Mind Slide (6 page)

Mason shivered. He didn't like the sound of that.

He wanted to go back and be with Kelly.

But he needed to actually
help
her. And fast.

He thought of the owner of the van.

Sharon Grainger.

“Doctor Ron? Are you still there?”

“I'm here, Mason.”

“I'm gonna mind slide to Sharon Grainger.”

“You can do that? Mind slide to different places without coming back to your body?”

“I can do a lot of things. None of them seem important right now.”

Mason felt nauseous as he appeared in Sharon's living room. He closed his eyes for a moment and focused on the music still playing in the lab. He wasn't sure if it was the second mind slide, or the thought of Kelly in that basement, that made him sick.

He was surprised to see light. He thought everyone in the home of Sharon Grainger would be asleep. But there was a woman in her thirties sitting alone at a dining room table. She wore a robe and had her hair wrapped in a towel. She was reading a magazine and sipping a cup of coffee.

He looked around as quickly as he could, absorbing every detail. A furnished living room led into the dining room, with a kitchen beyond that. There were pictures on the wall of Sharon Grainger and an older couple. Parents, maybe? There were no pictures of Kelly's kidnapper.

He felt foolish, not sure what he expected to accomplish. He couldn't speak to her, couldn't interact in any way.

Something did catch his eye on the dining room table.

It was a cell phone bill, complete with phone number at the top.

“Doctor Ron?”

“I'm here.” The doctor almost sounded bored. “Your blood pressure went up for a second, but it's down now.”

“I need you to hold a phone to my ear and dial a number I give you.”

“Mason, you know you're not allowed to make outside calls.”

“Doctor Ron!”

“Okay, okay.” Mason heard his footsteps. “I'm sorry. I'm just a little on edge right now.”

Mason felt the phone against his ear as Ronald dialed. Sharon's cell phone rang on the other end of the dining room table. She hesitated before answering, obviously not getting many calls so early in the morning.

“Hello?”

It was strange, talking to someone he was staring at on the phone. There was an echo as he heard her through the phone, and also with his mind from six feet away.

He needed to be direct, not give her a chance to hang up.

“Someone driving a van you own has kidnapped a girl.”

Sharon wrinkled her nose and set her coffee down. “Who is this?”

“Listen to me. He's at a house in the woods somewhere. Keeps talking about purifying her, sending her to God.”

Her hand started shaking, and he could see he struck a nerve. She gripped the table with her free hand to steady herself.

“Oh no,” she said.

“You know about this?”

She stood up and paced. “Neil's been taking his medication. He's been fine.”

“His name is Neil?”

“Yes. He's my brother. My half brother.”

“Okay. I don't know what he plans on doing, but it can't be good. His medication, whatever it is, it isn't working. A cop and the girl's father are on their way to your house right now. Do you know where this house is?”

“Yeah. Our father and Neil, they used it for hunting.”

“Can you take them there?”

“I will, I will. Who are you?”

“You can hang up now,” he told Ronald.

Mason heard the phone go dead in his ear and felt Ronald move away from him.

He stayed with Sharon a minute longer. She took a few deep breaths, then broke down in tears. She grabbed a picture on the wall and ran her finger down the glass.

He didn't follow when she went to her bedroom to change clothes.

He focused on Kelly Ann Rierson one more time. He pictured her in the basement, exactly how he left her, to help pinpoint the mind slide. If he had some details about where a person was he could slide that much closer to them. He wouldn't have to walk through the woods again.

*****

Mason appeared a few feet away from Kelly. He was dizzy for a moment, no doubt the result of his third mind slide of the night. Moving the mind around was always taxing.

She huddled in the corner in the darkness. Her legs were tucked under her, pressed against the wall as far as she could go. She sobbed quietly with her head in her hands, having given up on the chain.

Mason sat on the floor next to her, as close he could without dipping into her. He tried to to rub her shoulder, only to feel the bone and muscle as her arms shook.

“I'm not leaving you again, Kelly,” he said. “No matter what happens.”

Neither one of them knew how much time passed. An hour, maybe more. They heard Neil walking on the floor above them, but he didn't come back down the stairs. They looked up when it sounded like he was singing as he walked around the house. Mason didn't dare move from Kelly's side to find out.

He tried to cling to the hope that help was on the way.

“Mason, just thought you'd like to know,” Ronald said. “This is the longest mind slide you've ever had. Well, the longest one that I'm aware of.”

He was not proud or happy to hear the news.

The basement door creaked open.

Kelly shifted as Neil walked down the stairs, trying to press more into the corner. She wiped tears from her eyes and clasped her hands together.

“Please, Mister, please don't hurt me.”

Neil carried two buckets of water, one in each hand. He wore thick gloves to protect himself from the scalding water. Even in the near darkness, Mason could see steam rising from the buckets.

Mason stepped closer to Neil, looking right into his soulless eyes.

“If you hurt her, I will find you.”

“Mason,” Ronald said, concern in his voice. “You're...crying. Please, come back to your body.”

“Hello, little girl,” Neil said, setting one bucket on the ground. “I'm gonna save your soul. This will hurt. I won't lie. But you'll thank me when you meet God.”

Neil grabbed the second bucket with both hands.

Kelly sprung to her feet and stepped forward. Mason's jaw dropped when he saw the chain that once held her foot, tucked in the corner. Her foot was badly cut up and covered in blood from sliding the chain off. Her legs and shorts were smeared with red from sitting in a small pool of her own blood.

But she was free.

She kicked Neil between the legs. He fell to his knees and dropped the bucket. The dirt absorbed most of the water, but not all of it. Kelly let out a scream as the scalding water splashed on her feet.

She grabbed the second bucket and threw the water in Neil's face.

He screamed in agony as he covered his face with his hands.

“Run, Kelly! Run!”

She ran up the basement steps in the dark. A hand grabbed her ankle before she made it to the top. Her knees and shoulder struck the hard wood.

Neil, his face raw and peeled, clutched her bleeding foot.

Kelly pulled her good leg back and kicked as hard as she could. Her heel caught Neil flush on the nose. His face wrinkled up as he slid back down the steps.

She burst through the basement door, Mason right on top of her.

He almost shouted at her to take a right, but knew it was useless. He knew
he
was useless.

She found her own way through the maze of candles in the living room. The chilly night air greeted her as she ran through the front door.

Into the arms of Officer Brian Lowdry.

“Whoa! It's okay. I got ya.”

Mason scanned the front of the house. Five police cars were spread out in front of the van. Doc was waiting with barely contained patience behind another cop, gripping his hair. Sharon Grainger sat in the back seat of a squad car, still crying.

“Here,” Brian said. He gingerly moved Kelly into the arms of another officer. “Take her.”

Two officers led Kelly away as Brian and three others stormed the house.

Kelly only made it halfway to the car before she fell to her knees. She cried hysterically and curled into a fetal position. Mason never left her side. He tried to run his hand through her hair as the officer pulled her to her feet. Doc cried as he stood near a squad car, but didn't move toward his daughter.

“Get over here, Doc,” Mason said. “Hug your daughter.”

Doc didn't move.

They helped Kelly into the back of a car. The four officers carried Neil out of the house, his hands handcuffed behind his back. He thrashed and wailed as they dropped him to the ground.

“Call an ambulance,” Brian said. “We've got serious burns here.”

“Oh Neil! How could you?” Sharon shouted at her half brother. She tried to run to him, but the officer tending to Kelly's foot grabbed her.

“I tried to save her,” Neil said from the ground. “God told me to.”

“Well, looks like God changed his mind,” Brian said.

Neil stopped struggling, courtesy of the four different sets of knees buried in his back. Doc finally hugged Kelly, if only for a second. Sharon kept to herself as she stared at Neil from a safe distance. Mason gave Kelly another look. She was the most amazing person he'd met in his short life.

He was a few feet away from Brian when he heard the officer whisper.

“That was good, kid. You saved a life tonight.”

Mason finally smiled as inspiration hit him.

He knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

Mason awoke to the song of birds outside his bedroom window. The sunlight pouring in through the open curtains didn't exactly help with his sleep either. He glanced at the black alarm clock to see it was eight in the morning.

He stretched and stumbled out of bed. He sauntered out to the living room of his apartment, still wearing only boxers, and turned the stereo on in the corner. Beautiful light string music filled his apartment. He moved toward the kitchen. A bowl of Cheerios and a pop-tart were calling his name.

He stopped at the doorway when he saw Cheerios scattered all over the kitchen floor.

“Ah come on. Are you kidding me, Lucy? You don't get enough to eat? Is that what you're trying to tell me?”

He was in the middle of sweeping the spilled Cheerios into a pile when the six-month-old ferret poked her head around the corner into the kitchen. He almost laughed as Lucy sat there staring at him.

“I hope it was good,” he said, pointing the broom at her. “You'd better get back in your cage.”

She turned and ran away, giving him a flash of her bushy tail.

He caught a glimpse of the calendar on the refrigerator as he settled for a glass of orange juice. The date jumped out at him. Dread hung over him as each day passed. Why did he even bother to circle it anymore? On the fifteenth of every other month he had to earn money.

He loved being a private investigator, especially his area of specialization.

Missing children.

It was the billing part he hated.

He tried to move a little faster as he climbed in the shower. Lucy was getting into something out in the hall. It would be hell getting her back in the cage.

After a quick shave, and twenty seconds picking out jeans and a shirt, he was ready to leave. He put an irritated Lucy in her cage and gave his living room a final look. He knew he would have to spend a day cleaning and vacuuming soon. He supposed it was a good thing he hadn't dated anyone in three years.

Mason weaved his beat-up Jeep Wrangler in and out of the streets. He hooked his Bluetooth headset over his ear and grabbed his cell phone. He hated how he looked wearing the stupid thing. But for what he did for a living, it was worth every penny.

He called his best friend.

Detective Brian Lowdry answered in his customary style.

“What the hell do you want?”

“Are you at work?”

“Ah. Is it your time of the month already?”

“You're so funny.”

“Of course I'm at work. You heading over now?”

“Yeah. I'm bringing Lucy with me, too.”

“Man, if you bring that rat over here again-”

“Lucy's not a rat. And I'm just joking.”

“Hey,” Brian said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “You think you can pick up some donuts?”

Mason laughed. “So much for breaking the stereotype.”

“I haven't had a glazed in six months.”

“There's a reason for that. You're diabetic.”

“It'll help smooth things over with the boys here.”

He blinked. “Wait. I help solve a murder, and they're
still
pissed at me?”

“You know how weird cops get. You make them feel stupid sometimes.”