Mind Echoes (Book 2 in the Body Shifters Trilogy)

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Mind Echoes (Book 2 in the Body Shifters Trilogy) Page 15

by Leslie O'Kane


  “You were reining in your impulses,” Jake said.

  Allie, meanwhile, was feeling a little annoyed by Mellie’s complaining, and wondered if she, too, was annoying like this.

  “Have you checked to see if there were any fires early this year?” Mellie asked. “After Eric left, and while Melissa was left to her own...incendiary devices?”

  “No, but regardless, you can’t hold yourself responsible for something that Melissa did. And, besides, you’re young. You’re really more of a firebug than an arsonist.”

  “What do you know about Melissa’s relationship with Kathleen?” Allie asked, hoping to shift the conversation toward something more productive.

  “Very little. I know that the two sisters were estranged, though.”

  Mellie snorted. “I’ll bet she didn’t take kindly to my burning down the family house. No wonder my parents were so eager to let me be with Mark Jones.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way,” Jake replied, “but you can’t be beating up on yourself like this. That only helps Jennifer. While she’s here in Albany, we have to be extra careful. Daniel or I have to be with both of you.” He shifted his stern gaze between Allie and Mellie. “When that isn’t possible, you need to stay in groups of other people, like when you’re in school. Stay in the building. Never go anywhere by yourselves.”

  “You think she’s going to kidnap us,” Allie said.

  Jake peered at her. “I think that’s her obvious next move. Don’t you?”

  “It is obvious. That’s why I warned Mellie about it in the beginning. But sometimes Jennifer does the opposite of what’s expected, just to keep everyone off balance. I think we should search for Kathleen. If we can capture her and bring her to the police, we can help our odds considerably.”

  “You’re right,” Mellie said. “I’m going to call Melissa’s parents. Maybe they know where she is.” Without waiting for Jake’s or Daniel’s approval, she dialed, and soon said, “Mama?” After listening, she said, “I’m just fine, Mama. How are y’all doing?” She grimaced and chewed on her lip nervously. “Good to hear. I’m fixin’ to ask Kathleen something important. You got a number where I can reach her?” She raised her fist and flashed a smile. As she jotted down a number, she asked, “Where-abouts is she, these days?” Her eyes widened in surprise a moment later. “New York? City, you mean?” Then she said, “Thank you kindly, Mama. Take care now.” She hung up.

  She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “That was nerve wracking. I just use a semi-southern twang. I’m always half expecting her to ask why my voice sounds so weird.” She stared at the piece of paper with the number. “Should I call her? See what she says?”

  “Might as well,” Jake replied. “I’m sure Jennifer the Second is expecting us to call one of these days.”

  “We’ll lose the element of surprise,” Daniel said. Allie glanced over at him, realizing only now, that he was no longer concentrating on his computer.

  “I’m sure Jennifer One is keeping Jennifer Two up to speed at every step,” Jake countered.

  They both looked at Allie as if in spontaneous agreement that she would cast the deciding vote.

  “Call her,” Allie said. “Let’s move into the end game. We need to get this thing with Jennifer resolved. One way or another.”

  Mellie dialed. She put her phone on speaker. After the third ring, Kathleen answered, “Hello, Elony.”

  Mellie was clearly thrown off by the greeting for a moment, but then she answered, “Hello, Jennifer.”

  “Is Jake with you now?”

  “I’m here,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Well, well. If it isn’t the peripatetic Jake Greyland. As I’m sure you realize, Jennifer the First and I need you to make improvements to your memory device.”

  “I did glean that. I haven’t necessarily decided what to do about that.”

  “Of course you have. We’re both adults. Well, more or less, on your end. Spare us both the tedium of lying to me, all right, Jacob? Don’t make me come after your little gaggle of gnomes.”

  “Gaggle of gnomes?” Allie repeated under her breath.

  “Give me what I want, Jake, and I’ll let the four of you live. Otherwise, I’ll pick you off, one by one, until you alone are left, living with the knowledge that I’ll keep reproducing myself in other young women’s brains as often and as long as I wish. There is no place that you can possibly hide where I can’t send a mind duplicate to find you.”

  Jake’s and Allie’s gazes locked. “You’re not going to do that,” Allie said into the phone. “Thanks to you, Melissa and I know how hard it is to feel like you’re no longer unique. That your soul has been duplicated. I can guarantee that Jennifer the First considers you a copy, not as good as the original.” Allie mouthed the word “Sorry,” to Mellie, confident that she understood her strategy of turning the two Jennifer’s against each other.

  “I would rather help you get rid of your host’s presence in your brain than to help Jennifer One with hers,” Jake said. “Eric knew Kathleen, and she had her problems. But Suzanne Anderson was a really good person. I don’t want to have any part in erasing Suzanne’s presence.”

  “Be that as it may, Jennifer the First and I are a team, united by the common goal of strengthening our footholds in this world, and eradicating our enemies. The choice is yours. Come willingly to me, or I’ll drag you here by your throat.”

  “I’m already working on the design, Jennifer. Let’s meet. Come here to Albany. Join your evil twin.”

  “You come here, Jake. To the lab, in Brooklyn. And bring your design with you. I know it’s ready.”

  “It isn’t ready. Not even close. For one thing—”

  “She hung up,” Mellie interrupted.

  He growled in frustration. “I need to go to New York right now,” Jake said. “Alone.”

  Chapter 20

  “No way,” Daniel said, just as Allie was saying, “No, you can’t do that!”

  Melissa’s phone started to ring. “It’s my public defender,” she said, then answered. A moment later, she said hello a second time and muttered that her signal strength was low. She stepped outside.

  “I need to get to Kathleen before Jennifer One arrives,” Jake said. “I can play them against each other best if I’m on my own. Furthermore, if the three of you take off right now and go into hiding, Jennifer has no power over me. You can watch each other’s backs. We’ll pick a random place to meet up in a month. The front desk of the library at U. Wisconsin, for example. At two p.m. on July twenty-first. If all goes well, I’ll rejoin you. Either as Jake, or Eric. And I’ll have ridded the world of Jennifer McGavin.”

  “No, Jake. We’re strongest when we stick together. We learned that lesson once already. If you splinter yourself off like this, Jake, Jennifer’s just going to keep you captive and kill you. You won’t have protected us from her, either. You’ll just have given us a month of hiding away in fear. She’ll come after us anyway.”

  Jake shook his head. “I’m right, Allie. This is the logical way to proceed. Our biggest chance is to convince the Jennifers that they’re each other’s enemy, and that I’ll work with one but not the other. If she kidnaps one of you, though, it’s game over. I’ll have to do whatever she says.”

  “No, way,” Allie said. “You can’t defeat two Jennifers by yourself. Furthermore, it won’t be a fair fight. She knows you’ll hesitate to kill her host body, no matter what she does.”

  “You’re seeing this through loving eyes, Ellie.” Jake took her hand. “You are so afraid I’ll die alone, you can’t base my plan on its merits alone.” He turned toward Daniel. “You get this right, Dan?”

  “To be honest, bro, it seems pretty near hopeless either way. So if you want me to pick sides, I’d have to go with Ellie.”

  “Please, guys, the name’s Allie.”

  “You can’t be serious, Daniel,” Jack growled. “We’re wasting precious time discussing this. I should be on the road alr
eady.”

  “No, here’s what we’ll do,” Daniel said. “Just in case, we’ll go with your plan to meet at the library in Madison at two p.m. on the twenty first. But Allie and I will follow you to the lab. And we’ll keep our contact with you at a minimum. You’ll insist to the Jennifers that we went into hiding. I’ll put together a first rate wire for you to wear, so we’ll know what’s being said at all times.”

  Jake grimaced, but said, “Okay.”

  Allie nodded. “We have no idea if Kathleen’s really gone to Brooklyn like she said, or if one or both of them are right here in Albany. She could be using the divide-and-conquer tactic. If you go to Brooklyn alone, one of the Jennifers might snuff us all out, five minutes later. You said it yourself, Jake. We’re safest when we’re together.”

  “I see your point,” Daniel said, massaging his own shoulders and sounding exhausted. “But I think it’s too risky to have you or Mellie anywhere near Jennifer. Either of the Jennifers.”

  “Where’s Mellie?” Jake asked.

  “Making the phone call,” Allie said heading toward the door. “She’s probably right on—” Allie opened the door, but Mellie wasn’t right on the other side of it. “She must have gone to her room,” Allie said. She started to dial Mellie’s number, hoping she’d hear the sound of her phone ringing nearby.

  “She isn’t answering her cellphone.”

  Jake and Daniel were already heading out the door, joining Allie on the walkway. “She could still be on her call,” Allie said, but in truth, she sensed the worst.

  They trotted to her room. Daniel knocked on the door. No answer.

  “Call again,” Daniel said to Allie.

  “I don’t hear it ringing in there,” Jake said.

  “Damn it!” Daniel was peering through a slit in the curtains. “A chair was upended. Mellie must have been trying to get away.” He turned away in disgust and said, “I’ll go get the manager,” as he started to jog toward the office.

  “We shouldn’t have left her alone!” Jake growled. “Jennifer all but announced her plans to us.”

  It felt like hours until a seedy-looking woman trudged toward them, followed by Daniel, who had his arms crossed over his chest and made a face behind the woman’s back to signal how frustrated he was with the woman. “Is your last name ‘Cooper?” Allie asked her.

  “What of it?” she growled.

  “You knew our friend, Melissa. She’s missing.”

  “Lots of folks who hate being found tend to disappear from hotels,” the woman barked. “That’s the natural order of things.”

  “She didn’t disappear by choice,” Allie retorted. “And there’s nothing natural about any of this.”

  Ms. Cooper unlocked the door. The three of them rushed past her into the room. Allie scanned the floor. No Mellie, and no signs of bloodshed on the well-worn tan carpet. Allie headed straight for the bathroom, while Daniel checked the built-in cabinet drawers and Jake checked the closet.

  “She’s gone,” Jake said grimly.

  “It looks like all of her clothes and her backpack are still here.”

  “There’s a note,” Jake said.

  Allie rushed over to the bed. The note had the same non-descript all cap letters as the one she’d found on her backpack at the beginning of the week.

  It read:

  YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND ME.

  E.M.

  Chapter 21

  Allie felt like screaming. Jennifer had captured Mellie during the few minutes she’d stepped out onto the motel walkway. She must have been waiting just outside the room with chloroform to render unconscious whichever one of them emerged.

  “If you all are finished in here, I should lock up,” Ms. Cooper grumbled.

  “We can lock the door as we leave,” Allie said.

  “Nice try, honey,” she scoffed, crossing her arms.

  “We need to look around for clues,” Allie said. “We think our friend might have been kidnapped.”

  The woman snorted.

  “Thank you for helping us like this,” Daniel told her, flashing one of his patented charming smiles. In Allie’s opinion, the effect was diminished by his greased-back hair, although he’d deserted the chains and baggy black jeans. “We appreciate the inconvenience this has caused you.” He held out his hand and handed her a fifty-dollar bill.

  The woman eyed it for a second, then spun around on her heel. “No problem. Lemme know if I need to call the police for you all.” She left, closing the door behind her.

  “E.M.?” Jake repeated as he, too, read the note.

  “That’s how Mellie signed her first note to me,” Allie said. “As in ‘Elony Montgomery.’”

  “So she wrote this note, not McBitch?” Daniel asked.

  “Yes,” Allie replied. “The handwriting is the same. Jennifer never could have seen the first note that Melissa gave me. So she wouldn’t have had any notion of how Melissa had signed it.”

  Jake and Daniel exchanged glances.

  “At the same time, if it was written by Melissa, why would she choose to be so ominous? And vague?”

  “Jennifer might have forced her to write it,” Daniel said. “She could have had a gun pointed at her head the whole time.”

  “They’re probably headed to New York. That’s where Kathleen wanted us to meet them.”

  “We have no choice but to follow,” Allie said. In a strange way, she felt a little relieved—or at least galvanized. The decision had now been made for them.

  “The note has to mean that Jennifer’s taken Mellie to Brooklyn,” Jake said, searching Allie’s eyes. “There’s no other reasonable interpretation.”

  Although he phrased this as a statement and not a question, he glanced at Daniel and Allie for their approval. They both gave somber nods. “Let’s see if we can find anything helpful in the room,” Daniel said.

  “I’m going to pack up some clothes for her to wear, once we find her. But first I need to call Fiona,” Allie said, already calling before either of them could object. Fiona answered on the third ring. “We’re pretty sure Jennifer McGavin kidnapped Melissa. We’re about to leave for New York. Can you make an excuse to give my parents for me?”

  “No problem. As long as you’re back by tomorrow morning.”

  “I can’t guarantee that.”

  “Then call them yourself.”

  “You said you’d help me,” Allie objected.

  “Telling your parents an obvious lie that they’re going to see through in two seconds isn’t helping you.”

  Allie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I know. I just...don’t want to do this. But I will. Thanks anyway.”

  “Take good care of yourself, Allie. Keep in touch constantly, if you can.”

  “I’ll try. For what it’s worth, I hope you still get to go to the prom, and that you have a blast.”

  Fiona snorted. “Tell Daniel he still owes me a corsage.”

  “I will,” Allie said, glancing at Daniel, who was currently typing something into Melissa’s computer. All the while, Allie’s head filled with fear and regret. She wondered if she’d ever see Fiona again. “You, take care, too.” She hung up before she could start crying. She joined Daniel. “Are you able to sign on?”

  “No. What password would she have used?” he asked.

  “Um, try...the letter L then E in caps, and capital M as the first letter in the word ‘Monkeyward.”

  “I’m in,” he said a moment later.

  She looked at Jake, who’d rifled through her closet and dresser. “Her purse and her backpack are still here. Other than the note, there’s nothing.”

  “She knew Jennifer was going to grab one of us. Her or me.” Allie weighed things over in her mind. “I think she left by herself deliberately to make herself a sitting duck. She’s throwing herself on her sword, just like you were, Jake. She doesn’t want to turn into a person she detests, and she’s appalled to find out Melissa was an arsonist. She even said that it was better to have hercaptured than
me, because I know how Jennifer operates.”

  Jake grimaced and pressed his hands against his temples. “I never should have told her about Melissa’s problems with arson.”

  “She had the right to know the truth,” Allie said. “Maybe that’s how we turn this into a greater purpose.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “Maybe this is what the universe wants from us. I’m meant to fulfill Alexis’s potential. You’re supposed to give Eric a chance to be great, and Mellie is supposed to do the same with Melissa.”

  Daniel looked up from the computer. “There’s a diary on the computer. It started eight weeks ago, saying she’d arrived in Albany Central and located you, Allie, but was reluctant to approach you. She said she didn’t want to mess up your life. That you seemed to be happy. I just sort of skimmed through to the last entry, yesterday. There’s one thing that could help us. It’s a description of the apartment building that Mark Jones rented for her in Queens. She describes it as ‘brown brick’ and ‘bordering a park on the west side.’ We’ll bring this and go through it more carefully. There could be some salient details that I overlooked.”

  “It’s a start, I guess,” Jake said, “although there’s no guarantee that Jennifer will have brought her back to the same building that Mark once used as a hideaway.”

  “Except we do know that Jennifer used to walk in that park, right near the window. So my hunch is, she knew that’s where they were staying.”

  “We’ve got to rescue Mellie.” Jake gestured with his chin at the door, and the three of them headed out.

  “You should both pack up and check out of the hotel,” Allie said. “An extra five or ten minutes won’t make any difference at this point.”

  “What about you?” Daniel asked. “We need to drop off your parents’ car at the very least. Do you want to say goodbye to them?”

  Allie shook her head. “I can’t put my mom through that. She’d probably put me into a bear hug and you’d have to peel her off me. I’m just going to call her.”

 

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