ChasingShadows (6 page)

Juliana focused on her vision. “The kidnapper pushed the
penguin aside while he covered Lisette’s mouth with his other hand.”

Alex smoothed the chaotic spikes in his hair and threw her a
guarded look. “You didn’t mention the penguin earlier.”

“I told you everything I remembered.” Juliana gave him a
measured stare. “It’s no different than you waking up in the morning and
remembering bits of dreams you’d had that night.” She fingered her braid, then
flipped it over her shoulder. “That’s why I’m here,” she added, defending
herself.

She glanced at the toy penguin lying on the plush carpet. “The
stuffed animal evoked my memory. Touch telepathy works when you touch an item
someone else has touched. Or touch a person. You see visions surrounding that
person.”

Juliana sat for a moment and regained her composure, cleared
her mind. Once steady, she wandered around the room, searching for other memory
triggers. Peering out the window, she glimpsed the wooden box the kidnapper
stood on to climb through the window. Telltale honeysuckle vines crept along
the back fence.

She retraced his footsteps in her mind as she paced from the
window to the side of the bed. Juliana examined a small blue stain in the mauve
carpet next to the penguin.

“There’s something missing here.” She pointed at the floor
between the window and bed. “He stepped over a small obstacle to reach the bed,
shoving it aside with his foot after he sat down.”

“Her doll box.” Andrea advanced into the room. “Lisette’s
supposed to put her toys away each night, but sometimes she leaves things out.”

Juliana strained to recall the details, but nothing new
emerged. “Can I see the box?”

Andrea brushed past Alex, opened the closet and pointed to a
shoebox-sized plastic container.

Alex turned to Andrea with a stern expression. “When did you
put it away?”

Andrea wrung her hands. “I don’t remember. I—”

“Before forensics arrived?” Alex’s harsh tone caused her to
shrink away from him.

“I don’t know.” Tears flowed down Andrea’s face.

Alex pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay.” He stroked her
auburn hair. “I’m sorry,” he murmured in a softer voice.

Juliana whirled away from the inconsolable siblings, her
heart clogging her throat. She lifted the small container off the closet shelf.
Hesitantly, she examined the lidless plastic box without touching the contents.
Nothing.

“I’m not picking up anything.” She gave them an apologetic
shrug.

Alex released Andrea and coaxed her to sit on the bed. He
turned toward Juliana. “Take your time.”

She nodded. “Being here gives me the jitters.” Juliana
massaged her temple with one hand. “My headache’s worsened since I’ve been in
this room.”

“We can do this later.” Alex’s eyes questioned her.

“No.” She gave a half shrug. “I need to do it now. I can’t
put my finger on something. About the doll box.”

Andrea patted the bed beside her. “Sit, try to relax. It’ll
come to you.”

Andrea’s conviction endeared her, and Juliana followed her
lead. The moment she sat down, a knife-like pain twisted in her brain. She
clenched her head between her palms. That part of the bed blazed alive with the
kidnapper’s touch.

In a blur, Alex crouched before her, his hands cupped around
her face.

Her teeth clenched. “As soon as I sat—”

The vision resurfaced with lightning-bolt speed. She started
to rise, but the room reeled and a black hole raced to suck her down.

* * * * *

Juliana fell into Alex’s arms, and he lifted her as if she
were a bundle of feathers. Cradling her close, he carried her into the living room
and laid her on the couch.

“Let me look at her.” He moved aside as Andrea knelt beside
the couch. Andrea was a registered nurse, and he couldn’t have asked for anyone
better to take care of Juliana.

She checked Juliana’s pulse, her breathing. “She fainted.” Andrea
jumped up. “I’ll get a cold compress.” Darting away, she disappeared down the
hall.

Juliana’s braid threatened to pull apart. Alex smoothed the
silken locks away from her face, then held her frigid hands in a loose clasp. Her
face was ashen, and her icy velvet skin frightened him.

His hungry gaze traveled over her body. “Jewel,” he
whispered, caressing her cheek. He could fight his resurrected feelings to the
death, but it thrilled him to have her back in his life.

Her old nickname had resurfaced without hesitation the day
before, as if no time had elapsed. He had called her Jewel from the first
moment they met, when the sunlight had caught her eyes and brilliant emeralds
pierced his soul.

Andrea returned and pushed his hand away, placing a wet
cloth on Juliana’s forehead.

Juliana flinched and cried out, uttering a few
incomprehensible words. Narrowing his gaze, he strained to decipher them.

“She’s dreaming.” His pulse accelerated.

“Do you think she’s dreaming about Lisette?” The hopeful
look in Andrea’s eyes caused his heart to sink. She hung onto a conviction that
Juliana was their savior. Any disappointment, however small, would devastate
her.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, she stroked Juliana’s arm
as if she was stroking a beloved child’s head. “Tell me where you are,
Lisette.”

“Andrea, don’t.” He hated to see his sister caught up in too
much psychic paranoia.

“Alex, she has a link to Lisette. James said—”

“James isn’t a doctor!” His exasperation exploded in his
words. “Juliana has a connection to the kidnapper, not Lisette.” What did James
know? Why had he filled Andrea with potentially empty hope? Just because James
worked with psychics didn’t make him an expert.

Andrea ignored him and continued whispering reassuring words
to Lisette.

Yet Alex couldn’t deny what he’d witnessed himself. If the
innocent sentiments brought comfort to his grieving sister, he wouldn’t refuse
her. He tightened his grip on Juliana’s cold hands, transferring heat from his
body to hers.

“Alex, she came back for a reason,” Andrea said with undeniable
certainty. “To find Lisette. To make us whole.”

He felt the truth in Andrea’s words deep in his soul. Could
he stow away the past when he had no clue about Juliana’s life over the last
decade? Or why she’d deserted him—them—in the first place? Did he even want to
know?

Juliana twitched, jerking his mind to the present and to the
beautiful woman causing his thoughts to wander. First things first—he had a
niece to find. Juliana wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He’d make damn
certain on that score.

* * * * *

He unlocked the bedroom door. The pastel lamp on the
otherwise bare dresser contributed a faint glow. The light barely penetrated
into the corners, but it was all he needed. The scent of vanilla lotion wafted
to him, overshadowing the faint odor of fear in the airless room.

Lisette bolted upright on the bottom bunk bed. Alarm
darkened her face, fresh tears shimmering in her eyes.

Revulsion crashed over him in waves. She no longer
listened to him, and it angered him more than the tears revolted him. Nothing
had prepared him to deal with such childish behavior. Her sobbing sounded like
the wail of sirens.

“Where’s…my…mommy?” Lisette formed the question through
her blubbering.

“Don’t ask me that again!” He couldn’t bar the anger from
his voice. When he’d failed to produce her mother as promised, he’d destroyed
her flagging trust. But the lie had served its purpose admirably.

Lisette’s tears streamed faster, and she clutched her toy
animal to her stomach.

Fury replaced the disgust inside him. He would lose
control if he didn’t leave the room soon. “Do you have to use the bathroom?” He
forced restraint into his tone.

As she shook her head, the cell phone clipped to his
pants sang a welcome song. Finally!

He jerked the phone off his belt loop and stabbed it on
with his index finger.

“What?” he shouted, pressing the phone to his ear.

“What do you want me to get for lunch? Has Lisette
eaten?”

“I don’t care what you get! You know what she’ll eat. She
won’t touch anything I’ve prepared.” He punched the phone off and backed out of
the stifling room.

“You’ll eat if I have to cram it down your throat,” he
muttered, before his mind moved to tempting thoughts of revenge.

* * * * *

Juliana awakened on her back. Unfamiliar crushed velour rubbed
the backs of her legs, and the air smelled faintly of fear, as if Lisette’s
fear was a palpable thing in the room. Or was it Alex’s and Andrea’s fear? Everything
blurred as she tried to focus her eyes. When she finally recognized Alex and
Andrea crowding around her, the day’s events snowed her.

“What happened? The last thing I remember, I was sitting on
the bed with a horrible headache.” Shock suffused her as she realized she had
fainted. She’d never fainted before!

Thinking back, she remembered that she’d delved into the
kidnapper’s mind through touch telepathy. It was far different from the night
dreams when her mind was already open and receptive. The intrusion felt like a
can opener prying the lid off her mind and sucking it into his. Her head still
reeled from the force.

Alex stared down at her fixedly. Worry creased his forehead.
“You okay?”

“I think so.” She pressed her fingertips to her temples. A
deep shudder shook her.

An insistent thought reached the surface of her mind. “The doll
box! I remember what bothered me about it.”

She struggled on the couch, and Alex helped her to sit. Her
thick braid had unraveled completely, and her hair tumbled around her
shoulders.

“Do you need an aspirin?” Andrea asked. “Water? Anything?”

“No. I’ll be okay.” Juliana forced a confident smile.

Alex examined her with hooded eyes. Satisfied, he snatched
his notebook and pen from the glass-topped coffee table. “What about the doll
box?”

The scene from her early morning dream sprang to mind as if
unearthed by a shovel. “The kidnapper sat on the side of the bed and he
accidentally kicked the doll box. Then he pushed it away with his hands.” Juliana
sorted through her memory, rubbing her fingertips over her face. “Something
dropped inside the box.”

Lines of concentration deepened across Alex’s forehead as he
made notes in his notepad.

“That’s not what you dreamed, is it?” Andrea rose from the
floor and sat beside Juliana on the couch. She picked up the damp washcloth
from the floor, twisting it with both hands.

“No,” Juliana said in a soft voice.

“Is she okay?” Andrea cried in alarm.

“Yes.” She squeezed Andrea’s arm. Her heart pulsed in
empathy, unable to fathom how Andrea dealt with her fear and worry.

Juliana began with a hesitant preamble. “She’s alive and
well.” She glanced at Andrea’s slender fingers fisted around the red-striped
washcloth. “He hasn’t hurt her. She’s locked in a bedroom and knows he lied
about you joining them, Andrea. She’s upset and won’t eat.”

Andrea hiccupped and wiped her nose on the washcloth.

Juliana continued, “Someone’s bringing a meal. She seems to
know what Lisette will eat.” She didn’t want to divulge the rest to Andrea. Lifting
her eyes to Alex, she arched a brow and winked twice. Would he remember their
old eye signal? She instantly recognized a perceptive flicker in return.

He stepped behind Andrea and rested his hands gently on her
shoulders. “I’ll take a full statement in my office.”

“Yeah. I could use a breather.” Juliana smiled, hoping to
alleviate the tension stifling the room.

She attempted to rise to her feet, but a flash of vertigo
overwhelmed her and her knees collapsed, depositing her back on the couch.

Alex came around the sofa and crouched in front of her. Concern
shifted across the hard planes of his rugged face.

“Give me a minute,” she said as he stroked her cheek. A jolt
from his touch invigorated her and she shook off the lethargy, willing strength
back to her body and mind.

“Don’t move.” A glimmer of tenderness reached Alex’s eyes.

* * * * *

Alex settled Juliana and Andrea in the living room and went
off to examine the doll box.

The emotions he experienced when Juliana fainted stunned him.
He wanted to protect her, care for her and never let her out of his sight.

For the first few years following her vanishing act, he
waited for her to come back, never wanting to surrender the flame of hope. As
time dragged by and there was no word of her, the fire burned into embers until
cold dry ashes remained. And a great fear of love.

Now back in his life, she had reignited that spark.

A dog barking in the neighbor’s yard returned him to the
present. Leaving the past behind, he locked his thoughts away and concentrated
on his job.

Using evidence bags as makeshift gloves, he lifted the doll
box off the closet shelf. All evidence pointed to the fact that the perp had
used gloves, but Alex wasn’t taking any chances.

Doll accessories stuffed the box to the rim. He tipped it on
its side and spread the contents on the bed. After a few seconds of sorting
through the tiny toys, excitement swamped him.

“Son of a bitch.” He picked up a half-dollar-sized gold disk
and dropped it inside an evidence bag, careful not to contaminate it with his
fingerprints.

Raising the object to eye level, he fingered the jagged edge.
It was a Scottish clan medallion soldered to a keychain fob.

He cleared up the pile of tiny shoes and clothes and
returned to the living room. “You were right.” His eyes locked with Juliana’s,
appreciation spilling from his voice. Respect for Juliana’s psychic talents
jumped several rungs on the ladder.

When Alex showed them the evidence, Juliana edged back,
afraid to approach the keychain.