Conduit (25 page)

The silence in Emily’s living room
was almost as unbearable as the darkness clamoring for control of her mind.
Emily sipped on a cup of coffee on the couch next to Cassie. Jake sat in the
recliner next to the couch. He leaned forward with his elbows propped up on his
thighs, digesting everything she had told them about the darkness.

They had both vocalized their reaction to her detailed
narrative. Cassie was upset Emily hadn’t told her what she was going through,
especially since they were helping the police on the case. Jake was frustrated that
when he warned her away from the case, she hadn’t mentioned everything that had
already happened.

When she explained that merely being in close proximity to
Jake eliminated most of the killer’s presence in her mind, she did not expect
his reaction. She wanted him to understand how important that made him, how
their connection was much deeper than either of them realized. Instead, he
voiced that he was angry with the whole situation, fearful for her, and hurt
that she didn’t confide in him. He had wanted to help from the beginning, but
she never gave him, or Cassie, that chance.

After Emily admitted and apologized for her mishandling of
events, the three of them sat in an uncomfortable silence. Emily focused on her
coffee, while Jake fidgeted in the recliner. Every few seconds, Cassie started
to speak, but closed her mouth before any words came out.

Jake spoke first. “I’m not sure what to do from here. Our
number one priority is to keep you safe, but how do we eliminate this threat?”

“We tell Uncle Leo,” Cassie said. “There’s no way around it.”
She pointed at Emily. “You should have said something when he brought us this
case. As soon as you found out the message carved in the victims was the same
as what you wrote, you needed to tell us. We never should have gotten involved.”

“This was going to happen whether we took the case or not,”
Emily said. “I was hearing the women over a week before Uncle Leo came to us
with the case. If anything, taking the case helped me better understand this.”

“But you invited him in,” Jake said. “He knocked on the door
to your mind and you swung it wide open for him.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Emily said. “I thought I was
communicating with the women. I didn’t realize—”

“You didn’t realize he used the women to get to you,” Cassie
said.

“Had you told me about it,” Jake said, “we would have been
able to figure that out together, before you put yourself in danger.”

“I still don’t understand how this works,” Cassie said.

“I don’t either,” Emily said. “That’s what I want to find
out today. He’s already in my mind, so we should take advantage of that. If we
look into it a little deeper, we can stop him. We can find him and send the
police his way. Maybe there’s a way I can use this connection—”

“No!” Jake slammed his hand on the table. “Absolutely not.
You’re not going any further with this, either of you. You’re both talking
about this like it’s any other case you work. It’s not. This is your life we’re
talking about, Emily. And yours, Cassie.” He paused and sadness touched his
eyes. “Em, you didn’t see yourself last night. What he’s doing to you is
destroying you and I won’t let it go on any longer. We’re calling Leo right now
and talking to him this morning.”

“Talking to Uncle Leo isn’t going to change anything,” Emily
said. “If we don’t stop him, he’ll kill someone else and then that victim will
reach out to me, too.”

“This situation sucks all the way around,” Cassie said. “There
doesn’t seem to be a solution that will get law enforcement turned onto the
killer’s path and not put Emily in more danger.”

“I need you to back me up here,” Jake told Cassie. “We can’t
let this continue. It’s too dangerous and it’s hurting her.”

“Jake, I’m still with you on this,” Cassie said, “but maybe
we should put off telling Uncle Leo just for today. We really don’t know much
about what’s happening to her except for a lot of supposition. We need to put
together a much better theory if we ever expect him to understand what we’re
saying.”

Emily grabbed Jake’s hand and took hold of his eyes with
hers. “I’m not going to do anything dangerous. I’m only going to check out a
few things today. No matter what happens or what we find out, we’ll talk to
Uncle Leo tomorrow morning. We’ll even call him later this afternoon to
schedule an appointment.”

“And I’m going to his house tonight for dinner,” Cassie
said, “so I’ll make sure he sees us in the morning before he does anything
else.”

Jake’s clenched jaw relaxed a bit, and he squeezed Emily’s
hand. “Nothing can happen to you,” he said. “I can’t...” He moved to the edge
of his seat and placed his other hand on top of hers.

Pain clenched Emily’s heart. His fear of losing her stemmed from
the deaths of Janie and his mom, and she didn’t want him to worry. “Nothing is
going to happen to me, or anyone else,” she said. “But I need your support in
this. I can’t do it alone.”

“I have a meeting with Nathan in a few hours,” he said. “After
I’m done with that, I’ll meet you back at my house. We’re not staying here and
you’re not staying at Cassie’s house, either. You two are way too close, with
owning a business together for so long, and he might know everything about Cassie.
You’ll be safer with me, at my house.” He turned to Cassie. “You’d be better
off staying at my house as well.”

“I’ll be fine at my house. I’m not the one hearing voices.
Besides, I’ll be at Uncle Leo’s until late tonight.”

“At least come to my house after dinner,” Jake said. “I have
a spare bedroom that doesn’t get much use.”

“Don’t worry about me, Jake. I have a few guns at my house
and I’ve been shooting all my life. I feel pretty safe at home playing Dirty
Harry.”

Emily smiled despite the seriousness of conversation.

“I don’t like it much, but if you’re sure, then I guess your
gun collection can probably keep you safer than I could.” Jake looked at Emily.
“While we’re on the topic of safety, he probably knows what you drive and could
have followed you in the past. Your car isn’t going anywhere today.”

“We’ll leave it in her garage,” Cassie said. “I’ll drop her
off at your house when we’re done this afternoon.”

“Jake, I’d rather bring it to your house to have it just in
case,” Emily said. “Cassie can follow me to your house this morning and drop my
car off. Then she can drive me around today.”

“We’ll stash it in the garage so it’s out of sight,” Jake
said.

Bob brushed up against Emily’s legs, reminding her that he
also needed a place to go. “What should we do with Bob?” she asked.

“Pack up his litter and food,” Jake said. “I’ll take him
home with me now and get him set up before I go meet Nathan.”

Emily smiled at him. “Thank you, Jake.”

Cassie’s cell phone beeped with a new text message. She dug
it out of her pocket. “Sorry, guys. Let me just—” Her jaw slacked.

“What is it?” Emily asked.

Cassie lifted her head and stared at Emily. “It’s Uncle Leo.
They found Stephanie Price’s body.”

Emily froze and absorbed Cassie’s words. The darkness that
played on the edges of her mind all morning rolled in like a thick fog. “I
heard her dying,” Emily said. “I had hoped...” She had resolved not to break
down in front of them, but tears leapt from her eyes and she covered her face with
her hands.

Jake jumped out of his chair and sat next to her on the
couch. He gathered her into his arms and she buried her head in his shoulder.
Holding the back of her head, he whispered next to her ear. “You’re safe, Em.
We’re going to keep you safe.” Jake tightened his hold on her.

Once again, his arms closed out everything else around her,
and the darkness retreated. “Don’t let me go, Jake,” she said. “Please don’t
let me go.”

“As soon as I finish this meeting with Nathan, I won’t let
you out of my sight even for a second. Not until we get him out of your mind,
and even then...” He moved back from her and cupped her face in his hands. “I’m
not going to let anything happen to you.”

Embarrassment crept over her cheeks for breaking down in
front of him, and she pulled away from him. “I’m sorry, to both of you. I
should have come to you sooner. If I had, maybe Stephanie wouldn’t—”

“No, Em,” Cassie said. “Don’t start down that path. There’s
nothing any of us could have done to save her. We just have to do what we can
now to help the police stop him.”

As soon as Cassie’s car turned into
a parking spot in front of Marta’s Floral and Gift, comfort cradled Emily. In
the first year after Aunt Susan’s death, Emily slowly stopped going to see
Marta Mendez, and guilt gnawed at her for neglecting Aunt Susan’s best friend.
Marta would forgive her, but it didn’t alter her remorse at missing out on
valuable time with her.

Climbing out of the car, Cassie asked, “How is it that you’ve
been keeping so many secrets from me lately?”

“What do you mean?”

“You met a guy at the party, you have a date with said guy,
you have a serial killer running around in your mind, and now your aunt had a
mysterious friend you never told me about. Who are you?”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Don’t you ever have something you
keep to yourself, if even for a little bit?”

Cassie paused with her hand on the front door. “I’m an open
book. When I do it, you know it.”

“And sometimes even when I don’t want to know about it,”
Emily said, following Cassie through the door.

The store had not changed much since her last visit nine
years earlier. The floral arrangements had been updated with the times, and
there were many more shelves of gifts than Emily remembered, but the layout and
décor of the store remained the same.

One of the employees, with a nametag that read Belinda,
greeted them. Emily opened her mouth to speak when Marta bounced down the main
aisle in their direction. Hellos and hugs were exchanged, and Emily introduced
Cassie. Marta gushed about how much Emily had changed since they last saw each
other. Marta let Belinda know not to disturb her, and waved for them to follow
her.

The back of the store contained a large storage room, an
employee break room, the bathrooms, and Marta’s warm and welcoming office,
which looked more like a living room than a place to work. Her desk was tucked
away in a corner and two pale yellow couches faced each other around a coffee
table.

In the middle of the coffee table was the familiar sight of
a plate of cookies and two short glasses of cold milk. Marta lifted the plate
to them. “Emily, I made your favorite. Chunky chocolate chip. Cassie, that
means you must be oatmeal raisin with small pecan pieces, since no one else
claimed those today.”

Cassie’s eyes widened and she snatched a cookie off the
plate. “How do you know what kind of cookies I like? It’s the most obscure
cookie ever, and
nobody
likes oatmeal
raisin but me.”

Emily grinned like a child. “Marta knows these things.” She
bit into her cookie, and warm chocolate melted in her mouth, taking her back in
time to her childhood.

With a mouthful of cookie, Cassie said, “So you knew where I
could get the best cookies ever, and you never bothered to bring me here?”

Marta flashed a motherly smile. “Cassie, we’re both a little
surprised at Emily right now. You could say I suffer from missing her terribly
over the past nine years, so I’ve got just a bit more of a gripe than you.”

Emily’s remorse came back tenfold. “I’m so sorry, Marta.
Nothing I can say would ever make up for not coming to see you.”

Marta reached across the table and touched the top of Emily’s
hand. “I know you’re sorry, and I know you didn’t come for so long because I
reminded you of Susan. You’re forgiven.” She shifted on the couch. “Now, I see
you’ve met a man. He looks very good on you, and you must keep him around. Susan
would have been delighted.”

“All this psychic stuff is starting to freak me out,” Cassie
said. “But these cookies are so darn good that I think I can move past it.”

“I will bring him to meet you really soon, I promise.” Emily
swallowed hard. They needed to move onto the reason for their visit. “Marta, I
need your help. With Aunt Susan gone, I don’t know where else to turn.”

Marta lowered her glasses from the top of her shiny, silver
hair down to the bridge of her nose. “Come over here. Let me take a look at
you.”

Emily moved next to Marta on the couch. She felt like she was
at the doctor’s office while Marta examined her, pushing on various parts of her
face, neck, and the back of her head. As a child, when she first met Marta, she
found her ways odd, but soon learned to appreciate her methods.

Marta took Emily’s hand in hers and stroked the back of her
hand. “I want you to close your eyes,” she said. “Push all thoughts out of your
mind, just like Susan taught you.”

Emily lowered her eyelids and started the difficult task of
removing all thoughts and emotions. Just as the last thought escaped her mind,
Marta asked, “What do you feel? What’s left in your mind?”

One word came to Emily’s lips, and she said it without
thought. “Evil.”

Marta let go of her hand and jumped back on the couch.

Emily’s eyes flew open. “What is it?”

“You’re lost, Emily,” Marta said, with sadness in her voice.
“You are so lost. How did this darkness get into your mind?”

Emily relayed the story to Marta of everything that had
happened. She did her best not to leave out a single detail. Forgetting even
one thing could be the difference between getting the help she needed and
living with the darkness forever.

“I know what I did was wrong,” Emily said, after she finished
her story. “At the time I truly believed it was the right thing to do.”

“He tricked you,” Marta said. “He wanted you to know the
pain of the women, to make you think you could help them and get you to open
your mind up to him. He’s quite pleased with his success.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Cassie said. “How did he get to Emily
through these women in the first place?”

“You don’t know?” Marta asked, with genuine surprise. When
both women shook their head, she asked, “Did Susan ever tell you about
conduits?”

“Not that I remember,” Emily said. “At least it doesn’t
sound familiar to me.”

“I don’t know why she didn’t tell you,” Marta said, “but I
guess I should have also told you. Conduits are very important to what we do. We
have gifts we can use, but without a conduit, our abilities are not that
strong. A conduit is gifted in their own way. When they’re near someone like
us, they channel the energy around them and send it to us, strengthening our
abilities. It works the opposite way, too. A conduit can channel our abilities
and send them out into the world.”

Emily connected the dots. “So the women he killed were all
conduits that he used to reach out to me?”

Marta nodded. “There are far more conduits than there are
psychics in the world, but just as psychics have varying degrees of abilities,
so do conduits. Some conduits are stronger than others. All psychics have a conduit
they’re connected to, whether they know it or not. Conduits make our abilities so
much stronger. They are someone we are very close to, someone we could never
live without. If we were to lose them, our gifts would suffer greatly. My
sister is my conduit.”

Emily turned to Cassie, her eyes wide. “You’re my conduit,”
she said. Everything from the past several days, and from her life with Cassie,
suddenly made sense.

Cassie’s lips curled into a lopsided smile. “You mean I’m
special, too?”

Marta laughed at Cassie’s excitement. “Of course you’re
special, Cassie. Without you, Emily would not be as powerful of a psychic. You
make her so much stronger because your conduit abilities are exceptionally
strong. I felt them before you ever entered the store.”

Cassie’s smile grew and she looked at Emily. “I’m special,
too,” she said.

“I always felt like Cassie filled a void inside of me,”
Emily said.

“That’s why,” Marta said. “Because she’s your conduit. You
belong together and nothing will ever break the bond you share.”

“It’s strange,” Cassie said, “but I think I always knew all
of this. The effect Emily has on me when I’m around her can’t be explained. Why
would she affect me if I’m the conduit in this friendship?”

“Because Emily is a conduit as well.”

Cassie and Emily exchanged a surprised look. “Is that even
possible?” Cassie asked.

“Susan and I never thought it was, until she brought Emily
to me for the first time.” Marta looked at Emily. “We didn’t want to tell you
until you were older and had a better grip on your abilities. That’s why you
are so connected with that new man in your life. You’re his conduit, and he’s
the strength you always needed to explore your abilities. Together, there is so
much you can do.”

Emily’s heart warmed at the thought, but it was short lived.
“Is this why the killer is having such an easy time getting into my mind?
Because I’m both?”

“Yes,” Marta said. “There is so much you still have to learn,
Emily. Because you stopped coming here for so long, your abilities are stunted.
Even though what you’re capable of is only beginning to surface, because your
gifts aren’t fully developed it makes you more susceptible to him, as well as
others that only seek to do wrong.”

The thought that there might be others like the killer
terrified Emily, but it also reminded her of what her mom said at her last
visit. “Marta, my mom said something to me. It’s like she knows what’s
happening to me, but I never told her. Is she like me?”

“Your mom does possess some gifts, but only to a certain
degree. She denied her gifts when she became pregnant with you. See, your
father is also psychic, and he has conduits in his family. That’s the only
reason why you’re both. Your mom knew that between her, your father, his
family, and Susan, you would be born with incredible talents. She was always
jealous of that, so she pushed everything aside in hopes of not letting you
become more powerful than her.”

Emily’s eyes dampened. She never knew that her mom had the
same abilities, or that she was jealous of Emily. Marta’s words explained so
much of her life, but left her with so many questions, about her mom as well as
her dad. Why would he leave her alone with her mom, knowing how her mom would
treat her because of her gifts?

“Emily, this isn’t the time to talk about family,” Marta
said. “I promise, one day we will discuss it. But you have much more important
things to focus on now.”

The darkness surged in Emily’s mind, reminding her of the
reason for her visit. She pushed aside the thoughts of her family. “One of the women
who died has an aunt that is psychic. The other has a best friend who is. Were
they conduits for these psychics?”

“Yes, that’s correct,” Marta said. “I hate to ask, because I
don’t really want to know, but did they die in a bad manner?”

“They were tortured quite severely,” Cassie said.

“He used their pain and their fear to increase their
abilities and his,” Marta said. She shook her head like a mother ashamed of her
child’s behavior. “He’s abusing his gift terribly.”

“Why is he doing this?” Emily asked.

“He loves you. At least he believes he does. He wants to
bring you to him through these conduits so you can be together.”

Emily’s insides pulled away from her skin and the nausea
returned. He killed the women to get to her, making her responsible for their
deaths. The darkness pushed through her mind, and Stephanie Price’s screams
echoed in her ears.

“It’s not your fault, Emily,” Marta said, reading her
emotions once again. “Don’t fall into that cyclone of guilt and let him gain
control over you. I know it’s difficult, but you have to retain control of your
mind. The more power he has, the more you will lose yourself to him, and the
easier it will be for him to get to you.”

Emily thought about Jake getting into her mind the night
they met and the way she reacted to it. When she saw Uncle Leo’s memories of
the crime scene, she had worried about her abilities physically affecting him,
the way the killer affected her. “Marta, I’ve always been able to pick up on
thoughts of people and even see their memories. Is that different than this
killer getting into my mind?”

“What you can do is something special,” Marta said. “Not a
lot of psychics can do that, but you’re just picking up on thoughts, feelings,
and memories, and you aren’t hurting anyone. What he’s doing to you is much different.
He tapped into your mind and connected with you psychically so that he’s a part
of you and you’re a part of him.”

“Can this connection affect me physically?” Emily asked.

“Absolutely. The longer he stays in your mind, the more energy
he drains from your body and soul. Have you been ill?”

“Quite a bit,” Emily said. “The first time it happened, I
thought I had food poisoning. I ran a fever, threw up several times, and lost my
strength. My body always feels weak now, and I get terrible headaches.”

“Those symptoms are just the beginning of what this connection
will do to you. By being in your mind, he’s stripping away part of you. He
might also be affected by the connection, but it won’t be anything near what
you’re going through. Your physical symptoms will get much worse unless he is
stopped.”

“How do we stop him?” Cassie asked. “Is there some sort of
magical, mystical way to kick him out of Emily’s mind?”

“We don’t believe in magic,” Marta said. “As psychics, we’re
tapped into a part of the brain that others are not able to use. There’s no
magic or mysticism about it, and there’s no instant cure to rid Emily of his
presence.”

Marta’s hands illustrated the words she spoke. “Imagine
there’s a beautiful flower garden. One day, a nasty weed gets into the bottom
of the garden. Instead of reaching for the sun and growing upward, it grows
sideways, running just beneath the flowers. Once it spreads all along the roots
of the flowers, it chokes them and grows upward. Soon, the garden drowns in the
weed and the flowers die.”

“He’s the weed,” Emily said.

“Do you feel him in your mind all of the time now?” Marta
asked.

“Sometimes it’s stronger than others, but all the time.”