A Chronetic Perspective (The Chronography Records Book 2) Page 18

  The prisoner’s head throbbed. He rubbed it, trying to will the ache away. “That day destroyed everything for me.”

  “It was horrific. But you could have chosen to leave it behind, to move on. I didn’t have that choice.”

  “Leave it behind! How could I possibly, when you—.”

  His captor shook his head. “No. Don’t try to turn that around on me. My life—my family—ended that day, and we both know you were responsible.”

  The prisoner shuddered. The same words, repeated incessantly, had warped his perspective. It had almost become easier to see things from his captor’s point of view than from his own. He buried his face in his hands.

  When he looked up, the man on the viewwall was opening a box, pulling out objects—items a young girl would treasure. A threadbare stuffed dog, a jewelry box, a soft blue blanket, a holograph frame. He cradled them tenderly, handled them with near reverence. “Some precious memories here. A shame that I will have to leave them behind on my next trip to town, but it will be necessary.”

  “Why?” He swallowed. His throat was raw. “Why are you doing any of this? Why are you holding me prisoner? What more do you want from me?”

  “We need to bring them here, the people who are looking for us. You will see your daughter one last time, and then this will all be over.”

  The prisoner was ready for the end. Years of loneliness had taken their toll, and these last few days of torment had drained him of the will to survive. He felt old beyond his years. But he couldn’t give up yet. The thought of seeing his daughter pulled him forward, and at the same time filled him with dread. His captor had already threatened her, and had proved that his threat was not an empty one. Those words—“one last time”—did they signal the end of torment, or something far worse?

  And why did his kidnapper want to bring the searchers here?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Reality

  NEW HARBORVIEW HOSPITAL, Seattle, WA. 1420, Sunday, September 17, 2215.

  “You have a visitor, Dani. Are you up for company?” A nurse—a new one she hadn’t met yet—touched her gently on the shoulder and she opened her eyes.

  “Oh, yes. I was just resting. I’d love company.”

  “Your physical therapy appointment is at 1435, with Dr. Nebanyu. He’ll get you walking. Maybe your visitor would like to walk with you. Get those legs pumping blood, help with the healing.”

  “Who’s my visitor?”

  “Your mother. From North Dakota, she said?”

  Dani straightened up. “She’s here?”

  “Ah, eager, are we? I’ll tell her you’re ready for her.”

  “Thank you.”

  Livia Adams looked decidedly out of place as she walked into the hospital room. Dani was used to seeing her in a cozy circle of committee members, planning the next series of municipal improvements or benefit banquets. Any one-on-one memories stretched further back to childhood. Happier times, laughing over games, picking colors for her room, going to amusement parks. And then came the increasing academic successes. Dani had loved making her mother proud.

  But here, in a hospital room, trying to show concern, she was unconvincing. Dani could imagine what she was thinking: Why aren’t you up already? My daughter is better than this.

  The nurse had guessed well. Her mother would be urging her to get up and walk even without the physical therapy appointment.

  “Hi, Mom.” She submitted to a quick kiss on the top of her head.

  “You look good, for what you’ve been through.”

  “I’ll be fine. My legs hurt, but they say that’s just part of the healing process.”

  “And you’re getting enough rest?”

  “Yesterday was busy with visitors, but you’re the first today. I slept through the night and had a nap after lunch.”

  “That’s good. Do you need anything?”

  It was hard for Dani to sit through the pleasantries, knowing her mother could tell her everything she had longed to hear. She realized the truth could be painful. Any man who could abandon a daughter without explanation was not the man she had adored as a child, whose face she had searched for at her high school and college graduations. It was childish to think that man could walk back into her life. Her adult perspective would see his flaws. But she craved the truth. She needed it, no matter what it cost her. Whatever the news was, it was better than not knowing.

  “Do I need anything? Yes. I need to hear what you came to tell me.”

  Her mother reached up and, very deliberately, made the hand and eye motions that would completely shut off her eyescreen. The sequence was so rare that Dani didn’t recognize it at first. Why would her mom do that? And then it dawned on her. She came to tell her something in person. The kind of information she had to share shouldn’t be heard over a connexion, whether or not it was active. She shut off her own eyescreen. In a moment, all the peripheral flow of information—data that kept her in touch with the world, made her aware of news and weather, brought her messages, monitored her apartment, managed her money—it all ceased. She felt empty.

  And yet, when she looked into those eyes, so much like her own, it was almost as if they were seeing each other—really seeing each other, without distractions—for the first time.

  Dani’s mother spoke first. “We need to talk, about so many things.”

  “Tell me what you know.”

  “I will. Are you stuck in here?”

  “No, I’m supposed to walk. The physical therapist is due any minute.” She spotted a silhouetted figure through the translucent door. “I’m guessing that’s him at the door.”

  After a polite knock, a short, broad-shouldered man with close-cropped blue-black hair entered. A quick smile interrupted his serious expression for just a few seconds, and then he was all business.

  “Dr. Nebanyu,” he said, and shook her hand. Then he offered his hand to her mother. “And you are…?”

  “Livia Adams, Dani’s mother.”

  “Moms are good. We can use moms. Get her to walk as much as you can. You can start right after I show her these exercises. Take your coats. Go outside.

  Twenty minutes later, they started down the hall outside her room, with Dani’s hand tucked into her mother’s arm. She didn’t need much support, but sometimes the intermittent sharp pain made her stumble a bit as her blood vessels resumed their flow.

  The more she walked, the more normal Dani felt. Being trapped in a hospital bed, no matter how comfortable it was, made her feel like an invalid. Despite the pain, walking felt good, and she gladly bypassed all the slidewalks.

  The halls were filled with foot traffic. By mutual agreement, they delayed any serious talk until after they got outdoors to relative privacy. As desperate as Dani was for news of her father, she recognized the extra effort her mother had made to travel to her side. Even if she had had no other indicator, that effort alone would alert her to a real danger. An extra few moments before finding out close to eight years’ worth of secrets wouldn’t cost her much, and it might well keep them safe. Or safer, anyway, she thought.

  For the first time, it occurred to her to wonder whether her injury was the by-product of the threat to Althea’s life, or something directed intentionally at Dani herself.

  “I think it’s safe to talk here,” her mother said. The gentle breeze and fresh air felt good, even though the air was chilly.

  Dani took a deep breath. “Tell me everything.”

  Her mother nodded. “Eric and I set up a means of leaving each other messages anonymously at regular and expected intervals. He said there might come a time when he was unable to continue, and if that happened, I should assume the worst. But in the meantime, he wanted to let me know he was okay, and to reassure himself that we were doing all right as well.”

  “If he really cared, he would have stayed. We could have faced this together.”

  “No, Dani.” Her mom stopped and turned to face her. “We tried that. The threats got worse. He knew we
’d be in danger if he stayed. If it had continued, he’d have faked his death, and then that might have been the last we heard from him. I’m glad it never came to that.”

  “Maybe the threat is gone. Maybe he could come home now.” A fleeting thought crossed her mind. “Would you want that?”

  “Of course. It would be hard for him—for both of us—to just pick up where we left off, but we’d figure things out.”

  At this point, all Dani wanted was to hear from her father, even if it was through messages from years before. “I want to read his messages. Or hear them. However you get them, I want that.”

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t save anything he sends. He can’t save mine either. We have to read them and then they disappear. There’s no record.”

  That was frustrating. Her mother had never been good at repeating things word-for-word, and an eight-year gap would make it that much worse for the old messages. “What was his last message, then?”

  “That one was different. That’s the one I came to tell you about. He said things would be different soon. He didn’t want me to tell you yet, in case things didn’t work out, but he wanted to know if I thought you’d want to see him.”

  See him? Of course she would want to see him! But he couldn’t know that. Years ago, she had chosen to reject bitter feelings about his departure. She couldn’t stop missing him and wishing things were different, though.

  “That was the last message? What did you tell him?”

  “I told him I thought you’d love that. We haven’t talked much lately, but I know you pretty well, I think. Was I right?”

  “Yes, of course. Did he say anything about why things might be changing? Or give you a hint about what he meant by ‘things’?”

  “He said he was going to confront the threat. He had something planned that could make it go away. But I have no idea what he meant by that.”

  That wasn’t much, but it was something. “When he talked about seeing me, did he mean in person?”

  “I don’t know about that, honey. He might have meant anything. Coded messages don’t communicate nuances very well.”

  “No, I can imagine not.”

  They walked in silence for a while. The conversation had taken Dani’s mind off the pain, and she realized that her legs were feeling better as the blood flow took hold through her restored blood vessels. Another thought crossed her mind.

  “Do you know anything about the actual threat? Was it related to that accident a few months before he left?”

  “I didn’t think you knew that. We tried to shield you from it.”

  “He turned off the viewwall whenever it came on. So how did that accident affect us?”

  “The man who died—his father, Drummond Morgan—blamed Eric for the whole accident. Swore he’d get revenge.”

  “How could he blame Dad? I remember he worked for the company that sponsored the race, but that would be seriously weird to think Dad was responsible.”

  “It was weird. But your dad also oversaw the last minute checks of the wave machines, and he was involved in the investigations afterward that determined the tragedy was completely accidental. The machines were not at fault. Your dad…” She hesitated.

  “Go on.”

  “Your dad was the one who announced the results. I guess Morgan expected an announcement that took responsibility for the mishap. Maybe an offer of some kind of financial recompense, although clearly, such a wealthy man didn’t need that, and insurance covered all the expenses anyway. But he said his son’s income potential was astronomical, and his death would cost the family billions. Eric was the one who pushed through the settlement, got him twice what the company was offering at first, but Morgan didn’t know that. When your father said the offer was ‘generous,’ Morgan took the word as an insult to the memory of his son. All this happened before he left.”

  Well, that answered her earlier question. If Drummond Morgan was behind the threats, Dani’s own accident couldn’t have been his doing. Not now, while police were trying to solve his kidnapping. As for Althea…she wasn’t sure how to feel about her new friend now. And she wasn’t sure she was comfortable accepting clothing that Althea purchased with money from her father. She suddenly remembered what Althea had said about her dad: she didn’t really care what happened to him. Dani had been shocked, but now she was feeling much the same. She shook her head, chiding herself. That wasn’t right. No matter what the man had done, he was a victim, and she was an investigator. It was her job to help him.

  “What are you thinking?” her mother asked.

  “You know what’s odd about all this? I had only a vague memory of all this until recent events made me remember it.”

  “What recent events?”

  “Lexil and I—”

  “That’s the young man you were dating?”

  “We weren’t dating. He was my boss. We did things together that were work related.”

  “Oh, sorry. My…mistake?”

  Dani could tell her mother wasn’t entirely convinced. But she saved that conversation for later. “Lexil and I were helping with a kidnapping case. Drummond Morgan was kidnapped and his daughter’s in town to release the finances for a ransom payment.”

  “I read about that. That was very recent, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, about a week and a half ago.” A thought struck Dani. “This sounds horrible, but if he was the source of the threat, and he’s, uh, out of commission, so to speak, it would be a good time for Dad to come to town to see us, wouldn’t it? Can you reach him and let him know? Is that terrible to ask?”

  “I can try. I did leave a coded message that I was coming to see you, to tell you everything. I expected a quick reply—they usually take a day at the most—but I haven’t heard anything yet.”

  Dani was a little jealous of her mom’s ability to get a response in a day. I should have had that too. Eight years was such a long time. But now maybe things would be different. “Will you let me know as soon as he responds?”

  “Of course.”

  When they returned to Dani’s room, her mother excused herself. “I have to call a few people back home. They get panicky when I’m out of touch too long.”

  “So it’s okay to activate our connexions again?”

  She laughed. “Yes, just keep to normal topics.”

  “But you’ll tell me right away if you hear back?”

  “Of course. See you soon, dear. Oh look, you have another visitor already. So nice for you.” She gave Detective Rayes a warm smile, and then she waved at Dani as she whooshed out the door.

  “So you’ve been out for a walk? They told me to wait in the reception area. Said you’d be back soon.”

  “Yeah, the physical therapist said I had to get moving to help the healing process. My mom was nice enough to walk with me.”

  “That was your mother? I’d have liked to get to know her a little better. Quite a smile she has there.”

  Dani looked at him sideways. Was he implying something with that comment? Her mother was a very attractive woman, in a fifty-ish kind of way. But the detective’s expression was innocent, devoid of any implications.

  “She’s still married, you know.”

  “Yes, to your dad. We found that out.”

  “Were you checking up on my mom? Why?”

  He pulled up a chair and let it adjust to his body shape, stretching his arms up over his head and yawning. “Ah, feels good to sit. Been a long day.”

  “So why?”

  “You’re a persistent young lady.” He squinted at her, pulling his bushy eyebrows down into a frown.

  She was used to his teasing. She stared back at him, not giving him a centimeter of wiggle room.

  He sighed. “Yes, we investigated her and your father. Seems he’s been living off the grid for some time. Is he even alive, do you know?”

  Too late, she realized her expression had given her away. She wasn’t supposed to have any idea about that. Detective Rayes was shrewder than he seeme
d to most people. His seeming disregard for conversations around him had lulled many into spilling secrets they would otherwise have kept. But she knew from working with him that he was never really distracted. He was constantly listening, constantly watching, and frequently picking up vital information.

  “So. You’ve heard from him? Or no. Perhaps your mother? How long has that been?”

  “Why does it matter? Are you just curious?” If he was reading all this off her face, she was determined to get information in exchange.

  “Well, now. I’m not sure what I should tell you, since you’ve been withholding crucial clues from me.”

  “Clues to what?” Exasperation flavored her voice and she knew it was partly because she was tired of being stuck in the hospital. But honestly, she just didn’t care. “If you don’t have any record of my father anywhere, how could he be involved in anything you’re investigating?”

  “What has your mother told you?”

  “I can’t talk about it here.”

  That startled him. Good. Let it. She hoped he’d take the cue and not reveal anything that could put her family in danger.

  He cupped his chin and rubbed his jawline with a forefinger. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll go first. We got a message from the kidnapper.”

  “Where? And how? Is there anything we can take back to the lab?”

  “It was left in a box at that same fueling station near the park. The attendant noticed a guy in an overcoat—yes, in the video he looks like the same man as before—unloading a box from a vehicle. It caught his attention and he called us. The vehicle also appears to be the same helicar as we saw in the earlier video. But this time, we were able to identify it.”

  Dani leaned forward. “That’s what we’ve been waiting for, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well? Who does the car belong to?”

  “It was a rental, from an agency in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The agent says it was rented on the first of the month, and it’s due to be returned at the end of the month here in Seattle. One month, paid in advance.”

  “You must have found out who rented it?”