The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels Page 5

  “I’m still not sure I understand what you are offering, Mr. Dohering.”

  Dohering was Dolan’s latest identity, created especially for dealing with Mayor Wills. “It’s simple, sir. I’m offering a chance to start this city over from a clean slate. Put Detroit back on the map. Make Chicago look more like the Third or Fourth City.”

  “The notion is great. It’s the execution that has me confused. How can you reboot a city in a single term? It will take years to reach the kind of vision you’ve suggested.”

  Dolan shook his head. He could feel the tweak of a smile on his own face. “That’s where my people come in. We can expedite gentrification by eliminating blight and forcing out…unwelcome inhabitants that have held back the city’s progress.”

  The mayor finished chewing before he spoke. “This sounds like some Mafia strong-arm shit. You offering to burn down crack houses and chase out riffraff with baseball bats? You think I haven’t had every wannabe goomba make me an offer like that? Just because I’m Detroit’s mayor doesn’t make me corrupt.”

  “I never suggested such a thing. And I can assure you our methods are not nearly as crude as those you describe. No one will leave the city unwillingly. But many will leave, clearing the way for a new generation of Detroiters.”

  The mayor glanced over both shoulders as if expecting someone listening in. Probably somebody was. The man had a right to his paranoia. You didn’t become leader of a deadbeat city like Detroit without some skeletons in the proverbial closet. Idealists didn’t actually make it as far as the mayoral office.

  Mayor Wills leaned forward, whispered. “You know how you sound? No offence, but if you don’t have something a little more concrete for me, I’m going to beg off. I’ve got a city to run.”

  The smirk on Dolan’s lips pulled tighter. “Tell me, Mr. Mayor. Do you believe in ghosts?”

  The mayor pushed his plate away and drained the last of his wine. “We’re done here.”

  “Do not leave this table.”

  “In case you forgot, the armed men over by the door are my security detachment. I come and go as I please.”

  “What about the men at your home? Are you confident they can protect your family?”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “Just asking questions, Mr. Mayor. The world is full of questions. Questions are easy. It is always the answers that elude. But sometimes we ignore the answers that stand before us in plain sight.”

  The mayor slid his seat back.

  Dolan reached across the table and grabbed the other man’s wrist. The mayor’s attempt to jerk free was pathetic at best. And here the man had styled himself as a hip athlete during his campaign. Just another of the many facades in this world.

  “Look at my glass, Mr. Mayor.”

  “Let me go this instant.” He turned to his security team and waved them over with his free hand. The two men in matching suits with matching bulges under their jackets peeled away from their position at the entrance and started over.

  Dolan slid his glass of water across the table to the mayor’s side. “Look. Tell me what you see.”

  “It’s water you stupid lunatic. Just…” Something caught his eye. He gazed into the glass, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.

  Dolan released the mayor’s wrist. “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “The most interesting question of all. Many are so focused on ‘why?’ But it is ‘how’ that can confound us even more when we see something we think is impossible.”

  The pair of security goons reached the table. They came around to Dolan and each took an arm. Dolan didn’t fight. He waited, watching the mesmerized mayor.

  The mayor looked up from the glass, blinking as if coming out of an unexpected sleep. It took a moment for him to process what his men were up to, maybe even if they belonged to him or not.

  “It’s all right,” he said. “Let him go.”

  “Are you sure?”

  The mayor went to slam a fist on the table but stopped himself as his gaze returned to the water glass. This made Dolan smile. Mayor Wills wouldn’t want to spill any of that precious water.

  “Just leave us,” the mayor said.

  The men shuffled away with obvious reluctance.

  Dolan straightened his sleeves and leaned forward. “Do you recognize what you see?”

  “It’s…” His wide eyes shifted from the glass to Dolan. “It’s my house.”

  And sure enough, in the water a shimmering image of the mayor’s home floated like a projection. “It’s call scrying. Mystics and witches of all kinds have been doing it for hundreds of years. Yet the majority of people living today think it impossible.”

  The mayor reached at the glass with a trembling hand, his fingers coming an inch from touching the rim, but he did not go any closer.

  “As you can see, it is not only possible, it is easy. Almost as easy as getting to your loved ones.” Dolan gently turned the water glass by the stem and the image rippled and changed.

  The mayor stared at a moving picture of his wife.

  Dolan turned the glass again.

  The face of a ten year-old girl floated on the water’s surface.

  Mayor Wills gasped. “Alexis.”

  “These aren’t spy cameras or bugs, Mr. Mayor. This is a power of a whole different kind. A power I’m offering you to tap into and save the great city of Detroit.”

  The mayor’s jaw set. He tore his attention away from the glass and glared at Dolan. “I don’t know how you’re doing this. I don’t care. You do not threaten my family.”

  “Let’s not waste time with bravado. I have no interest in harming your family. I want to help your city.”

  “Why? What’s in it for you?”

  Dolan laughed. “I expect to be paid, of course.”

  “How much?”

  “How much would you pay to be known as the mayor who saved Detroit?”

  The mayor looked down at the glass again. Dolan gave it a turn, showing a view of one of the uglier city blocks. Abandoned houses falling to ruin. Buckled pavement. Trash blowing over dead lawns.

  “You can fix this city. They will treat you like a king. At the very least they will reelect you for another dozen terms.”

  The mayor smirked, his eyes lighting up. “Tell me how.”

  “Yes, back to how.” Dolan almost let himself forget the disturbing message he’d received on his phone. “I had mentioned ghosts.”

  “Ghosts?”

  “Yes. Lots and lots of ghosts.”

  Chapter Nine

  They traveled north toward Vegas in a Lincoln Town Car Craig had found in a parking garage and hotwired. He chose the car both because of its good condition and the ability of such a car to blend in. The tinted windows helped, too. The car probably belonged to some private chauffer. He felt bad for stealing, but would have felt worse if he and the girl ended up in jail or dead.

  Maybe the Agency would track down the owner and reimburse him for the car.

  All things out of his control. He had to remain focused on what he could control. For starters, it was time to find out how Jessie had tracked him. The Agency had ostensibly erased Craig Lockman from existence. There was no paper trail, no moving orders, nothing, certainly, that a teenage girl could pick up and follow.

  She hadn’t spoken since escaping the last vampire. Her silent obedience to Lockman’s directions spooked him a little. He still worried that shock had done some permanent damage to the young girl. Coming out of the car with that crucifix had shown some serious strength, though. So he let her stay quiet.

  But a couple hours had passed. They were on the road now, temporarily safe as long as they kept moving. And he had to get answers.

  He turned the volume down on the jazz station he had tuned to after discovering the car had satellite radio. A nice feature he’d never been able to afford.

  “We need to talk. Are you ready?”

  She stared out her window, her forehead resting against the
glass. A dry, brown landscape rolled by outside, broken by the occasional Yucca tree, but otherwise barren desert.

  “What are you?” she asked.

  He hesitated a second. “I’m human.”

  She snorted. “That’s fucked up you could even think that’s what I meant.”

  “You really think you should use that kind of language?”

  “You really think I give a fuck what language I use after what I saw today?”

  He couldn’t help smiling. “No. I guess you fucking wouldn’t.”

  She made a shuddering sound that could have been a sigh or a tired laugh. Probably both.

  “You’re holding up well.”

  She rubbed at one eye, further smearing her dark makeup across her cheek. “Don’t feel like it.”

  “I’ve seen grown men turn into blubbering fools after their first introduction to the supernatural.”

  She looked at him. “Is that what that was? My introduction?”

  He took a moment to pick his words, decided it was far too late to sugarcoat. “Yes. Those were vampires. At least, that’s what most people call them. Essentially they fall into the same class as most other supernatural creatures. Intruders. Things that don’t really belong in our world but found their way here anyway.”

  “I thought vampirism was a virus or something. At least, that’s the best explanation for it I’ve read about and seen in movies.”

  “You’ll do better not to look for scientific explanations for the supernatural. Scientists have been trying that for longer than both of us have been alive and they all sound like a bunch of lunatics when you talk to them.”

  Jessie blinked and shook her head as if she’d been splashed in the face with cold water. “This conversation is too surreal for words.”

  “It’s a tough thing to reconcile. Luckily most people don’t have to.”

  “You seem pretty cool with all of it.”

  The afternoon sun came out from behind a cloud, the light shining into Lockman’s eyes. He pulled down the visor. “You never get used to it. Actually, the more you know the scarier it is.”

  “You never once looked scared.”

  “You might have figured this out already, but looks aren’t everything.”

  They lulled into another silence. Lockman noticed he didn’t mind. He felt perfectly comfortable having the girl beside him. He wanted to ask about Kate. He wanted Jessie to tell him all about her own interests and her friends and school and how long she had known he was out there somewhere. He wanted to apologize for not finding her first, and if he’d only known he’d had a daughter, he…

  No. He couldn’t. None of it.

  He had thrown the interests of national security out the window by risking capture to save her. Now that she was safe, he had to return to old priorities. Getting her home fit in with those priorities. Getting answers to how she had discovered him also qualified. Catching up with the daughter he never knew, however, did not fit the bill. Self-interests had to go by the wayside. Which meant bringing this discussion back to where he needed it.

  “How did you find me?”

  “Why did you disappear on Mom like that?”

  He fumbled for words, not expecting the dodge and return question. “I understand you have a lot of questions, but they will have to wait.”

  “Why? My questions aren’t legitimate enough? I saved your life from a vampire of all things. I think you can tell me why you walked out on my mother after knocking her up. Why you’re living under some other identity across the country.”

  “Those are all valid questions.”

  “Nice of you to think so.”

  “But there isn’t time for that right now. You saw what we were up against. You can’t pretend all that didn’t happen back there.”

  She rolled her eyes, flipped a piece of her hair back. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll have nightmares the rest of my life after that, thank you much.”

  “Then you understand the urgency.”

  “You say those guys were vampires. Okay, it kinda looks like that could be real. I know what I saw. That doesn’t explain why they came after you with machine guns and tied me up and…” She covered her face. Her whole body shook as if standing wet in the middle of a blizzard.

  Lockman gritted his teeth. The speedometer needle had somehow crept up to almost one-hundred. He eased off the gas and set the cruise control. “Leaving Kate was one of the hardest things I ever did.”

  Jessie dropped her hands in her lap and rolled her eyes.

  “A lot of guys probably say that, but it wasn’t like I was afraid of commitment or anything. The night I…left, I had asked her to marry me. Did she tell you that?”

  Her shuddering calmed slightly. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes. Wouldn’t look at him, though.

  He kept his attention on the road but conjured that night in his mind as easily as if it had happened fifteen minutes ago instead of fifteen years. “I used to work for a government agency specializing in anti-terrorism, specifically terrorism that utilized supernatural elements.”

  She wiped more tears away with the heels of both hands, finally looked over. Lockman could see the torrent of confusion in her eyes. No matter how fast he talked, he couldn’t answer all her questions to any degree of satisfaction. He could only do his best to keep her from coming apart. Then he would get the answers he needed.

  “That same night, a terrorist named Otto Dolan had somehow discovered my identity and ambushed me at my home.”

  He remembered stepping into the house, that electric feeling in the air, and the metal taste on the back of his tongue. His instincts telling him something wasn’t right. Too late.

  “I’d been so distracted. All I could think about was how wonderful life was going to be.”

  Something had hit him across the head, smashing his right ear. He dropped to his knees, dizzy, stunned. Another blow to the back of his neck followed and he had blacked out. But not for long.

  “See, your Mom had said yes. We were going to get married and that was all that mattered to me. I never saw them coming.”

  He blinked away the memory and refocused on the road ahead cutting through the desert. He wanted to glance at Jessie, but didn’t. He felt warmth through his cheeks. After getting debriefed, Lockman never told anyone else about that night. Not until now.

  Jessie made a final sniffle and cleared her throat. “What happened then?”

  “A good friend saved my life. And then, my identity compromised, I had a choice. Take a desk job or retire, but either way I had to disappear.”

  “You didn’t take the job?”

  “Hell no. I hate desks.”

  “How do you make a living now?”

  He smirked. “I stand behind a desk. I guess that’s one good thing about all this. I won’t be going back to that job.”

  She laughed. Lockman liked the sound of it and realized right away why. She sounded like Kate. He thought about saying as much, pulled back. He had her responding now. Time to get to his questions.

  “You have to tell me how you found me. That should have been impossible.”

  “Why didn’t you tell Mom you were leaving, or take her with you?”

  Lockman sighed and clung to his patience. They had a long drive ahead, he could afford her a little more. If she kept asking, though, she was bound to get to some questions she didn’t like the answers to.

  “I was forbidden. After I was rescued, I had to be immediately reassigned.”

  “Bull.”

  “The agency I worked for deals with state secrets more dangerous to our national security than anything the CIA, FBI, and DHS combined has on their plate. In other words, I know some pretty scary stuff we can’t afford getting into the wrong hands.”

  “That’s why those vampires attacked you? For what you know?”

  “Possibly. I think they were Dolan’s men. He’s had it in for me for a while.”

  “Fifteen years is a long time to hold a grudge.”

&
nbsp; “Well, he’s got a pretty good reason.”

  “What?”

  Lockman adjusted the visor, but couldn’t quite block enough sunlight to keep him from squinting. “How did you find me?”

  “Come on. Why would this guy be after you still?”

  “Why do you care so much?”

  “Because I almost got killed for whatever it was you did to that guy. I think I have a right to know.”

  He thought it over, but didn’t see any reason he should tell her. He didn’t want to waste the rest of the car ride trying to explain his motives. “You don’t need to know.”

  She crossed her arms. “Whatever.”

  “Why won’t you tell me how you found me?”

  “Because you don’t need to know.” The petulance in her voice grated like the incessant drip from a leaky faucet.

  He squeezed the steering wheel and took a deep breath. He tried to imagine Kate raising a teenager. Did the girl give her as much trouble? “Are you being difficult just to be difficult?”

  She made a huffy teenager noise and crossed her arms.

  Lockman could escape an attack by a unit of vampires, but he couldn’t get a teenage girl to answer a simple question.

  “I know interrogation techniques,” he said. “I could make you talk.”

  She gave him another dose of silent treatment.

  “Fine.” He hit the brakes and pulled to the shoulder, kicking up a cloud of dust that engulfed the car for a moment. He reached over Jessie’s lap, opened her door, and gestured to the vast desert stretching to the horizon. “Get out.”

  She glared at him, all that makeup on her face somehow making her look smug. “Yeah, right.”

  “I’m serious. Get out of this car.”

  “You’re not going to leave me on the side of the road in the middle of the dessert.”

  “Try me.”

  “Mom’s done this to me before. It doesn’t work. You might as well save your breath and get back on the road.”

  The hinge of his jaw ached from grinding his teeth so hard. “I just took out a whole unit of vampires single handedly. You think I’ll have any trouble pulling a thirteen year-old girl out of a car?”