The Law Of Three: A Rowan Gant Investigation (24 page)

“It’s not a problem, Rowan,” she shrugged as
she spoke. “It’s my job.”

“Maybe so, but after today…” I hesitated for
a moment, feeling awkward at voicing my weakness to her. “After
today, I think I’ll sleep better knowing that you’re here.”

We sat in silence for a moment then I spoke
again, a hint of embarrassment in my voice, “I guess that sounded
pretty corny, huh?”

She shook her head. “No.”

I tilted my head down and looked back at her
over the rim of my glasses for effect. “This is me here,
Constance.”

“Okay, yeah,” she smiled. “It sounded corny,
but I know what you mean.”

“Well thanks for not laughing.”

The telephone on the wall in the small
kitchen trilled, and I slid my chair back.

“I’m laughing on the inside,” Mandalay
replied with a smile.

“Yeah, I figured as much.”

Felicity called out to me as I stood up.
“Stay put, Rowan, I’ll get it.”

“I’m not an invalid, Felicity,” I responded
as I turned and reached around the corner, snatching the phone from
its cradle just before my wife’s hand reached it.

I shot her a tired grin, and she rolled her
eyes at me before stepping back to the counter and sliding the
freshly rinsed coffeepot into its base.

I tucked the phone up to my ear and said,
“Hello?”

There was no formal greeting in return. Just
a cold, familiar voice reciting in monotone, “If a man abide not in
me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather
them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

My face was hot in an instant, and I could
literally feel my heartbeat thumping in my ears as I flushed with
anger. My first inclination was to explode, lash out as I had done
earlier in the day. My emotional reaction bolted from its corner
and landed a solid punch on the jaw of logic as the bell sounded.
The contest had begun.

Hateful words formed on my lips, and I
clenched my teeth to keep them at bay. Blood rushed in my ears as I
took a deep breath, searching for a solid ground to which I could
attach. The opposing sides of my brain were engaged in an all out
brawl with the prize being control of what would come out of my
mouth in response to his selected verse.

It all came down to a fight between my
overwhelming compulsion to explain to him in minute detail exactly
how little regard I held for his life and the need to remain
rational. I have to admit that rationality was looking very weak at
the moment.

The pause was lethargic, and my mute struggle
continued as I simply stood there with the phone pressed against my
ear. I was just about to spew a stream of vile adjectives into the
mouthpiece when he spoke again.

“I know that you are there, Gant,” he said.
“I can hear you breathing.”

Again, his voice oozed into my skull from the
handset. The very sound of it made me feel physically ill, and I
swallowed hard to push back the column of bile I felt climbing up
my throat.

The mouthful of expletives rammed against the
back of my teeth in an attempt to break free, and I drew my lips
into a tight line. I started to tense then felt myself connect to
the ground I had sought. I don’t know how I managed it, but I
wasn’t about to refuse the link. A calm washed over me, and I let
my hot breath out in a slow stream. My logical half rallied and
landed its own sucker punch to my emotional side then took over—for
the time being, at least.

My first rational thought was to appeal to
his sense of morality, as much as it existed within the confines of
his malformed psyche. We had already established that he had not
exhibited the same restraint regarding the safety of those he
perceived as guiltless as he had during his last spree. Still, it
was worth a try.

“You almost killed an innocent man today,
Eldon.” I turned to face Agent Mandalay as I spoke, clenching my
fist and concentrating on keeping my voice even.

Her eyes widened as she immediately picked up
on the cue. Behind me, I heard Felicity gasp, and I turned quickly,
trying my best to paint a reassuring mask onto my face.

“Detective Deckert?” he asked.

“Yes.” I held my initial reply to a single
syllable lest I lose what little control I was exerting over my
temper. Accomplishing that, I forged ahead with an entire mouthful.
“Or even Detective Storm for that matter. Neither of them are
Witches.”

I could hear Mandalay in the background as
she pushed away from the table and began whispering into her cell
phone.

“Both of them are your friends, aren’t
they?”

“Yes they are.”

Porter actually chuckled at my answer before
saying, “Then for you to claim that they are innocent is
ridiculous.”

“Guilt by association then?”

“Of course,” he replied. “If you are not part
of the solution, Gant, then you are part of the problem.”

“I don’t remember that from the Bible,
Eldon,” I offered.

“But now I have written unto you not to keep
company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or
covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an
extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.” He laid heavy
emphasis on the word idolater as he recited the passage.

“You don’t think that you are taking that out
of context?”

The earpiece chirped once, and the phone went
to hollow silence punctuated by distant clicking. I pulled it away
from my ear and turned back to Agent Mandalay.

“He hung up,” I told her. “Or we got cut off,
I don’t know which.”

“He’s on a cell,” she told me as she twisted
her own away from her mouth. “The signal dropped before they could
pinpoint it on the grid.”

“Dammit,” I spat. “How did he get this number
anyway? How did he know where we are?”

“Believe me, Rowan, I’m wondering the same
thing myself,” she told me. “But don’t worry, we’ll… What?” She
stopped abruptly and twisted her phone back up to her mouth then
looked at me and held up a finger. “Hold on a second.”

I nodded, then turned back, and dropped the
handset back into its cradle on the wall. I looked over at Felicity
and saw that her fear had now surfaced and was evident in the form
of a hard edge stricken across her soft features. I was just
opening my mouth to reassure her when the phone rang again.

I snapped my head around and stared at the
device. On the second ring, I picked it up and placed it against my
ear without a word.

“I was beginning to think you planned on
leaving the phone off the hook all night, Gant,” Porter said.

“What happened,” I asked with a heavy note of
sarcasm. “Did you go through a tunnel?”

“Don’t try to play that game with me, Gant. I
know you’ve figured out that I’m on a cell phone. I’m not
stupid.”

“I didn’t say you were, Eldon.”

“Then you know that the reason we were cut
off is that I hung up. I know how this works.”

“So you think you can’t be tracked,” I spat
back. “Good for you.”

“You know better than that, Gant,” he
instructed me. “I know that I am being tracked. I hung up so that
Agent Mandalay would at least have a challenge.”

I turned to Constance and motioned her
over.

“Enough of that, Gant,” Porter continued.
“Let’s get back to our little talk. What I follow is scripture.
There is no context, only truth.”

“Don’t you mean that you are simply being
self-serving and ignoring the context?” I contended.

I grabbed a notepad from the countertop and
looked frantically for a pen. Coming up empty I glanced over at
Constance and snatched one from her breast pocket then scribbled
“he knows you are here” on the top sheet and handed it to her. She
looked back at me with a surprised expression and then nodded
affirmation.

Porter was still talking to me. “…So you see,
the ends justify the means.”

“That’s pretty narrow-minded of you, Eldon,”
I said. “But then, I don’t suppose I should expect much from
someone of such a limited scope.”

His voice hardened. “I thought we’d
established that I’m not stupid. I was expecting something a little
more eloquent. Insulting my intelligence is beneath you, Gant.”

“What about killing you?” I asked. “Is that
beneath me?”

“Why, Gant,” he took on a tone of mock
surprise. “You sound angry. What happened to your little claim of
being good and nature loving? What is it you always say? An ye harm
none. You don’t sound like you are practicing what you preach.”

“I asked you the same thing regarding the
commandments of your God,” I replied.

“My path is clear.” He fired his response
back with an audible thread of anger playing through it. “Is
yours?”

“Where it concerns you, yes it is.”

“And what of YOUR commandment to ‘harm none’?
Or is that merely another of Satan’s tricks?”

“It doesn’t apply here.”

“So why don’t you tell me who’s ignoring
context now?”

My temper was on the edge of flaring, and I
had to pause for a moment before finally answering, “I’m not
interested in arguing semantics with you, Eldon.”

Once more, the phone chirped and went dead. I
shot it a disgusted look then slammed it back onto the cradle
before glancing back over to Mandalay.

“He hung up again,” I told her.

“He’s using multiple cell phones,” she
explained. “The first call was on the one he used earlier today.
They’re still tracking the ID on the second one, but it was
definitely a different signal.”

“Guess he doesn’t feel like taping any more
pay phones together,” I volunteered with a tinge of sarcasm. “This
is insane. First Randy and Nancy’s number, then Felicity’s cell,
now here. How is he getting this information?”

“Well, the Harper’s number is easy enough to
explain,” Constance volunteered. “He probably got that one from
Randy or something he had on his person. What about your cell,
Felicity, is that a published number?”

“Aye, it’s on my business cards,” Felicity
acknowledged from behind me, trepidation thick in her voice.

“Are those readily available to the public?”
Mandalay asked.

“Aye,” Felicity said. “I’m freelance. Every
camera and photo supply store in Saint Louis has a stack of them
for referrals.”

“So that would explain that,” Constance said
in a thoughtful tone. “Either he got Felicity’s number from a
business card or maybe even that came from Randy as well. But, the
number here is private and unpublished. There should be no way he
could get his hands on it. Did you give it out to anyone?”

I looked back at her then closed my eyes as
the obvious answer bludgeoned me with my own stupidity. “Randy,” I
said quietly. “Randy had it.”

“Yeah.” She shook her head and frowned. “I’ll
lay odds that is your answer.”

Felicity’s tense voice brought us back to the
situation at hand. “Do you think he’s going to call back?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head as I turned.
“But it’s going to be okay.”

“Okay? Rowan, he knows where we are!” she
appealed.

I was so accustomed to Felicity’s strength
that I was taken aback by the growing intensity of her fear. The
still fresh horror of the kidnapping and attempted rape had bruised
her deeper than either of us had realized, and her façade was
beginning to tear away.

I reached for her. She stepped forward and
fell into me, burying her face against my shoulder and wrapping her
arms tightly around me. Before I could utter a single word, the
phone pierced the room with its metallic jangle for attention.

I twisted slightly, keeping one arm securely
around my wife and snatched up the telephone with my free hand. I
consciously released my temper from its mental prison and began
speaking the moment I brought the handset to the side of my
head.

“You’re really starting to piss me off,
Eldon.”

“Good,” he replied.

“I’m going to hang up now,” I spat.

“Before you do, there is something you should
know.”

“What? That you’re a sick, twisted
sonofabitch?” I barked. “I already know that.”

Instead of the sarcastic reply I expected
from him, I heard a thin hissing noise mixed with the sound of a
car engine. There was a scratchy, rustling noise followed by what
sounded like a faint squeal.

I snarled into the phone again. “What? No
comment you sorry ass…”

I stopped short as the squeal repeated, this
time sounding far more like a distinct, nasal whine. This time it
was followed by a high-pitched whimper.

Bile rose once again in my throat as I fought
my stomach’s urge to evict anything it might currently contain.
Gooseflesh prickled along the back of my neck and terror swelled in
my chest. I continued to listen in abject horror as a sobbing,
feminine voice choked out two faint words, “Help me.”

“Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live,
Gant,” Porter’s voice issued once again from the earpiece.

“What are you doing, Eldon?” I almost
pleaded.

“Her judgment is at hand,” he continued
speaking as if he hadn’t heard me. “Are you willing to be
responsible for it?”

“PORTER!” I screamed, but there was nothing
more than the hollow sound of the disconnected line to answer
me.

I slammed the phone back into the cradle once
again. The mechanical bell rattled out a muted ding that was mixed
with the bang of plastic against Formica. The excess force caused
the device to jump back out and clatter across the counter before
bouncing from the floor and swinging pendulum-like from its spiral
cord. I didn’t bother to pick it up. I just closed my eyes and held
Felicity tight.

“What, Row?” she said, her voice muffled as
she spoke into my shoulder. “What did he say?”

I couldn’t speak. My mind was racing as I
tried to move all of the pieces together. There was something
vaguely familiar about the woman’s voice, and it had now displaced
all of the other nagging bothers that were dancing about in my
brain.