Get Out Of My Dreams (Joe the Magic Man Series Book 1)

by Allan J. Lewis

  “It looks like our Special Agent Burrows has asked this Joe, as she calls him, to help out with a rape case the FBI is working on. There’s a gang of four teenagers going around dragging young women off the street, blindfolding them, raping them, and then letting them go. One of the rapes went wrong, and the girl got a look at them.” He threw his hands in the air. “For some reason, the guys decided it would be better to poke her eyes out, than to kill her.”

  “Ouch,” Frank’s assistant scrunched up his face, “that took some doing.”

  “Yeah, well, our Agent Burrows thinks the Magic Man can get into the girl’s dreams, and make her relive that moment so the Magic Man can see who the four guys were, and look at mug shots to identify them.”

  “Wow, can he do that?”

  “I don’t know, and it’s not our job to care. Remember, we’ve got to remove him at all cost.”

  “But, what if he can help to recognize them, and we eliminate him before he can help the FBI?”

  “Tough.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Look, the FBI has been chasing the Magic Man for years and come up with nothing. Agent Ed Campbell, who is in charge of this rape case, phoned head office to make sure it was all right to give Agent Burrows the okay to go ahead with using the Magic Man to help them. And, anything to do with the Magic Man, from any department, comes to this office. We should have already had that info from Shane Saxton’s office, but we haven’t yet. Now, we have our invite to that party, thanks to Agent Campbell, so let’s go gatecrash.”

  Chapter26

  Alice and John booked into a hotel late Friday night, just a ten minute drive from Jessica’s house. Alice’s orders from Joe were to go look for the busiest shopping plaza

  in town. On Saturday morning, she found a shopping centre that was just the place Joe was looking for. Joe was in Alice’s mind, looking around with her as she and John walked the length of the shopping area. All the big name shops were there. Joe had spotted a good place to meet, and he asked her to look at the plaque on the wall there. There was an inscription of whom the centre was named after and the year it opened. John had asked Alice why they were looking at it. She told him she thought it was where Joe wanted to meet the girl. Alice knew Joe was picking the place he wanted the Feds to think he would meet Jessica at, but he would jump from Alice’s mind to the girl’s as soon as Alice met her. He’d be in the girl’s mind long before they got to the plaque, without Joe having to leave his home.

  Alice was as nervous as a kid on her first day at school. She had told Burrows what Joe wanted, and how he wanted it done. Special Agent Ed Campbell wasn’t too pleased with Joe’s plan, but Burrows convinced him to go with it.

  Burrows fetched Jessica Palmer and her mother from their house, and they walked down the driveway to meet Alice and John. Jessica wore dark glasses to cover her dead eyes, and she walked arm in arm with her mother.

  “Alice, this is Jessica, and her mother, Mrs. Palmer.” Burrows motioned to John and Alice. “And this is Mr. and Mrs. Timberlake.”

  “Hi Jessica,” Alice said as she shook her hand. “You’re a very brave girl.”

  With all the introductions done, Burrows asked, “Okay, so where do we meet Joe?”

  “We are to take the car to the north side of the shopping centre.”

  Alice could hear Joe whisper in her head, “She’s wearing a mic.”

  Alice looked at the microphone pinned on Burrows jacket lapel, as Burrows repeated for the benefit of whoever was listening on the other end, “You want us to go to the north side of the shopping centre?”

  Alice nodded.

  Ed Campbell and two of his men were Burrows’ backup, not that they thought they’d be needed. As far as they were concerned, the Magic Man would shake hands with the girl and leave. And they were to let him go. That was Agent Campbell’s orders.

  Special Agent Leroy Reed and his men had different orders from Frank Brubaker––seek and destroy. Agent Reed’s team was also picking up Burrows radio chat with Campbell. Agent Reed ordered his men to cover all exits of the shopping centre.

  “Are you coming with us?” Alice pointed to her car, “or are you going to follow us?”

  Burrows looked at her car. “I guess there’s enough room in yours.”

  Alice knew Joe had gotten into Jessica’s mind as soon as she had shaken hands with her, but she had to play along to fool Burrows and the Feds. They made small talk as they drove the short distance to the centre.

  “Okay,” Burrows said as her eyes surveyed the area, “where to, now?”

  “Follow me,” Alice said as she led the way into the busiest part of the shopping centre. It was packed with shoppers, and Mrs. Palmer had a difficult time guiding Jessica through the crowd. John followed behind with Burrows, no wiser than her about what was going on. Joe had told Alice to keep John in the dark as far as this case went. They had entered at the north entrance, and Alice made them walk the whole length of the centre. She stopped at the plaque. “Jessica, I want you to come up to this plaque and touch it here.” Alice pointed to the date.

  Burrows were speechless. She watched Mrs. Palmer place her daughter’s hand so she could feel the date on the plaque.

  “Say, hi Joe.” Alice instructed Jessica.

  “Hi Joe,” Jessica repeated sheepishly.

  “So, Joe’s not here?” Burrows looked back up the centre and saw the crowd milling around. “We’ve passed him in the centre. He was more than likely one of those old men sitting on the benches, looking bored stiff.” She gave Alice a knowing smile. “Has Joe contacted Jessica? He bumped into her in that crowd, didn’t he?”

  “Joe told me to bring Jessica here,” Alice pointed to the plaque, “and tell her to touch the date, and say out loud, hi Joe.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that by touching that plaque, he’s made contact with Jessica?”

  Alice shrugged. “I have no idea––he’s not likely to tell me how he works his magic, is he?”

  “Do you realize how stupid that sounds?” Burrows knew then that Joe had tricked them. “I wondered why we had to walk all the way down here, right through this place, when we could have parked just over there.” Burrows pointed to the parking lot, some 60 yards away. “He wanted us to pass him in that crowd.” She nodded her head. “Well, it looks like we’re finished here, let’s get Jessica back home.” She lifted her lapel with the microphone up to her mouth. “Agent Campbell, Joe’s given us the slip back in that crowd. I’d like a car to pick us up. I’m at the south end parking lot.” She put her hand over the mic and whispered, “They made me wear this, or the deal was off.” Burrows smiled. “I guess Joe knew we’d be watched. Actually, I would have been surprised if he had turned up to meet us.” Deep down Burrows was relieved she didn’t meet the Magic Man face to face, as much as she wanted him on her team. She had been staying well back from Alice and the girl, and wouldn’t have shaken hands with him if they had met.

  Mrs. Palmer had been nervously waiting to get the meeting over with, for her daughter’s sake. All this secrecy and touching the plaque nonsense was getting to her. “Is that it?” she asked. “All this cloak-and-dagger stuff and he doesn’t even show?” She looked to Burrows for her answer.

  “It looks that way.” Burrows was guessing Joe had communicated with Jessica, but thought it best that mother and daughter didn’t know that—it would be too hard to explain to them that he’d be in her dreams tonight. “I guess he chickened out. Thank you for trying, anyway.”

  Agent Leroy Reed wasn’t as pleased as Burrows. “Shit, shit, shit!” He got on his radio to his men. “Okay, you heard her, he’s given her the slip, but he has to be in the shopping centre somewhere. Those with cameras make sure you get coverage of all men in wheelchairs, with walkers, and with canes.”

  Joe hopped into Burrows mind, and found she didn’t care she had been conned and that she didn’t meet him, as long as he had met Jessica. He hopped back to Alice’s mind.

  “You’ve done well, missio
n accomplished. It’s up to me now to see if I can get Jessica to show me those boys that raped her. I’ll let you know tomorrow.”

  Frank Brubaker was watching television at home, as he did most Saturdays, when Agent Leroy Reed phoned his cell phone to tell him the Magic Man had given them the slip. Leroy told him that they had all the CCTV tapes from the shopping centre, plus their own surveillance footage, and he had sent them all to Frank’s office for analysis. Frank thought: the Magic Man got away from us again—let’s hope he doesn’t know we’re after him. Frank wasn’t too surprised Joe had gotten away—after all, it was Joe’s plan they’d used, not his. He knew it had been too good to be true. Well, let’s hope he can get into the girl’s dream and help her, after all this. Plus, the more the Magic Man helped Agents Burrows and Jones, the better for Frank and his team to keep tabs on him, and the closer they’d get to taking him out.

  ~

  Joe wasn’t too sure how it would work out, trying to get a young girl to relive her worst nightmare. He was alone in his bed, later that night, when he closed his eyes and concentrated on Jessica. She was fast asleep, dreaming of riding her bike with her friend. Joe entered her dream as a friendly policeman. He held up his hand to stop the young women. “Hi girls, what are you doing out this late? It will be dark soon and your parents will be worrying about you!”

  “Hello Officer Joe,” the girls said in harmony. “Let me escort you young ladies home, and Jessica, I would like a word with you.”

  The girls agreed, and Jessica asked if her friend could stay with her. The policeman, Joe, said yes. The three of them were suddenly sitting on the front porch.

  “Jessica, I’d like you to relax and tell me, and your friend, about that day those boys took you away in their van or camper.”

  “Okay.”

  All Joe had to do, once he was in someone’s dream for the first time, was tell them to relax, and he had them hypnotized. There was no counting to ten, or swinging a bright object in front of them. Just tell them to relax, and he had them under his control, just like Jessica was now. He could now see what she could see, in her dreams, even though she was blind.

  “Jessica, can you remember where you were going when those boys picked you up?”

  Jessica suddenly left the safety of sitting on the porch with her friend, and was walking down a dark street by herself. “I’m going to my friend’s. Someone comes up behind me and puts a cloth over my mouth. I’m screaming and kicking. I wake up in a van that is moving. I can hear male voices—these guys are taking me somewhere, and I don’t want to go with them. There’s a boy on top of me, raping me.”

  “It’s all right, Jessica, I’m here with you, and I want you to tell me what happened next. Forget about the rape—I want you to look at the boys’ faces for me, if you can.”

  “My hands are tied, and I start to struggle. The boy who is raping me tells the others that I’m awake. Another boy whispers in my ear––‘If you’re a good girl and let us all have a turn, we’ll let you go in the morning. But, if you scream, we’ll have to gag you, and give you a beating for being naughty.’ I’m blindfolded with some kind of cloth. I realize I’m naked; I feel hands on my breasts. I hear a voice from the front of the van say, ‘what nice tits.’ His voice is above my head, so I guess he’s in the front with the driver, watching.”

  “Could you tell anything about the boys from their voices?”

  “They sound white; educated, kind of well-to-do.”

  “So what happened next?” Joe asked in a soothing voice.

  “Another boy is on top of me, and he tells me to open my legs and enjoy it. I scream at him to get off, but they tie a gag around my mouth instead. The boy forces himself on me; his friends pull my legs apart.”

  Joe could feel her anger and fear, but he couldn’t see through her blindfold. “Was the van still moving?” he asked.

  “Yes … I’m pleading with them through the gag. My words are muffled. Someone in front says, ‘It’s my turn.’” Jessica was lying in her bed with tears running down the side of her face. Joe was in his bed miles away, choking back his own. “I hear them change places; a pair of cold hands grabs my breasts. I tell myself it’s no good trying to stop them, I give in and try to think of something else. This boy kisses my forehead and nose, his chin is rough. I rub my blindfold against his chin, trying to get it off my eyes. They must have reached the place they wanted to take me, because the van stops. I can sense the four of them around me.

  One is playing with my breasts, he says there’s no need to cry—all they want is a couple of good fucks, then they’ll send me home to my mother. I’m too scared to cry any more. They’re bragging about how easy it was to grab me off the street, and if I don’t do what they say, they’ll be back another time and take me again. They all take turns raping me again. The one with the rough chin goes last, and I rub my blindfold against his chin again. I can see a little with my left eye when I look down. As he gets off me I can see his penis as he kneels between my legs. He puts it back in his pants and zips them up. He leans forward and kisses my nose; he tells me I was a good girl.”

  Joe could suddenly see a sliver of light through Jessica’s dream, and could see the boy get off her. He noticed the vehicle she was in looked more like a van than a camper. As Jessica looked down at her feet, Joe could see the van’s back doors were open, and a young man was sitting there. He dangled one leg out of the van, his other one was bent up with his chin resting on it. He was watching his friend. “Jessica, you see that boy looking at you, do you know him?”

  “No, but I don’t like him; he’s the one who was whispering in my ear. He’s the leader.”

  “Okay, Jessica, what happened next?” Joe would have liked to ask her to look around, to see the others, but he knew she couldn’t. She could only show him what actually happened.

  “I’m not sure if they’re going to rape me again, or wait awhile. One of them strokes my legs and says I’m a true blonde. He was kneeling by my side; I try to look up at him. Oh God! They know I can see under my blindfold.”

  Joe was looking with her and had a quick peek, he saw the boy’s smiling face change to shock when he noticed she was peeking at him.

  “The boy calls me a bitch and slaps me. He tells the others I can see under the blindfold. They put some tape over the cloth.”

  Joe plunges back into darkness with Jessica in her dream.

  “I hear them say they have to kill me now that I’ve seen them. They argue, and then I feel that smelly cloth on my face.”

  Joe didn’t want her to go through the next part again. “Jessica, I want you to go back to when you could see that boy sitting by the doors looking at you.” Joe studied hard the two boys in her dream. He kept their picture in his mind. Joe told Jessica her friend was there waiting for her to go for a bike ride, and that she’d remember nothing of her dream when she woke up.

  ~

  Joe sat up in bed and wiped his tears as he sobbed. Jessica having her eyes poked out reminded him of his wife’s tragic death. She had a kebab stick stabbed into her eye, and into her brain. She had died two hours later. That was a secret that he had to keep from Alice, as well as the Feds. Let them think I’m married with kids, and old, like Joe. His wife’s tragic death was an accident. If they heard about it, then it wouldn’t take them long to find out Joe’s real identity. Jessica’s dream had brought the memories flooding back to him. He made a promise to himself that he would do the best he could to catch those four boys before they struck again, and put another girl through that hell.

  Chapter27

  Sunday, to Joe, was like any other day. He was up early and wanted to visit Alice, but he knew she would be asleep. He popped into her dream and told her she had slept late.

  Alice sat up in bed and looked at the clock. It was 8:44 a.m. She realized it was Sunday and John had the day off. She flopped back down and pulled the sheets over her shoulder.

  “Alice, are you awake? Oh, I forgot. Ding-dong, Alice, are
you awake?”

  “I am now.”

  “I got into Jessica’s mind, and I’ve seen two of the boys. Get on the phone and tell Burrows to get you all the college and university student photos she can, as soon as possible.”

  Alice could hear the urgency in his thoughts. “Joe, it’s Sunday morning, Burrows will be…”

  “The FBI doesn’t sleep,” Joe interrupted her. “I want to look at those photos while they are still fresh in my mind!”

  “Okay, call back in an hour.” Alice waited until she thought Joe had gone from her mind before she got up and dressed. Before she made herself a cup of coffee, she was on the phone to Agent Burrows.

  Burrows was sitting in her favorite chair at home, reading the Sunday paper, when her cell phone buzzed, and Alice’s name came up on the display. “Morning Alice, is everything all right?” “I would say it’s more than all right.” Alice was beaming with pride. “Joe got into Jessica’s dream, and he had a good look at two of the boys.”

  Burrows threw the newspaper on the floor as she shot up from her chair. “That’s good news!” She paced her room. “No, it’s brilliant news!”

  “Yes, and he wants those college pictures while the boys’ faces are still fresh.”

  “It’s Sunday today, the universities’ offices will be closed; I’ll get on it first thing in the morning.”

  “Joe said the FBI doesn’t sleep, he’s expecting me to be looking at the photos today.”

  “Well, I guess some staff will be on duty at the universities, I’ll get right on it.” She paused. “Tell Joe he did well.”

  ~

  Frank Brubaker was in his office early Monday morning, hoping his team had come up with an I.D. of the Magic Man. They had worked all day Sunday looking at the tapes from Narcotics of outside the betting shop, and from Agent Leroy at the shopping centre, hoping to spot someone who had been at the two scenes. They started with men in wheelchairs and walkers, but drew a blank.