Chapter 10

Gretna

Noah hummed under his breath as they cut thru the back lanes toward the woods and the path which led to Innogen’s cabin. He was the mobile buffer zone at Jason’s suggestion. Jack was prepared to help with the investigation but he didn’t trust Alex. Alex was anxious and keen to make amends, despite the atmosphere between them. So Noah walked between Jack and Alex and kept them apart.

At least, that was the plan. Noah didn’t believe in letting things like issues of friendship fester into resentment, aggravation and, ultimately, a blazing argument and an end where both parties walked in opposite directions, never to speak again. Noah believed in being a peacemaker, even if that meant arranging the argument and then acting as referee. The sooner all the bad words and hostile attitude were out, the sooner the healing could start to take place.

Consequently, he lengthened his stride so he walked at the head of a triangle. Perhaps a more apt word would be arrow. It was more martial and fitting for the circumstances. The silence which underscored his humming lay thick behind him so he didn’t stride too far ahead. He saw it as a good sign that neither Alex nor Jack was hurrying to catch up with him.

Occasionally, Alex slid a glance sideways. Occasionally, so did Jack. Shoulders were twitching. Faces were animated as each silently tried out opening statements and wondered whether the other would start first.

“Jack – ” Alex at last said just as he said, “Alex – ”

“You first,” she invited with a quick smile.

“Okay,” Jack accepted but then didn’t say anything. She waited patiently, knowing that prolonged speechlessness was not in Jack’s character. Eventually, he sucked in a breath. “Look, I don’t blame you, okay? I – I can see why you thought it was what I wanted. The way I reacted when I learned the truth about my past .. well, I guess it’s evidence that I was shocked. It hurt, I admit it. It hurt to learn that I had been such a bastard an’ that .. the people I had thought were my friends had in fact once viewed me as a complete pain in the ass. I think that hurt more than learning what you’d done. I took it out on you. You’re here an’ they’re not. And I’m here too an’ I’ve got to live with this knowledge, I’ve got to get a grip on it. Accept it for what it is – the truth.”

“I can only apologize, Jack. I can’t turn back the clock,” Alex replied, “and, even if I could, I don’t believe I’d do anything differently. At the time, it was the right thing to do . It wasn’t the good thing, I know, and Peri would have given you the straight truth. She didn’t. She left it up to me because, in her heart, she felt it was better to .. alter the truth a little.”

He nodded in resignation. “She was always on my side, right from when I first met her. Nick .. he hated me. At least now I understand why just the mention of his name makes me nervous.”

“He never hated you, Jack. He was just exasperated by you. The thing with Nick is that people who won’t learn life’s lessons irritate him. But, after the hotel, he said he was proud to have been there with you, and that’s high praise.”

Jack shrugged. “I didn’t know who I was when all that was happening.”

“That’s true. And that meant you weren’t held back by your past. The real you came to the surface. You let it shine, Jack. You made some bad choices way back when, that’s all.” Alex sighed. “I guess what I was trying to do was let that situation continue, to cut the chains dragging you down so the real Jack Chivikian could shine.”

“Yeah. I see that now. I guess I’m grateful. It’s just .. well, it’s like Noah said. Memories take time to build up. I make a bad decision, I rationalize it, store it away, stumble on to the next bad choice … I lost all that. An’ then it all hit me. All at once. Every bad decision, every wrong act, every occasion I stole from someone with a smoke an’ lights show. I had no time to rationalize it. An’ that’s why it hurt so much. Why I was so mad with you. I’m sorry. It was your fault that I didn’t get back what I lost an’ instead got some fantasy guy’s made up past, but it wasn’t your fault I got it back in one hit.”

“J M Barrie once wrote that we have memories so that we can have roses in December,” Alex remarked.

“Did he? I bet he didn’t have a life like mine,” Jack commented gloomily, shoving his hands in his pockets and hunching his shoulders. “Cos what I got is poison ivy in June.”

Alex laughed and, after a moment, so did he. Up ahead, Noah smiled to himself.

“The past is the past, for good or bad,” Alex then said. “What counts is the present because that’s all we really have. The future .. that’s just a hope and a dream. We shape tomorrow by today’s deeds.”

“Isn’t there something about .. history repeating itself?” Jack pointed out.

“Sure,” she nodded, “but only if we don’t learn from past mistakes. Jack, you don’t have to go back to that lifestyle. You can leave it behind, where it belongs, where you’d already left it.” She paused. “You remember in your motel before we left to look for Freddie and Fedora, you said you’d like to be an associate of the Luna Foundation? Its Vegas representative?”

“Uh huh, an’ I also remember the expression on your face which said, in so many words, there was no way it could ever happen.”

“But it did. You are our Las Vegas representative.”

“Because I had a fake past.”

“Partly. Partly, it’s because you proved to Derek how much you’d changed. I had nothing to do with that.”

Jack nodded again. “I just need a little time, Alex. I’ve got a lot to take in an’ put back in the right places. The inside of my head right now is like a .. a garage with a lifetime of accumulated junk just after an earthquake’s hit. I gotta sort thru it, put stuff worth keeping back on the shelves .. after I’ve put up the shelves, throw out what I don’t want or need anymore. I’m gonna have to ask you to be patient with me.”

“Oh, Jack, take as long as you want. I just need you to know that .. I am on your side and that I’m your friend. I realize I have some work to do before you’ll trust me again and I will do that work. I would never, ever, do anything to deliberately hurt you.”

“We’re almost at Innogen’s,” Noah called over his shoulder.

“And what can Innogen do to help?” Jack asked.

“That we have to find out,” Noah replied.

*****

They pulled up short of the cabin and Alex had no idea why. Noah was frowning deeply and it seemed he had a big problem on his mind.

“Why have we stopped here?” Jack asked.

Noah hunched his shoulders. “While you two were having your little clear the air talk, I was thinking. I hoped by now to have the answer. An’, truth is, I don’t.”

“What’s the question?” Alex inquired.

Noah faced Jack. “Can we trust you?”

“Oh .. thanks. Once a con man, always a con man, is that it?” Jack exclaimed. He paced away, halted, then marched back. “Whatever happened to ‘Gretna is a fresh start for everyone’, huh? And .. ‘everyone here has a past which they’ve left behind’? I won’t even mention ‘we’re all friends in this community’.”

Noah waited patiently for Jack to run out of breath.

“You done? Good. Now I’ll explain why I asked. Y’see, Jack, I don’t know you all that well. I only met you yesterday. Not long enough to gather enough impressions to be able to make an assessment. I mean, d’you trust me? Really trust me? I bet you don’t an’ for the same reasons. Maybe you like me like I like you, but trust is different. Now, the lady we’re going to see is blind but .. she has a way of seeing into things which, frankly, none of us can understand. She doesn’t talk about it an’ we don’t ask. The way I figure it is that your memories are yours. Private. Me an’ Alex shouldn’t hear your deepest, darkest secrets being discussed like what show to watch on TV tonight. That means you an’ Innogen have to meet together, just the two of you. The thing is .. can we trust you to tell us the truth about that meeting or are you gonna keep secrets from us? Cos keeping more secrets ain’t gonna help anyone, least of all you. That’s why I asked. No other reason.”

Jack flushed slightly. “Oh, I see.”

“We don’t want details unless details are necessary,” Noah went on. “Look, you may learn that .. someone put the memory into your head that, at the age of seven, you decided you wanted to be a ballet dancer. We don’t need to know the details of what, only that someone has planted a fake memory. Okay? That’s where the total honesty comes in.”

Jack nodded. “I understand. Yeah, you can trust me.” He paused. “You mean .. some of the things I remember now may not be true? That .. I got a new set of fake memories to replace the old set? Jeez .. and you wondered if I could be trusted?”

Noah sighed. “Jack, a few years ago, we decided to stop playing around with people’s heads. If it’s started again, we have to track down who’s responsible. You set?”

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s get this over with.” He began walking toward the cabin. “You think the guy I saw is responsible?”

“First, we don’t know if what you remember is real. So far, it seems it is because Alex has verified it. But there may be other stuff in there, stuff personal to you which Alex knows nothing about. Innogen will know if it’s real or planted. Second, if it is fake, someone did it and that someone could be the guy you met. We need proof before we start accusing anyone.”

Alex knocked on the cabin door. “I hope she’s home.”

They waited for several minutes which, to Alex and an increasingly nervous Jack, felt more like hours. Then the door opened. Innogen’s head swung in a slow half circle.

“Noah .. and Alex. And .. a stranger. Please, come inside.”

“How did she do that?” Jack wondered, amazed. “How did you do that?”

Innogen smiled serenely. “Noah is wearing his old jacket. It has a special aroma of leaves and twigs and time. And I knew Alex by her perfume and the tinkling sound of her earrings. But I don’t know you.”

“This is Jack,” Noah introduced.

“Hello, Jack. Welcome to my home. I’m Innogen.”

“I’m pleased to meet you,” Jack responded, shaking her hand.

They entered the spacious lounge and Innogen invited them to sit. “Would you mind if I read your face?” she asked.

“No, by all means,” he agreed. Innogen stretched out her hands and he guided them to his face.

“You have a nice smile,” she remarked. “You smile a lot. And you worry too much. There are frown lines.”

“It’s how I am. I worry alone and smile to the world.”

Innogen removed her hands and backed carefully to a chair. “How can I help?”

Quickly, Noah explained what had happened. “You know what it was like before, Innogen. If it’s begun again, we have to stop it. Now, best estimates seem to suggest that Jack was healed before the recital yesterday evening. You were walking home, had arrived home, or were on your way back into town. Alex an’ I are gonna go wait in the kitchen so you an’ Jack can discuss things in private. Jack, when you’re done, you come tell us. Kitchen’s down the hall over there.”

He nodded. “All right.”

“Good luck,” Alex smiled.

She went with Noah down the hall to the kitchen and closed the door. “Do you really believe it’s started again?”

“I don’t know, Alex. I hope not. But, if it has, who would do it?”

She sat down. “The obvious answer is Dominic. He was the only one who knew how to do it.”

“Your friend knows how to do it. Dominic taught her. No, that’s an exaggeration. He didn’t deliberately teach her an’ she never asked. But she learned how to do it from him.”

“Peri? But she’s in Hawaii and, anyway, she wouldn’t do that to Jack. She could have given him back his real memories but she didn’t. Why do it now? And could she, over such a great distance?”

“Distance isn’t really a problem, although huge distances can make the result less reliable. But Nic said Peri’s mind was like a generating station. His, in comparison, is a nine-volt battery. I don’t think distance would be a problem for her. But, like you say, why would she do it now? Nic has to be our number one suspect an’ I don’t think it was him .. which leaves us with zero suspects. Yeah, he’s capable of lying but not about this, not now. When he confessed before, it was like a weight off his shoulders. He looked younger afterward.”

“Could someone have used him?” Alex wondered. “Like a switching station. Would he have known?”

“Now that’s a good question. Tell you what, I’ll call him an’ ask. You get us some coffee. May as well wait in comfort.”

*****

In the lounge, Jack was talking like Innogen was his therapist. He began with his earliest memories and doggedly worked thru his life. At the end, he fell silent and watched her.

For a long moment, she said nothing. Her blind eyes seemed to be looking into another place.

“Most of it is true,” she remarked at last. “Some of it is understated and some is colored by time and distance. There are a few things which are false.”

“There are?” He was surprised.

“You never went on vacation to New York. I remember that clearly. The skyscrapers. The noise and bustle. That was from a visitor here eight years ago. It was copied from my mind and placed in yours. You never went climbing in the Rockies and your first car was not an Oldsmobile.”

“Are you sure?” Jack frowned.

“I am,” she confirmed.

“Wow. At least I never wanted to be a ballet dancer. That would’ve been embarrassing. Lion tamer, I could’ve lived with that. Elephant trainer even, but .. those tights and … No way. No, I couldn’t have done that.” He sighed and sat back. “But what you have told me .. they’re hardly life changing experiences. I mean, if I believed I’d discovered the cure for some serious disease and then learned it was fake, that would be a big disappointment. But a trip to New York, a physical activity and an automobile … ” He shook his head. “It doesn’t help.”

“It does, in a way. Someone did it, Jack. Your mind has been violated, just as mine has. It’s a form of rape and we have to find who is responsible so we can stop it happening again.”

Jack stared at her in shock. “Is that what you people used to do here?”

He sounded disgusted. Innogen’s eyes lowered toward her hands.

“I didn’t know about it until Alex’s last visit,” she quietly replied. “I just used to have these wonderful visions. Places I’d never been, things I could never see. I didn’t know that they were memories taken from others. Yes, it was a violation of their privacy, and of mine because I was never asked if I wanted this to happen. I was angry when I found out. And, then, it stopped.”

She sighed. “Gretna was begun with such promise, such high ideals, Jack. A place where the unusual could live and not be regarded as anything but .. ordinary. They did it to protect Gretna, and not to everyone, only to those who came asking searching questions. They erased the memory of Gretna from those minds and, while people were unaware that it was happening, it wasn’t done well. Other memories, those nearby, were removed too. They lacked the skill to be precise.”

“But .. now they’ve stopped doing it.”

“So we believed. It seems that it’s started again but in a different way. This doesn’t protect us, Jack. It threatens us, all of us. It’s good that you came here. You’ve exposed a great wrong.”

“I’m glad I could help,” Jack breathed, completely bemused and astounded.

“I think we’re done now. Your secrets are safe with me. You’ve lived an interesting life.”

“That is surely one way of describing it,” he commented flatly. “Shall I get Noah?”

“Yes,” she replied.

He rose and started toward the hall then halted. “Innogen, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“In my head .. who do I say I am?”

At this quietly, thoughtfully asked question, she paused and looked into that other place again. “You say you are Jack. It’s who you were at the beginning. It’s who you’ve always been. Jeffrey was only a phase, a phase which is over.”

“You’re not just saying that because it’s what I want to hear?”

“I don’t lie,” Innogen replied.

He nodded and went on to the kitchen. “It’s okay, you can come out now. We’re done.”

Noah got stiffly to his feet. “And?”

“Bad news, Noah.” Jack shrugged. “Innogen says there’s a rapist in town.”

*****

Noah walked them back toward Jason’s house. “This is turning into one hell of a vacation for you guys. I am sorry. It wasn’t what Alex planned, I know, not any of it. Ah well, it’s getting late an’ my brain’s done enough work for one day. Jack, where’d you wanna sleep tonight? You can stay with Jason. You can come home with me but, I warn you, I snore something fierce.”

“If it’s all right with you, I think I’ll go back with Alex,” Jack replied steadily.

“All right with me? I don’t get to decide what you do. You wanna go back to the cabin, you go. Try to get some sleep. I bet you got damn all last night an’ today’s been a bitch for you. You must be beat.”

“Yeah, I am pretty tired,” Jack admitted.

“Okay. I’ll see you folks in the morning. Take care now.”

Alex nodded and Noah peeled away, heading back the way he’d come.

“I don’t know if bringing you up here was good or bad,” she said, hunching into her jacket. “Gretna’s such a peaceful place yet … ” She shook her head. “It’s at times like this that you realize just how remote it is and the peaceful solitude starts to feel just a little threatening.”

“Hey, it isn’t that bad,” Jack responded. “Gretna itself is a nice place. The people here .. well, they may have unique talents and abilities but the main thing to remember here is that they are, first of all, people. They don’t leave their .. emotions an’ deviousness at the top of the valley when they move in and hang their haloes on their heads. It would be nice if they did but that’d just leave ’em wide open for exploitation. C’mon, Alex, I know what I’m talking about here. Common sense is a mix of good intentions an’ being a suspicious bastard when it comes to outside motivations. Give up the suspicious bastard part an’ what you get is a dumb sonofabitch who’ll fall for the slightest thing an’ roll over at the first provocation. They’re too weak to resist. An’ I know that because those were the kinds of people who’d answer my ads, the ones I’d deliberately target. I’d say that .. a town full of psychics is an invitation to explore all kinds of dark behavior cos they got the power to do it.” He shrugged. “The good thing about that is that Gretna is remote an’ contained. It can’t spill over into the cities.”

Alex shook her head slowly. “That kind of attitude is a poison which’ll kill Gretna.”

“My kind of attitude?” he queried.

“No, all you did was put it into words. I mean the attitude you just described. The people here. So wrapped up in their cloistered environment that they can’t see themselves as they really are. And that is what will poison Gretna and kill it.”

They walked on in silence for a while. Then Jack remarked, “So .. who does Noah think is at fault?”

“He has no idea. Dominic is absolutely positive he had nothing to do with it. Apart from that, we’ve done hardly any work on finding out who the mystery man is. Today was spent finding out about a new problem .. or rather a variation of an old one.”

“But it’s most likely the mystery man.”

“I think it has to be,” Alex agreed. “What do we know and what can we extrapolate from it? You’re the only one to have spoken with him, who’s had any kind of contact. That could be because you don’t live here, you’re only visiting, so you wouldn’t know that he isn’t who he says he is. Jason, Noah, and Dominic have no idea who he can be. And, from what he said and, allegedly, has done .. I think it reasonable to say he’s a psychic. Probably, he’s been in the valley a while, long enough to observe the lifestyle here but not to take part in it. That suggests a newcomer but one not to be trusted. He lied about being a founder. He violated Innogen’s mind and yours. That makes him dangerous as well. And his timing is excellent. He did what he did – if he did it – at the same moment Jason healed you.”

“That’s if Jason did heal me,” Jack pointed out. “The mystery man may have done it all.”

Alex closed her eyes. “I feel like Noah. My brain’s done enough for one day. I need to come at this fresh, in the morning.”

“I can understand that,” he agreed.

“Where were you when Jason healed you?” she asked softly.

“By the pond.”

Alex looked at him. “The same pond where you saw the man?”

“Yeah. Around the same time as well. Maybe a little earlier. Jason asked me to show him where I’d seen him.”

“And the man told you it was his favorite spot.”

“Uh huh.” Jack glanced at her. “Why?”

“Maybe it wasn’t Jason. You could be onto something, Jack.”

He smiled. “Maybe I am but I am not onto it today. If your brain’s worn out with the effort, mine is like oatmeal. Good for me but mushy. I need to sleep. I need food. I need a long, hot shower.”

“Why’d you choose to come with me instead of staying at Jason’s?” she asked.

“Are you kidding? I know you, Alex, and I’d trust you over these weirdoes any day of the week and this day in particular. You didn’t wipe out the bad bits of my past and you did give me good things to replace them and you never went digging into someone else’s head to do it. If I’d gone back to Jason’s .. I’d only lay awake all night wondering what could happen to me next. With you, I know I’ll be as safe as I can be. You care about me, Alex. The people here .. they don’t know me like you do. You’ve seen the worst and you’re still my friend.” He shrugged awkwardly. “It means a lot.”

Alex put a gentle hand on his arm. “It means a lot to me too.”

*****

Jack slept like he’d died as soon as his head hit the pillow. He wasn’t aware of dreaming. He wasn’t aware of anything. It was just on sunset when he closed his eyes and it was past daybreak when he next opened them. He lay there for a moment, examining his memories, checking to see if anything new had arrived overnight, like an express delivery package sent straight into storage in his head. It seemed nothing had. Then he lay there and thought about the three memories he had which weren’t his.

I could’ve sworn .. I would have sworn that I had been to New York City on vacation. I can hear the traffic noise. Smell the exhaust fumes from all the vehicles. And yet .. I never have. I’ve never been climbing in the Rockies yet I can feel the stone against my fingers. I can see the view. It’s incredible. And my first car was .. wasn’t an Olds. I can’t remember what it was because I can feel the wheel in my hands, hear the purr of the engine. It says Oldsmobile on the trunk. I saved and saved to buy it …

How the hell can they do that? Telepathy. Okay. Telepathy is reading thoughts. Yeah .. if those thoughts are close to the surface. Otherwise it’s just getting impressions. Ideas. Picking up the emotions behind those ideas, and putting two and two together. But memories … They go deep. Memories are the submarines of the mind. Thoughts are the ships on the surface. If a telepath was outside this room right now, they’d pick up these thoughts. But my memories … They’re mine. The hotel, the curse it carried, that wasn’t selective. That was a blanket wipe. Everything went. But what happened to me here .. it was almost surgical.

And Jason is a doctor …

“Jack ..? Are you okay?”

“I’m decent, Alex. You can come in.”

The door opened and Alex’s head appeared warily around it. “How did you sleep?” she asked as she entered.

“Like Lazarus. I died and then I got resurrected with the daylight. What’s more, I don’t seem to be harboring any new memories this morning. What about you?”

The question surprised her. “I think I got thru the night in one piece,” she admitted. “I don’t think I’ve got anything I shouldn’t have. I kept waking though so I feel a little washed out.”

Jack sat up and leaned back against the gaily striped tapestry on the wall. “Alex, don’t let this get to you. This is your vacation. You work hard an’ you rarely take time out. You need this investigation like a hole in the head.”

She smiled, amused, as she sat on the end of the bed. “Well .. that’s true but you’re my friend, Jack. I’m concerned about what’s happened to you here. And, more than that, I can’t quite put aside the fact that it happened because I brought you to Gretna. Don’t tell me to stand off and go paint pictures when you’ve been attacked.”

He laughed. “I was hardly wrestled to the ground an’ beaten to within an inch of my life! Although,” he went on, “now I think back .. yeah, it kinda felt like that had happened. But I’m fine. Not a mark on me. I got three memories which aren’t mine but they’re not .. intimidating or violent. Kinda nice, actually. I don’t feel like I’ve been raped or assaulted, Alex. I feel fine.” He watched her. “An’ now you’re gonna say something about .. this being the tip of an iceberg. Three kinda nice memories put into a short term resident could lead to a lot of nasty stuff being spread around the people who live here all year round unless we put a stop to it. You’re right, it could.”

“I haven’t actually said anything yet,” Alex pointed out. “But you’re right. I would’ve said something like that.”

“The point I’m making, or trying to, is that .. they know about it now. In a few days or so, we’ll leave an’ they can go on searching an’ investigating. Let me help them while I’m here. You .. don’t have to go paint pictures or learn plumbing but don’t let it get to you enough to keep you awake nights. It isn’t worth that.”

Alex regarded him. “When did you get to be so smart?” she asked accusingly.

“I told you. I got good intentions and I’m a suspicious bastard when it comes to other people’s motivations which means I got common sense.”

She laughed. “Well .. I think I want something to eat and then I want do go take a look at this pond for myself. Are you up to showing me where it is?”

“Sure. Unless I’ve slept very late, it isn’t near sunset. We should be okay. Might even be nice. It looks like a lovely day out there.” He waited. “I’d like to get outta bed now.”

“Oh. Right. I’m sorry.”

Alex rose and left him to get ready. She went to the kitchen and cooked breakfast for two. She could hear Jack singing in the shower, a little off key but very enthusiastic. He’d been thru a terrible ordeal and, as usual, had bounced right back. His resilience was phenomenal. There again, she reflected, if life had kicked her in the teeth as often as it had Jack Chivikian, she would have learned to be resilient too.

She sat down at the table, ate her food and sipped at her coffee. She did feel guilty that he’d suffered this attack because of her. There was no way she couldn’t, no way to get around it. If she hadn’t brought him here, it would never have occurred. Simple as that. But guilt wouldn’t help make things right again. Alex also felt a measure of relief that Jack now knew the truth. She’d confessed – after the fact, it was true, but she’d done it – and now she felt easier in her conscience. They said confession was good for the soul. He appeared to have come thru the experience .. okay. Not well but okay, and she couldn’t ask for more. There was no going back, no changing it around again. This was it, for better or worse. Maybe, in time, Jack would slide back into the old routine. Maybe, in time, he’d come to terms with his past and let it go. He’d moved on in the intervening years. He had a good life now. Why exchange that for being underhand and devious again? He wasn’t that stupid. At least, Alex hoped he wasn’t.

“Mmm, that smells good,” Jack said as he came in.

“Thank you,” she smiled.

“Alex, how well do you know Jason?” he asked as he picked up his fork.

“Not as well as I know Noah. Maybe a little more than I know Dominic. When I last came here Gretna was polarized into two camps – those who wanted to change and those who didn’t. Noah and Jason were two of the radical camp. Dominic led the other. The Luna Foundation was the catalyst. There was a big showdown, a big debate, and then a vote. The radicals won.” She watched him. “Why’d you ask?”

Jack hesitated. “Do you trust him?”

“Jason? Sure. He’s a healer and he does wonderful work. Why shouldn’t I trust him?”

“Well .. I was thinking earlier, just before you came in, that the way I got these new memories, it was almost surgical. The precision of it. And Jason is a doctor.” He sounded almost reluctant to put it into words.

Alex thought it over. “It’s a good argument but Jason never knew how to do the memory extraction.”

“It wasn’t actually extracted. What I have is a copy from Innogen. Could he have learned how to do that?”

“I guess so,” she admitted, “but not from Dominic. When the town voted to change, Dominic gave it up. He hasn’t done it since.”

“Dominic was the only guy who could do it.”

“Yes, he was.”

Jack sighed and shrugged. “Scratch that idea then.”

“Not necessarily. Dominic was the only guy. There may be others out in the world, others who have drifted this way. Our mystery man appears to be able to do it.”

Jack leaned forward. “That’s what I was thinking. Y’see .. I never saw the man that first night here. Jason was with me the second time I went to the pond. It could’ve been him the first time as well. But .. maybe it wasn’t him.”

“We’ll get to the bottom of it. Let’s go look at the pond, huh?”

“Sure.” Jack hastily swallowed his coffee and stood up. “What time is Noah calling by?”

“I’ll leave a note on the door telling him where we are,” Alex said, “in case he shows up while we’re gone.”

Jack waited out on the back verandah watching the garden and the sunshine on the flowers. He wondered who kept everything so manicured when people weren’t staying in the cabins. Silently, he added gardening to the list of useful occupations for those who wanted to move here. Unfortunately, Jack couldn’t tell a wanted, valued flower from a weed.

Alex came out and shut the door. “Ready?”

He nodded. “It’s this way.”

They crossed the lawn and entered the green glittering world under the leaves. The path was too narrow to walk side by side so Alex followed him. Jack walked steadily with no evidence of reluctance or apprehension, but his shoulders were a little hunched with thought. Alex was entranced with the natural beauty all around her. The grounds at the house on the island were pretty but this was something else. Something more. It literally stole the breath from her body.

Eventually, Jack came to a halt. “The pond,” he said.

Alex nodded then began to look around for clues. She didn’t expect to find any. It hadn’t rained in ages so there would be no footprints in soft earth conveniently close. There were no discarded matches or matchbooks, no cigarette ends. In the absence of a body, external distinguishing features had to be dropped accessories .. and there were none.

“He was standing over there, against that tree,” Jack related for the second time. “I was about here. It was more dark than it was light so I never saw his face but I’d recognize his voice if I ever hear it again.” He looked at the water. “He said this was his favorite spot. Or did he ..? No, I think he said this is his favorite time of year and he came here most days at sunset. Dammit,” Jack muttered, running both hands thru his hair. “I get all my old memories back plus a few from someone else, and holes get poked in the things I could remember easily.”

Alex didn’t reply. She was standing in the approximate position where the man had stood and she studied the area. Maybe there was a particular view of something. All she could see was forest. She sighed and started forward again. Then she halted, her mouth opening a little.

“Am I stupid or what?” she demanded.

“I’m not gonna answer that,” Jack replied diplomatically.

“No .. I just thought of something. We’ve been going about this all wrong.”

“We have ..?” he queried.

“Yes! We’re looking for physical clues. Questioning people. Being detectives. This is Gretna, Jack. A town full of psychics. We’re here to explore our own gifts .. and what are we doing? Ignoring them and being like the rest of the world, that’s what. If we want to make any real progress, we have to use our minds and not just to think. We have to stretch ourselves.”

She came closer and Jack retreated. “Alex, please, don’t touch me. Last time I was here an’ Jason laid his healing hands on me, it hurt an’ it hurt for quite a time.”

Alex paused. “Is that the sweater you were wearing the other night?”

“Uh huh.”

“Take it off. I’ll see if I can find out anything from holding that.”

He smiled. So did she. At last, they felt they were on the trail which would lead to the answers.

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