by Morgana Best
She looked at me with surprise. “I’m really not sure what you’re saying.”
I wiped my hands on my jeans again. I could feel myself trembling, and I hoped she couldn’t see it, too. “You’ve been to my show, Christine. You know I’m a clairvoyant medium. You saw what I did at the show.”
She nodded.
“So you do believe I can communicate with those who have passed on?”
She nodded again. “Yes, I’ve always kind of believed in that sort of thing, and I did see what you did at your show. It was quite an eye-opener, actually. I figured my husband would come through and tell you what happened sooner or later.”
“My sole interest in this matter is that I need to find Alum,” I said. “He’s in grave danger. If they bring in his partner, his partner will kill him for certain. All I want from you is for you to tell me where the safe house is. That’s the reason I was trying to find out who killed your husband—just so I could ask them where the safe house is.”
Christine looked at me strangely. “And didn’t it occur to you that it could be dangerous?”
I wrung my hands impatiently. “Yes, but I had no choice in the matter. To be quite honest, Christine, I hope you’re not going to try to kill me, but I only want you to tell me where the safe house is. I’ve given you my word that I won’t go to the police.”
Christine appeared to be thinking it over, which I took as a very good sign. At least she hadn’t lunged at me with a deadly weapon.
“If you do go to the safe house, the police will question you until you tell them who told you where it was. And don’t think they can’t get it out of you! I know how they work.”
“I’ll tell them I’m a clairvoyant medium,” I said, my hopes rising with her words. “If you think about it, that’s the only way I could’ve known about Alum’s existence in the first place. Police do use clairvoyant mediums in their work. Even if the local police think it’s all a joke, they will have to admit that police internationally have used clairvoyant mediums with success. I swear to you that I won’t tell them about you.”
She took a step closer to me, and I backed away until my hands reached the countertop. “You really won’t tell them about me?” she said, peering into my face.
I nodded. “Truly, I have zero interest in you. I just want to save Alum, and I’m fast running out of time. Please tell me where he is.” I knew my tone had deteriorated to pleading, but I didn’t care.
She appeared to be weighing up my words. “Okay, then. I’ll tell you where the safe house is, but you must swear you’ll never mention my name to the police.”
I nodded furiously, and held my breath.
“I don’t know the password, though, to the keypad at the front door. You’ll need the password to get in, and I honestly don’t know it.”
The relief was so palpable, that I thought I might faint. “How did you get inside the safe house?” I asked her when I was finally able to speak.
“I just knocked on the front door,” she said. “My husband saw me, opened the door, and pulled me inside. I followed him from our house to the safe house and he didn’t even know. For a cop, he wasn’t that smart.”
“I suppose they have security cameras?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Yes, they do, and they’re unobtrusive. You won’t see them. Adam took me inside to the monitoring room. There was only one other person there at the time, and that was one of the nurses—I could see all the cameras. The nurse was in the room with your friend. I didn’t want to kill Adam, you must understand. I just wanted to give him a fright. It’s just that his words were so cruel…”
I cut her off. “I’m so sorry about what happened, but I have to go now. Thank you so much for telling me where the safe house is.” Much to her surprise, I grabbed her hand and shook it.
I left her house as fast as I could. Everything seemed surreal. I meant it when I said that I wasn’t going to tell the police about her. My sole concern was Alum.
Now I knew where the safe house was. I just had to go there and convince the police in attendance that Alum had been communicating with me while he was in a coma, and that his partner was a crooked cop.
“Good luck with that one,” I said sarcastically to myself as I sped up the highway.
Chapter 20
I drove up the highway as fast as I legally could, in the direction of Uralla. Who would have thought that Alum was being kept so close to where I lived all this time?
I even had a pretty good idea of where the safe house was, indeed near the railway line, and with dual access to both Walcha Road and Kentucky Road. It was a clever location, that was for sure. They would see any vehicle driving along the long track on either road to the house. That meant they would see me, also. I could only hope that they were minimally staffed at the time. I also hoped that Alum was still okay. My only consolation was that, if he had been murdered, I had no doubt his ghost would at once appear to me, given our connection.
I had no clue what I was going to do when I got there, but I had been playing it by ear the whole time, and it had gotten me this far.
I was now more nervous than I had ever been in my whole entire life, but now I had a plan. Within an hour, I would be at the safe house.
It was a sunny afternoon by the time I reached the road that led to the safe house. There was a Jack Russell terrier wandering down the road, and a bright orange car passed me and pulled over so close that I had to slam on my brakes.
I had recently come to suspect that Cyclops was in fact the password to the safe house. I hoped against hope it was, because if not, I was at a loss. If it didn’t work, then surely someone would come out and drag me inside for questioning, and then I could tell them everything.
I supposed that the password was irrelevant. They were probably going to see me before I had even punched in the keys. I only hoped they would listen to me before they bundled me off to the nearest police station.
I drove down the dusty road as fast as I could without causing too much dust to announce my arrival. I supposed they already had cameras trained on me. Once again, I was going to have to play it by ear.
I soon saw the house, a blue brick house of the type common to the New England region, only it had some sort of a green galvanized iron shed as an extension. To the casual observer, it would look like some sort of apple orchard farm, and there were plenty of those in nearby Kentucky, so it wouldn’t look out of place.
I did not see any cars, but there was a huge green barn behind the house. I assumed that’s where everyone parked, out of sight.
I wasted no time. I parked as close as I could to the building and then walked quickly to the front door of the brick building. Sure enough, there was the keypad. I punched in the word, ‘Cyclops’.
To my surprise, the door opened in front of me. I hadn’t thought too much further than that, but I charged inside, right into two muscle bound men. One grabbed each of my arms, and dragged me none too gently into a nearby room, where I was quickly searched and then pushed into a chair.
Another man appeared at the door. He was clearly the boss, because he did all the talking. “Who are you?”
I had my speech prepared. “I’m Prudence Wallflower, a well known clairvoyant medium. You can google me, and I can give you the name of my booking agent in Tamworth. I was contacted by the spirit of Constable Decker, and he gave me the password, ‘Cyclops’. He told me he was stabbed here due to personal reasons. I have for some time been contacted by the spirit of Alum Mullein. At first I thought it was the spirit of the departed, but then he advised me he was in an induced coma. He had been shot by his partner, Stanfield Kelly.”
I stopped to draw breath, and saw that the news of Alum’s partner had startled all three men in the room. That was the first time they had shown any reaction, albeit a guarded reaction.
I pressed on while I had the opportunity. “Alum recently advised me that he was slipping in and out of a coma, but he was too weak to tell you who had shot him a
nd he was too weak to hold a pen to write. He said he was getting better, though. He overheard that you intended to bring in more police, and he was afraid you’d bring in his partner, who had already tried to kill him.” I had finished what I had to say, but the man in front of me did not speak. The silence stretched on and grew increasingly uncomfortable. I didn’t expect them to believe me, but I was a well known medium, and I had that in my favor.
Finally, he spoke. “Who exactly are you?” he asked again.
I was frustrated. “I already told you who I am! Go and google me—my image is online. You will see I am who I say I am. My name is Prudence Wallflower, and I’m a clairvoyant medium. I contact the spirits of those who have passed on, and I was able to contact Alum’s spirit when he was in a coma.”
“How did you get this information?” was his next question, and his manner grew more threatening. “Who are you associated with?”
“Look,” I said. “I’ve already told you. Why don’t you google me? I can give you the phone number of my agent, William Snipe. Why don’t you call him? He can vouch for me. I understand you might not believe in clairvoyant mediums, but it’s a well documented fact that some police have found mediums to be of help in their inquiries. Whether or not you believe that’s possible, the fact remains that some police forces have used mediums. That’s how I got this information. When Alum wakes up, he can vouch for me, too.”
I hoped that was the case, but even if Alum didn’t remember me, that was the least of my worries. Right now, his safety was my primary concern. “I’m telling you, it was Alum’s partner, Stanfield Kelly, who shot him. It was because Alum was investigating the Brady Wayland murder, but he stumbled onto the fact that Kelly was involved with Jason Taylor’s cocaine gang.”
The man stared at me again for a long time. I couldn’t expect him to believe me, and why would I? The whole thing seemed far too preposterous.
One of the officers who had searched me spoke up. “I know her, Detective Brown,” he said. “I saw her on TV, on one of the morning show just before Christmas. She is a medium, like she says. Apparently she’s fairly well known.”
“What’s the agent’s name again?” the man in charge, who I had just discovered was Detective Brown, asked me.
“William Snipe, from Tamworth,” I said. “He’s in the book.”
Detective Brown left the room, and I had renewed hope. At least the agent would tell him who I was, and if nothing else, these officers would realize I wasn’t a threat to Alum.
Now I just had to convince them that Alum’s partner was trying to kill him.
Detective Brown returned, just as another man entered the room. “There’s nothing in her car,” he said, nodding at me. “Just a lot of chocolate wrappers, empty take-out coffee cups, and half a bag of jellybeans.”
I frowned. Detective Brown ignored him and addressed me directly. “Your agent verified your identity, so you checked out. And I’ve just done a search of you online, and it does say you’re a clairvoyant medium. However, you have to admit that your story is rather far fetched.”
I took heart from the fact that his tone was no longer threatening. “Yes, I realize it does sound strange,” I said. “But I do shows all the time where I connect people with their deceased loved ones.”
The cop shrugged. I figured he was at a loss. After all, I’m sure he had never been faced with a situation like this. I had information that I should not have been able to have.
“Look, you’ve already searched me,” I continued, “and I don’t have any weapons on me. If I had come here to harm Alum, then I would’ve had a weapon. Surely that makes sense.”
The cop did nothing to acknowledge my statement. “We’ll have to look into this matter further,” he said, and turned on his heel. He was just about to leave the room, when another man burst through the door.
“Kelly’s here!” he said.
Chapter 21
All at once, there was a flurry of activity. “Quick, take her to the monitoring room,” Detective Brown ordered.
“The monitoring room?” one of the other men said.
Detective Brown snapped, “Quick! There’s nowhere else!”
I was half pushed, half dragged out of that room into a narrow, dark corridor, and then into a small room. It smelled of disinfectant, sweat, and stale coffee. The first thing I saw when I entered the room was a wall of monitors. I could see Alum’s bed on one of the monitors, but the other man pulled me back from the screens.
He pointed to a chair. “Sit!” he barked. I did as I was told. I was relieved to see that Alum was alive, and his eyelids were flickering. He looked as though he were in a light sleep.
I was also relieved by the fact that the officers did not seem to think I was a threat, even though they had trouble believing me.
I looked with interest at the monitors, but then I froze with horror. Alum’s partner, Stanfield Kelly, was at the front door, punching in the password.
I gasped. What were they going to do? If they had taken me even half way seriously, then surely they wouldn’t let him near Alum.
One of the officers met him at the door. “Are you Detective Kelly?”
Kelly made to push past the officer, but he stood his ground. “How many people are in there?” Kelly asked.
The officer did not respond, but asked a question of his own. “You won’t mind if we search you, will you? Standard procedure, you understand.”
Detective Kelly looked annoyed by the remark. “Search me? Are you kidding?” His tone was angry. “You do realize that all this time I thought my partner was dead! And now you’re trying to stop me seeing him?”
The officer shook his head. “I don’t make the rules, but there’s no way you’re moving from here unless I search you first.” He removed the detective’s gun. I let out a long sigh of relief.
“Take me to him now!” Kelly insisted.
“He’s not well enough for visitors,” the officer said.
Kelly crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s your name?”
“Sergeant Taylor.”
Kelly nodded. “How many officers are inside?”
I thought the question suspicious, and the two officers in the room with me obviously thought so too, as they whispered to one another.
Again, Sergeant Taylor ignored the question.
“Look, why did you call me here if it wasn’t to see my old partner? You asked for my help, and I’ve come to give it, so why won’t you let me see him? Is he conscious? Has he said anything?”
Again, the two officers in the room whispered to each other. One of them left the room at that point. I continued to watch the screen.
It seemed to me that Alum was waking up. I pointed that out to the officer, who didn’t comment, but then again he didn’t disagree. It wasn’t such a big deal, because Alum had been awake several times according to what he had told me. It was just that he had been too weak to communicate.
I looked back at the monitor for the front door, and Sergeant Taylor was still speaking to Detective Kelly.
“So how is my partner doing?” Kelly asked.
“I can’t answer any of your questions at this time. You’ll be briefed in due course.”
“Don’t give me that nonsense,” Kelly said rudely. “What’s going on? You asked me here to help you, but you don’t seem to want my help. Stop fooling around. Take me to my partner right now! I insist.”
“I’ll have to clear it first. You wait here.” With that, Taylor left the room. I watched with horror as Kelly stepped inside the building. I grabbed the officer’s arm. “Quick! Can’t you see he wants to kill Alum! Stop him!”
The officer appeared calm. “Just leave it to us, madam,” he said in a monotone voice.
“But you told him to wait at the door, and he’s inside the building!” Then another thought occurred to me. “You’re not going to use Alum as bait, are you? What if he kills him? You’re supposed to be protecting him!” I fought the rising hysteria. I t
ried to tell myself that the officers knew what they were doing.
I watched the monitor to Alum’s room with growing horror. It seemed to me that they were in fact going to use him for bait. I could only hope that they did know what they were doing.
The officer left the room, leaving me alone with the monitors. I watched as Detective Kelly furtively made his way down the corridor, looking in each room. I was puzzled—surely he would know he was being filmed?
I knew there were cameras at the front door, because I could see the front door on the monitors. Yet I had not seen any other monitors. It was possible that the monitors in the corridor were concealed, but when I had been taken into the little room upon arrival, the monitors there were entirely visible.
I watched as Sergeant Taylor walked into the corridor and came face-to-face with Detective Kelly. “Hey, what are you doing here? I told you to wait outside.”
“I told you I thought my partner was dead all this time and now I’ve found out that he’s alive. You’re not gonna keep him from me any longer.”
Sergeant Taylor nodded. “Sure. I just called it through. You’ve got clearance. Actually, could you do me a favor—I just need to duck out to the store. Can you watch the place while I’m away? No one’s expected, so don’t let anyone in no matter what they say. Got it?”
Detective Kelly nodded solemnly. “Right. Anything else I should know?”
Sergeant Taylor shook his head. “No. Alum’s getting better, so he might wake up, though he hasn’t been able to speak yet. The nurse isn’t expected back until tonight. He’s doing really well now, anyway, so you won’t have any medical concerns. If he wakes up, just talk to him and offer him some water.”
“Got it.” Kelly looked entirely too smug.
I stood up and faced the officer in the room with me. “What are you up to? Can’t you see he’s going to try to kill him?”
The officer pointed to the chair I had just vacated. “Sit down please, madam.”
I did as I was told, but I was beside myself with worry.
