Page 13

P orter pulled up thirty minutes later outside the small townhome. It was one of the middle units in a row of six, and it sat where nobody could really see or disturb the central occupant.

Kylie studied it and nodded.

Porter shared, “Even at this stage, she’s protecting herself.”

“Do you blame her?” she asked. “You realize that, if this Hogan guy has followed us here, he’ll come after her?”

“Let’s hope he doesn’t know that we’re here. She refused to answer my calls, to get back to me at any time,” he noted, “so what else am I supposed to do?”

“Yeah, but normally you wouldn’t have contacted her in the first place, would you?”

“Absolutely I would have,” he declared, looking at her. “She has a very defined connection to this guy. No way anybody looking into Hogan’s case will miss Agatha’s connection to him.”

“And that has always been her problem,” Kylie said. “Agatha’s been trying to put this all behind her, but instead of that,… it keeps coming back around and around.”

“And it will keep coming around, as long as he’s out there,” Porter noted. “I would love for her to finally have peace of mind and not have this be… such a big issue for her. Yet, until he is dealt with, you and I both know he won’t stop.”

“Or,” she muttered, more to herself than him, “he’ll end up continuing to kill at leisure and disappearing whenever he wants to.”

“Exactly, and he’s got it down to a decent art now,” Porter acknowledged. “He’s making money at it, and there always seems to be a market for those who want somebody taken out.”

“I just can’t fathom that. And now I know that my entire family died at his hand,” she whispered. “Good God, what kind of animals are these people?”

“Ones who have ulterior motives, I suspect,” Porter replied. “And, in this case, we really don’t have any way of knowing what was going on because we don’t know who paid for the killing.”

“Which is a scary thought in itself,” she stated. “He took out all four of them. There is so much that I want to know. Was he supposed to take out all four? Was he supposed to take out five? Was it just the luck of the draw that I survived?”

“That is a mystery. If it was supposed to be all of you, then you would think it wouldn’t have been quite so easy to have appeased his client with less than five kills. And that is something we don’t know, and we may never know,” he shared, thinking about it. “You’ll torture yourself to death on that one, if you’re looking for that answer.”

“Maybe, but that is definitely hard for me to let go of. I’m sure you can understand that.”

“Absolutely,” he murmured. He got out, walked around to her side, and held the door open for her.

“If she sees us coming, she won’t answer the door.”

He frowned as he looked toward the townhome. “You could be right. She really is protective, isn’t she?”

“ Paranoid would be a good word for it,” she murmured, “and I never understood it until now.”

“But now you do, and so now you’re being protective of her.”

“Is that wrong?” she asked, staring up at him. “I mean, if you consider everything she’s been through, it seems to be the least I could do.”

He didn’t say anything, while staring at the townhome ahead of him. “I just wondered,” he murmured, “if she hasn’t seen us, does she work?”

“I don’t know. I have no idea if she’s doing anything right now. I wasn’t kidding when I told you that I have had zero contact with her since I left her home as I turned eighteen.”

“Which is understandable,” he replied, as he reached an arm around her and tucked her up close. “We could just look as if we were engaged to be married or something.”

“She wouldn’t believe it,” Kylie declared.

He stared at her. “Why?”

“Yeah, I was pretty well warned off men from an early age,” she explained, with a mock smile. “We never really discussed any of the personal stuff, but she was against any and all men right from the beginning.”

“Wow.” Porter stared down at her. “That’s very unusual.”

“Which just implies that she had a very difficult personal life and wanted to save me the hurt.”

“Maybe,” he conceded. “It’s definitely something for us to contemplate. Let’s see if she’ll even answer the door.”

“I’m really worried that we’re passing her location on to that asshole.”

“Honestly, I’m beginning to worry that he’s already been here.”

“What?” she asked, staring up at him and then turning to look at the townhome. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, it’s not as if she’s hard to find, not to that extent. Plus, remember the crime scene you just drew at your place, which you didn’t recognize?”

“Good God.” Her footsteps raced ahead of him as she ran up the sidewalk toward her aunt’s place.

“Have you ever seen her in this house?” he asked.

“No.” She turned to face him. “I didn’t know she was here. This is a new location. I’ve never even seen it before.”

“How often did you guys move when you were little?”

“It’s hard to say when I was very little,” she began. “It was a lot when I was in school. I kept asking her to not move anymore because I really just wanted to spend time in the same school and make friends, and she told me that friends were useless and that they would turn their backs on me anyway.”

“Wow, she really was paranoid, wasn’t she?”

“I don’t know whether it was paranoid or something else,” Kylie corrected, “but it was just one of those teachings that always slipped out of her mouth, and I took it to heart.”

He didn’t say anything, and, as they got up to front door in question, he rang the doorbell.

Kylie shook her head. “She won’t answer.”

“No, I don’t think she will either, but what I don’t know is whether she can.”

Kylie stared at him, her jaw twitching. “I really don’t like what you said.”

He smiled. “And I’m sorry. Just me being honest. Obviously it’s not what I was trying to get across, but, if Agatha can come to the door, that’s a whole different story than if she can’t.”

She winced. “Could you be a little less honest next time?”

He smiled at her. “You wouldn’t appreciate that either.” He rang the doorbell a second time and then a third, but nobody answered.

When the neighbor’s door opened, and a woman came out, purse and keys in her hand as she locked up, she looked over at them and shared, “Oh, Agatha isn’t here. She left in a hurry.”

“Do you know when?” Kylie asked.

“No, no I don’t,” she replied. “She left me her cat to look after, which she’s never done before. I’m not really a cat person. I do love animals though, so I wouldn’t say no.”

“Thank you,” Kylie said.

“Do you know her?”

“Yes, she looked after me when I was little,” Kylie replied. “I came to say hello, but apparently she’s not home.”

“Yeah, she’s definitely one of those people you don’t come up on out of the blue.” The neighbor laughed. “I made that mistake once, and, boy, she tore a strip off me. You definitely have to make an appointment to see her,” she added, with an eye roll. “But good luck with that anyway.” With that, she gave them a small wave and headed to her car, parked on the side of the street.

Porter looked back at the door and asked Kylie, “Well?”

“What? It’s not as if we can just break in there.”

“No, of course not,” he said, as he kept staring at the door.

“Oh, God, you really think something is wrong, don’t you?”

“I want to know for sure that she’s not in there and injured.”

Kylie poked around under the mats. “She always left a key. That was how I always got inside because she never gave me a key.” Kylie sighed. “Either I wasn’t to be trusted or something along that line.” She quickly found a key taped under the mat, then waited for the other car to drive away. Once it had, she quickly unlocked the door and stepped inside.

Porter stepped in beside her and froze.

“He’s been here,” she muttered softly.

“I know, and we need to know if your aunt is still alive.”

“Please, dear God.”

“Stay here.” With that, he raced upstairs to the bedroom. He went through the entire upstairs but found no sign of Agatha. He came down and shook his head. “I don’t see her.”

“That’s a good thing then, isn’t it?” Kylie asked.

“Maybe.” He looked around and frowned. “It feels empty, cold and empty, but she also thought she would get away. Either she didn’t quite make it or he found her and brought her back. We need to check the hospitals to see if somebody has not been identified.” She stared at him, the color dropping from her face as he nodded. “I know. It’s a bit of a shock, but I don’t want to leave any stone unturned, not now.” He quickly locked up, replaced the key, and muttered, “Let’s go.”

As soon as he got in the car, he phoned Neil. “No sign of Agatha, but a weird energy surrounds her place.”

“So, what are you thinking?”

“Can you check the hospitals, see if any Jane Does have showed up?” he asked, staring at Kylie beside him. For not having had any affection from her aunt, Kylie was going through symptoms of grief right now.

“Will do,” Neil agreed. “I mean, this guy is really cutting a wide swath, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he is, and he doesn’t appear to be done yet either. Watch your back.”

Neil snorted. “It’s not my back, dude. It’s yours. You watch your back. And keep Kylie safe. I don’t know if she’s the end target Hogan’s after, but I sure wouldn’t put it past him to confirm there weren’t any witnesses left.”

“Which is exactly what he’s already done once. So, yeah, I hear you.” Porter ended the call. “We’re heading to the station.”

“What about my aunt?” Kylie asked in a faint tone.

“Neil is checking hospitals, and he’ll call us if he finds anything. In the meantime, we’re heading back to town to give the captain a brief update,” he added. “We don’t know what the hell is going on at this point in time, but we sure need to get ahead of this thing.”

“He’s got her,” Kylie said. “He absolutely must have her.”

“You don’t know that,” he stated firmly. “For all you know, she escaped, and she could be hurt somewhere.” Kylie stared at him, and he winced. “And I get it. That’s not a whole lot better.”

“No,” she snapped, “it isn’t a whole lot better. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”

“No, I wouldn’t either,” he agreed, with a hard sigh. He drove steadily to town, and, when his partner phoned him back, he was a bit cagey. “What’s going on?” Porter asked Neil.

“There is a Jane Doe. She showed up at a hospital yesterday morning, in rough shape.” He gave him an address and added, “She’s unconscious and has been since a few minutes after arriving. So that could be Agatha. She matches the rough description you gave me. You might want to do a drive-by to see if it’s her.”

“We are on our way.” With that, he ended the call. Porter turned the car in the correct direction, then spoke to Kylie. “Presumably you’re okay to go to the hospital.”

“Absolutely,” she murmured. “All I can think about is Agatha lying somewhere, waiting for this guy to come kill her. And then he finally shows up, and now she’s fighting for her life somewhere.”

“Let’s not think about it that way,” he murmured. “We don’t know what’s happening here. Let’s just keep an eye on it.” He pulled into the hospital parking lot and added, “Now remember. Don’t say anything, and don’t do anything. We’re just looking for your aunt, who may have gone missing.”

“Right. I can’t tell anybody anything, can I?”

“We can tell them a little bit, but we won’t tell them much. We sure as hell don’t want to set off any alarms just yet,” he pointed out.

They walked up to the reception desk and spoke to them, asking about the Jane Doe who had come in. He quickly pulled out his badge, and the receptionist wrote down the room number for him.

“Still no ID for her,” the nurse shared, “so anything you can do to help us out would be great.”

“We might have an ID,” he offered. “I think this is her niece.”

“Oh good.” The woman seemed relieved. “Go check it out please, and then get back to me. I’ll set about doing notifications, once we can get that positive ID.” With that, she returned to her work.

That left them to head to the elevators and then up to the designated room. As soon as they got out of the elevator, Kylie headed toward Jane Doe’s room. “It feels… it feels as if maybe he was here already.”

“Maybe,” Porter conceded, “but let’s not put that energy out there.”

They found the room and walked in, and Kylie gasped, raced to the bedside, and picked up her aunt’s hand. “Oh my God, Aunt Agatha, are you okay?”

The other woman didn’t respond at all. She appeared to be unconscious.

Kylie turned to Porter. “This is my aunt.”

He walked to the bedside and studied Agatha’s features with a critical eye and asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I know it’s been a while since I’ve seen her, but I’m sure.”

He nodded. “You stay here. I’ll go speak to the receptionist.”

Kylie waited in place, talking to her aunt, wondering what had gone on with Agatha. When Porter returned, he shared, “They’re satisfied that you’ve identified her. They’ll see if anybody else was in her life. They also want any information from you too. I’ve given them her home address.”

“What happened to her?” Kylie asked.

“Apparently Agatha was running and fell and smashed her head pretty hard.”

Kylie winced. “She was trying to get away from him, wasn’t she?”

“That would be my take on it, yes,” he confirmed, with a gentle smile, “but it looks as if, once again, she has survived, and you’ve got to remember that.”

Kylie nodded. “She’s ever the survivor.” She went silent for a moment, caught up in a memory.

“What are you thinking?” Porter asked.

She smiled wistfully. “Just… she used to do exercises faithfully, old-school calisthenics. And wanted me to do them too. Every single time I asked why or complained, I got the same response. Because you never know when you’ll have to run for your life . I always chalked it up as one of her quirky sayings, but, God, I feel so selfish now. There were all these hints, all these little bits and pieces of conversations that I never put all together,” she murmured.

“Selfish, no,” Porter corrected. “You did amazingly well with somebody who was working very hard at keeping you out of her life. For whatever reason, Agatha was trying to keep you uninvolved, whether that’s because she was worried about you or because she didn’t want to explain the mess that she had gotten into. Didn’t you say she had zero interest in psychic abilities and was angry when you ended up with some?”

“Yes, and now I understand why.”

“You mean, because she had them herself?”

“Yes,” Kylie agreed, “and that is an easy enough explanation.”

He shrugged and stared down at her aunt. “It would have been better if she had given you some help to manage them.”

“Maybe,” Kylie murmured, “but obviously she didn’t think that way. As far as she was concerned, I was better off without them.”

“And that could be exactly what happened to her,” he suggested, with a nod.

A slight movement came from the woman in the hospital bed just then. Kylie leaned forward and whispered, “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m here.”

Agatha slowly opened her eyes and stared at her. “Why are you here?”

Kylie winced, reflexively pulled back. “You were hurt. You are in the hospital,” she explained. “You were found unconscious on the street.”

She stared at her, shook her head. “I don’t remember that.”

“Maybe you don’t,” Porter interjected, stepping forward, “but you were brought into the hospital, and they didn’t know whom to contact.”

Agatha closed her eyes and moaned. “My head.”

“I’ll call the nurse for you.” Kylie got up and went outside, catching one of the nurses and asking her for pain meds for Agatha.

“She’s awake, is she?” the nurse asked. “I’ll bring the doctor along right away.” And she walked rapidly down the hallway.

Returning to Agatha’s side, Kylie asked her aunt, “Are you okay?”

“Of course I’m not okay,” she stated waspishly. “I’m in the hospital. How does that even beget a question.”

“That’s not quite what I meant.”

“Of course it’s not what you meant, child.”

“I wondered if our serial killer found you,” Kylie stated.

Her aunt froze, her gaze opening wide as she stared up at her. Then Agatha frantically checked out her hospital room in a blind panic. “Is he here?”

“No, he’s not here, at least not right now,” Kylie said in a soothing tone.

Agatha stared at her. “What do you even know about it?” she asked, the fear still evident in her voice.

“I know that he escaped prison, remains free and clear, and that’s he’s recently killed two people in town,” Kylie replied. “We’re trying to stop him.”

“What the hell do you mean, you’re trying to stop him?” she asked in disbelief.

Kylie shrugged. “I work for the police. I’m a sketch artist.”

Her aunt struggled to comprehend, the pain clouding her vision as she shook her head. “That makes no sense,” she murmured. “They have photographers.”

“I keep telling them that too,” Kylie confirmed, “but some people just seem to want more.”

“Everybody wants more,” Agatha complained in the same bitter refrain that Kylie had heard all throughout her childhood. “Everybody wants more.” And then in a more formal tone, Agatha stated, “You can leave now.”

Kylie winced. “I told Porter that you would say that, but he didn’t think so.”

“He doesn’t know me, does he?” she declared, staring at Kylie. “I’m fine, and I’ll be home soon.”

“I highly suspect that Hogan found you at your house,” Kylie noted, “so you may not want to count on that.”

“I don’t count on anything,” Agatha snapped. “I haven’t had a whole lifetime of this for no reason at all. You just go take care of yourself and leave me be. I’m better off alone anyway.”

Kylie wouldn’t argue that point because her aunt had repeated this over and over throughout Kylie’s entire life. She looked back at Porter, who studied her aunt with a hard look.

“What is your relationship with the serial killer?” he asked.

“Who are you?” she snapped, glaring at him. He pulled out his ID and showed it to her. She sagged back and muttered, “Whatever. I don’t have any information for you.”

“We need to know what your relationship is with this Hogan guy.”

“You already know what it is, or you wouldn’t be here,” she snapped bitterly. “It’s never good trying to help people, particularly the police.” She turned to glare at her niece. “You, of all people, should know that.”

“Yeah, maybe so,” Kylie murmured, “but I also needed to do something that made me feel good about myself.”

Her aunt stared at her and snorted. “Right, as if that’ll work.” She sagged back on the bed. “I need to sleep.” She gave them a wave of her hand. “Please leave.”

Immediately Kylie stepped away from the bed, but Porter held her close by.

“I get that you had a tough life,” Porter began, “and I’m not sure what your relationship with Hogan is, beyond the obvious, but you sure had a hell of a deal raising Kylie.”

“I raised her fine. It’s not my fault she’s fallen into your clutches now,” Agatha declared, with a knowing look in his direction. “The men of this world are all the same, all cut from the same cloth. You are all users,” she murmured, “and you are not needed here, so go away.”

Just then the doctor stepped into the room, his jovial tone exclaiming, “Ah, you’re awake. That’s excellent.”

“It is excellent,” Agatha replied, “and I don’t want any visitors.”

The doctor turned to Kylie and Porter.

Kylie nodded. “We were just leaving. Perhaps you could take a moment to let me know how she is afterward.”

“Of course, of course,” he agreed, beaming.

“No,” Agatha snapped, “you will not tell her anything.”

The doctor frowned, evidently confused.

Kylie sighed. “Never mind. My aunt has always been very contrary.”

“That’s not your concern,” Agatha snapped. “What I am is tired and sore, and I don’t want people here.”

“We got the message,” Kylie replied. “We’ll talk to you later.”

“No, you won’t.”

And, with that, the nurse ushered them out the door.

On the way back to the car, Kylie went silent, her heart confused, everything inside her a jumble of raw feelings at seeing her aunt and hearing the same nastiness all over again.

“Lovely woman,” Porter quipped, as they stepped out into the fresh air.

Kylie laughed. “She is definitely not. I don’t know whether it’s a natural reaction or she just intentionally pushes everybody away. Yet I can tell you that was just a small snapshot of what my life was like with her.”

“I’m sorry,” Porter said. “Every child deserves love.”

“Every child deserves parents too, but apparently I didn’t get mine.”

“And that’s not your fault either.”

“No.” She turned to him. “I know exactly whose fault it is.” An edge filled her tone that she couldn’t keep out. “Every time I think about it,… I realize how much I owe this Hogan asshole for the pain and suffering he’s caused me.”

“Easy now,” Porter muttered, “only so much that you’ll ever get back in terms of answers or reasons.”

“What about revenge or retribution?” she murmured, staring up at him, the intensity of her gaze deepening as he shook his head.

“Nope, we cannot allow ourselves that.”

“Why not?” she asked. “You just saw what I dealt with because of him.”

“I know, but, as you told me, your aunt raised you, and you did survive. You are also much stronger and much better off without her in your life now,” he noted. “So, as hard as it might be, you need to thank her and then move on.”

“That’s exactly what I did,” she replied, “until you insisted on dragging me back and facing her again.”

“What about her did you recognize?” he asked, giving her a searching look. “Step outside your feelings and think only about the woman in that hospital bed. Exactly what did you see?”

She stopped, thought about it, and began, “I saw a scared woman, somebody terrified, who wanted to leave the hospital as soon as she could, but also someone injured, who needed time to regroup and to come up with a new plan.” She thought back, stepping into the moment. “The trouble is, I don’t think she has a new plan.”

“No, she probably doesn’t, and you know why she’s terrified.”

“Yeah, because of him,” she snapped.

“Yes, because of Hogan, but it also means that she survived him again. Isn’t that something you want to question? Isn’t that something you want to think about?”

“Not really. Agatha’s been waiting for this opportunity, waiting for this moment all her life. For Hogan to come back, I mean. At least that’s my take on it.”

“Oh, it’s my take too,” Porter agreed, “but, if that’s the case, maybe you should ask yourself why. Why out of everybody else that he’s managed to kill has he left your aunt alive? Not once, but twice now?”