Chapter5

#Chapter5

Kacey stood once again bathed in the man cave's blue light, donning a pair of latex gloves. CSIs had gone through and photographed the scene. Both Kacey and Hollis had done their initial walkthrough and were now gathering evidence.

Rhonda had gone quietly. Literally. She had shown absolutely no emotion when Kacey announced that she was being detained. Trying to get cuffs on her was an interesting challenge, given that her crippled left hand rotated inward. Eventually Kacey used her own cuffs and Hollis's, linking the two together in the middle.

When two uniformed officers arrived to take her to the station, she had uttered not a peep. During that time, Hollis had gotten a telephonic search warrant.

Her gloves now on, Kacey produced a flashlight from her jacket. Hollis had withdrawn the dead man's driver's license from a wallet in his pocket. He shined his flashlight on it and said: /"Carl Kane. Forty-two years of age./"

Kacey pointed her light at the television. /"This T.V.'s older than you…/" she cast her beam next on the DVD player in the entertainment center, and then on the DVD case atop it. /"Looks like his last movie was… Above the Law./"

/"Mm,/" Hollis grunted approvingly. /"Good movie./"

Shaking her head, Kacey swept her light over the collection of DVDs on the shelf against the far wall. There were a hundred at least, mostly action and horror.

/"It disturb you at all that Rhonda doesn’t fit the profile?/" Hollis asked.

/"You mean that she murdered this guy and isn't a complete vegetable?/" Kacey replied.

/"Two possibilities, the way I see it,/" Hollis said, shining his light into the knifed eye sockets of Carl White. /"One, she isn't the real killer… or two, there's a difference between this and the others… something that sets it apart. Something we're missing./"

/"Well, Rhonda might not be in a stupor like the others,/" Kacey said, /"but there was sure as hell something very, very wrong with that woman./"

Hollis put Carl's license into an evidence bag. /"When you first came down here,/" Hollis said, /"she told me that Declan came into the Milestone building and took something from his office, a black rock. She said he got it from the coal mines a few months ago after a visit./"

/"Huh,/" Kacey said. /"He take the rock the same night he went to the asylum?/" She cast her beam on the Desperado poster. Antonio Banderas' head was bowed as if in prayer, resting against the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun. The tagline read /"He came to settle the score with someone. Anyone. Everyone./"

/"No, that's just it,/" Hollis continued. /"She said Declan came and got the rock night before last. You know, when he was supposed to be dead./"

Rhonda had been at the station for a few hours by the time Kacey and Hollis joined her in the interview room. She had been advised of her rights and still had both sets of cuffs on, and she still wore an impassive expression on her face. There had been no request from the woman for an attorney.

Kacey took a seat in the plastic chair at the opposite end of the metal table and Hollis leaned against the wall in the corner, arms folded. The wall to Kacey and Hollis's left contained a large observation mirror.

/"So…/" Kacey began, /"Carl Kane was your… boyfriend?/"

/"Yes,/" Rhonda answered, her hands resting on top of the table, the left looking like something you'd find on a mummy. /"For almost five years./"

/"Did you know he was dead?/" Hollis asked.

/"Yes./"

/"Do you know how he died?/" Kacey continued.

/"Of course. I killed him,/" Rhonda said without batting an eye.

/"Why?/" asked Kacey.

/"Because he saw me,/" Rhonda answered. /"You don't see me, not yet. It took a while for Carl to see me, but he did. Now he doesn't see anything./"

There was a moment of silence, then Hollis spoke: /"He… saw you. Who are you?/"

/"I am the traveler that walks unseen. I tread the ever-waking dream on silent steps that shiver the earth./"

Kacey looked back at Hollis, who simply shrugged. A moment later he asked: /"Did you say anything to Carl before you killed him?/"

Rhonda smiled faintly. /"No./"

/"Are you 'chosen,'/" Kacey asked, leaning back against her chair.

Now Rhonda let out a short, quiet laugh. /"No, no… I choose./"

In one swift motion Rhonda shoved the table into Kacey, knocking her flat onto her back. The woman stood, pulled the table toward her, away from Kacey's legs, then shoved it forward and tilted it up, sliding it across the floor and pinning Hollis in the corner.

/"Son of a bitch—/" Hollis barked as Rhonda lifted her right leg and shoved her foot against the table. Kacey scrambled as Rhonda's /"crippled/" hand twisted over the round, tapered table leg. There was a groaning of metal and then a snap. Bolts flew as the leg broke free. Hollis had reached over the table and grabbed Rhonda's ankle. She jabbed the anchor-end of the table leg into his forehead, knocking him back into the wall and freeing her foot.

Kacey, now in a sitting position, had drawn her gun and was raising it as Rhonda turned and whipped the leg into Kacey's hand, sending her Glock flying into the wall just under the observation mirror.

Rhonda popped the plastic foot off the table leg, backed to the far side of the room and flipped the leg end over end, catching it at the anchor point. She stuck the tapered tip into her mouth, backed up against the wall, and pitched forward, dropping all her weight onto the leg base and shoving the foot of it through the back of her throat. It exited between the tip of her spine and the base of her skull. And while Kacey and Hollis remained transfixed in mute shock, Rhonda White's blood drained out onto the tile floor.