Nothing. She lay still, unmoving, not speaking.
“Tiffany, can you hear me?”
No response.
Doc Adams said, “What if you go back to 1832? She was alive then. From there, you can bring her straight to the present.”
“I’ve never taken a patient back and forth before. I’m concerned what problems it might create for her. Give me a moment to think this through.”
Just then more commotion arose from the front gate down the corridor. The clerk raised her voice as a figure pushed past her and weaved down the hallway.
Unshaven and disheveled, Jack stumbled onto the patio. Landry and Cate ran to him — his eyes were glassy, and he reeked of alcohol.
“Jack, what happened?”
“What happened? What do you think happened?” he slurred. “I screwed up.”
“Cate, take him with you. Put him somewhere. We have to finish this.”
“I shouldn’t be here, right?” Jack said, grabbing Cate’s arm as he almost fell. “I shouldn’t have come, but it’s the building. It calls to me, like I said earlier. It made me come. I knew you wouldn’t like it, but I couldn’t help myself. So here I am.”
For the first time Jack saw Tiffany lying in the recliner, and he wobbled toward her. Landry tried to step in, but Jack got there first.
“Caprice.” A clear, deep word, forceful and without drunken slurring. Then he leaned close and said something else — something only she could hear.
Tiffany’s eyes flew open, she cowered in fear as she saw Jack, and she began to scream.
And scream and scream and scream.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
"Easy, easy. Everything's fine," Dr. Little repeated, but nothing stopped Tiffany's horrific wailing.
"Get Jack out of here!" Landry roared at Cate, who couldn't pull him away from Tiffany. Landry lunged at Jack himself, hitting him broadside and sending them both crashing to the pavement. He flipped the man over, straddled his upper body and slapped him hard in the face.
Jack looked up, surprised to find Landry sitting on him. His bloodshot eyes focused, and he groaned, "What...what the hell are you doing to me? What's all that screaming?"
"You were hallucinating. You whispered something that started all this. I don’t know if you're hungover or still drunk, but you disrupted the session, dammit. Get out of here. Get the hell out of my sight."
"Sorry, Landry. I'm so sorry I screwed up," he mumbled as Landry helped him up. "I'll go. Please give me another chance. I'm sorry."
"Get out!"
He stumbled back down the hallway and left as Empyrion Richard walked to the recliner and stood beside Tiffany.
"Go take your seat!" Dr. Little shouted.
But the tall man ignored him. Instead he knelt and whispered something in the girl's ear. The wailing stopped and she lay still.
"What did you say to her?" Landry yelled, but the man was already walking across the patio to reclaim his chair.
For thirty agonizing minutes the hypnotist tried to bring her back. He was afraid to regress her further but bringing her forward wasn't working either. She lay with her eyes closed as if she were in a peaceful slumber.
Landry beckoned to Richard, and the man came back to the fountain. "She stopped screaming when you whispered to her. Tell me what you did. We're having a problem here."
"You are, for a fact," the man said with a broad smile. "To what do you attribute your 'problem,' as you call it?"
Landry hadn't had time to confront this guy when he showed up claiming to be Empyrion Richard, and now his insouciance was getting under Landry's skin. "If you know something about this, now's the time to speak up. We need some help here."
Without breaking his smile, Richard said, "I know something about a lot of things, Mr. Drake. But it's impossible to help without knowing what it is you want to know."
"Do you see that girl? She's been in a trance for over two hours. Does that worry you?"
"That girl? I never laid eyes on her before this morning. I don't know enough about her to worry."
He's grinning like he's at her birthday party.
He's taunting me, but why?
Whoever he was, Landry realized there was far more going on here. The odd man was a part of this somehow. His being here wasn’t coincidental. He knew what was wrong with Tiffany, but he refused to help.
He took Empyrion by the arm and walked him away from the others. “What’s going on?” he hissed. “You’re talking in riddles, evading my answers, and your actions make me wonder how you’re involved in this. Who are you, and why did you come here?”
The man’s demeanor never seemed to change. Flashing the same irritating smile, he said, “I am here because I invited myself to this assembly in my building. My speaking habits and mannerisms may differ from other people’s, but I offer no apology for them. They are part of who I am. Regarding your assertion that I speak in riddles, I merely asked you what the basis is for what you refer to as a ‘problem.’ I calmed your subject. That should please you and your friends, but you seem to have become suspicious of me. I regret that, because I could be of immense help to you.”
“What are you saying, dammit? Talk to me! Help me!”
“It appears your hypnotist is out of his area of expertise. Your problem is that his subject is in a precarious situation. This girl is trapped somewhere in time, don’t you agree? Someone must bring her back.”
“Is that someone you? Can you bring her back?”
Empyrion smiled, which infuriated Landry.
“What the hell qualifies you —"
“Time is your enemy, Mr. Drake. I sense you are debating if you want my help. If that’s the case, I
