Page 15

“And yet you’re the one who contacted us, so the questions need to be answered, one way or another.

” When she glared at him, he shrugged. “I get it. You don’t want to be reminded of a lot of this, but the fact of the matter is,…

somebody out there is killing anybody who gets in their way. ” His voice had risen slightly.

At that moment, Penny walked over and wiped off a nearby table and smiled at him. “You know it would be nice if everybody tried to focus on the positive in life instead of the negative.”

He nodded at her. “I absolutely agree with you. I don’t know if you heard but there was another jewelry heist this morning.”

She paled and shook her head. “I didn’t know,” Penny whispered. “I’m so sorry. That’s terrible.”

Sadie added, “Even worse, they were literally just trying to do their jobs. I’m not exactly in the market to buy jewelry,” she noted, with a wry look, “but I would think that any jewelry store would close down rather than try to stay open and end up with this happening.”

“You also have to think about the people who are doing these crimes,” Morrison added, studying Penny intently. “I mean, what does it take for somebody to have such a lack of compassion for human life that they would shoot the security guard over some jewelry?”

“Oh, I agree,” Penny muttered, staring around. When another customer walked up to the counter, she scrambled. “Excuse me,” and headed back over.

He looked back at Sadie. She nodded and whispered, “That’s interesting. It’s almost as if she has no idea.”

“I’m pretty sure she is getting some idea now,” Morrison suggested.

“Did you read her energy?” Sadie’s frown indicated that she obviously wasn’t understanding, so he went on.

“I think she may remember how she drove three men to that location. It will be a shock when she finds out she is connected to it. Maybe not directly, but she is connected.”

Sadie winced. “Still sucks though.”

“It absolutely still sucks,” he agreed.

Sadie sighed, picked up her sandwich, and started munching.

Morrison asked, “Can you feel Don’s energy around her now?”

She looked over at Penny and frowned, then closed her eyes. “Yes. I do.”

“Well, as her part-time job requires, Don would be in the vehicle with her.”

Sadie shrugged. “It’s sad because Penny probably just thinks she’s providing a ride, earning something on the side.… It certainly takes a lot of money to raise a child today.” Remembering what her twin brother had just done, her shoulders sagged again.

Morrison nodded. “Still not sure he’s guilty of the shootings, but we do need to keep a lid on the optimism.”

She winced. “I didn’t even think I was such an optimistic person until all this blew up,” she muttered.

“Who knew that so many things were in the world out there that you don’t even know about but are ready to turn your life upside down in a second,” she muttered.

“At times I think I would be a whole lot better off if my mother hadn’t told me about Don. ”

“Yet I think the truth is always something we’re better off knowing,” Morrison shared.

“I get that not knowing would allow you to avoid dealing with this next stage, but, in the end, you still know more about your family, where you came from, and what happened. Thanks to your adoptive mother, you can seek out more information, versus your adoptive father who just didn’t want to deal with it. ”

“I don’t know that he didn’t want to deal with the issue,” she clarified, looking contemplative, “or whether to him it was just a done deal and not one that required reopening. He always had a very simple outlook on things, so, to him, it was probably not an issue.”

Morrison chuckled at that. “And he probably slept a whole lot easier by looking at the world in that way.” By the time they finished eating, she was ready to go. He looked around and asked her, “Now where do you want to go?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel antsy. I feel like…” She stopped, frowning again, looking at him with an odd expression.

He gripped her hand, feeling the energy flare between them. “Talk to me,” he said, his voice low.

“I feel like going for a walk,” she whispered. “Yet it’s not my feeling.” His eyebrows shot up, and she shrugged. “I feel as if he’s close by, but I don’t know who he even is.”

Morrison got to his feet, then still holding her hand, he half supported her, sensing a certain amount of weakness in her knees as she stood up. He whispered, “Let’s walk out of here. Maybe he’s coming here.”

“I don’t think so,” Sadie muttered.

Still, they walked slowly outside and out there she collapsed onto a nearby bench. “All of a sudden my knees are weak,” she whispered.

“Oh, I got that,” he confirmed. “I’m just trying to figure out why.”

She closed her eyes. “I don’t know why, but…”

He wished she would stop trying to formulate a logical response and just give him the information that was in her head, but it was likely such a shock to her every time something came through that she was trying to process it each time.

“It’s easier if you get out of your own way,” he stated, taking a firm tone.

Finally she opened her eyes, stared at him, and gave a broken laugh. “And that shouldn’t make sense, but it does,” she declared, with a headshake. “I can’t even imagine what most people would say right now.”

He sat down beside her, looked around, and began, “So, this instinct to go for a walk.”

“I still feel it.”

“Is he outside walking?”

“No, he’s contemplating it. No, it’s more than that. It’s as if he’s pacing, as if he wants to go out for a walk but isn’t sure if it’s a good idea.”

“Okay, do you get a sense of direction? I mean, are we going toward his energy?” he asked, with a hand motion. “Or is the energy coming from behind you or to the side of you? Where is it coming from?”

Her arm immediately pointed to the left.

“Okay, let’s go for a walk then,” he said, with a smile. “Even if it goes nowhere, it’s still good for you to walk.”

She rolled her eyes at that but got to her feet. “Unless I collapse after my knees go weak, like they just did.”

“I’m presuming that is because of his thought processes.”

“I don’t know what it is,” she muttered.

“Let’s go find out.” Morrison hooked his arm through hers, and they started walking in the direction she had pointed out. They hadn’t gone very far, maybe ten steps, when she suddenly sat down on another bench.

“Is he sitting down?” Morrison asked her.

She frowned at him and nodded. “I think he is.”

“But you should be able to stand back up again, right?”

Frowning, she stood back up and nodded. “Okay, I can do that.” Yet she flopped back down again. “But this is…”

Morrison laughed. “It is a lot of things. Bizarre is a term that comes to mind, but don’t worry about bizarre, don’t worry about any of it. Let’s just keep walking in whatever direction that energy is coming from.” And, with that, he got her back up on her feet and nudged her forward.