Chapter 10

Denny’s wasn’t overflowing with patrons. It was quiet and fairly empty. There wasn’t even a hostess at the podium to lead us to where our friends were already seated. Inwardly, I was glad we weren’t at Olive Garden, as was the plan because I could easily recall seeing Rachel scoot into the booth before me, as well as all of the touches and looks I got from her throughout that meal. Today, however, I was the odd man out, sitting alone at the end of the table.

Eric and Grace seemed to be on more amicable terms with Nate than I had expected. It made me wonder how he and Ellen met, and why she hadn’t told me about him sooner. I didn’t ask during the drive and now didn’t feel like the right time.

“We’ve already ordered drinks for everyone,” Eric said. “Hope you all like Vodka and Tonic.”

I had to blink a lot. Trying to imagine what a Vodka and Tonic tasted like was bad enough. Imagining in what condition I would be after finishing one, I had no clue. I didn’t drink at all. It wasn’t that I was opposed to it; I just never understood the idea of giving up so much control under those conditions.

Ellen was the first to react. “You better be joking, Eric.”

He was grinning, then got the wind knocked out of him by Grace. “He is, Ellen.” She turned on him. “I told you that was a horrible joke.”

He laughed it off. Normally, I would have laughed too. Eric looked over at me, noticed that I wasn’t laughing, and then swallowed the rest of his mirth. “Ral, you okay man?”

I nodded first and then shook my head.

Eric glanced at Ellen. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ellen just shook her head. “He’s got news, both good and bad.”

Eric and Grace both looked at me. “What’s up?”

I considered talking about the job offer and the Hammon Bill but decided instead to tell them the really bad news. “I am involved in another case. I’m not going to be able to fly back home with you guys.”

Eric’s face dropped. “What? That sounds like all bad news.”

“What happened, Ral?” asked Grace.

I looked at each of them, ending with Nathan. “Bethany’s dead.”

His face, held quite neutral, fell. He looked down at the table. The rest of them took in his reaction. It looked bad. I could see his turmoil. He had known her. He had possibly even befriended her. He looked up, knowing I could see his aura. He schooled his emotions and his face. “How?”

I shook my head. “I’m not allowed to say. The police are holding back a lot of information so when they catch the guy, they’ll know they have the right one.”

“Damn,” said Eric. “Do they expect the guy to just go off on all the grizzly details of what he did?”

I nodded. “If you get inside the head of a killer, find out what makes them tick, find what will make them upset enough, yeah. You can get them to confess out of anger or ... well, passion.”

I looked at Nate again. “I already know everything though.”

That brought all their eyes back to me. “How’s that possible?” asked Grace.

I looked at her and then back at Nate. “She left me a Psionic message. A sort of vision of what happened when he took her. I don’t know what he looks like though. She couldn’t show me. I don’t think she knew until it was too late.”

“If he had her, how did she leave a message?” asked Eric.

“She had an ability that allowed her to leave her own body. She thought of it as her astral form.”

Nate looked down at the table again. “If Mr. Shepherd had known, he could have helped.”

“She didn’t know he could do that,” I said. “She had hoped to reach me, but didn’t know where to find me.”

Nate looked at me again. “I should tell him...”

I shook my head. “I’ve already called him. I told him everything I could without giving away the details the police were withholding. However, I think he already knows what happened to her.”

“What do you mean?” Nate asked.

“Because I also got a Psionic message from the killer too. I got two from him. The first one told me what he intended to do to Bethany and where I could find her. The second, he left with her remains. It told me all the details of how he did it to her.”

Everyone was looking a touch green. Our waitress turned up just then with our drinks. Eric had ordered us all tea.

Everyone spent the next few minutes sweetening their tea and taking sips. I could tell it helped. I know it helped me.

Ellen asked, “Ral, what did the killer do to her? I mean, obviously, he killed her, and those details are being held back, but...”

Yes, she was smart. She’d seen the details the way I had. I nodded. “He stole her powers.”

Nate looked up. “How?”

I shook my head. “That, thankfully, was not information he chose to share.”

“Of course, he wouldn’t,” said Eric. “The last thing he’d want is for you to do it too and then kick his ass across the state.”

I looked at Eric, watching him patiently until he looked up and met my eyes. “Eric, what he did to Bethany was monstrous. I know how he killed her, but I don’t know what he did as he killed her to steal her powers. And from Mr. Shepherd’s reaction to my question about how to steal another’s powers, I’d say the way he killed her has something to do with it.”

I paused, holding Eric’s gaze. “Do you think I could do that to someone else so I’d have more powers?”

Instantly he shook his head. “No, dear God, no. I’m sorry, I didn’t understand.”

I nodded. “It’s okay. I thought he was just a nut too, but after talking to Mr. Shepherd, I don’t doubt that he got what he wanted.”

Nate took another turn at me. “Ral, is he just after Psionics or anyone with power?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. From Bethany’s thoughts in her message, he was a Psionic. He was using telepathy to talk directly into her mind and telekinesis to control her body.”

Nate nodded. “If he’s only after Psionics, that would mean he would go looking for anyone who found his message.”

The other three were all wide-eyed as they looked back at me.

I looked at each of them. “Sounds like a good time to fly home, huh?” I tried to chuckle, and so did the others.

“What are you going to do?” asked Ellen.

I took a deep, steadying breath and let it out slowly. “Well, considering my intimate knowledge of what’s happened already, I doubt the police would let me leave for the month we’d all be gone. I can ask, but I’m certain the answer will be no.”

“So, they haven’t told you not to leave town?” asked Eric.

I shook my head. “But I can’t leave Mr. Shepherd here alone.”

Nate cocked his head to the side. “Who said he’d be alone?”

That got a big smile out of me. “Thank you.”

He nodded.

The waitress came back a minute later. None of us knew what we were going to eat, and after that discussion, I wasn’t very hungry.

Once our orders were taken and the waitress was gone Ellen said, “Ral, now tell them about the job offer.” She was thrilled for me, even if Mr. Johnson turned out to be some kind of crook.

Eric and Grace both looked my way. “Job offer?” Eric asked.

I shrugged. “Oh, it’s nothing.”

Eric was all but bouncing in his seat. “Don’t hold out on me dude. Especially not after all that crap about the murder.”

I couldn’t help but grin at his enthusiasm and tell them about the job offer and Hammon’s Bill.

Grace was the one on the ball. “I heard about that Bill.”

Everyone looked at her. She went on. “One of the guys in my Psychometrics class brought it up in the discussions we were having about laws and in what ways people react to them.”

She went on to tell us, “He thought the Bill had it right, that the police can’t protect themselves or anyone else from people like Dan Baxter and Jacquelyn LaSalle.”

I nodded. “I agree with that too, but how can the police be prepared for all the different things they might encounter? For that matter, the few people I know could easily take out a small army of police as it is.”

Grace answered passionately, “Dammit Ral, that’s not the way I see it. They do need more equipment, and obviously, they can’t protect themselves from every possibility. They can’t do that even with us normal people. What you didn’t let me say is that they need people like you on their side too. You dealt with Dan. You dealt with Jacquelyn. If you hadn’t been there, all those cops would be dead and where would Dan and Jacquelyn be? Wherever they want to be, doing whatever they want, because the authorities couldn’t stop them.”

I sat back with a small smile on my face.

“What are you smiling about?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing. You’re right. I can’t argue with you about any of it.”

That took some of the wind out of her sails. She sat back too and smiled. “Thank you.”

“And that’s what the business manager thought too. He just wants to jump into the right way of thinking before it becomes so common that it would be a faux pas to not have a person with power on your team.”

Eric and Ellen were looking between me and Grace. Then Ellen turned to Nate. “What do you think of this?”

He sat there for a moment. “If Ral’s impression of how this business manager is thinking is correct, and Hammon intends to shift the country’s way of thinking about people with power into a dark ages kind of way, then I say the more of us that come out of the closet and help in any way we can can’t hurt.”

I was glad to hear that from him. Though I hadn’t intended to be a driving force for what he said next.

“I’m going to talk to the Fire Marshal tomorrow. I’m going to let him know what I can do and how I can help the city as well.” He looked back at me and nodded.

What could I do? Ignore him? I nodded back.

The food arrived shortly after that. Silence blanketed us as we ate. Our thoughts drifted among the various topics I had brought to the table. Usually, it was Ellen or Eric who were the center of attention, the ones to drive a discussion. Today, it was me. It felt good, but only for a moment.

That was because my limelight was stolen when I heard Eric think “I wonder what everyone’s going to think when I propose to Grace?”

Well, needless to say, I did my best not to spoil the surprise. After coughing up some of my spaghetti, I took a big drink of tea.