Nightrise

happened. Scott looked him in the eyes and I'll never forget what he said. I can tell you the exact words.
    'Nobody's going to separate us. You can go hang yourself. "'
    Jamie fell silent.
    "Oh my God!" Alicia whispered.
    Jamie nodded. "That's right. Ed got up and there was this weird look on his face. As if he'd been shocked…told something worse than anything he'd heard in his life. He just got up and walked out of the room and into the kitchen and then into the garage. We heard the door open and close. I thought about running after him but I was so fazed by what had happened — you have to remember I was only eleven years old.
    "Leanne was the one who found him. When she came back from the casino. He'd gone into the garage.
    He'd climbed a stepladder. And he'd hanged himself with a cord tied to a metal bracket. Of course, nobody was surprised — what with the drinking and the arguments and losing his job and everything.
    He'd just had enough. That's what they all said.
    "Only Scott and I knew the truth. We spoke about it only once and Scott said it was an accident, and that's how we always thought about it afterward. The Accident. Because Scott hadn't known what he was saying. He hadn't meant for anything to happen. It was just words."
    "It wasn't Scott's fault," Alicia said. "Neither of you should blame yourselves."
    Jamie shrugged. "The next few weeks were a mess. There was the funeral, of course, and that was where we met Don and Marcie. She was Leanne's sister. It turned out that Ed had been talking to Don, and the two of them must have known more about us than we thought because they were already planning to put us into some sort of show…"
    The sun had dipped even lower now. The evening seemed to have come too soon. "We moved in with Don and Marcie. They were living in a trailer park near the Reno airport then. They took us out of school…Marcie said she'd homeschool us from now on, and after the business with the tires, the school wasn't going to complain. But she never taught us anything. Don persuaded us to perform for him. He hurt me because he knew that was the only way to get at Scott, and in the end we agreed. We worked out half a dozen tricks — but that was all we did. You remember the policeman at Marcie's house…?"
    ''Yes. Of course."
    "What I did to him…that was the first time I ever did it. Scott made me swear that I would never try it with anyone. He was scared for me. Because if I started doing that, who knows what would happen?
    What if I got angry with you and said something, and the next thing I knew you were injured or dead?
    Don't you see? I can kill you just by thinking! That's my wonderful power! I can hurt you just with the blink of an eye."
    "But you won't," Alicia said. "I trust you, Jamie."
    "I won't because I won't let myself. And now you know why I reacted the way I did. Why I didn't want to do what you asked and read that man's mind. Because you think being a telepath means being able to reach into someone's head like picking an ace out of a deck of cards. But it's not like that. Even with Scott it isn't, and he's my brother. These men…if I go into one of their heads, I'll see everything bad they've ever done. I'll be part of it. The people they've killed. The kids they've hurt. Everything! It'll be like diving into a sewer and I still may not find out what he's done with Scott."
    "We'll just have to find another way," Alicia said.
    "No." Jamie shook his head miserably. "There is no other way. What else can we do?"
    "Find Colton Banes. Follow him wherever he goes."
    "That could take weeks. We don't have the time." Jamie looked exhausted. He had never talked as much as this. "I'll go in there first thing tomorrow. I'll find Banes and I'll ask him what he's done with Scott."
    Jamie smiled grimly. "And even if he doesn't open his mouth, I think he'll tell me what I want to know."
    EIGHT
    Bad Thoughts
    "I wish I hadn't talked you into this," Alicia said. "I'm going to be worried sick about you."
    Jamie shrugged. 'You don't need to worry. I can look after myself."
    "I just don't like the thought of you going in there alone."
    "It's broad daylight. We're in L.A. Nothing bad is going to happen."
    Jamie looked through the windshield at the office building across the road. It seemed very ordinary in the morning light with the sunshine bouncing off the windows. There weren't so many people around now. The traffic had died down and the sidewalks were virtually empty. Jamie had