Tracker (9 page)

SEVENTEEN

Jason

The ride back to the police station passed quickly, and I stayed in the car as Alice and Dan herded the children into the building. I felt numb from the events of the day, but I knew it wouldn’t last. Alice rejoined me several minutes later, and I pretended to be asleep to avoid any conversation. I still wasn’t sure how to handle telling the kids about Erin, but I knew it would have to be done.

“Jason, wake up,” Alice said softly as I felt the car stop and heard her shut it off and remove the key from the ignition. “We’re back.”

I moaned and stretched slightly, opening my eyes into small slits to avoid the piercing light of the bright sunshine. I stumbled out of the car and up the front sidewalk to the house, following Alice as she unlocked the door and held it open for me. The minute we entered the house, the kids were asking questions, and I held up my hand for silence. Paul looked me in the eye, and I think he knew right then because he sank into the sofa without another word.

The words came out the emotions still numbed. “Erin is gone,” I said flatly. “I’m sorry.” If I’d been more with it, I wouldn’t have chosen to say it so bluntly. But I was relieved to have it said. It was easier for me at this point to just blurt it out than to have figured out a more sensitive way to tell them. There really wouldn’t have been any better way. No matter what, their sister was gone. The delivery of that news didn’t really matter.

“Jason… are you sure?” Ginny asked, her voice quavering with emotion. She looked at me, wanting me to say no, that Erin would be coming in the door after me.

“I’m sorry. I saw her, sweetie. She’s gone,” Alice answered, sparing me the need to repeat myself. I cast a thankful glance at her, which she acknowledged with a slight nod.

“What about Sammy?” Paul asked the question I was dreading. He was trying to sound strong for the sake of the younger two, but his voice was shaking with barely hidden emotion. “Where is he?”

“We still don’t know,” Alice said gently, once again sparing me the need to speak. “We have officers trying to find out what happened at the house… well, we’ll have to tell you about that later. For now, Jason needs some sleep. He had to use his power today, and it knocked him out.”

Paul nodded; looking even more freaked out—if that was possible—by the revelation that I was not as able to protect them as normal. Jeff and Ginny kept their heads down, and I could see tears dropping onto their folded hands.

“I’ll find Sam. Just let me rest up a bit. He will come home,” I said, strongly hoping to build up some confidence, not only in the kids, but also in myself. I rested my one hand on Jeff and the other on Ginny. “I will find him,” I repeated, looking them each in the eye.

Paul seemed doubtful, his confidence in me wavering, but not gone. Alice had convinced him that I needed rest so he said, “Go get some sleep. Like Alice said, we’ll talk more when you’re well-rested.”

I agreed and went down to my basement room without another word. I was too tired to even consider keeping my senses open to danger, so I simply fell onto the mattress and curled up under the blankets. I was asleep in seconds.

Several hours later I woke and realized it was late evening. I felt stronger and refreshed, but the emotion of the day had caught up to me. Lying in the bed, I cried. Erin had been lost. She had been a wonderful person who had received a bad lot in life. Her parents had split up, leaving Erin with a mother who saw her as competition for her many boyfriends, leading to her getting kicked out of the house. She had ended up with me because I had seen her looking lost and frightened, and she hadn’t yet been tempted into drugs or theft.

It had been a couple years ago, during a case I was working on with Alice, that I had met her. Some gang members had attacked a deli owner, Lanie or Layla or something like that, for the fifty dollars in her till. She’d been a good person, sharing sandwiches with street kids in exchange for help cleaning around her property. I had gotten involved because Alice couldn’t get any of the street kids to talk. They were all too scared of the gang to come forward.

Erin had been one of the kids who had hung around the deli. She had come forward when I went to question them, telling me which gang was responsible for the brutal attack. With her help, I’d been able to track down the specific members who’d led the robbery. Once the case was done, I’d invited her to join me. She could spend her time on the streets with people who would care about and help her, or she could stay by herself if she wished. There would be no forcing her to do anything if she didn’t want to.

She had been grateful for the protection offered by staying in a group and had become an almost mother figure for the younger kids. Erin showed her gratitude to me every day by taking care of the other children I was protecting. She also kept in touch with the deli owner and occasionally brought sandwiches back for everyone.

I sobbed into my pillow as I remembered her singing to Ginny as she braided the younger girl’s hair, or reading stories to Sam before going to sleep. Even discussing punishments for wrongdoing with Paul and me when someone broke one of the few rules I had. She didn’t deserve the end she’d gotten, and it was up to me to catch and punish her killer. That thought helped me pull myself together, and I got up to go get myself cleaned up.

The bandage on my head was bloody, but when I removed it, there was no blood coming out of the wound anymore. I cleaned it gently with a cloth and warm water, scrubbing more viciously at the rest of my face, which was stained with dirt. I started the shower and remembered to be careful of the stitches as I washed my hair. The hot water felt wonderful, and I stood under the spray for several minutes, letting it relax the muscles in my back and neck.

After the shower I pulled on a clean pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt that Hannah had found for me. She or Alice must have made a trip out to a thrift store or something in order to have clean clothes available for the kids and me. When I went upstairs, I noticed several bags sitting in the living room and saw some clothing sticking out of them.

“Jason,” Hannah rushed up and hugged me. “I came home as soon as Alice called, but you were asleep. I’m so sorry.” Her voice was full of sympathy and sorrow. She had met Erin a few times and the two had gotten along well.

“Thank you,” I mumbled into her shoulder as I returned her embrace. We stood like that for a moment. “Where are Alice and the kids?” I asked, finally noticing that no one else had joined us.

“Alice is still at work. The kids are in their room. I think they’re sleeping. I made some supper for them earlier. They had the TV on for a little while, I think mostly for some background noise, and then they went to bed. It is nearly ten o’clock.”

I frowned and pulled back slightly from Hannah. “Alice is still at work? Has she called with any updates?”

Hannah shook her head. “All she said when she called was that she was going to be late and to let you sleep, she’d talk to you tomorrow after you were feeling better. I know your sleep schedule is off, so I figured we could watch a movie or something. I went out earlier this afternoon and got some clothes and activities for the kids. I had to guess at sizes, but I came close for them. You’ll have to try on the jeans and let me know if they’ll work.”

I hugged her again, thankful for the thoughtfulness. “You are one-of-a-kind, Hannah,” I said with a small smile.

She smiled back at me, and led me into the living room. “Oh,” she said suddenly. “You should probably eat something. Alice said something about you demolishing a house today? You must be famished,” she said it calmly enough, but I could tell that she was hiding some anger behind the peaceful façade.

My stomach chose that moment to agree with her, and I nodded. “That sounds good.” Anything to postpone whatever it was that she was angry about. She wouldn’t push me. Not after the horrible day I’d just had. But I suspected she wasn’t too thrilled that I had gone looking for trouble barely a day after I’d promised to avoid doing just that.

Hannah got up and went to the kitchen. I heard her open the fridge and put something into the microwave to heat. I got up and joined her, grabbing a cup from the cupboard and filling it with some water from the tap. She handed me a fork and a plateful of chicken and potatoes that she had obviously put together for me before I had gotten up.

“Thanks,” I said as I took it to the table. The food was delicious, and I had it gone in minutes.

I turned down seconds, and we returned to the living room to start a movie. Alice walked into the house about halfway through and I turned off the movie, leaving Hannah sleeping on the couch. She had fallen asleep almost right away.

“Did you find anything?” I asked eagerly.

She sighed. “He wants you in the open,” she said—which was nothing new. “No one saw a big guy dragging a small child out of the house, but no one was really looking until you finished it off. By then, all the men had already scattered. We did get some license plates off a traffic cam a couple blocks away, but so far none of them have led to anything. It takes some time to run all the plate numbers. How are you holding up?” she asked gently.

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “Right now, I need to focus on finding Sam. I can’t do that from here. I’ll stay another day, but then I’m going to leave. I’m going to hunt down Trevor Mason and make him regret hurting my family.”

EIGHTEEN

Alice

Jason wouldn’t discuss his decision beyond saying he was leaving the next day. He had no intention of backing down. I haven’t ever seen him so determined; even Hannah couldn’t talk him out of going. With him leaving, I had a bad feeling something awful was going to happen.

I hadn’t felt this much fear since my parents had gone to a bar and my mom had called saying that dad wouldn’t let her drive home. Dad didn’t make drinking a habit, but he thought he was sober enough to drive and was stubborn enough that mom couldn’t convince him otherwise. That drive had resulted in the tragic end that led up to me becoming Hannah’s guardian—I could only imagine what would happen if Jason’s hunt went wrong.

“Alice, you need to talk to him,” Hannah pleaded for about the fifth time since he’d told her about his plan. “He’s not up to this.” She was absolutely right, but Jason was an adult and I couldn’t force him to stay. Nor would I even try when Sam’s life was at stake.

My sister had tears in her eyes, and her voice shook slightly. I sighed, hating to disappoint her, but unable to stop him. “He won’t listen to me. Jason is absolutely determined to hunt down Mason and find Sam. I can’t really blame him, and to be honest, I’m surprised he’s waiting a day.” Hannah began to protest but I held up my hand. “Hannah, I’m sorry. Mason is a psycho, and the longer Sam is in his hands, the worse he’ll be. Jason is our best bet for tracking him down. You know that.”

She nodded hesitantly. “I know he’s good at it, but he has a major head injury that made him collapse after using his power. Do you really think that one day’s rest will allow him to fully recover? Please, Alice, don’t let him go.”

I saw Jason walk up behind Hannah. We were standing in the kitchen, and he came slowly through the door as he heard what Hannah was saying and said, “Hannah…”

She turned to him, looking suddenly angry. “You promised!” she exclaimed. “You promised you’d stay until you were healed. That you wouldn’t go looking for trouble! Then you go and destroy a house? You were looking for trouble, and you promised!”

She fell at him sobbing as he wrapped his arms around her in a hug. “You promised,” she said again, sounding like a little girl again as she fought to extract herself from his hug. When she succeeded she stood, wrapping her arms around herself as if she missed the feel of his arms around her.

“I’m sorry for that, Hannah,” he said gently, looking up at me for guidance. I shrugged, making it clear to him that he was on his own with this one. “Sam is in trouble. I need to get to him before anything can happen to him. For what it’s worth, I’m going to be in constant contact with your sister. I won’t take unnecessary risks.”

He met my eyes as he spoke, and I could see that he was lying and asking forgiveness. He
would
take risks if it meant saving Sam, and I knew it. The fact that I was letting him go anyway made me feel guilty. I am not normally a ‘the end justifies the means’ person, but Sam was just a kid, and Jason might have enough power to save him and bring Mason to justice. Was it horrible of me to think it was worth the risk?

I knew Hannah would never forgive me if something happened to Jason, because I would never forgive myself. Jason was still murmuring soothing words to Hannah when I saw Paul, Jeff, and Ginny enter the room. They seemed confident that Jason could save Sam, but maybe it was because they had no trust in the police.

Paul was still angry with me for putting them all in this position, but he wasn’t being as openly hostile since Jason was around. I had a feeling that he would be another who would blame me if anything happened to Jason.

“I made you something, Jason,” Ginny said, holding out a blue and green woven friendship bracelet.

“They’re Erin’s favorite colors,” she explained. “I made one for all of us.” She held up her wrist indicating the bracelet she also wore. “I have one for Sam, too, when you get him back.” She sounded confident, but looked at Jason with eyes full of worry.

“Thanks, Ginny,” he said solemnly as he accepted her gift. He tied the bracelet on and stared at it for a moment.

“It’s beautiful. Erin would have loved it,” he said with a sad smile. Hannah moved to my side, tears still flowing down her cheeks as Jason took Ginny into his arms for a comforting hug.

The girl clung to him. “Bring Sammy back, okay?” she said tearfully. Jeff and Paul each put a hand on Jason’s shoulder as he clung to the little girl, giving him support for whatever he had to do to bring their lost member home. It was a touching scene, and I felt tears sliding down my face as I realized how much these kids needed each other. Jason protected them like a father even though he was so young and probably hadn’t had a father who’d protected him. The horrors of life on the street hadn’t touched the younger kids quite as badly since they’d had Jason to look out for them.

Hannah looked at me, and seemed surprised to see me crying. “What?” I asked quietly. She had stopped crying, and was trying to pull herself together for the kids. They didn’t need to see the adults in their life crying and arguing.

“I haven’t seen you cry since mom and dad’s accident,” she whispered, not wanting to disturb the others. I waited for her to say more, but she simply wrapped her arm around my waist and leaned on me.

“We’ll be here when you get back, Jase,” Paul said strongly. “I’ll keep my eyes on these two. Nothing will happen while you’re gone.”

Jason nodded. “Thanks for that, Paul. Make sure if you see anything out of the ordinary that you call Alice for help. If it’s something more urgent, get the attention of the cops across the street.”

Paul looked rebellious for a moment, unwilling to trust the unknown cops. “Promise me,” Jason demanded as he noticed Paul’s hesitation.

Paul looked him in the eye and nodded. “I promise,” he said. Jason searched his eyes for a moment, then nodded once and looked away, apparently accepting the promise as genuine.

“Jason,” I broke in. “I’m going to have to go to the station this afternoon to get a phone for you to use. I’ll get you officially back onto the Mason case, so you will get paid for it.” Payment wouldn’t be what he was thinking about, but it was important that he get some income from all of this to take care of the kids. If I could do nothing else to help, I would do that.

To my surprise, Jason was shaking his head. “Mason has people who can access police files,” he said. “How else do you think he figured out I was working on his case? Don’t put me on paper or on the computer. Tell your boss, because I know you have to. I can still get paid, but try to make it a little more hushed that I’m working with you.”

Hannah seemed confused. “Surely Mason knows already that you’re working for the police. What harm would it do to have it official?”

“He would know Jason was back on the streets looking for him,” I answered, understanding Jason’s reasoning. “Only problem is that you are the only person who could have knocked down the house the way you did. Mason already knows you’re functioning, at least to some extent.”

Jason sent the kids back to the living room as we talked. They went without question, but Ginny hugged him again before leaving the room. “He also knows by now that I collapsed after using my ability. He might assume I’ll be off my feet for a while. I’d like to use that possibility to our advantage.”

I frowned, not liking Jason’s assumption. It seemed like a risk, but his whole plan was hazardous. "By now he most likely knows you’re here,” I said. Probably he’d have people watching our house already. Unfortunately, there was little I could do about that. “He’ll also likely figure out when you’re back on the street. How do you plan to get around that?”