Into a Dangerous Mind (28 page)

“Agreed.”
 
He turned his attention to Zach, dismissing her and reached out his hand to shake.
 
“Agent Hatcher.”

“Director.”

Cassidy marveled as the Director walked briskly past them and onto the elevator without as much as another glance.
 
“Well, he’s certainly talkative.”

talkative.
 
Before the incident with his wife, he wouldn’t even acknowledge my existence.
 
I think now he tolerates me because she keeps asking me to dinner.”

“Great, although I wouldn’t want to spend an evening with that guy.”
 
She shuddered as his residual energy washed over her.
 
“He’s kind of slimy.
 
So what do we do now?”

Zach smirked at her description of the director, but apparently chose to ignore it.
 
“I thought we could do some more research while we’re here.”

Cassidy turned intentionally narrowed eyes at Zach.
 
“Then why did you ask Dix to get you a secure computer link installed in your house and have a list of hard-copy files transported there as well?”

Zach’s expression turned sheepish as he took Cassidy’s hand.
 
“Okay, you got me. I was hoping to let the gaggle of reporters thin down a bit so you could get out of here without a scene.”

“A scene?
 
You mean an even bigger scene than they’ve been making?”

custody within minutes and, as far as Cassidy knew, he was probably still there.

When Zach only shrugged, she gave him what she hoped was a confident smile.
 
“We might as well get this over with.”

With their minds firmly linked, Zach sent her a wave of support and a jaunty grin.
 
“Okay, keep your fingers and toes close to your body or the sharks will snap them off.”
 
He motioned to a team of five agents she’d never seen before and the men surrounded them like a barrier.

“Thanks, great advice.”
 
They stepped through the front doors and started down the steps.

Immediately, the tide of reporters overtook them until they were surrounded by a moving mass of bodies all yelling out questions.
 
The five agents kept a close perimeter around them, but microphones, arms, and faces still pressed into the cracks between the men.
 
Cassidy resisted the urge to push the faces back through the cracks.

One reporter reached out and grabbed Cassidy’s arm.
 
Before one of the wall-of-five could remove it, Cassidy started to pry it off herself.
 
But as soon as she touched the hand, skin to skin, her vision blurred and she swayed against Zach.

She blinked furiously and looked up at the reporter who still held her and gasped as she saw the pretty blonde’s face split open, a steady stream of blood dripping down between the dead staring eyes.
 
She recoiled from the horror of the sight.

Zach’s strong arms caught her as she stumbled.
 
Then the vise grip hand of the reporter was pried off of her arm.
 
Only then did her vision clear.
 
Waves of disorientation and confusion assaulted her as she watched the very alive blonde reporter rail angrily against the wall-of-five’s treatment.

“You’re interfering with freedom of the press,” she yelled in a high whiny voice.
 
“You’ll be hearing from our station’s lawyer!”

Before Cassidy could catch her breath, she was pressed into the car and they were driving away from the maelstrom of activity.

“Did you see that?
 
Or am I going crazy?”
 
She turned to look into Zach’s concerned expression.

“We were linked, I saw it.”
 
His face held a mask of anger, but she knew it wasn’t directed at her.

What did this mean?

“die in your sleep” kind of passing.

Reading her thoughts, Zach shrugged.
 
He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips.
 
“I don’t know.
 
But we’ll keep a close watch on her.
 
If she wouldn’t have touched you, you would have never picked up on the vision.”

Zach pulled out his cell phone and began giving orders to have the woman put under surveillance.

Cassidy leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes.
 
What else could happen?

Maybe when all this was done she could go somewhere and relax—somewhere preferably without many psychics.

“Yeah, right,” she mumbled.
 
“I’ve got to learn to deal with this gift before I’ll have any peace.”

”

get used to it?”

.
 
What ugly colors to paint a school.
 
Is that a high school?”
 
He pulled off to the side of the road.

Cassidy glanced out the window.
 
“Hey, that’s my Alma Matter, I’ll have you know.”
 
She turned around and punched him lightly in the shoulder.

“But green and gold?
 
What was your mascot, the fighting caterpillars?”

Cassidy gave Zach her best glare.
 
“No.
 
It’s the Greenway High School Demons.”

Zach laughed.
 
“So you went from a Greenway Demon to an Arizona State Sun Devil?”

“Yes, I did, and I was on the committee that fought to keep the Demon as our mascot my senior year, right before my senior cello recital.”

The hair on the back of her neck ruffled, and a cold chill swept through her.
 
Suddenly, she could smell wood polish, industrial carpet cleaner and stale sweat.
 
She glanced back at the high school and the smell and the chill became stronger.

“Are you okay, Cass?”
 
Zach reached out to touch her cheek.

“Yes, I think so.”
 
She rubbed her hands up and down her arms until the chill passed.
 
“I was thinking about my senior recital when I started to smell wood polish, industrial cleaner and sweat.”

Zach raised his eyebrows at her so she explained.

“You know, that distinctive smell that every high school auditorium in the world has?
 
I can still smell it, but it’s starting to dissipate.”

Zach sniffed and then shook his head.
 
“I don’t smell it.
 
It must be psychic and not physical.”

“Must be.”
 
She looked back toward the school.
 
The jumble of white buildings each had two thick stripes of green and gold with a large black number in the middle painted vertically next to each door.
 
So many memories—she could see the vibrations of them in a physical wave surrounding everything.
 
But whatever she’d just experienced was gone.
 
Now it was just a school with a warm hum of happy memories.

She turned to Zach.
 
“I’ve got a bad feeling something is going to happen here, but I’m not sure what.”

“Does it have anything to do with the Reaper?”

“I don’t know.
 
God, I hope not.
 
I’d like to leave the good memories in tact.”

“We’ve got a copycat.”
 
Dix slapped down the morning paper onto Cassidy’s coffee table and sat down next to Kathy.

Cassidy reached for the paper as Zach sat down next to her.

Kathy paused, her coffee cup suspended half way to her mouth.
 
“How do you know it isn’t the actual Reaper?”

Zach shook his head.
 
“No psychic residue on the body.”

“I haven’t had any visions about any new murders, and the annoying blonde reporter is still alive.”
 
Cassidy opened the paper and began to read.
 
“It says the poor woman was stabbed thirty-seven times.
 
That doesn’t sound like the Reaper anyway—he likes to inflict pain and fear, but nothing we’ve seen him do to date has been like this.”

“Exactly,” agreed Zach.

Dix sighed and looked around the room.
 
They needed to find this bastard and find him quick.
 
“If the copycats are already popping out of the woodwork, this is going to get a whole lot messier before it’s done.
 
I know I was against this, but maybe Cassidy should try and contact him again.”

Zach’s face creased into a scowl.
 
“I don’t like it, but I think you’re right.
 
We’ll have to wait until the Director calls.
 
He’s expecting an update in twenty minutes.
 
He also wants my mother’s contact information.
 
It seems he’s trying to recruit more of her students for the FBI.”

“I thought he didn’t believe in psychic powers,” observed Cassidy.

Zach laughed.
 
“He probably still doesn’t, but I think they’ve started to notice that the agents who have gifts have a better track record than those who don’t.”

“Hey,” protested Dix.
 
“I’ve done pretty damn well, and I wouldn’t be able to tell a psychic if he bit me on the ass.”

Everyone laughed at Dix’s graphic description.