Chapter 70: Here We Go Again

The night monitoring system had turned out to be a complete bust so far. Dream activity is not particularly regular in a lot of people under the best of circumstances. Made me wonder that we all seemed to fall into it so easily and spend so much more time at it with no ill effects. I made a mental note to talk to Bob about it next time I talked to him.

School had been out for almost three weeks and there had been no trace of activity since Elizabeth Street's little adventure. For some reason I had been putting off going to see her. Eventually I had to sit down and talk about it with my favorite counselor to figure out why. We were having breakfast out on the pool deck when finally I brought it up.

"You're afraid of her," Allison said.

"Why would I be afraid of her?"

"Good question, why would you?"

"That's not helping. I can't even say that I am, much less put a reason to it. What makes you say that's the reason?"

"Basically it's the only reason I could think of. She knows about you, us. Knows our names, not our faces but still more information than you are comfortable with. She's the only person that knows about you that you didn't tell."

"That's not true, what about Mr. Rodriguez?"

"Okay, besides him, but you had no problem talking to him right away. So again, the same question comes up. Why would you go talk to a member of the FBI with no second thought, a man in a position of authority and power who could in fact cause problems if he wanted too, but you won't go see an eighteen year old girl who still wouldn't recognize you on national television after you've met her?"

"Rebecca's boss wouldn't recognize me either; he's never actually seen my face. He may be wondering about you every time he passes a golden retriever though."

She cracked up at that. "Wouldn't that be funny? To see him pass a dog on the street and look at it twice wondering if it was suddenly going to talk to him."

"Yeah, it would be funny to see. Good thing you went with the dog instead of the mermaid, he may never fish again."

"You know, that may be part of your fear of Elizabeth."

"What? You lost me there."

"She wouldn't recognize you on the evening news but if she passed you on the street she might know it was you even though she has no idea what you look like."

I had to stop and think about that. It had a certain flavor of truth to it. "Well, the same would be true with you."

"Not necessarily. She's only seen me with you. She said I reflect and enhance your 'glow.' Maybe she can't see past that. Maybe she wouldn't recognize me without your glow there to reflect. Just another reason to try and see her individually, as well as together. I know Shannon is dying to meet her, but sometimes I question her motives. You'd think that between the two of us she'd be satisfied."

"Well, in all fairness, sweetie, she doesn't have us that often, not really anyway. You and I can be together any night we want. Shannon really only gets to be with us now and then. I know she says she is satisfied with the time we have in dreams but I don't know that her body is really satisfied with it. No matter how elaborate and realistic a dream may be, it's still just fantasy."

"Yeah, that part really sucks. But I don't see it getting any better any time soon. And I know I've said it before but I really do think you should reconsider going public when school starts."

"I've been having second thoughts about that as well. But we were talking about why you think I'm afraid to see Elizabeth."

"So you admit it?"

"No, I said why you think that's the case; I never said I agreed with you."

"You have a better suggestion?"

"You still haven't come up with a valid reason why I would be afraid of seeing her."

"I don't know why. I have some ideas but I don't really know. I gave you one suggestion but I can think of others."

"Like what?"

"You're afraid of what she'll tell you."

"Okay, now you've really lost me."

"You heard what she said to Rebecca, and she was dead on. I think you're afraid of what she may see in you." She stopped for a second and got a strange look on her face. "Or you could be afraid of what she will see in us."

"I'm still not following you. What could she in us, besides..." my voice trailed off and I could feel the blood draining from my face.

"Besides the truth?" Allison said, finishing my thought. "She could see that I'm not just your partner, helper, or whatever else she sees, but that I'm your sister, and your lover."

I turned and stared at the sunlight reflecting off the water in the pool. Could that be it? Was it the incest problem raising its head? Would Elizabeth be able to tell? Rebecca had said that when she looked at people she saw the truth about them, the truth about who they are.

"Jimmy?"

"I think that may be it," I said, still looking away. "What else could it be? She knows about my gift, so that can't be it. She hinted she wants my body but so does Samantha and that doesn't bother me."

"Samantha wants your body alright, but then she wants Alice and Sharon too. The times I've snuggled with her I've been tempted to let it happen, she's so wounded and I just want to hold her and touch her and just for a little while make it alright. I keep telling myself that it's best to wait, but it's hard."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I can't help feeling protective and wanting to show her what it's like to be loved by someone who cares about you and doesn't just see you as a sex toy. But I've told her I won't until this is all over and I know she won't feel like it's something she has to do, that we won't help her if she doesn't. I don't ever want her to feel like she owes me anything. I would feel like I was no better than the bastards that are using her now."

"Well, they are all bastards, but some of them are bitches too."

"What do you mean?"

"You mean you didn't know? It's not just men, Jimmy. Some of them are women. Hell, some of them are couples, like Frank and Irene. Sure, we've never seen Irene do anything to Sam or Amanda, but that doesn't mean she doesn't do anything to any of the others. She certainly doesn't have a problem sitting back and watching it, not even when it's happening to her own daughters."

"I hadn't realized. When did you find this out?"

"The first night we took Mom in to do the fairy godmother thing. She was pretty overwhelmed by all of it. Remember, she hasn't had people do nice things for her that often. We cuddled and talked and I kissed her and it was pretty obvious she had kissed other girls before. I felt like she wanted to crawl into my mouth. I asked her about it and she said that sometimes they had the girls do each other and they watched, sometimes, and she shuddered when she said it, they did other things with them. I got the impression some of the women are a little on the sadistic side. I don't think they would be stupid enough to leave a visible mark but there's a lot of ways to hurt someone without leaving evidence. Not the kind you can see in a shower anyway."

"We've gotten a little off subject. How do you feel about Elizabeth knowing the truth about us?"

"Well, for starters, I don't care if she does think she's doing God's work, she'd be in no position to point fingers. Other than that, I don't really know. I mean, our relationship depends almost as much on secrecy as your gift does. But obviously she knows the importance of secrecy. She is open about her sex life but not the reason behind it. She deliberately, well not really deceives people, but allows them to be misled about it. She has her purpose, and that's all that matters. I expect she will feel the same about us. Since she sees you as someone else chosen and touched by God. You have a purpose. Since I help you, I expect she will see our relationship as being part of that purpose, or at least facilitating it. Ah heck, let's just go see her and find out."

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself?"

"Something like that, the greatest fear, the one that will have the most control over your life is the one you won't face."

"Okay, maybe tonight we'll take Shannon and go for a trip. Of course, given the destination it may be a late trip and short. She tends to keep late hours."

"Well, so do we... sometimes. If Shannon was here more, we'd probably keep later hours more often. You running with Tim today?"

One of the new additions to my schedule was running with Tim. Since Angie was going away to college soon he needed someone to run with so we got together a couple times a week to push ourselves a little.

"Yeah. Angie's going to Phoenix to tour the University. She leaves tomorrow and comes back Monday. She's touring the campus and checking out some of the sorority houses over the weekend. She has a breakfast meeting Monday morning, then she comes back. They offered to fly her but she wants to see what the drive is like so she'll know what she's facing to come home on holidays and stuff."

"Well," she said, patting my cheek, "you two screwballs have a good time. I'll be right here by the pool when you get back."

Tim showed up after lunch and we headed out for a ten mile run through the surrounding area and local foothills. He brought his suit along so we could cool down when we got back. Shannon was there when we returned but she wouldn't let me near her until I showered. Once we had gotten the sweat off the four of us relaxed, swam, and generally hung out for the rest of the afternoon. Allison suggested cards when it got really hot and we moved to the shade of the picnic table to play and talk. Shannon jokingly suggested strip poker which made Tim blush.

Allison just rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, yeah, that would be fun. We've each got two pieces of clothing, they've each got one. If you want to flash your tits at Tim just do it and get it over with. But remember who he normally plays with. You've grown and I love what you've got but you've still got a long way to go before you're in Angie's league."

"Now Allison, that's not fair," Tim said. "Shannon is a very pretty girl and has a very nice body. Angie is four years older than her, but Shannon has nothing to be ashamed of. From what I can see, everything is exactly where it belongs and is developing quite nicely."

Now it was Shannon's turn to blush. We both laughed as she dropped an awkward curtsey and thanked him for the compliment.

"So, Jimmy tells me you and Cindy may be an item at school next year?" she said, changing the subject.

"Looks that way, she's a nice girl and it would certainly take the pressure off not having to date someone just so no one would notice something was out of place. It was tough this year to not be able to touch Angie or even spend too much time around her at school or in public."

"I'll bet. I have the same problem with Allison. There are times when I see her walking down the hall, that cute little ass waving back and forth like a big red flag, and I just wanted to shove her up against the lockers and... Uhm! It was tough."

"Why thank you," Allison said, leaning across the corner and kissing her cheek. "It's nice to be wanted."

"I'm thinking of going public with Shannon this year," I said. "They both seem to think it's a risky idea."

"I can see their point. It may take the pressure off of you; both Cindy and Angie have said you'll be getting more attention this year after going to prom with Angie."

Allison dropped in, "Told you so," before Tim continued.

"But it's a trade I don't think I'd make. If I had your arrangement here, I don't think I'd risk losing it just to reduce the social pressure. I have to ask here, and I may be out of line but, your parents know about you and Allison, don't they?"

"Yes," Allison answered. "It's a long story but it's not a problem for them as long as we're careful and about it."

He just shook his head. "My parents would totally freak out if they knew. What about Shannon's parents?"

"Completely in the dark," Shannon said. "We're all just best friends as far as they know. I'm afraid that even just announcing Jimmy as my steady boyfriend would ruin everything. I don't see them approving of me having sex at my age. Dad had a talk with Mark last year when he started getting serious with Theresa. They were gone for like hours. Mom would probably be okay with me and Allison. She's real liberal when it comes to the whole gay and lesbian thing. But I'm not so sure what she would think about me and Jimmy. I mean, Allison can't get me pregnant."

I flashed back to Karen's comment from earlier in the week. I wasn't so sure Karen didn't already know but I wasn't willing to share that particular piece of information. What possible use would there be to bringing it up? It's not like we could ask her for confirmation and it might make us careless if we took it for granted. And if we were wrong we could really screw things up. But then, wasn't that what I as contemplating doing in a couple of months anyway? Maybe I should rethink the whole thing before doing anything rash. Maybe it was time to sit down with Mom and have a little heart to heart. It was definitely something I needed to think more about.

The whole monitoring thing turned out to be a colossal waste of time. Alicia Sanderson disappeared Thursday night.

Looking back, I'm surprised it hadn't happened before. I guess we were just good at finishing up before it got near time to get up. We were sitting in the office discussing the events of the week. I was planning to take the girls to see Elizabeth if she ever went to bed and made it possible. Abruptly, Rebecca just disappeared. Bob was a little freaked out by it, but I explained that most likely something had awakened her and it was nothing to worry about. I guess we should have expected it to happen sooner or later.

Rebecca

The phone ringing in the middle of the night was never a good sign. It was a typical transition. One moment you're dreaming, sitting in a place that seems so real, having a conversation about work and vacation; the next moment your back in bed wondering what woke you up, while your hand is already in motion to stop the offending sound before it can strike again.

"Hampton."

"Special Agent Hampton, this is Simmons with night watch. I've got a call from Kern County regarding a missing person on your watch list, one Alicia Sanderson."

Suddenly I was wide awake, scribbling notes on my pad. I check the time, 1:18. "Thanks for the call, Simmons. What do we know?"

"Girl was at a party, left a little before midnight. Parents called looking for her about a half hour later. A girl at the party told them she had left about a half hour earlier. Everything went back to normal until someone else left and the girl's car was still there. They went back inside and told the hostess about it and she went to check. Spotted the girl's purse in the front seat, went back in and called the parents. Parents tried the girl's cell phone and it was still in her purse. They called 911 and reported it as suspicious. They got a description out on APB, gotta love those new cell phones. Several friends had taken pictures of her at the party so they knew exactly what she was wearing. As soon as the call went out it flagged your watch list."

"I'm on it. Good job, Simmons. Call Agent Freeman, give him what you have and let him know I'm on my way to pick him up. See if you can find out who's running the show in Bakersfield and get me a number. Just give the information to Freeman, I'll get it from him when I get there." Bakersfield was where the girl lived, but not necessarily where the crime had occurred. "Where was the party?"

"Rural area out on the north end of town. I'll get the address and give it to your partner."

Paul had only gotten back from Fresno the day before. I hung up the phone and started getting dressed. I would have preferred jeans but the Bureau has certain requirement when it comes to dressing for the public. Black slacks, shoes, I could get a way with a white polo shirt where a man would be forced to wear a tie. I slid into my shoulder holster and tied the bottom end down to a clip on my belt. A shoulder holster is by necessity a lightweight affair and if you don't have it tied in correctly it tends to try and flop around at the worst possible times. Like when you are trying to draw your weapon. Any time you find it necessary to pull a weapon you want it quick and easy. Hesitation in the field can get you killed. I was dressed and out the door with my field kit in just under five minutes.

I called Bob as soon as I got in the car to let him know what was going on. Under any other circumstances the conversation would have been funny. Having him tell me that as soon as he got back to sleep he'd let Jimmy know so he could start trying to bridge the missing girl just sounded like it should be funny. If a life wasn't at stake I might have laughed.

Paul's apartment is further north than mine, which worked out very well for this trip. Thirty minutes after the call came in we were both in my car headed north. Bakersfield is a straight shot up the freeway from LA. It was a long boring drive but at 2:00 AM on a Friday morning we didn't have to worry about traffic. Seemed kind of odd to be having a big party like that on a weeknight, but we were talking about high school kids on break. In some cases, college kids getting ready to leave home. Once we cleared Magic Mountain we made good time. Paul was on the phone with the local cops, getting the ball rolling. Now that the killer knew we were in the game we didn't have to worry about stealth. The Sanderson girl's parents were out of the loop for right now but I had local cops getting a complete list of everybody that was at that party. No holding back the names of the kids that weren't supposed to be there. I wanted names, addresses, phone numbers, cell phone numbers, any way we could contact them.