Her Eyes (27 page)

"Well, Ms. Moon..."

"Sapphire, please."

"Sapphire. This is my friend and he has a problem he needs some help with."

The dark-haired woman turned to study Frank. After a few moments she gestured to the table and turned to choose a crystal ball from a collection on a bookcase. Placing it on the table, she turned again to Frank. “Fred, no, Frank, is it?"

At his stunned nod, she continued, “You are looking for your soul mate, your true love. Why do you think she is on the other side?"

That gave Frank a chill down to his toes and suddenly he wasn't so sure he wanted Claudia in the room. Not because he thought there was any danger, but with his feelings growing day by day for her, he wasn't so sure finding Pam, dead or alive, would be for the best.

"She's not dead, Frank, right?"

"She ... how do you know my name?"

"I wouldn't be much of a psychic if I didn't pick up things like that.” Her smile was warm and welcoming, surprisingly putting Frank at ease.

"No, guess not, but..."

"How do I know you are looking for a woman that is special to you? Someone who was a very, very close friend? And that she is not dead?"

"Yeah."

"My guides. But come, sit down and let me see what I can tell you."

After they settled themselves at the table, Sapphire explained, “I'm not certain I need the crystal, I feel enough energy without it. In and of itself, it's not magical. It's mainly to focus my attention. Psychics have different skills. We don't all have the same. My specialty or strength is as a medium. I'm able to communicate with those that have crossed the rainbow bridge."

"The rain—you mean dead people?"

She was with him again. Mike sat in his car across the street from the white and glass building with “Psychic Readings” written in purple over the door. Claudia had been at work with him all day. She didn't know he was investigating the case, or that he had interviewed Frank White twice.

Mike shouldn't be jealous. Claudia had made it clear several times that she wasn't ready to give him a commitment, but for some reason, that made things worse. He was certain that once she agreed to be his, she would never cheat on him or lie. Maybe that's what ate at him. She wouldn't even offer one of those white lies and say that she loved him. In fact, he was surprised she hadn't moved out of his bedroom. They'd stopped making love, but at least she would lie there and let him hold her.

"Damn!"

He punched the steering wheel twice, causing the horn to yelp at the second hit. He had to calm down. There was a case, and people had died. That had to take precedence over his emotions. Separating the two was hard, though. Never before had his personal life interfered with work, but Claudia had him torn.

The glass began to fog. Mike leaned forward, trying to make out the details of the shop they'd entered. It had to be some psychic stuff. Frank didn't seem like the type, and neither did Claudia. It had to be Frank that dragged her there. Maybe he was contacting his recently dead employees.

A chill went over Mike. He wiped the glass with his sleeve and kept staring ahead, waiting. He didn't know what he waited for. He had told his supervisor that he was going to watch Frank White in case Catherine tried something new. That had been a lie. Odds were that Catherine had fled the state.

They had quite a case against her. His interviews revealed several occasions when she'd threatened his life. He couldn't connect the poisoning yet, but they found a broken red fingernail tip at the scene where the explosives were taken. There were also several strands of hair, but DNA tests would take time. The final touch was the perfect thumbprint lifted from a metal scrap that remained of the crane. She had wired the detonator to the battery, a job not easily done with gloves. To help tie her to the scene at the right time, they found surveillance footage of a convenience store not far from the construction site. She was seen entering the store just after the theft. Her car remained in the parking lot, probably until the cops had left the crime scene.

In a way, he wished he could pin this thing on Frank. That would get him away from Claudia. How lame was it to offer a down-and-out girl a job? But she wasn't down and out. Mike was providing for her, taking care of her, wanting to ... yes, wanting to marry her. In the back of his mind, his guilt nagged at him. He had done worse. He had been generous but only because he hoped she would fall in love with him. That she hadn't wasn't her fault.

He was sick of acting childish, but Mike didn't know how to stop. He wanted something he couldn't have, something that wasn't his. He felt like throwing a temper tantrum, beating Frank—or at least the steering wheel—until he could have what he wanted.

None of that would work and no matter how sweet it would be to send Frank to jail, even for the night, it would be wrong. He was an officer, not some idiot out to blame the world for his own shortcomings.

He could watch a bit longer. There was a chance he was wrong, that Claudia hadn't fallen for Frank. They could be friends. He had female friends where nothing sexual occurred. Claudia could be the same way with Frank. She could still love him.

"Claudia loves me,” he said aloud, trying to will it true. “She loves me."

Frank listened intently as Sapphire explained about guides and what she did. “As a medium, I have the ability to hear, in a manner of speaking, from those who have gone on. It's akin to having a conversation with you right here, but they move at a higher vibration so I have to sense more than anything what they want to convey. Do you understand?"

"I think so. So, would you know if someone is a walk-in?"

"I might pick up if they were the one who walked out. Walk-ins are a little bit difficult. I don't know how much you know."

"I've been to one talk."

"Hmm, well depending on who gave it you may or may not have gotten a lot of information. It's not one of the more popular metaphysical fields. With a walk-in, at first, they are a bit confused, feel kind of conflicted about where they are. They pick up memories of the body they have walked into. It's almost like they a looking back at someone else's life. As time goes on, their own personality begins to emerge again, and rather than deal with explaining things to the people they are there with, often they move away."

"So how do you know if you are one?” Claudia asked.

"Hypnosis could tell you, or relying on different memories. But before we get too far into this, let's see if I can get a read on Frank's friend."

They got comfortable, and Sapphire closed her eyes, breathing deeply. “I see a woman with blonde hair, laughing, joking with a younger Frank. It's not the woman you are looking for, my guide is showing me a memory, her memory. My guide is showing me an image of Frank under some ... steps? Ah, bleachers, like at a high school and you having sex. Your love is watching. The woman—Pat? P-Penny? ... Pam. it's Pam—sees you, and she is devastated when she sees what is going on. She always thought she would marry you. My guide is showing me that she is running away, far away."

"Oh my God. That's why she left! That's why she moved away. Oh, Pam, I'm so sorry. I'm so very sorry."

"It's all right, Frank. It was part of our lesson.” It was Pam's voice, but it came from Claudia.

"Pam? Is that you?” He turned to Sapphire. “Is she possessed? Oh God, tell me I didn't call in Pam to possess Claudia!"

Sapphire's voice was calm, controlled. “Is that you Pam? Pam?"

When there was no answer, they sat in silence before Claudia asked, “If there is something to show me, to show Frank, please let us know now."

The gray cat, surprisingly graceful for her size, climbed up on to Sapphire's lap almost as if giving a signal that there was more to see. After a few moments Sapphire, spoke again, “I am seeing someone going after Pam, a short, squat man, he's hit her many times. He's coming after her with a knife, and she knows she is going to die. She runs in fear for her life. Pam knocks him down and car to drive away. She's so scared, so worried, and hurt badly. She loses control of the car and crashes into a tree."

"Is Pam showing you this?"

"No, not Pam. She's not on the other side, or if she is, she's not where she can be reached. This is only what my guide is showing me."

"How do they do that?"

"They know. Time and space on the other side aren't what we think of here. It's different. There is no time there but there is a knowing. He's showing me that Pam did in fact walk in ... into the blonde woman's body—the woman from the bleachers. And she was happy, very happy for a time. The walk-in process was almost complete, but she left again and..."

Sapphire grew silent, looking into space as if dazed. “She's not on the other side. I can tell you that much. Someone else is there, on the fringes and she is telling me that Pam gave her the greatest gift. She was tired of struggling, tired of trying to go on and she walked out so Pam could walk in."

"Where is she? Pam found a body? Where is she?"

"I don't know. Once someone is in body, you can't communicate with them like you would if they were a spirit. From what I'm hearing she found a body."

"But where? How do I find her?"

Sapphire watched as Miss Ginny climbed from her lap to pace over to Claudia. The cat's green eyes seemed to move to a deeper shade of green as she studied Claudia. Finally, the cat raised her paw and laid it on Claudia's cheek, a comforting gesture, one a human would make. Leaving the paw on Claudia's cheek, Miss Ginny looked over her shoulder to Sapphire and opened her mouth to give a very soft meow, just before she began to purr very loudly. With that, Ginny took her paw from Claudia and padded back to Sapphire. Frank told himself it wasn't real, but it seemed the cat conveyed some sort of message to Sapphire.

"So Sapphire, can I find Pam?"

"I'm not sure you can. If she remembers her life as Pam, she may find you, but otherwise, enjoy what you had and know she loved you. And who knows, maybe you will be together in another life."

The reading ended, and they said their goodbyes. Frank didn't feel like he'd learned anything new. The fears he'd kept hidden inside surfaced, were made more real by what the psychic had told him.

He had thanked Sapphire Moon and asked if it would be all right for him to call her again in the future, if he found he had more questions. Frank and Claudia drove off in silence, each with his or her own thoughts.

"Would you like to get a bite, Claudia?"

"Sure. I think I'd like to talk a little about what happened in there."

"Yeah. Me too. Part of me wants to say she'd a nut job, but another part of me ... man, she was so right on target about things ... things I haven't told you. No offense about that, you know."

"I do. Frank, we're not just employer and employee. We're friends. In fact, you are probably the best friend I have. But I know we haven't even begun to tell each other about ourselves. That's what friendship is about, you know, getting to know and enjoy each other."

"I'm glad you feel that way."

"So are you okay that we didn't ... well that you didn't find her?"

"If that woman is to be believed, Pam is alive, somewhere."

"So are you going to try to find her?” Claudia looked a little sad at the idea and touched her cheek where the cat had. “What about what the cat did? When Miss Ginny touched me."

"I don't know. No idea and I'm not sure I want to go down that road.

Claudia was ready to honor that, for now. “No. I don't think so. For too long I lived with a false hope with Catherine. Hoping that our marriage would get better. It never did. In a way, I held on to Pam, but if she wanted to be with me, if she really loved me, I think she would remember. I need to get on with my life and just enjoy it for what it is."

"Do you think you'll fall in love again?"

"You probably don't want to hear this, but I think I am or that I have."

"Really?” Claudia looked at him carefully and he knew that she was judging his words.

"Yeah."

"Well, who? Where did you meet her?” He watched in silence as she studied him again, the light of realizing dawning. “Oh, Frank."

It was around ten when Frank dropped Claudia off at home. She didn't want to leave him, especially after the things he'd said. They hadn't shared a single kiss, but she knew in her heart that she wanted him. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. Frank wanted her safe and told her to go home where Catherine couldn't hurt her.

Catherine. Claudia hated the name, hated the way it sounded when Frank said it. She was a curse, a plague, something awful. She wasn't afraid of Catherine. She would enjoy telling that woman how horrible she was, the terrible things she'd done to Frank. Frank only worried for her safety though.

The situation put Claudia in a foul mood. She stomped up the sidewalk and into the house, Mike's house. There he was, looking like a hurt puppy, staring at her from his favorite chair in front of the television. She didn't want to cause him pain.

"Where have you been?” he asked with that tone, that jealous, hateful tone that raked her nerves.

"I went to a psychic reading with my boss and then we went out to dinner. I didn't know you were going to be home or I would've come home earlier."

She sat on the couch, wondering how to tell him, knowing he should know the truth. Her guilt came from one fixation—she owed him. He had taken care of her when she had no one to turn to, but did that mean she was forever indebted?

"I want to start paying you back for everything you've done. I don't know how much you spent. You'll have to tell me."

"You don't have to do that. I wanted to take care of you, still do."

She swallowed hard, willing the words to come to her mouth, but they wouldn't. She couldn't hurt this man. Spending her life with him wouldn't work either. Damn it all. Things were so hard.

"Mike, you and I don't have a commitment. You and I have had this discussion a hundred times, and I know you want one. I think things would be better if I moved out."