Chapter X
Con un cavallo
Vanno avanti
In questa grande
Oscurita
With a horse
They progress
Through this immense
Darkness
Bison River First Nation, Northwest Territories, Canada
"Help me please."
The cry echoed through the moonlit forest like that of a wounded animal.
"Please. Please hurry."
She ran through the forest, tripping over the tree roots in the darkness.
"Max, where are you? I can't find you. Tell me where you are."
She kept running, breathlessly, in the darkness, following the sound of the cries.
"Please Mum, hurry. They're hurting me. Please Mum, I'm so scared!"
"Where are you? Max, baby, give me some sort of clue. Please…help me find you."
"Mum, why aren't you coming?"
The darkness engulfed her, thick, heavy and suffocating. "I can barely hear you anymore. Oh god…you have to help me find you."
The voice faded and turned into a desperate wailing cry.
"No, not anymore. You're too late, Mum. It's too late now."
"Max!" Alex woke up screaming, covered in perspiration, her heart pounding.
It was that scream that had brought David Hayward here and he now sat down, on the bed, next to her. "It's okay, Alex. You were dreaming. It's not real."
She covered her face with her hands and started to cry. "It seemed so real."
David held her. "It's not. Just a dream. Nothing more." Still, he let her cry, hoping maybe it would bring her some comfort.
"What time is it, David?" she finally managed, ''Did I wake you?''
"It's evening, around. Nine o' clock. You fell asleep after we came back from outside…"
"You drugged the tea, didn't you?" It was a rhetorical question. "I wouldn't have fallen asleep otherwise."
David blushed. "You needed the rest."
"Don't ever do that again."
Her irritation made him defensive, "Look, you freaked me out when you fell down in the snow and didn't get back up!"
"I what?"
"You don't even remember, do you? You blacked out and you don't remember." He rolled his eyes. "Jesus, Alex…you realize if anything were to happen to you now, Dimitri would…"
"Stop it. I'm fine," she cut him off. "Maybe I don't remember that because the only thing I can remember is that damn phone call from Erica."
He saw that she was on the verge of tears again, but instead of crying she threw off her blanket, about to get up.
"What are you doing?"
"I can't stay in bed."
"You should!"
"Stop patronizing me, Hayward," she told him softly. "I can't just stay in bed here while my son has been kidnapped."
"There's absolutely nothing you can do until this storm passes."
"I can see the Chief, and I want to call my husband."
The thought of her heading back outside in the snow made him cringe. "How about I go see the Chief while you call Dimitri?"
She eyed him, as if contemplating the offer. "I suppose…"
He smirked, "Just say it. It's the best idea you've heard all day."
He saw that she really didn't have the energy to fight him, and for that he was grateful.
"Fine," she conceded.
"I want to help you," he added. "But you've got stop fighting me."
She nodded, her eyes welling up with tears again. "I know. I'm sorry."
"And stop apologizing."
David left her in the patient room and went back outside to see Josie sitting at the table by the stove. Seeing her made him think of something.
"Josie…you told me that you've got a cousin. You know, the one who does stupid things, like sniff gas and stuff. Do you know where he hangs out with his friends?"
Josie looked at him with serious eyes, as if wondering why he wanted to know. "Yeah, I know."
"Tell me."
"There's an open area in the woods, behind the airfield. A lot of teens go there at night. They make a fire and drink beer and stuff."
"Thanks Josie. Will you do me another favour?"
She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, "Sure."
"I want you to go stay with Alex for a bit, make sure she stays put. If she doesn't, you call me on my cell phone at this number," he took out a piece of paper and wrote it down for her.
"Thanks, kid." He gave her a kiss on the cheek and went to get his winter coat.
Long after he left, Josie's hand still rested on the spot where his lips had met her face.
She smiled a delicious, permanent smile.
It was the first time anyone had kissed her.
Wildwind Estate, Pine Valley, PA
"The police are here, Dimitri," Erica informed him as she entered the study where he was still seated.
"You called them, you talk to them," he shot back tersely, without looking at her. He stood up and saw O'Malley greet three officers at his doorway. One of them was Lieutenant Derek Frye, and another wore a drab, blue suit and tie. 'Probably FBI,' Dimitri thought.
"How can I talk to them, when I wasn't there when it happened?" Erica told him, her earlier guilt turning back to anger. "Don't you use your anger for me as an excuse to not do everything in your power to save our children!"
"I told you the police is going to be useless in helping us with this. You didn't listen to me. Well, now you can go find out for…" He didn't have a chance to finish his sentence when Derek entered the room.
'Not him again,' Dimitri thought. 'If I have to deal with him now, he'll regret it.'
"Mr.Marick, I'm so sorry about what happened," Frye began.
He had heard those words from him before. Dimitri nodded, "Thank you, Lieutenant, but I don't need your sympathy. I need you to use your resources wisely to help find my son."
"There are a lot of questions I have for you, Mr.Marick…"
Stella came into the room, interrupting the lieutenant. "Sir, I have a woman on the line for you. She says her name is Heidi and that it's very important that she speak with you."
"Lieutenant, your questions are going to have to wait," Dimitri told him as he followed Stella out of the room with a sense of relief. Heidi had been Alex's only friend for years. Even if she lived an ocean away in Wales, she might be more help to him in finding Charlotte than Frye and his entourage were.
"Dimitri!" Erica called after him, "I can't believe you! What could be more important than this?"
"Dimitri! Come back!" Her efforts were futile, as he kept walking down the corridor, ignoring her.
Lieutenant Frye took out his note pad, "Ms.Kane, can you help me with a recent picture of your daughter, and also by describing what Bianca wore when the kidnapping took place…"
"How should I know? I told you, I wasn't there when it happened… Go after Dimitri. Tell him that damn phone call can wait!"
Derek Frye looked at her incredulously, wondering if she seriously thought he was going to run after her ex-husband. Apparently, she did.
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
"Ms. Kane, that's not my job."
"Well then make it your job!"
Frye rolled his eyes as he sat down on the green sofa. 'This is going to be a long evening,' he mumbled.
Bison River First Nation, Northwest Territories, Canada
David struggled to make his way through snow that was now knee high, as several snowmobiles whizzed past him. 'I could use one of those…' he thought to himself, annoyed that no one was offering him a ride. He turned on his flashlight as he left the lit area of the silent airfield and made his way into a patch of forest behind it. He heard laughter in the distance and as he glanced to his left, he could make out the flames of a campfire.
He walked towards both the sound and the light and soon found himself amidst a group of twelve or so teenagers huddled together, around the fire. Some of them held plastic bags up to their mouths and inhaled, oblivious to the world around them. Others held beer bottles, while they puffed on cigarettes.
'Teenagers,' Hayward thought, 'Always looking for something that's better than the world around them. In Pine Valley, it comes in the form of little coloured pills called ecstasy, in smoky, neon lit nightclubs, and here it's beer, gasoline, and cigarettes around an open fire in the freezing cold. It's all the same.'
"Hey Yankee Doctor, you came looking for a good time?" one of the teenage girls asked him, her smile flirtatious and inviting.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I came looking for something else."
"Oh yeah, like what?" another girl held up a small bottle of pills, "This?"
"Well, yes. Not those ones, but something like that." He saw several empty medicine containers lying in the snow, and he recognized them as ones that were missing from the break-in at the clinic. "Do you even have any idea what you're putting into your system?" he asked the girl, shaking his head sadly as he picked up various bottles from the snow, to see what they contained.
"Hey," a tall, brown haired boy pushed him away from the medication, "This is ours now, get your hands off it!"
The last thing he wanted was another brawl. "I don't care about those, half of this stuff is useless to me now anyway, after lying here open, in the freezing cold. I only need one container, one that has my colleague's name on it." He kept rummaging through the snow and twigs on the ground.
Another teen, with long dark hair and a blank stare stepped in front of Hayward, making a half hearted attempt to look threatening. "Didn't you hear him? He said get your hands off our stuff!"
Hayward grabbed his collar and nearly lifted him off the ground. "Listen, you punk, I said my colleague needs this medication and if I don't find it here you're going to be sorry."
Two other boys got up, ready to help their friend and attack Hayward.
'Not again,' David thought, groaning. Stoned as they were, twelve against one wasn't great odds for him. "Let me ask you something, kid. Who does your family work for, and where are you going to work one day, if some sap actually decides to give you a job? The Marick Mine maybe?"
"Yeah, so, what business is that of yours?" he shot back.
"I'll tell you what. Do you think you'd get hired there, if the owner of the mine thought you were jeopardizing his wife's health?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"My colleague. I'm sure a lot of you have seen her around," he pointed towards the girl that had flirted with him when he arrived, "In fact you, I could sworn I've seen her examine you yesterday. My colleague happens to be the wife of the guy that owns Marick Mine."
"You're lying. She's some government doctor, like you," the girl taunted him.
David was getting cold again and he didn't want to waste his time arguing with these teens, "There should be one container with two labels on it, one that has her name on it. That's all I want, I don't care about the rest, even if it means I have to watch you puke your guts out at the clinic tomorrow."
One of the teens held up a container with two labels, "You want this one?" he asked him. He was so high; David was surprised he was still able to from sentences. "Show me!" he demanded.
The boy held it up, "Come and get it!"
David walked around the fire to where the boy was sitting and by the time he was about to snap the container out of his hands, he threw it to one of his friends.
"Damn you, you're going to be sorry! You little piece of…"
"Oh yeah?"
David saw a flicker of fear on one of the girls faces. "Read the label," David told her, "Tell me what it says…"
The girl snatched the container from her boyfriend's hand. "Dr. Alexandra Marick," she read aloud. She gave her boyfriend an uneasy glance, "What if he's telling the truth? What if this really belongs to the wife of the mine owner, we could be in serious trouble, man."
David appealed to her, "Just give to me, please. It's iron, for god's sake, like a vitamin pill; you can't even get a tiny buzz from it. It's useless to you." Before she had a chance to react, he reached over and grabbed the container from her.
David smiled with satisfaction. "That's what happens when you're stoned, slow reflexes." He turned around and as he did, he tripped on a piece of wood and promptly landed on the ground.
He sighed in frustration as he got back up, amidst the malicious laughter of the teens. He felt the light trickle of blood falling down his face, as his stitches ruptured from the fall.
'This is a obviously a sign,' he thought as he made his way along the forest and back towards the airfield, 'That nice guys really do finish last.'
Medical Clinic
When he returned to the clinic he saw Josie sitting in the bedroom, next to Alex, who had fallen asleep again.
"Well, how's our patient doing?" he asked Josie.
"Your face is bleeding," the girl told him, wide-eyed, "And your coat is covered in snow."
"Thanks, kid, I wouldn't have noticed. Do me a favour and wake her for me, okay?"
David winced as Josie gave Alex a hard nudge that made her jerk her eyes open, "I guess, I should've added 'gently'."
He sat down next to her with a glass of water and made her swallow two iron pills. "Where did you get these?" she asked him, still half asleep.
"It doesn't matter where I got them. I figured now was not a good time for you to have to go without them, besides, I don't want to face Dimitri's wrath if you do die on me."
She managed a vaguely amused smile, "Ulterior motive, of course." She saw the blood running down his cheeks, "Your stitches are coming apart, let me fix it for you."
He shook his head, "You've got to be kidding. I'll call Tina, I've got a feeling her hands are a little steadier than yours right now."
Her gaze was clear when she looked at him, and she held up both hands to prove him wrong, "I think I'll manage, and besides it's the least I can do for you."
Josie watched as Alex got up in order to redo the stitches on his face, "Told you she doesn't hate you," she whispered to David, giving him another victory smile.
"We're a thousand miles from Pine Valley, and here, in the middle of the Canadian wilderness we find a little, female version of you…" Alex pointed out, as she gently took out the old stitches and put in new ones, with a surprisingly steady hand.
Near Cardiff, Wales
Charlotte Devane sat in her mahogany paneled office and began to dial his number. He was not an easy man to reach but, as she did herself, he made it a point to answer calls on his direct line.
Charlotte smiled into the receiver when she heard his raspy, thickly accented voice, "Good afternoon, Cesar."
"Charlotte Devane."
She was pleased that he recognized her voice. She decided to ignore her usual pleasantries and cut right to the chase, "Tell, me something, Cesar, have you never found it odd that I share a name with the former object of your obsession, Anna Devane?"
He waited a moment before replying, "Why would I find it odd? It's not a particularly unusual name. Why are you telling me this, Charlotte?"
Charlotte laughed, "I knew I could count on you to appreciate my directness. The name, Cesar, is no coincidence. My husband's brother was a Devane, naturally, and his wife gave birth to two girls, identical twins, Anna and Alexandra."
"What are you getting at?" he demanded, his voice even deeper when angered. Most people would think twice before angering Cesar Faison, but Charlotte had no such qualms.
"I couldn't have children myself. So, to make a long a story short, I took one of the girls and raised her as my own, trying in vain to make her a worthy inheritor of my organization."
"Anna had a twin sister?"
Charlotte was thoroughly enjoying the shock in his voice, "Oh don't blame yourself for not knowing, Anna herself had no idea. How could you have known?"
"But what does that matter now? Anna is dead."
"Because I need to ask you a favour concerning Alexandra's son. Anna's nephew."
Charlotte could sense his curiosity, even over the phone, "It's more of a gift than a favour, really. In short, I want to, give you the nephew of the woman you loved, in exchange for keeping him away from the daughter I despise."