“What?” she demanded.
“Yes, ma’am. Somebody wanted this place to look like a mess. This carpet is dirty, but the dirt’s not ground in. The base of the carpet fibers are clean-somebody’s vacuumed recently and often. The dust on everything? We’ve taken samples and will run all the tests back at the lab, but I’m betting it’s all the same composition. Looks like a mix of ash and dirt. The toilets are so clean you can drink out of them.” His lips curved. “Not that I’m recommending it, mind you.”
“The social worker said Hope was found in a closet.” She pointed. “Right there.”
“We’ll check it out.”
Daniel knew Ed well enough to know there was more. “What did you find?”
Alex went rigid against him. “Tell me. Please.”
“Outside in the woods in back of the house, there was a struggle. We found blood.”
“How much blood?” Alex asked, very quietly.
“A lot. Someone had covered the area with leaves, but the wind last night blew them around. We’re finding a lot of leaves with blood smears. I’m sorry.”
Unsteadily she nodded. She was trembling again. “I understand.”
Daniel tightened his hold on her. “Did you find blood here in the house, Ed?”
“Not yet, but we’ve really just started. Why?”
“Because Hope is coloring with red crayons,” Alex answered for him. “If she was hiding in the closet the whole time, she wouldn’t have seen the blood.”
“So she was either looking through a window or she was out there,” Daniel finished.
“We’ll check it out,” Ed promised.
Daniel tugged on Alex. “Come on, Alex. Let’s go outside. You’ve seen enough.”
Her chin went up. “Not yet. Can I go upstairs, Agent Randall?”
“If you don’t touch anything.”
But she didn’t move. Daniel leaned down to murmur in her ear, “You want to walk vaudeville or ride over my shoulder, caveman style?”
She closed her eyes and her hands clenched around the bandages. “I have to do this, Daniel.” But her voice shook. She was past cool, past scared.
Daniel didn’t necessarily agree that this was a good idea. He could already see the change in her face. She was pale, her forehead clammy. Still, he gave her a squeeze of encouragement. “If you think so, then I’ll go with you.”
She got to the stairs and stopped. She was shaking head to toe, her breath shallow and rapid. She grabbed the banister, her fingers digging in like claws. “Just a damn house,” she muttered and pulled herself up two of the stairs before stopping again.
Daniel turned her face so that she looked at him. Her eyes were glassy and terrified.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“Then don’t,” he whispered back.
“I have to.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. But I have to.” She closed her eyes, wincing with pain. “It’s really loud,” she said, sounding more like a child.
“What do they say?” he asked and her eyes flew open.
“What?”
“What do they say when they scream?”
“ ‘No.’ And she says, ‘I hate you, I hate you. I wish you were dead.’ ” Tears rolled down her ashen cheeks.
Daniel smoothed away her tears with his thumb. “Who says that?”
She was sobbing now, silently. “My mom. It’s my mom.”
Daniel turned her into his arms and she clutched the lapels of his suit as her whole body shook with the force of her silent weeping. He backed down the few stairs she’d climbed, taking her with him.
When they got outside, the ambulance was packing up to leave. Bledsoe took one look at Alex, bowed over and stumbling, and started toward them. Daniel leveled the man his coldest look and Bledsoe stopped in his tracks.
“What happened?” Bledsoe asked.
“This is not a garden-variety panic attack,” Daniel bit out. “Get out of the damn way.”
Bledsoe started walking backward. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think…”
“Damn straight you didn’t think. I said move.”
Bledsoe had backed his way to the curb, looking distressed. “Is she all right?”
She was still weeping in his arms, and it broke Daniel’s heart. “No, but she will be.”
Dutton, Tuesday, January 30, 6:45 p.m.
A willowy redhead was sitting on Alex’s front porch steps, her head in her hands. The front door stood open and as soon as he got out of the car Daniel could hear the six notes Alex had told him about. Again and again and again.
The redhead lifted her head and Daniel saw a frustrated woman at the edge of control. Then she saw Alex and stood, her eyes focused. “My God. What happened?”
“She’s okay,” Daniel said. He went around the car and helped Alex to her feet. “Come on, Riley.” The hound took a lazy leap to the street.
Alex winced at the music. “She’s still playing?”
The redhead nodded. “Yes.”
“Why not just unplug the organ?” Daniel asked, and the woman gave him a look so filled with ire that he almost stepped back. “Sorry.”
“I tried to unplug the organ,” she said through gritted teeth. “She started to scream. Loudly.” She glared at Alex in helpless frustration. “Somebody called the cops on me.”
“You’re kidding,” Alex said. “Who came?”
“Some deputy named Cowell. He said he’d have to call Social Services if we couldn’t get her to stop screaming, that the neighbors were complaining. I plugged the organ back in until we could decide what to do next. Alex, we may need to sedate her.”
Alex’s shoulders sagged. “Hell. Daniel, my cousin, Dr. Meredith Fallon. Meredith, Agent Daniel Vartanian.” She looked down at her feet. “And Riley.”
Meredith nodded. “I figured that out. Come in, Alex. You look like hell. Please excuse my rudeness, Agent Vartanian. My nerves are running thin.”
The music was already starting to grate on him after only a few minutes. He couldn’t imagine listening to it for hours. He followed them into the bungalow where a little girl with golden curls sat in front of the organ playing the same six notes with one finger. She didn’t act like she even knew they were there.
Alex’s jaw tightened. “This has gone on long enough. We need Hope to talk to us.” Alex walked to the wall and unplugged the organ. Immediately the music ceased and Hope’s head shot up. Her mouth opened and her chest expanded as she dragged in a deep breath, but before she could make a sound, Alex was in her face. “Don’t. Don’t scream.” She put her hands on the little girl’s shoulders. “Look at me, Hope. Now.”
Startled, Hope lifted her face to Alex’s. Beside him, Meredith huffed a frustrated sigh. “ ‘Don’t scream,’ ” she muttered sarcastically. “Wish to hell I’d thought of that.”
“Sshh,” Daniel cautioned.
“I just came from your house, Hope,” Alex said. “Baby, I know what you saw. I know somebody hurt your mommy.”
Meredith stared at Daniel. “She went to the house?” she mouthed, and he nodded.
Hope was staring up at Alex, a tortured look on her little face, but instead of screaming, silent tears began to roll down her cheeks.
“You’re scared,” Alex said. “And so am I. But, Hope, your mommy loves you. You know she does. She never would have left you on purpose.”
Daniel wondered who Alex was trying to convince, herself or Hope. I hate you. I wish you were dead. Whether or not her mother had actually said the words, they were real in Alex’s mind. It was a terrible burden to live with. This he knew.
Tears still streaming down her cheeks, Hope began to rock on the organ bench. Sliding on the bench next to her, Alex pulled Hope into her arms and rocked with her. “Sshh. I’m here. Meredith’s here. We won’t leave you. You’re safe now.”