A Matter of Blood
Part 3
by N.R. Levy
Miss Parker sat in her regular seat onboard the Centre jet contemplating all that had happened in the past few days. She still had no idea where Jarod had gotten the photo album, or why he had sent it to her. She still didn’t know who Lyle had paid to alter the tests Broots’ had run that “proved” the thumbless wonder was her brother, and she didn’t know how she was going to get herself out of the mess she was in regarding Emily Russell.
In all that confusion, Parker found herself certain of only two things, Angelo was her brother, and she would never, ever, let the Centre do anything else to hurt him.
Thankfully, Sydney had been well enough to take over at the hospital following Angelo’s surgery. He had come through the procedure well, and Sydney had called her while she was packing this morning to tell her that his fever had finally dropped down below 100. Dr. Keller thought that was a sign that Angelo had turned the corner. All she could do now was hope that was true.
Parker glanced over at Broots, still furious that Lyle had insisted on dragging him along on their hunt for Emily. She knew it was driving the tech crazy to think about catching Jarod’s sister – an innocent if there ever was one in all this craziness – and she couldn’t tell him that she had no intention of allowing it to happen. Broots’ was a dear, but he was too damn afraid of Lyle for her to give him such dangerous information.
The problem was, how was she going to stop her broth — oh, she had stop thinking that – how was she going to stop Lyle from getting his hands on Emily? If she’d had more time to formulate a plan, but no, Lyle had simply called last night to say that they had the woman’s location and they were moving out today to “retrieve her.”
That meant she would have to improvise. She hated that – after all, she might be a pretender, but she didn’t know how to use that to her benefit. A partial smile crept on her face as she thought her next thought – ‘too bad Jarod’s not around.’
“What’s so funny, Sis?” The sound of Lyle’s voice turned her stomach and the smile quickly vanished. She glared at him, giving him a look that said, ‘none of your business,’ and turned her face away from him. She glanced at Broots, regretting again that she was currently keeping two secrets from her friend. Still, it was for the best. That kind of information got people killed in the Centre, and she’d be damned if she’d be the reason that Debbie grew up without a father.
Broots watched the exchange of dirty looks between Miss Parker and Lyle, his mind trying to figure out what exactly had changed in the past two days. There was definitely something different about the way Miss Parker dealt with her brother. Almost as if she no longer cared that he was her brother. Not that they’d ever been close, but still, Miss Parker had started at least trying to act like they were some kind of family. Now that appearance was completely gone, Miss Parker showing only her contempt for the terrifying man.
He wondered if that was because of what they were about to do. He’d have given anything to not be involved in this, and he knew that Miss Parker had tried to get Lyle to leave him behind. Still, here he was, on his way to help the Centre take away Jarod’s sister. And that, Broots knew, meant that Jarod’s freedom was in dire jeopardy. He had already lost one sibling, and remembering the heartbroken look on Jarod’s face as Kyle’s life slipped away that horrible night in Arizona, Broots knew that Jarod would do anything, even surrender, if meant saving his baby sister.
Looking back at his computer screen, Broots’ wondered where the Pretender was right now, and if he had any idea what was about to happen.
Jarod raced down the hallway of the hospital, his heart pounding. He’d been at the police station analyzing the clues from the various rape scenes again when his hospital pager had beeped. He knew it was about Stephanie, and so he’d made quick excuses and left immediately to come and check on her.
He pushed open the door to her room, and ran in, expecting the worst. Instead, he saw his patient sitting up, her eyes open for the first time since she’d come into the hospital three weeks ago. Her physician, Dr. Cassidy Hamilton, stood beside her.
“Hey, there Jarod. I thought you’d want to see that sleeping beauty is awake.”
Stephanie managed a weak smile at Dr. Hamilton’s words. She was still clearly weak, but she was alive and she was awake. It was nearly more than Jarod had hoped for.
Dr. Hamilton walked over to where he stood, leaning close to him.
“Jarod, she asked to see you. I don’t know how she knows who you are, I mean, she’s been out the whole time you’ve been here, but it was clearly your name she said.”
Jarod nodded at the doctor’s words, then watched as she exited. Quickly, he moved to Stephanie’s bedside.
“Stephanie, you wanted to see me?”
The woman nodded, her whole body tensing with the effort. She began to try to form words, the struggle to do so obvious on her face. When she did finally speak, her voice came out slowly, long pauses falling between the words as she tried to catch her breath.
“I heard you. I know.”
Jarod nodded knowingly. He knew that unconscious patients were often very in-tune with their surroundings, so he had made it a point to talk to Stephanie through each of the therapy sessions he’d given her. As he worked her badly bruised muscles, calling on all of the knowledge he’d absorbed from his SIM materials, he had talked to her about who he was, about the fact that he was here to help her, that he would stop at nothing to catch the man who had hurt her. Now he smiled at her, not sure how much she remembered, but understanding she had retained the important part – he was here to help.
“Stephanie, I’m still working on it. He’s making himself very hard to catch.”
She reached for him, her arm sliding slowly across the bed and seeking his hand. He took hold of her hand gently, leaning closer.
“Big – so strong. Knife had – the handle, it had a silver moon.”
Jarod nodded again. In a few moments, Stephanie had faded into sleep, and Jarod sat back in his chair trying to sort out his thoughts.
The rapist who’d earned the nickname “the Silk Scarf Stalker” had come closer than any other criminal to stumping Jarod. The man was careful, methodical, and clearly nurturing a building psychosis. Yet he’d remained silent since his attack on Stephanie. Jarod had used every clue available to him to seek the man out, but his SIMS came up empty. He couldn’t get a clear hold on the man’s personality – and so he was having to rely on good old-fashioned police work to catch him.
But now he had a new clue – something else to help him. He had to start searching for a knife with a silver moon on the handle.
He stood, giving one last look back at Stephanie before heading home. He had a work to do, and an email to send.
Miss Parker paced anxiously in the run down room at Mrs. Hatton’s Boarding House in New Orleans. She was just 75 feet from the room where Emily had been staying for nearly three weeks. Lyle was in the hotel across the street, waiting with Mr. White. She knew the two were waiting to catch sight of her, then follow her in, herding her toward what to them was an inescapable fate. Which was exactly what it would be if she didn’t come up with something, fast.
She stopped pacing long enough to lean over Broots anxious shoulder. He had a camera set up outside that fed directly into his laptop so they could watch the alley behind the boarding house, in case that was the way Emily came in. There was a sweeper team in the lobby, another in her room. Parker knew that she had to get to Emily once she had passed through the lobby and before she made it to her room, and she knew she had to do it without attracting the attention of any of her coworkers. She began pacing again, seeing nothing of interest on the screen.
A few moments passed and Broots stretched, his eyes tired from constantly watching the camera feed. That was when he saw the small, flashing icon on the bottom left side of his screen. He clicked on the icon, opening a smaller screen.
“Miss Parker?”
Miss Parker stopped mid stride and turned to Broots.
“There’s an email for you. It says it’s urgent.”
Parker felt herself start to go cold. Her only thought was that it was from Sydney, and that something bad had happened to Angelo. Quickly, she moved to the computer.
“Open it.”
Broots double-clicked on the icon, and the e-mail sprang to life. He immediately averted his eyes to the open window above, searching for Emily. But he had caught sight of what was in the e-mail – a scan of a note, written in what was unmistakably Jarod’s secret code.
Miss Parker read the note quickly, her hand reaching out to delete it as soon as she was done. Jarod had a lead he needed to follow. He would be in Maine the end of next week if all went well.
Pulling her body straight, Parker moved to the bed in the room, sinking down on it. She was grateful Broots seemed to know better than to ask about the email, even though she’d been able to tell from his body language that he’d seen it. Broots was the only one who knew that she could read Jarod’s secret code. Jarod had taught it to her the year she turned 10.
So Jarod would be in Maine. What did that mean to her? She still wasn’t sure. Part of her wanted desperately to tell him about Angelo – she knew that was the reason she’d encouraged him to go. She needed to tell someone the truth, someone she knew would never hurt her brother. But telling him gave him so much power over her, and she wasn’t sure she was really ready to do that. Besides, if she couldn’t get Emily out of here, what would it matter? Jarod would hate her as soon as he heard that she’d been a part of this.
“Miss Parker?”
Broots’ voice again startled her from her thoughts, and glanced over at him.
“She’s coming.”
Parker stood, moving to the computer. Emily was just entering the back door of the building. Instinctively, she reached for her gun, and moved to the door.
“Broots, stay here. Give me thirty seconds, then call Lyle.”
The bemused tech looked on as his friend dashed from the room. He had no idea what was happening, but he knew that she was about to do something reckless. So, he decided it wouldn’t be such a big deal if he waited 45 seconds to make the call.
Miss Parker flew down the stairs, her steps having only slowed when she passed by Emily’s room, trying not to attract the attention of the sweepers. She had no idea what she was going to do. She only knew that she had to reach Emily. The rest would take care of itself.
She rounded the corner to the first flight of stairs just as Emily was taking the last step. She saw Parker, saw the gun in her hand, and instantly filled with fear. Reflexively, Parker raised the gun, simultaneously bringing her left index finger to her lips, indicating that the girl should remain silent.
“If you want to live to see your family, again, come with me.”
Emily had no idea why she should believe this formidable woman standing in front of her. She knew who she was. She’d heard her described enough times when she met people who knew Jarod and had had the distinct pleasure of meeting Miss Parker as she dogged her brother’s tracks. She was the Centre. She was danger. Yet, something told Emily to go when Miss Parker indicated that she should move up the stairs and then exit out of the door to the second floor – the one between the lobby and her own room.
The women moved down the hall, Miss Parker checking behind them to make sure no one was on their trail. As they passed the main stairwell, she could hear her brother’s voice booming from the lobby, and she knew they had very little time.
As they raced ahead, Parker checked around her, trying to see what her options were. That was when she saw the door to the laundry. Quickly she pushed Emily inside. The girl turned immediately to face her.
“What are you doing here? What do you want with me?”
Miss Parker holstered her gun, reaching for Emily’s purse. She found a piece of paper and pen inside as the shocked girl looked on. Parker began writing as she tried to answer her questions.
“Look, they want to use you to catch Jarod. You’ve got to get out of here.”
“Why do you care? You’ve been trying to catch him.”
Parker shoved the pen and paper back inside Emily’s purse. She reached in her own pocket, dropped something inside, and then handed it back to her.
“It would take a lifetime to explain that to you. Just listen to me. When you get out of here, go to the address I wrote on your pad. Tell the man there I sent you. He’ll take care of you. Just stay put and I promise you, your brother will be with you soon.”
“But –“
“Emily, you have to go, now.” Miss Parker opened the doors to the laundry chute, evaluating Emily’s chances of hiding inside of it. It would be hard, but she could do it.
“Listen, Emily, climb in here. I’m going to get them away from this floor. You count to 100, climb out, and run like hell down the front steps and out of here, do you understand?”
Emily nodded, still dumbfounded by what was happening. She climbed into the chute, and tried to keep breathing as she began counting. Miss Parker slammed the door shut. Quickly she moved, running back toward the stairs. Once there, she pulled out the radio she had in her pocket.
“Sam.” Her shrill yell went out over the airwaves, and caught the attention of every Centre employee.
“Yes, Miss Parker?”
“Do you have her?”
“No, she isn’t in her room.”
“Well, she came up the back stairs, I saw her. I’m waiting down by the back door to make sure she can’t come back through.”
Up in Emily’s room, Lyle gritted his teeth. Where the hell was she? He was about to order a building search when he heard Parker’s voice again.
“Sam, check the roof. Maybe she got spooked and kept going up. I’ll keep watch over the doors.”
Parker waited, knowing that every sweeper on the first and second floors was headed upstairs. She counted silently, hoping that Emily could make it out of the building. Then she leaned against the wall, beginning to formulate the defense she’d use when Lyle tried to blame Emily’s escape on her.
Emily could hear her heart pounding in her chest as it raced faster and faster. She moved through the lobby quickly, praying that she’d been wise to trust Miss Parker. She had pulled her shawl up over her head, using it to obscure her face as she walked through the big entry way and onto the street outside. Once there, she forced herself to fight the urge to run. She wanted to, desperately, but she knew that would attract attention, and that was the last thing she needed now.
She walked block after block until finally, she stepped inside a small diner that caught her attention. She pulled down her shawl and walked to the bathroom, leaning against the wall of the stall as soon as she locked the door.
Oh, God, what had just happened? She had no idea, really. The woman she’d always thought was her enemy, an enemy to her family, had just helped save her. Remembering everything that had happened, Emily sat down on the closed lid of the toilet, opening her purse. She pulled her note pad out and found the page that Miss Parker had written on.
18557 Benton Way
Lake Catherine, Maine.Catherine read the words again, then closed the note pad, wondering how in the hell she was going to get to Maine when all of her resources were back in her room at the boarding house. As she put the notebook back in her purse, she caught sight of something else – Miss Parker had dropped 2 $1,000 bills in her purse.
Two thousand dollars, an address where her brother might be, and her freedom – Miss Parker had just given Emily the world.