Chapter 7

• As Brent raised his hand to knock, the door flew open. He studied the aggravated expression on his partner’s face. “Guess this means you’ve been waiting for me?”
• Reid stepped back and scowled. “Maybe now that you’re here someone will tell us why we’re having this meeting.”
• Brent thought it would be better if he didn’t comment. Reid seemed more like his usual grouchy self. He saw the smirk on Jac’s face that confirmed she knew he was a bit irritated, to say the least. He glanced over at the smirking doctor. “Well then, please put him out of his misery.”
• Sandy laughed as she went over to sit down. “I only wanted to have to try and explain this once.”
• Jac pointed to the other chair and grinned at Brent. “You were supposed to bring back inside information.”
• He sat down and shrugged. “Hard to do that when all I did was sit in a room, alone.” He gave Sandy a serious look. “Now, what’s going on?”
• Sandy leaned forward in the chair. “I had quite the interesting session with Miss Dante.” She paused for a moment like she wasn’t sure how to begin this. “I’ve actually asked her to meet me here in about an hour.” She smiled waiting for the reaction she knew was coming.
• Reid held up his hand. “What do you mean here? Why?”
• “I believe the four of us—actually the three of you can help her. I’ve already done my part in helping, by getting the judge off her back.”
• Jac gave her a curious look. “What did you do?”
• Sandy clasped her hands in her lap and smiled. “I’ve told the judge that she has dreams and believes they are real—which isn’t uncommon, and that I would be helping her through this.”
• Brent was getting more confused as they went. He studied the doctor for a moment. “And?”
• Sandy shrugged. “She does have dreams, only they’re real and she has them when she’s awake.”
• Reid smirked. “What like a vision? Come on . . . and you believe this crap?”
• Jac turned and glared at him. “Just sit there Reid.” Her tone wasn’t pleasant.
• Brent covered his face for a moment, trying not to tell his partner out loud that he’d just walked himself into the doghouse. He glanced at Reid who clearly knew his mistake. Letting out a deep breath, he looked back at the doctor. “Why do you say they’re real?”
• Sandy turned from looking at Reid. She should have known he would be the most open to this. The man had accepted Jac’s ability with nothing more than a ‘wow’. “Felicity explained how she’s been in so many right, but wrong places in her life. You have to admit that alone says there’s something different going on.”
• Brent glanced at the scowl on his partner’s face. He figured he’d better just do the talking this time. “So, she sees what’s happening to others?”
• Jac leaned forward again. “Does she know these people?”
• Sandy thought for a moment. “I don’t believe so.” She smiled at her friend. “She also suffers after them sometimes— just as you do.”
• Brent watched Jac sit back and chew her lip. “Okay, if these dreams are real, I can see how Jac can help.” He glanced at Reid for a moment then back to the doctor. “I’ve seen how she is after doing what she does, and she could help Miss Dante through that I suppose – but what do Reid and I have to do with it?”
• Sandy glanced at Reid, then back to Brent. This was the part she wasn’t sure how to explain the most. “The things she sees are happening— now— in this time.” Jac sat silently looking at her. “When Jac sees things, they’re in the past.” Brent nodded. “The latest incidents of what Felicity has been seeing, and you’ll have to confirm all this with her, is of a child, a little boy.” Both men suddenly took on their detective expressions, listening to pick out the information. “Apparently there was a little girl as well, but someone took her, and now the little boy is alone in the dark…”
• Brent leaned forward. “Who took her?”
• Sandy shook her head. “I don’t know the details. She wasn’t connected with the girl child, but the boy and still is.”
• Reid stood up, putting his hands in his pockets. “Still is?” He looked at Brent to see if he was getting all this as he was.
• Sandy nodded. “Really, you’ll have to ask her about the details of it all I know is when she went to the police to get help for this child, she was sent to me.”
• Jac sighed. “I can relate to that.” She glanced at Reid. “Of no one believing me enough to help someone.”
• Reid opened his mouth and then closed it again. He turned to Brent and studied him. Taking a deep breath, he looked back at the doctor. “If she knows details, we can look into it.”
• Sandy smiled. “I figured you would.” She paused, looking back at Jac. “Would you pick up any of it if you touched her?”
• Jac’s eyes widened. “You want me to touch her and see what I can see?” Sandy shrugged. “Other than it being a bit of an invasion, I don’t know if I want to…”
• “I agree with that,” Reid added in quickly. He looked at Jac for a long moment. “I don’t think you being involved in this, in any way, is a good idea.”
• Jac chewed her lip. “Whether it is or not— isn’t the point.” She stood up and looked out the window. “If these dreams, visions, are real and I believe they are if Sandy thinks they are, then this woman has been going through most of what I have all my life.” She glanced at Brent to see if he was following her point, he was. “She’s been alone or an outcast, probably moving from place to place just to survive with some sort of serenity.”
• Sandy nodded. “She’s right, Felicity was getting ready to move on, I asked her to just stay long enough to come here tonight.”
• So many pieces were falling into place for Brent. It made perfect sense now, why she’d leave her family, why she moved so often. Of course, the links of her being involved in so many crimes and scenes all made sense now too.
• Brent leaned back in the chair and looked at the others. Jac was chewing her lip, Sandy sat waiting patiently and of course, Reid had that stubborn look on his face. Clearly, the man didn’t understand he was standing on very thin, basically see-through thin, ice at this moment. He cleared his throat. “I vote we see if any of us can be of help at all.” He watched Reid’s face for signs of objections. Reid was too busy falling into Jac’s soft pleading brown eyes. He glanced back at Sandy. “Does she know we’re going to be here?”
• Sandy shook her head. “I didn’t want to scare her off.”
• He blew out a breath. “Well, she saw me today, but I don’t think she would have been so cavalier if she’d known what I do.”
• Sandy nodded. “I know, and I don’t know how to get around that.”
• Reid shrugged. “We’ll just avoid it, for now, tell her when we need to.”
• Brent raised an eyebrow at him. “Which means you can’t start interrogating her as soon as she walks in the door.” Reid snarled at him. “Does she know about Jac?”
• Sandy shook her head. “I thought it best to leave that up to Jac.”
• Jac bit her lip. “I suppose she would trust more easily if she knew about me.” Sandy nodded. Jac sighed. “Okay, we’ll start out with me and hope she will trust us after that.”
• Sandy smiled. “Okay then.” She stood up and headed towards the kitchen. “I’m going to go make coffee.”