Delta Stevens 2: Storm Shelter (30 page)

“What are you staring at?” Megan asked, lowering her book.

“Nothing. I was just wondering if I would ever get the chance to call you `counselor’.”

“You can call me whatever you want, my love, but for now, do you want to hear what I’ve come up with?”

Delta nodded. “Shoot.”

“I’ve looked at thirty names so far; seven have Greek potential, and ten I’m unsure of yet. don’t horse owners ever name their steeds Sally or Honey or Bess? What’s wrong with good old American names?”

Delta snickered. “Those are cow names, my dear, not the names of champions.” Delta paused for a moment, reflecting on her own words.

“I know that. But listen to this list so far: The Aphrodite Challenge, Bellerophon, Cassie’s Love, Fortuna 500, Crystal Palace, Mont Blanc Special—need I go on? And then, there are those that are barely passable, but need to be checked anyway, like Diana. Boring, plain Diana. Still, she figures in many myths and is a possibility.”

“God,” Gina’s voice came from the corner, where she was digging through reference books. “How would you like for someone to name a horse after you? Even if it was a fast one.”

Delta ignored the last comment and pondered the list before her. It did seem insurmountable, with so many names related to Greek mythology in one way or another. They needed something to help narrow down the field. Gazing out the window, Delta thought back to the moments preceding her becoming the human target. What was it Elson had said to her before chucking that star at her? She could see his face so clearly, and even see his mouth moving, but the words escaped her.

“How many of those horses have been champions?” Connie asked, putting a little body English on her joy-stick to make Dori avoid Poseidon’s powerful right hook.

There was that word again. Why was it she got a knee-jerk reaction every time she heard it. Closing her eyes, Delta could clearly see the word `champion’ forming on Elson’s lips, but the sound never came out. Had she just imagined it?

Megan checked the sheet. “Twenty were champions last year or are presently considered champions.”

Delta opened her eyes and looked around for the cane Gina had bought for her. She couldn’t grasp whatever notion was cruising around in her head.

Slowly standing and lightly putting pressure on her leg, Delta moved to the window and thought about last night’s “stabbing.” She remembered Elson holding Jan, and both Jan and the star were propelled at her at once. He must have said something to her just before he threw it. But she knew that he tossed it and ran. Then, why could she swear he said it after he threw it? And why was it even important? It was like having a piece of corn caught in her teeth, and she couldn’t get it out.

Seeing Jan’s petrified face through the hazy fog of her memory, Delta quieted her mind and allowed her thoughts to flow freely. Words, pictures, images bumped into each other like strangers, and pictures from weeks ago mingled with photos of the day. Like an avalanche, the memories tumbled together into one huge blur. And out of this blur came the formation of the one idea she was trying to grab a hold of.

Champion.

“Elson didn’t say it,” she said under her breath. “Jan was repeating what he had said to her.”

Connie and Megan turned from their work and stared at her.

Limping back over to the table and ignoring the ache in her leg, Delta pulled the piece of paper Megan was working on. “All morning, I’ve been trying to remember something Elson said to me that might possibly relate to the horses.”

Connie quickly pushed the pause button and swung around. The creases on her face deepened every day the strain wore on. “And?”

“He said something to Jan that I thought, at the time, was an interesting choice of words. It was as if he was giving me another clue. At the time, it hit me funny, but I was losing blood and passing out and I wasn’t sure I heard Jan correctly.”

“So?” Connie asked, rising from her chair and stretching. “What was it?”

“He said something about me being the last of the true champions. Jan repeated his words, which is why I was having such a hard time retrieving it. I kept thinking Elson said it to me, and he didn’t.”

Megan grabbed the sheet and ran her finger down the length of the column. “Last champion, last champion. What do you think it means?”

Delta shrugged and studied the list. “Are we looking for the last horse who was a champion? Or the champion of the last race?”

Connie strode over and joined them. “Aren’t they one and the same?”

Megan shook her head. “No. I think she means the champion of the last Springtown Stakes.”

“Yes!” Connie agreed, leaning closer to the list. “The last races were—”

“Two months ago,” Megan said, smiling.

“Enough time for him to fit it into the game,” Connie finished for her.

Running her long, tapered nail down the list, Megan stopped at the notation of the horses who had won the last races during the Springtown Stakes. “This really narrows down the horses we have to look at.” Grabbing her marker, Megan highlighted all the horses considered champions from the last races at Springtown. “This feels like the right track. Pardon the pun.”

Delta examined the highlighted names. There were five or six she could have crossed off easily. But the seventh one on the list caught her attention. “Here’s an interesting one. Harold’s Hybris. Hybris sounds like something Greek. What’s a hybris?”

Megan and Connie looked at each other and shrugged. “Let’s look it up,” Megan said, opening a thick reference book titled
Mythology Through the Ages
.

“Here it is,” Megan announced, setting the large volume on the table. “Oh my God. This is it! Hybris is translated as pride, arrogance, and recklessness. According to this, it is `being so self-assured that one celebrates victory before the battle is over.’ ”

Connie looked at Delta, who looked at Megan. There was a hush in the room that settled like a fine layer of dust.

“That’s it,” Connie said softly. “It must be. He must be talking about me.”

Megan inhaled loudly. “There’s more. It says hybris is when a person forgets that he’s human and acts like a god or plays the role of one.”

“Con, are you sure he isn’t referring to himself?” Delta asked, peering over Megan’s shoulder.

Connie shrugged. “I don’t think so. No, Del, I’m sure he’s talking about me. Is there anything else?”

Megan nodded. “Listen to this. In mythology, hybris, sometimes spelled h-u-b-r-i-s, was punished by Nemesis, a child of Night. Nemesis, who was thought of as Divine Anger, was the embodiment of Revenge and Retribution. If a person became too prosperous, Nemesis would take some of that prosperity from them.”

Delta held up her hand for Megan to stop. “Wait a minute. If a person is too successful, then Nemesis would take some of what they earned away?”

Megan nodded, her eyes glued to the page. “Apparently so. It says, `If that person boasts of his prosperity, the gods look upon that as a challenge, and that challenge is usually met.’ ”

“He’s referring to me. He’s recalling the old days when I was at the top of my class. I was successful. Clearly, he thought, and still thinks, that I was proud and arrogant of that success.”

Megan looked up from the book. “So, this makes him Nemesis, doesn’t it? He’s appointed himself a child of the night.”

“Which is why he strikes only at night,” Delta added.

“And he is after Retribution and Revenge. It all fits. In the figurative and literal senses, he feels it is his duty to make me pay for my actions from long ago.”

Delta shook her head. “Damn, he’s way out there.”

Megan closed the book. “That’s all it says. What now?”

“The horse is our key. If we find that horse, we may find him.” Connie sat back down at the computer and released the pause button. “Megan, would you copy the hybris information and tape it over my desk? There may be clues in there that will help me with the game.”

“As good as done.”

“And Del, you find out when Harold’s Hybris’s last race is. This time, that maniac isn’t going to get away from us.”

Turning to her task, Delta watched out of the corner of her eye, as Connie wielded the joystick. Never, in the five years they had known each other, had Delta ever seen her so intense. The light-hearted jokester she knew so well had been replaced by an angry, bitter woman filled with rage and hostility. In a deeper sense, Connie’s lightheartedness seemed lost to the realities of brutal actions that would forever change her life. Elson hadn’t hurt Connie in any physical sense, but he had certainly struck damaging blows to her spirit.

Turning to Megan, who was busily printing the hybris quote on a piece of butcher paper, Delta leaned over and kissed her. “How are you holding up?” Megan whispered.

Delta shot a glance over at Connie, who was deeply absorbed in the game. “Better than she is. I’m worried for her.”

“Me, too. And I’m scared for you as well.” Watching the blue of Megan’s eyes shimmer, Delta felt that Connie’s life wasn’t the only one that would be changed after this.

“What for?”

“You have to promise me to be more careful.”

Delta cocked her head as if she didn’t understand.

“Oh, come on, Del. I’ve seen that look in your eyes before. You look at Connie, and you see her hurting—you see the changes in her character these two weeks, and there’s a fire burning inside you, Storm—a fire I’ve seen once before when someone else you loved had been wronged.”

“You know me well.”

“Yes, I do. And I know that sometimes that fire carries you beyond reason. That, my love, is what scares me most about your job; it’s not that I hate that you’re a cop. You’re a damned good cop. It’s just, when you get that look, the rules of life no longer apply to you. You’ll do whatever has to be done to right a wrong, regardless of the danger you may face. That’s what scares me most, Del. At times like those, you forget that I need you, too. You forget that I need you safe and home in one piece. That’s what I mean about putting our relationship on the back burner. I want us to come first enough that you won’t take so many risks.”

Delta could only stare at Megan. For the first time in her life, Delta actually got it. For the first time since she started dating, she understood just what it was that the women in her life wanted. They wanted to be first. But now that she understood, she wasn’t sure what to do with it.

“don’t say anything, Del. I told you, we’ll talk when this thing is over. But I just want you to think about it.”

“But you’re scared.”

“Yes I am. That fire is a part of who you are, my love. Sometimes, I think it’s what gets you up in the morning. It’s also one of the things I find so alluring about you. When you feel something, Del, you
really
feel it. Be honest with me, sweetheart. Tell me what you’re feeling now.”

“Scared, sad that—”

Megan shook her head. “No, honey, that’s not what I meant. I mean tell me about the fire. Tell me what’s burning inside your heart right this minute. Because I know it’s there. I can see it in your eyes as plainly as I can see your face. Tell, me, Storm Stevens, what fire burns inside you right now.”

Delta licked her lips and thought for a moment. She had never put to words what that edge felt like. While Megan saw it as fire, Delta felt it as sharpness, a gathering of strength and power for the upcoming battle. It was this fire, this edge that made her better than all the rest. There was an inner strength she felt whenever she was like this and it was better than any high she could ever imagine.

“I feel like I did in college when I was getting ready for a softball game. There’s this inner preparation that happens, like my soul is donning armor and gathering weapons.”

“What else? Name it for me, Delta. Help me understand where your passion comes from.”

Inhaling deeply and slowly, Delta attempted to do as Megan asked. “It’s a feeling that says I’ll do whatever it takes to win. I’ll put whatever I have to on the line to be successful.” As a catcher in college, Delta had taken on a lot of women at home plate. Half a dozen times, she’d been knocked unconscious because she was not afraid to take on anyone charging her.

“At any cost?”

Delta nodded. “Yes.”

Wrapping her arms around Delta, Megan held her and ran her hands through her hair. “That fire, that passion pushes you beyond yourself, beyond your safety, beyond our relationship. It is the mistress I envy when you get like this. It is the other woman who threatens to take you away from me.”

Delta hugged Megan as if letting go would mean forever. “I don’t know how else to be, Megan. All my life, I’ve lived by responding to that fire.”

Megan grinned sadly. “I know. And since we’ve been together, I’ve lived hoping it won’t take you away from me forever. I know that look, Delta, and I know you’re going after him to kill him.” Megan held up a hand to silence Delta before she could respond. “And I also know that you’ll stop at nothing until you see him dead. It’s the stopping at nothing part that frightens me most.”

“What would you have me do, Megan?”

“Do? Oh, Delta, don’t you see. It’s not that I want you to do anything. I want you
not
to do something that might endanger you. That’s all I’m asking for here, sweetheart, is that you’ll think twice before putting your life in jeopardy.”