by Kay Hooper
“Let’s jump off that bridge when we come to it,” Hollis suggested. “Keep your deputies busy doing the work that needs to be done. My team will start searching the valley looking for . . . anomalies. Anything that might point us to the source of the energy. Even places where the very earth might be showing signs of trying to heave itself open. With a little luck, we won’t have to knock on any doors out there, but you might want to alert whoever needs to know that there’ll be strangers out in the valley.”
“I’ll make sure whoever’s on the desk knows, so they can handle any call-ins.”
“Thanks. If my sense of direction is right, the hospital is on the way out of town toward that end of the valley. Reese and I want to stop and see Leslie Gardner. Even if she’s still sleeping—”
“I don’t think that’ll do you much good.” Archer had emerged from his office and stepped into the doorway of the conference room, catching them all by surprise. Which actually bothered Hollis a lot.
She looked at his very calm face—and more closely at the sickened expression in his eyes. She rose without thinking about it. “What is it, Jack?”
“I just talked to the hospital,” he said in a level, controlled voice. “In the last hour, Leslie Gardner’s vitals have begun to show signs that she’s slipping into a coma. But that’s not why they called me. Apparently, some of their test results showed something . . . odd . . . in her digestive system. So they did X-rays. It took three different techs and two doctors to figure it out, but they finally realized what they were looking at.”
Katie said in a voice that almost wasn’t there, “I’m afraid to ask.”
Archer looked at her. “The youngest Gardner child, Luke. His fingers were missing.”
“Jesus,” Victoria murmured.
“They aren’t missing anymore,” Archer said.
TWELVE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9
“I wonder if Archer is ever going to be the same after this,” DeMarco said as he drove their SUV through the downtown area of Prosperity.
“You know he won’t be.” Hollis was looking down at their copy of the map with rough “search” grids marked on it. “He grew up in this nice little town. Never expected to have to deal with suicide, murder, filicide, and cannibalism. It’s not exactly all in a day’s work for us either. And that’s saying something.”
“Filicide?”
“I had to look it up.”
“Uh-huh. Your headache’s back.”
She stopped absently rubbing the ache between her eyebrows. “Yes, it is. But starting small today. Maybe it’ll take a while to really begin pounding.”
He sent her a quick, searching glance, then returned his gaze to the road in front of them. “You’re still sure we’re not stopping by the hospital?”
“I don’t even want to get close to the hospital. If you do, let me off somewhere first.”
“She’s pretty much in a coma,” DeMarco reminded his partner.
“Yeah. But I don’t think there’s much research into what coma patients do or don’t think, and do or don’t feel. And I’d rather not start it off with what has to be in her mind.”
“We’ve never had to deal with cannibalism before.”
“No. A psychic able to feed off the energy of another person, which is horrific enough. But a person consuming the flesh of another person, the flesh of her child, is beyond evil.”
“It wasn’t a decision she made. Or a sick need driving her. She wasn’t in control.”
“No. Which is why she went to sleep, and why she’s in a coma, and why she’ll probably die. I don’t want to get close enough to her to have it confirmed, but I think she was aware, Reese. I think whatever this thing is that took over her mind and her actions made her watch what she was doing. Made her know. Made her understand. And when it was over and it let her go, she curled up in a chair and went to sleep.”
“We’ll stop it, Hollis.”
“God, I hope so. And, you know, as horrible as it would be to find someone behind it, I’d rather we found just that. Because transforming or dispersing energy won’t send it to hell.”
“It will if there’s a consciousness guiding it, which seems to be the case. Whether it’s holding the energy or the energy is holding it, removing the energy releases it. One thing you’ve taught me is that there is a hell waiting for evil. This thing is evil. One way or another, it’s going to hell.”
She looked up from the map finally, frowning as she gazed ahead. Then she turned her head and looked at her partner. “That’s true.”
“Yeah. Do me a favor?”
“Sure, what?”
“Stop closing the door on your side.” He glanced at her in time to see her blink.
“Um . . . sorry. It’s just that when I knew what Archer was going to say, the feelings, mine and his . . . I didn’t want you slammed by them too.”
“We’re connected for a reason, Hollis. We share. The bad as well as the good. Remember?”
“Yeah. You’re right. Sorry.”
Thank you.
You’re welcome. Seriously.
DeMarco smiled faintly, then said, “How did Victoria and Logan handle it?”
“You can read Logan. Can’t you?”
“Yeah, but not once Archer began speaking.”
“Horror throws up its own barriers?”
“That’s what he was feeling?”
“Oh, yeah. Both of them. Horrified and sickened beyond belief. I picked up Victoria’s emotions even through her shield.”
“Then I guess horror throws up its own barriers. At least this time.”
“They were both shaken last night after Deputy Lonnagan ran in. They’re even more shaken today. And they didn’t look at bodies yesterday.”
“Probably best,” DeMarco said.
“For all of them, yeah. They might have been able to handle a more . . . conventional . . . investigation their first time out of the gate. And they’ll find a way to handle this one. But not both, I think. Not yet.”
“So we keep them away from bodies and postmortems.”
“If we can. Neither one of them looked at Jill’s report on the Sam Bowers suicide, you know.”
“I thought they probably didn’t. They didn’t want to be cops. The fact that they answered the summons says a lot about their characters.”
“Well, they both seem driven. Maybe just by the need to get this done and over with. Not that I really care, as long as they can focus on the job.”
“They should have time to check out the first grid on their search list before we all meet up back at the hotel. So should we.”
“Yeah. But before we head there, I’d like to get up as high as we can out in the valley. And you should get a really good look at the layout now that we’re inside all the energy. I don’t know if either of us will see anything, but if we do your sense of direction is better than mine.”
* * *
• • •
LOGAN RATHER GINGERLY replaced the large piece of plywood and bundle of barbed wire over the ground-level opening of the old well. “This is not a very safe barrier,” he noted.
“No,” Victoria agreed, using a handy tree stump as a desk while she marked the position of the well on their search map. “It’s not in a pasture or near a trail, though, so I suppose the landowner thought it was good enough.”
“The sheriff might feel differently.”
“Yeah. May be one of the reasons why Hollis asked us to mark anything like this on the map. Plus, she might just be worried that if we do find the energy source underground, something like an old well could provide a ready-made escape hatch.”
“You both talk like the energy is alive. I mean, that it can think, make reasoned decisions.”
“Because it is. And you know it. Energy can’t be a voice in someone’s head,
not without an intelligence of some kind guiding it. Energy can’t force people to kill. There’s an agenda behind all this, and that means a mind, a consciousness, behind it.”
He eyed her. “Haven’t evolved into a telepath, have you?”
“No. Still the same, just the naps. But a while back, I asked Bishop if I could have access to SCU case files—important names and sensitive information redacted, of course.”
“And?”
“And . . . the SCU has had some very serious, very deadly battles with energy over the years. Especially negative energy. And if there wasn’t a consciousness behind it, there was one using it.”
Logan frowned as they began to make their way back to the Bronco they were driving. “Didn’t Hollis say this energy is both negative and positive?”
“Yeah. Which is more than a little weird given what’s been happening here. Negative energy must be what’s being used to control people, to make them kill. So what’s the positive energy?” She absently rubbed the back of her neck.
“Maybe it really is what summoned us? Or what’s left of what summoned us?”
“Maybe. Still weird, though. If that’s what summoned us, it also must have a consciousness behind it. The good side of good versus evil, I guess.”
“You’re not saying God summoned us.” It was almost a question.
“No. I don’t think any version of God would have needed our help. But positive has to balance negative, good has to balance evil. And people, at least here on our little orb, tend to be behind both. We cause balance; we cause inbalance. The balance can be upset, the way it is here, now, but not for long because the Universe wants balance. So maybe we were summoned by a . . . universal consciousness.”
“A benevolent universal consciousness?”
“Maybe.”
“Hollis doesn’t seem all that interested in finding out what summoned us.”
“No. I think she’s always going to be more focused on taking care of the threat. I also think she’s had a lot of experience with energy and a lot of experience in facing evil. My guess is, she’s just glad we were all summoned here before things really got out of control.”
“Seven bodies, one killer-victim in a coma, one a smiling blank, and one in a continual state of terror sounds pretty out of control, Victoria.”
“Yeah. But I think all that’s just the beginning, or at least the beginning of the . . . plan. Otherwise, why summon us here when we couldn’t get here in time to stop any of that?”
Logan was silent until they were in the Bronco. He started the engine, then looked at her. “You sound almost . . . comfortable with all this.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“I would.”
“The next area we’re supposed to take a look at is a bit north of here. The service road we’ve been using should take us there.”
“Victoria.”
“What?”
“Are you thinking of joining the SCU?”
For a moment he didn’t think she was going to answer him. But then she looked up finally from the map and shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe. I never thought I could handle any law enforcement work, but Bishop was right in telling us years ago that the SCU isn’t your conventional law enforcement agency.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a very dangerous life.”
Victoria frowned, green eyes thoughtful. “The dangerous part never bothered me. I mean, just living is dangerous and, besides, having something worthwhile to do with your life—and our freakish psychic abilities—puts a lot of points in the plus column.”
Logan put the Bronco in gear and began driving slowly along the barely-there service road. They were in an area immediately north of the town, an area with a forest and the sheer cliff walls of the mountains surrounding the valley to their left and farm and pasture land stretching off toward the center of the valley to their right.
“Haven’t you been tempted?” she asked suddenly.
“I never wanted to be any kind of psychic.”
“Yeah, but you are one. You’ve been dealing with your abilities for most of your life, and you’ve been helping spirits. Telling law enforcement agencies where to find murder victims and missing persons. Hell, you’re already doing some of the work. Why not get paid to do it?”
“I haven’t thought much about it.”
“Of course you have. You wouldn’t be human if you hadn’t. Why not do useful work and use your abilities with a group of people who understand, who don’t look at you like you’re a freak, and who can help you learn to control those abilities?”
“It isn’t that simple.”
“Maybe it ought to be.”
Logan continued to drive the Bronco slowly, his eyes scanning their surroundings rather than looking at her. “Maybe it should. But it isn’t.”
“We’re getting a taste of the work. Both of us might feel differently about it when this case is over.”
“A taste? Victoria, that’s like knowing you should start out wading in ankle-deep water and somebody throws you into the deep end of the pool. This is the deep end of the pool we’re in. Along with sharks we can’t see.”
“I gather that’s fairly typical of SCU cases. I mean, encountering the unexpected. Not really a guidebook or a rulebook. Call me crazy, but that sounds sort of appealing.”
“You’re crazy.”
She smiled faintly, studying him. “Well, we’ll see. In the meantime, how are you handling all this energy, really? Because it’s bugging me even through my shield.”
“My skin’s sort of crawling,” he admitted. “But I’m not hearing a voice in my head telling me to buy a bunch of guns or to kill somebody, so I’m grateful for that.”
“So am I.”
It was his turn to smile faintly. “Honestly, I expected to feel a lot more. With no shield, it just seemed reasonable I would. Maybe whatever’s blocking spirit energy is helping protect me from all this negative stuff.”
“Maybe. Or maybe you have a natural shield you’ve just never used before. One that only protects you against energy.”
“Unexplored territory for me,” he admitted.
“The sort of challenge that helps abilities evolve, maybe. That seems to be the rule rather than the exception.”
“We’ll probably know more about that once the others get here and get involved. Considering the range of abilities, I mean.”
“Yeah, probably. Hey—up there to the left. Does that look like a big tree down, the roots showing?”
“Yeah. The ‘very earth heaving’?”
“Disturbed ground, at the very least.”
“So let’s take a look.”
* * *
• • •
“WHAT DO YOU think?” Hollis asked.
DeMarco studied the very odd sky above them, the energy visible to him because Hollis was showing him what she saw. It was an odd color for an otherwise clear October sky, shading toward a grayish navy, brightened weirdly as threads of white energy hissed almost inaudibly across it in a lacy pattern.
“I think it’s a good thing most if not all the people in this valley can’t see what you see. Is this how it looked yesterday before it got dark?”
“Pretty much. Except there are more threads of energy visible. I think. The field feels stronger, and whatever is holding it in feels more solid. I know that.”
“Which would explain why the local radio station is nothing but static; yesterday we could at least hear some of the broadcast.”
“Yeah. And the pressure is a bit more intense.”
“Hence your headache.”
“Not sure.” Hollis shrugged as he looked at her. “It could be that, of course. Probably is. But it’s almost like I’m catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. Do you get any sense that we’re being watched?”
/>
“I don’t get any sense of a threat.”
“I’m not sure I do. I mean, I’m so conscious of the energy and so aware of all the horrible things that happened yesterday, I may be half blocking myself.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” DeMarco noted.
“No, it wouldn’t. But I really need to be able to count on all my senses here. And I’m not at all sure I can.” She turned her gaze to their view of the valley; it was a good one, since they had found a bit of higher ground about half a mile into the sprawling, faintly bowl-like shape of the valley floor—a shape that was far more evident once one was actually down in the valley.
There were farms, several of which showed fields with the remains of harvested crops plowed under, and the entire valley was dotted by pastureland. It was clear that the human population was very scattered here, most certainly outnumbered by the cattle and horses grazing peacefully.
Peacefully. That bothered her.
“No sign any of the animals have been affected,” she said slowly. “Why does that strike me as strange?”
“Maybe because animals are generally affected by energy fields before people are,” DeMarco offered.
“Mmm. Sully feels what animals feel, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then maybe he can answer that question. Or maybe it doesn’t matter, and I’m reaching.”
“So soon? We’ve barely settled in.”
Hollis narrowed her eyes at him, but all she said in response was, “We usually have some idea of an enemy’s agenda by now, even if the agenda is a sick and twisted one. Maybe especially then.”
“We know this enemy’s agenda. Death and destruction.”
She smiled wryly. “True. Now tell me evil is easier to fight when it’s not poured into a recognizable human shape.”
“Well, we’ve only dealt with the human-shaped variety of evil,” he noted thoughtfully. “But I will point out that this evil is at least contained here in the valley. And given its all-too-destructive potential to reach outside the valley, I’d say that puts us one up on it.”
“For now.”