“These woods are dense,” she continued, knowing that the people watching her could figure the surrounding out better than she ever could. “And moist, though not muddy. It would make burying a body easy.”
The girls turned and started walking, so she followed. They only went a few yards when they stopped and stepped to the side, allowing Charlotte to see the graves. There were three mounded piles all lined in a row. Fresh flowers were laid on each grave. Charlotte felt her stomach flip at the sad yet disturbing sight.
“Three graves, lined in a row. They looked well dug, not something done haphazardly or on the spur of the moment. The bastard put flowers on them.” She took a deep breath and rained back her emotions. “All right, Candace, we’re in the woods, but I need to know which one. I don’t know anything about Missouri except there’s an Arch in St. Louis.”
The girls turned and walked, so she followed. It didn’t take long for the trees to thin, and spread out in front of her was a large body of water. Charlotte quickly backtracked into the grove of trees.
“I don’t like water,” she muttered to the girls watching her. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, and it was hard for her to catch her breath. “And that’s a very huge lake.”
She turned her back on the path leading to the lake and stared blindly into the dense forest, trying to gather her wits. Candace appeared in front of her.
“Okay, I saw a dam to my right, about a hundred and twenty yards. It looked like a hydroelectric dam. And…there’s water all around. Am I on an island?”
Candace shook her head.
“No island. Okay. Then we’re on a peninsula. Trees all around me. The beach had mostly mud, no sand.”
Candace nodded at her and then turned her back on Charlotte, as did the other girls. And then suddenly the forest and lake was gone, and instead Charlotte found herself sitting in a dark room on the arm of a leather sofa. The walls were black, the floor was black, the lighting low and confined to the corners. Everything about the room reminded her of a tomb.
Just then Candace walked by, dressed in nothing but her skivvies. She had her hair down, and a moment later she disappeared. Charlotte blinked, not quite sure what that was about. And then she reappeared, dressed provocatively in a lace-and-satin corset complete with garters holding thigh-high nylons and a skimpy thong.
She was crying.
Then the vision changed, and she sat watching a couple have sex. The woman was half-naked. She wore a tight corset that tied around her waist but left her breasts spilling out. She was tied up, her hands bound by a rope coming from the ceiling. The woman was bent over, her legs spread as a man with a large eagle tattooed on his right shoulder thrust back and forth between her thighs. Charlotte was horrified. She looked down at herself and saw that she was wearing almost the same thing as the poor, trussed-up girl being fucked in front of strangers.
As Charlotte glanced back at the helpless girl, she saw the profile and realized it was Kendra being rutted upon like an animal on parade.
“Oh dear god.” Charlotte gasped.
Her hand was opened, and the personal items were removed, breaking the psychic connection to the departed. She blinked and found herself still in the conference room, only standing near the back wall, turned away from the numerous eyes that stared at her. Jonas stood on one side of her while Nash held the personal items in his fist. Both men stared at her, their faces tight with concern.
“Are you all right?” Jonas asked.
She took a deep breath. “I saw something,” she whispered, making sure the families didn’t over hear her. “I’ll tell you both later.”
Nash took a step back and put his hand on her elbow, guiding her back to the front of the room. Charlotte saw Melody’s eyes open a little in awe, as well as the shock on the faces of the families watching her.
“Does any of what I described sound familiar?” she asked the six people.
John blinked and nodded. “Yeah, sounds like Lake Wappapello.”
“I know that hydroelectric dam,” Pete added.
“Is that nearby?” Nash asked.
“About an hour or so up the road,” Danny replied, speaking up for the first time since they had all walked into the conference room.
“All right,” Jonas said. “We need to try to find this area. Who’s the lead detective on this case?”
“They’ve all given up on our daughters,” Linda stated bitterly. “All except Danny here.”
“They labeled them prostitutes and junkies and told us they probably skipped town,” Sarah said.
“But we knew better,” Kate injected. “Our daughters may have had problems, but they wouldn’t have left home without money or support of some kind.”
“That’s why we hired you,” Pete said. “I admit, when Sarah, Kate and Linda suggested hiring a psychic, I didn’t believe in such malarkey, but things Ms. St. Cloud said, and the way you looked walking around, talking to Candace, well, that sent shivers down my spine.”
“We’ve learned more in the hour we’ve been with you than in the three months our daughters have been missing,” Doug stated.
Charlotte heard Nash’s breath let out quickly, and he stepped forward.
“I’m Agent Nash McKnight with Hawk Securities,” he introduced himself. “Now, I would love to go to this Lake Weeping Willow—”
“Wappapello,” Jonas murmured.
“Right. Go there and try to pinpoint the location of the graves because that’s where the investigation starts.”
“All right,” Doug said, and the others nodded eagerly. “We can make it there—”
“Hold on,” Nash interrupted, holding up his hand. “Legally, I have to be hired. So, if each one of you will fork over a dollar, then I can be officially on this case.”
Pete snorted but collected a dollar from each person.
“Okay,” Nash said as he folded up the six bucks and slipped them into his pocket. “Who has a car big enough to sit ten people?”
Chapter Three
They ended up taking three cars. Danny drove Candace’s parents and led the brigade. Following them was Doug, Sarah, John, and Kate in another car, leaving Melody to ride with Charlotte, Jonas and Nash. Charlotte was still trying to figure out how she got to be in the back seat with Melody but was thankful the green woman’s fingers no longer danced in the air.
“Is it possible I could sit this one out?” she asked the two men.
Nash peeked at her through the rearview mirror. “You’re the only one who can identify the area.”
“There’s just a lot of water,” she muttered. “I could draw you a map.”
“You don’t like water?” Melody asked. “That’s weird because I see water surrounding you.”
Charlotte shot her a surprised look. Okay. That was creepy.
“Charlotte,” Jonas said, grabbing her attention. “What did you see in your vision?”
Immediately, her focus shifted. “I know this is going to sound cliché as hell, but I was in a dark room. Black walls, sealed doors, no windows. There wasn’t a sign or writing or anything discernible about it.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Melody interrupted holding up both hands. Charlotte eyed the woman’s fingers warily. “Are you saying that you had a vision within a vision?”
Charlotte thought about that for a second and then nodded.
“The girls…brought you there?”
“Yes. They shifted me from the woods to this dark room.”
“How?”
“I guess the same as you, you know, how you’re able to connect.”
Melody slumped back in her seat. “But you see them.”
“What do you mean?”
“You see them like ordinary people.”
“Yes. I guess…I go into their realm, to whatever purgatory they’re bound.”
“I only see the echo of the person they were,” Melody stated quietly, staring at Charlotte.
“But they talk to you,” Charlotte reminded her. “I h
ave to take what they show me and interpret the vision. I don’t have the luxury of being able to ask questions and get them answered. Listen, when you were communicating with them, did they happen to mention being in this room?”
Melody shook her head. “No. Why?”
“I think…how do I put this? I think it might have been a sex club.”
At this, Jonas turned in his seat as best as he could to look at her. “Why do you say that?”
“Well, because I was wearing skimpy clothing.”
“How skimpy are we talking?” Nash raised his eyebrow at her through the mirror. “Silk? Lace?”
She glared at him through the rearview mirror. “The kind of lingerie that’s showing all of Victoria’s secrets,” she replied tightly. “Candace was wearing the same thing.”
“Skimpy clothing does not a sex club make,” Jonas reasoned.
“Yes, but Kendra being fornicated upon right in front of me did,” she said.
“Do you mean she was having sex?” Nash asked.
“Having sex implies mutual involvement, and I assure you from what I saw she was not there willingly. It felt like a type of initiation, as if I was watching a rite of passage.”
“That’s why you wanted to know if they had mentioned this to me?”
Charlotte nodded at Melody. “Even if it was something they asked you to keep quiet.”
“If it helps solving their murder, why keep quiet?” Jonas asked.
“Because they could be embarrassed.”
“But they’re dead.”
“Embarrassment for their families,” she murmured.
Jonas fell silent.
“Was anyone else there?” Nash asked her. “Someone to help identify any players?”
“The man…servicing himself on Kendra had an eagle tattoo on his right shoulder. But, like I said, other than that, I got nothing.”
“I still have their belongings in my pocket,” Nash told her.
“Can I see them?”
He handed them over, but as soon as she touched them she knew it was a lost cause. They had abandoned the objects.
“The pull is gone,” she said as she slipped them in her pocket.
“Pull?” Melody asked.
“Personal items have memories, and that’s what I tap into. The more intimate the object, the stronger the memory,” she explained. “And objects can lose memories as well.”
“Oh. I don’t have that type of feeling. I see echoes constantly.”
“Ew. That’s creepy,” Charlotte said, wrinkling her nose.
“There’s one around you, you know, but for the life of me I can’t see her properly.”
Charlotte blinked and her heart began to hammer a little harder. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s like she’s part of you, but every once in a while she takes a half step out of sync, and I’m able to see her for a split second. It’s very odd.”
Charlotte stared at her, not quite sure how to respond, because she knew exactly who Melody was talking about. The echo was herself. But in no way, shape, or form would she ever tell the green goddess about her past.
She looked away and cleared her throat. “Do we, um, tell the families about this sex club?”
“I don’t think telling anyone you got a tip in a vision would be a good idea,” Jonas replied.
“Let’s find the bodies, have the ME do the autopsies, and see what the crime lab can discover, providing Rock Ridge has a CSI unit,” Nash said.
“Don’t hold your breath,” Jonas muttered.
“I’ve never done this before,” Melody leaned over and whispered to her.
“Done what before?” Charlotte whispered back.
“Investigate.”
“Believe me, sometimes it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
* * * *
Danny pulled his car over to the side of the road, onto the dirt shoulder, and the other two cars followed suit. Car doors opened, people got out, and all pairs of eyes looked at Charlotte.
Great.
“I calculated an approximate search site based on what you described,” Danny told her. “The dam is off toward the right, approximately one hundred and twenty yards.”
“Does this area look familiar?” Pete asked. “I mean, you’re the only one who actually saw the sight.”
“Well, I didn’t see the road, so I can’t be sure,” Charlotte murmured, looking around. “I only saw the graves.”
“We should fan out in search teams,” Jonas said.
“I have flags,” Danny replied. “In my trunk.”
“All right,” Nash said, taking over. “We’ll start a line, marking each row with flags, and systematically proceed to the beach and then turn to head back.”
Charlotte raised her hand.
Nash sighed. “Charlotte?”
“Can I stay here and supervise? I’m wearing my Gucci boots.”
“But you’re the only one who had the vision,” Sarah said.
Charlotte shot her a dark look. At that moment, Melody gave a bloodcurdling scream. Everyone jumped. Nash pulled out his gun. Nine pairs of eyes swung over to look at Melody, who was shaking. She pointed to the ground.
“Bug,” she said with a wobbly voice.
A collective release of breath exhaled over the group, and shoulders relaxed. Some people began to chuckle. Nash slipped his gun back into its holster. All Charlotte could do was glare at the green-haired psychic.
“Did anyone bring a map of the area?” Nash asked once everyone had calmed down.
“I think I have a general map of the area in my trunk,” Danny said.
“I have maps on my phone,” John stated.
“Me, too,” Pete added.
“Okay, good to know we have cell phone reception.” Nash brought everyone in close to start talking strategy, but Charlotte’s mind began to wander to the water nearby. She just couldn’t get past knowing that she was on a peninsula. Her heart hadn’t stopped stuttering ever since she caught her fist glimpse of Lake Wappapello, the water all sparkling blue under the bright sun. It made her want to throw up.
The last thing she wanted to do was go toward it. But that’s what she found herself doing a few minutes later, with two little flags in her hand. All stood in a line, about a yard between them, cell phones at the ready at the first sign of graves. Nash was on her right and Jonas on her left, and for some reason she kept swinging her gaze between them. Really, she should be focusing just on Jonas. Well, she supposed technically her attention should be on finding the girls. But really, why did she keep stealing glances at Nash?
He was so annoying, always showing up when he wasn’t needed. Or wanted. Why did he have to show up now, after she’d firmly gotten him out of her mind? And she had gotten him out of her mind. Hadn’t she? They’d only officially dated for two weeks, so why, after a year, did he still pop up unexpectedly in her dreams?
Slowly, they began their search and recovery effort. Charlotte kept one eye on the ground, swinging her gaze back and forth. She half wished she had felt a pull toward the parents so she could have used them as conduits, but it was like the girls abandoned them as they looked for the graves. Even Melody was strangely quiet. They covered a lot of ground and made their way quickly to the small, muddy beach.
Charlotte turned her back on the sight of the lake.
“We should split up,” Jonas stated. “Half of us go to the left, and the other half toward the right. We can cover a wider scope.”
Nash nodded. “Let’s split the group at Sarah. Danny, take your group and head where the end of the line had been.”
Danny nodded and the group broke off, and once everyone was in place the whole process began again. But this time, as Charlotte walked through the thicket of dense vegetation, she got a little buzz tingling through her stomach. She stopped and looked around, trying to determine which direction the pull was coming from.
“What is it?” Jonas called to her.
“They’re here
,” she replied, focusing on an area further down, past Jonas who was head of the line. And then she began to walk, the pull drowning out every other sound around her. And as she walked, the vision began to click into place, until suddenly she scrambled up a hill and stopped. On the other side, there they rested. Three graves. One mound had almost been devoured back to the wilderness. One looked a bit newer than the other piles of dirt.
Vaguely, she heard Nash talking into his phone as she walked forward, completely oblivious to everything else. She went to the last grave and touched the damp earth, and immediately, she was transported from the outside world beside the lake into a club. She didn’t hear anything, but the twirling strobe light and frenetic movement of the mob she found herself centered in told the story far more than music ever could. She stood in the center of the grinding, withering bodies, watching the faces of the dancers as they lost themselves in bliss, until her gaze landed on Kendra. Kendra was dancing in the arms of a shirtless man, and all she could see of him was an eagle tattoo on his shoulder. Then suddenly Kendra stood before her, her scared face staring intently, as if she were trying to tell her something vitally important. She held both wrists up, showing off the handcuffs, and Charlotte could only shake her head in confusion. Did she wear them the night she died? What kinky sex was she involved in?
She lifted her hand and immediately lost the connection. But she reached over and touched the middle grave and found herself back at the club, except she wasn’t dancing this time. She was standing next to the bar, next to Candace who was talking to the bartender. He handed her a drink, and a dragon tattoo on his forearm flashed from under his sleeve.
Charlotte snatched her hand back and the vision died, left behind with the shell of bodies lying in the dirt. She heard movement behind her and spun. The families had joined her while she’d been lost in the visions, and she could barely stand looking into each face, at the devastation and misery on display.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” she whispered and then proceeded to leave the graves, heading away from the water and back to the road. She would not, could not, get dragged into this again.
Hereafter [McKnight, Perth & Daire 2] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 3
