Chapter 27
Adeline squared her shoulders and reentered the conference room. She moved to the seat she’d vacated but didn’t sit down. Instead, she surveyed the law enforcement personnel around the table. Wyatt waltzed in and Sullenger’s face beamed. Adeline resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
“Here’s the deal,” Adeline began. “I don’t swim.
I don’t do water sports of any kind. No boats.
No nothing. I have nightmares about drowning.
” She fixed her attention on Ferguson. “Cherry Prescott had recently started having nightmares about drowning her daughter.” Before the man could rationalize or dismiss that fact, Adeline pushed on.
“She was so terrified of what she might do to her daughter that she refused to bathe her. I don’t know what this means.
” Adeline turned her palms up. “I don’t believe in psychic connections or any of that shit.
But this is real.” Her gaze bored into Ferguson’s.
“Trust me, the fear Cherry felt—if it was anything like mine—is damned real.” Adeline shifted her gaze to Cummings.
“Call the husband. Call her friends. Whoever you have to. Find out if Penny was afraid of the water. In the past or now. Whether we understand how it relates to this case or not, we need to know.”
Silence thickened in the air for three seconds.
Womack shuffled his papers, cleared his throat. “We’ve had a few crank calls related to the disappearances.”
Adeline’s attention flew to him. “Explain.”
“As you all know, we’ve taken hundreds of calls,” Womack went on.
“In the beginning some were useful. A couple of locals who saw Prescott in town the day she went missing. But, for the most part, they’ve been a waste of time.
A blond woman might have been spotted but it wasn’t Prescott.
It happens anytime you have a high profile case like this. ”
Making a rolling motion with her hand, Adeline urged him to get to the point. Since he’d brought the subject up, he must have a point.
“But late yesterday I got a weird one.”
“Weird how?” Wyatt asked.
Adeline kept her gaze away from him. Each time she looked him in the eye she understood one very important fact.
She was a liar. This morning had changed everything.
He’d gotten all the way inside her . . .
physically, mentally. She had to focus on this case.
If there was any chance Prescott and Arnold were still alive, Adeline had to do all within her power to find them. And to stop this psycho bastard.
“Well,” Womack said, “we’ve had a few. Aliens took her. That sort of thing. But this one was different.” The older detective’s gaze settled on Adeline’s. “This one claimed to be one of those psychics you don’t believe in.”
Anticipation and fear pounded from Adeline’s every pore. He wouldn’t have brought this up if there wasn’t something bigger coming . . . something relevant. “What’d she have to say?” The tiny hairs on her body lifted as if on some level she sensed this was immensely important.
“The caller claimed the women were close to the water,” Womack shook his head, “and that if we didn’t find them soon they would be under the water.”
Chills spilled across Adeline’s skin. Her core temperature dropped significantly. “I want to talk to her. Bring her in. Today. Now.”
Womack looked from her to Wyatt, who gave him a nod. “I’ll get right on it.”
A cell phone buzzed.
Half the people at the table checked their screens.
Detective Cummings stepped away from the group and took the call. The others gathered around the table resumed the discussion. Sullenger recited the steps that had been taken and the ongoing theme of finding nothing.
Adeline told herself to pay attention, but she couldn’t shake Womack’s words. Her phone vibrated against her waist. She ignored it. Probably her mom. Or worse, the chief.
. . . under the water.
She had to talk to this woman. As crazy as it sounded, her words were too eerily pertinent to ignore.
Psychic connection or no.
Cummings returned to the table. “That was one of Stone County’s deputies.
” He settled into his chair, his face pale with whatever news he had learned.
“You were right.” He glanced at Adeline.
“Her husband confirmed that Penny Arnold was terrified of water. She wouldn’t even go with the family on outings if water was involved. ”
Shit. Adeline schooled her expression, beating down that uncharacteristic fear that kept gnawing at her.
She didn’t want the others to see the impact his words carried.
The idea that both Prescott and Adeline had fears related to water could be chalked up to coincidence.
But having yet another victim share that same trait, that was no coincidence.
This, as vague as it was, could be their first step toward a tangible link.
“There’s more,” Cummings related. “The reason the deputy called wasn’t because of Arnold’s fear of the water.
I asked him that question only just now.
He advised that the husband had mentioned her fear of water, but the deputy hadn’t considered it to be relevant to the investigation, which is why that detail wasn’t in his report.
” Cummings looked around the table, the gravity of what he had to say in his eyes.
“We may actually have just gotten our first break. One of Arnold’s colleagues remembered that she had been visited just over a week ago—right before she left for Phoenix—by Cherry Prescott. ”
Shock punched Adeline in the gut. Every face in the room wore that same reaction. “What was the purpose of the visit? Was Prescott interested in some real estate listing that Arnold represented?”
“The woman has no idea.” Cummings collapsed against the back of his chair. “Prescott and Arnold met in her office, door closed. But,” he added, “whatever they discussed, Arnold was visibly upset when the other woman left.”
“There has to be something between these women that we’re missing,” Ferguson proclaimed. He turned to Adeline. “If you’re the next victim, the answer lies with you.”
His words bumped against Adeline’s sternum. Her phone vibrated insistently. She grabbed it from its holster and checked the screen primarily so she could ignore Ferguson’s scrutiny.
A text message.
Sender unknown.
Adeline tapped the key to download the message.
An image filled the screen.
Penny Arnold. Face all made up with too much makeup. Tiara perched on her head in exactly the same manner as the one Prescott had worn in the first photo.
Two dead princesses, one to go.