The Soul Collectors

The APC came to a stop. She stepped off and moved up the leaf-covered walkway.

Please, Charlie had said, we're running out of time.

Darby walked up the front steps and gripped the doorknob. It turned without a problem.

She stepped inside alone, as instructed, but didn't shut the door behind her. The flashing police lights coming from opposite ends of the street were bright and strong enough to part some of the house's interior darkness, and it gave her a chance to take in her surroundings.

Hardwood floors and directly in front of her, a set of stairs carpeted with a dark burgundy runner. To her left, a living room with a sectional couch and a small flat-screen TV. Modest furnishings. The Rizzos' Brookline home had had Ethan Allen furniture in large, spacious rooms. They were probably forced to downsize after blowing that money on private investigators, she thought. They probably moved here so the kids could get in-state tuition fees.

'Shut the door and lock it.'

The screechy, breathless male voice came from somewhere upstairs.

'Hurry. We're running out of time.'

We, she thought, easing the door shut. She locked it, hearing the bolt slam home, and moved to the bottom steps. She couldn't see Charlie up there. Too dark, but she could hear him panting.

'Are they listening?' he asked.

'Who?'

'The police. Did they send you in here with some sort of microphone so they could listen to us?'

She thought about how to reply, recalling Charlie's response to the hostage negotiator: I want to speak to her inside the house. Alone.

Lee whispered over her earpiece: 'Tell him about the mike strapped on your vest. It will be a show of good faith, a way to build trust with him.'

Darby said, 'There's a mike strapped to my vest. It's in the front.'

'Good,' Charlie said. 'Will they be recording our conversation?'

'Yes.'

'Good. Very good.' Sounding excited and, as Lee had said, hopeful. 'Please fold your hands on top of your head. When you reach the top of the steps, turn left. The bedroom is directly at the end of the hall. That's where I want you to go. Keep your hands on the top of your head until I tell you otherwise.'

Darby followed the instructions, clasping her fingers together and folding her hands on top of her head. She climbed the stairs thinking about the excited tone in the man's voice. She wasn't imagining it.

'Tell me about the man you threw out the window.'

'It was a gift,' he said. 'For you.'

'What's his name?'

'He doesn't have one. None of them do.'

Darby was about to ask what he meant by that when it hit her, an intense, sour smell that reminded her of the homeless people she'd sometimes pass on her way to work during the hot summer months in Boston, that putrid stench of body odour mingled with soiled clothing.

She stepped on to the second floor, gagging. She couldn't see Charlie in the nearly pitch-black darkness, but she could hear moaning coming from down a hall. Moaning and muffled voices.

Breathing through her mouth, she started walking, bumping into a wall full of hanging pictures. She knocked over one, hearing glass shatter against the floor. She kept walking, coming to a stop when she made out a door. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and she could see it was cracked open. No light coming from behind it, just sounds — crying and a dull thump. And that goddamn odour — she could feel it coating the back of her throat.

Keeping her hands on her head, Darby used her foot to slide open the door.

6

The bedroom shades were drawn, but the police lights flickering around the edges allowed Darby to make out the frightened faces.

She saw Mark Rizzo first. Dressed in boxer shorts and a tank top spotted with what had to be blood, his swollen head hanging over his lap. He was the only one tied down to a chair.

Judith Rizzo, wearing a white flannel nightgown and rollers in her grey-white hair, lay sideways, most of her face pressed into the carpet. Her ankles had been tied together with what appeared to be electrical tape. Hands tied behind her back, mouth taped shut.

The woman's single, visible eye shifted to her daughters. They had been taped in the same manner as their mother, but the twins — thin and tall now, wearing tight boxer-type shorts and T-shirts — had managed to get themselves into a sitting position. Their backs rested against the foot of a king-sized bed, their knees propped up to their stomachs. They shook in fear but didn't appear hurt. Darby didn't see any blood on them.

'Everything will be okay,' Darby told the girls, quickly taking in the rest of the room. A black goosedown jacket lay across the bed's tangled sheets. One of the nightstands had been tipped over. 'Just try to stay calm.'

Darby saw the twin with the beauty mark above the lip, Abigail, turn her head to the door. Darby was about to move when she felt the muzzle of a gun pressing against the back of her skull.

'Don't turn around yet,' Charlie said behind her. 'Just stay right where you are, okay?'

Darby hadn't heard any footsteps and wondered if the man had taken off his shoes so he could slide undetected through the darkness.

'This is just a precaution,' he said. 'I only want to make sure you do what you're told. This is important. I don't want to hurt you or anyone else.'

'Then why did you shoot your friend?'

'That… thing was not my friend.'

'Who was he?'

'I'm hoping you'll find out. That's why I gave him to you.'

The man reached across her thigh and fumbled for the holster strap holding the SIG. As he worked, keeping the muzzle pressed against her skull, she carefully slid the fingers of her right hand underneath the elastic fabric of her shirtsleeve… there, she felt the handle of the tactical knife. To pull it free and grip the knife properly would take no more than four seconds; but to use the blade effectively, she needed him to face her.

He pulled the sidearm from her holster. She heard the SIG land somewhere in the hall.

'I just want to talk,' he said.

Darby waited. He didn't pat her down for any other weapons. Yet.

'I don't want to hurt anyone,' he said again. 'Please believe me.'

A part of her did believe him. She could hear the hope in his voice, the excitement, as if a gift he had longed for was about to be realized. And he was speaking too clearly and coherently for a schizophrenic.

'The people listening to us right now,' he said. 'I want you to tell them to stay away from the house until you've heard the truth. We're all going to talk, that's it. After we're done, I'll release the hostages, and you can arrest me. I'll cooperate. Did you bring something to transport me?'

'It's parked right out in front of the house.'

'What is it?'

'An Armoured Patrol Car.'

'Is it bulletproof?'

'It can withstand rocket fire.'

'Thank you.' His voice caught, strangling on tears.

Judith Rizzo moaned.

'Thank you,' he said again, more clearly now. 'Tell the people listening to us I won't harm anyone.'

'They heard you.'

'I want you to tell them. I want them to hear you say it.'

Darby's gaze had cut sideways. Judith Rizzo had rolled on to her back. Blood dribbled from her mouth and broken nose. A dark, wet pool was on the carpet.

'It was an accident,' Charlie said. 'She tried to run while I… She fell and hit her head on the edge of the bureau. Now talk to the SWAT people and tell them what I just said, word for word.'

'I will if you release your mother.'

'Not yet. She has to stay here.'

'Why?'

'We'll get to all of that. Now tell the SWAT people, hurry.'