Betazed

Chapter 10

Ravaged by the Gorilla

"Auri, are you listening?" My partner, Fred, asked.

I looked up out of my daze, "Yeah…sure I am. What were you saying?" I had completely spaced out trying to listen for Furey in the chatter that was going on in my head. Apparently, he had moved on and didn't need me after all, because he wasn't there.

"Okay, two nuns go into a zoo and are looking at this silver-back gorilla. He reaches out, grabs one of the nuns, pulls her into the cage where he ravages her. She's in the hospital when the other nun comes in. The visiting nun moves close to the bed and timidly asks, "I'm sorry sister, but I have to know. What was it like?" The nun lifts up and looks at the visiting sister, "Like? Like? He doesn't write, call, send flowers…."

I started to laugh. I actually thought it was quite funny and pretty appropriate considering I felt like the nun in the hospital bed. It had been five, almost six months since Greg and Furey had boarded the plane in San Diego and flown back to Princeton. Greg hadn't called, emailed or had any contact with me. Our little relationship was officially over as quickly as it had started.

"That's funny. I like that one. Hey Fred, I don't feel him here. He's not around here anymore. This is a dead lead."

Fred looked at me, his face fallen, "You must be joking, it's less than twenty-four hours old."

I patted him on the shoulder, "It's dead. We might as well go inside and see what we can get from the imprint he left inside." We had been sitting in our car for an hour waiting for our suspect to come back to the apartment, the address we got off of an application he filled out just a week ago and we found a few days later when his social security number was checked. I had been trying to get a feel on the place, but I felt nothing, no imprints this far away from the apartment. That usually meant that the imprints of his presence were fading because he no longer lived there. Sometimes if I was able to touch something the suspect touched I could get readings, even if they were faint.

Auri, are you there?

Yes, Furey?

My Dad is having trouble with the IRS, is that bad?

I had to laugh. It didn't surprise me one bit that Greg was dueling with the IRS.

It depends on whether he lied to them or not.

Knowing my Dad, I'd say he probably lied to them.

Well then he could be in some trouble.

Will he go to jail?

Not likely. He'll probably have to pay a fine and interest. How is your Dad?

Lonely.

I laughed, I knew that Furey was saying that to garner sympathy for the devil. Well, that's a shame. He should join a club or ask one of the female doctors out.

They think he's mean. They only know him from work and he can be pretty tough.

Well, honey, not much I can do for you. I have to get back to work. I'll talk to you later, okay?

Okay. Bye.

Bye.

I don't know what it was about Furey that I loved so much, but he was a good kid, despite his father's influence. He had a lot more empathy for others, although he and his Dad shared some cynicism about the world and the same sense of humor.

Fred and I got out of the car and knocked on the door with our warrant, but, as I already knew would happen, no one answered. I entered through a window and unlatched the door for Fred who was much bigger than me and unable to make the climb through the window that I had just made. As we started to walk through the apartment, I began picking up impressions. There was a smell in the apartment that we both knew was dried blood. We found the source of it in the small bedroom next to the unmade bed. The hardwood floor was soaked crimson with blood.

As I walked into the room, I was jolted with images of a brutal assault on a young woman that I knew to be Peggy Morrow, the latest female to go missing in the area. She had similar traits to the other victims of our suspect. She was a size 12, mid-twenties and around 5'6". She was fair and had blue eyes. The assault ended with both rape and sodomy. As he sodomized her, he wrapped an electrical cord around her neck and strangled her until she passed out. Then he slit both wrists vertically and let the blood pour out of her veins.

It took awhile for me to realize that Freddy was shaking me and yelling my name. The look on his face told me all I needed to know. I had been gagging and crying during the visions of the strangulation and I had then gone quiet, my face draining of blood as I watched the blood drain from Peggy's wrists.

"Auri, come back, Auri!"

I focused back on Freddie's eyes, nodding to let him know that I had heard him. "She's still here."

Freddie looked horrified, "What? She's still here?"

"Her body is somewhere close. Her murder occurred less than forty-eight hours ago and he didn't have time to move the body off the premises. She's still here. He wasn't frightened away by us. Someone else was close to finding out."

"Christ, Auri" Freddie hated when he found a body. He was the only FBI agent I knew who would prefer that another team find the body. It was odd, because working with me meant we found a lot of bodies.

"Sorry." I smiled at Freddie. I was only saying sorry to be polite. I wanted to find the body to make sure that I had correctly interpreted the impressions I was feeling. Freddie went back to the car to get the camera, leaving me to go through the golden brick apartment by myself. The apartment was on the bottom floor giving the murderer access to under the building.

Freddie came back from the car bearing both a digital recorder and a camera. He started the recording,"August 24th, Missing Person, Rachel Westmoreland, 2304 Pine street, Apartment B, Time 2:27 pm, Special Agents Fred Osterland, 1Aurigae Ferrell. Agent Ferrell?" He pointed the camera at me and smiled. But, I had a hard time responding; I was in a trance walking through the house touching the cream painted plaster walls, the arched doorways and touching furniture. He whispered loudly, "Auri! Auri? "

I turned and looked at Freddie, suddenly aware that he had started the recorder. "Ah…yes, I'm picking up imprints from the apartment. He's tall, approximately 6'3"- 6'4". He's thin and I'm getting light brown hair. The perpetrator coaxed Rachel from the shopping mall by telling her that there had been an accident involving her car. He wears a security uniform. Rachel was killed here, in the bedroom. She's still here. I believe she's buried under the building, in the cellar." I closed my eyes, the fear and pain of Rachel pulsing through my body.

Shutting off the camera, Freddie waited. He knew how hard this was on me and could tell that I was still in the middle of feeling whatever Rachel had felt in her last minutes on earth.

"Auri, are you okay?"

I leaned on the plaster wall and put my head back, closing my eyes. I nodded at Freddie. "Are you ready to go to the cellar?"

"Can't we wait for the evidence crew?" He said, knowing we couldn't.

I laughed. I shook my head and started for the cellar, my flashlight on. I tried to turn on the light to the cellar, but the murderer had taken the bulb out of the light fixture. I flashed the light down and started towards the bottom. Stupidly, I had the light shining on the ground rather than on the stairs. I felt myself falling through the tread, falling down to the ground, on my knees. My torso fell forward, head hitting on the stringer of the stairs.

"Auri!" Freddie yelled.

**********

I ached in my knees and my head was throbbing, "Watch it." I yelled up to Fred, "The killer removed a tread…I'm bleeding, a little. I don't think I broke anything." I continued to feel my body and apparently had a gash above my eyebrow. With the blood falling down my face, I crawled out from under the stair treads. I felt something uneven in the floor. "Freddie, are you down yet?"

His flashlight grazed over my face, "Jesus, Auri, you have blood all over your face!"

"Yeah, yeah…" I crawled back under the stairs and grabbed my flashlight which I had dropped when I landed. "This, this is it." I let the light of my flashlight fall on the uneven part of the floor. "She's under this fresh patch of concrete."

I couldn't see Freddie, but I could feel his uneasiness. I knew he wanted any excuse to get out of there and he thought of one, "Come on Auri, we need to get you to the doctors. You're going to need stitches.

We went up the steps and Freddie called for the investigation team, told them what I had found, that I had been injured and he was taking me to the doctors. I held up some Kleenex that I had in the car to the gash, but the cut bled through within a minute. I took off a sock and put it to my head. We received directions over the phone and I was at the hospital within minutes.

The doctor began mopping the two inch wound above my right eyebrow, checking the wound over, "I'd say this is an eight stitch problem. It should heal nicely. The stitches should be removed in ten days."

Already upset that I hadn't been present when they started the jackhammering of the slab, I made a beeline straight to the car. "Let's get back to the apartment. I want to be there when the body is removed to see if I get any impressions."

Freddie winced, "Auri, really, haven't we done enough?"

"Freddie, just drop me off and I'll find my own way back to the hotel." I turned to him and gave him a look that he knew too well, I wasn't going to budge.

He sneered and started the car, driving the five miles back to the apartment. I got out of the car, knowing that Freddie would get out too. There was no way he wanted the rest of the crew see that he had left the crime scene, he'd get ribbed about his squeamish stomach again and he was really tired of being the brunt of everyone's joke.

As I walked into the house, several of the agents and investigative team nodded in recognition. My superior, Special Agent Rhodes, walked over. Rhodes was a weathered man of average height, gray hair and tired brown eyes, "Well Ferrell, once again it looks like you're right. Is this just good detective work or a result of your "special powers"?"

I hated it when they referred to my intuitive abilities as "special powers", as if they didn't exist. "Both sir, a little of both. Did they find the body?"

"We found a button in the concrete that matches the button on the sweater in the photo we have. We're pretty sure we're going to find her. How's the head?"

"Just a few stitches. Looked worse than it was."

"Go ahead and go down." Rhodes nodded towards the basement as he slid past Auri and Freddie, patting Fred on the upper arm, "Good work Osterland."

I never received a pat on the upper arm or an enthusiastic atta boy. I know that Rhodes considered my powers "cheating." What he didn't know was the emotional toll it took out of any intuitive to do this kind of work. We often felt and absorbed the horror and pain of the victims in their last hours on Earth. But he wouldn't understand. Rhodes was basically a cop and could care less what profilers or intuitives went through. As far as he was concerned we should suck it up and get on with our jobs.

Freddie went off to work with the investigative crew that was working in the bedroom while I started down the steps of the cellar. It was now brightly lit by battery run halogen lights. I could see the missing stair tread where I had fallen through approximately 10 feet to the floor below.

"Hey Auri?" I heard Geordi's voice call out. "Is this all your blood under here?"

I rounded the bottom of the stairs and looked at the sticky puddle under the steps, "I'm afraid so. "

The dust from the jack-hammering was starting to settle, making it easier to see the area that had been demolished in the concrete floor. I looked down and wasn't surprised to see that they had already hit dirt. The guys were fast.

I heard someone call my name, "Auri."

I turned around to look, but it was in my head, it was Furey. He sounded distressed, afraid. Furey? Honey, what's up? You sound scared.

They made me drink it…I feel weird. They won't let me go home. I want to go home to my Dad…I feel tired… His thoughts were dragging, like he was drugged.

Furey, honey, who is keeping you from going home?

Auri…I feel funny…like…

I felt sick in the pit of my stomach, the connection was gone. Beads of sweat formed across my forehead. I had to get out of the basement; the closeness of it was making me sick. I don't remember walking out of the house, but the next thing I knew, Freddie had his hand on my shoulder and was talking to me.

"…okay? Auri? Did you hear me? You don't look so hot, are you okay?"

My voice was hoarse, "Freddie, remember the kid I told you about? The Intuitive?"

Freddie nodded.

"He's in trouble, real trouble." I took several deep breaths, "I think someone has drugged and kidnapped him."

Freddie sighed, "Oh man, here we go."

Freddie knew me too well. We had worked together for five years and he had learned the hard way that my talent was real. I pulled out my cell phone and called Princeton information for Gregory House. The only number they would give out was the hospital phone number. I was connected and his voice mail came on. I went cold and scared; there was no telling how long it would take for him to get the message. I called for the number to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and was connected through.

"I'm Special Agent Ferrell of the FBI. I need to speak to Gregory House's supervisor."

The weary voice simply said, "I bet you do."

I was connected.

"Lisa Cuddy. Can I help you?"

"Ms. Cuddy, I'm Special Agent Ferrell, FBI. We need to contact Dr. House immediately. It's an emergency."

"Emergency? Medical?"

"No ma'am, it involves his son."

"Furey?"

I heard and felt the emotion in her voice elevate.

"Yes."

"He's alright, isn't he?" The pitch of her voice was higher, scared.

"We need to talk to Dr. House."

"Yes, I'll get him."

It took five or more minutes, but I heard an intrepid voice answer the phone, "Auri?"

"Greg." My heart started beating faster. "Greg, there's something wrong with Furey. Someone's given him something, perhaps a drug. They're holding him against his will."

There was a chuckle, "Auri, is this your way of getting me to call you? Furey is with Wilson."

I wanted to remain calm, but I was both angry and worried, "You jerk! You think I'd use Furey to get to you? I don't give a damn if you care about me or not, but I know you love your son. Now, notify the local police that he's missing and someone drugged him. I'm going to find a way to get up there."

"Where are you?"

"I'm just south of Washington D.C., I'll be up there as soon as possible."

I heard him chuckle, "Auri, this is a joke isn't it? I mean, how can you know where he is when you're in Washington D.C.?"

I closed my eyes and shook my head as I tried to read him. He didn't believe me. To him, I was just making up a story to get close to him. "Greg, Teagan and I knew each other because we were both Intuitives that had been hired by the FBI to work for them. Your son and I have been in constant psychic communication."

There was a deep silence. I could hear his doubts; he thought I was saying this to get into his pants.

"Greg, your son spoke to me earlier. He's worried about you. He's afraid that you're going to go to jail because the IRS is auditing you."

I felt the jolt of his brain as it registered that I was telling the truth. The utter fear that he felt flowed through me. He was thinking through what Furey was supposed to be doing that afternoon. I could see him instructing Furey to take the bus back to Wilson's and make sure he did his homework. Furey nodded to his Dad as he got out of the car.

"Greg, call the police and tell them he's missing. I'm on my way."

His voice was tight with fear, "Yeah, okay." The phone went dead.

"I'm going to Princeton. You coming with me?"

Freddie shook his head, "We don't work kidnappings; we work serial murders."

I shrugged my shoulder, "We do this one. This kid is important, very important--to me, to his Dad, to the FBI. He's got to be found. He's the next generation of Intuitives."

Freddie rolled his eyes and sighed. I had to find my boss and let him know.

Dear Readers,

Thanks for sending me that Review...it was a reminder that I hadn't posted today. And thanks for everyone's feedback. It's always nice to know that people are reading! Thanks for the comments. I do hope that you're all enjoying it. Gorblimey2