Faith looked down at the rust-colored stains on the floor, then turned her gaze away with a shudder as she remembered blood dripping from mangled wrists.
Kane was staring down at the floor, unmoving.
She wanted so badly to reach out to him that her hand lifted instinctively. And then hung there between them, meaningless and impotent.
He didn't want to be touched. And most especially, she thought, he didn't want to be touched by her.
In that same steady, unemotional voice, Daniels said, "Kane, we have to get out of here. We have what we came here to get evidence to convince us that something happened here, that Dinah might have been held here."
"The police," Kane said in an odd, still tone.
"There are still no legal grounds for a warrant. We're in here illegally. If the police even listened to us and came in here, they couldn't use anything they found in court. Worse, storming in here openly before we know more could panic whoever's got Dinah, force them to... We have to find a way to uncover other evidence that will lead the police here logically. It will take time, but it has to be done. We won't help Dinah by rushing off to confront Cochrane before we know more. But we have a place to start now. We have somewhere to look."
Faith forced her hand to drop to her side and made herself speak calmly.
"Won't they know we were here?"
"Not if we're careful. And lucky. Kane, we have to go. Now. That dog won't be out much longer."
Faith thought it was a toss-up as to whether Kane would listen to the RI., but in the end he did. Or perhaps he simply had to get away from those terrible stains on the floor.
He and Daniels replaced the blocks they had removed, using the crumbling mortar for the joints.
The result would fool no one close-up, but when Daniels loosened the bare light-bulb hanging closest to the wall until it went Out, the dimness made their handiwork much less evident.
They were careful to replace the tools and to close and lock the doors they had found that way, but there was no time in getting out of the warehouse and back to the gate. The sleeping dog was just beginning to stir as they slipped past him.
Daniels didn't come in when they returned to Kane's apartment; he wanted to do his own checking on Jordan Cochrane and the warehouse, and said he'd return first thing the following morning to report in... sooner if he discovered anything even remotely likely to help them find Dinah.
Kane was pacing.
Faith wasn't sure he was ready to talk, but she needed to. "There's something bothering me."
It was, on the face of it, an absurd thing to say, but Kane merely sat down in the chair across from her and said calmly, "Something in particular? What is it?"
"When I had the... the dream about Dinah being attacked by that dog, she didn't seem sure where she was. Something about the address being vague, and maybe not even being in the right part of the city."
"So how come she didn't know that place backed up to the building site?"
"That's part of it. And what if she was there to meet someone? What if whoever it was took advantage of an unused warehouse, and the only connection to the Cochranes is that building?"
"Cheerful thought," Kane said sourly.
"But possible."
"Oh, yeah, it's possible."
"And if it's true?"
"Then we're back to square one. Unless that building has some tangible connection to whoever held Dinah there ... But we don't know it's true, not yet."
He gazed at her broodingly, glad she was there because being alone tonight would have been unbearable. At least when he listened to her voice his imagination couldn't recreate Dinah's cries of pain. At least when he looked at her, he no longer saw stained concrete.
"You haven't told me everything," he said abruptly. "You were upset yesterday when you came back from Haven House, for one thing. For another, I've gotten the feeling more than once that you could have offered more details about Dinah."
She hesitated, biting her bottom lip, then said, "Not details you need to hear. Not details that would help us find her."
Kane closed his eyes briefly. "Is she alive, Faith?"
She hesitated for a moment. "Sometimes I ... think I hear her voice in my head. But I'm not sure. I was told by somebody at Haven House that I seemed to be psychic with Dinah, that we clicked somehow from the moment we met."
"Then..."
Faith shook her head. "If it is her voice I'm hearing, she can't or won't tell me where she is — and I can't control what I hear, can't ask her questions or demand answers. It doesn't seem to work that way, no matter what I try. It just ... comes when it comes. At odd moments, when I least expect it. A voice in my head I'm not even sure isn't my own."
A slight laugh that held no humor was forced from Kane. "That jibes with what Noah's told me. He says concentration and years of practice help but that few psychics are able to do more than open a door. What comes through, and how, is almost always a jumble and is seldom helpful in any real sense. As if even the subconscious can't cope with those extra senses and has to translate using symbolism and imagery. He says if ever a psychic is born who can control his or her abilities a hundred percent, the whole world will change. "
"I'm sorry, Kane. Maybe we could try something that might help me concentrate more or focus. Hypnosis ..."
"Noah says psychics can't be hypnotized."
After a moment, Faith said, "I guess he'd know."
"Yeah. He'd know." Kane paused. "You learned something else at Haven House, didn't you, Faith?"
Tell him.
She swallowed. "It's nothing that would help..."
"Something about Dinah? What is it?"
Tell him.
Faith couldn't see how the knowledge would help Kane. She was afraid it might even hurt him more, but heard herself say reluctantly, "I have no way of knowing if it's true, but someone at the shelter who spent a lot of time with Dinah is convinced she believed she didn't have a future."
"What?"
"Eve could be wrong, Kane. It was just her impression, based on a lot of little things. A remark here and there, a fleeting expression. She thought Dinah was always aware of time, that she had some sense of it running out. For her."
He got up abruptly and moved toward the dark fireplace. He stood there for a moment, frowning, then bent and turned on the gas logs as though he felt a sudden chill.
"That ... would explain a lot," he murmured.
"What do you mean?"
"I always thought — always felt — there was a reason why she never wanted to make plans beyond the next weekend."
"But if you were engaged ..."
His smile was twisted. "We weren't. I just said that to the press because ... because I wanted it to be true, I suppose. But Dinah and I hadn't come close to that kind of commitment. I was hesitating over suggesting that we move in together, not because she was too independent but because I had the feeling it was a corner she just wasn't ready to turn. "
"Bishop said she was precognitive."
Kane nodded slowly.
"Then maybe she did see her future. Or at least see enough to believe it wasn't wise of her to make longterm plans. Maybe that's why she moved so fast after my accident, why she was so careful to set things up quickly even though she knew I might be in the coma a long time."