“You have my word on that.”
As I was walking to the car, I received a text message from Tessa that Lien-hua was waking up.
15
Back at the hospital I hurried to Lien-hua’s room and found Brineesha, Tessa, and the white-haired doctor, who was checking Lien-hua’s charts, gathered around the bed. My fiancée was awake and looked weak, but remarkably alert, considering all that she’d been through.
Before I could ask her how she was doing she said, “Did you get him?” Her voice was scratchy and soft but she spoke with just as much quiet intensity and resolve as ever.
“No.” I went to her side, took her hand. It seemed like whatever I said at the moment would be inadequate, but I managed to get out what was in the forefront of my mind. “Lien-hua, I love you so much. I was… I knew you were going to be okay.”
“Yes.” She coughed slightly and cringed, and it was clear that despite the pain medication she was still having a rough time.
I kissed her, then asked the obligatory question: “How are you feeling?”
“Like I was strangled, stabbed twice, and then hit by a car.” She gave a faint smile.
Brineesha glanced at Tessa. “Well, at least the woman still has her sense of humor.”
Lien-hua said to us, “The doctor here tells me no sparring for a while.”
“Too bad,” I replied. “I practiced my spinning side kicks while you were in London.”
“You’re not falling over anymore every time you do them?”
“Only about half the time.”
“We’ll work on that as soon as this leg starts feeling better.”
The doctor finished up and left the four of us alone.
I wasn’t sure what to do. I wanted to spend the rest of the night here in the room with Lien-hua, but with Basque out there I didn’t like the idea of Tessa being at home alone — even if we assigned a team of officers to guard the house.
It was almost as if Brineesha read my thoughts, because she suggested that Tessa spend the night at their place. In their basement they had a spare bedroom — actually more of a mini apartment — where Brineesha’s mom had lived until last August when she died. “Tessa can stay downstairs,” Brineesha offered. “There’s plenty of room.”
Considering Ralph would be at the house with them, it seemed like a good plan to me.
“I guess we’ll have to postpone that cake-sampling trip tomorrow,” Lien-hua told Tessa.
“Maybe I should give it a trial run on my own. Test the waters, you know?”
“Not without me you don’t.” Lien-hua scolded her lightly with her finger, but then coughed again, and I could see on her face how much the coughing hurt.
“Shh. You don’t have to talk. Just relax.”
“I feel better than I look,” she said, but I wasn’t sure I believed that.
As Tessa and Brineesha were getting ready to leave, Brineesha called Ralph to tell him the plan and he said he’d meet them at the house. I phoned dispatch to have them send a squad to escort Brineesha and Tessa on the trip home, and then stay there with them until Ralph arrived.
After they were gone, I wanted Lien-hua to rest, but it seemed important to her to tell me about what had happened when she was attacked. She was one of the toughest women I knew, but going through an encounter like that would be terrifying for anyone, and that fear came through clearly in her voice as she recounted the story.
She said, “You know how they talk about your whole life flashing before your eyes right before you die?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it wasn’t as if my whole life flashed before my eyes, it was more like one moment appeared, then time, well…” She struggled for how to phrase things. “You’ve faced death before, Pat.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s like time stretches out and… and you see how, well, I’m not sure of the right phrase.”
“How unfathomable it is. And how brief.”
“Yes. How unfathomable life is — how unfathomable every moment is. And how fleeting they are.” She shook her head. “I really thought I was going to die, Pat. And all I could think of was how I’d never see you again.”
Shame stung me, regret for not looking back at her car as I drove away from her at the park. “I should have made sure you were safe. Before Tessa and I left.”
“No, that’s ridiculous. I’m not a child. There was no way you could have known I’d be attacked.”
That might have been true, but it didn’t really make me feel any better. The whole situation still seemed surreal to me. “You thought to call 911 and then shoot him while you were being strangled.” I shook my head. “You’re amazing.”
“I just wish I had better aim.”
When she pressed me, I summarized the chase at the water treatment plant and related the fable Basque had told me about the dog and the hare.
She reflected for a moment, then, always the profiler, said, “Think about it — he’s a cannibal and he tells you a story about one animal trying to capture and eat another.”
“But in this case I would be the one chasing him.”
Maybe he was telling you that you’re not all that different.
No, I slid that thought aside. It was just a story. Just a fable.
“There’s no way he thought of that off the top of his head. He had it prepared. All of it, everything, was a way of taunting you,” Lien-hua said, then coughed harshly and winced again.
“Shh,” I said. “Just rest.”
But she went on. “That’s why he waited outside the metal gate. He could have fled, but it’s become more than that to him now. It’s all about the chase.”
“The hunt.”
“Yes.”
That reminded me of the crime novel I’d found in the car. Lien-hua already knew about me finding Mindy’s body in the tree house back when I was a teenager, but I’d never mentioned the family that lived beside the marsh. It’d just never come up. So now I told her I’d found the novel, and then I explained who Saundra Weathers was.
She repositioned herself slightly on the bed. “The Lab is looking over the book?”
“The ERT guys were there at the scene. I’m assuming they have everything back to the Lab by now.” I patted her arm. “Really, I think you should rest.”
“When was the last time you saw her, Saundra Weathers, I mean?”
“It’s been over twenty years. Now, Lien-hua—”
“We should find out where she lives and get a car over there.”
“I did that while I was at the plant.”
“Great minds.” She yawned, although it was clear she was trying to stifle it.
“Great minds.”
“It’s possible he chose to leave the book behind to do more than show a connection to your past. It’s possible he also left it there to show you a connection to the future.” She yawned again.
“Miss Weathers is safe. We can talk about all this tomorrow. You need to sleep, Lien-hua.”
“Yeah,” she said wearily. “I think I agree.”
I shed my wet socks and damp pants, hung them up to dry, pulled up one of the hospital chairs so I could sleep by her side, and tucked my legs under a blanket. Thankfully, the chair reclined, but I’m over six feet tall and I found it impossible to position myself comfortably on it. However I was mentally and physically exhausted and hoped that, as awkward as sleeping like this was going to be, I’d at least be able to get a little rest.
“I love you, Lien-hua.”
“I love you, too.” It sounded like she was already half asleep.
As soon as I closed my eyes, thoughts of Basque and his tale of the dog and the hare invaded my thoughts. I tried to clear my head, to relax, but failed.
And so as I lay there, I mentally reviewed the case — what we knew, what we didn’t know, what Basque had done, and if there was anything I was missing. And I tried to figure out what our next step in tracking him down needed to be.