Body Swappers 12
Maya and Robert find a clue!
The next inmate’s name was Davis. He sat at the table with them, looking between them with an eyebrow raised quizzically. His aura was fairly well-balanced, especially when compared to the previous two.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Davis,” Robert began. “My name is Robert Sullivan, and I’m an attorney. This is Maya Cote, a Crisis Management Agent. We have some questions about the evening you’re accused of having murdered your neighbor.”
“Convicted of it,” Davis said. “There’s no presumption of innocence anymore.”
Robert’s aura flashed yellow and blue. “But you maintain your innocence?”
Davis stared a moment, then nodded.
“Would you mind recounting the events of that evening, from your perspective?”
“Okay,” Davis said, rubbing his chin. “I was working on a puzzle, then I felt really strange. Suddenly, everything went dark. I thought for a moment that the power went out, but that didn’t make sense because, you know that noise as things power down? That didn’t happen. And it was so dark I couldn’t see anything. I tried to move around, to grab my phone. My eyes started stinging really badly. I tried to rub them, but that only made it worse. I fumbled around with my eyes killing me for what felt like a long time before I felt weird again, and then I was stepping out of a shower, all the lights were on, and my eyes felt fine.”
Robert looked at Maya and nodded.
She leaned toward Davis. “Are you familiar with what Crisis Management Agents do?”
“No,” he said, “but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.”
She grinned. “We use magic to transfer our conscious mind into the body of another. If the person whose body we inhabit concentrates and opens their thoughts to us, we can experience those thoughts ourselves. Would you mind allowing me to try this with you?”
“Why?”
“I’d like to experience this memory of yours as best I can, to see if there’s anything I notice that you didn’t comment on, or to see if I recognize this sensation of ‘weirdness,’ which doesn’t really capture it, right? I’m looking for clues.”
Davis tilted his head to one side. “Are you trying to prove me innocent? Because I can’t pay you.”
Robert said, “We are representing another client who has a similar story to yours. If I’m being honest, I don’t know if what we find will be enough to successfully appeal your case. But it might be enough to keep my client from getting convicted in the first place.”
Maya wondered at Robert being so honest with the guy. She didn’t know many convicts who would do something just to help someone else. Then again, she didn’t know many convicts.
Davis’s aura twinged with blue, but then welled with purple. “Okay. Let’s try it.”
Maya hadn’t brought a lancet–they weren’t doing a necessary medical procedure, so Robert said the blade would make it a no-go under prison protocol. She could have taken Davis’s hand between hers, but inmate-visitor touching was similarly prohibited, unless the visitor was the inmate’s child. Instead, she put her hands over the table, shoulder-width apart, facing one another. “Would you please put your hand between mine?” The guard perked up, but there was no contact, just three separate hands over the table. Maya’s, Davis’s, then Maya’s again.
Maya explained the process, much as Ruth had to Coby last week. She then asked his permission to begin. As she did, she thought about how the possesser, whoever they were, had never done that step. They’d violated these people’s bodies and control. When he gave his concent, Maya looked Davis in the eye and nodded solemnly.
Maya imagined the blood between her hands, still in Davis’s hand, as a gateway, and went through. As she looked at herself across the table, she immediately felt as though she were on a mental treadmill keeping her focus. It was all she could do to stick with the transference and not get flung off. The blood in his hand keeps leaving, being replaced by new blood. She thought to herself. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do this.
Interesting, Davis thought at her, and she felt a stabilizing pressure, like a hand on her elbow. All of a sudden it was easy to keep up with the pump of his blood.
Did you do that? Maya asked.
Yeah.
How?
Well, you’re in my mind, right? So why couldn’t I?
Maya mentally nodded. Well, you seem pretty open to me already. Try to imagine that night as vividly as you can.
They were looking down at a half-done puzzle of a bookshop, but lit up in neon. Sorry, Davis thought, You said vividly. It’s more like this. The colors bled out of the puzzle until it was more typically colored, with plenty of tame, warm tones.
Maya wondered to herself, careful not to leak the thought, about how weird this guy’s head was. Everyone’s mind she’d been in was a little different, but he seemed to have a lot more control over what happened in it than most people.
Okay, she thought to him, what happened next?
I felt weird, like…
Maya felt the unmistakable tug of a transference, but the feeling went on and on, and was more intense than she’d ever felt before. She almost felt like she was in a wave pool, being sucked down in the wake, but it just kept pulling and pulling.
Do you feel that? Davis asked.
Yep, Maya said, her discomfort bleeding through the clipped syllable. The sensation vanished.
Sorry, I didn’t know how hard I had to concentrate to get it across.
They were plunged into darkness, and a silence so complete they could hear the faint beating of Davis’s heart.
Then I thought, ‘Huh. Usually when the lights go out, there’s that noise…’
Maya heard the faint echo of a breaker tripping.
‘But that didn’t happen. Where’s my phone?’
Maya felt their hand reach out.
Feelings of awkwardness flooded over from Davis. I’m so sorry. I can’t seem to will myself to feel the pain that came next.
That’s okay. Maya thought. Remembering that you were hurt doesn’t make the nerve endings fire the same way they do in the moment. Can you describe it to me?
My eyes felt like they’d lit up on fire. I tried rubbing at them, and it only made it worse. I stopped rubbing, and blinked a lot. After a while, it was starting to feel better. But then…
Maya felt the transference sensation again. Then she was hot and clammy, standing in a towel on a bathmat in a brightly lit bathroom.
A moment before, my eyes still hurt some. But then, they didn’t hurt at all. And I don’t remember going into the bathroom or showering or anything.
Maya asked, Or any adjustment period for your eyes, going from darkness to light?
Huh. I hadn’t thought of that. No, I didn’t have that, either.
While it was dark, did you feel anything? A draft, or warmth? The side of a table or chair?
Not that I remember.
You heard only your heartbeat? No traffic or air ducts?
Right.
Did you smell anything?
They were in the dark again. The only sensation at all was Davis’s heartbeat.
I don’t think so.
Okay.
Despite Davis’s help staying in his head, it was still tiring. Maya released the transference with a sigh of relief, and closed her eyes for a moment to appreciate being back in her own body, and still. When she opened them, Robert and Davis were both looking at her expectantly.
“It’s my professional opinion that your body was taken over for that period, and that you were in the other person’s body for the duration. I have to ask, did you lose any blood at any point before this experience?”
Davis cocked his head while he thought. “I didn’t get cut or anything. But I think…do blood draws count?”
Maya blinked. “Did you have your blood drawn sometime before this?”
“I had some lab work done around that time. I think it was before.”
“Where did you have the lab work done?”
“Deaconess Hospital.”
Maya shot Robert a look. Had they just found a useful clue?
She took a deep breath, and said, “While your experience differed from our client’s experience, there are also similarities. The ‘feeling weird,’ as you put it. It’s the same feeling. The quiet and the dark are the same.” She looked Davis in the eyes. “I believe you, that you did not commit that murder.”
Something in Davis’s eyes softened, and he looked down, blinking a few times. His aura flooded with blue and yellow. “Thank you.”
“Mr. Davis,” Robert said, “Should the verdict on my client be not guilty, I will appeal your case. Free of charge.”
Davis couldn’t blink fast enough to keep the tears from welling up then. Green glimmered in his aura as he said, “Thank you.” He wiped his eyes, and the green went away. “Of course, I don’t know that it’ll work.”
“Neither do I,” Robert said. “All we can do is try.”