If he’s offended by my refusal to accept his help, he doesn’t show it.
“That’s also why Daciana isn’t here this evening, in case you’re wondering. She would have been disruptive. Daciana was very angry that you managed to block her, and I need you to be able to focus on the task at hand rather than trying to keep her out. As useful as it would be to know for certain whether you’re being truthful with me, I decided to rely on my own knowledge of human nature. Because even if I told her to behave, I’m not certain Daciana could resist diddling with your brain.”
The phrasing is odd enough by itself. But in Cregg’s soft-spoken voice and usually formal phrasing it sounds almost obscene.
He seems to be referring only to our encounter at the police station. Nothing about my chat with Dacia earlier this evening. Does he even know about that?
Lucas’s voice comes over the speaker again. “What do you want me to cover them with?”
“You have an entire medical lab at your disposal, Lucas. I’m sure you can find something if you actually look.” When Cregg turns back to me, he adds, “Have a seat. Unless there’s something in there marked Use This to Cover the Dead Bodies in large red letters, this could take a while.”
He pauses expectantly. I think he’s expecting a laugh or at least a smile.
“Why?” I ask him. “The girl in there . . . she was just a child!”
“No, Anna.” He looks insulted. “The young woman you saw in there was twenty years old. It may surprise you to know that she’s been in our care for quite some time. We’ve prevented her from committing suicide on eleven different occasions. There is a school of thought that would argue Lucas just engaged in a mercy killing.”
“Was Molly Porter’s death a mercy killing, too?” I regret the words instantly. He must know I have Molly’s memories, but I don’t want to do anything to further endanger Deo. I’m sure Lucas has a few more bullets he’d be happy to fire.
Cregg smiles, a patronizing expression that goes nowhere near his eyes. “Of course not. Molly’s death was unfortunate yet unavoidable. At the time, I believed Lucas’s lax security was a single mistake, but I’m beginning to detect a pattern where he’s concerned.” He tosses a brief scowl in the direction of the door, then says, “As I suspect you’re aware, I did not kill Molly. But, as with these three, I did approve it. I couldn’t let the girl jeopardize national security and the lives of everyone in this operation.”
The scary thing is, he seems to believe what he’s saying. He’s actually trying to justify cold-blooded murder. I’m tempted to ask how he excuses forcing someone to mutilate herself. Cregg may not have delivered the deathblow. He may not even have been the one holding the garden shears when they snipped off her pinky. But he was the driving force behind all of it.
And national security, my ass. That’s what all of his kind claim when the bodies start piling up.
I sit silently until Lucas opens the door. As we enter the room, I avoid the three plastic-draped figures and focus on Deo. He’s clearly shaken and far from his usual stylish self, dressed in mismatched sweats and looking like he hasn’t seen a shower or a comb in days. I take a few steps into the room and then stop.
This is the first time I’ve been in a room with the newly dead. The “freshest” hitcher I ever picked up was Bruno, who’d only been dead a few months. A jogger found him in the park the morning after he died, staring up at the sky. The weather had been decent the night before and the sky was clear enough that he could pick out a few stars. Aliens were the last topic Bruno thought about—no surprise there. A lot of his thoughts were about aliens. But he wasn’t thinking of the scary kind that night. Just the Grays. He fell asleep wondering if E.T. was a baby Zeta Reticulan and if so, did all of the Grays’ fingers glow orange like his did?
The trio I’m trying not to look at are a different matter altogether. I can feel their presence in the room. If I let down my walls, I’m pretty sure I would suck them up like a vacuum.
Cregg seems to think I’ve stopped because I’m waiting for his approval. “Oh, by all means, Anna. Go speak with your friend. I assure you he has not been harmed in any way.”
At a bare minimum, Deo has been abducted, forced to watch as three individuals were murdered, and probably led to believe he was next. All of those things fall well within my personal definition of harm, but I don’t argue with Cregg, and he moves on to berate Lucas for failing to use a silencer.
I give the corpses a wide berth and crouch down next to Deo. My hug is an awkward gesture that includes the chair, since his arms are secured behind it with duct tape.
“Are you okay?”