The Bridge (Para-Earth Series) Page 22

  He shook his head. Now was not the time to reflect on the past.

  “It’s hers all right,” he heard Ronnie saying, as she stepped out of the room followed by Roy. “I recognize most of those things. I helped her pack them up when she moved her out of her parent’s place.”

  Roy was nodding, “I can’t believe we missed this floor. All these years it was just sitting here and we never knew.” He turned to Alex, “I wish we’d had you around sixteen years ago.”

  “Oh, I was around,” he replied. “I was at my grand’s place. But I wouldn’t have been much help. I was only fourteen at the time.”

  “I suddenly feel very old,” muttered Veronica.

  Without looking at her, Alex could sense just how self-conscious she was feeling at that moment. So he decided to give her a look that could’ve gotten him arrested for its suggestiveness.

  The moment she caught it, she shook her head and said, “Then again, somebody’s not a kid anymore.” After a moment she mouthed, ‘Stop it.’

  Meanwhile, Roy was saying, “So you were in town when all this happened? How come I never caught you over at the bridge?”

  Alex shrugged, “My Grandfather had his second heart attack that summer and Gran really needed me.”

  “That’s right,” his friend nodded, “She almost had to cancel the Policeman’s Ball that year. But he insisted she go ahead with it. You didn’t go to that one, did you Rookie?”

  “No,” Ronnie shook her head, “I was stuck covering the station that night, since you weren’t going to be around. I gave my tickets to some of the teenagers at the high school…” her voice trailed off to a whisper as she finished, “Rachel had been one of them.”

  Roy must’ve remembered this, because his manner became more serious. “It doesn’t look like she took anything with her that night. But I don’t see any signs of a struggle either.”

  “If she had been abducted, it would’ve happened downstairs,” Ronnie informed them, getting back into police-mode. “I remember Graham gave her a room on the ground floor when the stairs became too much for her. She only took a few things to her new room, because she didn’t want to move it all back after the baby was born.”

  “So if she was taken by force, then someone could’ve easily gotten to her,” Roy began speculating aloud, “They find an open window, slip inside, and grab her. But she manages to cry out. Cyrus hears her and tries to intervene only to wind up having a massive heart attack.”

  “And she was already eight months pregnant, so she wouldn’t have put up a struggle,” Ronnie pointed out.

  “And with the rest of the staff out that night, Cyrus would’ve been facing whoever it was all by himself,” her boss nodded.

  “How soon can we get a forensics team up here?” asked Veronica.

  “Within the hour,” Roy replied firmly and glanced down the hallway. “Any idea what that’s all about Youngster?” he asked pointedly.

  Alex shook his head, “No, that paneling came down while Thompson and I were in Rachel’s room.”

  “Uh-huh, you two stay here. I want to see what they’ve found. Looks like they just broke through,” Roy instructed leaving the two of them alone for a few moments.

  As soon as he was gone, Alex found himself being dragged back into Rachel’s room by his lady. Once they were inside she said hurriedly, “All right, tell me what really made you come here?”

  “Another dream,” he replied without ceremony. “I fell asleep while I was looking over the plans this morning back at our place. Suddenly Jason was seated on the other side of the table telling me that not all the pages were there. I woke up, looked at the numbers on the plans, and found one was missing. That’s when I headed over to the Recorder’s office and looked over the earlier blueprints and found the same discrepancy and the stairwells.”

  “So why did you go to Roy instead of me?” she insisted.

  “I was afraid of what we might find, Luv,” he told her tenderly. “I didn’t know about the baby. But I gathered from what Roy told me before that Rachel was important to you. I didn’t want you to be the one to find her body, if she was still here.”

  Once more he found himself slammed up against a wall, but this time it was because she was kissing him for all he was worth.

  “Thank you,” she told him once they’d stopped. Then she looked around, “Can you sense anything else in here?”

  “Only that she was happy, very happy. She felt safe and even loved. But, something isn’t right,” he frowned and sat down on the bed. “I can’t quite get my head wrapped around it exactly…”

  Suddenly the world fell away or rather time did. Staring around the room, the dust that had accumulated over the last sixteen years vanished. And he was no longer on the bed alone. Two others were next to him doing what only came natural when passions ran rampant. He watched the couple long enough to get a look at their faces and suddenly jumped up.

  The two were now gone and the dust was back along with a worried-looking Veronica. “Are you all right?” she asked anxiously, “Did you see something?”

  He nodded, “I think, I just saw the fellow who might’ve been the father of Rachel’s baby.”

  “Who was it?”

  “No idea. I never saw him before. But he was an older bloke. Tall, broad chest, no wrinkles…” suddenly he stopped. There were loud footsteps coming up the hallway. He looked to his love and mouthed, ‘Later.’

  A moment later Officer Thompson popped his head into the room and said, “Chief wants to talk to you.”

  Veronica started to follow, only to have her fellow officer stop her. “Sorry Sarge, he wants Mr. Hill. He’s got some questions about the room they just opened.”

  “And as second-in-command I need to know what’s going on. Now lead the way,” she told him firmly.

  “But the Chief said…”

  “Who’s in charge of the duty roster?” Veronica asked casually.

  The big officer’s face paled, “Aw, you wouldn’t put me on parking meter duty again would you Sarge?”

  Alex watched his lady give a smile that made even him shiver.

  As for Thompson he suddenly said, “Right this way, folks.” And proceeded to lead the two of them down the hallway to where Roy and several Firefighters waited.

  If the police chief was bothered by his orders being ignored, he gave no hint. “We checked the room, and there was no one inside. Now I want to you take a look inside, and then tell me why you think this room was sealed away, Youngster.”

  Steadying himself, Alex obeyed and walked into the room. As he expected, it was the first room that had been shown to him in the dream. The clothing, furniture, it was all there. But unlike the dream, dust and cobwebs had accumulated over the years giving it an even more eerie appearance.

  After giving it a good once over he turned to Roy and said, “The family had a daughter who passed away and kept the room just the way she left it. Eventually the reminder was too much so they sealed it up in order to try and forget?”

  “Possible,” Roy nodded. “Notice anything else?”

  Alex could see Veronica looked uneasy about what was going on. Quietly he opened himself, just enough to sense what was bothering Roy.

  A moment later he pulled out his tape measure and checked the length of the room. Then he stepped out into the hallway and measured the distance from the opening to the next door. From there he came back to the newly revealed opening and did the same in the opposite direction. “It looks to me like there might be another room sealed off right about here,” he announced in front of the dark paneling.

  His friend nodded, “That’s what I was thinking. And from the look of the other side of the hallway, there’s probably a few rooms sealed off over there as well.”

  “Undoubtedly,” Alex agreed. “I wonder if the people who’d been in them died of a disease. Scarlet fever or maybe they suspected the plague. That might account for having the rooms sealed up.”

  “That would make sense,�
� supplied one of the men from the coroner’s office. “Trying to contain the disease and prevent it from becoming widespread.”

  This seemed to satisfy Roy who turned to his crew and said, “Okay, go ahead and tear down the paneling and let’s see those other rooms.” Then he led Alex and Ronnie back to Rachel’s room.

  Once there he looked around to make sure they wouldn’t be overheard. “You’ve been a big help today son, and I appreciate it. But, I’m not stupid either. You know a lot more than you’re saying. Now I’m going to tell you the same thing I told your lady here. If you’ve been doing any private investigating, I want it to stop right now. And you’re going to tell me all you know about what’s going on here. In return I’ll overlook it this time.”

  Alex was about to say something, but Roy put a big hand on his shoulder and squeezed hard. “And if you try to bullshit me, I’ll run your ass in for interfering with a police investigation, you got that! And don’t give me that, I don’t know what you’re talking about look. I found you at the bridge the night Wells died, not a mile away. You supposedly went to help a mystery girl that no one’s found. And you have no alibi for your whereabouts the night those teenagers drowned either…”

  “Now just a minute…” Ronnie began.

  Roy held up a hand, “Easy Rookie, this is common knowledge. Even the D. A.’s office knows. And the longer this investigation goes on, they may decide to start putting together a pretty good case against him. Now, I don’t believe for a minute you’ve done anything Alex. But we have to start coming up with eyewitnesses to prove it.”

  “The D. A.’s in on this now? Shit,” Ronnie muttered under her breath.

  “Exactly,” Roy nodded and turned back to Alex, “Now I’m going to ask you, one more time. What have you found and how did you do it?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if told,” the young man replied honestly.

  “Try me.”

  Alex opened his mouth, stopped and shook his head, “I can’t…”

  “You’re not leaving me with a lot of options,” Roy sighed and began fingering his handcuffs.

  That’s when Ronnie burst out, “He’s a psychic!”

  The sounds of the men working down the hallway suddenly stopped. Meanwhile, her boss/former partner stared at her. “What?”

  “Alex is a psychic. He can sense emotions, pick up on strong impressions from the past, and he sometimes has visions.”

  The Chief of New Swindon’s Police Deparment looked at Alex and then back to his subordinate.

  “He hasn’t been doing any investigating, Roy; he IS psychic,” she insisted, “I’ve seen it. I’ve felt it. He’s the real thing.”

  Roy shook his head and said quietly, “I can’t believe in that kind of thing, Veronica.”

  Alex knew it was rare for him to call his second-in-command by her first name like that. It only happened when he was opening up to her on a personal level.

  Now Roy turned back to him and said stiffly, “Tomorrow morning, my office. Show up and bring the truth and any evidence you have with you. Now get out of here.”

  Before Alex could say anything, Ronnie took him by the arm. “Do as he says. I’ll be home later. We’ll talk then.”

  Reluctantly he nodded and headed down the hidden stairwell. All the while, he was painfully aware of the looks he was being given by the officers and firemen as he left. They had all heard.

  The question now was what could he do about it? There was only one answer he could come up with. As soon as he got outside, he made straight for his vehicle. Unfortunately, he was so wrapped up in his thoughts, that he missed a rare site.

  A white wolf was standing near one of the patrol cars watching him. It even gave a little whine of concern as he got into his car and drove away.

  Back in Rachel’s room, a heated discussion was taking place.

  “I can’t believe in that kind of thing, Ronnie. You don’t see anyone holding classes about using psychics at the academy do you?” her old partner was saying.

  “No, but I’ve met a few at law enforcement seminars,” she told him quietly. “And I even got to see one in action. Do you remember Tom Parker?”

  Roy nodded. “Yeah, you were teamed up with him after I left the city to come here. Didn’t he bring in a psychic to help try and find some businessman about ten years ago? I heard she led him to a spot and came up empty.”

  “It wasn’t empty twenty-four hours later. The body was found in that exact spot,” Ronnie told him.

  “What?” he asked in disbelief. “How do you know that?”

  “I was with him at the time,” she replied and proceeded to tell him all that she had witnessed firsthand.

  The victim’s car had been found abandoned in a train station parking lot. Unfortunately, the vehicle had been cleaned by the person or persons responsible for the man’s disappearance. So there was very little to go on. That was when Karen was called in. She had been a friend of a friend who knew about Tom’s involvement with the case. She was allowed to sit in the vehicle for several minutes with her eyes closed. When she opened them again she told them of the things she’d seen. Advertising signs, a gas station, a vegetable stand, a country road with a white railed fence running the length of it, and finally a dying tree near a body of water.

  At first Tom and his new partner were disappointed. Then one of the other officers assisting them said he had a vague idea where the road and tree might be.

  “So Tom, Karen, two officers and I got into a vehicle and headed out. Tom had a list of the objects the woman had mentioned in her vision and was slowly ticking them off as we went. This let us know when we were on the wrong road and needed to try a different route. It took most of the afternoon, but we finally they found a road that looked promising. The light was beginning to fade when we came across a large lake with a dying tree next to it. As you know, we got out and found nothing.” Ronnie paused a moment and took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure how her old partner was going to take this next part of the story.

  “But, twenty-four hours later, a patrol car passing that same spot saw a vehicle parked near the tree. The officer saw two figures dumping a body into the water. He called for backup and nailed them. Tom and I were part of the backup.”

  “Dear God,” Roy murmured.

  “Now, I asked Karen about this afterwards and she told me that one problem with visions was that they were disjointed and in no particular order. And that included time-frame.”

  Now her boss was shaking his head. “Unbelievable. Was any of this in the report?”

  She nodded, “I’ve got a copy of it back at the station. Tom wanted me to have it so he had someone who could tell him it really happened.”

  “I want to see it when we get back,” Roy told her and looked down the hallway.

  Following his gaze, Ronnie saw the forensics team had just arrived and realized it was probably a good idea not to get in their way. “Let’s get back to the station,” she said finally, “I’ll drive.”

  “Thanks,” replied her boss absently. Obviously he needed time to digest the story he’d just heard. As far as she was concerned if it helped him to believe her about Alex being psychic, then it was worth it.

  Lives interrupted

  Alex headed straight to JT’s after leaving Graham Manor. He had just finished making a call to the Mathesons to ask for their help, which they assured him would be on the way within the hour.

  As he put the phone away, Jill placed a drink in front of him saying, “One virgin Cuba Libre. Now go easy on those, you don’t have a designated driver.”

  He gave her a look and said, “What I need right now is a designated alibi.”

  “Now why would you need one of those?” said a familiar voice, at his elbow. Turning he saw the missing groundskeeper eyeing him curiously.

  “JASON!” he exclaimed and with delight, “I’m not dreaming again, am I?”

  “If you’re dreaming about him, I may have to have a word with your girlfriend,�
�� teased Jill, handing a beer to the older man. “You haven’t been around lately, Jason. Is everything all right?” she asked.

  “I was called away,” the old Seneca replied cryptically. Then he turned to Alex, “And I do not have much time. What has happened that you need an alibi?”

  Without hesitating Alex quickly told him everything that had happened since they parted on the bridge. Jason’s expression became very grave as he listened. Finally he said, “I have to go back to what’s left of my home first. Then I’ll get in touch with Chief Peterson and tell them what I can. While I didn’t see all that transpired, I saw enough to help remove the suspicions from you.”

  “What did you see?” Alex asked, as his friend stood up.

  “I saw you with the White Lady.”

  Alex shook his head, “She wasn’t a ghost, Jason. That girl was real. I put my jacket around her.”

  Jill chimed in, “I’ve read stories where people have picked up a girl hitchhiking. They put her in their car, put a blanket around her, and give her a cup of coffee. Then they’d drive to the address she gave them and find she’s disappeared from their backseat. And when they go to the door to ask about her, they’re told the girl died like thirty years ago. It seems her spirit keeps trying to come home.”

  “But this girl was wearing modern clothing. The White Lady died in the 1700’s,” Alex pointed out.

  The girl shrugged and wandered off to serve another customer.

  He turned back to Jason, “In fact I was taking her to your place when…”

  “You heard her baby’s cry,” the man interjected. “The child she seeks but cannot reach. Something keeps them apart. And it will continue to do so, until another brings them together.”

  “The child of the White Lady, you mean.”

  “Exactly,” Jason nodded and headed out the door.

  It took Alex a moment to follow. “Hey wait, I wanted to ask you about…” his voice trailed off as he reached the sidewalk. The old Seneca was nowhere in sight.