Mind Echoes (Book 2 in the Body Shifters Trilogy)

by Leslie O'Kane

  She looked at her watch. She decided she’d give him fifteen minutes to make his way out of the building. If she saw either of the Jennifers, she would run over them with the car and insist to the police that it was an accident.

  The wait was excruciating. After twelve minutes, she heard Daniel say, “Allie. I’m going to the car. Stay there.” The drugs had slurred his speech.

  She had been in every room of the apartment. He must have been in a closet. Or in the bathtub. The shower curtain had been shut. Maybe Jennifer had guided the barely conscious Daniel there.

  Finally she spotted him staggering toward her. Allie bolted out of the car and raced toward him. “Daniel!” He gave her a weak smile and nearly collapsed on the spot. She grabbed him and managed to steady him. “We’ve got to get you to the car.”

  She wrapped her arm around his back, and he slung an arm over her shoulder. They started making their way down the sidewalk. “My God, Daniel. You scared me half to death.”

  They made it to the car, and Daniel lunged into the back seat, Allie helping him to get his legs inside. He groaned as he curled on his side. “Ellie,” he murmured.

  “What is it?”

  “I thought I’d lost you.”

  “I’m right here.”

  “You’re the only girl I’ve ever really loved.”

  Chapter 26

  Allie stifled a gasp. Before she could even begin to formulate a reply, Daniel had fallen sound asleep. She decided to give him a few minutes to sleep off the drugs and to get him some coffee. She felt uneasy at leaving Daniel’s pricy car with him incapacitated in the back seat. She jogged three blocks to the nearest coffee shop, ordered iced black coffee, then returned as quickly as she could without spilling it. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that neither the car nor Daniel had moved.

  Kneeling on the front passenger seat, she reached back and shook him. He opened his eyes. His pupils were dilated, but he was at least alert enough to meet her gaze.

  “I got you some iced coffee. Do you think you can drink it and wake up?”

  He cleared his throat. “Yeah. I’ve gotta get functional.” He sat up and held out his hand. She passed him the cup.

  “Where were you?”

  “A janitor’s closet in the hallway. I was listening for voices at apartment 404, with my ear to the door. I felt a needle jab me in the butt. Next thing I remember, I woke up, jammed into a pitch black closet.”

  “I don’t suppose you still have your gun,” Allie said.

  He took a gulp of coffee and grimaced. “That’s the creepy thing.” He reached under the hem of his tee-shirt and produced a gun that had been tucked into his waistband. “I still do.”

  “Is it loaded?”

  He stared at the gun in his hand, obviously still in stupor. “Maybe Jennifer missed it...but I thought I had it in my hand as I was listening at the apartment door.”

  “Or else Jennifer Two...Kathleen, rather, wants us to engage in a shootout with Jennifer One.” She reached out and gestured for the gun. “Give me that. I’ll put it in the glove box.”

  “Right,” Daniel said.

  She reached between the seatbacks and grabbed the gun. By the time she stashed it and turned back around in her seat.

  Daniel’s eyes were shut and his head was starting to bob.

  “Wake up!” Allie said.

  His eyelids sprang open. He shook his head rapidly and swiped at his eyes. “Okay. I’m awake. Don’t let me nod out again.” He took another couple of gulps and grimaced. “Gahh. I hate iced coffee.”

  “Sorry about that. I just couldn’t see you sipping a hot drink in your condition.”

  “Good thinking.” He took another gulp and shuddered. “Might help me to sit behind the wheel. If I fall forward, I’ll honk the horn and wake myself up again.”

  “I should take over driving duties for a while,” Allie said as she watched him slowly extract himself from the back seat. Her thoughts skipped back to his calling her the only girl he truly loved. She needed to squelch the thrumming in her heart that memory gave her. Several miles from here, her true love was waging a life and death battle. Mellie was trapped somewhere in the apartment building across the street.

  It took Daniel a while just to angle his body back through the door and into the seat beside her. He seemed to barely be holding on to consciousness. Allie tried to keep him engaged in her tale of how she’d been locked in the closet and escaped by battering her way through the cheap wall. Then she told him about her growing suspicion that they were fated to participate in a shootout involving the McGavins for a second time in their lives. Jennifer, she reasoned, could easily have killed both her and Daniel, and undoubtedly Mellie, as well. The only logical explanation for why they were still alive was that Kathleen intended to use them against Jennifer One, somehow.

  “Daniel?” Allie said when she saw he was nodding off again, despite her best efforts. “Keep drinking the coffee. We need you at full speed. We still have to find Mellie, and it’s making me edgy that we’ve been out of earshot of Jake’s microphone so long.”

  “Right, right.” Once again, Daniel shook his head, trying to waken himself. “I’ll just guzzle this down.”

  Allie, meanwhile, caught sight of a young blond woman who came staggering out the front door of the apartment building. It took a moment to register that this was truly Mellie, not Kathleen.

  “Oh, my God,” Allie cried to Daniel, grabbing his shirt and pointing. “It’s Mellie.”

  Allie got out of the car, but stopped herself from calling out, worried suddenly that this was yet another of Jennifer’s traps; that she was hiding behind a car and would open fire at them any moment. Daniel managed to open his door, but remained in his seat.

  Mellie looked both ways and trotted across the street toward them, giving Allie only a brief smile. Allie sighed in relief. Mellie looked bedraggled and was covered in plaster dust, but it was clearly her, not Kathleen. She appeared to be uninjured.

  “I can’t believe you’re right here,” Mellie said as soon as she reached them. “How did you know I was in this building?”

  “Daniel triangulated the signal from Kathleen to the other Jennifer...to Suzanne.”

  “I thought I was a goner for sure when I suddenly woke up in the back seat of a car, with my arms and legs tied...and Kathleen behind the wheel.”

  “We’ve been really worried about you. We probably got here just an hour or so after you did, but it felt like forever.”

  “It took me forever to escape.”

  “Daniel located this building last night, but Kathleen lured me to the wrong apartment, and drugged Daniel when he tried to rescue us. He’s still super groggy.”

  Allie reclaimed her front seat as Mellie climbed in the back.

  “Hey, Mellie,” Daniel said in greeting. “Sorry I couldn’t have helped you more.” His speech was still sleep-slurred.

  “Where’s Jake?”

  “He’s at Dr. Jones’s clinic in Brooklyn. Apparently, Jennifer has commandeered the place. Jake’s been pretending to be cowed into doing whatever Jennifer wants so that she’ll release you, unharmed,” Allie replied. “Have you eaten since you got taken?”

  “Kathleen fed me peanut butter sandwiches. For breakfast and dinner. She hasn’t been in the apartment all day today, though, as far as I know. When she tied me up again this morning, the bindings weren’t quite as tight as usual. I managed to work a hand free eventually.”

  “She obviously rented two apartments in the same building,” Allie said. “Did you have to kick your way through a wall to get out?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She did the same thing to me,” Allie explained. “Minus the tying-up part.”

  “Jennifer Two is up to something,” Daniel said. “She wanted you to escape.”

  “That could be because she realizes that she’s Jennifer One’s enemy,” Allie said. “Maybe she wants to spur us into going on the offensive toward Jennifer One. She wants t
o be the one-and-only surviving Jennifer. She’d probably prefer us to kill so she doesn’t have to kill her herself.”

  “You’d think they could at least just agree to go off and live in separate continents,” Mellie said, rubbing the sore-looking skin on her wrists. “And it’s surprising she’s so brazen as to be in the place while the police are still investigating her husband’s death.”

  “That’s Jennifer for you,” Allie said. “She probably has a story at the ready to explain Jake’s presence if the police have the place under surveillance.”

  “Jake is with Suzanne Jones right now?”

  “Yeah,” Daniel said. “The clinic’s about thirteen miles from here. That’s which is outside the range of our listening device.”

  “All three of us—Daniel, Jake, and I—are wearing bugging devices,” Allie explained. “They’re not two-ways, so we can’t talk back and forth, but the receiver is hooked to the car speakers. We need to head over to the lab in Brooklyn.”

  “Do you have any idea where Kathleen is?” Daniel asked Mellie, still slurring his words as he started the engine.

  She shook her head. “I thought she’d be with the other Jennifer by now.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay to drive?” Allie asked.

  “I’m fine,” Daniel pulled out of the space and gave Allie a wink. He was obviously starting to regain his alertness. “We have to make sure we aren’t walking into a trap.”

  “Maybe we don’t, “ Allie said. “Maybe we just need to make Jennifer’s trap work in our favor. She no longer has Mellie as leverage against Jake. Maybe we can bluff her into thinking Aaron Croft’s CD is a big bargaining chip for us.”

  “The CD player still works even though the receiver jerry-rigged,” Daniel said. “Let’s give it a listen. We might as well, since we’re still out of range from Jake’s wire.”

  She inserted the CD into the disc drive. Allie found herself clenching her teeth as she heard Jennifer’s original voice; the woman had destroyed her life and so many others.

  Jennifer’s initial conversation with Croft took place when she was first hiring him to use Jake’s invention on her. As she listened to it a second time, Allie realized how nebulous Jennifer’s motives sounded. She’d described Ellie as having a “one-in-a-million brain,” and had said that “the contents of her brain are going to take neuroscience to all new horizons.” Jennifer had growled at Croft, “If you make a mistake and kill her too quickly or, God forbid, shoot her in the head, it’s all over. We won’t give you a dime.”

  After several minutes, Daniel asked, “Does McBitch ever say straight out that her intention is to download her brain into a coma patient? That she wants to see if the patient will possess your full intelligence?”

  “No. Unfortunately.” Allie was beginning to recognize some of the buildings. They were getting close to the clinic. She paused the recording. “This goes into Jennifer hiring Croft to kill Mom and Grammy, Mellie. I don’t want to have to listen to it a second time. All it does is incriminate Croft and Jennifer McGavin, who’s dead, as far as what anyone beside us knows. I’m going to skip ahead.”

  They listened again as Jennifer was telling Kroft that Elony Montgomery’s mind was now in Alexis Bixby’s body. “You transplanted her brain?” Croft asked.

  “Essentially,” Jennifer answered, “which makes her able to finger you as her father’s killer.”

  “Who the hell cares?” Croft retorted. “If she goes to the police, they’ll call her a nutcase. Nobody will believe she has the dumpy-looking girl’s brain.”

  “That’s the closest she comes to confessing what she’s doing,” Allie said, “when she tells John Deere...Croft, ‘essentially. ‘“

  On the recording, Croft chuckled. “So is that what all this is about? Are you and your old man trying to ditch your bodies and switch brains with young athletes, or something?”

  “No, that is not what this is all about. I’m not hiring you to ask questions, but to follow my instructions.”

  Allie’s bolstered spirits at the implications from Jennifer’s “eventually,” sagged as she realized that Jennifer’s references to the kidnap victims were too vague. Even when Jennifer was warning Croft not to touch a hair on Suzanne’s head, with Jennifer’s voice was noticeably weak, all she said was, “If you harm her, you’re harming me. When Suzanne gets out of the hospital, I’ll exact my pound of flesh from parts of your body that you’ll be loath to lose.”

  As she and Croft were parting company, having succeeded in drugging and nabbing Suzanne, Jennifer had a coughing fit.

  “So,” Croft said to Jennifer once she’d finally caught her breath, “if all goes according to your plan, you’ll be in this Anderson-broad’s body the next time I see you.”

  “No,” Jennifer replied snidely. “If all goes according to my plan, you’ll never see me again. You’ll get your final payment from me after any and all witnesses at ABTC are dead.”

  There was a thud that sounded like a door closing as, presumably, Jennifer and Croft parted company. That was the end of the recording.

  “Jeez,” Mellie said. “That recording is far from a slam-dunk. Jennifer never actually stated that she was going to be occupying Suzanne’s body. A judge or jury could easily interpret their conversations as his being delusional, and Jennifer playing along to suite her purposes.”

  “That’s what I took from hearing it, as well,” Daniel said. He flipped a switch and to listen in on the channel for Jake’s bug. Over the speaker, Jake muttered, “This circuit checks out,” as if he was speaking to himself.

  “I don’t think there’s anything damning enough to get Suzanne under arrest,” Daniel said, “let alone Kathleen.”

  “Jennifer doesn’t know that, though,” Allie said. “She can’t possibly have memorized her each and every word to Croft.”

  “You think you can bluff her?” Mellie asked.

  “Yes, I do. I can insist that I gave a friend the CD, and that it exposes her for precisely who she is. That if anything happens to Jake or to any of us, the friend will give the CD to the police. We can remind her about the computer files that Mark Jones collected, and you guys gave to the police. And I can claim I already sent the police Jake’s preliminary schematics. She’ll have to worry that the preponderance of evidence against her will get her sentenced to life in prison.”

  “That could work,” Mellie said. “Don’t you think, Daniel?”

  “Maybe,” Daniel answered. “As long as we can dump all of this on her before she has time to—”

  He broke off, his eyes widening. He punched the steering wheel with the heel of his hand. “Crap!” He pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall and parked the car. “We’re within a mile of the clinic, and we’ve been sitting here yakking away about all of our plans!” He turned to look back at Mellie. “For all we know, while you and I were unconscious, Kathleen could have planted her own bug in our clothing. She could have heard every word we’ve said!”

  Allie gripped her armrests, feeling the need to steady herself. If Jennifer had been listening to her delineate her bluff, they had zero chance of success.

  Daniel put his finger over his lips, and all three of them fell silent. He popped the trunk open, slung the strap of his small bag over one shoulder and passed the small bag that Allie had packed for Mellie into the back seat. He held up his finger again to indicate he’d be back in a minute, then he walked toward the back of the row of shops, apparently planning to change clothes in the alley. Mellie changed her clothes rapidly, with Allie keeping an eye out for any curious pedestrians. Over the sound system, Jake occasionally made a statement along the lines of, “This circuit checks out,” as if he was speaking to himself. No other voices were audible.

  A couple of minutes later, Daniel returned, wearing jeans and a forest green knit shirt, his shorts and blue T-shirt in his hand. He reached blindly into the car, and Mellie handed him her clothes. He walked away.

  “Daniel’s going to throw the clo
thes away,” Mellie said. “We might not know for sure if we were bugged.”

  “Unless he finds something, we might as well assume we weren’t,” Allie said, rallying to make herself feel better. “But Daniel’s right. We need to take immediate action. We need to get Jake out of there right now.”

  Daniel returned and chucked his bag into the backseat next to Mellie. “I’m almost certain there were no bugs,” he said as he slipped behind the wheel and shut his door. It just wasn’t worth taking any chances.” He glanced at Mellie in the rearview mirror. “If we get out of this alive, I’ll buy you a new outfit.”

  She gave him a feeble nod.

  He turned the volume up on the receiver. “What’s the latest word from Jake?” Daniel asked.

  “Nothing much,” Mellie answered. “He seems to be talking to himself every now and then, probably for our benefit. It sounds like he’s alone.”

  “That’s good. Like I was saying, let’s barge in on them now,” Daniel said. “I’m confident that I can outshoot Jennifer. She never does her own dirty work. She got Kathleen to shoot Mark Jones.”

  “Actually, Daniel, that might be our biggest liability. Kathleen might be able to outshoot you,” Mellie said. “She’s probably been in her body for roughly the same amount of time as I have. I can sense that I’m an old pro when it comes to handling guns.”

  “Also, Jake’s not going to agree with our plan,” Allie said with a sigh. “He’s struggling with being in Eric’s body, and as much as I hate to admit this, I think he’s losing the battle. He’s sometimes making rash, Eric-like decisions that impede Jake’s intellect.”

  Allie felt like she’d betrayed Jake with her statement. But it needed to be said. She wasn’t even sure Jake would agree to come with them if he was alone in the lab when all three of them burst in, and he saw for himself that Mellie was now safe from Jennifer’s clutches.

  “Are you saying Jake wants to be the guinea pig in testing his own device?” Mellie asked.

  Allie gave her a small nod, not wanting to think that she might be losing the love of her life, no matter whether they stopped Jennifer or not.