Chapter 10

"No, David. Your approach omits the awesome investigative prowess of the FBI, or do you have a compulsive need to play superhero and do everything yourself?"

Although his consciousness didn't breathe, David exhaled a groan. "If you could see me, I'd be blushing. The last thing I want, Nora, is to be some kind of superhero. Clark Kent I'm not. I came to you because I wanted you involved for selfish reasons. I also wanted the FBI involved to eventually prosecute August Boynton's killers. You just pointed out a flaw in my reasoning. I agree. We should utilize the investigative prowess of the FBI or any other enforcement body needed to accomplish our end."

Nora noticed the switch from I to we, which pleased her. "Tell me about your selfish reasons, David."

"To explain, let me tell you about another set of problems I solved. You and your father were involved. Your father had a problem. He knew a lot about horses and needed a job. My sister and brother-in-law had a problem. They wanted to own horses and possibly a horse farm, and they didn't know diddly-squat about horses. Viola! Two problems solved."

"But you didn't know Pops needed work or... oh, you listened in on our conversation the evening before the brunch at the Wrigley Mansion."

"Correct. I called Steve the night before our brunch and asked him to hire your father as a consultant. I agreed to pay the consulting fee if Steve or Darla didn't think your father could do the job. Steve agreed. By the way, Darla feels like I did her a favor, not the other way around. She told me Joe is amazingly talented with horses. The next day at lunch, I manipulated the conversation to a discussion about horses, and the rest is history."

"Before you go on, I need the answer to a question, David. How long have you been spying on me?"

Don't tell her about sliding into her past, David cautioned himself. "I think spying is a bit harsh, but the answer is, not long. I don't remember the date, but you might remember the incident. You were with Tim. Tim is one of my financial advisors, a low-level advisor I use to corroborate information I uncover from other advisors. I visit low-level advisors in a burst, ratcheting from one to another very quickly, listening for keywords or phrases that arrest the burst so I can listen for detail. Tim was on the phone and must have said a keyword, because my consciousness stopped the burst. As sometimes happens, the advisor was in no position to offer financial information, and I was about to move on when you entered the room. Your tawny grace captured my attention. When you moved onto the bed, your astonishing beauty made me gasp. You heard the sound, even questioned Tim about it."

"I remember." Good, he doesn't know about my sluttish past. "Go on."

That went well, David thought. "Where was I? Never mind, I remember. After witnessing August Boynton's assassination, I had two major problems to deal with. I needed to tell someone about what I'd witnessed who could follow-up and prosecute the bad guys, and I needed to do this without divulging my flights of consciousness. That was problem number one. You were problem number two. You consider what I do all bad, which it isn't. Your father and my mother have become lovers, and your father is in a partnership with my sister and her husband, which means we need to resolve our differences for the sake of our loved ones. Agreed?"

"Yes. I recently came to the same conclusion."

"If you could see me, you'd see a wide smile. Finally we agree on something. To go on, I needed to heal the rift between us and show you what I do isn't all bad. You work for the FBI. The FBI can prosecute the bad guys. Once again, viola. Two problems solved with one action. But, as you pointed out, my simplistic approach fell short of the mark. We need the investigative prowess of the FBI involved. The question is how can we bring the FBI into play?"

Nora huffed a laugh. "With your superhero powers the answer appears obvious to me. Your consciousness moved from Phoenix to New Orleans in a split-second..."

"Or no time at all, Nora. I'm not sure my flights are subject to the fourth dimension, but that's a discussion for another time. I'm sorry I interrupted you. Go on."

"When you arrived, you took the telephone from my hand and spoke to Pops. I assume you can also operate a computer wherever your consciousness lands. Correct?"

"Yes."

"Then e-mail is the answer."

"My blush just deepened. Perfect! As I uncover facts about the assassination, I'll e-mail them to you from different locations around the world. Talk about an anonymous informant! I'll sign the e-mails Cyber Deep Throat."

Nora pushed out a soft chuckle. "Why me? Why not the director?"

"I don't know the director's e-mail address," David factiously remarked with a chuckle of his own. "Frankly, Nora, I want you involved. I want us to work together. I know your career is important to you, and..."

"You think your super powers can help my career," Nora said finishing his statement.

"In a word, yes. Am I wrong?"

"No, but it pisses me off. A few days ago, after young Bobby Green sat with a police sketch artist and gave us our first potential look at Hanna Jenkin's killer, I felt like the attaboy Pierce gave me should have been directed at you, not me."

"Why? I merely gave you the boy's name. From what you just said, you convinced him to come forward despite his fear of a beating from his father. You did your job. You used information from an informant to move your case along. Pierce's attaboy was well placed."

"Thanks, I guess. Still..."

"What you're really saying is you want to achieve success through your own efforts with no help from anyone, especially a superhero. Correct?"

A self-deprecating sound flared Nora's nostrils. "Yes, but the way you say it makes me sound shallow."

"Ah, heck, Nora, that's 'cause that's the way you're acting. You should use anything and anyone to find little Hanna's killer, career path be damned."

She sighed deeply and slumped onto a chair. "Yeah, you're right."

"The way I see it, I need a conduit to the FBI, and you're it. You already know about my flights of consciousness, so I won't need to divulge them to anyone else. I also need your help. I didn't even consider what the FBI could do for me except prosecute the bad guys after I dumped them in their lap, which was a mistake. We need to put our egos in our pockets and get on with it. Dammit, Nora, we need each other."

"Yeah, we do. Okay. So your plan is to gather facts about the Boynton assassination and e-mail those facts to me. Correct?"

"Yes."

"What about the bureaucracy you mentioned earlier. If I put my ego in my pocket, I gotta admit the bureaucracy is a problem. I'll need to set the e-mails on Pierce's desk."

"And he'll forward them to his boss, and so on, and so on, ad infinitum."

"Uh-huh. Any suggestions?"

"How about I send the first e-mail to the director and tell him I'll deal with an obscure special agent in Arizona thereafter?"

Nora laughed gaily. "Obscure is accurate. To what end? Why not communicate only with the director?"

"Because I need you involved."

"You'll shine a spotlight on me, David."

"It won't be candlelight, but you'll still look beautiful."

Nora blushed. His sudden compliment affected her deeply. "They'll take me off the Jenkin's case."

"Probably."

"I'm emotionally invested in the case, David. Truth be known, I'd rather you help me find Hanna's killer than get me involved in Boynton's assassination."

"Then we'll do both."

She shook her head. "The FBI doesn't work that way."

"All right. I'll determine the identities of the assassin and the driver, e-mail the info to the director anonymously, and let the authorities take over from there. You can stay on the Jenkin's case, and I'll concentrate my efforts to help you find her killer."

"Uh-uh. Let's do this. We'll work together on both cases. Boynton's killers should be brought to justice, too, but I don't need or want to be in a spotlight. We can meet like this and discuss both cases. I understand how the FBI functions, so I can help you solve the Boynton murder, and with your abilities, you can help me find the serial killer who abducts little girls, and then rapes, kills and mutilates them, all to satisfy some sick purpose neither of us will ever understand."

"Sounds like a plan, which brings up another problem. If we're to meet like this, I'll need to connect with you while out of my body. What about your privacy?"

"What privacy? Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't you already watched me get undressed, take a shower, go to the bathroom, pick my nose, scratch an inch in a private place, masturbate, even fuck?"

"You mean you pick your nose! Yuck!"

Despite her dark mood, Nora laughed.

"I've already admitted to seeing you naked the afternoon I first saw you," David said. "I've also seen you step from a shower and dry yourself off with a fluffy towel. I suddenly hovered over you once when you were sitting on the john, and left you to the chore. Bathroom antics don't interest me. I haven't seen you pick your nose, or scratch your pussy or marvelous backside. I watched you masturbate once, which was one of the highlights of my life. I haven't watched you fuck. That's it, as my visits relate to your list."

He paused, and then continued, "I will say this. I've visited you hundreds of times since the first time I saw you. The attraction I felt for you at first sight was powerful and compelling. I needed to know more about you, so I continued to visit you, sometimes for only a few seconds, sometimes for longer periods. The more I found out about you, the more attracted I became. Finally, I decided I had to meet you in the flesh. I knew about your date with Tim, so I set up a chance meeting and introduction. The rest is history."

"You didn't watch me with Tim later that night?"

"No, I was too busy with Iris. By the way, Tim and Iris are an item now."

"Oh, I wondered why he hadn't called me."

Put everything on the table, David told himself. "I've also visited you in your past once. You were... oh, fifteen or sixteen years old at the time. You and your father were enjoying a picnic near a mountain stream. You ran off into the woods with a couple of boys and necked with them briefly before returning to your father."

Stunned, Nora felt as if she'd been slapped. "You see into the past and future?"

"I've only visited a person's past, never a future."

"So my past is an open book, too?" Her eyes glinted with anger.

"Possibly. I have no control over my time trips. I can't initiate or end them. They just happen, and they've only happened twice. I visited my mother in her past once. She was ten years old during my visit, and I just described my other time trip when I connected with you in your past."

Nora jumped to her feet. As she paced she cursed under her breath. Finally, she stopped pacing and looked around the room, searching for the apparition speaking with her. "Can you even imagine how it would feel to have your entire life open to someone's inspection, David?"

"No," David admitted. "I only know how my mother and sister reacted, and they were reacting only to their loss of privacy in their present. Mom doesn't count. She's supported my flights from the get go. At first, Darla was devastated, even more than you, Nora. Denise's situation was different. My flights saved her from a very messy situation. Still, when she realized I'd been invading her privacy, she was furious for quite a while."

"Denise?" His mother, his sister, and now his girlfriend. Surprise, surprise, Nora thought derisively. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear about a long list of David's past lovers and their reactions to his visits.

"That's right. You haven't met Denise. She's a college professor, a psychologist living Las Cruces, New Mexico."

"So she's beautiful and smart. Are you still... ah, involved with her, and if so, why did you take the trouble to pick me out of the crowd?"

David chuckled softly. I'll be dipped. She's jealous. A good sign. "Nora, Denise is an old and dear friend. Oh, you have her pegged correctly. She's drop-dead gorgeous, and her I.Q. is in the stratosphere. She's also a lesbian. My mother and Denise have been casual lovers for years." Leave Darla out of the mix for now, David advised himself.

Nora's face and upper chest flushed. "Oh, I assumed... Criminy! Open mouth; insert foot." Another thought struck her. "Then Carol..."

"Is bisexual," David said when Nora hesitated.

"Does Pops know?"

"Yes. The fact didn't seem to upset him."

Hardly, Nora thought. Images from the past flashed through her mind. No, Pops wouldn't be upset if Carol enjoyed both men and women.

The past. Her past. That's what bothered her. Another Pops' saying echoed in her ears. Be sure your sins will find you out. Fuck! Nora needed more facts. "David, how many individuals know about your flights?"

"Five, including you and your father."

Her jaw fell open.

"Personally, I'd have preferred your father not know, but after you told all, and considering his relationship with my mother, I'm glad he knows. By the way, Steve isn't in the loop, and I'm asking you now to please keep my flights confidential."

Nora snorted a sardonic laugh. "No one would believe me anyway."

"True for a stranger, perhaps, but Steve or someone like him could eventually see the truth. If anyone tells Steve, it should be his wife."

"I agree. My questions have taken us from the subject again. About my privacy, David, I'd almost arrived at the point I could accept my loss of privacy, at least in the present, and under certain conditions, but then you dropped the bomb that exploded all my fears again - tenfold. I don't want you wandering around in my past, David. I'm not proud of everything I've done."

"Those were my mother's sentiments, almost to the word, when I told her about my visit to her past."

"Yeah, well how did she handle the situation?"

"She asked me not to hold anything I witnessed against her. She said everyone makes mistakes, and that she'd made some doozies. She also said she was the person she is today because she learned from some of those mistakes. As I said, Nora, Mom doesn't count. She knows I love her, knows nothing I'd ever witness would change how I feel about her. She was actually more fearful about my flights sliding into her future. She told me she didn't want to know what the future held for her, and asked me to keep whatever I saw to myself."

"I thought you couldn't see into the future."

"What I said was I hadn't visited anyone's future, not yet, but rationally, if I can visit Mother or you in your past, visiting either of you in your future is a logical evolution of my flights of consciousness."

"Oh. You're scary, David. Can your visits to the past or future alter someone's past, present and future?"

"The short answer is yes. Superposition, the uncertainly principle and a few other current scientific theories dictate an affirmative answer, although some could argue otherwise with almost equal authority."

Her face twisted slightly, becoming even more serious than before. "Then you shouldn't be moving around outside your present, David."

"I don't. Regardless of where I am in someone else's time line, I'm still in my present, but I understand your admonition. Unfortunately, I can't comply with your advice. I have no control over my time trips, Nora."

Shaking her head, she said, "Scary, very scary."

"I suspect I'll eventually gain control."

"And if you do, you'll still hop around in the past or future regardless of any life-altering affects you could generate."

"Yes. I'm fully committed to exploring my flights. I'm constantly pushing at the edges of their current configuration to expand them as much as I can. They are as advanced as they are because I've pushed their limits."

"To what purpose?" Nora asked.

He shrugged his invisible shoulders, forgetting she couldn't see the gesture. "That's the sixty-four thousand dollar question, and I search for the answer daily. As I said, Clark Kent I'm not. For a short time when I was younger, I tried stamping out evil, but there's just too much evil out there for me to even make a dent in it, so now I avoid evil when I stumble on it, skip over it as if it didn't exist unless it involves me or someone I care for. Fortunately, my mother and sister don't come face to face with evil very often, and I'm extremely choosy about my close friends. Before I call anyone a friend, I check them out thoroughly, and doing what I do, my background checks are more thorough than those performed by the FBI for top-secret clearances. Although, I didn't count August Boynton a friend, I liked the old gentleman, and I'll miss him. That's why I debated whether to do anything about his assassination or not."