In Front of Your Eyes, Chapter One

[memorysdaughter.livejournal.com]

Hi there! I've been working on this "Medium" story for a long time, so it's retro-posted in a way... Allison still works for Devalos and Joe still has his original job. Other than that I think everything is as is.

Title: In Front of Your Eyes
Author: Sarah-Beth (memorysdaughter)
Rating: PG
Series: Chapter One/?


You'll Never Find Him, Will You?
Brakes screeching, Allison DuBois brought the car to a complete stop, inches away from a red-headed girl pushing a little girl in a wheelchair across the road. The girl shot Allison a dirty look, as though that could somehow make up for how instantly horrible Allison felt.

As the girl turned her head, Allison heard her say something, something low in the base of her skull.

“You’ll never find him, will you, Mrs. DuBois?”

Allison came back to the real world, but the girl was gone.

She put it out of her mind and turned into the parking lot next to the DA’s office. The elevator was empty and she went right into DA Devalos’ office.

“What’ve you got?” she asked, noting that he was reading through a thin case file.

“The disappearance of one Daniel Rakowsky, age 45, father of four and, up until Labor Day, the chief researcher for the defense in the case of Alistair Morales versus the state of Arizona,” Devalos said.

“He’s been missing since Labor Day?” Allison asked. “Why wasn’t I called in earlier?”

“The local PD’s been working on the case,” he replied. “They haven’t needed help. But last week they hit a snag. The kidnapper sent a letter to the PD –…”

“Excuse me, District Attorney Devalos,” his secretary interrupted, sticking her head into the office, “there’s a young lady here to see you.”

“Show her in,” he said.

Allison turned around as the red-headed girl came through the door.

“Erika,” Devalos said. “What can I do for you today?”

“Megan and I were just stopping by to see if there’s anything new,” the girl responded. “Who’s this? A detective?”

“Erika, say hello to Allison DuBois,” Devalos told her. “She’s going to be helping us on the case.”

“Let me guess… one of those psychics,” Erika said.

“How did you know?” Allison asked, surprised.

She smiled. “You exude freakiness.” She stuck out her hand. “Erika Rakowsky. Commonly known as Rikki.”

“Allison. It’s your father who’s missing?”

“She’s good.”

“Listen to her, Erika. Go get some coffee or something,” Devalos said. He stood and handed Allison the case file he’d been looking through. “I’m due in court. Allison, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Once he had left, Allison stood as well. “Come on,” she said to Erika. “I’ll buy you some juice.”

Outside Devalos’ office, his secretary was showing a fluffy toy to a small girl in a wheelchair. Rikki stopped and knelt down next to the girl. “Megan,” she said, “this is Mrs. DuBois.”

“Hi, Megan,” Allison said self-consciously.

“Let’s go down to Beans-n-Brew,” Rikki suggested. “It’s the closest place I can think of that sells coffee. And no offense, Mrs. DuBois, you look like you could use some coffee.”

Allison smiled. She had to admit, she liked Rikki. “Yes, I could use some coffee.”

They went down in the elevator to the little coffee shop on the first floor. Allison ordered a large coffee and bought Rikki and Megan jugs of apple juice. They sat outside, enjoying the sunshine. “So you’re going to look for my dad,” Rikki said.

“I’m going to try,” Allison agreed.

“Good. He deserves someone trying for him.” Rikki took a swig of her juice, then peered deeply into Allison’s eyes. “I can tell you really care about the people you look for.”

“Is that any different from the police?”

“It’s their job. Don’t get me wrong or anything, I’m glad the police are looking for my father, but I assume with you it’s different. More of a calling than something you’re being paid for.”

Allison smiled. The girl had hit it on the head. “Sure.”

Rikki held the juice up to Megan’s mouth and let the little girl drink for a moment. “He’s been missing forever,” Rikki said. “He’s been missing since Labor Day. And it’s just me and my brother Christopher.”

“Where’s your mother?” Allison asked.

“In Baltimore.”

“What’s she doing there?”

“Living, apparently, with her new husband and her perfect children who aren’t me and Megan,” Rikki said, with just a trace of bitterness in her voice. “She ran away one day when we were at school.”

“Rikki, how old are you?”

“Fifteen.”

Allison nodded.

“Mrs. DuBois, how does this… thing… work? Do you find clues about my dad in information about him? Like, if I showed you a map of where his car was found, would you be able to tell me how far away he is from it?”

“Probably not,” Allison replied. “I mostly dream.”

“Dreaming’s cool,” Rikki said. She was quiet for a moment. “Do you think dreams mean things?”

Allison nodded. “Of course I do. That’s my job.”

“Okay,” Rikki said, but said nothing else.

When Allison had finished drinking her coffee, she said, “Do you need a ride home? I have to pick up my daughter at day care.”

“We live over on Grey Street,” Rikki said. “Is that too far out of your way? We usually just walk to see Mr. Devalos.”

“Grey Street?” Allison asked in surprise. “That’s pretty far away from here.”

“It’s about five miles each way,” Rikki agreed, nodding. “The exercise is pretty good.”

“How often do you come to see Mr. Devalos?” Allison wanted to know.

Rikki shrugged. “Once a week, sometimes less. He used to call when he had information, but he hasn’t called in awhile. Usually I just stop in when I have to come downtown for something.”

“Doesn’t your brother have a car?”

“Yeah, he’s got a minivan,” Rikki replied, “but he works all day.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”

“No,” Rikki said, grinning. “Aren’t your girls out of school today? It’s an in-service for the public schools.”

Allison had forgotten. Then she repeated Rikki’s sentence in her head. “My girls?” she asked. “How did you know there was more than one of them? I only mentioned my youngest daughter, who’s in day care.”

“Uh,” Rikki said, at a loss to say anything else.

Allison looked at the girl. Then she said gently, “Rikki? Is there anything you want to tell me about your father’s disappearance?”

Rikki grabbed the hem of her shirt and twisted it around her thumb, refusing to look at Allison. Then she said softly, “I told Christopher and he said I couldn’t talk like that. He said I had to be strong, he said I couldn’t tell anyone else about the dreams. He said that if I talked about it, it would be disrespectful to our father, whose entire life is based in science and fact, not all this New Age-y crap that doesn’t make sense and can’t be proven. And if he finds out I told you, he’s going to be so mad.”

“Why will he be mad?” Allison wanted to know.

A tear slid its way down Rikki’s face. “He doesn’t believe me.”

“Tell me about the dreams,” Allison said. “I want to know.”

Rikki placed her hands on the wrought-iron table, palms down. She began to speak softly. “In the first dream, I saw a map of the city. I saw his car. And then I saw a lantern light the map on fire. And I kept dreaming about it, I kept seeing the map. Every night for four or five nights. And then I didn’t see the map anymore, I saw my father. He was in a boat.”

“Did you tell anyone else besides Christopher about your dreams?”

“No.” Rikki shook her head. “I told him and he said I had to be quiet about this or Social Services would take me and Megan away from him, and I couldn’t do that to him, I just couldn’t.”

Allison thought about the girl’s words. “I have a map of the city in my car,” she said. “Would it help if I got it out?”

Rikki looked up at Allison. Her eyes were wide. “You’re going to get a map?” she asked. “You think the dreams mean something?”

“I already told you that I think most dreams mean things,” Allison said. “And I think that if we don’t at least check out your dreams, we might miss something.”

She stood. “Let’s go get that map,” she said. “I want to see where we should start.”