“Megan, stop, it’s enough!”
That was Sam’s voice, and it was rough with emotion.
“It’s all right. It’s okay,” she managed. “Slow it down, Linda. Remember it as if in slow motion.”
“I’ll try.”
And the scene playing out slowed. Megan was able to look up at the dark shape that loomed over her. To see every blow coming at her before feeling its impact. He was bigger than Sam, heavier. She couldn’t see his face, only the black ski cap that covered it. The blows came slowly, but she still felt the pain of them. She fought to stay as calm and as cold as ice, even when she felt his hands tearing at her clothes.
She was seeing through only one eye now, as he jammed a hand down her pants, and she gripped his wrist with one hand, just as Linda had, to stop him, touching not the glove he wore, but the skin above it.
Then Sam was there, shouting, and the man tore himself off her and ran.
Sam was on the floor beside Megan, and so was Linda Keller. They’d started out on the bed. Linda had been describing everything that had happened, while holding Meg’s hand, but Megan seemed to be the one living it. When Linda got to the point where the man grabbed her from behind, Meg had come off the bed as if jerked from behind herself, hitting the floor back-first. Linda came off the bed with her, grappling to grab hold of her hand again, and Sam rushed to Meg’s side, terrified of what he was seeing. Meg jerked her arms up over her face as if warding off blows, and then one hand shot down to clutch at something–at nothing. Just air.
“Megan, honey, come on, it’s enough. You’re killing yourself with this.” He gripped her shoulders, shook them gently. “Meg, I mean it. It’s enough, come back!”
Her eyes opened slowly. Sam was shocked to see a trickle of blood coming from her nostril. “What the hell?”
She touched the blood, looked at it on her fingertips. “Your body believes what your mind tells it,” she whispered. She took a few breaths, seemed to try to shake off the vision. “Mine thinks it just took a beating. This is a little more realism than I expected, but...” He helped her sit up, realized he was shaking as bad as she was. It was as if he’d just witnessed an assault on her by some invisible force. And he realized she was hurting as if that was exactly what had happened. She held a hand to her jaw as he lifted her to her feet, then helped her to the chair. She sank into it.
Linda handed him a box of tissues, then got back up onto her bed. “Megan, did it work? Did you see him?”
Megan lifted her head, clutching a tissue to her nose, while Sam leaned over her, stroking her hair and back and shoulders. It tore him apart to see her going through all of this. He hated it.
“No,” Megan said. “But I felt him. You touched him, grabbed his wrist to stop him from groping you. And I did, too. And I felt him.”
Linda frowned, looking at Sam. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I,” Sam said. “There was no skin under her nails, Meg.” He looked at Meg, but she said nothing. “I’m sorry we put you through all that, Linda,” he said, without taking his eyes from Megan. “I really think I should get her home.”
“Me, too,” Linda said.
“Will you be okay?” Sam asked, forcing himself to look at Linda.
She nodded. “They’re letting me go home today.”
Meg came out of her thoughts and smiled a little. “Roderick will be so glad to see you.”
“I know. I miss him.” Linda shifted her eyes to Sam’s again. “Will I be safe there?”
He nodded. “We’ll have a car watching the place, and we'll set you up with a panic button. You hit it, and officers will be there within seconds.”
She nodded. “Thank you again.” Then she looked at Meg. “I can’t believe you put yourself through that once, much less twice. Will she be okay, Detective Sheridan?”
“I’ll make sure of it.” Sam bent to help Megan up, but she shook her head. “I can walk. You'll make them want to check me in.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded, so he held her close, supporting her without being too obvious about it as they walked slowly out of the room. And then Meg said, “She called you Detective Sheridan. I thought it was ‘Officer.’”
He closed his eyes. “It’s Detective.”
“I didn’t think detectives routinely worked traffic,” she said.
“They don’t.” He sighed, wishing this had come at a better time. “Meg, I’m not going to lie to you. The speed trap was a setup. No one believed you knew the things you knew about that last victim through ESP. I was assigned to get to know you, try to find out what was really going on.”
She looked as hurt by that revelation as she had been by the attack she’d just experienced. God, she was barely holding her own weight. He felt like the meanest bastard in the world as she stared up at him.
“That’s what you were keeping from me.”
“It doesn’t matter. I believe you now. I do.”
“Do you? Or is that just another part of your cover story?” She sighed, her eyes flooding. “And last night? Was that part of your investigation, too?”
“Meg–”
“Oh, God,” she whispered, backing away from him. “I thought it was real.”
“Sam, I need a word.” Chief Skinner was in the hospital corridor, waiting for Sam when they came out of Linda Keller’s hospital room, demanding his attention.
Sam gave Megan’s hand a squeeze. It was real, he thought, and he hoped to God she could see his message in his eyes, even though he couldn’t say it out loud, not with the chief standing right at his shoulder. He willed her to see the truth in his eyes. But she only kept backing away, shaking her head from side to side. And then she turned and walked briskly to the elevators.
Chapter 10
Sam was surprised she made it to the elevator without collapsing, and only the chief’s firm grip on his shoulder kept him from going after her.
“Hell,” the chief said. “What happened to her?”
Not sure how to answer without losing credibility with the man whose respect he valued above all others, he said, “She took a little fall, that’s all. I need to go after her, Chief.”
The chief nodded. “Yeah, I know you do. Thirty seconds, okay?” Sam sent a worried look toward the now closed elevator doors. “So, are you getting anything out of her?”
“No.” He took a step toward the elevator.
The chief put himself right in Sam’s path, blocking it. “Then she hasn’t come up with anything on the killer?”
“No, nothing yet.” It was all he could do not to shove the man aside.
“We didn’t find any prints at her house,” Ed Skinner said, shaking his head with regret. “Are you sure he was even there, Sam? She’s the only one who saw him. For all we know she could have smashed that window in herself, just as an excuse to make you come running.”
Sam frowned deeply, finally focusing on the chief. “She’s not the kind of woman who’d do something like that. You don’t know her, Chief.”