Beyond belief by Roy Johansen Page B

cry!”
    “We were just talking,” Joe said gently.
    “Get out!”
Jesse's nostrils flared and his eyes bulged.
“Get out of here now!”
    Latisha grabbed him by the wrists. “Don't you talk to him or anyone else that way, you hear me?”
    “Get out! Now!” Jesse screamed. “Leave us alone!”
    Joe nodded to Latisha. “I'll be in touch.”
    “I'm sorry.”
    “Don't be. Thank you for talking to me.” Jesse was still glaring at him as Joe whisked Nikki out the door.
    Garrett Lyles watched as Joe Bailey and his daughter hurriedly left Jesse Randall's house. The little girl was clearly nervous and upset. What had happened?
    Perhaps the Child of Light had demonstrated his powers for them. As powerful as the boy was, he did not yet have the patience and wisdom to control his abilities. It was a wonder that more people had not been hurt.
    He smiled as Joe and Nikki passed only a few feet from where he stood. He adjusted his video camera and scratched his upper lip. The phony mustache itched almost as much as the long-haired wig. The disguise was entirely in keeping with his cover as a freelancer from Pittsburgh, here to capture footage to sell to independent television stations. The ruse allowed him to keep a close eye on Jesse without arousing suspicion.
    The morning's talk on the press line had centered on Darlene Farrell's disappearance. It hadn't occurred to him that Jesse might be blamed for harming her, but it made sense. Nelson had crossed the boy and gotten himself impaled. The reporter had harassed him and been punished.
    Good. Let ‘em think that Jesse had offed the reporter. Maybe it would make these other creeps think twice before they bothered him.
    Even if it didn't, that was okay. Jesse had a protector.
Do you know I'm out here, Jesse? Can you think what I'm thinking?
Of course you can.
The time of Alessandro is almost upon us.
Your time.
Our time.

It was after ten that night when Joe took the elevator to the sixth floor of the Landwyn University library. The place was practically deserted. No big surprise. The college library wasn't exactly a Saturday night hotspot.
    Although Landwyn had become infamous for its parapsychology studies program, Professor Reisman made sure the library was fortified with a large collection of skeptical literature. Joe was ahead of the curve on psychic fraud techniques, but he still spent most Saturday evenings on the sixth floor, perusing the latest additions. That night he planned to check into any new levitation rigs that might be out there.
    Nikki and her friends had a weekly slumber party club in which they rotated from one home to another. It was his turn to host only once every eight weeks, so he was left with many Saturday nights alone. He was surprised how big and lonely the apartment was without her.
    Get used to it, he told himself. It wouldn't be long before Nikki would be gone almost
every
night. Surely he wasn't the first parent who wished hecould freeze time and hold on to the child who made life so special.
    Nikki had been upset by Jesse's outburst that morning, but she didn't hold it against him. “Be for real. If someone made
you
cry,
I'd
be pretty mad,” she had said on the way home.
    He couldn't argue with that.
    He went to the sixth floor and walked to the occult and paranormal studies section. Each row of tall wooden bookcases ran almost the entire length of the room, ninety feet long, with no breaks along the way. Air from the heating vents whistled down the long rows.
    He glanced through a few of the newer books, looking for paranormal studies focusing on children. Many of the tests were worthless, since they were so loosely supervised that it would have been extremely simple for the young subjects to cheat. Jesse was clearly out of these kids’ league.
    Joe thumbed through a few books and put them back on the shelf. Nothing here would be of much—
    Crash.
    He jumped. It sounded like an explosion.
    Crash.
Another one. On the other side of the