Corpse in the Crystal Ball (7 page)

“Thank you for your kind words, Captain.” I focused on something positive. “I’m rather fond of my sanctuary.” I lit a fire in my corner fireplace, turned on my new age music softly in the background, and pulled the curtains closed, dimming the lights.

Next, I headed straight to my supply shelf and gathered up Moonbeam. Returning to the table in the center of the room, I placed the crystal ball on the black scrying cloth. Setting up my angels on the four corners of the table, I looked up and noticed Mitch watching me.

“What are those for?” he asked.

“Protection.”

“Isn’t that what we’re for?”

“Trust me. You’re no match for these kinds of forces. Whatever you do, don’t speak. If you talk, I will lose the connection and my vision will fade away.”

He looked around warily. The captain, on the other hand, looked totally fascinated.

“The necklace, please?” I held out my hand to Mitch.

I couldn’t do a reading for someone unless they were present, but I could sometimes locate a missing person if I had something personal that belonged to them. Mitch had informed me Isabel never took off the necklace he’d bought
her years ago until their argument at lunch the other day. She’d not only taken it off, she’d thrown it at him. He’d held on to it to give it back to her after his trip to the mountains. But when he got back, Selena had shown up informing him Isabel was missing.

He handed me the necklace, and I closed my palm around it. Closing my eyes, I took a moment to relax and concentrate on the necklace. Strong vibes flowed from it into the center of my being. Encouraged, I slipped the necklace over my head to stay connected to it.

Finally, I lit a purple candle and placed it behind my crystal ball. I tuned out everything and everyone around me and focused on relaxing even more. I’d already cleansed the ball after Isabel’s reading and did a deep cleanse last night in the full moon, so it should be good to go. Rubbing my hands together, I placed them on both sides of Moonbeam to charge the crystal ball with my energy and closed my eyes again.

Where is Isabel Gonzales?
I asked in my head.

I opened my eyes and focused on Moonbeam, blurring my vision and feeling the psychic connection between us form. A tingling, vibrating sensation oozed over every ounce of my body until I knew we were one. I was grounded and centered and communing with the crystal now. A mist swirled around the crystal, and I focused on that spot until images began to form.

I started talking about what I saw. “Isabel is driving frantically in the car she rented. She takes a curve too sharply, glancing repeatedly in the rearview mirror, and then slides off the road. Her car is stuck. Grabbing
her phone, she bolts out the car door and heads for the woods. Whipping open her phone, she places a call. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but it’s probably the one to her sister.

“She glances behind her once more, her eyes huge with terror as she screams at whatever she sees. I can make out a form of someone chasing her, but I can’t see the person clearly. She turns back around and runs even harder but drops her phone in a puddle of water by accident. Not daring to stop, she weaves in and out of trees, starting to lose her balance, but catches herself just in time.”

Suddenly, my vision turned into the same tunnel vision it always did as my psychic abilities took over, and I became Isabel. I could feel my heart pound and my blood pressure pick up. My breathing quickened, and my pulse raced as adrenaline surged through me. I’d never been so afraid in my life.

“Oh, my God, I’m not going to make it,” I choked out. “This is it. I never thought things would end this way. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do it, and I never meant to hurt you.” I kept running, giving everything I had to stay ahead of the person chasing me, but they kept gaining.

“I never knew. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to propose? Things might have turned out so differently.” I sobbed, feeling my chest tighten with unbelievable pain and regret. “I loved you, too. I never stopped.”

Suddenly I tripped and fell hard to the ground. I cried out in pain as something in my leg popped. This was it. I was done. There was no way I could go on. The end was near, and just like the stories you hear about, my life flashed before my eyes …Isabel’s life.

Her childhood, her family and friends, her time with Mitch …

Rolling over, I watched and waited, knowing it wouldn’t be long now. The fight left me. I had no energy and nothing left to give. “I didn’t tell her. I swear,” I said in barely more than a whisper. “She just …saw. I forgive you, my darling. And don’t worry. She promised no one would ever find out about—”

“This is ridiculous.” Mitch’s voice boomed through the silence, yanking me away from my connection with Moonbeam, but the aftereffects were still there. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I blinked my eyes back into focus.

“What the hell did you do that for?” Captain Walker thundered at Mitch. “Are you okay, Miss Meadows?”

I nodded, unable to speak. Mitch just stared at me, his eyes locked on mine with a horrified, accusing expression holding my face captive. I took long slow breaths, trying to calm the soft sobs still wracking my body.

When Mitch remained silent, Captain Walker asked me, “Can you get it back? Who was chasing Isabel? Is she still alive?”

I dried my eyes, took off the necklace and handed it back to Mitch, and then inhaled one more deep breath before responding to the captain, “No, I can’t get it back, and I don’t know if she’s still alive …but I
do
know where she is.”

“Wait, back up!” I said from the passenger’s seat of Mitch’s car, my hand glued to the window. “This is the spot.”

This part of the woods was on the outskirts of town just before the next town began. There were bike and nature trails that led all the way from Divinity’s Mini Central Park to the next town over called Salvation.

“Are you sure?” Mitch asked, doing as I requested.

“Positive.”

Putting his car in park, we all got out. Captain Walker, Detective Stone, and I had come on this unofficial journey to search the woods for Isabel Gonzales. She wouldn’t “officially” be declared a missing person until forty-eight hours had passed since she disappeared. It hadn’t even been twenty-four. But Selena had been so distraught, and the captain was friends with Mitch. The three of us had taken on the “unofficial” case, if only to ease Selena’s mind. I wasn’t exactly sure what we’d find, but I was positive Isabel had been here.

In fact, I could still feel her presence now.

Granny had insisted we leave Selena with her for lunch. Selena was too distraught to withstand the journey, and frankly, I didn’t think she could cope with what I was afraid we would find. In the meantime I ignored my rumbling stomach, pulled the hood of my raincoat up, tucked my jeans into my rubber rain boots, and pressed on.

Mitch stood there with his department-issued raincoat parted and his hands on his hips, swiveling left and right as he scanned the edge of the woods from beneath his baseball cap. He finally looked at me with a raised brow. “
How
can you be sure? I don’t see any signs of anyone having been here.”

“That doesn’t mean they weren’t.” I lifted my chin a notch, annoyed that he doubted me again already. So much for at least trying to keep an open mind. He would never change, and we would never work.

“Is this where Ms. Gonzales’s car slid off the road and got stuck?” Captain Walker asked, stroking his goatee and
studying the ground from beneath his own wide-brimmed fisherman’s hat.

“Yes, but I didn’t get to see the rest of the vision because
someone
interrupted me.” I glared at Mitch. “It had looked to be around dusk, and Selena did say Isabel called her around six. We don’t know what happened after that. Maybe she escaped whoever was chasing her and managed to get her car out of the mud? She could be long gone by now.”

“That sounds like her,” Mitch conceded. “But what about the ground? Shouldn’t there be tracks? I don’t see anything.”

“It did rain pretty hard all night. That could have washed them away,” the captain pointed out.

“Yeah, but deep grooves?” Mitch speculated. “Rain alone wouldn’t wash that away.”

“Unless the rain had help,” I interjected. “If Isabel was kidnapped, then the person who did it could have raked the tracks smooth and let the rain do the rest.”

“Like I said before, you watch way too much TV, Tink,” Mitch remarked with a grunt. “I’m sure Isabel is halfway across the country, but for Selena’s sake, let’s check out this wild-goose chase.”

“Enough, Detective,” Captain Walker snapped. “I know you still don’t like it, but the fact is you still don’t have a choice. Sunny is a part of our team. The sooner you accept that, the better off we’ll all be.”

“Thank you, Captain.” I beamed a smile at him, ignoring Mitch’s scowl.

“Anytime.” The captain touched the brim of his hat, and then added, “After you.”

“Well, let’s see,” I said, studying the terrain before me.
“I might not be much of a hiker, but I’ve walked these woods before.”

After taking several steps, I faced the men. “In my vision, when I was Isabel”—Mitch made a sound but didn’t say a word—“I recognized the terrain, and I heard running water. This is the section of the woods where the walking trail runs parallel to the river. There’s an entry to the trail down the road. I’ve used it many times to picnic on a rock by the rapids. But something tells me this is the spot we need to enter. Call it a hunch.”

“I’d like to call it something, but I’m not allowed,” Mitch grumbled low, but I heard him. Then he said louder, “Like the captain said, after you.” Mitch gestured toward the woods.

Stifling the gesture I wanted to give him and ignoring his mumbled comment, I decided to be the bigger person. “All righty then. Let’s go.” I chose a random spot that felt right and headed into the woods, looking for any signs and opening my mind for any messages or feelings.

As we went deeper through the trees, we began to see a few broken twigs and footprints. I glanced at the captain—who was studying them closely in excitement, and then at Mitch—who was staring at them in surprise and then with concern. The broken branches could have been made by an animal, but the footprints were definitely human. Only they’d been raked over and partially washed away by the rain, so we couldn’t make them out clearly.

Finally, we merged with the walking trail I’d mentioned. We walked up and down the trail for what felt like forever, with no luck. We were just about to give up when the captain jogged over to the edge by the rapids.

“I’ve got something,” he said.

My heart pounded, and I held my breath as I made my way over to his side. Mitch hardened his jaw and joined us with reluctance.

“What is it, Captain?” Mitch asked.

“You tell me. Does this belong to Ms. Gonzales?” Captain Walker held up a torn piece of silk in a burnt orange color.

“How should I know?” Mitch asked. “I told you both the last time I talked to Isabel was two days ago at lunch. She wasn’t wearing that when we were together.”

“It’s hers,” I said quietly.

They both looked at me tensely.

“She had that color shirt on in my vision. That’s not a color many people can get away with wearing, but on her it looked great,” I clarified, feeling horrible for every nasty thought I’d had about her. The rapids were raging in springtime. There was no way anyone could have survived if they’d fallen in.

Mitch took the piece of clothing from the captain’s hand and held it gently in his own. “This doesn’t prove anything. She still could have escaped. I can’t report back to Selena without proof.”

I stared down the embankment at the obvious signs of a struggle by the water’s edge, but I didn’t dare say anything to dash Mitch’s hopes. He was a smart man. He could see the evidence before him.

“Okay, son,” the captain said, patting his shoulder. “This should be enough evidence to warrant a search party now. We need help if we’re going to find her. Let’s head back to the station and gather some reinforcements.”

“Thanks, Captain.”

We reversed directions through the woods to Mitch’s car and started driving into town. A weird feeling knotted my stomach as we backtracked on the same road that ran along the woods. On our way here, I’d been focused on my vision and where Isabel had entered the woods. Now that we’d seen that, another feeling tugged at my insides. The feeling that I knew exactly where she was now.

I sucked in a breath. “Stop the car!”

Mitch looked in the rearview mirror. “What the hell?”

“I said stop the car now.” I started to open the door because the pull to find her was so strong.

“Dammit, Sunny, give me a minute.” He slammed on the breaks, grinding to a halt at the same time I stumbled out the door and fell to the ground.

I scrambled to my feet and started running into the woods. I’d almost made it when an arm circled my stomach and tugged me back until I pressed against the rock-hard body there was no mistaking. “Let me go, Detective. She’s in there. I can feel it.”

“Relax, Tink. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“Miss Meadows, what on earth are you doing? You could have killed yourself back there.” Captain Walker caught up with us, wheezing as he attempted to catch his breath.

“Sorry, Captain,” I said. “Isabel made it out of the river. I can feel it in my gut. We have to help her. She’s in there now. Please let me take you to her.”

Mitch let me go and turned me around to face him, his hands gripping my shoulders. “Are you sure, Sunny?” His eyes were so intense, and for the first time, I truly felt like he might actually believe me. Though he’d
never
admit it.

“Yes, Mitch. I’m sure.” I put my hands over his and held on tight.

“Well, what are we waiting for, then. Let’s do this.” Mitch pulled away from me and started jogging toward the woods. This time I had to run to catch
him
.

I snagged his coat with my fist. “Wait. You don’t know the way. I do.” I stepped in front of him, and he let me.

“I’m getting too old for this,” Captain Walker said, huffing from behind us as he tried to keep up.