Amid the Shadows (14 page)

Smith stopped trying to hide
his abdomen and straightened.

“Okay, well maybe it
is
what it looks like,” Avery said with a weak smile, trying to break the ice.

Christine turned and made a
deliberate effort to get past him and through the door, but Avery stayed in
front of her.

“Don’t do anything rash, just
let us explain.”
 
He looked in her
eyes.
 
“There is a lot for
everyone
to explain here.”

Christine gave him a
suspicious look.
 
“What is that supposed
to mean?”

Avery shook his head.
 
“I mean there’s a lot happening here.
 
Let’s not freak out.”
 
He held his hands up in front of himself as a
calming gesture.
 
“You’re in no danger
here.”

Christine stared at him and
then at Smith.
 
She held a finger up and
motioned to the door.
 
“Just let me say
something.”
 
Avery stepped aside while
Christine called down the hall.
 
“Sarah,
are you okay out there?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Sarah’s
voice called back.

Christine swallowed and
looked back at both men.
 
“Okay…explain!”

Smith nodded and stepped away
from the mirror.
 
“Okay, we’ll explain
everything.
 
But first you need to tell
us something.”

“What?” she asked.

Smith glanced at Avery.
 
“What is it about Sarah?
 
What’s so special that people are trying to
kill her over?”

“It’s clear that you know,”
Avery added, before she could speak.

Christine thought about the
question.
 
She had already lied once
about it, and she was a terrible liar; she knew that.
 
But if she was going to talk, she didn’t want
to be the one to do it first.
 
Yet, she
had a feeling they were going to tell her a lot more than she was about to tell
them.
 
“Okay,” she relented.
 
“But then you tell me what the hell is going
on.”

Smith looked in her green
eyes.
 
“Agreed.”

Christine took a deep
breath.
 
“She can see things,” she
said.
 
“Sarah, I mean.
 
She can see
inside
people.”

Smith and Avery looked at
each other again.
 
“What do you mean?”

“I think she can see people’s
auras, like…their energy.
 
And it tells
her what kind of person they are inside.”

The men stared at her for a
long time.
 
“Auras?” Smith asked.

“Yeah, you know, like a
person’s…reflection or essence or something,” Christine explained.

“And what does she see?”
Avery asked.

“She says she sees
colors
.
 
And they mean different things.”

“Colors,” Smith repeated.

Christine nodded.
 
“Colors.
 
She said that children are white, and adults are yellow, orange, and
red.
 
Yellow is good, orange not so good,
and red apparently means you’re bad…evil or something.”

“Is that all?” asked Avery.

She took another deep
breath.
 
“No.
 
She also said that the color black…means
someone is going to die.”

Again, both men looked at
each other curiously.
 
After a long
moment, Smith nodded and looked at Christine.
 
“Okay, our turn,” he said, leaning against the footboard of the bed behind
him.
 
“You may want to sit down for
this.”

“I’m fine,” she said with a
smirk, folding her arms in front of her.

“To begin with, my name is
not Smith.”

Christine raised her
eyebrows.
 
“You’re not Smith?”

He shook his head.

“Are you at least Glen?”

“No.”
 
He shook his head again. “My real name is
David Rand.”

Christine did not say
anything.

“And,” he continued, “I’m
here for Sarah.”

“What?”

He frowned.
 
“What I mean is, I’m here to help her.
 
To protect her.”

“Well, I guess that’s kind of
obvious.”

“No, that’s not what I
mean.
 
I mean I’m here to protect
her.
 
From whoever is doing this.”

“Yeah,” she said
sarcastically.
 
“I understand that.”

Rand sighed. “I’m not sure
that you do.”
 
He considered his words
carefully.
 
“I’m not exactly
like
you.”

Christine’s expression became
confused again.
 
“And what does that
mean?”

It was his turn to give her a
sarcastic look.
 
He pulled back his shirt
and she looked down at his muscular stomach.
 
“How many people do you know that heal like this?”

Christine’s mouth dropped
open as she finally understood what he was trying to say.
 
“Oh…my…god!” she gasped.
 
“You’re an alien!”

Rand glanced at Avery and
rolled his eyes.
 
“No, I’m NOT an alien.”

“Then what are you?” she
said, shaking her head.

“Christine,” Rand said.
 
“When I say I’m here to protect Sarah, I mean
I’ve been
sent
here to protect her.
 
Someone is trying to kill her, and I’m here to make sure that doesn’t
happen.”

Christine stood motionless,
staring at Rand.
 
“Sent?
 
Sent by whom?”

Rand was surprised by her
question.
 
“By God.”

27

One of the officers poked his
head in the door to find Deputy Inspector Kim Darlington sifting through a
large manila folder.
 
As Deputy
Inspector, Darlington was in charge of the 19
^th
Precinct in New York
and was frequently asked by the district attorney’s office to run through cases
when they found discrepancies that might weaken the case.
 
It was their last chance to tie up loose ends
and make the case as strong as possible before going in front of the judge.
 
The one on her desk was one of those cases.

“Hey Kim,” the officer
said.
 
“Got a call for you on line four.”

“Who is it?” Darlington asked
without looking up.

“It’s Chaplain Wilcox.”

Darlington looked up,
considering whether to take the call.
 
“Okay,” she said, leaving the folder carefully in place.
 
“I’ll take it.”

The officer nodded and ducked
back out.

With an almost irritated
look, Darlington picked up the phone and pressed the 4 button.
 
“Hi Chaplain.”

“Hello Kim, how are you?”

“Coming from all directions,
just like usual.”
 
The chaplain had a way
of getting people to put down their pens for him, partly because he was so
well-liked, and partly because everyone was afraid of picking up bad
karma.
 
“What can I do for you?” she
asked.

“I don’t know if you’ve
heard, but I’ve been sent down to D.C. to help after the bombing here.”

Darlington glanced back to
her folder.
 
“I did hear something about
that.
 
How’s it going?”

“Well,” he replied, “it’s a
tough situation as you can imagine.”

“I sure can.”

“The reason I’m calling,” he
continued, “is I was hoping to get your help with something.”

“Sure, Padre,” she mused and
turned another page in the folder.

“If memory serves, I believe
you have a friend at the FBI.”

“That’s right,”
 
Darlington replied.
 
“In the Boston branch.”

“Well Kim, I’m wondering if I
might get your help in trying to get something expedited.
 
I have some pictures I need to submit for
analysis and was hoping we could get it turned around quickly.”

“I can give it a try,”
Darlington answered.
 
“What kind of
pictures?”

The chaplain cleared his
throat on the other end.
 
“This may sound
a little strange, but they’re pictures of someone here I’d like to find out
more about.”

Darlington stopped perusing
her folder and looked up, thinking.
 
“I
take it this is someone you can’t ask, or no one there knows?”

“That is correct,” the
chaplain answered.
 
“It’s someone on the
investigation team.”

“Doesn’t the investigation
team require clearance?”

“Yes, they do,” he
replied
 
“That’s where it gets a little
curious.
 
He has clearance, but evidently
it’s a very high clearance.”

“Hmm…” Darlington thought out
loud.
 
“So, this guy has some special
clearance and no one knows who he is?”

“Exactly,” the chaplain
said.
 
“I managed to snap some pictures
of him on my phone, and I’m hoping your friend at the FBI can quickly run them through
their system and see if they can get a visual match on him.”

Darlington shrugged.
 
“Like I said, I’ll give it a shot.
 
You want to email the pictures over to me?”

“Of course.
 
I will do that right now.
 
Thank you.”

“My pleasure, Chaplain.”
 
She was just about to hang up when he
interrupted.
 

“Oh Kim, one more thing,” he
said.
 
“Have you seen Cheryl Roberts
lately?”

 
“Mmm…I saw her a couple days ago.
 
If I’m not mistaken, she had today off.
 
Why?”

“Well,” he said, “I’ve left a
number of messages for her in the last couple days but haven’t heard back.”

Darlington frowned.
 
“That’s strange.
 
She’s pretty responsive.
 
I’ll look into it and see if anyone has
talked to her.”

“Wonderful, thank you
Kim.
 
I do appreciate your help.”

“No problem, Padre,” she said.
 
“I’ll give you a ring when I hear something
back.”

She hung up the phone and
turned back to her case.

Darlington was still
engrossed in the folder twenty minutes later when someone knocked on her door.

“Come in,” she answered with
a hint of exasperation.

“Deputy Inspector?” asked a
large man as he opened the door.

“Yes.”

Ramirez took a small step
inside.
 
“Hi, my name is Mike
Ramirez.
 
I’m part of the computer
forensic team downtown.
 
Am I bothering
you?”

Darlington inhaled and leaned
back in her chair.
 
She shook her head
and motioned for Ramirez to sit down, which he did.

“I’m trying to find officers
Griffin and Buckley.
 
I was told you
might know where they are.”

Darlington furrowed her
brow.
 
“You know I haven’t seen
them.
 
I know they had to drive to
Washington D.C. a couple days ago.”
 
Now
curious, she leaned forward and looked out through her glass door.
 
She could see both of their desks on the far
side of the room, but both were empty.
 
“Strange, they should be here.
 
Did you ask the officer at the front desk downstairs?
 
Maybe they’re sick.”
 
Both sick at the same time
?
 
She didn’t believe that as soon as it rolled
off her tongue.

“Yes, I did.
 
The woman downstairs didn’t know anything
either,” Ramirez answered.

Darlington was getting an odd
feeling.
 
“Why are you looking for them?”

“They came to see me just
before they left for D.C.
 
It was about
their case.
 
I had some more information
for them, but I can’t get a hold of either one of them on their cell phones.
 
I sent one text to Officer Griffin a few days
ago that went through, but everything I’ve sent after that has bounced
back.”
 
He leaned forward in his
chair.
 
“I took the liberty of looking at
the system, and it looks like both of their cell phones may be turned off.”

“Both of them?”

“It looks like it,” Ramirez
said.
 
“I believe Officer Griffin was
having a problem with his phone before they left, so I thought maybe that was
the reason.
 
But checking the carrier’s
system logs, it looks like his service was successfully ported to a new phone
he purchased just north of D.C.”

Darlington looked at him
curiously.
 
“How did you get access to
the carrier’s system logs?”

He gave her a quick
wink.
 
“I’d rather not say.”

Darlington leaned forward and
dialed a number on her phone. She left it on speakerphone.
 
A voice quickly answered.
 
“Personnel, 19
^th
Precinct.”

“Hi Tina, it’s Kim upstairs,”
Darlington announced.

“Oh, hi Kim.”

“Tina, is there any time or
special hours submitted for Griffin or Buckley in the last few days?”

Tina paused for a moment.
 
“Nooo…I haven’t seen anything come over.”

“They had to drive down to
D.C. a few days ago to see someone at the State Department.
 
Do you remember when they came back from
that?”

“I don’t.”
 
Tina went silent as she looked again.
 
“Oh wait, I have a note here.
 
Looks like we got a call from that State
Department office saying our guys missed their appointment.
 
Said they would have to reschedule.”

Darlington looked across her
desk at Ramirez.
 
Something didn’t feel
right.