The Rising(29)
“Don’t answer it,” Sam warned, recalling An Chin’s warning.
“They’re cops,” Alex told her, as he moved for the door. “I don’t think we’ve got a choice and maybe…”
“Maybe what?”
“You’re not crazy, Sam,” he said, his voice cracking with what might’ve been fear. “I’m not crazy, either. Something happened at the hospital and something happened here too.”
“You believe me?”
“I don’t really want to, I’m trying not to…”
He yanked open the door to reveal the four cops crowded onto the porch. “Millbrae police, son,” the one closest to the door with his notebook out said. “We got a report of a break-in. Is this your residence?”
“It is.”
“Are your parents home?”
Alex felt something tighten in his stomach. “I’m not sure, I don’t think so, anyway. No, they’re not.”
The lead cop exchanged a glance with the one on his right. “You mind if we come in, have a look?”
“Not at all,” Alex said, stepping aside so they could enter.
“Alex,” Sam protested quietly, as the cops slid through the door, one after another.
“It’s okay, Sam.”
The lead cop’s eyes fell upon her. “And who are you, young lady?”
“Samantha Dixon. I go to school with Alex.”
“That would be Alex Chin,” the cop said, referring to his notebook. Then, to Alex, “Is this your girlfriend?”
“I’m his tutor,” she chimed in, before Alex had a chance to answer.
“Tutor,” the cop repeated oddly, making a fresh note on his pad. “And that’s Dixon with an X?”
“Is there another way to spell it?”
The lead cop ignored her and looked back toward Alex. “You mind if we have a look around?”
“You asked me that already. The answer’s still yes, feel free.”
The other three cops scattered about the house, leaving the lead one with the living room.
“Do you have transportation home?” he asked Sam suddenly.
“I have my car, but I’m not leaving,” she told him, feeling her spine straighten.
“It might be best while we sort this out with the family, miss.”
“I don’t know where my parents are, Officer,” Alex said.
“Are those their cars in the driveway?”
“Yes.”
“Might they be at a neighbor’s house, maybe were picked up by someone?”
“Maybe.” Alex shrugged.
The cop eased past Sam, nearly brushing against her, and that’s when she smelled it: a faint, corrosive scent she barely recorded. Less like copper than she’d remembered and more like the wisps of the odor rising from a car engine as it cools down. And something else.
Oh, my God …
It was motor oil, the same scent she’d caught a whiff of when the man had taken the seat behind her in the bleachers last night, the man who’d stolen the iPad from her backpack. Come to think of it, he looked a lot like this cop.
Could it be, was it even possible that …
Her thought trailed off, Alex the only thing on her mind right now. She had to warn him.
“Alex,” she managed, fighting back against the grip of panic.
“Have you tried calling their cell phones?” the cop asked him, practically rolling over her words.
“No answer,” he reported.
“Alex,” Sam repeated, trying very hard not to gaze toward the cop who looked so much like the guy who’d snatched her iPad, which contained all the evidence of her findings she’d intended to share with Dr. Donati. Then those findings had vanished from the Cloud too. “Alex,” she said, just a bit louder.
He glanced her way and seemed to catch the fear and apprehension in her eyes. Then she touched her nose. Alex waited for the cop to draw closer to him, and his expression told her he’d caught the same scent in the air she had.
Sam looked back toward where she’d found the bodies of An and Li Chin, goose bumps prickling her flesh and a chill riding up her spine. When she turned around again, the other cops had all returned, seemingly at once, and were lined up in a kind of semicircle behind the lead one. He touched his nose, just as Sam had to signal Alex.
“I see you remember me,” he said to Sam. “That’s too bad.”
30
REAPPEARANCES
“THIS DOESN’T HAVE TO be difficult,” the lead cop continued, turning toward Alex, who, like Sam, was frozen in shock. “Cooperate with us and we’ll let the girl live.”
“Who the hell are you?” Alex managed, hands tightening into fists by his sides.
“Your family, so to speak. Your real family.”
“Where are my parents? What’d you do to them?”
“We hoped this wouldn’t be necessary.…”
Alex started forward but stopped quickly, thinking better of it. “I want to know where my mother and father are.”
The man blinked robotically. “Right over there,” he said, gesturing with his eyes.
Sam turned with Alex, both of them laying eyes on the Chins lying just where she’d seen them before, as if they’d reappeared out of nowhere. The blood was back too, though no message remained written in it that she could discern.