“What term would you use?”
“I’m not sure. I just know that we bonded. Somehow I kept him from...” She spread her hands. “From crossing over to the Other Side, or whatever you want to call it.”
“Jesus Christ. Give me a break. You expect me to believe that cockamamie explanation of why you assaulted me?”
She dragged in a breath and let it out. “I was pretty sure you wouldn’t. But when you woke up on the sofa, you asked what I’d hit you with. I wasn’t the one who did it. It was Travis. He saw you sneaking up on me, and he was afraid I was going to get kidnapped and killed, too. He attacked you with something you’d call paranormal.”
Bowman stared at her. “If any of that’s true, where is Travis now?”
“He’s sitting on the other end of the sofa—wishing he could join the conversation. Unfortunately, I’m the only one who can hear him or see him.”
The detective’s head swiveled in that direction. “You’re saying you see him now?”
“Yes.”
His eyes hardened as he looked around the room. “I don’t see anything.”
“As I said, he can only...manifest to me.”
He swore again, but his expression turned inward. “Maybe you picked the right person to tell this story to.”
“What do you mean?”
“I work for an outfit called Decorah Security. We’ve got a lot of agents who have powers nobody would believe unless they saw them for themselves.”
“Like what?”
“Like stuff I can’t tell you because I’d be breaking confidences. But I will say that we’ve got a telepath in the group. And other guys who could get jobs in a superhero movie. Only they wouldn’t be faking it.”
She stared at him. “So you’re at least willing to withhold judgment on my being crazy—or a liar.”
“Yeah. But ...”
“But what?”
“You’ve got to admit that bringing somebody back from the dead is a pretty far...bridge.”
Her voice faltered a little. “Bringing him back from the dead isn’t exactly accurate. As you said, you can’t see or hear him. He isn’t actually back, not in the normal sense.” She laughed. “Normal, right?”
Bowman nodded, his brow furrowed.
“How about a demonstration of the power we have together? I mean, besides his hurling a thunderbolt at you.”
“Like what?”
She glanced at Travis, and they held a quick, silent conversation before settling on a tactic. Without warning and without her moving from her seat, they snatched the pen out of Bowman’s hand.
He made a startled sound, then caught his breath as the pen stayed in the air and flew around the room. It landed with a small thump on the lamp table beside the sofa.
Bowman looked at Olivia and shook his head. “That was a nice trick, but maybe it’s like the mediums who put on a show for the customers they’re fooling.”
“Is that what you really think?” she shot back. “They probably do their tricks with elaborate setups. I didn’t have any prep before I got your pen.”
“I guess so,” he said slowly. “But it doesn’t prove that Travis Carson is here.”
“He’s sitting there looking pretty frustrated. I’m worried that he’s going to give you another energy jolt.”
“I thought he couldn’t do it by himself.”
