M Sellars - The Law Of Three

“Troop C headquarters is just west of there off of Forty.” Ben referred to the highway patrol.

She nodded briskly. “The field office has already notified MHP and County. I was just getting ready to call in to the Major Case Squad and let them know what’s going on.”

“Good deal.” Ben reached up to his neck but caught himself. Judging by the look on his face, he apparently managed to do so just before flexing his hand enough to bring on any real pain. He dropped his hand back down and continued. “Maybe we can put an end to this whole thing right here and now.”

“It’s not going to be that easy,” I told him as I shook my head.

He held up his hand to stop me and then huffed out a breath as he stared at my face. He was looking for something in my expression but wasn’t finding it. “Look, Row,” he said. “Do you think that maybe you just might be wrong this time?”

“You have no idea how much I’d like to be,” I retorted. “It’s not like…”

My sentence was truncated by the telephone pealing for attention once again. I snatched up the handset and brought it to my ear.

“What took you so long, Eldon?” I chided. “I was beginning to think you’d lost my number.”

“I am her absolution, Gant,” he said in a measured cadence, but this time his voice held more distraction than arrogance. “And you will be witness when she is released from her darkness and given unto the glory of God Almighty.”

“Let me talk to her,” I demanded.

He continued, ignoring my assertion. “You will know when it is time. Vengeance is mine.”

Flat resonance issued from the speaker for yet another time as the connection was unceremoniously ended.

I took in a deep breath and let it go in a heavy rush as my shoulders dropped. I rested the handset back onto the hook and looked up at Ben and Constance.

“Well?” Ben appealed.

“He wants me to see him kill her,” I answered.

“Jeezus…” my friend muttered. “He give you a place or somethin’?”

I shook my head. “No. He sounded a little preoccupied. I think he knows he was on the line too long the first time around.”

“He’s probably going to try getting off the main roads then,” Mandalay offered as she began stabbing at the buttons on her cell phone.

I could feel the icy breath of the Dark Mother on the back of my neck, and I shivered inwardly. She was waiting in the wings for someone, and I had a bad feeling that the someone just might be me. There was simply no way that this was going to play out well.

Ben stared at me and furrowed his brow. “I know that look, Kemosabe. Whaddaya got chewin’ on ya’ now?”

“Nothing,” I replied in an absent tone.

“You’re lyin’, Row.”

“Am I under oath all of a sudden?”

“Awww, man, Row…” he started.

I moved past him with deliberate purpose. “I need to go talk to Felicity.”

“Hey.” I offered the word softly as I pressed my back against the door and felt it click shut.

It was quiet in the room. My wife was sitting on the edge of the bed, hunched over, with her arms encircling a pillow. Her back was to me, and I could hear her sniffling. Either she was still crying, or she had only recently stopped.

The only light in the room came from a reading lamp on the book table to one side of the bed. It cast a soft luminescence across the dark blue comforter, then dissipated, leaving Felicity in the muddy shadows just beyond its reach.

I waited for a long stretch and received no response.

“Do I need a white flag?” I finally asked.

I watched as she slowly moved, releasing her grip on the pillow and setting it aside. Her dainty hands slipped upward and pushed her mane of spiraling auburn back from her face. She continued to the back of her head, where she gathered it with a twist and pulled it into a fiery fall over her left shoulder then began to fiddle with it absently. The pale skin of her now exposed neck seemed to glow in the semi-darkness.

“Aye, it was him again, wasn’t it?” she asked, her voice almost a hoarse whisper. “On the phone?”

“Yes,” I answered, keeping my own voice low for fear of shattering the tenuous calm in the room. “It was him.”

“Is Star dead?” she asked, the words catching in her throat.

I noticed after a moment that I was shaking my head even though she couldn’t see me; I verbalized the answer. “No. She’s still alive.”

Silence filled the space between us and thickened as each second passed. The energy in the room was a chaotic mix of anger, sadness, fear, and resolve. It assaulted me on every level, igniting my nerve endings with cold fire. The physical atmosphere was warm-too warm-but I still fought off an overwhelming need to shudder as I pushed away from the door and stepped farther into the room.

“We need to talk about all of this, honey,” I said.

She still hadn’t turned to face me, but I could see her head bob in the shadows as she spoke. “Aye, we do.”

I pressed on. “Star is still alive, for now, but he does intend to kill her.”

“This shouldn’t be happening,” she muttered

“I know,” I said. “Believe me, I wish it wasn’t.”

“What did he say to you?”

“No, honey,” I objected. “There’s no need for you to…”

“Dammit, Rowan,” she half demanded, half pleaded. “Don’t leave me out. The bastard called me this afternoon.”

“Ben told me,” I acknowledged. “I was going to talk to you about that later.”

“He’s sick, Rowan.”

“I know that.”

Another lull slipped through the room. I heard her take in a cleansing breath and watched the shadows as her shoulders moved upward then slowly fell when she exhaled. She pulled her hair upward and began working it into a loose pile on her crown.

“So what did he say to you?”

“Honey…”

Insistence permeated her voice. “What did he say, Rowan?”

I lowered my head in resignation. “He said that he was her absolution.”

“What else?”

I sighed and moved another step toward the bed. “He said that I would be a witness to her release.” I left out the “vengeance is mine” comment.

“So you are going to go save her, then” came her flat reply.

“I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t try.”

“You could let the police handle it now.” There was a narrow thread of hope woven through her voice.

“I will. If they can…” I let my words trail off.

She turned slightly, twisting her body and glancing over her shoulder. As she repositioned herself, she moved partially into the light. My eyes were finally adjusting, and I could see that her cheeks were flushed. Her smooth skin glistened with the dampness of her tears, and she reached up to wipe her eyes.

“Aye, you think they can’t?”

“It doesn’t feel very good,” I offered.

“Aye, so you will sacrifice yourself for her, won’t you?”

“It’s not my intention.”

“But you will if you have to.” She offered the comment as a statement of fact and then paused before finally asking, “Won’t you?”

I didn’t answer her.

“Aye, what about me?”

“You’ll be safe,” I said softly. “Mandalay will be here with you.”

“That’s not what I mean, then, Rowan!” She turned farther into the light and glared at me sharply. “What of me? Why are you so willing to leave me alone? Don’t you love me anymore?”

“Felicity!” I was stunned. “How can you even think that? Of course I love you. More than anything, you know that.”

“Why do you want to leave me then?”

I moved forward and took a seat next to her on the bed. She leaned into me as I slipped my arm around her and pulled her close.