Free Belonging to Taylor by Kay Hooper Page A

closing off a part of himself from her.
    That vague, nebulous uncertainty assumed concrete form on Sunday evening. He and Taylor were, for once that day, alone. They were in the den, engrossed in a chess game. The board was before them on the coffee table, and both sat forward, elbows on knees, Taylor frowning over his last move.
    "I think you've trapped me," she complained.
    "Never say die," he advised her.
    "Well, I won't concede anyway," she said, and reached out to make a brilliant move.
    Trevor blinked. "Damn."
    She giggled.
    The phone rang out in the hall just then; both of them ignored it as they stared down at the board, Trevor taking his turn to frown.
    Moments after the phone rang, Luke appeared in the doorway to say quietly, "It's Dave, Taylor. He says it's important."
    She didn't get up and head for the phone, but instead gazed at her father for a long, unreadable moment "All right, Daddy," she said finally in a low voice. 'Tell him to come over."
    Luke nodded and went back into the hall.
    Trevor looked at her in puzzlement. She seemed suddenly a bit tense, a bit preoccupied. "I realize it's none of my business," he said, "but who's Dave?" He thought she wasn't going to answer, which was so oddly unlike her that it made him anxious—inexplicably, he told himself fiercely—about this unknown man. But then she did answer.
    "Dave is a senior detective in the homicide division."
    "A cop?"
    "A very good one." Taylor sighed, and to the watching man, her eyes seemed abruptly older than they had any right to be. "A few years ago his sister, who's a friend of mine, told him he should ask me for help in a homicide case. He was broad-minded enough to appreciate the fact that police departments have used psychics in the past, and he was by no means too proud to ask for help."
    "So you helped him."
    She nodded. "On the understanding that my name wouldn't be mentioned anywhere. Not in his official reports and not to the press. He felt guilty about that when I was able to tell him where he could find the killer and then he got all the credit. But we had a long talk and straightened everything out. By now, he understands how I feel about it."
    "And how do you feel?" Trevor asked, curiously.
    Taylor looked at him with those too-old eyes and smiled faintly. "It isn't a pleasant thing to look into the mind of a killer; I couldn't handle that along with the attention the press would focus on me. I feel a responsibility to do what I can to help—but on my own terms. 1 won't be held up to the public as some kind of freak, and I won't have the police department ridiculed because they ask a psychic to help them."
    Before Trevor could say anything—not that there was anything he could say—Luke came back into the room.
    "He was calling from his car; he'll be here in a minute."
    Taylor nodded silently. Trevor, watching her intently, realized that she'd somehow withdrawn into herself. And he wondered what it did to this sensitive, cheerful woman to look into the mind of a killer.
    The rest of the family drifted in soon thereafter. They all seemed unusually subdued, and it took Trevor some moments to realize that they would remain near Taylor during whatever was to come, supporting her emotionally. And the silence of the normally talkative family disturbed him more than anything else.
    Luke went to answer the summons of the doorbell, returning with a tall man in his mid-thirties who had graying black hair and intelligent brown eyes. As he was introduced to the detective, Trevor saw that his eyes were also very weary. Dave Miller sat down in a chair at right angles to Taylor and, though his lean face was unexpressive, he was clearly distressed.
    "I'm sorry about this, Taylor. But we're at a standstill, nothing to go on, and if this creep follows the pattern he's established... random killings, nothing to tie the victims together, not a damn thing we can hold on to—"
    "It's all right, Dave." She smiled at him, calm, quiet. "What've you