Maddy's Floor (28 page)

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm that nephew."

THURSDAY AFTERNOON

D
rew's announcement that he was John's nephew raised Stefan's eyebrows. Maddy had forgotten to mention that fact to Stefan. Not that it had mattered. Drew wasn't the one causing the black energy. She'd seen his energy and knew he wasn't the one causing the trouble.

Besides, explanations would have to wait. Stefan desperately needed rest and Maddy needed to get back to work.

The trip back had been silent and uncomfortable. During the drive, Maddy made several important phone calls. The first was to request that the newly installed security cameras be checked to make sure they were working properly and that there was no unusual activity. Too bad there was no way to track visitors to Maddy's floor, or The Haven in general. Maddy didn't know of one extended care home that had such a system in place. It would be helpful right now though.

In between these calls, a pulsating silence filled the car. She knew Drew didn't understand what he'd seen today and that he had questions. Not knowing how or what to say, she hoped he'd give her a chance to sort it out before demanding an explanation.

In the back of her mind, she remembered the warning about Drew being in danger. She still hadn't figured that out either. And she needed to.

Maddy asked Drew to drop her off at The Haven. After the tense return journey, he pulled in front of The Haven and parked. She hopped out of his truck, gave him a hurried good-bye and practically ran to the front entrance.

"Maddy?" Drew asked.

Maddy turned around to face him. He'd hopped out but stood beside his truck.

"Where are you running to and why?"

She sighed. "To your uncle. Something's going on and I want to see if I can figure it out. I need to know who else is in your uncle's life. People he knew really well in the past. And now. That includes those that he currently loves, who might love him, and those he may have loved at one time and definitely doesn't now."

"Do you have any idea how many people that could be?"

"People are getting sick, possibly dying, and you're a detective who's close to the victim," she said, exasperated. "Help us figure this out before someone else gets hurt."

He studied her, his eyes narrowed and assessing. "Say I do find these people, the ones who are still alive anyway, what can you do?"

"I'm not sure yet." She stared past him, considering. "It might narrow down the options. If I see these people, see their energies, I might be able to tell if they have anything to do with this. I can't guarantee it, of course. Energy is unique, like a fingerprint." She gazed at him. "Remember, Stefan thinks it's the same person who may have been involved with the deaths of all those kids. Cross reference the people from today with them and…"

"Right, I get it." He held up a hand. "Please keep me in the loop. When will it be safe to call Stefan to ask more questions?"

Maddy checked her watch. "Give him an hour, at least, if not twice that. He should have recovered enough by then."

"Good enough. Is my uncle safe?"

"I'm hoping so, at least for a little bit longer. We believe that whoever is doing this set their hooks into him a long time ago. And are acting on them now. I'm pretty sure that's the reason for his rapid physical decline recently. I don't know what they might do next."

"Can I put a guard on him? Move him to a safer place? What?"

Maddy's laugh was sad. "With energy work, they wouldn't need to be physically close to do this. Alibis are useless. I've scanned people in Egypt from my apartment. He's not safe anywhere. Consider The Haven one of the safest places for him to be right now because it's one of the few places where someone can see what's happening." She was adamant on that point.

Poor Drew, he was grappling with this new idea but he was getting it. The horrified understanding on his face said it all.

"Right. If someone wants to and has the skill to, they can cause the death of anyone, anywhere in the world," she said. "It wouldn't be easy and it would depend on the other person's health and mental state, but it's possible from any distance."

She kept talking as she reached for the front door. Drew followed. "I am suspicious this person had something to do with two other patients at the hospital, Dr. Lenning and Jansen Svaar – possibly for many more attacks and deaths over the years. Find a connection. Find your killer." She didn't want to bring up Eric Colgan as another potential victim at this point.

She'd follow up on him if this trail panned out. Pulling open the door, she glanced back over her shoulder. "And fast. Chances are this person will kill again, and soon."

***

Drew stared after her as she raced inside.

Could she and Stefan be right? If death were as simple as disconnecting someone's cord then, as impossible as it sounded, it would explain how those kids long ago had literally dropped dead on the spot. Like unplugging a lamp from a socket, they'd been unplugged from their cords.

Why those kids? Why no one else in the last twenty years? Were there other deaths that had gone unnoticed by law enforcement? Not that he'd blame them, with so little evidence and such a far-out cause of death – well, he was sure no one would have considered such a possibility. He wasn't sure he believed it himself. Getting other law enforcement to agree would be impossible. Obtaining a conviction based on conjecture – never.

Ice settled in his stomach. Perhaps it was something unrelated to his uncle – like the Internet had given this killer access to millions of potential victims?

No. Maddy said they had to have a personal connection. She also said with a connection, they didn't need to be close in order to do something like this. He couldn't imagine a world where killers chose victims by their ability to connect with the person, regardless of where they lived in the world. Civilization could degenerate into chaos.

In a smaller way, this could be happening right here and now, and might have been going on for decades. Uncle John wasn't doing this to himself – there was no way. Therefore, someone was doing it to him, and had been affecting his health for who knows how long. But who? He walked back to his truck. How many up-close-and-personal friends, lovers and enemies had his uncle collected over the years? Hundreds, if not thousands.

Drew pulled his car out of the lot and drove toward the office.

Wilson was working on his computer when Drew walked in. The man glanced up with a big smirk on his face. "About time you showed up. Figured I'd be working alone today. Hot date?"

Working with Wilson had to be one of the biggest blessings of the new job. Easy to work with, and open to ideas, he was like a gentle family dog – agreeable all the time.

Tossing him a glowering look, Drew booted up his computer and replied, "Yeah, hot date, followed by a panicked visit to hospital, then crashing in hot date's spare room, followed by a second panic visit to a different hot date's friend's home."

"Nice. What are you planning for a second date?" Wilson sat at his desk, leaning back comfortably. "Did the emergencies turn out to be okay?"

Drew plunked down in his chair, suddenly more tired than he cared to admit. He'd grabbed a few hours of sleep at Maddy's place but not enough. "They will be. A little scary for a while. My uncle took a turn for the worse, but he's expected to pull through, and the friend…well, I guess you might say he was unconscious for a while."

"Not quite the outing you'd planned, I presume?"

"No, not quite." Drew played with a pencil on the top of his desk, switching it end over end while he considered mentioning Stefan.

"Something wrong?"

"How do you feel about psychics?"

Wilson shrugged.

Encouraged, Drew continued. "Does the name Stefan Kronos mean anything to you?" He studied his partner's face carefully, looking for any scoffing.

Wilson's face registered surprise, not shock. "Ah." Wilson sat forward. "That must have been a hell of a date."

"You've heard of him?" Maddy had said he'd done work for the police. He hadn't expected Wilson to know him.

"Absolutely. He's one of the best in the business. A bit freaky, though. And the man is a genius artist, producing some of the most incredible paintings imaginable. It's a little too raw for the common folk. He's had phenomenal success working with law enforcement in this country and others. Scary dude for the stuff he knows. It's like he can look right through you – and apparently he can."

"So I've heard. So in your opinion, he's for real?"

"Solid gold."

"He's the one who had trouble this morning."

Wilson jumped to his feet. "What? How do you know him? He won't work with just anyone."

"Dr. Maddy is a good friend of his."

"Dr. Maddy? From The Haven? Wow, don't you move in high circles." Wilson reached the stack of folders on his desk. "I see transferring your uncle to The Haven moved you up in life, too."

"She was my hot date last night."

A long whistle of appreciation circled the room. "Wow. Wait..." Wilson paused, then a grin cracked his face.

Drew watched him put two and two together.

"So you spent last night in Dr. Maddy's spare room?" His smirk widened until he burst out laughing. "Talk about being so close…"

"And yet so far." Drew finished for him. "Right. You got it. So back to Stefan. Does his work stand up in court?"

"He hates courts. He tries to show you where to look so you can find the evidence to put these assholes away without him. It's his way of avoiding courts."

"Good enough." Drew refreshed the screen on his computer and while it did he reached for his notepad. Standing up, he walked to the wallboard holding the photos of the six dead kids. He tapped it gently with the notepad. "We may have caught a break on this case."

***

John sank deeper into his bedclothes, hating the chill that ran through his veins. Would he ever feel warm again? He shivered and pulled the covers up. He wanted to move to another area of the floor. One not so cold, empty and lonely. He had liked having Adam close by, only Adam was still in ICU. None of the medical team had been able to tell him when he would return. There was an eerie feeling, lying in a room full of gleaming empty beds. Definitely weird.

Then, his whole life was that way lately.

Maybe they'd changed his drugs. The doctor had gone over a bunch of stuff, but John hadn't paid too much attention. He didn't want to focus on the constant pain or the debilitating mess his body had become. Still, new medications would explain the hallucinations, the paranoid feelings, even the weird nightmares he'd been experiencing.

Feeling better with that realization, he shuffled his butt slightly until he was half-sitting.

This wasn't so bad. He smoothed the bedcovers down and reached for his remote. It lay at the end of his bed. Getting there was a little harder. Pulling his wasted legs over the edge of the bed, he shifted to a sitting position and reached again. He picked it up and wiggled back toward the head of his bed. As he swung his arm around to use the metal side for support, he dropped the television remote. It slid from the blankets against the metal frame and down to the floor.

"Shit."

He slid his feet to the floor. "Well, I had to go to the bathroom anyway." He tottered slowly in that direction, careful because of his unsteady gait. After washing his hands, he made his way back, painfully aware of every step. At the side of his bed, he bent slowly, hanging on to the metal frame for support. As his fingers reached for the remote, he twisted his head to look under the bed…and frowned.

What the hell was that?

He moved down the end of the bed and searched for something to poke underneath. An empty IV stand stood beside his bed.

Knowing he probably shouldn't try this and determined to give it a go, regardless, he bent down, lowering himself onto his knees and then he reached under the bed. He felt around. A weird tingling sensation started at his fingertips and slid up toward his elbow. John pulled his hand out and turned it this way and that, wondering what had changed.

The tingling slid up to his shoulder and across his chest.

Something was wrong, really wrong. Kneeling on the floor, he struggled to his feet only to collapse from the effort. He wasn't going to make it to his call button. Damn it.

The numbness carried down his chest, back, and deeper into his spine. The room spun. His vision blurred. He pitched head first to the floor.

***

Maddy was delayed on the main floor of The Haven. Two doctors had questions for her about their patients and her project. She couldn't exactly brush them off; neither could she get rid of the sense of wrongness building inside the place. It took a good fifteen minutes before the three of them reached the point of setting up a meeting.

By the time she managed to excuse herself, the feeling of being too late had her racing to the stairs.

Entering the stairwell, urgency slammed into her. Not understanding, but incapable of ignoring the energetic vibes, Maddy sprinted up the stairwell, her heels clacking with each step. The urgency built higher and grew stronger the closer she got to her floor. Her heart pounded as her stress levels topped out and a film of sweat covered her face. "Oh, God." She wrenched open the door and bolted down the corridor.