Stealing Shadows - Hiding In The Shadows Part 14

Faith remembered the hot breath of the animal, the tearing teeth and theway its claws had raked her flesh, and swallowed hard. "I'm sure."

His expression was grim. "Yesterday you were sure she was beingtortured."

"Kane, all these ... memories, these flashes from Dinah's life andexperiences, are out of sequence. I can't tell what the proper order issupposed to be, if something happened weeks or months ago-yester- day.But I think it was the night she disappeared because I'm certain she wasattacked, and you would have known about it if it had happened beforethat night. I think the attack was a part of whatever led u to herdisappearance."

"And the torture?" He bit out the words.

"I still believe she is was-being tortured. I believe her captors wantsome kind of information from her that she isn't willing to give them."

"How can you know that? How can you?"

She didn't flinch from the rough demand, but it took all her resolutionto meet his haunted eyes.

don't know how, not really. They told me at the shelter that Dinah and Iseemed like sisters from the moment we first met, that we were instantlyand maybe inexplicably close. And I can't explain that any more than Ican explain any of the strange things I've experienced since I came outof the coma. But I know, I'm absolutely convinced, that what I'm seeingin these flashes is real. Somehow, there's a connection between me and Dinah, a tangible bond that exists."

"Then why can't you tell me where she is?"

... don't know. I'm sorry."

"Have you tried?" Kane leaned toward her across the piano, his voice

intense. "Have you made any attempt to reach her directly?"

Katie's blithe a.s.sertion that she could do 'just that rose in her mind,

but Faith shied away from it. What if she tried and failed? What if the attempt somehow severed the tenuous connection she knew existed?

"Faith?"

She felt trapped, cornered by his force, his need to reach Dinah. "I

don't know how," she whispered.

"There must be a way. Concentrate, Faith. Close your eyes and think about Dinah."

She didn't want to. With her eyes closed, the blank darkness of her mind

was far more frightening, and in gazing 'into that was not something she willingly faced. But Kane had asked of her, demanded it of it her, and she couldn't refuse him.

So she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on Dinah, made herself think of nothing except the question of where Dinah was. Nothing else.

Nothing ... There's no proof," Dinah said.

-Then we'll have to get proof," Faith retorted. She chewed on a thumbnail for a moment. -But carefully.

These guys play for keeps, Dinah. "

-You don't have to tell me that. If what we suspect is true, they've already killed to protect their secret.

They won't hesitate to kill again. "

"Oh, it's true all right. I'm positive of that. So we need insurance,

something we can use for bargaining power if we find ourselves in a corner

"Faith ..." Dinah hesitated, but only briefly.

"Look, I know how much you've lost. I know how angry you are-- "No, you don't. You don't know." Her voice was harsh, clipped. -They took everything away from me, Dinah. Everything. And they got away with it.

The G.o.d d.a.m.ned b.a.s.t.a.r.ds got away with it.

"Which is all the more reason why we have to be careful now. We have to be sure, Faith. We have to get proof, and it has to stand up in court.

Otherwise, you'll never get your justice.

"Justice?" Faith looked at her with an odd little smile. "Yes, of

course. justice.

"Faith-"

The scene shifted dizzily, and she found herself back in that dark, damproom, her wrists bound to the arms of the chair. Her hands were numb,and when she looked down at them through blurred eyes, she saw that thewires had cut into her flesh almost to the bone. Scarlet blood drippedsteadily onto the floor.

Idly, she wondered how much she had left.

'Tell me." The man's voice was astonishingly quiet, almost mild. Shetried to peer up at him, but the dimness and her swollen eyelids made itimpossible to see anything but a shadow looming over her. "All you haveto do to stop the pain is tell me what I want to know, Dinah."

Mute, she shook her head wearily.

The closed fist swung at her, the blow so brutal it rocked her head backwith almost enough force to break her neck. One more like that, shethought dizzily, and he'll never get his d.a.m.ned answer.

An oath out of the darkness was evidence that the unseen watcher agreedwith her. "Careful!" he growled. "She can't tell me what I want to knowif she's dead."

She wanted to point out that it was just a matter of time, that her lifewas dripping out onto the cold concrete floor, but couldn't allowherself to speak because if she opened her mouth, she would scream. Shecouldn't scream. Wouldn't scream.

"Just answer the question, Dinah. just tell us where to find it, andwe'll let you go. "

If she'd been able to summon the energy, she would have laughed. Let hergo? She was never going to leave this cold, damp room, not on her owntwo feet. She would never see the sunlight again. Never see Kane again.

Didn't they realize that she knew that?

Another blow, possibly less brutal but at the moment she was no judge ofdegree; the pain was constant, radiating throughout her body in hotwaves. What they had already done to her was killing her; these s.a.d.i.s.ticblows were merely finishing the job.

"This isn't working," the man doing the actual beating saidunemotionally to the watcher. -I told you it wouldn't."

Then start breaking her fingers.

"She won't feel it. Her hands are numb."

-Then start breaking something she will feel The shadow loomed over her,reaching, and Dinah tried desperately to think of something else,anything else ... Kane. Oh, G.o.d, Kane, I wish- Again the scene shifted, and this time she found herself burying down avaguely familiar halfway.

"Faith?" Dinah caught up with Faith, her frown clear evidence of worry.

"Did you find any- thing?"

"No," Faith replied. 'Nothing. But there'll be another chance to look,sooner or later." Both women kept their voices low, and neither relaxeduntil they reached the stairwell and hurried down.

"We're running out of time, - Dinah said.

"Something else," Faith said. "I think my phone's been tapped.

"What?"

"It's just a feeling, but I think so.

Dinah said nothing for several flights, then, as they reached theparking garage, she grasped Faitb's arm to bait her "I've got a feelingtoo, and it's a bad one. We've gone as far as we can alone, Faith. Weneed help. "I don't trust the cops, Dinah, you know that.

"I know that. But there's a federal cop I know I can trust. "

'I trust federal cops even less.

-But you trust me. And I trust him," Dinah said.

Faith bit her lip in indecision, then shook her head.

'Not yet, please. I want one more chance to find the evidence we need.

It's important to me." It was Dinab's turn to hesitate, but finally shenodded. "Okay, a few more days-"

"A week. I need at least a week.

Obviously against her better judgment, Dinah agreed. "A week then. Butafter that, I call out the troops. Understand?

-All right. Now let's get out of here before the wrong person spots ustogether. They split up just outside the stairwell, each going to herown vehicle quickly and quietly. Faith started her car and watchedDinah's jeep pull out of its parking place; she hesitated a few momentsto give the other woman time to leave the garage. The place seemed fullof shadows, and, suddenly nervous, she locked her car doors.

Faith glanced at the big purse beside her on the front seat andmurmured, "I'm sorry, Dinah. But you'd try to stop me. And I can't letthem get away this time. I just can't ... Faith opened her eyes with astart, bewildered to find herself on a couch. She was half-propped on apillow and covered with a blanket, and had the confused sense that fartoo much time had gone by.

"Faith?" Kane sat down on the edge of the couch near her hips andreached to touch her face, his own strained and pale. "Jesus, don't everdo that to me again."

"Do what? What happened?"

"You were out cold," he said. "I asked you to concentrate on trying toreach Dinah, and the next thing I knew you were toppling off the piano bench, limp as a dishrag and completely unresponsive. If it hadn't beenfor a strong pulse and the fact that you were breathing with no trouble,I would have called EMS."

"How long was I out?"

"More than an hour. It's near midnight." Kane drew a breath and leanedback, his hand falling away from her face. 'Noah's told me stories aboutthis.

Some of the genuine psychics he's encountered go into a trancelike statein which all the vital signs slow down. As if the body needs to draw onits resources, tap in to whatever energy is available to use those extrasenses. That's what seemed to be happening with you, so I didn'tinterfere. How do you feel? "

Faith took stock of her physical condition and realized she felt allright, just a little tired. Her emotional state, however, was anothermatter entirely. Going into that "trancelike state" had been likefalling into a deep, black hole, and the terror of completely losing hergrasp on the here and now was not something she would willingly repeat.

"I'm okay," she said. "But please don't ever ask me to do that again."

Kane nodded, but his eyes were eager. "Did it work? Did you reachDinah?"

Faith shied away from telling him further details about Dinah beingtortured. There was no reason for him to hear that. No reason at all.

Instead, she concentrated on the other two scenes.

"Faith?"

She shook her head. "I didn't reach Dinah the way you mean, the way youwanted me to. There were just ... more flashes, more scenes from thepast. But more helpful this time, I think."

"Helpful how? What did you see?" She told him as much as she couldremember about the two memories, which seemed to prove that she andDinah had indeed been working together on some kind of investigation.

She tried to recall all the details, but so much was frustratinglyvague, and she was unhappily aware that there were now even morequestions. Including the nagging one about what it was she had hiddenfrom Dinah. And how she had been able to hide anything at all if she andDinah had been able to communicate as easily as Katie claimed.

She's just a little girl, and probably got it only half right ... Faithwent still for a moment, wondering if that thought was hers or someoneelse's. She didn't know, couldn't tell.