Devil's Advocate (The X-Files: Origins #2)(76)

“What are you doing?” whispered Dana.

Melissa covered the mouthpiece. “Karen Allenby is Maisie’s cousin, remember? She’s the girl you met in school, the one you told me about. That’s Karen. That’s who lives in that house. I think those ghosts were trying to warn you that Karen is the next victim. Her mom just told me she was in the living room watching TV. Oh, wait.” She uncovered the mouthpiece. “Hey, Karen, it’s Melissa. Scully. Yes, from math class. Right. Look, this is going to sound pretty weird, but you know my sister, Dana, right? Uh-huh. The crazy one. Exactly. You know how she thought she saw Maisie in the locker room? Right, you talked to her about it. Well, Dana was walking home tonight and had kind of a weird vibe about you, and she thought she saw someone in your yard. Turned out to be nothing, but maybe you ought to, like, keep an eye out.”

There was a pause while she listened. Then she scowled. “Yes, I’m being serious. Dana gets vibes. What’s so weird about that? You seemed to believe her at school.… Hey, look, watch your mouth, okay? That’s my sister. Dana just wanted to help. You don’t want it, then that’s on you. Excuse the heck out of me for trying to keep you alive. Yeah, well, you too.”

Melissa slammed the phone down and said a few very ugly words with great emphasis. Then she shrugged and laughed.

“Some people get in their own way, you know?”

Dana said, “She didn’t believe you?”

“I don’t know. Karen’s a bit weird, too. I see her at Beyond Beyond sometimes. She takes yoga and some of Sunlight’s classes, and—hey—she even hangs around with Angelo sometimes.” She stared at the phone. “You think I should have told her about him? His tattoo and all?”

“I—”

Melissa picked up the phone and made another call. When Karen came back on the line, Melissa said, “Hey, listen, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out. But with everything going on and … Yeah, so we’re cool? Good. I wanted to bring up two more things. Don’t hang up until I tell you, okay? Yes? Good.” Melissa explained about Angelo being creepy and chasing Dana, and about the eclipse tattoo that Angelo had and how that tied into the jewelry or tattoo on each of the victims. Melissa suddenly winced and held the phone away from her ear.

“What happened?” asked Dana.

“She hung up on me. Very loudly. Probably broke the phone slamming it down like that.”

They went back into Dana’s room and sat on the floor with their backs against the bed. The chair was back in place against the door. Melissa shifted around and studied Dana’s face.

“What…?” asked Dana.

“Shame about Ethan,” said Melissa. “Never spotted him for being a sexist jerk.”

Dana felt her chest tighten. She was so mad at Ethan, but at the same time she wanted to talk to him. She didn’t want to talk to Melissa about it, though, so she changed the subject. “What if what I saw was a vision of what’s going to happen? Maybe not tonight, but sometime soon. If the angel is going after Karen next and she won’t listen, don’t I have a responsibility to do something more, no matter what happens to Ethan or me?”

They sat there, listening to the wind blow through the trees outside.

“Man, I don’t even know what to say about that,” said Melissa.

“We have to do something,” insisted Dana.

Downstairs they heard the front door slam the way it always did when Dad came home.

Melissa smiled. “I think we call in the big guns.”





CHAPTER 70

Scully Residence

8:22 P.M.

They sat at the kitchen table with both of their parents. Charlie was out in the yard chasing the sprites and fairies Gran had told him were hiding out there. The TV was on in the living room, but no one watching.

Mom made tea and laid out some cookies. No one touched anything except Dad, who slowly ate his way through a dozen fig bars while he listened. He did not interrupt once, which Dana took as a good sign.

Melissa said very little, except to agree with what Dana said.

As Dana laid it out, though, she downplayed the visions and emphasized all the hard evidence.

First she went through her dream of Maisie and the strange encounter in the locker room, and what appeared to be the wounds of Jesus. From there she went through the case files and detailed the wounds of the apostles and how they were cited on the autopsy reports, but how those injuries were hidden among the greater damage inflicted by car accidents. She produced the photocopies she’d made at the library and pointed out the matching wounds.

Then she showed them a sketch of the eclipse symbol that was noted in the autopsy reports and collected evidence logs.

Her parents sat as still and expressionless as the big stone heads on Easter Island. When Dana cut a look at Melissa, her sister gave her a weak but encouraging smile.

Dana plunged on and went over the toxicology reports next, and the fact that it disproved the thought that any of the victims were driving drunk but also showed something in their blood. A substance she hadn’t figured out yet.

No reaction from anyone at the table.

She told them about Sunlight, though she skirted around the astral projection part. She said that he was considering talking to the sheriff but hadn’t done it yet. Dana insisted that they couldn’t wait, that something had to be done now.