Frank leaned close to the pillow, saw a strand of long black hair on it. Took a deep breath. Drew in her scent.
“Ben,” he said into his headset, in a voice that was not quite his own, “bring the dogs in, will you?”
“Sure. Are you all right?”
Before he could reply, Jack signaled for quiet, laying a finger along his lips and nodding his head toward an adjoining room.
Frank looked a question.
Jack drew closer to him and said, in barely more than a whisper, “Thought I heard footsteps.”
“Ben, wait, stay put for now,” Frank murmured into the headset.
He listened and heard a faint noise. He motioned to Jack to stay back, drew his gun, and opened the door. It was a bathroom. He checked the shower, which was empty, then stood as still as possible and listened at the connecting door.
He heard it again, an odd sound. But not footsteps.
He turned out the bathroom light and waited in the darkness for a long moment. He had the strobing flashlight ready to go, held out to his left. He had checked the door, noting that the hinges were on the other side, and positioned himself to take advantage of what cover the door itself could offer him, weapon ready. He took a breath, let it out, and then opened the door quickly, strobe light on, moving fast to avoid making a target of himself. But there was plenty of light in the room, coming from an open door to the hallway. Enough light to allow him to see that no one was standing anywhere in the room, although it was not empty.
A hospital bed held a frail woman. Her mouth and neck and chest were covered in blood, but her eyes were wide open. She was staring at him.
“Frank?” Jack said softly from behind him.
Frank hurried over to the bed. “Violet Loudon?” he asked, and she blinked at him.
It took only seconds for him to register that she was blinking in Morse code.
Hurry. He escapes. I am not hurt. Bit his nose.
“You heard footsteps!” Frank said to Jack. “She sure as hell didn’t make them or open that door!”
They ran into the hallway, but in the next moment they heard a door slam downstairs.
“Ben,” Frank said, “watch out-he may be coming your way.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know yet. A male with damage to his nose. He just ran out of here.”
The man never ran past Ben and Ethan. Jack stayed behind to guard Violet while Frank followed a trail of blood drops leading from a back door toward the trees. The sky was lightening, but he could see no sign of the man. He was just about to call Ben to bring the dogs when he heard a motorcycle starting up. He ran toward the sound but had to move carefully through the trees and over the uneven ground.
He soon reached a narrow dirt maintenance road and heard the bike retreating over it but didn’t catch so much as a glimpse of the rider.
FORTY-TWO
Ben,” Frank said as he moved back toward the lodge, “I’m thinking maybe it’s time to give San Bernardino a call. By the time they get someone over here, Jack and I can be at the airfield. I’d prefer to have you come along with us, but I don’t want to leave Violet Loudon here alone.”
“Agreed. Ethan’s offered to stay here. He’s been talking to Jack on his phone.”
“Good.”
“I think you should spend a few minutes with her first, though. Jack’s been getting some information from her that you may find useful.”
“He knows Morse code?”
“He said he learned it as a Cub Scout but at this point can’t remember anything beyond ‘SOS.’”
“Jack was a Cub Scout?”
“Yeah, Ethan’s already giving him endless shit. Anyway, Jack’s pulled up some site about Morse code on his phone. He’s been painstakingly writing out the pattern she blinks and then translating it.”
“Okay, I’ll be up there in a minute, but we need to get the sheriff onto trying to find the guy on that bike. And the SBSD has the manpower to really search these grounds.”
“Will do. Cliff Garnett?”
Ben and Frank had both worked on cases with Garrnett, an old friend and homicide detective with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
“Cliff would be ideal, at least as a starting contact point-but he’s not likely to get the case, since we all know one another.”
When Frank reached the upstairs room again, Jack had cleaned off most of the blood on Violet’s face, which would probably piss off some lab guy, but there was, after all, lots more on her neck and clothing. Jack was giving her water when Frank walked in.
“Violet says the noseless one has been by here before. She said his name is Roderick Beignet, and he lives in Las Piernas. She described him to me. Heavyset, reddish brown hair, blue eyes. Not young-maybe about sixty.”
“That helps a lot. I’ll need to make some phone calls to Las Piernas once we’re on our way.” Frank turned to Violet. “Your doctors led us to believe you could not communicate.”
She smiled slightly, but it was Jack who answered for her. “We talked about that. She learned Morse code from Donovan.”
“Donovan?”
“One of Parrish’s sons. I got this from her in an abbreviated form, but if I made it out right, she said Kai, Quinn, and Donovan are half brothers. Parrish, Kai, and Donovan took Irene from here. Donovan told her that if that ever happened, Parrish would probably take them to the Sierras, not the old location but near there. Parrish is comfortable there.”
“Who is this guy Donovan? Other than one of the half brothers?”
They both looked to Violet.
Pilot. Forced to help Nick.
“Forced how?”
Don’t know.
“What was Roderick doing here?”
Said Nick sent. He heard you come in. Leaned over me. I bit.
Ethan arrived and introduced himself to Violet.
“You know Morse code?” Frank asked.
“Um… no. I mean, just SOS. Dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash. Right?”
“That’s O-S-O,” Jack said, rolling his eyes. “So unless you want a Spanish-speaking bear to come to your rescue, don’t ever use that one if your boat is sinking.”
Ethan looked at Violet, smiled charmingly, and said, “Will you teach me?”
“Ethan…,” Jack said.
But she had already blinked a response.
“Was that yes?”
“Yes,” Frank said.
“Christ,” Jack said.
“He’s a quick study,” Frank said.
“Maybe, but we shouldn’t leave them here alone,” Jack said. “Who knows how many more of his Moths Parrish has hanging around?”
“Just go,” Ethan said. “Frank has to get out of here. Cliff told Ben they’d have a patrol car here soon, and God knows how many other cops are going to be here right after that. If Frank is sitting here when they arrive, this is all going to go to sh-” He looked at Violet and said, “Sorry. It’s all going to be wrecked.”
Violet blinked, and Frank and Jack exchanged a glance.
“What did she say?”
“Something worse than you were going to say,” Frank answered. “You have your gun?”
“Yes, and Ben mentioned that I was armed but would not be shooting any deputies today.”
“Did Ben mention that Frank and I were here?”
“No, but Cliff is suspicious. Wanted Ben to wait around, but Ben told him he was already gone and wasn’t coming back-so you two get the hell out. Find Irene. I’ve got to learn Morse code.”
Frank could see what Ethan wasn’t saying, knew that he wanted to be going with them but also recognized that, of the four of them, he was the best choice to stay behind.
“Thanks, Ethan. We’ll try to meet up a little later. You want us to leave a dog here with you?”
“No, but Ben wants to drive his car to the Sikorsky because he’s doesn’t want to shift all the dog stuff to the other car. So leave your keys, if you don’t mind.”