Devil's Advocate (The X-Files: Origins #2)(81)

“But, Dad, I never took anything.”

“Don’t lie to me,” he said, and she could hear in his voice how heartbroken he was. “You have to tell the truth.”

“I don’t do drugs,” insisted Dana. “You know that. I would never do anything like that.”

“Who gave you the Eclipse?” asked Simpson.

“No, you don’t understand, the whole eclipse thing is part of my—my dreams. The pendant Maisie had, the tattoo…” She blurted it all out, everything she knew about the sign of the eclipse. “It’s his symbol. The angel’s. If the other victims had it in their blood work, then he gave it to them.”

Principal Sternholtz said, “This is what I was telling you about, Detectives. She thinks she’s having ‘visions.’ It’s the talk of the school.”

Uncle Frank nodded but did not pursue that. Instead he latched onto something Dana had said. “What makes you think that the victims had Eclipse in their blood?”

“I…,” she began, and realized that she was dangerously close to outing Ethan. Even though she was mad at him, she knew this would destroy him. She took a breath and said, “Everyone’s saying that they had taken drugs. I just assumed it was the same thing.”

“Stop it,” pleaded her father. “Stop lying and tell them the truth.”

“We’ll help you if you agree to help us,” said Frank Hale. “We can take an anonymous statement. You’re a minor and if you have information that can help us, then you need to tell us. Even though you don’t have enough of the drug in your system to justify arrest, if you know the parties responsible for providing Eclipse to students here at FSK, then you need to speak up. If you’re involved but decide to help us, the district attorney can make a deal. Immunity from prosecution. We have a lot of latitude at this point, Dana, but only if you help us.”

Dana pounded her fists on the tops of her thighs. It hurt, but it also fueled her rising anger. “Look, are you all deaf? How many ways can I say this? I. Don’t. Do. Drugs. Ever. If there’s something in my blood, then I don’t know how it got there. Check the school cafeteria. Check the water in the town reservoir. Check our coffeepot at home. How would I know where it came from? All I know is that I have never gotten high and I never will and this is all bull—”

“Enough!” roared her father. He stood up. “Dana, this nonsense has gone on long enough. I expected better of you.” There was such a weight of disappointment and anger in his voice that it pummeled Dana until she slumped and turned her head away.

“Dad, I’m sorry, but I really need you to believe me.”

“Believe you? Dana, you’ve done nothing but lie to me. To everyone.”

“Captain Scully,” said Sternholtz crisply, “as much as it pains me to do it, I see no other option but to suspend Dana pending a full review of this matter.”

It was very clear that he was not pained at all. He was the only person here who seemed to be enjoying himself.

After everything else that had happened in the last few minutes, being suspended should have been minor. And yet it smashed into her.

“No…,” she began, but didn’t know what else to say or how to react.

“Dana,” said her dad, “you are going to go home and go to your room and stay there. Be thankful there wasn’t enough of that stuff in your system for these detectives to arrest you. I’d take you myself, but I had to leave an important meeting to come here for this. I have to go back to the base. Go home. Give me your word you’ll at least do that.”

“Dad…”

“Please, Starbuck,” he said, and his deep voice broke. “Please.”

Dana reached for her father’s hand, but her father stepped back. Stepped away from her. Stood out of reach. Stood ten thousand miles away in that cramped office.

“Go home,” he said.

She was a crushed thing, a stepped-on bug. She was nothing.

The principal sat primly behind his desk, fingers laced, a smile almost showing itself on his mouth. The detectives wore their cop faces, which showed nothing. The nurse dabbed at tears in her own eyes.

Dana’s face burned hot as the sun, but the room was cold. So this was how it would be. She walked from the room and took care to slam the door behind her on the way out as hard as she could.





CHAPTER 74

Craiger, Maryland

8:10 A.M.

Dana got halfway home before her anger faded and a great sadness replaced it. The birds in the trees fell silent and shadows covered the sun as if it, too, were ashamed to look at her. As if it, too, had abandoned her.

She stopped at a corner and stood for a few moments, trying to make sense of things, trying to pinpoint the exact moment when everything had fallen apart.

Had it really started when they moved here to Craiger?

All her logical analysis crashed together in her thoughts. The case files, her mental catalog, what she knew and what she’d experienced. Corinda and Angelo.

She did not want to go home. That was going to be too much like showing up for prison on the first day of a life sentence. Dad hated her now— she was sure of that. Melissa was in trouble, too.

On the other hand, running away was not really an option. It sometimes felt like a plan, but there was no way to make it work. She didn’t have money. She was a minor. She was a girl. She had no place to run to. There was no one who would risk taking her in. And Dad would find her. The cops would find her.