Part 28 (2/2)
”Everything's fine,” he a.s.sured her. ”I was down here most of the night, but I just checked upstairs. Stacey and Jeremy are awake-and Mary, of course. Nancy is sleeping like a babe in arms.”
Frowning, Jessica started up the stairs. She heard Gareth setting the locks again in her wake.
As she had ordered, Mary was confined to one small area, encircled by bowls of holy water, strings of garlic and crosses. She was apparently comfortable enough; they'd provided her with a pillow and blanket, and plenty of O-positive.
Stacey and Jeremy were seated across the room from her, wide awake. As soon as he saw her, Jeremy leapt to his feet.”Jessica!” he cried with relief.
Stacey, too, jumped up. ”Jessica...thank G.o.d you're here. But you look like h.e.l.l. What happened? Is he...?”
Jessica shook her head. ”Tonight was a setup,” she said flatly. She walked in, then sank down on the bed.
Jeremy was still, staring at her. ”My G.o.d,” he breathed.
She had forgotten that Jeremy hadn't known that she was the dominatrix.
”You never saw the Master?” Stacey said.
”No. He never showed.”
”But you're...pretty beat-up,” Stacey said.
”Yes.”
”All right.” Stacey quickly became her efficient self. ”A shower is in order. I'll tell Gareth to make you something to eat. It's nearly dawn. Nothing else is going to happen tonight-I hope. And you have to get some rest. And soon...” Her eyes moved to Mary, looking angelic inside her strange prison. ”Soon Mary will sleep. Then we'll have to-” She broke off with a startled scream. The bedside phone had started to ring. ”I routed all calls in here,” she explained. ”But who the h.e.l.l would be calling now?”
”I've got it,” Jessica a.s.sured her. She rolled over and picked up. ”h.e.l.lo?”
”Jessica? Thank G.o.d.”
It was Maggie.
”Yes?”
”As soon as the sun rises, get over here.”
”Maggie, what's happened?” Her heart sank. ”It's the Master, isn't it? What did he do?”
”I'll tell you about it as soon as you come over.”
”I'm on my way.”
”No! Wait till it's light. He's still out there.”
Jessica winced, tightening her fingers around the phone. ”How many?”
”Two,” Maggie said softly. ”They were found with their throats slit.”
”Where?”
Maggie hesitated, took a deep breath, then said, ”The hospital. They were cops. Jessica, stay there till sunrise, do you hear me? I swear, I won't tell you anything if you don't listen to me.”
”I'll see you soon, Maggie.” She hung up. Stacey was staring at her. ”Well, I know where he was tonight,” she said softly.
”Where?”
”The hospital. He killed two cops. That's all I know so far. I've got to go.” ”You have to change before you go out again,” Stacey told her. ”Get in the shower-quickly. It's nearly dawn.”
”All right.” She started toward the bathroom, then froze. She should go now. Bryan MacAllistair was out there somewhere, as well. Would he come here? Would he believe her if she told him what was going on? Worse than that...could he possibly be...?
No.
But if he was, did he know that she...?
No.
Because he would have killed her already if he knew.
But how long would it take him to figure it out?
As Bryan brought the girl to the hospital, he saw the police cars and commotion going on. There were already news crews prowling the perimeter. And despite the fact it wasn't quite daylight, people were beginning to appear on the street, anxious to know what had happened. With that much of a crowd, there were rumors in abundance.
He had shed the old coat that held his weapons, then hung around after he set the unconscious girl down in the emergency room to make sure an orderly found her quickly and called for a doctor.
”Drug overdose,” he heard someone say wearily.
The girl was going to be all right. He could go outside and grill the lookie-loos.
”What's going on?” he asked the people around him.
”No one really knows yet,” an anxious matron told him. ”Someone said a couple of cops were viciously killed. Someone else said they got in a fight and killed each other.”
Behind him, a girl, hugging her arms around her chest, offered, ”They say they were nearly decapitated.”
Bryan had a feeling there was only one way to get close to the scene. He walked around the growing crowd and found a place where a group of uniformed cops were hovering, waiting for orders.
”The whole thing is creepy. First there was that corpse that disappeared,” one officer grumbled.
”Screw the corpse,” another cop said bitterly. ”Two of our own are dead.”
There was silence for a minute.
The first cop said, ”Do you believe what they're saying? That they killed each other? Santini couldn't ever stand to hurt a perp when he cuffed him. How the h.e.l.l could he have gone after Clark?”
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