Stephanie Doyle - Possessed

Now Lauren was gone and none of it mattered. And he was standing in a stranger’s bathroom looking for traces of blood in the sink.

He saw only chipped porcelain.

Turning the faucet on, Malcolm took a moment to splash some water on his face. It didn’t help wash away the images in his mind. Not knowing what else to do, he opened the cabinet above the sink and studied the contents. Sample lotions of varying sizes, a tube of toothpaste and an eyelash curler.

Nothing extraordinary. No prescriptions for depression or mental conditions that he’d been hoping for. Nothing that told him she’d done it.

Everything about her seemed to be simple. Except for herself.

“You get lost in there?” she called to him.

“Sorry.”

He opened the door and brushed past her to the living room. He considered sitting but decided he needed to stay mobile, so he paced the length of the yoga mat and then stopped and turned. There was nowhere else to look, nothing else to do here, but he couldn’t seem to make himself leave.

“What did you come here for, Malcolm?”

So he hadn’t been subtle. That wasn’t a shock. “I told you. I wanted to talk.”

“But so far you haven’t said a thing.”

“What you told me…about the nurse…that’s something only a few people in this world would know about.”

“Freaked you out, huh?”

He nodded. It was either that or verbally accuse her once more of being a liar.

She took a few steps closer and paused, her eyes glued to his. They weren’t just green, they were bright green like a fairy’s, he noted. Perfect for a woman who had the face of an elf.

Elfin face, waiflike body, mythological name. Was she even real?

“You’re wrong, you know.”

“I don’t know what you…wrong about what?”

“I didn’t kill your sister. Or the woman in the stairwell.” She paused and he saw her eyes lose focus for a second. “She wants you to know that you’re being stubborn. She says your stubbornness is always your undoing.”

His whole being rebelled against her words. “Stop it,” he hissed. “Stop talking as if you can actually…stop it.”

“And…there’s something else. Something in her apartment. Something there she wants me to find…”

“I imagine there is,” he said, feeling the rage build. His suspicions weren’t unfounded. He knew that now. She needed to get back inside Lauren’s apartment. To get whatever it was she’d left there that would incriminate her. That must have been her game all along when she’d convinced the detective to let her talk to him. But how could she have known he would come here today? She couldn’t have.

Cass’s eyes stayed on his. “I know why you came. You think I’m involved with her death. You thought you might find something here, but you’re wrong.”

“Am I? Why do you want to get into her apartment? What did you leave there?” he demanded to know.

“Nothing,” she stated calmly. “I was never in her apartment. I didn’t know Lauren.”

“Liar. You knew about the nurse.”

“She told me about the nurse last night. She told me about your suspicions today.”

“That’s not possible.”

“It is if you believe that I can communicate with her.”

“I don’t.”

She nodded slowly, as if she was coming to some kind of decision. “When you were thirteen you knocked a small hole in your closet wall so you had a place to hide the lone Playboy magazine you managed to score from your friend…Charlie.”

“Son of a…” he breathed even as he shook his head in denial.

“Lauren never told you, but she found the hole. She strongly believes that Miss April’s breasts were fake.”

It was too much. Something inside his head snapped, and he leaped forward, reaching out and circling her delicate neck with his hand. She had to stop talking. He needed to make her stop talking. But he also needed to know. “Tell me how you’re doing this. Tell me!”

“You’re hurting me,” she gasped, but she didn’t try to pull his hand away.

The sound of her breath catching fizzled his burgeoning rage in an instant. And something else. An overwhelming feeling of peace and gentleness filled his body. It was as if Lauren herself had reached out somehow to make him back off. Like she was here, with him, instead of gone.

Stunned, he saw his fingers digging into Cass’s soft neck and immediately released her. He watched as she stumbled back and then he looked down at his own hands in disbelief of what he’d done. In his life he’d never raised a hand to a woman. Had never hurt anyone who was weaker than he was.

“I…I don’t…I’m sorry.” He moved toward her, but of course she backed away. “I swear I didn’t mean…I would never…”

She ran a hand over her neck as if checking to see if he’d left permanent dents. Then, as if physically shaking off the pain, she refocused her attention on him. “I still need to see Lauren’s apartment.”

In shock, knowing he’d been a second away from true madness, he dropped down on the brightly colored futon and felt the cushion collapse under his weight.

“Now,” she insisted. “We should go now.”

He needed to think. He needed to find an explanation to what was happening-who this woman was and how she could possibly know the things she did. “The police have it secured as a crime scene.”

“You said you have connections. Use them.”

He raised his head and saw her still standing there looking at him. He expected disgust, anger, but there was none.

“Why aren’t you calling the police on me? Or at least telling me to get out. I hurt you.”

She shrugged. “Not badly.”

“Does that matter?” he asked incredulously. Maybe having a man put his hands on her in violence wasn’t an unusual occurrence. He thought about the bruise under her eye last night. And now her lip was swollen. His gut twisted with revulsion, but this time it wasn’t aimed at her. Who could hurt such a fragile thing?

Him, apparently. He shut his eyes in disgrace.

Cass stepped toward him and knelt down in front of him. She started to reach out to touch him, but stopped herself and instead folded her arms over her stomach. He opened his eyes finally and met her gaze.

“Look, you’re exhausted. And you’re the type of man who sees everything in black and white. I just threw a big gray ball in your face. Several, as a matter of fact. You flipped, but you’re over it now. Right?”

“Who are you?”

“You keep asking me that, but you don’t want to listen to the answer. That’s fine. Just trust that there’s something in your sister’s apartment and I need to find it. I think it could help.”

“I couldn’t protect her.” He dropped his face into his hands. “She was so damn innocent, and I couldn’t even come close to stopping this from happening.”

“I know. I know it’s eating you up inside. But you have to believe it’s hurting her more. She feels your pain and it’s just as hard for her to bear it as it is for you. You’ve got to let the guilt go.”

He rubbed a hand over his face and stared at her hard. “I can’t believe you.”

“Okay.”

She made it sound so easy. But it wasn’t. None of this made sense and because none of it did, the only answer seemed to be to keep moving forward. To the next step, the next course of action. “You want to see her apartment?”

“Yes.”

He nodded. “All right.”

She stood and walked to the kitchen to grab the cordless phone. She tossed it to him. “Call whoever you need to call. I’m going to get dressed.”

Malcolm stared down at the phone, everything she’d told him still running through his head. Then he smiled softly.