Killer Insight

  Instead, with a shaking hand Viv handed the phone to Nina. “It’s Duffy,” she said, and Ellie stopped talking to Cat as she overheard her great-aunt. “I’m afraid it’s bad.”

  “What is it?” Ellie said, jumping to her feet and rushing over with her mother to the phone. “Tell me!” Ellie demanded as Viv just looked at her with a pitying stare.

  “There’s been a fire,” Viv said.

  “Where?” Ellie asked.

  “The jail. I guess it was pretty bad.”

  “Eddie?!” Ellie screeched, her voice panicked.

  “They can’t find him,” Viv said, and reached with her hand for a chair to sit down in, the strength seeming to go out of her knees. “They’re taking a head count of the prisoners who made it out. Eddie’s not among them.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Oh, my God,” Nina said, and took the phone to talk to her son.

  Ellie began to shake, and the paleness to her skin made me quickly pull out a chair for her. “Ellie,” I said, trying to get her attention as she just stared out into space, the news too much for her. “Ellie!” I said again, and got right in her face. “Do you have a picture on you of Eddie?” Something was telling me that Eddie was still alive, and I had to know for sure.

  “Wha…?” Ellie said, looking at me but not taking in my words.

  “I need a picture of Eddie!” I commanded. Then I stood up and said to the group, “Does anyone have a picture on them that Eddie is in?”

  “In my wallet,” Ellie said breathlessly. “Oh, God, Abby. Please look for me! Please tell me if he’s still alive!”

  Kelly leaped off her chair and rushed to the hall, returning a moment later with Ellie’s purse. “Here!” she said as she shoved it forward.

  All eyes were on me as I dug in for Ellie’s wallet. Pulling it out, I handed it to her, and with shaking fingers she tore it open and retrieved a photo of the two of them. I looked at the photo and closed my eyes in relief. “He’s alive, El,” I said.

  Ellie let out a long and painful sob. “Thank you, Lord!” she said, and began crying in earnest.

  “So where is he?” Cat asked me.

  “I don’t know. Maybe we should head over to the jail and see if there’s any word?” I offered.

  “Come on, everyone,” Cat said, taking charge. “I’ve got a limo outside. Viv, Nina, Ellie and Abby, you’re with me. Everyone else, follow the limo.”

  Without delay, we all piled out of Viv’s house. In the backseat, hopping up and down, were Matt and Mike and one very tired brother-in-law. “Hey, Abby,” Tommy said as I sat down.

  “Hey, guy. Cat left you all out here?”

  “She said she’d be right back, and that was about fifteen minutes ago. Where’s the party?” he asked as people began to pour into the car.

  “We’re headed to jail!” Cat announced, getting in after Vivian.

  “What’d you do this time?” Tommy said like it was a question he asked all the time.

  “Not me!” Cat said, giving him a dark look. “Ellie’s fiancé.”

  “Okay,” Tommy said as he scooted over to make room for his wife. “Have you thought about the fact that we will probably miss our plane?”

  “They have other ones,” Cat said impatiently. “Ellie, can you tell the driver where to go?”

  “Yes,” Ellie said, and headed up to the front of the cab.

  I looked around the limo and noticed the absence of my parents. “Claire and Sam not up for a joyride?”

  “They took an earlier flight,” my sister announced joyfully. “My master plan worked.”

  “Which master plan was that exactly?” I asked.

  “The one where leaving them alone with the twins for a few hours would ensure that they would want to get the hell out of here before I asked them to babysit again!”

  “Good thinking.” I nodded.

  “I know!”

  “Too bad you didn’t think of that, like, two months ago,” I added.

  “Better late than never.” Cat sniffed.

  We arrived at the jail about fifteen minutes later. There were fire trucks, sheriff’s cars and ambulances lining the street, not to mention the melee of people milling about made up of the curious, the press and emergency crews.

  The limo came to a halt about one hundred yards from the county jail, unable to get closer due to barricades set up by the sheriff. Ellie was out of the car first, her eyes wide and scared as they caught site of the three-story building still ablaze. I followed close on her heels, along with several other members of our troop.

  Taking Ellie’s arm, I led her in the direction my radar was pointing. We found Duffy on the east side of the building, talking with a fireman as they pointed up to the third floor, where smoke still poured from one of the windows.

  I shuddered at the sight. I’d been in a fire a few months back, and the memory still gave me nightmares. We approached the taped-off area right behind Duffy, and when we neared I called out to Duffy, who turned and came over to us in haste.

  “Hey, baby girl,” he said as he swept Ellie into a tight hug.

  She cried a little into his chest as he held her, and after a moment she pulled away and said, “Please tell me you’ve found him.”

  Duffy’s eyes told us before he even had a chance to speak that he didn’t have good news, and Ellie seemed to wilt a little more. “We’re still looking, El. I’m so sorry,” he began.

  Nina came up behind me and reached forward to touch her son’s arm. “Your father’s on his way. Let’s get Ellie over there where she can sit down and we can talk.”

  I followed the trio as we headed to a curb and sat Ellie down gently. She leaned into her mother, who wrapped a protective arm about her daughter as she asked Duffy, “How did this happen?”

  Duffy looked chagrined and had a hard time meeting his mother’s eyes as he said, “We were tight on space, Ma, so they put Eddie in with Warren Biggins.”

  “You are kidding me!” I said, looking at Duffy like he needed his head examined. “Why would you put him in with that psycho?”

  “We had no choice. I was on my way here when I got the word. It looks like the fire started in Biggins and Eddie’s jail cell. Biggins was known to have arson on his list of priors. I have no idea how he got the accelerant, but he set his bedding on fire, and when the jail cells opened to evacuate the prisoners, he and Eddie overpowered one of the guards and the two of them made a run for it.”

  “Eddie is with Biggins?” I asked, shocked by the news.

  “According to several eyewitnesses, yes.”

  “So Eddie’s all right? He’s just escaped?” Ellie asked.

  Duffy looked back at his little sister. Holding her gaze he said in a voice thick with gravity, “I hope so. Both he and Biggins are still unaccounted for.”

  “What do you mean, you hope so?” I asked, knowing there was more to this story.

  Duffy took a big breath, let it out slowly and said, “In their efforts to escape, Eddie and Biggins went back into the heart of the fire. Before disappearing into the smoke, one of the prisoners swears he saw Eddie’s pants catch fire.”

  “Oh, God,” Ellie said and she covered her face with her hands.

  “Ellie,” I said, remembering two things that could give her hope. “Remember, I saw his picture. He’s alive; I know it.”

  Ellie gulped back a tremendous sob and peeked her eyes out from her hands. “You’re sure?” she asked me, her voice barely a whisper.

  “Yes. Yes, I can feel it. He’s alive. And now I know what happened in the driveway the other day. Do you remember when I was really dizzy? And I said something about Eddie?”

  Ellie pulled the rest of her hands down from her face and her mouth formed a small O. “You said ‘pants on fire.”’

  I nodded. “Yes, I did. That’s what my guides were trying to say. That his pants were actually going to catch on fire. And since I saw him getting a lawyer, then I think we’ll find him, and he’ll be okay.” That
was a small stretch, but I had to give Ellie some hope.

  She reached up and grabbed my hand. “Thank you, Abby,” she said as tears streamed down her face.

  When she touched me I felt a familiar yellow warning light go on in my mind. Ellie was in danger, and as I focused on her energy I knew we had to get her home and into bed. “Nina,” I said gently. “We need to get Ellie out of here. Will you take her home?”

  “No, I want to stay!” Ellie insisted, and I noticed how pale and drawn her face had become. “Eddie may be hurt, and he’ll need me.”

  “No!” I said sharply, noticing that the yellow light in my head beat more strongly. “Ellie, you have got to get some rest. I’ll stay here with Duffy and see if my radar can’t lend a hand, but only if you agree to go home and lie down immediately.”

  “Come on, my love,” Nina said as she helped Ellie to her feet. “Abby’s right. You need to go home and rest. Duffy, will you call us the moment you hear something?”

  “Scout’s honor, Ma,” he said with a small salute.

  “Please,” Ellie said over her shoulder to me as Nina led her back toward the limo, “please find him for me, Abby.”

  “I’ll make sure she gets home safe,” Cat said as I realized she was next to me.

  “Thanks, Cat. Are you guys staying in town or heading out now that you’ve missed your plane?”

  “Oh, I think it’s time to head home. I’ll have Tommy phone the airport as soon as we get Ellie and Nina back to their house. Call me as soon as you hear anything, okay?”

  “You got it. Safe journey, okay?” I said as I hugged her.

  Turning back to Duffy, I asked, “So now what?”

  “Now we wait until they’ve put out the fire and then search the building to find casualties. You’re certain Eddie’s alive?”

  “Positive,” I said, feeling it in my bones. Closing my eyes, I focused on him and let my radar fill my mind with intuitive information. “He’s alive, but his right leg is injured. There’s also a sense of panic about him. He’s scared, Duffy.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” Duffy said. “Can you get a feel for where he is?”

  I focused harder, allowing my intuition to go beyond Eddie’s pain and state of mind and to feel his surroundings. “He’s moving,” I said as I felt a shift in the energy. “I think he’s in a car.”

  “Can you describe the car?” Duffy asked.

  I grimaced. That was a very tough question, but I asked it in my head and waited for a detail to surface. I got the thought “green” in my head, and opened my eyes. “Green. He’s in a green car. A sedan, I’d say. Not an SUV or truck.”

  Duffy pulled the mouthpiece of his walkie-talkie off his shoulder. “Command, this is Sheriff McGinnis. I need a perimeter search of the area around the jail for a green sedan with possible escapees inside.”

  In the next fifteen minutes a preliminary search of the area was done, and no green sedan was spotted. Without a make or model of the car I suspected Eddie was in, there was no telling where he might be. About the time the last of the patrol cars had reported in that there was no sign of a green sedan on the streets surrounding the jail, I got an idea and said, “Duffy, have some deputies go to the hospital.”

  “Something’s going to happen at the hospital?” he asked me.

  “No, have them go and look around the hospital. Remember? Eddie’s been hurt. He’s bound to have friends there, colleagues who might be willing to help him without alerting the police.”

  “Now you’re thinking,” Duffy said with a grin, and reached for the mouthpiece of his walkie-talkie again.

  After that, we did a whole lot of waiting. A few people I’d seen at Viv’s house came over to see if there’d been any word. Most of them eventually went home after Duffy promised to update everyone once he heard something.

  The fire was put out, and crews began the slow, methodical search for people who couldn’t be accounted for. I listened to the chatter on Duffy’s radio as room after room, then floor after floor was carefully searched. By this time it was very close to ten P.M., and out of the corner of my eye I spotted Christina making her way over to me. “Hey,” she said when she got close.

  “You’re still here?” I asked with a shiver. Duffy had lent me a blanket, which I’d wrapped around myself while I waited in the cold with him, and I shivered underneath it.

  “Yeah, my uncle owns a restaurant just down the street, and I went there right after we arrived. He’s usually got better dirt on what’s going on than the police. Say, have you seen Kelly? She and I drove together, and she went to the car to grab her purse, like, hours ago and I haven’t seen her since.”

  An alarm went off in my head as my heart skipped a beat. “No, Christina, I haven’t seen her. Which one of you drove?”

  “She did,” Christina said, searching the much-thinned crowd. “Damn, and she was my only way home. Maybe Duffy can give me a ride?” she asked hopefully.

  “Uh, sure,” I said as the alarm continued to gong in my head. “I’ll ask him…. Say, just out of curiosity, what kind of car does Kelly drive?”

  “A Saturn, why?”

  Warning! Warning! Warning! flashed through my head so strongly that I blinked as I tried to focus on our conversation. “What color is the Saturn?”

  “Light green—have you seen it?”

  My breathing quickened, and I grabbed Christina’s hand and pulled her over to Duffy. “I know where Eddie is,” I said when I caught his attention.

  “Where?” Duffy asked, and Christina looked at me in shock.

  “I think he’s kidnapped Kelly. They’re in her car and I think she’s in big trouble.”

  Duffy put an APB out for Kelly’s light green Saturn, and motioned for us to join him in the search. We piled into his patrol car and headed away from the county jail.

  “Do you really think he’d kidnap Kelly?” Duffy asked me.

  “It’s weird,” I said as I focused my energy on the thought. “I remember when Ellie and I were chasing after Hadley Rankin’s car, when she’d been taken by Biggins, and that word, ‘kidnapped,’ kept racing through my mind. It’s the same intuitive thought with Kelly. I know she’s been kidnapped.”

  “Do you think Eddie’s responsible, or Biggins?” Duffy asked me.

  I grimaced. I hadn’t considered that. I focused again on Eddie and tried to extend the energy outward. My feeling was that he wasn’t alone, and that he too was in some kind of danger. “I think Biggins is with him,” I said, and my right side felt light, confirming the statement.

  “Any ideas where they may be, Abby?” Duffy asked.

  I closed my eyes and focused with all my heart on Kelly. I had a sense of darkness, and for a moment I was terrified that she might be dead, but as I felt her energy, I had a sense of confinement. I felt trapped and enclosed and scared, and it was such an intense feeling that I moved back from it. “I think she’s in the trunk,” I said after a moment.

  “The bastards,” Duffy said, his grip on the steering wheel tightening and a determined look on his face. “Can you tell where they’re taking her?”

  “No, but give me a little time and I’ll keep working on it.”

  We drove around the streets near the jail for about twenty minutes, and I waited for the energy around Eddie to change. Finally, I felt a subtle shift, and about ten minutes later I said, “He’s not with her anymore….”

  “Where is he?” Duffy asked.

  “He’s someplace warm. There’s a smell,” I said as the faintest whisper of a scent floated to my nostrils. “He’s someplace that smells like…like…bleach.”

  “Bleach?”

  “Someplace big,” I said, feeling the expanse of a building surrounding me. “There are many levels, and he’s on the lowest one.”

  “Is he out of the city?” Duffy asked me.

  “I can’t tell.”

  “You said before you thought he was in the hospital. Do you think that’s what you’re getting?”

 
My eyes snapped open. “Yes! Yes, that has to be it! I’m not sure where he is in the hospital, but I really think that’s it!”

  “He’s not with Kelly anymore?”

  I focused, playing that against my radar. “No. He’s left her.”

  “So the son of a bitch leaves Kelly in the trunk of a car with Biggins while he heads off to the hospital to get fixed up?” Duffy grumbled. “I’m gonna wring his neck when we find him. Jesus!” And with that Duffy grabbed his radio and began to shout instructions into it. He ordered a complete search of the hospital and flipped on his lights and siren as we raced through town to get there.

  When we arrived, we searched the parking lot for Kelly’s light green Saturn, but there was no sign of her car. Duffy got back on his radio and asked for the deputies already inside to report in. The hospital had eight floors. His team had started in the basement and they were still working their way up, with no sign of him yet.

  Duffy parked, and Christina and I followed him into the hospital. Stopping inside the lobby, Duffy turned to me and asked, “Can your radar tell us if he’s near?”

  “Doubtful. It’s not the same as a dog with a scent.”

  “Can you at least try?” he asked.

  I hesitated for a minute, unsure; after all, there was a lot at stake here. “Yes,” I said finally. “But try not to expect too much.” Heading over to a bank of chairs, I sat down and got situated, then focused again. Intuition is a tricky thing. It has its own language, which, for me, is made up of metaphors, whispers of thoughts and feelings that must be interpreted. I’ve found that as a tool, it’s important to ask the right questions when trying to get an answer. For instance, if you ask the wrong question on a subject you’re trying to learn about, you can become diverted by the answer. It’s very important to be as specific as possible.

  Knowing this, I took a moment to formulate a question that I thought would point me to the exact location we needed to go. In my head I asked, Where is Eddie’s hiding place located in this hospital?

  Immediately I got the scent of bleach again, then a sense of spinning movement and loud noises all around. I waited and told my crew that I needed more clarity and was rewarded with a visual of a washing machine. My eyes flew open. I knew exactly where he was. “He’s in the laundry room!” I said excitedly.