DIAGNOSIS: ATTRACTION (7 page)

* * *

F
AR
AWAY
,
IN
L
AFAYETTE
, Louisiana, Rachel Harper stopped in the middle of planting flowers around the cottage where she and her husband, Jake, spent part of each week, when they weren’t in New Orleans. Rachel had a boutique there, where she read tarot cards. And Jake had several businesses, including restaurants and antique shops. The cottage was on a plantation that belonged to Gabriella Boudreaux, where three couples had established a small colony. They all had something important in common. All of them were telepaths who had found each other after years of loneliness.

Recently they’d been on the run from men who wanted to use them or destroy them. Now they were living in safety and making a life for themselves. Their powers varied, but Rachel had a special ability—to send her mind over long distances. Because of that, she was always on the lookout for more couples who had hooked up. She wanted to offer them the safety she and Jake had found. Yet at the same time, she was always cautious about approaching anyone new, because the first man and woman like themselves that she and Jake had met had tried to kill them.

The last time she’d detected another couple, Jake had been with her. Now she was alone in the garden. Tension coursed through her as she looked around. When Jake didn’t come rushing out, she knew he hadn’t picked up on her sudden awareness that another man and woman had bonded. The other couple were far away. Somewhere on the East Coast, she thought, although she wasn’t sure of the exact location. But since she was the only one here who knew about them, she could keep the information to herself and decide what to do about it later.

Chapter Seven

Elizabeth Forester,
Matt said into her mind.

Thank you for that—and the rest of it.

Do you know why those men are after you?

I’m still not sure.

We’ll figure it out.

He clasped her to him, holding her in place, and she was content to lie on top of him, still marveling at the way they had traveled together to an undiscovered country.

“This is what we were meant for,” he murmured, absolute conviction in his voice.

She understood what he was saying.

Always incomplete.

Until now.

Why did it happen?

The loneliness or what happened when we touched?

Both.

“We have to find out,” he said aloud as he stroked her arm.

She gave a short laugh. “You’re saying we can’t just enjoy it.”

“Is that what you want to do?”

She considered the question. “No. I want to understand. And of course we still have to figure out why those men want to question me—then kill me.”

“There’s that.”

She raised her head, looking around the room. She had barely noticed it when they’d come in. Now it had taken on meaning. It might be a typical motel room, but it was a magical place—where she and Matthew Delano had forged a connection neither one of them had ever dreamed of.

When she shifted off him, he sat up and looked around, and she knew he was following her thoughts. And she knew he was thinking about something else, as well.

Naked, he got out of bed and reached for the remote beside the television set. Then he slipped back under the covers and began flipping through the channels.

It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for. The afternoon news was on several of the local channels. When he stopped at one, a reporter was standing in front of the house where they had recently escaped from Polly’s killer.

“Polly Kramer, a local woman who worked as a nurse at Memorial Hospital, was found dead in her laundry room. Responding to a 9-1-1 call, police arrived to find the victim alone in the house. Wanted for questioning are Matthew Delano and a woman known only as Jane Doe, who was admitted to the hospital with amnesia. Ms. Kramer volunteered to take the discharged patient home while she tried to regain her memory. Apparently the Good Samaritan gesture led to her death.”

Elizabeth stared at the television screen in shocked silence.

Matt pulled her close. “It’s not your fault.”

“Of course it is. She’d be alive if she hadn’t volunteered to help me out.”

“Don’t blame yourself. You had no idea what was going to happen.”

“But I knew I was in some kind of danger.”

He rocked her as she shivered in his arms. “If you want to assign blame, think about how they knew where to find you. It wasn’t through Polly, and it wasn’t through me. It must have come from one of the other nurses.”

“But why?”

“Maybe she thought she was being helpful.”

Elizabeth wanted to believe she wasn’t to blame, but she couldn’t stop her physical reaction. “We have to find out what’s going on. We have to turn him over to the police.”

“But why didn’t you go to the police in the first place?”

I wish I knew for sure. Maybe I didn’t have enough on him
. She dragged in a breath and let it out.
What if we just turned ourselves in?

Not a good idea. If they take us into custody, we can’t figure out what’s going on.

* * *

N
OT
TOO
FAR
AWAY
, in the home of Derek Lang, Gary Southwell and his boss were watching the same newscast.

Lang was sitting in a comfortable chair in his TV room. Southwell was standing a few feet away, shifting his weight from foot to foot and keeping his hands at his sides—away from his battered face.

“Tell me again how she got away?” Lang asked.

Gary cleared his throat, hoping his nerves didn’t show. “I had a gun on her. Then she threw herself to the ground, and a guy jumped me from behind.”

“Curious that she knew to get out of the line of fire.”

Gary had thought about that. “He must have given her some kind of signal.”

“Which would mean they had something prearranged.”

Gary nodded.

“And you weren’t aware of him in back of you?”

“No, sir. I had killed the old lady, and I didn’t expect anyone else besides Forester.”

He could see Lang thinking about the answer. He was wondering if Gary had made a mistake, or were they dealing with someone very clever? There was no use trying to persuade him either way. He’d make up his own mind.

“The police still don’t know who she is, or they’re not saying, which gives us an advantage,” Lang mused.

“And I think she still doesn’t know, either. At least I got that impression from talking to her.”

“Why?”

“The look in her eyes,” Gary answered promptly.

“Okay.”

With any other employer, Gary might have asked a question like, “What’s our next move?” but he kept silent because he knew Lang would give him further orders when he had a plan in place.

He watched his boss thinking about his options before he said, “Stake out her house. If she figures out who she is, she’ll go back there.”

“Yes, sir,” Gary answered, relieved to have a new assignment, one he wasn’t going to screw up.

“And another thing. The cops are looking for the doctor who treated her, the one on shift the morning she was released. Unless we have contradictory information, we have to assume that he’s the guy who came up behind you. And we have to assume the two of them are together. Keep a man on his place, too, in case he’s dumb enough to go home.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’ll check his credit-card records and his background. Where was he before he was in Baltimore? We may get a lead on where he’s gone.”

Gary left the room, feeling like he’d made a lucky escape. Other men who had worked for Derek Lang had disappeared. They might have moved on to other jobs, but Gary didn’t think so.

* * *

M
ATT
KEPT
HIS
ARM
around Elizabeth. At the same time, he sent her soothing thoughts. It was a strange way to communicate, but he knew it was working as he felt her shivering subside.

“Let’s think this through. Make some plans.”

She caught a thought sliding through his head. “And you want to have a hamburger while we’re doing it.”

He laughed. “I can’t help it. I haven’t had much to eat today, and I think we both need to keep our strength up.

“Okay.”

Her agreement came with what she was really thinking—that after seeing the news report, she wasn’t sure she could eat.

“Inconvenient to be getting so many of your stray thoughts,” he murmured.

“Yes.”

“There are a ton of fast-food restaurants around here. I can go out and bring the burgers back.”

“Okay,” she answered, and again he picked up more than she was saying. She didn’t love the idea of being left alone, but under the circumstances, it was safer. “I know,” she murmured aloud.

He nodded and got dressed. “Back in a flash.”

When he stopped short, she gave him a questioning look, then said, “You’re worried that the cops could be looking for your car.”

“Yeah.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

He knew she was following all the options running through his head. He couldn’t just go rent a car because he’d have to use his credit card. And stealing a car wasn’t in his skill set—or his ethics set, either.

He finally said, “I read a spy novel where the hero changed a letter on his license plate with electrical tape. I’ll see if I can pick some up.”

When she nodded, he said, “Will you be okay?”

“Yes.”

Wishing her answer were closer to the truth, he stepped outside and looked around to make sure nobody was paying him any particular attention, then drove at a moderate pace to one of the fast-food chains that were clustered in the same area as the motel complex. He bought double burgers, fries and milk shakes, because he figured both of them could use the calories.

When he returned to the room twenty minutes later, Elizabeth had dressed and had made the bed. She was watching the news again.

“Anything new?”

“No. I guess that’s good.”

“Yeah. Let’s turn it off.”

After setting the food on the table, he clicked the TV off with the remote and sat down. She took the seat opposite.

When he’d taken a few bites of his burger, he said, “I was thinking about why we’re the way we are.”

“So was I.”

“I wonder if there’s something in our backgrounds that’s similar.”

She laughed. “That would be easier if I
knew
my background.”

“Yeah. About all we can tell is that we both felt cut off from other people.” He chewed and swallowed. “Well, I’m from New Orleans. And you said you remember being there.”

She nodded. “That’s not much to go on. But I was thinking, the reason could be genetic. Or we could both have been exposed to some chemical—or radiation.”

“Before or after we were born?”

“Did you have any major illnesses?” she asked.

“Nothing special. Only the usual.”

She looked at him. “You said your mom went to a lot of trouble getting pregnant and that she went to a fertility clinic. Do you know where it was?”

“Houma, Louisiana, I think.”

“That wasn’t so common thirty years ago. I wonder if her going to the clinic had something to do with it. Which leads to the question, what about me?”

“I don’t know. But I can do some research in the medical databases.”

“Looking for what? I don’t think you’re going to find telepathic abilities. Or more precisely—telepathic abilities triggered by...”

“Physical contact. With sexual relations cementing the final breakthrough.”

“Very scientific.”

He grinned. “I guess a medical background doesn’t hurt.” Sobering again, he added, “Of course, figuring out how we got telepathic powers is not our immediate problem. The way I see it, there are three things we need to do right away. Since we know your name, we can go to your house. That would help with getting your memory back. But I wouldn’t suggest doing it until we have a better idea how to protect ourselves.”

“With guns?”

“With our minds. When that guy was holding a weapon on you, I told you to duck, and you did it. We need to find out if we can do more stuff like that. Not just talk to each other.”

“What else?”

He turned his palm up. “Did you read many science fiction stories when you were younger? There are a lot of paranormal abilities we can explore.”

“I do remember
Star Trek
reruns.”

“Another blast from your past.”

He saw that she “heard” what that thought had triggered.

“You think we can use our minds to...blast someone?”

“I don’t know. But if we can, it’s a lot more convenient than having to pack a six-shooter. And stealthier, too. Who would suspect an innocent-looking woman like you of being the Terminator?”

She laughed. “Didn’t the Terminator use brute force?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s finish eating and try some target practice.”

“Where?”

“Somewhere secluded.” He waited a beat to see if she’d come up with something. Then he said, “We might drive out toward Frederick. There should be plenty of open space out there.”

She took small bites of her hamburger.

“If you’re not hungry, drink the milk shake.”

“That’s strange nutritional advice from a doctor.”

He shrugged. “If we’re going to try blasting something, we’re probably going to use up some calories.”

“I guess that’s right.” She took off the top of the bun and ate some of the meat and the bottom bun, then picked up the milk shake. “I can drink this while we drive.”

“Do you often multitask?”

“Apparently.”

“Well, eat more of your burger in the car, too.”

He bundled up the trash and threw it in the wastebasket, then hesitated as he walked to the door.

“You’re thinking that maybe we shouldn’t come back here?”

“That could be right.”

“But you’re going to run out of cash if you keep renting rooms for a few hours.”

“Yeah. I guess we can make a decision later.”

He looked through the blinds before opening the door and ushering her to follow. They both got into the car, and he drove to the closest shopping center, which happened to have a home improvement store.

Inside, he bought electrical tape and a pair of scissors, then found a secluded part of the lot and looked at his license plate. One of the letters was an
L,
which he was able to change into an
E.
Stepping back, he looked at his handiwork. Not too bad, unless you got on top of it. But on the highway it should work. And he’d better not call attention to them by speeding.

They headed northwest on Route 70 and got off in a rural area. He found a state park where nobody else seemed to be taking advantage of nature, and they both climbed out.

“How are we going to do it?”

“Let’s start with some mind-to-mind communication experiments.”

“Like what?”

“When I called out to you to drop to the ground, I was about ten feet away.”

“But now we’ve got a stronger link.”

“Right,” he said, and they both knew he was thinking about their lovemaking. “Let’s see how far away we can do it.”

“I think we have to be touching to
do it,”
she teased.

“You know what I meant.”

She nodded, and they first stood on opposite sides of the car.

Do you know the names of the trees?
he asked.

She looked around.
I see maples, oaks, white pine.

Good that you know them. Let’s try it a little farther apart.

They each walked a few feet from the car and tried the communication again. It seemed to work until they were about twenty yards away, which was apparently the limit of their mind-to-mind communication skills.