Fatal Charm Page 14

  Sick to my stomach, I nodded. “And I couldn’t stop him … it was over so fast.”

  “You have any idea who he was?”

  “Crystal’s boyfriend, I guess. He seemed really mad, called her awful names. I thought maybe she was cheating on him and he found out. But I don’t know his name.”

  “The police will find him. Don’t worry.”

  “Does that mean you believe me?”

  His brows knit together, studying me, and he cleared his throat.

  I’ll never know what he was going to say because right then there was a roaring noise. The ground rumbled like an avalanche and glowing lights cut through the snowy night.

  A voice echoed into the darkness, “NEED HELP?”

  The snow plow had found us.

  We were rescued.

  *

  I couldn’t talk about astral travel or murder in front of the burly, black-haired woman who drove the snow plow. Her name was Dyanne and despite her tough appearance, her voice was shrill like a little girl’s. After calling for a tow truck, she’d invited us into her heated truck and offered us steaming coffee from a thermos and some chocolate chip cookies. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten. But I only managed a few sips of coffee and turned down the cookies.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about … murder.

  What was happening at Jade’s house? Had the killer gone after her next? Or had he gotten away with murder because I hadn’t been able to stop him?

  Poor Jade.

  Finding your own mother dead had to be the worst thing ever. What would happen to Jade now? Were there other people living in that house that would care for her or would Dad have to step up to being her father? She was older than me, at least seventeen, so maybe she could live on her own—funded by Dad, of course.

  But nothing could replace her mother, I thought guiltily. Too awful to think about … and I’d watched without saving her. The killer might go after Jade next unless I called the police. But if I called them, how could I explain knowing about a crime that took place over two hundred miles away?

  Totally unbelievable. If I hadn’t been there, I doubt I’d believe it myself. It was already starting to feel like a bad dream. Shock and exhaustion confused my thoughts. Was there any chance I had dreamt it?

  Dreams came out of subconscious thoughts, and on some level I may have wanted revenge on Crystal and Jade. Hadn’t I wished they would go away and leave my family alone? I resented them for stealing my father.

  Could the whole murder scene have been a bad dream?

  No. Everything inside me said it was real. I may have wanted Crystal out of my father’s life, but I never wanted her dead. Besides, with her dead, Jade would be motherless and more reliant on her natural father.

  My father! I thought with a snap of my fingers. I had to call him right away. He’d know what to do.

  I still had no signal for my phone, but Dyanne’s had worked to call a tow truck, so I asked to borrow hers. She graciously handed it over. Then I moved out of hearing range and quickly dialed my father.

  “Sabine?” my mother asked sleepily.

  Damn—not my father. “Mom, can I speak to Dad?”

  “Do you have any idea how late it is?”

  “I have to speak with Dad.”

  “Your father is asleep. Can’t it wait till morning?”

  “I have to speak with him now,” I repeated firmly. I added that it had nothing to do with her or our family; that Nona and I were fine. Then I insisted again on speaking only to my father.

  With a huff of indignation, Mom left the line.

  Seconds later, Dad came on, groggy, wanting to know why I was calling at two in the morning.

  Two? Was it that late? I’d totally lost conception of time, only moments marked in fear. Something about his concerned voice broke me down and I sobbed, “Daddy, something awful’s happened.”

  “What is it?” Dad was instantly alert. “Where are you?”

  “The snowstorm is over and the tow truck is on the way to pull us out of the snow, so we’re okay now. But that’s not what I’m calling about … it’s Crystal—” I cut off, afraid to say more.

  How could I tell him that a woman he once loved had been strangled and that I’d watched it happen without doing anything?

  He whispered for me to wait a moment, and I heard him tell Mom that he needed to finish this talk privately. I knew she wouldn’t like that, but that was the least of my concerns. Dad was using his lawyer voice, feeding Mom a story about how I needed some legal advice for a friend from school who’d been unjustly arrested.

  I cringed at the word “arrested.” Dad’s fictional excuse came too close to reality. What would he think if he knew I’d become a thief?

  A few minutes later, Dad said, “We can talk freely now. What about Crystal?”

  “Oh Dad … I’m so sorry.” Then I told him everything that happened while I astral traveled. I tried to make astral travel sound ordinary, but this went against his belief system. Dad always stayed clear of my arguments with Mom about being psychic, humoring me but never accepting my connection with the other side.

  When I got to the part about Crystal’s killer, I sensed he shut off.

  “You had a nightmare,” he told me.

  “No. It really happened.”

  I tried to explain but he just wasn’t listening. Still, I wouldn’t let him off that easily and challenged him to prove I’d dreamed the whole thing by calling Crystal. If she was fine, then I’d accept it was all a dream.

  I only wished it were.

  Dad argued against calling anyone at this time of the morning. I said if he didn’t, I’d call the police and they’d go to her house. He wasn’t happy with me, but he agreed to check it out.

  Feeling like I’d finally done something right, I returned the phone to Dyanne. She stuck around until the tow truck arrived, then drove off with a hearty wave. It didn’t take long for the tow truck to pull Dominic’s truck free. I was glad there wasn’t any real damage to the truck, and it started right up.

  Once we were on the road again, I told Dominic about calling my father.

  “Good idea,” he approved.

  “I hope Jade’s all right … not that I like her or anything … but it’ll be hard enough losing her mother.”

  “Yeah, that’s rough … if it’s what happened.” From his tone I realized that he didn’t believe me about Crystal. He thought it was a dream … which hurt.

  I avoided talking by pretending to sleep. Only I guess I pretended too well because suddenly the truck was slowing, and when I opened my eyes we were driving down Nona’s gravel road.

  The ranch house was darkened, except for a yellow glow from the porch.

  All at once, I felt a jump of excitement. Home—at last! And we had the remedy book. I couldn’t wait to see Nona’s face when we told her. She would be so happy. And once we found someone to decipher the book, she could throw all those memory notes away forever.

  “Are you going to tell her tonight?” Dominic asked as I stepped out of the truck.

  “I hate to wake her up. It’s almost morning anyway.”

  “So get some sleep first.”

  “I already slept enough.” I didn’t add that I was afraid of where I might travel if I fell asleep again.

  Dominic came over and slipped his arms around my shoulders. “After everything settles down, we have some talking to do.”

  My heart soared. “I know.”

  “But Nona comes first.” He bent down and brushed a soft kiss across my forehead. “See you at breakfast.”

  Smiling, I reached up to touch my forehead. My fingers smoothed over the spot where his kiss still warmed my skin. So many emotions played inside me that I wasn’t sure what to feel. Happy, nervous, scared? I yawned. I’d sort it all out in the morning.

  The house was dark. As I stepped inside, I flipped on a light—and saw a blanketed figure sleeping on the couch.

  “Velvet?” I did a doub
le-take. “What are you doing here?”

  “Shush, Sabine,” Velvet said with a finger to her lips. She sat up halfway, blinking at the light. “Don’t wake your grandmother. She’s had a rough day.”

  “Oh, no. What happened?”

  “No reason for alarm, she’s fine now.” Velvet yawned, adjusting her blanket around her shoulders. “Nona’s assistant, that dear girl, couldn’t get in touch with you and found my number under an emergency contact list. So she called me and I rushed right over. When I got here, Nona was just sitting at the kitchen table, staring down at her hands without talking. She didn’t even recognize me.”

  “No!” I sank into a chair by the couch.

  “I kept talking to her, trying to prompt her memory,” Velvet said. “She gave me quite a fright and I nearly took her to a hospital. But I know I wouldn’t appreciate being treated like an invalid. I made her a warm supper and she started sounding like herself again. I convinced her to go to bed. She fell right asleep and I stayed to watch over her.”

  “Thank you so much. I appreciate you coming here—especially with all the trouble you’ve had lately. Did they ever catch the guy who trashed your shop?”

  “No, but insurance covered the repairs and I’m back in business. There haven’t been any further threats either.”

  “I’m glad.” I added softly, “You’re a wonderful friend to Nona.”

  “She’d do the same for me. But I wish she had swallowed her pride and confided that she wasn’t well, although I knew something odd was going on.” Velvet reached out for my hand. “Tell me the truth—does she have Alzheimer’s?”

  “No, but she is sick.”

  “With what?”

  “A hereditary illness that affects her memory and will worsen without the cure.”

  “If there’s a cure, then why in heavens hasn’t she taken it?”

  “We only found the cure tonight. I just hope it isn’t too late.” I sighed, feeling the lump of the book through my jacket. “But the remedy book is old and hard to read. We have to find a linguist to decipher the writing. Then the ingredients might be hard to find. That could take days or weeks even. What if Nona doesn’t have that long?”

  “Your grandmother is one tough lady and has friends like me who will do anything to help her. No matter how rare the ingredients, I’ll find them. As for a linguist, I may be able to help you there, too.”

  I stared at her. “You know a linguist?”

  “Not a professional, but someone with a degree in history and languages.”

  “Who?”

  “You’re looking at her.” Velvet chuckled. “Close your mouth, dear, and please hand over that book.”

  Velvet insisted I go to sleep, and I didn’t have the energy to argue.

  I slept heavily with no dreams—or any wayward astral traveling.

  When I awoke, the sun had replaced stormy clouds and shone brightly through a slit in my curtains. I hoped it was a good omen, that sunshine would banish all dark clouds. Nona would get well and she’d be thrilled to find out I was dating Dominic. Everything would be great—for me anyway.

  But not for Jade.

  How selfish and inconsiderate could I be? A woman had died and I was only thinking about myself. I mean, Jade had lost her mother. Her mother. That was beyond horrible. As much as I disagreed with my mother on almost everything, I loved her and couldn’t bear to think about losing her.

  What kind of hell was Jade going through? Her whole world had changed in one horrible night. Add the violence of murder, and that made it a zillion times worse. If we were real sisters, like I was with Amy and Ashley, I’d go to Jade and offer support. I hoped she had tons of friends and relatives with strong shoulders to lean against.

  Did that include Dad?

  Okay, this thought made me a little jealous. But I understood he had to be with her. She’d already lost her stepfather (I guessed he was the spirit named Douglas who was concerned enough about Jade to contact me through the séance).

  If Dad was with Jade, that explained why he hadn’t called me. He was busy shielding her from reporters and the police. That was the right thing for him to do—no matter how I felt about it. Jade would need a father and a lawyer. With a police investigation, all the sordid details about Dad and Crystal would probably come out.

  But would the killer be caught? What if he’d gotten away without any witnesses (other than me) and no evidence connecting him to the crime? I’d seen enough crime dramas on TV to know that the person who a) found the body and b) reported the crime was always a prime suspect.

  Had my call to Dad put him in the “b” category? What if the police suspected him?

  I sat up in bed, hugging my pillow to my chest and staring at framed pictures hanging over my dresser. One of the pictures showed Dad and me together, decked out in ski suits, when I was just nine and trying out the bunny slope. I’d loved this picture because it was just the two of us. The twins were too little to ski, so they’d stayed behind in the lodge with Mom. There hadn’t been too many private moments with Dad since then, but I always felt special as his eldest daughter.

  But Jade was older than me.

  I tried to guess the sequence of events after I called Dad last night.

  Logically, when he tried to call Crystal, Jade would have answered. If she didn’t know about her mother, she’d go into the room and make that horrible discovery. Or if she already knew, she’d be hysterical. Either way, Dad would rush right over to take care of her. And at some point, he’d call the police. He was a lawyer after all, sworn to uphold the law. But he also didn’t want Mom to know about Crystal, and bringing in the police meant exposing his secrets.

  Not an easy choice for Dad.

  Would Jade be able to answer questions without involving my father? She’d been sleeping when her mother was murdered, so she wouldn’t know much. Still, she must know the identity of the bow-legged guy since he was dating her mother. Jade would know his name and probably where he lived. She could lead the police to the murderer, and Dad wouldn’t have to be involved.

  Unless Jade didn’t know about the guy.

  Then the police would turn their suspicion to the reporter of the crime: Dad. If they asked Dad how he knew what happened when he lived way across town, what would Dad say? That his psychic daughter witnessed the murder while astral traveling?

  No one would believe that. Dad didn’t even believe me, so he’d have to come up with a lie or refuse to answer—which would make him look even guiltier.

  Oh, no, Dad, I thought, we’re in deep trouble.

  I dug into my handbag for my cell and punched in Dad’s number. I waited for him to pick up. But all I got was his voicemail.

  Should I try his office or the house? A glance at the clock told me it was too early for him to be at work. But it was about the time Mom drove my sisters to their private school, so I might be able to catch Dad at home.

  But after five rings, the machine picked up.

  With a bitter taste of fear in my mouth, I stared at my phone. Why wasn’t Dad answering? Was he still helping Jade? Or had he been arrested for murder?

  I groaned. This was all my fault. I got Dad into this mess, so it was up to me to get him out. I’d go to San Jose and describe the real murderer to the police.

  There were plenty of holes in this plan, but I couldn’t just wait around doing nothing. So I jumped out of bed, hastily tossing on jeans and a green-striped sweatshirt. I tried to think of everything I’d need: my wallet, money, keys to Nona’s car, and my cell phone. I knew Nona wouldn’t mind me borrowing her car in an emergency, and she was one of the few people who wouldn’t blink at the words “astral travel.” Besides, until she was well, she shouldn’t be driving anyway.

  My cell rang.

  “Dad!” I grabbed the phone.

  The ID showed it wasn’t my father, which was such a huge disappointment I had to force myself not to snap at my caller. “Hi, Pen … What’s up?”

  “About time!�
�� Her voice oozed accusation. “I tried calling you yesterday when your grandmother was going psycho on me. It was scary, her losing it and no one else being here to help. Dominic was gone. You were gone. I would have totally freaked if I hadn’t found Velvet’s number.”

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that, but Nona is better now.”

  “Well … that’s great to hear. But I still have issues with you. Like where have you been? Why haven’t you returned my calls and emails?”

  “I’ve been busy.”

  “Busy doing what?”

  “Dominic and I had to go get some … uh … special medicine for Nona.”

  “So she is sick. I thought it was something mental like bipolar. But you could have told me—we are best friends. And why didn’t you return my messages?”

  “I never got them. My phone didn’t work in the snowstorm. Then the road was shut down and by the time I got home it was so late I went to bed.”

  “Let me get this straight—a snowstorm? Struggling to stay warm with that hottie Dominic? Does Josh know? Ooh, tell me all.” Penny-Love may only be a C student in math, but when it came to adding up juicy details, she was a genius.

  But I couldn’t tell her I was breaking up with Josh. Not before telling Josh. So I put her off, insisting that it was no big deal. I used that worn-out line about Dominic being “just a friend.” Then I told her that I wouldn’t be at school because I had to see my father (another half-truth). She was all questions, but I cut her off by saying I had another call.

  Then I grabbed my stuff and headed downstairs. I figured Nona would still be asleep, so I’d just borrow her car keys and explain later. But as I walked by her office, the door was open and she was working at her desk.

  “Wow,” I murmured with an astonished shake of my head. “Nona, you’re working? How are you feeling?”

  “Embarrassed. I don’t remember much about last night, but from what Velvet told me before she left this morning, I owe Penny-Love an apology.”

  “You talked with Velvet?” I stepped closer into the room. “Did she tell you about the remedy book?”

  “Yes. It’s wonderful news! Thank you.”

  “And Dominic,” I added.

  “Of course. I owe you both so much.” Nona smiled in a way that was so familiar that my heart warmed. “Velvet is confident she’ll have the remedy within a few days.”