Connected: Book 1 Connected Series

by Kat Stiles

  The familiar silence set in. Of course I couldn’t explain it, so I didn’t try.

  “Are you lying to me?” she said in a tired tone.

  “No.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “I told you what happened,” I said. “You didn’t believe me about the doctor, so why should you believe me now?”

  And then she was silent. She let out a frustrated exhale before she spoke again.

  “I don’t want you to see him anymore.”

  “The doctor?” I asked, hoping for a miracle.

  “Tommy.”

  Even though I knew it was coming, it still knocked the wind from me. I tried to breathe before I protested. “This isn’t his fault. He was trying to protect me.”

  “I couldn’t agree more. It was your decision to bring him there. And I can’t think of a better punishment for you.”

  “But… I…” The tears choked me up, and I couldn’t even finish the thought. It didn’t matter anyway. She wouldn’t hear me.

  “This conversation is over,” she declared.

  The thought of not seeing Tommy again caused the tears to actually fall. It snowballed fast after that, into audible sobs. If she cared, she certainly didn’t show it—she didn’t say another word. Business as usual.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “I did a reverse-lookup on the internet for the address you gave me. You know Nydia?” Roz asked me, at lunch the following day.

  “She was in our math class last year, right? You two were friends,” I said.

  “Yeah, I think it’s her family I saw in my vision,” she said. “I couldn’t find any pictures of her mother, though. I wish I could go ask her what she looks like.”

  “I’ll do some checking, too, see if I can find something,” I offered. “If all else fails, we can always go to her house and knock on the door.”

  Roz nodded.

  “Did you see anything last night?” Tommy asked.

  “No. We drove past Adam’s house a couple of times, but I don’t think he was home,” she said. “My father said he was a good guy.”

  Tommy looked at her sideways. “A good guy?”

  “He was friends with Adam in school.”

  “Did he say anything else?” I said.

  “Not much. It was hard to ask him questions—he wanted to know why I was asking.”

  I sighed. My gut instinct about Adam only grew stronger at hearing Dad’s assessment. “Roz, have you ever thought… I mean, what if Adam’s not the guy?”

  “We know he put Mr. Godfrey in a coma,” she said, and frowned. “It has to be him.”

  “Maybe the better question is why you don’t think it’s him, Em,” Tommy said.

  “Judy’s reaction the other day,” I said. “She was so adamant he wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

  “Geez, not you, too,” Tommy groaned.

  Roz and I both looked at him, puzzled.

  “With the puns?”

  I glanced at Roz, but she shrugged.

  “She was so adamant…” Tommy trailed.

  It took me a second to catch on. I smiled. “Does it matter it was totally unintentional?”

  “Not really.” He smiled back. “Still not as painful as Demetri, though.”

  “Anyway, my point is—” I started.

  “She wasn’t there,” Roz interrupted, and then continued in a defensive tone, “And she didn’t have the vision.”

  “I know,” I said. “But then he was all concerned at Nydia’s…”

  “The visions were similar. The person was overloaded every time.” She fidgeted with one of her books, picking at a tear in the cover with her nail. “We can’t sit around and wait until it’s too late again. Maybe we should talk to him.”

  “What if he tries to hurt us? Are we ready to take on that kind of power?” I asked.

  “We’re not even sure what his power is,” Tommy said.

  “But you foresaw another attack, Roz. I guess you’re right. We have to try to stop him,” I said.

  “Then we go to Adam’s house tonight. Seven o’clock?” Roz said.

  “I’ll pick you guys up quarter to,” Tommy said.

  “We’ll meet you around the corner,” I revised, thinking of my mother’s decree about seeing Tommy. “I’ll say I’m hanging out with Roz.”

  * * * *

  Going to Adam’s house put my nerves on edge. He put one man in a coma, and we suspected he had killed another. But, yet, I trusted Judy when she said he wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone. It was that one word—intentionally—that worried me the most.

  Adam answered the door looking beyond exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes and an energy that was just…off. “I don’t want any magazine subscriptions.” He was about to close the door on us, when Roz spoke.

  “We’re friends of Judy. We were wondering if we could talk?”

  He scratched his head, but invited us in anyway. His house was very simply furnished, with a simple chair and matching couch and loveseat that were used but in decent condition. On the mantle over the fireplace was a single picture, the same one we saw in the class yearbook of Judy and him together. In the corner was a stack of boxes, I presumed left unpacked from the move.

  After Roz made the introductions, she said, “We wanted to know what happened with the Godfrey family.”

  “We know you were involved,” Tommy said, with more than a little edge to his voice.

  The question appeared to fluster him. He looked off to the side.

  “You ran out of the house, and then Mr. Godfrey ended up in a coma,” Roz said.

  “It-it was an accident,” he stammered out, before he began to pace in the room.

  Roz sighed and looked exasperated, as if the whole trip were a complete waste of time.

  “What exactly did you do to Mr. Godfrey?” Tommy said, raising his voice.

  I looked at Tommy, and he gripped my hand in response.

  “I didn’t expect…” Adam trailed off, and the air suddenly got thick. “Oh no.”

  A rush of fearful anger swept over me, but it was more than simple empathy. The emotion devoured my own anxiety and completely replaced it. Tommy and Roz appeared as lost as I.

  “W-What’s going on?” Roz asked, her eyes large.

  “It’s happening again.” Adam took a deep breath and sat in the chair. Then he closed his eyes.

  Hell of a time to meditate, I thought. “What are you doing to us?” The question came out sounding like a growl more than anything else.

  “Em, be careful. He can hurt you,” Roz said, grabbing my forearm.

  “You’re feeling the emotions of each other. I… I transfer emotions,” Adam explained.

  “Why are we even here? What’s the point? We can’t change anything,” Tommy said, his voice sounding defeated.

  “Stop it. Stop it now!” I yelled, louder than I ever yelled before. It was bizarre—I found myself actually wanting to punch him.

  “Give me a minute,” Adam said, his eyes still closed.

  It wasn’t long before the air cleared and the anger disappeared. A dull ache remained in my head.

  Adam motioned for us to take a seat on his couch. Once I sat, I placed my hands on my forehead to counter the lingering pain.

  He continued. “I didn’t expect their son to walk in. He was very angry. I couldn’t control the transfer to his father. It overwhelmed him to receive such a powerful emotion as anger.”

  “Yeah, I can understand that,” I said, my hands still fixed on my head.

  “So that’s it?” Roz said. “It really was an accident?”

  “Of course,” he said, with a reprimanding look, as if he were offended. “I would never intentionally hurt anyone.”

  Tommy folded his arms. “Then what happened with Mr. Kenney?”

  “Wait… what?” He looked at Tommy, concern in his eyes. “Something happened to Mr. Kenney?”

  “He was being overpowered by someone else,” Roz said. “It was the same in the
vision I had with the Godfreys. Except I could feel more pain.”

  Adam’s brow furrowed momentarily, and then it relaxed, like he figured out something. “Is he okay?”

  “No, he’s not okay,” Tommy said. “That’s why we’re here.”

  “I’ve had another one,” Roz said. “This time a woman is in trouble. We thought if we could talk to you, maybe we could prevent it.”

  “I don’t use my power at house visits anymore. I use it only in a controlled environment now. What happened with the Godfrey family was proof enough for me I can’t fully control my…ability. It’s unfortunate because it worked in the past. I was helping that couple.” He glanced away, and I felt genuine regret from him.

  “So you’re saying you had nothing to do with Mr. Kenney’s so-called heart attack?” Tommy asked Adam.

  “He had a heart attack?”

  “No, he didn’t,” Tommy said, “but he was murdered.”

  Adam’s lips parted open, and for a solid minute he didn’t say a word. The silence was unnerving, and between feeling both Tommy’s anger and Roz’s hopelessness, it was difficult to hone in on what Adam was actually feeling.

  Finally he said, “I referred the Kenneys about a month back. I was about to check in on them.”

  But Tommy wasn’t convinced. He stared Adam down.

  “Look, I’m telling the truth. I use my power to try to help people. I can usually turn it off, like I did with the three of you.”

  “Who did you refer them to?” Roz asked.

  “The professionals,” he said. “For therapy.”

  “Thanks for the information,” I said. “We’ll be going now.” I headed for the door, and Roz followed my lead, but Tommy continued his glare. “Come on,” I said to him and grabbed his hand.

  “So weird,” Tommy said, on the way to his car.

  “Yeah, I could feel all that distrust you had towards him,” I said. “It was intense.”

  “I guess I felt your nervousness, Em,” Roz said. “And I’m pretty sure Tommy felt my frustration.” She ran her fingers through her hair and pinned it down against her head for a second. Then she exhaled.

  Tommy gently touched her arm. “You are making a difference, Roz,” he said. “You’re the one who alerted us in the first place. We’ll figure this out.”

  “Thanks, Tommy,” she said.

  Tommy started the drive back. “You were right about how I was feeling back there, Em. I don’t think I believe Adam. Why would he admit to murdering someone anyway?”

  “He didn’t know about what happened to Mr. Kenney,” I said. “I think he’s telling the truth.”

  “I know what I saw,” Roz said. “Someone overpowered Mr. Kenney. It looked the same as the first one. It can’t be a coincidence, who else could it be?”

  “Adam isn’t the only one with an ability,” I said. “I mean, look at the three of us. And Judy.”

  “But he was at the first attack,” she said. “The last victim was one of his cases. It might have been another accident, another failed attempt to use his ability.”

  “Why would he lie?” I knew it wasn’t a lie—his emotions matched his words. I didn’t feel any deception whatsoever.

  “If he accidently killed a man, he probably doesn’t want to go to jail, Em,” Tommy said, as if that should be obvious. “Besides, he was at that woman’s house. We know she’s one of his cases.”

  “Yeah, and did you see his face when I started talking about my vision? He definitely knew something,” Roz said.

  Adam didn’t appear to be hiding anything—at least, it didn’t feel like he was. His reactions and demeanor weren’t those of a guilty man.

  “I don’t think it was him,” I said. But I seemed to be the only one in that opinion.

  “Oh, Tommy, will you drive past Nydia’s house? I want to be sure it’s her mother I’m seeing in my vision.”

  He nodded, and in minutes we were parked outside of the house. It wasn’t long before someone exited. The woman Tommy and I saw the other day dumped garbage in her trash can.

  The color drained from Roz’s complexion. “That’s her. The woman from my vision.”

  “Well, what do we do now?” Tommy said.

  “We know about his ability. I think we should warn Nydia,” Roz said.

  “And tell her what?” Tommy said. “Her social worker is a homicidal maniac?”

  She shot him a dirty look. “No. I can tell her that…” She tapped her index finger against her lips. Then she sighed in exasperation. “I sat next to her for a year in math class. She knows me, if I tell her it’s important, she’ll cancel her appointments with him.”

  “Are you actually going to try that?” I said. “She’ll think you’re nuts.”

  “I have to do something, Em,” Roz said, with a desperate look of determination. “If someone else dies, and I could’ve stopped it…”

  I felt her uneasiness and frustration. “Do you want to try another vision recall?”

  “Yeah, I guess we could,” she said. Her brow relaxed, and I felt a little of her tension subside.

  “Can we do it at your house?” I asked her. “Mine is hostile territory right now.”

  * * * *

  At Roz’s house, Roz and I got situated on the couch. I sat cross-legged on one end with a pillow on my lap, and Roz lay down on the rest of the couch, with her head on the pillow. Tommy watched us from the adjacent loveseat, and I swore he looked jealous.

  “You’ll get your turn later,” I whispered.

  He cracked a smile.

  “What?” Roz said.

  “Nothing. Let’s get started.” I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself and then rested my hands on her head. The steady flow of heat relaxed her to a dreamlike state.

  “I’m coming home,” she whispered softly.

  “Are you hearing the killer?” I asked. She didn’t respond, but seemed to drift further off. “Roz, what does ‘I’m coming home’ mean?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t see him.”

  It had to be tied in somehow. “Okay, Roz, tell me about your last vision. Describe everything you see.”

  “A man approaches the house… He knocks on the door. The woman answers it, but she’s confused. He stares at her… She freezes.” Her forehead wrinkled. “He pushes her inside and shuts the door. He’s attacking her. Her head begins to hurt.”

  My connection to her made me painfully aware she began to feel the attack while she recalled it. “Did he say anything?”

  “No, he’s staring at her,” she said. “She falls down. She’s holding her head.”

  The intensity increased, but I had to press further. There had to be something, some clue. “Roz, do you see or hear anything else? On the outside?”

  “The flag is up on her mailbox.” She struggled. “I can hear water running, a sprinkler maybe. And it’s hot out.”

  I winced as the pain of the attack increased.

  “He’s inside her mind. She can’t take it anymore.” She cried out.

  The pain turned acute, my head started throbbing. I let out a soft groan at the mounting discomfort.

  “Okay, Roz, clear your mind.”

  She began to breathe more slowly. I waited until she was fully back to normal before I withdrew my hands.

  “We’re done. Sit up when you’re ready.”

  I placed my hands on my forehead to heal the lingering pain.

  Roz touched my arm. “Oh no, did I hurt you again?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Did we get anything out of it?” she asked.

  “Yeah, we did.” The pain completely dissipated. “I think it’ll be either tomorrow or next week.”

  Tommy scratched his head. “How do you know that?”

  “Cannondale is under water restriction right now. Certain streets are only allowed to water their lawns on specific days, depending on the street address number. Since hers ends in an even number, her day is Thursday.”

  “I’m glad we don
’t worry about that in Manchez,” he said. “It sounds complicated.”

  “Yeah, it is. It’s a long shot, because she may be one of those people who doesn’t care. And it probably happens in the afternoon because of the heat. We’d have to find out when her mailman comes around. Of course, even with that, she may be putting her mail out for pickup after he delivered it.”

  “Oh, because Roz said the flag was up on the mailbox,” Tommy said. “I can’t believe you got all that out of what she said.”

  “Still don’t know what ‘I’m coming home’ means,” I said. “It’s got to be the killer, right?”

  Tommy chewed on his lip. “Maybe he’s going after his family next.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.” I glanced at Roz. She held her arms against her chest and swayed back and forth.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I have to warn her,” she said. “I’ll talk to her tomorrow at school.”

  I couldn’t imagine that conversation going well. How do you tell someone you think her social worker is going to murder her mother? Not exactly the topic of casual conversation.

  But I didn’t have the energy to argue with her. “Let us know what happens.”

  Tommy and I left. He took the precaution of parking around the corner of our block to keep me out of trouble. We walked slowly to his car. The kiss goodnight was a long one. My entire body warmed at the perfect feel of his lips against mine. When he pulled away, I caught the shape of the girl I kept seeing in my peripheral vision. My eyes focused on the spot, but she disappeared.

  Tommy sniffed the air. “Do you smell that?”

  “Smell what?”

  “Kind of a unique scent, but it’s so faint. I can’t remember where I smelled it before.”

  “I don’t smell anything.”

  He shrugged, and then brushed my cheek gently. “See you tomorrow, beautiful.”

  * * * *

  Roz and I were both nervous at the bus stop the following morning. She rehearsed what she would say to Nydia. I tried to be positive, but I was pretty sure how she’d react. I hoped she wouldn’t freak out too badly.

  At school, I wished Roz good luck and went to my locker to switch out my books. I found Tommy waiting for me, with his back leaned against Angel’s locker.