The Dream Jumper's Pursuit Page 3

  “I wish we could ask the police to help, but we just can’t. Not yet,” Chris finally said. “For one thing, we have something we can’t reveal.” He looked at Jamey. “Your intuition. And for another, Kevin isn’t some stranger. Carrie is convinced he’ll realize this is foolish and bring him home in a few days. He just wants to make her suffer. God, I hope she’s right.”

  Jamey disagreed. If Kevin was in California with Wyatt, this disappearance had become a much larger problem. Kevin, who supposedly loved his son, was now an abductor. Not just making Carrie mad. If Kevin was trying to get back at Carrie, he wouldn’t have driven all the way to Southern California. Jamey wasn’t sure he should point this fact out to Chris.

  This was Carrie and Chris’s call. Not his. And he had to remember that bringing in the authorities didn’t always work. With his abilities, he’d never been one to use the conventional channels to solve a legal problem. His supply of information was unexplainable, and if he tried, it would be discounted immediately.

  “We’ll figure it out, man. We don’t need the police poking around in Carnation. They won’t do much right away anyhow. Kids go missing every minute in this country. I’m sure we’re farther ahead this way.”

  The motel room was dark, lights from the minimart across the street slanted in. Jamey reached over to turn on a light. And as the light illuminated the small room, a flash of something invaded Jamey’s consciousness, like a photo in a slide show, and then it was gone. “What the hell?” he whispered. He looked at Chris on the other bed. “I saw something.”

  Chapter 3

  The scene was brief, tenuous, barely there, and Jamey tried to recall every single detail.

  Chris knew enough to stay quiet. To wait.

  As hard as Jamey focused, nothing more came to him. Finally, he looked over at Chris whose face was wracked with worry. “Okay, all I got was this. Wyatt was playing with a new truck, on a blue carpet,” he said. “He was wearing his Spiderman T-shirt, making those noises he makes when he plays with trucks. Kevin and Rose were watching TV, lying on a bed in what looked like a hotel room. Patterned bed covering, queen bed, drapes, a window.”

  Chris looked to the window. “Here?”

  “Dunno.” Jamey looked at the carpet. “I couldn’t tell.” He closed his eyes again. “Not this room, if it was here. The carpet was blue. The window was on the bed’s right. The configuration of the room was different, the walls were white, not paneled like here.” It had been such a quick flash, he couldn’t be sure of any more details.

  The two men walked to the door and Chris opened it. Outside, a hot summer night hit them. They’d had the air conditioning on in the room and this Los Angeles weather was steamy. “What are we looking for?”

  “Maybe nothing but best case scenario would be all three of them leaving from one of these motel rooms, preferably in the next few minutes so we can grab Wyatt and be done with this. Maybe I’ll walk up and down in front of these doors to see if I get anything,” Jamey said.

  Chris’s face held an expression Jamey’d never seen before. “If we find them I’m going to take Kevin somewhere private and explain to him with my fists that he’s never to come near my family again.”

  Jamey was almost glad to hear Chris get mad. His quiet anger all day had been troubling.

  Jamey and Tina decided to try to dream jump long distance. With the phone on speaker and Chris outside watching the motel, they attempted to fall in to a dream together but after a few minutes with nothing happening, agreed to try later after they both fell asleep. During the night, the men took shifts, each staying awake to watch the motel parking lot, hopeful that if Wyatt was there somewhere, Kevin would leave their room to prove it. No luck. And no shiny truck anywhere close. Jamey hadn’t jumped a dream either and just before dawn Jamey figured they’d better get back to the beach. Kevin could be anywhere in any motel room in California. It didn’t have to be this one, just because Jamey saw something when he turned on the light.

  The beach was cold at four a.m. and the two men sat in the car watching the parking lot and beach, talking about Carrie’s kids, Jamey’s kids, and Chris’s kids. Between them, there were six children and Chris parented five of them. He was birthfather to two, Jamey to three, but that meant little because they all helped out and loved all six. Chris took most of the load. Because they shared Dad duties with Jade and Jasmine, talking about the girls was a good distraction. Chris mentioned that the girls were starting to notice boys, and Jamey felt a twinge of sadness to think that they were leaving their childhoods behind.

  At ten, Chris fell asleep in the car while Jamey watched the beach from a picnic table and downed a glazed donut in four big bites. Pulling out his phone, he called Tina to say good morning and see if she’d had any success dreaming.

  “Nothing. I’m sorry.”

  Jamey could hear Kai making that humming noise in the background, the sound of him happily drinking. He missed that little body in his arms, the smell of him, those goofy-looking toothless smiles. Today, they’d catch Kevin and he’d be home by tomorrow.

  “I only had a normal dream,” she said. “About me and Kai in a hotel room and I was trying to find diapers in a duffle bag to go to a parade. You had a beard.”

  “What’s your take on what I saw last night in the premonition?” He’d come to rely on his wife to help him decipher the weirdness, something he couldn’t imagine now doing without.

  “I’d say that they were holed up in a hotel room like you guys, watching TV, but where that is, would be hard to tell. Did you check the beach for the remains of that castle they were building?”

  He looked over to the spot where they’d seen the threesome digging in the sand. “There’s nothing there, like it hasn’t happened yet.”

  Tina blew out a breath she’d been holding. “You might be right. If you don’t see them today, maybe I should come there and try jumping with you.”

  Maybe Tina couldn’t get anything on her own because he was the connection to Wyatt. Trying to gather information to develop rules for this dream phenomenon never seemed to work. Just when he thought that they only jumped into a future glimpse when Tina was tired, they were proven wrong. And they’d once had a premonition that didn’t have the telltale signs of fuzziness. Dream jumping rules were always changing, something that kept them on their toes and in a state of perpetual frustration. But one thing was holding true. For some reason their ability to get into premonitory dreams worked better when they tried to jump together, like all the puzzle pieces were in place.

  “We could try over the phone, I suppose. Would that work?” she asked.

  “It might.” They’d never tried that before. But, Tina had the uncanny ability to jump from anywhere. Not him. Before he’d lost the ability to jump dreams, he’d always needed to be touching the dreamer. Now, he only jumped with Tina, no one else. They’d been successful doing a tandem jump separated by thousands of miles before, when Tina was in America and he was in Afghanistan.

  “I can’t try until I get someone to watch Kai. Do you want me to phone you back when I’m free?”

  “Yeah, hang on.” Jamey had walked to the exact spot where he’d seen Wyatt playing. “Feel anything right now?” He knelt and shoved one hand into the sand, brought it up and smoothed the surface of the patch of beach. He probably looked like a crazy person to the sunbathers nearby, but continued to run his hands along the sand, going six feet in both directions.

  “Oh my God, Jamey!” Tina shouted. “We’re too late. They’ve come and gone!”

  He shot to his feet. “Are you sure?”

  “They went south. Down the coast. What did you do just now? I had a flash of something.”

  “I stuck my hand in the sand. Do you think they’re going to Mexico?” He laid both hands on the hot sand, holding the phone between his shoulder and his ear.

  “I feel like that’s where they wanted to go. Is it possible to get into Mexico without a passport for Wyatt?” All the emotion had dr
ained from her voice.

  “It is if they hide him when they cross the border.”

  Tina phoned her next-door neighbor, Sharon, to watch Kai for thirty minutes. “I just need to run an errand and I don’t want to tromp around with him in my arms. Not when he’s so close to his nap.” Little did the neighbor know that if Kai was anywhere close to going to sleep, she wouldn’t need a babysitter. If Kai went to sleep, she could jump.

  The cane field road was bumpy and summertime dusty but Tina needed someplace extremely private and couldn’t very well lock herself in her bathroom while Sharon watched the baby in the next room. Or park in a public parking lot while she slept in the car. Driving along the red dirt road, she turned the truck and pulled off to the side of a smaller track. With the A/C running, she went over the plan. Worst-case scenario, if she didn’t wake with Jamey and was still in this car in an hour, at least she wouldn’t die of heat stroke. Dreams were usually no more than a few minutes.

  She and Jamey had made a careful plan, knowing she needed to wake up right after the dream ended. On his end, Chris would wake Jamey after twenty minutes, and that would wake her as well. The likelihood of oversleeping in this sugarcane field was highly unlikely. Regardless of that fact, now that Tina was a mother, every thought was filled with innumerable what if’s and backup plans.

  She lay down on the bench seat of her truck. It took only a few deep breaths and the intense focus Tina was becoming good at, to get in to the dream with Jamey. They stood on the beach at midday, exactly where they’d seen Wyatt. Chris was not there, but then this was Jamey’s dream. She hadn’t actually joined Jamey in Malibu. Even though Chris was probably sitting beside Jamey in reality, she and Jamey were where they called down below.

  She gave her husband a look of hope and sank to the sand to try something. “Is this the exact spot?”

  “Yes. I’m actually lying on this spot up above.”

  She laid her palms on the sand and dug her fingers into the warmth. She then swirled her hands, digging them in and disrupting an area of about eight square feet. A dizziness overcame her and she closed her eyes to concentrate on what she felt. Very briefly, Tina was grateful to have this unbelievable ability. So far, the premonitions had been incredibly accurate. Then, a clear thought washed over her, accompanied by an explanation, almost like a photo with a caption.

  Kevin and Rose had been here with Wyatt and were headed to the Mexican border with the distinct plan to keep Wyatt with them as their son. The emotion of their mission was clear to Tina. Rose had recently miscarried again, and she was grieving for the loss of her baby. Kevin’s baby. There was something off-center, slightly wild about Rose in what Tina felt. This was a woman who wasn’t thinking rationally. She’d always been quietly controlling and suspicious of people but now she’d taken on a feeling of power. Rose had convinced Kevin that a father should raise his son, not a mother. Carrie had too many children to give Wyatt the attention he deserved. Rose, Kevin and Wyatt would become a family, living off the beaten path in Mexico and never look back. It was the best thing for Kevin’s boy who was being neglected at home. Wyatt had recently complained that his mom and dad were too busy with the new baby and Mama told him to go play with the twins. She didn’t have time for him anymore. Wyatt was heartbroken.

  Tina got a clear picture that Wyatt’s shyness and insecurities had been troubling Kevin lately and he’d agreed that this might be the best thing for his son to give him the attention and love that an only child gets.

  In the dream, she opened her eyes to see Jamey watching her. “Rose wants Wyatt. Kevin too. They’re headed for Mexico to build a life with him. They think Wyatt needs more attention than Carrie and Chris can give him and that’s why Wyatt is so insecure.” The words spilled from her lips. “I think they’ve changed Wyatt’s name to Luke or Nick. It looks like they’re driving a black truck and they’re going to hide him when they cross the border.”

  “When?”

  “I don’t know.” She tried to get more by sticking her hands back in the sand. “I don’t get a sense of when. It’s only a feeling. Rose is desperate. And Kevin hates Carrie right now and blames her for Wyatt’s social problems.” She put her hands in the sand and tried to pull something out of the moment, but nothing more came.

  “How’s Wyatt doing? Is he scared?”

  “He thinks they’re playing a game. Maybe something to do with Star Wars.”

  “That’s why they’re calling him Luke.” Jamey looked down the beach to the south. “No idea if they crossed yet?”

  “No. All I got was the plan. No idea if it worked. What if we try to go to the border crossing in this dream? See if anything comes through.”

  Jamey reached for her hand and pulled her to stand. “The border at Tijuana, right?”

  She nodded. This process sometimes involved changing locations within the dream. If they could fly around in dreams for their own entertainment, they’d probably be able to turn up at the Tijuana border.

  “Let’s see if it works.” He grabbed her hand.

  There was no traveling time, no flying through the air over Southern California. They stood outside a green border guard hut on the Mexican side. The only time Tina had been to Mexico, she’d flown and had never seen the border. The scene was incredibly complete. She was surprised at the traffic and number of lanes of cars waiting to cross into Mexico. “Does it look like this?”

  “It does. Just like this,” Jamey said as he looked around. “Lots of trucks here. See anything that might be them?”

  She scanned the sea of traffic. “No.” It might not even be the real border. “This is needle in haystack difficult. I don’t feel anything, but remember this is just a dream. Maybe if we actually went to the border, we could both get a sense.”

  He nodded. “I hate to say this, but can you leave Kai with anyone and get to California tonight?”

  Her heart sank at the thought of leaving her baby, but the trail to Wyatt would only be hot for another little while. The first forty-eight hours were critical. Same with psychic readings.

  “I’ll book the next flight to San Diego.”

  ***

  At the San Diego airport Chris caught a flight home to Seattle, within an hour of Tina’s plane landing from Maui. Jamey had finally convinced Chris he was needed at home and there was little he could do in this hunt for Wyatt that Tina couldn’t do. The search wouldn’t involve muscle and manpower, but a psychic thread that Jamey and Tina had together. Chris was hesitant to leave California until Wyatt was found, but Carrie asked him to leave the pursuit to Jamey and Tina, and come home. There was a trust involved in this decision that Jamey didn’t take lightly and told him so before saying goodbye. “I’m going to find your son.”

  “Make sure you do. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. And, constant phone contact,” Chris specified.

  While waiting for Tina’s plane to land, Jamey called Milton. His superior officer had been leaving cryptic messages to call for days. The last thing Jamey wanted was to get involved in a Sixth Force situation, especially when he was searching for an abducted family member. Trouble was, until he was dismissed from the military officially, Jamey was under oath to stay in contact. He was still a Forcer.

  “What’s up?” he said to Milton’s hello.

  “We got a Forcer over here who says you are faking it.”

  “Faking what?” His heart rate sped up slightly.

  “You’re jumping and telling us you aren’t.”

  “Sounds like bad information.” He looked around the San Diego airport. “Check your source.”

  “We need you here if you’re jumping. Don’t lie to me on this one.”

  “I swear, Milton; I swear on my life; I am not able to jump into dreams. Don’t you think I’d love to help catch Geronimo? I’d be on that search like a hungry tiger, but I can’t get into dreams.” He chose his words carefully; Tina was the jumper and that was a secret that had to be kept. Especially from his superior
officer in Afghanistan.

  Milton took a long drag on his cigarette and blew out the smoke, a sound that Jamey had become familiar with over the years. “Why do we have someone who said he saw you in a dream?”

  “Is he a jumper? Maybe he’s jumping my dreams.”

  “With Sitting Duck?” Milton used Tina’s code name. “You were with her in a dream.”

  Milton must not find out they jumped, or he’d drag his wife’s pretty ass over to the Sandbox and make her life hell. “I dream about my sexy wife almost every night. Of course I was in a dream with the Duck. The good news is that it sounds like you got yourself another jumper. I’m surprised, and my feelings are a little bit hurt.” Maybe dream jumping wasn’t so rare after all. Milton was known for long pauses on the phone, but when he didn’t speak after almost a minute, Jamey took charge. Something strange was going on. Milton sounded different. “Got someone listening in? Good idea. Check this out on your psychic lie detector test. I’m. Not. Jumping. Into. Dreams.”

  “We’ll see.” Milton was distracted.

  “Okay. Well, enjoy your new jumper. And a long distance jumper, it sounds like. Just what you always wanted, Milton. You should be celebrating, not phoning me.”

  “Don’t lose touch, Freud. And call me back when I leave you a message. That’s an order.” The line went dead.

  Jamey headed to where Tina’s flight would empty from the restricted area into the main airport and wondered if Milton actually had someone listening in to the call from his end. Probably. Most likely the same guy who entered his dream was right now assessing the conversation, telling Milton that Jamey was or wasn’t a jumper. Had Tina jumped the dream of a Forcer? Geography meant nothing to her talent. Maybe. Which dream would it be? Not the beach dream with Wyatt. He knew that for sure because the beach was almost deserted both times they’d accessed the premonition. Then he remembered the homeless guy sleeping on the beach by the rest rooms, covered in a ratty sleeping bag.