Fort Morgan (38 page)

“
For what?” Sissy
asked.

“
For saving me,” Ivan said
with a smile. “Without you, I would probably still be in the
gulag.”

Sandy caught Sissy beaming at Ivan.

“
Ivan, I need to use the
restroom,” Sandy said. “Would you mind staying here with Sissy
until I get back?”

“
Certainly,” Ivan
said.

Sandy leaned over to kiss Sissy’s cheek. She
nodded to Ivan and left the room. Smiling to herself, she looked at
her watch. She would give Sissy a little time alone with Ivan
before Sandy returned. She glanced at her watch and realized that
she would finally be able to talk to Aden. She went out on to a
patio and dialed.

“
You will never believe
what I have to tell you,” Sandy said.

Not blind or stupid

Tuesday mid-day — 12:17 p.m.

Denver, Colorado

“
Hello?” Valerie called
out.

She was standing at the entrance of the new
Marlowe School. The site managers and crew were currently attending
a company vote at the Lipson Construction headquarters. The state
had lifted the ban on Lipson Construction, and the employee-owners
were voting on whether they wanted to take state jobs again. This
was an historic moment for the company.

Valerie was supposed to be there for the
vote. She’d intended on being there. In fact, she’d arranged to be
in Denver specifically for this vote. She and Mike were driving
home from DIA when they passed the new school. Valerie had to stop
in to see it.

“
Hello?” Valerie called
again.

“
They must be
at
the vote,”
Mike said.

Mike picked up the
pacifier Jackie had
spit
onto
the ground.
Jackie was riding in a Baby Bjorn on Valerie’s front. Mike wiped
the pacifier on his pants and was about to put it back in Jackie’s
mouth when he caught Valerie’s face.

“
Uh. . .” Mike
said. He tucked the pacifier into his pockets. “Shouldn’t you be at
the meeting?”

“
I only own five percent,”
Valerie said.

“
That’s more than most
employees,” Mike said.

Valerie nodded and started down the
hallway.

“
Can you believe that Jake
fought that entity here?” Valerie said. She pointed to a mark on
the wall that paint and plaster were able to cover.

“
It was
something out of legend
,” Mike said. “That’s what Delphie called it.”

“
Mom helped, too,” Valerie
said. “That’s what Jake said.”

They continued down the hallway to the first
door. There was a plaque on the wall that said: “Administration.”
Valerie opened the door, and they stuck their heads inside. The
principal, Helen Siegle, had made sure the suite was perfectly
organized.

“
It’s really great,”
Valerie said.

“
Will you have an office
here?” Mike asked.

“
Oh, I doubt it,” Valerie
said. “Helen runs the show. I just find donors and take
responsibility for decisions. You know me and my schedule. When am
I going to be here?”

Valerie nodded, and they closed the door.
They went down the hall opening doors. The classrooms were bright
and open. The bathrooms were well lit. Everything was new.

“
Ooh, the kitchen,”
Valerie said at the door. “This is where. . .”

“
Jake almost succumbed to
the entity,” Mike said.

Valerie wiggled her eyebrows and pushed the
door open. The entire kitchen had been updated.

“
Wow,” Mike
said.

“
Want to go up?” Valerie
said. “Or down? Up is more classrooms.
Down
is the new
basement.”

“
No crypt,” Mike
said.

“
No,” Valerie said. “The
basement is all new. Delphie and Jake destroyed the one in
Brighton, after they cleared out the yucky stuff, of
course.”

“
I
think. . .”

The door to the kitchen
moved, and Valerie made a surprised squeak. Jackie laughed at her
mother’s sound. Jacob’s face peeked around the
door
.

“
What are you doing?”
Jacob asked.

“
Um,” Valerie
said.

“
Hey, Mike,” Jacob nodded
to Mike, and then gave Valerie an intense look.

“
We’re fans of that Jacob
Marlowe,” Mike said in a high-pitched voice. “We’re tracking
his
amazing
adventures. . .”

Mike squealed, and Jacob laughed.

“
We need to go,” Jacob
said.

He grabbed Valerie’s arm and moved her out
of the hallway. Mike followed behind. Jacob put Valerie in the
passenger seat of Jill’s SUV and went around to the driver’s seat.
He passed Mike on the way. Mike slipped him a five-dollar bill.

“
Impressive,” Mike said
with a nod.

The men got in the car at
the same time. Mike leaned forward from the back seat to
get
Jackie. He
put her into her car seat.

“
I’m not blind,” Valerie
said. “Or stupid.”

“
Blind?” Jacob asked in
his best innocent voice.

“
What did you bet on?”
Valerie asked.

“
He said he could get you
to the meeting by catching you at the school,” Mike said. “I said
we weren’t going to stop at the house.”

Valerie turned to look at Jacob. He grinned
and started the car. They drove for a few minutes in silence.

“
Stop the car,” Valerie
said.

“
What?” Jacob
asked.

“
Stop the car right now!”
Valerie said.

Jacob pulled the car to a stop at a
stoplight.

“
What didn’t you want me
to see?” Valerie asked.

“
What do you mean?” Jacob
asked.

“
The only reason you would
hustle me out of there is if you didn’t want me to see something,”
Valerie said.

“
Me?” Jacob pointed to
himself. “Why would I do that?”

“
I don’t know,” Valerie
said. “What’s not done?”

“
A couple of things,”
Jacob said. “Nothing
big
or
important
. We’re on track for the kids
to come.”

“
Noelle’s going to go
there,” Mike said.

“
Noelle and Nash are the
reason there is a Marlowe school,” Jacob said. “Or one of the
reasons. Of course, Noelle’s going to go to school there. Nash,
too, I think.”

“
You think she’s okay?”
Mike asked. “I’ve been worried about her.”

“
She’s okay,” Jacob said.
“Not great, but
okay
. She’ll be better once Sissy is
home. She’s sad that Sissy is still so sick.”

Mike nodded. Jacob continued driving down
Colorado Boulevard. He turned on Alameda to make his way to Lipson
Construction. They were just pulling into the parking lot when
Valerie cleared her throat.

“
You can’t keep me out of
there forever,” Valerie said.

She punched Jacob in the shoulder and
stalked into the Lipson Construction offices. Jacob waited for Mike
to get Jackie out of the car seat.

“
You almost finished?”
Jacob asked.

Mike nodded.

“
Did you pick it up from
the post office?” Mike asked.

“
It’s sitting in your
studio,” Jacob said.

Jacob helped Mike put Jackie into the baby
carrier.

“
Then it’s just touch-ups
and varnish,” Mike said. “Noelle’s
really good
at that kind of stuff. You
think she can help?”

“
She’s already taken a
look at it,” Jacob nodded. “She said that it was her job as your
mentee to keep the masterpieces on track.”

Mike grinned at Noelle’s words.

“
Saturday?” Jacob
asked.

Mike nodded.

“
We just have to keep her
out of there until then,” Jacob asked.

The men turned to look where Valerie had
gone. Mike raised his eyebrows.

“
Yeah, I doubt it, too,”
Jacob said.

“
We’ll just have to finish
sooner,” Mike said.

They walked into the offices together.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday afternoon — 2:37 p.m.

Denver, Colorado

Her classmates were
grabbing their things and running out the door. But Katy lagged
behind. Her mommy had been so busy with school and work and the
twins and what her
mommy
called the-fairy-stupid-stuff, that Katy had
barely seen her. Katy’s days were filled with boring old school and
boring old Castle and boring old twins and boring old
Edie.

Katy missed her mommy.
Plus, Paddie had to go with his
mommy
to the doctor for his brother’s
checkup.

She sighed and shuffled to her cubby. She
carefully unfolded her jacket and slowly put it on. She grabbed her
a-little-too-girly lunch box.

“
Time to go, Katy!” her
teacher called.

“
Okay,” Katy said and
slouched to the door.

She shuffled her feet to the front of the
school. Standing on the top step, she scanned the courtyard where
kids and parents mixed. Her daddy wasn’t there to meet her. The
fairy-nanny wasn’t there, either. Katy nodded to herself. She’d
probably just have to walk home.

She shuffled into the fray. She’d gotten
only a few feet when she was swooped off her feet. Despite her bad
mood, Katy giggled. She looked up to see her mommy.

“
Wha. . .wha. . .” Katy was so surprised
she didn’t know what to say. A usually happy child, this bad mood
somehow didn’t evaporate. Katy looked away. “What are you doing
here?”

“
I came to get you,” Jill
said. “I thought we could spend the afternoon together.”

“
Isn’t there something
more
important
you have to do?” Katy asked a question she’d
heard
one of the
other kids say to their parents.

“
Pretty sassy,” Jill
laughed.

“
It is?” Katy looked
surprised.

Jill laughed.

“
There’s never anything
more important to me than you,” Jill said. “You know
that.”

“
But. . .” Katy
said. “What about the twins? And the fairies?
And. . .”

“
Katy?” Jill
asked.

“
I know,” Katy said. She
sniffed. “I just. . .”

“
I miss you, too!” Jill
said. “Let’s try to be more. . .”

“
. . .honest
with how we feel,” Katy said with her mom. Katy frowned, “I don’t
want to. I want to be mean and hurt.
Because. . .”

Katy touched her heart. Jill’s eyebrows
shifted with concern. She moved out of the press of school pickup
and found a cement bench near the edge of the courtyard.

“
What are you doing?” Katy
asked.

Jill sat down with Katy on her lap. She put
her hands on either side of Katy’s head.

“
That doesn’t feel good,”
Katy said. She pushed at her mother. “Don’t.”

Jill scowled and held on.

“
What is this?” Jill
whispered. She shook her head. She saw the open sea. She saw
snowcapped mountains that weren’t in Colorado. Something had
latched onto her baby-girl’s mind. She saw something dark and
foreign to her daughter.

“
Mommy,” Katy said in a
low tone. “You have to help me.”

“
I am, Katy-baby,” Jill
said.

“
Mommy?” Katy
asked.

“
Shh, I’m almost there,”
Jill said.

Katy’s body began to shake with seizure. It
wasn’t like the seizures she had when she had visions. This was
something more malevolent. Something was fighting to hang onto
Katy.

Jill scooped up her daughter and ran to her
SUV. She was only a few blocks from the new Rocky Mountain
Children’s Hospital. She threw Katy’s limp body into her booster
seat and jumped into the driver’s seat. Pulling into the parking
lot, she saw her father standing by the entrance to Emergency. Jill
pulled up.

“
Don’t ask,” Perses said.
“Give me the child, and I’ll take her inside.”

Jill’s mind screamed with warning. Before
she could think it through, she drove away from her father and the
Emergency room. She drove as fast as she knew how to the Castle.
Able to move via magic, her father was standing in the Castle
driveway. She drove around him to the back and climbed into the
back seat of the SUV.

Jill wrapped herself around Katy’s now limp
body.

“
Katy-baby, come back to
me,” Jill whispered. “Katy-baby. Katy-baby.”

“
Jillian!” Her father
commanded. “Open this door right now.”

“
Mommy,” Katy
whispered.

“
Katy-baby,” Jill kept up
her chant. She kept her focus on the part of Katy that was hooked
into whatever this thing was. “Come back to me.
Katy-baby.”

“
Jillian!” her father
yelled.