Angel's Dance (25 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Clear found herself in front of the
white house with green shutters. Maybe it was what she already
knew, but the house seemed far more eerie than the happy picture
she was using as a conduit. As she walked toward the house, she
immediately knew to veer to the left and walk behind the house.
There in the bushes on the side was a cellar basement door that
appeared to have been sealed off, but that his father had built a
tunnel to years before, giving them private access. She moved back
around to the rear of the house, and followed her intuition to a
shed at the back. Entering the shed, she found typical yard tools,
chemicals and a work bench. Against the back there was a shelf with
very little on it. Looking at the ground she could see the gouging
in the wood where the shelf had been moved forward repeatedly. She
tugged against it with all her might, sliding it forward in the
grooves. Behind the shelf there was a trap door. Instantly Clear
knew that from the door of the shed, it would be impossible to
really tell that the shelf had been moved.

She reached down and pulled the trap
door up. Looking down into the gloom, she saw a pole ladder. Taking
a steadying breath and reminding herself that this was just a
vision, she headed down into the tunnel. After only six steps, she
hit hard dirt. She turned carefully, her head still able to barely
peek out of the trap door. She felt around the lip of the trap
door, instantly knowing that there must be some sort of lighting
system. Her finger caught a switch and lights went on in front of
her.

She squatted down looking into the
tunnel headed toward the house. Her stomach knotted. But it was
just a vision, she told herself. Nothing could hurt her here…she
hoped. Reaching up, Clear hooked a finger in a notch and pulled the
trap door closed, steeling herself against the immediate
claustrophobia. The air was dank and dirty. The tunnel ceiling was
much lower than the floor of the shed above and she had to duck to
maneuver through. After twice almost smashing headlong into the
naked bulbs dangling down, she got on hands and knees and began
crawling as quickly as she could. She was surprised at the
dimensions of the tunnel. Even though Mr. Lando was in relatively
good shape for his age, she could not imagine how he could maneuver
this tunnel. After only a few minutes the awkward angle of holding
her head up to look ahead of her, while crawling forward, began
causing her muscles to burn.

Soon enough she was at the end of the
tunnel and had come up against a cement wall. She knew that there
must be some way to get in, but there were no latches or levers.
She was becoming more and more claustrophobic in this long dark
tunnel with the naked bulbs casting illusive shadows. And as the
panic temporarily overrode her logic and reason, she began slamming
into the wall with her hand and then her shoulder. To her surprise
it slid forward ever so slightly.

She turned herself around in the
tunnel and planted her arms against the walls, then began to push
as hard as she could with her legs. Slowly but surely the wall
moved forward grinding against the concrete all around it. A cloud
of concrete dust rose up, making it harder for Clear to
breathe.

She could not really think of the
logic behind such a system, except that it would certainly deter
anyone from getting in and more importantly a 90 lb dancer from
being able to get out. But how did they manage it? Both men were
built like dancers.

As the concrete seemed to clear the
lip, it moved a little faster and easier, driving the thoughts from
Clear’s mind. She gave a few more shoves, just enough for her to be
able to get in.

She was immediately filled with an
intense fear. She did not want to go into this room. But she knew
that she had to. Steeling her courage, she slipped through into a
very dark space. The air here was putrid. Clear fought the urge to
gag and covered her mouth and nose with one hand as she flailed
about to her right looking for a light switch.

As her fingers crept across the light
switch, part of her instantly regretted flipping the switch and her
mind screamed for her to close her eyes and not look, but she had
to. To help Grant. To save Kat.

The room was lit by a single naked
bulb. Flipping the switch had also kicked on some sort of exhaust
fan in the corner of the room. Clear couldn’t even begin to
comprehend what she was seeing and the only coherent thought was
that this was not the same room that Bella had been in. Then the
reality of what she was seeing… and smelling, hit her and she
couldn’t hold back the gags.

She came to vomiting all over
Grant.

Grant had called and conveyed
everything that Clear had told him to Bryce, leaving it to Bryce to
assume that they had gotten the information from Louis. Bryce
should be able to hold Mr. Lando until the warrant was
served.

“
Your skills have
improved, man,” Bryce commented. “You got that nut to crack in
record time.”

Grant cringed at having to lie. “It
wasn’t me… It was Clear.” And that wasn’t really a lie.

“
I guess I should have
given her more credit,” Bryce muttered as he hung up the
phone.

Grant turned back to Clear. “So, you
are pretty sure Kat wasn’t there?” He asked, trying to remain
calm.

“
I… I don’t think so,”
Clear murmured weakly. She was still pale and although he had done
his best to clean them both up after she had come to, she was still
damp. He could only begin to imagine the horrors she had seen in
her vision. She couldn’t even tell him. He felt an urgency more
than ever to push her to find Kat, but she looked on the verge of
collapse. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying and she was so pale.
But he couldn’t just sit here, so he moved in on Louis.

Louis wasn’t looking so hot himself.
The man was trembling from head to toe. He flinched when Grant came
over to him. His eyes were flashing around the room in a manic way.
For the first time in his life, Grant actually enjoyed seeing fear
on someone’s face.

“
Louis, Louis, Louis. You
and your dad have been very bad.”

“
How?...How….How?” Louis
kept muttering like a raving lunatic.

“
I would say within the
next two hours your family home will be invaded by the police and
all your dirty little secrets will be coming to light.”

“
How?... How?...” he kept
muttering, almost as if he were not paying any attention. Grant
reached out for him and he flinched back, screaming like a mad man!
“Don’t!! Don’t touch me!! You are evil! You suck the soul out!!
Don’t you touch me!!!!”

Grant hesitated, but firmly placed his
hand on Louis shoulder and clamped down as the man squirmed and
pulled and contorted himself in an effort to get away. “The thing
is Louis, there is one little girl that I am most interested in.
She isn’t in your father’s basement, is she?”

Louis’ eyes were rolling around in his
head and he began to thrash about shouting, “How? How?! How!”
Flecks of spittle flew from his mouth and Grant could totally
understand how people could think others were possessed. The man
was beyond irrational and reaching a breaking point. Grant couldn’t
have him completely losing his mind. He released the man, but this
only calmed him slightly.

Grant walked over to check on Clear.
“Are you alright?” he murmured.

Clear looked up at him with large eyes
and nodded minutely. “He is absolutely terrified,” she whispered,
nodding at Louis.

“
Who knew I was so scary?”
Grant tried to quip.

“
Not you.” Clear took a
deep breath and tears began leaking from her eyes. “Me. He thinks I
am a monster.” She wrapped her arms around her knees hugging them
to her. Grant squatted down next to her, rubbing her
arm.

“
Kinda ironic,
huh?”

Clear shook her head. “The
monsters think
I
am scary!” A ghost of a smile crossed her lips, but it was
twisted cruelly by disgust.

“
Nothing wrong with them
being afraid of justice, no matter what guise she wears.” He hoped
that reassured her. He looked back at Louis. The man was hardly
calmer. If Clear was right, then Grant would only get anything from
him if Clear were out of the room. He sighed.

“
Clear, why don’t you go
sit down in the back room? You’ve seen and done enough. I’ll take
it from here.”

Clear looked at him and as
comprehension crossed her face, she screwed up her courage. He
could see it in the tightening of her eyes and mouth. “Grant… we
don’t have Kat yet. If I leave, he may calm down, but he won’t tell
you what you need.” She ran her hands across her face. “I didn’t
come all this way to lose Kat now.” She pulled herself up and her
back was ramrod straight. She walked over to Louis and struck him
in the face.

“
Listen to me, you son of
a bitch!” she hissed, leaning into his face. “One way or another,
you
will
tell me
what I want to know, whether you like it or not! Where is Kat?
Where is the girl you sent Bella to get for you?”

The man looked like he was a moment
away from a massive coronary, the blood had completely drained from
his face and he was gasping in shallow breaths through bloodless
lips. He was pulling so hard to get away from her that the chair
was in danger of toppling. She held on to his shirt barely keeping
them both upright. She stared deeply into his eyes and he tried to
look anywhere but at her.

“
Bruha…” he whispered and
then his whole body went limp. Grant ran to him, checking his
pulse, praying he had simply fainted. His heart still raced, but
was slowing. The man had indeed fainted.
Shit!
Grant turned to look at
Clear.

She was trancelike, staring off into
space.

“
Clear?” He reached out to
her and her hands were cold and clawing. “Clear!” He screamed in
absolute terror.
What the hell had just
happened!

Chapter
Seventeen

Clear didn’t know what had happened.
All she knew was that suddenly she was free inside Louis’ mind,
able to shuffle through whatever memories she wanted, not needing
to bring them to the forefront. It was very disorienting here. The
man’s terror was still coursing through her body, but despite his
abject fear, she was able to poke and prod. But she couldn’t bring
anything out like one can do independently.

Slowly she began to figure out some
processes. It was like grabbing at lines and following them through
thoughts, ideas and into memories. Unfortunately, none of the ones
she had followed so far had anything to do with Kat. She kept
tripping along through the strangest paths, feeling ever more
frustrated. Suddenly there was a line that was brighter than the
others. Clear grabbed onto it, following it to a source. The source
was Kat.

And Kat was terrified, clinging to a
bedpost. She had been cut and sliced and the bed was soaked in
blood. Clear couldn’t imagine how she was still alive. She wept in
fear at the site of Clear… but then Clear realized that it was not
the sight of Clear, Clear was seeing from Louis’
perspective.

The Louis/Clear walked over to Kat and
caressed her soft hair, then grabbed a fistful by the roots and
pulled her up by it. Kat squealed in pain and twisted as he
directed her. She began whispering, “Please, please stop! Why? Why
are you doing this?”

Louis never said a word, but began to
beat her. Each punch squelched and Clear felt desperately ill. The
only time he stopped was to pull his belt off and begin to beat her
viciously with it. The slapping leather opened up the wounds and
Kat fell silent, only having the strength to gasp at the worst
pain.

Clear desperately tried to pull back,
to stop Louis from doing this! He was going to kill Kat! Her heart
was breaking as Louis dropped the belt, pulled Kat up by her hair
again and kissed her deeply, licking the blood off her lips. She
whimpered in fear and pain.

Louis began to punch her in the face,
screaming, “You were such a disappointment! You could never be what
I needed! Because of you, I killed Bella; but Bella was better than
you! Bella was 100 times better! You bitch! You stupid fucking
bitch!” His arms began to feel heavy and Clear groaned as he looked
back down at what had once been Kat’s face. Her skull had
collapsed, and her nose was a burgeoning mess of blood. Her lower
lip had been split wide open and teeth had been knocked
out.