Кей Хупер - Whisper of Evil

"What did she see at the Patterson house?"

"A very intense vision in which Hailey, as a young girl, was… involved… with a man who liked to play sadomasochistic games."

Galen nodded. "Today she was with you and the sheriff at the Lynch house. A vision, but no blackout, at least not immediately. All she told me when she filed her so-called report after you guys got back here was that she had a vision apparently unrelated to Lynch's death. A vision that told her Hailey and Sheriff Cole had been involved at one time. She said the vision was odd, that it felt different, but she didn't explain just how."

"The commonality seems to be Hailey," Max said slowly. "Hailey and her relationships."

"You sound doubtful."

"It doesn't feel right somehow. I can barely accept the possibility that Hailey might be hiding somewhere nearby taking out the men who treated her like dirt. But that doesn't explain Nell's blackouts. Both times she went out with little or no warning, the visions she had recently experienced were unusual in some way: the intensity of the vision in the Patterson house, and then — what was odd about this latest vision — seeing Ethan and Hailey in a completely different place."

"So you think it's not so much what she saw as how she saw it that might have triggered the blackouts?"

"All I know is that Nell is experiencing things she never has before. It's not just a case of the blackouts getting more frequent and more intense, it's also that the visions themselves are changing. But even that doesn't make a lot of sense. Sometimes it seems her abilities are getting more and more powerful, and at other times they seem almost weakened… muffled."

"As if there's some outside influence at work?

Someone or something blocking her at least part of the time?"

"Is that possible? I've read a lot about the paranormal, but the research on anything like that is sketchy —"

"The official research, yeah. Luckily, we have our own. And, yes, it is definitely possible for a psychic to be blocked or influenced by another psychic. And we do have reason to believe that this killer, whether it's Hailey or someone else, is a pretty powerful psychic."

Max stared at him for a long moment, then said, "Then maybe that's it. Look, what if we're all — even Nell — looking at this whole thing the wrong way? What if we're only seeing what somebody wants us to see? What if Nell is so certain it's Hailey because that's what the real killer wants her to believe?"

Slowly, Galen said, "The original profile said the killer was likely to be a cop. Mix investigative knowledge and savvy with a psychic's ability to manipulate, and —"

"And you've got a killer leading you around by the nose," Max finished grimly.

Nell.

She wanted to ignore the summons. The pain wasn't so bad here where it was dark and peaceful and she wasn't worried about anything. Not about killers or her own evil bloodline, or even whether it was possible for her to walk away from Max this time. None of that bothered her. Everything was fine.

You have to wake up, Nell.

A stab of pain sliced through her mind like a burning knife, and Nell winced, tried to retreat further into the darkness. If that whisper would just go away and leave her alone…

There isn't much time left.

She could feel herself being pulled, drawn relentlessly from the peaceful darkness toward the cold uncertainty of consciousness, and she resisted as hard as she could.

You need —

Nell opened her eyes and sat up in the same motion. Her head throbbed immediately, but at least it was a dull ache, soreness rather than pain. Her entire body felt sore, now that she thought about it. The question was, why?

Rubbing her temples gingerly, Nell murmured, "What the hell happened?"

She was in her lamplit room, on her bed. Covered by a quilt, still dressed except for her shoes. When she managed to bring her watch into focus, it told her only that she had been out for at least an hour and possibly longer.

Probably longer.

Jeez, what had set her off this time? She had been downstairs talking to Max, hadn't she? Sitting drinking coffee. Or had they been standing? He'd insisted they talk about them, about their relationship, and her head had really been hurting then, and — and what?

Another of these weird and sudden blackouts, apparently. Either she was simply more tired than she had realized — or her brain was getting seriously fatigued from the too-frequent use of her abilities.

The latter possibility was more than a little frightening, but Nell shoved it grimly aside. There was nothing she could do about that now. Nothing.

Nothing?

The whisper was so soft she was almost certain she hadn't really heard it. Almost certain. Still, she listened intently for several moments, and all she heard now was, faintly, the murmur of voices downstairs, male voices. She didn't really have much extra energy to enhance her hearing, but what little she could use allowed her to be fairly sure that Max was talking to someone.

Galen.

"Oh, great." Not exactly the last two men in the world she'd want discussing the situation — and, undoubtedly, her — but close enough.

Nell pushed the quilt away and slid carefully from the bed. A shower, that's what she needed. A long, hot shower to wash away the cobwebs and soreness. Maybe then she could at least start to figure out what was wrong with her.

Then again, maybe she already knew.

"She's awake," Max said.

Galen nodded, then listened for a moment. "In the shower. You know her better than I do, but I'd say she won't be too happy to find us down here talking."

"She'll be prickly as hell," Max agreed. "But I think we both agree it's time to put at least some of our cards on the table. Especially if there's even the possibility that Nell's being influenced by someone else."

"That's the part she's going to hate."

"Yeah. I know." Max shook his head. "The question is, who's doing the influencing? Even with the profile… is it more or less likely that it could be Hailey rather than a stranger?"

"On the face of it, more likely. The kind of influence and control we're talking about is rare even among psychics, seldom possible except between mates or blood siblings."

"But?"

"But, aside from the fact that Nell's certain Hailey was never psychic, over the years we've encountered more than a few predators whose psychic abilities were seemingly enhanced by the sheer twisted evil of their minds. They were capable of some incredible things — including forms of mind control."

"It makes sense. And I guess the killer began trying to influence Nell because he became suspicious of her. But what would have given her away?"

"There's no way to be sure about that." Galen hesitated, then added, "But we've known almost from day one that the killer was watching Nell, or was at least once." He explained about the photo Shelby had taken and the consensus as to its probable meaning.

"Jesus." Incredulous, Max added, "You're telling me this maniac has been waltzing in and out of Nell's mind —"

"No, not in the sense of direct communication. Nell would have known if that happened. Watching her, at least from time to time, certainly. As for how he's been blocking her, maybe even influencing her, my guess is that he made contact while she was unconscious or asleep, while all her guards were down, then planted a kind of posthypnotic suggestion deep in her mind set to trigger the headaches, maybe even the blackouts, whenever she got too close to whatever he's trying to protect."

"I had no idea that was even possible."

"Like I said, we've come across some seriously disturbed psychics. If we've learned anything, it's that where the will of the human mind is concerned, nothing is impossible."