Page 23 of Absent Feeling

Hewas inside then, moving quickly towards the only patch of light in the house,determined not to allow Ysabel a chance to get away. After everything she’ddone to make his time in the institution worse, he was going to make sure that shegot the justice she deserved.

Hehurried forward, standing at the doorway to the lounge, where Ysabel sat,barely thirty years old, blonde haired and pretty, dressed in sweats like shewas contemplating going out running. She looked up, half rising out of her seatand taking a single step onto the cream-colored carpet before he drew theknife, stopping her short.

“Whoare you?” she demanded in a frightened voice. “What do you want?”

“Don’tyou know?” he demanded. He threw back the hood of the hooded top he was wearingunder his jacket, letting her see his features. “After everything you’ve doneto me, weren’t you expecting this? Weren’t you expecting me to come for you?”

“EverythingI’ve …” Ysabel trailed off, staring at him. “Wait. I know you. You were in theinstitution. You were—”

“Iwas put there wrongly!” he snapped, cutting her off. “They said I was mad. Theymade melooklike I was mad! And you … I could have been out years agoif it weren’t for you. You lied to them! You told them I attacked you!”

“Becauseyoudidattack me,” Ysabel insisted, raising her hands as if they mightfend off the knife. As if she could do anything to stop him now. “You tried tokill me in the middle of one of the group therapy sessions.”

“Thatwas an accident, and you know it!” he snapped, stepping forward with the knifein his hand. “You know that I never wanted to hurt anybody!”

“Youaren’t well,” Ysabel said, in that tone he hated, the one that was meant toplacate him while still trying to be firm. The one that said that she was incontrol of everything not him.

Hecouldn’t stand that. “That’s what you all wanted me to think. I see moreclearly now than I ever have. Admit it. Admit what you did to me!”

“Wecan get you help if you just—”

Heleapt at her then, the knife in his hand, ready to strike.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Amberwas walking through a house with paper walls, each of them marked with adifferent inkblot. She could feel her heart pounding, feel the fear of notknowing what was going on, when she normally prided herself onalwaysknowingwhat was going on.

Therehad to be a pattern to the inkblots. There had to be some way of using them tofind … what was she trying to find again?

Thekiller. That knowledge leapt unbidden into her mind. There was a killersomewhere in this house, hiding somewhere from her behind the deceptions of theinkblots. No, not hiding, waiting. He was waiting for her, and now Amber knewthat if she didn’t work this out,shewas going to be his next victim.

Amberstarted to make her way through the house, trying to make some sense of it all.The house seemed to consist of endless twisting corridors, turning it intosomething like a maze. Rorschach pictures hung down from the ceiling onstrings, forming a dangling forest of inkblots that Amber had to pick her waythrough, trying to find some way to make sense of them all.

Shefound herself wondering where Simon was. If she was hunting for a killer, thenhe should be here with her, shouldn’t he? Amber needed him there to take downany bad guys. Her role in all of this was just to solve the puzzles, to provideSimon with information that he wouldn’t be able to come up with alone.

Amberstarted to look at the Rorschach inkblots dangling from the ceiling. All of thestandard ten were there, but those weren’t the ones Amber was interested in. Instead,she found herself picking out the other inkblots, the ones that were identicalto the ones that had been left at the crime scenes. Amber found those, eachidentical to the last, and for a moment, she stared at each one, trying tounderstand the meaning of it.

Theredidn’t seem tobeany meaning, though, except to draw her onward throughthe corridors in a trail of dangling inkblots that served as signposts. Ambercould feel her excitement building now because she’d worked it out. All she hadto do was follow those inkblots, and they would lead her straight to thekiller.

Amberwas running now, following the inkblots at speed, determined not to lose herchance to catch the killer. It didn’t matter to her now that Simon wasn’t therebecause she had all the training that she required to take down a bad guy.

Amberkept running until she came to a room with paper walls, each one daubed with adifferent inkblot. Amber looked around, trying to make sense of it all, thenshe saw the one that she was looking for: the same inkblot that she’d beenfollowing all this way. It was spread out, larger than she was, across onepaper wall.

Amberwalked up to it, putting her hand against it, feeling it there, throbbing likesomething almost alive, the pulse of a heartbeat seeming to run through it. Amberclosed her fingers around the paper, tearing it away, determined to get atwhatever lay beyond.

Therewas another room there, and in it was a man with no face. He stood there,larger than Amber, his blank features seeming to stare at her in spite of himhaving no eyes. He had no mouth, but still, Amber heard him laughing at her.

Therewas a knife in his hand. He started towards Amber, and now she was running backthrough the maze of paper walls, while the thudding of her own heartbeat increaseduntil it was as loud as a drum …

Amberwoke then, gasping for air and sweating. It took her a moment to remember thatshe was in a motel room somewhere in Guisborough, partway through a case withSimon. It took her a moment longer to realize that the thudding sound she couldhearwasn’ther heartbeat. Instead, someone was knocking on the door toher room.

“Amber,it’s me! Open up!” Simon called out through the door.

“Holdon, I’m coming.” Amber grabbed her clothes and dressed as quickly as she could,then hurried to the door.

Amberthrew the door open, giving Simon a questioning look. Even as she did so, Ambercould feel a sense of dread rising in her. There was something in Simon’sexpression that told her that this was serious, and Amber couldn’t think ofmany reasons why he would wake her up like this with so much urgency.

Evenso, she had to hear it from him.

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