "Except it doesn't feel like nothing…does
it Dane?"

He shook his head, his mind racing. "If she's
not here, not in the hotel, where would she be?"

"Nowhere without her purse." Meg was adamant
on that point. "She never goes anywhere without it."

Bruce pursed his lips and considered the issue. "You're
thinking something's happened to her?"

"She promised to sit and wait here for us. We
weren't gone twenty minutes." Meg glanced over at Dane for confirmation.

"And all of this on the heels of Magrim's warnings."
He tilted his head and nodded. "Yeah, maybe I can see why you believe
we should be a little worried. There have been enough strange things
going on." He couldn't help the fear knotting his stomach. Where
the hell was she?

"If she's gone, did she go willingly?" Bruce
questioned, "Or did trouble come her way?"

Meg nudged the purse. "She wouldn't have gone
anywhere without her purse. Something is wrong."

Bruce whistled softly. "Seriously? Are we thinking
she's been kidnapped?" He shook his head. "Do we call the
authorities
again
?"

"Let's search first. Start with the hotel. Ask
everyone if they've seen her in the last half hour and if they saw anyone
else around, other than your team, staff and the other guests. Are there
any other guests in the hotel right now?" Dane asked, standing
up. Unease twisting into panic.

"There aren't. The last group cleared out earlier
today." Bruce stood up. "I'll start with the kitchen staff
and then the manager. Too bad there aren't any security cameras on the
place."

"I'll walk through the front door and see if
anyone is there or in the offices. I'll find the guys, too. See if any
of them know where she is." Meg hurried inside.

Dane looking around and spoke to the empty patio.
"And I'll walk around here and see if I can find anything else."
He headed to the parking lot first. If Jade had been snatched, her kidnapper
would have had a vehicle. Would anyone be able to just drive in there
and snatch her – and that fast – without someone noticing? Could
they have walked right up to her on the patio and forced her into a
vehicle? He spun around to study where he'd last seen her. If she'd
been taken from under the palm tree, tucked away in the shade like that,
it was quite possible no one noticed. And then he remembered Magrim's
words. 'Even now she's in danger. Someone close to you. Danger.'

He spun around and came to a dead stop. The team had
gathered inside. He could see them standing and talking. All of them
were here and accounted for. Except for Jade. Had one of them convinced
Jade to go to their rooms and knocked her unconscious? Not likely, and
why would they? They worked with her day in and day out. There'd been
better times to snatch her. Like when she worked alone at the lab. Money
for security had been approved, but only just. They still had to hire
someone.

He realized they were standing in a group, staring
at him. He walked inside to meet them.

"Did you find her?"

Meg shook her head. "No." Grim understanding
showed on her face. "I guess you didn't either?"

"No." His heart raced inside. He could hardly
think straight. Panic built, as he was no longer able to ignore what
his mind and heart had been screaming at him for the last ten minutes.

"She's gone."

Jade woke slowly, as if from a deep, dark sleep.
She yawned and tried to slip back under but the surface was hard. And
she was cold. Pulling into a tighter ball, she willed herself back to
sleep. But couldn't get there. She shifted onto her back, wincing at
the aches and pains of lying too long in one position. Her head pounded
like a steady sledgehammer going off inside.

Her eyes popped open. A basement ceiling stared back
at her. A dirty basement ceiling. More like a root cellar ceiling. She
frowned, yet even that movement made her head hurt. She groaned softly,
even as other aches and pains slowly entered her awareness. Hell, most
of her hurt – and what didn't had gone numb. She struggled to
sit up, then looked around. She was sitting on a concrete floor.

That explained some of her aches and pains. There
were no windows. No lights. Just a gloomy grayness. She could see, just
not very far or very clearly.

Reaching up, she rubbed her temple and tried to swallow.
Her fingers came away sticky with a little blood.

Her throat felt like cotton had been stuffed inside
and had sucked all the moisture out, making it impossible to swallow.
She tried anyway, wishing for water. It took several minutes in the
dim light for her eyes to adjust. There was nothing – no cupboards,
no furniture, What the hell? An odd noise sounded in the distance. With
her head too woozy to think, she lay down on the floor, trying to let
the bits of information roll around and hoping to come up with answers.