Finding Sky

Something made me glance up. The Benedicts were leaving the hospital. Zed slowed by the window in the corridor that looked into my room and our eyes met. I had a horrible sensation in the pit of my stomach. Fear. He stopped, placing his hand on the glass as if to reach for me. I clenched my fists on the cover. Deep inside I could hear a ringing note, discordant, violent. The water jug on the bedside table began to judder; the overhead light stuttered; the buzzer to summon the nurse jumped off the rail and crashed to the floor. Zed’s expression became darker, the sound harsher. Then Saul came up alongside and said something softly in his ear. Zed nodded, gave me a last look and walked on. The note stopped, snapped off; the vibrations ceased.

Sal y rubbed her arms. ‘Strange. Must have been a tremor.’ She returned the buzzer to its original position. ‘I didn’t know Vegas was in an earthquake zone.’

I couldn’t tel if it had been me or Zed. Was he so angry at me he wanted to shake me? Or had that been my fear trying to push him away?

Feeling numb, I let Sal y brush and plait my hair for me.

‘I won’t ask you what happened, darling,’ she said, taking care not to pul the hair around my cut, ‘as you’l have to go through it for the police and FBI, but I just want you to know that whatever happened wasn’t your fault. No one wil blame you.’

‘Two men died, didn’t they?’ My voice sounded distant. I felt I was watching myself go through the motions of talking to Sal y while real y I was hidden deep inside, hiding behind so many doors and locks that no one could reach me. It was the only place I felt safe.

‘Yes. The police and FBI arrived at the same time acting on separate tip-offs—it was a massive mix-up in communications, the left hand not knowing what the right was doing. The two men were kil ed in the exchange of fire.’

‘One of them was cal ed Gator. He had a curly ponytail. He was nice to me.’ I couldn’t remember why I thought that.

‘Then I’m sorry he is dead.’

There was a cough at the door. Victor Benedict stood in the entrance with an unfamiliar man in a dark suit.

‘May we come in?’ Victor was looking at me with particular intent. The tremor had not gone u

‘Please.’ Sal y got up from the bed and made space for them.

‘Sky, this is Lieutenant Farstein of the Las Vegas police department. He’s got a few questions for you.

Is that OK?’

I nodded. Farstein, a sun-bronzed, middle-aged man with thi

‘Miss Bright, how are you?’ he asked.

I took a sip of water. I liked him—my instinct was that he was genuinely concerned. ‘A bit confused.’

‘Yeah, I know the feeling.’ He pul ed out a notebook to check his facts. ‘You’ve got the police departments of two states and the FBI in a spin, but we’re glad we found you safe and wel .’ He tapped the page thoughtful y. ‘Maybe you’d best start from the top—tel us how you were snatched.’

I strained to remember. ‘It was getting dark. I’d been skiing—wel , fal ing over on skis real y.’

Victor smiled, his face reminding me so much of Zed when it took on a softer expression. ‘Yeah, I’d heard you were taking lessons.’

‘Tina’s car had a problem.’

Farstein checked his notes. ‘The mechanic discovered that someone messed with the leads to the battery.’

‘Oh.’ I rubbed my forehead. The next steps were shaky. ‘Then Zed and Xav persuaded me to get in a car. They locked me in the boot. No, no, they didn’t.’ I pinched the bridge of my nose. ‘I can see them doing it but it doesn’t feel right.’

‘Sky.’ Victor’s tone was low and insistent. ‘What is it you’re seeing?’

Farstein cut across him. ‘Are you saying, Sky, that two of the Benedict brothers were responsible for your abduction?’

Something clicked in my head. The pictures flowing easily, smoothly, without pain.

‘They pretended to be my friend, wanted to hurt me.’

‘You know that’s not true, Sky.’ Victor was furious, his lips compressed.

Farstein shot him a quel ing look. ‘Agent Benedict, you should not interrupt the witness. And bearing in mind your relationship to those she’s accusing, I suggest you step outside and send in a col eague who can listen impartial y.’

Victor stalked to the door, his back to the room, but didn’t leave. ‘What she’s saying is impossible. I was with my brothers, lieutenant; they had nothing to do with her kidnapping.’ Sky, why are you saying this?

I looked frantical y to Sal y. ‘He’s talking to me in my head—tel him to stop.’ I pressed my fists to my temples. ‘It hurts.’

Sal y took my hand, standing between me and Victor. ‘Mr Benedict, I think you’d best go: you’re upsetting Sky.’

I turned tear-fil ed eyes to Farstein. ‘I shot them, didn’t I?’

‘No, Sky, you weren’t responsible for the deaths of those men.’

‘Zed and Xav are dead?’

Farstein threw Sal y an anxious look. ‘No,’ he said careful y, ‘the two men who staked out the warehouse are dead.’

‘Gator and O’Hal oran,’ I repeated, remembering them. ‘The savant.’

‘The what?’ asked Farstein.

Which one, Sky? asked Victor urgently.

‘Go away from me!’ I pul ed the covers over my head. ‘Get out of my head.’

Farstein sighed and closed his notebook. ‘I can see we are doing more harm than good here, Mrs Bright. We’l leave Sky to get some rest. Agent Benedict, I want a word with you.’

Victor nodded. ‘Down the hal . Take it easy, Sky.

It’l come back.’

The two men left. I lowered the covers to find Sal y watching me with fear in her eyes.

‘I’m going mad, aren’t I?’ I asked her. ‘I can’t remember—and what I remember feels wrong.’

She brushed her thumb over my knuckles. ‘You’re not mad. You’re recovering from trauma. It takes time. We think the people who did this to you are probably dead, kil ed in the shootout. The police are just trying to tie up the loose ends.’

I wish someone would tie up the loose ends in my brain. My thoughts were like ragged bunting from some abandoned party whipping about in the wind—

no purpose, no anchor.

‘If Zed and Xav didn’t kidnap me, then why do I think they did?’

Thanksgiving came and went, the only sign the turkey di

odds and ends thrown up on the shore, al out of place, smashed to pieces. I was aware of the passage of great emotion through me but I couldn’t sort it out, what had been real, what had been false.

I’d let something loose inside and not control ed it—

the result had been devastating.

Zed and his brother were cleared of al suspicion by the Las Vegas police department. So why had I accused them? I was racked with guilt that I had involved them in this, too embarrassed to see any of the Benedicts. I made my parents promise that they wouldn’t let them in—I couldn’t face them. I wasn’t able to keep Victor out though; he came several times with Farstein to see if I remembered any more.

I apologized to him, and the policeman, for getting it wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Victor hated me now.

‘Nightmares, Miss Bright—that’s what they are,’

Farstein said in a practical tone of voice. ‘You’ve gone through a terrifying experience and your mind got muddled.’

He was being kind but I could tel he dismissed me as next to useless in his enquiries. Everyone agreed that I’d been kidnapped, but no one could prove that anyone beyond the two men in the warehouse had been involved. I was the key but I wasn’t opening any doors for them.

Farstein brought me a pack of cards and a bunch of flowers on his last visit. ‘Here you are, Miss Bright, I hope these help you feel better.’ He split open the packet and shuffled. ‘I imagine you must be bored stuck in here. My city is a good place to visit for most folks; I’m sorry you had such a bad time with us.’ He cut the cards and dealt me a hand.