Read Torn (Second Sight) for Free Online

another moment’s hesitation, Isabelle undid the small, snap closure at her wrist, removed the linen glove, and laid her fingers on the door handle.
    Her surroundings disappeared and the contents of the locker took over her vision. Hands reached in to take the lab coat. ‘Angela Caras’ was embroidered in a blue script. Angela had liked that. Hallways in the hospital raced by and her feet hurt, the pumps too tight in the toe. Rounds were endless. Sick people everywhere. Boring lectures. The end of the day. Put the coat away. Rows of beige lockers. Isabelle felt her fingers tighten on the handle. Dinner with the parents. Hit the books. Sadness for the geriatric patients. Memories gone. Lives disappeared.
    Isabelle let go of the handle and rocked backward. Her gloved hand reached out and found the closed door as she sucked in a huge breath. She steadied herself there for a few moments as the gray haze of the reading gradually vanished and her eyesight returned.  
    “Can you hear me?” Anandi said. Isabelle blinked at her and realized Anandi’s fingers were touching the inside of Isabelle’s wrist. “I was talking to you. Did you not hear me?”
    “No,” Isabelle managed to say as the images from the reading flashed in front of her eyes.  
    Anandi nodded, letting go of Isabelle’s wrist as Isabelle sat on the wood bench behind her.
    “It was almost like a trance,” Anandi said. “Except that your heart rate was quite elevated. If you had a cardiac condition, that would be a problem.”
    But Isabelle wasn’t really listening as the snapshots of Angela’s life slowly slotted into a timeline, arranging themselves in backwards order. The same locales and people registered. Rounds in patient rooms. Other medical students. Instructors. Nurses.
    But no priest. No one who resembled him, with or without the white collar.  
    Angela’s routine was remarkably repetitive. She parked in virtually the same spot every day and…Isabelle glanced at the lockers around her again. Gray. But the lockers that Angela had passed were beige.
    Anandi put on her backpack as Isabelle stood, a little shaky at first.  
    “You might want to sit for a few minutes,” Anandi said.
    “Where are the beige lockers?” Isabelle asked.  
    “The what?”
    “Somewhere Angela passed beige lockers, not these gray ones.”
    “Hmmm,” Anandi said scowling. “Well, there aren’t any as far as I know.”
    No. That wasn’t true. Isabelle sifted through the visions. The images of the beige lockers were interspersed with the hospital. They have to be here–and maybe a clue about Angela as well.

CHAPTER SIX

    Mac saw Isabelle shut down the moment they’d returned to the Caras’s home. She’d been up after the reading at Angela’s locker because her vision of the beige lockers had proved valuable. Though not yet open for use, the new changing area and lounge were still accessible. Given the location of Angela’s parked Prius and her last known location at the lecture hall, the construction area made perfect sense–a shortcut between the two. Though it had been devoid of any clues, Mac had been able to use the information anyway. County USC Medical Center was equipped with several hundred security cameras. Given the theorized route that Angela had taken to her car, that narrowed the video surveillance footage down to something manageable.  
    “That’s good news,” Ben said.
    Outside, night was falling and Sergeant Dixon had used surface streets to get them back to Hancock Park rather than sit in the monumental L.A. rush hour that more resembled a parking lot. The three of them had talked about the route through the construction area and how the Priest must have gravitated to it immediately. Though the sergeant had found it surprising that the killer would strike so soon, given his previous pattern of going months without activity, Mac pointed out that he hadn’t managed to kill Esme or complete the mutilation he typically visited on his