Don't Touch (13 page)

Moving back to the table she waited until
Barney had removed the bag from the left hand. “There isn’t as many
defense wounds.”

Ryan nodded. “You’ll find her blood alcohol
level sky high. Impaired, she may not have been able to fight back
as hard. But why slip them GHB then let it wear off to kill
them?”

Thomas leaned against the cabinet watching
her debate on touching the body. “Maybe that’s part of his game,
letting them fight back.”

She finally took a breath and picked up the
hand. Barn there’s a fine filament all over the back of her hand.
It’s like a spider’s web but it doesn’t break when you touch
it.”

The ME took samples and continued with nail
scrapings and clippings. They combed her hair and examined the
clothing. Ryan walked around the table noting everything. Trying to
pick out one thing that might help give them an edge on this guy.
The tech emptied Phyllis’ pockets, in the hoodie there was the
familiar lipstick and mirror. The tech looked at the shade. Ryan
smiled. “Peachberry a nice warm summer color.”

The girl looked creeped out as she verified
that fact. Barney laughed. That was the Ryan he knew. She loved to
unnerve the newbies. He handed her the syringe. “I’m just supposed
to observe.”

“Yes but you are the only one who can pull
from collapsed veins on the first draw. Come on show off for the
detectives.”

Shaking her head she took the needle knowing
he wouldn’t let it go. Just as he foretold on the first try she
filled all six vials. They stripped the body and found bruising on
her thighs.

Ryan didn’t like that. The killer hadn’t
assaulted any of the other victims. Then again she was into that
guy on the Walk; it could have just been rough sex.

Ryan paced as she watched arms crossed.
Jackson could see she was thinking hard on something. He was
impressed with how she came in and took control. Just observing or
not many times she directed the procedures.

Thomas leaned over. “I never would have
thought that woman was such a power unto herself. By the way there
was a new grape on the vine. Something about a phone call to Heinz
this morning. Then you show up with him at the site and later Ryan
and his wife. Care to let me in on the loop since I’m your
partner?”

Jackson leaned back against the wall
wondering just how much to say. His eyes settled on the woman
explaining a technique to an intern. He had been given the honor of
holding her last night. Glancing at Thomas who thought he knew what
was going on between them, Jackson shrugged before turning back to
the woman in question. “Her sister has her knickers in a knot
because I stayed with Ryan last night.”

Thomas felt his mouth hanging open but
couldn’t seem to summon the strength to close it. “So the Captain
went over there?” He blew out a breath. “I have to say buddy when
you step in it you do it right.”

He was about to respond when he caught Ryan
examining the eye they had removed from the girl. She held the
container to the light. “I wonder? Everyone but Dr. Flak and the
Detectives take ten.”

Everyone filed out of the room no questions
asked. Once only the four of them remained she had Thomas lock the
door. Then set the container back on the table. “Barn I’m not
insane, I never was.”

The older ME smiled and rubbed her sleeve. “I
didn’t think you were, Ryan. At some point with all this we all
have a minor break. I have had a couple myself. Nothing to be
ashamed of.”

“I didn’t have a nervous break down either.
After the accident things started happening that I didn’t
understand but they were so small and so subtle that I doubted
them. I understand what I can do now. Listen I can’t explain it
where it doesn’t sound crazy just take my word and the Detectives
that it’s genuine. The department even had me tested.”

“What are you psychic?” He said with a laugh
that quickly faded when he saw the seriousness in her eyes. “You’re
psychic.”

“Not really, everyone can do what I do on
some level. It’s part of our make up. It’s just that I can do it
better. My ability is stronger than the normal Joe. Just trust me
and don’t scream for Kessler when I do this okay?”

Nodding as he watched her pull off the
doubled gloves of her right hand Barn hoped she wasn’t nuts. But
the detectives only moved closer to her, especially Detective
Prince.

Barney grinned trying to take the tension out
of the air. “Ryan, you forget my aunt lives in Casadaga and reads
tea leaves for a living. If you can do something to ease my work
load get on with it.”

She patted his cheek with the gloved hand and
turned back to the eye. “Let’s hope this works.” She hesitated as
her fingers moved closer to the squishy looking mass. She knew how
fragile an eye was and that it was kind of slimy. “You know this is
the first time I’ve thought about how gross this is.”

Closing her eyes she reached in and scooped
up the eye.

Chapter 11

Immediately she was bombarded with images. It
seemed like hundreds of pages in a flip book. Dizzy from the
barrage she stumbled backward. She let the eye roll back into the
container as she felt hands on her waist steadying her. Jackson’s
voice cut through the small fog it had caused. “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a minor overload. Don’t
let go I think I can sort through that mess.”

He didn’t know what mess she was talking
about but he wasn’t letting her go. In any way, shape or form. Ryan
closed her eyes again and this time just closed her hand around the
eye in the container.

The images swirled to life and she gasped for
breath as they flew through her mind. Ryan forced the pages to slow
down. She turned them herself to where she thought she wanted to
be. There it was that night. She…. no Phyllis was stumbling around
the Walk, nearly taking out a couple coming out of the Latin
Quarter Restaurant.

Ryan was going to push away and watch from a
distance when a tingling sensation caught her attention. Her lips
were tingling and she was dizzy, everything was floating in and out
of focus. She had been drugged. Ryan suddenly felt Jackson against
her back; she thought she had fallen back against him. Not feeling
well she tried to make it to the parking lot. Surely her friend
hadn’t really left her.

Phyllis couldn’t remember where they had
parked. And since this was a huge nightclub scene the lot hadn’t
emptied in the late hours. If anything there were more cars here
now than when she arrived. She fell over a curb and scraped her
knee.

Someone helped her up. He smelled like soap
when she fell into him next. The man said he would take her home
she was in no condition to drive. Phyllis, her mind reeling from
the booze and the drug couldn’t protest. The man helped her into
the passenger seat of a midsize pickup truck. Then the world faded
to black. The soon to be victim knew him, not like a friend or
someone close. The guy she met in the bar maybe?

Ryan felt her legs give and let go of
Phyllis’ eye. She let Jackson take her weight until she could shake
the vision and get her bearings. “He slipped her the drug somehow
then followed her to the lot and easily got her in a mid-size
truck. She was so stoked I couldn’t tell you the color. For all she
knew it was purple with pink polka dots. But my lips were tingly
she must have just drank the drug.”

Jackson’s eyes fell on the evidence bags. “I
don’t think she drank it.” He brought over the tube of lipstick.
“You feel up to it?”

Ryan shook her head a bit too quickly and
wobbled. “Not right now, I’m kind of sick from the last one
actually.”

Jack set the tube down and made sure to grab
her left hand that was still gloved to get her to a chair. Barney
got her a cup of water. Jackson rubbed her back. “Sure make us do
it the hard way. We’ll have the lab run tox on the make up. I’ll
bet GHB will be in there somewhere. With a stomach full of liquor
she must have been completely out of it.”

Ryan sipped the water thinking this wasn’t a
good idea, as she made it to the bio waste bucket. “Believe me she
was more than out of it.”

Wetting a paper towel Jackson went over and
waited until she stopped heaving. She took the cool towel
gratefully. “Let me take you home. We can come back and get the
reports and the evidence box later.”

Thomas tugged her sleeve. “I’ll stick around
and bring it over later. Go home, green isn’t your color.”

Nodding weakly she pulled herself together;
there was no way she was going to let on that she was anything but
fine. With Jackson at her back she walked down the corridor to the
lobby. Not surprisingly Kessler was waiting for her. “Dr. Reign may
I speak with you in my office.”

Following him back Ryan was able to squelch
the nausea somewhat with her aggravation. Kessler sat at his desk
looking like he was the beginning and the end. He had a talent for
intimidation. Most of the employees were turned into babbling
idiots in his presence. Everyone but her, she never did take to his
looking down on everyone. Instead of sitting in one of the plush
office chairs she walked to the front of the desk crossed her arms
and looked down on him.

He sighed. “Ryan what’s going on here? I was
told you wouldn’t be able to work again.”

Now it wasn’t just an act she was furious. “I
don’t recall ever stating that fact to you myself. In fact I don’t
recall speaking to you since requesting a leave of absence. So I
believe that a third party had disclosed information to you that is
incorrect.” She took a sheet of paper from his printer and wrote
out a quick letter. “Here, you have permission to pull my records.
Then get ready for a lawsuit for contributing to the slander my
dear sister has been spouting.”

As he stuttered she stormed out of the office
and kept walking until she reached the car. Jackson ran out and met
her. Once on they were a few miles down the road she asked him to
stop the car. Throwing open the door Ryan got out and whatever was
left in her stomach was making its debut.

Jackson stood beside her until she was done.
He pulled some wet wipes from the glove box and wiped her face. She
was trembling with anger, tears rolling down her face. “How could
she do this to me? I don’t understand Jack. We are supposed to be
sisters.”

Pulling her into his arms he rested his chin
on her head. “Sometimes it’s the ones we love who cut us the
deepest. I don’t know why, but we can go find out.”

“Not today, just take me home.”

He took her home and put her to bed. Jackson
hovered there for a long time then went into the living room and
flipped on the TV. He wasn’t watching his thoughts were on the case
and Ryan. On a whim he called Maggie and had her dig for dirt on
Amber. Nobody pushed for someone they loved to be crazy.

Thomas called later saying his sister wanted
him to go with his nephew for his check up. The arm had needed
surgery and they would have to remove the cast pull the stitches
and then recast. Gina knew she couldn’t handle the child alone.

Jackson thought it was better to take a break
anyway. Ryan was pushing too hard. It seemed like she was trying
some new way of doing things each time she read an object. It had
to be hard to see those events unfold. Then she had the physical
effects of Phyllis’ drugging as well.

He had about as much right as Amber to tell
her to slow down. What was he to her anyway? A startling thought
crossed his mind as to what he might like to be when all this is
over. Ryan had found a corner of his heart that not many had tread
and he couldn’t seem to figure out just when that had happened.

Ryan just lay there for a couple of hours.
There was no way she could sleep much less rest and it had nothing
to do with the visions. Over and over she was trying to make sense
of her sister’s actions. Why would Amber tell everyone she was
insane? More than that why speak to Kessler knowing that she had
already called and taken a leave of absence? And finally who did
that leave Ryan with now?

Before those familiar feelings of loneliness
crept in a voice drifted in from the living room. Jackson Prince.
He had been the first person not to look at her as damaged goods.
His had been the first face she thought of when she needed someone
and he was still here.

She found him sitting on the porch red faced
and looking like he wanted to rip something apart. “What’s
wrong?”

He couldn’t look at her. He was furious after
his conversation with Maggie. “I hate your sister.” He was trying
to make a joke but it fell way short as Ryan sat next to him. She
leaned her head over on his shoulder. Jackson put an arm around
her. “Sorry, it’s just…. Let me start at the beginning. Something
about this whole thing with her had me really bugged so I had
Maggie run a few things.”

Ryan sat up and started to get mad, then let
it go. She was having the same thoughts. “Maggie found something
didn’t she.”

He wanted to hold her hands but she wasn’t
wearing gloves. So he settled for resting his hands on her sleeved
arms. “Ryan, your sister is trying to claim that you are incapable
of caring for yourself and wants guardianship. She has an attorney
that requested a competency hearing that is scheduled for next
week. You didn’t know about it did you?”