“A homicide?” Allie asked.
“Yes. He was shot in the head.”
Chapter 14
“Dear God,” Allie said, instantly so scared she felt nauseated. “Jennifer killed him.” Allie struggled to keep her voice steady despite her throat-clutching fear. “She’s here in town. Daniel said that he thinks investigators will have to seize Jennifer’s hard drive in order to validate whatever evidence Mark Jones gave us. Knowing Jennifer, she’s already destroyed it.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “He told me that, too. Once again, Jennifer’s timing was perfect. Mark gave us the thumb-drive at precisely the wrong time. If the police had found it in his pocket, they’d have examined the contents as part of their investigation. Now we’re implicated in his murder if we give it to the police.”
“That isn’t an ‘if,’ Jake. We’ve got to give it to the police and tell them everything we know about Jennifer. Maybe she left fingerprints in his hotel room. Jennifer’s a prime suspect this time. She killed her estranged husband. For once she finally gave us a motive that the police will believe.”
“I seriously doubt that she did the dirty work herself. She’ll have hired another goon.”
“Either way, the investigators will want to trace it back to her.”
“Yeah, at first,” Jake said, with a snarky skepticism in his voice. “Right up until we tell them that Suzanne Anderson-Jones is really Jennifer McGavin, and that you, Melissa, Jennifer, and I are all inhabiting the bodies of people she kidnapped and knocked unconscious. Then they’ll think we’re crazy, and that they’ve got a gang of homicidal lunatics on their hands.” Jake’s voice grew more despondent with every word. “I read up on Suzanne Anderson’s story a few minutes ago. Before Jennifer kidnapped her and stole her body. She was a first-rate inner-city teacher, Allie. Her colleagues, sisters, parents, friends all thought the world of her. They supported her decision to go to med school and to marry Mark Jones, but you could read between the lines. All they really wanted was the real Suzanne Anderson back.”
Allie felt horrible as she took on the burden of Jake’s words. “That’s beyond our control, Jake. In the eyes of the law, she mowed down a teenager with her car and shot her new husband in the head.”
“Suzanne’s memories are slowly returning. In another year, she’ll be sharing her body inside a penitentiary with Jennifer.”
“Damn it, Jake! I don’t want to think about that! We have to stop Jennifer somehow. Jail’s the best option. After she’s incarcerated, you’ll have the chance to perfect your device. We’ll get her out then.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. An insanity defense? Split personalities? Something.”
There was a long silence.
Finally, Allie said, “We have no choice but to go to the police. We might be the last people who saw Mark alive. We’re key witnesses. It’s our civic duty to come forward.”
“Our bigger ‘civic duty’ is to wrest those memory chips away from Jennifer. Now! We can’t help get Jennifer arrested unless we first prevent her from transferring her mind into another victim.”
“The police are going to track us down as witnesses, no matter what,” Allie cried in frustration. “If we don’t come down on the side of giving them all the evidence against Jennifer that we can, we’re going to look guilty of impeding a criminal investigation!”
“We’re also going to look suspicious no matter what. Eric and Melissa met at a juvenile detention center two years ago. Daniel’s forgery charges are under investigation. I’ve got a bogus driver’s license that Daniel created for me, and I still have my old social-security number, even though Jake Greyland is dead. And Alexis Bixby tried to commit suicide eight months ago.”
“Alexis has turned a new leaf by anyone’s standards. I’ll go to the police and keep you out of it. I’ll tell them you were a patient at the Brain Trauma clinic and you helped save my life. They know that from the police records in D.C. anyway. I’ll ask Melissa what she wants to do.”
“Fine. Be sure and tell her that she served some time in juvie court for petty larceny. I’m the only one who’s able to remember that. She needs to know she has a police record.”
“Damn it all! No matter which way I turn, I’m always breaking my parents’ hearts and hurting innocent people.”
“Join the club. Just give me a heads up if you can. I have to get back to work on the design.”
“I love you, Jake,” Allie said. Jake gave no reply. She looked at her screen and saw that the call had already ended. He’d hung up on her without saying goodbye.
Allie paced in her room, wishing she could gain some insight somewhere. She swept up her phone and called Fiona. It took forever for Allie to explain her dilemma to Fiona.
Fiona finally said, “None of that stuff about Suzanne versus Jennifer is for you to decide. It’s up to courts. You’re just supposed to tell nothing but the whole truth.”
“And get branded as a former suicide attempter who’s nuttier than a fruitcake.”
“I hate fruitcake, but I like nuts. It’s those weird gooey things that I can’t stand.”
“But what should I do?” Allie snapped, impatient with Fiona’s efforts to lighten their conversation.
“I have no idea, Allie. Hire a lawyer, maybe?”
She sighed. Her parents couldn’t begin to afford a lawyer. “You’re right. I guess.”
“Your life makes my life seem like a breeze.”
“Nobody’s life is a breeze. Mine just happens to be insanely complex.”
“I broke up with Keith,” Fiona said. “Not that we were ever a couple. We’re not going to the prom now, though.”
“I’m sorry. You could still go, though, I’m sure. In a group thing.”
“Will you be my date? We can make a life-sized cardboard cutout of Mike, cut it in half, then bring our Mike-halves to the prom.”
Allie found herself chuckling in spite of herself. An instant later she realized she had no idea where she’d even be by next Saturday. In prison, maybe. She might not even be alive. Jake’s life was in even greater risk than hers.
“You’re not thinking about hunting down Jennifer McGavin, are you?” Fiona asked.
“I’m thinking about too many things to keep track. But feel free to make a cardboard cutout of me. That would make better company that I would these days.”
“It would not. More cooperative, maybe, but not better.”
“I should call Daniel Peterson. His dad’s a lawyer.”
“When we were talking at the hospital, Melissa raved about how good looking he is. Is he really the sexiest man you’ve ever seen?”
“She and I are not the same person,” Allie snapped.
“Of course you aren’t. I didn’t mean to suggest that I thought you were.”
“No, I know. I just....” Allie let her voice fade away, not even knowing how to complete her thought. “Sorry to be so snarky.”
“No worries. Call me later.”
She called Daniel. He answered immediately with a sexy, “Hey there, beautiful.”
“I’m confused and don’t know what to do about notifying the police. Can you come over? We’ll meet on the porch. I’ll tell my parents we’re going to rehearse our presentation while we take a walk around the park.”
“That sounds really risky with McBitch on the loose in town. Just hang tight. I’ll be there in five.”
Allie thanked him and they exchanged goodbyes. Maybe I should have chosen Daniel in the first place, she thought. An instant later, she chastised herself. Yes, things would have been immensely easier for her at this point in time, but life would have been easier for both Jake and Daniel if she’d decided to stay away from them. Her love wasn’t based on ease or logic, and her heart still belonged to Jake.
In spite of her self-assurances, she felt an eyelash’s worth of doubt. Maybe that’s just the Alexis in me.
At 11:30, when Daniel arrived, her parents were still awake, although they normal
ly would be heading to bed by then. Allie got into the passenger seat of his Porsche. “Mom and Dad told me I can’t leave the property. Not even for just a walk around the block, let alone the park.” She looked back and saw both of her parents standing in front of the window, watching her. She gave them a wave, which Daniel joined her in.
Daniel started reaching around under his front seat. She remembered that was where he’d stashed his gun when he was giving her a ride from the hotel a couple of hours earlier. “I should talk to the police alone,” he said while searching. “I’m the one with the cleanest story. I’m still in my own body. I have the thumb-drive, and I need to be the one to give it to the police.”
“You can’t lie and say the rest of us weren’t there. The story wouldn’t make any sense. You and Mark wouldn’t know each other if it weren’t for us. Call your dad and ask what we should do.”
Daniel began to search the glove box and his jacket pockets. “He’ll insist on being present during all times that I speak to the police, and he’ll insist that you get separate legal representation.”
“All I care about is getting Jennifer McGavin under arrest for murder,” Allie said. “I don’t want Jake and Melissa to get arrested for things their hosts did. I don’t want to bankrupt my parents with hiring a lawyer.” She paused, realizing that Daniel was growing more concerned. “Your gun probably slid along the floorboards.”
Daniel threw open his door, got out, and started searching the backseat. “It isn’t here. My gun isn’t here!” He looked ashen as he got back behind the wheel. “Crap! McBitch stole it out of my damned car! She set me up! She used my gun to shoot Dr. Jones!”
Chapter 15
“How could she have known you’d have a gun with you?” Allie asked. “And broken into your car?”
“She would have read all about the break-in and shooting at ABTC. So she knows I owned a gun six months ago. And she could have bought a Slim Jim at Walmart to break into my car. She was probably already here, spying on all of us the whole time Mark was here. She could have been watching as I drove you home...and came back ten minutes later. Then she stole my gun, drove to the Marriott, and shot him.”
“And so much for you not having anything to worry about if you tell the police the whole truth.”
“Right. Not to mention my having embezzlement on my police record from back when Jake’s and my business started going belly-up.” He snorted. “You have got to stop hanging with such a lowlifes.”
“Too late now,” Allie replied.
Daniel smacked his steering wheel in frustration. He picked up his phone.
“Are you going to call your father?”
He shook his head. “The police. To report my missing gun.” He glanced over at her before completing the call. “You’d better go back inside. I’m going to drive back to the hotel. My weapon’s registered, and if Jennifer left the gun at the scene to frame me, they’re probably already looking for me.”
“Are you going to give them the thumb-drive Mark gave us?”
“It’s up to you. Am I?”
Allie hesitated. She hadn’t even talked to Melissa about any of this. Considering Melissa was a six-months-younger version of herself, did she owe her an explanation? “Give it to them.” Allie knew her voice sounded just as tentative as her confidence in that decision.
She stood on the sidewalk and watched Daniel drive away, feeling helpless and alone. She glanced back at the house, and saw that, now that Daniel had left, her parents had finally deserted their vigil. She stayed put and called Jake and told him about Daniel’s gun and her advising Daniel to give the police Mark’s thumb-drive.
Jake listened quietly, then said, “Just a sec,” to Allie. “Melissa? We should head over to Daniel’s room. Jennifer stole his gun. The police are going to meet him there. I’m assuming.”
“What are you going to tell the police?” Allie asked.
“As much as I can. While staying away from the body-shifting business.”
Allie sighed. “This all feels so hopeless. It’s like we’re just stuck here while sharp, heavy axes are slowly being lowered on our heads.”
“We’re going to work this out,” Jake said. “One way or another, we’ll get through this. The bottom line is that Jennifer is Mark’s estranged wife. She’s the one with the motive to kill her husband.”
“You were right before, Jake,” Allie said, starting to cry despite her best efforts to keep her emotions in check. “The murder victim was in Melissa’s room just hours before he died, and he gave her a check for fifty-thousand dollars. All four of us were there. Daniel’s now wearing a weird-looking disguise as if he’s a punk rocker. His gun was the murder weapon. If you were a cop, and you heard that story, would you say: ‘Bet his wife did it?’”
After a lengthy pause, Jake said, “I’m sorry I let you down. Again. None of this would have happened if I’d just destroyed your memory chip right away, when I had the chance.”
“Things were chaotic for weeks, and you were in the hospital, convalescing. Jennifer probably already had my memory storage chip in her hot little hand by the time they’d settled down a little.”
“Take care of yourself, Allie.”
Her breath caught. Jake sounded as if they’d never see each other again.
Allie awoke with a start. She had fallen asleep on top of bedspread, her phone beside her. It was pitch black. Someone was tapping on her window.
She roused herself and went to the window and opened it, thinking it was Jake or Daniel. “Allie? It’s Mellie. Can you let me in?”
Still half asleep, Allie pulled off the screen and pulled the window open wide enough for Melissa to climb through. “What’s happened?” Allie asked the second that Melissa was standing beside her.
“The police have a witness. Someone at the Marriott saw a young woman knock on Dr. Jones’s door, and heard them argue, then the gunshot, and then she ran out and drove away.”
“Did they get a description? Did she look like Mark’s wife?”
“No. He showed me a composite drawing they got from the witness. It looked like me.”
“You?”
She nodded.
“Do you have an alibi?”
“I was with Jake.”
“That’s...better than nothing.”
“Not really. When his driver’s license didn’t pass muster, they did a computer search, and they know now that he’s Eric Sterling. He looks a little different, thanks to the way Jennifer altered his appearance, but they know it’s him. And they know we were an item, and that, apparently, we robbed a convenience store a year and a half ago. The officer interrogated me for over an hour. He made it sound like we were on our way to becoming the next Bonnie and Clyde.”
“But they let you go, right?” Allie took a seat at the end of her bed and patted the spot beside her.
Apparently too tense to sit down, Melissa merely nodded in answer. “But they think Daniel, Jake, and I plotted to kill him for the fifty-thousand dollars. They figured we blackmailed him into giving it to me, then we killed him. But one of the officers told me that they found a handwritten note in Dr. Jones’s room that he’d written. It said that if anything happens to him, to arrest his wife, and that he’d given me the check in partial compensation for what she’d done to me, and that I’m an innocent victim of his wife’s maleficence.”
“So it’s possible that once they verify his handwriting that you’ll be in the clear. What did they say about the contents of the thumb-drive?”
“Nothing. They hadn’t examined it yet. Jake convinced both Daniel and me to say nothing about its contents. The officer asked Daniel what was on it, and he said, ‘Information about the schemes of Dr. Mark Jones’s wife.’ And when they asked him for more details, he would just say that the files were now in their custody and they could decide the significance on their own. He told me in private that she never referred to us by name, just by our initials of our original bodies. We all have patient records on the dr
ive that list our vital statistics. Daniel wasn’t sure it’s enough to prove what she was doing—kidnapping and then shifting the contents of our brains into hosts’ bodies—without her physical hard drive and corroborating physical evidence from the lab, all of which she undoubtedly destroyed.”
Allie studied Melissa’s features. She was clearly shaken. “We need to keep clear heads. We can’t panic.”
“Honest to God, I think it’s too late, Allie. I think we should get in a car and leave town. Go to Canada.”
“We’re on the right side. We’re the good guys.”
“The good guys don’t always win. Sometimes they get set up to take a murder rap by the bad guy. You should see the composite drawing, Allie. I’m a dead ringer for the killer. I don’t want to go to jail.”
Chapter 16
Allie convinced Melissa to crash in her room for a few hours. She set her alarm for six a.m., calculating that her parents wouldn’t be getting up until six thirty, and Melissa would have time to get up and out by then. With Melissa fast asleep in her bed, Allie packed a small bag that she could get by on for a week, in case she had to leave. She planned to stash it in the trunk of Daniel’s car. Then she texted Daniel to ask if he’d pick them both up at 6 a.m. To her mild surprise he was still awake and replied that he’d be there at 5:59.
After managing to catch another hour or two of sleep, Allie awoke at quarter of six. She quickly shut off her alarm and shook Melissa awake. “Sorry, but if you get up right now, you can leave by the front door instead of the window.”
Melissa roused herself. The two of them were ready to go at six. Allie sent Melissa out first, carrying Allie’s bag, then she knocked on her parents’ door and opened it a crack. “Mom? Dad?” she said softly.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” her mom asked, her voice rife with alarm.
“Nothing. I just wanted you to know that Daniel is picking me up, right after he picks up Melissa from the hotel, and we’re going to go over our history presentation again during breakfast at a coffee shop. I’ll see you after school.”
Mind Echoes (Book 2 in the Body Shifters Trilogy) Page 11
