WindSwept Narrows: #23 Molly & Natasha

by Diroll-Nichols, Karen

  “I’ve left messages but she isn’t answering. Either text or voice, Cassidy. I kept checking on her car, and it’s still in the lot behind the employee housing,” Jonathan pushed a deep breath between his lips. “If you’ve got the video, you see she was very disturbed by their appearance, but more so by the things they’d said to her.”

  “I’ve got it and I’m making a copy for my file. They’ve been in contact with others and we were in the process of trying to find a way to figure out which person all of them had in connection, but hadn’t come up with an answer until this. Hold on.”

  He listened to the quiet voices on the other end of the phone.

  “Molly is at the health center, Jon. I’m going to go over and talk to her. I don’t know if that’ll help you any…”

  “I understand the need to be off on your own and think, Cassidy. And I can see the other side, as well,” he said cautiously.

  “Is the suite still in one piece?”

  He heard the humor in her voice and managed a grin. “Yeah. It is.”

  “I saw the look in your eyes when we met in the foyer,” Cassidy told him.

  “I keep telling myself I’m not sixteen and that we just met, but…” his head shook at the words he spoke aloud.

  “Having luck with the lecture?”

  “Not so much, Cassidy. Not so much,” the admission came out as confused as the words sounded inside him.

  “I’ll see if I can get her to call you, Jon. And I’m sure I don’t need to suggest you give her time to work through whatever’s going on in her head over this. I don’t have information on any of it, so I’m unable to help on that score. Mac’s been wracking his brain about some private school for advanced kids. But it was twenty years ago.”

  “Thanks, Cassidy. I’ve got meetings scheduled but I’ll keep trying her phone.”

  “I’ll be in touch, Jon, bye.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  She thought she was alright. She thought she had the anger and nerves under control but every time someone came to speak with her and she wasn’t fully conscious of their presence, her heart jumped and so did her body. She’d spent most of the weekend huddled in a frightened bundle in her office, the door locked. Her arms had been wrapped tightly around her middle, her stomach churning each time she tried to move.

  “Do you want to give me a clue what’s wrong with you today?” Tre Thorne stood in the open door to her office, an iPad in one hand and the other with a thumb hitched in the pocket on his jeans.

  “I’m fine. Just…” Molly shoved both hands into the pockets of her smock and stared at the floor for a long quiet minute. “Really. I’m okay.”

  “Molly, you’re jumping at every shadow that comes near you. You’re not fine.”

  “I am fine,” she said firmly, working to convince herself of the words she’d spoken. “Excuse me,” she turned and went into the small bathroom attached to her office, closing the door firmly.

  “Somehow I just don’t believe it,” Cassidy said as she came up next to Tre. “Hi, Tre. How’s things going?”

  “Other than Molly being fine…which is obviously a lie, I’m doing great. How about you?” He asked with a curious frown. “You don’t visit to be sociable.”

  “I’m developing a complex,” she murmured with a chuckle, meeting his gaze. “You hang out with some brainy people.”

  “Present company included,” he returned politely. “Considering your husband, that’s a serious compliment. What’d you need to know, Cass?”

  “What do you know about brain schools? The serious ones for all those advanced types.” She slid her hands into the pockets of her slacks and paced into the corridor. Molly’s office was at the end so they weren’t in the way of clinic traffic. Tre followed, moving away from the door way.

  “You’re looking at places that recruit for the big companies and the government,” Tre commented thoughtfully.

  “I honestly don’t know what I’m looking for, Tre. You tell me what there is,” she suggested.

  “There’s private. They generally take kids just like any private school. Nothing complex about them. But lately they’re pretty rare. They’ve become big business and backed by same, in the interest of harvesting the finest up and coming minds,” Tre’s voice held more than a little trace of distaste.

  “Would they pay parents for their kid?”

  Tre raised first one brow and then the other when her expression didn’t change. “Well…you mentioned being naïve and dealing with humans in the same sentence, Cass. Then you realized, yes, of course, there are the less than ethical establishments out there. I’d say even a private one that…” he paced the hallway, one hand up and rubbing the back of his neck. “Raising kids like prize pets to be sold to the highest bidder. With the right conditioning, the right…coercion…some big research company gets a prime intelligence to mold however they choose.”

  “I think so. And evidently some that don’t take no for an answer.” She waited, watching him. “This was twenty years ago, Tre.”

  Tre pushed a little puff of air between his lips.

  “You should talk to Tanner or…I’m guessing you already talked to Mac about it. I went to a lot of schools for a lot of things, but nothing like that, sorry. My mother is very…” he paused, searching for the right word. “Interactive. But she wanted me around as much as possible.”

  “Tanner’s down in the new historical office,” she said thoughtfully, her gaze sweeping to the woman standing in the door to her office. “Molly. I need a few minutes.”

  “He told you, didn’t he?” Molly finally asked, her hands in tight fists at her side.

  “He…is really worried about you. So yes, he told me something upset you and I pulled the video. Every one of my security teams is on the lookout and I’ve got a call into the local police. Natalie is doing some checking for me. But it would really help if you talked to me and told me what was going on.”

  “They’ve been bothering people. He told me he was talking to people around the resort. Talking to my friends,” she said softly, her head shaking. “I’m sorry, Cassidy. I’m…I really am sorry.”

  Tre came forward, took the iPad out of her hands and turned her back toward her office.

  “Inside Molly, and sit. I’m going after some water and I’ll juggle some things around.”

  “No.” She shook her head and took back her iPad. “I have work. I’m fine and that’s all there is to it. I will contact Jonathon when I’ve finished for the day, I promise.”

  “And the guys you’re afraid of?” Cassidy stood in the doorway.

  “My shift is up at three today,” she answered, nodding slowly. “I’ll come to your office and talk to you.”

  “I’ve seen that look before, Molly. When Mac and I first got together. All I wanted to do was run and never stop because when you stopped, the hurting caught up with you,” Cassidy watched the single tear ease over her cheek. “You’re not alone anymore, Molly. It’s one of the hazards of joining the resort staff. One way or another, people watch out for you. You might not have the apple perfect family through DNA, but you’ve got us now.” She winked. “We’re the new and improved version.”

  “I’ll be at your office at three-thirty, Cassidy. You have my word,” Molly promised. She stiffened her shoulders and swiped an angry palm over her cheek. “I will be there.”

  “Thank you,” Cassidy watched her go down the corridor and turn the corner. She shook her head and pulled her communicator out, tapping in a quick message. “I’m putting someone on her until she gets off and over to the resort. She takes the underground, so it should be easy enough to lock up her car. Just in case.”

  “Trusting little thing, aren’t you?” Tre commented, walking with her towards the front of the health center.

  “Like I said. I’ve seen the look before. She’s hurt and doesn’t know how to handle it,” Cassidy kept her hand on the communicator, offered Tre a crooked grin and tipped her head. “Thanks for the
help. I’ll see what Tanner can tell me. Take care.”

  ****

  Cassidy peered around the large office that had more of the look of an old library room at some continental college. Shelves stretched from floor to ceiling on one wall. Two others held old black and white photos of the area before the resort was built. In the center were two large old desks with computers on each, backed against one another.

  “I feel like I should see a ghost any minute now,” she said when she couldn’t immediately locate a human being.

  “That’s a little rude,” came the masculine chuckle from the far side of the room.

  She crossed the floor, weaving around heavy boxes of books until she saw Tanner Clayton sitting cross-legged on the floor, an old book of photos on his bent knees.

  “I dust him off every couple minutes, Cass,” Vianne Summers-Clayton told Cassidy with a wink. She came from the large closet behind Tanner. “He has a tendency to get lost in the books and forget he’s here to work.”

  “She’s a slave driver. We’re to document. To document, we must learn from the past,” Tanner announced dramatically. “What’s up, Cassidy?”

  “Why do people always think I’m after something?”

  “Please. Your reputation for directness is legendary,” Vianne told her, offering a bottle of water. “I find it refreshing, personally. I’m used to having to dance around before I can ask the questions that really bite.”

  “Thanks. I suppose that’s a good thing. A nice compliment…I think,” Cassidy said, taking a long drink of the cold water. “I need to know if Tanner knows anything about specialty schools for the advanced brain types. But I’m not sure of the age…”

  “I’ve heard some rumors,” Tanner closed the book and slowly unfolded his long legs with a wince. “Guess I have been down here a few hours now.”

  “Hmm…” was all his wife had to say as he climbed to his feet and stretched before leaning back against the heavy desk.

  “A couple guys have been quizzing certain employees,” Tanner said, his gaze on Cassidy. “You know how stories get going through people, Cass. The ones I know of, are all ones who might have been approached by think tanks…which are generally run by one business or another specifically to lead the brains in the direction that the business group wants.”

  “Is that the secret name for the schools?”

  “Like anything else, you have your legitimate types wanting to help guide kids with massive brains. But you have more who want to cash in on the brains before they get old enough to realize they’re being used, and generally not for a nice use,” Tanner blew a long breath between his lips. “They never came out and asked about a person, a name. But I have a feeling I know who they’re looking for. She managed to cross a lot of paths because her parents sold her to them when she was ten. I met her when she was sixteen.”

  “Her parents…” Vianne plopped into the padded leather chair and stared at him.

  “The ability to create a child doesn’t mean you’ve got the parental gene to be decent,” Cassidy said before Tanner could speak. “Who, Tanner?”

  “Molly Fielding.”

  “This place…wasn’t a school?” Cassidy turned her recorder on and paced, thinking.

  “It was accredited and had anything that might be needed to run and function as an educational facility.” He answered with all the right, media approved words.

  “Were you there?” Vianne asked with a frown. She’d met him for the first time when he was seventeen.

  “I knew people who were there…until it was destroyed. Official story at the time, blamed bad pipes and a gas leak,” Tanner crossed his arms over his muscular chest. “I think Molly was just twelve at the time, if I remember correctly. I met her in one of the off campus extension classes in Southern Cal. From the time line I could piece together, she crossed paths with more than a few people currently working for or associated with the resort in one form or another.”

  “And this was legal?” Cassidy ran a heavy palm over her neck.

  “It exists today, Cass,” he told her sadly. “I think they file it under the guise of a recruitment incentive to the parents to enroll their kids in their facility. The kids do get a top notch education. Everything from robotics, to computers to drug research to medical devices. I only have issues with the so-called guidance they’re offered. Would they have been better off with the parents who sold them?” He shrugged. “I don’t have an answer to that one. The think tanks are generally operated by heavy hitting high powered businesses or business groups, and the government is involved in some of them…who want the brains to work for them, free of charge, and generally solve a lot of problems that their own researchers are having issues with. Kids have the ability to see around corners and outside the box that adults put into their brains when creating.” He sighed. “Some claim it’s a win-win…”

  “It’s closet child abuse,” Vianne said softly.

  “I’ve never been inside one. I don’t know. I know some people who have…Molly and Isabel were two. From what I know, the one they were in was not one of the better facilities, but they were known for paying above average for their students,” Tanner admitted. “Isabel was being tested because of her psychic abilities. Molly was used because she had an uncanny ability to see around corners and find solutions in physics and chemistry and she has this memory that doesn’t quit. And I know all this only because I met them both when I was the same age. They were scrawny, skittish and nervous as hell and barely trusted us.”

  “Oh, god,” Vianne whispered, imagining the images Tanner was painting.

  “I also know her name isn’t Fielding,” Tanner added quietly, watching Cassidy’s reaction.

  Cassidy met his gaze straight on. “I personally run the check on all the incoming people at higher levels and a physician qualifies as that.”

  “Someone very good designed her name and a small portion of her existence,” Tanner said with a little bit of a smile. “Her credentials are all genuine. None of that was altered or faked.”

  “It was good enough to get past me,” Cassidy narrowed her pale lashes. “Who…?”

  Tanner simply arched one eyebrow.

  Cassidy’s body straightened to her full five-foot nine. Pale brows narrowed dangerously.

  “Don’t you know better than to torment a woman with a gun?” Vianne hissed at him. “I’m too young to be a widow.”

  “That…are you telling me, that…that…no good, cheating blonde…”

  “Kicked your ass in Halo again, did she?” Tanner chuckled. Vianne groaned.

  “She cheats. I don’t know how, but I’ll figure it out,” Cassidy snarled.

  “She’s just good. It’s why Charlie and Nate snagged her up as a partner,” Tanner shrugged. “I’ve watched them play. She has a photographic memory like I’ve never seen before. It’s almost as if the 3-D version of what we see is playing out in her head and I’ve tried sneaking up one her, believe me.”

  Cassidy fumed silently for a minute. “Okay. Faith changed her last name. To keep the past from finding her?”

  “And her birth parents,” Tanner shrugged. “My folks didn’t necessarily understand me, but they were there for me. Which meant, they were there for friends if I said they needed help. Molly stayed off and on with a couple in San Francisco. Mostly on, once they convinced her she could trust them. Very smart and very capable of guiding a young brain. She considered them her parents, which is why she took one of their names as her own. I remember the day she told them. You never saw two prouder guys in your life. Mike is the reason she decided on medicine. He’s a neurologist and Greg runs a high end clothing store filled with local artisan stuff. Part of her agreement to stay with them was to talk to a counselor about the past. So the community she grew up with there was what pulled her away from the anger and sense of loss and betrayal she felt.”

  “Care to offer a hypothesis on why they’re contacting her now?” Cassidy asked after a lengthy pause.

&
nbsp; “It doesn’t make sense, unless they’re intent on kidnapping,” Tanner shrugged. “But you can’t force her to work for them. The only method behind that would be blackmail of some kind…otherwise she’s more likely to tell them to shove it and destroy everything around her and believe me, she has the knowledge and capability to do just that if she wanted to.”

  “What are these think tanks for?” Vianne asked.

  “Everything, babe. From chemical, medicinal breakthroughs to aerospace and electronics. Whoever comes up with the next best…whatever…wins the money. Nothing more complex than that. I’m guessing with the end to most formal hostilities, the weapons markets are a little thin…so medicine is the next big deal out there. Diagnostics and chemical,” Tanner tilted his head to the side in thought. “Then would come the energy mix…non-heating batteries with long life…solar and wind power…”

  “And they have kids working out their problems for them?” Vianne shook her head. “Here I was doing stories overseas about injustice and kids and our own country has worms that should be exposed.”

  “And you should write an expose on them,” Tanner suggested with a proud smile at his wife. “It’s what you’re good at.”

  Cassidy crossed the room to the desk and picked up a pen. She wrote the one name she had on the paper and slid it toward Vianne.

  “It’s the only name I have. I’ll shoot you the pictures when I get back to my office,” Cassidy promised. “Why not any of the rest of you?”

  “Good question. One, none of us was ever involved in the brain tanks. I’m sure most of the people on your list have been in what they considered advanced classes,” Tanner told her thoughtfully. “But never in a boarding school environment. With the exception of Chloe, but hers were definitely exclusive and her grandmother chose them, not her parents. It would be damn difficult to just kidnap a child and hope no one bothered with the police. Especially a kid who’s already made a kind of spash with teachers noting the increased brain capacity and abilities. In this day, with internet and the social media, their face would literally be worldwide in hours. Let me see what we can track down for you about this guy and what businesses and school he’s associated with.”