“Yes, and karma. I can help you find those vital spiritual connections that explain many things in your current life. Perhaps you’ve been together in a past life.”
Katherine’s eyes widened.
Jack shook his head. “Seriously? You actually believe in that stuff?”
“Oh, yes,” said Juliette, studying the couple intensely. “And in your case, most definitely. This is not your first time around.”
****
As Kate babbled on nervously, Jack took the opportunity to study the medium. It hit him like a punch in the gut. Something strange was going on. Or he was seeing double. Psychic Juliette was the mirror image of Kate, just an older version. They could be sisters. The medium was a knockout, sensual, with fiery amethyst eyes and velvet black hair, falling in loose ringlets, like Kate’s. She had a very compelling face, like Kate’s.
Psychic Juliette looked at Jack. “First, do you have any questions?”
“Are you a medium or a psychic?” Jack asked.
Juliette smiled warmly. “I get that question a lot. Everyone is psychic in some way; everyone has a sixth sense of sorts, thought waves alerting them to what the universal spirit is trying to tell them. Mediums have a natural energy and ability to capture those thoughts from a higher power—a merging of the mind and the spiritual world around us.”
Jack massaged his chin. She was spouting the same nonsense as Kate did.
“You look as if you are expecting a razzle-dazzle act,” said Juliette. “I want this to be a positive experience for you.”
Jack frowned. “Just what is supposed to happen in a reading?”
“Think of me as your spiritual counselor. I facilitate communications between you and people who have made the transition to the next world. It may not even be with someone you’ve known. I can’t promise you contact with a specific spirit. My abilities enable me to be receptive to messages from a higher power so I can process and deliver those messages to you. I’m a mental medium. I also work as a healing medium. If in the first ten minutes you feel there is no connection, then you will walk away and no money will change hands.”
“That sounds fair,” Jack conceded.
“Could you tell me again the primary purpose of your visit?” Juliette asked, hugging her elbows.
Jack stopped staring at her and spoke. “Um, my fiancée and I are trying to determine if we’re compatible, and if we have a future together. We’re afraid we might be rushing into marriage, and we wouldn’t want to make the wrong decision. Your ad says you specialize in love and relationships. Well, we’re in love, but what I—what we—want to know is, will the relationship last?”
“Are you going to do a tarot reading? Or a palm reading?” Katherine interrupted excitedly. “I’ve always been interested in tarot cards.”
Juliette smothered a smile. “If you’d like. I keep a tarot deck on hand because people expect it. And the cards are pretty.” She reached into a drawer and pulled out a deck of The Goddess Tarot cards. “But those are just the psychic trappings of the trade everyone is familiar with. So I may use these tools to more easily convey my message or make what I have to say more digestible. But I don’t traditionally use them. I don’t need them. My abilities aren’t written in the cards.” Juliette paused and placed her hands on the tarot deck on the table and looked knowingly at Katherine. “And neither are yours.”
Kate looked at Jack and nudged him.
“I can start with a tarot reading and answer your questions about love and your future,” stuttered Juliette, who continued to stare at Kate. Did Kate notice the resemblance, too?
“I’m shuffling this tarot deck of seventy-eight cards and turning over the card Venus,” explained Juliette. “Venus is the Roman goddess of love.” She smiled at Katherine and Jack. “She’s also the queen of pleasure and passion.”
Jack’s interest perked up when he heard those words. He could be passionate.
“Your love is very strong and so will your passion be, when you finally come together.”
Jack couldn’t help but notice the flushed look on Kate’s face. Maybe this Juliette woman did have some kind of gift, Jack thought. She obviously knew he and Kate hadn’t been to bed together yet.
“Now I’m turning over the Magic card, representing Isis, the great Egyptian fertility goddess,” Juliette continued. “Isis is a very potent symbol of magic, loss, and redemption.”
Katherine looked at Juliette. “What does it mean?”
“It means there’s a growing awareness of the magic within yourself, a yearning to grow beyond your perceived limitations.”
Katherine stared meaningfully at Jack, and then back at Juliette. “That’s right.”
****
Katherine searched Juliette’s violet eyes, the same unusual color as her own eyes, and she felt a tangible, almost electric connection to the woman. Compounded by the fact that she could have been looking into a mirror. People always said she looked like a gypsy. So what if the woman had dark hair and violet eyes, just like hers. A coincidence, perhaps? Didn’t someone say that everyone had a twin somewhere?
Juliette pushed the tarot cards to the side and folded her hands in front of her. “Now then, is there anyone you want to contact? There are some strong spirits surrounding you both.”
Jack frowned doubtfully.
“What do you see?” Katherine asked excitedly. “Can our loved ones check in on us? What are they doing on the other side?”
“I can answer those questions,” the psychic responded. She turned to Jack and fixed him with her unusual eyes. “There’s an amazing aura around you,” Juliette said.
Jack looked like he was about to spit.
“Did you bring a picture of your departed loved one?”
Jack shook his head in denial. “I never said anything about a departed loved one.”
Juliette sighed heavily.
“Okay, if that makes you uncomfortable, then let’s move in a different direction. Let me start with a palm reading with the young lady, with Katherine,” the psychic said softly.
She took Katherine’s hand and held it, igniting another spark of recognition, a palpable connection within her.
“Is there anything you want to know?” Juliette asked Katherine.
Katherine stared into the air thoughtfully. “Will I have children?”
Juliette smiled and answered, “Of course. You are very fertile.”
“Will they look like me?” Jack asked snidely.
Katherine slapped his arm. “Please behave.”
Juliette coughed and tried to conceal a pained expression. “The young lady has just suffered a tragic loss.”
Kate looked at Jack in amazement.
Lucky guess, he mouthed.
Juliette turned Kate’s hand over gently and traced the path of her life lines and love lines. Tears glistened in her eyes.
“But I feel the presence of your loved ones. It is very strong.”
“Are they together?” Katherine asked hopefully.
“Of course,” said Juliette. “The bonds of love cannot be broken.”
Katherine smiled and looked at Jack.
“I knew you would come one day,” Psychic Juliette added.
The air in the room crackled. “How could you know that?” Katherine asked warily.
“You have the gift, too,” Juliette noted.
Katherine looked up at Jack. He shrugged. Another lucky guess?
“I’d like to know more,” Katherine demanded. “You said you knew I’d come one day. What did you mean by that? What do you know about me?”
****
Without answering the question, Juliette released Kate’s hand, raised Jack’s hand, and turned it over, studying it carefully, then tracing her finger across his palm.
“You have also suffered a tragedy, lost a loved one, but your loss occurred many years ago,” Juliette said.
Jack frowned. “Everyone has lost someone,” he said angrily. “That’s an easy guess.”
“Let’s just say I’ve been burned by your type before.”
“Jack, back off,” Kate said, kicking Jack’s foot under the table.
Juliette laughed, and her laugh was warm and genuine.
Jack flinched. What was so funny? It was almost as if this woman could drill down into his mind and read his thoughts, his unflattering thoughts, about Madame Hydrangea.
“Most people are skeptical when they first come to me.” Juliette brought Jack closer and whispered to him. “You are surrounded by love here.”
“That’s vague,” said Jack, trying to mask his emotions.
“Your father is very proud of you, of the man you’ve become, that you followed in his footsteps, and of how you protected your mother.”
Jack leapt out of the loveseat.
“All right, this charade is over. I don’t know how you found out all this stuff about me, or what you think you know, but I’m not buying what you’re selling.”
Jack reached into his pocket and slapped a $100 bill on the table in front of Juliette. “Keep the change.” Then he started to walk away.
Kate jumped up and grabbed Jack’s arm, pulling him aside.
“She’s not a prostitute,” Kate argued in a fierce whisper.
“I call it as I see it,” Jack said. This whole thing has been a big mistake.”
Kate pulled Jack back down to the couch. “Let’s finish our reading,” she coaxed, prompting, “Remember why we’re here. Our future?”
Jack plopped back onto the loveseat, next to Kate, grabbed the $100 bill from the table, folded his hands, and started a slow and silent burn.
Juliette spoke. “When you’re ready to communicate with your loved one, Jack, I can make that happen. His spirit is close. It’s always with you.”
Jack looked around the room. He didn’t see any spirits. The woman was a looker, but she was also a charlatan. She was obviously weaving a spell on him. Next thing he knew, Juliette would try to levitate the loveseat. She was no better than Madame Hydrangea. A first-class fake. They were all fakes. With the exception of Kate. She was the genuine article.
“I’ll take a rain check on that,” Jack said, tapping his foot in an attempt to tamp down his temper.
Juliette turned her attention back to Kate.
“You also have a strong aura, the strongest I’ve seen since, well for a long time. And your love lines, both of them, are powerful and intertwined. You asked if you belonged together. And the answer is yes, you are soul mates. You were destined to find each other, again, and you have. You’re both very lucky. You will have a long and happy life.”
Okay, the first good news of the day, Jack thought, although it sounded like a fortune prediction of the cookie-cutter variety. If Kate believed they were meant to be together, maybe she’d be open to taking the relationship to the next level—the bedmate level.
Then Juliette frowned. “But there will be trouble. Very bad trouble, and soon. You will have obstacles to overcome,” she warned the couple.
“Juliette, I’d like to show you something, and I was hoping you could answer a few questions.” Kate glanced at Jack, who nodded his head, signaling his assent to broach the real reason for their visit.
“If I can.”
“Have you ever heard of a man named Reverend Carter Coulter?”
The psychic shuddered. Her eyes grew cold, and she drew back.
To Jack, the room seemed to darken.
“He is the spiritual leader of this community,” Juliette said simply, her face now inscrutable.
Kate handed Juliette the piece of paper she’d removed from her purse. “Please look at this. Are you the Juliette Spencer mentioned in this document?”
Juliette lifted the piece of paper and looked at it, her face contorting in pain and then surprise. Her hand flew to her heart. “Where did you get this?”
“That’s not important now. Is this your signature?”
Juliette studied the signature on the paper, and her eyes blurred with tears. “Yes, but—”
“Where is the reverend now?” Jack interrupted.
Juliette’s hand flew to her heart. “The reverend keeps his own counsel. You can find him at the church or at his estate. Anybody can give you directions.”
Katherine was growing impatient. She needed answers and she needed them now. “Did you give birth to a baby girl on this date?” Katherine pointed to the year listed on the document.
Juliette didn’t answer.
“Was Reverend Carter Coulter the father of your child?” Jack accused.
Juliette appeared frozen with fear. Then, seconds later, she lifted her hands and the pack of Goddess tarot cards scattered to the floor. Facing up was Isis, goddess of loss. “This session is over unless you tell me what is going on. I must know.”
Jack pointed a finger at the psychic. “What’s going on, Juliette Spencer, is that you gave up a baby for adoption, an illegal adoption, thirty years ago.” He continued to grill her, though she appeared shaken. “Do you know what happened to that baby, where she is today? Did you have twins?”
Juliette didn’t answer. She hugged her arms across her chest in a defensive position.
Jack pulled a card out of his pocket and placed it on the table along with the $100 bill. “Here’s my card. If you remember anything, give me a call.”
Juliette looked at Katherine with tears in her eyes. Jack took Katherine by the shoulders before she could respond and marched her out, up the street, past the row of miniature Victorian houses, and back to the bed-and-breakfast.
Jack was rattled. “Imagine, telling me she could communicate with my father. You believe all that crap about the bonds of love?”
“Do you think that woman is my real mother?” Katherine asked, biting her bottom lip until it bled.
“I don’t know, but she definitely knows more than she’s telling us,” Jack said. “She’s afraid, but of whom or what I don’t know. Probably that reverend. Did you see how she reacted when we mentioned his name? We’re going to pay Reverend Carter Coulter a visit after lunch. I’m sure the woman at the bed-and-breakfast will know where to find him.” Jack turned to Katherine and framed her face in his hands. “You know, Kate, you could be related to that woman. It’s uncanny how much you two look alike. Did you see it?”
Katherine said nothing. But the connection to the woman was growing stronger, and it didn’t fade the farther away she walked. She paused at the entrance to the Casa Spirito Bed & Breakfast and took a last look back toward the town. In the distance she saw Juliette standing outside her shop staring back at her.
Chapter Fourteen
Katherine and Jack were enjoying a fresh fried seafood lunch on the patio of the Casa Spirito Bed & Breakfast, at a table facing the ocean. It was a beautiful day. A warm breeze blew up from the water, while gulls swooped lazily and dragonflies dashed by against a cloudless sky. Several fishing trawlers moved slowly across the horizon. Dolphins surfaced and played on the smooth surface of the sea. A silver shadow crossed the water, an airliner taking off for unknown places. Katherine lifted her face toward the sun, closed her eyes, and smiled. Despite the task at hand, she was relaxed, perhaps for the first time in days. What a peaceful place this was. She felt at home here.
“Jack, what was that episode back at Psychic Juliette’s about?”
Jack chewed a bite of his grouper sandwich and wiped his mouth. “What episode?”
“I understand if you don’t believe in psychics, but your attitude and animosity toward her went way beyond hostile.”
Jack shrugged.
“Why don’t you tell me what you have against sensitives?”
Jack took another bite of his sandwich and picked up a few French fries. “You wouldn’t be interested.”
Katherine swallowed a spoonful of her She Crab soup. “I am interested. You’re being irrational, and I want to know why. A while ago, you me
ntioned something about your mother and a medium. I think there must be more to the story than you’ve told me.”
“Okay,” Jack began, slapping his napkin on the table. “I can see you’re not going to quit until you pry it out of me.”
“I’m not prying,” Katherine objected.
Jack tapped his forefinger repeatedly and began talking. “I’ve already told you part of the story. It was right after my dad was killed. My mother was devastated. There was nothing I could do to raise her spirits. But then she talked to a friend who suggested she call in a psychic. Can you believe that? My mother brought in this gypsy-looking woman, a so-called psychic, named Heddy Henrietta Grainger. She called herself Madame Hydrangea. For the next two years, she came to the house two or three times a week to ‘raise my father’s spirit.’ ”
Katherine put down her soup spoon. “Did that give your mother any comfort? You said they never contacted him, not even once?”
“You really think people can contact the departed?” Jack raised his voice and unbuttoned the collar of his polo shirt. “My father was dead. I saw him in the casket. There’s no way he was ever coming back. I knew that, but my mother was convinced she would see him again, could see him again, that their ‘love’ could survive and thrive beyond the grave. The only thing that thrived was Madame Hydrangea’s bank account. Besides what she was paid for those fruitless sessions, she recommended several bogus investment schemes, and she took my mother for almost everything she had, including my dad’s police pension, which was supposed to support us, and it was all for nothing.”
Katherine blew out a breath. “You were only ten years old, Jack. You wished she could. You wished with everything you had that Madame Hydrangea could bring your father back, didn’t you?” Katherine stared knowingly into his eyes. Kate could see she was right. Jack had been hopeful, but when his hopes were dashed, he’d turned angry.
****
Jack picked up the remainder of his fried fish sandwich and finished it in one swallow. Damn woman was perceptive as hell, and it was making him uncomfortable. It was like she had a window into his soul. It went beyond spooky and bordered on irritating.
“Jack, talk to me.”
Sixth Sense (A Psychic Crystal Mystery) Page 12
