Free Dark Waters by Chris Goff

his spoon. “They diagnosed her with leukopenia.”
    Jordan wasn’t familiar with the disease. “Is that like leukemia?”
    “Just the opposite. It’s when your white blood cell count is so low you have no resistance to anything.” Taylor sat back.
    Picking up on the cue, Jordan relaxed into her chair. If he wanted to tell her a story, she would be patient. The more information she had, the better.
    “We were on Martha’s Vineyard and Lucy complained about this wicked rash. The doctor thought maybe it was shingles. She’d had the chicken pox shot, but she was so young that he ordered more tests.” Taylor sipped his coffee before cradling his mug. “Turned out, Lucy has very little resistance to any type of virus. The doctors told us if things got worse, they would have to put her in the hospital, in isolation, to protect her from infection. It wasn’t the first time we’d been through this. We knew the doctors planned to play a game of wait and see. Wait and see if her blood counts continued to drop. Wait and see.” He swirled his coffee. “I knew from experience that we had to act fast.”
    “She’s been sick before?”
    “No. My son. Ethan.” His face clouded over. “He was diagnosed with the same damn thing, at about the same age. That’s when we found Alena.”
    Jordan didn’t know he had a son. Taylor continued before she could ask about him.
    “Alena’s an alternative therapist.” Taylor set his coffee on the table and pulled his chair closer. “An expert in blood disorders.”
    “Alternative?” The word left a bad taste in Jordan’s mouth. “Is she a homeopath?”
    “No. She’s an energy healer.”
    Jordan wasn’t sure she heard him right. It must have registered on her face.
    “I know, it sounds nuts, but Alena heals by manipulating the body’s natural energy flow. She takes a negative flow, the energy making someone sick, and then changes it into a positive flow, making sure it circulates in the body correctly.”
    “You say she was specifically trained to do this?”
    He nodded. “She holds a doctor of sciences degree from the Kyiv Medical Institute of the Ukrainian Association of Folk Medicine. It’s an accredited university.”
    Jordan worked on her poker face. “So she’s Russian. That explains a few things.”
    “You’ve heard of this type of treatment?”
    “I was born in Russia. My father was born in Ukraine, when it was still part of the Soviet Union. My grandparents were big believers in this type of healing. I don’t know much about it.” She paused. “How did you end up connecting with her?”
    “My ex-wife was the one who discovered her. A friend of Sarah’s recommended her. I was against it. Totally convinced Alena was a quack.”
    “But you went.”
    “Fear trumped skepticism,” he said. “My son was really sick.” He shook his head. “You wouldn’t have believed the scene. Alena was staying in this multilevel tract home on the outskirts of Denver.We knocked on the door, and this man answered. He had a thick Russian accent and asked us to follow him into the basement.”
    “She didn’t work out of an office?”
    “She was visiting. The house was right out of the seventies. The basement walls were dingy, orange shag carpeting covered the floor. There was a small twin bed in the corner, and the man told Ethan to lie down.”
    “And you let him?”
    “I admit, I wondered what the hell Sarah had gotten us into. I was ready to bail. Until Alena entered the room. That’s when everything changed. She has this ethereal quality about her.”
    “She was attractive,” Jordan said, trying to understand how an ex–Navy SEAL and federal court judge could be so easily bewitched.
    Even the Marines were paying attention now.
    “It’s not what you think,” Taylor said.
    Jordan looked away and took a sip of her coffee. “What happened next?”
    “Alena stood over Ethan, her hands open, her palms down. Then she skimmed her hands through the air about four