Stealing Shadows - Hiding In The Shadows Part 8

"I don't understand," Faith said.

"Noah has a knack," Kane explained. "He calls it a bulls.h.i.+t detector. Icall it something more." Before Faith could ask for more clarification,Kane addressed his friend again, and she forgot all about Bishop'sknack.

"It has to be Dinah," Kane said, his voice tight.

-We can't know that," Bishop insisted. "It could just as easily beFaith. People have come out of comas with new and inexplicableabilities."

"Maybe, but we know Dinah is psychic."

"We know." Bishop's voice was patient and careful, the tone of a manunwilling to a.s.sume anything or to raise false hopes. "But her abilitiesworked a different way, Kane. She wasn't a telepath, wasn't able totouch someone else's mind. She was precognitive, able to ... tune in tofuture events, to predict the turn of a card or the throw of dice. Andit wasn't some- thing she could control with any reliability. Maybe shecould tell you the phone was about to ring, even who was calling, butshe couldn't project memories into someone else's mind. Even thestrongest psychic would find that virtually impossible."

"If she were desperate enough, she might be able to. If it mattered, ifit meant the difference between life and-and death. She'd find a way, Noah. Dinah would find a way."

"It isn't that simple. Psychic ability has its own kind of rules, Kane.

And a seer doesn't become a telepath. Not one psychic in a thousand hasdual abilities."

Listening in fascination, Faith began to understand just what Bishop's"bulls.h.i.+t detector" was.

Kane said, "So tell me where Faith's memories are coming from. EitherDinah is sending them, or Faith is somehow tapping in to them. No matterwhich way you look at it, it means Dinah's alive, Noah. Alive."

His voice was exultant.

At that moment, Faith realized that deep down inside himself, Kane hadbelieved Dinah was dead- and hated himself for giving up hope.

There was a brief silence, and then, with obvious reluctance, Bishopsaid, "Dinah visited Faith in the hospital a dozen times. Sat by herbed, read to her, talked to her for hours. We can't deny the possibilitythat she talked about her past with enough detail to plant those imagesin Faith's mind, even though she was unconscious."

"But-"

"Kane. It's possible- Dinah is somehow able to transmit images to Faith.

It's possible Faith came out of the coma with psychic ability, and that,combined with their friends.h.i.+p, is enabling her to reach out to Dinahtelepathically. But the most likely explanation is that Faith'ssubconscious retained everything Dinah said to her with unusualvividness and in remarkable detail."

Kane shook his head and opened his mouth to dispute, deny, refuse tobelieve-but then Bishop cut in, speaking very softly.

"Past, Kane. All those scenes are from the past. if Dinah was in directcommunication with Faith, don't you @ think she'd be trying to tell uswhere she is?"

His shoulders slumped, but Kane struggled to hold on to the newfoundhope. "Dinah wouldn't have told her about the scar, dammit. How couldshe know that?"

"It's possible that happened in the hospital. Trying to wake up, andwith psychic ability she perhaps didn't know she had, Faith could havereached out telepathically and touched Dinah's mind. She could havegotten all the details and images that way. It's possible." 'Possible,"Kane said savagely. "Everything is possible except that Dinah is stillalive. Is that what you're telling me?"

"I'm telling you we can't take anything at face value." And then, evensofter, "G.o.dd.a.m.nit, Kane, don't you think I want her to be alive too?"

Faith, watching them in silence, realized with a stab of loneliness andenvy that Dinah Leighton must have been a remarkable woman to inspiresuch strong emotions 'in these men.

She didn't want to intrude on so naked a moment but was agonizinglyaware that she had to. "There's ... something else," she said a.s.steadily as she could.

Kane turned his head slowly, as if the effort took nearly everything hehad. His face was white, his eyes dark. "What?"

She didn't flinch from the harsh question, but her voice began to shake.

'It's ... what made me come looking for you. I fell asleep late thisafternoon, and I- I had another dream. Only you weren't in this one. ButDinah was. I'm not sure, but I think it was a bas.e.m.e.nt ... or maybe awarehouse. Walls made of cement blocks, and they looked old, damp. Itwas cold."

Bishop said, "What was happening?"

Faith s.h.i.+vered; she really didn't want to say what she had to say.

"Dinah was in a chair, I think tied to it somehow. She could barelymove. There was more than one person in the room with her, she knewthat.

Somebody was watching, silently, from the shadows or just out of hersight. And somebody else, a man, was asking her questions, over andover. I didn't see his face and I don't remember what the questionswere. i've tried, but-but it's like there was a roaring in my ears and Icouldn't hear him clearly. Maybe she couldn't either, I don't know. AllI know is that he-he hit her.

Again and again."

As though her hand were on him, she could feel Kane tense, all hismuscles knotting in a blind, instinctive response, and her voice shookeven harder as she finished. -Then everything went black ... and I-wokeup."

Bishop drew a breath. "You're saying she is, or was, being tortured?"

"I think so. No. I'm sure. It was too real, too hot- terribly vivid, tobe anything but the truth. They ... want her to tell them something, andwhatever it is, she won't tell them." Faith swallowed hard. "And it'sgone on a long time. The questions. The ... punishment. I could feel howexhausted she was. And her pain ... She's hurting so terribly ... Kanewas staring at her with the expression of a man dealt a mortal blow, andshe found it easier at that moment to meet Bishop's clearer-if slightlyless human-gaze.

"That entire scene, he said, "could have come from some movie or book."

Faith shook her head. "It didn't. You don't under- stand. I wasn't observing. I was there. I was Dinah, was inside her body, her mind andspirit. I felt her pain and her fear and-and her determination." Shelifted her chin and met Bishop's eyes. "There's some- thing I'mabsolutely sure of. Dinah won't tell them what they want to know becauseshe's protecting somebody, or believes she is. It's more important toher than her own life."

"And this is happening now?"

Her certainty wavered. "I-I'm not sure. There was no way to tell."

"A bas.e.m.e.nt, maybe a warehouse. But you have no idea where?"

"No, I didn't see anything but that room. And if Dinah knew where shewas, it wasn't something she was thinking about or feeling." She paused,then said desperately, "I want to help her. You have to believe me aboutthat. I have to try to help Dinah."

"Why?" Bishop's voice was flat.

Faith felt the burning of tears but refused to shed them before thes.e.m.e.n. She drew a steadying breath.

"Because she's my friend. Because she did everything in her power tomake sure I could get my life back on track when I woke up. And because... she's all I have."

"I suppose," he said, watching her, "that's a good reason to want tohelp find her. And maybe grat.i.tude as well. After all, she did settlehalf a million dollars on you."

Faith shook her head. "Not half a million directly to me. The trust fundshe set up is worth a little more than two hundred thousand dollars,according to the lawyer. And there was a fifty-thousand-dollar depositdirectly into my checking account. But she arranged to pay my currentdebts and the hospital bill, and I have no idea how much that wasaltogether."

"You didn't have insurance?"

"Liability on the car, according to the paperwork I found. But no healthinsurance. I gather I had changed jobs recently, and the new coveragehadn't begun yet."

"Six weeks in a coma," Bishop mused. "Another three weeks of care andphysical therapy. In a good hospital. I'd say that could easily run aquarter million, maybe more."

"One of the things I want to ask her," Faith said, "is why. I don'tunderstand why she would do such a thing."

Kane stirred and spoke, his voice raspy. "Because she felt guilty."

"About what? The accident? They told me it was only my car and my fault.

No one else was involved.

So why would she feel guilty about that?" Faith was relieved to see thathe had regained a bit of color and that he no longer looked so stunned.

"We were wondering the same thing," he told her.

Bishop said, "What caused the accident?" She tried and failed to smile.

"The doctor said it was ... a few drinks on top of a prescription musclerelaxant. He said the combination was toxic and that I don't handle alcohol very well.

"Why were you prescribed muscle relaxants?" Kane asked, making a visible effort to be methodical.

"I don't remember. Obviously."

He frowned. "You didn't have the prescription bottle with you?"

Her purse had been with her other things at the hospital. It had

contained the usual items-a billfold, a checkbook, a small, unused

spiral-ringed notebook, a couple of pens, and a compact and lipstick.

No prescription bottle of any kind. And there wasn't one in the apartment.

Slowly, she said, "Maybe the police took it as evidence."

Kane was still frowning. "Alcohol. That isn't right.

Dinah said you were on your way to meet her for drinks after work. But

you never made it. And you'd come straight from work-that's what she

said."

"so," Bishop said, "unless you make it a habit to keep a bottle at work in a desk drawer. - - "

She blinked. "I doubt it. There's no alcohol of any kind in my

apartment."

Kane saw her swallow convulsively, and when her eyes fixed on his face, there was fear in them.

"What?" he demanded.

"Somebody broke into my apartment." She spoke very carefully now. "The

funny thing is, nothing was stolen. Not that I have any way of knowing for sure, but the police said the usual things weren't taken.

The place was turned upside down, though. Drawers emptied, things tossed

about."

"It sounds like a search," Bishop said.

"When did this happen?" Kane asked.

"I'm not sure. I mean, it was discovered early in the week when the

lawyer arranged to have a cleaning service come in and get the apartment ready for me."

"When could it have happened?" Bishop asked.

"Was anyone else in your apartment between the time of your accident and when the cleaning service discovered the break-in?"

Faith thought about it, reaching Up to rub her fore- head as though fretful. "I don't think so. Except Dinah."

"Dinah was there?"