Кей Хупер - Whisper of Evil

didn't even know she was gone until I talked to Keever after my father died."

"How did he know where you were?"

"He didn't. I called him."

"Why?"

Nell drew a short breath and said softly, "I knew my father was dead. I felt it. Can we change the subject now, please?"

Max was feeling too rawly exposed himself to be able to back away when he knew damned well how important this was, and so said persistently, "You said you hated him, so why did you care he was dead?"

"I didn't say I cared. I said I felt it."

"Felt what? Felt him die?"

"Felt… the absence of him. Max —"

"You sound as if you'd been connected to him all these years."

"In a way, I was. Blood ties, Max. No matter what, we can't escape them."

"What about your grandmother? Did you feel the absence of her too?"

"No," she replied with obvious reluctance.

"Just your father?"

"Just him."

"Then it was more than blood ties. You said he didn't share the Gallagher curse, that he wasn't psychic."

"He wasn't."

"But you felt it when he died?"

After a pause, as if to very deliberately stop the forceful rhythm of his questions, she said, "We're not going to do this, Max. Not now. I came back here to do a job, and that's what I have to concentrate on, because people's lives are at stake. If you want to help me, fine. If not, get the hell out of my house, and stay out of my way."

Her resistance didn't do much to soothe Max's temper, and his voice showed the strain of his effort to sound calm about it. "I see. Well, tell me one thing at least, will you, Nell?"

"I'll have to hear it first."

"Tell me we will do this before you run away again. That you'll be willing to answer a few reasonable questions. I think you owe me that much."

"I think I owe you… an explanation, yes. And you'll get it, Max. Before I leave Silence. Good enough?"

"I guess it'll have to be."

Nell didn't question the grudging acceptance, merely nodded.

Max drew a breath and tried again to keep his voice calm. "So who're you expecting to show up?"

"Ethan."

"Ethan? Why?"

"The Gallagher curse." She smiled wryly as he finally joined her at the table. "Ethan doesn't believe in it, but we always knew he might get desperate enough to come to me for help. Always assuming he's not the killer. If he is… coming to me could still be a good idea. To find out what I know."

"So what makes your boss think he'll show up?"

"It's a logical assumption."

Max had a feeling it was more than that, but he decided not to question.

Nell said, "I haven't asked you before, but do you think Ethan would be capable of killing?"

"Killing — yes. These murders — no," Max answered.

"Why not?"

"To be honest, I think Ethan lacks the imagination for something like this. He's very straightforward and pretty obvious in his likes and dislikes — as I know better than anyone. Subtlety is not one of his strong suits. Plus, if you and your boss are right about some long-buried secret being at the heart of this, I'd be very surprised to find one in Ethan's past."

"Assuming it isn't him," Nell said, "do you think he realizes it might be a cop?"

"I don't know. But there is one thing I'm pretty sure of. When it comes to digging for the truth, he doesn't stop until he finds it. No matter who gets in his way."

Bishop frowned at the scanned photograph that had just come out of their color printer, and said softly, "Shit."

Tony came to peer over his shoulder at the shot of Nell walking down the steps of what appeared to be a courthouse, with a man in the background watching her, and in the foreground… "That isn't a ghost, is it?"

"No."

"Then what the hell is it?"

Bishop handed him the photo, his face grim. "Evil."

Tony went around to the other side of the conference table and sat down, staring at the photo with a slight frown. "Really? In what sense? A force? A presence?"

"Probably both."

"Was Nell aware of it?"

"No. And that really worries me."

"Who took the picture?"

"A friend of hers. A friend who thought it unusual enough to take it to Nell."

"A psychic friend?"

"Nell says not. So the camera captured something that was physically there, even if not visible to the naked eye."

Tony put the photograph on the table and leaned back, frowning more heavily now. "Nell's sensitive to events, taps into the energy signature left in rooms and other places by extreme emotions, right?"

"Right."

"How about the spider sense?"

Bishop nodded. "She can enhance her other senses by concentrating. So it's difficult for anything or anyone to sneak up on her, if that's what you're asking."

"Yeah. But this… presence… snuck up on her. Is looming over her, as a matter of fact, and not in what I'd call a friendly manner." Tony tapped the photo with a finger. "Is that how you knew it wasn't a ghost?"

"Partly. Disembodied spirits in the traditional sense, those without a physical self, have a distinct emotional signature, and it's likely Nell would pick up on that."

Tony frowned. "So she'd know if there was a ghost around, even though she isn't a medium?"

"Probably, Her ability is unique as far as we can tell, but we have developed a few theories — most of them untested as yet. The chances are pretty good that the energy signature of ghosts and other disembodied spirits is close enough to what her mind naturally taps into that she'd at least be sensitive to it. Unable to communicate with a spirit the way a medium can, but definitely aware of a presence."

"But she didn't sense this presence. Because it didn't have the right energy signature?"

"Because it wasn't a ghost or a spirit, and because its physical self existed elsewhere. Astral projection, Tony. Out-of-body."

"You mean this is the spiritual energy of somebody who's alive and well and right there in Silence?"

Bishop nodded. " Alive at least. Well is arguable."

Tony considered that a few moments, then said, "You believe it's also a force. What makes you think so?"

"Look at its shape, how elongated and distorted it is. It's barely recognizable as anything even remotely human. A normal astral projection that's visible at all assumes the perceptible shape of the body it knows best, the physical body it normally occupies. In other words, what you saw would look like the person it represented."

"This," Tony murmured, "looks like a monster."

"Exactly. That is the physical manifestation of a very disturbed mind. But, even more, look at the size of it, the threatening posture. The sheer mental energy required to project something of that magnitude over any distance at all indicates an extremely powerful, extremely dark intellect."

"And it wouldn't be something innate to or trapped in this area, this building, right?"

"Right."

"Then… it was following Nell. Watching her."

"That's what it looks like."

"And we didn't know about it."

"We," Bishop said grimly, "didn't know about it."

Tony winced. "Shit. I guess we can assume the likelihood that this is also the killer they're trying to find down there?"

"We can assume there's a damned good possibility it is. I love a good coincidence, but I seriously doubt there are two separate evils at work in Silence at the same time and that the one we aren't after would be focused on Nell."

"Yeah." Tony drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. "And I guess it's unrealistic to think this… thing was following her around just because she looks good in jeans."

"Probably. So the question is — why was it following her? Has her cover been blown, at least where the killer is concerned? Or is… it… interested in her for some other reason?"