CHAPTER 27
Special Agent Joel Martin

When Special Agent Martin had put surveillance on Theresa Harding, he had simultaneously placed a lot of the people coming into close daily contact with Maxwell Evans, Michael Guerin and Isabel Evans on a watch-list. Consequently, Elizabeth Parker had made it onto that list only two days prior to being admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital due to indecent assault and battery amounting to, but failure to complete, rape.

Something that was noted back to Agent Martin through his efficient information retrieval abilities. After reading through the police report on how Max Evans evidently had come to Ms. Parker's assistance, Joel Martin was (to say the least) intrigued. He barely got around to finish reading the statement before he was on the phone, booking the next flight out of Albuquerque.

David Perkins was an interesting man.

Even though he was facing up to five years in state prison for what Elizabeth Parker was accusing him of, he was sitting opposite Joel as if he was the CEO at a board meeting. He seemed to exhale control and inhale power. But even though Special Agent Martin was young, he knew the authority his badge normally gave him and he wouldn't let Mr. Perkins change that.

"Mr. Perkins. Take me through what happened that night."

David scoffed and leaned back in the wooden chair, folding his arms in front of him. "I don't have to tell you anything without my lawyer present."

Not the least deterred, Joel continued, "If we skip forward to the point at which Max Evans showed up," Joel noted how David tensed up, his face hardening and his air of unbothered cool began to heat up, "is there anything you would like to share about that?"

David Perkins clenched his teeth and shook his head.

Joel leaned back and let out a deliberate disappointed sigh. "That's too bad…" He leaned across the table and lowered his voice for effect, "Because Max Evans has been on our radar for some time now and the government would really appreciate your assistance on perhaps bringing some new information to the table."

To his enjoyment, Joel noticed that David Perkins seemed tempted. He slowly let his arms down and leaned in towards Joel. "What's in it for me?"

"Well, Mr. Perkins. Considering the general treatment of men convicted for sexual abuse by their fellow inmates, a man in your position might be very interested in getting their penalty significantly reduced."

David was quiet for a long time, probably seriously pondering if he should go against his lawyer's recommendation or not. He looked at the agent suspiciously. "Why is the Bureau so interested in this Evans guy?"

"Sorry," Joel said lightly and shrugged. "Classified."

"Hmph," David said, not happy. "I just want to know that you'll take me seriously."

Agent Martin's interest was instantly piqued. No reason to say something like that if you didn't have a disbelieving tale to tell. "Of course I will, Mr. Perkins."

David Perkins returned to his state of ponder for another minute, before he said, "There was this green light."

Joel straightened. "Go on, Mr. Perkins."

For the first time since Joel had met this man, Elizabeth Parker's abuser appeared nervous. "It was a green light between her and me. Like a… This is going to sound stupid-"

"Go on," Joel encouraged, not letting on how excited he was getting.

"It was… like in a movie, like an outer space movie with force fields and that shit. It was just like that. And it hurt. Like it was electricity."

"And it suddenly appeared between you and Ms. Parker?"

David nodded. "Yeah. It probably all happened very fast, but I had time to look to my left and then I saw this guy… Evans to you," Joel nodded in affirmation, "with his hand held out in our direction and he looked like he was concentrating on something. I don't remember much more after that. I think that green thing threw me off or something."

"Threw you off?"

"More like flung me up against the wall like some rag doll."

"And Evans didn't touch you?"

"No," David shook his head. "Just before the lights went out I still saw him standing at that same spot, several feet from where I was lying."

"Hmm," Joel mused, leaning back in his chair.

"You think it's stupid," David sighed.

"What's your conclusion of what happened, Mr. Perkins? You must've put quite some thought into this bizarre incident."

David hesitated, but when he couldn't see any sign of the agent making fun of him, he said, "In retrospect, I'm almost 99% sure it was Evans that produced that green light. I mean, there was no one else there. And I don't think Liz did it. She was mostly out of it by then."

Joel felt goosebumps spread at the back of his head when this man so casually discussed the state of unconsciousness of his abuse victim.

"And I think that the green light must've been an electrical field, like a force field, that was able to throw me across a fucking long stretch."

Joel nodded, contemplating this. It sure was an interesting tale and he could understand why the man was reluctant to tell it. His mental status might be in question. "Is that all?"

David nodded. "Except for this abusive dude waking me up and basically dragging me to the police afterwards."

"Ah," Joel said, looking through his papers. Of course. Another one on the VIP-list. Michael Guerin. "I can see that."

"I should sue his ass," David mumbled.

"Well, Mr. Perkins. Maybe you should sort out this abuse case of yours first."

David ignored the jab and asked instead, "You believe me, right?"

Joel stood up and started collecting his papers. "I believe that the mind plays tricks on us sometimes."

There was a loaded pause, loaded enough that Joel had to look up to see if the guy was still with him. As he looked up, a furious version of David Perkins lunged across the table and made a grab for the FBI-agent.

"You bastard!" he roared.

Joel took a quick step back and without showing a trace of fear at the situation that had gotten slightly out of his control, his voice was composed as he raised it to attract the attention of the, "Guard! Guard!"

The guard came to let him out and Agent Martin took one final look at the man breathing hard from the anger on the other side of the table. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Perkins." You, my friend, deserve prison.

Tess

He might be one of the few with the same mysterious background as hers truly and he might hold the answers to some of her questions, but not even Max Evans was allowed to walk out on her. Especially not for another girl. If there was any element of truth in the vague dreams she occasionally had, Max Evans should only have eyes for her.

She came to a halt outside of Max's apartment. This time she had chosen to visit at a time that he was actually home. Since her surveillance of his apartment was still undisturbed, she would postulate that none of the surveilled in the apartment had discovered that their secret conversation was not that secret anymore. She hadn't watched the feed since before her meeting with Max Evans the night before, but was still pretty confident that nothing had changed.

It didn't take Max long to answer the door after she knocked. Frankly, he opened it so quickly that her hand was still raised in the midst of the intended second knock. She couldn't help but noticing how his face fell as he saw who the visitor was.

Apparently, she hadn't made a very good impression by trying to break into his mind yesterday.

"Tess Harding, was it?" he asked bluntly, looking tense.

She got her lips to form a smile. "Hello, Max. I would like to continue our conversation now." No time like the present and Tess was not one to beat around the bush.

He raised an eyebrow, standing still as a statue, still grabbing the door knob. "Would you now?"

"Come on," she put her head to the side and fluttered her eye lashes innocently. That usually did the trick. "I know you have just as many questions as I do."

Her good spirits were diminished as her speculated ex-husband seemed unaffected by her usually effective charms.

"Now is really not a good time, Ms. Harding," Max said tensely.

Tess frowned and angled her head somewhat in attempt to see past him into his apartment. "Why not? You got company?"

Max moved marginally to the side to block Tess' inspection and Tess felt her irritation grow. If only he had known that she had a top aerial view of his home, delivered straight to her laptop. The thought brightened her mood some and had her revert to a more pleasant tone of voice. "How about tomorrow?"

"Look," Max didn't move an inch. Tess couldn't help but compare this stoic and so-very-much-in-control version of Max to the nervous and plainly scared version she had seen when he had left her so abruptly the evening before that he had almost toppled her over. This was a man she could respect. The other type…urgh.

"I don't appreciate that you looked up my address," Max continued, "but since you're here… It would probably be better if you meet me with some friends of mine."

Ah, interesting, Tess thought. Big guy is afraid of making decisions on his own. He wants me to meet the 'gang' before he makes up his mind about me.

"Sure," she smiled. "When's a good time then?"

"On Monday. Afternoon."

Tess frowned. "That's a week from now."

"That's all I can do, Ms. Harding. Sorry."

She almost rolled her eyes. "Monday it is. Nice meeting you again, Max."

"Sure," Max answered and closed the door.

Tess resisted the urge to give Max's closed door the finger. Getting information was sometimes a very tedious and nauseating line of shitty work. But someone had to do it.