Out of the Shadows

TEN

Saturday, January 15

When Miranda came into the conference room late in the morning, she found Tony Harte writing a list of names on the blackboard, and Bishop sitting at his accustomed place on the end of the table while he studied a file.

"Missing kids?" Miranda asked.

Bishop looked up and frowned slightly, but nodded. "Your deputies are backtracking through the files, and following up on missing persons reports to rule out kids who later turned up somewhere either alive or dead. So far, we have three missing teenagers from '98, five from '97, and two from '96."

Hardly aware of doing it, Miranda sat down in a chair near Bishop. "Ten kids? Ten kids in three years?"

"All either last seen or last known to be within a fifty-mile radius of Gladstone," Bishop confirmed. "The youngest was fourteen when she ran away from home in '96 — in the company of her nineteen-year-old boyfriend, who wanted to go to Nashville to become a singer. Nobody reported him missing, but so far we've been unable to trace either of them beyond this area, so we're including him on the list."

Tony turned from the blackboard. "Of course, we have no evidence that any of these kids only got as far as Gladstone. Falling between the cracks of the system is all too easy, especially for kids on the streets. They could have made it to Nashville — or wherever else they were headed. They could have been picked up on the road somewhere along the way and wound up six states from here."

"All we do know," Bishop finished, "is that none of these kids reappears anywhere in the system under these names. We've cross-checked FBI files, NCIC, every database available. No sign of them."

Slowly, Miranda said, "Before the new highway, a lot of strangers passed through Gladstone from week to week. Aside from the Lodge on Main Street, we had two more motels just outside town that were usually at least half full."

Tony came to the conference table and consulted a legal pad. "Let's see . . . The Starlite Motor Lodge and the Red Oak Inn, right?"

Miranda nodded. "The Starlite burned to the ground about six months ago, long after it had been abandoned. The Red Oak closed its doors the day the new highway opened. The town bought the property, and the fire department's been using the building for practice drills."

"Some of these kids may have had a few bucks for a room," Tony noted. "Any way to get our hands on the guest registers?"

"Oh, hell, I don't even know if they still exist." Miranda thought about it. "No problem getting the registers from the Lodge, since they're still doing business, but the owners of the other two places cleared out when they closed. I assume they took their records and other paperwork with them."

Tony made notes on the legal pad. "Well, we can check the Lodge at least. If we can actually place any of these kids here in Gladstone, at least we can ask a few more questions. Maybe somebody will remember something."

Bishop said to Miranda, "I looked through that special edition of The Sentinel this morning. Some of the letters to the editor were a bit..."

"Bloodthirsty?" She grimaced. "Yeah. We've had to disarm a few citizens, especially since the Penman boy disappeared. I've doubled the usual patrols just to try and keep an eye on things, but if and when suspicion falls on any one person I'm going to have a lynch mob on my hands."

"Justin Marsh isn't helping matters," Bishop said.

"With his street-corner harangues? I know. I've warned him twice, told him he's crossing the line between free speech and yelling fire in a crowded theater. If I catch him one more time urging people to purge the evil in Gladstone with their own hands, I'll see if a night in jail helps him see reason."

"His kind doesn't see reason," Tony said. "Ever."

"Talked to him, have you?" she murmured.

Tony grinned at her. "Oh, yes. I was treated to a ten-minute lecture on the corruption within government agencies."

Miranda sighed. "On a normal day, very few people really listen to him, and he's mostly harmless. But with all this going on ... I'm afraid he might actually inspire a few of the hotheads to do something stupid."

Bishop said, "We probably don't have too much to worry about as long as they don't have a definite focus for their rage. We certainly haven't a suspect to offer them. And as far as I can tell, not even the gossips have suggested anyone for the role of possible killer."

"That's true enough — today, at least," Miranda agreed. She looked across the table to see Tony drumming his fingers on the legal pad, and said, "Is something bothering you, Tony?"

He looked down at his hand, frowned, "and stopped drumming. Bright eyes moved from Bishop's calm face to Miranda. "I'm feeling tense," he said dryly. "I can't imagine why."

Miranda glanced at Bishop, and decided not to venture down that road. To Tony, she said only, "It's a tense time."

"Oh, yeah."

Bishop also ignored Tony's words. "Sharon called. She's flying back down this afternoon. Says she has something interesting for us. Maybe we'll finally get a break."

"That'd be a nice change," Miranda said. "In the meantime, the town council has called an emergency meeting, and I need to be there."

"Does Justin Marsh know about it?" Bishop asked.

"Not if we're lucky," Miranda replied as she walked to the door. "And since I threatened to arrest anybody who told him, I'm feeling lucky today."

Tony chuckled as the door closed behind her. "I had a feeling she could play hardball if she had to."

"I never doubted it," Bishop said.

Tony eyed him. "You know, even being sensitive to emotions around me, I never understood how tension could be so real you could actually cut it with a knife — until now."

"Learn something new every day."

"Boss, I'm not the only one who's noticed. Take another look out in the bullpen next time you walk through — especially if Miranda is in the room. Every deputy in the place watches you two the way they would a ticking bomb."

Bishop went to refill his coffee cup. "Yeah, I know."

"So?"

"So what?"

"So, what're you going to do about it?"

"There's nothing I can do, Tony. She wouldn't even be talking to me if it wasn't a professional duty."

Tony watched him for a moment longer, then said, "Guess you're right. There's nothing you can do about it. I'm sure neither of you could stand raking up old hurts, not at this late stage. Better to just get through this and get out of her life for good. Much better for everyone concerned."

Bishop shot him a look, but Tony was frowning down at the legal pad and seemed oblivious when Bishop said with more force than he'd intended, "Exactly."

"Say yes, Bonnie." Amy's voice shook and her eyes pleaded. "It's almost four days now, and nobody's seen him. I have to do something, I just have to!"

Bonnie kept her own voice calm. "Not this, Amy. This won't help anything."

"I know he's still alive, I know that, but we reached Lynet before and maybe she knows—"

"You two tried this before?" Seth asked.

"I've tried a dozen times on my own," Amy told him. "All week I've tried, but it never worked for me. But Bonnie made it work, she—"

"I didn't make anything work, Amy."

"Then it worked through you or something. All I know is that Lynet reached out to us before you made us stop. She knows who killed her, Bonnie, and maybe she knows where Steve is."

"Listen to yourself," Seth said uneasily.

"I'm telling you, it worked for Bonnie." Amy tapped the Ouija board she had set up on the table beside the bed. "Some people are more sensitive than others. I read that last night while I was researching this on the Internet. The really sensitive ones can talk to spirits. They're called mediums. I think Bonnie's a medium."

Bonnie sat beside her on the bed. "Stop talking about me as if I weren't here. I'm not a medium, Amy."

"Does Miranda know about this?" Seth demanded.

Amy's laugh was brittle. "Do you think she'd care if we could tell her where to find Steve? Do you think anybody will care?"

"Amy, it isn't that simple and you know it," Bonnie said. "Randy wouldn't like it, and I don't like it either. It's dangerous to play around with this stuff."

Seth frowned. "This is just a game, right? You don't believe the dead speak through this game, do you, Bonnie?"

She returned his gaze steadily. "I believe the dead speak when they realize someone's listening. And I'm telling both of you — it isn't always smart to be the one listening."

Seth would have scoffed, but something in her grave blue eyes stopped him. Not entirely sure he wanted to know any more than he already did, he said to Amy, "Look, I know you want to find Steve. I do, too. But this isn't the way."

"Why? Because you know it won't work? Or because Bonnie believes it will?" Her ferocity challenged them both. "Bonnie, you're my best friend. And you know — you know why I have to find Steve, don't you?"

Seth looked from one to the other and got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Amy, are you—"

"I have to find Steve. I have to." Her trembling fingers rested on the planchette. "Help me, please."

Bonnie surrendered with a sigh. "All right. All right, but remember what I said before. Keep your mind focused on what you want to know. Seth?"

"I think I'll just watch, if you don't mind." He sat down on the stool by the dressing table and folded his arms across his chest, both literally and symbolically removing himself from the attempt.

Bonnie wished she knew whether he'd be able to accept this. The possibility that he wouldn't scared her even more than the very real probability that this entire thing was a terrible mistake. But Amy was her best friend, and for Amy's sake she had to try to help.

Drawing a deep breath, she reached out and placed her fingertips next to Amy's on the planchette.

Instantly, it swung across the board and centered over NO.

Before Bonnie could ask if it was a warning for them to stop, Amy spoke quickly.

"Where is Steve?"

M ... I ... L ... L.

Leaning toward the board unconsciously as Amy spelled out loud, Seth said, "Mill? The paper mill?"

NO.

"Wow," he muttered at the instant response, then watched in fascination as the planchette moved briskly.

M...I...L...L...H...O...U...S...E.

For a moment the teenagers looked blankly at one another, then Seth announced, "I know. That broken-down place out on the river where they used to grind grain. I thought it was barely standing, but I suppose ..."

Eagerly, Amy asked, "Is that it? Is Steve at the old mill house at the river?"

YES.

"We can save him." Amy almost stuttered in her excitement. "We can tell Randy, and—"

The planchette moved frantically.

T...O...O...L...A...T...E.

Amy gasped, her face draining of color.

Bonnie wanted to move her fingers off the planchette, but couldn't somehow. She watched, mesmerized, as the flying indicator repeated the words with almost manic intensity.

TOO LATE . . . TOO LATE . . . TOO LATE.

Seth reached over and knocked the planchette to the floor.

Amy sobbed, as Seth and Bonnie stared at each other, both white-faced. Then a motion caught their attention, and both turned their heads to see the gauzy curtains at her closed window billow inward as though a gust of wind had entered the room.

Or something.

"Oh, shit," Bonnie murmured.

Instead of eating lunch, Bishop went running. He hoped the exercise would work off the tension knotting his shoulders, but even after a forty-five-minute run and a hot shower, the tension remained. And since he was about to walk back into the Sheriff's Department, he didn't expect things to get any better.

He was just outside the front door when it opened. He caught a glimpse of a tall, blond boy with an intelligent face and steady gray eyes who was holding the door for his companion. And then she stepped through.

Bishop hadn't expected it to hit him so hard, but for a moment he couldn't breathe.

She was so like Miranda — or like Miranda had been once. Blue eyes vividly alive in a sweet, lovely face, not quite innocent but not yet cynical and definitely not veiled. A sensitive mouth, which was still vulnerable.

She recognized him instantly, going still in surprise.

He reached out without thought, his fingers closing around her right wrist. "Bonnie."

"Hey," the boy behind her said, bewildered rather than belligerent.

Bonnie stared up at Bishop and half-consciously shook her head. "It's all right, Seth. Hello, Bishop."

All the things he'd wanted to say to the shattered little girl she'd been eight years before crowded into his mind, but the only thing that emerged was a jerky, "I'm sorry, Bonnie—"

Then the words in his head were pushed out by violent images, and his breath caught in shock. His gaze dropped to her arm, and he knew the sleeve of her sweater hid a peculiar scar, knew how she'd gotten it, what she had done to herself and why, and the wave of pain that washed over him was so intense his knees nearly buckled. "Jesus—"

Bonnie pulled her arm gently from his grasp. She was a little pale but calm, even smiling. "It wasn't your fault," she said quietly. "Even Randy knows it wasn't your fault. Let it go, Bishop."

He couldn't say a word, but she didn't seem to expect any response. She walked past him, followed closely by the boy, who gave Bishop a wary, puzzled look.

Bishop watched them get into a car parked at the curb. He noted the boy's protective body language, the way he looked at her and touched her, the way he carefully put her in the passenger seat and closed her door.

He wondered if Miranda knew.

Pushing that speculation out of his mind, he looked after the car as long as he could see it, then tried to pull himself together enough to go inside. He thought he'd done a fair job, but judging by the stares he got as he walked through the bullpen, maybe not.

He barely remembered to knock first at Miranda's closed office door, to wait for the muffled response before going in.

She was on her feet behind the desk, leaning over a map spread out on the blotter. And she was wearing a shoulder harness that held her .45 automatic.

She glanced up at him and said briskly, "At least this time you remembered to knock." Then her eyes narrowed and she straightened slowly. In an entirely different tone, she said, "You saw Bonnie."

He closed the door and sat down in a visitor's chair. "I saw Bonnie."

Her mouth tightened, but all she said was, "And read her like a book, I see."

"No. Not like a book. But I saw her nightmare." He paused. "It wasn't in the police report, Miranda. I didn't know."

"That was my decision. She'd been through enough. And it wouldn't have changed anything, wouldn't have helped you get him."

He heard himself say, "She told me it wasn't my fault."

"Yeah, that sounds like her."

"She said you didn't believe it either."

Miranda looked at him for a steady moment, her expression unreadable, then began to fold the map. "I have to go check out a tip."

He was willing to let her change the subject, but only because he felt too raw to push it. "A tip — or a vision?"

She hesitated, then sighed. "Bonnie's best friend Amy was desperate to try to find Steve Penman. So they tried. They used a Ouija board."

Bishop stood up. "And?"

"And if they got the truth, we're already too late. But they were told where to find him. It's an old mill house out on the river. Abandoned, isolated." She shrugged. "No possible reason or evidence leads me to look there, and I'm not going to claim another anonymous tip unless it pans out first."

"Then I'm going with you," Bishop said. To his surprise, Miranda didn't argue.

"Let's go."

It was nearly two o'clock when Alex carried the most recently discovered files of missing teenagers into the conference room. Tony Harte was at his laptop and spoke wryly before Alex could.

"Your county librarian tells me that the reason so few records are on computer yet is because the city fathers chose to put their upgrade money into making sure existing systems were Y2K compliant."

"That was their excuse," Alex admitted. "Personally, I think they hoarded money to buy doomsday supplies they probably stashed in the basement of the courthouse, but that's just my opinion."

Tony grinned. "If so, they wouldn't be the only ones who did. But it's making it damned difficult to find information with any speed. Even your newspaper is still storing back issues on microfilm."

"What're you looking for?"

"I wanted to check the newspapers covering the two weeks or so before and after each of these kids was last seen in the area. Probably won't find anything, but it never hurts to look. Sometimes runaways respond to ads in the classifieds — you know, temporary jobs, that sort of thing."

"Good idea." Alex held up the files in his hands. "And here are two more for you, from '95."

"Two for the year?"

"We're not done with the year yet."

Tony grimaced. "Great. Okay, I'll add their names to the list."

Alex put the files on the table, then said, "Sheriff isn't in her office, and I don't see your boss around either."

"They went to check out a tip."

"They?"

"Surprised me too," Tony murmured. "Bishop stuck his head in just long enough to say they were going to some old mill house, and that they'd call in if they found anything. That was about ten minutes ago."

"An old mill house?" Alex frowned.

"Yeah. Out on the river, I think he said." Tony eyed the deputy. "You okay? You look sort of ragged, if you don't mind me saying."

"Bad night," Alex replied briefly.

"Ah. I've had my share of those."

"Then you know what my head feels like. I think I'd rather go look at microfilm in the library than go back down into the basement and paw through more files. If you'll give me the relevant dates, I'll see if The Sentinel has anything helpful."

"You don't have to offer twice," Tony said.

"You're not shielding Bonnie any longer," Bishop said. "That's how I was able to read her."

At the wheel of her Jeep, Miranda frowned but didn't look at him. "With Harrison no longer a threat, it wasn't necessary. Bonnie can protect herself as long as—"

"As long as she's not being hunted by a deranged psychic?"

"Yes."

He turned in the passenger seat to watch her. "There's no hint that Gladstone's killer has any psychic ability."

"No," she agreed.

"And yet you're shielding yourself. Even more now than you were a week ago."

"I have my reasons."

She had surprised him again by offering at least some kind of answer readily, and he probed carefully. "You said it wasn't... us. My team. Something to do with the investigation?"

"We're not going to play twenty questions, Bishop. I have my reasons. And that's all."

"Reasons important enough to risk your life?"

"Check the map, will you? I think we turn left at the next crossroads."

"Jesus, you're a stubborn woman," he said as he got the map off the dashboard. He confirmed that they did indeed turn left, and was silent for several miles before asking, "How did the council meeting go?"

"Badly."

"Are they calling for your job yet?"

"Not yet. Nobody else wants it."

He caught a glimpse of the river and realized they were getting close. Absently, he said, "A Ouija board. I would have thought Bonnie would know better than that."

"She does. But she wanted to help her friend."

"Where are they now?"

"Seth's father, Colin Daniels, is one of our local doctors. He runs a pediatric clinic. Bonnie and Seth took Amy there before they came to tell me, then they went back there to stay with her. Colin's her doctor, and he's got her sedated."

"Then she's convinced the Penman boy is dead?"

"Apparently it was a pretty convincing scene."

"Who did they reach? Penman?"

"I don't know. And neither do they."

Bishop hesitated. "If Bonnie's that sensitive, maybe—"

"No way, Bishop. You should know better than that. Whatever Bonnie opened the door to is likely to be confused and enraged at the very least, and I will not allow my sixteen-year-old sister to subject herself to that kind of negative psychic energy. It could destroy her."

"You're right," he said. He thought he'd surprised her, and the reminder of how ruthless she thought him was unexpectedly painful. "I would never do anything to hurt Bonnie, Miranda. If you don't believe anything else I ever say to you, believe that."

She glanced at him, but all she said was, "The road leading out to the mill house should be just ahead. There's no way to approach quietly except on foot — and we'd be very visible on foot."

He saw what she meant when she turned the Jeep off the winding two-lane blacktop and onto a rutted dirt road. She stopped, leaving the engine running, and they both studied the scene ahead. A half mile or so down the road, the mill house was visible. Part of the roof had fallen in on one side, and only shards of glass remained in the few windows not boarded up. The waterwheel had long since become no more than a crumbling skeleton, and overgrown bushes, their branches stripped bare in winter, reached as high as the eaves.

Miranda pulled a pair of binoculars from the center console and got a closer view of the place, then passed them to Bishop. "I don't see anyone. How's the spider-sense?"

He rolled down his window and leaned out with the binoculars, then put them aside and concentrated all his senses. "I don't see anyone either." After a long while, he looked at Miranda and added quietly, "But I smell blood."

She put the Jeep in gear without another word and drove up the road almost to the mill house before parking. "The ground's likely softer near the house," she said. "There might be tire tracks, footprints. Something we might be able to use."

"It's a chance," he agreed.

They got out, both automatically drawing and checking their weapons. Miranda got flashlights and latex gloves from a tool kit in the back of the Jeep, and they made their way cautiously to the house.

They had never worked together this way before, and it wasn't until later that Bishop realized how smoothly and in sync they had operated as a team. Nothing had to be said, and neither wasted a motion or a second of time. They split up to bracket the house, each of them treading carefully to avoid trampling any evidence. They tried and failed to see into several windows as they worked their way toward the door.

The smell of blood grew stronger.

Miranda was the first to reach a window that allowed a view of the inside, and Bishop knew instantly that the sight sickened her. She stood there for a moment, her face still and pale, then moved past the window and joined him beside the closed door.

She whispered, "What I saw couldn't try to escape."

Bishop reached out to try the rusted doorknob, and it turned easily, as if recently oiled. Cautiously, making sure they were standing well to the side, he pushed open the door.

The heavy, coppery stench seemed to roll out at them, cloying and sickly sweet.

He already knew nothing alive was in there, but they went in by the numbers anyway, guns ready, alert for threats and protecting each other as partners did.

Whatever machinery had once been contained in the single huge room was long since gone. Half the space was cluttered by rotting beams and broken tiles; the other half, sheltered by the partial roof, was dim and musty, with weeds sprouting here and there between the few remaining floorboards.

Under the crossbeam, a shallow trench had been dug in the ground. It was about three feet long and a foot wide, and no more than ten inches deep. The soft earth had soaked up much of the blood.

Above the trench, suspended from the crossbeam by a rope knotted around both ankles, hung the naked body of Steve Penman.

Blood still dripped from his slashed throat.