Gumshoe Telepath - Drunk

Here is yet another chapter of my slowly developing futuristic detective story. The last chapter had action and this one presents action of a different kind.

As we sat in the car, still panting from our rushed escape, I reflected on our last dizzying half hour. It had been amazing and humiliating at the same time. Or, to be more accurate, Kirsten had been amazing while I was humiliated. Why? Well, we were making our escape from the O'Leery Estate, having snuck in so that Kirsten could do a vibesweep of the crime scene. We were almost to the ocean-view cliffs at the rear of the grounds, and a scrambling climb to freedom, when, just a few metres short of the cliff face, I tripped!

There I was, splayed on the lawn, with vicious guard dogs almost upon us. Kirsten acted immediately by turning to face those hounds and what she did next was, as I say, amazing, and more than a little disturbing.

Kirsten crouched low in a primal pose drawn, so it seemed, from ancestral memory, and began growling at the dogs. I knew that this pantomime was only the outward refection of some telepathic acrobatics Kirsten was performing. It worked. The dogs stopped short and, whimpering, ran off back towards the O'Leery Mansion. Kirsten then turned back to me, and with surprising strength, lifted me to my feet, and we got away before the human guards could get to us.

So, now we were sitting in my 2010 vintage Camero, having driven to the closest shopping centre carpark to take a rest and ensure that nobody had followed us. Kirsten was sitting, staring out the window, and saying nothing. I decided some of my finely honed banter would get her talking.

"So, um, so..."

I decided to have another shot.

"Thanks for, um, for..."

I wanted to thank Kirsten for saving my hide from nasty canine attentions. I was just embarrassed. I was the street-wise member of this crime busting duo. I was supposed to use her unusual skills while insulating her from the gritty aspects of the job. I was...

I suddenly felt warm, wet lips locking with mine. Kirsten leaned into me from the front passenger seat and was all over me. I was astounded. For years Kirsten had snubbed my overtures to her, and now this? What had happened? Why did I even care? Danger does interesting things to those who experience it. That was it! She had finally admitted her attraction to me because we had risked our lives together. Go for it Derrick, I thought, live in the moment.

As my left hand strayed from her waist to her hips, I felt Kirsten’s lips caressing my earlobe, and as my right hand felt for bra strap I experienced the thrill of those same lips sliding down my neck. She was one hot dame I can tell you. And then there were grazing teeth and a guttural growl from her solar plexus, and it dawned on me.

It was the telepathy that had done this. Kirsten never made telepathic contact with animals because the act of thinking at them, thinking like them, altered her mental state and with it her behaviour. She was acting like a carnivore in Spring because she had made telepathic contact with dogs. In other words she was intoxicated, drunk on telepathy rather than alcohol but drunk nonetheless. There was only one thing to do.

We were kissing once more, but you can only do so many things with your mouth, so I started talking, asking Kirsten to cool it, reminding her that we had just escaped from the home of a crime duopoly. For a moment she looked like she wanted to rend me limb from limb, then her face went blank, and she sat back in her seat.

Staring forward once more, Kirsten mumbled "take me home then go away." That is exactly what I did. As I left her door, I told her I would ring in the morning and then we could discuss her telepathic findings. She looked exhausted. I was too. I got home too tired to think but too stimulated to sleep. My dreams were haunted by kaleidoscopic images of the night I could have had. Sometimes the images of human forms would be replaced by those of dogs... snarling rutting dogs.

* * * * *

The next morning I rang Kirsten, hoping that she was her normal, reserved, human self. She was, and her image on the holo-projector even gave me a wan smile, which relaxed me.

"Thanks for taking me home Derrick."

"Well it was the end of a long night, Kirsten, and that’s what we do after a job."

"Well, thanks anyway."

"Had a chance to let the vibesweep percolate in your noggin?"

"Yes, and, Derrick, this is gonna blow you away..."

I had other things on my mind that would blow me away, but we were back on the case now, and Kirsten seemed over her canine mindset. She told me that, at both the O’Leery and the Masonite residences, she had sensed the same presence, the same personality, that had killed both crime bosses. Witness accounts told a different story, that both crime bosses had killed each other, at the same time in different locations. What Kirsten was now telling me seemed like an impossible answer to the impossible question of our case.

"How can that be, Kirsten?"

"I can only think of one thing, Derrick, and it's bloody insane - telepathic twin assassins!"

"That is bloody insane! We gotta work on this – meet at the Roundtree for lunch?"

"Sure, see you then, and bring an open mind."

As the image of Kirsten faded I sat there mentally reeling. If anything could take my mind off my still buzzing hormones it was this. Life had suddenly gotten like some kind of science fiction novel, and for the first time I wondered whether we were biting off more than we could chew.

I feel like this is a bit rushed but wanted to publish it nonetheless and can always polish it later. I feel I have both explored a kind of scene that is challenging to pen - an amorous one - while also developing the characters and story some more. And now I have the telepathic twin assassins concept I wonder what I will do with it.

The rest of this now completed story can be accessed via this listing.