Psychic Visions 08-Now You See Her... (22 page)

She frowned, letting her hand drop away. Was it possible to gain Wilhelm’s records? A list of who’d been put through his program. Those who stayed. Those who failed out? That would at least give them a list of where to start. Hell, the cops should know who he was by the damn fingerprints he’d left behind. Her prints were taken when she’d first arrived at the lab. The process had terrified her. She’d done nothing wrong. They’d said they needed them for their security clearance process.

It had been minor to all the other infractions. Not the least of which was to keep her a prisoner for all those years. Like what the hell? How had that been legal? Or okay with society? She didn’t even want to think about her family and their responsibility in this. She had a brother – were her parents still alive? Her brother? Did she care?

Mostly on a curiosity level but other than that, no.

At least she didn’t think so…

She groaned. All of that had been taken away from her a long time ago. It was stupid to care. Stupid to wonder. If they’d wanted anything to do with her, they always knew where to find her. Except her brother.

He likely didn’t know she existed.

Sad. For both of them.

“Are you okay?”

Dean. Damn.

“I’m fine.”

“Well, you look more than fine to me.”

At the note of humor in his voice and that little bit of something else…she opened her eyes to realize she’d laid down on his bed.

“No, don’t move.” He came around to the other side – his side – and sat down beside her. “There’s so much going on I just wanted to make sure you were okay and not worrying.” At the look she sent him, his grin widened. “Yeah, I know. It’s not something you can’t
not
worry about.” He reached over and lifted her hand to cradle in his. “I was hoping you’d come up for a nap.”

“I won’t be able to sleep.”

He nodded. “I know the feeling. I keep walking past my son and reaching out and touching him to make sure he’s really here.”

“When are they leaving?”

He glanced down at his watch. “In a couple of hours.”

She nodded. “Good. I’ll feel better when they are safe.” She studied his face. If anyone should nap it was him. “You look tired.”

“I’ve been wracking my brain looking for angles we might have missed. Threads to pursue.”

“I was too. Can we get access to Wilhelm’s project? Maybe the list of people he tested, worked with, hired? The ones who didn’t stay in the program?”

“Jones is looking into it as I’m not back to work yet, but so far the material is very slim. We did find out who the man was from MacDonald’s. A Torrence Vladrong. Jones is digging into his background. A lot was kept off the books.”

An idea percolated. An ugly idea but at what point did she have to do something much uglier? Abruptly she said, “What about an unexpected visit to the lab?”

He stopped then leaned over. “What do you mean? I thought it was closed down?”

“The building was his own. The estate was a trust set up by his parents for paranormal research. I’m sure the records are all there.” She frowned. “His lab might still be running under different management. Under a different name.”

He slowly straightened. “Do you know where this building is?”

She slowly nodded. “It’s not exactly some place you ever forget.”

“Do you have an address?”

She shook her head. “No, but I should be able to find it if we drive around.”

“It’s in your old neighborhood, isn’t it?”

Tears threatened. “Oh yes. It wasn’t far away at all. In fact, I could see my roof top from my window. I always wondered if that had been on purpose. So I could see but not visit my home.”

“Bastard.” Dean stood up and walked to the window. “Did you ever go home?”

“After I moved to the lab I never saw my friends, my brother, or my parents again.” She gave him a teary-eyed look. “I never ever left that place until I escaped, and then when I was returned, I was a permanent resident – forever.”

*

Dean frowned. How
did a child live through that betrayal? The very people who should have cared for her, loved her…walked away from her. Like, how did people do that? What was in their genetic marker that allowed them to give away their flesh and blood? There was supposed to be a special bond between parent and child. Not one that could be tossed aside so casually.

What would make supposedly loving parents do something like that?

Unless the bond between them and the child was broken. What would break such a thing? Hate? Disgust? Disappointment? Fear?

And the first three led to the last one. He glanced over at Tia. “When did your abilities start showing up?” he asked casually.

“No idea. I was well into them by the time I was ten as my parents were beside themselves trying to figure out what to do with me. They’d originally run me past every doctor they could get me into, and somewhere along the way they got to the point of realizing I couldn’t be helped, that the doctors didn’t want to see me and if they admitted I was missing the appearance of limbs for an hour or two their own mental health was called into play. Apparently I had that uncanny knack of missing an arm only to have it show up just before the doctor would be called in to see me. Considering the type of looks they might have gotten, I can see how distressing it might have been. Honestly, I think Wilhelm was likely a Godsend for them. It gave them someone who was interested in helping me.”

“Helping you?” Dean asked incredulously. “They believed that?”

“I think they wanted to believe that. It was packaged that way and for the longest time I believed it too.” She gave him a tight grin. “It was easier to believe that than the truth.”

Now that he could believe.

“And when did you find out the truth?”

“Which truth? That my parents had left me behind permanently?” At his nod she shrugged. “Somewhere around the time I realized the phone calls were not being returned. The letters I sent out were never answered.” She stared off at a distant point. “To be fair, I’m not sure those were ever sent out.” She sighed. “Then summer months came but they didn’t come with it.”

He couldn’t imagine the little girl sitting there and waiting for her family to come.

“For the longest time I was afraid they’d had an accident and that they’d all perished. It made it easier to see why I was still there.”

It was hard to swallow. He focused on his own son for a long moment, letting the love fill him. It was unfathomable to think of what she’d been through.

“Then I knew for sure because as I started to fight the system, getting more and more uncooperative, Wilhelm used my family as a weapon against me. How they’d never come for me. I was a freak of nature. No one was ever going to want me.” She threw out a hand. “You know. Think of all the nasty things people say to each other in the hopes of getting them to do what they want.”

“Surely that only made you madder?”

“At the time it made me very quiet. I cooperated again because he was all I had to live by. If I wanted out then it was only going to happen with his permission. He used to offer me day trips as treats and gifts as rewards. Anything for him to be able to do the tests he wanted to do. And when I refused…”

She broke off and rubbed her temple, but he was sure there was a sheen of tears on her face.

“What did he do then?” Anger, slow building but with a force he’d rarely felt, surged up. He waited for her answer, hoping it wasn’t the one that had jumped into his mind.

She shrugged and in a flat voice said, “He did them anyway.”

Yeah, if that bastard was alive, Dean was going to kill him, if he was dead…well he’d find a way to kill him again.

W
hile waiting for
Gillian and Jeremy to board the plane the atmosphere had been deliberately lighthearted and fun. Gillian was anxious to leave, and Jeremy was excited about his first plane ride. Dean appeared to be in control and that was a good thing – she certainly wasn’t.

Outside Tia stopped and stared at the overcast sky for a long moment. “We need to go to the old lab.” This sucked big time.

“We’ll drive past now. See if there is anything left.”

They walked the short distance to the truck and hopped in. The traffic getting out of the airport was heavy. She couldn’t help but wonder at society’s ant-like existence as she watched vehicle after vehicle turn left and right and feed in and out of the airport. Everyone moved in orderly procession at top speed. Everyone had a plan and a direction.

Unlike her.

The truck took a hard right with a raw squeal of tires. She straightened and stared out the window. And found her heart jumping into her throat again. They were driving past her old home. She stared with sadness and grief as they made it all the way past. It looked horrible. Lost. Deserted. Rundown. Kind of like her memories.

“What a sad place,” she murmured.

“Several other families lived in it since you were there last. It was bought from your parents and turned into a rental unit.”

“It looks like it.” That accounted for the desolate air surrounding it. The lack of love.

“Yeah, and the owners likely recouped their cost many times over without reinvesting back into the property again.” He took the truck around another corner adding, “Typical.”

With a curious sense of detachment she watched her old neighborhood go by. The scraped knee when she’d tripped falling onto that curb. The fire hydrant that used to be completely hidden by weeds and wildflowers was now fully exposed. Not even those found a warm enough environment to survive today.

“It doesn’t look the same,” she murmured. “Yet at the same time, it does.”

“It’s older, more run-down and you are now older with a whole new perspective.”

“True.” The truck pulled up to a gas station and stopped. She glanced over at him. He was staring at her with a questioning look on his face.

“Where to now?”

Oh shit. She’d been so lost in her walk down memory lane she’d forgotten she needed to give him directions. She peered out the window and tried to orient herself to the lab. It hadn’t been walking distance, but it wasn’t that far either. “Go ahead a couple of blocks and take a right.”

It took several more blocks and a few more turns, but eventually she caught sight of the building rising in the sky.

There was a deep silence in the vehicle when he pulled the truck onto the shoulder of the road across from the place. They both stared at the run-down building.

“It looks deserted.”

“All the records indicate that the lab was shut down around the time you left.”

“Hmmm.” She didn’t trust much about that good doctor. If he’d been able to keep his work moving forward from the grave he would have. Dean parked the truck and turned off the engine. And looked at her expectantly.

“What do you want to do?”

“I want to look inside.” Suddenly determined to do just that, even though it was the last thing she wanted to do, she opened the passenger door and jumped out. The door slammed harder and louder than she expected. And echoed in the night.

Shit.

“You okay?” Dean asked, his gaze intent.

She ignored him and stared at the three story monstrosity. Yet for all its size, it had seemed much bigger in her nightmares. There were busted windows and bars on a few others. The gate held a Private Property Keep Out sign that now hung drunkenly off to the side.

The little girl inside whimpered.
Don’t go. Don’t go. You’ll never get out.

“There’s still power in the place so someone is paying the bill.”

She froze. “You mean there might be people still there? A functioning lab still in operation?” Her voice rose in shock. She wanted to scream in pain and terror. And she wanted to race inside and knock the shit out of the first person she saw. She needed a target. Someone to pummel for all the years of abuse she’d taken.

At the same time, she wanted to turn around and hide.

Like she always had.

She straightened her shoulders, aware he was doing some search on his cell phone – probably looking for the company who was paying the bills on the property. She strode across the deserted street and through the gate. She breathed slowly and carefully.