“But you didn’t.”
“Not at first. Not for too damned long. I was too busy feeling shaken and uncertain because my memories were . . . stirred up and spread out in a different way. No lies. What was said was said, more or less. Only not like that. And what it means is that monster is a scary-powerful psychic able to manipulate memories, manipulate reality. Individual reality, at least. And if he can do that to a psychic with pretty strong shields . . .”
“He could really do a number on a nonpsychic with little or no shielding.”
“Exactly. Like, maybe, our six missing people?”
—
“YOU’RE SURE?” BISHOP asked.
“I’m sure he got inside Robbie’s head,” Lucas replied, keeping his voice low even though he knew that Samantha was deeply asleep in the next room. “From what she said, the first thing he did was manipulate some of her memories. She said there were no lies, no deceptions, just information . . . rearranged.”
“Not something we’ve seen before,” Bishop said slowly.
“Yeah, I was kind of hoping you might have encountered it even if we haven’t. This creep really is unique?”
“He didn’t make Robbie do anything.”
Long accustomed to his unit chief’s habit of answering some questions obliquely and some not at all, Luke merely said, “Far as we could tell, no. Maybe just a test, to see if he could get in and mess with her mind. But he did give her a memory she shouldn’t have had, or maybe a vision. She was standing on the sidewalk watching as Officer Annie Duncan staggered out of an alley and collapsed with her throat cut.”
Since Lucas had already related information about the murder, Bishop was aware of what had happened.
“Do you think he was showing her that as it happened?”
“If not in the moment, then damned close. Sam said Officer Duncan’s body was still warm.”
“I know you don’t like it,” Bishop said, “but Samantha’s ability to retrieve memories is also unique.”
“She retrieved memories from a dead woman’s dying brain, Bishop. Just the idea is something out of a horror movie and we both know it. At best, it pulls too much of her own life force from the psychic, and at worst she could be pulled into the energy escaping the brain and end up God knows where. Now, you and the doctors and whoever may find that fascinating, and maybe something new can be learned about the brain, even about the death process, but Sam’s the one taking the risks. Both her hands were frostnipped, and she was out before I could get her up here to our room. She came close, really close this time.”
“You said she went out earlier in the day. Do you have any idea what caused that?”
“As far as I can tell, there’s a choice between at least two possibilities, and I don’t like either of them. First, Sam reacted to that energy bubble—though why it knocked her out when Robbie was able to sense the energy without it harming her is anybody’s guess.”
“And the second possibility?”
“Same as with Robbie. He got into her head somehow. But Sam isn’t a telepath, and she had a lot of experience in her carnival years in warding off negative energy, plus what she’s learned in the SCU since then. Maybe she pushed back without even thinking about it, but the effort took enough of her own energy and strength that she went out before even she could realize what happened. It is pretty much her default response to using too much energy.”
“True.”
“Also true that it would have taken a tremendous amount of energy to knock her out like that, so quickly.”
“I would say so.”
“And she’s certain he was aware of her later, Bishop. While she was tapping into the last of Annie’s memories, experiencing her murder. How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know,” Bishop said.
“You want to venture a guess?” Lucas tended to be intense often enough for it to be fairly usual, but to speak to his unit chief and a man he respected deeply with that snap in his voice was ample evidence of just how worried about Samantha he was.
Bishop paused, but not out of temper as his thoughtful voice indicated. “We know that when minds touch they leave . . . bread crumbs. Even if Samantha wasn’t aware of the contact earlier, he apparently did try to get through her shields. Maybe he did. Not far, obviously, but maybe just far enough to leave a bread crumb or two. And when Sam was using her abilities later to get what information she could from Annie Duncan, the unsub somehow became aware of that and . . . followed the bread crumbs.”
“That’s a lot of qualifiers.”
“It’s that sort of situation.”
Lucas sighed. “So . . . he wasn’t sensing her when she was reliving Annie’s memories just before Annie died because those memories were in the past; the unsub just managed to become a part of Sam’s process.”
“That makes more sense, doesn’t it?”
“I’m not sure anything in all this makes sense.” Lucas sighed again. “Sam has a better shield than I do, but I know damned well she’ll insist on using her abilities again. And soon. We have evidence bagged from the scenes of four of the six sites of the disappearances; I talked her out of touching any of that today, but with a murder added to the abductions, the clock is moving faster, and we both know what she’ll do.”
“If we don’t, we should after all this time.” Bishop paused, then said, “When she first went out, when he presumably touched her mind or some part of it, it was during the day, right? You were walking the scenes where the missing people disappeared, during the day.”
“Yeah.” Lucas frowned, repeating, “Yeah. So he strikes after dark, but could be keeping an eye on us during the day as well. Shit.”
“Could have been just the one day,” Bishop suggested. “Because you all got to town today and he either knew or heard you’d be arriving. It would have been news and spread around town very quickly. Maybe he just wanted to watch you work.”
“And test our defenses. So he knows we’re psychics.”
“He knows Samantha and Robbie are. No way to be absolutely sure he tested you and Dante. In fact, he probably didn’t. Too many men believe women are the weaker, more vulnerable targets, especially predators like this one; he may have simply tried them first for that reason.”
With a certain grim satisfaction, Lucas said, “Well, he’s got a lot to learn, doesn’t he?”
“Even so, you’re right to worry about Samantha. We both know she has a tendency to go deeper than she needs to.”
“We also both know that she’ll do what she feels is right, no matter how dangerous it might be.”
“True.”
“You want to tell me how I can protect her from herself?”
“Luke, we’re both married to strong women. And we both know they can take care of themselves.” He paused, adding wryly, “We both also know that knowledge doesn’t put a dent in the worry. Look, you’re there with her, and you know the danger signs. Don’t hesitate to pull her out if you have any doubts at all.”
“I never have.”
“We both know that too.”
Lucas sighed. “This unsub has been active for nearly a month, with six disappearances—and no bodies found. No way to know if his victims are alive or dead. We checked all the records we could find, and so far there’s nothing remotely similar to this unsub either at an earlier time here or anytime anywhere else in the southeast.”
“I took it nationwide,” Bishop said. “No hits. Unless he made some drastic changes, he started in Serenity less than a month ago. And that’s likely where he’ll finish.”
“I told Robbie and Dante to stay within sight of each other at all times. Also told them we’d split shifts, at least unless and until there’s a break in the case. This unsub being psychic ups the stakes. A lot. I don’t want any one of us vulnerable because we’re tired.” Lucas knew more than most the dangers of being tired—and psychic.
“Good. Now take your own advice and get some rest. You know you don’t have to stay awake to watch over Samantha.”