DEATH (The Justice Cycle Book 1) J Kiefer (ebook reader .txt) 📖

“Well, why don’t you start at the beginning. What happened after you took the locket?”

“As I said before, I don’t remember taking it. Well, at least I don’t remember it clearly. It’s almost like waking up from a vivid dream—it simply fades away and there is nothing more than vague impressions. I know I took it, and I can almost remember doing it, but I can’t… if that makes any sense.”

“It does. So, you don’t know why you took it?”

“No. I have no idea what possessed me to do it. In fact, ‘possessed’ may actually be a good description of what has and is happening to me.”

“I don’t follow,” he said, confused.

“Ever since I took this damn thing, I have not been able to sleep. In fact, I’ve had the same terrible nightmare every time I close my eyes. It just keeps repeating over and over again.”

“What is the nightmare about?”

She took another calming breath and held her coffee with both hands. “A man. Japanese, I think. In fact, the very same man we believe was killed by the Eastside Stalker and whose body disappeared last night from the morgue. And this same man’s face is also inside the locket I compulsively took from the crime scene yesterday.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “Maybe, with all that has been going on, and being the officer who discovered the body of the Asian man, somehow sparked something in your subconscious that caused you to dream about him.”

She looked him right in the eyes as he spoke, and he saw in her eyes a fear as he had never seen in her before.

“That is what I rationalized as well, until I saw the picture that was in the locket,” she said unsteadily. “The portrait is not only of our victim but also his children. The same children I see viciously murdered every time I closed my eyes.”

Jared didn’t know what to make of that. “You must have looked at the picture sometime before you went to sleep.”

“No. I didn’t. Jared, there is no rational explanation for what has been happening to me. In fact, I had strangely forgotten the whole thing even occurred until I touched the locket at the precinct. As soon as I did, the whole series of events came flooding back to me like it had just happened. I am so confused!”

“It’s okay. Tell me what you can remember about the dream.”

What Dana could remember was every intricate detail of the nightmare she had been forced to experience the night before. Right down to the metallic smell of the children’s blood. Jared was surprised at how much of her dream she was able to recall. Quite frankly, it was near medically impossible for her to have such a lucid memory of a dream. Perhaps if she had just awoken, it would be possible for her to remember it, but not hours later.

“And that’s all I remember,” she said, her face flushed and streaked from crying. “Honestly, it was more like I was reliving a memory from a past life than having a dream. It was so… real.”

Jared sat looking at her quietly for some time before he spoke. “Well, dreams can be strong like that, but they’re usually linked to a memory, experience, or emotion a person is trying to repress.”

She grimaced and took another sip of her coffee. “Thank you for the analysis, Dr. Phil. I already knew all of that. Don’t you think psychology would be the first place I would look to try to make sense of all of this? There is nothing, and I mean nothing, in my past or present that could possibly cause my subconscious to create such a horrible event. I mean, they murdered my children! Er, his children. Oh God, I can still hear their little voices.”

She began to cry again, and Jared knew it was time to let her off the hook. “It’s going to be okay, Dana. It was just a dream, I’m sure of it, and it’s over with now. Probably the whole thing is just your subconscious making you feel guilty about taking the locket.”

She looked at him dubiously, but he did see a glimmer of hope in her eyes. He was lying to her and he knew it, but he also knew that she was a practical person by nature, and he’d given her something rational to latch on to.

“Come on, partner,” he said with a wink. “You know full well that you can’t handle guilt. As I recall, every time we did something even remotely sketchy when we were kids, your conscience got the better of you and you ratted us both out. I am sure this is just your mind’s over-reactive way of forcing you to come clean.”

She smiled slightly and brushed a stray strand of hair away from her face. “You think so?”

“I am certain of it,” he said smiling encouragingly. “Hey, let’s try this. I’ll take the locket from you right now and put it with the rest of the evidence we collected yesterday. Once you no longer have it in your possession, I am sure your guilty conscience will be sated, and these intense feelings will fade. I’ll just tell the sergeant on duty that I forgot to log it in.”

“Are you sure? What if Johansson finds out?”

“He won’t, and after I have logged it in, we can both take it to Johansson and see what the FBI can find out about the people in the image. Sound good? Maybe this is the key to identifying our missing John Doe.”

“Okay,” she said, taking the locket off. “Honestly, I was beginning to think I had lost my mind, but what you’re saying makes sense.”

She handed him the locket and he slipped it in his pocket. Dana sighed as if she was freed from some heavy burden. “I really appreciate this, Jared.”

“Of course, what are partners for?” he said, putting his arm around her