Nighttime Is My Time

been discovered and destroyed.

'What do we do now?' Zarro asked.

'Pray,' Sam said. 'We pray.'

93

Jake again asked permission to leave his car outside the delicatessen, and once more it was granted, but Duke's curiosity was now at a fever pitch. 'Who are you taking pictures of, sonny?' he asked.

'Just of the neighborhood. As I told you, I'm doing a little story for the Stonecroft Academy Gazette. I'll give you a copy when I finish.' Jake had an inspiration. 'Better yet, I'll mention you in it.'

'That'd be nice. Duke and Sue Mackenzie. No capital k in Mackenzie.'

'Gotcha.'

Jake's cell phone rang as, camera over his arm, he was starting out the door. The call was from Amy Sachs, on duty at the hotel. 'Jake,' she whispered, 'you should be over here. All hell is breaking loose. Dr. Sheridan is missing. They found her car abandoned at Storm King Lookout. Mr. Deegan is in the office here. I just heard him shouting about something being lost.'

'Thanks, Amy. I'll be right over,' Jake said. He turned to Duke. 'Guess I won't need that space after all, but thanks anyhow.'

'There goes that fellow from the reunion I was telling you about,' Duke said, pointing to the street outside. 'He's going kind of fast. He'll get a ticket if he's not careful.'

Jake looked out quickly enough to see and recognize the driver. 'He's been buying stuff here?' he asked.

'Yup. Didn't come in this morning, but most days he'd buy coffee and toast, and sometimes stop by for coffee and a sandwich at night.'

Could he have been buying it for Laura? Jake wondered. And now Dr. Sheridan is missing. I've got to call Sam Deegan. I'm sure he'll want to check Laura's old house. Then I'll go up there and wait for him, he decided.

He dialed the hotel. 'Amy, put Mr. Deegan on. It's important.'

Amy didn't take long to come back. 'Mr. Deegan told me to tell you to get lost.'

'Amy, tell Mr. Deegan that I think I know where he can find Laura Wilcox.'

94

Jean looked up as the door to the bedroom was pushed open. The Owl was standing in the doorway. In his arms he was carrying a slender figure, dressed in the dark gray uniform of a West Point cadet. With a satisfied smile he walked across the room and lay Meredith at Jean's feet. 'Behold, your daughter!' he said triumphantly. 'Look into her face. See the features that must be familiar to you. Isn't she beautiful? Aren't you proud?'

Reed, Jean thought, it's Reed! Lily is Reed incarnate! The narrow aquiline nose, the wide-set eyes, the high cheekbones, the pale golden hair. Oh, my God, has he killed her? No, no-she's breathing!

'Don't hurt her! Don't you dare hurt her!' she cried. When she tried to shout, her voice became muffled. From the bed she could hear Laura's frightened sobs.

'I'm not going to hurt her, Jeannie. But I am going to kill her, and you are going to watch. Then it will be Laura's turn. Then yours. By then I think I'll be doing you a favor. I can't imagine you would want to live after watching your daughter die, will you?'

At a deliberately slow pace, The Owl walked across the room, removed the hanger with the plastic bag on which he had written 'Lily/Meredith,' and carried it back. He knelt beside Meredith's unconscious form and slid the hanger out of the bag. 'Do you want to pray, Jean?' he asked. 'I think the Twenty-third Psalm is appropriate for you to recite at this time. Go ahead-'The Lord is my shepherd

Stunned and horrified, Jean watched as The Owl began to slide the plastic over Lily's head.

'No, no, no…' Before the plastic reached Lily's nostrils, she tipped the chair, falling forward, protecting her child with her body. The chair hit The Owl on his arm and pinned it. He screeched with pain. As he struggled to pull it loose, he could hear from downstairs the sound of the front door being smashed open.

95

When Sam Deegan got on the phone with Jake after Amy Sachs had explained to him that Jake thought he knew where Laura was being kept, he did not give Jake the chance to deliver the speech he had hastily prepared.

Jake wanted to say, 'Mr. Deegan, notwithstanding the fact that you publicly disclaimed my assistance and made me the subject of ridicule, I am being generous enough to help you in your investigation, particularly since I am very concerned about Dr. Sheridan.'

He got only as far as 'Notwithstanding the fact' when Sam interrupted. 'Listen, Jake. Jean Sheridan and Laura are in the hands of a homicidal maniac. Don't waste my time. Do you know where Laura is, or don't you?'

At that, Jake almost tripped over his own tongue as he rushed to tell what he knew.

'Somebody is staying in Laura's old house on Mountain Road, Mr. Deegan, even though it's supposed to be unoccupied. One of the honorees from the reunion has been buying food at the delicatessen down the street from the house almost every day. He just drove by. I think he was on his way to the house.' Jake had barely spit out the name of the man before he heard the click of Sam's phone.

That sure got Deegan's attention, Jake thought as he waited on the street near Laura's old house. It wasn't more than six minutes later that Deegan and that other detective, Zarro, were screeching to a stop at the curb, followed by two patrol cars. They hadn't used the sirens to announce their arrival, which Jake had found disappointing, but he supposed they wanted to surprise the guy.

He had told Sam he was sure that whoever was in the house was in the corner front bedroom. Immediately after that, they broke down the front door and rushed in. Sam had yelled to him to stay outside.

Fat chance, Jake thought. He'd given them time to get to the bedroom, then followed, the camera slung over his shoulder. As he got to the top of the stairs, he heard a door slam. The other front bedroom, he thought. Somebody's in there.

Sam Deegan came out of the back corner bedroom, his gun drawn. 'Get downstairs, Jake!' he ordered. 'There's a killer hiding up here.'

Jake pointed down the hall. 'He's in there.'

Sam and Zarro and a couple of the cops ran past him. Jake rushed to the door of the front bedroom, looked inside, and, after an instant of total shock at what he was seeing, focused his camera and began snapping pictures.

He took a photograph of Laura Wilcox. She was lying on the bed, her gown crumpled, her hair matted. A cop was supporting her head and holding a glass of water to her lips.

Jean Sheridan was sitting on the floor, holding in her arms a young woman dressed in the uniform of a West Point cadet. Jean was crying and whispering, 'Lily, Lily, Lily,' over and over again. At first Jake thought the girl was dead, but then he saw that she was beginning to stir.

Jake aimed his camera and was able to record for posterity the moment Lily opened her eyes and, for the first time since the day she was born, looked into the eyes of her birth mother.

96