Shattered by Dean Murray Read Free Book Online

found me. I think I remember him talking about other humans
having abilities, so I guess it's possible that she has access to
something that gives her a leg up on everyone else. How psychic is
she?"
    "I don't
know—psychic enough to have found out where we were all
staying, but I don't think she realizes what she's doing. I think
she's just following her gut and doesn't stop to think about how much
the odds are against her."
    "Is there
anyone else involved in the investigation, is it high profile or is
it just her?"
    "No, it's
just her. Based on some of the looks she got the last time she
dragged me down to the police station, I don't think she has very
much support from her colleagues. It kind of looked like they all
think that she's gone off the deep end."
    "So maybe
once some more time has passed she'll give up and move onto another
case, one that she has a better chance of solving."
    Cindi nodded,
but I could tell that she wasn't convinced. Part of me wanted to snap
at her, but I forced myself to be patient. I'd been through hell and
back in the last few weeks, but she hadn't—at least not in the
same way. Working with Taggart had taught me that I needed to speak
up if I thought there was something that he was missing, but she was
still essentially the same girl she'd been when I left home.
    "You need
to tell me if you think that I'm wrong, Cindi. You're there having
the conversations with her. That makes you the expert. You may still
be wrong, but I'd rather hear it than have you keep something to
yourself because you think I won't like what you want to tell me."
    Cindi looked at
me oddly. "You've changed. You hardly sound like my sister at
all now."
    "Who do I
sound like now?"
    "Not a
who, a what. You're still you, but now you sound like one of the
co-captains on the cheer squad, that or an adult. You sound
confident, like this is all something you've been through before."
    "It's not,
not really, but I've been through some pretty rough stuff since I
started dream walking. I've learned that I can't always count on
someone showing up to save me. I have to do the best I can and hope
that it ends up being enough to see me through."
    "I like
it. It would have made my life harder if you'd just called Mom and me
on all of our crap during the last few years, but maybe that would
have been a good thing."
    I was still
worried about the investigation into my disappearance, but the
mention of our parents wasn't something that I could just let slip by
without asking the questions that had been building in the back of my
mind ever since I'd left.
    "How are
they, Cindi? Mom and Dad, I mean. How are they doing?"
    "Better
mostly. They still have good and bad days, but the good days
outnumber the bad days by two or three to one. Dad started putting
his foot down a little more at work, not enough to get himself fired,
but enough that he's not working so many hours. Mom has stopped
buying so much photography equipment. She used the money from her
last gallery showing to pay down all of the credit card debts and has
started setting aside money in case Dad does lose his job."
    I could feel
tears of happiness starting to pool at the corners of my eyes.
"That's really good to hear."
    "Yeah,
it's been really neat to see. They're working together more as a team
and I'm not whining about needing new clothes all of the time now, so
that has taken some of the pressure off too."
    "It sounds
like paradise."
    I'd meant it to
come out joking, but it ended up sounding more longing.
    "Are you
sure that you can't just come back home, Adri?"
    "Yeah, I'm
sure. I wish things could be different, but I'm not a very safe
person to be around right now. In fact I'm even less safe to be
around now than I was when I left. I've made some very dangerous
people mad at me and they wouldn't think twice about hurting all of
you to get at me."
    "They miss
you. Mom and Dad both miss you. They don't talk about you very much,
almost like that makes it easier to deal with,