Kay Hooper - Sense Of Evil

“Okay, keep at it.”

As the young officer turned to go, Isabel said, “Ginny? Are you okay?”

“Sure.” She smiled. “Tired, like everybody else, but otherwise okay. Thanks for asking.”

Isabel held her gaze for a moment, then nodded and smiled, and Ginny left the conference room rather quickly.

Absently, Rafe said, “You know, Rose Helton doesn’t fit the profile in one very obvious and possibly important way.”

“She’s married,” Isabel said. “So far, in all three series of murders, he’s only gone after single white females.”

Slowly, Hollis said, “I wonder what would happen if he found himself interested in a married woman? Would he see the husband as a rival? Would that make the chase-the stalking-even more exciting for him?”

“Could be.” Isabel rose to her feet.

Mallory got up with the rest, but said, “Since Kate Murphy and Cheryl Bayne are also still missing, I think they should be up there on the priority list too. If you guys don’t mind, I think I’ll run through the info we have on them and see if I have some luck in either finding them or at least ruling out a voluntary absence.”

“Good idea,” Isabel said. “The reporter especially worries me; if he’s killing to scare off the media or to make a point, then all bets are off. It would mean he’s changed in some fundamental way, and we have no way of knowing how or why.”

“Or who he could decide to target next,” Hollis added.

He wished he could stop the voices. The other things, the other changes, he could deal with. So far, at least. But the voices really were driving him mad. It had become harder and harder to shut them out, turn them off. They told him to do things. Bad things.

Things he’d done before.

Not that he minded doing the bad things. That was the only time he felt real, felt strong and alive. Felt free. It was just that his head hurt all the time now because of the voices, and he hadn’t slept through the night since… he couldn’t remember when.

The whole world looked surreal when you couldn’t sleep, he’d discovered.

And blondes were everywhere.

Tempting, aren’t they?

He ignored the question. The voice.

They’re just asking for it. You know they are.

“Go away,” he muttered. “I took care of the other one. The one you said nearly found us. Leave me alone now. I’m tired.”

Look at that one on the corner. If she swung her ass any harder she’d dislocate it.

“Shut up.”

Don’t forget what they did to you. What they’re doing to you. Even now, they’re corrupting you.

“You’re lying to me. I know you are.”

I’m the only one who’s telling you the truth.

“I don’t believe you.”

That’s because they’ve twisted your thinking, those women. Those blondes. They’re making you weak.

“No. I’m strong. I’m stronger than they are.”

You’re a wimp. A useless wimp. You let yourself get distracted.

“I’m not distracted. She has to be next.”

The other one’s more dangerous. That agent. Isabel. She’s different. She sees things. We need her out of the way.

“I can do her later. This is the one I have to do next.”

This one can’t hurt us.

“That’s what you think.” He watched as she came out of the coffee shop and continued along the sidewalk, an iced mocha in one hand and her list in the other. She always had a list. Always had things to do.

He wondered idly if she had any idea the last item on today’s list was to die.

11:00 AM

On their way to the dairy farm, Hollis said, “If Rafe hadn’t had to stay at the station a few more minutes to deal with a call, would you still have suggested separate vehicles?”

“Probably.”

“Still no voices, huh?”

“No. I thought getting away from everybody might help, but it didn’t.”

“Was anything different when Rafe was close by?”

“No. Just silence, same as when he isn’t close by. Exactly the way it’s been since last night.” Isabel glanced at her partner, mouth twisting slightly. “I’d thought the peace and quiet would be nice. I was wrong. This just feels… bad. Not natural. I even miss the damned headache. A part of me has suddenly gone deaf, and I don’t know why.”

“It must have something to do with the sparking thing between you and Rafe, right?”

“I don’t know. As far as I can remember, nothing like this has happened to any psychic. I mean, our abilities can change, but this drastically and suddenly to a reasonably stable and well-established psychic? Not without some… trigger. Some cause. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“You still haven’t called Bishop?”

Isabel shook her head. “They’re wrapped up in their own investigation out there and don’t need a distraction.”

“You just don’t want him to pull you.”

“Well, yeah, there’s that. I don’t really think he would, not at this stage, but he worries whenever any of us have problems with our abilities. Unforeseen problems, I mean.”

Hollis hesitated, then said, “How can you be sure this is an unforeseen problem? I mean, Bishop and Miranda see the future on a fairly regular basis. What if they saw this?”

Isabel considered it, then shrugged and said wryly, “That is more than possible. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d seen something ahead in the road for one of us-and just let us stumble forward blindly. Some things have to happen just the way they happen.”

“Our mantra.”

“More or less. You know, I half expected Bishop to call last night, since he always does seem to know whenever something’s gone wrong. So maybe this isn’t as wrong as I feel like it is. Or maybe he knows and also knows I have to figure out my own way through it.”

“Are you going to tell Rafe?”

“Sooner or later I’ll have to. Unless he picks up on it himself. Which is also possible.”

“Yeah, he’s very… tuned in where you’re concerned. I mean, it’s obvious. I think he knew before I did in Jamie’s playhouse that it was going to be too much for you. He kept watching you.”

“I know.”

“You felt that even with all the voices coming at you?”

“I felt it. Him. He wanted to protect me. To keep me from being hurt.”

Hollis lifted both eyebrows. “And now you don’t hear the voices. You’re protected from them. Coincidence? I sort of doubt it.”

“Rafe isn’t psychic. He couldn’t have done this.”

Hollis thought about it, then shook her head. “Maybe not consciously, even if he’s a latent. But what if it’s a combination of factors?”

“Such as?”

“Such as his desire to shield you and the way his and your electromagnetic fields react to each other. It really could be pure basic chemistry and physics, at least the beginning of it.”

Isabel frowned. “Even without a shield of my own, I had the training in how to use one. I know how to reach out, break through a barrier. I know what a shield should be, even if I’ve never had one. This… doesn’t feel like a barrier. It’s not something I can control.”

“It’s new. Maybe you have to get used to it before you can. Or maybe…”

“… it’s not mine to control,” Isabel finished.

“If Rafe is a latent, or was, it could be his to control. You didn’t pick up any sense that he might be when you first read him?”

“No.”

“Nothing unusual at all?”

“No. At least… He’s very strong. And not very easy to read except for surface, trivial things. I didn’t get the sense he was blocking me, but at the same time I felt there was a lot of him I just couldn’t get at.”