Read Online Stealing Shadows by Kay Hooper - Free Book Online

reached for the paper and held it. "According to this," he said, "a little more than ten years ago your mother was the one helping the police look for a killer. But before she could help them find him, he found her. And killed her."

    Cassie drew a breath and said tonelessly, "He didn't just kill her. He butchered her. She was home alone, since I was away on a school trip. There was no one to… hear. He took his time killing her. They never let me go back into the house, but I understand there was blood everywhere." She held on to her detachment simply because there was no other way to remember or speak of such horrors.

    Ben seemed to understand that. "You had to deal with that alone? Didn't you have any other family out there? The article says your father had been killed in a car wreck a couple of years before."

    "My only other family was Aunt Alex, and she never replied to the telegram about Mother's death." Cassie shrugged. "I was eighteen, a legal adult. I handled what I had to. And I went on. There was insurance, enough to invest and provide a fair income while it put me through college. It took two more years, but the house eventually sold."

    "And all your roots were gone."

    "My roots were gone the night Mother was killed."

    Ben drew a breath. "This article doesn't say anything about you also being psychic."

    "No, the police were kind enough – and smart enough – to keep that to themselves. They wanted my help."

    "You mean they asked you to help them find the man who had murdered your mother?"

    "Yes."

    "My God. Did you?"

    "Yes."

    "It must have been unimaginably painful for you."

    Cassie hesitated. "Remember when I told you and the sheriff about what happened when I touched the clothing of a murder victim to try to connect to the killer?"

    "It put you in a coma. Damn near killed you."

    "It was Mother's clothing I touched."

    "Jesus," Ben muttered. "Cassie – "

    "They had guards around me at the hospital, and for months after I got out. Their fear was that the killer would be able to target me as he had my mother – through the psychic connection I had made very briefly when I touched Mother's clothes. But either it hadn't been a very strong connection, or he just wasn't interested, because he never came after me in all those months. By the time I finally got my abilities back, he'd killed half a dozen more people, so I had to try again, had to risk… drawing his attention to me."

    "What happened?"

    "They got him." Her voice was matter-of-fact. "He was executed about three years ago."

    "But before they got him, did you draw his attention?"

    "I was much younger then," Cassie said. "Inexperienced. I didn't know how to keep the connection shallow, to get into another mind without revealing my own presence."

    "Did you draw his attention?"

    She grimaced slightly. "Yes."

    "What happened?"

    "Nothing happened, Ben. He came after me, and the police were waiting for him."

    "They used you as bait."

    Cassie shook her head. "It wasn't that calculated. I touched his mind too deeply, I realized it, and I told the police he'd probably come after me. They protected me – and caught him. End of story."

    Ben leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and stared at her. "End of story, my ass. Why the hell didn't you tell Matt and me that in touching this maniac's mind you could be drawing his attention, making yourself a target? Don't you think that's something we needed to know?"

    "Sheriff Dunbar doesn't believe I can touch the maniac's mind," she reminded him dryly. "Assuming there even is a maniac, and not just a garden-variety onetime impulse killer, which is what the sheriff believes. What he wants to believe. And you have your doubts, both about my abilities and whether there'll be another murder." Her shoulders rose and fell briefly. "Besides, I've learned a lot in ten years. It's been a long, long time since I was at risk in that way. I know what I'm doing now."

    "But catching his attention is