Twice Dead - Catherine Coulter [108]
Agent Cobb knew it wasn’t working, but he kept swinging the watch as he said calmly, in an easy, deep voice, “You were sound asleep, right, Becca, the night he took you?”
“Yes, I was,” she said, her voice slow, mimicking his. “I remember knowing that I wasn’t dreaming, a very good thing. Then I felt this prick in my arm and I jerked awake. It was him.”
“But you couldn’t make out his features? Could you make out anything? Surmise anything from the way he was standing, the way he held his arms? His body?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry.”
“You’re not going under, Becca.” Scratch sighed. He lowered the beautiful gold watch, slipped it back into his vest pocket. “I don’t know why it’s not working. Usually someone very intelligent, very creative, like you are, goes under right away. But you didn’t.”
She knew why. She couldn’t tell him, couldn’t tell anyone.
He said in that same easy voice, hitting it right on target, “Something’s holding you back. Perhaps you know what it is?” When she didn’t say anything, he looked over at Thomas Matlock. “No go. For whatever reason.”
Tellie Hawley nodded. “Okay, then, we ask questions and you answer as best you can.”
She nodded and talked. And there wasn’t anything at all new or earth-shattering. Except—
“Adam, did anyone find anything in the hem of my nightgown?”
He shook his head.
“Then he must have found it,” she said. “He let me go to the bathroom. I knew I had to do something. I managed to unscrew one of those enamel bolts that hold the toilet to the floor. I pulled open the hem in my nightgown and worked it in. He must have found it.”
“Yes,” said Hawley, “he found it. He left the toilet bolt in the room, on Agent Marlane’s bed. The techs found it and I read it on the collected evidence sheet—‘one toilet bolt’—and I forgot about it in all the chaos. Actually when the techs found it, they thought some nurse’s aide had dropped it and they were laughing about it. Well, it wasn’t any joke. That proves conclusively it was the same guy.” He shook his head. “A toilet bolt, a stupid toilet bolt.”
“He was taunting us,” Thomas said. He got to his feet and began pacing the long living room. “I wish to God I knew where he was. I’d put an end to it. Face him, the two of us.”
Becca said, her voice overloud, too sharp, “No.” And everyone stared at her. “I will not let you face him alone, Father. No way.”
They took a break in the kitchen, drinking coffee. Then Thomas took them to his office to see some of his high-tech goodies. When they went back to the living room, Agent Cobb said to Becca, “May we try one more time to put you under?”
She agreed. What else could she do?
This time, though, Agent Cobb handed her a small white pill. “It’s a Valium, to help relax you, to keep you from focusing on something else that might be holding you back. Nothing more than that. You game?”
She took the Valium.
And ten minutes later, when Agent Cobb said, “Are you completely relaxed now, Becca?” she answered in an easy, light voice, “Yes, I am.”
“You’re aware of everything going on here?”
“Yes, Adam is over there staring at me as if he’d like to wrap me into a very small package and hide me inside his coat pocket.”
“What is your father doing?”
“It’s still hard for me to think of him as my father. He was dead for so very long, you know.”
“Yes, I know. But he’s here now, with you.”
“Yes. He’s sitting there wondering if he should let you continue with this. He’s afraid for me. I don’t know why. This can’t hurt me.”
“No, it can’t.”
“She’s right,” Thomas said. “But I’ll deal with it. Continue, Agent Cobb.”
Agent Cobb smiled and patted her hand. “Now, Becca, let’s go back to that night when you awoke to that prick in your arm.”
She moaned, then jerked.
“It’s all right,” Agent Cobb said quickly. “Listen to me now. He’s not here. It’s okay, you’re safe.