Out of Mind by Stella Cameron

now.
    “How did that happen?” Blades asked. Actual concern replaced his usually impassive expression. “I didn’t hear about it.”
    Nat shook his head. “I said I don’t think the Fourniers are in custody. I didn’t get a definite answer.”
    “Because they think they can keep the lid on this,” Blades said. He looked ruffled, not something Nat remembered witnessing before. “The fools, they’re shoving their heads in the sand. This is going to make things harder.”
    “Why?” Gray said, returning to the conversation. “What kind of burr got stuck under your saddle? You didn’t get us over here to discuss—”
    “I didn’t get you over here at all,” Blades said.
    Nat cleared his throat. “You said there was something interesting you wanted to show me, Dr. Blades,” he said and winced when he heard Gray mutter what sounded like “Dr. Death,” under his breath. The last time Gray called the man that it had been out loud and had caused antagonism between them that had lasted for years and still continued.
    Blades must have heard, too, but he set his jaw and ignored Gray. “We got a body in this afternoon. Heart attack.”
    Nat’s own heart quickened. “You mean Billy Baker?”
    “How did you know?” Blades’s frown bunched his hairless brow over his eyes.
    “I was called in before they decided it was a heart attack,” Nat said.
    “It was a heart attack.”
    A rap on the doorjamb got their attention. “Excuse me,” Ben Fortune said. “I was told I’d find you here.”
    It wasn’t easy for Nat to cover his surprise.
    “Who are you?” Blades said.
    “This is Ben Fortune,” Gray said, his eyes wide and innocent. “Sykes must have sent you over, Ben. I guess he couldn’t get here himself.”
    “Right,” Ben said.
    With any luck Blades wouldn’t figure out that neither Sykes nor Ben should know anything about this meeting, but Nat wasn’t fooled. He had just run into Gray on the street when Blades’s call came in. They had come straight here. Nat decided the dormant psychic ability Gray was rumored to have rekindled since he met his wife, Marley, was real. He had contacted Ben telepathically and got him here.
    Nat had witnessed too much evidence of psychic abilities to dismiss their existence and both the Millet and the Fortune families—and who knew what others?—were legendary for their mystical gifts.
    Blades didn’t shake the hand Ben offered.
    “This isn’t a social gathering,” Blades said. “Archer, this is something very serious.”
    “I’ll vouch for Ben,” he said, imagining a scene where he was stripped of his weapon and badge for flouting his superiors. “He’s an old friend with some experience around cases like this.” Once they were out of here, he’d have to nail Ben and Gray to find out what their deal was.
    “Like what?” Blades’s face would have fitted right in on Mount Rushmore.
    “Cases where we may be dealing with supernatural elements.”
    “Did I say anything about that?”
    “You’re going to,” Gray said, making Nat wince.
    “Shut the door,” Blades said in a monotone. “I’ve got something to show you.”
    “Surprise,” Gray muttered.
    Blades let his eyes close momentarily. Beside Ben and Gray, big men who exuded vitality, the doctor resembled a wraith.
    Following the ME, Nat went with Gray through another door into a smaller room where a covered body lay on a steel table.
    Ben shut the outer door, caught up and immediately covered his nose. Gray and Nat did the same thing, but Blades’s expression never changed at the odor.
    “What are you looking for?” Blades asked Ben, who had looked over his shoulders in both directions as if searching for something.
    Ben shrugged, one corner of his mouth turning up. “I thought both bodies might be in here.”
    “There’s only one,” Blades said, looking quizzically at Ben. “So far.” He pulled gloves from a container on the wall and snapped them on. “How come you were called to