A Long Time from Home Ch. 26

He drank some of the beer, sighed with satisfaction and asked, "So Ivan, what's guy doing sleeping on the beach with a real sword in his backpack?"

I drank some beer as well. It was cold and wonderfully refreshing. "Well, I was living with some delightful and sexy women, but things happened, and I had to leave in a hurry."

Julian looked at me and started to laugh. "Seriously?"

"Yeah." I said with a smile and got an idea for a cover story. "Let me put it this way: I had to leave so fast that I don't even have a passport with me."

He laughed harder. "Oh, dude, that sucks. So, you can't even get a hotel room, huh?"

I managed to hide my surprise, since I haven't known that I needed a passport to get a hotel room. That seriously screwed up my plans and I shook my head wordlessly.

"Dude, you're something else." Julian said, still laughing. "What are you gonna do now?"

"I'm gonna drink the rest of my beer, try to wake up and then I'll find a solution."

"Well, first of all, you need to hide that sword somewhere. It's fucking illegal to walk around with a blade that long."

I shrugged. "It's not like I have a room to keep it in."

"Try the safety deposit boxes over at the harbour terminal." Julian suggested. "It doesn't require a passport and unlike those at the train station, you can rent them on a weekly basis."

Put that way, it sounded like a good idea and after another beer Julian even showed me the way to the harbour terminal, where I placed most of my valuables and weapons in a safety deposit box.

That lead to me giving a late lunch at a small restaurant, where he let slip that he knew a place that was willing to overlook the need for a passport to get a room, if I didn't mind parting with a little extra cash.

I couldn't detect any deceptions from him and after the lunch, he guided me to a small hotel in a part of the city where there weren't as many tourists.

Julian still thought that my situation was hilarious, so he offered to do the negotiation with the desk clerk, and I happily agreed and paid for a week in cash.

The room I got was smaller than the bedroom in the house and there was an unpleasant smell to it I didn't recognize, but it was a place to stay for now and the room was better than some of the places I had slept over the years.

I placed the rest of my stuff there and walked out again.

"By the way, Julian," I said later as we were having yet another beer at the hotel bar. "What are you doing here? I mean, you don't really look like you're on vacation."

He was silent as he looked me over, but then he shrugged. "I'm looking for a guy."

I didn't think he meant romantically, so I simply asked. "Why?"

"Oh, the idiot skipped bail in the states, and I'm paid to bring him back." He explained and drank some beer before he continued. "I'm a bounty hunter."

I had no idea what a 'bail' was but catching criminals for money is a job almost as old as law enforcement. I had even done it myself a few times. "Nice... Does it pay well?"

He shook his head with a smile. "Not compared to the amount of work that goes into it... but I enjoy it and I'm good at it."

"What're you gonna do when you find the guy?"

He grinned. "I already found him... I wasn't at the beach by chance: It was the dark-haired guy with the glasses that sat near the chair you were sleeping in." He shrugged. "But since I not allowed to simply drag his sorry ass back to the states, I'm only watching him for now." He drank the rest of his beer. "But enough shop talk... Let's go get some more beer."

I was tempted to say yes, but I was still tired from the combat yesterday and my shoulder was aching, so I shook my head. "Thanks, but no thanks... I think I'll catch some sleep instead. How about we meet up tomorrow afternoon instead?"

Julian looked thoughtful and nodded. "Deal... Just knock on the door to number 9 when you're ready."

I chuckled. That he lived here explained why he knew the place. "Will do... See you tomorrow."

He flipped a wave with one hand and walked away, whistling to himself as he walked.

I drank the rest of my beer before I walked back to the room and went to bed.

---------- Department 55 ----------

The police station turned out to be a big white modern four-story building with a helicopter pad on the roof, but more important for Maya was the fact that it was air-conditioned, which was a nice change from the summer heat outside, as Zavala led her through the corridors until they reached a break room.

Sheena Rao sat in a sofa, looking thoughtful as she flipped through some papers, but when Zavala and Maya entered the room, she looked up with a smile. "Hey there. Just in time, as usual."

"Hey." Greeted Maya and sat down in the other end of the sofa. "In time for what?"

Sheena held up a drawing. "Allow me to present David Curtis as he looks now, according to Karen Chai."

Maya raised her eyebrows in surprise. The drawing looked a lot more like the David Curtis she had seen in her look into the past than normal for a sketch from a witness. She noticed Zavala glancing at her and nodded to him. "We don't need to make another drawing. That one is spot on... I mean really spot on."

The policeman smiled. "Good... I'll get it in circulation. See you later and please get the other one done as soon as possible. I'll send up the sketch artist."

Sheena waited until he was gone before asking. "Is it that good?"

"Frame it and it would be a portrait." Maya leaned back. "And Miss Chai hasn't seen him before?"

The Indian shook her head. "No, so if it is as good as you say, that is quite remarkable." She flashed her teeth in a smile. "But then again, we're talking about three remarkable women here."

"Yeah... I saw the pictures. They're stunning." Maya paused. "How about the kids? Are they okay?"

"Surprisingly, yes." Said Sheena. "And before you ask if they said anything useful, the answer is no. They're mute, but Alice Baker, the mother, translated their answers and they didn't see, hear, or smell anything useful... at least not that they can think of yet. We will try again later, but I'm not optimistic."

"Okay." Maya sighed. "I hate when kids are involved... hm... Where are they now?"

"The Baker Twins are talking with a child psychologist with their mother present. Karen Chai is in another breakroom in case we want to ask her more questions and Rita Meyers is at the house along with two police officers to pack some things." Said Sheena. "The local police will move them to a suite at a hotel here in Malaga."

"Good idea." Said Maya and looked around. "Is there a coffee machine around here somewhere? I could really use a cup."

Sheena nodded and stood up. "The one in here needs a refill, but there's one in the other break room. This way."

The break room was surprisingly cozy for a police station and Maya sighed with satisfaction as she sat down in a soft chair with a cup of coffee in her hands.

"This is... " she started but was interrupted when the door flew open, and Zavala looked inside. The Spaniard had a big smile on his face. "We're in luck. One of the local policemen recognized Curtis from the drawing and we're on our way to his farmhouse."

Sheena jumped to her feet, but Zavala shook his head. "We have this covered. I'll get you when we have cleared the area and confirmed that it's him." He looked at Maya. "Honeycutt, the sketch artist is delayed in traffic, but should be back in a moment to make the sketch of the other man."

He ran out before either of them could say anything.

"Damn it!" complained Sheena. "We're missing then fun."

"Relax. I just hope it's the right guy." Said Maya with a shrug and drank some of the coffee. "That pig really needs to be caught."

A while later, a knock on the doorframe made Maya look that way again, expecting it to be a police officer, but instead it was a beautiful Asian woman, whom she immediately recognized from the pictures as Karen Chai. Dressed in tight fitting purple top and a pair of ordinary jeans, she looked a lot taller in real life, than she did in the pictures, but just as beautiful, long legged and smoking hot.

"Excuse me?" Karen Chai said in English. "I saw to commotion, but nobody's telling me anything. Have they found the would-be kidnappers?"

Since Maya couldn't talk about an ongoing investigation, she smiled and said, "We have a lead and I promise you that as soon as we know anything, you will too."

The Asian nodded slowly in response as she looked around, seemingly studying Maya and Sheena for a few seconds each, before her slanted brown eyes returned to Maya. "You have an English accent, but you're police and you're here in Spain. Interpol?"

Maya lifted her eyebrows in surprise. Apparently, the young woman was as smart as she was good looking. She nodded. "Yes. We've been hunting this kidnapper for a while now."

"And you tracked him to Malaga?"

"No. I have to admit that we... Sheena and I... were just here on vacation, when the call came in."

Karen smiled, revealing a set of perfect pearly white teeth. "It's good to be lucky from time to time." She walked over to the coffee machine. "Sorry for disturbing you, but the Spanish police told me to stay in this room. I just had to go to the bathroom."

"No problem. We just needed to relax for a bit." Said Sheena and Maya noticed how her friend's eyes were glued to the tall Asian. Or to be more precise, to Miss Chai's well-formed behind, which looked extremely sexy in the tight-fitting jeans she was wearing.

She hid a smile behind her cup. For some reason, most female Psychics with detection abilities were bi-sexual and Sheena was no exception to the rule. According to the specialists in the department, it had something to do with how the Psychic powers were developed, but they had never given her a detailed description.

She guessed the same factors were the reasons why most men were physical orientated in their powers, while the women were more orientated towards detection, tacking, telepathy and looking back in time.

The strangest part was that having the powers of detection also tended to give the Psychic a higher sex-drive and there was evidence that lack of sex actually lessened the Psychics ability to detect and track other Psychics.

Consequently, the department had a lax view on Detectors that had sex during an assignment and Maya wasn't in doubt that given the chance, Sheena would love to take the tall beautiful Asian to bed.

A movement outside the room caught Maya's eyes and she discovered two police officers, a man and a woman, standing there, looking as Miss Chai as well.

Maya shook her head a bit and brushed a strand of red hair away from her eyes. Zavala had said that not many of the policemen willingly would take their eyes of them, but she hadn't thought he had meant it that literally. Then again, besides being a beautiful woman with a sexy figure, there was something vibrant and energetic about Miss Chai, that seemed to draw people's eyes like a magnet.

Done with making coffee, the Asian walked to a chair with a cup in her hand and sat down. For a moment, she was silent, but then she smiled. "I'm afraid that the two of your will have to start a conversation, because the only thing in my head right now, is about the case you can't talk about."

Sheena smiled back. "No problem... hmm... How long have you studied Martial Arts?"

"I started as soon as I could walk." Said Chai with a slight shrug.

"And what belt do you have now?"

"A slim black leather belt." Said the Asian deadpan, but then grinned. "People always ask me that, but it's a family style, so we don't use belts. I reached the rank of Instructor last year." She thought for a moment. "Normally, that's two levels above a black belt, if you need something to compare it with."

Sheena asked some more questions, but Maya didn't really listen as she just leaned back and relaxed, while thinking about Hector Zavala. There was something intriguing about the Spanish police officer, besides the fact that he was rather good looking, which haven't escaped her attention. She also liked the way he looked at her. Not that it unusual for men to do that, but Zavala had a certain air about him, when he did it, that somehow made it seem like a compliment instead of being creepy.

The sound of the door opening again brought her out of her thoughts and she looked up as a Spanish police officer entered the room. He wasted no time and said in broken English. "Honeycutt. Zavala downstairs for you."

Maya nodded to the police officer and followed him outside.

Hector Zavala was waiting in the parking lot and Maya hurried to his car.

The Spaniard sent her another of his charming smiles and appreciating looks when she got into the passenger seat, but as last time the smile disappeared from one second to the next, as he became all business.

"The drawing will have to wait. We found Curtis, but he is dead." He stated, while pulling away from the curb and into the traffic.

"What? How?"

"Crushed throat." Said Zavala with a grim, yet satisfied smile. "It wasn't painless."

"Oh." Maya nodded. The news that David Curtis had been killed was good news for the rest of the world, but the death of any psychic was subject to investigation, since there was a chance that the psychic had been killed by another and yet unknown psychic. "Can you tell it from the start?"

"Si. When we arrived there, the house was empty, so we searched it and found a whole album filled with trophy pictures in an antique safe." He sighed. "That alone will help on eight other cases involving the disappearance of kids."

There was a pause as Zavala steered the car around a tourist-filled mini-van. "Since the file on Curtis stated that he liked to keep his victims close and underground, we examined his basement and found a hidden door there. After opening it, we found a holding area with four cells. All of them were thankfully empty, except one, where David Curtis lay dead." He steered the car around another bunch of tourists and continued. "According to the doctors, Curtis died from a crushed throat... most likely as a result of a brawl, since he also had a shattered elbow... but we will know more after the autopsy."

"Okay." Said Maya slowly. "Any prints or other clues?"

"They're not done with that yet, but since they haven't found any prints yet, I doubt they will find any." said Zavala with a grimace. "The whole house was clean as a whistle, so whoever killed Curtis, not only wiped the house down, but also did a damn good job of it. However, one of local people said that Parker's best friend was an older Englishman called Samuel Otis. So, another team visited his house, but Otis was nowhere to be found. They took fingerprints from his house and when we ran them, Samuel Otis turned out to be no other than..." Zavala paused for a few seconds, but then finally said, "...Leonard Parker."

That message caused Maya to look up in surprise. Best described as a criminal mastermind, Leonard Parker was a psychic with a powerful mind controlling ability and the Department had been searching for him even longer than Curtis. There even was a rumour, that one of the reasons for the Departments existence was due to Leonard Parkers success.

"Wait!" She exclaimed. "Then the other guy in the van was most likely Parker, meaning that we know what he looks like now."

Zavala nodded with a satisfied smile. "Yes. Despite everything, we're in luck this time."

"We need to get him." Maya declared. "It's about time."

Very little was known for certain about Leonard Parker. Most agreed that he most likely was European, but that was based mostly on the language, as well as the accent, and they didn't even have a good photo of him. According to people who had seen him, he was a non-descript man, easily overlooked in a crowd and just as easily forgotten. Even his age was unknown, though most agreed, due to his criminal record and witness accounts that he had to have been born in the early 1940s, making him around sixty by now.

According to her files, Leonard Parker had started his criminal Psychic carrier, when he had been in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. They didn't know exactly what had happened, but according to unconfirmed sources in the British Intelligence, Parker had been the one that planned and executed the 1976 robbery of the British Bank of the Middle East in Beirut, getting away with almost 50 million British Pound. It was in the investigation of that crime, that they got a fingerprint, but not much else.

That was just the start.

In late 1983 Parker was seen in London and Agents from the Department had detected the use of Psychic powers. However, before the Department could pinpoint his location, the people Parker had been seen talking with robbed the Brink's-Mat warehouse in Heathrow airport. Then Parker disappeared again along with three tons of gold bullion worth £35 million, while his mind-controlled puppets got the minor share of £25 million. The puppets were later caught be the police, but Parker and the gold was gone.

Seven years later he was back, robbing the Isabella Stewart Museum in Boston, where he and a partner mind controlled a security guard and got away with thirteen works of art. Since that included a Rembrandt, a Vermeer and some drawings of Degas, the stolen pieces were estimated to around five hundred million dollars and true to form, none of them were ever seen again.

Parker also disappeared without a trace until he, according to rumours, surfaced in 1994 in Cannes, France, where he and two accomplices robbed the Carlton Cannes Hotel for a staggering 60 million pounds in jewellery and precious stones. Again, there were no solid evidence, except for whispers in the criminal world about Parker being behind the robbery, and Parker had yet again disappeared along with the loot.

At least from the view of the normal police, but the Department had detected him several times after that, without being able to locate and catch him.

That Parker had surfaced now, indicated that something was brewing. He usually only came out from wherever he was hiding to pull of something big.

She looked at Zavala. "That is excellent news... if we can manage to catch him, that is."

Zavala smiled back. "Yes, that was more or less my reaction when I heard it."

"Two criminal psychics working together are so rare that I can't really remember another case where that happened, and Curtis used to work alone." Said Maya with a light shake of her head. "To find them both in the same area is highly suspicious."

The Spaniard nodded "Yes. I have alerted the Spanish Police and told them that a highly skilled thief has been seen in the area... I just hope we're lucky and get him this time."

"Yeah, me too." Said Maya.

There were both policemen and crime scene technicians on the scene, but Zavala's credentials got them right through and soon, they were standing alone in the basement, looking at the cell-like room where Curtis had been found.

"Is this a good place for you?" asked Zavala politely.

Maya shivered and shook her head. "No... I can almost feel the helplessness of the victims here and it will overpower everything. Let's try the stairs."

They walked back to the stairs, where Maya stood still and tried to get a feel for the place.

The helplessness was still here, but not nearly as evident as it had been in the cell.

"Better." She said.

Zavala nodded and leaned against the wall, leaving her to do her job.

Closing her eyes, Maya opened her mind and went into a trance. Time stood still as she saw herself standing there, but then events slowly started to roll backwards as she looked back in time.

She saw herself walking backwards up the stair and then other policemen came. Curtis was carried away on a stretcher. More police, but this time they had guns drawn. Then some of the doors started to open and close as if a poltergeist was playing with them, but finally, she reached the vision she had been waiting for: A person carried an extremely blurry Curtis down the stairs and into the cell area, disappeared from her view.