Page 57 of Jon's Helter Skelter Cold Case

Garrett went inside, and while I couldn’t see easily into the room from this angle, I could sure hear the action.

“Nooooo, why are you taking my coffee?” Jon whined.

“Would you rather go shirtless?”

“In this case, yes!”

Garrett had no sympathy. “Tough luck. It’s not like you’re coming up with anything brilliant anyway.”

“So mean!”

Garrett passed the cup over to Grant, who took it with laugh lines crinkling up around his brown eyes, apparently entertained by this exchange. I gestured him into the office I shared with Jon, then showed him to Jon’s chair. “He sits there. Try napping.”

“Will do.”

Many a parent would kill to have Grant’s ability to catnap. Man was a pro. He settled into the chair with the coffee mug and I could almost count it down. Three, two, one…and he was out. He stayed like that for about thirty seconds, and I could tell it wasn’t going well by the way his brows beetled together. Definite frown there.

Then his eyes popped open again.

“That…felt exactly like how the perp blocked me. Huh. I think you guys have figured this out.”

I pumped a fist into the air, elated. Finally, a clue! Then I wheeled around, first popping my head into the meditation room.

“Jon, it worked. Grant couldn’t find you, and he said it feels the same way.”

Jon sat on the edge of the bed, and the second my words penetrated, he hopped right off. His delight was obvious. “Yes! All right, go tell Marc.”

Happy to do so, I backed out and went to the conference room. Abby, Tyson, Sharon, and Jim were the only ones still in there. “It worked. Grant couldn’t find him,” I said.

An evil cackle came from the speakerphone.

“Now that,” Marc declared, “is the news I want to hear. I tried it from my end and was still thwarted, so I think this is the answer. I love that you guys figured this out. This system, is it easily bought or made?”

“No idea,” I admitted. “But I can ask Sho to look it up.”

From the hallway, I heard Sho’s voice calling out, “I’m already looking it up!”

I immediately amended my statement. “Looks like we’ll have a short list of companies, costs, and whatnot for you by the end of today.”

“I seriously love Sho. Can I keep him?”

“Only if you want to face my wrath,” Jim drawled.

“One question, though.” Grant took a seat next to me. “While it’s true I couldn’t locate Jon, you’d have noticed long before now if your anchor bonds cut off while in the room. No one would use the meditation rooms if it affected bonds. So I don’t think this system would be enough to cut off an anchor.”

Damn, that was a good point. “You still sure Tyelesia is alive, though?”

“I’d bet both legs on it.”

That sounded pretty sure.

Sho waltzed back into the room with a printout in hand. “This is a quick and dirty list. Also, I heard your objection, Grant, but I still think this is the right track. Prison systems have anadditional security setting than the one they actually use. The highest setting letsnopsychic power through—not even a bond.”

I whistled low, surprised to hear that. “Seriously?”

“They don’t use it because it’s considered inhumane,” Sho explained.

Well, yeah, it would be. Any psychic cut off from their anchor like that would go through some serious withdrawals and mental trauma.

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