The Truth of Yesterday (35 page)

     “Oh, yes. I introduced them.”

     
“She a good woman?”

     
“The best.”

     “Good for him. He deserves it.”

     “If the inquisition is over,”
Chris
spoke up, “I'd better get Killian back to his car so he can head home.”

     “You're welcome to stay here tonight,” Louis offered.

     “Thank you, but I'd really like to get home,” I replied.

     “The offer stands anytime you need it. Shane says you're a fine young man, and that's all the recommendation I need.”

     I blushed at the compliment and nodded awkwardly.
Chris
saved me from further embarrassment by grabbing my arm and dragging me toward the door.

     “It was nice to meet you,” I called out at the last minute as I remembered my manners.

     “You too, Killian,” he called back.

     Just as we were heading out the door a skinny kid with dark hair and eyes just like
Chris
' came down the hall.

     “Hey,
Chris
,” he said, eying me over.

     
Chris
stopped with a small sigh. “Hello, Kevin,” she said. “I don't have time to talk right now. We have to go.”

     “You aren't even going to introduce me?”

     “Kevin, Killian, Killian, Kevin,” she said from behind clenched teeth.

     “Is he your boyfriend?” Kevin asked in that annoying sing-song voice
kids
use. “What happened? Decide to switch teams?”

     
Chris
merely shut the door firmly and started towards the Metro station.

     “That was my
twerpy
little brother,” she said in an aggrieved tone.

     “Hey, I have one too,” I told her. “I can't tell you how many times he's embarrassed me in front of people. And it's usually at the front door too.”

     She laughed. “He's not so bad, really. It was hard on him when Mom died.”

     “That would be hard on anyone.”

     She shrugged. “I was prepared. Or at least as prepared as you can be for something like that. She'd suffered a long time. At least she's not suffering now.”

     I nodded and we walked the rest of the way to station in silence. Once there I turned and prepared to say goodbye. To my surprise,
Chris
was inserting money into the fare card dispenser.

     “What are you doing?” I asked. “I can get back fine on my own now; you don't have to go with me.”

     “I know I don't have to. I want to. I have a few questions for you.”

     “What kind of questions?” I asked warily, although I had a sinking feeling that I already knew what the answer to that.

     She finished getting her fare card before she answered, turning to face me with a look of resolve. “Earlier today we both agreed that we couldn't be partners unless we were honest with each other. You avoided the issue when I asked, but now I want to know about this help you got finding the key and you're going to tell me the whole story if you want my help from now on.”

Chapter 15

     I had plenty of time to think about my conversation with
Chris
on the long drive home alone. I was surprised when she asked for the whole story, but after thinking about it for a few minutes while she waited patiently, I decided that it was best if I told her everything. If she was going to be my partner in this investigation, and I really hoped she would be since it looked as if we would work well together, then she needed to know. What if I had another one of my `psychic friends' moments? She needed to be prepared. I decided that if she couldn't handle it, or chose not to believe it, then that was her choice, but at least she'd know what was going on.

     So I told her. I started by telling her about Seth and his murder, and how he had started coming to see me. Then I told her about
Amalie
and everything that Judy had told me about the Gifts, how I had been reluctant to use them. I finished up by telling her everything that had happened in Paul's apartment. To my surprise-and relief-when I had finished the whole story she just nodded and said, “Ok.”

     “Ok?” I had responded, not sure what she meant.

     
“Yeah.
It's no biggie.”

     “No biggie? Dead people talk to me, or at least they communicate with me, and all you have to say is no biggie? Don't you care?”

     She gave me a withering look. “Why should I care? A good investigator uses whatever tools he has available. I can't even pretend to understand this...gift that you have. I do know I'm very glad I don't have it. But as long as you do, you should use it. I mean, hell, the results speak for themselves. You found that key and there's no way you would have ever found it otherwise, right?”

     I nodded.

     “Then what's the big deal. You have an ability most people don't have. I don't envy you for it, but it could definitely have its uses. My advice, unsolicited as it is, would be to get all the training for it that you can. Maybe you'll be able to control the, er, attacks like the one you had in the apartment, when you felt like you were being strangled. At any rate, the better you understand it all, the more helpful and the less scary it all will be.”

     “You know, that's pretty much what Judy and Seth have been saying all along, but hearing it from you seems to makes more sense.”

     She laughed. “Well, at least something makes sense.”

     The Metro pulled into New Carrolton station just about then and we said our goodbyes.

     Our conversation had given me a lot to think about as I drove. It was the first time I'd laid everything out like that for someone else, and she was only the second person I'd ever told about Seth. I'd never even told Micah, and I wasn't at all sure I ever would. There was just something about
Chris
that I trusted instinctively. She had a down-to-earth quality about her, a certain practicality that I found comforting.

     More importantly, however, I realized that I had made up my mind to do what Judy had been bugging me to do for months now, get training for my Gifts. It was a scary thought because it meant I had to face them to do that, and I still wasn't entirely sure I wanted to do that. As much as I didn't want to, though, I knew I
had
to. Things seemed to be escalating and I didn't like it. Had all my Gifts manifested themselves or did I have more surprises to come? I wasn't at all sure I could handle any more surprises.

     I arrived home around eight to find an empty house. The way things had been going lately I somehow wasn't surprised. I debated whom I should call first, Novak or Judy. Novak could wait for morning, I decided; Judy I needed to talk to now.

     I breathed a sigh of relief when she answered on the third ring.

     “Are you busy right now?” I asked.

     “Not really,” she answered after a slight hesitation.

     “I need to talk to you.”

     “Is it about...?” Her voice was filled with tension.

     “Jake? No, this is personal.”

     “You want to talk now?”

     “Yes, please, if it isn't too much trouble.”

     “No, I don't suppose it is. Do you want to come here or would you rather I came there?”

     “I'd rather you came here, but it doesn't really matter.”

     “I'll be over shortly,” she said and hung up. I had the feeling that I was interrupting something but she was too polite to say so.

     True to her word, Judy was knocking on the front door in no time.

     “Thank you for coming over,” I said as I let her in.

     “You're welcome. Now, do you mind telling me what this is all about?”

     “Something happened today and I needed to talk to you about it.”

     
“In DC?”

     “Yeah,” I said slowly. “How did you know I was in DC?
Oh…your gift?”

     She laughed. “Shane told me, you goof. Look, before we get started, can I make some tea?”

     “Sure, I'll show where everything is,” I said while blushing furiously.

     We went into kitchen where Judy went to work heating up a kettle of water on the stove.

     “I don't think we have any tea leaves,” I said with my head in the cabinet.
“Just Lipton tea bags.”

     Judy leaned against the counter with a bemused expression. “That's fine. I wasn't planning on doing any readings. I just want tea. Now tell me what happened today in DC.”

     I sat down at the table and took a deep breath. “I'm investigating a murder,” I started out. “I don't know how much Novak told you…”

     
“Just that you were in DC on a case.
No details.”

     “The boy who was murdered, well man really, he was strangled in his apartment. I was in there looking around and when I opened the door to the room where he was killed, something happened.”

     “Wait, do I need any background information?”

     “Um, I don't think so.
Except, the police don't seem to be too interested in solving this case.
The man killed was an escort. You know what an escort is, right?”

     She arched an eyebrow. “Sweetie, I wasn't born yesterday. I would hope I know what an escort is. My question is how did you stumble on this case? It's in DC, as far as I know you don't frequent escorts, and for that matter, how'd you get in his apartment?”

     “Ok, so maybe you do need a little background,” I said with a sigh. “The man killed, his name is Paul. He was a…friend of Micah's.” I knew my pause told her more than I'd intended so I rushed on. “That's how I got involved and that's why I had a key to his apartment.”