'You said you weren't a mind reader.'
She tamped down her frustration with him and leaned forward. 'Quinn's right-something's going on with the focus group. Something big enough and dangerous enough that somebody killed Celia Shore before she remembered anything'
A spark of sheer terror rippled out from Maddox, Iris braced herself as she took the brunt of it.
'I don't think she was supposed to be found alive in the first place ' Quinn interjected, earning a glare from Maddox.
'I don't, either.' Iris agreed, 'Someone took a big risk to finish the job.'
'What kind of experiment?' Maddox asked. 'I mean, it's hoodoo, not chemistry.'
She sighed. 'Well, to follow my theory, you'll have to at least pretend to believe in hoodoo. Think you can manage that?'
He clamped his mouth shut and nodded for her to continue.
'I looked into these names.' Iris pointed at the list. 'These two are clairvoyants-they see things happening elsewhere.'
'That's what the C stands for, right?' He pointed to the note she'd made next to the two names, 'The T is for what?'
'Telekinetics.' Quinn said.
'You've probably heard of Uri Geller.' Iris began.
'The guy who could bend spoons?'
'Right. Telekineties move things with their minds. Knock books off tables, flick light switches-'
'Okay. M is for what-medium?'
'Right. Sandrine is one of two mediums on this list.'
'And E must be for empathy. Like you and Celia.'
'Celia wasn't an empathy.' she answered tightly.
'She just played one on TV.' Quinn added, his voice dry.
Understanding dawned in Maddox's eyes. 'She was a fake.'
'I think that's why she turned up half dead. They must have realized she couldn't do what she said she could.'
'She knew too much about the experiment to be released unharmed.' Quinn said. 'But somebody got sloppy. Threw her out before she was dead. They won't make that mistake twice.'
Maddox pushed his hair back from his face. 'What kind of paranormal experiment is important enough to kill for?'
All Iris had was a theory. She looked at Quinn, wondering if he knew more, and if he'd tell them what he knew if he did.
Maddox slapped his hand on the bed, venting the frustration she felt rolling in his gut. 'Somebody talk.'
Quinn remained silent, so Iris plunged ahead. 'Terrorists are involved. Right?' She addressed the question to Quinn.
He nodded slowly, his expression thoughtful.
She turned back to Maddox. 'What do terrorists want?'
'To spread fear in order to achieve their political goals.' He spoke as if he were reading from a textbook, but Iris could feel the maelstrom of emotions the mere word evoked in him.
'I've been thinking about the CIA's remote viewing experiments. They spent a lot of money trying to come up with people who could psychically locate a KGB assassin in Europe from the safety of a room somewhere in Langley, Virginia. I bet the KGB was doing something like that, too.'
'They were.' Quinn conceded. He said nothing further.
'Boris Grinkov was a Soviet scientist before he defected. His area of expertise is actually psychiatry, but he'd have surely known about the KGB's remote viewing experiments. Maybe he even ran them.' She looked at Quinn again.
He said nothing, but she could tell by his expression that she was right. More confident now, she continued.
'I did some poking around. Dr.Grinkov claims to have some telekinetic ability, though limited, and he's interested in something called synchronized paranormality'
Maddox's brow furrowed. 'Synchronized who?'
She couldn't hold back a chuckle. 'Pretty much what I said, too. But I get it now, I think.' She pointed to the paper. 'Four sets of two, each with a different paranormal gift. The word synchronized suggests that Grinkov plans to use these gifts in concert to effect some sort of action or event.'
'Action? Not just information gathering, then?'
'I think action has to be involved because of the telekinetics. Moving things is what they do.'
'Okay, so he wants to move something. Then why does he need the other three?' Maddox asked.
Iris sighed. 'This is where it gets weird.'
Maddox gave her a look. 'It wasn't weird before?'
She couldn't stifle a smile. 'I know this sounds crazy. It sounds crazy even to me. But I think I'm right.'
'So do I.' Quinn murmured.
Maddox slanted a dark look at him. 'Right about what?'
'Remote viewing requires clairvoyants. So whatever Grinkov is working on, he wants it to happen somewhere besides Mariposa. Moving objects requires telekinetics. But they can only move things within a certain proximity of themselves. I mean, they can look out the door and move the rake in the yard but not a rake in the yard of some guy in Indiana.'
Maddox stared at her as if she'd lost her mind. She looked at Quinn, The CIA agent nodded for her to keep going.
'For the telekinetic to move something in, say, Miami, he'd need the aid of a clairvoyant who could see what's in Miami. But there's no way for them to link their abilities. Not by themselves. That's where I think the mediums come in.'
'The mediums? I thought they just talked to dead people.'
She smiled again. 'They're conducts. Psychic energy flows through them. Yes, they mostly deal with the spirit world, but there are theories, in certain paranormal circles, that mediums really are like pipelines for psychic phenomena.'
Maddox's eyes narrowed, 'I can't believe I'm sitting here discussing this.'
'Join the club.' she murmured.
'But you believe in this…stuff.'
'I believe in what I know. I know what I can do, I know what my sisters can do.'
His eyes widened. 'Your sisters?'
'Yes. Lily is a clairvoyant, although she's also sort of, well-' She cut off, not wanting to reveal so much to Quinn,
But of course, he already knew. 'Iris's sister Lily can touch people's minds and communicate with them from a distance' he told Maddox. 'She found a missing child a couple of years ago. Brought down a senatorial candidate at the same time. That ought to appeal to your anti establishment streak.'
'What about your other sister?' Maddox asked.
'Even more complicated.' Iris admitted. 'Rose can foresee deaths. Sometimes she can also foresee true love matches-'
Once again. Iris cut off the words she was about to say. She could see Maddox's brain overloading, 'It's not important.'
Maddox rubbed his temples. 'Okay, I get how a clairvoyant, a spoon bender and Miss T Talk to Dead People' might fit in. But why the empathic in this little psychic Goldberg device?'
She chuckled at his description. 'I'm not sure, Empathics feel things, and sometimes they can help drain a person of pain or emotion, but I don't see how that helps in the scenario we're discussing.' She looked at Quinn. 'What do you think?'
'I don't have a theory.'
Yes, he did, she thought, but he didn't want to share it with her. The blankness inside him made her stomach
