John listened to Alice telling him Joe’s story, and couldn’t believe that she took that she had had a chat with him in her dreams so lightly. And now she wanted to help him. Him––the Magic Man that was on the FBI’s most wanted list.
“Were you not scared when you spoke to the Magic Man in your dreams?” John asked.
“No,” she answered. “It was only a dream, it’s not like he was here in person.”
It pleased John that Alice wasn’t panicking anymore, and she seemed to be trying to take control of the situation.
Alice was nervous about meeting Special Agent Rosemary Burrows again, and telling her about her dream. John suggested it might not be a good idea to tell the Feds she could communicate with the Magic Man in her dreams. The less they told the Feds, the quicker they’d leave them be. That was John’s thoughts, as they argued what was best to do. But Alice felt she had to put across Joe’s side of his story to Agent Burrows. They were still discussing it when Burrows arrived.
John had gone to the door to let her in. She was early and on her own. John and Alice hadn’t had time to think over what they were finally going to tell her. Alice hadn’t told John about her dream with Snow White, and she wasn’t going to tell Burrows, either. She was only going to relay the part of the dream where Joe asked her for help.
Agent Burrows was dressed elegantly in a navy blue trouser suit, white blouse, small pearl earrings and a matching necklace. With a cup of coffee in front of her, she sat back on the sofa with her notebook and pen on her lap.
“Mr. Timberlake, did you have…”
John interrupted her: “Call me John, and the wife is Alice.” John had that feeling again that he was being interrogated with her I’m in charge tone.
“As I told you last night, I prefer to keep it formal; I will more than likely be going back to my head office after this interview to make out a report on the Magic Man.” She left them to read whatever they liked into that statement.
“Now, Mr. Timberlake,” she got straight to what was on her mind. “Did you have any dreams last night, or wake up this morning with your clothes on the floor?”
“No. No dreams that I can recall.” John had taken a dislike to Agent Burrows’ bossy ways. “However, Joe did say he’d leave me alone from now on.”
She gave John a tight smile and turned to Alice. “Mrs. Timberlake, did you wake up to find your underwear on top of your slippers?”
“No, I was still wearing my underwear and pajamas when I got up.” Alice was a bundle of nerves.
“And was there an unexplained empty condom packet?”
John answered her abruptly. “No there wasn’t, and I told you, Joe said there wouldn’t be any of that nonsense again.”
“I know how upsetting this must be for you both, but I need to ask these questions.” Burrows’ voice was calm as she tried to get them to relax. “Nobody would want to go through the nightmares that you’ve been through. I hope, with your helping us to catch him, no one else will have to.”
“If you catch him, what are you going to do?” John was losing his patience with her. “Lock him up?” John shook his head. “No, probably not, because whoever arrests him will meet him, and then the Magic Man can enter their dreams and play holy hell with them.” He was shaking his head again. “No … I think you all want him dead; you see him as a threat. Not so much to the country, but to you and your families.” John had blurted it out, and wasn’t sure if he said it right. He wasn’t even sure if any of what he had just said made sense.
“I can assure you, Mr. Timberlake, that we would do no such thing. Kill him, indeed. What do you think we are–– assassins? You’ve been watching too many movies.”
“John didn’t say you’d assassinate him,” Alice interrupted, “just that the government wanted him dead.”
“You’ve both got it wrong.”
Before she could say anymore, John had to explain his thoughts. “What I’m trying to say is this––what if two police officers recognized Joe and went to make the arrest, and shouted ‘freeze, hands on your head.’ What if Joe was to hypnotize one officer and tell him to shoot his partner, to put a slug right between the eyes, and then order him to shoot himself?” He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “You know what I mean––the Magic Man could hypnotize them just like that,” John snapped his fingers, “and make them do what he wants them to do.”
It shocked Alice to hear John defending Joe, but it helped her to have the courage to speak up. “Joe would never let them shoot each other; he’d hypnotize them and tell them they’ve got the wrong man. Joe is not a danger to this country. He’s a dream stalker, a sex voyeur from afar.”
Burrows understood what John was trying to say, but Alice’s sudden outburst had stunned her. “Dream stalker and sex voyeur from afar? That’s not what I was expecting from you, Mrs. Timberlake, you having been one of his victims.”
“That might well be, but Old Joe came to me last night in my dreams and told me to tell Special Agents Jefferson, Smith, and Burrows that he is not a dangerous man, he’s been…”
“He mentioned us by name?” Burrows cut Alice off and stared at her in disbelief.
“Yeah, he said he’s been doing this voyeurism from afar since he was fourteen.” Alice had spoken without thinking as Joe prompted her thoughts.
Burrows was walking around the sofa, quietly tapping her pen on her notebook, like a kid with a toy drum. “I should have known he would find out.” She turned to John. “He would have asked you, when he had you under hypnosis, if you had called the police. And of course you would have to tell him everything you knew.” She threw her hands in the air. “And tonight he’ll be asking you what you said in this interview, and what reaction I gave.” She sat down. “Well, you can tell him I was dumbstruck.”
There was a moment of silence before Alice spoke softly. “So do you want to hear what he said to me?”
Burrows quickly got her thoughts back on track. “Yes, of course.” She tried to smile. “Is this the first time he’s spoken to you directly in your dreams?” She saw Alice nod, as she answered her own question. “Of course it’s the first time, the other nights he had erased the dreams from your mind.”
John and Alice just sat there staring at her as she muttered to herself. Her mind was in a spin.
None of them realized, though, the Magic Man had been in Alice’s mind the whole time, and when Burrows looked into Alice’s eyes, the Magic Man entered her mind to find out her thoughts. Later he would go to her, and enter her dreams to find out all he wanted to know. That was part of his gift, and he had no idea how it worked. But Joe knew that if he was in someone’s mind, and that person looked and spoke to someone, he could jump from one mind to the other. It was something he was getting better at every time he did it––the power he had scared even him.
“Right then,” Burrows snapped out of her daze, “What did he tell you?”
Alice put her hands in her lap, straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath, and told the story Joe had asked her to. “He said the only crime he’s committed was when he was ten. He wanted a knife to go fishing with the rest of the boys, and he liked a small dagger in a sheath that he could strap to his ankle. The dagger was only $2.50, but he only had a one-dollar bill, so he thought he’d try to get the shopkeeper to look at the one dollar bill and think Joe was holding up a five-dollar bill.” Alice was talking as if she were reading from a script. “And it worked––he sold Joe the knife and gave him change for a five.”
“Bloody hell, that’s a good trick! If I could do that, I’d go into...” blurted John. He didn’t finish what he was going to say when he remembered that he was talking in front of the FBI.
“I see. Do you realize how helpful Joe would be to us at the Bureau if he were to come and work with us?” Burrows inquired.
“I don’t think that’s Joe’s idea of work,” John said casually. “He’s afraid you’ll separate him from his family, and the government will use him
like a lab rat.”
“You don’t understand,” Burrows insisted, bubbling over with excitement that she could get a message to the Magic Man through Alice and John’s dreams. “If he was with the Bureau, he could help the antiterrorism unit. The Magic Man could get into the dreams of a terrorist, get him to tell us what they had planned next, and the names and addresses of all his accomplices.” She was pacing up and down tapping her pen. “He’d save thousands of lives. He’d be invaluable to the country. We don’t want him killed.”
“Sounds like you are offering him a job.” John held back his laugh. “Or, is that the carrot you’re going to dangle in front of him so you can grab him?”
“Believe me, Mr. Timberlake, the Magic Man can ask any price for his help, and this government will pay it to have him aboard.” She was waving her hands about in anticipation. “We’d start by giving him an armistice, which would wipe clean whatever crimes he has committed. He can start a new life with his family, wherever he wants to.”
Alice looked at John first, to see his reaction before she asked Burrows, “So, you are offering Joe a truce if he’ll work for you?”
“Do you think you’ll be able to ask him,” Burrows asked eagerly, “or is he going to pick your brain for what went on here today?”
“I have no idea, but he’ll know about your offer.” Alice knew Joe would get every detail out of her. “And, he might tell me his answer.”
“You need to make him understand. We must have his talent, it’s unique––it’s unbelievable.”
“I get the picture,” Alice said softly, “but Joe wants to be left alone.”
“So he can indulge himself in wild fantasies with women, when he could be putting his talent to good work and saving lives?”
“That’s all I can say, but if he visits me tonight, I’ll try to put your side over to him.” Alice shrugged. “He doesn’t trust any of you.”
“Yes, I understand his mistrust,” Burrows shrugged, “and there are experts in the government’s science department that think the Magic Man is a hoax, just a witty hypnotist working some kind of con. So, until there’s more to go on, they’ve dismissed the Magic Man as no more than a good conman.” Burrows put her hand up to stop John from talking. “But, there are also experts that think the Magic Man is Christ, reborn, or an alien, or maybe even another species of human. They would love to find out how he gets into people’s dreams. Telepathy is something of the future.”
“Telepathy?” John minds?”
“Scientists all over experiments into telepathic communications for years. As far as I know, they’ve got a few that can tell what picture a person is looking at when they’re given ten pictures to look at. The telepathic guy will get about eight out of ten right; however, they have to be in the same room as the other person. I believe that’s about as far as they’ve got.”
“But Joe isn’t in our room when he communicates with us,” Alice said, perplexed.
asked––“like reading people’s
the world have been conducting “No, and that’s something else our scientists don’t understand that the Magic Man seems able to do—use hypnosis on someone while they sleep.” Burrows went on. “To hypnotize someone the first time, the hypnotist has to be in the same room with them. Once they’ve got the person under their spell, they can coach them on what to do, say, when the phone rings. The phone ringing acts as a trigger, which activates the hypnosis again, putting them back under their spell. But the hypnotist must be present with the person they hypnotized when this happens, in order to question them or put suggestions in their head. As far as we know, hypnosis has never happened telekinetically in someone’s sleep.”
“Looks like Joe really is gifted, then!” John said with a smile. “So you’re saying,” Alice was trying to take it all in, “Joe may be one of a kind?”
“Exactly—one of a kind! Scientists say that perhaps in a thousand years we will be able to travel through time, and by then they think humans will also be able to communicate with one another telepathically.”
“Are you saying Joe’s from the future?” John asked, “Or, is he years in advance of what the scientists believe is possible?” “I believe the Magic Man is telepathic, that’s how he gets into your dream. He communicates by his thoughts, and our scientists would love to find out how. I, personally, don’t want to know, but I would love to have him working on my team, catching serial killers and kidnappers––that’s my field––or even assisting the antiterrorism unit. You make sure you tell him that.”
Alice and John looked at each other and nodded.
“Well, let’s see what tomorrow brings.” Burrows was still excited. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight. I’ve decided to put off returning to Quantico just yet, I’ll be back tomorrow morning, hoping for good news.” She put her notebook into her purse. “Do you know we’ve been trying to contact the Magic Man for years, and have gotten nowhere? He’s like a phantom in the night; we only get to know about his escapades after they’re over, and only then if he leaves some memories with his victims.” Burrows’ eyes gleamed with anticipation. “So far as we know, you are the only ones that have said they’ve spoken to him, even if it is only in your dream. You’ve even got a name for him, and a description, not that I think his real name is Joe, nor that he looks like the guy you’ve described. It could be the breakthrough, though, we are looking for. He could solve loads of crime by getting the truth out of people. Even the drug dealers––he could infiltrate their organizations and lead us to the top of a drug ring.”
John grinned in agreement. “Are you going to be the agent who brings him in?”
“I know what you’re thinking,” she grinned back at him, “but I was thinking more of Joe coming in voluntarily.” Her grin turned to a chuckle. “Ha, my colleagues and I have been talking about how anyone could bring him in against his will when he has such powers. One agent said he could picture two agents trying, and the Magic Man would put them under his spell, handcuff them together around a pole, and have them dancing and singing ring around the rosie while he makes his getaway. So, Mr. Timberlake, we have given it some thought of how we could bring him in without him making a fool out of us. It seems he can hypnotize you at the drop of a hat, so making him do anything he doesn’t want to would be very difficult.”
They all laughed at the thought of Joe making the police sing ring around the rosie, and Burrows stood up to leave. “This new development is too exciting to believe. I’ll see you both tomorrow, and let’s hope Joe will see sense.” She gave an enthusiastic laugh. “Ha! You’ve even got me calling him Joe.”
“Agent Burrows, you might see Joe as an asset to the government,” Alice shook her head, “but Agents Jefferson and Smith think he could be a threat. They said it would be easy for Joe to use his powers to kill the President.”
“They said that?” It was Burrows’ turn to shake her head in disagreement. “I don’t see him using his powers like that. If he were going to, he would have done it by now. I would genuinely like to have him working with my department. We could use those powers he has to solve a lot of crimes. There are several killers in our files, but we can’t prove many of the cases because we can’t find the bodies. Just think, if Joe could get into the criminals’ minds, he could get them to tell us where the bodies are, and confess to their crimes.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Alice said as she got up and shook Burrows’ hand.
Chapter11
Agent Burrows left feeling on a high. She had a connection with the Magic Man and she was going to use Alice to get the Magic Man on her team, by hook or by crook. Joe had been in Alice’s mind all through that interview,
and then stayed there to spy on Alice and John as they talked about what they were going to do. Joe wanted to know if he could trust them.
Alice still hadn’t told John about her fantasy dream with Snow White. She’d told him that Joe just appeared as she was ironing her skirt, and had sat down in t
he kitchen and talked with her. John believed her because they still had their clothes on in the morning, and there was no used condom on the night table. After all, Joe had spoken to John in the same way when he told him to tell the Feds and Alice the made-up story about John cutting Joe off on the highway.
Joe was pleased with Alice and John; they both kept their secrets from each other, but not from him. Alice wasn’t going to tell John that she enjoyed having sex with Dopey and Doc, and John wasn’t going to tell her about his brief affair with a prisoner. He also liked the idea that Special Agent Burrows called him Joe. Let her do a profile of him and call him Joe; from now on he would make sure that Joe was his name in all his fantasies––let them go looking for a Joe.
Joe returned to his own mind. He was sitting on his bed and gave the situation some serious thought. First, though, he needed to find out if Special Agent Rosemary Burrows was setting a trap for him, or if she was genuine with her offer. He had to get back into her mind. He lay down on the bed and thought of Burrows, calling out to her telepathically, and before long he could see through her eyes. She was in an elevator, and then he watched as she went to her hotel room. She tossed her coat over a chair, sat by the table, and pulled out her notebook.
Within an hour, the Magic Man was satisfied she was genuine. She had gone through her notes, then phoned someone in her office and excitedly told him what had happened, and what she was hoping the Magic Man would say tomorrow.
But, would Burrows’ colleagues agree with her? There was something in what John had said earlier that made Joe think. John had said, “Whoever comes into contact with Joe will be afraid he will get in their minds and play holy hell with them.” If another agent had something to hide, then he wouldn’t want to work with the Magic Man. They’d run a mile from him to keep their secret safe.
Joe had a lot to think over.
~
Alice went about the rest of the day in a confused daze. She tried to get back to normal with her work for the newspaper, but John kept butting in on her with question after question–– Does the government want Joe to work for them, or do they want him dead? Will Joe return to our dreams, or will he move on? And how come he can get into our dreams?
Get Out Of My Dreams (Joe the Magic Man Series Book 1) Page 8
