William Bernhardt - Dark Eye

“Your devotion to your aunt is admirable. I was quite certain that phone call would bring you out.”

The instant the needle left her neck, Rachel felt her strength fading, the lights dimming.

“S-Susan…” she said as her eyelids fluttered closed.

“Susan can’t help you now, my sweet. You will not see her again.” He put the syringe back in his pocket, zipped it up, and gently slid his arms under her still, limp body. “But the happy thing is, after you’ve been with me for a while, you won’t want to.”

Two squad cars were already parked out front by the time Granger and I made the scene. Two uniforms were at the front door. I whipped the car around, tires squealing, parked in the middle of the street, and raced across the lawn.

They didn’t answer the doorbell, just as they hadn’t been answering the phone. I looked up and saw a window open. The window in what I knew was Rachel’s room.

I kicked the damn door open.

We raced inside, guns raised. Circling in formation, we flooded the downstairs, the living room, the kitchen. No signs of life, good or bad.

We found the Shepherds huddled upstairs in their bed. They’d thought it best not to open the door this time of night. They’d tried calling the police but couldn’t get a dial tone.

“Damn,” Granger said under his breath. “He must’ve cut the phone line.”

I bolted into Rachel’s room.

The breeze coming through the open window put a chill in the air. The lace drapes fluttered up and down. The room was silent.

She was gone. He had her.

Rachel woke screaming.

She was naked and strapped to a wooden chair in the middle of what looked like a basement. She couldn’t get free; she couldn’t move. She was barely able to squirm.

Only a few seconds later, he entered the room carrying a large oaken bucket.

“Where am I now?” she shouted. He’d repeated this pattern over and over again, ever since he abducted her, taking her to some new location, bringing her around for a few minutes, then drugging her again. She’d lost all sense of time and place.

“A little change of scenery while I finish my preparations. There’s so much to do. Did you like what I showed you earlier? Did it not seem a wondrous staging ground to ring in the Ascension? You’ll be returning later, after we’ve had a little fun.”

“Where are my clothes, you pervert?” Her voice was hoarse and strained. “Why did you take them?”

He smiled pleasantly. “I didn’t wish to get them wet.” And then he dumped the bucket on her.

It was filled with water, ice cold. It hit her like an arctic tidal wave. She thought she was going into shock; for a moment, it felt as if her heart actually stopped beating. She shivered uncontrollably, convulsing. She had never felt so bitterly frozen in her entire life.

“C-C-C-Could I please have a blanket? Or s-s-s-something. I-I-I-”

“I’m sorry. That isn’t an option.”

“B-B-B-But I’m s-s-s-so c-c-cold.”

“Yes. But fear not-later you’ll be hot. So terribly hot. Then cold again, then hot. Cold, hot, cold, hot. All the livelong day.”

She peered up at him, her eyes cloudy, her flesh a mottled pink covered with chill bumps, her arms clutched as tightly as possible to her exposed chest. “Why?”

“I should think that was obvious. To eliminate that trademark Pulaski stubbornness. Happily, I don’t require your total subservience. There simply isn’t enough time remaining. I already have my three offerings. You’re the Vessel. But fear not-it’s a most important role.”

She drank in air in deep, convulsive gasps. “Why… are… you… like this?”

He looked at her for a long moment. “A curious question. Why are any of us the way we are? There’s no satisfactory explanation, is there? Would you like me to tell you a sad story? Blame it all on my tragic childhood? Mommy didn’t love me. Daddy hit me with a hairbrush. Simplistic balderdash. We are what we are.” He adjusted the lay of his vest. “I am the Raven. Everything else was mere prologue.”

People were talking to me, shouting in my ear, demanding answers to their endless questions. I couldn’t process it all, couldn’t deal with it. Why had he targeted Rachel? How had I known he was coming here? Why hadn’t I done something about it sooner? Each time I started to give a coherent answer something else interrupted, a new demand, a false hope, a neural spasm in my brain. This could not be happening. This could not be happening.

Rachel!

“Everybody out of the house!” Patrick shouted. And when had he shown up? At least someone had the sense to preserve what was now a crime scene. God knows I hadn’t.

“Call the techs. Get Crenshaw. Get O’Bannon!”

Patrick barked out orders with impressive efficiency and organization. It should be me, I heard the voice inside my head say. It should be me.

Rachel!

All at once, every single living memory, every photograph, every reminder of what that man had done to me flashed through my head.

And now he had my niece.

Patrick pulled the questioners off me. I knew the respite would be a brief one, but I was determined to make the most of it. I found a sofa and sat, steadying myself. My hands were shaking again. My stomach was sick, tossing, craving. I knew what I wanted, what I needed. I felt it with an urgency I had not experienced before, not since I woke up by the dam, not even when I saw the pictures.

He had won, he and the bottle. I knew I would get drunk tonight. I knew I would get drunk and stay drunk and be a drunk for the rest of my life. I had tried so hard. But I wasn’t strong enough.

I felt a sharp aching in my left wrist. God, I’d almost forgotten that was there. If only I’d done it right. I might be gone, but Rachel would be safe.

This was my fault. This was all my fault.

Next thing I remembered was Patrick sitting beside me, Darcy hovering behind him. Patrick was careful to keep his face sympathetic but calm, strong. And Darcy was expressionless. Was that because he wasn’t picking up on the nonverbal clues, didn’t comprehend my fear and sadness? No, I think he got it, perhaps more than anyone. He just didn’t know what to do about it. Who could?

“We have to ask you some more questions, Susan. Not just about what happened tonight, but about Rachel in general. Anything you can tell us about her that might be helpful.”

I felt so useless. I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t even raise my eyes to his.

“But I don’t know why it has to be done here,” Patrick continued. “Best if we take it back to headquarters.”

So I won’t be around if the crime techs start making discoveries? Like Rachel’s blood? Evidence of her death or torture?

“Why don’t you ride back with me? I’ll get a sergeant to bring your car-”

“No, I’ll drive,” I said, snapping out of it with a suddenness that startled both of us.

“I don’t think that’s wise.”

“I can do it. I’ll meet you back-”

He grabbed my wrist and held it tight. “We need you on this, Susan. We need you one hundred percent.”

I knew what he was saying. He knew why I wanted to drive myself. But it was all so far beyond my control.

O’Bannon crouched down beside me. “Susan, I’m sorry to have to do this to you, but you’re off the case.”

“What?”

“Your niece is a victim now. You’re too close. I could overlook your own involvement, but not hers. Effective now, your consulting contract is canceled. You can keep the desk. I’ll try to assign you something else when an appropriate case comes along. But as for now-”

That was when the phone rang, cutting him mercifully short. I don’t know what I thought I was doing. But I was sitting right next to it. So I picked it up.