Borrowed Time

by CJ Lyons

  “I do.”

  Words couldn’t explain how good it felt to have someone she respected, a fellow cop, say that to her right now. Especially since the topic of her visions was off-limits with Josh. Some of the weight that bunched her shoulder muscles eased and her eyes stung with sudden, unbidden tears. She blinked them back. “Thanks, Carter.”

  “You know what else this means?”

  She nodded solemnly. “I was planning to hand in my shield once we catch Blake. Of course, it doesn’t matter now that I’m suspended anyway.” She blew out her breath. “Is the circus in town? Maybe I could get a job telling fortunes.”

  “Let’s concentrate on getting Blake first, okay?” Carter said. “She’s right, doc. You do have to leave.”

  “I really wish you people would stop trying to order me around in my own house!”

  Josh’s face was tight with anger, but Kate knew Carter was right. And not because of her vision. “Damn, I should have realized—”

  “As soon as Cohen told me you saw the shooter in the hospital—” Carter put in.

  Josh was looking from one to the other. “Want to translate?”

  “I’m an idiot, should’ve thought of it sooner,” Kate said. Would have if she hadn’t been distracted by Josh. “I saw Blake when I was in the ICU. Dressed as a security guard. Which means he knows you, Josh.”

  Comprehension dawned on his face. “If he knows who I am and he saw me at your apartment—”

  “Then, odds are, he’ll be coming here, looking for Kate,” Carter finished. “Cohen disagrees, said Blake would’ve hit last night if he was going to come after you here. Still thinks our best bet is the wing-ding at your brother’s tomorrow. But I’d feel a lot better if you two were out of here tonight. I don’t have the man power to cover this place, they’re all setting up on Michael’s house.”

  “It’s better this way.” She reached for Josh’s hand, hoping he understood how sorry she was to subject him to this. Anger she could take, but he looked stricken. He intertwined his fingers with hers. Kate tried to reassure him. “It’ll just be until we get Blake.”

  “We’ll go together?” he asked, his stare so intense that it sent a surge of warmth flooding over her.

  “Yes.” She disguised her lie in the single syllable. In every vision, he’d been with her when he died. Kate would see him safe tonight, then leave. It was the only way.

  Josh nodded, turned back to Carter who was staring at them with a knowing smile that made Kate blush. “I’ll grab some things and call Mrs. Kertesz from next door to look after Hershey.”

  He went upstairs, Hershey trailing after him. Carter cleared his throat. “These visions? Can you make them happen? Tell us where Blake is now or where he’s going to strike next?”

  She shook her head vehemently. He had no idea what he was asking, what it felt like when she experienced one, to have it echoing in her mind for hours after. As if her brain had been pushed through a meat grinder, shredded and stuffed back inside her head. “No. I tried, it didn’t work.”

  He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. We’re going to nail this bastard.”

  Kate wished he sounded more certain. It seemed as if Blake were calling all the shots, moving them around like chess pieces on his board.

  CHAPTER 33

  One thing Kate was learning about her surgeon: he was almost as stubborn as she was. After conceding to moving to a hotel downtown, the same one Ramsey and Cohen were at, he now insisted on going with her to Michael’s tomorrow.

  They had argued circles around each other, each refusing to yield, until it was time to leave for dinner with Tony. Well, mainly she had argued, Josh had mostly ignored what she was saying to ask silly questions like what color her prom dress had been.

  “What is with you Pittsburghers and the damned raggedy kitchen chairs left in the street,” he muttered as he circled the block searching for a parking space. “Can’t you just double park like normal people?”

  “It’s tradition.”

  “Hmpf. No one even has the decency to steal the damn things much less take the parking space they reserve.” He spied a spot ahead and pulled in. “So, anyway, after Michael’s tomorrow, we can head out to Ohio. My grandparents’ farm. Peace and quiet, no reporters or Turner or obsessed killers.”

  She stared at him, speechless. “A farm? What the hell am I going to do on a freaking farm?”

  “Trust me,” he said, getting out of the car. “You’ll love it there.”

  The man was so damned frustrating, always had to be in control of everything. She didn’t like the way he distracted her, not when she needed to focus on doing everything possible to stop Blake.

  They were a block away from The Thai House. It wasn’t really a house, more like part of a basement, Kate informed Josh as she directed him to the small, dilapidated building on Negley. She noticed he kept looking back over his shoulder, even though he had activated the car alarm.

  “Don’t worry, it’ll be there when we get back,” she assured him.

  His eyes tightened before he gave her an absent nod and she realized it wasn’t the bad neighborhood he was worried about.

  Her arm and shoulder were still sore, kind of a low throb like the constant body ache that came with the flu. Josh seemed instinctively to understand, because he wrapped his arm around her, supporting her elbow, easing the strain from her shoulder as they walked. Damn the man. Didn’t he see she was trying her best to stay angry with him, stubborn fool that he was?

  Despite their disagreement, Kate felt better than she had in days. Something about the way Josh looked at her, it made her catch her breath, gave her a feeling of power. As if she could do anything, even stop a killer, get her life back—a life with Josh, perhaps?

  One thing at a time, O’Hern.

  “You’re gonna love the food here. The atmosphere isn’t much, but that’s okay ‘cause it keeps the tourist trade out,” she told him, hoping that he didn’t realize that she was talking so much because she was nervous. Not about being with him, but about what would come after dinner. She was determined to leave him. Tonight.

  She led him down a cement stairway. The signs in the storefronts above them advertised a consignment shop and an oriental grocery.

  “Did you know Anne Ramsey is a psychologist?” Josh asked as they waited for a table.

  “Yeah, she told me.”

  “Did you tell her about your visions?”

  She looked at him sharply. “No. You didn’t, did you?”

  “Of course not. But she gave me her number. I think you should call her.”

  “Why? I’m not crazy. What’s she going to do?”

  “Still—”

  “I said I was fine. Just drop it. We agreed that we’re not going to talk about any of that during dinner, remember?”

  All Kate wanted was a few hours to pretend she was a normal woman enjoying the company of a man she cared deeply for. A few hours free of worries about dead cops or the madman stalking her, free of concerns about her mental status. Was that so much to ask for?

  The young waitress showed them to a booth. Tony joined them a few minutes later.

  “Nothing,” he announced, before even taking his jacket off. “Not a damn thing from my guy in Internal Affairs.” He beckoned to the waitress. “Give me a Canadian Club, please,” he asked, then noticed that no one else had drinks. “What do you guys want?”

  Kate smiled. “One of Tony’s many accomplishments is that he can get served anywhere, anytime—even at a Steelers’ game when it’s fourth and one.”

  “Handy talent to have,” Josh said after ordering a Stella.

  “Ice water for me, thanks,” Kate told the waitress, then turned back to Tony.

  “Whatever Turner has, I figure it must be pretty explosive. Everybody’s clammed up tight. Sorry, guess I wasn’t much help.” Tony shrugged as the waitress returned with their drinks and took their orders.

  Kate watched Tony lean back in the booth, his eagle eyes not m
issing a trick as he looked from Kate to Josh. She shot him a glare as a gleam of astonishment entered his eyes, and he opened his mouth. The waitress returned before he could say anything.

  After the pot stickers and satay, Kate looked up to find Tony staring at her again, but this time he looked concerned. “What? Do I have something caught in my teeth?”

  “No,” he replied with a sad smile. “I’m worried about you. If Turner really does have something, I mean, I can’t imagine you not being a cop.”

  “Kate could do anything she wants,” Josh told him. “Leaving the force might be the best thing that could happen to her.”

  “Could you do it?” Kate asked Josh, angry at his assumptions about her future.

  “Could I do what?”

  “Stop being a doctor.”

  “And do what?”

  “I mean, is it what you are or just what you do?”

  Josh hesitated. “Both, neither. You make it sound like a cliché. It’s what I do because of who I am and who I am depends on doing it.”

  She shook her head and looked down. “That’s a big help.”

  “It’s not exactly something I like to think about—giving up medicine.”

  “But it’s okay to think about me leaving the job?”

  “Nobody asked me,” Tony put in.

  “Would you ever give up being a journalist?” Kate indulged him.

  “In a heartbeat. Find me a rich wife, and I’ll gladly stay at home, cook, clean and carpool.” He took a sip of his whiskey and sat back, smiling. “Isn’t it a pity that such an enlightened man as myself is still single?”

  “Hard to believe.” Kate rolled her eyes.

  “Seriously Kate, you’re wasted down there, I’ve always said that.”

  “Now you sound like Michael.”

  “Don’t be insulting. Wouldn’t you rather not have to work with Turner, watching your back every minute, not to mention those crazy shifts and the punks on the streets—”

  “He’s right,” Josh said.

  “Don’t you two understand, I’m not just doing a job out there. I’m alive when I’m out on the streets. It’s like the feeling that Tony gets when he’s close to breaking a story and he knows things no one else in the city knows. I’ll bet it’s the same when your trauma beeper goes off, Josh, and you race down to the ER, not knowing what you’ll find there.”

  Both men were staring at her. Finally Tony sat his drink down and sighed. “She’s right, doc. We’re all adrenalin junkies. Isn’t there a cure for it?”

  “I only wish,” Josh said solemnly.

  She looked from one to the other in frustration. Chaos might rule the rest of the world, but until now Kate had always been in control of her own life.

  The waitress arrived with their dinners. They piled noodles and various steaming concoctions onto their plates and began to eat.

  “You know, I’ll never understand this city,” Josh said.

  “Like what, doc?”

  “Like why you all are so determined to remove ‘to be’ from the English language. What would you say if I had a broken washing machine?”

  Tony and Kate exchanged smiles. “The warsher needs fixed,” they chorused.

  “Right. What’s wrong with ‘it needs to be fixed’—which is what the remainder of the English-speaking world would say. And last time I checked, there’s no ‘r’ in wash.”

  “Where are you from, anyway?” Tony asked.

  “Small farm, outside of New Philadelphia.”

  “That explains it, a flatlander.”

  “It’s not flat. Ohio has a lot of hills,” Josh replied indignantly.

  Kate and Tony both laughed at Josh, and he returned a mock scowl. She knew he was working hard to relieve the tension, to help her forget her problems, and she appreciated his efforts. Why’d he have to be so nice? It made leaving him all that much more difficult.

  “Did you go to Ohio State?” she asked.

  “Undergrad and medical school. Did my surgical residency at Hopkins, fellowship at Shock Trauma.”

  “That’s a lot of time in Baltimore,” Tony observed. “Where do you call home, Columbus or Baltimore?”

  “Neither. Pittsburgh is my home now.”

  The certainty in his voice tore at Kate. Josh was a newcomer, yet he sounded devoted to the city. She loved the way that once Josh gave his loyalty, it seemed impossible to tear him away from a cause.

  Even a lost cause like one crazy, mixed up cop.

  Josh and Tony were at the cash register arguing over the check when Kate emerged from the ladies’ room. She smiled as she watched them. They were so different from each other—yet so much alike.

  A couple leaving the restaurant brushed past her in the narrow hallway. She moved aside to let them pass when suddenly flames surrounded them.

  Their mouths opened in silent screams, blood flowed over their faces. The woman’s scalp was partially peeled back from her skull. Kate felt a wrenching in her gut, smelt burnt flesh as the fire engulfed them.

  Kate cringed, fell to her knees to escape the vision. They bent over her, blood dripping onto her, the flames licking at her.

  Through the haze, she saw Josh rushing toward her. He reached out a hand and the flames vanished.

  Josh’s face twisted in pain, blood covered him, intestines pulsed through the flesh of his abdomen and one arm dangled at his side, ending in a jagged stump of tissue.

  “No! Get away—don’t touch me, please God—no!” The panic burst from her until all she could do was cower, trembling, sobbing words even she couldn’t understand.

  Josh turned and ushered the man and woman away from her. Then Tony reached her and thank God he was Tony. Warm and alive with no blood, he was fine. He held her tight, and she cherished the steady beat of his heart against hers.

  She pulled her face into his chest, tears staining his shirt. “Don’t let them go,” she was finally able to construct a coherent sentence. “Those people, don’t let them go, they’re going to die.”

  “They’re not going anywhere. Shh, it’s all right, don’t worry,” Tony crooned to her, his hands stroking her hair. “Tell me what’s wrong, Kate. What happened?”

  “They’ll die. Don’t let them go. They’ll both die.”

  “It’s all right,” she heard Josh’s voice coming from a long distance away. “I’ll take care of it, Kate.”

  “What the hell’s going on?” Tony asked.

  “Later,” Josh said. “Get her out of here. Now.”

  “Shouldn’t we call 911 or someone?”

  “No.” Josh’s voice sounded nearer, more alive. “Don’t worry Kate, I’ll take care of everything. They’ll be all right. For godsake, Tony, get going, now.”

  She kept her eyes clenched tight as she felt someone drape her jacket around her. Tony helped her to her feet and began to half-carry her out the door.

  “Don’t let them drive, Josh,” she called out one last warning, daring to turn and look.

  Josh glanced up at her, and she had to fight the urge to vomit as she saw blood draining from the jagged craters of his empty, burnt eye sockets.

  CHAPTER 34

  Josh wiped a hand over his face as he watched Tony shepherd Kate out the door. Maybe he had been kidding himself by going along with her, ignoring how serious this was. The look on her face—she couldn’t go on like this, he couldn’t either. He had to get her some help, find someone who could deal with this.

  “What was her problem?” asked the man who had triggered Kate’s vision. Josh turned and could smell alcohol surrounding the man in a cloud. His companion clenched his arm. “Jeez, was she freaked out or what?”

  “Did you see her arm?” Josh improvised. “She was in a bad car accident, someone was killed. They were hit by a drunk driver. I guess she smelled your breath and was afraid the same might happen to you.”

  “I’m not drunk, I can drive just fine,” the man replied indignantly.

  “I told you, you’ve had too much,”
the woman interrupted. She grabbed the car keys from him. “Tell your friend thank you,” she said to Josh. “He doesn’t usually drink, but we just found out I’m pregnant, and he couldn’t help celebrating for both of us, I guess. Don’t worry, I’ll drive home and everything will be fine.”

  “I said I could drive!” her companion protested.

  “C’mon Tom, stop bothering the nice man.” She tugged at the man’s sleeve. “Thanks, mister,” she said over her shoulder as they left.

  Josh stared after them, shaking his head. Kate might have saved two more lives—who knew for sure? But he didn’t believe it was because of any psychic precognition. More likely her cop’s instincts had smelled the alcohol on the man, seen him with the car keys, leaving her imagination to fill in the details. But the look on her face—he couldn’t let her continue this way. He fished Anne Ramsey’s business card out of his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

  The fresh air hit Kate like a bracing wave of ice water. By the time they got to Tony’s Mustang, her vision had cleared, and she could finally catch her breath.

  “I’m okay, Tony.”

  “Are you sure? Dammit, Kate, you scared me to death. What happened?”

  “It’s nothing, I’ll be fine. Let me get some air.”

  “That wasn’t nothing. I think we ought to take you to the hospital, get you checked out. It must be stress, everything you’ve been through.”

  “No, I don’t need a hospital. I told you, I just need some fresh air.”

  “You act like this has happened before.” She was silent. Tony moved in front of her, staring at her. She dropped her gaze, unable to meet his eyes. “It has. Why hasn’t Lightner done something about it! Or doesn’t he know about these spells?”

  “He knows,” Josh said, coming up behind Tony. Kate looked up. He was whole, no blood, his face animated, but his eyes worried. She forced a small smile.

  “I’m fine. Sorry about all the commotion.”

  “Tony’s right, this has got to stop, Kate. I called Anne Ramsey. She’s meeting us at the hotel.”