by Wood, Lorena
“Quarter to six. I’ll go see what I can rustle up.”
Nick had guessed she’d be hungry, so he had ordered in some Japanese food from the Ichi Bon. He carried it out and laid out the huge feast.
“Look what I found in the kitchen. Hope you like Japanese.”
They ate in silence. Nick hoped that Whitney would be able to take some time before she did anything else that sapped her energy. She was looking more tired than she had last time. He couldn’t help glancing over at her to see how she was doing.
“Nick. I’m fine. Really. I can’t believe I’ve done this to you again.” She looked embarrassed and annoyed. “Agent Hollerman promised me he’d stay with me. He gets so involved in his cases that he can’t think of anything else. He must trust you though. No one’s ever left me alone like he has on this case.”
“He says he hasn’t worked with you much. Maybe he just doesn’t realize how hard this is for you. He’s putting you in danger,” Nick said, not able to keep the anger hidden.
“He has a little boy you know. I think he’s eight now. Seems like this is hitting close to home for him.” When Nick didn’t relax she asked, “Do you have any kids?”
“Not me. My sister has enough for both of us. Her youngest is two and the oldest is fourteen now. Four all together. They live up in Mesa.”
“Boys or girls?” She wanted to distract him with conversation, but talking about kids might not be the best idea.
“The littlest is a boy. Then she has a four year old girl, an eight year old boy, and the fourteen year old is a girl. She’s a scary one. Dresses pretty crazy. She’s actually a good girl. I just can’t imagine raising a teenager.”
“Has she ever heard of the SVWC?” Whitney asked.
“I don’t know. Shit! I never thought to check if any of her kids were involved.” He stood and flipped his phone open. “I think I would’ve known since they seem like they train them from the time they are babies. I’d better call her. She’s probably heard about it on the news already since the media has finally figured out the connection with the SVWC and the missing children. I’ll be right back.”
Whitney stood up and tried to get her body to move again. She felt sore, like she had fallen again. This was getting worse. She didn’t know how much more of this she could stand. She wasn’t being totally truthful with Nick. She’d never done anything quite this stressful before. Even she didn’t know how much her body could take. She was desperate to stop this lunatic, and her own fears weren’t enough to make her call it quits.
Nick came back in the room.“Lisa said none of her kids are in it. She thinks a little friend of Steven’s, the eight year old, might be on one of the teams. They don’t have a phone so I told her I would go talk to the family tomorrow morning.”
Nick reached to start picking up the boxes of food when his hand brushed Whitney’s. He felt like he’d stuck his finger in an outlet. “What was that?” He pulled back his hand and shook it.
Whitney looked down and blushed a little. “I’m not sure. I’ve never felt anything exactly like that but, with me, you never know. Probably residual energy from the overload.”
As Nick finished putting things away he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He walked back into the living room and sat beside Whitney. “Can I try that again?”
Whitney didn’t want him to. She knew more than she had told him. She was attracted to Nick and for some reason his touch had created a surge of energy. Her heart was beating faster, and her nipples were hard and tingling. She didn’t want to cause any more problems for him. She would never be able to have a normal relationship, so she avoided them completely. She wasn’t about to get involved and let Nick get hurt. She concentrated on controlling her reaction so it wouldn’t happen again.
“Go ahead,” she said quietly. He reached over and touched her hand again. This time it wasn’t such a big shock but he could feel something. He grabbed her hand and held it.
“You’ve been through so much and here I am doing experiments on you. I’m sorry. It’s so new to me. Forgive me?”
She laughed and pulled away. “No problem. Did you bring my laptop here?”
“Hollerman brought it. Don’t you think you should rest more before you go back over it? You were out of it for a long time. I don’t think my heart’s up to that again.”
“Yeah, I’m a little tired. Where am I going to sleep tonight?”
Nick showed her to the guest room and said goodnight. Whitney said she just wanted to read and go to sleep early.
“That was too easy,” Nick thought. He had a sick feeling the stubborn psychic would continue to put herself in danger for the good of the case. He wondered if anyone in her life valued her life more than her abilities.
Whitney felt bad for lying to Nick, but she didn’t want him to have to hover over her all night. She could see the stress draining his energy. He was really sweet to care so much. Not what she’d imagined from this cop.
She started writing some of the details she remembered from the crime scene. As the images flooded her mind, she began to experience it all over again. The boy was quiet, but he still understood he was in danger. He was probably drugged, because he couldn’t think very clearly. He was crying and praying. The bad man tricked him. He thought he was someone else. So confused and so tired.
Whitney drew back from the memory, and on to the next one. The vibrations of the killer were stronger this time. He was happy and excited. He was really getting good at this, and it was going to all work out. He had a plan. Whitney felt his energy reaching a peak as he jabbed the knife into the boy’s heart. No one could stop him now.
The room felt like it was spinning. The feeling of being part of that moment was too much. It was like waking from a dream, but your mind still thought it was real. She couldn’t get the feelings of the killer to go away. The boy’s cries and the killer’s elation blurred into an energy surge that seemed to possess its own sound. Whitney grabbed her head and tried to make the sounds and images stop. Her breathing was labored as she tried to scream Nick’s name. No sound came out as she fell back to the bed.
* * * *
Nick woke early and peeked in on Whitney. She seemed to be in a deep sleep. Once he checked for her breathing, he left her alone. He was busy writing notes and making phone calls when he thought he heard her calling his name.
He ran into her room not knowing what to expect. She didn’t seem to be able to sit up and her eyes were barely open.
“Water please.” Her voice was low and weak.
“What did you do? I knew it!” He ran for the water and hurried back.
Berating himself for leaving her alone, he vowed it wouldn’t happen again. But what could he do? He didn’t have any authority to tell her how to behave. He didn’t even know what was safe. He had worried about her all week and she’d been fine. Now she was in bad shape but at least she was in his house where he could keep an eye on her. He carried the water back to Whitney. She was sitting up now looking a little guilty.
“You always get to see me at my worst Nick. Sorry about that. I’ll take you out to a big breakfast to make it up to you.”
“You’ve got the wrong person for that bribe. You should try it on Teddy sometime.”
“Well, what can I do to make it up to you?”
Nick looked at her and didn’t like the thoughts that popped into his head. He could easily think of something better than eating. He mentally slapped himself and glanced around at the laptop near the bed.
“So it looks like you decided to work after all. Since finding the killer seems more important than your own life, did you come up with anything new?”
She looked away from his anger and grabbed for her notes. “I’m not sure. The voice I hear sometimes sounds like a little boy, but it’s not the victim. I think the killer sometimes regresses back to his childhood. And the hands…they’re small for a man. It could be a young man or even a large woman. I can’t tell yet. I hear a man’s voice, but i
t could be just how I perceive it. I need more time.”
“I have to get over to my nephew’s friend’s house this morning. You gonna be okay here?”
“Actually, I would prefer to come along. I can buy you that breakfast after we go there. Have you eaten yet?”
“Nope, haven’t eaten. Sorry, I forgot about the fuel issue. Let’s go. He lives over in Guadalupe, so it’s not far.”
Whitney could sense his anger was part fear for her and part frustration about the case. She knew it was her fault but couldn’t think of anything to do to change the situation.
Ten minutes later Nick and Whitney pulled up to an older home badly in need of repairs. A small woman was in the front yard gathering the toys that were strewn about the sandy area. She saw Nick get out and yelled to her son in the house. “Miho, there’s someone here to see you. It’s Steven’s uncle.”
A little boy about seven years old came flying out of the house in a batman costume.
“Hey Carlos, what’s up?”
“I’m not Carlos. I’m Batman. Batman Beyond, not the old guy.” He ran around with the black cape flapping.
Nick chased him. “Yeah, well I’m the Joker and I’m gonna get ya!” The little boy squealed in delight and ran around the back of the house. Nick came back carrying him on his shoulders. “So Batman, you seen any bad guys around here lately?”
“Yup, but I killed ‘em already.”
“Oh, well make sure they’re really bad before you kill ‘em, right buddy? So how is the soccer playing sport? Your team been winning?”
“Nah, we don’t have any fast enough runners. The other teams have kids that could run a million miles a second. I been thinking about quitting. They make you practice too hard on my team. I’d rather stay home and ride my bike or skateboard with the big kid next door. He has a ramp! He even lets me ride his board ‘cause mine’s kinda old.”
Nick ruffled his hair and sent him inside while he talked with the mother. When they were both back in the car Nick relaxed a little. “He got involved through a friend in school that doesn’t play anymore. She says she heard about the kids and, since her son isn’t that interested, she stopped taking him. She’s still worried, so she won’t go to any more games.
After breakfast Nick wanted to go back to the station. Whitney wasn’t up to going back there with all the energy and chaos. She needed alone time to finish her report.
“I think I need to sleep a little more. Would you mind dropping me home before you go into work? I mean your house. That’s where my laptop is.”
Nick knew she’d be putting herself into that trance again, or whatever it was called when she used her abilities. He called Teddy and let him know he was heading back home. Teddy reassured him he could handle things at the station for now and promised to keep him updated. Nick spent the day walking in and out of the sunroom to make sure Whitney was still breathing. She slept first, then worked and slept again. By evening she had finished her report and e-mailed it to Hollerman.
She was disappointed she hadn’t come up with anything that identified the killer. She still wasn’t sure if it was a man or a woman. Nick couldn’t understand why she would put herself through the pain of watching and experiencing the murders if she only got confusing messages and very little new information.
Whitney packed her things and got ready to go back to the motel. Nick kept thinking about asking Whitney to stay with him longer, but he was afraid of what might happen. Whitney of course knew what he was thinking and agreed. She would love to pursue a relationship with him, or even a fling, but she just never let it get that far. She couldn’t risk bringing another person into her nightmare.
Nick convinced her to stay for coffee and Whitney got settled in the Arizona room again. She was just staring at the colors of another beautiful, Arizona sunset when Nick brought in the coffee.
“Hope you like Hazelnut. I forgot to stop and get more regular.”
“I love it actually. Thanks.”
Nick turned the conversation toward Whitney and her life. He realized he knew very little about her. He learned that she was born in the beautiful Adirondacks of New York, and had moved to Arizona in her twenties. She now lived alone in Sedona, about two hours North of Phoenix. She had no ties with her family, no close friends that she mentioned, and no love life. That was hard to believe since she was such a stunning beauty. Her almond shaped brown eyes were so expressive and intense. Sometimes they sparkled with humor and excitement, and other times you could see a deep sadness there. Why would she restrict herself to such a lonely life?
“So why is it you spend all your time helping people, causing yourself so much pain and suffering, so much so that you don’t have any other life?”
Whitney just stared into her coffee trying to think of an answer that would make sense.
“Don’t you think you deserve a life too? Don’t want something else out of life?” Nick knew he was pushing into her personal life, and though his mind told him to back off, he couldn’t seem to get his mouth to cooperate.
“Nick, it’s not that easy. Not everyone can do what I can, and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t use it to help others. If I could help someone to avoid dying or having a loved one hurt, and I didn’t, what kind of person would I be?”
“But what about you? Did you ever have a life? Even policeman take vacations. Well, sometimes they do.” It had been a while since Nick had really done anything like that. “Did you always have the need to help people, even when you were young?”
“Nick, I know you want to know more about me, but it’s such a long story.” And it wasn’t something she shared easily.
Nick threw his legs up on the coffee table and leaned back. “I have lots of time. They told me to keep an eye on you, so might as well fill the time. Let’s start with when you figured out you had this ability.”
She sighed and thought for a minute. “I was probably born with some kind of innate talent. My parents didn’t notice anything until I was about eight. They just thought I was very smart. I just thought everyone could sense feelings and thoughts at times. I wasn’t sensitive like I am now. I just caught things once in a while. Then,” she paused, “well, it got stronger later.”
“You were going to say more,” he said softly. “You know it’s not very fair that you can read my mind and I have no idea what’s going on in yours.”
“Yeah, I know.” She smiled but her eyes were pained. “Okay, so then, when I was eight, I was abducted.” She blew out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
Nick sat up straighter. “Geesh Whit. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to pry that much.”
“It’s okay. You’re right. I know a lot about you, and you don’t know much about me. Some creepy pedophile had moved into our neighborhood, and he chose me. Once he grabbed me I knew what he planned to do with me. At first I was frozen with fear. Then I just started screaming for my mother. I thought I was screaming out loud, but I’m not sure if I was. My mother heard me in her head. She heard me screaming for her. They were all out looking for me anyway, and she started babbling about me. At first my dad thought she was just losing it. Then she jumped in the car and took off. He followed with the police. They thought she was going to kill herself. She drove halfway up a mountain a few miles from our house. She was driving really fast, but she made it. She jumped out and started running. They all followed her and tried to stop her but then the police saw an abandoned vehicle. They decided to check out the area and my mom led the way. The man who was holding me heard people coming and he took off.”
Whitney’s body was shaking but she continued, determined to explain her reasons for putting herself in danger by telling the full story. “Then I started screaming out loud. They all came running and I passed out. The cops managed to find the man and he was put away for a long time. He confessed to quite a few other unsolved abductions. He was pretty spooked they had found him and thought maybe God was judging him. He killed himself in pr
ison years later.”
Nick watched Whitney’s eyes reliving the events of the past. She had gone pale and was shaking. He moved over to sit by her on the couch. “I’m so sorry to make you drag that up. I didn’t mean to cause more pain for you.”
“It’s okay. There’s just a little more. I should explain the rest since I’ve told you this much. I tried to be normal after that. The police never said anything about what happened with my mom. I don’t think they could believe it. After that I was much more sensitive and I found I had many new talents. My mom talked with me and explained I shouldn’t let people know. When bad things were happening to other kids, I knew it and I felt helpless. I decided when I grew up, I would use my gift to help people, especially kids. Every time I heard about someone getting abducted or molested, I felt guilty that I had escaped, and they hadn’t. As soon as I turned eighteen I went to the police and offered to help. Of course they thought I was crazy.”
“I moved out to Arizona when I was twenty and started working with the police department here. I was successful enough to get noticed and the FBI offered me a job. I’m not actually an FBI agent. Maybe if I were actually part of the team I would have more help. I’m basically a civilian giving them a hand. They do have other people with gifts like mine that are actually agents. They get called in for the more dangerous jobs.”
“This seems pretty dangerous to me.” Nick didn’t like thinking about what she went through each time she helped track a killer.
“I’m not really in danger. It’s hard, and it takes an emotional toll, but the killer doesn’t know about me. I reach the scene after the fact. The worst part is when I fail, and people die. I…” Whitney tried to keep the tears from falling. She hadn’t talked about this for a long time, and the emotions were becoming too much. She turned away from Nick, but he heard a small sob escape, and he reached out for her chin. He turned her toward him.
“You can cry Whitney. You’ve earned it.”
The thought of being honest and sharing her pain with someone made her uncomfortable. She had imagined having a friend like that, but her previous attempts had never worked out. No one could really relate to her issues and no one liked having her in their head all the time. She had shared this time to make Nick understand her need to succeed. She hadn’t expected the tears or the sympathy.