Vibrations (8 page)

Nick showed her to the guest
room and said goodnight. Whitney said she just wanted to read and go to sleep
early.

“That was too easy,” Nick
thought. He had a sick feeling the stubborn psychic would continue to put
herself in danger for the good of the case. He wondered if anyone in her life
valued her life more than her abilities.

Whitney felt bad for lying to
Nick, but she didn’t want him to have to hover over her all night. She could
see the stress draining his energy. He was really sweet to care so much. Not
what she’d imagined from this cop.

She started writing some of the
details she remembered from the crime scene. As the images flooded her mind,
she began to experience it all over again. The boy was quiet, but he still
understood he was in danger. He was probably drugged, because he couldn’t think
very clearly. He was crying and praying. The bad man tricked him. He thought he
was someone else. So confused and so tired.

Whitney drew back from the
memory, and on to the next one. The vibrations of the killer were stronger this
time. He was happy and excited. He was really getting good at this, and it was
going to all work out. He had a plan. Whitney felt his energy reaching a peak
as he jabbed the knife into the boy’s heart. No one could stop him now.

The room felt like it was spinning.
The feeling of being part of that moment was too much. It was like waking from
a dream, but your mind still thought it was real. She couldn’t get the feelings
of the killer to go away. The boy’s cries and the killer’s elation blurred into
an energy surge that seemed to possess its own sound. Whitney grabbed her head
and tried to make the sounds and images stop. Her breathing was labored as she
tried to scream Nick’s name. No sound came out as she fell back to the bed.

* * * *

Nick woke early and peeked in
on Whitney. She seemed to be in a deep sleep. Once he checked for her
breathing, he left her alone. He was busy writing notes and making phone calls
when he thought he heard her calling his name.

He ran into her room not
knowing what to expect. She didn’t seem to be able to sit up and her eyes were
barely open.

“Water please.” Her voice was
low and weak.

“What did you do? I knew it!”
He ran for the water and hurried back.

Berating himself for leaving
her alone, he vowed it wouldn’t happen again. But what could he do? He didn’t
have any authority to tell her how to behave. He didn’t even know what was
safe. He had worried about her all week and she’d been fine. Now she was in bad
shape but at least she was in his house where he could keep an eye on her. He
carried the water back to Whitney. She was sitting up now looking a little
guilty.

“You always get to see me at my
worst Nick. Sorry about that. I’ll take you out to a big breakfast to make it
up to you.”

“You’ve got the wrong person
for that bribe. You should try it on Teddy sometime.”

“Well, what can I do to make it
up to you?”

Nick looked at her and didn’t
like the thoughts that popped into his head. He could easily think of something
better than eating. He mentally slapped himself and glanced around at the
laptop near the bed.

“So it looks like you decided
to work after all. Since finding the killer seems more important than your own
life, did you come up with anything new?”

She looked away from his anger
and grabbed for her notes. “I’m not sure. The voice I hear sometimes sounds
like a little boy, but it’s not the victim. I think the killer sometimes
regresses back to his childhood. And the hands…they’re small for a man. It
could be a young man or even a large woman. I can’t tell yet. I hear a man’s
voice, but it could be just how I perceive it. I need more time.”

“I have to get over to my
nephew’s friend’s house this morning. You gonna be okay here?”

“Actually, I would prefer to
come along. I can buy you that breakfast after we go there. Have you eaten
yet?”

“Nope, haven’t eaten. Sorry, I
forgot about the fuel issue. Let’s go. He lives over in Guadalupe, so it’s not
far.”

Whitney could sense his anger
was part fear for her and part frustration about the case. She knew it was her
fault but couldn’t think of anything to do to change the situation.

Ten minutes later Nick and
Whitney pulled up to an older home badly in need of repairs. A small woman was
in the front yard gathering the toys that were strewn about the sandy area. She
saw Nick get out and yelled to her son in the house. “Miho, there’s someone
here to see you. It’s Steven’s uncle.”

A little boy about seven years
old came flying out of the house in a batman costume.

“Hey Carlos, what’s up?”

“I’m not Carlos. I’m Batman.
Batman Beyond, not the old guy.” He ran around with the black cape flapping.

Nick chased him. “Yeah, well
I’m the Joker and I’m gonna get ya!” The little boy squealed in delight and ran
around the back of the house. Nick came back carrying him on his shoulders. “So
Batman, you seen any bad guys around here lately?”

“Yup, but I killed ‘em
already.”

“Oh, well make sure they’re
really bad before you kill ‘em, right buddy? So how is the soccer playing
sport? Your team been winning?”

“Nah, we don’t have any fast
enough runners. The other teams have kids that could run a million miles a
second. I been thinking about quitting. They make you practice too hard on my
team. I’d rather stay home and ride my bike or skateboard with the big kid next
door. He has a ramp! He even lets me ride his board ‘cause mine’s kinda old.”

Nick ruffled his hair and sent
him inside while he talked with the mother. When they were both back in the car
Nick relaxed a little. “He got involved through a friend in school that doesn’t
play anymore. She says she heard about the kids and, since her son isn’t that
interested, she stopped taking him. She’s still worried, so she won’t go to any
more games.

After breakfast Nick wanted to
go back to the station. Whitney wasn’t up to going back there with all the
energy and chaos. She needed alone time to finish her report.

“I think I need to sleep a
little more. Would you mind dropping me home before you go into work? I mean
your house. That’s where my laptop is.”

Nick knew she’d be putting
herself into that trance again, or whatever it was called when she used her
abilities. He called Teddy and let him know he was heading back home. Teddy
reassured him he could handle things at the station for now and promised to
keep him updated. Nick spent the day walking in and out of the sunroom to make
sure Whitney was still breathing. She slept first, then worked and slept again.
By evening she had finished her report and e-mailed it to Hollerman.

She was disappointed she hadn’t
come up with anything that identified the killer. She still wasn’t sure if it
was a man or a woman. Nick couldn’t understand why she would put herself
through the pain of watching and experiencing the murders if she only got
confusing messages and very little new information.

Whitney packed her things and
got ready to go back to the motel. Nick kept thinking about asking Whitney to
stay with him longer, but he was afraid of what might happen. Whitney of course
knew what he was thinking and agreed. She would love to pursue a relationship
with him, or even a fling, but she just never let it get that far. She couldn’t
risk bringing another person into her nightmare.

Nick convinced her to stay for
coffee and Whitney got settled in the Arizona room again. She was just staring
at the colors of another beautiful, Arizona sunset when Nick brought in the
coffee.

“Hope you like Hazelnut. I
forgot to stop and get more regular.”

“I love it actually. Thanks.”

Nick turned the conversation
toward Whitney and her life. He realized he knew very little about her. He
learned that she was born in the beautiful Adirondacks of New York, and had
moved to Arizona in her twenties. She now lived alone in Sedona, about two
hours North of Phoenix. She had no ties with her family, no close friends that
she mentioned, and no love life. That was hard to believe since she was such a
stunning beauty. Her almond shaped brown eyes were so expressive and intense.
Sometimes they sparkled with humor and excitement, and other times you could
see a deep sadness there. Why would she restrict herself to such a lonely life?

“So why is it you spend all
your time helping people, causing yourself so much pain and suffering, so much
so that you don’t have any other life?”

Whitney just stared into her
coffee trying to think of an answer that would make sense.

“Don’t you think you deserve a
life too? Don’t want something else out of life?” Nick knew he was pushing into
her personal life, and though his mind told him to back off, he couldn’t seem
to get his mouth to cooperate.

“Nick, it’s not that easy. Not
everyone can do what I can, and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t use it
to help others. If I could help someone to avoid dying or having a loved one
hurt, and I didn’t, what kind of person would I be?”

“But what about you? Did you
ever have a life? Even policeman take vacations. Well, sometimes they do.” It
had been a while since Nick had really done anything like that. “Did you always
have the need to help people, even when you were young?”

“Nick, I know you want to know
more about me, but it’s such a long story.” And it wasn’t something she shared
easily.

Nick threw his legs up on the
coffee table and leaned back. “I have lots of time. They told me to keep an eye
on you, so might as well fill the time. Let’s start with when you figured out
you had this ability.”

She sighed and thought for a
minute. “I was probably born with some kind of innate talent. My parents didn’t
notice anything until I was about eight. They just thought I was very smart. I
just thought everyone could sense feelings and thoughts at times. I wasn’t
sensitive like I am now. I just caught things once in a while. Then,” she
paused, “well, it got stronger later.”

“You were going to say more,”
he said softly. “You know it’s not very fair that you can read my mind and I
have no idea what’s going on in yours.”

“Yeah, I know.” She smiled but
her eyes were pained. “Okay, so then, when I was eight, I was abducted.” She
blew out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

Nick sat up straighter. “Geesh
Whit. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to pry that much.”

“It’s
okay. You’re right. I know a lot about you, and you don’t know much about me.
Some creepy pedophile had moved into our neighborhood, and he chose me. Once he
grabbed me I knew what he planned to do with me. At first I was frozen with
fear. Then I just started screaming for my mother. I thought I was screaming
out loud, but I’m not sure if I was. My mother heard me in her head. She heard
me screaming for her. They were all out looking for me anyway, and she started
babbling about me. At first my dad thought she was just losing it. Then she
jumped in the car and took off. He followed with the police. They thought she
was going to kill herself. She drove halfway up a mountain a few miles from our
house. She was driving really fast, but she made it. She jumped out and started
running. They all followed her and tried to stop her but then the police saw an
abandoned vehicle. They decided to check out the area and my mom led the way.
The man who was holding me heard people coming and he took off.”

Whitney’s
body was shaking but she continued, determined to explain her reasons for
putting herself in danger by telling the full story. “Then I started screaming
out loud. They all came running and I passed out. The cops managed to find the
man and he was put away for a long time. He confessed to quite a few other
unsolved abductions. He was pretty spooked they had found him and thought maybe
God was judging him. He killed himself in prison years later.”

Nick
watched Whitney’s eyes reliving the events of the past. She had gone pale and
was shaking. He moved over to sit by her on the couch. “I’m so sorry to make
you drag that up. I didn’t mean to cause more pain for you.”

“It’s okay. There’s just a
little more. I should explain the rest since I’ve told you this much. I tried
to be normal after that. The police never said anything about what happened
with my mom. I don’t think they could believe it. After that I was much more
sensitive and I found I had many new talents. My mom talked with me and
explained I shouldn’t let people know. When bad things were happening to other
kids, I knew it and I felt helpless. I decided when I grew up, I would use my
gift to help people, especially kids. Every time I heard about someone getting
abducted or molested, I felt guilty that I had escaped, and they hadn’t. As
soon as I turned eighteen I went to the police and offered to help. Of course
they thought I was crazy.”

“I moved out to Arizona when I
was twenty and started working with the police department here. I was successful
enough to get noticed and the FBI offered me a job. I’m not actually an FBI
agent. Maybe if I were actually part of the team I would have more help. I’m
basically a civilian giving them a hand. They do have other people with gifts
like mine that are actually agents. They get called in for the more dangerous
jobs.”

“This seems pretty dangerous to
me.” Nick didn’t like thinking about what she went through each time she helped
track a killer.

“I’m not really in danger. It’s
hard, and it takes an emotional toll, but the killer doesn’t know about me. I
reach the scene after the fact. The worst part is when I fail, and people die.
I…” Whitney tried to keep the tears from falling. She hadn’t talked about this
for a long time, and the emotions were becoming too much. She turned away from
Nick, but he heard a small sob escape, and he reached out for her chin. He
turned her toward him.