Wherever She Goes (Psychic Seasons

by ReGina Welling

  “Nothing.” He spat the word as though it were bitter in his mouth. On a professional front, the man sliding past him at every turn had not been a career-making event and on a personal one, Ellis had kidnapped his sister; he needed to pay for that. Taking away Logan’s freedom might never feel like enough justice but it would have to do. “Can’t you use your mojo on him? You found that hockey equipment without any trouble, why not Logan?”

  Because the idea scares the bejeesus out of me didn’t seem to be an appropriate answer even if it was the truth. Kat tried to explain.

  “You go to a wedding; you hang out with the bride and groom, their friends and family. I go to a wedding and I hang out with all of those people and the spirits who come along with them. Wherever there’s a big group of people, there’s always someone repeating the latest gossip. Well, spirits gossip, too.”

  Zack quirked an eyebrow, then, thinking she could not see him, kept the tone of his voice conversational but allowed a smirk to twist his lips. It took all of Kat’s skill to keep from reacting to his deception. So far, he was unaware she could see him and, for now, that was the way she wanted it to stay.

  “But unlike the living, they can only gossip about what they’ve actually seen or heard.”

  “Hearsay and innuendo are not my favorite methods for solving a case.” His voice sounded disapproving as he stood up and walked over to take a closer look at the painting of Julius on the mantel. Behind his back, Kat screwed up her face, stuck her tongue out and made a series of rude hand gestures but when he turned back around, she was sitting as quietly as before, her face relaxed and eyes staring blankly forward.

  “Ju…” Kat trailed off when she remembered that Zack had yet to meet the resident spirits of Hayward House. “…I don’t have a direct connection with anyone related to Logan so I don’t have a reliable source for information.” Julie’s great grandfather Julius had a tenuous connection with the man but only because he had worked out a way to track Logan through the vengeful spirit named Billy who possessed him. Maybe it was time to introduce Zack to their secret weapon but that wasn’t her decision alone to make. However, if Julius or Estelle were to show up here right now, she would enjoy the spectacle of seeing the ever-arrogant Zack deal with the facts of life after death.

  As she looked at him without seeming to look, Kat noticed a difference in her vision from those times when Estelle’s presence had allowed her to see—this time she was less a spectator more an active participant. Instead of seeing only what Estelle found interesting, Kat could look at anything she chose.

  And Kat chose to look at Zack.

  Tall and blond like Gustavia—but there the family resemblance ended. Full, kissable lips drew her eye to the shadowy indentation of the cleft in his chin. A strong jaw that appeared chiseled out of stone when he was in an obstinate mood, as he was now, begged to be soothed into a softer line. Then there were those eyes—chocolate brown and warm but she thought he used them to hide his true feelings more often than not.

  Thinking about how attractive he was made Kat feel weird—he looked so much older than the boys she had always admired—then she remembered that the last time she had been visually attracted to someone of the opposite sex, she had been fourteen. It might take her brain a while to catch up.

  _,.-'~'-.,_

  A little chill crept across Zack’s skin. Something was up with Kat and he hadn’t needed his cop sense to figure it out. Was she just distracted or was she communicating with someone or something he couldn’t see?

  Nervous mannerisms, tension around the mouth and eyes—she was ready to jump out of her skin. Was it something he said? Knowing she could not see him, looking at her felt oddly voyeuristic, as though he peered at her through a one-way mirror that exposed her every vulnerability. He knew he should look away, but he was riveted.

  Peaches and cream skin, a dark swing of hair, eyes the color of cornflowers and lips of palest pink. He swept his eyes down to take in the contours revealed by the cling of the soft sweater she wore, then farther down, still, to assess a pair of slim, jean clad legs.

  She chewed her nails. Their ragged edges the only outward sign of stresses he sensed she always took great pains to hide. What was it about those brutally short nails that made him want to cradle her in his arms and smooth that tension away?

  Restless energy pulled him back off his seat and over to the window. He hated feeling helpless.

  _,.-'~'-.,_

  He had given her the once over and with no idea she could see him doing it. Kat already thought Zack was arrogant but this was beyond the pale. Still, once he looked away, her eyes quickly followed the path his had taken.

  There was time for a quick glance at the ugly tips of her fingers before she had to pull her eyes back up and focus straight ahead again. Some friends. They could have said something about those hideous nails.

  Watching his face in a moment when his guard was down, she saw that her ragged nails stirred something in him, some faint acknowledgment of her vulnerability and a need to protect. It was all there in the way his expression softened then turned determined. She also saw when he realized there was nothing he could do to help her; the tiny flare of anger he turned toward himself, the frustration that forced him to his feet to pace restlessly to the window.

  Not arrogance, then. Just an elevated sense of responsibility for others. Her entire view of him shifted.

  An awkward silence fell over them until Gustavia strode into the room a few minutes later to glance first at Zack then shoot a pointed look at Kat. Kat nodded then shrugged before getting up to leave the room

  _,.-'~'-.,_

  Too scared to hope, Kat hoped anyway. Several hours had passed since Zack had left Hayward House and she could still see. Every time she felt the darkness creeping back, she pulled her mind back to that moment when she had looked at him and forgotten to be blind. That was the moment she realized that seeing was effortless but not seeing took work.

  Quietly, she called out to Julie’s grandmother’s spirit. It had been Estelle who made the cryptic prediction that Kat’s sight would return. Now it was time to see what further insight the ghost might provide.

  She called again and very faintly heard, “On my way.”

  When Estelle popped into the room, Kat finally got a first look at the spirit who had helped her so much. Petite with salt and pepper hair that waved gently back from a face lined with the kind of wrinkles formed from a lifetime of smiling. Warm, dark eyes with a glint of humor and plenty of compassion shone tearfully from beneath sparse eyebrows inexpertly enhanced with a penciled-in line.

  “I’m so happy for you, my dear.”

  At first, Kat thought the blurring of the ghost’s outline was because Estelle was fading but then realized it was the effect of her own tears clouding her vision. “I can see you. Oh Estelle, you’re beautiful. Is it real—will it last?”

  Estelle nodded, “Forever, now that you’ve made the right choices,” then, too overcome with emotion to speak, she faded out leaving Kat to come to terms with this new and positive twist.

  _,.-'~'-.,_

  Gustavia lay sprawled out backwards on the chaise lounge, one leg tipped with a bare foot, each toenail painted in brilliant Easter egg colors, was thrown over the chair’s arching backrest while the other rested on the floor. Completely absorbed in her work, she tapped away at the wireless keyboard propped up with some pillows on her belly.

  Too busy to notice before, Kat now noted that Gustavia’s attire was very subdued. A batik caftan over striped leggings took the place of her normal uniform—a floaty skirt paired with a brightly colored top. Granted, Kat had only seen her a handful of times and then through the lens of Estelle’s perception but she knew that for Gustavia, this was a new look.

  “How do you write like that? You’re practically upside down,” Kat observed in a lilting voice. She’d tried for droll but was too excited to pull it off.

  How long would it take for Gustavia to catch on?
<
br />   “Sometimes I need a different perspective to really…” Gustavia froze. Then she tipped her head back and looked at Kat, really looked at her. The keyboard flew and so did Gustavia—into a backwards somersault off the chaise that somehow landed her right in front of Kat. It must have been those impossibly long legs that gave her the reach.

  “It worked?” Gustavia searched Kat’s eyes, found them clear and shining. “It really worked.”

  Clutching hands and laughing at nearly the level of a shriek, the two full-grown women hopped in a circle like excited children on Christmas morning with Gustavia’s dog Fritzie running in circles and barking along.

  Drawn by the noise, Lola thundered up the stairs, her little stump of a tail wagging so fast the rest of her wiggled along with it. Not far behind Lola, Julie swept into the room to see what the commotion was all about.

  “What’s going on in here?”

  “Kat can see.”

  “I can see.” They spoke together.

  Now, three women and two dogs did the insanely happy dance.

  Once they had danced themselves out, Gustavia wasted no time. From the top dresser drawer, she grabbed a pair of neon pink socks and pulled them on before jamming her feet onto a pair of short boots.

  “Get some shoes on,” she nearly shoved Kat out the door, “I’ll take you to see your folks. Wow. That word has an entirely new meaning today.”

  The lump that formed in Kat’s throat was large and swift. Leave it to Gustavia to think of exactly the right thing to do. Swallowing through her tears, Kat nodded and left the room to return minutes later fully shod and carrying a jacket.

  “Jules, call Amethyst and start putting together a shopping list. I’ll hit the market while Kat is visiting her folks and we’ll have a celebration dinner.”

  “No, my parents would love to see you and then we will both go to the market No repeats of what happened last time.” Kat insisted fully prepared to forgo the visit rather than put Gustavia in danger.

  _,.-'~'-.,_

  It was an exhausted Kat who finally returned to her room hours later. The intervening years had been kind to her parents but there were still changes that wrenched at her heart. Lines of age, a few gray hairs marked the passing time but their joy washed away many of the traces. Even if everything went black again, Kat had this day to treasure.

  The celebration dinner had helped her balance out any melancholia still left over from going home. Good food, a nice Cabernet and Gustavia who had dressed for the occasion in the most colorful outfit she could put together. None of it matched, though that was never a concern anyway, but you had to give the woman credit for her ability to be festive.

  Consequently, it was the wee hours of the morning before Kat stepped into the bathroom to brush her teeth and got the first chance for a long look in the mirror. So many years had fallen into the dark that now, in the light, she felt the reflection portrayed a stranger. Adolescent roundness had given way to leaner planes and angles. Of its own volition, her hand lifted to touch first her cheek then the mirror itself.

  Wide, dark eyes, rosy skin—slightly pale just now—and hair that had deepened at least two shades from the last time she had seen it; she poked her tongue out at the solemn face then smiled to see remnants of the girl she remembered in the glass.

  Don’t be stupid, she chided herself, it’s not like you were in a coma or something. Still, the face that peered back at her would take some getting used to.

  Teeth brushed, she walked back into the bedroom and climbed under the covers to let sleep finally wash over her. When it did, it brought a series of odd dreams full of sounds and smells but no visuals.

  Sometime in the middle of the night, she woke to the softly slurred sound of a whispered voice. It wasn’t the first time the night had filled with what sounded, “Sorry,” hissing from the darkness.

  Chapter 5

  Half an hour after his normal feeding time, Fritzie decided it was time to wake up his person who, he thought, was shirking her duties. The food he could live without, but he needed to go visit his favorite shrub and sooner rather than later. Jumping up onto the bed was a no-no. He knew the rules, but maybe if he just stood on his hind feet and rested his front paws on the edge, she wouldn’t scold.

  Gustavia felt the cold nose as it nudged her awake. She squinted and looked at the clock.

  “Sorry bud. I overslept.” The celebration dinner had gone on long into the night. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and reached down to ruffle the little dog’s ears. He responded with an ecstatic shimmy and wagged his stumpy tail for all he was worth then, very pointedly, looked at the door then back at Gustavia

  She took the hint, pulled on her bathrobe and moved to the window to pull open the curtains. A light layer of new snow sparkled like millions of tiny diamonds in the morning sun. Frost coated trees stood like glimmering white sentinels against winter-blue shadow. Gustavia looked out over the fairy landscape and breathed a sigh of appreciation.

  Then the sigh caught in her throat as something not bestowed by Mother Nature glinted in the distance. Quickly, she padded on slippered feet into the library where she knew Tyler kept a pair of field glasses and in moments, she was back at the window.

  At first, she saw nothing out of the ordinary but on the second pass she found what she was looking for. A compact car, nearly as white as the surrounding snow was parked some way down the drive to Hayward House.

  Fritzie and his full bladder forgotten, she raced downstairs to find Julie already in the kitchen.

  “Get Tyler and go look out my window. There’s a car, someone’s watching the house.” Gustavia handed the binoculars to Julie with shaking hands. “I’ll get Kat and call Zack.”

  _,.-'~'-.,_

  “Kat,” an insistent voice hissed in her ear. “Wake up.” Kat batted away the hand that shook her shoulder but it came right back to shake even harder.

  “What?” One sleepy eye pried itself open to see Gustavia wearing a neon green chenille bathrobe and carrying a baseball bat. Lit by the sun streaming between the newly opened curtains, the image was beyond vivid.

  “We have a situation, get up.”

  Senses now on full alert and heart pounding, Kat leapt out of bed and looked around for something to use as a weapon. Though, with her depth perception still off, she couldn’t see herself as much of a threat.

  Gustavia motioned for Kat to follow her down the hall to the suite where she was currently staying.

  “Situation?” Kat struggled to slip on a pair of sneakers and walk at the same time, slapped a hand on the wall to stabilize herself when she nearly fell.

  “It looks like someone’s watching the house. I called Zack; he should be here any minute but so far, nothing from Estelle or Julius. Are they around?” Gustavia spoke in a low voice as though someone nefarious might overhear.

  Sensing spirit worked as expected about half the time. The best comparison Kat could name was that it operated in a similar manner to those real estate radio signs. Yeah, you could pick up the vibe but you had to be tuned to the right frequency and also within radius of the transmitter. The difference was that those signs are always fixed in place while spirits move around a lot so it was like hitting a moving target.

  And sometimes they didn’t want to talk.

  This was one of those times. When Kat’s searching energy field touched Estelle’s it was gently rebuffed. She got only a split second to assess the ghost’s frame of mind.

  “They’re outside but they don’t seem worried at all. I could swear Estelle just giggled at me.”

  Gustavia sighed and relaxed for the first time since she had spotted the car. She trusted Estelle.

  If Zack was on his way to the house, Kat had no intention of greeting him in her jammies so she suggested to Gustavia that they would both be better prepared for what might happen if they were dressed for the day.

  Back in her room, she chose a soft sweater, her fingers automatically checking for the button t
hat marked it as blue before she remembered she no longer needed that particular accessibility option. She hardly had time to tie her shoes before the doorbell bonged. Kat met Gustavia on the stairs and together they hurried toward the front door just in time to see Julie pull it open.

  Zack stood on the porch; the serious expression on his face might have carried more weight if not for the smile twitching around his lips and the twinkle in his eye. Beside him stood a pair of teenage girls who barely looked old enough to drive.

  The taller of the two, all knees and elbows, wore a pair of leggings—her concession to the cold weather—under a multi-tiered batik skirt in shades ranging from moss to lime green. The skirt was paired with a predominantly orange tie-dyed tee and topped with a puffy winter coat. Half a dozen beaded necklaces completed the ensemble and her mouse-brown hair was inexpertly braided to mimic one of Gustavia’s more elaborate styles. She stood next to Zack, shoulders rounded, head down in shame.

  The other, shorter by about six inches, was dressed similarly—blue patterned skirt with several scarves tied around the waist and topped with a rainbow striped sweater. She attempted a defiant stance; one she might have pulled off if her fear-widened eyes hadn’t given her away.

  Trying to sound stern, Zack spoke directly to his sister, “It seems you have a couple of stalkers.”

  “Not stalkers,” the shorter girl corrected, her frightened eyes moving frantically between Zack and Gustavia, “fans. Gustavia’s biggest fans. We weren’t stalking anyone,” her voice shook, “we just wanted to see if we could meet her.” She pointed to Gustavia.

  Kat heard a masculine snort from somewhere behind her and had to work hard to keep a straight face. From the corner of her eye, she saw Gustavia fighting a smile of her own.

  Gustavia stepped forward intending to gently address the red-faced girl who had not yet spoken; she had to lean down to make eye contact. “What’s your name?”

  “Beth. I’m Beth. I’m sorry, we didn’t mean any harm…it’s just that we…we had these book, you know? We thought you might sign them. We didn’t think we were doing anything wrong. There’s a museum here so we thought it was okay, you know? Like, it wasn’t trespassing if it is a public place. My parents will kill me if I get arrested.” Tears leaked down her cheeks then she turned on her friend to say hotly, “You told me we wouldn’t get into trouble. You promised and now look. I’ll be grounded until I’m forty.”