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“No,” he answered, as he looked back at her. “My name’s Nate. I’m here to help.”
Amy nodded, likely too worried about her daughter to consider a non-affiliate with knowledge of the Community, let alone her family. I noticed then that he’d hidden his badge again somewhere between here and the station. Smart. He was learning.
“Okay,” she said and then pointed at one of the buses that were leaving. “She’s on that one.”
I started driving. I knew very well which bus her daughter was on. I wasn’t losing sight of that kid.
“When we get home,” Amy began and scooted over to the middle seat so she could better hear and talk to us, “please don’t scare her with this, okay?”
“We’ll try not to,” I said. I got why she wanted her kid to take the bus home like any other day. No need to scare her unnecessarily. “What can you tell me about her ability?” I added. I was actually glad Annalise had called her. It had been enough for Amy to wait for us at home. But to not have to explain myself always saved time. I got why she’d come to the school, though. This was about her child, after all.
“She’s doing very well,” Amy told us. “I’ve been teaching her. We started early and she’s getting better at controlling it.”
“You have the same ability?” Hansen asked.
“Yes.”
“You can plant images in people’s heads?”
“Give me your hand,” she told him.
“What?”
“Do what she says,” I said, taking a right as the bus in front of us headed in that direction.
Hansen obliged our passenger and raised his left hand for her. As she grabbed it, it didn’t take long for him to snatch it back.
“Holy shit,” he cried out, looking like he was trying to move out through the closed car door.
“What did you see?” I asked. It was clear to me Amy did it by touch, not eye contact. Hansen looked at Amy with awe more than horror as the initial shock gave way.
“What did you show him?” I asked Amy instead. She was more relaxed about it, telling me how he’d seen her swing a knife straight into his neck, blood spurting all over the car. Apparently, when she did this, the person experiencing it couldn’t distinguish it from reality.
“Glad you didn’t do it to me then,” I said when she’d finished explaining, “I’d have driven us off the road.”
“Yeah,” Amy said. “I can give off quite a fright. Give me your hand again,” she added to Hansen. From what I could see out the corner of my eye she got a fool me once kind of look.
“No, seriously, come on,” she pressed. Hansen, reluctantly, did as she said. This time, though, he didn’t react like he was about to be killed. Instead, he sat still, closing his eyes a moment.
“Why did you do that?” he asked when she let him go.
“Do what?” I asked and started to regret being the one driving. I wasn’t getting much from glancing away from the road now and then.
Amy didn’t answer me. “When you do what I do,” she told Hansen, “it pays to take note of people.”
He didn’t say anything at first. Didn’t seem angry, happy, embarrassed, surprised, terrified–only thoughtful. “This makes you a target, too, doesn’t it?” he asked. Sometimes I wondered how his brain worked. Whatever she’d shown him didn’t sidetrack him. I had a sudden urge to listen in at this point. To both of them.
Try to be a decent person, will you?
I couldn’t help scolding myself. It was a slippery slope if I started listening here and there. Soon the boundaries would become blurry. I knew that from experience.
“She’s not a target,” I said, stopping the car as the bus did the same further ahead. “If that was the case, Annalise would have told me.”
I saw Amy nodding her agreement in the rearview mirror. “That’s true,” she said. “I’ve known Annalise for years. From what she told me, I’m not who this guy’s after.”
“But…with what you can do?” Hansen protested.
“I can only transfer images for...fifteen seconds? No more. That’s certainly not enough to kill someone. Eloise, though…she can do it for a prolonged amount of time.”
