Void Moon

38

THE gears of the Boxster whined loudly as Cassie wound them out on the way into Laurel Canyon.

"Nine-one-one emergency, how can I help you?"

She had the phone on speaker.

"Listen to me, you have an officer down. An officer down!"

She gave the address of the house on Selma and the location within where Thelma Kibble could be found. She also described the wound she observed and told the operator to dispatch the ambulance.

"I am doing that by computer while we speak. What is your name, please?"

"Just send the paramedics, would you?"

She disconnected the call and immediately hit redial. At first she got a recording saying all 911 lines were busy but an operator picked up before the recording was completed.

"Nine-one-one emergency, how can I help you?"

At first Cassie thought it might be the same operator.

"Can I help you?"

She decided it wasn't.

"There's a man trying to abduct a little girl. You have to send someone."

"What is the location, ma'am?"

Cassie looked at the dashboard clock. It was three-fifteen. She knew Jodie Shaw's schedule by heart and that she left Wonderland Elementary every day at three. If Karch hadn't already made his move he would have to do it at the house. She gave the operator the address of the house on Lookout Mountain Road.

"Hurry! Please!"

She disconnected the call. She caught the light at Hollywood and Laurel Canyon Boulevards and sped north into the canyon. She realized that she was probably closer than any LAPD patrol cruiser, unless there happened to be one already in the canyon or at Wonderland Elementary. She had to decide what to do if she got there first.

Traffic slowed as it winnowed to one lane and she found herself caught behind an old LTD that was meandering into the canyon.

"Come on!" she yelled, her hand pressed on the horn. "Let's go! Let's go!"

She saw the man in the car in front of her looking at her in his mirror. She waved him to the side but he just raised the middle finger of his right hand to her and seemed to intentionally drive even slower. On the next turn she passed him, a dangerous maneuver that made an oncoming car pull off the road. The driver of that car and the man in the LTD serenaded her with long blasts of their horns. Cassie stuck her fist out the window and raised her finger to the LTD. She sped ahead.

She made the turn onto Lookout Mountain and sped up the hill. She slowed as she went by Wonderland Elementary. There were still children in the play yard and the street was crowded with double-parked cars as parents stopped to pick up their children. Cassie picked her way around but didn't bother looking for Jodie. She knew the schedule. She was at home – or already with Karch.

As she made the last curve before the Shaws' house her heart jumped up into her throat. Up ahead was a police car, its lights flashing, parked in the street. Her hope was that it was there in response to her 911 call but her gut said that was impossible. She had made the call just three minutes earlier.

Cassie slowed the Boxster as she got to the house. She saw two police officers, a male and female team, standing on the lawn just inside the picket fence. They were looking at a woman whose face was so contorted and red that it was a moment before Cassie recognized her as Linda Shaw, the woman who had raised her child.

Tears were streaking her face. Her hands were white-knuckled fists held tight against her chest. The female cop was bending down a bit and looking into her face. She had one hand on Linda Shaw's arm in a comforting fashion. The other officer was speaking into a hand-held radio. Cassie knew she was too late.

All at once all three of them looked out into the street and at the Porsche, their attention drawn by the rumbling of the engine as Cassie powered it down.

The two officers checked the car for a few moments and turned their attention back to the woman between them. But Linda Shaw's eyes held on the Boxster. They pierced the windshield and looked right at Cassie Black. The two women had never met before. The adoption transfer had been handled blindly because of Cassie's incarceration and her desire at the time not to meet the people who would take her child.

But in that fleeting moment when their eyes met, Cassie felt something transmitted. They had connected on the cold plane where the worst fears of motherhood are hidden. In Linda Shaw's tortured and wet eyes Cassie saw that there could be no greater love for her daughter.

Cassie was the first to turn her eyes away. She kept the Boxster driving smoothly by. She knew she could take Lookout Mountain up to Sunset Plaza and then back down into the city without having to go by the house again. That was what she would do, she decided.

And then she would go where he wanted her to go. Karch. They would play this out whatever way he wanted.