Dirk And Steele: The Wild Road Part 20

"When did she die?" Lannes asked.

"Oh, back in the 1930s." Ed smiled at his reaction. "I know. You were expecting something more recent."

"Well," Lethe said, and the old man tapped his skull.

"Photographic memory. I don't forget a thing. Got almost eighty years of living crammed into this head. I could tell you what I had for breakfast when I was six years old."

"That's practically inhuman," Rictor said.

Ed grinned with self-satisfaction. "Some superpower, huh?"

Koni chuckled. Lannes glanced at Lethe, and her smile made his heart swell inside his chest like an incendiary balloon.

Pop, he thought. There goes my heart.

"So," Lethe said, "she was a friend of yours?"

Ed laughed. "A friend to us all. She was one of the adults. Used to come here in the summers with her daughter. Good people. She made the best fudge and sugar cookies in the county. Had a soft touch." He glanced sideways, his smile fading just slightly. "Amazing how much you look like her."

Lethe stirred uneasily. "Do you remember her last name?"

Ed shook his head. "Never asked, never mentioned. She was just Runa."

"How did she die?"

Ed faltered, hands curling in his lap. "She was found here, on these grounds, by one of the Jesuits. The dome had been turned into a seminary by then because of the Depression. And she was just...out there one morning. Not a mark on her. No signs of foul play."

"Sounds foul to me," Lannes said. "Did they find who killed her?"

"That's just it. The police never ruled it a murder."

"That doesn't make sense," Lethe told him. "I a.s.sume she was still young. How did they think she died?"

"She had friends, and they were rich. They told the police to drop it, or so I heard. The police did. Never sat well with us kids, but you know kids." Ed smiled again, though it was bitter. "Big imaginations."

Lethe fingered her throat. "I'm sorry you lost her."

Ed searched her face with a quiet sadness that made Lannes hurt for the old man. "I'm sorry, too. She was nice to me, and not many were. So I took it real hard when she died. Looked for clues and everything."

"Did you find any?"

Ed hesitated, rubbing his hands together, then staring at his palms like he was going to read from them. "Just...odd things. Maybe not odd. But secretive. Runa was friends with several families that would come down here every summer. Real clannish. The kids stuck together and never talked much to us locals. Not too strange, I guess. Always been like that since the hotels went up. We had Capone down here, Franklin Roosevelt, even the Marx Brothers. All kinds. But those families really stuck together. Real quiet about it, too."

"You think they knew something about Runa's death?"

"I thought so, since they were the ones who hushed it up. But see, she died near the end of summer, and they were all gone not long after. The next year, most didn't come back. So the trail," he said, with a sad smile, "went cold."

"What about her daughter?" Lannes asked. "You said she pa.s.sed away, too."

"Milly," said Ed. "Oh, she was cute. She disappeared, that's all. Up and gone. There was a search, but no one ever found a body."

"Some coincidence," Koni said.

Something cold entered Ed's gaze. "Like I said, big imagination."

Lethe rubbed her arms. "Do you know where they used to live?"

"Down where the lake is now. Patoka Lake, that is. Part of a reservoir that was built in the seventies, but the state had to steal from farms to do it. My daddy's was one of them. We had to move to town, and he went to work making golf b.a.l.l.s. It wasted him."

Lannes bowed his head, fingers digging into the banister. "Ed. Do you remember the names of those other children?"

Ed smiled again, but it did not reach his eyes. "Bredow, they called themselves. Marcellus and Etta."

"Anyone named Simon?"

The old man went very still. "How do you know that name?"

Lannes wanted to kick himself. Koni, glancing at him, said, "We came down here because a friend of ours died and left some paperwork behind. Bragged about this area. One of the names was Simon. I might have even seen a Bredow in there, but I can't really remember."

Not smooth enough, Lannes thought. Ed still looked suspicious, his heart closing up a little towards them. As though bringing up that name had created an undesirable a.s.sociation.

"Simon," murmured the old man, a hard look entering his eyes. "Simon Says. Yeah, he played with those children. Most of them-all of us, I guess-were the same age. I almost put a rock to his head once. He hit Milly in the face. I saw it."

The admission surprised Lannes, as did the rage still simmering in the old man. Rictor said, "Why didn't you?"

"I don't know," replied Ed simply. "Probably saved me that I didn't. I might have killed him. But at the time, it wouldn't have bothered me. He had no call to hurt Milly. She was...sweet. And just a little younger than us big boys."

His face crumpled. "Anyway. I had the rock in my hand, ready to throw. And Simon, he sees me, and I just stopped. Like my body didn't belong to me. I dropped the rock and turned around. Walked home like nothing happened, and all the while I didn't know why. Strangest G.o.dd.a.m.n thing ever. If I was a suspicious man..."

"You'd think he was controlling you," Lethe finished quietly.

Ed frowned. "Young lady. Why do I get the feeling you know more than what you're saying?"

Lethe hesitated, and looked into his eyes with a sadness that would have melted stone. "Would it matter? Would it bother you if I was looking for answers?"

Ed's breath caught. He leaned back sharply, staring. "What are you saying?"

"I don't know," she said. "But I was lucky to meet you, Ed."

The old man looked stricken, and he reached out slowly to touch Lethe's cheek with the back of his gnarled hand. "The honor was mine," he said.

Ed had another tour scheduled. He made them promise to say good-bye before they checked out of the hotel.

"It's obvious," Koni said to Lethe. "You were cloned."

"Gee," she replied. "Thanks."

They were upstairs on the fourth floor, in a suite: two adjoining rooms separated by a parlor. The decor was muted and cool, with pale silver walls and white trim. Shopping bags littered the floor, clothes from the high-end guest shops downstairs. Lethe had nothing, but Lannes had a credit card-a good match as far as he was concerned, though her anxiety at not being able to pay her own way had followed them from downstairs to upstairs, and had abated only slightly.

Trays of food covered the tables. Lannes stood by the window. He had tried to open it, but short of ripping it off the sill, that was not possible. No more cool breezes. Just a view of the garden and a sliver of late-afternoon sunlight. The room felt rather small to him.

Koni was sprawled on a couch. Rictor, who never seemed to sit, stood by the door. Lethe was curled up in the chair closest to Lannes.

"Okay," she said to them, sipping from a cup of green tea. "Let's a.s.sume, for the sake of argument, that a murder was committed. Let's also a.s.sume the victim was Runa, and quite possibly her daughter."

"That's a big a.s.sumption," Koni said.

"Not really," she replied, a wave of uneasiness washing through her link. "Call it instinct."

The shape-shifter shrugged. "Fine. And the perpetrators?"

"Simon and his friends."

"Who could be any number of people," Lannes spoke up, glancing at the two other men. "We found a group photo, but that might only be the tip of the iceberg."

"Show it to Ed," Lethe suggested. "He'll give us names."

"Consider that secondary," Rictor rumbled. "Your main focus should be on finding Simon, and locating the source of the thing inside her."

"And how do you propose to find a ghost?" Lethe asked him sharply. Koni, cleaning his teeth with a toothpick, started humming the Ghostbusters theme.

Rictor gave his companion a hard look. "Find where the crime occurred, and you'll find the spirit."

"You're making the wrong a.s.sumption," Lannes said. "The thing hooked into her mind isn't the murder victim. It's alive. It has to be. No ghost, no spirit, could have that kind of control over a person."

"You're sure of that?" Rictor asked, a hint of disdain in his voice.

"I'm sure," Lannes told him. "At least, I'm sure about this. I felt the anchor. We're not dealing with a dead person."

Lethe set down her tea. "I can't live like this."

Koni frowned. "Are you sure you don't remember anything about your prior life?"

It was an unnecessary question, and something in the way the shape-shifter asked it made Lannes uneasy, a feeling he had harbored off and on, watching the two men from Dirk & Steele interact with Lethe. They were friendly enough sometimes, but he also sensed a tension he didn't think had anything to do with the fact that she was a stranger. Something else was going on.

Lethe sat up, stared at Koni. "Say what you mean. You think I might be faking the amnesia."

"I think you might be exaggerating it," he replied, with brutal honesty. "Because you need help."

"Stop," Lannes said.

"So you can ignore the coincidence of her stumbling on someone like you? With your history? Your...background?" Koni shook his head. "No, man. Don't be that dumb."

Lannes pushed away from the window. "I won't tell you again."

Koni narrowed his eyes. Rictor shrugged and said, "You can't blame him."

"Lethe," Lannes said, deadly quiet. "Now would be a good time to take that shower you were talking about."

"I never talked about a shower," she said. But she got up, sweeping shopping bags into her hand, and stared at Rictor and Koni. Spine straight, eyes hard. Anger and hurt were pulsing down the link with Lannes.

"I don't know who I was before," she said coldly, "but I'm no liar now. Don't ever accuse me of being one again. Especially when it comes to Lannes."

She left the parlor for the second bedroom. The door closed softly behind her. No one spoke. Not one word. Not for five long minutes, until Lannes heard the shower start.

Rictor stepped away from the wall and walked into the other bedroom. Koni followed. Lannes, after a moment, joined them. He shut the door, his wings folded tight, his heart settling into a dark, cold place.

Koni and Rictor stood before him, impa.s.sive, eyes glittering.

"My brother trusts the both of you," Lannes said. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have sent you to help. So, that means something to me."

"But not enough to stop you from throwing me out a window, is that it?" Koni's eyes flashed, his mouth curling as a line of feathers erupted along the back of his hand. "Maybe you should try."

Rictor shook his head. "What do you know about the woman?"

I know her heart, Lannes wanted to say, but that would have been unforgivably sentimental. "I've been inside her mind. I've seen what was done...and it was nothing less than brutal. She can function, yes. But everything pertaining to her life was stolen."

"You're certain?" Rictor asked.

Lannes forced himself not to throw a chair at the green-eyed man's head. "If you know my brother, then you know what happened to me. If I had any doubts, I would not have risked my secrets with her. Not mine, not my brothers'."

"And her memories? Will they return?"

"The damage is irreversible. Everything she was is gone."

Rictor said nothing, impa.s.sive. Koni slumped in a chair, rubbing his face. Lannes dug his claws into his palms, drawing blood. "I understand you're trying to protect yourselves, but-"

"That's not what this is about," Rictor said. "Not for me. I have nothing left to protect."

Koni shook his head. "Bulls.h.i.t."

Rictor looked away, out the window. "The woman isn't human."

Lannes hesitated. "I'm aware of her psychic powers."

"Nothing to do with that. This is about blood." Rictor's jaw tightened. "She is not human. Not entirely."

"None of us are. What's your point?"

Rictor's jaw tightened. "There are very few lineages left in the world that contain what's in her veins. And those with her particular bloodline are...especially troubled."

It took him a moment, but Lannes made the connection-and everything inside him stopped. Dread poured through him, a profound disappointment that rattled him to the core. With her amnesia, with her fears, Lethe had been his. Only his. Now she was going to belong to someone else.

"You know who she is," he said, stunned by the deception. "You've known all along."

Koni shifted uncomfortably. "Only when we saw her. But I know the woman differently than Rictor."

Lannes looked at Rictor and found an odd compa.s.sion in his eyes. Brief, gone in an instant, but unmistakable.