Don't Touch (10 page)

Barbara smiled quite proud of her student.
“Yes, you are good. It’s so easy for you to pick up the images. I
understand now why it had frightened you so as it emerged. Let’s do
something harder.”

She pulled out a file that had some photos.
“Read these just like you told me you read the crime scene
pictures.”

Ryan sat up a bit and examined the image.
Settling on a Raggedy Ann doll sitting on a high chair she placed
her hand over it. “This is a favorite toy, one that goes
everywhere. It was lost yesterday but you found it inside the
cabinet with the cereal boxes.” She looked at the Heinz’s “You’re
married and Ann belongs to your little girl.”

Heinz shifted in his seat this time trying to
hide his smile from the room. “Put the rest away, honey. I’m afraid
of what else she may spill.”

Barbara laughed and did just that sliding the
file back in her bag. “I use my maiden name because of my husband
being a cop. It would give me more points with clients but for him
having a psychic wife isn’t so good for his tough guy
reputation.”

With that Heinz squeezed his wife’s hand. “I
think she qualifies to be on this case. If you need help Dr. Reign
call any time, day or night.”

Ryan gave him a warm smile back. “You can
count on it. But now what do I do?”

Barbara patted her gloved hand. “You have
them take you to the evidence locker and look at the evidence
boxes. Sometimes things call to me, I know how that sounds but
there’s no other way to explain it. An object that has a story to
tell seems to draw us. Even people are that way; we will feel drawn
or repelled. Walking down the street you may see a man that makes
you hug your bag a little tighter and you move over giving more
space. His energy is repelling you. Maybe he was just grumpy or
maybe he is giving off exactly what he is.”

The officers gave the women some privacy to
talk. When the door shut Ryan couldn’t help it she had to know. She
had seen Barbara handle the objects in question and touch her
husband without care or covering her hands.

“Barbara, how…” The other woman knew the
question.

“Time. In time you get used to being
assaulted by visions. It happens when you least expect it so you
come to expect it from everywhere. There are still those that
startle me, but, over time they have gotten less intense and easier
to handle. I’ve learned to filter them out. And in time you will
too.”

Barbara moved to the chair next to Ryan.
“Honey, you won’t get your life back. You will get a better one. I
know you picked up a bit more than just a trip to Disney on that
mug. You don’t have to be alone anymore, Ryan.”

In the hall Heinz stood back and gave a good
look at the detectives. “You realize you’re not just playing a game
here gentlemen. This woman isn’t going to come out of this
unscathed. Barbara still has nightmares about past cases. Before
this is over you need to help her find a support line.”

Thomas nodded. “She’s trying to work things
out with her sister.”

Jackson snorted. “The phone call I heard this
afternoon that’s not going well. Don’t worry I’ll make sure Ryan
gets what she needs for the case and later.”

The captain cast him a look that hinted
intentions. “You know me better than that, Cap. I just think the
lady has gotten the wrong end of the stick. She’s not a nutter,
she’s just afraid of this thing she can do, and determined to get
her life back. I figure we owe her for working with us.”

Crossing his arms, Heinz gave him his
sternest expression. “Uh huh. Well I certainly hope so because her
sister will be of no help to her right now. Amber Reign is the one
who squealed on you two. She said you stopped by her home and that
Prince was especially crass with her.”

Thomas didn’t quite understand the
connection. “Amber doesn’t know about Ryan’s ability, she thinks
Ryan is insane. How did you figure we were using her as a
psychic?”

Heinz grinned. “When she mentioned something
in her rant about touching and gloves. After eighteen years of
marriage with a psychic of the same caliber it clicked.”

Ryan stepped out of the conference room
confident and energized. Jackson could swear he could feel it along
his skin when she stood next to him. Thomas offered his arm. “Allow
me to escort you, my lady?”

With a snicker and a grandiose wave of her
hand, she took his arm. “Are you going to throw your coat over mud
puddles as well?”

He raised a shocked brow. “Never this is a
four hundred dollar suit! I’ll buy you dinner later though.”

Laughing they headed out. Barbara grabbed
Prince and handed him the pirate bedecked mug. “Dark chocolate,
Detective.”

“Huh?” Jackson was taken aback and quickly
glanced at Heinz who snorted.

The Captain kissed his wife’s cheek. “Be
gentle with him, darling. I’m going to call ahead so there will be
no waiting for them at the locker.”

Barbara grinned as the detective her husband
had described as rough and scraggly shifted his feet nervously.
“Ryan likes dark chocolate and hates the filled ones.”

“What do you mean?” His defensive posture
told her he understood perfectly.

“I mean Ryan is going to need you very soon.
Be there for her and you might see that you need her to. Dark
chocolate no filling.”

“Are all psychic’s cryptic?” When she crossed
her arms and gave him a familiar stern look Jack put up his hands
in surrender. “I’ll be there I promise. Now I see where Cap gets
his tactics.”

“And?” She added with a sly grin.

“And dark chocolate no filling.”

Ryan was surprised to find out the evidence
locker was really another building within walking distance of the
station.

Inside they were greeted by the desk clerk.
“Blessed by royalty! I was wondering if you two fell off the county
line.”

Thomas flirted with the cute redhead as they
filled out the short paper work. Ryan signed and added her thumb
print to it and the clerk buzzed the door letting them through.
They walked through an aisle of boxes to a cubicle where six boxes
were stacked on the table.

Jackson lined them up and removed the lids.
“I hadn’t been in to look at Cassidy Lane’s box yet. She was the
victim found in the cemetery.”

Palms sweating Ryan stepped forward to look
in the boxes. Most of it was normal belongings of a woman. The
sight of dried blood on the blade made her step back and take a
breath. Pictures are one thing but this was living color. This evil
was real. More to herself than to either of the detectives she
closed her eyes and said. “I’m okay.”

She started with the oldest box, the first
victim Sandra Tate. Everything was in plastic bags so she didn’t
have to worry about handling anything she wasn’t ready for.
Sandra’s cloths, jeans, a tee, and a zip hoodie were folded in the
bag.

She couldn’t do cloth items. So those were
set aside. Another bag held pocket items. A tortoise shell mirror
and a tube of lipstick, a receipt from the gas station for a coke
and a candy bar.

The mirror and lipstick were normal girl gear
as Jack would say but it gave her a strange feeling to look at
them. She set the bag on the table in front of the box then went
back to sifting. Staying away from the murder weapon. Noting else
called to her as Barbara had put it.

After a second she decided to go through each
box first. Ryan picked through carefully setting out the bags. Once
she had gone through them all Thomas brought over a chair. Sitting
down she noticed something odd that called to her on its own. “They
all have the same mirror and lipstick.” She checked the little
stickers on the bottom of the lipstick tubes. “It’s the same
shade.”

Jackson looked at Thomas like a light bulb
went off. “The exact shade or different stuff.”

Thomas helped her look. “The same brand and
shade. Apparently we needed a woman on this from the start.”

This urged her on pulling off the glove. “Let
me have Sandra’s first.” Jackson opened the bag and let the tube
and mirror fall on the table in front of her. Her fingers hovered
trembling. Jackson touched her arm.

“You don’t have to do this now if you’re not
ready.”

She gave him that crooked grin and tilted her
head. “If I don’t do it now I’ll never be ready.”

With that she closed her fingers around the
mirror. A dark room with wood paneling stared back in the
reflection. A shadow stood behind her. The face in the tiny mirror
wasn’t Ryan’s, it was Sandra’s. She was crying and felt sick and
dizzy. There was a smell coming in from an open window. Ryan let go
and the mirror clattered and bounced on the table.

“A house, he takes them to a house with dark
paneling. She was putting on the lipstick. I couldn’t make him out.
But I smelled something, like smoke. It smelled like the forest
when they burn. Let’s do the next one.”

She was excited to see a location. Sandra was
so frightened and drugged her view of things probably wasn’t clear.
The second set lay, there and for some reason she could not bring
herself to grab the shimmering tube. In the mirror, again she saw
the reflection of the victim Dana Hodges. It was much of the same.
“This guy wanted each one to be the same. “

Sandra Green victim number four, she was the
only one who had already been wearing make-up. Her mascara had run
in streaks down her face. The killer gave her wet wipes to wash her
face off before putting on the lipstick. Her hands were trembling
so bad it was making Ryan ill.

Taking a breath to clear the nausea she
picked up Tina’s mirror. After seeing the same image again she had
a thought. She set it down then picked it up again. This time
trying to control the vision. It worked. She was able to look
around within Tina’s line of vision. She didn’t have to look at
what Tina was looking at. Something was off though.

The visions she had of Tina being lead
through the woods Ryan had felt the scrub brush hit her legs
through denim. Tina dropped the lip color and bent to pick it up.
The floor was cheap vinyl like you find in an old trailer. But Tina
didn’t have on jeans; she had on a short skirt and sandals. Pulling
her attention back to the room Ryan looked for
him.
He was
back in the shadows out of sight but he was there. She could feel
him. The vision faded.

Ryan wrote down everything she saw plus at
the Captains request the session was being filmed. “Can you look at
Tina’s clothing?”

Thomas pulled out the bag. It held the tee,
hoodie, and jeans. She sat back. “All the girls had the same
clothes. Not because that‘s what they had on when he picked them
up.”

Jackson knelt down. “He’s making them change
into these clothes.”

“Yes, Tina dropped the lipstick and she had
on a red tee with a white short skirt and sandals. Not the white
tee, jeans, and no hoodie either. He makes them take off any
make-up and put on these clothes and this color lipstick. Why he
sends it with them I don’t know. But I think they are in a trailer
in the forest. The vinyl was just like the one I grew up in.
Ugly.”

She turned back to the contents then realized
something. She had skipped number three’s stuff. It wasn’t in front
of the box. After looking in the box she looked at the name.
Jillian Hilliard. Ryan fell into the chair as the realization came
to her. She knew what scared her so badly that she locked herself
inside her house.

Chapter 9

Jackson saw it in her face. “What’s
wrong?”

Ryan sat there looking at Jillian’s box. “I
didn’t understand what happened. During her autopsy. I’ve been
trying to figure out what it was that triggered the vision I had
that day. It was…. so real. Her lipstick is missing because I have
it. It fell out of her jeans pocket and I caught it in my bare
hand. It’s in my clothes from that day. I left them in the hospital
bag and just tossed them in the back of the closet.”

With a glance at the tubes she shook her
head. “I’m sorry I just can’t do any more right now.” She got up
and stalked off. Furious at herself.

Jackson found her standing on the sidewalk.
“Hey you okay?”

She turned to him doing her best to blink
away the tears. “No, I’m not. I had a huge clue this whole time!
This guy didn’t just kill those women Jack, he killed my life.
Because of him I locked everyone out of my life and myself in that
house.” She just threw her hands up wanting to say more but not
knowing what else to say.

Jackson walked up to her and crushed her to
him. When she relaxed he kissed the top of her head. “You are
winning you know. This guy didn’t know who was going to find that
stuff. You didn’t remember that tube of lipstick because you
weren’t ready for it yet. Tomorrow we’ll come back here and you can
do it. You can get him for hurting those women and for hurting
you.”

Hugging him for all it was worth she stepped
back and looked into his face. His beard was trimmed but his long
curls still looked finger combed. His hazel eyes dancing in the
afternoon sunlight. “You don’t have to do any of this. I know you
guys will be gone when this is over. You don’t have to pretend to
be my buddy.”