Part 35 (1/2)

”I don't understand. He escaped?”

”You'll have to see this for yourself.”

We hastened through the front doors and into a small security room.

”Show her,” he told the security officer, who obeyed immediately.

After he typed a couple of commands into his computer, I asked, ”What is this?”

”Just watch it,” he said.

The monitor showed footage from a security camera. I recognized the area. ”Is this outside Reyes's room?”

”Just watch,” he repeated, all mysterious and annoying-like.

Then I saw movement. I leaned in closer. Reyes's door was open, and the black-and-white footage centered directly into his room. He moved, raised an arm to his head, then shot up and looked around. The resolution was so low, it was hard to see anything definitive, but it was most a.s.suredly Reyes. And he was awake. As if gaining his bearings, he calmed, took a deep breath, then turned toward the camera and smiled. He smiled! A wicked, lopsided kind of grin that had me melting into my boots.

A glitch in the footage caused the screen to go static, then black a fraction of a second, and when the picture returned, he was gone. In a heartbeat. He was literally there one moment then gone the next, his bed rumpled and empty.

”Where'd he go?” I asked the bemused security guard, who shrugged.

”I was hoping you could tell us,” Uncle Bob said.

Reyes was certainly otherworldly, but the ability to dematerialize a human body simply didn't exist. At least not that I knew of. Course, I didn't figure Satan had a son until a few hours ago either. ”Uncle Bob,” I said, hedging away from the truth, ”I didn't really tell you everything.”

”Ya think?” Uncle Bob motioned for the security guard to leave.

After he was gone, I said, ”It's just ... well ... I've never really told you everything.”

”What do you mean?” he asked, even more perplexed than before.

”I mean, I'm different. You know that. But I've never told you exactly how different I am.”

”Okay,” he said, his tone wary, ”how different are you?”

I couldn't imagine how telling Uncle Bob I was the grim reaper or that Reyes was the son of Satan would benefit the situation. Some things were better left unsaid.