Vibrations (29 page)

“How do you like it?” she asked
sweetly. His hands were free, but he couldn’t untie the knots that held his
feet. She started laughing and then the boy on the couch sat up and started
laughing. The door opened and all the boys that he’d killed were coming toward
him. Their skin was gray and decomposing, but the blood still dripped from
their wounds.

He sat up in a panic and ripped
the glasses off his eyes. His heart was racing and he couldn’t catch his
breath. The woman was sleeping again with her hair falling over her face and
onto her legs. It was so long that it touched the calf of her leg. His
breathing calmed and he checked on the boy. Still sleeping. He wondered how
long you could keep someone alive like that. He had made a mistake with Kevin
and it had almost killed him. Too bad it hadn’t. But that wasn’t the way he had
planned it. The drugs were just to get them under control before he took their
life. It didn’t feel right unless they knew what was happening and saw his face
as they died.

The dream had shaken him and he
needed to clear his mind. He went outside to get some fresh air, and walked to
the shed around back. It was dark inside, so he lit one of the candles. The
shed was filled with shelves on every wall. The wall on the left held some of
his trophies. A couple of shelves were broken from the time he had come in here
in a fit of anger. He had lashed out and ended up breaking things. He turned to
the shelf in the back. The candlelight was enough for him to see what it held.

Seven pairs of boys’ athletic
shoes were lined up on in a row. His hand reached up to touch each pair and he
counted them again. These were the important trophies. They represented seven
boys that couldn’t hurt him, or his family, again. The empty shelves below them
were reserved for more shoes. That was the only kind of trophy he was
interested in now. To complete his objective he would have to make sure they
were filled. He turned to the shelves on the other side. He might even fill
these up with some women’s shoes. He laughed out loud and his hand shot to his
mouth. He held it over his lips hoping no one had heard him. He knew the
chances of anyone finding them were next to impossible, but it paid to be
careful. He was always careful, and smart. That was why they would never catch
him.

“I must be getting tired,” he
thought. “That stupid cop is dead, and I have all the time in the world. They
won’t find me now that I have her.”

She was the only one he had
feared because she could have ruined all his hard work.
Now he was back
in control of everything. He walked back to the house and checked on his guests.
The woman’s head was rising and falling as she slept. He reached out toward her
hair and then pulled his hand back.

“Not yet,” he told himself. “Don’t
rush it.”

He had so many plans and more
kept popping into his head. He didn’t want it to be over too fast. He wanted
time to figure out exactly what he wanted and needed from her.
A good
night’s sleep would keep him from rushing things. He wanted her at her best
too. Tomorrow he would have some fun with her. He locked the door and sat back
down in the chair. The bed looked so inviting, but he didn’t want to chance it.
If she woke and started bumping around the room, he would make sure he was
there to see it. He might just play possum and watch her a while just for the
fun of it.

The possibilities were spinning
through his mind faster than he could keep track of them. He knew he couldn’t
stay in the mountains too long, or someone would start missing him. He’d have
to think this through and get the most out of the situation. He deserved some
fun after all the hard work he’d been doing.

“Stupid dream. She won’t be
able to get away from me once I decide it’s time. I’m the boss here. For once
in my life, I’m in control.” The smile returned to his lips and he closed his
eyes.
He pictured himself untying Whitney as she slept and carrying her
to his bed. He could make his own dream. He imagined himself stripping her
clothes off as she slept. She wouldn’t move as he touched and kissed the
forbidden places. He would finally kiss her mouth and she would wake up
smiling. Or, he thought, maybe she woke up screaming.

“Tell me you want it baby,” he
would say. If she didn’t cooperate, he would just threaten to kill the boy. The
thought of waking her up was getting him excited, but he knew that the time
wasn’t right. He needed the boy to wake up a little so he could use him in his
testing. This was so fun he might just have to do it again. How hard could it
be to track down a few more beautiful women? They didn’t have to be psychic,
just pretty. He went to sleep imagining all the things he would do with Whitney
in the morning.

Whitney’s neck was so sore she
had to bite her lip to keep from crying out. It took a while for her to be able
to wiggle it enough to get the muscles to work. When she finally lifted her
head enough to look around, she could see the man sleeping in the chair in
front of her. By the time she could get her head up where it belonged, she
could see the sun was already up.

“Nick. Nick. Where are you? Are
you okay?”

“I’m here Whitney. I slept for
a while. Sorry.”

“Don’t say sorry. God, you
should be in a hospital.”

“I’ve been walking for a while
this morning. Am I getting closer?”

Whitney tried to get a sense of
distance from her conversation with Nick. She could feel the presence of
other’s farther away looking for them. If only she could contact them, but she
couldn’t find a link. She turned her attention back to Nick.

“You’re getting close. I think
people are out there looking for us. I can’t reach anyone yet. I tried to link
to someone but they’re too far.”

“I’ve seen helicopters looking
southwest of here. We can’t signal them yet until you’re out of danger.”

It was quiet as Whitney watched
the man in the chair and Nick continued hiking toward her. His wounds were red
and sore, and the bullet in his shoulder was getting infected. He was sweaty
and weak, and probably running a fever. He had to rescue Whitney today, before
his body gave out.

“He’s waking up Nick. I’ll
check back with you later.”

Nick’s heart sped up. “Shit. I’ve
got to find her. If that guy touches her…” He picked up the pace and followed
the trail as it turned up toward another mountain.

* * * *

The killer woke from his dream
in a panic. He sat up and let out a breath when he saw her still tied to the
chair.

“Man, it’s finally the right
time,” he thought. “I can hardly wait to get to the fun stuff. First things
first.”
He rose and went into the bedroom get ready for the day.

Whitney had sensed something
from him this time. Right after he woke up, she had a feeling he was thinking
about touching her. She shivered as the thought pierced her heart. No. Not
again. Memories of the childhood abduction swam back through her mind. She
hadn’t imagined he would want her for that. She was afraid to die, but the
thought of him touching her made her wish he would just kill her quickly.

“Can’t let Nick know what’s
going on. He’ll hurt himself trying to get here faster. If I do die, I don’t
want his last memories to be of me…”

Her head dropped back down and
she started crying. There was no way she wanted to reach out for Nick when this
maniac came for her. She couldn’t let him feel that. Her life had been full of
traumatic memories from other people. Life was hard enough with your own
experiences inside your head. She was determined not to burden Nick with this.

The man came back in the room
and sat his chair in front of Whitney.

“Will you let me go to the
bathroom and get cleaned up?”

“Not yet honey. You just wait. First
we have a few more things I’d like to know, and then I’ll let you out of that
chair. If you cooperated real nice, I might let you and the boy live. If not,
the boy dies first.”

“What do you want me to do?” Whitney
was afraid to ask, but she couldn’t watch him kill the boy either.

“First, I want you to know who
I am. You need to see if you can figure it out. Oh yeah, so did it seem like I
was gone last night when I meditated?”

“Uh huh. I wouldn’t have known
you were here if I wasn’t looking right at you.”

She could tell that made him
happy. She was beginning to be able to read him better. His energy was powerful
and erratic. It was just a matter of finding the patterns and interrupting
them. It wasn’t something she did consciously, but she knew when it was
happening.

“Okay. We know you can’t read
my mind like this, but maybe if I let you touch me. I want to know just how
much it takes for you to figure me out.”

He moved his chair closer and
reached out his hand. It hovered near her breasts before he lifted it and
placed it on her cheek.

“Umm. Smooth like I thought it
would be.” He wasn’t trying to disguise his voice, and he sounded like he
wasn’t much older than a teenager.

“If you hold your hand still
I’ll try to figure out who you are,” Whitney said hoping to draw things out.

His hand rested on her cheek
and he placed his other hand on her leg. “Go for it.”

The excitement he was feeling
was easy to pick up on. He wanted her, and that came through loud and clear. He
also planned to kill them both, no matter what happened. She had to pretend she
didn’t know that. His thoughts were so focused on her, that’s all she could
feel at first. After a few minutes, his mind turned to the killings. He was
wondering if she would know everything he had done. His thoughts were suddenly
clear in her mind.

She waited for his reflection
to turn to his identity. He was thinking about Ann Marie. She was his mother. Her
mind raced back to the Kensington family. She had a six year old and the boy in
the wheelchair. She didn’t know if there was another son but this man viewed
Anne Marie as his mother. He wanted his mother to love him. She only loved the
little athletes. He had to protect his little brother.

The killer drew his hands away
and put his face close to hers. “Well, what’s my name?”

“I…I don’t know. I can’t read
you enough. I can sense some of your feelings, but that’s all.” She tried to
appeal to his need for approval. “Nobody appreciates how much work you’ve done.
How hard you try to be a good son and brother.”

“So you can read my mind,” he
said clapping his hands. “Must be because I’m not blocking you and now I’ve
touched you. You are right. I’ve done it all for them.” He touched her leg
again. “Why don’t you know who I am?”

“I don’t know your name. Why
don’t you tell me?”

“One more little experiment. You
rest and do whatever you have to do to keep up your energy. I’m going to wake
the boy. Let’s see if you can figure it out from him.”

He walked over and shook the
boy’s shoulders.

“Time to wake up Dustin. You haven’t
had any medicine today so you should be able to think a little better.”

The boy tried to open his eyes,
but they wouldn’t stay open.

“That’s it. All I need you to
do is think about me. That pretty psychic lady’s here to help you. She wants to
know who took you. Think about it. Who did you see by your tent the other
morning.”

When Whitney realized what he
was trying to do, she opened her mind to the boy’s thoughts. He still wasn’t
very lucid. The memories flooded in and out as he tried to remember where he
was.

The killer’s voice sounded
young again. “Remember camping with your Daddy, Dustin? You got up early, and
saw me in the woods. I needed your help. Who did you see?”

The boys mind was back at the
campsite. He zipped up the tent door to go outside and pee. He was so excited
to be up before everyone else. His Dad would be so proud of him when he saw the
fire he built. He walked to the woods to relieve himself and then started
picking up wood. He saw someone lying on the ground and got scared for a minute.
Then he heard his voice.

“Dustin, it’s me. I fell down
and hurt myself. Help me.”

The boy was walking toward the
person on the ground now. He knelt down and spoke. “How did you get here?”

Suddenly the boy’s mouth was
covered with a cloth and he couldn’t breathe. He tried to scream but no one
heard him. He didn’t remember what happened after that until he woke up tied
up.

“Help me!” the boy screamed. “Someone
help me. It’s him. Somebody stop him before he hurts me anymore.”

Whitney reached out with her
mind to sooth the boy. “It’s okay now. Help is on the way. Just lay there
quietly and we’ll be okay. Go back to sleep.”

She wasn’t sure if the boy
heard her, or just couldn’t stay awake. His head fell back and his breathing
slowed.

* * * *

Teddy talked with the doctor
outside of Kevin’s room. “Has he named anyone yet?”

“He hasn’t said much as far as
I know,” the doctor answered as he read the notes on his clip board.

They walked into the room and
Mrs. Hunter reluctantly moved away from the bed so they could see Kevin.

Teddy smiled down at Kevin and
took his hand. “Hey Buddy. Glad to see you decided to join us. How ya feeling?”

Kevin gave a small grunt and
his lips curved into a smile. He cleared his throat and pointed to his water. Teddy
handed him the glass and helped him sit up higher.

“Hard to talk after such a long
nap huh? I bet you’re getting pretty tired of that bed.”

Kevin nodded and handed him
back the glass.

“Listen, we know you’re still a
little tired, but we were hoping you could help us out. We want to stop the
person who did this to you. Can you tell us what you remember?”

Kevin looked away and didn’t
answer. He finally looked back to Teddy and spoke in a whisper.

“Does the lady know?”