Clarity (8 page)

“Spread your legs apart more.”

Thank God he’d stopped using his hands.

“Put your right hand on the nightstand.”

“Near the phone?” I asked.

“Not that far. Not even completely on the top of the night-stand, more on the edge.”

I reached my fingers out and delicately placed them on the wood. Then I lightly closed my eyes and focused. The room was suddenly cloaked in darkness. But Gabriel hadn’t shut off the lights.

I was seeing the past.

Quiet darkness. Slow breathing. I’m tired. Satisfied, and tired. The night didn’t turn out so bad after all. A click of the doorknob turning. I smile slowly.

I lift my head up and say, “Back for more?”

I begin to push myself up on my elbows, then hear a loud
pop!
Sudden, overwhelming pain fills me, then nothing.

I abruptly opened my eyes. Between ragged breaths I said, “I saw it.”

“Saw what?” Gabriel asked.

“The murder.” I sat up, my hand on my heart, willing it to slow. “I saw it happen. She was lying on her stomach, almost asleep. She heard someone come in. She started to lift herself up and said, ‘Back for more?’ and then she was shot.”

“Who did it? Who shot her?”

I tried to remember any details from the vision. “There was a shadow to the left.”

“Yeah, that’s where the killer was standing when he shot her.” Gabriel prodded, “Go on.”

My fingers pressed on my temples. “It was completely dark in the room. I could only make out a shadow. It’s not clear.”

Gabriel groaned in frustration. “That’s very convenient, isn’t it?”

I rolled off the bed and faced him. “Think I’m a fraud if you want. What motive would I have to make this up?”

He counted off on his fingers. “Publicity for your family business. Money. Your own show on TV. Who knows?”

“What could I do to convince you I’m for real?”

He looked me dead in the eye. “Solve the case.”

NINE

MY SLEEP WAS PLAGUED WITH NIGHTMARES. I KEPT replaying Victoria’s death scene in my head over and over as I tossed and turned.

Back for more?

Back for more?

Back for more?

Here’s what I knew. Victoria Happel was dead. She was shot in the head after having sex with my brother. After he left, someone came into the room. Victoria thought it was Perry. But it wasn’t. it couldn’t have been.

Because Perry is not a killer.

I repeated that silently like a mantra in the darkness of my bedroom while I willed myself to go back to sleep.

In my next dream, I was lost in the woods, unsure of which direction to go, and so tired that I eventually sank to the forest floor. I didn’t move while insects nibbled at my skin. I didn’t scream. I didn’t wake up. Because, in my dream, I knew I was only dreaming and the little forest animals that bit and tore at me were only representations of the nagging doubts that were eating away at me.

Doubts about Perry.

I watch the news. I read articles. In most cases, the last one to be seen with the victim is the killer. But Perry was my brother. And had no reason to do this. Plus, he swore to me that when he left, Victoria was alive.

And Perry never lies?
The chorus of insects laughed at my naïveté.

I thought of all the stories he told girls, about his scar, and other stuff. Lies, yes, but harmless ones, only meant to charm.
He lies to girls who don’t matter to him. He doesn’t lie to me, I
answered.

You just said it. Girls don’t matter to Perry,
the doubts chanted.
He finishes with one and moves on to the next. They’re disposable. Their lives don’t matter.

Shut up!
My voice echoed so loudly in the forest that I woke and bolted upright in bed.

I’d yelled the words out loud.

Mom burst in and the door slammed against the wall. “Are you okay?” She looked around the room, confused. “What are you still doing in bed?”

I squinted at the alarm clock. It was ten a.m.

“Sorry, Mom.” I rubbed my eyes. “I’ll get up now.”

“Have you seen your brother today?”

“No, why?”

Mom sighed and clenched her fists. “He knows you’re busy with the police department, and he promised me he’d work all day. This is going to be a busy day. The fireworks are tonight on the beach. We’re going to have lots of foot traffic going by, lots of business.
We have a drop-in waiting already, and Perry’s flaked out on me.”

I pushed my Perry-related nightmares out of my head. I couldn’t think about that now.

I threw off the blanket and eased my legs over the side of the bed. “I can do the reading with you.”

Mom’s face lit up. “Really? You don’t mind? I know you’re busy.”

“It’s no problem. Gabriel hasn’t called me yet.” I stood and stretched. “Give me five minutes.”

I didn’t have time to shower, so I splashed some cold water on my face and pulled my hair up into a ponytail. I threw on a gray T-shirt and navy shorts and dabbed a bit of lip gloss onto my lips.

I rushed downstairs, pausing only when the morning paper caught my eye. It was folded on the coffee table bearing the headline,
FEW LEADS IN TEEN’S DEATH
. I picked it up and stared at a photo of Victoria Happel. Despite having seen her death in my mind’s eye, I’d never seen her face. My visions are from the point of view of the original person.

Victoria didn’t look like a typical eighteen-year-old. She was model-pretty, with long dark hair, a voluptuous body, and brown eyes that seemed older, more mature, with a come-hither look to them. There was a hint of a smile forming at the corner of her mouth and I was filled with sadness for her. She’d never smile again.

Mom coughed from the reading room. I dropped the newspaper and hurried in. The scene was set — dimmed
lights, soft music, flickering candles. The client, a girl only a little older than me, sat up straight as I entered. She looked like she needed a shower and a full night’s sleep. She may have even had a worse night than me.

“I couldn’t find my son,” Mom said, “but my daughter will join us.”

The girl nodded slowly, her eyes vacant.

“What’s your name?” Mom asked.

“Joni,” she said, in barely a whisper. Her long brown hair hung limp like a curtain covering half her face. She picked at a ragged fingernail. The others were bitten down to the quick.

“How did you hear about us?” I asked.

“I saw your flyer downtown. I recently lost a friend.” She chewed on her lip for a moment, seemingly deciding how much to tell us. “I’m here because I want to know if she hates me.”

The phrase “lost a friend” raised goose bumps on my arms.

“You two had a fight,” Mom said.

Joni’s eyes snapped toward Mom. “How did you know that?” Then she reddened. “Oh, psychic, yeah. I’m sorry. I just … I guess I didn’t expect this to be legit.”

“Then why bother coming?” I asked.

She shrugged. “In the small chance that you were for real, I guess. And if not, then maybe it would help to talk.”

I could understand that. “How my gift works is that I need an object to hold.”

She nodded vigorously, pulled something out of her pocket, and handed it to me. I held it up to the candlelight. It was a necklace, with a charm swinging from the bottom. Half of a heart and a few letters that would say BEST FRIENDS when connected to the rest. My eyes went to Joni’s collarbone and found the other half.

I palmed the charm and opened my mind to the feelings and vibrations coming from it. The most recent were sadness and anger.

“You betrayed your friend,” I said, opening my eyes. “And now she’s dead.”

A solitary tear slipped down Joni’s cheek. “It’s my fault. Vicki’s dead because of me.”

Vicki.

Mom and I exchanged a look that said, “Yep,
that
Vicki.” My pulse raced. This girl could have all the answers we were looking for.

“I don’t see how it’s your fault,” I said to Joni.

The girl didn’t meet my eye as she spoke in a rush. “She wouldn’t even be down here if it wasn’t for me. She … fled or something. I think she came here to get away. To get away from me, from what I’d done.” The words came out in gasps. “If everything hadn’t happened … if I had been a good friend … she’d be alive now.”

“Start at the beginning.” I rubbed my thumb over the charm again and a name came to me. “Start with … Joel.”

Joni’s eyes lit up with something like fear. “You got that from the necklace?”

I nodded slowly.

Joni settled down farther in her seat. “Joel was Vicki’s boyfriend. We all went to high school together. We graduated this year. But he … cheated on her. With me.”

Classic. What else are best friends for? At least the vision I’d had while holding Victoria’s cell phone made sense now. I remembered the angry words I had heard Victoria speak:
Well, he obviously doesn’t want you anymore. He wants me.

“I felt guilty about it,” Joni continued. “I told him I was going to tell her.”

She stopped, and Mom filled in what she didn’t want to say. “He got violent.”

Joni nodded. “He pushed me up against the wall. Bruised my arm. He told me I’d say nothing. And the truth is, I never had any intention of telling Vicki what we did. I didn’t want to hurt her or lose our friendship.”

“Then why did you threaten to blab?” I asked.

“To scare him. Maybe he’d tell her himself or maybe just dump her.”

“You wanted her to know, but were too gutless to tell her yourself,” I said.

Mom squeezed my knee under the table, and I knew I was getting close to the line. We never wanted to insult our clients, no matter how despicable they might have seemed.

“You’re right,” Joni said. “She’s the best friend I ever had, and look what I did to her. She deserved better than both me and Joel.” Joni’s shoulders shook as her face fell into her hands.

“But you did gather the courage to tell her,” Mom prodded.

Joni sniffed and lifted her face back to us. “I wanted Joel out of her life at that point. If he pushed me, who knows what he’d ever do to her if she broke up with him.”

My thoughts were racing. Maybe Joel had seen Victoria with Perry that night, and killed her in a jealous rage. I was suddenly filled with relief. Both that Perry hadn’t done this, and that Joel hadn’t killed my brother, too, instead of just Victoria.

The room stayed silent for a few moments. Then Joni continued, “I wanted them broken up. Vicki had already figured that Joel was cheating on her, and the night before she left, they had a huge fight. She told him they were done. I should have just kept my mouth shut. But I figured, this has gone on long enough, let the whole truth come out. So I told her I was the one Joel was screwing around with.”

“How did she take the news?” I asked.

“She went crazy.” Joni fingered the charm on her neck. “That’s when she gave me back the other half of the charm. Said we weren’t friends anymore. We’d never be again.” Joni’s shoulders slumped. “Vicki left town. I figured after the long weekend maybe she’d calm down a bit and we could talk again when she got back. Mend fences maybe. Now we’ll never talk again.”

“She really came here alone?” I asked.

“I guess.” Joni shrugged. “Though that really doesn’t seem like her.”

“Did she know anyone down here?” Mom asked.

“Not that I know of, but …”

I leaned forward. “But what?”

“In the weeks before everything blew up, I felt like Vicki was keeping a secret from me. I was paranoid, so I assumed she was starting to put two and two together about Joel and me. But she really didn’t know about that. So … maybe she was keeping a secret of her own.”

“Did Joel know she was coming down here?” I asked.

“No, but it wasn’t hard to find out. Her mom told me where she went.”

“Might he have come down and …”

“Killed her?” Joni finished for me. “Probably. I don’t know anyone else who would. She had no issues with anyone else. Just the worst luck in the world and poor judgment. Look at who she chose to be her boyfriend and her best friend.” She stared down at the table. “Stupid girl.”

“You need to talk to the police,” I said. “To tell them what you know.”

She pushed her seat back. “No. I don’t want to get dragged into this.”

I wondered if I could talk her into it, but one look at Mom told me all I needed to know. Mom was reading her thoughts and the thoughts were all about flight.

Joni couldn’t leave, though. She needed to tell the police about Joel. Before they found out about Perry and directed their attention toward him instead.

I was glad Gabriel and I had exchanged numbers for work. I slipped my hands under the table and texted him from my cell.

TELL COPS 2 COME 2 MY HOUSE NOW!

My mother offered Joni a water, which she gulped in one
minute. I kept her lingering a little longer with a more pleasant vision I’d plucked from the charm.

“I see you and Vicki, dressed the same, in white shirts and black bow ties. You’re whispering and laughing.”

“We’re cater-waiters,” Joni said, still using the present tense for her lost friend. “We work these fancy parties and stuff in the city. It pays pretty good, but we also have a fun time.”

Joni seemed to enjoy hearing the memories, but was still antsy. She got up to go.

“Come back again if you want another reading, or even if you just need to talk,” Mom said, walking her to the foyer.

Then the door opened, and Anthony and Gabriel Toscano walked in. Gabriel’s dark eyes were intense with concern, and I realized my text was kind of vague. He’d probably thought I needed help.

And had rushed over himself instead of just sending someone else.

I forced myself not to think about that, or how hot he looked at the moment, and focused on the issue at hand: Joni.

“Detective Toscano,” I said to Gabriel’s dad. “Thanks for coming.”

Joni took a giant step back.

“Joni here,” I said to Gabriel, “just finished her reading. She was Victoria Happel’s best friend. She wanted me to call you over here so she could fill you in on what she knows. Particularly about Victoria’s ex-boyfriend.”