Vic thought it was about time to explain. “You’veasked me where I get these powers.”
She nodded, turning toward him as if he coulddistract her from the sexual depravity in the room. Vic held outhis arm, the one he had cut breaking into the house. The wound wasclosed, the skin healed; nothing remained but a thin, red scar andeven that had begun to fade. Soon there would be nothingleft to prove he’d been hurt. “They come from Matt,” Vic admitted.“I don’t know how, and I sure as hell don’t know why, but he…hegives them to me. Without meaning to. Without even realizinghe’s doing it.”
“But how does he do it?” she asked. “I mean,how do you get his powers?”
Vic stared her down, waiting as he watched her mindsift through the evidence. Her gaze wandered over the porn mags andthe dildos, piecing together what she knew so far. Then she noticeda cylindrical plastic tube on the bed, connected by a short PVCtube to a bulb-shaped hand pump—beside the contraption was anewspaper clipping, one Vic recognized at a glance because it hungon his refrigerator back home. Seeing that article, the grainypicture of Matt, in such an incongruous relationship with a penispump, of all things, made the connection for her.
Vic felt the light of understanding click on insideher head; her mouth widened into a perfect O of realization. “Oh,God,” she whispered. Covering her mouth with one hand, she gaped atVic as if daring him to comment on her now sordid thoughts. “You’renot saying—when you two…I mean—”
Vic nodded.
“But how?” she asked again. “I mean, if you—well, Iwould’ve expected…” One thought stood out in her mind, so brightthat Vic had no trouble picking it up—a mental image of himself onhis hands and knees, naked, as Matt drove into him from behind. Sheshook her head as if trying to clear that away. “I guess I justdidn’t think you looked like the type who—”
“What?” Vic countered. A part of him enjoyed herdiscomfort, and the images of Matt and himself that her mindconjured up. “Likes to bottom?”
Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “Is thatwhat it’s called? When you…”
“When you take it up the ass,” Vic finished for her.“Yeah.”
She blushed at his coarse language. She ran a handover her forehead and over her hair, brushing her police hat off inthe process. Then she placed her hat back on top of her head andtugged it down into place. “Jesus. All right, so you…um, get thesepowers, somehow, when you two…?”
Vic nodded and she sighed, pleased to have gottenthat straight without having to spell it out.
“So I’m guessing this guy…” She gestured at thebedroom and its cache of sex toys. “What’s his name?”
“Jordan.”
“Jordan,” Officer Jones said with a nod, as ifsecuring the name in place. “So if he abducted Matt to get thosepowers, we’re dealing with a hell of a lot more than just akidnapping charge here. Sexual assault at least, maybe evenrape.”
A menacing crackle filled the room—the sound of Vic’sknuckles popping as he flexed his fists. Though he hated to say thewords aloud, he had to lay everything out between them so OfficerJones would know what they were up against. “And if that assholehas already gone that far, who knows what sort of powers he mighthave?”
* * * *
There was nothing in Jordan’s room that told themwhere Matt might be—or rather, nothing either of them could seewithout digging in to look, and though the thought of touchinganything that jerk jacked off on nauseated him, Vic was willing toswallow his pride for Matt. But Officer Jones wouldn’t let himdisturb “the scene,” as she called it. “Let me go back to theprecinct,” she told him, one hand on his wrist as if that alonecould hold him back from tearing the room apart. “I’ll file themissing persons paperwork on Matt, then put in a search warrantrequest for this place. I’ll say there was an anonymous tip,someone called about some suspicious activity, something. That’llget me in here legally.”
“While Matt’s who the hell knows where,” Vicbristled. “We’re wasting time—”
“We’re following the law,” Officer Jones countered.“I get some cops in here, bag and tag all this…this stuff,dust for prints, DNA, the whole works. File it away as evidence.Then we stake out this place. We’ll catch your guy. But when hegoes to court, it’s his word against Matt’s, especially if I’munderstanding this right and Matt must be the one who hasto…to penetrate, if you know what I mean.”
The muscles in Vic’s jaw bunched so tight that histeeth hurt, but he nodded once, curt, to show she was right.
“Then we drag this crap out on the table,” shecontinued, “and suddenly all these porno mags and strange sex toysfound in the defendant’s house seem to back up Matt’s story. Do yousee what I’m trying to say here? Let the system work. That’s whyyou called me in the first place, wasn’t it?”
Through clenched teeth, Vic spat, “I still don’t haveMatt.”
Officer Jones gave his wrist a compassionate squeeze.“Listen to me, Mr. Braunson—Vic. Let me take it from here. You’rerunning on empty at the moment and you’re so torn up inside ithurts even just to breathe. I know that feeling, all toowell. So let us help you, all right? The best thing you can doright now is look after yourself. Go home, lie down, recharge.”
With a snerk, Vic admitted, “I need Matty forthat.”
“You’ll have him back,” she promised. “I’ll call youas soon as I hear anything. And this works both ways—I expect youto get in touch with me over the smallest lead. You hear?”
Somehow Vic allowed her to talk him out of Jordan’shouse and back into his car. It seemed impossible that the world ofsuburbia could lay so quietly around him, families huddled by theflickering glow from their television sets, the scent of dinnerwafting on the scant summer breeze, the whine of cicadas drillingaway into the night. Somewhere out there a man was bound in
