Missing: The Body of Evidence (35 page)

Strolling down the corridor, the odd
thing Nancy noticed about the building was the windows set high on the walls
and the skylights on the ceilings to let in light. Whatever they did there,
Nancy could see that the design of the building prevented prying eyes from
looking in at activities. A door to the right in the corridor swung inwards and
out walked a man and a woman wearing white smocks. Laboratory benches came into
view as the door closed slowly. The surfaces were stacked with electronic
equipment and coloured liquids bubbling in glassware. Nancy tugged at Mary’s
sleeve.

‘What’s going on in there?’

‘Nothing that I get involved in, it’s where
they carry out experiments. Part of the program is to research drug
concoctions. Some of the discoveries we’ve made have been sold to drug companies
and that helps to provide our funding. Many of the interns have psychological
problems rather than psychic gifts and through our research we are able to help
them.’

‘So are all the people taking part in the
program interns?’

‘No, to start with, they are brought by
taxi or bus until we can determine which of them are worthy of further tests.
Then if the parents agree, we take them into the program full time and they
live on site where we school them in conjunction with the tests.’

The revelation explained where the
professor’s qualifications came into play as well as the findings in Tracy’s
file on the chemicals found in the gum wrapper. Mary stopped, turned to Nancy
and peered over her spectacles.

‘Just in case you’re wondering, everything
is
above board. Nothing is done without the parents’ agreement.’

The tour continued, taking in a brief visit
to a geography lesson taking place with a mixed class of ten children, around
seven to nine years of age. In the next room, an entire wall displayed a series
of one’s and zero’s cascading down the wall, projected from an overhead
machine. Nancy averted her gaze to avoid vertigo, but not before the images
made her head spin.

‘This is John, our savant. Don’t worry, he
won’t hear you or see you. He’s been with us for a good number of years. John’s
producing some remarkable results and he’s only fourteen.’

John sat on a swivel chair facing the
projected figures, swaying his entire body from side to side. Electrodes ran
from a machine by his side and into a helmet placed on his head. Nancy glanced
at the figures on the wall. The rows of figures streaming from top to bottom
were white, but every now and then they would stop and red rows of ones and
zeros’ would be inserted into the code at the tap of John’s fingers, which were
attached to probes on the arms of his chair. Nancy was at a loss to know what
was happening; sure that she noticed Chinese symbols amongst the code, when the
image stopped briefly before continuing. She stepped forward. Her mouth opened
in shock. John’s eyes where writhing, with his pupils milked over with
cataracts. Mary took hold of her arm and led her to the door.

‘I think you’ve seen enough in here.’

‘Is he blind? How can he see what’s on the
wall?’

‘Remarkable isn’t he. He’s speed reading, but
he sees it all in his mind.’

Back in the corridor, Blondie and his
partner stood a respectful distance away. Mary ushered her into another room.
There was a desk partitioned down the middle to prevent a young girl from
seeing what an instructor who sat opposite was doing. He turned over a card
with a picture of a square and stared at it. The young girl held her head in
her hands, and then sat back.

‘It’s a triangle.’

‘Next,’ he said and turned over another
card with a circle.

‘It’s a square.’

Mary beckoned Nancy to leave the room.

‘Not one of our success stories. We’ll be
releasing her from the program soon.’

The scene had reminded her of an old black
and white documentary she had watched about psychic experiments during the cold
war.

‘I fail to see how all this can help me?’

‘Maybe this will change your mind? Follow
me.’

They walked along the corridor until just
before it opened up into a circular area. Mary opened a door and signalled for
her to enter. A man in his late thirties sat at a desk watching a young boy
through a window into an enclosed room. The boy, around eight, was sitting on a
cushion in the centre of the room staring at a still picture of a lake on a
monitor screen fastened to the wall. On the boy’s lap was a clipboard holding
an A4 photo of the lake and in one hand, he held a marker pen.

‘We’re almost finished here,’ said the
observer.

A screen on the desk in front of Nancy,
displayed the same scene of the lake, but with a man sitting on a log at the
edge of the lake and two birds skimming the surface.

‘This is an actual real time closed circuit
camera shot of the lake around back,’ said the observer.

The young boy scribbled with the pen on the
photo and held it aloft. The observer left the room and entered the room with
the young boy. He took the clipboard from the boy and held it up to the window.
On the photo, the boy had drawn a stick drawing of a man sitting on the log and
two birds in flight over the water.

Nancy, lost for words, saw images of her
own astral travel adventures spin through her mind. The documentary she had
seen and discussed with Bill entered her consciousness again; she recalled a
section where a psychic was looking at photos of a government installation in
Russia. The commentator claimed they could project their mind to travel to the
installation and write down descriptions of what they found. Mary must have
seen her puzzled expression and in an attempt to put her at ease, she placed a
hand on Nancy’s shoulder.

‘Now do you think we could help? Of course,
it would mean you staying here. We’d need to give you an MRI scan on site and a
full medical before testing your abilities.’

Beads of sweat formed on Nancy’s brow at
the mention of an MRI scan. She began to think Bill had been right and she had
stumbled onto a secret government project involving mind control experiments.
She shuddered at thoughts of how far they could have advanced since the cold
war days.

‘Err, I need time to think. How about I
sleep on it tonight and phone you tomorrow?’

Mary’s persona changed at Nancy’s reply.
Her feet shuffled and she looked agitated with furrowed brow and her lips
tightened.

‘Maybe if we go back to the interview room
we can talk about it over a coffee,’ Mary said.

‘Sure, a coffee would be fine. But tell me;
are all your interns so young?’

‘No, but we usually only consider children.
Experience has taught us that to develop gifts, we need to interject early in
their development. In your case however, I have spoken to the project manager
and he’s agreed for you to have preliminary tests.’

Nancy guessed the project manager must have
been watching her through the two-way mirror when she first arrived. So far,
they had only seen a tenth of the building area. With her sense of curiosity
aroused, she asked the question.

‘What happens in the rest of the building?’

‘Top secret, I’m afraid. But no doubt, if
you join us on the project, you’ll understand why.’

A glib smile curled Mary’s lips. Nancy felt
manipulated in order to appeal to her inquisitive nature. She wondered if now
would be the time to start asking relevant questions about the professor,
before they returned to the interview room. They stepped out of the room and a
woman pushing a food cart hurtled by and over to one of two doors in the
circular area. Mary called out to her.

‘Bring two coffees and some cake to the
interview room when you’ve finished there.’

Nancy noticed the woman tap in a code to
the lock mechanism on the door. The woman spun a wheel fixed to the centre of
door and after a loud clunk; it opened to a hissing sound, revealing a door at
least a foot thick.

The woman called out. ‘Will do. Give me
fifteen minutes.’

A figure came into view through the open
door. The shape of his head made him unmistakable. It was the janitor’s son,
David. She turned to glance at Mary who glared at her as the realization passed
between them of what Nancy had witnessed. Nancy turned to look at the door as
it closed with a suction sound. By the time she turned around, Mary was talking
with Blondie, who sent Nancy a stare. His partner hurried away down the
corridor. Blondie and Mary returned to Nancy. Her manner was abrupt.

‘Follow me,’ Mary said.

This was not the time to be asking
questions and Nancy complied in silence. Blondie walked close behind her as
they made their way to the interview room at reception. The hairs on her neck
bristled as she considered her options. Somehow, walking out of the front door
didn’t seem to be one of them.

Mary stopped short of the interview room
and signalled for Nancy to continue with Blondie. She watched him tap in a code
to the lock and open the door. He reached out his fingers and touched her waist
at her back to usher her through the door. Her skin crawled at his touch and he
whispered close to her ear.

‘You’re going to be around here for some
time, so get used to it, lady. It’s gonna be payback time for taking out my tyre.’

The lightness of his touch turned to a
shove and launched her into the room. The door snapped shut behind her as she
stumbled; only staying upright by grasping the chair, but not before banging
her head on the edge of the desk.

Nancy sat and rubbed at the pain on the
side of her head. Although dazed, she remained alert to her situation. His
words could mean only one thing. Her seeing David had moved events forward and
they did not intend to let her leave. Even worse, by his own admission, he was
party to the ambush and the attempt on her life. With her life at risk and the
decision made, she slipped her hand into her pocket. Pressing the GPS locator
was a no-brainer, but just how Dad and the boys would get to her, defied
reason.

All she could do now was to try to buy time
and hope that Uncle Dave and Jim had devised a plan from their observation
point on how to gain access without creating World War 3. Better still, she
hoped her dad would have the sense to involve his contact at the FBI.

The lock buzzed and the door opened.
Blondie and his sidekick entered, followed by Mary and a tall smartly dressed
man.

‘Detective Roberts, good of you to visit
us,’ said the man.

Nancy studied him without reply. As he
walked by, the distinct fragrance of his deodorant followed him as he made his
way to the desk and he pushed the desk to the wall. He sat on the edge of the
desk, flanked by Mary and Blondie. Blondie folded his arms across his midriff
with one hand inside his jacket. Nancy sensed his partner must have been
covering her from behind. The man sent a smile at her.

Obviously, a man concerned with his
appearance, he was wearing a tweed coat over a starched white shirt and wearing
a tie. His pants were pressed with a crease that looked as though it could
slice through butter and he was wearing highly polished shoes that any army
recruit would have been proud of at inspection. Nancy guessed he was in his
sixties. Tall and slim, with white hair parted to one side, he cut a dashing
figure with an aura surrounding him that screamed an authoritative figure.

‘And you are?’

‘I’m the project manager here, Scott Blake.
Now tell me, what really brings you here? It can’t be official business, seeing
as how you’re suspended.’

It didn’t surprise her that he knew her
circumstances. There was no point lying. All the connections to the remains
found at the apartment, the other deaths and the answer to her own troubles was
sitting in front of her. It was the motives for the events that were lacking.
This wasn’t some street felon punk that she could twist her words to get a
confession, as much as she wanted the truth of events. She searched inwardly
for a reason for them to not want to put an end to her life.

Nancy sucked in a lungful of air and
feigned a cough, bending over, placing her hands on her chest and activating
Dad’s pen spy camera. She hoped that her coughing had masked the click.

‘Could I have a glass of water, please?’

Blake nodded at Mary and she left the room.
The respite left her more time to think. Mary returned and handed her a glass
of water. Nancy stared at the glass and then looked at the mirror, before
setting her eyes on Blake. She decided to go for all or nothing and to push all
the chips onto the table.

‘Sorry, listen, I wasn’t quite truthful
with Mary. I
am
having experiences of astral travel; that much is true.
However, what I didn’t tell her was I could break glass as if I’m able to
project some kind of magnetic force that scrambles the molecules of the glass.
The problem is, I can’t do it at will.’

Blake and Mary exchanged glances.

‘She does have a strong aura,’ Mary said.

‘We already know you have the ability of
astral travel,’ Blake said.

‘How?’

‘David and his brother enlightened us from
information gleaned at debriefs. Unfortunately, David’s been going AWOL of late
on his travels in more ways than one.’

‘His brother? So you have them both on the
program?’

‘Yes, ever since their dad signed them over
to us.’

Nancy, stunned by his openness, felt
palpitations at the idea that his frank admission led to her cementing the
notion that she would not be leaving voluntarily. Her mind worked overtime and
started to place pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of events into place.

Nancy dug deep and continued

‘I wouldn’t want to insult your
intelligence by saying I didn’t have an interest in how or why the professor
died; or, why you would consider me a threat to the extent that you would want
to have me framed. Also, and even worse, it escapes me, why the ape next to you
would want to have me killed. But just what did Kelly do that you saw your way
to have him killed?’

Blake shuffled his backside on the desk and
crossed his legs.

‘Yes, that is all unfortunate. And now we
are all in a predicament, but maybe there is a way forward, if you’ll
cooperate. The way I see it there are two ways out of this mess.’

He’d stopped short of an outright
confession, but the inference was there that they were involved in Kelly’s
death. Blondie drew his arm from his jacket and raised his sleeve to mouth.

‘Hold them at the second barrier and I’ll
get back to you.’ He stepped forward to Blake and whispered, but not low enough
that she couldn’t hear what he was saying. ‘Logan and a couple of his
detectives are here at the barrier to see you.’

‘Escort them to room fifteen and I’ll see
them shortly.’

Blondie relayed Blake’s instruction to
security and then left the room with his partner in tow. Blake turned to Nancy.
His facial expression gave nothing away as to how he felt about the arrival of
Logan.

‘Sorry for the distraction. Now where were
we? Ah yes, the way forward.’

As much as she wanted to know what plans he
had for her, she already guessed that one of them was for her to finish six foot
under. Logan arriving had her head in a spin. If the two other detectives were
Bill and Kyle, then she felt sick that they were all in the conspiracy
together.

‘What do you have in mind for me?’ Nancy
asked.