Murder In Her Dreams (9 page)

As she turned, the face of each one up, the
girl clutched the man’s hand more tightly. Next, Leah set out four
more cards from the bottom to the top along the right side.

Once she laid out cards, the woman leaned
back, hands resting on her knees to study them. “You have recently
had a broken relationship and have now found a new lover.”

The girl exchanged glances with the man, and
he squeezed her hand.

“Your past weaknesses still influence the
present. You must overcome these in order to succeed in your new
relationship, but the future looks bright, and you will find that
which you seek.” She smiled at the pair facing her across the
cards.

The girl let out a pent-up breath and hugged
the man. “See, Bob, I told you everything would be fine. Now do you
believe me?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Umm, I guess so. Let’s
get something to eat.”

He helped the girl to her feet, and she
called ‘thank you’ from the door as the two of them left. Only
Cassie and Leah remained.

“Hi, I’m Leah Chernowski.” The silver bangles
slid forward with a soft tinkle as the card reader held out her
hand to Cassie.

“Cassie.” She stared down at the short,
stubby fingers gripping hers. Leah’s hands looked the twin to
Cassie’s own. “Cassie Blake.”

“Would you like a reading?” Leah picked up
the cards and held them out to her.

“I ... I don’t know.” Cassie looked at the
deck of cards, uncertain. “You didn’t need cards to read those
people.”

“Perhaps not, but it makes them feel better.
Besides, the cards only speak to those who listen. Some people have
closed minds.”

Leah’s words stung Cassie. She prided herself
on being open minded. The fortunes of the others had sounded
innocuous. Besides, what could this woman tell her anyway? From the
sample she had already heard, most likely Leah would tell her she
would find true love and live happily ever after. She had nothing
to fear.

“Something is troubling you. Why don’t I do a
general reading for you?” Leah handed the cards to Cassie. “Here,
just shuffle them.” Leah brushed some lint off the surface of her
long black skirt, stretched out first one leg then the other, and
refolded them beneath her.

Cassie took the rectangular cards and with
difficulty tried to shuffle them. Larger than regular playing
cards, the Tarot cards made it hard for her to keep them together.
Twice she dropped cards and finally settled for sliding them from
one hand to the other as she interleaved them. She handed the deck
to Leah.

Having heard about the Tarot cards, Cassie
really knew nothing about the actual use of the cards. She had
never had a reading. Tula believed in them and used them. She had
offered to do a reading for Cassie, but because she didn’t
understand them, Cassie had always refused. Her dreams of the
future frightened her enough.

Had anyone else been present, she would
probably have passed on Leah’s offer, but with only the two of
them, she thought Leah would consider her rude and closed-minded if
she refused.

When the others had been present, Cassie had
concentrated on them and on Leah as she read the cards. She had
paid little attention to the cards themselves. She had never
examined a Tarot deck. She didn’t even know the names of the cards.
She sighed as she slid over to kneel opposite Leah who began to lay
out the cards.

Cassie gasped as she saw the first card Leah
turned over. The tower looked ominous with jagged lightning hitting
its top and bodies falling out its side. On top of it, at right
angles, Leah laid the moon with a dog and a fox baying. Cassie
breathed more easily. She had a fondness for moon symbols.

Above the crossed pair, Leah laid down a
horned figure, the Devil, upside down and Cassie drew in a sharp
breath as the leering demon mocked her. Evil incarnate.

Next on the right came the black knight, but
when Cassie read the legend
Death
she shuddered. The cards
revealed so far frightened her.

“Don’t worry.” Leah reached out a hand with
stubby nails and patted Cassie’s clenched fingers. “Many of the
cards have multiple meanings, and I must read the entire pattern.
Reversed cards have opposite meanings from upright cards.”

Next, below the crossed pair in the middle,
Leah set down a card with a pair of black and white sphinx at the
bottom. The name read
Chariot
. To the left she revealed the
Hanged Man
. Cassie shuddered again and clenched her fists in
her lap. She didn’t think these cards could reveal anything but
more trouble.

Along the right side, Leah set out four more
cards. First, the
High Priestess
and then above that, the
Strength
card with a lady and a lion. Cassie relaxed a
little. Next came the reversed
Empress
and lastly, the naked
figures of a man and woman. For a moment in the light of the lamp,
she could swear the small figure of the man had red hair. She
blinked.

Leah, hands on her knees, leaned back to
study the cards. “An interesting pattern, it goes from pain and
defeat to love.” She nodded.

“You have a talent.” She tapped the High
Priestess at the lower right. “Intuition and foresight — maybe you
see the future.” She studied Cassie’s face. Cassie nodded slowly,
surprised at Leah’s insight.

“In the past, you suffered some hurt or
defeat.” She tapped the reversed
Chariot.
“But you have the
ability to overcome these past losses and failures. You have an
unknown enemy who wishes you ill.” She pointed at the
Moon
card and then to the
Hanged Man
. “You may have to make a
sacrifice to defeat this enemy.”

“An enemy?” Cassie hugged herself. “I don’t
have any enemies.”

Leah raised a doubting eyebrow. “I can only
tell you what the cards say. You have to decide how they apply to
you.”

The black rabbit of her nightmare. Could it
be considered an enemy?

Leah had turned her gaze back to the cards.
“You have great strength, but you will need it to overcome the
hidden forces that work against you. Your anxiety and indecision
hamper you. You must use your own strength and that of your friends
to triumph. In the end though, I see a happy conclusion and the
love you have failed to find in the past.”

Cassie sighed, relieved the reading had not
been as bleak as she feared when she had seen the first few cards
revealed, but still troubled by idea of the black rabbit as a
hidden enemy. Some of Leah’s guesses came too close to the truth.
Death must signal Ellie Latham.

“Have you been talking to Tula about me?”

Leah laughed, a hearty, happy sound. “No,
I’ve never heard your name before. When the cards reveal truth, it
makes some people uncomfortable.” She studied Cassie’s face a
moment.

“My guess is you have a talent and it worries
you. You don’t want to trust it. You would probably make a good
reader. My advice is rely on yourself and your friends. You can
overcome the danger that threatens you.”

Leah gathered the cards. “Would you like me
to cast another pattern?”

Cassie shook her head. She had enough to
think about. She didn’t need anything else to add to her
confusion.

Nodding, Leah wrapped the cards in a piece of
red silk, and tucked the cards into a small velvet bag hanging at
her waist. “Since no one else is waiting, why don’t we join the
rest of the party?” She rose from the floor in one supple motion
and shook out her long black skirt.

Cassie unkinked her legs and pushed herself
up from the floor. “Uh, thanks for the reading.”

“My pleasure. Have faith in yourself, Cassie.
The cards do.”

Cassie trailed behind Leah down the stairs
and back to the parlor. She stood at the entrance and gazed about
the large room. She had helped Tula scrape and refinish the walnut
moldings of the parlor. The party had thinned out and, while fewer
people filled the space, it still looked crowded.

In the middle of the room, Tula held court.
Dressed in a dark brown caftan with bright orange embroidery at the
neck, sleeve edges, and hem, she looked like a proud queen. Against
the dark brown fabric, her sun pendant flashed like the real thing.
She laughed, white teeth gleaming, at some comment from a man at
her elbow. Spotting Cassie near the doorway, she excused herself.
She bore down on Cassie and took her hands.

“May you always walk in light.” She kissed
both of Cassie’s cheeks. “Glad to see you could make it. Anyone
special I can introduce to you?”

“How about your new man?”

“Too late for that. We said goodbye last
night. He wanted more than I wanted to give. Don’t worry there’s
always another one nearby.”

“ Yeah, Tula, I’m sure of that. There always
is with you.”

“Forget about me. Now, who would you like to
meet?”

Cassie surveyed the room. Clusters of people
she didn’t know talked with animation. To judge by the laughter and
from the snatches of conversation she caught, everyone appeared to
be enjoying themselves.

“Like I told you, Duncan has to update his
lectures,” a man said.

“Patty told me Donna and Joe are getting
married,” came from a tall woman in purple.

Like Tula, most of these people spoke as much
with their hands as with their words. Cassie ducked as the man next
to her made an especially wide movement with his arm.

“Oops, sorry about that,” he muttered and
then went on with what he had been saying.

Another group in one corner looked to be in a
heated discussion, but then they too burst into laughter. All the
easy familiarity made Cassie more lonely. In the far corner next to
the fireplace, a longhaired blond man sat by himself reading a book
and ignoring the noise and commotion in the rest of the room.

“How about him?” Someone reading a book might
be worth talking to, and it would at least provide something to
discuss.

“Bert? Sure, come on.”

Tula led Cassie by the hand as she moved
toward the man. Smiling and nodding, she strode forward. People
automatically moved to one side or the other for Tula, like Moses
parting the Red Sea. Cassie felt like a rowboat in the wake of the
Titanic, all but invisible.

When they reached the young man, Tula touched
him on the arm to get his attention. “Bert, I’d like you to meet a
very special friend of mine, Cassie Blake. Cassie, Bert Hansen.
He’s an accountant and a weightlifter, so watch out, but otherwise,
he’s a nice guy.”

He laughed as he took Cassie’s small hand in
his much larger one. “Hi, Cassie, how are you?”

“Fine,” she mumbled, wishing she hadn’t
mentioned him to Tula. His good looks intimidated her, and the way
he eyed her reminded her too much of Rod..

Anxious for something to say, she looked down
at the large book in his left hand. The cover showed a huge flower
in creamy whites and pale greens. Cassie smiled as she recognized
the painting.

“Georgia O’Keefe, she’s one of my favorites.
I see you like her, too.”

“What?” He frowned and then followed Cassie’s
look to the book he held. “Oh, yeah, I think so. At least these
pictures say something. The flowers are, uh...” He gave Cassie a
knowing look, and she blushed. “A bit sexy. Now these landscapes,
they really hit me. All that stark emptiness sort of gets me.”

Someone called Tula’s name, and she drifted
away. Cassie didn’t like the way the conversation had started, and
the man’s attention overwhelmed her. She had taken him for the
intellectual type, but now wondered at her judgment.

She struggled for something to say. “Tula
said something about weights.”

“Yeah, it’s my hobby.” He automatically
flexed his biceps. “I’m working on entering Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
contest. You never know where that might lead.”

“As to fame and fortune?”

“Well, maybe. Schwarzenegger is an astute
businessman. He laughs all the way to the bank. With one percent of
his capital, I could do big things. Actually, I hope if I do well,
I might get to meet him, and then... Who knows? Big men like him
need accountants. I might be able to work it into something.”

She blinked. An accountant? “Oh, you don’t
like your job?” To her, weightlifting didn’t go with accounting.
Maybe the guy wasn’t too smart, and his boss knew it.

He shook his head. “It’s not that. I’m
ambitious, see? I work in a small firm, and the head honcho already
has this other guy. Far as I can see, he has ages to go before
retirement, so it doesn’t leave much chance for me. It’s okay to
get the experience, but I’ll have to move on if I want to move up.
This contest might be just the ticket.”

“Hey, Bert.” A young man from the group on
the porch ducked his head into the parlor. “We’re going for pizza
and beer. Wanna come along?”

“Yeah, Joey.” He set the book back on the
shelf. “How about you, Cassie? Want to come with us? You can ride
with me on my motorcycle. I’ve got a black Harley Davidson.”

Cassie blinked. An accountant with a black
Harley Davidson. She stared more closely at the blond hunk in front
her. Accounting, weightlifting, and a motorcycle. Well, at least
the last two went together.

“Well, how about it?” Bert gave her a
quizzical look.

“What?” She stared at him, lost. What had he
asked her?

“The pizza. Want to come with us?”

She shook her head. She wanted no part of any
motorcycle. “No, I really need to see Tula. Nice talking to
you.”

Cassie watched Bert hurry off to join the
crew outside with relief and then turned to look for Tula. She
scanned the people in the parlor, but saw no sign of her friend.
Threading her way through the crowd into the walnut-paneled dining
room, she squeezed past a balding, stout man, and then slipped into
the large kitchen empty of people.