Fatal Charm (16 page)

“Sabine!” Dominic called softly, his arms holding me as I shuddered with sobs. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“He killed her! I couldn’t do anything … to stop him!”

“Stop who? What are you talking about?”

“Crystal! And that man … Ohmygod!” I covered my hands over my face, sobbing.

“I don’t know what this is about, but you’re safe here with me.”

“I know I’m safe—but Crystal isn’t! He killed her!”

“Nobody died.” Dominic gently pried my hands from my face and made me look at him. “You had a dream.”

“I wasn’t dreaming! I was in Jade’s room, then I heard a noise and went to look and saw this man—and he killed her!”

“Jade? Your half-sister?”

“Yes … no! I mean, it was her mother! The man strangled her!”

“Listen to me, Sabine. What you’re saying isn’t possible. You never left here. You’ve been next to me the whole time.”

“I did go to Jade’s! Just not in my body.”

“You’re not making sense.”

“I astral traveled.”

Dominic didn’t laugh or call me crazy, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. Talking to animals made sense to him, but not traveling without your body.

“It’s happened before,” I insisted before he could argue. “I can leave my body and travel far away.”

He pushed his fingers through his hair, blowing out a deep breath. All was dark and silent around the truck, except for my thudding heartbeat. The storm had died down … and Crystal was dead, too. I started shaking, the reality sinking in. I’d watched her die and wasn’t able to save her.

Dominic put his arms around me. “It’s okay now, Sabine.”

“So you believe me?” I sniveled, wiping my face with my coat sleeve.

“I don’t know. Tell me everything.”

I started with my first out-of-body experience, to prove that I wasn’t imagining anything. I made it sound scientific, how the soul is a separate entity from the body. I added in some of my experiences with spirits who could travel between worlds, making traveling a few hundred miles sound easy.

Dominic didn’t say anything, so I kept trying to convince him. My voice shook when I got to the part about the ribbon around Crystal’s neck …

“He killed her with a ribbon?”

“From a heart-shaped candy box.” I would never enjoy Valentine’s Day again.

“Are you sure she was dead?”

Sick to my stomach, I nodded. “And I couldn’t stop him … it was over so fast.”

“You have any idea who he was?”

“Crystal’s boyfriend, I guess. He seemed really mad, called her awful names. I thought maybe she was cheating on him and he found out. But I don’t know his name.”

“The police will find him. Don’t worry.”

“Does that mean you believe me?”

His brows knit together, studying me, and he cleared his throat.

I’ll never know what he was going to say because right then there was a roaring noise. The ground rumbled like an avalanche and glowing lights cut through the snowy night.

A voice echoed into the darkness, “NEED HELP?”

The snow plow had found us.

We were rescued.

* * *

I couldn’t talk about astral travel or murder in front of the burly, black-haired woman who drove the snow plow. Her name was Dyanne and despite her tough appearance, her voice was shrill like a little girl’s. After calling for a tow truck, she’d invited us into her heated truck and offered us steaming coffee from a thermos and some chocolate chip cookies. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten. But I only managed a few sips of coffee and turned down the cookies.

I couldn’t stop thinking about … murder.

What was happening at Jade’s house? Had the killer gone after her next? Or had he gotten away with murder because I hadn’t been able to stop him?

Poor Jade.

Finding your own mother dead had to be the worst thing ever. What would happen to Jade now? Were there other people living in that house that would care for her or would Dad have to step up to being her father? She was older than me, at least seventeen, so maybe she could live on her own—funded by Dad, of course.

But nothing could replace her mother, I thought guiltily. Too awful to think about … and I’d watched without saving her. The killer might go after Jade next unless I called the police. But if I called them, how could I explain knowing about a crime that took place over two hundred miles away?

Totally unbelievable. If I hadn’t been there, I doubt I’d believe it myself. It was already starting to feel like a bad dream. Shock and exhaustion confused my thoughts. Was there any chance I had dreamt it?

Dreams came out of subconscious thoughts, and on some level I may have wanted revenge on Crystal and Jade. Hadn’t I wished they would go away and leave my family alone? I resented them for stealing my father.

Could the whole murder scene have been a bad dream?

No. Everything inside me said it was real. I may have wanted Crystal out of my father’s life, but I never wanted her dead. Besides, with her dead, Jade would be motherless and more reliant on her natural father.

My father! I thought with a snap of my fingers. I had to call him right away. He’d know what to do.

I still had no signal for my phone, but Dyanne’s had worked to call a tow truck, so I asked to borrow hers. She graciously handed it over. Then I moved out of hearing range and quickly dialed my father.

“Sabine?” my mother asked sleepily.

Damn—not my father. “Mom, can I speak to Dad?”

“Do you have any idea how late it is?”

“I have to speak with Dad.”

“Your father is asleep. Can’t it wait till morning?”

“I have to speak with him now,” I repeated firmly. I added that it had nothing to do with her or our family; that Nona and I were fine. Then I insisted again on speaking only to my father.

With a huff of indignation, Mom left the line.

Seconds later, Dad came on, groggy, wanting to know why I was calling at two in the morning.

Two? Was it that late? I’d totally lost conception of time, only moments marked in fear. Something about his concerned voice broke me down and I sobbed, “Daddy, something awful’s happened.”

“What is it?” Dad was instantly alert. “Where are you?”

“The snowstorm is over and the tow truck is on the way to pull us out of the snow, so we’re okay now. But that’s not what I’m calling about … it’s Crystal—” I cut off, afraid to say more.

How could I tell him that a woman he once loved had been strangled and that I’d watched it happen without doing anything?

He whispered for me to wait a moment, and I heard him tell Mom that he needed to finish this talk privately. I knew she wouldn’t like that, but that was the least of my concerns. Dad was using his lawyer voice, feeding Mom a story about how I needed some legal advice for a friend from school who’d been unjustly arrested.

I cringed at the word “arrested.” Dad’s fictional excuse came too close to reality. What would he think if he knew I’d become a thief?

A few minutes later, Dad said, “We can talk freely now. What about Crystal?”

“Oh Dad … I’m so sorry.” Then I told him everything that happened while I astral traveled. I tried to make astral travel sound ordinary, but this went against his belief system. Dad always stayed clear of my arguments with Mom about being psychic, humoring me but never accepting my connection with the other side.

When I got to the part about Crystal’s killer, I sensed he shut off.

“You had a nightmare,” he told me.

“No. It really happened.”

I tried to explain but he just wasn’t listening. Still, I wouldn’t let him off that easily and challenged him to prove I’d dreamed the whole thing by calling Crystal. If she was fine, then I’d accept it was all a dream.

I only wished it were.

Dad argued against calling anyone at this time of the morning. I said if he didn’t, I’d call the police and they’d go to her house. He wasn’t happy with me, but he agreed to check it out.

Feeling like I’d finally done something right, I returned the phone to Dyanne. She stuck around until the tow truck arrived, then drove off with a hearty wave. It didn’t take long for the tow truck to pull Dominic’s truck free. I was glad there wasn’t any real damage to the truck, and it started right up.

Once we were on the road again, I told Dominic about calling my father.

“Good idea,” he approved.

“I hope Jade’s all right … not that I like her or anything … but it’ll be hard enough losing her mother.”

“Yeah, that’s rough … if it’s what happened.” From his tone I realized that he didn’t believe me about Crystal. He thought it was a dream … which hurt.

I avoided talking by pretending to sleep. Only I guess I pretended too well because suddenly the truck was slowing, and when I opened my eyes we were driving down Nona’s gravel road.

The ranch house was darkened, except for a yellow glow from the porch.

All at once, I felt a jump of excitement. Home—at last! And we had the remedy book. I couldn’t wait to see Nona’s face when we told her. She would be so happy. And once we found someone to decipher the book, she could throw all those memory notes away forever.

“Are you going to tell her tonight?” Dominic asked as I stepped out of the truck.

“I hate to wake her up. It’s almost morning anyway.”

“So get some sleep first.”

“I already slept enough.” I didn’t add that I was afraid of where I might travel if I fell asleep again.

Dominic came over and slipped his arms around my shoulders. “After everything settles down, we have some talking to do.”

My heart soared. “I know.”

“But Nona comes first.” He bent down and brushed a soft kiss across my forehead. “See you at breakfast.”

Smiling, I reached up to touch my forehead. My fingers smoothed over the spot where his kiss still warmed my skin. So many emotions played inside me that I wasn’t sure what to feel. Happy, nervous, scared? I yawned. I’d sort it all out in the morning.

The house was dark. As I stepped inside, I flipped on a light—and saw a blanketed figure sleeping on the couch.

“Velvet?” I did a double-take. “What are you doing here?”

“Shush, Sabine,” Velvet said with a finger to her lips. She sat up halfway, blinking at the light. “Don’t wake your grandmother. She’s had a rough day.”

“Oh, no. What happened?”

“No reason for alarm, she’s fine now.” Velvet yawned, adjusting her blanket around her shoulders. “Nona’s assistant, that dear girl, couldn’t get in touch with you and found my number under an emergency contact list. So she called me and I rushed right over. When I got here, Nona was just sitting at the kitchen table, staring down at her hands without talking. She didn’t even recognize me.”

“No!” I sank into a chair by the couch.

“I kept talking to her, trying to prompt her memory,” Velvet said. “She gave me quite a fright and I nearly took her to a hospital. But I know I wouldn’t appreciate being treated like an invalid. I made her a warm supper and she started sounding like herself again. I convinced her to go to bed. She fell right asleep and I stayed to watch over her.”

“Thank you so much. I appreciate you coming here—especially with all the trouble you’ve had lately. Did they ever catch the guy who trashed your shop?”

“No, but insurance covered the repairs and I’m back in business. There haven’t been any further threats either.”

“I’m glad.” I added softly, “You’re a wonderful friend to Nona.”

“She’d do the same for me. But I wish she had swallowed her pride and confided that she wasn’t well, although I knew something odd was going on.” Velvet reached out for my hand. “Tell me the truth—does she have Alzheimer’s?”

“No, but she is sick.”

“With what?”

“A hereditary illness that affects her memory and will worsen without the cure.”

“If there’s a cure, then why in heavens hasn’t she taken it?”

“We only found the cure tonight. I just hope it isn’t too late.” I sighed, feeling the lump of the book through my jacket. “But the remedy book is old and hard to read. We have to find a linguist to decipher the writing. Then the ingredients might be hard to find. That could take days or weeks even. What if Nona doesn’t have that long?”