Chapter 1 #2
I shook my head. The first time I’d met her was at the ceremony. “I’m sure she told me she was here, working with you and that you brought her to the ceremony.”
“I did bring her to the ceremony after your,” he paused, then changed what he was going to say, “I mean, Annamae told me she was short on circle participants. You don’t think Catherine was part of this.”
Now everyone was staring at me. “I don’t think so. She felt like she was helping. The word, white, keeps coming to mind. Esmeralda? Did you feel anything off?”
“No, definitely not,” It was Rory, not Esmeralda spoke up. “Catherine was good. I think you’re looking for the term, white witch, Eddie. You all passed my protection test that night. If she was a problem, I would have turned orange like yesterday.”
Esmeralda nodded her agreement to Rory’s statement. “I have to say I added a layer of protection too before I came into town. Don’t look at me like that, Nic, I always do when I come home. There are too many negative souls running around in New Orleans. Alive and dead.”
“She’s right about that,” Tessa, the resident ghost girl, said from my right. I turned to look at her as did several of the others at the table. “Wow, I’m not used to being noticed by so many of the living. I think I’m going back to watch Harry and Forrest play cards.”
I turned back, a smile on my face. “Maybe you all should just stay here with me. It seems that having so many mediums in one room is freaking out at least one of my ghost residents. Maybe it will be quiet around here for once.”
“Having this much power here does raise a concern. Maybe that’s why the guy is focused on New Orleans. The town is known for drawing in our types.” Alexander was on his phone, texting as he talked.
“Could he have followed Catherine from Florida? She said there had been a problem with mediums being killed there too.” I turned away from Boone since he’d given us everything he could and focused on the other ‘law’ man in the room, the knight known as Alexander.
“We haven’t solved the situation in Miami. The killings just stopped. Maybe he did follow Catherine here. Can someone find out when she came into town?” Alexander looked at Boone.
“Sure, I can be the desk grunt. We’re looking into it anyway,” he admitted after getting a stare from Alexander. “Anyway, that’s all I know. What about you?”
I told him about talking to Mercy Sundquist. I had talked with the first fortune teller to be killed in New Orleans.
“She said the motive was the same reason as my mother’s death.
Is there a file somewhere telling you how my parents were killed?
We were told it was a car accident, but during my visit with Mom, she said that was unlikely. ”
Boone blinked a few times. He wrote something down, then set down his pen. “I have to ask. If you were talking to your mother, why didn’t you just ask her who killed her?”
The table went silent as everyone focused on Boone.
Finally, Esmeralda broke the silence. “It might seem strange to you, but what Eddie did, as I understand it, was step back in time. She talked with her very much alive mother in Eddie’s younger body.
You don’t want to push that experience too far.
As I comprehended the visit, Eddie and Nic’s mother was as helpful as she could have been about an event that hadn’t happened to her yet.
How would you like a friend to show up and ask how you died when you haven’t yet? ”
Boone squirmed in his chair. “I guess I can see your point. What else do I need to know about these people who were killed. Anything in common? Same training facility?”
This time I giggled. “We’re born like this, not trained.”
His face turned red. When no one else said anything, he nodded. “Keep me informed of what you find, and I’ll do the same through Eddie. Just be careful. I don’t want to have to explain to my boss why a local antique dealer was killed because she was following our killer into a dark alley.”
“Are there anything but dark alley’s here?” I asked.
“You know what I mean.” He squeezed my hand. “Just be safe. I’d hate to lose you.”
When he didn’t let go of my hand as quickly as Bubba would have liked, I felt Bubba move to stand behind me. “I can walk you out, Detective.”
Boone cleared his throat and let go of my hand. He closed the laptop and put it in his backpack. “Please, all of you be careful. This man seems serious about wiping fortune tellers out of New Orleans.”
Boone told Bubba that he knew his way out, and then left, shutting the door to the conference room.
“His methods might be by the book, but he’s not wrong. This is dangerous for any of you who have a bit of shine to you. Maybe you should sit this investigation out.” Alexander looked around the room.
“Catherine can’t make that choice, so neither can I,” I met Alexander’s gaze. “Where do you think we should start?”
We divide up into three groups. One for each woman, missing or dead. And we all had at least three people in the group. Rory came with me and Bubba. Lilac would be with Nic and Esmeralda. And Alexander would work with Annamae and Kirk. No one would be out looking for clues alone.
“This is rule number one – stay safe. Rule number two is remember rule number one.” I said as we finished assigning each victim to a group.
We had Mercy. She’d showed herself to me once and then again outside the college.
Nic’s group would work on Alicia Moore, the second fortune teller to die at the Canal Street shop.
Finally, Alexander’s group would see what they could learn about finding Catherine.
I’d wanted to be everywhere, part of all three groups, but I got how this worked better than my initial reaction to do it all, myself, in three feet of snow and trudging five miles to school both ways. Uphill.
Our group stayed in the conference room as the others dispersed to gather their missing members. I leaned back in my chair and smiled at Rory. “I’m betting you’re reconsidering joining Esmerelda’s jaunt to fix a redescent ghost and convince him to go to the light.
“I’m sure you don’t have to deal with this kind of day often.” I looked over our California visitor as we talked. Rory still looked a little orange around her hair line.
“You’re right. We have our local psychic sleuthing meetings on Saturday.
I’m joking, but other than that, this is mostly what my day looks like.
Especially when Esmeralda is involved. I used to think she brought the chaos, but now I think she’s just here to help others who find themselves in a chaotic mess.
” Rory leaned forward. “You keep a notebook with all this?”
“I try to keep things organized, or someone could miss the one clue that solves the case.” I stood and went to the cabinet in the room. “I have extras. Bubba, do you want one as well?”
He shook his head and so I went back to the table with the notebook for Rory and we talked about our next steps.
For some reason, I wanted to solve our part of the mystery first. Competitive, much?
I didn’t mention that to my group, but Rory didn’t know me.
Bubba had probably already guessed my ulterior motive.