Hostage

by Kay Hooper

  She briefly explained about Jamie Bell.

  “Well, if you ask me,” Tony said, “the only possible explanation is—”

  The door opened to admit Anna, followed closely by Owen.

  Under her breath, Hollis said to Tony, “Your timing sucks.”

  “Or not,” he said.

  Hollis didn’t get a chance to respond to that, distracted by the introductions.

  Anna, the perfect hostess, led the way to one of the larger seating groups in the room so everyone could sit down, though she was clearly somewhat bewildered.

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand how all of you are connected? Mr. Bishop said this was about a family matter?”

  Distracted again, this time by the odd idea of Bishop being a mister rather than an agent, Hollis almost missed his response to Anna.

  “It’s Agent Bishop, Mrs. Alexander. I’m with the FBI.”

  Owen scowled at him. “ID?”

  Bishop produced his credentials, seemingly unmoved by the way Owen very intently studied them before passing them back to him.

  “What does the FBI want with Anna?” he demanded of Bishop. “It was her you asked to see, wasn’t it?”

  Pleasantly, Bishop answered, “Because this concerns her family, Mr. Alexander. Ma’am, were you aware you had a younger half brother?”

  Rather blankly, she said, “A brother? No, I had no idea. My parents divorced when I was very young, and he—my father was—”

  Bishop helped her out. “He was abusive and your mother was granted a restraining order against him. Shortly after that, he moved to the West Coast and never contacted you or your mother again.”

  “It was a long time ago,” Anna said slowly. “He never hit me, and I think my mother recognized what he was quickly enough and was strong enough that leaving him was easy for her. She remarried. My stepfather, who legally adopted me, was always kind—and then eventually I met and married Daniel. I haven’t thought of my biological father in decades. He married again?”

  Bishop nodded. “To a woman who didn’t recognize what he was quickly enough, or wasn’t strong enough to leave him when she did. He abused both her and their son, though Cole Jacoby was still young when his father was killed in a bar fight.”

  Anna blinked. “A bar fight. I see. And—and my brother?”

  “Became a petty criminal who did time in prison, and eventually graduated to bank robberies,” Bishop told her calmly. “Which is where the FBI enters the picture. Ma’am, your half brother was killed yesterday, not very far from here. Shot in self-defense by a private investigator who had tracked him up into the mountains.”

  Anna looked completely disconcerted, which Hollis could well understand. It had to be upsetting to learn of the existence of a half brother and be told of his life of crime and his death, all within the space of a few short moments.

  “He’s dead?” Owen Alexander looked briefly almost as disconcerted as his sister-in-law, but then his face settled into its customary unrevealing expression.

  Bishop looked at him and smiled. It could be many things, that smile of his, but when he directed it at Owen, it was curiously dangerous. “He’s dead, Mr. Alexander. So, of course, we’ve come for the money.”

  There was a long, long silence. Hollis allowed her gaze to roam from face to face. Tony and DeMarco were watchful; Anna was still obviously bewildered, Owen’s face was stonelike, and Bishop . . . Well, he was Bishop, giving away nothing of his thoughts or feelings.

  Before Owen could say anything, Bishop went on, his tone still calm, even pleasant, but with steel around the edges. “Months ago, Cole Jacoby came here, looking for the half sister his research had uncovered. It had taken him time to discover who she was and where she was, but he had time on his hands then, so he found out about her. And about the Alexander family she married into. About Alexander House, where he actually stayed for a time, just another hotel guest.

  “But Cole Jacoby was less interested in establishing family relations than he was in finding a safe place he could turn to if he needed one. This remote place seemed an excellent potential hideaway or safe house. So he . . . banked that information for future need. When he robbed a bank and got away with ten million dollars rather than the considerably smaller amounts that had kept him off the national radar, he knew law enforcement agencies and officials all up and down the eastern part of the country would search for him, and search hard. He knew he’d be caught, and sooner rather than later. So he needed a place to hide the money.”

  Owen opened his mouth, but Bishop continued in that calm, relentless voice.

  “I don’t know what sort of deal he offered, or why you accepted it, but I can make a few educated guesses. You disliked business, disliked turning your home into a hotel for half the year, but you always enjoyed the good life, so those were necessary evils. Then Jacoby showed up, with millions he’d stolen, and he told you he’d split the money with you, if only you’d keep it hidden until he returned—or until the statute of limitations was up. It seemed a good deal to you. A few years of patience living as you always had, and then a windfall that would allow you to live as you liked, without being tied to a business or a home that was no longer really yours.”

  “I want a lawyer,” Owen said, then spoiled the very smart demand by adding impatiently, “You can’t prove any of that. There’s no one here who will testify that anyone named Jacoby ever visited this house.”

  In an aside to her partner, Hollis murmured, “More family secrets Thomas will take to his grave?”

  “Probably,” he agreed just as quietly.

  “And,” Owen added, “even if you have a warrant to search the place, you aren’t going to find stolen millions here.”

  Bishop smiled again. “Just because it wasn’t in the original plans for the house doesn’t mean we don’t know about the false panel in your closet, Mr. Alexander. Hiding a space large enough to house all that cash.”

  Owen went white. “You can’t— How do you—”

  Hollis couldn’t resist. “That’s the thing about spirits, Owen. They tend to know all our secrets. Especially the dangerous ones. And the spirit of a girl you never knew in life knows all about that false panel, how to open it, and what it hides. And she was happy to share the information. Her name was Brooke, by the way.

  “Gotcha,” Tony said.

  EPILOGUE

  It wasn’t until considerably later, on the jet heading back to Quantico, that Tony said to Bishop, “You’re not going to tell who you suspected of possibly being behind all this, or at least the start of it, are you?”

  “The keyword is suspected, Tony.” Since Hollis and DeMarco were near the back of the jet talking, Bishop’s voice was quiet.

  “Okay, I get that you might not have proof. But, Boss, if there’s yet another enemy out there, shouldn’t we all know who it is?”

  “All I have is a hunch.” Bishop turned his head and gazed out the window of the jet, at the serenity of white clouds. “If and when I have more than that, I’ll share.”

  “Will you?”

  “Yes.”

  For some reason, that bothered Tony. A lot.

  “Not exactly usual for you,” he said slowly. “Sharing that sort of info, I mean. I know I asked, but . . .”

  “If I’m right,” Bishop said, “he’ll make another move. And sooner rather than later. I think this one just . . . got away from him. Out of his control. Because he didn’t know about the vortex.”

  “He planned to use Jacoby because he just wanted the money?”

  “Needed it.”

  “To come after us?”

  Bishop nodded silently.

  Slowly, Tony said, “And he’s a strong enough psychic to control another mind? Jacoby’s mind, at least in the beginning?”

  “Yes.”

  “But who could do that?” When his q
uestion was met with silence, Tony tried again. “An old enemy or a new one?”

  “Both.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “I told you, Tony. Some enemies can haunt you. Some enemies can haunt you for a very long time.”

  HAVEN OPERATIVE AND SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT AGENT BIOS

  CALLIE DAVIS, FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

  Job: Special Agent

  Adept: Telepath. Also possesses the ability to recognize, shield against, and even repel negative energy.

  Appearances: Hostage

  LUTHER BRINKMAN, HAVEN SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR

  Job: Private investigator

  Adept: Clairvoyant with psychometric abilities

  Appearances: Hostage

  JOHN GARRETT, COFOUNDER OF HAVEN

  Job: Oversees the organizational duties of running Haven and makes certain all equipment, information, and assets are ready when his people require them.

  Adept: He is not psychic but possesses a unique understanding of those who are.

  Appearances: Touching Evil, Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Haven, Hostage

  MAGGIE GARRETT, COFOUNDER OF HAVEN

  Job: Maggie handles the operatives and investigators who work for Haven, overseeing their training and, even more, monitoring their emotional and psychic welfare, both at base and when they’re in the field.

  Adept: An exceptionally powerful empath/healer, Maggie has the ability to literally absorb into herself the emotional and even physical pain of other people, in a sense speeding up their healing processes and helping them to cope with extreme trauma. The act of doing so requires that she give of herself, give her own energy and strength to the person she’s helping.

  Appearances: Touching Evil, Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Haven, Hostage

  NOAH BISHOP, FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

  Job: Unit Chief, profiler, pilot, sharpshooter, and trained in martial arts

  Adept: An exceptionally powerful touch-telepath, he also shares with his wife a strong precognitive ability, the deep emotional link between them making them, together, far exceed the limits of the scale developed by the FBI to measure psychic talents. Also possesses an “ancillary” ability of enhanced senses (hearing, sight, scent), which he has trained other agents to use as well. Whether present in the flesh or not, Bishop always knows what’s going on with his agents in the field. Always.

  Appearances: Stealing Shadows, Hiding in the Shadows, Out of the Shadows, Touching Evil, Whisper of Evil, Sense of Evil, Hunting Fear, Chill of Fear, Sleeping with Fear, Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Haven, Hostage

  HOLLIS TEMPLETON, FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

  Job: Special Agent, profiler-in-training

  Adept: Medium. Perhaps because of the extreme trauma of Hollis’s psychic awakening (see Touching Evil), her abilities evolve and change much more rapidly than those of many other agents and operatives. Even as she struggles to cope with her mediumistic abilities, each investigation in which she’s involved seems to bring about another “fun new toy” for the agent.

  Appearances: Touching Evil, Sense of Evil, Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Haven, Hostage

  REESE DEMARCO, FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

  Job: Special Agent, pilot, military-trained sniper; has specialized in the past in deep-cover assignments, some long-term

  Adept: An “open” telepath, he is able to read a wide range of people. He possesses an apparently unique double shield, which sometimes contains the unusually high amount of sheer energy he produces. He also possesses something Bishop has dubbed a “primal ability”: he always knows when a gun is pointed at or near him, or if other imminent danger threatens.

  Appearances: Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Haven, and Hostage

  TONY HARTE, FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

  Job: Special Agent, profiler

  Adept: Telepath. Not especially strong, but able to pick up vibes from people, particularly emotions.

  Appearances: Out of the Shadows, Touching Evil, Whisper of Evil, Sense of Evil, Hunting Fear, Chill of Fear, Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Haven, Hostage

  PSYCHIC TERMS AND ABILITIES

  (as classified/defined by Bishop’s team and by Haven)

  Adept: The general term used to label any functional psychic; the specific ability is much more specialized.

  Clairvoyance: The ability to know things, to pick up bits of information, seemingly out of thin air.

  Dream-projecting: The ability to enter another’s dreams.

  Dream-walking: The ability to invite/draw others into one’s own dreams.

  Empath: One who experiences the emotions of others, often up to and including physical pain and injuries.

  Healing: The ability to heal injuries to one’s self or others, often but not always ancillary to mediumistic abilities.

  Healing Empathy: The ability to not only feel but also heal the pain/injury of another.

  Latent: The term used to describe unawakened or inactive abilities, as well as to describe a psychic not yet aware of being psychic.

  Mediumistic: The term used to describe a person who has the ability to communicate with the dead.

  Precognition: The ability of a person (a seer or precog) to correctly predict future events.

  Psychometric: The ability to pick up impressions or information from touching objects.

  Regenerative: The ability to heal one’s own injuries/illnesses, even those considered by medical experts to be lethal or fatal. (A classification unique to one SCU operative and considered separate from a healer’s abilities.)

  Spider Sense: The ability to enhance one’s normal senses (sight, hearing, smell) through concentration and the focusing of one’s own mental and physical energy.

  Telekinesis: The ability to move objects with the mind.

  Telepathic mind control: The ability to influence/control others through mental focus and effort. An extremely rare ability.

  Telepathy (touch and non-touch or open): The ability to pick up thoughts from others. Some telepaths only receive, while others have the ability to send thoughts. A few are capable of both, usually due to an emotional connection with the other person.

  UNNAMED ABILITIES INCLUDE:

  The ability to see into time, to view events in the past, present, and future without being or having been there physically while the events transpired.

  The ability to see the aura of another person’s energy field.

  The ability to channel energy usefully as a defensive or offensive tool or weapon.

  1 Chill of Fear

  2 Blood Ties

  3 Touching Evil

  4 Chill of Fear

  5 Sleeping With Fear

  6 Whisper of Evil