Alex Kava: The Soul Catcher

“Why were you looking for me? Do you need something?” He needed to play out the role of complete asshole, or he’d never be able to pull this off.

The wounded look in those blue eyes just about ripped his heart out.

“No, I don’t need anything. I just wanted to…you know, be with you. Is that okay?”

Shit! Double shit! He couldn’t do this.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said, and felt like he had just tossed away his entire plan.

“Hi, Alice, Justin.” The woman named Kathleen squeezed through to get to them. Justin couldn’t believe she remembered his name. She hadn’t been in very good shape last night during their introductions. “I’m glad to see you kids together.” She smiled at Alice, and Justin thought he saw Alice blush. Then suddenly, Kathleen looked sad, the smile replaced with almost a frown as she squeezed Alice’s shoulder and said, “You kids take care of each other, okay? No matter what happens.”

Then she left them, only she was headed in the wrong direction back toward the exit. Maybe she needed to use the rest room. Justin thought he had seen them back that way.

“She’s really a nice woman. We talked about a lot of stuff last night,” Alice said in her soft voice. “She helped me see a lot of things.’

“What kinds of things?” he asked, but his eyes were scanning the surroundings again, looking, hoping for a miracle.

“Things like how much you mean to me and how I don’t want to lose you.”

He stopped and stared at her. She reached for his hand and intertwined her fingers with his.

“I care about you, Justin. Please just tell me what I can do to make things right with us again.”

God, her hand felt good in his, like it belonged. Was she being straight with him, or was this another of Father’s tricks? Before he could say anything Brandon appeared from out of nowhere.

“Alice,” he said, scowling down at their hands with some kind of power that made Alice pull hers away. “Father wants to see you before the prayer rally. You need to come with me.”

She looked up at Justin, apologetic, almost pained. He immediately wondered if Father had yet another lesson for her. Nah, there wasn’t much time. Cassie already had the crowd all revved up.

He watched Brandon lead Alice away, taking some weird shortcut up through the trees. What the hell was Father doing up there, anyway? Probably some strange ritual he does to prepare.

He scanned the crowd again. How much time did he have before Brandon, Alice and Father came back down? Could they see him from up above? Shit! He was fucked.

Then, just as he turned, he recognized a tall blonde at the edge of the bike trail, waving at him. It took him a minute. He probably would have remembered who she was sooner if she was with her short, blond bookend. He smiled and waved, noticing that she was away from the stage and with an older woman who looked enough like her to be her mother. Maybe that meant they had come in a car.

He started toward them, feeling a surge of excitement again, starting to actually believe in miracles.

Tully tried to blend into the crowd. It took him a minute to pick out the plainclothes agents from the Cleveland field office. They were scattered throughout the park. If Everett expected to find the place crawling with men in black, he wouldn’t be able to pick them out. All of them were in place, and they were ready. Tully knew most of the agents, though he could hardly recognize them in their ordinary, everyday disguises. He had worked with this group on plenty of cases before his transfer to the District. In fact, it felt comfortable being back home.

He looked for Racine and spotted her close to the rest rooms at the back exit of the park. He had to admit, in her baseball cap, worn blue jeans, a borrowed Cleveland Indians T-shirt and her leather bomber jacket, she looked like one of the locals, checking out the pavilion’s excitement. No one probably even noticed her mumbling into the cuff of her jacket or the bulge at the back of her waistband. Whatever O’Dell’s misgivings about Racine, the detective was doing a hell of a job. Maybe it was simply the threat of suspension or possible demotion. Chief Henderson was still adamant about a discipline review board. Perhaps Racine was trying to make up for past mistakes. Whatever it was, Tully didn’t care. The important thing was that she not screw this up.

The prayer rally had started without Reverend Everett, but according to Stephen Caldwell, the good reverend would be here anytime now. Although none of them had seen Everett or even Caldwell, for that matter. In the meantime, a beautiful black woman in a purple choir robe had the crowd stomping, clapping and singing at the top of their lungs. Tully could barely hear the other agents, checking in. He tapped his earpiece just to make sure it was functioning properly.

“Tully,” he heard Racine whisper in his right ear. “Any sign of him?”

“No, not yet.” He glanced around just to make certain no one noticed he was talking to himself. “But it’s early. Any sign of Garrison?”

There was a buzz, then, “I thought I saw him when we first got here. Not sure if it was him, though.”

“Keep an eye out for him. He can probably lead us to the action.”

Just then, he noticed the kid, the tall redhead, going up the hill on the opposite side from him. He had a girl with him, a girl with long blond hair. Immediately, he was reminded of Emma.

“Here we go,” he said into his cuff. “Southeast end of the pavilion, headed for the trees on the hill. I’m going up. I’ll wait for backup.”

He glanced over at Racine, who seemed distracted, looking in the opposite direction toward the rest rooms.

“Is everyone clear?” Tully whispered to all the agents but meant it for Racine.

Hers was the only voice he didn’t hear check in. And now he couldn’t see where she went. Damn it! What the hell was she up to? He didn’t have time to rein her in. The kid, Brandon, was already leading his next victim up into the trees. Tully squeezed through the crowd, not taking his eyes off the pair. He remained so focused that he practically slammed into an attractive blond woman without stopping. It wasn’t until she grabbed his elbow that he turned back.

“R.J. What in the world are you doing here?”

“Caroline?”

Then Tully saw Emma and his stomach began to knot.

“What are you doing in Cleveland?” his ex-wife demanded.

“I’m here on business,” he said quietly, trying not to draw attention. Caroline’s face already sprouted lines of anger. Yet, all Tully could think about was getting his daughter as far the hell away from this park as he could.

“I just can’t believe you’d pull a stunt like this,” Caroline was saying now, but she was looking at Emma instead of him. “So is this the reason you wanted to come here tonight, because you knew your father would be here?”

Tully looked at Emma, and her face went red. He could be dense sometimes, but evidently, he knew his daughter better than her mother did. He knew Emma was here because of the athletic-looking young man beside her. The young man whose eyes had been darting around everywhere as if he wanted to be anyplace but here.

“Please, Caroline,” he tried again, taking her by the elbow to lead her away from the crowd.

“You two think this is funny?”

“No, not at all.” He kept his voice as calm as he could while trying to yell over the noise. “Can we talk about this later?”

“Yeah, Mom, you’re really embarrassing me.”

Tully glanced around, looking to see if anyone was watching them. But everyone seemed fixated on the stage. His eyes scanned the area, and suddenly he could no longer see Brandon or the girl. Jesus! It was happening.