Chapter 7: Odyssey of the Mind

I'm sorry, and I owe you all I just don't have time to explain right now.

Oz groaned.

A creeping sense of awareness let him know he was lying face down on the cold wet tarmac. Inches from his outstretched hand a black rubber tyre bulged under a heavy weight.

The rig… his mind supplied with something of an annoyed tone.

The air pressure in that tyre was far too low. Oz had been due to check them before going out but his partners bad mood had distracted him. Ryder would have his skin if he found out about the oversight.

Oz was about to turn his head and complain to his partner about it when the situation hit him. He was on his feet in a second, gripping the door of the rig with a white knuckled fist as the world spun around him, and his gut churned.

Slowly, trying to keep his head level he scanned around. He was alone. There was no sign of Toby. He thought about taking a walk around, about shouting out, but he didn't think his head could take it, so he leaned into the ambulance and put a call in to dispatch.

You better be alive partner, He thought annoyed, because Rider is going to kill us.

The apartment complex was actually quite nice, especially in contrast to the rest of the institute buildings. Modern and well designed, but with subtle hints of security, and signs of discrete monitoring that made Charlie question whether Eric Carter could be their man.

The young volunteer, who greeted Dr Mercer as Ray, and bounced on her heels like a hopeful ballet dancer, gasped when she realised the police were looking for one of her wards.

"Oh my god what has he done? I mean it not that I think he's done anything it's just that… they were cutting his contact sessions… and well… some of us thought he wasn't coping… that well…"

Her agitated ramble trailed off as Dr Mercer touched her shoulder. "It's alright Annie, we don't know anything for certain, but we want to have a talk with him before he does do something."

It was a lie but once again Charlie was impressed with his ability to manipulate the truth on the fly. "You said you had concerns about him, why?" She asked carefully.

The girl, Annie, glanced at over at the Dr again and waited for his nod before answering. "He's always been withdrawn and found it difficult being out and with 'normal' people but these last couple of months things have been getting worse." She paused for a minute and glanced around guiltily. "He's breaking curfew, and on a couple of occasions he's tried to a avoid taking his meds."

"You reported it?" Dr Mercer asked bluntly

"Yes of course but…" She paused shooting another apprehensive look at him. "He's only on his first warning and some of the Doctors are quicker at responding to our 'concerns' than others."

Charlie winced slightly at her undertone, if Carter was their man the blame game was going to be going on long after the case was closed and from her experience no one came out of those enquiries well. "Is he here now? Can we speak to him?" She asked pushing the growing foreboding to one side.

Annie shook her head vigorously. "No he left early this morning; he has a job at a packing company on the lakeshore."

"In that case can we see his apartment?" Charlie pressed.

There was a long pause. "I'm not sure… Don't you need a warrant for that?"

Charlie sighed and softened her tone. "Look Annie, we aren't going to touch anything or get you into trouble but we do need to take a look if that's okay."

She could tell it wasn't really okay with young woman, but after another nod from Dr Mercer Annie pulled out a set of keys and lead the way to the third floor apartment.

It wasn't a big space but it was cluttered. Papers and notebooks were scattered everywhere. Bending to pick one up Charlie froze instantly. The pages were partially stuck together and as she eased them apart she was confronted with a news paper cutting of the Richmond Park shooting; scrawled next to it the words:

It begins.

With the notebook still in hand she looked out the front window. The CN tower could be seen in the distance. Mentally Charlie compared the view to her memory of the squiggles on the yellow post-it note Toby had shown her.

The rush of adrenalin was instant. The hunt was on. There was no doubt about it, Eric Carter was their gunman; Logan had seen this place in his mind.

She was about to call Dr Mercer over when her phone rang. "Yes." She answered irritably; annoyed at the interruption.

"Detective, I think you need to see this." Dr Mercer was just coming out of the bedroom and she held up a hand to quiet him as she listened… with growing dread… to the speaker on the other end of the line.

"We need to warn Toby." He said the moment she flipped her mobile closed.

Charlie looked past him in to the room he'd just left. On the far wall a solitary picture was pinned up. She recognised it instantly; it was the rather bad photo of Toby and his partner that the ambulance service supplied to the press on occasion, or at least half of it. Ozman Bey and half the ambulance had been torn away, only Toby Logan's grinning face remained.

She turned back to Dr Mercer expression serious. "We're too late."

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Finally he reached the safety of his hideout; and as gently as possible he lowered the body to the floor.

For a moment he knelt just staring at the Mind Thief. His heart was pounding; he couldn't believe it had been that easy. A single doubt flickered through his mind; it shouldn't have been that easy, not if this man was what he thought he was.

Quickly he pulled out a couple of long thick zip ties he'd stolen from work. Binding the Mind Thief's wrists together he hooked another through them and round the rough wooden leg of a fixed work bench.

Gently he placed two fingers against the forehead of the unconscious man, then against the pale lips. The skin was warm and hot breath puffed from the open mouth.

Moving away he checked the contents of the small bag he'd left nearby. Everything was ready. He sat down on the cold floor and leant against a thick concrete pillar.

Now all he had to do was wait.

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