The Marradith Ryder Series Part 60
Evanston was far from of Shannon Vega’s usual beat.
She’d come out to Colorado on her own dime to investigate the disappearance of Jenny and Eric Winslow.
The story had all the makings for good news: an affluent couple (the husband, a respected surgeon and his wife, an architect with her own company) had both disappeared without a trace. Dr. Winslow was reported missing on a Thursday when he didn’t show up to work. By Friday, Jenny Winslow’s assistant also called the police. She hadn’t heard from her boss for two days.
So far, the police had no clue about what happened to the Winslows.
Why this story wasn’t getting much play in the media was a mystery.
Shannon had her own theories.
Mrs. Holmby, the Winslow’s next door neighbor, was the busy body of the neighborhood. It was Shannon’s hope that she might have some idea about what became of the young couple. She’d been their neighbor since they moved onto the block, a little over ten years ago.
Holmby didn’t have much to say about the Winslows. She had all kinds of extraneous information about the new people that had moved into the house on the end of the block. Apparently it was occupied by more than one family, including a pair of young girls who jogged down the block every morning, wearing next to nothing.
And some knucklehead in dark glasses that sped around in a black Porsche.
Mrs. Holmby did say she heard dogs outside the night Eric and Jenny were believed to have disappeared. But she didn’t see anything.
Shannon gave Mrs. Holmby her business card, and asked her to call if she happened to remember anything else.
Irritated, she got into her car and stopped at the corner, just as the light turned red.
She wasn’t sure what made her look up at that moment. But when she did, she stared.
A man in a black Porsche pulled up next to her. She got a clear look at his face. The top of his convertible was down.
He never looked in her direction.
When the light changed, she watched the Porsche pull out onto the street.
She paused before following, long enough to jot down Justin Granthem’s license plate number.
*********
“Just what are you up to, Marradith?” Fiona asked with a gleam in her eye.
Fiona and I met three times a week for class.
She instructed me on different forms of concentration and meditation, an array of mental gymnastics to help me isolate and control some of my abilities. It took time and could be mentally and emotionally draining.
It only took me a minute to realize that day she was not in the mood for a session, either.
I told her about the Winslow’s house - that I’d smelled Syd’s scent earlier, and thought that it had something to do with the dissapearance of the couple that lived there.
Not only did she let me bypass my lesson for the day, but she agreed to come with me to the Winslow’s house.
“We’re taking guns,” she said. “Just in case Syd decides to show back up.”
*******
It was easy enough getting in. I warped the metal knob of the back door that lead into the Winslow’s kitchen.
“Can Danny do that?” Fiona said, frowning at the half melted knob.
“Oh yes. He used to do it all the time. Drove my Dad nuts because he had to keep replacing all the door knobs in the house. Why?”
“I found a knob like that in our house, and well, I figured it wasn’t your doing.”
There was bad energy in that house. It came over me as soon as we entered the house. A chill against my skin.
Fiona walked into the living room while I stayed behind in the kitchen for a moment.
I turned to the left. I could see Jenny Winslow, as though she were really there, standing at the sink. Not real. Not a ghost. A signature of electrical energy that Jenny had left behind.
I’d seen things like that before, but never so clearly.
Jenny was a thin, tall blond. She stood staring out the window, with a cup of coffee in her hand.
I walked into the living room. And I almost jumped.
I could see the woman again, sitting on the couch.
She sat stock still. Her eyes looked through me.
And then the image faded away.
“What did you see just now?” Fi asked.
“Jenny Winslow,” I told her. “I feel her all over this place. She was terrified. For hours. Syd was here, and he made her sit here and wait for him to…. do something. I can smell him. And her fear. The house reeks of it.”
“What happened to her?”
“She’s still alive. Syd killed her husband. But he has her.”
There was a sound from the kitchen.
******
I dodged into the hall closet.
Fiona shifted form into an orange cat.
Moments later, a woman came in through the kitchen door and walked past my hiding place. She was human.
“Hello kitty,” she said, looking at the cat. She reached out to pet the creatures head.
The animal meowed and shrugged out of her way.
“Yeah, well same to you then,” the woman said sarcastically.
She looked around for a moment. She wasn’t sure where she wanted to go.
Turning to her right, she climbed up the stairs.
I edged out of the closet and followed her.
She went to Jenny’s bedroom. As I reached the top of the stairs, she saw my reflection in the dresser mirror.
The woman spun around on her heel. She had a stun gun in her hand.
“You’re not going to shoot me with that thing,” I told her. So why don’t you just put that down and we can talk.”
She nodded, and put the stun gun on the dresser. “I have wanted to talk to you for a long time,” she said.
She looked familiar. I’d never seen her in casual clothes and without makeup. Otherwise, I’d have known her right away. “Who are you?”
“I’m Shannon Vega. And I know who you are. It’s nice to finally meet you, Marradith.”
© 2009 Lori Titus
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June 16th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Shannon finally gets to meet Marradith, and by breaking into a missing persons home. Nice talent to see emotion energy like that, a bit freaky but it could be useful later.