Still, the blue van nagged her.Maybe she would call the police and have them check it out, especially since she was so concerned with her civic duty lately.
Yeah, and have them think I’m a nosy Nellie.And maybe have them find out about me.
Better nosy than sorry about it, though.And if she called from a pay phone, they wouldn’t be able to find out about her.Rowan knew better than to mistrust her instincts.Hadn’t they warned her of danger last night?And like an idiot, she’d just gone blithely ahead.
If the van’s still there tomorrow, I’ll call the cops from a pay phone.Just to have them check it out.
CHAPTERSIX
Delgado quietly shutthe van door.Every time they left the shelter of the vehicle, it upped their chances of being seen.But he couldn’t drive the van after the woman, so shadowing her on foot was the only option he had.
She walked through her neighborhood to the high school, cut through a soccer field, and took to a track, running slowly at first, saving her energy.After about fifteen minutes she started to really go for it, long ash-turned-golden ponytail glowing in the sun, legs flashing, her face blank with effort.Running with headphones.He stood in the cover of a cedar tree whose branches made a nice little tent, his breath making a white cloud.Doesn’t she know anything about safety?Then again, it’s broad daylight, and she’s a civilian.Still, though.
The thought of anyone watching her while she ran so blithe and unconcerned made his fingers tighten on the ’nocs.Don’t be ridiculous, and don’t get emotionally attached to a subject.She could be government.She could be anything.Just because she’s psi doesn’t mean she’s on our side.
She finally slowed after a while, walked around the track twice, her arms swinging and her shoulders less tense, then headed for home.She didn’t look back, and Delgado didn’t sense she was aware of him.You knew after a while if your subject was nervous or suspicious.
He let himself back into the van and was greeted with a file folder and Zeke’s grin.“Hey, old son,” the big man said.“Enjoy yourself?”
“Exercise never looked so good,” Delgado replied dryly.“What’s the word?”
“Well, she’s not government.That’s good.There’s the doss.”Zeke shifted in the too-small chair
“I can see that.I suppose you already took a look.”
“Just a peek.Curiosity.”
“And?”
“Enjoy.”
Zeke took over watching the house while Delgado settled down with the dossier.
Rowan Price, thirty, never married, psychiatric nurse and counselor at Santiago County Mental Hospital.Lived with her father, a certain Major Henry Price, decorated for bravery, discharged with honor.Mother died five years ago—stroke.No arrest record, good credit, no lawsuits—not even a library fine.Worked her way through school.
What’s a psi this sensitive doing in a mental hospital as one of the staff?It would be more likely for her to be a patient.He flipped through the rest of it—mortgage on the house almost paid off, Daddy’s last medical checkup.The old man had a heart condition.Her health was clean—she went in for a physical every year.How cautious of her.Other than some slight problems with low blood pressure and hypoglycemia, she was extraordinarily healthy.
There were even some pages from her employee file.Delgado scanned them.She’d turned down a promotion twice, citing her need to be available to care for her aging father.Despite that, her reviews were marked “excellent” except for one, from a certain Wendy Yamakari, head nurse.Yamakari apparently had it in for Rowan.
That wasn’t half as interesting as the comments section on the reviews.
Rowan has a real gift for working with patients.
Calming, soothing.
Just like magic.
A psionic nurse, working quietly away in a mental hospital, trying to help the patients.
So why had she bolted last night?
Chances were, she was completely untrained.How was she keeping herself together, especially under the onslaught her job must represent?
“Curiouser and curiouser,” he muttered, looking at a grainy employee photo of her.She wasn’t smiling, but she was still pretty, her eyes wide and obviously luminous, her hair pulled severely back.“Well, Miss Price.You’re certainly an odd duck.”
“Del?Someone’s leaving.”Zeke twisted around in the front seat.“The garage door’s opening.”
“Who?”
