Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (11 page)

We flew down the stairs and Dr. Mortimer followed. When we got to the doors, she pushed my hand away and the two of them walked behind me, talking in low voices as I headed to the parking lot.

“Sorry, Ben, I guess we’ll have to do this another time,” she said. 

“She’s never had that kind of reaction toward me,” he said.

I could tell that he was hurt. They were whispering, thinking I couldn’t hear them. But I could.

“Kate, this concerns me. Maybe we need to run some of those other tests we discussed. Maybe it’s time. It’s been a while now, and I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this. But with her still blocking out certain events, and now these new dreams she’s been having, well, honestly I’m more than a little worried. What you two are calling visions could very well be a serious neurological condition. We have to check everything out medically before we call in Ghostbusters. And now she seems scared of me. I think she might need help, and soon.”

I just kept walking toward the car. I could hear Kate’s boots slapping the pavement behind me. I knew she was mad.

She opened the door and I slid inside. When she got in the driver’s side, she threw her purse down on the floor next to my feet.

“Well, that was great,” she said. “Really, really great.”

“Sorry, I just had to get out of there. Like you said before, we’re at this hospital too much.”

She was quiet. I knew she was stewing. I had wasted everybody’s time and had just insulted the doctor who had saved my life. But I now suspected that Kate was dating a killer and I would have to tell her, although I doubted she would believe me. I barely believed it myself.

“It’s Dr. Mortimer, Kate. He’s the killer,” I blurted out. “I saw it! The darkness was around him. The same darkness that hides the murderer from me in the visions. It’s him! I saw it and felt it tonight when I was looking at
him
.”

“What?” she said as we drove. “That’s just crazy. You’ve flipped out a little, Abby. Come on now. That’s just not possible.”

She was quiet for the rest of the drive home. When we got into the house, she disappeared into her bedroom and slammed the door. I didn’t see her the rest of the night.

I hated Kate being mad at me. But I knew now. And it was up to me to convince her of the truth.

CHAPTER 24

That night, I dreamt wild dreams. Dreams about black lakes, dark tunnels, raging rivers. And then Kate, lying in the brightness of the fresh snow, a puddle of dark blood oozing out from under where she lay, her eyes wide and lifeless, flakes sticking to her face.

I woke up screaming. My door opened.

“Abby, you okay? Are you awake?” Kate asked.

I took some deep breaths. It was just a dream. Kate was okay. It was a dream, not a vision. I told myself to calm down. My heart felt like running horses as she walked over to me. I hugged her hard.

But was it only a dream? Did I even have just regular nightmares anymore?

 “Abby. You’re home. Everything’s fine.”

Then I remembered.

“Dr. Mortimer, Kate,” I said. “It’s him. I saw that blackness tonight when we were talking to him. I didn’t imagine it.”

She handed me the glass of water from my nightstand and I gulped it down.

“Let’s go watch some TV,” she said.

We went to the living room and found
What Not to Wear
. Kate put the volume on low.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, but I know in my gut that it’s not him. Did you actually see him do the killing in your vision?” she said.

I understood why she was asking that because it didn’t make sense to me either. But lately my feelings about things were dead on and I was certain about this.

“No, it doesn’t work like that,” I said. “I know what you’re saying. But you need to stay away from him until I can get some proof.”

I had no idea what kind of proof I would be able to find. The killer had been very sharp, clever in his choices and in his methods. Nobody was on to him, and even if they did link the deaths and ruled them as homicides, there was nothing connecting him to them. He was a step ahead of everybody. But not ahead of me. It’s not that I thought I could outthink him or anything, I just hoped he would eventually make a mistake. In the movies killers always made mistakes, even the smart ones, and I would be ready.

Kate sighed.

“So all you have is a feeling? I’m sorry, but that’s just not enough.”

“No, remember, he was at the fire that night,” I said. “And he disappeared, and a body was found the next day. That’s something you can’t ignore.”

She was quiet and stared at the TV.

“Okay, that’s true,” she said. “But so what? A lot of people were at the fire. Police, firefighters, people watching. It’s still not enough. Maybe your visions have cross-wired somehow. I just don’t understand how suddenly you think it’s Dr. Mortimer. I think you owe him a little more than that, Abby. We both do.”

That was true and I felt bad about what I was saying. I didn’t want him to be the killer.

“Just take it easy with all this. Don’t jump to any crazy conclusions until we know more, that’s all I’m asking,” she said.

What Kate was saying made sense. Dr. Mortimer was a great guy who saved lives every day. As I thought about that, a sudden wave of guilt shot through me. How could I even think that he was capable of killing? He was a healer, and a really good one. But I couldn’t ignore it either. Something had happened earlier at the hospital and I needed to find out more.

As we watched the screen, I knew it wouldn’t matter how much I told her to stay away from him. Her emotions were spilling out and my new sensitivity could pick up everything. She might not talk about it, but she couldn’t hide it from me.

Kate was totally in love with Dr. Mortimer.

CHAPTER 25

Just when I thought I was moving forward, I had taken three steps back. Maybe there was no getting over this. Maybe people had accidents and woke up to strange new lives they didn’t want and for the rest of their days they wandered, lost, never figuring out how to live again.

It had been a week since I told Kate that Dr. Mortimer was a vicious, heartless, cold-blooded killer and I felt terrible. And I was a little scared, too, because I knew what I had seen. The blackness surrounding him was real.

But Kate still refused to believe it. She was sure that my vision, or whatever it was, was wrong. She said she would know if he were a killer, that she had good instincts about things and Dr. Mortimer was innocent. And I wanted that to be true. I wanted to believe it more than anything. Dr. Mortimer was our friend. More like family, really.

Kate finally had that talk with Matt. It didn’t go so well, she told me later. He was mad and blamed Dr. Mortimer for ruining their relationship. He said he could see what had been happening between them for months.

I was kind of shocked that he had said that. I hadn’t even suspected it for that long. I couldn’t really imagine Matt ever being that angry and Kate confessed that it had been an eye opener for her too. It was a side of her artist boyfriend that she had never seen before.

They broke up and Matt abruptly disappeared from our nightly dinners. It was strange and I was surprised by how much I missed him. And in a way, I kind of needed him, especially lately. Kate was rarely home anymore.

My Thursday session with Dr. Krowe went nowhere. No new memories came back.

And then, of course, there was Jesse, who I loved and who didn’t love me back, who said it was too late and avoided talking to me about that one night when we kissed under the stars. That one stupid night when I made a fatal mistake and turned him away, hurting him forever. I tried to settle for just a friendship, but it wasn’t what I wanted and it was getting harder and harder to accept that there never could be anything more.

Three steps back, maybe more. I realized that I was completely alone in my gray world. Maybe it was true what they whispered in the hallways after I passed by. Maybe I really was a freak.

CHAPTER 26

I stared in shock at the list.

It was posted under glass in front of the main office. It was the roster for the big basketball game next week, the game that would determine if Bend High would get into the playoffs.

And Jesse wasn’t on it.

It was official. His snowboarding obsession had gotten him kicked off the team. All his skills and all his charm didn’t stop the coach from throwing him off for missing half the practices.

Even though it made sense, I was still surprised. Jesse was their star player, and had been since he was a freshman. He really must have pissed off the coach.

Jesse always had the attitude that he could talk his way into or out of anything, and most of the time he was right. But not this time.

Black rage flooded through me as I walked out to the parking lot. I would have given anything to be able to play soccer like I used to. I would have shown up to double practices, would have run for a hundred hours a week if there was even a slight chance of my returning to the team at full capacity. And it wouldn’t have had anything to do with colleges and scholarships either. It would have been about the game I loved, the smell of the field, the fear that I had to mold into enthusiasm and poise to get around defenders and slam the ball into the back of the net. I loved the game with all my heart and soul. There was nothing, nothing like it.

Jesse used to have that same passion for basketball. But since my accident, something in him had changed. He just wasn’t the same. There was something below the surface. He wasn’t telling me things anymore. And when I had been honest and told him how I felt, he just walked away. He didn’t talk about Amanda. He didn’t talk about why he was blowing off school and practically living up at the mountain. There was something going on with him and he had shut me out.

It was time we had a talk. The thought of sitting down with him and forcing a conversation made my stomach ache. I had a strong feeling that he might just say goodbye, tell me that our friendship wasn’t working for him either and that he couldn’t take it anymore. And if that were true, I didn’t know if I could survive. I needed Jesse.

I pulled out my phone and wrote him a text. I told him we needed to talk. Soon. That’s all I said.

He didn’t write back.

CHAPTER 27

I was thinking of getting a part-time job at Starbucks or somewhere to get my mind off things and to make a little money. I needed a change, needed to stop focusing on the murders and Dr. Mortimer and Jesse and the future. It was late February and time was slipping away. I hated thinking about June, and especially after June. I had no idea what I would do.

I was surprised when Kate asked if I wanted to tag along while she did a few interviews around town. I wasn’t sure if she wanted to talk, but I was hoping she did because we had barely spoken since I accused her new boyfriend of murder.

We got in her Subaru and she put on Josh Ritter. I was hoping that she had reconsidered what I had told her about Dr. Mortimer and that we could also talk about the investigations. It seemed like nothing was happening. The cases were still open but seemed to be going nowhere.

“How’s work going?” I asked.

She looked over at me. Her new, perfect bob haircut was blowing all over from the heater. I unrolled my window an inch for breathing purposes. Kate always put the heat up way too high.

“Work is going okay,” she said. “Kind of in a rut. City council meetings, editorial meetings, and chamber meetings. Boring City lately. But next week should be good. The city is proposing major cuts in services, so the 4
^th
of July might come early this year.”

We sat in silence as we drove down Third Street. I could tell she had something to say to me, and I waited patiently. But she was quiet until we parked in front of a small, brick building with a basketball court in front of it.

“Okay. I’m going to be honest here,” she finally said. “I’ve been thinking about all this for a while. I know you’re sure you saw something that night at the hospital, and I’m sure you did. But you’re wrong if you still think the Doc is a killer.”

I stared at the trees blowing in the wind.

“I know that something very powerful is happening to you, Abby. I get that. And I completely believe you. You know I do. But I think all this psychic stuff that you’re experiencing is way too new for you to think you know everything. You can’t really think that he is the killer. I’m not going to let you do that. He’s a good man.”

Her face was intense, her eyes wide like a boxer ready to throw a punch. I knew I better be cautious with my words.

“He saved your life,” she blurted out. “And frankly, he saved mine too when he brought you back.”

I inhaled, took a moment to collect my thoughts.

“Okay,” I said. “Okay. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I saw and felt something I didn’t understand.”

“You did. Or at the very least, you misinterpreted it.”

Kate sighed deeply, like she had been carrying this heavy load for a while. I hadn’t realized how upset she was. It was going to be hard to convince her.

“By the way, anymore theories as to what links all the victims?” she asked.

She pulled a brush from her purse and ran it through her hair.

“No,” I said. “How about you?”

“No, not yet. It all seems so random. Two men, one woman. A homeless man, a receptionist, and a construction worker who likes to play with fire. Ages 26 to 60. I don’t know. I don’t see any connection or pattern, but I feel like something is there. Something links them. I just haven’t found it yet.”

“You will,” I said. “If anybody can find it, you can.”

She smiled.

“I was hoping that the toxicology report would be more helpful, but they weren’t able to identify the substance found in the first two victims. The police are thinking it’s some new designer drug that they had both taken.”