David, Master Naka, Leigh, Justin and Karen sat around the large table in the main room of the clubhouse, discussing their next move.

Frank came out of the office and joined them. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Hopefully Tommy wouldn’t be able to intercept this message. He thought of Reg–only Reg–and let his mind reach out to Reg’s. “Tommy’s out. Call 555-7462 when Reg is in charge again.”

“I’ve been thinking,” Karen said slowly.

Frank opened his eyes and leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table.

“So have I,” Frank agreed.

Karen looked at him, wondering if his thoughts were as distressing as her own. “You first, then.”

“I’m wondering if Tommy might try to let ‘Bob’ out, to keep us busy,” Frank told them.

Karen’s shoulders slumped. At least she wasn’t the only one coming up with ways that this situation could get worse. “God, that’s right. Tommy does seem to have access to Reg’s memories. Maybe we should swing by there....”

“I just notified the police that ‘Reg,’ in his delusional state, might go back to where his house used to be. They’re posting a couple uniforms there.”

“At least we buried ‘Bob’ pretty well. Even with the 8-plus hours Tommy’s been free, I doubt he’d have gotten him out yet,” Karen sighed.

“Considering ‘Bob’s’ in Reg’s old basement,” Frank said.

“And covered with several feet of concrete,” Justin added.

“So, what were you thinking, Karen?” Frank asked.

Karen bowed her head for a moment, then looked at the others. “That maybe Tommy has been ‘in there’ longer than just since the crash. And maybe he made up the whole ‘crash’ memory and he still has the plane hidden somewhere. He does seem to have some control over what info gets to Reg and what doesn’t.”

“You mean maybe it wasn’t as bad as Reg thought, like a ‘controlled crash’?” Leigh asked.

“No. I mean like it never happened at all. Like Tommy finally took full control of Reg in the air, landed the plane in the middle of nowhere, killed Ramon, and camped out, eating him, until he’d made himself look like a crash survivor. Then he flew back to Detroit and ‘mysteriously’ turned up in an a hotel near Metro, after stashing the plane somewhere safe. Which would mean that Tommy still has access to the plane whenever he wants to leave Detroit, and could be long gone already.”

The others at the table looked suitably disturbed at the idea. Except for David. And Karen wasn’t sure if that was just because he was so hard to read, or if it was because he didn’t understand the gravity of the situation.

“David, you understand that this is a regular wacko we’re talking about, right? Nothing supernatural about this one....”

“Yes, but...”

“I wonder,” Master Naka interrupted, “if you are all concerned because Mr. Morrison knows you so well that he may attack directly again, like the attempt to get in this clubhouse....”

“I don’t think that was an attempt to get in,” Karen told him. “I think it was a taunt. He’s showing us just how close he can get without us being able to touch him.”

“Justin, did you happen to teach Reg your ‘Feat of Strength’ ability?” Frank asked.

“No. Why?”

“Because he ripped the handle off the security door to get out of the hospital.”

Once again, distressed looks crossed the faces of the other 3 Envoys.

Frank stood. “Well, we’re not doing much here.” He went to the door to the garage. “Didn’t someone mention going to see if Reg has been to Leigh’s place?”

The others stood, but before Frank could put his hand on the knob, it turned. Terri pushed the door open from the other side.

“I’m on leave,” she told Frank, noting the surprise briefly skidding across his face and skipping the pleasantries to get straight to the point. “It seems that someone pasted together the fact that you and I are ‘together,’ and thus I’m too ‘close’ to this case. So they don’t want me working on it.”

“I’m surprised they’d let you go out alone, then,” Justin said. “They must realize....”

“Alone?” Terri laughed. “There’s six cops posted around the block right now.”

Justin and Frank went to the security monitor and began flipping through the camera views. It took them a minute to find all six, but Terri was right. One was obvious, an unmarked cruiser parked across the street from the front door. The others weren’t as noticeable, though with Frank and Justin’s skills they found them quickly enough. There were a couple disguised as city workers inspecting a damaged portion of sidewalk around the corner. A homeless guy digging through garbage dumpsters in the alley. And two ‘ladies’ working a corner on the other side of the block.

Justin was a little surprised to see that one of the ‘working girls’ was a cousin of his. “Shit. That’s my cousin Isabelle. I never realized what a nice body she has....”

Karen punched him lightly on the arm. But when he turned to look at her, he saw her grinning. He grinned sheepishly, too.

“I figured I’d come here, where I’m probably safest. And where I can help,” Terri told them. “My other choices were at home under guard, or downtown under guard doing paperwork.” She grimaced as she said it.

“Great. And now WE have security, too...following us everywhere,” Frank said, trying not to sound too upset, since it wasn’t entirely Terri’s fault.

Terri thought about it for a second. Her first thought had been about wanting to help catch Reg, even if it was unofficially. But Frank was right. This would put a cramp in his style of working the case. “I could just stay here and lock down while you go out to work the case.”

Frank sighed and shook his head. He understood her desire to have a hand in this.

“So, profiler, what’s he gonna do?” Terri asked playfully.

“Go to ground, I expect,” Frank replied.

Terri whistled. “It’s a big area for him to hide in.”

“Maybe we could try bringing back Stephan or Ramon to find out more about Reg, something that might help us figure out what Tommy might use?” Justin suggested. “Maybe try a more friendly seance for Ramon, rather than dragging him back unwilling?”

“So...do we use the Christmas lights for that, rather than the black candles?” David joked.

Justin shot him an irritated look. “I’m just thinking that if he comes back willingly, it’ll be more like dealing with Casper than, well, something angry.”

“Casper?” Master Naka asked, not understanding the reference right away.

“Yeah, you know...the cartoon, Casper the Friendly Ghost?” Justin answered.

“Ah! Your childhood cartoons...not mine,” Master Naka said, nodding.

“Geez, I can’t even imagine how twisted a kid could end up after growing up watching Anime!” Justin exclaimed.

“Those are adult cartoons,” Master Naka explained. “Just as your cartoons here in America have varying degrees of maturity, so do cartoons in Japan. There are cartoons appropriate for small children, for older children, for teenagers, for young adults....”

“Yeah, that’s interesting,” Frank interrupted. “But I think Leigh doing the CPD might be more effective. What would we even hope to get from Stephan or Ramon? I don’t think they’d have recent enough information about Reg to be useful.”

“I was just thinking that...you know how Stephan had been hanging around Reg before...maybe he or Ramon might still be....” Justin explained.

“I doubt Stephan is,” Karen said. “He got ripped away and...” she shuddered, “and who knows what by ‘Bob.’ And I’m pretty sure Ramon crossed over after Weeping Sparrow’s seance, when he forgave Reg. I could probably drag him back, but....” She shrugged.

Justin’s shoulders sagged. He was running out of ideas. “I might be able to track him if we were up north. But not here.”

“He probably won’t try to cross the bridge,” Frank said.

“Why not?” Terri asked. Tommy could disappear forever up there....

“Security,” Frank answered.

“Wouldn’t he just change his appearance? He is very facile. And they aren’t as thorough as at the borders,” Terri said.

“Facial recognition software...” Frank started.

“On the cameras,” Karen finished, thinking the same thing. “He can’t easily change the bone structure of his face in 8...” she looked at her watch, “9 hours.”

“This CPD you mentioned,” Master Naka asked, looking from Frank to Leigh, “how long does it take?”

“It kind of depends on how long it takes me to fall asleep,” Leigh explained.

“Ah. Perhaps, if you would allow me, I could teach you the ‘Sleeping Meditation’ technique,” Master Naka said. “It would allow you to sleep ‘on demand’ in order to use your CPD.”

“Thank you. I would appreciate that very much,” Leigh told him.

“So, Leigh,” Frank asked, “CPD first...or apartment?”

“Apartment. It might give me more fodder with which to work in the CPD.”

“Road trip!” Terri grinned and grabbed the ‘jump bag’ she’d dropped on the couch when she came in. She wasn’t the paranoid type...or at least not like Frank was. But she’d pulled enough never-ending shifts to understand the wisdom of having a jump bag at her office as well as at home.

“Pardon me,” Master Naka said, heading for the stairs, “if we are going to be gone for a while, I must water the plants.”

“Oh! Hasn’t anyone shown you the automatic watering system we have?” Leigh asked, following him. It had been incorporated into the design of the ‘green roof,’ and even had a gauge that prevented over-watering when it rained. She thought either she or Justin had pointed it out when they gave Master Naka a tour of the place, but she couldn’t remember for sure.

“But these are Bonsai,” Master Naka told her. “They do not take well to automatic watering.” Since he’d been spending more time at the clubhouse, he’d brought in plants to add to the collection on the roof, something he could tend when he needed a break from research.

“We won’t be gone that long,” Frank told him. He peeked out the front window. Another car was parked further down the street. It wasn’t quite as obvious as the unmarked cruiser right out front, but was definitely another cop on guard duty. “How many cars are we taking?”

“Are we trying to lose the guards?” Justin asked.

“No,” Terri and Frank answered at the same time.

“They volunteered for this,” Terri said. “Which means they went out of their way to make sure I’m safe. I won’t screw with them.”

Leigh grabbed her jump bag, and David followed suit, grabbing the bag that Justin had insisted he put together. Master Naka slipped his bow into its bag, and picked up that and his kama. Frank, Justin and Karen had jump bags in their vehicles.

Frank opened the door to the garage, and Terri followed him through. As they walked to his car, Terri gave Frank a quick peck on the cheek. She was trying not to embarrass him or draw attention to the action.

“I saw that,” Justin said quietly, as he passed her on the way to his truck. He grinned and winked when she turned to look at him.

“I suppose I’ll ride with Essiban and Mons,” David said, following Leigh into the garage.

“I’ll go with Frank and Terri,” Leigh added.

“I will ride with ‘Essiban’ and ‘Mons’ as well,” Master Naka stated, “whoever they are.”

“That’s me and Justin, for those who aren’t conversant in Ojibwah,” Karen said with a smile, following him out and locking the door. “‘Essiban’ is my Ojibwa name. It means Raccoon. And ‘Mons’ is Justin’s name. It means Moose, just like it sounds, oddly enough.” [Writer’s note: The ‘n’ in Mons is practically silent in proper pronunciation.]

Justin showed Master Naka where he could stow his bow and kama just behind the back seat, and everyone loaded into the car and truck. Frank backed out first, and Justin hit the remote to close the garage and activate the security system as soon as the truck was out.

Terri waved at her ‘guards’ as Frank drove slowly up the street, and she could see the cop in the unmarked car pick up his radio mike. It pulled out and followed Frank at a discrete distance. At the corner, it paused long enough to pick up the ‘homeless guy.’ Justin took a different route, just to be safe. And everyone’s eyes were peeled, looking for Reg.

Both Frank and Justin circled the apartment building when they got there, then parked a fair distance apart in the lot behind it. The unmarked cruiser had parked in front of the building, and moments later the ‘homeless man’ turned up in back to poke through the dumpster.

Frank and Terri checked the outside door for signs of forced entry or traps, then checked again when they reached Leigh’s apartment door. Nothing on either. Leigh let everyone in, and they slowly fanned out, every nerve on edge, looking for some indication that Tommy had been there.

There was a very thin layer of dust on everything, since Leigh had been gone for a few days now. But none of it appeared to be disturbed. The plants looked healthy.

Leigh went to the closet where her still was set up. Before she left for New York, she’d started another batch of a Danish homemade liquor she couldn’t get here in the States. The tube was dripping as it should be, and the container catching the final distillate was about as full as she had expected. But....

It took her a minute to figure out what looked wrong. The color of the liquid in the jar was lighter than usual. It was almost as if it had been watered down. “Frank...?”

“Excuse us,” Frank and Terri said as they stepped past Leigh to inspect the closet and still carefully. Terri swung her bag off her shoulder and onto the floor beside the closet door. She opened it and rummaged around for a second, then pulled out a box of latex gloves and a dusting kit. There may have been clothes in there, too, but it was impossible to tell.

Justin raised his eyebrows, but Karen grinned. Terri was a woman after her own heart. Not that Karen carried a dusting kit in her bag. But she knew that, if she had to leave in a hurry, the tools of her ‘trade’ were more important than clean clothes. She could wash her clothes. But it wasn’t always easy to find just the right dental pick or badger hair paintbrush...or dusting kit!

And Terri wasn’t the only one carrying a stash of ‘tools.’ After dusting every piece of the still, and the closet doors as well, and finding no prints, Frank pulled a vial and large pipette from a case he took from his bag. He took a sample of the liquid from the jar, and carefully tightened the lid before placing the vial back in the case.

While they worked, the others continued searching the apartment. As they searched, they began to notice little things that were almost undetectable. Leigh was neat, and cleaned regularly. But the vacuum pattern in the carpet was just a little too perfect, well beyond what she would leave. The counters in the kitchen were not just clean, they were spotless. Too clean, in fact. And the only prints on the front door were the ones the team had just left coming in.

Leigh was checking her cupboards, and noticed that a Mason jar and matching lid and ring were missing. But nothing new had been added to her pantry as far as she could tell.

Justin pulled out his laptop and patched it into the security system he and Angie had installed as soon as Leigh rented the place. He began scanning back through the system’s log and footage for the past 10 hours. And he found a couple tiny glitches in the recording.

“Damn it!” He shut off the laptop, and began looking for the device that was ‘tapping’ the wireless signal. They’d made sure when it was installed that the system was secure and couldn’t be tapped from outside.

Master Naka was watching him as he checked behind each camera and sensor.

And there, behind the camera closest to the wireless router, tied directly into the same electrical wiring as the camera, was a small black box. Justin got the ‘isolated’ laptop from his bag, using it to look for the device’s ‘signature,’ and finally found its signal.

“He’s got a wireless broadcaster tied into the security system,” Justin told the others.

“Can we track where the signal’s being sent?” Terri asked.

Justin shook his head. “It’s really powerful,” he told her. “The range is probably close to a mile.”

“Is this security system yours?” Master Naka asked Leigh. “Or is Mr. Anderson a ‘peeping Tom?’”

Terri started laughing. Master Naka just stared at her.

“What? Don’t you get it?” Terri asked. “A ‘peeping Tom?’ His first name is....”

“Ah! Yes. An inadvertent joke,” Master Naka replied. “Dr. Muelder...this does not strike me as the work of someone trying to create fear and paranoia. It appears that he came for something and left. If he wanted to scare you, he would have done something more dramatic, correct?”

“Right,” Leigh agreed.

“I think he’s playing with us,” Karen said.

“Then likely he has tampered with all of your homes,” Master Naka stated.

“Yeah....” Karen’s face paled suddenly as she thought of Drew, and what had been done to Diva.... “We need to go check....”

Justin put an arm around her shoulder. “We left Drew with Marie and Olivia, hon. Remember?”

“Oh, right.” Karen closed her eyes for a few seconds and willed her heart to slow back down.

“Well, let’s make the rounds anyway,” Frank said, gathering his things. Terri put the dusting kit away, and tucked her and Frank’s used gloves in a plastic zipper bag to throw away at the clubhouse.

The team found nothing at Justin and Karen’s house. But that wasn’t surprising, since even Tommy had to know how well protected the place was.

And Marie’s house didn’t appear to have been invaded, either.

“Your place?” Leigh asked Frank.

Frank stared at her a second. “Do any of you know where it is?”

Blank stares looked back at him.

“Then I’m willing to bet Tommy doesn’t either. And I have no intention of going back there until he’s caught...or dead.”

“Aiden and Angie’s, then,” Leigh told him. The team loaded back into the cars and headed over to Aiden and Angie's condo.

Almost immediately, Frank and Terri spotted the tiny scratch marks on the front door knob, near the lock, as if the pick had slipped. Frank got a thoughtful look on his face, and without a word, Terri pulled out gloves and the dusting kit and handed them to him. But, as at Leigh’s, there were no prints at all.

Frank went around and checked the side door. Nothing there, either. Leigh had the key Aiden and Angie had given her, and she unlocked the front door. Frank signaled the others to wait and keep and eye on the side door as well. Then he and Terri swept the place.

“Clear,” Frank said, poking his head out the door. “Leigh?” He waved her inside first. “You probably know the place better than anyone else here.” Then he stepped back and motioned for the others to come in after her.

Almost immediately Leigh began spotting little things that were ‘off.’ The backup med kits, both the big and little ones that Aiden kept by the door, were gone. In the bedroom, one of Aiden’s dresser drawers was not quite closed. Checking inside, Leigh found that the couple hundred dollars of spare cash that Aiden kept there was missing. All the condoms had all been carefully removed from their wrappers, punctured, and slid back into the wrappers. And the sex toys were gone from the drawer where they were normally kept.

Leigh pointed out each little disturbance as she found it. When she opened the linen closet, she gasped. The gun safe was unlocked and everything that had been in it was gone. Also, it appeared that every medication in the house was missing, too.

Frank and Terri had been following Leigh around, dusting for prints wherever she found something wrong. But while Aiden and Angie’s prints were slightly smudged in some places, like around the medicine cabinet, in other places they remained clean and clear.

Both Aiden and Angie’s prints were on the gun safe, undisturbed, and Frank theorized that Aiden had shipped Angie’s guns to her in Long Island. And while the sex toys were missing, the drawer had other things in it, like one of Aiden’s med books and several copies of JAMA. Perhaps the toys held painful memories for Aiden, so he’d moved them or gotten rid of them and replaced them with something innocuous.

The condo had been searched thoroughly, and the team stood looking around idly, waiting for inspiration. Frank, Leigh and Karen hovered near the desk in the spare bedroom. Something seemed not quite right, but none of them could put a finger on what. Leigh checked the drawer where Aiden kept his ‘scrip’ pad, and found it right were it should be.

Then David walked in, and a second later... “Hey, what’s this?” He lifted the keyboard, and lying tucked under the edge was a thumb drive.

Frank picked it up carefully with his gloved thumb and index finger, and held it at an angle to the light. No visible prints, but the initials RTM were etched in the plastic.

“Here,” Justin said, opening the isolated laptop on the bed. Frank handed him the drive, and Justin plugged it in. At first, all Justin could find on it was the standard operating files. Otherwise, it appeared to be blank. But with a little more work, he discovered a concealed text file. It wasn’t well hidden or highly encrypted, simply concealed. Justin opened the file, and everyone crowded around him to see what it said.

“Stop me, whatever it takes.” Then a symbol of an arrow pointed up. And “JJCIII”.

“What does the ‘up arrow’ mean?” Master Naka asked. “Are there neighbors upstairs? Or could it mean north?”

“This is the top floor,” Leigh pointed out. “There are no upstairs neighbors. Angie had insisted on that when they were looking at places.”

“Does ‘JJCIII’ mean anything to anyone?” Justin asked. “Could it be initials? Maybe for something from Reg’s past, like a school he when to?”

Leigh thought for a minute. “He never really talked about it, but I think he went to school in Grosse Pointe somewhere.”

“The ‘CIII’ part of it could be the number 103 in Roman numerals,” Karen suggested.

“I don’t think so,” Frank said. “We’re talking about Reg here. If he were leaving a numeric code, it would be in hex, not Roman numerals. But it could be initials....”

Suddenly, Frank paled a little, almost imperceptibly.

“What’s up, Frank?” Leigh asked.

“What makes you think something’s up?”

“You flinched.”

“Whatever could be wrong?” Frank asked sarcastically. “We have a deranged killer on the loose, leaving us cryptic messages.”

“Besides that,” Justin told him.

Terri looked at Frank, rested her hand just briefly on his arm, and went to the kitchen. A moment later, she was back with a glass of water for him.

“Thanks,” he said, taking a sip.

“Enough with the subtext,” Justin complained.

“I have to look up some....” Frank paused, then started again. “I suppose he might ‘recruit.’ Tommy would like to target Aiden and Angie, but not Justin and Karen. Why? Aiden and Angie, and Leigh, live in places where people can come and go basically unnoticed. Most people in apartment complexes don’t know all their neighbors, much less the other people that might be expected to come and go from the area–neighbors’ friends, delivery people, and so forth. Justin and Karen happen to live in a quiet neighborhood, where people will notice strangers coming and going, and the huge lawn makes them stand out more when they approach the house.”

“And Tommy only wants to be noticed when Tommy WANTS to be noticed,” Karen said, voicing the same thoughts the others had as they all caught Frank’s drift.

“It explains his clothing choices,” Justin joked.

“When are we going to analyze the sample?” Leigh asked, nodding at the bag where Frank had stashed it.

“Too bad Tony isn’t here,” Justin said. “He’s the one with some background in chemistry. There’s all kinds of stuff in the lab, but I sure don’t know how to use it.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone else on the team does, either,” Frank agreed. “We may have to send it to the police lab. But I’d rather not draw that kind of attention if we can avoid it.”
“I do have GSB test stir sticks,” Leigh offered, sticking her hand into her purse to retrieve them.

“It’s a place to start,” Terri said. She led the way to the kitchen counter. Frank handed her the vial, and Leigh handed her a stir stick. It came up negative for GSB.

Frank held the vial up to his nose and took a deep breath. One eyebrow went up, and he passed the vial to Justin. “Smell this, and tell me what you think.”

Justin did the same thing Frank just had. “Hmm. It’s...it doesn’t smell as strong as it usually does.”

Leigh had always been happy to share her creations with everyone on the team; but Justin and Frank were the liquor connoisseurs of the group, paying more attention to the quality of the drink than to the quantity.

“Right. As if it had been diluted,” Frank agreed.

“But with what?” Karen asked.

Terri smiled. “Didn’t you ever sneak a drink from your parents’ liquor cabinet when you were a kid?” She paused and looked at Karen a second. “No, maybe not. But when I did, we always made sure to replace it with a little water, so it was at the same level as before.” She grinned.

“It is good enough to cook with,” Leigh said slowly.

“And Tommy has certainly shown signs of OCD,” Frank told them. “He would have to make sure the level was exactly like before.”

“Plus, it messes with us more than if he’d just taken it,” Karen said.

“Mr. Anderson is not a pleasant individual,” Master Naka stated.

“Yeah. It’s a good thing Drew wasn’t home alone,” Justin agreed, thinking of Diva.

“Why would you worry about Drew?” Master Naka asked. “He is right here.” He put his hand in his coat pocket and pulled out the black and white cat, who was purring loudly. Master Naka cradled Drew in one arm, and began petting him. The purring got louder, then quieter as Drew fell asleep.

“Should we head back now?” Leigh suggested. “I’d like to start working on the CPD.” The team headed out to their vehicles, and continued the conversation over the comm units.

“I still think that cat has some sort of inter-dimensional wormhole that allows him to pop up in people’s pockets at will,” Justin said with exasperation. “So, I can never keep this straight.... Is Tommy a sociopath or a psychopath?”

“Actually, one is a subset of the other,” Frank told him.

“Psychopathy is kind of a catch-all phrase,” Karen agreed. “A sociopath is a specific type of psychopath. All sociopaths are psychopaths. But not all psychopaths are sociopaths.”

“So sociopaths are the ones who don’t have feelings?” Justin asked. “Or have them but can’t express them?”

“They don’t process emotions the same way other, ‘normal’ people do,” Karen said.

“And that’s only one of the diagnostic criteria that’s used to define them,” Frank added.

The discussion continued for a few more minutes.

“Mr. Anderson does seem to show signs of sociopathy,” Master Naka agreed. “And he seems very juvenile.”

“Well, putting holes in the condoms was either a lame joke or a taunt,” Karen said.

“Or maybe he’s telling us something about how Angie got pregnant,” David suggested. They were just pulling into the clubhouse garage.

“Tommy does show signs of arrested development,” Frank told them, unlocking the inside door and holding it open for the others.

“Didn’t Reg’s mom die when he was a little older, though?” Justin asked.

“Reg didn’t talk about it much, but if I remember correctly, he was still in the single digits of age when his mother died, but near his teens. Maybe 8 or 9? Do we know what schools he went to as a child? Frank...?”

Leigh turned to look at where Frank had been standing a minute ago, but the door was closed. “Where’d he go?”

“Good question,” Terri said. She checked the garage first. No Frank. She checked kitchen and bathroom, then sprinted up the stairs. “He seems to have disappeared,” she told the others, coming back downstairs. “Now where the hell did he go?”

Leigh pulled out her phone and sent a text message to Frank: “Reg’s schools as a child?”

A moment later, Leigh got a text message from Frank: “Private in GP. None w/ JJC initials.”

Leigh had just finished telling the others what Frank had written back, when the security system’s proximity alarm went off. Justin went to the control panel and brought up the screens, figuring it was Frank setting them off.

It was raining hard outside, and the view was a little obscured by it. “I think...I’m pretty sure it’s a woman...at the front door,” Justin told them, sounding surprised. The person had the hood of her raincoat pulled down over her face, and she pressed the doorbell over and over again.

Justin went to the door and looked through the peep hole. David and Terri followed him over, to back him up.

The woman’s head was down, and Justin couldn’t see any more than he had through the camera. He pulled his gun and rested it against the back of the door, under his hand. David took up a position against the wall beside the door jamb, and Terri took up a position behind the door, in case Justin needed help getting it closed fast. With a nod at Terri and David, he turned the knob with his other hand.

When the door opened the woman looked up. It was Reg’s sister, Claire.

“I came as soon as the police called,” she said frantically, stepping inside. She didn’t notice Justin slipping the gun back into its holster as he held the door open for her.

“The girls are safe. I sent them with their nanny. I don’t know where she took them. I didn’t want to know...for their safety...and mine. They have plenty of cash. And their passports. They may not even be in this country. I made sure they had enough to go wherever she thought they’d be safe. They could be in Canada...or anywhere.”

Claire had barely stopped to breathe as all this spilled out. When she took a breath, she started up again, looking at Leigh. “You said I could find you here if you weren’t at home.” She looked around, and obviously didn’t see what she was looking for. “My bag.... Oh! It might be in the cab! Did I pay him?” She looked as confused as she sounded.

Justin was just about to shut the door. He opened it and looked out. There at the curb was a cab. The cabby had the passenger side, front window down, and looked at the front door expectantly. Justin, David and Master Naka all strode out to the cab, pulling their wallets.

Master Naka got to the cab’s window first. “How much does the lady owe you?”

“I hope she belongs ta one of you,” the cabby said. “She’s not all ‘wrapped,’ if ya know what I mean. She shoved me this address....” He held out a piece of paper with Leigh’s address and the address of the clubhouse written on it. Master Naka took it from him, and the man told him how much Claire owed. Master Naka paid him.

“Bags in the trunk?” Justin asked.

The cab driver nodded and popped open the trunk, then went around to help get the bags out. There were three, large suitcases. David and Master Naka each took one and jogged back to the clubhouse. As Justin took the third, he slipped the driver a tip.

“Ya know, it wasn’t doin’ this when we left the airport,” he complained good-naturedly, as he got back in the cab. It was a good tip.

Inside, Claire had collapsed into Leigh’s arms, sobbing hysterically. Justin set the suitcase down and took the stairs two at a time upstairs. He came back down the same way, carrying a blanket. Leigh held Claire up while Karen and Terri helped get her raincoat off, and Justin wrapped the blanket around her. Then he headed for the kitchen to start a kettle of water.

Leigh guided Claire to the guest room, and Karen and Terri followed with the suitcases. Then Leigh began helping get Claire into dry clothes. Claire was calming down a little, and her sobbing came in hiccups.

“Hey, Justin,” David asked quietly, as Justin came back into the living room, “who is she, and what does she have to do with Reg?”

“Reg’s sister,” Justin told him.

“She is slightly...unstable,” Master Naka said.

“Yeah, well, you might be ‘broken’ too, if your husband went nuts, joined a cult, burned down your house with you, your kids, your father and maybe himself in it, and you thought he was dead, then got to watch him burst into flames on stage at the Fox along with a bunch of other people in the cult,” Justin told them. He went back into the kitchen to check on the water and warm the teapot. That was one story he didn’t like telling.

Terri and Karen came out of the guest room and headed for the kitchen. “Leigh suggested making some.... Oh, looks like you’ve got it started already,” Karen said to Justin.

“Damn him,” Terri complained. She hid her annoyance well. The only way the others could tell she was mad at Frank was the fact that she was controlling the tone of her voice so well. “He must’ve snuck away while we were coming in.”

“Well, at least Claire might have some insight into Reg’s personality,” Justin commented. “Maybe she can tell us what might have happened to ‘cause Tommy.’ It doesn’t seem like that was because of his mom dying. He was probably too old.”

“Not necessarily,” Leigh said, joining the others in the kitchen. “It’s less likely as a child gets older...and harder to fix, but not impossible.”

“The teas’s ready,” Justin told her. “I figured we might want to add a little of this, to help calm her down....” Justin held up a bottle of brandy, then tilted the bottle over the cup of tea he’d poured.

“Wait!” Leigh said, catching his hand. “We don’t know what medications she’s on, or how that would interact with them. Let me take her this cup, and I’ll see if I can find out.”

Leigh took the tea to the guest room. Claire was already calming down a little, and was getting sleepy now. Leigh wrapped Claire’s hands around the mug and helped her sip a little. When Claire realized what it was, she sipped more on her own.

“Claire, do the initials JJC mean anything to you?” Leigh asked her. “We think they may have something to do with what’s happened to Reg.”

“I...I can’t think of anyone with those initials.”

“It may not be a person...” Leigh nudged her gently.

“I can’t think of anything.” Claire’s eyes were barely staying open. Leigh took the mug and set it on the night stand, then helped Claire lay down on the bed. Moments later, Claire was breathing slowly and steadily, obviously asleep.

Leigh looked through Claire’s purse, and found a handful of prescriptions. Many of them were for psychotropics. In one of the suitcases, Leigh found a plastic zipper bag filled with pill bottles. She sorted through them, checking when they were bought, how often she should have them, and how many were left. By Leigh’s count, Claire had missed taking her lunch and dinner pills. She checked her watch. It wasn’t too late for Claire to still take her dinner pills when she woke, though.

Leigh was coming out of the guest room when the proximity alarm went off again. She shut the bedroom door quickly, so the alarm wouldn’t disturb Claire.

Justin checked the monitor. This time he recognized the person immediately. It was Frank, carrying a banker’s box. Justin went to let him in.

Frank set the box on the table and took off his coat, carefully avoiding Terri’s glare.

“Is this the files on Tommy?” Justin asked.

“No.”

“Ward of the hospital?” Leigh asked.

“No, but good guess,” Frank told her. “It the files from a case I worked many years ago...where the body-hopping demon was Jebidiah James Carter the third. AKA Jamey.”

“JJCIII,” Terri said. Now they all understood why Frank had reacted earlier. But not why he hadn’t told them before now.

“People tend to fall dead around the person that the demon is in,” Frank continued.

“What are the conditions that allow the oni to travel from body to body?” Master Naka asked.

“Death of the ‘carrier.’”

“And stopping it?” Justin asked.

“Kill the body it’s going to before it can get inside.” Frank’s voice was as grim as his face when he said this.

“How long does it take?” Leigh asked.

“Seconds. It jumps to the nearest person, and it seems to have some choice if there are numerous options within the necessary distance.” Frank sighed. This one was a little too personal. “The patient zero we tracked him back to was Jamey. These,” he indicated the box of files, “are the rest. Including 3 FBI agents.”

The others could see the pain behind Frank’s eyes, though he covered it well in his voice. Was this what drew him to become an Envoy? And did it have something to do with what he’d said about having to shoot a loved one? No one wanted to ask those questions.

“How long ago was this?” Karen asked.

“About 20 years.”

“Is there any way to know when it’s in someone? Any obvious signs?” Justin asked.

“At that time, I didn’t know of any. Now...I’m not sure.”

“How’d you figure out it was a demon?” Justin asked.

“That’s just the name we gave it. It took great delight in our knowing that we couldn’t stop it.” Frank paused a minute. “We thought we’d finished it back then.”

“Perhaps you just banished it?” Master Naka suggested.

“And you think it’s ‘riding’ Reg/Tommy now?” Leigh asked.

“Could be. I need to review my assumptions about what’s going on.”

“Does it have any habits that might help us track it?” Justin asked.

“Killing things. And a juvenile and vengeful sense of humor.” Frank looked over at Leigh. She nodded.

“Did it use the grudges of the people it was riding?” Justin asked. “Or bring its own?”

“Both.”

“I’m just wondering if we need to call the rez and warn Weeping Sparrow,” Justin said.

“She wasn’t the one who banished it.”

“Obviously it imparts extraordinary strength,” Leigh said. “What else?”

“It’s very persuasive.”

“Ah. From my own mythologies, my studies,” Master Naka told them, “if something is banished, and seals set to hold it, for it to come back...only special circumstances or a bargain can bring it back.”

“So, maybe a piece of it hung around until it found Tommy?” Justin suggested.

“Or it hunted for a way to get out and get back at Frank,” Master Naka said.

“Didn’t Tommy have an ego?” Leigh asked Frank. “Maybe Tommy feels that he’s still in control and just sharing a meat body.”

“It may not have even been dependant on that,“ Frank replied. “Remember...the demon is very persuasive.”

“Are you not all ‘lightning rods’ simply because of what you do?” Master Naka asked them.

“We’re what a gamer cousin of mine calls ‘Weirdness Magnets,” Justin joked.

“I think you guys have just watched way too many movies,” David told them. He headed towards the kitchen. As he passed Karen, he asked quietly, “So is everybody that comes in here crazy?”

“You mean besides us?” Karen replied with a sly grin.