The Promise (17 page)

             
Elie tried to open her eyes but they were not cooperating. Everything was fuzzy. She decided to quit trying and concentrated on the sounds in the room.

              She had no idea what room she was in.

She heard the voices of women talking.

Nurses? Coroners? Angels?

She smelled bleach.

Hospital?

Then, she heard a familiar voice, “What was the name of the lady who’s cow kicked over the lantern starting the great Chicago fire, Larsen?”

              She laughed as she drooled, “Mrs. O’Leary,” she mumbled. Her head felt like that cow had kicked her, the pounding was so intense.

But, she heard Gallagher laughing. “Pretty good for a trivia dork!” he roared. “Let me see your eyes. You can’t sleep another day, I need you!”

She was suddenly scared,
“Another day? Had she been out that long?”

              “What in the hell happened, Gallagher?”

              As her eyes remained closed, he softly murmured, “The important thing is that you’re okay. It was a very scary night, but you survived it. Now, try to get some rest, Elie.”

              ”
A very scary night, how did he know?”

Elie had more questions than Gallagher had answers. It bothered her, ”Oden?”

              No response from Gallagher. Her mind was racing.

“Was she alone in the room? Oh, Lord. Gallagher, Chief Parker, anyone?

             
Elie heard Gallagher whispering to someone. Then, she felt a prick in her arm.

“I am being sedated?”

             
She became demanding, “Are you my partner or what? What happened to Dr. Oden, Gallagher?”

              “Oden’s dead, Elie. Suicide, he used your gun to kill himself.”

Gallagher suddenly stopped talking. He had said enough.

              Her words came haltingly, “He, uh, killed himself?

She fuzzily realized it would only be a matter of seconds before she would be asleep again. The sedative was kicking in fast.

“Damn you, Gallagher!” Then, the sandman cometh to take her into another dream world.

              The next time Elie woke up, her eyes joined her. The hospital room looked brighter, her head felt a lot better and the bleach was gone. But, Chief Parker was there. The elderly man smiled warmly as Elie looked up at him. “Feeling better, Larsen?”

              “You can’t keep a good Norwegian down, Chief! How many hours have I been out?”

              “Four days, Elie,” the Chief answered, “But, you may be able to go home later today.”

              Elie swooned to herself, “
Four days!”

She tried to sit up, impossible.

              Chief Parker gently moved her back down. “You’ll have plenty of time to get up and get back to work. For now, you need to move a little slower. But, I need to ask you a few questions. I am a cop, after all.”

              “Sure,” responded Elie shakily.

              “What do you remember from last Friday night? Before you got that knock on your head?”

              Elie tried to clear her head. She wracked her memory, but nothing was forthcoming. It scared her. “I uh, don’t know.”

              Her boss was sympathetic. “That’s what I thought you’d say. The doctors told me to expect temporary amnesia. Hopefully, the pieces will be coming back to you. For now, please try to rest, but try not to sleep. We don’t want to lose you again.”

              Elie shuddered. “Was I in a coma?”

              “No, but you had a charming, little concussion. Nice recovery. You came out of it a lot better than Malcolm Oden did.”

              The police woman remembered, “He’s dead. He killed himself?”

              “Yeah, he did. He knew his position at the school was compromised and he had no choice but to face jail time with a lot of shame or,”

              “Or”

              “He could solve his problem quickly and permanently. I don’t think you were the only girl he violated. I never like to see a man die, but, in this case, he deserved what he got after all these years, those poor girls.”

              “I need to sleep now, Chief.”

              “No more sleeping, Larsen.”

Parker quickly buzzed a nurse, “Yeah, get in here. Our patient wants to sleep so it’s time to take her on a walk!” Smiling at Elie he quipped, “Get some exercise, so you can keep that girlish figure of yours. See you back at work soon.”

              Elie smiled at him through clenched and aching teeth. Her nap fantasy was over. She was lucky to be alive. Now, it was time for healing.

Chapter Twenty-four
--Adjustment

             
“So, what do we do now, Gallagher?” asked an anxious Elie on her first day back at work. “My cover is blown.”

              The detective smiled. “No, it isn’t. Remember what Oden said about he being the one who did the research on you. He figured all that out on his own. No one at that school suspects a thing.

When he died, his knowledge of Elie Larsen died with him. My question is, why do you think he stopped assaulting you and then committed suicide?”

              “It’s because some kids from the school saw us together. He ripped my top off and I guess he knew it wouldn’t look good for an assistant headmaster to be doing things like to one of his students in the middle of the woods.

Evidently, the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was all over for him. He made a snap decision to avoid the shame of what he would suffer. I was lucky  he didn’t take me with him when he decided to end it.”

              “You’re will have to put this unfortunate experience behind you, Elie. We need you at that school. If you sense the other girls are suspicious of you, you’ll have to bail out. Let’s see what happens. We’re going to assign a second undercover girl in there as a backup. Take some time now to file a full report on what happened that night. Do the best you can.”

              “Okay, Mike.”

              “By the way, Malcolm Oden was not his real name.”

              “It wasn’t?”

              “His real name was Mark Halverson. He changed his name to fit his favorite hero.”

              “I didn’t know there was a hero named Malcolm or Oden?”

              “That’s because you aren’t a trivia buff. Mal, short for Malcolm, is the root word meaning, “evil” as in malevolent. We uncovered some evidence that he was a Satan worshipper.

Here’s the hero part. Oden is a derivative spelling for, “Odin” the Norse god of war and death. He was a weird dude.”

              “How did you find that out, Mike?”

              “Evidently, when he was in your room that night he left a folder with some pretty sick material in it. It was filled with satanic diagrams, pictures of animal sacrifices and several religious symbols indicating his involvement in the satanic church.

He was a bad seed, Elie. You dodged a bullet, literally,” Gallagher smiled.

              Elie was thinking clearly now. “Wait a minute, if Oden wasn’t his last name, why is my roommate’s last name, Oden?”

              Gallagher pondered that for a moment, “Hmm, good point. Maybe she took his name when he, uh, I have no clue why her last name is Oden. It should be Verna Halverson…”

              Elie stood up. I think something is weird here. There may be more to my roommate than meets the eye. This is eerie. Why would Oden’s sister change her name just because her brother did so? Did she want to follow Norse mythology, too? I wonder what the name, “Verna” means.”

The detective sat down at his computer and Googled the name. “It says here it has two different meanings, ’true one’ and, ‘springtime.’

Nothing remarkable there.”

              Elie frowned. “It doesn’t make sense. Maybe she adored her brother. He did have some kind of control over her.”

              Gallagher laughed, “We may be pressing here. Maybe there is no rational reason, just a silly one.

At any rate, try to find out if she has anything to do with The Promise. And, please be careful. Be more cautious than you have ever been. We need to be very careful right now.”

              Elie laughed, Maybe I can take drugs with them or do a séance or something!”

              “Sure, get high. I’ll ask Chief Parker for some drug money. I’m sure that’ll go over big with him, just before his heart attack.”

              “Let me know if you find out anything else about Oden, Mike. I‘m edgy right now. I wonder who else over there is living a lie. This is one creepy school.”

              Gallagher countered, “I am thinking a lot about Allison Taylor right now. She went to that school. She is now missing with no ransom note.

I do believe that she knew her captor. So, keep your eyes open, not just for clues, but for you. This Verna character has my attention now. I have felt all along that our main list of suspects were not the perpetrators.”

              “Well, I need to file my report and head out. It’s going to be interesting to see how Verna treats me now.”

Gallagher held up Mick and laughed, “May the force be with you. What was that movie from, Elie?”

“That’s too easy, Mike. Star Wars!”

“Good, now who was the voice of Darth Vader?”

“Malcolm Oden!” laughed Elie.

With that flippant answer, she was out the door.

Chapter Twenty-five---back to the Colony

             
When Elie returned to her dorm room her roommate was not in. This didn’t surprise Elie since the memorial service for Dr. Oden was earlier that morning.

What did surprise the undercover agent was the condition of her dorm room. Elie mused to herself, “
Verna’s bags are packed. Her bed is rolled up. She is moving out?”

Elie plopped down on her own bed and thought about her roommate. She couldn’t believe that Verna was leaving the Colony. Her thoughts continued, “
Had it been my brother, I would have done the exact same thing. But, I don’t want Verna to leave.”