Take the Monkey and Run (27 page)

“What he's doing,” I said, “is killing people. Your agency's protocol has gotten a grandmother kidnapped. And now my friend, too.”

“He's worked his way through most of the names on the list. Anya is resourceful. When things get desperate, she'll find a way to get what she wants.”

I knew what she wanted—Ronnie.

“I know you're not going to let this go,” Logan said.

“Correct.”

“I came here to tell you what I know, because it might help you. And to ask for a favor.”

“What?” I asked.

“If you find them, call me. I'm not asking you to let me deal with it. I'm just asking that we share information.”

“Are you going to do the same?”

He didn't answer.

“Screw you, Logan.”

“Think of me as backup. And I'd appreciate it if you kept the details of what I told you about my affiliations between us.”

“I'll think about it.”

With a nod, he said, “Watch your back, sweetness.” And then he left.

I stood there, processing what he'd told me for a full minute. Then I turned to open the pocket door and face what was sure to be a barrage of questions.

My friends did not disappoint.

I managed to edit the conversation down to a few points.

Anya was a deadly Russian agent. Barry, who we already knew was crazy, was working with her. They'd had a list of names they'd been using to find psychics so that they could use them to do research, and make more psychics.

“How does Logan know all this?” Emma asked.

“He and Anya seem to have a beef. He wants me to call him if we find where she's been hiding.”

“You're sure he didn't have anything to do with Belinda's kidnapping?” Kai asked quietly.

I nodded. “It was Anya. She pretended to be a client, and pulled a gun. Voodoo saw what happened.”

“But I heard voices,” Emma said, walking farther into the room. “So did Hugh.”

She looked at him for confirmation.

“We could hear people talking,” he agreed.

I took a second to think about what Voodoo had shown me. She'd been curled up napping on one of the curio cabinets, which had given the kitten a good vantage point. Anya hadn't noticed her, but she'd seen what happened from the moment the Russian agent had walked into the shop.

“Voodoo saw Anya put something over here on the bookshelf.” I walked over and found a mini–tape recorder sitting on the shelf.

“But, how is it possible that we didn't hear a scream or anything?” Emma asked. “We were in the other room.”

“Belinda hates guns, remember? She did everything Anya told her to. There was nothing to hear.” I noticed something and looked around. “Where are Elvis and Priscilla?”

“I dropped them off at the groomer's when Belinda said she was running behind,” Hugh said.

“We have to find her,” my sister said.

I looked at Kai. “Can we call the police yet?”

He looked as frustrated and upset as the rest of us.

“Right now, with a cat as a witness and no sign of forced—” I held out my hand to stop him. I knew the drill.

I looked at Ronnie. “What about Jason?”

“He might be able to pull some strings, but I don't know how long that would take.”

“Okay.” I tried to switch gears and turned back to Kai. “What about what happened at the coffee shop? Is there a way to use that to get the cops to look for Belinda? Or maybe just the van? There were people around. Maybe someone got the license plate.”

“I can call Mike. But the plates on the wrecked van were stolen. I'm betting these will be, too.”

“Oh God.” Ronnie clamped a hand over her mouth. “She was there. Belinda was in the van.”

“We can't know that,” Kai said.

“I can,” Ronnie said. “I felt it.”

“You knew Belinda was there?” Emma asked.

“No. It wasn't that specific. But when Anya pulled up I got this feeling. It's the same anytime I'm around other psychics.” She turned to me. “I thought it was you. Remember, whatever it was Barry did to block my ability? I thought maybe zapping him shorted it out or something.”

“You couldn't have known,” I told her.

“Yeah, actually, I could have, if I had thought to focus on the sensation, on where the feeling was coming from. Damn it!”

“Ronnie, it wouldn't have mattered,” I said. “Even if we'd seen Belinda being held at gunpoint through the window, we couldn't have done anything. We barely managed to get away.”

Ronnie drew in a shaky breath and nodded. Between her and Emma I wasn't sure who looked more stricken.

“Hang on,” Kai said. “Go back a second. What do you mean he blocked your ability?”

I hadn't told him about the psychic energy block, mostly because it was a lead-in for the part of the story I didn't want to tell him.

Unfortunately, I hadn't had a chance to explain to Ronnie that we should keep the bit about me offering to be kidnapped, along with the part where I demanded to be shot, between us. I hoped she would realize I'd glossed over those sections of the story before and would follow my lead and do so again.

“Barry wants to use me to find other psychics,” Ronnie said. For Emma and Hugh's benefit she added, “I can sense psychic abilities in others and can use it to locate them.”

“Like Professor X from the
X-Men
,” Hugh said. “Cool.”

“No, not cool,” Ronnie said. “Because he plans to use me to find other psychics so he can kidnap and conduct experiments on them.”

Emma paled. “And now, he has Belinda. She'll be strapped to a table, too. We have to find her.”

“Wait.” I had a sudden revelation. “What was she wearing?”

“Belinda?”

I nodded. I already knew the answer, because I'd seen it during Voodoo's recounting of the kidnapping. But I needed to be sure.

“A red and yellow print dress,” Emma said. “Why?”

“This is too crazy,” I muttered. “But it fits.”

“What fits?” Kai asked. “Grace, stop talking to yourself and tell us what you're thinking.”

“The woman Cornelius saw was Belinda. He wasn't showing me memories. This whole time, he's been seeing the future.”

“You're saying the monkey is psychic,” Hugh said. “How is that possible?”

“Barry,” Kai said.

“Exactly. According to Logan, Barry had figured out a way to alter DNA to somehow turn on a psychic gene.”

“Cornelius could be one of his experiments,” Emma said.

“Right. Think about it.” The idea made more sense the longer I considered it. “Cornelius showed me a snapshot of myself giving him beignets at the museum. He didn't even know what a beignet was. He wasn't asking me to meet him there, he was showing me what was going to happen.”

I turned to look at Ronnie. “You know the guy from earlier?”

“Logan?”

“Have you met him before?” I waved the question away and started over. “Has he ever grabbed you?”

“No,” Ronnie said, “and I'd remember, cuz that boy's hot.”

Kai let out a sigh.

“That means it hasn't happened yet.” I looked around at the group.

“Finally, some good news,” Ronnie said.

“Getting grabbed by Logan isn't good news,” Kai said.

“Why? Who is he?”

“Forget about Logan,” I said. “Cornelius is psychic. Which means his vision of Belinda hasn't happened yet, either. We still have time.”

“Yeah, but how much time?” Emma asked.

“Not much,” Ronnie said. “If you think about how much information Barry gave us when he spilled his guts at the coffee shop, he might be in a rush.”

“I don't think so,” I said. “He was very confident you wouldn't be able to track him because he's figured out a way to suppress psychic energy.”

“He must have done it to Belinda, too,” Emma said. “Remember? She said her intuition wasn't working right.”

“And she had that headache.” I nodded. “He messed with her ability the way he did with yours, Ronnie.”

“What exactly did he do?” Kai asked.

“I don't know,” Ronnie said. “Grace had figured out Barry's plan to use me. She was telling me he wouldn't hurt me, that I could just leave and use my ability to find her later.”

“You did what?” Emma said, turning to stare at me.

“I was trying to get a message across to her.” I waved at Ronnie. “I could tell she was thinking about going with the lunatic. I had to show her what a bad idea it was.”

Kai hadn't said anything, but he was looking at me in a way that made me want to squirm.

“It worked, too,” Ronnie said. “But then Barry started laughing and said he'd figured out a way to stop me from finding her. So I tried to sense her power, but it didn't work. The sensation I get when I know someone's psychic—it was gone. Instead, I got a massive headache.”

Kai had finally turned his glass-green eyes away from me and looked at Ronnie. “What exactly did he do?”

She looked at me. “Nothing. At least not that I saw.”

“I didn't notice anything, either,” I confirmed.

“Do you think he has some sort of ability himself?” Kai asked. “Has he altered his own DNA?”

I shook my head. “I don't think so. When he talked about tapping into the vibrations of the universe, he didn't include himself.”

Ronnie nodded. “He seemed almost envious of us.”

“Then it must be something else,” Kai said thoughtfully. “A device of some sort.”

“Maybe it's the radio Anya took from the van,” Hugh said. “Or something that looked like a radio.”

“That's one way to keep a psychic from finding you,” Ronnie said. “Ride around in an ESP-proof vehicle. Only Barry didn't have anything like that with him in the coffee shop.”

“The earpiece,” I said. “Remember? He was fiddling with it while we were sitting there.” I looked at Kai. “Would it be possible for something that small to be effective?”

“At this point I'm starting to believe anything's possible.”

“We'll have to worry about that later,” Emma said. “Right now, let's focus on finding Belinda.”

“Agreed,” I said.

“You back online, kid?” Emma asked Ronnie.

“Yeah, I think so, hang on.” She took a quick, deep breath and closed her eyes. A second later, a warm sensation washed over me.

“Yep,” I said.

“Wait,” Emma said, “you can feel whatever it is she's doing?”

I nodded. “It's like walking through a ray of sunshine on a cold day. Except the warmth goes all the way through you.”

“Apricity,” Hugh said.

Everyone looked at him.

“What? It's a word,” he said. “Look it up.”

“There's only one problem,” Ronnie said. “I'm not very good at this, remember? We were coming here to get Belinda's help because I couldn't get a fix on my
mamere
's location.”

That stopped us for a moment.

“We have to try,” I said.

“I'm willing to try anything,” Ronnie assured me. “I just don't know any more than I did before. You saw my notebook—there's almost nothing to go on.”

“But this is different,” Kai said. “Before you were looking for Hattie. Now you'll be looking for Belinda.”

“How is that going to help?”

“He's right, Ronnie,” I said, feeling a surge of hope. “You just said it yourself: you felt another psychic when Anya showed up in that van. It had to have been Belinda.”

“Maybe the issue isn't that you don't know what you're doing,” Emma said. “Maybe the problem is your relationship with your
mamere
.”

“Wouldn't that help?” Hugh asked.

“Not if she's too emotional about it,” I said. “I know I have to shut down my emotions completely sometimes to communicate with animals. If I don't, I get lost and the connection . . . implodes, I guess.”

“You think the fact that I don't know Belinda will help?” Ronnie sounded dubious. “But, according to Mamere, connection is the key to finding someone. It only works if I have
a link to someone's energy. That's why we use personal items, to form a link.”

“Take a look around.” Hugh swept his hand over the shop. “There's plenty to choose from.”

“That's not what I'm saying.” Ronnie paced in a circle and scrubbed her hands over her face.

“You think the link should be stronger because of your relationship with Hattie,” Emma said.

“Yes.”

“But being close to someone doesn't always help,” Emma said.

“Sometimes it makes you crazy.” Kai turned to look at me. “Especially when you find out they volunteered to be abducted.”

“You think that's bad—” Ronnie started.

“Anyway”—I wasn't about to let her rat me out about telling Barry to shoot me—“I think you'll have better luck trying to find Belinda. So, what do we need? Something personal, right?”

Ronnie nodded. “Like a wedding ring or favorite sweater. Something she had with her a lot.”

“How about a hairbrush?” Kai said.

“We're not looking for DNA,” I teased.

Kai either didn't think my joke was funny or was still upset that I'd put myself in danger, because he didn't even crack a smile.

“Right,” Ronnie said. “I make my connection through it, so it should be an item she's attached to.”

“I don't know,” Emma mused. “I've had some pretty sweet hairbrushes.”

“Let's head into the kitchen,” I suggested. “She spends tons of time in there.”

We filed out of the shop. I paused at the shrine to Oshun.

“What is it?” Emma said, stopping beside me. “You think something on here would work?”

“No. Belinda told me I could make an offering and ask
for protection. I should have asked to protect her. I just didn't know. Now I don't have anything.”