Anna ran a hand over her hair. It would be nice to feel comforted by Lorna’s apparent confidence. She didn’t feel much beyond pure growing panic. “I thought you had psychic powers and could see things that would lead us to Sadie. None of this makes any sense, Lorna. Can’t you just try to see something so we can get Sadie home? I don’t understand why you can’t just do what you did for the others and find her.”
“It’ll all make sense sooner or later. You just need to trust me, Anna. Trust all of us. We’ve been through this a couple times already.”
God knows she wanted to put all her trust in Lorna, but at this point, she was too frantic to blindly believe. Nothing was going like she’d envisioned when she put in that call. She’d thought Lorna would show up, do her psychic mojo thing, and lead her right to Sadie. The article in the paper that led her to make that call made it sound like Lorna could conjure up visions that walked her right to the missing. It wasn’t happening like that at all, and she wanted to scream.
“Trust me,” Lorna said again. “We will find her.”
Anna bit her lip and met Lorna’s eyes. The way she saw it, she didn’t have a whole lot of options here, and despite what she’d done to Lorna, she did trust her. It was all she had left, and she had to hold on or she’d lose her mind. She nodded.
Jeremy trotted over from his side of the car to put a hand on Lorna’s shoulder. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered. He might have thought he said it loud enough for only Lorna to hear, but he was wrong. In the quiet, it was as if he’d used a loudspeaker.
“What?” Anna’s head snapped up and her eyes swept over the building. She didn’t see a thing.
“You feel it?” Lorna was gazing up at the building.
“Damn straight. Merry, come here.” Jeremy stretched out his hand to take hers. “Tell me you feel it too? It’s so strong it’s like electricity buzzing through the air.”
They were soundly ignoring Anna as they talked to each other, and she didn’t appreciate it. She wanted to know what they were discussing.
Merry shook her head and frowned. “Sorry. I’m not getting a thing. My new-mama mojo isn’t tuned in apparently.”
Lorna held out her hand to Renee. “You?”
Renee’s eyes were on Lorna as she took her hand. Something dark swept across her face. “Oh…”
“What?” Anna screamed, unable to stand it any longer.
Lorna’s gaze came back around to meet hers. “She’s here.”
*
Renee almost snatched her hand away when the shock hit her like a baseball bat to the back of the knees. She truly did have a talent for seeing auras, and it was a darned handy talent in her line of business because it often hinted at those people who would turn out to be trouble. More than once it had saved her from taking a wrong turn. That, however, was the extent of her preternatural or paranormal abilities, and it was enough for her.
In the time she’d been with Lorna she’d experienced the psychic phenomenon secondhand. Some people might find the ability to see beyond the world of the here and now as a blessing. Lorna fought against it like a tiger. Actually it was probably more accurate to say she had been fighting it. Lately, she’d noticed a grudging acceptance come into Lorna’s spoken and unspoken bond regarding her psychic ability. It wasn’t that she no longer harbored reluctance toward her gift. It was more that she seemed to be growing to accept it as a permanent part of her life, and with that acceptance came a dawning sense of responsibility.
It struck Renee suddenly that’s why they were here. It wasn’t because she still had a torch going for Anna and wanted to see if they could start over. On the contrary, it was because she felt responsible for giving the benefit of her gift to the world at large. She was paying it forward even when it came to the woman who had broken her heart. The realization filled Renee with an overwhelming sense of pride.
As she held her hand now, the unwelcome fear and bitterness she’d been consumed with since they arrived in Spokane faded completely. It suddenly all made perfect sense, and as the negativity flowed away, something magical replaced it. A feeling of being in perfect harmony with Lorna filled her. Maybe that’s why the second her flesh touched Lorna’s, energy roared through her body and she understood, despite not possessing an ounce of psychic ability. Maybe she personally didn’t have a psychic bone in her body, but she was very certain of one thing: Sadie was here.
“Wow,” she said, her eyes on Lorna and her body vibrating with the energy that infused the air around them. It wasn’t like anything she’d experienced back at the house or at the cemetery where they’d found Lorna’s friend so recently. No, the air almost seemed alive. “I’ve never felt anything like this.”
“Yeah.” Lorna agreed with her. “Freaky, isn’t it?”
The way her body buzzed was incredible. “Is this the kind of thing you feel when it happens?” While she had been fascinated since she’d met Lorna by what she could do, it had never occurred to her that she would be able to experience it too.
Lorna nodded, her lips pressed together. “Kind of. This is more subtle. It’s like the universe is letting me know she’s here, but it’s up to me to push the envelope and find out where. At least we now have a place to start.”
Renee squeezed her hand and looked around at everyone. Heavens, if this was more subtle than what Lorna usually experienced, she was blown away. It was pretty incredible. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s push the envelope.”
Even with her sudden epiphany about why Lorna was here helping Anna, Renee didn’t particularly enjoy lingering here with Anna and Lorna side by side. In fact, she had a very simple plan in mind: find Sadie and directly afterward load up her woman, drive like a bat out of hell back to the west side, and once across those mountains, locate the nearest county office so she could marry her.
*
The second Sadie’s fingers met the cold metal of the bed frame that belonged to the woman the nurse had called Rose, the room shifted and swayed as if the building were on a fault line in the throes of an earthquake. When everything finally steadied again, the light inside the room was gone, filled instead by darkness broken only by the light of a full moon spilling through the barred windows. In the long rows of beds, still forms lay beneath pale blankets. The rise and fall of the blankets told her the occupants slept, some silently while some snored softly.
At first Sadie thought she was the only one not lulled into slumber, and then her gaze fell on the bed closest to the window. Rose sat on the edge of her still-made bed, her back military straight, dressed in a starched white nightgown, her feet bare, her long hair tumbling down her back, and her hands clasped in her lap. Her head was down as if she was intently studying her hands.
Slowly Sadie walked around the bed, and it was then she realized that Rose didn’t have her hands clasped together. Instead, she held a copper receptacle about the size of a can of coffee. As Sadie drew closer, she realized Rose was whispering something. Until she stopped near the windows and directly in front of Rose, she couldn’t make out the words. When she was close enough to make sense of the whispers, what she heard sent chills down her spine.
“Yea, though I walk through the Valley of Evil, I shall not fear, for thou art with me…”
What the hell? The twenty-third Psalm? The only time Sadie could remember hearing that one was at funerals. This did not bode well in any dimension.
“…thy rod and thy staff they comfort me…” Rose continued to pray.
Under her breath Sadie said the remembered words. “Surely goodness and mercy…”
A far-off sound made her stop and turn her face toward the door on the other side of the room. As the sound grew closer and louder, she spun as she realized it was the click of heels. The staccato rhythm was already becoming familiar. It was Nurse Ratched again. Did this vision take its timbre from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? The lady certainly could have been in that movie, and she wouldn’t even have needed to act.
Sadie wat
ched as the devil in white and black opened the door, crossed the room, and then stopped in front of Rose. “Give me that,” she snapped and held out her hand. “Right now.”
Rose looked up then as she clutched it to her chest, her arms protectively crossed over the container. “The copper steals the soul.”
“Do not be ridiculous. Hand it over right this instant. I will not tolerate theft of any sort. I do not care how rich and influential your family is.”
“The copper imprisons the spirit. The spirit deserves to be free.” Rose’s words were soft, yet Sadie felt that they came straight from her heart.
Nurse Ratched reached over and roughly jerked the can from Rose’s arms. “Now get in that bed, and I do not want to hear a single peep out of you. If I do…”
Terror came into Rose’s eyes at the whispered threat. Sadie had no idea what lay behind it, but Rose obviously did and it wasn’t good. What had she done to Rose and others to spur that kind of terror so quickly? Spinning on her heel, the nurse, copper can in hand, left the room.
Slowly, Rose pulled back the thin covers and stretched out on the bed, her dark hair like spilled oil against the snowy bedding. For a second her eyes closed, and then they opened once more. She turned her head and her eyes seemed to meet Sadie’s. She knew it was just an illusion because she’d already figured out she was a mere observer in some bizarre reel from the past. She could see Rose and the others, but they couldn’t see or hear her.
Or could they?
As Rose’s eyes held Sadie’s gaze, Rose quite clearly said, “Help me. Help them.”
Chapter Eight
Lorna felt a thrum of electricity in every fiber of her body. Yeah, it sounded corny, but damned if that wasn’t what it felt like. Nothing like this had assailed her at any other location they’d stopped at today. Hearing Renee and Jeremy hit the same note had confirmed what she already knew. Sadie was definitely here. The fact that her car was nowhere to be seen didn’t lessen Lorna’s conviction. With all the weirdness they’d encountered so far, the lack of a vehicle was just a blip.
“Let’s check this place out and find her.” Lorna was ready to roll. “She’s here. I can feel it.”
Anna was still shaking her head. “How can she be here? I don’t see her car anywhere. I’m telling you, she wouldn’t have walked all the way out to this place.”
While she didn’t blame Anna for stubbornly refusing to let go of the car thing, she had to get past it. Lorna turned and put her hands on either side of Anna’s face. She stared into the eyes that had once made her heart melt. It certainly wasn’t happening now. The anger that had lingered all the way over here was fading, and not slowly either. It was flowing away like the outgoing tide she watched so often these days from the deck of her house. Anna’s eyes were as beautiful and soulful as ever; they just no longer spoke to Lorna’s soul.
“You have to trust me, Anna. Sometimes you have to let go of what you see and trust in what you feel.”
Tears pooled in Anna’s eyes. “I don’t feel anything and her car isn’t here,” she said again. “How would she have gotten here without her car?”
Despite every fiber of her mind and body screaming that Sadie was here, Anna actually did have a point, at least in the logical world, and until she acknowledged it for Anna, they weren’t going to move forward. Theirs was the only car in the parking lot. Granted it was an old, cracked, and weedy lot, and looking at it made her wonder if anyone had driven across it in years. She needed to listen to all her senses and not get caught up in simple visuals. Just as she’d said to Anna, she had to search beyond what the physical evidence seemed to be telling them. Her heart screamed that Sadie was here somewhere, and that’s all there was to it. If she’d learned anything over the last year, it was to trust her instincts.
This time she pulled Anna close and gave her a hug. Over her shoulder, she caught Renee’s eyes and nodded ever so slightly. Renee was looking quite serious, and that wasn’t something she was accustomed to seeing. Renee was by far the brightest light in Lorna’s life, and to see her so somber touched her heart. Whatever was on her mind, she wanted to help bring back the sunshine that never failed to soothe Lorna. The sooner they could find Sadie, the sooner she could do precisely that.
“Let’s just not worry about the car for the moment. Let’s track down your wife. We’re going to find Sadie and we’re going to find her here. I know it. This is what I’m good at, Anna. What you called me to do.”
Anna stepped out of Lorna’s embrace and let out a shaky breath. With the back of her hand, she wiped away tears. It struck Lorna at that moment that she’d never seen Anna cry. “God, how I hope you’re right.”
Even without a clear vision, she was confident in what she was feeling. “I am. I’m sure of it.”
They all jumped when Anna’s cell phone rang, its cheerful chiming-bell tone jarring in the quiet of the day at the long-abandoned building. Anna hastily dug it out of her pocket and answered it.
As she watched, Anna leaned against the car with the small phone pressed against her ear so hard, her fingers looked almost ready to break. Beyond the initial hello, she said very little, and Lorna had no sense at all of who was on the other end of the call. After a few minutes, she muttered a thank you and returned the phone to her pocket. Her head came up and her eyes met Lorna’s. Once more they were filled with tears. “That was Sadie’s mom.”
There was more to the story; beyond the spilling tears she could see it in her eyes. “Did she have anything helpful?”
Anna bit her lip and then said, “Maybe, but I don’t think it’s much.”
“Spill. It might not come across as important to you, but it could help us a lot.” Lorna had a deep feeling that whatever Sadie’s mother had shared with Anna, even if it seemed minute, it was important.
Again she wiped away the tears with the back of her hand and appeared to gather herself. “The diamond in Sadie’s necklace belonged to her great-great-grandmother, Rose.”
Ah, now that explained a great deal about what she’d seen when she held the cold, hard stone in the palm of her hand. It seemed to her that this weird gift of hers had a certain pattern to the way it worked, and discovering that the stone belonged to a long-dead family member fit right into that pattern. It didn’t, however, explain everything she saw in Anna’s face. Pain, or perhaps sorrow, still cast shadows. “What else did she tell you?”
Anna’s gaze moved up the red-brick building with the wide steps, and she was shaking her head as she said, “She was involuntarily committed to this place and never left. Sadie’s great-great-grandmother died here under circumstances never fully explained to the family.”
*
The Watcher’s head snapped up, and a jolt of white-hot energy raced through his body. For a moment he stood motionless as he listened to the whispers on the late-afternoon wind. The universe was speaking to him, and it had much to tell him. Then he smiled.
At last she’d found her way. He could sense the change in her, and it was the very thing he’d been praying for since the moment she’d arrived at this beautiful place by the sea. She’d come here lost and brimming with sorrow. The ice was finally melting from her heart, and her spirit was once again free. He’d known she had it in her, and his faith had not been misplaced.
Despite the change that was about to free her soul, she was on a dangerous journey that would take her to a very dark place. As he touched her spirit he felt the darkness pushing back. It wanted her with a ferociousness that was frightening, and somehow he had to find a way to keep her safe. He would not allow harm to befall her as long as he continued to draw breath.
This journey was not like the others she’d navigated thus far; he could sense the difference as if it were something he could hold in his hand. Air whispered across the hair on the back of his neck, feeling like icy fingers. Whispers floated through the breeze that beseeched him to beware. He closed his eyes and turned his head toward the sky.
“What are you t
rying to show me?” he asked of the heavens. “What must I do to protect her?”
A few moments later he opened his eyes, his heart heavy and his prayers unanswered. He turned in search of the shadows that always gave him solace and then stopped, not moving his tall frame. With sudden clarity he understood at last. This was his final test, and he would be on his own during it. No help would be offered, not from above, and not from this world. He alone would succeed or fail. If he succeeded, after all the years of walking his path alone, he would finally be able to leave this world and go home.
If he failed, she would die.
*
“You.” Jeremy pointed a finger at Merry. “Wait in the car.” She’d been a real trouper all day and had walked right along with him at the six other locations. It didn’t escape him now that she looked very pale, and dark circles had formed under her beautiful eyes. He wasn’t going to let this search wear her down and put either her or the baby at risk.
“I’m fine,” she said, and gave him a small smile. “You need my help.”
“Jeremy’s right,” Lorna said as she took Merry’s arm and turned her toward the Yukon. “Take a few minutes to recharge. I don’t want you running on fumes. By the time this is done, we may need you, and right now, you look like you can use a bit of rest.”
“You guys are treating me like I’m too delicate to help. I’m not. I’m okay.” Her hand went to her midsection. “We’re okay.”
Jeremy opened the car door and just stood silently staring at her. She was going to sit one way or the other. Ha, big talk from the guy who would cave the second she smiled at him. He waved his hand toward the seat inside the Yukon.
“Get in, Merry. You’re going to sit this one out, at least for a while. Please. If we really need you, we’ll yell.”
She opened her mouth for another protest and then blew out a long breath. “You’re going to pull out your baby-daddy-knows-best lecture if I don’t get in the car, aren’t you?”
Twisted Screams Page 8
