Iris Johansen - Blood Game

“I don’t know. Memory?”

“Memory?” Caleb repeated. “What are you talking about?”

Joe made an impatient gesture and turned away from him. “Let’s get it over with, Nancy Jo.” He opened the trunk of the car. “He probably stashed you in the trunk after he put you out. Do you have any recollection?”

“No.” She put her hand on the rust-colored carpet lining the trunk. “It seems strange not to be able to feel things. Bonnie said if I stay long enough some of it will come back. Sunlight… rain…”

“You don’t sense anything?”

“Nothing about him.” She shuddered. “But I wasn’t the only one Jelak stuffed in this trunk. One, two, three… Five. I think there were five. Four of us were unconscious but Kerry was still awake, and she fought, her nails were bloody from trying to get out.” She reached out and touched a tiny brown stain on the carpet. Tears rose to her eyes. “I feel her, but I can’t help her.”

“You have sensation when you touch the blood?”

“Yes, but I can’t help her.”

“It’s all right, Nancy Jo.” He closed the trunk. “She doesn’t need your help anymore.” He went to the driver’s door and opened it. “Get in and see if you get anything.”

“He sat there.” She came to stand beside him and stared at the seat. She swallowed, hard. “Dear God, I don’t want to do it.”

“You said you couldn’t feel anything.”

“I can remember,” she said fiercely. “I can remember his face.”

“You won’t do it?”

She drew a deep breath. “Of course I’ll do it. Give me a minute.”

“All the time you need.”

Two minutes later she slowly slipped into the driver’s seat. She closed her eyes. “He was in this car the night he killed Heather Carmello. After that, he decided it wasn’t safe to keep it. He’d have to steal another car and abandon this one.”

“What kind of car?”

She shook her head. “He hadn’t decided. He liked big American cars, but he was leaning toward a smaller foreign job. He kept thinking about Seth Caleb and the way he’d tracked him at the lake cottage. He doesn’t want to admit it to himself, but he’s afraid of him.” She opened her eyes. “May I get out now? I feel as if he’s here with me. I can almost hear his heart beat.”

“Just a little longer. I need to know where he is.”

“I can’t tell. All I know is how he was feeling the last time he was in this car.”

“Run your hand along the dashboard.”

She hesitated, then lifted her hand and ran her fingers along the leather dashboard. “Nothing.”

“The cup holder and the passenger seat.”

She took a deep breath and touched the cup holder. She snatched it back as if burned. “Heather Carmello’s blood. He had the goblet in the holder when he took it to Patty Avery’s house. It was only a short distance, and he was in a hurry.”

“Try the passenger seat.”

She didn’t move. “When can I get out of this car?”

“After the passenger seat.”

“Dammit, Joe.” She swallowed and reached out her hand to touch the dark fabric. “It had better be worth this-” She gasped and bent double. “No!”

“What is it?”

“Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.”

“What is it? Talk to me.”

“Oh, my God.”

“Nancy Jo.”

“I see him.” Her fingers were pressing on the fabric of the passenger seat. “I see him. I feel him. No, I don’t feel him. I feel me.”

“What?”

“My blood pounding in him.” She looked down in horror at her hand touching the seat. “When he got back in the car that night, he still had a little of my blood on his hand. He’d been very careful to clean up the area, but he had blood on his hand from the goblet. He… licked his finger, then wiped it on the seat. He wasn’t worried. He could always clean the seat later. He knew how to do that. It had happened before.” She shook her head. “But even though he couldn’t see it, the blood is still there. My blood.”

“Focus. You said you could see him.”

“Dammit, stop being a cop. I’m trying to focus. You try to think when you can feel your blood pounding in that murderer’s body and-”

“Okay, I’m sorry. When you touched the bloodstain, you felt a connection with Jelak?”

“I feel it right now. And if I wasn’t trying to focus, then I’d take my hand off this damn stain. I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to feel anything. Not sunlight. Not rain. Not if this is in the package.” The tears were running down her cheeks. “I don’t want to be part of him. Make it stop.”

“That’s what we’re trying to do.” Joe knelt beside her in the passenger seat. He wished he could touch her, comfort her. “We’re going to make it stop. Tell me what you see, Nancy Jo.”

“Goblets. He’s looking into a black Croco case that has those gold goblets arranged in three neat rows. He’s reaching out and stroking one of them.” She shuddered. “I know those goblets. He put one to my throat after-”

“Where is he? Look around.”

“It looks like a motel. A bed with a cheap-looking flowered cotton bedspread. There’s a desk. A red door.”

“Red door? Bathroom door or exterior?”

“I don’t know. No, exterior. I see one of those plaques that give the room rates hanging on the door.”

“Can you see the name on the plaque?”

She shook her head.

“Try.”

“I can’t see it,” she said through her teeth.

“Anything else? Newspapers?”

She shook her head. She was starting to pant. “I can’t stand it. I have to leave him.”

“Just another minute. The desk. Is there stationery on the desk?”

“Just a leather folder.”

“With the name of the hotel?”

“No.” Her chest was lifting and falling with the harshness of her breathing. “No.” She tensed. “But there’s a telephone book on the desk. It’s the yellow pages. It’s thin…”

“Atlanta?”

“No, Roswell. Roswell yellow pages. I can’t see anything more. Jelak is closing out everything but the feel of the goblet in his hand. No, he’s thinking about her. The way she’s going to taste, the triumph she’s going to bring him.” She shook her head. “Don’t let him do it. Don’t let him do it. Don’t let him do it again.”

“Who is he thinking about?”

“You know. Eve. It’s always Eve. None of us really mattered to him. I do matter. My life mattered.”

“Yes,” he said gently. “Let go. Get out of the car, Nancy Jo.”

“I do matter.”

“You matter very much. Now get out of the car.”

She nodded jerkily and her hand slowly left the fabric of the passenger seat. She slumped against the steering wheel like a broken doll. “It hurts. It makes me feel sick and scared. I can’t do this again, Joe.”

“I won’t ask you.”

“You will if it would save Eve.” Her lips twisted. “But I don’t think I could do it.” She got out of the car. “I just hope that-” She broke off and moved toward the front of the car. “It was very hard. I don’t remember ever going through anything as terrible as that. Don’t let it be for nothing.”