Time Thieves (19 page)

He shrugged. “Quite possible, unfortunately.”

As he spoke, he turned another block and she realized he’d circled around to her house. He drove up the long winding driveway to park at her front door.

“Of course, parking your truck here might be a good deterrent, too.”

“It might, but we need to retrieve your car.”

“After dinner. It’s a short walk. Good for our digestion.” She tossed him a cheeky grin. A grin that widened at his cry. “Walk?”

“Sure, why not? We drive all the time. I’ve barely made time for any exercise since moving back to Canada. It’s ridiculous. I used to jog in the mornings, walk in the evenings. Yoga most days and now…now I’m lucky if I get up and down the stairs more than a dozen times a day. Hardly noteworthy.”

He waited until she unlocked the door. She stepped in and groaned. “We have to go to my car now. The groceries are still in the car.”

He shook his head. “Walk or drive?”

“Drive. I’m starving.”

He laughed. They made the trip in ten minutes, both racing home to try to park in front of each other. Sari grabbed her bags and led the way through the front door and straight through to the kitchen. She dumped the bags, opened the first one, and found the beef. She turned around and gasped.

A stranger stood in front of her, arm raised.

“Wh—”

She barely felt the blow, but her body collapsed like cooked noodles and she dropped to the floor.

*

Ward laughed as
Sari ran ahead of him, determined to win the race. He let her. He hadn’t seen her this playful since she’d returned home. He loved it. There’d been so much stress in her life lately, this was a wonderful release. For him too.

He followed her into the house, closing the door behind him. He could hear her in the kitchen. He noticed the shop door was open. Normally she kept that door closed, locked. He stuck his head inside. Empty.

Out of habit, he shut the door for her then carried on to the kitchen. He marveled again at the chaotic layout. Double staircase, one on either side of the house. Both rose in different directions. Both were different widths, made of different materials, and ended at different heights. It was a house where additions had been added, with more coming in behind. Someone at a different period in the house’s life had coated the place in a uniform color, almost incorporating the additions into the main part, but somehow not quite.

The house had a jagged appearance. Some corners were rounded and others were sharp. Some doorways were standard and others were arched. He grinned as he noticed two separate moldings on the floor and ceiling matching up perfectly at the corners. If nothing else, this house had character. He had no idea about the size of it, but it had to be at least five thousand square feet. A new roof must have cost her a fortune. To put uniform flooring throughout would be another small fortune.

Speaking of which, he had no idea how set she was financially. Sure, she had the roof replaced, installed a security system, and added a new window, but she’d also made a comment about money being tight and needing to do things in stages, and no wonder.

He wandered into the kitchen to find it empty. Where was she? Shaking his head, he went about putting the rest of the groceries away. She’d probably just gone to the washroom. There were at least three bathrooms that he knew of and probably more. The place was full of secrets. Yet it wasn’t haunting in any way. It was homey. The changes had been made with love.

Once the food was put away, he didn’t know what to do. She should be back soon. He frowned. Walking to the bottom of the closest stairwell, the one leading to her bedroom, he called up.

“Sari? Are you okay?”

There was no answer. He frowned and bolted up the stairs. “Sari? Are you there?”

No answer. He ran down the stairs and back up the other staircase. “Sari?”

Now he switched into panic mode. He raced out back and then through the rooms on the other side of the house. Five minutes later, he slammed his fist into the wall.

Sari was gone.

How
? He tried to think logically. She hadn’t been but a couple of minutes ahead of him and inside the house at that. She might have gone out the back door, but why…and why wouldn’t she have said something to him? Unless she was hiding for fun. Only this didn’t feel like fun.

His stomach wanted to heave.

He couldn’t get his mind wrapped around it. There’d been no place for her to go. No time for her to have gone. So…someone had to have taken her.

In his mind, he saw her unlock the front door then realize that the groceries were still in the car. They’d left without relocking the front door. And she’d gone in first without him.

Stupid. His fist clenched. He wanted to punch the wall yet again. Instead, he called his partner. “I need you to come to Sari’s house.”

“What?” Jeremy’s voice was surprised but agreeable. “Okay. Be there in ten.”

“Thanks.” He hated the relief in his voice, but honest to God, he was barely keeping panic at bay. He should just call it in, but call
what
in? The reporting officer would laugh his ass off. Sure, Sari might have gone out the back door, but why would she? And why would she have gone without saying anything to him? None of this made any sense. Taking his time, he slowly and methodically searched the main level of the house. Feeling stupid but unable to help himself, he opened cupboards and closets and checked inside everything.

Nothing. He returned to the shop and checked there. Nothing. He dropped the ladder and went up to the attic. Nothing appeared disturbed, and there was no sign that Sari had been there lately.

“Damn it.” He headed upstairs to her room. There was another bedroom on the same floor as well as multiple closets and another bathroom. The bathroom led to her bedroom. He knocked several times just in case, but she wasn’t there. The room was empty. He raced over to her closet and opened the door. The tall narrow doorway stood open ever so slightly. He pulled it open as wide as it could go and stuck his head inside. “Sari?”

No answer. And why would there be? He’d checked out every room.

Hearing a vehicle pull up out front, he raced downstairs to open the door for Jeremy.

“Hey. What’s going on this time?” Jeremy’s big grin made Ward want to reach out and shake him. But his friend didn’t know what was going on.

Then again, neither did he.

Ward motioned his friend inside and quickly explained.

“What? She’s gone? Like…
gone
gone?”

“Yes, damn it.” He flung his arms wide. “She wasn’t out of my sight but five minutes, and she’s gone. I’ve searched the house from top to bottom. There’s no sign of her inside or out. She started to make dinner, as in one package of beef was opened, but that’s it. The other groceries were still sitting in the bag. I figured she’d gone to the bathroom, so I put the groceries away. Only she never came back. So I went looking. There’s no sign of her.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I know it’s crazy.” Then he realized he hadn’t said anything about Sari’s earlier call. Quickly he explained.

“Was there a truck here when you arrived?” asked Jeremy. “Could these guys have arrived before you and hidden inside?”

Ward stared at his friend. “I don’t know. There was no sign of the truck when we got here, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t parked somewhere else. They might have taken her out the back way, too. Jesus. I have to find her.”

Jeremy laid a calming hand on his arm. “Look, I’ll phone it in. Give the station the description of the truck—”

“No, I already did that. I did it on the way back from delivering Sari to her car. I need to find her.” He spun around. “I never thought of a basement. I wonder if this crazy place has one of those, too.”

“Let’s look.”

“Sure, but where? I’ve searched everywhere downstairs and never came across a door leading below.”

Systematically, the two men went back over the same floor and opened doors, cupboards, closets. Nothing. No Sari, no door leading to a basement.

Ward’s heart seized. The longer this went on, the worse the chances were of finding her.

He couldn’t lose Sari now.

S
ari moaned. Her
head pounded and her arms ached. She couldn’t figure out what was wrong. She hurt like she hadn’t since she fell out of a tree, hitting every branch on the way down. Now that had hurt. Then again, so did this. Waiting for her head to clear, she lay there quietly.

Was she in bed? No, Ward should be here with her. Shouldn’t he? He was coming for dinner. No, he was here already.

She couldn’t remember. She groaned softly. She should remember. It mattered. She knew it mattered.

“Oh, look who’s awake.”

“Bloody well time, but keep her quiet.”

Sari stifled the groan wanting to burst free. Now she remembered. She’d been attacked in her kitchen. A blow to her head. Unfortunately, he was still here. Wherever here was. She blinked, and light plowed into the back of her eyeballs. She slammed them close. God, that hurt.

“Stop fooling around. We know you’re awake.”

Great. So there was more than one guy. “Who’s we?” she murmured faintly.

“Jed and me.”

She didn’t recognize the names. Then it hit her. “You two followed me today. In a truck.”

“So you did see us? Huh. Wasn’t sure. We took off when you took too long inside.”

“I was hardly in there. You should go shopping with females more often. Then you’d understand.” She coughed several times then rolled over. She felt like shit. “Did you drug me?”

“Just a couple of drops. They are magnified by being in the crossing.”

She stilled. “The crossing?”

“Yeah. You’re in a way-station. Inside your house, of all places.”

The men laughed, a raucous sound that made her nerves tighten and her stomach heave. Way-station? They’d said inside her house. God, were there more passages she didn’t know about? Who’d be crazy enough to do that to their home? She was tempted to raze her house and rebuild.

“I don’t suppose you know the history of this place, do you? Victoria is one of the oldest settlements in BC.”

Yeah, duh. Even with the blow to her head, she remembered her local history. This house was old along with the city. Out of the main center, the city had finally sprawled out to almost reach her home. She still had enough country to make her feel small town but with all the amenities of the big city within an hour’s drive.

And none of it mattered right now.

“This house is sitting on one of the biggest intersecting grid lines. That means that interesting things happen here.” That raucous laughter sounded again. She couldn’t sort out what he was saying, and the nausea in her stomach was making it all so much worse.

“Interesting things?” she asked cautiously. “Like you breaking into my house in the middle of the night and kidnapping me in daylight? I could do without those interesting things.”

“Those are nothing. How about the noises going on inside your house while you’re asleep at night? You don’t know anything about what goes on here.”

The second voice said, “Come on, we’re wasting time.”

Jed – at least she thought it was Jed – said good-naturedly, “True enough. We’re looking for notes, books, answers to help us…and someone else…” he sniggered. “To figure out special markings inside a watch.”

She managed to open her eyes and stare at the two men. Both dressed in jeans and t-shirts, both having normal common features. No tattoos or obvious distinguishing marks. Yet they were scary nonetheless. She swallowed. “Why do you care about the markings on the watch?”

“Why do you?”

She swallowed again and managed to push herself into a sitting position. “It’s my work, my hobby.”

“Well then, it’s our hobby too. We have a watch we can’t figure out. But you can, although we’d rather have your notes than take you. Still, you didn’t leave us a choice. Besides, you must have figured all those markings out a long time ago. After all, you’ve been obsessed with one in particular, haven’t you?”

Her heart turned to ice. What the hell was going on here? How could these two assholes know anything?