Mind Slide (13 page)

Gabriel dropped the trophy to the floor. Ronald noticed he didn't even wear gloves. Why would he? Gabriel didn't have fingerprints. They were removed long ago.

“Who is
T
?”

Ronald's jaw dropped. Gabriel had read the note downstairs.

“
Please
, Gabriel. Please don't hurt my family.”

Gabriel knelt in front of him. “What kind of monster do you think you made? I'm not gonna kill your wife and son. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Gabriel sat across from him and leaned his back against the wall. Every instinct told Ronald to crawl away, but he knew it was pointless.

“Let's get
very
serious,” Gabriel said. “I am going to kill you. Now, how you die is completely up to you. As much as I want to hook you up to a nice generator and watch you fry, there's bigger issues here. Where is it?”

“Huh? Where is what?”

“You were his best friend. He would have given it to you, or told you where it is.”

“
What
, Gabriel?”

Gabriel shot forward and slapped Ronald across the face. The doctor curled into a ball and cried. Gabriel slapped him until his face was completely red.

“Listen, Ronald. You don't know what sick thoughts have been going through my head. Cutting off your feet. Boiling you alive. Ripping out your fingernails-”

“I don't know what you're looking for! Albert never gave me anything! What the hell would he give me?”

Gabriel slapped him one more time across the face, then stood up.

“You're either the strongest man in the world, or you're telling the truth. And since we both know you're a pathetic weakling...”

He walked to the steps and grabbed the gun where it fell.

“You've earned a quick death,” he said with a smile. Then his smile turned into a snarl. “But believe me, you deserve much more.”

“Well, I guess we all get what we deserve in the end.”

“Oh, trust me, I'll make sure of that. Goodbye, Doctor.”

Ronald closed his eyes, trying not to cry. He thought of his wife and son. He last saw them in the morning. She kissed and hugged him goodbye in the kitchen, before he left for the office. Bradley was eating cereal at the table, and just gave his father a wave.

He opened his eyes to see the barrel of his own gun, inches away from his forehead.

Gabriel pulled the trigger.

The recoil hurt his hand as Ronald's head fell limp to the floor. Blood poured from his head and soaked into the carpet.

Gabriel dropped the gun and shook his hand. He never fired a gun. He walked down the stairs slowly. There was the chance someone heard the gunshot, and he had to get moving before police showed up.

His hand was on the doorknob when guilt began to settle in.

He tried to imagine what Ronald's family would go through when they got home. Halfway up the steps they'd see his body, his eyes wide open, staring at them.

He took a deep breath and looked around the living room. The couch had a slip cover. He pulled it off and carried it up the stairs. With one motion, he covered the body of Doctor Ronald Fuller.

“More than you ever did for me.”

He left through the front door.

“How does it feel to have two million dollars?”

Mason looked at Brian over his burger and fries. It was lunchtime, so the diner crowd was more dense than usual. Mason looked around to make sure no one heard his loud-mouthed friend.

“Keep it down. It doesn't feel any different, really. It'll be nice to not have to blackmail parents anymore.”

Brian shook his head. “I can't believe it. Old Doc Rierson. Left both you and Kelly all that money. How is she doing, by the way?”

He shrugged. “How am I supposed to know?”

“You haven't seen her? Or talked to her? Anything?”

“Nah.”

“Why the hell not?”

“You saw her at the funeral home. I thought she was gonna bite my head off. She didn't have the best of relationships with her father, and probably blames me for it. The man did spend every waking minute in the lab.”

“You said you had lunch, and everything was fine. She was all smiles when we were moving her.”

“We watched a movie and ate a pizza after you guys left.”

Brian smiled. “See? I don't see hate there. You should give her a call. Maybe you two could actually become friends.”

Mason was quiet.

“What is wrong with you?” Brian asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You know I love that you watch my daughter after school, and swing by on the weekend, and all that fun stuff.”

“But?”

“You're twenty-three. You should be out getting drunk, hitting on women, maybe even having a little sexual intercourse. Get out of this shell you're in.”

“I'm not in a shell.”

“Yes, you are. You have a chance here to actually make a friend. Maybe not a girlfriend, or whatever. But maybe she has friends she can introduce you to.”

“Friends aren't easy for me. You know this.”

“Only because
you
make it hard.”

Mason sighed. They had this argument many times, usually using different examples and angles. The point was the same each time.

“Okay, so, let's pretend me and Kelly become friends. When do I tell her her father put me through the wringer in the name of science?”

“Look, you want to keep finding excuses to stay in your hole, that's fine. All I'm saying is at the funeral home, she definitely had an attitude. By the end of Saturday night, you were eating pizza with her.”

He thought of Kelly. At first, he thought maybe she was just lonely. She wanted another body there to help ease her thoughts about her father, and moving into his house.

But maybe she actually enjoyed his company. She definitely laughed at his dumb jokes.

“Mason, you've been out of that lab since you were eighteen. Don't let it keep running your life.”

Mason looked at his friend, and finally let out a smile.

Brian's gaze fell on the television mounted in the corner behind Mason. Mason noticed his stare, and turned around in his seat.

The news was talking about a missing girl.

Her name was Nancy Schumaker. Thirteen years old. Last seen with her estranged father, Harold Schumaker, outside her middle school. Her mother cried as a reporter interviewed her.

They showed clips of the girl. Dancing on stage in a school play. Posing for a picture with her mother.

Those shots faded into pictures of her father, Harold.

“If you have any information on the whereabouts of either Nancy or Harold, police ask you to please contact the number below.”

Brian looked at Mason without saying a word. After working a uniform and pulling people over for traffic violations, he'd spent the last five years working homicide cases. One of the bonuses of having Mason as a friend was occasionally stopping a possible homicide before it happened.

“I'll be in my Jeep,” Mason said, leaving money on the table. “I'll call soon.”

Brian nodded.

*****

Kelly, for the fifth time during the week, told herself she was going to quit her job.

She ran around the restaurant like she was on fire. It was a good tip night so far, but she desperately wanted to go home.

The couple at table five was starting to get under her skin. It was a husband and wife, and the husband, in plain view of his wife, was actively flirting with her. The other waitresses told her to flirt back. She would get a better tip.

That wasn't her style. She should get tipped well because she did a good job, not because she smiled and batted her eyes.

Against her will, her thoughts drifted to Mason throughout the night.

She had done something earlier in the week that was unlike her. She looked up his address and phone number. It was remarkably easy, considering he had a website dedicated to his business.

She wasn't interested in a relationship, attractive guy or not. But she was curious about him. She was comfortable around him, which was definitely new. Hanging out with him at her new house wasn't as difficult as she thought it would have been. The two of them could become friends, if she ever saw him again.

It would be her first real friend since high school.

She thought back to the last man she undressed in front of. Upon seeing her foot, and the five ugly scars scattered on the top and sides, his face took on a noticeable look of disgust.

Mason didn't even blink.

No wonder he was in a mental health center.

She wondered how late he stayed up, and if a phone call after work would be okay.

“Hey guys!” George called from behind the bar. He pointed to the television above his head, which a moment ago was showing the hockey game. “They found that girl earlier today.”

Kelly watched the news conference. A man was standing behind a podium, answering questions about the kidnapped girl, Nancy Schumaker. Every time she saw a kidnapping on the news, she couldn't help but watch.

Not everyone was as lucky as she was.

She smiled as the man behind the podium announced Nancy was safe with her family. He answered a few questions for the local reporters, then the cameras followed him as he walked into the police station.

As the camera panned by the crowd, she saw two men she recognized.

“You've gotta be kidding me.”

Mason and Brian stood in between a few reporters. Mason had a satisfied smile on his face while he leaned over and said something to Brian.

George and a few patrons sitting at the bar heard her.

“I know those guys,” she said, pointing at the television.

“I was on TV once,” George said. “I won a math contest when I was in second grade.”

Kelly smiled brightly. “I have a feeling they did more than add two and two.”

If Mason were in his body, his cheeks would have been red.

He watched Kelly walk across the restaurant to refill drinks for table ten. It was surprising she was still working. He was quite sure he wouldn't wait any tables if he were in her place.

He wrestled with guilt as he watched her lovely figure. He mind slid in the past for many shady reasons. He spied on the doctors in the lab. There was that time he was fifteen and found himself in a girls' locker room in England.

Now he was watching Kelly.

Mason always believed the times a person revealed the most about themselves was when they thought no one was watching.

When she took her breaks, she was always alone. She would wait near the front door before crossing the parking lot, always checking for her pepper spray. There had to be a crowd in the parking lot before heading to her car to relax.

Mason sat next to her during her breaks.

Kelly was very pleasant to look at.

He loved her skin. It was obvious she was embarrassed about her pale complexion. He thought she was gorgeous. He guessed she kept up her running hobby after high school. She was in great shape. Tone legs, curves in all the right places.

She was five minutes late from her last break. The parking lot was empty of people, and she wouldn't go back inside until there was a family of five to follow.

Her kidnapping had changed her. Not exactly for the better.

The lab did the same thing to Mason.

He took a deep breath as he sat at an empty table and watched Kelly from a distance.

Brian was right.

He was in a shell.

Both he and Kelly were.

“That will change,” he said aloud.

He had never seen a restaurant after closing time. Most of the servers gathered at a few tables and talked about their war stories for the evening, how they made out on tips. Kelly grabbed her purse and followed a few of the cooks who left as soon as they were allowed.

He pushed through the passenger's door of her car and sat next to her.

He wanted to ride home with her, be in her company just a little longer. Then tomorrow he would call her.

Kelly unleashed her hair from her ponytail and undid all the buttons on her collared shirt. It took all of Mason's willpower to keep his eyes forward.

She pulled out her cell phone once she was a block away and dialed a number at a red light.

Mason laughed. “Not the safest thing to do in the world, Kelly.”

He heard a ringing. He was confused for a moment, trying to figure out how Kelly's phone could dial and ring at the same time.

He laughed when he realized it was
his
phone, in the apartment.

The first thing he saw when he slid back into his body was the huge head of a ferret, looking at him upside down from the arm of the couch.

Mason let out a little shout.

“Lucy! You scared the hell out of me!”