Jewel woke slowly, feeling an odd, weird dryness in her mouth and a sticky scratchiness to her eyes. She blinked several times and then let out a half shriek.
Immediately Hurricane reached out a hand. “It’s okay. Take it easy.”
She stared at him. “What’s the matter?” she asked, and then she slowly sat up and winced. “Why am I so sore?” she muttered, and, then staring around, she cried out, “Why am I in the living room?” She turned and stared at him. “I went to bed last night, didn’t I?”
“You did,” he stated, his gaze intense. “I watched you go up the stairs and waited for you to fall asleep, before I crashed. You don’t remember anything?”
She shook her head and looked around. “No. … What time is it?”
“It’s five a.m.”
She winced at that. “Good God, that’s still nighttime, as far as I’m concerned, and not even close to a normal time to get up, so what am I doing up?” And then she glared at him. “Why did you wake me up?”
He gave a tiny shake of his head. “I didn’t wake you up,” he murmured. He was crouched in front of her, wearing only his boxers again.
“Do you always walk around without clothes on?”
He snorted. “When people sleepwalk in the night and it’s necessary to interrupt them, yes.”
She stared at him, her heart sinking. “Sleepwalk?” she repeated, her tone very low, soft.
He nodded, his gaze never wavering. “Has that been a problem before?”
She slowly shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“When you say, not that you know of, does that mean not that anybody’s ever told you about?”
She realized he meant somebody who may have slept over with her. “No, nobody has mentioned it,” she muttered. “I’m not sure I even believe you right now.”
At that, he straightened up and walked into the kitchen. “That’s great, and you don’t have to believe me, but I sure wouldn’t mind an explanation.”
“Explanation for what?”
He stared at her and asked, “You really don’t remember, do you?”
“Remember the part about my supposed sleepwalking? No. What’s going on? You seem to think that I did something or that you saw something you’re not sure about.”
“Oh, I definitely saw something,” he confirmed, leaning against the kitchen countertop, crossing his arms over his chest. “The question is, what did I see?”
She just stared at him, not sure where he was going with this.
He added, “Sometimes what I think I see is not always what I see.” She blinked. He nodded. “Yeah, that’s about how I feel right now too.”
With coffee dripping now, he turned back to her and added, “I get that it’s early and that you’re probably not ready to talk, but I am more than ready to get an explanation.”
“If I had one, I would give it to you,” she declared in exasperation, standing up. She gave herself a light stretch, realizing that she really was sore. “God,” she murmured. “I feel like I’ve walked to hell and back.”
He spun around so quickly that she took a step back, staring at him. “Whoa, whoa. What did I say?”
“You tell me,” he replied, his gaze intense.
“Just a phrase about feeling crappy. Feels like I walked to hell and back.”
At that, he didn’t seem to react quite the same way, yet he still stared at her, as if unsure whether she were serious or not. “So you didn’t mean anything by it?”
Her jaw dropped, and then slowly she closed her mouth, taking a moment to realize he was serious. “You really think I might have been serious about that?” She stared at him, frowning for a moment, dumbfounded. “Is that even possible?”
“You’d be surprised,” he noted, his tone hard. “The shit I deal with, even a simple phrase like that has all kinds of meaning.”
“Not with me,” she snapped, glaring at him. “I don’t know what the hell is even going on. I went upstairs to sleep in my bed last night, and I wake up, and I’m down here.” She tried to keep the note of accusation out of her voice, but she didn’t succeed, and his eyebrows shot up.
“So you think I did it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to think. What I do know is that I’m sitting down here in barely any clothes and freezing, yet you’re wearing less than me and are having absolutely no trouble with the chill.”
“What chill?” he asked. He walked over, took a closer look at her, put a hand on her head, and immediately frowned. Grabbing a blanket, he bundled her up. “That’s a reaction,” he muttered, “but to what?”
“Reaction to what though?”
“Just give it a minute.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on here.”
“No, I realize that. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” she cried out.
“For making it sound as if you had something to do with this. I mean, I know you did, but I’m just now realizing that you really didn’t understand.”
“More riddles,” she snapped, glaring at him.
“Yes, to you, but really, to me, it’s just more questions.”
“I have never sleepwalked in my life—that I know of—if that’s even what you’re talking about.”
“That’s part of what I’m talking about but not all of it.”
By the time the coffee was done dripping, she felt better but still chilled.
“That chill worries me though.”
“Yeah, I’m not exactly feeling all that great about it myself,” she replied, wincing, as if she were getting worse. Her teeth started to chatter, and she looked up at him in pain.
He made a startled exclamation, set down the coffee, and, sitting down beside her, picked her up, and pulled her into his arms.
Immediately she felt a furnace of heat wrap around her. She shivered harder for a moment, and then the chills seemed to reduce to something almost manageable. Wrapped up as she was, she couldn’t talk, though she didn’t care about talking. The cold had hit her sideways to the point that she was almost numb.
He worked his hands over her legs and her arms. “You should warm up soon,” he muttered.
“I am. I just don’t know why or how any of this can be happening.”
He held her close but continued to rub her limbs. “We’ll give it a minute. You should start to improve soon now.”
And, while she was warming up, it wasn’t to the point that she wanted to be separated and sitting on her own. So, when he made a move to do just that, she clung to him.
“Easy now, you’re fine.”
“Says you,” she muttered, slowly separating, but, as soon as too much air was between them, she started to shiver again. Immediately he wrapped her back up and held her close.
When the shivering finally slowed down to the point that she thought it safe to move, she muttered, “I think I’m okay now.”
“I don’t think you’re okay at all, but I agree that we can probably try to separate again and see how it goes.”
And, with great care, he placed her on the couch beside him, then tucked the blanket around her shoulders and her feet and asked, “Can you handle a bit of coffee?”
She nodded. “I was hoping it was still hot.”
“If not, we’ll get some fresh.” When he held it out to her, he suggested, “This is probably about the right temperature now, so you can drink it right away.”
And, with that, she stuck out a hand from under the covers and reached for the cup, immediately taking a sip. As soon as the hot brew hit her throat, she felt the warmth sliding through her. “Oh, Lord, that feels so good.”
He just nodded and kept a worried gaze on her.
“I’m fine,” she muttered, hating that look in his eye.
“Sure you are,” he stated, with a confidence that he obviously didn’t feel.
She gave him a wry look. “Guess this doesn’t normally happen on your other cases, huh?”
He shrugged. “Well, there are cases, and then there are cases.”
“Another time it’d be fascinating to hear all about that,” she noted, with an eye roll, “but right now doesn’t feel like a good time.”
“Of course not. Some of it is pretty freaky, and, right at this moment, you’re talking to people who aren’t here, and you’re getting chills, and you have no clue what is happening in that head of yours.” She glared at him, and he smiled. “Sorry, but it’s true.”
“I haven’t done anything.”
“I know,” he added, with a chuckle. “That’s partly why this is so interesting.”
“Yeah, not for me,” she declared, “and it shouldn’t be for you either.”
He raised an eyebrow at that. “It is what it is. What we have to do is figure out what the heck is going on here and see if we can’t get some answers to free you from whatever this energy is doing to you.”
“Free me?” she asked, her gaze narrowed.
“It would appear that, in some way, you are quite seriously affected by this energy—or else it’s a reaction to your movements in the night.”
“Yeah, you keep bringing that up, but I don’t know just what it is you think I have done.”
He nodded. “When you’re a little warmer, I’ll show you.”
She stared at him. “What do you mean, show me? What did I do?”
“Nothing too crazy,” he replied carefully. “But considering we went to great lengths to not encourage this energy, it is a little disconcerting that you felt that you could go change things in the middle of the night.”
She just shook her head at him. “You’re not making any sense.”
“I know that, to you, I’m not making any sense at all. I do get that. Drink your coffee, and let’s get you back, so you’re feeling a little more normal, and then I’ll show you.”
Hearing his words, she quickly gulped down the coffee, her mind trying to figure out what had gone on. The memories were blank, just a smoky vision of nothing, as if she had walked forever though. Her legs were sore. Her arms were tired. She looked over at him. “I seriously feel like I did one of the hardest workouts or hikes in my life during the night, and everything hurts.”
He nodded. “That is often the case with energy work, particularly if you’re fighting against something.”
Her gaze widened at that. “I wish all of this wasn’t gobbledygook to me.”
“Now we’re back to the fact that I’m not sure it truly is gobbledygook for you.”
She shook her head. “That implies that I’m deliberately trying to fake something.”
“No, it doesn’t, not at all,” he argued, “but you had the foresight to contact Stefan.”
“You keep bringing that up too,” she stated, looking at him. “And I keep telling you that I didn’t know anything about Stefan. I just … He was an expert, a number to call, somebody to talk to.”
“But the right number to call, the right somebody to talk to.”
“Surely he has a word for that, like maybe I was fated to contact him or something.”
“He definitely has words for that, and he does send out a transmitter message to help anybody in need, to have them come to him so that he can help, since so little exists in this way of assistance.”
“Yeah, you’re not kidding,” she agreed, with feeling. “You’d have to be absolutely nuts to have anything to do with this stuff. Did you ever ask him if he had any dealings with me before that?” she asked curiously.
He shook his head. “No, I don’t suppose I did. Not clearly anyway.”
“Maybe you should. Maybe I have a history with him that I don’t remember right now because of whatever happened to me.”
“Yeah, being found out on the highway, alone, naked, and dead? That part’s freaky too.”
She stared at him. “That alone should exonerate me from any culpability in this. Yet it does feel like it’s got to be related somehow.”
“Somebody helped you do that or somebody did that to you.” She slowly straightened, glaring at him, and he winced. “Okay, my bad, that wasn’t a great turn of phrase.”
“Helped me to do this?” she asked in an ominous tone.
“I really didn’t mean it the way it came out.”
“How else could you possibly mean it?” she asked, staring at him in shock. “Do you truly think I had something to do with this? With these pearls, with the women, with me found dead on the side of the road?”
“No,” he stated, his voice clipped and clear. “I don’t.”
She pulled away and stared at him. “I don’t even know what to think about what you just said, but believe me. I don’t trust anything you have to say right now because of it.” She sank back into the corner of the couch, closed her eyes, and sipped her coffee. When she was done, she stood, and, still slightly cold, she stated, “Okay. What did I do? Show me.”
He looked at her and then nodded. “Fine, let’s go look at the safe.”
“The safe?” She stared at him. He nodded again. She turned to look at the drywall, leaning on the floor. “Why did you open it?” she asked in confusion.
At that, he shook his head. “I didn’t. You did.”
“I did not,” she snapped at him. “We decided it was safer to have the necklace and bracelet apart and intentionally locked that necklace in the safe.”
“Oh, I know,” he agreed. “So where’s the bracelet then?”
“You hid it. You wrapped it up in something energy-related, and you hid it. First you thought it should be put into the safe, and then you and Stefan decided it would be safer if the two pieces were apart.”
“Where did I put it?” he asked, staring at her steadily.
She looked around and replied, “In the kitchen, didn’t you?”
“So go get it,” he urged her.
Glaring at him and not at all sure why he was doing this, she walked into the kitchen, went to the cupboard where he’d put it, and checked, stunned. “It’s not there.”
“No, it isn’t.”
She turned and looked back at the safe, shook her head, and said, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no.”
“Oh yes. You woke me up when you opened the safe, and you put the bracelet in with the necklace.”
She stared at the safe, walked over, found it locked securely, quickly opened it, and, sure enough, there in front of her was both the bracelet and the necklace. She turned to look at him in shock. “Not that I’m saying I believe you, but why? If I did do this, why would I?” He hesitated. She narrowed her gaze at him. “The truth, please.”
“I imagine it’s because the energy was too strong for you to ignore it. Whatever is going on, … you are connected, and these souls, these pieces of jewelry, they have a hold over you—in one way or another.”
“Why on earth would they want that?”
He shrugged. “If you think about it, they already got one thing that they wanted.”
“What’s that?” she asked, looking at the safe.
“They’re together again. More than that, they got you to do that for them.”
*
Hurricane had quickly separated the jewels once again, and this time he didn’t show her where he was putting them. She deliberately didn’t watch. Jewel had been quiet for the last hour, ever since she had closed the safe and returned to the couch.
When he refilled their coffee cups and sat down in her tiny living room again, he asked, “Are you okay?” He watched as a wave of furious color washed over her cheeks and realized it probably wasn’t the best question. “I’m not really sure how to phrase it,” he said. “I can’t say I’ve been in this position before.”
At that, she hesitated and then frowned. “I keep getting angry at you, and I guess I shouldn’t. Who in the world could understand all this energy stuff?”
“You have every right to be angry. Something is manipulating your world, but the question is, what? And I guess the bigger question is, why?”
She nodded at that. “I don’t understand any of this. I got an email, asking me if I could repair the clasp and a couple of the threads on the pearls. That’s it.”
“Did you ever find those emails?”
“Yes, and I printed them out, plus forwarded them to you, right?” And then she stopped, stared at him, and asked, “I did, didn’t I?”
He pulled up his email and nodded. “They’re right here. And the printer whirred behind your canvases, but I never retrieved those either. Sorry, I didn’t have a chance to look at either.”
She shrugged. “It’s fine. I was just worried I hadn’t even sent them.”
He ran through those two emails and added, “Okay, so really nothing indicative of a problem in here. So how did you receive the pearls?”
“I told you that too. I got them in the mail, by courier.”
“We need to track down who and how that came to be as well,” he noted. “Did they come together?”
“No,” she snapped, her frustration building. “They came in separate deliveries, which you know very well. The necklace came before any of this started, and the bracelet? … You were right here and helped me open it.”
“No problem or no weird feeling when you held the necklace?”
“No, I didn’t even realize at the beginning that there was a matching bracelet. He–at least I think it was a male–told me that he had another piece to go with the necklace that needed work as well. It wasn’t suspicious. It wasn’t different. It wasn’t weird, no strangeness to it, until, as I already told you, … I was finishing the work on the necklace and began adding the positive energy that I always do to help people. I would never add energy other than that, and I didn’t even know that it was something you could do.”
“No, but, if you think about it, if you can do something one way, there will always be people out there trying to do it the other way.”
“You mean, if I’m trying to put good energy into something, somebody out there will be trying to pull it away or to instill bad energy?”
“Yes. Although bad isn’t the word I would choose.”
“Right, you don’t mean bad. You mean evil.”
“That is a more descriptive word, yes,” he agreed, as he nodded. Just then his phone rang. “Stefan, how are you doing?”
“A little tired. I’m sending you some photos of images that I sketched last night. Go over them with Jewel and see if she recognizes any of them.”
“Will do,” he replied, and then he explained to Stefan about her night.
“Damn,” he muttered. “Whatever this is, somehow it’s gotten into her space and her energy. We have to keep her safe, while we figure out a way to detach her.”
“Yeah, and I’m not sure how well detaching will work either.”
“Let’s not worry about that just yet,” Stefan suggested, and then he yawned through the phone.
“Sounds like a rough night for you.”
“Yeah, definitely, but …” He hesitated, then added, “I’ll need to talk to you in a little bit about something else.”
“Yeah, ditto.” Hurricane hung up and waited for the photo files to open up on his phone, and, when they did, he winced.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Stefan was called to sketch last night, and, when he does, they’re usually not the prettiest of images.”
“No, I don’t imagine so.” Jewel frowned. “Did he send images?” She scooted closer to Hurricane on the couch. When he held up the first one, she sucked back her breath and stared at it, her face twisting. “Good God, that’s just like a photograph.”
“And that’s the way these images are coming out,” he noted. “He doesn’t always draw in this clear graphic form, but obviously a message is involved.”
“A message?” she asked, turning and looking at him.
“For some reason, the clarity is needed.”
“Great. Anybody who can do this …” And, when she didn’t have words, she groaned, as she stared at the image. “Do you think it’s one of the women?”
“That’s what Stefan was hoping you could tell us. Do you recognize her?”
“No, I don’t.” She shook her head. “And that’s saying something because, with an image that clear, it would be hard to not recognize her, if I knew her.”
At that, he flicked to the second image. She seemed to study Stefan’s technique and shook her head. “He’s incredibly talented,” she murmured.
“He is, indeed.”
When he got to the third one, she pulled back and stared. “That’s Anna,” she cried out. She jumped up, raced over to her workbench, and pulled out one of her sketches. “It’s her.”
But whereas she had done an almost contemporary, almost modernistic image, Stefan had done one in brutal clarity.
Hurricane quickly sent Stefan a text. Number three is Anna, one of the victims in the pearl bracelet.
“Are there more?” she asked, looking at his phone and then back at him.
He nodded, hesitated, and then flicked again. She nodded, tears coming to her eyes. “Yes, that’s another one. Nellie, from the necklace.”
“And he has one more here.”
As he flicked it open, she cried out, “That’s Rhea. She’s in the bracelet.” She stared at him. “How could Stefan get the same images as I did?”
At that, Hurricane turned to her and then replied, “Because, for Stefan, this is the energy work that he does.”
“Yes, but I don’t,” she snapped, glaring at him.
“Yeah, I hear you,” he said, “but, right now, it seems that you do.”
She sank back down beside him on the couch. “Why me? Why these images? Why now?”
“Why you? Because you opened the necklace for energy transmission, incoming and outgoing, it seems. Why these images is because you were given the necklace and now the bracelet to repair. Why now? Maybe for no other reason than the fact that somebody who owns the necklace wanted to get it fixed, so that somebody else could wear it again.”
She stared at him. “Nobody can wear this,” she stated, her voice harsh. “Whoever wears it will die.”
“And yet,” he began gently, studying her carefully, “When you were at the hospital, you kept asking for a necklace, and you kept reaching to your neck for it. As if you had worn it. And you’d had it on your neck at one time, right?”
She stared at him. “The way my memory is, I can’t be sure of anything.”
“You told Stefan that you had tried it on, something about the repair. Think of how you work.”
“Maybe. It was a beautiful piece. Sometimes they don’t lay flat. What difference does it make?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I mean, I’m grasping at straws here. That you were trying to put loving energy into it was one trigger. However, that you put it on maybe was a bigger trigger. Maybe somebody who would wear it wouldn’t necessarily end up as a victim, but maybe, because of what you did, it made you become a victim.”
She stared. “Are we thinking that this killer is still out there and that the killer may have sent the necklace directly to me, for me?”
“I can’t say that for sure,” he told her, shaking his head. “For all we know, the killer is long dead, and this necklace was inherited. Until we can track down these women in your visions and Stefan’s, we don’t know whether they died decades ago, if not centuries ago. Or maybe the necklace and bracelet were sold in some estate sale, and somebody pulled it out of a dusty dark corner, and that coming back to you has brought it back to life again.”
She swallowed hard. “You almost make it sound like this thing is alive.”
He smiled gently. “Don’t ever kid yourself. It is energy, and energy never dies.”
“Right,” she murmured. “That’s just not very reassuring.” She got up abruptly and stated, “I’ll go have a shower. It’s six in the morning and way too early, but I’m not sure I have much more to give at the moment.”
“If you want to go for a nap instead, do that,” he suggested. “Otherwise, we’ve got a long day ahead of us, and we still can’t do very much, until the business world opens.”
Obviously she wanted to ask questions but, at the same time, probably didn’t want to know exactly what he had planned when the businesses did open. She nodded. “I’ll go lie down and see if I can sleep again.”
He nodded. “Good.” As soon as she went upstairs, his phone rang again. He looked down, and, not recognizing the number, he answered it cautiously.
“My name is Grant.”
“Yes, right. Hi, Grant. Hurricane here.”
“You know me?” Grant asked.
“No, but I certainly know Dr. Maddy.”
He sighed. “Such a strange world that everybody knows my wife and my connection to her and that’s how I get identified.”
Hurricane chuckled. “Not necessarily, but she pushed some of the energy ahead to make it an easier trip for you.”
“If you say so,” Grant muttered. “Look. This case has really gotten ahold of her.”
“It certainly got ahold of Jewel as well.”
“Right, and anything that goes bump in the night always has me on edge.”
At that, Hurricane had to chuckle. “Not a big fan, huh?”
“The stuff that they see is pretty darn crazy, but then I gather you’re in the same business.”
“Pulled in by the same forces,” he said honestly. “It’s not as if I can ignore this.”
“But you don’t have much of a choice either, do you?”
“I don’t. Some of my skills are …” He stopped and then added, “Let’s just say, unique.”
At that, Grant snorted. “Every one of you guys appears to be unique. This is a world where nobody knows what you can do, and yet you all exist in some weird time-space dimension that makes no sense to the rest of us.”
At that, Hurricane burst out laughing at the disgruntled tone in Grant’s voice. “I hear you, man. So, is this meant to be a helpful call?”
“What? You mean it isn’t?” he quipped on a note of laughter. “Anything that sets Maddy off the way this has will be something that I’m all over, just trying to keep her safe.”
“Is she not safe?” he asked hesitantly.
“I’m not sure, but I haven’t seen her like this in a very long time. So I’d like to solve it as quickly as possible.”
“I’m all for that,” Hurricane agreed. “You got any idea what we’re supposed to do about it?”
“I’ve pulled some of the names that you gave to Stefan,” he stated. “And I understand from Maddy that I have some images to look at regarding this case. But Stefan’s artwork that I’ve seen before is pretty crazy sometimes—some of it is dead clear, and some of it isn’t.”
“These are like photographs,” Hurricane stated, “and you should be able to get some IDs off them via facial recognition, I would think.”
“Particularly if anybody has names to go with the images,” he added, a question in his voice.
“In that I can help you.”
“Really?” he said. “So whatever psychic is giving us that is somebody I would love to work with.”
“Be careful what you wish for. In this case it’s Jewel, and it’s not terribly easy on her. Something’s going on in her space, and, while we’re not yet sure, we suspect a possession of some kind.”
At that, Hurricane heard Grant suck in his breath. “Okay, how about you give me the names to match whichever drawings. I’ll add it to the list that I’ve got and see what I can come up with.”
“Also, can you check into Jewel’s incident report? Like where she was found and anything about it that we don’t already know, just because you may have access to more information.”
“I got the gist of it from Stefan, but that’s definitely not the normal abduction.”
“We’re not sure that it was an abduction.”
At that, Grant’s voice turned brisk. “That you’ll need to explain.”
“Not sure I can,” he admitted. “A lot of woo-woo stuff goes bump in the night for this one.”
“Unfortunately there always is, when it comes to Maddy’s cases. I can look into Jewel’s case and see if we can come up with anything.”
“I was hoping there might be surveillance video and witnesses or something, anything at this point.”
“In your dream world that would be very nice,” Grant said, “but it’s rare to get something quite so clear-cut as that in my line of work.”
“Yeah, well, I keep hoping,” Hurricane replied. “Now she’s started to walk in her sleep, and these objects that are infused with a certain dark energy are calling to her in a dangerous way.”
“Right, and that’s something that you specialize in, I understand.”
“Yes, I don’t know if Maddy’s mentioned some of the specialized museums we protect.”
“I’ve heard about them, yes. Not that I particularly want to see firsthand.”
“No, I’m sure you don’t,” Hurricane agreed, with a chuckle. “However, because I do what I do, you don’t have to deal with these … artifacts.”
“I’m not sure I could do anything that would help with that either,” he noted. “This is … There’s only so much those of us who don’t have any energy-working abilities can deal with.”
“Yet, if you’re with Dr. Maddy, I suspect you probably have abilities you are using that you aren’t even aware of.”
“So they say,” Grant murmured, with a note of laughter. “Let me just add that I’m not too worried about that pathway.”
“It will happen anyway,” Hurricane warned.
“Yeah, it already has,” Grant admitted, “but still, this is out of my wheelhouse. I’ll get back to you.” With that, he hung up abruptly.
Jewel sat on the stairs, her chin propped on her hand, looking at him. “Who is Grant?” she asked.
Hurricane was startled, as he wondered how she knew his name, then realized he’d said the man’s name at the beginning of their telephone call. “That was Dr. Maddy’s husband,” he replied, looking at her.
“You said something about possession,” she noted, her tone equally soft and controlled.
He hesitated again and then nodded. “Yes, but we’re not exactly sure—not sure how, not in the expected ways of possession.”
“Is there anything you guys are sure of?”
At that, he smiled, because her voice had a teasing note to it, not full of blame or anger. “I think we know what’s going on, yet we’re just not sure how it came about and who is involved.”
“You really think that I’m being possessed by somebody?”
“It’s not like that in the generic possession sense,” he began, as he got up and walked over to the bottom of the stairs to look at her. “In a case like this, I think the dark energy has somehow gotten into your system, probably when you opened yourself up to the necklace, and somebody—either connected to these women or the actual killer himself—somehow managed to get into your energy. If we can track down these names you’ve given us, even find proof that these women were murdered, we can work on that angle.”
“But if they’re in my energy, I should be able to get rid of them, right?”
“Absolutely,” he confirmed, looking at her with a nod of approval. “That is very important to remember.”
“So this isn’t a case where I’ve got them and I have to keep them forever?”
“No, but we need to make sure that we do it in such a way that we don’t cause you any more hurt.”
“Do you mean hurt or do you mean ending up in one of those pearls?”
“That’s the ultimate injury, is it not?” he asked softly.
She looked at him, something dancing in her eyes. “I’m hungry.” Her voice was garbled. Almost as if the prosaic turn of voice had caught her by surprise, a burble of laughter popped out.
He chuckled. “Now that’s a sound I really like to hear,” he stated, with a smile.
“I’m not sure I’ve been laughing very much lately. I feel there’s been nothing but one wave of problems after another.”
“Got it. Did you manage to sleep at all?”
“No, when I heard that phone call, that was the end of it.”
“Sorry about that. I did give him all the names you came up with. He’ll also look into where you were found and see if we can come up with any more information.”
“I suppose that would be one of the biggest things. I mean, it’s one thing to have whatever you’re saying here happening, but it’s an entirely different thing to have ended up naked and left for dead out on some highway.”
“Exactly,” he agreed. “I don’t know who or what is involved in this, or why, but I think a couple issues are involved, and solving at least one would help us to narrow down the other one, if only because we’ve ruled out the other, you know?”
“Well, that’s the thing. Is all this related, or are they different things entirely?”
“You never found anything missing when you looked around your house, either the first one or this artist loft, right?”
“No, says the woman with amnesia.” She looked at him puzzled. “Nothing outside of my laptop and cell phone.”
“I’m just back to wondering if somebody did find something.”
She shook her head. “I mean, it’s possible. However, if they were looking for the stuff for my show, it was already sent out. That much we gathered from my emails. My jewelry designs were already sent to the show, and the necklace was in my safe. I don’t know what to say about the safe, but it’s awkward having it open and exposed,” she noted, looking at it. “I feel that we need to close it off again.”
“We can do that.” Hurricane hopped up the few stairs to where the wall safe was and replaced the drywall, making it look as close to having always been there as he could. “Obviously, if this were a long-term solution, we would be closing this off with proper drywall or maybe cement.”
“Or just make it look like a proper safe and not try to hide it at all,” she muttered.
“That too,” he agreed, looking over at her. “I suspect that’s what it was when you first moved in here.”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure I have that memory.”
“So tell me something. Who would have broken into your house, or, if they saw you passed out, looking like you were dying, who would have dumped your body?”
“That’s what I keep coming back to,” she shared, puzzled. “Because, to me, they’re very separate issues. Unless the break-in was to abduct me? I don’t know. I mean, whether my death involved someone I knew or a stranger, why dump me by a highway and why nude like that? So, if I had a lover, a boyfriend, and I’d somehow passed out or died here in front of them. Maybe he was terrified. Maybe he would have taken me out of here, but why not drive me directly to the hospital or bury me somewhere I’d never be found or, hey, how about just calling 9-1-1? Could it be just literally a case of panic?”
He nodded. “I’m not sure that’s how I would react, but—”
“Yeah, we can’t really say how we would react in that situation. The fact of the matter is, I don’t know how even I would react if somebody I was with died suddenly.” Then she stopped, shook her head, and added, “Actually I do know. I would call for an ambulance and then would be at the hospital, waiting for news, while doing everything I could to try and help figure out what happened,” she stated.
“So, it takes an uncaring person to have taken you out onto the highway and dumped you. The other thing to keep in mind is that whoever did that will be shocked to see you. Alive. Not dead. Although if we could get some reaction from someone in that manner, that would be a game changer and a dead giveaway.”
“That would be something, wouldn’t it?” she muttered.
“Obviously it wasn’t Lucas or Charles. They didn’t appear to be surprised to see you at all.”
“No. Back to basics though, I definitely need food.”
“Good. Do you want me to cook something?”
“No, I want to get out of here for a bit,” she muttered. “I want to go for a walk. I want to just go someplace, anywhere. The walls are closing in on me.” He hesitated. She glared at him, shook her head, and stated, “No, we’re going.”
“Okay,” he said. “As long as food is part of this equation, I’m okay with it.”
She snickered. “As long as you get food, anything is okay with you.”
“If you say so.” He laughed. “Come on. Get dressed. We’ll go for a walk first and then find some food.”