Or course. Connecting the dots made sense. And if she dug deeper, Sarah’s Ouija board had spelled out C-O-L-D the night they’d gotten together with Eve. What if the common tie between everything that happened was Parker’s imaginary spaceman? With all of his conspiracy theories and UFO fanaticism, Jerome would have bought into anything Parker shared about Cold. Unfortunately, of the two people who might know what the scribbled message meant, one was missing and the other was in a coma.
“And you were never able to find out anything about Deputy Brown. He had to be an imposter.” She was starting to sound—even think—like Jerome. “What if he was after the message?”
According to UFO Stories and Sightings, organizations connected to UFOs sometimes had people pose as law enforcement officers or government officials. Usually it was to track someone of interest—Jerome?—especially if they thought that person had stumbled across an element of value. Could it be Deputy Brown was one of those? Someone who’d been assigned to watch Parker and feared he’d passed something critical on to Jerome? The book said others who’d encountered mysterious “shadow” officers were rarely able to remember them. The imposters used a type of instant hypnosis that was performed on their victims without the person’s awareness. Probably why she couldn’t recall a single feature of Deputy Brown’s face.
Her attention returned to the scrap of paper on the table. It didn’t look like much, random numbers strung in a senseless order:
11223344556677889900223344556677889900
33445566778899004455667788990055667788
99006677889900103123415677889900889900
99000011223344556677889900223344556677
88990033445566778899004455667788990055
66778899006677889900778899008899009900
The more she studied the sequence, the more Katie grew convinced the digits had to mean something.
“It must be a code of some sort.”
“Possibly.” Ryan picked up the paper, studying the numeric jumble. Half of his face lay in shadow, making his expression grim. “But if this note originated with Parker, it might be exactly what it looks like. Garbage.”
“I don’t think so.” Apprehension crept up her spine. If Deputy Brown had been after the code, she could have easily ended up in a coma instead of Jerome. Plagued by a shiver of vulnerability, she reminded herself Brown didn’t know she had it or where she lived. “So what do we do now?”
Ryan tucked the paper into his pocket. “Let me hang on to this for a while. I’ll run it by Parker’s doctors at West Central. It might be some kind of made-up language only he understood.”
Along with Indrid Cold.
She bit the inside of her cheek. If Parker believed Cold talked to him through the radio, then it was possible he’d created his own fantasy language to converse with the alien. In that case, it probably really was nothing. Except Jerome was in a coma, and a sheriff’s deputy who didn’t exist might have put him there.
Tapping a finger against her knee, she thought back to the night she’d spent with Eve and Sarah. Cold’s wasn’t the only identity the Ouija board had delivered. “You wouldn’t happen to know anyone with the initials QM, would you?”
“QM?” Ryan gave a short laugh. “Afraid not, but then ‘Q’ isn’t that common. I think I’d remember. Why?”
In light of everything that had happened, adding a Ouija board to the mix didn’t seem so farfetched. Plunging ahead, she told him about her night with Eve and Sarah, then went further and shared the UFO experience she’d had as a child. Afterward, she held her breath, waiting for his reaction.
He didn’t scoff, but a hint of skepticism lingered in his gaze. Of her small circle of friends, he’d always been the most cynical when it came to the paranormal. An odd outlook, considering his brother carried a branded mark from the Mothman.
“It’s a lot to absorb, Katie.”
Her heart deflated. “You don’t believe me.”
“Of course I believe you.” He took her hand as if to cement his trust. “You think you saw something as a kid. There’s no question of that. I just don’t understand why you suppressed it all this time.”
“I don’t, either.” She wrapped her fingers around his. At least he hadn’t called her crazy, or belittled her for playing with a Ouija board. Eve and Sarah and their silly ideas. And yet their silly ideas had identified Cold—and QM. Whoever that turned out to be. “Thanks for listening to me.”
His lips curved in a small smile. “No thanks needed.” Reaching forward, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
It had worked loose from her ponytail some time ago. Given the hour, her makeup had probably dulled, too, steamed away by the boiling pasta water she’d used for dinner.
“I don’t know why we were never close in school.” Ryan brushed his thumb over hers. “Eve and Sarah were always around in my group.”
A fluttery feeling spread through her stomach. Self-consciously, she lowered her gaze. “I wasn’t friends with Eve and Sarah. Not then.”
“Yeah.” He expelled a breath. “We were stupid kids. I’m glad that’s changed.”
They were sitting close enough that when he tugged on her wrist, she naturally fell against him. And when he bent his head and touched his lips to hers, she responded. The kiss was tentative at first, but when he pressed close, the movement of his lips grew bolder.
Katie’s head spun.
A perfect ending to a perfect night.
Caden stood on the screened porch, arms folded across his chest as he stared silently into the moonlit darkness of the rear yard. Eve’s property swept down an embankment to a narrow creek bordered by a small strip of woods. His sister, Maggie, used to play there with Eve and Sarah Sherman when the three girls were children. For years it had been hard to think of Maggie without suffering guilt over her death, but he’d put that stranglehold of grief behind him.
Caden had been there when the Mothman crushed Roger Layton’s bones and carried him, shrieking, into the sky. It wasn’t the first time the Mothman had intervened on his behalf. Once before, it had saved his life, wrenching him from the icy waters of the Ohio River the night the Silver Bridge fell. For fifteen years following that tragedy, not a single sighting occurred. Then four months ago, the creature reappeared, spotted by several eyewitnesses. It was still out there, haunting the TNT, and it wanted something.