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I shook my head. He couldn’t know that for sure. And anyway, you couldn’t punish people for something theymightdo. “You’re doing this on your own, aren’t you?” I asked. “I don’t see how Yorov would condone or bother with this.”

He smiled a little at that. “No,” he agreed. “The problem with Yorov is they would likely make use of these people if they knew about them.”

“You’re doing this under their noses,” I said. No need to ask. It was clear as day. “They don’t know you have two abilities, do they?” That one I wasn’t so sure about.

“More like three,” he said. “I can sense people like you.” He sounded like he didn’t count himself as one of us. It was sad that he was wrong on that account. “And I am also drawn to those I sense if I’m close enough.”

I nodded. It explained how he always found his victims. It also told me I was right about him working on his own. Maybe it was his way of working against Yorov, even. If he could sense these potentially dangerous affiliates, it was likely his way of stopping them from ending up in the hands of his employers. A twisted way of doing good considering all the shit I figured Yorov made him do.

That didn’t excuse anything.

He might think it was a kindness not to kill them, but what he was doing was killing them in such a slow way that it was pure torture. I realized I shouldn’t have let Dr. Morris bring him back. He might think he was doing the right thing, but the truth was that he was the danger he was trying to keep from Yorov. I was sure he’d already paved himself a nice-looking road to hell.

Oh, I was in so much trouble. I couldn’t do a thing knowing what he would do to me. Hell, quickly throwing my car key so it landed right under the front of the Beetle had been all I’d been able to do without him controlling me. Would Hansen even find it? Would he care? Thomás hadn’t wanted to go back inside the hospice to find the key he thought I had forgotten, so he’d settled for the run-down car we were driving. So old there were no computer components in it. It had been easy to break into and it had only taken him a few minutes to hot-wire the thing. What choice had I had but to go with him?

“Where are you taking me?” I asked, not expecting an answer, and not getting one. The car shook again, like a tire had burst, but then calmed down to a low uneven vibration.

“Can you at least tell me whether Andrea is okay?”

“She’s fine,” he said, voice brusque.

“And you’ll let her go now that you have me?”

“Of course.”

I had such a bad feeling about all of this. Andrea had likely seen too much. Letting her go might not be a good choice for the kidnappers. She could be useful to Yorov. Was that better than being killed? The fact that I wasn’t sure was bad enough.

The only thing I could try to do was attempt to stay ahead of the situation. It might not help in the least, but I had to try. I locked on to him quick enough, seeing his eyes focused on the road ahead.

“Where are we going?” I asked. I needed to lead his thoughts where I wanted him to go. The problem was that he caught on. I could hear it as he at first began thinking about our destination. His gaze went to me. Realizing that I was staring at him. Reading him. He knew what I could do. Not only because he’d been sent by Yorov to bring me in, but because he could sense it. Could he sense me using it on him as well?

“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted as the words rang inside his head simultaneously.

I must stop you.

I heard the words clear as day. Knew what he decided to do to me as he took his eyes off the road a moment to look at me. Stop me from invading his thoughts.

He was going to trap me.

I felt myself about to freeze as the threat became clear, but I had trained not to become pacified that way. I had trained to react. To fight. Not give in. To focus on what was in front of me and deal with it.

It all happened so fast.

I braced myself as I reached out and grabbed the steering wheel, yanking it toward me, a motion that made the car shake even more. It wasn’t able to handle much anymore, and I felt us veering toward the side of the road. I remember seeing Thomás grabbing the wheel hard, trying to correct the damage I’d done. Remember the relief of him not looking at me. Remember holding on for dear life as he lost control of the skidding car. It kept going right, closer and closer to the side of the road, which revealed a steep decline. The vehicle sputtered and shook on its way, finally giving up its existence, as we went over the edge and the surge of gravity took hold. Greenery whirled in front of us as the car landed hard, rolling around. The tugs, shaking and blows felt off, like they didn’t really happen. The colors of the outside blended together with the loud screeching noises of crushing metal. I saw the sky a moment, clear blue and beautiful, a bright yellow flat tree intruding on this sight before it all vanished for me.

Three

“Detective Hansen,I heard you were first on the scene.” Mulligan’s voice came from behind me somewhere, but I stayed where I was, up on the side of the road, looking down at the car wreck. It was about thirty-five feet to the flat area below me, not a long drop and the slope leading down would help, but the car would have tipped around. Hell, I could see that on the dented and crushed metal. It was standing the right way now, but it had rolled around at least once. I was sure of that.

It was odd how nice it looked there. We were right outside town, a grassy landscape surrounding us, a few big trees, view to the sea straight ahead from where I was standing. The car wreck, uniforms, and the coroner ruined that, though.

“Are you all right?” Mulligan asked as she came to stand beside me.

I nodded. “What are you doing here, Chief?” It wasn’t unheard of that she attended crime scenes, but a car crash? That was a little mundane for her busy schedule.

“Considering your unusual case,” she said, pointedly not mentioning Evans’ name, “I decided to check it out when I heard you were the one who called this in.”

“Checking up on me?”

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