Knock, knock... (19 page)

Neither could she read the person's thoughts. But the emotions stormed right through her.

What could this person want?
They'd come to Shay's personal space.
Why?

She followed the energy as it walked through her apartment. It stayed to the main areas. It never ventured into the bedroom. Odd. A psychic burglar would have gone after jewelry, money, something that was easily pawned, then plan a physical trip to take advantage of the loot they'd seen.

This energy didn't travel around. It sat, as if festering. There was a faint throb to the energy. Even though it was cold and had almost dissipated, the throb was strong enough to be felt.
Double odd.
Shay looked around her apartment, hoping for something, anything to clarify the identity of her intruder.

Another odd twist. Normally she could see the energy left behind by people…for a day at least, sometimes days. If the person experienced strong emotions, it should be even longer. This person
had
been driven by strong emotions, but the force of their feelings didn't keep this particular energy warm and heavy, allowing it to stay. Instead, it was as if this person had burned up all their emotional energy, leaving little trace behind.

And what was with the cloaking layer of black energy? She'd seen something similar with Darren. She had to watch to make sure that fear didn't have her judging the energy and assume it would have the same behavior as Darren. Or having her afraid that it
was
Darren and that he’d somehow found a way back to taunt her.

No.
She knew Darren was dead. It was a fact.

She'd heard horror stories from Stefan about various non-dead entities making last grabs for life through the living. If those stories didn't make one scared, then nothing would.

She didn't think that trick was within Darren's capabilities, but she didn't know for sure. Thoughts that he might return haunted her sleep and kept her nightmares alive.

Still, for all the similarities to this energy, it didn't
feel
the same as Darren’s. Close. But it wasn't him. So how were they alike? She just couldn’t say.

She also wasn't prepared to have entities, living or dead, walking through her apartment at will.

Tired, and knowing she'd need to rest, she added another layer of protective energy around her apartment.

Returning to reality, she recognized that her body needed to be horizontal as soon as possible. In the morning, she'd call on Stefan's expertise yet again. Something was up. If he could help her guard her space then she needed him to do that for her.

Whatever it was she needed protection from...

The two of them had put a clean, soothing protective energy around last time. She believed it would be enough.

She'd been wrong.

***

Monday morning…

The next morning Shay walked down the hallway toward her office and heard Jordan bitching to Rose about the state of her files. Shay winced. She'd left the files she'd pulled for Ronin on Jordan's desk. And Shay knew that for all her multi-colored hair and free-spirit clothing, Jordan was a neat freak. On the other hand, Ronin had needed the material, and Roman had set up some new security on her system.

The good outweighed the bad.

She opened the door with a bright smile. And kept it in place, while she pointed to the files in front of Jordan. "I'm sorry." She walked over to Jordan. "I had to pull the files at the request of the police. They didn't want to wait for Monday, and I figured that if I put them back in the wrong place you'd be even more upset, so I left them for you to file away."

Jordan glared and then blew a strand of turquoise hair out of her eyes. "I hate people going into the files. Almost as much as I hate people touching my computer." She flung her multi-colored scarf over her shoulder and sat down with a thunk.

"I know." Shay said meekly. "I'd have just given them a copy of the digital files, but they wanted to see the hardcopy stuff as well." She shrugged. "You know the paper files are more complete."

"And now messier," groused Jordan as she reorganized the contents of the top file. "Did you have to mess up the order too? They
were
chronological…"

Shay smiled at Rose, who gave a small eye roll, as Jordan slapped the file closed and then placed it in its proper spot in the huge filing system behind her.

"Glad you can keep it all straight for me." Shay walked into her office to hang up her coat, relieved that moment was over. Jordan was incredibly efficient, and normally she was even-tempered. But disturbing the files was one thing guaranteed to piss her off. Shay sat down on her big chair and put her purse away in the bottom drawer of her desk. She turned on her computer and called out, "Are there appointments this morning?"

"One." Jordan called back. "At eleven. Your ten o'clock cancelled."

Good. But she didn't say that out loud. The less pulling on her today, the better. She needed a nap already. And she also hoped to stop at the hospital and see Tabitha today.

No. Stay away from her.

Stefan? Why?

Keep her under the radar. As far as the world knows, she's in a coma. If you visit her, you'll be alerting her attacker. Because Tabatha’s alive, he might see her as a loose end.

Damn.
He was right but she was desperate to see for herself that Tabitha was okay.

She is, but she's staying in the ethers. Don't contact her that way either. This person understands energy. Let's not give him a reason to go after Tabitha again. I've told her what happened and that she's still in danger. Ronin also knows. She did say that a force came from Sue, her assistant at the time of the attack. She also says she's known Sue for years and it wasn't her energy that did this.

Damn.
Shay knew Sue as well. She couldn't see her being involved.
So someone else is hitching a ride with people in order to attack other people?

Possibly. They'd have to stalk the victim enough to know who and what they'd be doing and with whom, in order to pick the right opportunity.

Shay thought about that as a glimmer of something, perhaps understanding stirred in the back of her mind. She tugged it forward.
Not if this person already had anchors in the victim. And that's easily done. They just have to be able to see the person and access their chakras. If they already had those, they could just use the anchors when they wanted, and pop in and view the world from the new perspective.

Oh shit. Realization hit her in the heart.
Like the extra eyes she'd seen in Bernice's gaze.

Silence, while Stefan pondered that.
It would take a lot of skill.

Would it though,
Shay agreed dryly.
Think about it. Early on, they could have put hooks in to make their takeover of the unknowing individuals easier to do their will, yet again. Even better. They could even have already created a hook from the victim to the innocent bystander. Then used that as the highway for the energy to attack the victim. Even better it would look like a heart attack or rather it wouldn't look like anything hard science could figure out – and therefore investigators, medical and otherwise, would find nothing suspicious. They’d believe the person just dropped dead.

Scary thought,
Stefan murmured.
But all too possible given we have no idea the limits of energy work – for good or evil. I guess I'll need to speak with Tabitha again. In the meantime, we're all working on this case. Stay safe.

"Here's the file on the eleven o'clock appointment." Jordan came in holding a thick folder in her right hand. In her left she had a stack of papers. "And these are the new applications for you to go over."

Shay shifted mentally. Stefan had left, and she needed to focus on today. "Good. Anything interesting?"

"A few. Then again, I always think they are all worthy, whereas you go through and see the stuff I don't." Jordan smiled, back into her normal mood now that the filing was taken care of.

"That's because you don't have to make the decisions as to who benefits the most from these grants. There's only so much money and making it stretch is a feat – and not an easy one."

"But you do it so well." Jordan laughed lightly. "So did Bernice, didn't she?"

"Yes." Shay sat back and looked over at the young, bright girl who'd quickly become a friend. Rose had too, but not with the same connection as Jordan and Shay had created. "Bernice had a talent for both sides of the business. Men handed money over without a whimper and she found worthy causes for all of it."

"Yes. That’s her. I'd like to have her money to hand over."

Thinking of the grande dame, Shay nodded. "She had men eating out of her hand all her life. I don't know that she was ever caught by the same love bug as the men were, though."

Jordan raised an eyebrow. "Really? She never married?"

"She liked playing the field too much. And no, she never had any children either."

Jordan's second eyebrow shot up, to disappear under the bright strands of her hair. "Wow. Who's going to get all her money?"

Shay frowned, staring out the window. What a good question. "You know, I'm not sure. I guess that will be taken care of this week. It doesn't involve me, thank heavens."

"You have enough of your own already." Jordan walked back out. "But if they are looking for people to give it to, there is always me."

"Chances are good that all her money will go into her foundation and the board will have more to hand out. They'll need to hire someone to take over her position. That might already be in place. I've been out of the loop the last few days."

"I'm sure you have enough on your plate to deal with."

Familiar noises in the other room made Shay smile.

"I made coffee. Will you have one?" Jordan called.

"Always."

Happy to have the office back to normal and a good brew coming, Shay pulled the file toward her for her appointment that morning.

Right.

This was a soup kitchen that requested funds for two delivery vehicles and a salaried driver to deliver food to seniors and other people who couldn't make the trip on their own. Shay remembered this project, but could not remember the details. She glanced at her clock. She had an hour to get caught up.

Jordan walked in with a cup of espresso in her hand. "Are you approving this request?"

"Yes. We'll need to keep on top of their accounting to see if it's worth continuing after a year, but this isn't exactly a service many people provide. If it helps the community, I'm all for it.

"Let's hope the organizer of this charity doesn't have a heart attack like the others." Jordan returned to her desk in the outer office.

Shay swallowed. Hard. Now that wasn't a thought she wanted to dwell on. But it's not like she had a way to stop it.

Or did she?

***

Stefan opened his eyes. The skylight stared back at him. Out of habit, he reached, and pinched himself. And winced. His experiences when he shifted realities were sometimes so strong and clear that occasionally he'd get lost inside them. Sometimes he couldn’t tell if he was caught in a vision or had returned to reality – a sad state of affairs. Some said he was psychic; others called him a charlatan. And many labeled him just plain crazy.

He was probably a bit of each.

Stefan closed his eyes, his mind suffused with difficult memories. He always helped those that ended up on his doorstep. More often than not, they were brought there by an officer of the law. He'd worked enough with law enforcement agencies over the years to build a large network of people who called on him.

So far Shay had kept herself apart from the others and from formally working with law enforcement. She didn't think her abilities offered anything to the other psychics. She couldn't be more wrong. She could do stuff with energy he'd never dreamed possible. But she also talked about his cases as if they were only his – showing a distinct separation in her mind. Yet, if she chose, she could be an immense help to his work and the work of others.

The phone rang on cue. He rolled over and looked at it. Did he want to talk to Detective Chandler? He wracked his mind for the connection. The phone rang again. Right. Ronin.

"Hello, Detective Chandler… Ronin."

"You do realize that more people would view you in a kinder light if you didn't do that."

Stefan smiled. "Do what? And what's going on with Shay's projects?"

"See, things like that. How do you know anything is wrong?"

"Because you wouldn't have called me otherwise."

The detective laughed. "True enough. Have you spoken with her about the Foundation deaths?"