Vibrations (9 page)

“You can cry Whitney. You’ve
earned it.”

The thought of being honest and
sharing her pain with someone made her uncomfortable. She had imagined having a
friend like that, but her previous attempts had never worked out. No one could
really relate to her issues and no one liked having her in their head all the
time. She had shared this time to make Nick understand her need to succeed. She
hadn’t expected the tears or the sympathy.

Nick put his arm around her and
pulled her head to his chest. He could smell the scent of her hair. She smelled
like vanilla. He held her close and waited. She was tense at first, and then
she seemed to give in and relax. He could feel the warm tears falling onto his
arm.

“Let it out Whit. Take some
time to heal yourself. I’m here.” He waited until her breathing calmed down to
push the hair out of her eyes and brush some tears from her cheeks.

“I’ve had my share of failures
and I know it’s not easy. I’m glad I can’t feel the victim’s pain on top of
everything else.”

Whitney realized he was
thinking about his past failures. She could see the woman in his mind. He had
gotten too involved in one case two years ago. He became very close to a woman
who was being stalked. He promised her he’d keep her safe. In the end, he held
her in his arms as she died. He tried to tell her how sorry he was but it
didn’t help. He saw her face in so many of his dreams.

Nick looked down into her
deep brown eyes, now full of compassion, and he felt his stomach flip. She now
knew one of his painful memories. The moment felt surreal, sharing more of
himself in a few seconds than he ever had in his life. He brushed a finger over
her cheek and wondered what it would be like to have her know his every
thought. At that moment, it didn’t seem as scary as it had before.

His heart was beating
faster, and he could feel himself getting aroused. This woman should scare the
crap out of him but, instead of running, he wanted to be closer. Holding her
lightly he brushed his lips over hers in a light caress. She pushed back and he
loosened his grip.

Whitney’s heart was
beating faster too. She could feel the heat building and she wanted to get
away. He gently pulled her close again and pressed his lips to hers. She
couldn’t think. His tongue slipped into her mouth and Whitney felt a jolt go
through her loins. Her nipples were tingling and her hands reached up to stroke
his hair. He tasted like coffee and caramel. She suddenly wanted to see where
this would go. She wanted to experience passion, and not through someone else’s
memories. She kissed him back and moved her hands down over his shoulders and
arms.

Nick couldn’t believe
how good she felt in his arms, but he didn’t want to push. If he didn’t stop it
soon, he didn’t know what would happen. He slowly ended the kiss and let out a
sigh.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I
know it’s a bad idea, but it just felt right. Since you know what I’m thinking,
you probably know I’m very attracted to you. And you also realize that I suck
with relationships. I don’t want to hurt you Whitney. Everyone else seems to do
such a good job with that, I don’t want to add to it.”

Whitney’s head was spinning.
Thank goodness Nick had the sense to pull away.

“I’d better get back now.”

“Whitney, please stay here. I
won’t bother you. Just sleep here so I won’t worry. You could get fleas in that
nasty dump.”

She laughed and nodded. Her
face still felt hot as she hurried to the guest room. She’d wanted him to stop,
and when he did, she wanted it to go on. She’d dreamt of letting this happen
someday, but reality was so much more confusing than dreams.

Nick needed to get some fresh
air. He called up the stairs, “I’ll be in the garage if you need me.” He headed
out to find a project to distract himself. The go-cart he was fixing for his
nephew just needed a few more adjustments. He grabbed the wrench and started
working, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Whitney. He felt guilty for what
had happened, and afraid it would happen again. If he had some self-control he
would have been able to comfort her without acting like a horny teenager.

As soon as Nick closed the door
to the garage, Whitney dove for her phone. She called her friend Tara. They
weren’t close friends, but she just had to talk to someone. This wasn’t as
stressful as sharing her pain. She just needed some information. Tara used to
be with the FBI, but now she ran her own detective agency. She preferred to
spend time with civilians. That’s why she had hit it off with Whitney. After
some small talk, Whitney started quizzing her about her relationships. Tara had lots of experience in that area. Whitney carefully explained the situation, and
explained her fear of hurting Nick.

“I don’t know if I can do
this.” Whitney whined.

“It’s not like you need to make
a commitment right now. All relationships have to start somewhere. No one
starts out sure this is THE one. So who is the lucky guy?”

“His name’s Nick. He’s
a cop down here in Phoenix.”

“So,” she giggled, “what does
Nick look like?”

“Mmmm. Pretty damn sexy!”

“You go girl!” Tara laughed.
Whitney couldn’t believe she was having this conversation. She wasn’t used to
sharing her intimate feelings with anyone, but she needed advice. She gave Tara more details and then promised to keep her updated.

She got ready for bed and tried
to feel sleepy. Her mind wouldn’t shut off. What would happen if she showed
some interest? She knew that Nick was afraid of relationships, but she also
knew he was holding back for her sake. Maybe she was just afraid of getting
hurt. No. She put her emotions at risk almost every day. Nick had seen her at
her worst more than once. He knew all about her, and he hadn’t taken off
running in the other direction. Yet. Maybe this could work. She was twenty-nine
years old, and it would be her first attempt at a real grown-up relationship.
That was too sad to think about. She decided to let down her defenses and see
what would happen. She kept re-running the conversation with Tara over and over
in her mind. She drifted off to sleep hearing Tara’s voice telling her “You go
girl.”

Nick was
in a nasty mood when he woke in the morning. He had barely slept, and when he
did the nightmares chased him. The reality of morning wasn’t much better. The
case was hanging, and all he could think about was kissing Whitney again.
They’d eaten breakfast quietly and he tried to keep the conversation light. It
was unnerving knowing she could read his frustration so clearly. Teddy called
early saying Hollerman had scheduled a meeting. They had to rush to be ready
and didn’t have time to talk about the night before. Whitney seemed lost in
thought and Nick assumed she was mad at him.

When they arrived at the
station, Teddy handed Nick a coffee. “Here, looks like you need one of these.”

“Thanks Teddy. Always there for
a friend huh?”

Whitney went straight to the
conference room. She could see Nick was in a bad mood. The sullen expression
would have given it away even if she hadn’t been able to intrude into his
private thoughts. The thought of letting him know how she felt gave her
butterflies in her stomach. She felt like a schoolgirl, except that she had
avoided boys even back then. It was a new feeling to realize that Nick was
miserable because he thought he couldn’t have her. She wanted to let him know,
but the timing hadn’t seemed right. She’d assumed he’d make another move, and
she’d respond. Instead he backed off and turned his mind back to the case. That
was only right and made her feel guilty for thinking of allowing herself to be
distracted.

Just as Whitney was trying to
find a way to break the ice with Nick, Agent Hollerman entered the conference
room.

“Thanks for coming in. We have
some bad news. Another boy is missing.”

Nick glanced at Whitney and saw
the fear and then determination. They all knew they had little time to find the
boy, and that he might already be dead. The agent gave them the details of the
latest abduction.

“The boy’s name is Kevin
Hunter. He’s twelve years old and plays on one of the SVWC teams. He lives in Tempe. His parents share custody. He lives with his Mom and spends every other weekend
with his Dad. He was at his Dad’s for the weekend, and he was outside
skateboarding when he disappeared.”

“I have a few more details to
share from our investigation so far. We all know that everyone of the victims
is associated with the SVWC. They also seem to be the starring athletes on
their teams. They’ve all shown outstanding abilities in their sport. Other than
the sports connection they seem to have little else in common. The killer
doesn’t seem very worried about getting caught because he’s hitting weekly, in
this same area, and on the same base of kids. He’s right. We still have little
to go on. We are assigning agents starting tomorrow to keep surveillance on
some of the top kids on each team. We have enlisted help from all the police
departments in the valley. If we get lucky, someone will see something. He must
spend some time watching them because he hits when no one is looking. Any
questions?”

Nick spoke up. “Are we sure
it’s a he?” He remembered Whitney saying the hands were not very large for a
man.

“We don’t have much to go on.
For now, we’ll use the term ‘he’ for the unsub. This person could be a man or
woman they know, and so would not need much force to get them to follow. Oh,
and we got the lab reports back. The boys were drugged at some time. They had
Xanax in their systems. It’s a prescribed tranquilizer for adults. They had too
much in their systems for children. At least they were partially unaware of
what happened to them.”

“The second boy we found had
diabetes and it doesn’t appear the killer new that or cared. That’s all the new
facts for now. Whitney, I would like you to go with the detectives again today
and visit the parents of Kevin Hunter. Everyone doing surveillance keep your
eyes open and note anything and everything that happens. We need to break this
case now!”

“One more thing,” he said
scanning their faces to be sure he had everyone’s attention. “The media caught
sight of Whitney coming in and out of the station and they did their research.
Word is out we have a psychic assisting the FBI in the manhunt. Whitney’s name
is in the papers today. Sorry Whitney. Hope this doesn’t cause any problems.”

“No problem sir.” Whitney
had been through it before and, based on past experiences, she knew it would be
a problem. They would try to track her down and question her. People would
start recognizing her from the news. She tried to put that out of her mind as
she readied herself for another brutal day.

Nick followed her out of the
station. He didn’t want to put Whitney through anymore of this. He also wasn’t
so comfortable working with her. He wanted to protect her, to hide her away
from all of this. He wanted her. And she would know all about it every time he
thought about it. He was beginning to see why she had so few close friends. You
couldn’t hide anything from her unless you avoided her. A friend wouldn’t be
able to pick and choose times to disappear. Nick tried to put on a professional
face, and clear his mind.

“Whitney, we’re going to the
dad’s first. Teddy’s got all the addresses and phone numbers. They’re waiting
for us. Do you need anything before we head over there?”

“Nope, I’m all set.” Whitney’s
positive thinking of this morning had faded away.

Her own mind kept circling back
to Nick. She was glad he wasn’t the mind reader. Her own thoughts were shouting
inside her head, “Talk to him. No, I can’t. I can’t even believe last night I
was willing to try to pursue this thing with Nick. He’s scared out of his mind
to be around me right now.” It was the same thing as always, but it still hurt.
It seemed to hurt more than ever this time. “At least he wants my body,” she
thought, trying not to let it get her down.

Nick saw Whitney’s slight
smile and wished that he could read minds. Actually, it was one mind in
particular he wanted to unlock. She had been very tense and he didn’t know if
it was a reaction to him or the case. At least seeing her smile helped him to
calm down. When he was done with this case, maybe he could write a book about
it and retire. He figured he would have to write it as a fiction to get anyone
to read it. He wouldn’t use Whitney’s name or give anything away about her. Who
was he kidding? He’d never write a book. Nick was a cop. He couldn’t imagine
himself sitting at a desk all day.

On the way to the house, Teddy
gave them the rest of the details about the dad. He was forty-three, divorced,
worked for Motorola as an engineer, and he loved his kid. He was the one that
got him into the SVWC. His mom had cooperated so that Kevin could get to the
games and practice. Kevin was their only child.

They pulled up to the apartment
complex and slowly wound around looking for apartment one thirty eight. It was
one of those nice places with three pools, tennis courts, the newest
appliances, and this one sat right on a golf course. They pulled up to the door
and got out of the car. It was Sunday so there were a few kids outside. They
were probably friends of Kevin’s. Teddy decided to talk with some of them while
Nick and Whitney went inside. Nicholas Hunter didn’t say a word as he escorted
them to the living room.

“Nicholas Hunter, I’m Nick
Naylor. This is Whitney Bentley. We need to ask you a few more questions about
last night.”

Mr. Hunter just nodded. Whitney
moved so she was sitting closer to him and reached out for his hand.

“I’m so sorry about all this
Mr. Hunter. We need to know anything you can think of that will help us find
Kevin.”

Mr. Hunter looked up and she could
see anger in his eyes. “I see the news!” he shouted. “Don’t you think I know
what happened? That freak took him and he’s probably dead already. Right? Isn’t
that what you’re thinking? And you’re that psychic lady they talked about. What
can you do to help me now? If you are psychic why haven’t you caught him already?”