Audra began to sob as Derrick and Kenneth grabbed her by the arms. She screamed garbled pleas as Georgia and Chloe seized her ankles and helped lift her off the ground. Lucas stared wide-eyed as angel-faced Shelly reeled back and punched Audra square in the mouth. Audra shrieked, and Shelly—the little girl Lucas had only imagined as innocent—hit her again to shut her up.
Audra’s protests were quick to deteriorate. Like a wounded animal, she used up all her fight, then resolved to weeping as she was carried back to the house. Lucas stepped to the side as the group marched past him. Roxanna and Laura looked positively euphoric as they trailed behind the rest of the group. None of them seemed to notice Lucas standing there, as though he had somehow been transported into a moving snapshot of things that had occurred.
Halcomb’s group was nearly out of view when Lucas forced himself to move. When he stepped around the corner of the house, he caught sight of the hem of Roxanna’s skirt just before the front door closed. Lucas picked up the pace, his thoughts tripping over what would happen next.
Somewhere in the span of the next few hours, Audra Snow would lie semiconscious in a circle of eight, their heads pointing toward the center, their legs splayed out like the points of a star. That’s the way the police would find them. Death by arsenic, though the authorities would fail to pin down the poison’s source and Halcomb would refuse to give details.
Lucas pushed the front door open and braced himself for what was to come, but the group was gone. All but one remained.
Echo stood in the center of the room. A mug was cupped in her hands.
“Hello, Lou,” she said. “Welcome.”
Lucas shook his head at her. “What the—where’s Jeanie?” he asked. “Where’s my daughter?”
“She’s fine,” Echo said, her tone dreamy. “She’s so close.”
“Close . . .” He didn’t know what that meant. “Close to what? To where?”
“Close to here, to forever. Close to what you try to create with your books, Lou. In some ways, writing books is like giving yourself eternal life, isn’t it? We all want it—we just go about it in different ways.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” He spit the words at her, not in the mood for stupid riddles. “Where’s my kid? What is this?” And for a split second, he honestly believed that she could explain it all away—the house, the furniture, the fact that he’d stepped out of night and into day. The entire world had shifted and it had taken him and Jeanie, and now Echo, with it.
Echo gave him a thoughtful smile. She approached the couch in her bare feet, then took a seat and faced the blank TV.
Upstairs, a door swung open and hit the wall behind it.
Lucas’s gaze darted back to Jeanie’s room just in time to see a young Jeffrey Halcomb step into the hall.
INCIDENT/INVESTIGATION REPORT
AGENCY: Pier Pointe Police Department CASE NO: 83-138
REPORTING OFFICER: Barrett, Albert J.
INCIDENT INFORMATION
DATE/TIME REPORTED: 03/14/83, 09:45
DATE/TIME OCCURRED: 03/14/83, 09:20
INCIDENT LOCATION: Pier Pointe Public Health Center REPORTING PARTY: Alana Seawell
VICTIMS
NAME: Audra Snow DATE OF BIRTH: 02/09/63
AGE: 20
OFFICER’S REPORT
Dispatchers received a concerned phone call from Alana Seawell of Pier Pointe Public Health concerning a patient in suspected trouble. Ms. Seawell, a nurse at PPPHC, states that Audra Snow entered the facility at a little after 9 AM with a man and two women. [Man: dark hair, late-20’s to early-30’s, approx. 6 ft. tall, leather jacket. Woman #1: blond, early-20’s, thin, patchwork skirt. Woman #2: brunette, long hair, mid-20’s, patchwork skirt.] Ms. Snow proceeded to explain to Ms. Seawell that she was there to pick up a prescription. When Ms. Seawell checked her files, she noted that Ms. Snow had not renewed her prescription with her physician, Doctor Cornish of Pier Pointe. Ms. Seawell also noted that Ms. Snow was with child. The medication the patient was requesting is not approved for pregnant women. Ms. Seawell discreetly voiced these concerns to the patient. Ms. Snow became anxious. Ms. Seawell assured the patient that they would sort it out, but Ms. Snow continued to grow increasingly agitated. Ms. Seawell reports that the patient looked over her shoulder multiple times at the three individuals who had accompanied her to the clinic [see above]. At one point, the two women described above stepped outside while the man remained. Ms. Seawell sensed that the man was about to pull Ms. Snow away from the counter due to her growing agitation. Ms. Seawell slid a scrap piece of paper across the counter to Ms. Snow, where Ms. Seawell had jotted Do you need help? Ms. Seawell states that Ms. Snow did not confirm in the affirmative, but that her expression convinced her that Ms. Snow was, in fact, in some sort of trouble. The man then led Ms. Snow out of the clinic after she told Ms. Seawell they would come back later. After their exit, Ms. Seawell called the police to report possible child endangerment and suspected domestic abuse. I radioed in a 150 to dispatch at approximately 10:20 AM. Dispatch stated they’d send someone to check on Ms. Snow later that afternoon. The call was tagged as low priority.
54
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VIVI CLUTCHED TO her chest the cross she’d found in her father’s study, and for a moment that felt like forever, she didn’t know what to do.