Final Target(64)

“And I led her right into a trap. I suppose you blame me for her death?”

She shook her head. “No more than I do myself. She was the one who made you promise to bring the statue and Cassie together. It was like being on a runaway train. I knew what was coming, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.”

He glanced away from her. “ You . . . knew what was coming?”

“I’ve been dreaming about it for weeks. That was why I came home to Juniper. It was always the same. The Wind Dancer staring down at a pool of blood and Jessica lying dead on the floor.”

“You didn’t tell her?”

“Jessica never really believed in anything she couldn’t see and touch. She wouldn’t have paid any attention to me. But she had to pay attention when I joined with Cassie. I thought if I made the Wind Dancer a threat to Cassie, Jessica might keep away from it.” Her lips twisted. “And then you offered the statue to her on a silver platter. I wanted to kill you.”

“Then you do blame me.”

She wearily shook her head. “I guess I never really believed you could stop the train from moving toward its destination, but I had to try. I only hoped I could prevent the wreck at the last minute.” Her hands clenched into fists. “If there’s a God, it wouldn’t make any sense for Him to give me the dreams and take away the power to stop them from happening, would it?”

“Have you had these dreams before? Not about Jessica but about other people?”

“Twice before. The first was right after I started college. A little boy who lived next door to our apartment in Cambridge. Jimmy Watson. Brown hair, a sweet smile . . . I kept dreaming of him crossing the street and being hit by a van. I’d wake up crying. I thought I was going crazy.” She paused. “It happened. He jumped out into traffic to get a toy and was run over.”

“Killed?”

“No, but he had internal injuries. He was in the hospital for weeks. I went to see his mother and she must have thought I was nuts. She was very soothing and assured me that I had nothing to do with Jimmy’s accident.”

“You didn’t believe her?”

“In my dream it was always a yellow and black florist van. He was run over by a van from Bendix Florist. What are the odds?”

“And the second case?”

“An old man who worked at the college as a janitor. I had a recurring dream that he slipped on the side of the lap pool and hit his head. I could see the blood in the water.”

“And what did you do?”

“I went to him and told him about it. He was a nice man, but he didn’t believe me. He patted me on the shoulder and told me young people watched too much TV these days. I asked him to at least please take someone with him when he cleaned the locker rooms and the pool area. He said he would.”

“But he didn’t do it.”

She gave a sigh of anguish. “How did you guess?” “Human nature. If he didn’t believe you, he’d go his own way. It happened as you dreamed it would?”

“He drowned. It didn’t have to happen. Maybe if I’d kept after him . . .” She shook her head. “Or maybe not. Maybe this is some big cosmic joke. Show me the future and then not let me change it.” She turned to Travis and asked unevenly, “Now, wouldn’t that be funny?”

“No, and I don’t think you’ve given it a fair shot. The first time you didn’t believe in it yourself. The second time it wasn’t your fault the old man was too set in his ways to take care of himself.”

“And Jessica?”

“She slipped you a mickey. You might have been able to prevent what happened if you’d been yourself.” He turned to look at her. “Of course, if you want to think that this is all fate and can’t be changed, go for it. It’s much simpler. Just turn your back and walk away.”

“Simple? You don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s nothing simple about—” Her gaze narrowed on his face. “You’re accepting all this much too easily.”

“I told you once that I had no problem with talents a little outside the norm.”

“Joining with Cassie is a little outside the norm. Dreams of future events are way off the scale.”

“I wasn’t exactly unprepared for it. It’s not totally unheard of in cases involving recovered trauma victims. Dedrick mentioned two cases where authentic foresight was documented. Once in a Greek boy from Athens and once in China. It seems when the barriers are down, anything is possible.”

“Dedrick again. I wish I’d gotten my hands on that book when I was going through hell with Jimmy.”