Stealing Shadows - Hiding In The Shadows Part 11

"But after searching twice, he must know that whatever he's looking forisn't here."

Richardson didn't hesitate. "I'm sure he does. But what he doesn't know is whether you have what he's looking for in your possession or havehidden it somewhere outside this apartment."

Bishop spoke then, his voice cool. "There is another possibility. Thissecond break-in might have been less a search and more a tactic used tointimidate. His aim could be to frighten Faith enough that she eitherleads him to what he's looking for, or is too afraid to make use of itherself.

"But what is it he's looking for? Faithasked feeling more desperate thanshe wanted to admit. "I don't know. I don't remember. Was it something Itook from him? Something I found? Something given to me for safekeeping?" Slowly, Kane said, "Whatever it is, we don't even have aclue as to its size. The way this apartment was turned upside down, itcould be anything from papers or a computer disk all the way up tosomething as big as a bread box."

"Computer disk." Faith looked at Kane. 'If Dinah got my laptop justafter the accident, then it wasn't here the first time the apartment wa.s.searched. Could that be it?"

-Sure it could. But unless you hid backups of your data somewheresafe----and unless you remember where they are-we have no way of knowingfor sure. - "And," Richardson pointed out, "if he was looking for acomputer he didn't find here, he'll figure you have it with you orstashed someplace."

"So you're a target," Kane finished.

Faith was aware of that queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach onceagain. Fear. "Until I get my memory back? What if I never do? Thedoctors say I may never remember the days or even weeks right before theaccident."

Apparently regretting his blunt statement, Kane said more positively,"This may be a jigsaw puzzle, and the largest missing piece may be yourmemory, but there are other pieces, Faith. We'll find them.

We'll put the pieces together and figure out what's going on."

"Whatever I can do to help," Richardson said, "just ask."

Kane didn't hesitate to take him up on the offer.

"AU right. The car accident that put Faith in the hospital-we need tosee the actual police report."

"No problem. I'll have a copy sent over to you by the end of the day."

"We could also use any information you can find on Faith since she movedto Atlanta about a year and a half ago. Did she ever report anythingunusual to the police? Was she involved in any kind of accident prior tothe one that put her in the hospital? Are there any reports at allconcerning her?" Kane paused. "Faith, tomorrow we'll check your bank,find out if you rented a safe deposit box. And we need to find out asmuch as we can about your friends.h.i.+p with Dinah."

Richardson lifted an eyebrow at Bishop, who said, "He should've been acop."

The photographer approached Richardson to report that he was finishedwith his work, and the detective got to his feet. His gaze traveledbetween Faith and Kane. "Be careful. I don't yet know what's going on,but all the signs here point to somebody who's very determined, andvery, very dangerous. For G.o.d's sake, watch your step. And watch yourbacks."

"We will," Kane told him.

When the detective and the photographer had gone, Kane said, "We can geta cleaning service 'in here tomorrow and have the damaged furniturereplaced or repaired. In the meantime, Faith, why don't you pack enough to last a week or so, just in case, and we'll get out of here."

She went off without a word to do as he suggested, and when they werealone, Bishop said, "She could have trashed this place yesterday beforeshe came looking for you. It's possible."

"She could have. I don't believe she did. Do you?- Bishop's reply wa.s.somewhere between a shrug and a shake of his head, not open distrust ofFaith but certainly ambivalence. "You do realize that won't it take apublic connection between you and Faith to draw the wrong sort ofattention if somebody happens to be watching this place."

"I realize that. I also realize somebody could have followed her to myplace last night, so the connection between us might already be madeKane shrugged.

"My building's a h.e.l.l of a lot more secure than this one even with apart-time doorman. And I'll be there.

Any way you look at it, she'll be safer with me."

"I wasn't thinking only of her. Kane, have you considered thepossibility that Faith might be responsible directly or indirectly-forDinah's disappearance? That she might have brought trouble with her fromSeattle, trouble that Dinah got caught up in?"

"After hearing about the murder of her family, of course I've consideredit." Kane leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "So what should I dodifferently? She can't remember, Noah. Her past is a blank. Did you seeher face when you told her about the murders? Shock, yes, but you mightas well have been telling her about two people she'd never met before.

She's the most lost soul I've ever known, completely helpless to protectherself from whatever trouble might have followed her here. Whether sheremembers anything to help me or not, I can't turn my back on her."

"I didn't say you should. But Richardson was right to warn you to becareful."

"And I intend to be."

"Sure you do. If that lost soul in the next room leads you right intothe lion's den, you'll be careful as h.e.l.l.

Kane was silent for a moment, then said, "She can help me find Dinah. Iknow she can. I can't see further than that, Noah."

"I know," Bishop said.

it was dark when she turned off the jeeps headlights, dark as pitch, andcold for early October Dinah s.h.i.+vered a bit even though she was wearinga sweater, and hesitated as she got out, her gaze going to the nylonwindbreaker in the backseat. But in the end, she decided the sweater wasenough. If she needed to move fast, the fewer layers that got in herway, the better.

She stood beside the jeep until her eyes began to adjust to thedarkness, then moved forward cautiously.

Dumb. This was so dumb.

The building loomed ahead, virtually impossible to identify, and shefelt a moment's qualm as she asked herself if this was even the rightplace. The directions had been maddeningly vague, and she might easilyhave been mistaken in the conclusions she'd drawn from what little information she could trust. She was probably not even in the rightsection of the city- What was that? A sound ... from over there. A whimper?

Dinah crept forward, her heart thudding in excitement, trying very hardto keep her breathing soft and even, not to betray her presence.

Straining to listen.

No other sound now, if there had been one.

Her overwrought imagination, probably.

G.o.d knew she had reason to imagine monsters.

Dinah stopped moving, standing still to better see and hear whatever layaround her She had good senses usually, and there was also that littlebit of something extra Bishop called a "spider sense". it was asharpened awareness of her surroundings, as though her five senses weresomehow magnified by danger or the possibility of it.

Her eyes having adjusted quickly to the darkness, she was now able tomake out more details of the building. Windows were high and dark,offering no clue as to what lay behind them. There didn't seem to be adoor of any kind. Somewhere was a loose shutter or piece of tin on theroof; she heard it rolling faintly in the breeze. And she smelled wood,lumber.

Something else as well.

Dinah stood very still, her chin raised, sniffing the night air that wasteasing her with an odor she knew she should recognize but which lurkedbeyond reach.

Primal Animal The hair on the nape of her neck was stirring.

She needed to leave.

She needed to leave right now.

When it came at her there was no warming. No sound.

just a dark shape hurtling from its darker surroundings, and then theblow that knocked her off her feet.

And then the hot, tearing pain ...

CHAPTER FOUR.

Faith jerked awake to find herself sitting up in bed, her arms raised asif to protect her throat and face.

Her heart was pounding, her breathing ragged, and her skin clammy, asthough she had 'just raced in from the damp, chilly night.

it took several minutes for her to rea.s.sure herself that she was not out in the dark, lying on the cold ground with an animal tearing brutally ather flesh.

That she was inside, and safe.

That she was not Dinah.

She was in Kane's bedroom, which was still filled with afternoon light,as it had been when she had retreated there after lunch, when the suddenneed to sleep had overwhelmed her. The clock on the night- stand toldher a little more than an hour had pa.s.sed, but when she slid from thebed, she felt slow and clumsy and stiff, as though she had slept heavilyfor hours. She was also unnerved.

She could still feel those teeth tearing at her.

Shaking off the nightmare memory as best she could, Faith decided shedidn't want to be alone a minute longer. When she reached the livingroom, she paused in the doorway, unnoticed by the two men.

Kane was on the couch, Bishop in the chair on the other side of thecoffee table, and both were leaning forward as they studied the papersspread out before them.

"No sign another car was involved," Bishop said.

"In fact, there were several witnesses, and all confirmed she wasdriving erratically before losing control and plowing into thatembankment."

They were reading the police reports of her accident, Faith realized.

"No mention of a prescription bottle," Kane said, frowning. "And nomention that anyone checked afterward to confirm that a doctorprescribed muscle relaxants. just the notation that EMS reportedalcohol on her breath, then the emergency room doctor's report and thetest results." He paused. "Christ, her blood alcohol level was threetimes the legal limit."

"How could that be?" Faith came into the room and sat on the couch,staring at the report. "I had just left work. There hadn't been timeto-to drink so much."

"We don't think it happened that way," Kane told her, and picked up alegal pad covered with notes. "I talked to your supervisor. Listen tothis. At five thirty- five that day, she reports that you handed in somepaperwork you'd stayed a bit over to complete. The two of you talkedfor, she says, about five minutes, then you got your purse and left.

That building has underground parking for employees, with a gate thatrequires a keycard. The gate receipt for your car was time-stamped at five-fifty." He paused again. "At six- thirty, you plowed your car intoan embankment- six miles from your office building."

Faith thought about that for a moment, frowning.

"Maybe it's not so unusual to take forty minutes to drive six miles inrush-hour traffic, but-"

"But it would take a good chunk of that time to drink enough to screw upyour reflexes and boost your blood alcohol level to three times thelegal limit.

And you would have had to be throwing back hundred-proof scotch straightout of the bottle while you were driving."

"Then, if it wasn't possible Bishop said, "Possible, maybe. Likely? No.First of all, there was no bar along the route you must have taken, andwe can a.s.sume you didn't drink in your car because there wasn't a bottlefound in it."

"I could have thrown it out along the way," Faith offered, playingdevil's advocate.

"You could have, but since you were on your way to meet Dinah fordrinks, why on earth would you have drunk so much before?" Kane said,"And then there's the famous prescription for muscle relaxants, whichfrom all evidence doesn't seem to exist. There was no bottle in yourapartment or your desk at work, and none was found in your purse oranywhere in the car. We used the entries in the checkbook you broughtfrom your apartment and called the pharmacy you normally go to. The onlyprescription they filled for you during the six weeks preceding theaccident was the regular one for birth control pills."

Birth control pills. Was there a man in my life after all? Or was Imerely Prepared for the possibility?

"Faith?"

She looked at Kane and forced her mind to focus on more importantmatters. "I can check with my regular doctor at that clinic tomorrowjust to make sure, but it does sound like those muscle relaxants weren'tmine. So how could I have gotten them into my system?" "The obviousanswer," Kane said, "is that some- one slipped them to you without yourawareness."

"While they were getting me drunk in about half an hour?" Faith shookher head. "That's the part I just don't get. To drink so much at alldoesn't feel right to me. To drink that much 'in so short a time ... "

"Unless someone's lying and you had nothing at all to drink," Kanesuggested. "Maybe it was a setup from the get-go. I'm willing to betthere are drugs that mimic a combination of alcohol and some kind ofprescription med, resulting in death- or coma. Maybe someone druggedyou, gave it a few minutes to take effect, then splashed a littlealcohol in your mouth and on your clothes and put you behind the wheel,knowing d.a.m.ned well you couldn't drive a block without wrecking the car.

In downtown Atlanta traffic, chances were good you'd be killed orseriously injured. And when you survived the crash, how hard could ithave been in a busy emergency room for someone to get at the paperwork and make sure it tells the right story?

"Are we talking about one person here, one enemy?" Faith asked.

"Somebody who influenced everything from the wreck and my hospitalrecords to Dinah's disappearance? Maybe even what happened in Seattle?"Bishop said, "There may be one person behind everything-always a.s.sumingit's all connected-but there'd have to be more than one person'involved."

"Aren't you the man who told me once that true conspiracies are almostas rare as hen's teeth?" Kane asked.

"Yeah. But note that I said almost. They do happen. And if Dinah wastelling you the truth when she was working on a story involvingbusiness, politics, and something criminal, then I'd say that's probablywhat we have here. @ "How could a story like that have any connection tome?" Faith asked.

"That," Kane said, looking at her broodingly, "is the question. And wehave to find the answer."

Bishop checked his watch and got to his feet.

"There's a flight out just after six. I'll head for home tonight, and ifthey don't put me on another plane before I can unpack, I'll see what Ican find out about that restricted file tomorrow."

Faith was a little surprised. "Didn't I hear you say you weren't leavinguntil tomorrow?"

"That was the plan. But something came up." He didn't explain further.

Faith suddenly heard the whisper of a not-quite- alien voice in hermind. He wouldn't leave if he thought I was still alive.

She went absolutely still, conscious of a deep chill as she trieddesperately to listen to whatever else that quiet voice might tell her.

But there was nothing else.

just silence.

"Faith?" Kane's voice now.

She blinked and focused on Bishop. He was staring at her, his sentryeyes narrowed and an arrested expression on his face. As if he knew, asif he'd heard it too.

Faith drew a breath to steady herself and give herself a moment tothink. Could she reach Dinah consciously, gain some information thatmight point them to her or her captors? Until she knew for sure, therewas no reason to tell Kane about the voice in her head, no reason tobaffle or unnerve anyone else, to try to explain the unexplainable.