A Haunting Dream

by Joyce Lavene

  He made a tiny meowing sound and purred while he ate. I didn’t know anyone could feel this close to an animal.

  I ran back out and got in the pickup with Kevin. There was very little traffic on Duck Road, which made for a quick trip to the Blue Whale. We talked the whole way about what we might find at the Sailor’s Dream later. Suddenly, the awkwardness between us was gone. It was just like old times.

  Then Ann was waiting for us on the veranda. “I might have known you two would be together. It’s not just the little girl, is it, Kevin? You can’t stop thinking about Dae.”

  “Let’s go somewhere private to discuss this,” he said.

  “Never mind.” She sipped what smelled like a mint julep. “I know all of this has been a shock. You never expected me to come back and ruin the perfect little life you created with Mayor Smiley-face.”

  “You’re drunk.” Kevin took her arm and pulled her out of the chair. “Let’s go inside.”

  “Maybe I am drunk,” she agreed. “But I’ll bet you haven’t told her all about us, have you? She doesn’t know the things we’ve done together, what we meant to each other. Maybe she wouldn’t care so much about you if she knew.”

  Ann reached out quickly and grabbed my hand. Her eyes were like cold steel tearing into my brain. I thought I screamed as thousands of images flooded into my brain. They packed in so fast that I couldn’t handle it. It was a massive overload. I couldn’t distinguish one image from another.

  I thought Kevin broke us apart. When I looked at him, I saw him holding a gun, shooting a man who’d refused to surrender. Kevin didn’t know if the man meant to kill him or not. Ann consoled him after it was over. The images of the two of them in bed together burned into my mind. I squeezed my eyes tightly closed and let myself drift away.

  When I came back to myself, Ann was gone. Kevin was sitting beside me on the bed in one of the inn’s rooms. I loved the lilac walls and the gossamer curtains, through which the sun shone bright every morning.

  “Are you okay?” He took my hand. “Ann is very powerful. Even more so now. I didn’t realize—I’m sorry.”

  “I’m fine.” I sat up. My brain felt like a piece of fiery mush, but I’d survived the attack. “You could’ve warned me.”

  I said it, but I knew no warning could’ve prepared me for what Ann had just put me through. The idea of her attacking me with her thoughts and memories seemed too much like science fiction. I doubted I would’ve believed it was possible if I hadn’t lived through it.

  “I’m sorry.” He got up and paced the room. “I thought maybe this would work—that she’d learn to love . . . Duck . . . like I have.”

  “But she doesn’t.” I didn’t mind telling him about her visit to Missing Pieces now. “I don’t think she ever will.”

  “I know.” He looked around the room that faced the ocean. I knew he was thinking about all the time he’d put into the Blue Whale, believing it was his new home. His eyes were wistful. “I think I should leave. Ann isn’t stable. I don’t know if she’ll ever be if we stay here. There’s too big a gap from where we were. For her, it’s like everything is still the same as it was when she went into the hospital. Nothing has changed. In her mind, the last few years never happened.”

  I wanted to ask him to stay and we’d find a way to fix it. That was me—always looking for a way to make things right. But I didn’t speak. Intuition told me he was right. If he was going to stay with Ann, out of guilt or love, he’d have to live somewhere else.

  It was one of the saddest moments of my life.

  But I had to keep going. I couldn’t let this stop me from finding Betsy.

  I pushed to my feet. I still felt shaky, but the active memories Ann had thrown at me were fading. They’d left behind a headache—and a distaste for Ann and Kevin’s love life—but otherwise, I knew I’d be fine. “I’m here. I guess I should talk to Melinda.”

  “You should sit down for a while,” he suggested. “Let me get you some tea, and I’ll take you home later. Is chamomile okay?”

  I said it was fine just so he’d leave. It wasn’t his fault Ann had attacked me, but what she’d shown me was too fresh for me not to be affected by it. I didn’t know if I could ever look at Kevin the same way again. Maybe that’s all she’d really meant to do.

  I needed to find Melinda.

  Talk to her.

  And get out of there.

  I waited until I was sure Kevin would be in the old iron-lace elevator, on his way to the kitchen, then I left the room.

  It wasn’t hard to find Melinda. I saw her from an upstairs window, sitting on a bench in the back of the inn, staring at the ocean. I looked around carefully as I walked through the ballroom and out the back door. I didn’t see Ann anywhere.

  I sat down next to Melinda on the bench. She turned toward me, her eyes red and swollen. “I wish there was something—anything—I could do to help. I feel so useless. My daughter, my baby, is out there somewhere. Maybe she’s still alive. Is anyone still looking for her?”

  “Everyone is looking for her,” I reassured her. “We’ll find her.”

  “I don’t think they’re going to find her. What was I thinking, leaving her here with Chuck? He’s always been irresponsible.”

  “You were doing what you thought was right.” I took a deep breath to steady myself and push away from the mental abuse I’d suffered at Ann’s hands. “I may be able to help you find Betsy.”

  “How?” She was clearly bewildered. “What else can you do?”

  I tried to explain about my gift. Her eyes grew wide as she stared at me in disbelief. “I don’t know for sure it will work. I’ve been finding lost things for people since I was a child. If you think about how much you love Betsy and that she’s lost, maybe it will work.”

  It hadn’t been my intention to offer her what might be false hope. First of all, Melinda hadn’t technically lost her daughter. The girl had been, essentially, stolen. I wasn’t sure my gift would work if the seeker didn’t have some sense, at least subconsciously, of where the lost item could be.

  Still, it was worth a try, I thought as I watched Melinda’s reaction. If it didn’t work, we were no worse off than we were before. If it did work, Betsy might be home soon.

  Melinda clearly didn’t understand or believe what I’d told her. Time had taught me that her belief wasn’t necessary. When she finally nodded to let me know we could try the experiment, I took her hands and closed my eyes.

  The sandy grass behind the Blue Whale faded away with the sound of the ocean and the cry of the gulls. As in my previous visions and dreams of Betsy, I was enveloped in blackness. I stood perfectly still, waiting, listening, hoping for the off chance I’d detect another clue as to where she was being held.

  The constant drip of water was annoying and no help at all. The smell of wet sand and decaying sea life surrounded me. There was nothing new here.

  I was about to call her name when suddenly a door opened from above me. It brought in weak light—maybe a distant streetlight or light from a nearby house.

  I studied the square shape of the opening above me. I was sure it was a thick wooden door, only enough room to allow in one person at a time. But no one came through.

  “Are you there, little girl?” a masculine voice called out. “I brought you something to eat. Come and get it so I don’t drop it in the sand.”

  In response, Betsy moved toward the light. She looked like a little ghost, her nightgown torn in places. She lifted her hands for the food. Her tangled brown hair slipped back from her shoulders. “Please let me out. Please don’t leave me here.”

  The food came down in a narrow basket dropped by a rope. “You know I can’t do that. But I think your time is coming. I think you’ll be out of here soon. Just be a good girl a little longer. Jackie is going to get you out of here. Wait and see.”

  Betsy looked at me squarely in the face before she took the food from the basket. “Can you see? This might be the last time. Can you find me?�
��

  I was pulled from the spot, trembling and crying. Maybe another instant and I would’ve been able to identify the place or the person who was lowering the food. Maybe another moment—

  “Did you see anything?” Melinda was shaking me. Or was I just shaking? I couldn’t tell. “Did you find her?”

  My teeth were chattering too hard to speak. My whole body felt as though it might fall apart. I wanted to reassure her, but the words wouldn’t come.

  Through my mental fog, I sensed Ann rushing toward us like a vortex of raw energy. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t get my legs to work. I tried to yell for help—I couldn’t possibly face her this way. Another blast of her awful venom might keep me from ever using my gift again.

  I was surprised when she helped me sit upright. Her cold blue eyes stared into mine. “You’re a stupid little fool, aren’t you? You don’t know when to stop. How have you survived all these years like this?”

  “I-I was fine until y-you came,” I managed to get out.

  She laughed, and a breeze from the ocean caught at her pale hair, blowing it across her sculpted face. “I guess it doesn’t matter. You could’ve killed yourself, or at least never regained consciousness trying this little stunt after I blasted you. But you’ve convinced me. I don’t know why I couldn’t feel that little girl—until now. Maybe I was too afraid to let myself feel her.”

  “A-and now?” I dared.

  “Now we find this little girl—this little girl who’s still alive and needs rescuing.”

  “You mean you know Betsy is alive now?” Melinda asked, sobbing.

  “That’s right,” Ann said abruptly. “Now stop crying and help me get Dae inside.”

  Chapter 19

  After about an hour, I was fine again—but confused. I sat in the kitchen with Kevin and Ann. Kevin was chopping mushrooms for his famous homemade mushroom soup. Ann was looking at a magazine full of shoes.

  “So what happens now?” I croaked. Somehow all of this psychic energy had made my voice hoarse.

  “Now we figure out where they’re keeping the girl.” Ann didn’t look up from the magazine. “Kevin said you’re going to look for some guy at a bar tonight. Is that a personal thing or part of the investigation?”

  I explained about Derek Johnson and the matchbook I’d found. “I think that may have been his voice I heard speaking to Betsy in the vision.”

  She shrugged. “We need proof.”

  “Maybe we can get that from Derek, if he’s taking care of her.”

  Ann didn’t respond.

  “There’s the name—Jackie—too. He said Jackie was going to let Betsy go soon. That might be something. I haven’t heard that name mentioned before.”

  “Wait!” Ann tossed the magazine across the table and stood up. “I think I may have some ideas on that.” She started sketching on a napkin, but Kevin got her a piece of computer paper and she began again. “I keep seeing this woman. Maybe she’s Jackie.”

  Her sketching was fast and furious, like everything else she did. Where I was slow and methodical, she was a human dynamo.

  “Look familiar?” She held out the crude sketch.

  “That’s her! I think she’s Guthrie’s girlfriend! You think she’s Jackie?”

  “It’s possible. I got this resonance from you when you said the name.”

  “But I don’t know if the girlfriend’s name is Jackie or not.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said impatiently. “This woman is the key. Maybe someone at the FBI knows her. We should all go down there again.”

  I glanced at my watch. It was nearly time for Trudy and Port to meet at Wild Stallions. “There’s something else. I have to see where it leads me. I know the information I got from Port is important and it involves this woman.” I explained the situation to them.

  “Fine. We’ll go there, get something to eat and scrape this guy’s mind.”

  “I can’t leave right now,” Kevin said. “I have to get this soup on.”

  Ann shrugged her narrow shoulders. “We don’t need you. We’re big girls, right, Dae?”

  I wasn’t sure how to answer. Despite Ann’s newfound spirit of cooperation, I didn’t trust her. Clearly, Kevin was uncertain about us going off together too. After our talk earlier, I wasn’t exactly in fear for my life, but I was still on edge.

  What if Ann’s mood swings changed her again? I didn’t know if I could handle another mental onslaught right now.

  “I’ll go up and change. Meet you there in about an hour?” she suggested.

  “Okay.” I glanced at Kevin. “In about an hour.”

  “It will only take me another minute and I’ll be done with these mushrooms, so I can run you home, Dae,” Kevin said. “I’ll come back for you, Ann.”

  “Not necessary.” She breezed by him. “I can find my way. You just make sure Dae doesn’t take on any other challengers until after she gets through this evening.”

  With that, she was gone, running up the stairs with the energy of a teenager.

  Kevin put the chopped mushrooms in a large pot on the stove. “All right. Let’s go.”

  I felt like I’d been on a roller coaster the last few hours. I needed a lot more than chamomile tea (which I’d had in the kitchen) to fully recover from my most recent vision of Betsy. But there wasn’t time.

  Instead, Kevin and I got back in his truck and headed for my house.

  “Well?” he asked as we started toward Duck Road. “I know you have questions.”

  “I don’t know. Is she always that way?”

  “She wasn’t. She was calm and methodical when we first met. Finding all of those missing children, the ones we couldn’t save, changed her. She’s nothing like the woman I fell in love with. I don’t know what’s going on with her anymore.”

  “But she’s obviously dangerous. Can we work together?”

  “I don’t know. I’m worried it might not be safe for you. On the other hand, the two of you make a good team. You complement each other. You might still be able to find Betsy Sparks against every scrap of FBI protocol. Just don’t go anywhere alone with her.”

  “How did she learn to do that—throw her memories at me?”

  “She was brought up learning things like that. You haven’t developed the survival instincts to defend yourself. That’s why you couldn’t ward off her attack.”

  “I see.” But I really didn’t. What had happened at the Blue Whale was completely out of my realm of experience.

  He stopped the truck to wait for traffic, then turned to face me. “You don’t want to learn how to do those things, Dae. Look at what it’s done to her. She’ll never be able to lead a normal life as someone’s mother or positively contribute to society like you will. I’m not sure how far she can go without completely falling apart again.”

  I was flattered by his words. They made me sound much stronger and more competent than I felt at that moment. Maybe I would never work for the FBI, but I didn’t have to be completely useless either.

  “I think it’s worth the risk, working with her. Together, we might be able to figure things out.”

  A few moments later Kevin pulled the pickup into the driveway, behind Gramps’s golf cart. “Just promise me you’ll be careful. Don’t trust her. I’ll stay close to you.”

  I nodded, not trusting myself to speak either. I could see it pained him to agree that I should work with Ann. I knew him well enough to know when something wasn’t right for him. This plan was one of those things. I just couldn’t think of any other way. Apparently neither could he.

  Gramps was inside making supper for his pinochle group, which would be meeting at our house later. I explained briefly about my plans for the evening, though I didn’t mention what had happened between me and Ann that afternoon. I didn’t need him trying to protect me too.

  “Watch your back with Kevin’s fiancée,” he warned, proving that his instincts for trouble were still good. He stroked the black kitten as it rubbed up against him. “I
don’t think that woman knows what she’s doing. She might lead you into danger.”

  “I’ll be careful.” I smiled at the picture of contentment he made with the cat. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

  “Me either. But I like the little devil. I must be going crazy in my old age. Tim called and told me he’d found the other cat that was picked up at Chuck’s house. I think she may be this one’s mother. I told him to bring her on over and we’ll sit both of them until you find that little girl.”

  “You might not want to get rid of them,” I warned.

  “Never mind. Just go get ready—try not to stay out too late.”

  I laughed and went upstairs to change. I felt better after a long, hot shower. The attack had left me feeling like I had the flu—sore throat and all. It seemed like an odd reaction to what had happened, but maybe it was common. I would definitely research the idea on the Internet when I had a free moment.

  I picked out a black velvet dress that I liked. It was a little old-fashioned, but it always made me feel beautiful. I’d learned why after my gift had changed, allowing me to sense emotions from objects. The dress had belonged to an older woman who’d had a wonderful life. I could feel her happiness every time I wore it. I hoped it would give me confidence tonight.

  I brushed my short hair and put on some plum-colored lipstick that I’d bought at Trudy’s last makeup party. Thinking about my friend triggered a feeling of uneasiness about what I had planned for the evening.

  I realized at that point that I didn’t really have a plan. Interrupting Port and Trudy’s romantic dinner was going to be bad enough. But how was I going to take something personal from Port or touch him long enough to get the information I needed? Kevin and I could just ask him about Jackie, I supposed, but what if Port had some role in what had happened to Chuck? We couldn’t take that chance.

  I said good night to Gramps as I walked out the front door. I really didn’t need Kevin’s help at Wild Stallions, but it was still nice to see him waiting for me in the driveway.

  He’d showered and changed into brown slacks and a casual tan sport coat. His dark hair was still damp, and he smelled like soap.