“Where is Rowan?” Paul barked out the question as Quinn mulled his options.
Michael made a face. “Is that supposed to be a trick question? How am I supposed to know where Rowan is? She’s usually attached to Quinn’s hip. Maybe you should ask him.” Something occurred to him. “Wait ... who are you again?”
Quinn was done playing games. “He’s Rowan’s father. Don’t worry about what he’s doing here. We’re the ones asking the questions from here on out. I only care about two right now. The first is about Rowan. Where is she? Are they planning on keeping her at that warehouse or immediately moving her? If they’re smart, they’ll go with the latter. I want to know how smart they are.”
Instead of immediately answering, Michael wrinkled his nose. “What are you going on about? You’re not making any sense. I mean ... you come in here, kick my door in, and then start asking ludicrous questions. I want to help you, but I can’t until you explain yourself.”
Quinn studied his friend’s face for an extended beat. There was no lie hidden behind his eyes. He was either the world’s best actor or he really didn’t know what was going on.
“Your friend Leon Spencer took Sally,” Quinn started, opting to lay all of his cards on the table. “He took her and stabbed my friend. This was after he sent you to the basement to spy on us this morning.”
Michael’s eyes filled with disbelief. “Why would he possibly do that? Not the spy part. That’s ludicrous. I was in the basement looking for you because I needed to talk. The other stuff, though. Why would he do that?”
“Because he wanted to lure Rowan to him. He’s obsessed with her.”
“But ... why? I don’t understand. You’re not making a lot of sense.”
Quinn had to fill him in, at least on a cursory level. He couldn’t tell him everything — some of the secrets weren’t his to tell — but he had to tell him enough to convince Michael that the man he thought he trusted was a fraud. “Why did Alexander Fletcher change his name to Leon Spencer?”
Michael’s eyebrows practically hopped off his forehead. “How can you possibly know that? It’s supposed to be a secret.”
“I know a lot more than I often let on. It’s important. He must’ve given you a reason.”
“He did. He said his father has developed early onset Alzheimer’s and is running wild. Because he’s a man of means, no one can arrange a lockdown in a hospital. He’s turned mean, lost his mind. He’s going after his own son.”
Quinn was officially intrigued and grabbed the phone from Michael’s desk. “Call him.”
“Who?”
“Henry Gibson Fletcher. I want to talk to him.”
“What makes you think I can get him on the phone?”
“You’re our best shot to make it happen. We need his help.”
“But ... why?”
“Because your buddy is a big, fat liar,” Paul replied without hesitation. “He changed his name to distance himself from a bad reputation and hide from certain people. He used you to get access to Rowan.”
“I’m not disputing he’s a little nutty,” Michael conceded. “He’s always been slightly off-center. But why would he care about Rowan? What is she to him?”
“His niece,” Quinn replied. “She’s his niece and he wants to control her.”
“But ... why? There’s no motive as far as I can see.”
Quinn played a hunch. “He believes she’s psychic.”
Realization dawned on Michael’s face. “Oh, geez. He’s always been off his rocker about that stuff. He can’t see the truth when it’s right in front of him when it comes to paranormal stuff. He’s obsessed.”
“Well, that obsessed man stabbed my friend and stole my girlfriend. I need to find him right now, and I’m going to need access to his father to do it. Can you arrange that?”
“I don’t see why not. Give me five minutes.”
That was all the time Quinn could give him. One way or another, he had to get to Rowan. She needed him, and he refused to risk living a life without her.
It was time to free her from fear.
19
Nineteen
Rowan felt as if her insides had been hollowed out. She didn’t know how to react to Spencer’s bombshell. Surely it had to be a mistake.
What if it wasn’t, though?
“You’re my uncle?” She slid her gaze to Sally to gauge her friend’s reaction and found the blonde listening with rapt attention. She’d given up fighting against her restraints.
“I am.” Spencer perfunctorily bobbed his head. “Your mother was my sister.”
“My mother’s maiden name was Gentry,” Rowan argued. “Your name is Alexander Fletcher. Why am I supposed to believe we’re related?”
Spencer couldn’t contain his surprise at mention of his real name. “I see you’ve been busy.”
“Just a little,” Rowan confirmed. “We’ve been researching the Phoenix Society for weeks. You really shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Oh, I’m not surprised. Why do you think we decided to move on you so fast?”
“Because you’re an idiot. Oh, wait, that’s not the answer you wanted to hear?” Rowan was feeling bolder. “Are you the one who arranged for the studies years ago?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve always been infatuated with the paranormal,” he replied simply. “Haven’t you ever felt you were meant for bigger things? I certainly have. I watched a movie when I was a child and it made me yearn to be more. I thought perhaps there was a possibility psychic abilities could be created, so I decided to run a few experiments.”
Rowan really wanted to ask which movie it was, but she was terrified the answer would be Carrie or Firestarter. “You thought you could figure out a way to create psychic abilities out of thin air. That’s just so ... ridiculous.”
“Actually, it’s not.” Spencer’s eyes fired at the insult, but he remained calm. “I’ve done extensive research on this. My father fought my efforts for learning exploration when I was younger, but ultimately he gave me money every year to run my experiments ... as long as I didn’t mention it to his friends and stopped pestering him.”
“Your father sounds practical.”
“He’s a limited man. He can’t see beyond this plane of existence.”
“I think that’s true for most people.”
“Not you. You can see more than the rest of the world combined. You can see the answers to life and death.”
“No, I can see the precursor to death,” Rowan corrected. “I can’t see anything beyond that. My gift isn’t some great thing. It’s simply something I’ve learned to live with.”
“You can’t see the truth of your potential. There’s so much more you can do, be.”
“I’m happy with who I am.”
“Which is why you’re disappointing as a niece.” He delivered the line with cruel joy. Since Rowan didn’t exactly want to please him, she was fine with the dig. “I had hoped you would develop further on your own. To be fair, I wasn’t even sure you were gifted for a long time. Your parents protected you, tried to hide you from me.”
“Or perhaps my mother simply wanted to stay away from you,” Rowan countered. “Have you ever considered that?”
“Not really. I was a good brother. She needed money and I arranged for one of the experiments to be conducted in Michigan, which is where she opted to go to college. I never understood why — it’s an abysmal state — but I went out of my way for her and she didn’t as much as thank me.”
There was truth in his words, at least from his perspective, she mused. There was also information he probably didn’t mean to expose.
“You wanted to experiment on my mother because she was a blood relative,” Rowan volunteered, putting things together completely for the first time. “You thought her results could be extrapolated for yourself. If she developed psychic abilities, you could, too.”
“She did develop psychic abilities. She tried to
hide it from me, but I found out the truth.”
“Which is why my parents decided to hide from you. They figured you would want to take her, use her, and experiment on her as if she was nothing more than a lab rat.”
“As far as I was concerned, that’s exactly what she was.” Spencer’s tone was airy. “My parents didn’t need her in the first place. They had me. I was the heir. She was the spare.”
Rowan felt sick to her stomach. “I’m betting your parents didn’t feel that way.”
“Of course not. They doted on her, spoiled her. She was allowed to do whatever she wanted while I was kept under the watchful eye of a nanny for the bulk of my life. Even as an adult, I was forced to have a companion.”
“Because you’re nuts,” Sally chimed in, speaking for the first time in a long while. “Your parents realized you were unbalanced and had the money to pay someone to act as your babysitter. You needed it because your interior lightbulb doesn’t completely charge.”
Spencer scowled. “I don’t believe you’re part of this conversation.”
“She’s my friend,” Rowan corrected. “She can say whatever she wants. You did kidnap her, after all. If she wants to participate in the conversation, I believe she’s earned the right.”
“She’s an unimportant person in a very small, very unimportant world,” Spencer corrected. “She doesn’t have the right to say anything to me.”
“Because you’re so important?”
Spencer’s answer was simple. “Yes.” He steepled his fingers and rested them on his knee. “I’m trying to make you understand that you don’t belong with these people you’ve surrounded yourself with, Rowan. Thanks to my experiments, my sister developed a gift. So did the man she chose to procreate with. Because of what I did for them, they had you ... and you’re something special.”
Rowan couldn’t refrain from rolling her eyes. “You are a disgusting piece of work,” she complained. “I mean ... absolutely disgusting. You’re a sociopath. You have no conscience. You terrorized my parents for years — don’t bother denying it — and forced my father’s hand so he had no choice but to leave.”
“Yes, that was a smart move,” Spencer mused. “I didn’t think he had it in him. He was unbelievably attached to you, which I found ridiculous. I only asked him and Caroline for access to you on the weekends so I could start testing you. They were upset and refused. Can you believe that?”
“Imagine that,” Sally drawled, rolling her eyes.
“I know.” Spencer clearly didn’t grasp sarcasm. “I set up the experiment in Michigan for her specifically, made sure she would find the notice. She was looking for money because she refused to take extra from our father. She told people, including her husband, that he cut her off, but she was too proud to take a handout. She said her education would mean more if she worked for it herself.”
“She sounds like a smart woman,” Sally offered, causing Rowan to smile in thanks. “You sound like the world’s biggest turd.”
Spencer ignored the insult. “She didn’t know I was the one who set up the experiments, of course. Even after — we’re talking years after — I didn’t tell her I was the one collecting the data. It was more fun keeping her in the dark.”
“No, you thought you could work it to your advantage,” Rowan corrected. “You knew she didn’t trust you. If you approached her, admitted what you’d done, she was likely to call the police ... or maybe even your father. She would’ve made sure to cut you off at the knees. I was young when she died, but I recognize that about her. She wouldn’t have put up with you for very long.”
“My sister was unenlightened,” Spencer snapped. “She couldn’t see the greatness I aspired to. Her puny brain couldn’t grasp that there was more out there than a husband and family. She was actually happy with that idiot she married, with you. It made me sick.”
“How sad for you,” Rowan clucked, shaking her head. “She legally changed her name at some point, right? She wanted to stay off your radar. That’s why I never knew her real last name. She was trying to protect me.”
“Your father helped her with that. He did a good job. I have to say, I searched for years to find you and came up empty. That all changed when you got your driver’s license. You were fingerprinted for it. Do you remember that?”
“Vaguely.”
“I had a copy of your fingerprints from when you were a toddler. Your parents didn’t know I took them. In fact, your father never met me. My sister didn’t allow it. She said she was speaking for both of them, but I knew she was only speaking for herself. I had a feeling it might be necessary to find you one day. Your mother was being less than cooperative and you were too young to test. I had to take a step back and bide my time.”
“So you lost us until I was a teenager and my fingerprints were loaded into the system,” Rowan mused. “Once that happened, you had a general location.”
“I assumed they fled Michigan,” he supplied. “I figured they would move far away from the state. I gave up even searching there.”
“Which is probably why they stayed.”
“Perhaps.” Spencer’s lips curved into a ridiculous sneer. “It took me about two weeks to find you after that. I didn’t approach your father right away. By then, your mother was gone. I was surprised. I thought I would find her, too, and have to steal you away. It was actually a relief to know that she was gone. I didn’t even have to mourn her because it happened so long before.”
Rowan hated every stupid expression the man made. “How great for you. Fake mourning is the absolute worst, isn’t it?”
“Totally. Your father was still around, though. I knew better than to approach him straight up. He would balk and run again if he realized who I was. Instead, I decided to hire people to watch him. I created a corporation — the Phoenix Society — and painted them as a secretive think tank.
“By this time, I was having trouble with my own father,” he continued. “He was trying to yank my funding. He insisted I get a real job and stop wasting my time. That’s what he called it. A waste. He couldn’t see what I had to offer and he actually threatened me.
“I was beyond him, though, at that point.” He grimaced at the memory. “I’d been funneling money away for years, wisely investing the allowance he gave me ... and the one he thought he was sending to my sister. He believed I didn’t know about the secret transfers. That was ludicrous, though. I did. I’m the one who contacted him on behalf of Caroline. That allowed me to get twice the money with minimal effort.”
Rowan’s fury quadrupled. “You pretended to be my mother so you could get money? That is ... despicable.”
“My father is an unreasonable man.”
“Your father recognized what you were and wanted to help my mother hide from you,” Rowan corrected. “He knew you were dangerous to her, to me. He probably wanted to meet me, or at least talk to Mom occasionally. He couldn’t without risking you finding her, though.
“He did the right thing,” she continued. “He kept his distance for her sake. He probably doesn’t even realize that she’s dead.”
“He’s still depositing money in the secret account,” Spencer volunteered. “If he thought it was going to me, he wouldn’t bother. He’s been searching for me for years, you see. He’s been trying to find me so he can lock me up.”
“In a straightjacket?” Sally asked hopefully.
“A special hospital.” Spencer uttered the words with such disdain he almost spit as he said them. “He said I needed help, that I was delusional. Do you know why he said that?”
“I’m guessing it’s because you’re delusional,” Rowan offered.
“It’s because he’s always been jealous of me. He’s always wanted to chase important dreams like me but never had the balls. He wants to be me. That’s why he insists on taking my freedom from me.”
“Yeah, that sounds totally believable,” Sally deadpanned, her eyes shifting to Rowan. “It’s good this guy got all the crazy in your family because
that means there’s nothing left for the rest of you. You’re lucky. They spread the crazy around in my family.”
Rowan choked on a strangled laugh. “Yeah. You have a point.”
“She has nothing of the sort,” Spencer shot back. “I know exactly what I’m doing. I’ve set this all up from the beginning. I’ve been chasing you for years, Rowan. Do you want to know why?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I’ll tell you why. I’m looking for a perfect specimen.
“At first I thought it was your mother,” he continued. “She wasn’t strong enough, though. Then I found Darcy. She was the offspring of one of my other experiments. She’s strong like you, has a lot of the same talents, but her gift is hit or miss. I figured out why, though. Only one of her parents was part of my experiment. Both your parents were. That means you’re my prime specimen.”
Rowan was done with this ludicrous conversation. “We’re leaving.” She made up her mind on the spot and pointed herself toward Sally. “You can’t keep us here and we’re leaving.”
“No, you’re not.” Spencer’s eyes filled with fire as he got to his feet. “If you think I’m going to just let you leave after all the work I’ve done to get you here, you’re crazy. I’ve put too much time and effort into your creation. You belong to me now.”
“You’re a sick crackhead,” Rowan snapped. “I mean ... I’m not going anywhere with you. You can’t make me. You don’t have the strength to keep me here. It’s two against two. Now, I know you’re crazy and that usually means you would have the edge, but I’m fed up. I’m pretty sure I can take you.”
“Me, too,” Sally enthused, wriggling her wrists as Rowan attacked the ropes. “Let’s get out of here.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Spencer roared. “You’re coming with me and that’s the end of it.” He must’ve realized he sounded crazy because he adjusted his tone. “You just have to see the bigger picture, Rowan.” He sounded perfectly reasonable, but Rowan knew better.
“I do see the bigger picture. You’re not part of it.”
Raging Seas (A Rowan Gray Mystery Book 9) Page 18
