Lies of the Beholder Page 4

  “Forensics isn’t just used to study homicides,” Ngozi said absently, reaching into my pack with her handkerchief, then taking out another pair of binoculars. “The various forensic disciplines are simply studies of the way that science interacts with the law, or applying science to the law.” She scanned the area. “I usually start with a question. What about the scene is odd, out of place…?”

  I unpacked the camera, then tried to affix it to the tripod—and failed. Damn it.

  “That’s because you lost Armando?” Jenny asked. “You can’t even work a tripod now that you no longer have your photo expert?”

  I looked up sharply. Yes, there she was, the aspect with the notepad.

  “How did you get here?” I demanded.

  “Uber.”

  Sure, she could work it out and not get lost. I sighed, then gave up on the tripod. I probably didn’t need it anyway.

  “How are you going to use that?” Jenny asked, taking notes, narrowing her eyes. “Isn’t it the flash that’s the important part—the part that lets you take photos of the past? We’ve set up too far away for that to work.”

  She was right, but it was also true that I was likely to drop the stupid thing if I tried to take a picture. Losing an aspect left me bizarrely incompetent, particularly right after they left. Eventually, the others could compensate a little.

  I’d still never be the same. But again, I’d allowed for that. As Ngozi continued her investigation, I stood up, looking past Jenny—trying to ignore her—toward Barb, who was approaching.

  “Wow,” she said, chauffeur’s cap tucked under her arm. “Did you see those spark things? That was awesome.”

  “I need you to do something that might be dangerous,” I said.

  “Sure!”

  I tried not to let her naive enthusiasm put me off. I should be glad she wanted to help, not annoyed. It was just that she felt like the others. Regular people. Who treated what I did as some kind of carnival act.

  “There’s a bench over there near that hot dog cart. See it?” I handed her the camera. “Leave your cap and jacket here—they’re too conspicuous. Go over there and pretend you’re taking pictures of the stage and the crowds, but get the bench in every shot.”

  “Cool,” she said.

  “Here’s the important part,” I said, holding up the camera and showing her the dial on the flash that would change the time of day—in the past—that she was taking pictures of. “Rotate this one tick each picture, all right? It’s very important.”

  She rolled her eyes, which didn’t inspire confidence, then handed me her coachman’s cap and jacket. She wandered off inspecting the camera, which was more user friendly than it looked. Arnaud simply liked a retro aesthetic. Theoretically, the … um … thing with the … er … other things … wouldn’t need … to be twisted … or …

  Well, I was reasonably certain it would take pictures just fine for someone who didn’t know picture taking.

  “Clever,” Jenny said. “Using a real person to do what you cannot.”

  “I am a real person.”

  “You know what I mean,” she said, scribbling some notes in her pad. “Why do you always insist on doing so much alone? If you had a team of real assistants, not just the occasional chauffeur forced to pitch in, how much further could you go?”

  Tobias settled down on a boulder to wait, while Ivy demanded that I show her my phone to see where J.C. was—the app tracked the car I’d sent for him. It was at a stoplight nearby, though it appeared to have been caught in the traffic surrounding the festival.

  Another round of tree flowers started as Barb was taking her photos. Well, that would just give her some extra cover. Ngozi watched carefully to see if anyone reacted to Barb, and so I took a turn with the real pair of binoculars. Naturally, Ngozi could only notice something if I saw it.

  I watched the sparks. They seemed more … violent to me this time. Angry. The flashes from Barb’s camera and its unique bulb seemed stark to me, flagrant.

  I saw no sign of Sandra.

  Barb strolled back and delivered the photos, which were starting to develop. “Great,” I said, distracted as I looked through them. “Go wait in the car. Keep that camera safe.”

  “That’s it?” she said. “That’s all I get to do?”

  “Other than wait in the car? Yes.”

  She took back her cap and coat, and left, muttering to herself. I looked up and found Jenny regarding me, then making another note.

  “All right,” Ngozi said as I sat down on the boulder by Tobias. “Let’s see…”

  Though it was getting dark, the pictures—all save the first—were during the day. Timestamps at the bottom indicated that each successive picture was a half hour farther back in the past. With eight total, we had four hours of data.

  Hopefully Ngozi could make something of them, treating the area as a crime scene. I flipped through the pictures one after another to give Ngozi a glimpse, then we’d spend time analyzing each one for—

  That was Sandra.

  I froze, holding the next-to-last picture. A narrow face, with almost ghostly features. Her hair was longer and straight, but it was her. Sitting on the bench, reaching toward the wastebasket beside her.

  Ivy gasped. Jenny took notes. Ngozi lowered her face mask and pulled off a surgical glove, then rested her fingertips on the picture. Tobias put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed.

  She’d been here. She’d actually been here, not four hours ago. But where had she gone?

  “She texted you,” Ngozi said, “then dropped something in the rubbish bin.”

  “Then let’s go get it!” I said, suddenly heedless of any risk.

  “Hold on a moment,” Ngozi said, making me check the last photo. “I said wait. Tobias, restrain him.” She shivered, putting her glove back on as Tobias held me still. His wasn’t a strong grip, but there was something demanding about it.

  “See here,” Ngozi continued. “This man buying a hot dog from the vendor? He’s back again in this other picture, and again in this picture.”

  I sat back and squinted at the photos. At a prompt from Ivy, I used my phone for light so we could see them better.

  Behind us, the crowd oohed and aahed over another round of sparks in the air.

  “So…” I said. “He likes hot dogs?”

  Ngozi cocked an eyebrow at me.

  “Either that,” I said, “or both the patron and the vendor are involved.”

  “Look here,” Ngozi said, pointing at another picture. “They’re whispering together. They’re definitely involved.”

  My heart sank, and I looked back. The same vendor as in the pictures—a younger black man—was selling hot dogs now. “They’re surveying the drop site,” I said. “Waiting to grab me, perhaps?”

  “Well,” Ngozi said, “you’re not exactly hard to find. If they wanted to snatch you, they wouldn’t do it here, in a crowded area. They’d come to your home, or ambush you on the street.”

  Ivy grunted. “So maybe they just want to see what you do?”

  “Or maybe they’re after Sandra,” Ngozi said. “Or maybe they don’t know who is going to respond to her texts. Or, most likely, they’re connected to this in a way we can’t guess—because we don’t have the right information.”

  I turned back to the photo of Sandra. Then I stood up and started walking toward the bench.

  My aspects scrambled to catch up. “Steve?” Ivy said. “What are you doing? Shouldn’t we think about this?”

  I didn’t want to think about this. I’d had enough of thinking and worrying. Maybe I was making this harder than it needed to be. Or maybe I was doing something willfully stupid, and wanted to be done with it before J.C. got back to stop me.

  Either way, I ignored the sputtering aspects as I strode right up to the wastebasket. I dug into it, ignoring the ends of half-eaten hot dog buns—and heard Ngozi retch at my side.

  I pulled my arm out holding a small black bag, which turned out to contain a
smartphone. It needed a PIN to open—and I tried the room number from Destiny Place, the one Audrey had used in the cipher. It worked, and the phone opened to the photo archive, showing selfies of Sandra sitting on the bench. She’d captioned the last of them.

  It’s really me. Here is your proof. More to come.

  “The vendor at the hot dog cart is right over there,” Ivy said from my side. “But I can’t find the other man from the pictures. We need J.C. Where is he?”

  I turned to face the hot dog cart, with its vendor.

  “Here we go…” Ivy said with a sigh.

  “Ngozi,” I said softly, “see if you can pick out where this man came from or who he works for.”

  “It doesn’t work that way!” she said. “I’m not Sherlock Holmes.”

  I ignored her complaint and—as flashes of light behind us lit the fairgrounds a shimmering red-orange—I strode right up to the man at the hot dog cart, placed Sandra’s phone on the counter, and looked him right in the eyes.

  “I’m tired,” I told him. “And I feel old.”

  The man stood up straight, eyes going wide. He had his hair in a buzz cut, and was lean and muscular. J.C. could have told me whether he was packing, but even I noticed how poor a fit he was for his hot-dog-vendor role.

  “Sir,” he said, “I’m not certain if a hot dog can help.”

  Too formal. Military training, perhaps?

  I sighed, wiping my hands on one of his napkins. Then I reached for my pocket. He immediately responded by reaching for his gun, flipping back his apron and revealing a holster.

  I held my hand back up, splaying my fingers, showing I’d gotten nothing. I nodded toward his gun. “We can stop playing. I told you. I’m too old for this.”

  “Old?” the man finally said, lowering his hand. “You don’t look that old, sir.”

  “And yet, parts of me are wearing out. Like a car with faulty brakes and a secondhand engine. Looks and runs fine until you put it under stress, and then … well, all hell starts to break loose.” I spun the phone on the counter, then turned and scared away someone else who got into line wanting a hot dog.

  “I think he must be the junior of the two,” Ivy guessed, inspecting the hot dog vendor. “See how nervous he is? He was set here to watch and send word if you showed up. I’d guess he wasn’t supposed to actually deal with you.”

  “So who sent you?” I asked him. “And why didn’t you just take this phone yourself and run?”

  The man shut right up, practically stood at attention, and didn’t answer as I pressed further. Yes, military for sure.

  “I guess I should go then?” I said, taking the phone.

  The man put his hand on it—not pulling it away from me, but also preventing me from walking off with it.

  “So you do want to talk?” I said. “Then—”

  “You can stop bullying him, Mr. Legion,” another voice said. I looked to the side as the other man from the photos approached: older, Caucasian, with flecks of grey in his beard. “He can’t answer your questions.”

  “Then who can?” I asked.

  The man pointed at the phone. Which started ringing.

  I frowned, then answered and held it up to my ear. “Hello?”

  “Hey,” Sandra said on the other end. “It’s good to hear your voice again.”

  SIX

  Sandra.

  Sandra.

  Her voice was full and husky, like the sound of a solitary cello. It reminded me of peace, of nightmares stilling. Of quiet talks at night, with a candle flickering between us, because modern lights weren’t alive enough for Sandra.

  “Why?” I said to her. “Why dump this phone here, and go through all of this? Why not just call me.”

  “We needed a secure line, Rhone.”

  My middle name. I closed my eyes, imagining lazy days near the end, after I’d silenced and embodied the voices. Days when I got to just lie there, Sandra beside me, speaking softly. She’d always said I wasn’t a “Stephen.” That was too common a name.

  “My line is secure,” I told her.

  “Secure from you, I’m afraid.”

  “So you’re working with these men?” I asked, glancing at the two beside the hot dog cart.

  “In a way.”

  “I need to meet with you, Sandra,” I said. “I’m … I’m not as strong as I was when you left. Things have started to fall apart.”

  “I know.”

  “You’ve been watching me?”

  “No. It happened to me too.”

  “Your aspects. Jimmy, Orca, Mason … how are they?”

  “Gone.”

  It felt like she’d punched me in the stomach.

  “I need you to go with these men, Rhone,” she said. “I need you to trust me. They’re working on something that can help you. Has helped me.”

  The longer she spoke, the more wrong she sounded. Like she was drugged or something. I lifted the phone from my ear and pointed for the aspects to gather in closer and listen.

  “Sandra?” I said. “What happened to your aspects? What’s going on?”

  “I gave them away,” she said softly. “For sanity. Come see me, Rhone. It’s … better this way.”

  I looked up to Ivy, who nodded curtly. I hit mute on the phone, looking toward the two men. The young one was a soldier, but the older one—now that I got a good look at him—didn’t have the feel of a security officer. A little too pudgy, a little too relaxed in that sport coat, even if I did spot a gun peeking out from an underarm holster. J.C. would be proud of me.

  “What have you done to her?” I demanded.

  “Rather,” the older man said, “you should ask what she’s chosen to do to herself.”

  “Which is?”

  “She’s found peace,” the man said. “We can offer it to you too. A simple business arrangement. Your brain—safe within your skull, don’t look at me like that—and our technology. We can make the world a better place, and your world a saner one, all through the power of our proprietary solution.”

  “He sounds like a businessman,” Tobias said, “giving a pitch to the board of directors.”

  “He’s intrigued by you,” Ivy said, eyes narrowing. “Maybe even amused.”

  I lifted the phone to my ear, unmuting it. “Sandra? I want to talk to you in private. Just you and me. No phones. No listeners.”

  “And if I ask you for help?”

  I felt a sudden need to give back to her. All those years ago, she’d saved my life, and I was desperate to repay our debt. To put us on even footing. Because, deep down, I suspected she’d left because I had been too needy and our relationship had been unbalanced.

  She’s playing me. She knows how I feel and she’s playing me. Help. It was such a difficult word to ignore.

  I turned away from the two men, speaking more softly into the phone. “Are they holding you? Have they drugged you?”

  “If I say yes, will you come?”

  “I…”

  “I almost came back, you know,” she said. “Two years ago, when it started going badly for me? I came to visit. But I left before speaking with you. Rhone … it’s going to get worse for you. You’re like me, only a few years behind. The brain, it just can’t take the strain. You’re going to start losing them again. Unless you submit.”

  “To what?”

  “To a perfect world.”

  “Well,” Ivy noted beside me, “that’s not ominous.”

  “Sandra,” I said. “It’s not supposed to go this way. I’ve imagined … I mean, I pictured…”

  “Rhone, Rhone … You should know by now. The two of us are too good at imagining. But when have the daydreams ever played out as we wanted them to? Go with Kyle.”

  “But—”

  “I’ll see you then. Come.”

  She hung up.

  And I realized I was weeping. My arm went limp, and I nearly dropped the phone as I turned toward the two men.

  “Mr. Legion,” said the older man, who was prob
ably Kyle, “the paradigm you live in can be expanded. Please, let me show you the nature of our work, and let it redefine your vision of what is possible.”

  “You’re holding her.”

  “You’ll find that we have done nothing outside the moral and ethical bounds of good business.”

  I sneered.

  “Leeds,” Ngozi said, taking me by the arm. Light flared behind us, and the crowd cheered.

  “I don’t know what you’ve done to her,” I said to Kyle. “But I’m not going with you. I’m going to find Sandra. I’m going to free her.”

  “And if she doesn’t want your freedom?”

  I snarled. “You can’t—”

  “Stephen,” Tobias said. “Perhaps you should calm down. Deep breaths, remember? Let me tell you a little more about these fire displays. Listen to my voice. The displays are so beautiful because…”

  I breathed in and out, calming myself to the rhythm of Tobias’s words. Kyle and the other man backed off, and I turned to look across the crowd toward the flashes of sparks against the wall. They were beautiful, as Tobias said. I listened to his voice until …

  What was that chill?

  I looked into the crowd. Most everyone was facing the display, but one nearby figure moved in my direction. I frowned as this person walked right through a couple—as if they weren’t really there. The figure had … had sunken eye sockets and pale, milky eyes with no pupils.

  His skin had gone ashen white, even faintly translucent, so you could see the shadows of the skull beneath. But I recognized that face anyway. Armando.

  Armando—what was left of him—howled and leaped toward me, slashing with a large knife. I jumped back, but only then realized he wasn’t aiming for me.

  Instead, he cut down Tobias midsentence.

  SEVEN

  Tobias collapsed without a sound, leaving Armando’s knife dripping with blood. Wraithlike, Armando lunged toward me, slashing the blade, reflecting the red-orange light of the performers’ sparks.

  I threw my hands up in a panic, stumbling backward and taking a gash in my arm from the attack. It hurt. It seemed to actually bleed.

  I crashed into the hot dog cart, barely noticing as the younger of the two men pulled out his weapon. I didn’t care, couldn’t care. Armando had become a nightmare. And Tobias …