Reunion in Death

Her head felt light, her stomach clutched with a sharp, drilling hunger that came from memory.

«Little girl. Hey, little girl. He called me that. I ran across the street, through the cars. People shouted, beeped horns. I think… I think I fell, but I got up again.»

Roarke kept her hand in his as they crossed.

«I couldn't run very far because my arm hurt so much, and I was dizzy. Sick.»

She was sick now. Oily waves pitched in her belly and rose into her throat. «Nobody paid attention to me. Two men.» She stopped. «Two men here. Must've been an illegals deal gone bad. They started to fight. One fell and knocked me over. I think I passed out for a minute. I must have because when I woke up, one of them was lying on the sidewalk beside me. Bleeding, groaning. And I crawled away. Into here. In here.»

She stood at the mouth of an alley, tidy as a church pew now with a sparkling recycler.

«I can't do this.»

He wanted to scoop her up, carry her away. Anywhere but here. But she'd asked, and he'd promised to see her through it. «Yes, you can.»

«I can't go in there.»

«I'm going with you.» He brought her icy hand to his lips. «I'm with you, Eve. I won't leave you.»

«It got dark, and I was cold.» She made herself take the first step into the alley, then the second. «Everything hurt again, and I just wanted to sleep. But the smell. Horrible smell from the garbage. The recycler was broken, and there was garbage all over the alley. Someone came in, so I had to hide. If he comes after me, if he finds me, he'll take me back to the room and do awful things to me. I hide in the dark, but it isn't him. It's somebody else, and they're pissing against the wall, then they go away.»

She swayed a little, didn't feel Roarke's hand steady her. «I'm so tired. I'm so tired, I'm so hungry. I want to get up, to find another hiding place. One that doesn't smell so bad, that isn't so dark. It's awfully dark here. I don't know what's in the dark.»

«Eve.» It worried him that she was speaking as if it were all happening now, that her voice was going thin and shaky as if she were in pain. «You're not hurt now, or alone, or a child.» He took her shoulders, squeezed them firmly. «You can remember without going back.»

«Yeah, okay.» But she was afraid. Her belly was slick with fear. She concentrated on his face, on the clean, clear blue of his eyes until she felt steady again. «I was afraid to be in the dark, afraid to be out of it. But…» She looked back to where she'd huddled. «I couldn't get up anyway because I was sick again. Then I don't remember anything until it was light.»

She lifted one shaking hand to point. «Here. I was here. I remember. There were people standing over me when I woke up. Blue uniforms. Police. If you talk to the cops they'll put you in a hole with the snakes and the bugs that like to eat you. Roarke.»

«Steady. I'm right here. Hold on to me.»

She turned to him. Turned into him. «I couldn't get away from them. I couldn't even move. I didn't remember where I was, or who. They kept asking questions, but I didn't know the answers. They took me away, to the hospital. There was a different smell there, just as scary. And I couldn't get away. They wouldn't let me go. But they didn't put me in a hole with the snakes. That was a lie. Even when I couldn't tell them who I was they didn't try to hurt me.»

«No.» He stroked her hair as he thought how she'd found the courage to grab on to a badge and make it her own. «They wanted to help you.»

She let out a shaky breath, rested her head on his shoulder. «I couldn't tell them what I didn't know. I wouldn't have told them if I'd known. They would have taken me back to that room, and that would've been worse than any pit. I did something terrible in that room. I couldn't remember, but it was bad, and I couldn't go back. I can't breathe in here anymore.»

He slid an arm around her waist, led her out of the alley where she bent from the waist, braced her hands on her thighs and drew greedy breaths.

«Better now?»

She nodded. «Yeah. I'm okay. Just need a minute. Sorry-«

«Don't apologize to me for this.» His voice snapped out, whipped by fury before he could bank it. «Don't. Just take your time.

«The room was in a hotel,» she said. «Old. Riot bars on the lower windows, middle of the street. Across from it was a sex club. Live Sex. Red light.» Her stomach clutched, threatened to pitch, but she bore down. «The room was high up. He always got a high room so I couldn't get out the window. Ninth floor. I counted the windows across the street. There was a lighted sign out front, with the letters running down. Something foreign, because I couldn't read it. I could read some, but I didn't know what it said. C, A … C, A, S, A. Casa, Casa Diablo.»

She let out a short laugh, straightened. Her face was clammy, white as ivory, but set. «Devil House. That's what that means, isn't it? Isn't that fucking perfect? Can you find it?»

«If that's what you want, yes. I'll find it.»

«Now. Before I lose my nerve.»