Part 14 (1/2)

He moved, clattering down in his regulation shoes.

Brett tried to guide Evan out again, talking to him in a low voice. Evan stayed rooted to his spot and shook him off again. I stepped forward and motioned Brett to keep back. I looked into Evan's straining face, but couldn't quite reach his eyes. He wasn't seeing me or anything else in the room but the pathetic marks on the floor where his sister had fallen and left him forever.

I called his name, loudly. He matched it with more sound, which was beginning to rise into a full scream. I tried to focus onto him, but it was like squeezing quicksilver, he just wasn't there. He was lost in a place I could not follow. Sending men into madness is one thing, bringing them out of it was another and beyond even my powers at the moment.

Evan's scream died away for want of breath. No one touched him. We were waiting for him to go berserk, for him to start breaking things up so he could be restrained, but nothing like that happened. We could do nothing but wait, and it seemed like forever before a thin man with a black bag appeared. No one needed to explain what was needed. He quickly dug into the bag and prepared a syringe.

”Blair, make sure he doesn't kill me,” was all that he said, fie approached Evan as though the man were an unexploded bomb.

We moved in a little closer as the doctor slid the shoulder of Evan's coat back and freed one arm. With a pair of scissors, he cut open a section of the s.h.i.+rtsleeve below the elbow, swabbed the bare skin with cotton, and sank the needle into the vein.

Evan never knew he was there.

It must have been a pretty ma.s.sive shot, for within a few minutes his staring eyes began to glaze over and his heart and breathing slowed. As the tension leached out of his muscles, it seemed to do the same for the rest of us and we all visibly relaxed to a certain degree.

The doctor put his stuff away. ”He's going into the hospital, Lieutenant, at least for overnight observation.”

”No objections,” said Blair. He mopped at the sweat on his forehead with a silk handkerchief.”My fiancee and I are his friends, we want to take care of him,” Brett offered.

The doctor shook his head. ”He needs professional help for now. You can check on him in the morning if you like.”

Evan could have complained about being invisible again, because they were talking as though he weren't in the room. In a way, he wasn't.”

The drug in his system took him a few steps further along to oblivion and he swayed a little. I got to him just in time and swept him up before he hit the floor. By now he was utterly limp, a deadweight in my arms as I carried him to his room and put him onto the bed. The coverings were still unfinished from Sally's interrupted housekeeping lesson. Only a few hours ago the world had been normal.

The doctor came in and took his pulse. ”Help me with the blankets,” he said. ”I want to keep him warm.”

I pulled the bedclothes out from one side and folded them over Evan, then added a crumpled quilt that had been thrown over a chair. ”He gonna be all right?”

”He's got enough stuff in him to keep him out for some hours yet. Ask me then.

Has he a relative or friend who can come with him to the hospital?”

Adrian, perhaps, if I could find him. He was in only slightly better emotional shape than Evan, but perhaps having something to do might help him. ”I'll see.”

Brett was trying unsuccessfully to pump Blair for information and barely concealed his annoyance at my interruption.

”I'm taking Miss Smythe home, lieutenant,” I said.

”Right.” He looked at the young cop and told him to clear me with the others, then returned his attention to Brett.

Bobbi had reheated the coffee and was pouring some for Reva when I came down.

Both had heard the scream and both had questions on their faces. The answer seemed inadequate to the experience.

”He's going to the hospital,” I told them. ”I thought Alex would want to go along.”

”I'll find him,” Reva volunteered, and gave her hot cup to me.

I looked at it stupidly, wondering what to do. A faint smile ghosted over Bobbi's face and she took the cup back.

”Can we go home yet?” she asked.

”As far as I know. I want to talk to Charles.”

”He can call you at my place.”It sounded good to me. I told the cop on duty where we were going and walked out into a blinding burst of light.

Reporters. Of course. The kid with the camera knocked out the used flashbulb, quickly replaced it, and yelled at me to look at him. I spun Bobbi around and hustled both of us back into the house.

”d.a.m.n. Where's the back way out of this dump?”

The cop pointed and we followed his direction, but two of them were waiting in the alley behind the house, kicking idly at the spillage from the garbage cans and smoking. It was a h.e.l.l of a way to make a living and at the moment I was hard pressed to believe I'd been one of them only a month or so back.

”Let's just go on,” said Bobbi.

But I dug in my heels, feeling the anger surfacing and badly needing to do something about it. ”Wait here a minute, I'll take care of them.”

She nodded and let me go out the battered screen door. They were on me like flies on fresh meat, shouting questions over each other and threatening to bring more people in with their noise. I held up a hand and achieved a pause in the barrage.

”Okay, fellas, one at a time.” I pointed to the older one. 'You first. Come over here so you can see what you're writing.”

”That's fine, I just wanna know who's talking.”

He backed me over to the door, where we could make use of the light from the house. His crony hung close enough to listen, his notepad ready and pencil poised over it. I ignored him and froze onto the older man's eyes.

”I want you to stand very still and not move for five minutes. You won't see or hear anything during that time and you won't remember me.”

It helps when they're off guard. His partner's cigarette sagged in puzzlement, but it only lasted as long as it took for me to give him the same instructions. I went in for Bobbi and we walked past them, two improbable statues on display in a dank setting.

Bobbi was all wide-eyed. ”They'll b.u.m themselves-”

”Good point.” I went back and thoughtfully removed the cigarettes from slack mouths, dropping them into a handy puddle.

”You... I mean, you hypnotized them?” she asked. ”You really hypnotized them?”

”It comes with the condition.”

”That's just like in that book.””No, that's just like me.”

”Do you do it a lot?”

”Not often.”

”How do you do it?”

”Beats me. Watch where you step, sweetheart.”

We picked our way out of the alley and came up to my car from behind, it was across the street from the house and as yet had not been noticed. I opened the door and slid across to the driver's side. By the time Bobbi was in I had the engine going and s.h.i.+fted it into first. We took the first corner right and headed for her hotel.

”Poor Sandra,” she whispered. I only just heard her above the low rumble of the car. I took a hand off the wheel and covered hers briefly. It felt very small and cold.