Jill lifted her head slightly. She wasn't really beat up. Her dress was a mess and her hair was probably a bit tangled, but other than that she was fine.
Nick slipped an arm around her waist, drawing her to his side as he said, "This guy is John Heathcliffe. He attacked Jill and was trying to force her to go with him. He hit me over the head with his gun when I tried to stop him."
The word «gun» was like an alarm bell. Mac stiffened, his eyes narrowing on John, no doubt searching for the weapon in question.
"He dropped the gun. I think it slid under the desk," Jill said helpfully.
"Take a look and see if it's there, Lou, but don't touch it if it is," Mac said, positioning himself in front of the door in case John had any hopes of leaving that way.
Lou moved to the desk and dropped to one knee to peer under it. He straightened a moment later and nodded solemnly, indicating there was indeed a gun there.
"The man's a nut," Nick said at once. "He thinks Jill is a witch or something."
When Jill glanced at him with confusion, Nick squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"Not a witch, a shape-shifter, you fool," John snapped.
"Right, whatever," Nick said with a meaningful look at his brother-in-law. "And he wants to kidnap her, take her back to his home and torture the evil out of her. He probably has a cage and everything."
"The cage is just to keep her from escaping," John said quickly. "And I wouldn't torture her, just study her. I'm a scientist and we need to experiment on her, do empirical studies to see how her cells respond to various stimuli like cold, heat, or being cut off."
"Cut off!" Jill squeaked with horror.
John nodded. "Yes, painful but necessary. I'll have to cut parts off and see if they change on their own or die and see if the appendage will grow back or your cells simply displace to replace it."
"Well, I've heard enough," Mac said dryly.
"Hmmm," Lou murmured. The psychiatrist came to his wife's side and whispered something that made her nod and move silently out of the room. The moment she was gone, Lou offered John a smile. "These sound like fascinating experiments, John. Science has always fascinated me, would you tell me more?"
He moved carefully forward as he spoke, his movements slow and cautious, his expression nonthreatening.
John frowned, looking uncertain, but it seemed keeping this all to himself for so long had been terribly difficult. He was eager to tell someone.
"I have a whole list of experiments I wish to try," he blurted, excitement edging into his expression. "I need to test her in cold temperatures and hot to see if it affects her ability to change, and see if she can now withstand freezing temperatures better than normal people. I had a huge walk-in freezer installed for that one," he admitted proudly.
Jill shuddered at the thought. Cutting parts off, freezing her… None of it sounded appetizing. She was doubly glad she'd escaped him that morning.
"Jesus."
Nick's soft horrified whisper drew her gaze to see that he'd gone pale. It seemed he was equally distressed at the «tests» she'd barely escaped.
"Yes, of course," Lou was saying solemnly his gaze moving to the door as Maggie slid back into the room. She nodded at her husband and his gaze then slid meaningfully to Mac before he put a hand on John's shoulder to turn him away. Walking him toward the windows, he said, "I can see how these would all be necessary. Tell me more."
Jill watched as Maggie and Mac started to move silently forward. It wasn't until they moved past her and Nick that she spotted the syringe the woman held in the hand that had been behind her back since entering. Eyes widening as understanding sank in, she glanced back to John as the man continued his explanations.
"Well," he was saying, "I'll have to see how chemicals affect her now too: poisons, radiation, etc. We have to know just how her cellular basis has been altered and—Hey!" John tried to whirl around but Lou and Mac both grabbed him and held him in place as Maggie pushed down the plunger on the needle she'd just jabbed into his arm.
"What are you doing? Stop that!" John tried to struggle free, but it was too late, Maggie had finished administering the shot and now backed away, leaving the two men to hold the struggling scientist.
"It's all right, John," Lou was saying soothingly. "This is just something to help you relax."
"I don't need to relax. What did you give me?" he asked, his eyes widening with horror as his words began to slur.
"As I said, it's just something to help you relax."
"But you said you understood. You wanted to hear about—" He gasped as his legs suddenly gave out. If not for Mac and Lou holding him, he would have fallen she was sure, but the men were holding him and shifted their holds to catch him under the arms and half drag, half carry him to the couch.
"I am most interested in hearing what you have to say, John," Lou assured him. "And we'll have plenty of time for you to tell me all your plans and tests at the hospital when you wake up."
"Wake up? Hospital?" John's voice was soft and confused, then his eyes blinked closed and he appeared to go to sleep.
"Well," Mac said straightening slowly away from the now unconscious man. "It's handy your being the head of a psychiatric hospital, Lou. I can't think of a better candidate for the place."
"Hmm." Lou nodded solemnly. "The man is obviously delusional. Has he always been?"
Jill's eyes widened as the two men turned in her direction in question. She quickly shook her head and said, "I don't know. I don't know him. I've heard of him, but never met him before today."
"How did you hear of him?" Mac asked with a frown.
Jill glanced nervously at Nick. When he nodded encouragingly and squeezed her hand, she said carefully, "He worked with my brother several years ago on some experiment, but it didn't work and they closed down the lab."
"Hmm." Lou turned back to the man. "Well, his attacking you, plus what he said here is enough to lock him up for seventy-two hours observation. I suspect what he says once he wakes up will be enough to keep him locked up for a while, at least until we can find a drug treatment plan that will stabilize him and rid him of the delusion that you're a witch or shape-shifter or whatever it is."
"But why you?" Mac asked quietly.
Jill glanced sharply at the officer and swallowed thickly.
The man was looking suspicious and she suddenly felt terribly guilty, though she had nothing to feel guilty for.
"If he's never met you before, why did his delusion fixate on you?" Mac asked.
Squeezing her hand again, Nick jumped in to say, "Jill didn't know him, but he told her that he'd been watching her brother Kyle for a while and her as well, didn't he Jill?" he prompted.
"Yes." She nodded quickly. "This morning, when he first tried to kidnap me. He said he'd been watching my brother Kyle and his family since the project ended all those years ago and started following me after he saw me leaving and… er… finally decided that I was the one he should turn into a shape-shifter and experiment on."
"He tried to kidnap you this morning?" Mac asked with surprise. "Did you make a report?"
"I—No, I–I tried to call my brother right afterward to tell him, but there was no answer and I had promised to be in the parade…" She let her words fade to silence, knowing how lame they sounded.
"She thought it was a joke," Nick said, helping her out, then gave a laugh and a shrug. "What else was she supposed to think? She recognized his name from when he worked with her brother, but he was claiming she was some 'creature' and he was going to lock her up and experiment on her." He shrugged. "She thought it was a joke. It was only when he tried to get on our float at the end and then started chasing us around that either of us took it all seriously."