Dust to Dust by Heather Graham

Author:Heather Graham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2009-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

It was after general visiting hours at the Men’s Central Facility, but Lucien and Sean were with Blake Reynaldo, which meant they were allowed to meet with the man named Bo Ridley. In person, even in a prison uniform, Bo was tall and dignified, with finely chiseled features. Despite his black skin, he looked ashen. He sat across a table from Blake, Lucien and Sean.

“Thank you for seeing us,” Sean said easily, ever the cop.

Bo nodded, then shook his head in confusion.

“I don’t know what got into me that night. I teach physics,” he said.

“Yes, Officer Reynaldo told us that,” Sean said. “He said you told him that you’d never met those other men until that night, and that when you woke up—in a holding cell—you were aware of everything that had happened but certain that you couldn’t really have done any of it.”

Blake was there simply to watch, Lucien realized. He’d already talked to Ridley. Now he wanted to see what they could get from the man.

“Physics. You’re a scientist. So what do you think happened?” Sean asked.

The man shook his head. “I have no idea, no explanation,” he said quietly. “I was on the street when the quake hit. I was right by a fissure, and it seemed like some kind of black smoke rose from it, and then it…it was as if—as if it entered into me.” He looked down for a moment. “I was feeling pretty bad when it happened. I—”

Lucien leaned forward and interrupted, speaking as quietly as Sean had been. “Mr. Ridley, were you feeling as if you had done something bad already?”

The man looked up instantly, meeting Lucien’s eyes, his own expression despairing. “I’d had an affair, and I was afraid that my marriage was about to end. I was completely disgusted with myself.”

He fell silent.

Sean prompted him. “And then what?”

“Have you ever heard of those near-death experiences where people say they’re floating above themselves, watching their bodies lying on a bed or an operating table? It was…like that. Except I wasn’t near death. I was just suddenly watching myself as I joined a group of men, as if we were old friends. I even knew their names. And I knew that we had a chance to be totally savage, and it was exactly what I wanted. But it wasn’t me,” he said desperately, as if he didn’t really believe it himself and therefore didn’t expect them to believe him. “Then…well, you know. We broke into the store, robbed it, beat up the old man…and I abducted that poor woman. Then that guy showed up and knocked me out. I remember, as the world went black, hearing someone whispering to me, telling me that all I wanted in life was to do the bidding of Bael, that I was a failure and deserved whatever misery came my way. And then it was like that dark smoky thing rose from my body, and the cops came and…It wasn’t me, I swear. I don’t hurt people.

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