“What did you see your father do?”
“There’s no mistaking the fact he killed her. It’s the part where they called it a crime of passion and charged him with manslaughter instead of cold-blooded murder. That I couldn’t let him get away with. He planned killing her. He thought everything through. Everything, except for me. He didn’t count on me calling the police and having them show up minutes after he’d killed her.”
She waited for the million-dollar question. They didn’t disappoint her.
“Why didn’t you call the police and tell them before he killed her?”
“Because I didn’t know he planned to kill my mother before it happened. I only saw the murder and the events leading up to it minutes before he killed her. Without her standing between us, he’d finally have control over me. Standing up to my father wasn’t easy, but when it came to me, she tried. She didn’t want him using my gift and me.
“I was on my way home from school when it happened. I made the call to the police from a grocery store and ran all the way home. I arrived just as the end of the vision came true. I watched him kill her—twice.”
A lot to take in, no one said anything for a minute.
“He used to play games with me. When I was really little, I thought it was fun. As I got older, and better at it, it wasn’t fun anymore.”
“What kind of games did he play with you?” Alarms went off in Sam’s system. The little devils crawled up his back, his chest went tight, and he held his breath for what came next.
“Little things like, guess which hand I’m holding the coin in, or which card comes next in the deck. I was always right,” she smiled.
Those were happy memories of a time when her father had been less angry at the world.
“He’d ask me to guess what number he was thinking. I wasn’t always right on that one, but I got it most times. As I got older, the games got harder. He’d want to know something specific about someone. Like I’ve told you, it doesn’t work that way. You can’t ask me something like, ‘What’s Jenna’s bank account number and her ATM secret code?’”
“So he’d ask you these questions, so he could use it to his advantage?”
“Yes.”
“He was blackmailing people.”
“You’re sharp, Sam. It started off so innocent, the way it happened. The fun games we used to play turned into dark games. Then, they weren’t games anymore, but serious business. To him anyway.
“I was about six. I asked why a friend of his was kissing another woman. I knew the man and woman in the picture in my mind. They didn’t belong together. They were both married to other people. He took that information and got them both to pay him money to keep the affair quiet. An easy way to make money, it continued until I figured out his game.”
She tried to tell herself she was young and hadn’t understood the ramifications of what she saw. Sometimes she could accept that, and other times she blamed herself.
“When I helped him, he got his money and left me alone. When I got it wrong, or didn’t know, I was punished. Usually, a slap and stuffed into the closet for a few hours. Other times, worse. He liked to taunt me and ask, ’Guess what’s coming?’ Even I could see a fist coming at me without being psychic.”
Sam and Jack winced and sat further back in their chairs. Interesting, they did the exact same thing in unison.
“He killed my mother because I refused to help him with something he really wanted. My father wanted in on a scheme that made another man a lot of money, but he didn’t know how the guy did it. I told him I couldn’t see it. He went to my mother to get her to make me tell him.
“She’d denied her gift her whole life,” Morgan said, looking into the past. “She’d learned as a little girl it didn’t do any good to use her gift. She’d been ridiculed and teased. She simply put it on a shelf and ignored it. Whatever she saw or knew, she kept it to herself.”
“Did she encourage you to use your gift?”
“She told me if I used my gift openly, I’d spend most of my life alone. My choice. I could hide my gift, lie, and have a normal life, always trying to pretend I’m something I’m not. I couldn’t shut it off like my mother seemed to do. She was like other psychics I’ve met. I’m different even from them. Using my gift has certain drawbacks.”
“What kind of drawbacks?”
“In order to do what I do, I have to open myself to the energy around me. Imagine every experience and emotion you have is a ball of energy that circles you like planets in orbit. Now imagine someone like me connects with you. Some of those energy balls get thrown to me as a copy. I take in that energy and read it. Most are benign, or have a little punch to them. If it’s a particularly happy memory, then I might feel that light, happy feeling. If the energy is rage, then it’s like being hit by a hundred-mile-an-hour fastball.”
“So you feel the emotion attached to the images.”
“Yes. Most times. I like hanging out with Jack. He’s usually a happy-go-lucky guy. That radiates from him. It makes me feel good. I don’t have to keep any guards up to protect myself from something that might come at me from him. His energy is usually something happy or touching, especially when it’s about his children or Jenna. She’s very loved. I feel that, too.”
Sam chuckled and Jack sat grinning, red faced.
“Now, imagine being around someone like my father. His energy is very negative. It can suck the life out of me. It’s draining to be around someone who is always looking for the easy score, or how he can manipulate someone. All his energy is wrapped up in anger and frustration.
“Most people feel those kinds of things when they’re around negative people. But for someone like me, it’s magnified. Sometimes when I’m having a vision on one of your cases, it’ll take all my energy. I’ll just sit on the couch for hours, until I can focus on the room again, and then move that focus to the reality of the room around me. It’s like I shut down until my energy can recharge, and the bad energy can dissipate.”
“Are you telling me that it physically hurts you when you have a vision about a crime?”
“Not always. It’s when the vision carries strong energy. That energy can be very bad, or very good.”
Sam cocked an eyebrow, not quite understanding.
“A lot of people use the term empath, the ability to pick up on other’s emotions.”
She opened herself to him and right away she got a vision of him with Elizabeth.
“I can see your wife having Grace. I can feel the overwhelming emotions you have for that memory. You were happy and scared, in a good way, and nervous. When Grace arrived, you felt overwhelming love and joy. That kind of energy I can handle because it’s good. It makes me feel a little euphoric. It’s like food that nourishes the body. Bad energy is like junk food. Eat too much and you get a stomachache. Eat only junk food and it starts to hurt more than just your stomach.”
“Okay, I think I get it. Let’s get back to your father. You were saying he went to your mother when you wouldn’t help with his newest blackmail scheme.”
“This one wasn’t about blackmail. He planned to kill the man and take over his operation. That’s not important though. My mother wouldn’t help him use me. He threatened, he trashed the house, and in the end he killed her.”
“Wait, why didn’t he ask her if she could help him?”
“Because he didn’t know she could. She’d hid it from him their entire marriage. I know; you’re going to ask why she married him if he’d only end up killing her. All I can say is that I don’t think she knew. Or if she knew he’d be the man he turned into. Even I have a difficult time seeing my own future. I do know she got my sister and me out of the bargain. She told me all the time, I was the greatest gift she’d ever received. She used to say she knew I had important things to do in my life.”
“Wait,” Sam stopped her. “You have a sister? She isn’t mentioned in any of the information I read about the trial.”
“She didn’t live with us
. My mother sent her to live with an aunt when I was about three and she was six. They were having financial problems and she convinced my father it was one less mouth to feed until they got back on their feet. I think by then Mom knew my father’s path led to destruction. For whatever reason, he let my sister go, but refused to let my mother send me.
“As it turns out, my sister lives outside San Francisco. I haven’t seen her in a while, but I keep tabs on her from afar.”
“The picture on the mantel is of her and her family. You two look a lot alike.”
“You think so? I took that photo last summer without her knowing. I wanted to see my niece and nephew. They’ve grown so much.”
Her sadness spoke volumes. She didn’t have her parents. She didn’t have her sister. “You don’t talk to your sister,” Sam said.
“She doesn’t want me around. She blames me for mother sending her away. After all, they must have had their hands full with a psycho like me. Obviously, she didn’t inherit the sight. Mother never told her anything about it, and my aunt didn’t have it either. My aunt never understood my mother. They never got along. She filled Jillian’s head full of crap about the long history of mental illness in the family. She told her it ran in the female line. My sister never considered that my mother sent her away to protect her.
“She grew up with my aunt, loved. She went to the best schools. She had a normal life. My mother did that for her. Jillian doesn’t see it that way. She’s never considered what her life would have been like had she lived with us. She’s never considered what it would have been like to see her father kill her mother and endure the trial.
“I called her on my niece’s first birthday. My sister was terrified her daughter inherited the family curse. She actually asked me if I heard voices and if they told me to do things.” She laughed. It was actually kind of funny in a sad way. “I asked if she heard voices, because she was the one talking crazy. Then, I took a look at my niece and told my sister what she wanted to know.”
“Is your niece psychic?”
“No, but she’s going to give my sister a good run for her money when she’s a teenager. She’s a good girl. She’ll be just fine. I made my sister wait a good five minutes for her answer. I paid my bills online and made out my grocery list while she sweated it out. As soon as I told her my niece didn’t have any psychic abilities, she hung up on me. I haven’t heard from her since. I respect her wishes. I let her know how to contact me if she needs me, or if there’s an emergency through my PO box and my website. But I don’t contact her, or the children, otherwise.”
“You don’t trust her with your phone number or address?” Sam asked, confused.
“Let’s just say as much as I want to have a relationship with her, I see a darkness around her that gives me pause.”
Sam couldn’t imagine not being able to trust the people closest to you, your family.
“If your sister lived with your aunt, then where did you live after the trial? What happened after the trial?”
“I grew up and my mother’s prophecy came true for the most part. Using my gift kept me apart from others. I couldn’t hide it like she could. I’ve never met another psychic who can do what I do. They see what I see and know the emotion that goes with it, but I actually take on the vision and the emotion. It’s hard to explain. They don’t necessarily control what they do. I can to some extent. I can usually figure out what someone is thinking. In some instances, I can get into their heads.”
“Like Tyler. He said you left his mind.”
“Tyler is a special case. He and I became connected in a way even I can’t explain. When I say I can get into their heads, I mean I can hear what they’re thinking. Telepathy.”
“So where did you grow up?”
“Here and there.” At Sam’s raised eyebrow, she gave in and elaborated. “When I left, I didn’t really have a destination in mind. I took the money my mother hid away from my father. I boarded a bus and headed out of West Virginia. I didn’t want to wait around to see if the town folk resurrected the witch trials.”
She stared off into the distance and remembered what it felt like to be young and scared. Nobody had ever understood her. Or even tried. Except her mother, and she was gone.
“I went to Atlanta. It didn’t take long to figure out libraries are a great place to hang out. Churches are another safe and quiet place. People usually stay to themselves and you have a roof over your head. Some libraries are open seven days a week. Churches have long hours and lots of places to hide and catch some sleep.”
“You’ve been on your own since you were twelve?”
“Yes. That’s not to say that I didn’t have some help along the way. A nun took a special interest in me. She helped me get my GED. Like I said, libraries are great places to hang out. I like to read, and I’m great on a computer. I studied for the GED and got it at seventeen. The nun hooked me up with a homeless shelter. I’d help out there in exchange for a bed. I’d go to street fairs and flea markets, set up a sign and a chair, and I’d give psychic readings for two dollars. I saved my money. I wanted to go to college, but I wasn’t eighteen, I was hiding from my father and his lawyer, and I didn’t have any money, a home, or any idea how to go about getting a school to accept me without transcripts.
“I like to read the newspaper. The financial section interested me, but I didn’t know anything about stocks. I studied how people bought and sold them. I learned how to read a financial report and determine if a company was doing well or falling short. I came across several articles about people who bought and sold stocks as day traders. I studied and decided if they could do it, why couldn’t I. All I needed was an account and a computer. Again, the library supplied the computer, and I set up an account at a local bank office and went online.”
“So, how’d you do?”
“I paid cash for this house and land. What do you think?”
Sam looked around the house again and had new admiration for her. She had raised herself and managed to educate herself well enough to succeed in a field that most people didn’t really understand, unless they had a financial advisor or their company’s 401(k) plan.
“Do you pick the stocks based on a vision?”
“No, not really. That’s a complicated question to answer. I do a lot of research on the company I’m going to buy. I have a kind of checklist of things I look for in a stock. Then there’s the instinct factor. If it’s a new company, I sometimes have a sense whether the company will do well or not. I’ve been wrong a time or two, but for the most part, between research and instinct, I’ve managed to make a good income. I have a place of my own now, and I can work from home.”
“So, when you met Tyler in that restaurant, where were you living?”
“At that time, no place in particular. That was just a chance meeting. Something about him called to me. When I saw what might happen to his sister, I had to tell him. His life wouldn’t have been the same. Your lives wouldn’t have been the same.”
“Why?”
“Because he would have burned out of the FBI after becoming disillusioned from his sister’s death. He wouldn’t have been there to help you with Elizabeth’s case. That could have changed the events that happened. You might not have met Elizabeth and that was meant to be. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Sam couldn’t deny it. He nodded his acknowledgement.
Sam rubbed the back of his neck and tried to assimilate everything he’d learned. “Tyler is part of the reason I wanted to find you. He’s headed down a road that will leave him unhappy. We can all see the train wreck coming and he insists on taking the train.”
Sam watched for a reaction, something that would indicate how she really felt about Tyler. She didn’t give anything away.
“He’s doing what he thinks will make him happy. He’s got his mind set on what he wants. He’s determined to get it no matter what it takes, or who gets hurt. She’s not for him. She knows it, too. They’re both going down a path they shouldn’
t. Neither of them is willing to admit that being without the other would be a better choice than staying together and being miserable. Misery loves company, after all.”
“If she’s not for him, are you?”
“I don’t know. Tyler and I have a connection to each other that runs deep. We’re destined to cross paths again. That will happen very soon.”
“It started with the press conference. It kicked everything off. Your name went out to the masses and this guy started killing people. Plus, your father contacted Tyler. He’s trying to find you. He’s been out of jail for a while. He’s made it clear you’re a priority. I’ve been trying to find you and warn you.”
When she didn’t say anything, Sam asked the one question that nagged at him. “Why did saying your name with Tyler’s spark all this?”
“My father wants a reckoning. At least, that’s how he looks at it. He feels I owe him the time he’s lost. If I’d helped him, he wouldn’t have done what he did. He’s spent the last twelve years convincing himself I owe him. Jack and I have talked about this before. It’s about life and time and events.”
Whenever Jack saw her, their conversation and what she’d told him was never far from his mind. “You’re talking about someone in the family being hurt. When you meet up with Tyler again, something will happen to someone in the family, and you’ll stop it. It’s more than that though. All of these events are connected.”
Sam leaned in, ready to demand she explain.
Jack shook his head. “Don’t even try it. She won’t tell us who might be hurt, or what’s going to happen. It could change what she sees if she does.”
“What do you mean change it?”
Explaining herself and what she did was really time-consuming and frustrating.
“Sometimes, I can see future events. I’ve seen something happen, and I can intervene. The event will only happen the way I saw it if everything leading up to the event remains the same. Changing something could change the event, and then I won’t be able to stop what happens. In this case, I’ve managed to keep the events lined up, so that I can intervene.”
Chasing Morgan Page 10