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“You said you taught history at Adelina Beach College.”
“That’s right.”
Talia held her coffee mug in both hands and studied him over the rim. “I’ve done some research for a couple of historians. What’s your area of expertise?”
“I teach a course titled ‘Investigating the Paranormal.’ ”
“What?” Talia set the coffee mug down hard. Her eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”
“No. Mostly it’s a history of government efforts to create psychic spies, but I cover other areas of paranormal research, too.”
“I didn’t know there were any serious academic institutions still offering classes in parapsychology.”
“Most of the big schools shut down their departments in the latter half of the twentieth century. Adelina Beach College closed its research lab, but by then the library had acquired an extensive collection of literature related to the paranormal. The school has maintained it because it has historical research value. But the only class offered is the one I teach.”
“I see.” Talia thought about that. “I’ll bet it’s popular.”
He almost smiled. “It is. There’s a waiting list every quarter, and not because I’m such a riveting lecturer.”
“People are fascinated with the paranormal.”
“Yes.”
“With a voice like yours I’ll bet you are a very good speaker,” she said. “So why aren’t you in Adelina Beach teaching that class?”
“I took a sabbatical three months ago.” The conversation was becoming a little too one-sided again. Time to flip the script. “How did you discover the existence of the list?”
“My friends and I started wondering why we were chosen as test subjects. We decided we probably hadn’t been selected at random. That’s when we concluded that whoever was running the experiments had to be using a list.”
“What made you so sure that you weren’t randomly selected?”
“Because we all had one thing in common,” Talia said. “Psychic-level intuition. What about you? Could you do that hypnotic trick before your lost night?”
“It’s not a trick,” he said. “And it’s not hypnosis.” He tightened his grip on the mug handle, not sure why he was allowing her to irritate him so easily. He usually had better control. True, he hadn’t had a lot of quality sleep lately, but that was not a good excuse. Something about Talia March was getting to him. That had to stop. “For most of my life it was just a knack for reading someone’s voice.”
Talia watched him with undisguised curiosity. “Defineread.”
“It was a lot like being able to analyze body language, I think. Once I had a sense of what was going on beneath the surface I could... talk to people who were upset. Get them to calm down.” He paused. “Or persuade them to answer questions.”
“Did your ability have any practical applications?”
He shrugged. “It got me assigned to an intelligence unit after I joined the Marines. I finished college in the military. That’s where I took the psych test, by the way. When I got out I was recruited into one of the government intelligence agencies. Worked as an analyst. Got an advanced degree in history online and started teaching at Adelina Beach.”
“How do you use your talent in your work as a history professor?”
“I let the local police know that I was available for hostage and crisis negotiation. I’m pretty good at that kind of work.”
“And now?” Talia pressed. “After your lost night?”
“Like you, I can do everything I used to do with my talent, but I’m a little stronger now.”
“Uh-huh.”
It was clear she was not satisfied with that answer. The glint in her eye warned him that she was going to push harder. Luckily, her phone rang, distracting her.
She glanced at the screen and groaned. “This day just keeps getting better and better.”
She picked up the device and took the call. “Hi, Dad.”
