She reached out to caress his cheek, then decided against it. She felt silly at first. They'd moved up to long embraces, foot rubbing, and sleeping next to each other. Would a cheek caress really be pushing it?
Life was changing fast. Kelly was an orphan with a new house and a lot of money. Was she ready for romance?
She was starting to think she didn't have a choice.
Chapter 17
Mason had his Bluetooth headset looped around his ear as he bounced around the kitchen. He had already showered and shaved. He looked behind the couch every now and then to see Kelly still sound asleep. He tried to keep his voice low as he talked to Brian. There were details he left out, but he gave Brian the end result of the previous night's mind slide.
“The guest book? From the funeral home?” Brian said. “Why would anyone break into a house to steal a guest book?”
“You tell me. You're the cop.”
“Oh, and private eyes get a free pass? I guess you're better off asking Kelly. Maybe she's got an idea of what's going on.”
“Maybe I will-”
He saw a flash of movement to his right. He peered behind the couch to see Kelly was gone. The bathroom light was on and the door closed. The woman was a ninja.
“Mason? You there?” Brian asked.
“Yeah. One minute.” He knocked on the bathroom door. “Kell? Was that you I saw blur by?”
A few seconds of silence. “Uh, I look ugly in the morning.”
Impossible.
Brian laughed in Mason's ear. “Tell her she should see Lisa in the morning. Dani and I call her Medusa.”
“The green towel hanging up is for you,” he said.
“Thanks.”
He went back to the kitchen.
“Okay,” he said. “I'll talk with her. But I didn't see anything else missing. It's so damn weird.”
“Yeah. Well, let me know what angle you want to take. But for now, it's just a simple robbery.”
“Alright. I'll pick up Dani from school.”
“Thanks. Oh, hey, Mason?”
“What?”
“Did you two do the nasty last night?”
Mason hung up.
Kelly reemerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later. She wore jeans and a short tee shirt that hugged that firm upper body of hers and showed off her midriff. Mason smirked when he noticed she didn't wear shoes or socks. She looked gorgeous with wet, stringy red hair.
“Good morning,” he said. He carried a bowl of cereal and orange juice to the dining room table. “You can't tell me this doesn't beat a hotel room any day. You got to sleep on the floor next to a guy who falls apart when it storms. And now a nice complimentary breakfast.”
She laughed. She sat at the dining room table and enjoyed her breakfast. He sat across from her with his own juice.
“Seriously,” he said. “I'm sorry you had to see that.”
“I'm not. We got to learn a little about each other. I liked it.”
He thought back to rubbing her foot. Such a simple act, one he'd love to do again, and maybe have the guts to move past the ankle.
He lowered his eyes. “Uh, you're the only one who knows about me and my bad relationship with Mother Nature. So don't tell Lisa or Brian.”
Her heart melted, sharing something with Mason no one else knew. She placed her hand over his. “No one will ever know.”
“And I'll keep your secret, too.”
She nodded, and fought the urge to put her scarred foot behind the other. She felt free, and trusted Mason. Part of her didn't want to talk about her past. With Mason, that's exactly what she would do, in time.
“Listen, Kell. I have to ask something. The guest book, from your father's funeral, did you ever unpack that? Put it somewhere?”
She shook her head. “No. It should be in the box with the rest of my books. I took it downstairs.”
“Okay, that settles it then. That's what was taken from your house last night. Can you think of any reason why?”
She blinked, stunned at the news. “How can you possibly know that?”
He took a long drink of his orange juice and kept his eyes locked on her. Her eyes were beautiful, like emeralds.
He laughed to himself. He never dreamed the woman he met when they were only sixteen, who had admitted how much she used to dislike him, would be the one he opened up to.
“Do you want to know another secret about me?”
Her eyes lit up and she leaned forward.
“When me and my parents were hit by lightning, it did something to me. I can't remember anything before that, but everything after. Photographic, eidetic, whatever you want to call it.” He tapped the side of his head. “I have it.”
She smiled. “Really?”
“Yeah. I memorized everything in your apartment on moving day, and that book isn't in your house now. Brian emailed me pictures.” He hated to lie, but it was necessary.
At least for now.
She choked up a little. “Someone stole my father's guest book? Why would anyone do that?”
“I was hoping you'd know. It's got me stumped.”
She finished her last spoonful of cereal.
“I have no idea. But I'm gonna swing back home, look through everything else. Then I'll file a report with the police.”
She moved with a purpose. She had an angry air about her as she packed everything in her suitcase. The thought of having something of hers stolen was bad enough. But the thought of someone taking something with a direct tie to her father made her blood boil.
Mason wisely stayed quiet and walked her to her car. After setting her suitcase on the passenger's seat she leaned against the driver's door.
“Thank you for letting me stay here,” she said, finally smiling. “It was better than a hotel room.”
“Anytime. Hey, listen.” Mason felt his confidence trying to run for the hills. He forced it to stay by his side, at least for another few minutes. “I know things are crazy for you right now.”
She rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. After I go to the police I gotta start doing research on home security systems.”
Mason's confidence pulled against the chain one more time. It was easier to put everything off, not take any chances, let the shell remain just a little longer.
But he remembered last night on the floor, and Kelly's reaction as he touched her foot. He wasn't a love doctor, but didn't think her body stiffened for bad reasons.
“Well, when you get all that done, maybe...let's see...”
Kelly smiled. She could see where this was going, and waited patiently.
“Maybe we could go on a date,” he said. “I mean, we've already done that, I think. But you know, like a date we know about ahead of time.”
She laughed and pushed away from the car. She stood in front of him and grabbed both his hands.
“I would love to go on a date with you,” she said. “On one condition.”
“What's that?”
“You have to make a move. Just a tiny, little small one. It could be something as simple as a kiss on the cheek.”
She loved this. She loved the dance they were having, taking their sweet time.
She would love to get him on a floor again, though.
He laughed. “I think I can do that.”
She hugged him tightly. “Thank you for last night. I never told anyone what happened to me before.”
“We're even then.”
She pulled back from their hug, but didn't let her arms drop. Mason held on to her. He could see her thinking about something. He thought for a moment she was going to lean in for a kiss, which he wouldn't have minded. There was an intense look in her eyes.
“We're not just friends anymore, are we?” she asked.
“Sure we are. I sleep on the floor with all my friends.”
Kelly smiled. She wondered if he curled all his friends' toes by rubbing their feet.
“Call me tonight sometime?”
He nodded. “Will
do.”
They shared another tight hug before he watched her drive away.
His mind reeled as he went back to his apartment.
She said yes to an official date.
Of course she did. He was afraid to admit it sometimes, but the attraction between them was obvious. They both had issues they needed to work on, but affection for each other wasn't one of them.
He thought back to their sleeping together, just inches away from each other. Tame compared to acts he witnessed with his own mind during cases, but for him, very enjoyable. He had his share of naked bedroom time, but to share what he did with Kelly, that was a first.
A medley of thoughts went through his head as he looked over missing persons reports on the internet. He thought about Kelly, his family, Doc, his life at Yingling. He thought about things he and Kelly could do on their date.
He thought about the missing guest book from her house.
He leaned back in his chair and absentmindedly petted Lucy as she sat on his desk. Something gnawed away at him, didn't sit right. Maybe he was being paranoid. He imagined paranoia might be a side effect of being a lab rat for eleven years.
He called Brian.
“Don't call me unless you have sex stories to tell.”
“We slept on the floor together last night.”
“That isn't sex.”
“We cuddled a little bit.”
“Ah, come on, Mason. My dick just shrank three inches. I'll drop off one of my tapes for you, teach you something.”
“Look, what do you know about Doc's accident?”
“Drunk driver on the beltway. Jumped the median and hit him dead-on. Both drivers dead. Nothing you don't already know. Why?”
“You're sure it was an accident?”
“That's what the report says. I'll be honest, I didn't pour over it. Not my area. I can if you want me to, but why?”
“I don't know. Just a feeling.”
Brian laughed. “You knew Doc as well as anyone. Who would have a reason to kill him? I mean, besides you.”
“That's not funny.”
“I know. Sorry. But I'm gonna need a little more to go poking around than a feeling.”
“Okay, it's just...I haven't seen the man in five years. He knocks on my door, and we hang out for a while. A week later, he's in a fatal car accident, and someone steals his memorial service guest book out of his old house. Something is wrong.”
“Wrong? I liked Doc, I really did. But wrong is taking a seven-year-old kid and playing Doctor Frankenstein to figure out what makes him tick. Doc went way past wrong a long time ago.”
“I know it's a lot to ask, but can you at least keep an eye on Kelly's street? I just don't want some crazy repeat of the wonderful night we all met. She told me about that, by the way.”
“Really? She's got it bad for you. Anyway, a squad car isn't a problem, already in the plans. And since you babysit my daughter everyday, I'll look at Doc's file for you.”
“Thanks, I owe you one.”
“Yes you do. I'm writing it down now.”
Mason hung up and stared at his desk. He grabbed a pen and paper.
He closed his eyes and called up a picture in his head of the guest book. He was sure he was the last person who signed, so there shouldn't be any missing names.
He wrote out every name, in order of who signed. Kelly was first, he and Brian were last. There were eleven names in between.
Mason recognized eight of them. Four were doctors, four were technicians. They all worked at Yingling, and had their part in dissecting his brain. Even Doctor Ronald Fuller's name was listed. He must have went to the first viewing.
Was it possible that somewhere a burglar was reading the same list Mason was?
Chapter 18
Gabriel fell to one knee as he appeared in the middle of a parking lot. He tried to gather himself as he retched and gagged. That drug they called the Cocktail flowed through his system. He was having a particularly bad reaction to it for this mind slide.
It felt like he would be pulled back to his body, and the thought terrified him. A ten second mind slide was a very nasty thing. He would vomit and be left with a huge headache.
He felt cars and children on skateboards pass through him as he tried to pull himself together. It certainly didn't help his state of mind. Fabrics, car seats, a woman's stomach, a teen's testicles, all went right through his head.
He finally managed to stand up and look around. It looked like an apartment parking lot, maybe condos. There was a fenced-in pool off in the distance, as well as a fitness center.
He ran a hand over his bald head and tried to gauge the temperature. It felt warm, warmer than he thought it should be. He strolled over to the closest cars in front of the apartment building and looked at their license plates.
They all said Florida.
“Ooh, the sunshine state.”
His hopes dwindled as he walked through the locked door leading to three floors of apartments. There were plenty of mailboxes, and not all of them were labeled. He looked them over for the magic name he was looking for.
Annie Freedman. Apartment 1-B.
She was the last name in Albert's Rierson's death book he was familiar with. She was a technician on the project, his project, but only for a year.
He didn't feel confident as he stood in front of apartment 1-B. Maryland was a long way from Florida. Gabriel guessed she flew up for Albert's funeral. There was no way he could have given anything to Annie.
He still didn't know exactly what he was looking for.
He was looking for information. That's all he knew. Was it in the form of a folder, a laptop, a secret decoder ring, a note written in lipstick, he had no idea.
He was running out of options.
Gabriel walked through the front door.
He tried to shove aside the bitterness as he looked at the tiny apartment. Annie wasn't exactly nice to him in the lab. She wasn't responsible for his torture, but she was the one who spent most of her time mixing up that damn Cocktail.
She deserved to die for that fact alone.
There was music coming from the bedroom. He passed a nice looking open kitchen and walked down the hall. He pushed his head through the bedroom door, leaving the rest of him in the hallway.
He recognized Annie Freedman. It had been a few years since he'd seen her, but it was definitely her. Very beautiful woman, and she used that beauty to have a string of relationships. She always talked about the men she was seeing in the lab.
She was apparently seeing one now.
Annie was handcuffed to her bed frame, but it didn't look like she was under arrest. A naked blond man pushed hard back and forth into her as she held on with her legs tightly around his hips. She cried with joy while he grunted. It was an odd contrast from the soft, romantic music that filled the room.
Gabriel's memory flashed back to that fateful day. It wasn't the same circumstances, but close enough to make his body start crying.
He didn't have a great memory, but that particular one would never leave him.
Coming home from work early, walking through the house, seeing his wife in their bed without him.
He pulled his head back into the hallway, and rested his hands on his knees while trying to catch his breath. A puppy came out of nowhere and scratched at the door. The bed stopped shaking for a moment as they laughed. Then they picked up their pace again.
Gabriel forced the memory out of his mind and searched the apartment. He knew this was a waste of time, but he had to try. He doubted Albert would trust any of the remaining project technicians with information that could change the world.
The only one he thought Albert would trust was Ronald Fuller, and the now deceased doctor didn't know anything.
Albert's daughter Kelly was another long shot, but he searched the place top to bottom. She had a computer, but there was nothing special on it. Gabriel had a feeling he would know what he was looking for when he saw it, and Kelly didn't ha
ve it.
He thought about the guy she was spending time with. Gabriel didn't know the man's name. They made a cute little couple, all nervous and shy around each other.
Kelly's new little toy was the only one besides her that went to Albert's funeral.
But he wasn't a doctor, wasn't a technician, knew nothing about the project. Albert wouldn't trust dangerous secrets to him.
Gabriel was trying to glance through a stack of papers on the dining room table when Annie and her sex-buddy emerged from the bedroom. They were laughing and touching. She bent down to pet the dog.
“I'm gonna use your shower,” Annie said.
Sex-buddy smiled. “Hmm. You mind if I join you?”
Gabriel sighed. This wasn't even Annie's place.
“That depends. You can't get in with me unless you have something to offer.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes as Annie grabbed her buddy's hardening penis.
“Ah, new love,” he said. “Fucking, eating, then fucking some more.”
He leaned against the wall next to the bathroom door while they went for round two in the shower. He weighed his options. He could slide back to his body, try to research her address. But if he failed, he would basically have wasted some Cocktail, and he didn't like that. He had plenty of Cocktail, for now, but every mind slide had to count.
He had a good lunch, and felt rested. The best thing to do was simply follow Annie around for a while. She had to go home eventually. He was almost certain she didn't have Albert's secret, but almost certain wasn't good enough.
“When are you gonna tell your husband about us?”
Gabriel's eyebrows went up. He stepped into the bathroom. Annie and sex-buddy were drying off in the shower.
“Mike, we've talked about this. We've got a good thing here. We said in the beginning we wouldn't bring Donnie into this.”
“Well, things change. I love you.”
“Please. You just love pounding me.”
Gabriel watched as they continued their argument. They took it from the bathroom to the bedroom as they dressed. He barely heard anything they said. He was too busy trying to control the rage inside him.
Annie Freedman, assuming that was still her official last name, was cheating on her husband Donnie, with a man named Mike.
Mind Slide Page 13
