We had just blown beneath the first overhead girder of the eastbound bridge when Ben’s cell phone began to ring. My heart jumped into my throat as he swerved around yet another oblivious driver, while at the same time fumbling for the warbling device. After barking an angry slur at the vehicular obstacle, he flipped open the cell and pressed it against his ear.
“Storm… Yeah… Yeah… Dammit! Any sign of ‘er yet? Jeezus… No, nothin’ here… Yeah, but she had a good ten minutes on us, so she could show up at any minute. Better keep an eye out… Yeah… Good deal… What? Yeah, we’re just crossin’ the river now. If the idiots’ll stay the fuck outta my way, we should be there in ten, fifteen tops. Yeah… See ya’.”
Folding the phone shut with a flick of his thumb, he shoved it back into his pocket then grabbed the steering wheel. I felt better now that he was guiding the van with both hands instead of just one-but, only slightly better.
“Hubcap chasers didn’t find Beebee,” he said, casting a quick glance at me before returning his attention to the road.
“I pretty much gathered that from your reaction,” I replied, breaking my self-imposed reticence with more than a little internal trepidation.
He huffed out a heavy breath. “Shit… Guess I can’t really blame ‘er. I’d prob’ly do the same if it was my kid. Know what I mean?”
“Knowing you, probably,” I agreed. Obviously he expected an answer, so I had little choice but to talk. Since we were still traveling in a straight line, I went ahead and asked, “By the way, did you know about that little secret?”
“Hell no.” He gave his head a slight shake to punctuate the response even more. “I was told she was a niece. But, lemme tell ya’, I’m bettin’ somebody up on high knew about it.”
“It kind of explains something I was wondering about,” I offered. “I wasn’t quite sure how she reconciled her particular set of strict values with a niece who was involved in the whole vampire scene-and apparently bisexual at the very least. That didn’t really seem to fit with her holier-than-thou attitude.”
“Yeah,” he grunted. “Extended family is one thing. But your own kid is somethin’ completely different. Ya’ love ‘em no matter how much you think they’re fuckin’ up.”
“Yeah…” I replied. “I suppose that might explain why she claimed she was her niece, too. Some part of her still had to spare herself the perceived embarrassment.”
After a brief pause Ben shot another quick glance my way and asked, “So, you two doin’ okay? Both of ya’ been pretty quiet.”
“As well as can be expected.”
“What about you, Firehair?”
“The same,” she replied, her voice pitched slightly higher than usual.
“You havin’ a Twilight Zone moment or somethin’?”
“No. Just a fear of low altitude flight.”
“Of what? Oh… you mean… Jeez, c’mon, my drivin’ ain’t that bad. I don’t hear Firehair complainin’.” On the heels of the comment, he jerked the van to the right then quickly back to the left while growling, “Fuckin’ assholes.”
Felicity yelped in time with the maneuver then a few seconds later sighed and said, “Yes, Ben, it is that bad.”
He shot a look over his shoulder. “Yeah, well, that’s just how it is sometimes.”
“Please keep your eyes on the road then,” she appealed. “I’m not ready to die just yet.”
“Gimme a break.”
“Just keep your eyes on the road, please?” she appealed.
“Relax. I know what I’m doin’.”
I heard my wife quietly mutter, “Gods, I hope so.”
“So anyway,” Ben reverted back to his original train of thought without ceremony. “No Albright yet, but you can bet that’s where she’s headed. As far as the house itself goes, the Overmoor coppers are pretty sure they saw a light go on then back off through one of the basement windows.”
“That’s where the killer was in the vision,” I acknowledged. “The basement.”
Ben snorted. “So, were ya’ plannin’ ta’ tell anyone about that part?”
“Sorry. But, I had enough trouble convincing you about the address as it was, don’t you think?”
“So you’re blamin’ me?”
“The situation, mostly. But, yeah, maybe just a little.”
“Yeah, whatever,” he replied in a dismissive tone. “So you pick up on anything else we should know?”
“The vision was a bit disjointed, and some of the imagery was classic la-la land, as you call it. But, if I’m remembering correctly, just beyond the front door is what appeared to be a living room…”
He interrupted. “You got a floor plan?”
“Some,” I answered. “Not all.”
“Hold on,” he snapped.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his cell and flipped it open once again. With a quick stab he hit redial and then speaker. The phone beeped then trilled briefly. On the second ring it was answered.
“Sergeant Madden,” a woman’s voice said.
“Sergeant Madden, it’s Detective Storm, you got anyone from SWAT handy?”
“Yeah, just a second…”
There was a brief pause, and we could hear a mix of voices, then someone else came on the line.
“This is Lieutenant Penczak.”
“Lieutenant, Detective Storm, Major Case. I think I might have a partial floor plan on the house for ya’.”
“I’ll take it,” the man replied.
“I’m handin’ ya’ over ta’ Rowan Gant,” Ben told him then thrust the phone at me.
I took it from him quickly out of an attack of self-preservation since he was already paying more attention to it than the road. As I grabbed the phone I stabbed my finger toward the windshield and shook it. My friend just rolled his eyes but returned his focus on the blurred white lines in front of us.
“Lieutenant,” I started. “The front door opens into what appears to have been a moderate-sized living room. Maybe fifteen feet wide by fifteen deep, best guess. There’s trash everywhere, but I don’t recall any major obstacles. On the back wall, there’s an arched doorway that leads directly into a hallway running parallel to the room. If you go to the right, it T’s with another corridor coming in on the left. Down that corridor, there is a charred door that leads to the basement. It’s on the right, about mid way.”
“What about the back?” Penczak asked.
“Sorry, I’m afraid that’s all I have.”
“That’s all right. It’s more than we had a minute ago,” he replied. “So how do you know all this? Have you been in the house?”
“Sort of.”
“What do you mean, sort of?”
Ben reached over and snatched the cell phone from my hand. “Trust me, Lieutenant, you don’t want ‘im to explain it. Are you ready to go?”
“We’ve got spotters on the house. There hasn’t been any activity for almost fifteen minutes now, so we’re setting up to move into position soon.”
“Good deal,” Ben grunted. “We’ll be there in five.”
“We’ll hold the party until you get here.”
“Yeah, thanks,” he replied with a definite note of sarcasm. “Captain Albright show up yet?”
“Not that…” The lieutenant’s reply was cut short by a burst of static and a voice in the background. When he spoke again he simply said, “Hold on…”
There was a clatter as if the cell phone was dropped, or at least tossed onto a hard surface. Over the tinny speaker, we could hear the muffled sounds of physical activity along with several unintelligible words being barked. Even though we couldn’t make them out, the brevity and tone told us they were probably a series of commands.
“What’s happening?” I asked Ben.
“Dunno, but it doesn’t sound good.”
We exited the highway and shot through an intersection, slowing only enough to avoid a collision and make a quick right. A languid forever later, a voice came back on the line.