by Joyce
Rae watched Steve play with a thin glass paperweight that was on the edge of his desk when they started talking. It flashed past her, like a comet. She heard it shatter against the door beside Sharin's head. Shards of it went everywhere.
Sharin shrieked and ran from the spot. “Are you trying to kill me?"
"Get out of here, Sharin. We're not doing each other any good."
Sharin glared at Rae as she swept out of the room. The blood began to spread out from the cut Steve made when he crushed the paperweight in his fist. The spreading color flashed through Rae's senses and brought a surge of recognition into her mind. “Do you have a piece of paper and a compass?"
Steve wrapped a handkerchief around his hand. He opened his desk drawer and drew out a piece of white paper and a pencil. “I don't have a compass. Where are you going? What's wrong, Rae?"
"I think I heard a sound in the background. I don't need a north-south-east-west compass. I need a geometry compass."
Steve ransacked his desk. His security guards looked through theirs. It was finally Michael, the young man who served the meals, who had a battered old compass he was using in his college prep courses.
Rae took it from him and sat down at the desk. “We can create a geographical tracker by coordinating the events around a murder or a kidnapping. I know there was something in the background on that call."
"How does it work?” Steve sat beside her. “What sound did you notice on the call, besides Bryce crying? I didn't hear anything."
Rae began to pencil in the information. “I didn't hear it physically either. It was that I sensed it being there. I can't explain it. Could you get me a grid map for Atlanta?"
Steve pulled up a grid on the computer and printed it out for her.
She put Steve's office building on the chart. Then she put in the estate. “This map works on a psychologist's theory that crimes like this take place in a small area. Murderers and kidnapers tend to stay within a certain perimeter of the crime scene. Multi murders and abductions create patterns. So does movement. Like moving Bryce from one place to another. We need a third spot to triangulate from."
"What about where we left the ransom money they demanded after the first call?” He looked at the diagram that was starting to form on the paper.
"That could work. Let's see.” He showed her the coordinates on the map. She penciled them in the appropriate places.
"What did you hear?” Steve puzzled, looking at the pattern.
"Street sounds. Traffic. City traffic, I think. And at one point, maybe the sound of a siren, like a fire station."
Steve concentrated on the map silently. A knock brought in a new man. “Al, can you think of a fire station in this area?"
"Yeah. They built that new one on Third and Cedar.” Al maneuvered himself beside them at the desk and put his blunt finger where the fire station was located.
Rae entered the approximate location of the firehouse then looked at the map. She felt so sure that this was where they would find Bryce. It was that sense that curled inside of her and whispered that she was on the right course. It was more than the geographical tracking. She and John used the idea many times to make their psychic feelings take form. It also gave their superiors a physical idea of how they worked.
"I think we should go there.” She stood up from the chair. She picked up the hastily drawn map. “I think she might be there."
"At the fire station?” Steve questioned. “Now?"
"Yes.” She nodded. “Yes. Right now."
"Let's get the car!"
"Where are you going?” Sharin demanded as they emerged from the library. “If this is about Bryce, I want to go, too!"
Steve reluctantly took Sharin's arm and hurried her out the front door. Rae walked quickly behind them. She wasn't too caught up in her vision quest to notice the way they looked together. His head was bent slightly towards her. Her hand fluttered down on his sleeve. Steve needed me once too. Sharin told her in the garden. The awareness rippled through her. Sharin and Steve had been intimate.
Rae pushed aside the thoughts. She was intent on finding Bryce as she piled into a car with Al, Sharin, and Steve. A new man was coming up the drive to take Al's place at the house as they left. Night settled across the estate, making more shadow than shape. Rae struggled to keep herself anchored firmly in reality, away from the shadows.
"Is she great in bed, too?” Sharin asked as the car pulled out of the drive. “Or just good with computers?"
"Shut up, Sharin, or I swear I'll let you stay right here.” Steve got behind the wheel of the car, adjusting his makeshift bandage on his injured hand.
"To the right.” Rae whispered the directions to Steve. She knew how it looked from the backseat when she leaned close to him in the front. It played well with their charade of being lovers. “About two miles. There's an intersection."
Al sat silently in the backseat. He ignored Sharin who sat beside him, tapping her foot angrily on the floor.
Rae watched the road nervously. She saw Bryce's face so clearly in her mind. It was an experience far beyond anything she ever had when she was looking for a missing child. She saw the area around Bryce. The night closing in where she stood on the street. Cars flashed by her but no one stopped. Then a van slowed and two people, only shadows, tossed her into the back of the van.
"Here's the intersection.” Steve pulled her close to him, guessing at her game. “Where to?"
"To the right again.” Rae clamped down on the flare of energy between them. She had to stay in control. “There's an alley beside a store on the left. There's a stop light and a bus stop."
"Steve?” Al's strangled voice sounded frustrated.
Rae pressed her lips close to Steve's ear. “She's at a building next to the convenience store. She's inside, looking out a window."
They stopped at the new fire station. The crew there answered the door. They hadn't seen anyone since their shift began. Rae focused on the three men and one woman but couldn't discern anything from them. She doubted that any of them were involved in the kidnapping. It was the place she was attracted to, not a person.
While Al and Steve questioned the crew, Rae looked around the area. She felt so sure there was a convenience store next to an empty building. Her gaze fell on a small, dark shape next to a dimly lighted store that advertised cigarettes for half price. Without saying anything, she walked towards it.
The building was dark and deserted. Boards covered the windows. The doors were padlocked. She couldn't see inside but she felt sure that this was the place.
"I don't think any of those firefighters were involved.” Al followed Steve across the street after her. “What the hell is she doing?"
"I don't know,” Steve admitted, waiting for a car to pass.
Sharin got out of the car and ran after them. “Why are we here? What's going on, Steve?"
Rae heard them but she ignored their words, tuning out everything but what she felt for Bryce. She stalked around the side of the building. It was boarded up tight. What she saw and heard couldn't have happened today. The siren she heard on the telephone call had to be an impression of a past event.
"Is this it?” Steve moved close to Rae.
"Yes.” The wind whipped at them, almost taking her words away, as the traffic passed on the street.
"This used to be the old firehouse,” Al remarked quietly. “It's been closed up since we were kids."
"Let's take a look around.” Steve pushed against a door. “Let's get a door open."
"No one's been here for a while. What are we looking for?” Al picked up a rusted crowbar from the ground and put it to the lock on the door.
Rae was enthralled and frightened by the vision that filled her. The place looked exactly as it had in her mind on the way across town. She'd never had a vision like this before. She knew that Bryce had been there. She knew that the child escaped and found her way into the street. But the kidnapers located her and brought her back there again.
Rae felt so certain that they would find a sign that Bryce had been there. The drop site for the money they gave the kidnapers was only three blocks away. But only their own footsteps showed in the thick dust on the concrete floors. No one had been in that building at any time in the recent past.
"There's nothing here.” Sharin's voice was too loud in the tomblike silence of the old firehouse. “What kind of trick is this? Why are we here, Steve? Because of this bimbo?"
She pulled Rae from behind and punched at her. They fell to the floor together with Sharin screaming and digging her nails into Rae's arm. Rae finally shook herself out of her trance. She subdued the woman, putting Sharin's hands behind her back. Sharin began to cry. Steve had Al take her out to the car.
"I'm sorry.” Rae was glad that she couldn't see Steve's face clearly in the darkness.
"You tried.” Steve tossed aside a rotted board. “It was a good guess."
"Look at this!” Al called from outside.
They walked outside. Al was standing beside a smaller version of the firehouse. It was falling apart, too. A brown band marked where red paint had been sprayed over the top of a chain. The severed chain was lying on the ground.
"It's the pump house,” he told them. “My daddy used to tell us stories about the fire truck bringing its own water from the pump when the hydrants wouldn't work."
Steve bent nearly in half to be able to get inside the building. Al followed him. Sharin glared balefully from the car. Rae ducked her head and went inside the pump house with them.
"Someone's been in here.” Al pointed to the floor, using the flashlight. “Look, there's a juice bottle and some candy wrappers. You can see footprints in here. One of them is mighty small."
"Shine the flashlight this way again!"
"Those are definitely a child's footprints."
"Let's call in the security team.” Al was looking at Rae like she'd grown horns.
"There's been a lot of contamination. You should call the police, Steve.” Rae stayed away from the area. “If they kept Bryce here there should be some prints the kidnapers don't expect you to find."
"Call Duke.” Steve overrode her idea. “His team can find anything the police can find."
Al called from the car phone. They waited for the team to arrive. Sharin continued to cry softly in the backseat. There was nothing more they could do there. Duke arrived to supervise the effort. He promised to call if they came up with anything from the scene. Steve drove them back to the estate. Sharin made a sudden sprint for the door when they reached the house.
"I'll go in with her. Just to make sure she doesn't hurt anybody.” Al nodded to Rae.
"I don't know what to say.” Rae waited until they were alone in the car.
Steve switched off the engine but didn't move from the car in the lighted drive. “You managed to find the place. They must have held her there while they picked up the ransom. She was so close. It had to happen right after she was taken."
"I didn't know.” Rae hated that she brought him so much pain and no resolution. “I saw Bryce there. I believed she was there now."
He put one arm on the back of the seat as he turned to her. “Tell me what you saw."
She told him about seeing Bryce in the building next to the convenience store. “The siren I heard had to be part of the vision. There was a van and two people who picked Bryce up and heaved her into the back of the van."
"Could you see anything about the van that could help us?"
"It was a light-colored van. Maybe tan. Full size. It looked older. I couldn't see the license plate or anything more specific."
"What about the two people?"
"That's impossible. They were both shadows. I wouldn't know them if I faced them."
Steve sighed. “Anything else?"
"Bryce was there. She saw you that night."
"All right.” He gripped the steering wheel tightly. “You're a gifted person, Rae. I knew it when I read about you. I didn't realize how gifted."
"I don't have any experience with this. This is different. It's never been this intense. I've always been able to find people and things today. But I've never had visions of the past. I'm not sure what to make of it."
"You must be on the right track, even if you're a step behind right now. You'll catch up."
"I don't know.” She was lost in her own thoughts. “I really don't know."
He got out of the car and Rae followed him into the house. Mrs. Hamilton greeted them but even she was subdued. Rae felt that the other woman looked at her with jaundiced eyes. Had Sharin or Al already informed her of what happened?
"There's tea or cocoa in the kitchen, if you like,” the housekeeper told them.
"I think I need something stronger,” Steve answered. “Thanks anyway."
"No, thanks, Alabaster.” Rae wanted to get on the phone with her grandmother and try to understand about her new visions.
"I have to get rid of those shares tonight.” Steve glanced at his watch. “I'll be in the library for a while."
"I'll have Tomas take some tea up to Mrs. Williams. Al says she's very distraught."
Rae watched the woman walk away, her graying head held proudly.
"You might as well try to get some sleep.” Steve turned to Rae. “You look exhausted."
"I'm going to add that site to the tracking map and see what I can come up with.” And call Lessie for help! “I'll let you know if I come up with anything."
"All right. Then I'll see you later."
There was nothing of those sudden flares of passion that erupted between them earlier. Rae told herself that she was glad. She didn't need that complication in her life. Especially after her glimpse into the intimacy that might exist between Steve and Sharin. But she still felt a little alone when she saw him close the door to the library.
At least her mind was clear. She sat at a small desk in her room. No matter how badly she needed to talk to Lessie, it was too late to call. Her grandmother needed her sleep. Rae knew she wasn't going to get any sleep that night, so she thought she might as well do something useful.
Cerise and Lessie always said she had the sight. She and John were able to see patterns in the evidence they found. He could sense small things about a case: the color of a little boy's sweater or a child's favorite toy. Rae saw the big things: the basement where the kidnaper was keeping a child or the name of the street where they'd find the house. What would John say about a vision of the past? She actually saw Bryce trying to get away from her kidnapers, only to be caught by them again.
Rae put in the new coordinates on her geo-tracker. She realized, as she did from time to time, how much she missed John. He had a way of looking at things. Crazy things. Unbelievable things. All with a calm and dispassionate eye. No doubt he wouldn't think her having a vision of the past was all that weird or strange. He'd tell her to use it to find Bryce and not worry about it. She wouldn't feel so bad because he had such a sensible perspective on it.
Steve seemed the same way, at least on the outside. Did he believe her when she told him about the visions? She thought about the paperweight incident in the study that evening. Steve wasn't exactly as he appeared. Most of the time, he was cool and dispassionate. But there was anger and violence in that gesture. Had it actually been directed towards Sharin? There were dark undercurrents that she was going to have to swim through to find the truth. Rae could only hope she didn't get caught in them.
Chapter Eight
Rae wandered through the house after her eyes refused to focus on the map any longer. The staff finally went to bed. She wasn't sure if Alabaster Hamilton ever went to sleep. She didn't run into the housekeeper as she explored the sleeping floors of the sprawling house. But she always had the feeling that she wasn't quite alone.
That feeling was born out when
she rounded a corner and walked straight into Steve.
"Looking for something?"
Rae took a quick step back from him. “I'm looking for Bryce's room."
"That's right. We were going there before..."
He didn't have to say it. Just the slight impact they had was enough to remind her of those potent kisses. She could still feel them together. “Yes."
Steve cleared his throat. “So, let's go there now."
He started walking down the hall. She followed him at a careful distance.
"I don't bite. Unless provoked."
"I don't want to take any chances."
"There's no reason to be embarrassed about what happened between us."
She admired his coolness. “I'm not embarrassed. But I can't be that casual about it either."
"That's not what I meant."
"You made it pretty clear that this kind of thing happens to you all the time."
He paused at a closed door. “I suppose it wouldn't do any good to say that it's different with you?"
Rae opened the door to the room and walked past him. “None at all."
The room had pink fairies and stars on the walls. This is Bryce's room.
She was captivated by it. It was a huge room with pink and white carpet. Stars and planets glowed on the ceiling. There was plenty of room for at least ten children. It looked like it was always a nursery. She knew that wasn't the case. Sharin and Bryce had only lived with Steve for about a year. Where was their old house?
"I tried to make this room as special as I could. It was hard for Bryce to lose her father.” Steve's voice was hushed as he trailed behind her.
"What about you and Sharin?” She wasn't sure if he'd answer.
"We've worked together as much as we can to fill in the void."
That wasn't what she sensed between Sharin and Steve at that moment in the library.
They were talking about David. The energy spiked between their words. Rae could taste the faintest hint of something wrong between them. The explosion that followed was passionate. They touched each other like old lovers.
