Chapter 29 part 2

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Bryan got out of the patrol car and waved at the driver, a young man only six months out of the academy.  "Thanks."

The black and white drove away as Bryan turned to look at Jessica's building.  It was the middle of the night, but he had to make sure William wasn't here.  He'd sleep in her hallway if he needed to, to make sure she was safe.

On the first floor, there was a light on.  Bryan counted the windows.  It was Jess' apartment, probably her living room.  Why would she be awake at this hour, and more importantly, why would she need to turn on a light?  The possibilities clicked through Bryan's mind, all of them bad.  William could have made it here before he did, possibly.

He stepped to the sidewalk and scanned the area, to be sure William wasn't in sight.  Then, he saw the car, halfway down the block.  Westen's sedan.

"Son of a bitch."  He stood there, let his breath ease down.  It was the doctor inside Jessica's apartment, not William.  After a moment he began to think through all the ways that might be just as bad.

He went inside and hurried down the hallway.  As he got close, he heard Jessica's voice through the door.  "I've heard quite enough, thank you."  She sounded tense, forceful.

He knocked and there was utter silence for a long moment.  "It's Detective Mickelson.  Ms. Moore, are you in there?"

Almost immediately, the door swung open wide.  Jess gave him a quick smile and Bryan saw the doctor sitting on the sofa.  She rose to face him.

"And just what are you doing here at this hour, Detective?"  Her voice was neutral, but the insinuation was easy to catch. 

Bryan kept his eyes locked on her.  He'd had a glimpse of the dress Jess wore when he came in, but he couldn't study its neckline any more with Westen there.  "I think I'm here to arrest you, doctor."

The small smile on her face straightened into a neutral line.

"Go out to your car.  I'll speak with you there.  If you leave, I will have a patrol car pick you up and will add resisting arrest to your charges," he said.

She didn't move.

"Doctor.  Go.  Now.  I'm going to interview Ms. Moore to find out just how much you've been interfering with this investigation."

After another moment, the doctor gave up her stonewalling and brushed past him out the door.  He watched her go down the hall to the inner vestibule door and turned to Jess.

"I take it she was bothering you," he said.

She laughed.  "Maybe.  A little."  She stood close to him, her dark dress sheer as it brushed against his fingertips.  He caught the hem between finger and thumb without knowing, but didn't let go when he realized it.

"What did she say?" he asked.

Jess shook her head.  "Nothing important.  Tried to scare me about William.  Like I need some doctor with a personality disorder telling me who to be afraid of."  Her hand came up, rested on the middle of his chest, warm and strong.  Her voice became a whisper.  "William was here, outside."

That brought him back.  "What?  When?"

"Just minutes ago.  He was waiting outside when I came home.  He must have been there for hours."

He shook his head.  "No.  He was with me.  There was an incident, across town, we were both there."

She was silent for a moment, but left her hand on his chest.  He was thankful she did.  It had been a hard night.  He was tired and the warmth of her hand was the only comfort he could remember feeling.

"Doctor Westen had been waiting here in the hall for over an hour.  He told me she was waiting inside.  How did he know she was here?" 

"Jess, he..." Bryan stopped.  He had told her some of his fears about William, but not what William had shown him, not that he knew the voices were real.  He didn't want to lie to her, but couldn't tell her the truth yet.  There wasn't time and there was too much he still had to figure out.  "I don't know.  There are a lot of things about William I don't understand yet.  Did he say anything?"

"No, not really."  As she rested her head against his shoulder, he breathed her in.  She'd been to a bar, but under that, he caught a sample of what she smelled like, her scent.  Something about the nearness of her drove away all of the exhaustion and frustration that had been settling over him.  He forced his eyes open, put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her away slightly. 

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded for him.  "You're up so late.  You said something happened, are you okay?"

He knew he wasn't, but felt like he could be if he stayed here longer.  The more time he spent with her, the better he felt.  "I'm nodding right now," he said.

She smiled.  "Nice."

"Go to bed.  Get some rest.  I'll check in with you tomorrow," he said.

"You'd better.  It's our date tomorrow night."

Her smell, the feel of her dress in his fingers were enough to scramble his thoughts, without adding in the prospect of a date night and what that might lead to.  It had been a growing presence in his mind.  "Oh, right.  The fake, cover-your-ass date where you're buying.  I remember that.  I think."  He replayed his words in his mind, couldn’t believe that he remembered how to banter and flirt.

She shoved him back, but held onto his jacket with both hands.  His palms slid down her bare arms.  She let go of his lapels and their fingers intertwined.  He would only need to lean down a few inches.  Her lips were close.  Her white eyes blinked, as attention grabbing as when he had first seen them.

"Get some rest.  Call me if anything happens," he said.

"Stay safe.  I'm worried, about what William might do," she said.  As they parted, a frown settled on her face.  "Bryan, I'm not a prude, am I?"

"In that dress?  I doubt it."  He squeezed her hand once and walked double time out to Westen's car.  Once there, he rapped on the passenger window before opening it and climbing in.  She sat there, that look of forced calm again stretched over her face.

As he sat, she struggled to reach over with her left hand, clear his seat.  He saw why.

The top of her bag was filled with IV medication bottles and several syringes.  It was evident what she was planning.  How she could be that stupid wasn't evident at all.

He pulled the bag from her fingers, put it in his lap.  "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She sat back, eyes locked on the bag.

"Please pardon my language, Doctor, but this is not only ridiculous, it's suicidal.  Do you have any idea what he's capable of?" he asked.  "Really capable of?"

He watched her face as she sat there.  There was something she was hiding.  Something had happened between her and William that she hadn't told anyone.

"Doctor," he said.  "You can tell me.  I won't pass it on to anyone.  You saw him do something, something that shouldn't be possible, didn't you?  It will help me to know what you saw."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

More frustration.  But he could deal with it to get a straight answer out of her.  "I've seen him.  I've seen him do things that I can't explain."

She finally looked him in the eye.  "You saw him?  And you didn't arrest him?"

"Please.  I think you know how difficult that is by now."  He waited as she looked away, stared at the dashboard.  "He showed me the voices.  They're real."

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked.

"I'm telling you that he isn't insane.  There is nothing wrong with his brain, doctor.  He sees things that we can't."

She leaned back in her seat, shook her head while cradling her broken hand.  "Jesus.  You are back on the witch doctor crap again.  Why can’t you use your rational brain and think instead of jumping on some new age spiritual bandwagon?"

"Doctor," Bryan said.

She interrupted immediately.  "No, wait.  Go back to those books you've been getting these stupid ideas from, because there is one idea in there that I'll give that quack Wilber credit for.  The Pre/Trans fallacy.  Someone starts mumbling gobbledygook and all of a sudden people say they are speaking in tongues instead of having impaired speech centers in their brain.  Someone bets on the right horse and suddenly they're psychic instead of just on the right side of the percentages."  She held up her mangled hand.  "Adams crushes my hand with more force than any human should be capable of and instead of talking about the adrenaline going through his system, you start going on about trans-rational abilities and senses as if they are real?" 

Bryan took a deep breath.  He had taken the wrong track.  She might have seen William do something, he might have shown her something, but she'd never admit it.  She wouldn't even be able to process something so out of her worldview.  But, he still needed information from her.  "Doctor, your hand.  Just tell me about your hand."

"What about it?  It's crushed," she said.

He wouldn't get what happened out of her, but maybe why.  He spoke very carefully.  "Doctor, as I'm sure you've surmised, William Adams has been busy since he escaped.  What you probably don't know is that these people he's gone after, that he has injured and killed, they all deserved it.  Each of them was caught by him in the act of doing something horrible to other people."

He let it sink in.  The doctor sat, completely still.

"Why did he attack you?  What were you doing?" he asked.

She didn’t answer.  It told him that he was close to something.

"You were with another patient.  Why would he attack you while you were with another patient?"  Still, there was no answer.  "I can find out.  You may not think so, but I am very good at my job.  My rational brain works quite well.  And if that doesn't work, I can get some trans-rational help from William.  He'll tell me."

He saw her breathing speed up, could tell that she was firing up into panic mode.

"But that's not what I want."  He pointed at Jessica's building.  "What I do want is to protect that woman in there from him, and from others that might hurt her.  To do that, I need you to get out of my way.  I need you to understand just a fragment of how dangerous William is and stop interfering with my investigation."

"I know how dangerous he is."  Her voice was much quieter than before.  Bryan wondered what she really meant by that comment, if she could even understand the problem with her unbending empirical viewpoint.

He looked down at the bag.  "That's why you brought this?  To tranquilize him?"  He waited for a moment, but no answer came.  "You wouldn't even get near him."

"And you've done so much better."

"Actually," he said.  "I have.  I've sat down with him, talked with him."

"Then you give him the drugs," she said.

Bryan stopped.  He had never thought of it.  He'd tried to bring William in, tried to convince him that he should come voluntarily.  Force hadn't been an option at all.  But drugs were different, if he could figure out a way to get them into William.  A syringe was as impossible as a gun.

He pulled out one of the bottles, it fit in the palm of his hand, the metal circle on top pulled away to reveal the rubber underneath.  "Will these work if he ingests them instead?"

She looked at him before answering.  He saw some of the control return to her face.  "Yes.  The dosage would have to be increased and it would take slightly longer, but they would work well that way."

Bryan sighed out a deep breath and put the bottle back in the bag.  "Then drive me to the station.  My thermos is in my car."

He sat back and closed his eyes, afraid that this might be a very bad idea.

 *

(Author’s note: Did Bryan just switch sides?  What?  Are there now two different traps being set for William?  Tune in to see what happens next!  And until then, thanks for the votes and notes and please tell your friends about Schism, both that it’s here, as a podcast on iTunes and available wherever you like to buy your books and ebooks.  Thanks!)

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