The Scargill Cove Case Files

that the book be relocked after she had read it in order to maintain its value.
    “Done,” Abby said. “I broke the code.”
    “Are you finished already?” Grady eyed the book with a dubious expression. “I thought psi-encryption was tricky stuff.”
    “It is, but I’m good.”
    “I can still feel a lot of hot energy coming off that book.”
    “Strong encryption energy leaves a residue just like any other kind of energy,” Abby said.
    “So I can read the real text now?”
    “Yes. Take a look.”
    She held the book out. Grady’s hand closed around it. The physical contact was all she needed. She channeled the darkly oscillating currents of the encryption energy into Grady’s aura.
    The atmosphere was suddenly charged. Grady reacted as if he had touched a live electrical wire. His mouth opened on a silent, agonized scream. The gun dropped from his hand. His eyes rolled back in his head. He stiffened for a timeless moment. Then he shuddered violently. He tried to stagger back toward the spiral staircase but he collapsed to the floor of the balcony. He twitched several times and went still.
    There was a moment of stunned silence.
    “Are you all right, Abby?” Hannah asked.
    “No. Yes.” Abby took a deep breath and silently repeated her old mantra, Show no weakness . She gripped the balcony railing and looked down at Hannah. “I’m fine. Just a little shaken up, that’s all.”
    “You’re sure, dear?” Hannah’s face was etched with concern.
    “Yes. Really. Breaking a code is one thing. Using the energy in it to do what I just did is . . . something else altogether.”
    “I knew you were strong,” Hannah said. “But I hadn’t realized that you were that powerful. What you just did was extremely dangerous. If that sort of energy got out of control—”
    “I know, I know,” Abby said. “I couldn’t think of anything else to do.” She glanced at the housekeeper, who was crumpled on the floor. “What happened to Mrs. Jensen?”
    “She fainted. There was an awful lot of energy flying around in here a moment ago. Even a nonsensitive could feel it. What about that dreadful man? Is he alive?”
    Dear heaven, had she actually killed someone? Horrified at the possibility, Abby went to her knees beside Grady. Gingerly she probed for a pulse. Relief swept through her when she found one.
    “Yes,” she said. “He’s unconscious but he’s definitely alive.”
    “I’ll call nine-one-one now.”
    “Good idea.” Abby drew a deep breath. She was already starting to feel the edgy, adrenaline-overload buzz that accompanied the use of so much psychic energy. In a couple of hours she would be exhausted. She focused on the immediate problem. It was major. “How on earth am I going to explain what happened here?”
    “There’s nothing for you to explain, dear.” Hannah rolled her chair to the desk and picked up her phone. “A mentally disturbed intruder broke into my home and demanded one of the rare books in my collection. He appeared to be on drugs and whatever he took evidently caused him to collapse.”
    Abby thought about it. “All true in a way.”
    “Well, it’s not as if you can explain that you used psychic energy to take down an armed intruder, dear. Who would believe such a thing? The authorities would think that you were as crazy as that man who broke in here today.”
    “Yes,” Abby said. A shuddery chill swept through her, bringing with it images from her old nightmares, the ones filled with an endless maze of pale-walled corridors, sterile rooms and locked doors and windows. She wasn’t going to risk being called crazy, not ever again. “That is exactly what they would think.”
    “I have always found that when dealing with the authorities it’s best to stick with the bare facts and not offer too much in the way of explanations.”
    Abby gripped the railing and saw the understanding in Hannah’s eyes. “I came to the same conclusion myself, a few years ago, Mrs. Vaughn. Those are definitely words to live by.”
    Hannah made the call and put down the phone. She glanced up at Abby.
    “What is it, dear?” she said gently. “If you’re concerned that word of what you did with that encryption energy might get out into the underground market, you needn’t worry. I won’t ever tell anyone what really happened here, and Mrs. Jensen passed out before she witnessed a thing. Your secret is safe with me.”
    “I know, Hannah. I trust you. Thank you. But there’s something