Free Face Off by Emma Brookes Page A

the perpetrator had a blood lust the same as Clark.
    Body parts littered the small office room. Jim went over and looked down at the naked torso of what had once been a lovely feminine form. He knelt down, looking closely at the skin around the stomach and pubic area. He could see several evenly spaced dried splatters of what looked like semen. “Damn,” he swore softly.
    â€œWhat is it?” Harry asked as he entered the room. “Don’t tell me—”
    â€œYeah,” Jim said. “Looks like.”
    â€œShit. Have you checked the head?” He looked around the room, spotting the decapitated head of the young girl sitting a few feet away, looking as though she had merely sunk through the floor, until only her head was showing. It was Clark’s personal signature.
    Harry went over and knelt beside the head. His stomach churned as he realized the significance of his find. He turned to his partner. “Makeup on an inch thick, right eyebrow shaved, then penciled in. Damn it all to hell!”
    *   *   *
    â€œI heard Amy call for me. That much I know,” Jessie said stubbornly. “I have never had a psychic experience that strong. And no, I didn’t fall asleep in the car and dream it!”
    Suzanne looked squarely at Jessie, squinting her eyes in mock anger. “Reading minds again, are we?”
    Jessie tossed her long red hair. “Well, it looks like I have to do something to make you believe me!”
    â€œAll right. Start at the beginning and don’t leave anything out. I guess it is rather presumptuous of me to insist my reading is the accurate one.” Suzanne pulled her legs up onto Miss Emily’s worn couch, crossing them Indian-style to match Jessie’s. “Maybe there is another explanation for what I saw.” As she said the words, she hoped the answer wasn’t that Jessie heard Amy call out for her right before she died, and that she, herself, saw the actual killing.
    â€œOkay, I’ll tell you everything, but part of it doesn’t make sense.” She spoke the words defensively, defying Suzanne to doubt her.
    Suzanne felt small, petty. Who the hell did she think she was to be questioning this young girl’s psychic ability? What must Jessie be thinking about her?
    â€œI’m sorry, sweetie,” she said. “I can be arrogant and obnoxious, can’t I?”
    â€œOh, you’re all right,” Jessie said. “I know you’re only trying to keep me from being hurt.”
    Suzanne smiled. “Okay then, why don’t you start at the top and tell me everything you can remember?”
    â€œThe first thing I heard was Amy’s voice calling to me. I heard it as plain as day, really I did. She said, ‘Jessie, please. Please come for me!’ That was all. But then I started getting a whole lot of images.” Jessie stopped talking, lost in remembering.
    â€œSuch as?” Suzanne gently prodded.
    â€œMonkeys. I know it sounds weird, but I saw monkeys. There was a man with a big beard, and a bunch of people with their arms in the air—like someone was holding a gun on them.”
    â€œDid it seem to you the monkeys and people were with Amy?”
    Jessie shook her head. “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell. They were spinning around, flashing by so fast I was having a hard time making out the images.”
    â€œWhat about the background? Do you remember anything at all about that?”
    Jessie knitted her forehead in concentration. “The people with their hands in the air were sitting in seats—double seats of some kind, maybe like on an airplane.”
    â€œThink back, Jessie. Was it nighttime or day?”
    â€œDay, I think. Yes. Yes, I’m sure of it. There were clouds in the background. Big, fluffy clouds.”
    â€œClose your eyes, Jessie. Concentrate hard and let your mind act as a camera. You want a wider view. The camera is going to pan