Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (44 page)

“
No one would blame you,”
Joseph said. “No one.”

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday afternoon — 4:25 P.M.

“
Jill?” Tanesha
asked.

Tanesha had knocked on the loft door. When
Jill didn’t answer, she stuck her head in.

“
Jill?”

Unsure of what to do, Tanesha thought for a
moment. She knew there was no way Jill would miss meeting her. Jill
was one of the few people who really understood about her
relationship with Jeraine. Heather and Sandy were great but they
both thought Jeraine was an asshole. Since Jill knew what it was
like to love an asshole, Tanesha always de-Jeraine-briefed with
Jill.

Thinking Jill must be in the house, Tanesha
started to turn when she heard something.

“
Jill?”

Hearing the same sound, she entered the loft
and began looking for her friend. She had checked the bedrooms and
bathrooms when she heard the sound again. She pushed open the door
to Jill’s office.

Jill was sprawled on the floor. Lying on her
back, her eyes were closed as she writhed back and forth. Crying,
Katy was sitting at her mother’s head.

“
Oh my God,” Tanesha
dropped to her knees.

“
Mommy’s having a dream,”
Katy said.

“
A dream?” Tanesha
asked.

“
Like what I get,” Katy
put her tear stained face against her mother’s.

“
A psychic vision,”
Tanesha said.

“
A bad one,” Katy
said.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & FOURTY-EIGHT

Set

At that moment, Katy looked every bit the
tiny, frightened four year old child. Her dog, Scooter, paced the
floor next to her.

“
I’m really
scared.”

“
Me too,
honey.”

Tanesha pulled Katy onto her lap. With
Jill’s head between her legs, she rocked the little girl until she
stopped crying. Scooter circled them and laid down next to
Jill.

“
Why is this happening to
Jill?” Tanesha asked.

“
Because of the babies,”
Katy said.

“
She didn’t have them with
you,” Tanesha said.

“
Boys make it happen,”
Katy said.

“
What do we do?” Tanesha
asked.

“
We can’t wake her,” Katy
said. “I tried. What does Mommy do for me?”

“
She loves you,” Tanesha
said.

“
I love her,” Katy said.
“All the time.”

“
I love her all the time
too,” Tanesha said. “Maybe we just think about it.”

Sitting on the floor of Jill’s office,
Tanesha and Katy loved Jill and waited for her to wake.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday afternoon — 4:25 P.M.

“
You’ll never believe what
we found,” Sam Lipson said.

He’d met Barry Radow, the State Inspector,
near the entrance to the coal tunnel. Near the same age, the men
had spent most of their careers working on one project or another.
They greeted each other like old friends.

“
At this moment, Sam, I’d
believe almost anything,” Barry Radow, the State Inspector
said.

“
That’s the truth,” Sam
said.

They continued walking toward the work
crew.

“
When we were young, did
you really think we’d be slogging through the dark places of Denver
at this age?” Barry asked.

“
No,” Sam said. “I never
thought I’d out live Celia.”

“
Miss her?”

“
Every day,” Sam said.
“The good die young.”

“
Ain’t that the truth,”
Barry said.

They walked in silence for a while until
they reached Honey.

“
You’ve met my daughter,
Honey?” Sam asked.

“
We’ve crossed paths a
couple of times.” Leaning over, Barry shook Honey’s hand. “How are
you?”

“
Doing well,” Honey
said.

“
She’s assisting, Jerry,”
Sam pointed to Jerry Siegle the Site Manager.

“
Jerry!” Barry
said.

Jerry walked from behind a skid loader to
greet Barry.

“
It’s been a long time,”
Jerry said. “How’s the wife?”

“
Bitter and resentful,”
Barry said.

“
The usual,” Jerry and
Barry said together. The men laughed.

“
Did you really let this
riff-raff buy into your company Sam?” Barry asked.

“
It was Jake’s idea,” Sam
said.

“
Youthful ignorance,”
Jerry said.

The men laughed.

“
I really hate this
place,” Barry said. “What am I looking for?”

“
You’ll see the supports,”
Jerry said. “We breached the wall at the location of the entrance
of the tributary.”

Jerry pointed at the wall of the tunnel. The
men walked to the wall. About two feet from the edge of the tunnel
was a cement and stone structure.

“
Jeez, this is a lot of
shoveling,” Barry said.

“
Too tight to use
machinery,” Honey said.

“
What are we looking at?”
Barry asked.

“
Can I have some light?”
Jerry asked.

A couple of men ran up with a light on a
stand. The light glanced on the structure.

“
What are we looking at?”
Barry repeated.

“
They capped the spring,”
Sam’s hand touched the stone and cement. “Masons.”

Barry walked toward the well cap. His hand
touched the Mason mark and the notation.

“
Masons,” Barry
said.

“
They must have capped it
when they were working on the tunnel,” Jerry said.

“
That’s what it looks like
to us,” Sam said.

“
Damned waste of time, I
say.” Barry shook his head. “How long is it going to take you to
put this back?”

“
Day or so,” Sam
said.

“
Did Jake finish the
barrier?” Barry asked.

“
Our team has worked from
the other side,” Jerry said. “They believe they’ll be done this
afternoon. They had some trouble with cave-ins further up. They
were able to stabilize the tunnels and do their work.”

“
We wanted you to see this
before we cover it,” Sam said.

“
Consider it seen. I’ll
write a report,” Barry said. “Listen, I’m sorry about all of
this.”

“
Ah, it’s all right,” Sam
said. “We should have figured they’d have capped it.”

“
You still would have had
to check,” Barry said. “See ya around, Jer.”

Jerry raised a hand to wave good-bye. Barry
was moving so fast that Sam had to jog to catch up. Once outside,
Barry leaned his hands on his thighs to catch his breath.

“
I thought…” Barry puffed.
“I was sure you were going to show me some grave.”

“
Thank God it was just the
Masons doing their thing,” Sam said.

“
You’ve heard of that
serial killer? That Saint Jude?” Barry asked. “My youngest works at
DPD. He says there are bodies still buried all over Denver. He’s
out there today digging up more.”

“
Some kind of evil,” Sam
said in as nonchalant a voice as he could muster.

“
Here’s the thing.” Barry
moved so his face was right near Sam’s. In a horror movie whisper,
Barry said, “They don’t know where the bastard is.” Barry shivered.
“Creeps me out.”

“
I’ll tell you what,” Sam
said. “How about if we finish up here? I’ll send you pictures. If
you see something you don’t like, you can always let me know. But
you don’t have to come back down here.”

“
You sure?”

“
You can trust us to do
the work,” Sam said.

“
Thanks Sam,” Barry
said.

Sam shook Barry’s hand and waved him on his
way. He glanced at the surveillance van on the street and returned
to the tunnel. With any luck, they knew exactly where Saint Jude
was.

With any luck, he would be in custody
tonight

With a sigh, Sam ducked back into the
tunnel.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday evening — 6:15 P.M.

“
I don’t like it,” Sandy
said.

Sandy shook her head at Aden. Unwilling to
argue in front of the kids, she went into their bedroom. He
followed her into their bedroom and closed the door.

“
I can’t say no,” Aden
said. “Jake lets us live here rent free. They’ve paid my full
salary the entire time I’ve been on paternity leave. We never could
have paid all those medical bills without free rent, their
insurance and my salary. Jake’s asked for my help tonight in the
tunnels. Mike’s already guarding the tunnels under the Castle. I
can’t… no, I won’t say no to him.”

“
I don’t like it,” Sandy
said.

“
Why?”

Aden crossed his arms in front of him.
Expecting her to say something about him being gone or not taking
care of her or the children, he settled in for a fight. But Sandy
shook her head at him and went to Rachel’s bassinette. He watched
Sandy change their sleeping baby’s diaper, dress her in a flannel
footie and set her back in the bassinette. Softened by her
interaction with Rachel, he asked, “What’s going on?”

When Sandy turned, she had tears in her
eyes. They’d been a couple for such a short amount of time and
married for even less, he had no idea what she was upset about. He
held out his arms and she walked into them.

“
I’m terrified,” Sandy
said. “Jill had some horrible premonition. She was so sick when she
woke up, she threw up for a half an hour. I was just barely able to
get her to sleep for a while. Charlie’s freaked out that he forgot
another entrance to that horrible man’s place. Seth’s been out all
day uncovering more bodies. More bodies!”

Turning quickly, Sandy walked out of his
embrace to the other side of the room.

“
Tell me what you want me
to do?” Aden said. “I can’t say no.”

“
You’re right,” Sandy
said. “You can’t say no. Jake lets us stay here. He and Sam have
been amazing about Rachel. Sam already acts like her grandfather.
Delphie spoils the kids rotten. A night in the tunnels is the very
least we can do.”

Aden nodded in agreement with her logic.

“
This guy kills
children
, Aden,” Sandy
said. “I want the children, our children, somewhere
safe.”

“
Where?”

“
My salon,” Sandy
said.

“
Sandy… I…”

“
When you were in prison,
I made a place, a private place, in the basement,” Sandy
said.

“
Where?” Aden
asked.

“
I’ll show you,” Sandy
said. “Do you agree? Until this guy is caught, our kids go to the
salon… and every other kid we can find.”

“
What about Pete and his
kids?”

“
The kids are already
there,” Sandy said. “Pete and Molly took them there about an hour
ago. Jake asked them to stay at the Detroit Street workshop in case
Saint Jude slips past Mike.”

“
Okay,” Aden
said.

“
Okay?”

“
Let’s take them,” Aden
said.

He strode to the door. Jerking the door
open, he found Noelle and Nash kneeling with their heads against
the door. Charlie and Sissy were standing over them. Teddy stood
sheepishly to the side.

“
We believe you’re all in
danger,” Aden said. “Sandy has a place at the salon where you’ll be
safe. You
will
go
to the salon and stay there until either Sandy or I come to get
you.”

The kids started talking at once.

“
This is not a matter for
discussion,” Aden said. “Pack a bag. You have ten minutes.
Go!”

Intimidated by Aden’s seriousness and
Sandy’s tears, the kids jumped into action. With Aden’s pushing,
they were out of the apartment, down the stairs and into the SUV.
Sandy grabbed Buster’s leash and Buster bound down the stairs after
the kids. Sandy put sleeping Rachel in her car seat between Nash
and Noelle. Aden made the quick trip to Sandy’s salon. Carrying
Rachel in her car seat, Sandy opened the door and shooed the kids
inside.

“
This way.” Sandy locked
the Salon door and pointed toward the back. She unlocked the door
at the top of the narrow stairs. “Be very careful. The stairs are
super slick.”

With Buster leading the way, the kids went
down the stairs to the open area under Sandy’s salon. Sandy was
walking toward the back wall when the wall seemed to split in two
revealing a small efficient apartment. Pete’s children peeked out.
Buster barked and ran to greet the kids.

“
Sandy?” Pete’s oldest
asked. Seeing her, he threw himself into her arms. “We’re so
scared.”

“
You guys know each other
right?” Sandy asked.

“
We work together,” Sissy
said. “Hi!”

“
I want you kids to stay
here tonight,” Aden said.

“
Dad said you’re going to
catch that Saint Jude guy tonight,” Pete’s son said.

“
That’s exactly right,”
Aden said.

“
He kills kids like us,”
Charlie said.