Unseen. Part 6

"I was at Dan's last night, then I went home to my apartment."

"Do you live alone?"

"No, I live with my girlfriend. What are you getting at?"

"I'm not getting at anything. I'm trying to eliminate you as a suspect. It sounds like you had an alibi all night. That's good."

As Agent Grant questioned him, Jake noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. He glanced over to the door and was surprised to see a little curly blond-haired girl standing half in the doorway. She looked like a life-sized Cabbage Patch Kid, pudgy build, round cheeks. She wore a yellow sun dress with matching shoes, and dangling from her hand was a white stuffed rabbit. She stared at him, emotionless, her piercing blue eyes steady and unblinking.

Who did she belong to? His sister didn't have a little girl, and, as far as he was aware, she wasn't watching any other children; she couldn't even take care of her own. Was she a ghost? The thought of it sent a s.h.i.+ver down his spine, and he immediately launched into denial mode. How could it be a ghost? That was stupid. Ghosts didn't just appear in physical form in the middle of the day in a packed house. But-he looked around-why didn't anyone else seem to notice her standing there glaring at him between the two rooms?

The Cabbage Patch girl stepped fully into the doorway, still staring. Jake squirmed in his chair.

"Holly?" he said, in a cracked voice-not realizing he had interrupted Agent Grant. He looked around the table. Everyone was staring at him like he had ketchup on his s.h.i.+rt. "I ah, don't mean to interrupt, but, do you watch any children?"

Her face scrunched up. "No. Why?"

Now that the question waved through the air like a red flag, he wished he could take it back. He was hoping she would say yes, and he could laugh at how silly he was acting. But now, not only was it possible that the little girl was actually a ghost, but all eyes were on him. How was he going to explain such a strange question?

"I'm sorry. I was just thinking out loud," he stammered.

"Do you want to share it with the cla.s.s?" said Dan.

He shot Dan an irritated look. "It's nothing. I don't know why I said it. Forget I said anything."

They all took a moment of silence for the death of Jake's reputation, and the agent continued with her a.n.a.lysis as if nothing had transpired.

"We need to know everyone who has access to this apartment, or access to Gabe during the week. This was not the act of an outsider; he is someone you know, perhaps someone you all know. He's likely been preparing for this all year, so there have to be traces of his planning. We are looking into any scheduled visits from the utility companies in the area to look for more wire taps like the one we found in your lamp."

Jake struggled to pay attention, but the eyes of the Cabbage Patch girl bored into the side of his neck. Was she real? Did she belong to one of the officers in the other room? Why would someone bring their kid to an investigation?! He wanted to yell at her, ask her what she wanted from him. But he couldn't risk exposing his delusional state to the dozen or so law enforcement professionals who all had the authority to toss him in a rubber room and throw away the key.

Jake stood up, feigned a stretch, and took two casual steps toward the door. He stood quietly watching the conversation. No one appeared bothered by his standing, so he took another step toward the doorway and looked around innocently.

The little girl looked up at him. Her eyebrows tightened slightly, and her right foot made a hop backward as her body wobbled to regain its center of balance.

Jake held his position and watched to see if the little girl relaxed. She had stopped looking at him, because he now towered over her. Her eyes were on Agent Grant instead.

Jake's eyes danced from face to face in the kitchen and then the living room. All eyes were off him. He peeked down again and, as he did, b.u.mped the little girl lightly with his thigh.

"Hey!" she shrieked, backing into the living room.

The sound of her voice startled him. He hadn't expected to feel her shoulder against his thigh, never mind the sound of her scratchy little voice. For a second he believed she had to be real, but a quick check of both rooms made it clear that she was not. Her voice was certainly loud enough, yet no one showed any indication that they had heard her.

He turned casually in the door, and looked down. She tracked him with accusing eyes and pulled her rabbit to her chest. "Kawa doesn' wike dat! My bunny eeder."

Their eyes locked onto each other in silence as Jake's mind buzzed to understand what he was looking at. She wasn't a real child, but how could she be a ghost? She felt real, and sounded real, but how could she be real?

He wanted to speak to her, ask her any one of the many questions exploding in his head, but was forced to only stare in stunned disbelief.

"Are you all right, Mr. Paris?" The voice of Agent Grant dragged him back to reality. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Yes," he said, spinning in the doorway. "I mean, not yes I've seen a ghost, but yes I'm all right, here, standing here. Ma'am."

He felt a smack on his leg and glanced down without moving his head or neck.

"You shouldn't posh peepoe. Is not powite."

He withdrew from her.

Agent Grant spoke in an even tone. "Would you like to rejoin us? Or would you like me to have someone escort you to a more comfortable location?"

"I'm sorry," he said, taking his seat again, "I was curious about what they were saying in the other room," he lied, hoping that would explain his trip to the doorway, and save him from getting kicked out of the apartment for acting suspicious-like eves dropping on official business didn't look suspicious.

"You can relax, Jake. We're not keeping anything from you. They're doing the same thing we're doing, covering all that we know so far and determining what has to happen next. You're not going to hear anything in there that you wouldn't hear directly from me."

Jake nodded.

"Now, the person we're looking for probably has military training of some kind; he has access to technology that is military grade. We think, because he spends months placing roots in a new location, he may have let his guard down and mentioned things he shouldn't have. He might have shown a knowledge in military weaponry, or tactics..."

The Cabbage Patch girl walked into the kitchen, dragging her stuffed rabbit on the cigarette-stained linoleum. She stopped, firmly erect, two feet from Jake, and said, "Um posed to tell you sumpin."

Jake looked down at her discreetly.

Apparently, this irritated her, because her body stiffened and her voice raised. "Um posed to tell you sumpin!"

Jake's head snapped up, expecting a response from the others at the table, but all eyes remained on Agent Grant.

The girl folded her arms and stared at him again with her piercing blue eyes. What did she expect him to do? He wasn't about to have a conversation with an invisible child, and reveal to the world that he had completely lost his mind.

Had he lost his mind? It was beginning to look like a real possibility. Jake squirmed in his chair, preparing himself for her complete and utter meltdown, but it didn't come. Instead, she let out a huff, and left the room.

He wanted to chase after her, but Agent Grant had probably dealt with enough craziness for one day. So he sat, immobile, watching the door, hoping she would return and tell him her message. Who was she? What was she supposed to tell him? Who sent her? If she was a ghost, then whose ghost was she? A realization occurred to him. Could she be the ghost of one of the Cape murderer's victims? Was he seeing their ghosts?

He waited for an opening in the conversation. "Agent Grant?"

"Yes, Jake?"

"What did the other children look like? The other victims?"

Her eyebrow raised. "You think there might be a physical connection between the children?"

He followed her lead and made his questions sound as though he were curious about what traits the children shared. "Were they all the same age?"

"No. The first little boy was six, like Gabe, but the last was five. The two girls were two-and-a-half and five."

This little Cabbage Patch kid, Kara, looked to be around two-and-a-half.

"Gabe has blond hair, did the others?"

"No. The first boy had brown hair, and one of the little girls had brown hair. There is no commonality between the five of them."

"Which girl had brown hair?"

"The older one. The little one was blond. But there are no common traits they all share. It's a good theory, Mr. Paris, but I'm afraid it's a dead end." She turned back to her notes.

"Was she chubby?"

Agent Grant looked up; her eyes narrowed.

"The little blond girl, was she chubby?"

"How is this relevant to the case?"

Jake struggled to find a reason she would accept, but found nothing. He had to let it go. Besides, the information was probably online.

"Yes, Mr. Paris. She was chubby."

His eye flitted up. Did she actually say what he thought she'd said? One of the victims was a chubby, blond, two and a half-year-old girl. Jake looked back toward the living room.

Agent Grant folded the top down on her laptop. "Well, I guess we're done here. If any of you can think of anything else that will help in the investigation, you have my card. Call the office and file it with the agent on duty. In the mean time we'll work with what we have."

Jake got up and walked to the living room. Only three officers remained.

And there was no trace of the little girl.

Chapter 9.

After the law enforcement officers had all left, Holly excused herself and went into the bathroom. She didn't look well, and Jake knew why. She had gotten back into drugs in the last couple of years. It was one of the reasons he hadn't been around to visit. He couldn't bear to see what she was doing to herself, and it had been nearly impossible for him to resist the urge to start a fight and take Gabe home with him. Instead of being strong and doing the right thing, he ran from the situation, like his mother had so often done. He had not been the big brother he should have been, but now he was hoping to correct that course.

While she was in the bathroom, hopefully evacuating her system of toxins and not digging out some hidden stash, Jake seized the opportunity to bring Dan up to speed.

"Dan, I saw a little girl while Agent Grant was talking."

"I thought you were acting weird."

"She looked around two-and-a-half and was blond and pudgy." He paused, waiting for a look of comprehension to descend upon Dan's face. But of course, none came. "It's her!" he whispered hoa.r.s.ely.

"Who?"

"One of the victims!"

There it was, the look of comprehension. "Yeah, she did say that! Are you kidding me? That's awesome!"

Jake looked through the kitchen toward the bathroom door, which was still closed. "Keep it down. I don't want my sister in on this. This is crazy people stuff, our relations.h.i.+p is strained enough."

"What did she say? Did she tell you who he is? Who the killer is..."

"No, well, she said her name was Kara and that she was supposed to tell me something. That's pretty much all I got."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

"What was she supposed to tell you?"

"How would I know?!" He glared at his friend. "This thing is getting weirder by the minute."

"Weird left the building with Elvis, man. This is way beyond weird."

"Maybe these-ghosts-are being sent to me as messengers to lead me to the killer." A hint of relief pa.s.sed over him. "What else could it be? That has to be it."

"It's as good a theory as any."

Even if it wasn't true, Jake allowed himself to believe it. Hope, even misplaced hope, had the effect of a healing balm on the heart.

"Where is she now?" Dan got to his feet.

"I don't know. She came in here, then went back out there, then she was just gone."

Dan looked in the closet and behind the couch.

"I already looked for her, she's gone. And besides, you can't see her anyway."

Dan bolted to the door. "Maybe she's in the hallway." He was gone for several seconds, then returned with a sullen face.

Jake wanted to get frustrated at the thought of her being unreachable, but something deep inside rea.s.sured him that these ghosts were here to help. It couldn't be a coincidence that they started showing up the day his nephew went missing.

Holly returned from the bathroom in a more recessed mood than when she went in.

Jake attempted to comfort her, but knew it would not be well received. "You okay, Holly?"

She gave him a cold look. "Save your big brother act, it's just us."

"I came over because I care."

"I saw you while we were talking to Agent Grant. The last place you wanted to be was here. You hardly looked at her the whole time she was talking."

"I was trying to hear what they were talking about in the other room."

She tilted her head. "Why are you here, Jake? Is this your chance to take Gabe from me? Are you waiting for your chance to swoop in and be his hero?"

"If that were my goal, he would already be living with me."