Page 43 of Hidden
His eyes followed her as she made her way to the table and greeted Chad and Sabina. She’d put on a pair of jeans today rather than leggings, and they clung to every damn one of her curves. The fitted deep green sweater that hugged her torso didn’t help his libido either.
Before he let his mind remember exactly what she felt like under those clothes, he turned his attention back to the plates.
She’d told him that her words hadn’t been meant the way they sounded. But they’d sure as hell sounded as though she wanted to keep what they’d done a secret. And that wasn’t okay with him.
“Here you go,” he said, sliding a plate in front of her and taking the only other empty seat. Which happened to be beside her.
“I feel like you all are softening the blow for me,” Ellie said as she opened the box, reached in, and plucked out a chocolate bar.
“It’s nothing like that,” Chad said.
Sabina gave him the side-eye, apparently still a little peeved at having her coffee intake cut short. “It’s exactly like that.”
Ellie’s gaze bounced between the two then landed on him. Asher had no idea why his cousin and his wife were visiting so early, so he shrugged.
“Okay. Then can you just lay it out for me? I’d prefer to not dance around the issue,” Ellie said before taking a bite of her doughnut.
Chad held his tongue and looked to Sabina to answer. She huffed in annoyance then spoke. “We know what it was that Ash found, but we don’t know the full repercussions of it. We need to bring in an expert, and the expert we want is Dr. JJ Garcia. You mentioned the other night at the Boom that you’ve been seeing her, so we wanted to get your permission first. We’d be hiring her as an expert. But because she has an existing relationship with you, you have the right to request we ask someone else.”
“Expert for what?” Asher asked.
“What is the option if I say no,” Ellie asked at the same time.
“If you say no, then we find someone else,” Chad said. “There’s a doctor in San Francisco that we can reach out to.”
“Is he or she as good as Dr. Garcia?” Ellie asked.
Chad shook his head. “But he is good.”
“An expert for what?” Asher repeated.
Chad cast Sabina a quick look, and she nodded. “The impacts of infrasonic sound on the human body,” he said.
“What?” both he and Ellie said. Again, at the same time.
“Infrasonic sound,” Sabina said. “Generally, it’s sound that travels at twenty hertz or less per second. With prolonged exposure to those low frequencies, some studies suggest that it can cause issues like you’ve been experiencing, Ellie.”
Ellie frowned. “And that’s what that thing was that Asher found? Something that produces low-frequency sound? And you think it might be responsible for what’s been happening to me?”
Sabina wagged her head from side to side. “The device does produce low-frequency sound. And while we know what it does, we’re not well versed enough on the impacts to weigh in on whether it’s playing a part in your situation.”
“And what exactly is it?” Asher asked. Despite the way he and Ellie left things that morning, the thought of someone intentionally hurting her was unacceptable. And there was no question that the device had been intentionally put beside her bed.
“It’s a small speaker that produces low-frequency sound of around five hertz per second,” Chad answered. “When she got into bed, it would trigger a motion sensor that turned it on. Once on, it would run for a full eight hours.”
“So every night I was subjected to this…infrasound,” Ellie said, leaning back in her chair and setting her doughnut down. She looked as if she’d lost her appetite. He couldn’t blame her. His eggs tasted like sawdust.
“And you think that might be the cause of the issues she’s experiencing?” Asher asked, repeating Ellie’s earlier question.
“Like I said, we don’t know,” Sabina responded. “Decades ago, the government ran some off-book—and unethical—tests on soldiers to measure the effect of prolonged exposure to low-frequency sound. But the documentation on it isn’t great, as you can imagine. The more recent research is complex and, frankly, inconclusive. That’s where Dr. Garcia comes in. She studied it during her PhD. We think she can help us understand if it’s related to your experiences.”
“Yes,” Ellie said. Sabina’s brow dropped. “Yes, call her,” Ellie clarified. “If there’s a chance that the origins of my issues are tied to that thing, I want to know. I think it’s equally important to know if they aren’t.”
“We agree,” Chad said. “We’ve not met her personally, but she popped up on our radar when we started our own research. It’s convenient she’s here in Mystery Lake, but we could still use an introduction,” he said with a meaningful look at Asher.
“Of course,” he said. “My phone’s upstairs. I’ll go grab it and we can give her a call.”
Five minutes later, she’d agreed to meet them at HICC in twenty minutes. When he ended the call, Chad helped him collect the plates then joined him in the kitchen.
