Chapter 14 Divination
Divination
I couldn’t sleep, so I hunched over the light of my computer, researching witches and water.
I confirmed some of what I already supposed—that Rusalki were Eastern European water spirits who bedeviled men.
They were always female, and were considered to be the unquiet ghosts of women or girls who’d killed themselves or been murdered by drowning.
They then sought revenge by drowning men besotted by their watery charms.
Some academics suggested that Rusalki were fallen fertility spirits or corrupted genii loci.
Much of the lore was rooted in blatant sexism: a woman’s highest calling was to be a mother, and a woman who became a Rusalka could never be that.
The best she could do would be to abduct living children, which never went over well.
As in much folklore involving supernatural feminine forces, Rusalki eventually devolved into witches and seductresses. A Rusalka was the dark feminine incarnate, uncontrollable and rejecting the natural order of death and life.
Did they have any connection to my father’s Forest God, Veles?
They certainly came from the same part of Europe.
I suspected that Veles, or some fragment of him, had hitchhiked with my father, from his travels.
Or maybe they were universal forces, and that was just what my father called them—I didn’t have enough of a background in theology or folklore to guess.
My father had killed dozens of women. Why was it so hard to believe that something wanted revenge? Someone…a Rusalka? As a girl, I found him easy to love. As a woman, he was an object of hate.
I struggled with believing in the Forest God, in that shadowy spirit crowned with antlers that my father had killed for.
I had encountered him, and I’d been terrified.
But maybe that was one anomaly, one blip in my consciousness and the consciousness of this place.
Why couldn’t I simply buy the idea of nymphs drifting about in rivers, searching for prey?
I probed my resistance. Maybe it was because I’d then have to admit that the world at large was stranger and more disturbing than just my father’s corner of it. That I was peeling back the edges of reality, and afraid to look at what lay beneath.
And why that grubby corner of unreality wanted me.
I headed over to Viv’s, rolling into her driveway just before eleven a.m. There was a car in the driveway I didn’t recognize: a yellow Volkswagen Beetle with a Coexist bumper sticker. Didn’t seem like the kind of ride Jeff Sumner would take, so I relaxed.
I walked up to the front porch and knocked on the screen door, peering into the darkness beyond.
Viv came to the door. “Yes?”
“Could we talk?”
“I’m in the middle of something…” She looked over her shoulder, toward the kitchen. “If you want to wait out here, that’s fine.”
I settled into the creaky porch swing.
But I wasn’t alone on the porch. The fox, Sinoe, was curled on a cushion under one of the chairs, watching me over her fluffy tail.
I extended my hand down for her to sniff. I was too far away for her to touch me without climbing out of her nest and sliding under the wicker coffee table.
She watched me, untrusting.
Sinoe was entirely different than Gibby.
Gibby was domesticated, despite all his faults.
He craved approval, food, and his favorite spot in bed.
This one…was not. I could tell by the way she looked at me that she was not tame.
She chose to stay with Viv and reap the benefits of that relationship.
But I had no doubt, looking at her, that she could flee at a moment’s notice and never come back.
I withdrew my arm. She continued to watch me.
The window beside me was open, and I could see Viv and another woman seated at the kitchen table. Viv was laying cards on the table. The cardboard whirred as she shuffled and drew.
“Don’t worry,” Viv said. “This relationship is gonna be good for you. See this? This is the King of Cups. He’s going to be loyal to you.”
I couldn’t see the other woman’s face beyond a curtain of dark hair. “Is he the one? Should I say yes?”
Viv put more cards on the table. “The Two of Cups shows a successful partnership. He’s the man for you. He’s your happily-ever-after.”
Card readings. I wasn’t surprised that Viv had a side hustle. What surprised me was that there were enough people who believed in such things in Bayern County to make a business of it.
I looked at the coffee table before me. Viv’s mail was there.
I touched the stack with the toe of my shoe.
Looked like bills. Junk mail. An envelope from a medical center.
And something with letterhead from the nearby university, addressed to Viv.
It was open and partially crumpled. People usually only did that with bad news.
After some time of murmuring over cups and swords, the screen door opened, and a brunette woman was wiping tears from her face and smiling at Viv.
“It’s going to be good,” Viv told the woman, hugging her. “It’s okay to believe in love.”
The woman nodded and walked down the porch steps. She got into her Volkswagen and drove away.
Viv watched her go, and turned to me. “You’re not here for a reading, I take it, Lt. Koray?”
“I’ve got some questions. Can you tell me where you were last night?”
Viv lifted a brow. Her eyes were puffy, and she looked a little hungover. She sat down in the chair Sinoe had claimed. The fox’s black nose reached out to touch Viv’s calf. “Well, I got some bad news, and I went to the bar for a drink.”
“You mind me asking what kind of bad news?”
She looked down at the mail with the return address from the university. “I had a little dream of maybe becoming a biologist, once upon a time. Didn’t pan out.” I could see her jaw hardening. Being tough.
I considered probing the edges of that rejection, but decided to leave it alone.
“Any witnesses?” I asked.
“What’s this about?” Viv asked, irritation creeping into her voice. Sinoe lifted her head and stared at me. Sensing movement, Viv reached under her chair to scratch her ears.
I showed her a picture of the vandalized Corvette on my phone. “Do you know who might have done this?”
Viv squinted at it. “Where’s this?”
“Lister’s car dealership.”
Viv laughed. “Glad someone improved his car.”
A shrill cackle emanated from under Viv’s chair. My gaze fell on Sinoe. She’d rolled onto her back, exposing her belly to Viv, and was cackling at me. It was an eerie laugh—much like the way crow voices sounded almost human, but not quite.
I tried to stick to business. “I’m going to need the approximate time you were at the bar.”
“I was there from nine until closing. My boss saw me. He actually drove me home, because I was in no shape to drive.”
I frowned. I knew Owen to be a decent dude, but it sounded like he was her go-to alibi. More than I liked.
Viv shrugged. “Is there anything else?”
“I’ve been looking at your sister’s case, and I want to make sure I’m not missing anything.”
Viv picked a pack of cigarettes from her pocket, tapped out one, and lit it. Her eyes shone. “Get to the point.”
Well, so much for easing into the idea. “I want to talk to your mother to see what she remembers.”
It was a big ask. Depending on the mother’s mental state, she might not take well to this kind of questioning.
She flicked some ash into a tray on the windowsill. “You don’t need my permission for that.”
“Your mother’s in a mental institution. You’re her next of kin.”
“All right, then.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
Viv smiled. “But I want something from you first.”
“What is it?”
She blew smoke out. “I want to read your cards.”
“Why?”
“I’m curious about you. I’m not curious about most people. I want to know what your motives are. And Sinoe likes you.” She looked down at the fox, who was gazing at me with half-lidded eyes.
“My motive is to solve this case.”
“Everyone has many motives, and I want to know I can trust you. Besides, you’re interesting. You have a lot of old energy about you, and I like poking at things.”
My knee-jerk reaction was that tarot cards were bullshit.
Reading them was just some con she was running on gullible people with turbulent romantic lives.
Or maybe she believed in them herself; I wasn’t sure.
It felt like she was trying to roll me in a scam, but I was willing to let her try, to open myself a sliver to that magical life she led and see if she could tell me the truth.
“All right.” I’d play the game.
Viv set her cigarette in the ashtray and went into the house. Sinoe rolled over onto four feet and watched me with suspicion. I was just as suspicious of her mom.
Viv came back with a small parcel wrapped in a scarf. She unwrapped it, revealing a deck of cards with black-and-white designs. She handed the deck to me.
“Shuffle.”
The cards were worn, their edges curling. I felt the paper whir in my fingers as I shuffled once, twice, three times. They felt a little sticky, like the paper was humid and wanted to cling to itself.
“Please cut the deck three times with your left hand.”
I did as instructed, then handed the deck back to her.
Viv bent over the coffee table. “First question I’ve got is…who are you?”
She drew a card and put it on the table. She turned it over, revealing a picture of the moon rising over a mountain. A woman’s face was in the moon, and it wept on the land below. A dog and a crayfish rose out of a river, the dog baying at the moon.
“You see things that others don’t. If you listened to your intuition, a whole dark world would open to you, the primeval connections between things.” A smile played at the corners of her lips.
I leaned back in the swing, mentally refusing to participate further.
“And what do you want?” Viv asked. I let her talk to herself. This required no input from me.