Chapter 80

Katherine didn’t remember how she arrived at the county jail, he thoughts had been flying through questions to ask Evan, potential frightening scenarios, and willful reminders to calm down and think one thought at a time.  She checked in with the guard on duty, who escorted her to a short bank of cubicles where she waited for Evan to sit across from her.

Evan looked decent enough.  She chided herself for thinking he would look gaunt and careworn.  It had only been a handful of hours since she’d seen him carted away from their house in chains.  He sat down, and they both reached for their handsets.

“Are they treating you okay?” she began.

“Did you get hold of the lawyer?”

“I just came from there.  We hit an early obstacle, but he’s working to bail your out today.  It may take a few more hours.”  

Evan’s face scrunched.  “Obstacle?”

“He asked where you were last night.”  Evan slouched back in his chair, blew out his cheeks, and searched the ceiling.  “But also,” Katherine continued, “your gun, at least the one you keep in the bureau, is missing.”

“The one in the bureau?”  Evan’s eyes began to flit across memories.  Then he landed on something.  “I lost it.  Remember?  In Merlain.”

“You lost it?”

Katherine and Evan sat quietly, trying to uncloud their picture of reality.  “Do you have another-?”

“Not at the house.”

“Where did-?”

“I don’t know.  I don’t know,” Evan said, his voice developing the color of desperation.  “Okay,” Evan sat forward, “here’s what you do, or don’t do.  Don’t go back to the house.”

“I packed a bag already.  I can’t sleep there.”

“Good.  Where did Abrams say Short was attacked?”

“Soden’s.”

“Right.  Go to Soden’s Grove.  See what you can see.  Maybe the cops missed something.  Maybe something will mean something to you, that they would overlook.”

Katherine shook her head.  “I can’t do that.”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, what do I mean?  I’m not a detective.  I wouldn’t know the first thing I’m doing out there.  Plus, I want to be here when you get out.  You get out, then we can go down there together.  How about that?”

Now, Evan shook his head.  “The scene is getting colder by the second.  You’ve got to get down there.  Don’t give me that face.  It’s a park, for crying out loud.  Who knows what people or animals are going to be tromping through there, obscuring the facts.  You can do this.  Being a detective isn’t hard.  You just have to keep your eyes peeled and look for what doesn’t belong.  If nothing stands out, start looking for what should be there, but isn’t.”

“Evan, I’m scared.  What if-?”

“You’ll have to do this scared.  Kathy, you’ve already survived a war.  You’ve survived a war and traveled across dimensions.  Nothing you’re going to run into out there is going to be worse than that.”

Katherine had her doubts, but nodded.  “Okay.  Then what do I do?”

“If you find anything.  Find a phone, get the lawyer down there on the double, and guard it so that it doesn’t get moved.”

“Okay.  What about when they release you?”

“I’ll go by the house.  If you’re not there, I’ll go to Soden’s.  If you need to leave, leave me a note.”

“A note?  How am I supposed to leave you a note?”

“I don’t know.  Be resourceful.”  He snapped his fingers.  “On the bandstand.  On the bandstand, make an X on the top step.”

“Okay.  What does an X mean?”

“What do you want it to mean?  Where would you go after the park?”

Katherine thought for a moment.  “Not the house.  There’s no point in your stopping by the house.  Just come to the park.”  She thought some more.  “If I’m not there, if I’ve left the X, I guess Mulready’s.  It’s comfortable enough for me to wait till you meet me there.”

“Okay,” Evan smiled.  Katherine was taken aback by the look of pleasure and pride in her husband’s eyes.

“Okay,” she said.  “It’s a plan.”  She put her hand on the glass between them.  She’d seen wives and girlfriends do this in movies and had always thought it looked a bit overly dramatic.  Now she understood.  All of her stability for the future was just on the other side of a thin pane of glass, where she couldn’t get to him.  Even though she knew he wouldn’t even be there a full day, the knowledge that she didn’t have access to him caused her pulse to rise.  Evan placed his hand over hers and smiled again.

Katherine rose, turned, and headed out of the visitation room.

First things first.  If Katherine Gold was going to figure out what was going on, she was going to need a few things.  Those things would take money.  It was Saturday, and only shops and restaurants were open.  She slid into the front seat of her car, cranked the engine, and popped it into reverse.  When she checked her mirror, she saw the hint of something that caused her heart to skip and her blood to surge with adrenaline.  The shifter slammed back into park.  Checking the mirror again, the image was gone.

Without turning off he car, Katherine exited the car and looked around.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Certainly, she had seen it, she told herself—just the hint of black clothes and an eye patch.  She stood outside the car for several minutes, assessing the situation.

Saw Yatha was dead.  She’d seen it with her own eyes.  Hadn’t she?  Hadn’t she?  Katherine had heard stories of soldiers returning from war with shell shock.  Though they were safe at home, their brain told them they were still on the battlefield.  Or sometimes they would see the faces of dead comrades in a crowd.  But this wasn’t that, was it?  She had thought that it was stress or surprise or sadness that brought on those visions.  Was she under stress?  Evan was in jail for something he didn’t do.  It wasn’t not stressful, but Katherine didn’t think she was in duress.

She leaned against her car, the engine still running.  Katherine played “what if” with Saw Yatha still living and moving in Athens.  What if it were possible that he jumped back to this dimension?  He’d done it before, so he must know how, but all of his means of access to that was gone, right?  Unless… Then she remembered the last person who helped load their transport off of Coellum.  The clothes were different, but she remembered the patch.

Had Saw Yatha played stowaway on their transport?  Why?  The more she turned the puzzle over in her mind, the more one reason made sense: revenge.  Revenge on Evan, so frame him for the assault.  Revenge on her… Katherine’s stomach fell, and she felt her knees go weak.  She managed to get the car door open and sat down before she fainted dead away.  Katherine worked to calm her breathing.  She told herself she was crazy.  She had invented a fiction that was likely not the… but how else could someone get Evan’s gun?

Soden’s Grove.  She reminded herself, that she was supposed to check out the crime scene at Soden’s Grove.  Maybe she would find something there that would confirm the situation one way or another.  Either there was a human out there with an axe to grind against Evan, there had to be dozens of those, or something much worse was afoot.

Still souped up on adrenaline, Katherine depressed the clutch and brake, pulled the gearshift into reverse, and checked her mirrors again.  Still seeing no threats, she backed the car onto Commercial and aimed it south, past her house, to Soden’s Grove.  With every passing block, the pit of dread grew in her stomach.  Whatever Katherine found at the park, she knew would only reveal that things were worse than she thought.  So, she kept reminding herself, what Evan always told her, “Living in reality is better than not.”

Katherine parked the car and made her way in the direction of the bandstand.