Eye to Eye: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective Read Online Free PDF

encounter things, I take it; never
saw the boy again, didn't even know his name. But she was pregnant.
Couldn't face her parents with it. She was moving out of town,
somewhere up north—had a job offer, I think, intended to have the
baby, maybe place it for adoption, maybe raise it herself—she would
decide that later.
    "Isaac was fit to be tied. Had her pegged as
a sure winner in the golden science sweepstakes, terribly
distraught about losing her to mere motherhood. 'Any woman can have
a baby,' he fussed. 'Only a few can master universal dynamics.'
    "Long and short of it, he
talked her into an abortion, paid for it himself, got her the job
at Griffith. That's the connection, and that's all the connection.
I can't recall hearing him mention her name again. Don't believe I
heard it from anyone until a couple of days ago, when I heard the
news that the police were investigating her disappearance. I just
thought, well, maybe she met another boy and Isaac's not around to
help her, this time. Today was only the second time. I have visited Griffith
myself since he's been gone. Went down there one day last month and
searched his office for a clue, found nothing. No reason to go
back, until today."
    I asked, lazily, "You work at... ?"
    "Sort of loosely, for Cal Tech—in research,
not teaching, and—"
    "What does that mean?—'sort of
loosely'?"
    "I'm called in on special projects. Usually
at Palomar."
    "That's way down toward San Diego."
    "Yes. And I do consulting for JPL, and
occasionally for Hughes."
    "Hughes Laboratories?—up
near Pepperdine Malibu?"
    "Uh huh."
    "Hush-hush stuff," I said.
    "Yes."
    "What exactly is your field?"
    "Creation physics."
    "You don't mean, uh..."
    She giggled deliciously. "Not that kind of
creation, no. I am trying to determine the nature of the universe
before the big bang."
    I was impressed, and I said so. "Nice work,
very nice."
    She punched me lightly in the belly and
said, "I'll tell you a big secret one day if you'll stay nice, very
nice."
    "Why can't you tell me now?"
    "Because first I have to find out how very
nice you can really be."
    She was not kidding, either. The candor was
gone, the fun was gone, and Doctor Universe was again in the
saddle. The mood was not exactly brooding—but it was certainly
sober and darkly contemplative.
    "Thank you for today," she said, very
quietly. "I don't get many of these."
    The way she said it made
me think of "folly" and the human need for same. So maybe I'd had
the privilege to serve as Doctor Universe's folly for the day.
Which is okay enough. I'd had my tilt with total candor, too, and
that was okay enough for its own sake alone.
    But I found myself hoping that I would
qualify, one day soon, for the beautiful doctor's "big" secret.
    I could not help
wondering, too, if saintly Isaac Donaldson had a secret folly
somewhere which right then could be eating him alive. Or eating his
corpse. And I decided that I would not rest this case until all the
secrets had stepped forward and identified themselves...in perfect
candor.
    I rolled off the playing field and made my
way a bit unsteadily toward the shower. Night had fallen completely
and enshrouded this house on the mountain, but the glow of city
lights far below and far away had found a stopping place within the
window bay of the bedroom of the House of Isaac. I paused at the
bathroom door and turned back to see what Dr. Jen was up to. She
was softly illuminated in the glow from the window, totally
absorbed with something within her own mind and totally oblivious
to the lights of man.
    It struck me, then, that
she had not told me anything at all about her own relationship with
the owner of the manse or how it worked out that she now lived
there as the obvious mistress of that manse.
    Do saints have mistresses?
    I decided that it was none of my business
and none of my concern, not even in total candor.
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five: Players
     
    I stopped at the first pay phone along the
return route and