Distortion Control (A Makayla Rose Mystery Book 3)

by Audrey Claire

“Great. Well, I’ll pick you up. See you then. Thanks, David.”

  “Any time. I’ll be waiting.”

  * * * *

  Ugo Vessey’s office was located not in Briney Creek but in the next town, about fifteen miles away. I was glad because it meant no one in my town was likely to see me enter the hypnotist’s domain. That would be all I needed, one more nugget for the gossipmongers.

  So far, I had kept my head down after the incident at the motel. However, I had received two calls from local numbers shortly following—one from Zekey’s of all places and the other from the bold Ms. Talia herself. I hadn’t yet checked the voicemail she left me.

  David clung to my arm as we entered the reception area of Mr. Vessey’s. Was he a mister, or did I call him doctor? Certainly his office appeared no different than the average therapist’s, which I had visited on a few occasions in the past. That was before I had decided what was broken in me was bound to remain so, and I didn’t want to continue the one hundred twenty dollar per fifty-minute sessions.

  “Ms. Rose?” the assistant asked as we entered.

  My stomach lurched. “Um, yes.” I was tempted to deny myself and turn and run out the door. David’s hold on my arm tightened, as if he sensed my intent. I resigned myself to staying, but wished I had thought through this boneheaded idea more. “You can call me Makayla.”

  “Great. I’m Belinda. Come right this way. Dr. Vessey is waiting for you.”

  I gulped and stumbled. “So I call him doctor?”

  Belinda smiled. “Yes, he has a doctorate, if it makes you feel more comfortable.”

  “I’m going to be honest with you, Belinda. I’m far from comfortable. If David wasn’t clinging so tight…” I glared at him, but he appeared a little less nervous himself and totally unashamed of keeping me prisoner.

  “That’s what friends are for, honey,” he chirped.

  “You’re in good hands,” Belinda assured me.

  Before long I sat in a cozy armchair after rejecting the offer of the couch. Once we had passed into Dr. Vessey’s offices, David had lost all bravado and held up the corner wall, arms folded and expression stiff.

  For himself, Dr. Vessey was an older gentleman with a full head of salt and pepper hair even though from the wrinkles in his face and the too neat smile that suggested dentures, he appeared to be in his late sixties. Sharp blue eyes twinkled at me as he spoke. “Now, don’t you be scared, young lady. This works best when you’re relaxed. Will it bother you for your friend to stay?”

  “David? No, please let him. I think I’d feel better if I know he’s in the room.”

  Dr. Vessey’s grin widened. “I won’t have you clucking too much.”

  I made a strangled sound, and he laughed. Before long, I had to join him. He had made the joke to get me to loosen up some more, and it worked. Dr. Vessey explained his procedures, how he would counsel me and then guide me into a series of exercises meant to relax me. Then we would dig a little deeper into my memories. I felt tension rolling across my shoulders but tried to focus on the gentle trickling of the fountain near the window.

  “After the session, I encourage you to take about fifteen to thirty minutes to rest quietly and let any memories that might surface to come forward without force.”

  “Do you think it will work?” I asked doubtfully, “and is there any danger I’ll…not wake up.”

  “I’m not going to put you to sleep, Makayla. You’ll be fully aware of your surroundings at all times. In fact, you might become more acutely aware. It happens sometimes with some patients. Now, what other questions do you have?”

  I fired off half a million, thinking any second he would tell me he had started the timer. Instead, he listened and dispelled my fears. In the end, I leaned back in the chair, shut my eyes, and listened to his kindly voice that reminded me of Edna’s. Not in tone but in the way of a gentle spirit.

  The memories came in a line, flowing one behind another like from a film projector. I was out among the trees behind Spencer’s property running, tripping, falling. The world spun about crazily, but fear drove me. Blood rushed through my ears, so I couldn’t hear, but I knew he was behind me—the man who had snatched me.

  I cried out, but a soft voice convinced me I was safe. No one could harm me. My eyes filled with tears. “He killed her,” I sobbed. “With…her own scarf. I saw him!”

  “Makayla.”

  “He’s going to kill me. I have to get away. Spencer.”

  “Makayla, let it go. You’re safe, in my office. No one is going to hurt you.”

  The memory faded.

  “When I tell you to open your eyes, you’re going to do so, and when you do, you’ll feel refreshed. Ready?”

  I heard Dr. Vessey’s words and obeyed his gentle commands, but the memory hadn’t faded. While he helped me not to panic, and I did feel more refreshed, I recalled how terrified I had been, running through those trees. What caused my chest to ache was that I hadn’t gotten away. I had been captured and tied in the basement, drugged a second time and put to sleep to wait for what? The perfect time to kill me?

  When David and I left Dr. Vessey’s office, we rode in silence back home. Halfway there, I found my voice. “David.”

  He started and reached for my hand to squeeze it. “Sorry, honey. That session freaked me out. I felt like I was there with you. It was like a movie.”

  “Unfortunately, it was my life.” I drew in a steadying breath and blew it out. “David, he failed with me. He was going to kill me.”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “You said you heard everything I said, and I remember it, too.”

  “Everything?” David’s gaze bore into the side of my face. I glanced at him but then focused on the road. Maybe I should have let him drive.

  “No, not everything.”

  He seemed to hesitate.

  “What is it?”

  “You said Spencer,” he said. “Were you calling for his help or saying he was chasing you?”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “What is?”

  I didn’t answer. The fact was the most crucial part of my memory was still a blank. I knew I had seen the killer strangle Penelope because I had muttered it to myself in shock as I ran. The cruel act remained a blank along with my assailant’s face. Then David took my worry to a whole new level.

  “Makayla, what happens if he’s still around and he knows you were hypnotized to remember?”

  Chapter Ten

  “Do you know a Zoe Woods?” Ash asked me.

  “Woods? I don’t think I know anyone by that name.” I eyed him as he stood at my apartment door. He didn’t look so good, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Ash was still the handsome, appealing man that radiated confidence, but there was more behind his gaze. I wanted to get past it and make him talk to me. Something told me if I tried, I would get shut down in an instant.

  “Zoe,” he emphasized. “Think about it, Makayla.”

  I frowned at him and turned away to head back into my apartment. For a split second, I considered making him stand in the hall, but that was ridiculous. “Come in,” I said with too much emphasis. He eyed me but strode into my apartment. The space decreased. “Wait, Zoe, of course.”

  “You know her?”

  “Yes, the young girl that works at the bookstore. I met her once or twice when I was in there.” I tried to recall how long Zoe had been in Briney Creek. “I’m pretty sure she’s been here as long as I have. What do you want with her?”

  “We’ll find out.”

  Ash refused to give me details until we were parked outside the bookstore on Main Street. I climbed out of my car and scanned the block. Allie Kate Brinlee was just leaving the gym she owned with her husband. I had heard they had decided to sell.

  Allie Kate’s heart broke learning about her daughter Inna, and she could no longer keep up the persona everyone knew her for—the poster woman for A Beautiful Nu U. Poor Allie Kate never smiled now, and I wished for the mill
ionth time I could do something for her.

  Forcing my gaze away from the For Lease or Sale sign on the front of the gym, I shut my car door and turned to Ash. “Do you want to tell me why we’re here before we go in, Ash?”

  He leaned on the roof of the car. “Zoe worked for Penelope for a short stint in Virginia. She apparently left Penelope’s employ just before Penelope decided to come to Briney Creek.”

  “Why do you say apparently?”

  “Because I suspect—and this is just a hunch—Zoe never stopped working for her. Penelope planned to come to Briney Creek to pull off her scam of my brother. Just as he said, she needed someone to help, someone who wouldn’t immediately be linked to her. I know my late sister-in-law pretty well.”

  Too well.

  “She was known to bribe anyone for favors, and she had the bankroll to do it.”

  I waited while he walked to my side of the car. “Sounds possible, but I can’t imagine she’ll admit anything now that Penelope is gone.”

  He grinned. “Leave that to me.”

  I grabbed his arm before he could get out of reach. “Don’t try to flirt with her, Ash. She’s a young girl, probably not even twenty-one yet.”

  “Are you jealous?” he teased.

  “Of what?”

  “You’re no good for a man’s ego, Makayla. Have I told you that?”

  “It sounds familiar. Maybe it was your brother the last time.”

  He winced. “And this man fell for you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I hated the way my heart thumped.

  Ash left me standing on the sidewalk and headed through the entrance into the bookstore. It really was a shame how often I sought to have Spencer’s feelings for me reasserted. Dismissing such a terrible habit, I followed Ash.

  We ended up coming to the store at a bad time and had to wait through a few customers that Zoe helped. While I stood near a shelf pretending to browse, a feeling of déjà vu came over me. The last time I had visited the store, I had done so with David. We had come to question Brandon, another bookstore employee, during a previous murder investigation.

  This wasn’t the first time I considered how often people were knocked off in Briney Creek, and it all started when I moved here. If I believed in curses, I might move to give the fine people of this town some relief. Maybe this was the last, I thought with optimism, and there would be no more violence for two decades or more.

  While I thought I was doing well with my browsing, Zoe kept glancing my way. She moved along the stacks when I did, and when I picked up a book to examine it, she raised an eyebrow at me. Dawning realization came over me, and I was highly insulted.

  “You think I’m here to steal?” I demanded. “Really, do I look like the type?” This wasn’t New York, and surely I had gained something of a reputation in the area. Cripes sake, I worked across the street in my studio. Zoe and I didn’t travel in the same circles, which was why it had taken me a bit to recall her. Still, to think I had come to steal. The nerve!

  “I didn’t think that,” she snapped.

  “Well, what?”

  She started to respond, but Ash appeared and flashed his high wattage smile at her. I half expected the girl to whip out a pair of dark sunglasses to protect her eyes. I’m not sure what he said because I wasn’t paying attention to him. I kept my own gaze fastened to Zoe and was quite surprised to see irritation rather than a fall to Ash’s spell. Well, not every woman had to cave.

  After a few minutes where Zoe let Ash use what I assumed was his best material, she balled slender white hands into fists at her sides. “You so don’t remember me, do you, Ash?”

  He went silent, and a look of speculation came over his countenance. “Should I?”

  Now what was that about? I wondered.

  “You should. I didn’t see you more than a few times, but you visited the house. I worked for Penelope as her personal assistant for almost a year.”

  This seemed to shock Ash and confused me. How could she have worked in his sister-in-law’s home and he not know Zoe? Of course, if he was busy carrying on an elicit affair behind his brother’s back, he wouldn’t have wanted to socialize with help or stick around to be caught.

  “I…I didn’t know that.” Ash pushed fingers through his hair, and his gaze shifted away from hers. Guilt if ever I saw it. I squinted at him, but he turned his head, focusing on Zoe. “Why did you come to Briney Creek?”

  Zoe hedged. She mumbled an excuse I couldn’t understand. Ash wasn’t impressed. He seemed to loom over her, stretching larger than life. The spunky young woman wouldn’t be cowed.

  “I needed a change.”

  Ash chuckled. “Oh? In the very town where your boss’s ex lives. Somehow I don’t believe that. Do you, Makayla?”

  He looked at me, and Zoe did, too. She appeared to be gauging whether to say more. After a moment, she scanned the store for nearby shoppers, but the rush of customers had died down. For the moment, we were the only ones present, and we would hear if anyone new arrived. The store wasn’t big enough to have more than two clerks, and apparently the other person on duty was either in the back or on break.

  Zoe flipped long hair over her shoulder and adopted a devil may care attitude. “I was more of a gopher for Penelope than an assistant, really. I knew a lot of things.”

  She emphasized the word things, and Ash could have breathed ice he went so cold. Even I shivered, and he wasn’t looking at me. “What do you think you know?”

  My mouth fell open. “Honestly, Ash, stop trying to intimidate her. She’s talking to us, isn’t she?”

  “Makayla, stay out of this.”

  “I will not.” I stepped in front of Zoe and faced him. “What happened to charming her?”

  He brushed me aside, and I stumbled. This man I was seeing was a far cry from the one I had known up until then. A chill raced down my back, and my fears looking into Ash’s silver eyes were back. He grasped Zoe’s arm in a punishing grip and dragged her closer.

  “This is not a game, little girl,” he bit out. “We’re conducting an investigation. Were you involved with Penelope’s murder?”

  Zoe paled. Her lower lip quivered, but she steeled her jaw. “No! I…I did agree to help her pretend to be kidnapped. She paid me good, way more than my hourly wage. What did I care if she was a spoiled rich woman with nothing better to do with her money?”

  “So you don’t care that she was murdered and that it happened to coincide with a real kidnapping?”

  She swallowed and glanced at me. The look told me she had heard the rumors. “Like I said, I helped her with a few things, the note, ideas and all about getting someone to do it. I’m not going to the police, and you can’t force me. If you call them, I’ll lie and say I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  Ash appeared ready to pop, but he said nothing. I rushed over and tried to get him to let go of her arm. He did with a struggle, and I rubbed the spot with what I hoped was a motherly pat. Never mind that I was not a mother and hadn’t grown up with one, so how did one do anything motherly?

  “Zoe, please,” I begged, “think of the innocent man sitting in jail right now. He could be free and the real killer behind bars with your help.”

  “I don’t know that he’s innocent,” she shot back and bared her teeth in a sneer. “I don’t know that any of the Norwoods are innocent.”

  Once again, she shut down our arguments, but Ash had been silent for the most part since she said she knew things. I assumed she referenced the affair and didn’t blame him for not wanting his brother to find out. However, I preferred Spencer to face the truth of his wife’s unfaithfulness to a life imprisoned.

  “Get out,” Zoe demanded. “My boss is due back in five minutes. I’m not helping you, and you’re obviously not buying anything. Go!”

  I wanted to press our case, but Ash grasped my elbow and steered me for the door. “Ash, wait…”

  He propelled me to the exit, and I swung to face him when we
were on the street. As if I wasn’t there, he coasted by and kept walking. Of all the infuriating men I knew, he took the prize. I jogged to catch up to him and fell into step beside him.

  “Do you want to tell me what that was about?” I asked.

  “You’re frustrated, Makayla.”

  “More than that.” I shook my head. “I was this close to remem—uh, I know she knew something, Ash.”

  “She didn’t know anything.”

  I cut him off, and when he moved to pass around me, I blocked his path again. He glared at me, but I wasn’t a young woman to be intimidated. Come to think of it, Zoe wasn’t either. All because of Ash’s past.

  I folded my arms over my chest and tapped a foot. “Why are you willing to let her dismiss us? If it’s a matter of Spencer finding out your secret, he—”

  “I have business to take of, Makayla. I’ll see you around. Maybe we’ll go back and see Zoe again.”

  “Maybe?”

  He charged forward, and I had to leap to the side to keep from being mowed down, which was probably his intent.

  “See me around?” I grumbled at his retreating back, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t hear a word I said. While I wondered what my next move should be, my cell phone rang, and I checked the display to find it was Paul calling. My heartbeat raced out of control as I pressed the connect button. “Hello?”

  “Come to my office.”

  I had had it with rude men, but since Paul meant too much to Spencer’s freedom, while I didn’t forgive him, I didn’t take him to task either. After he disconnected without so much as a see you then, I jumped into my car and sped over to his office as quickly as the law would allow. Okay, let’s be honest here. I didn’t much care what the law said about doing forty in a twenty mile zone right then, but come on, do you imagine any street in Briney Creek would allow sixty?

  When I walked into Paul’s office a short while later, I expected him to be on an important phone call and wave me in as if I were a lesser client. Instead, he faced me with his hands folded over his desk and waited for me to take a seat.

  I did so and leaned forward, eager for him to give me an update. This was no time to play the power struggle game. I had no power, and he knew it.