“Hey, Monica.” Sully sounded bored. “You know this is routine, right?”
“Sure.” She moved to open the door all the way and let them in. “You want a beer?”
“Still on duty.”
“Right.”
Gabe still hadn’t managed to speak, but he entered her home and scanned it with narrowed eyes. She saw his eyes catch on the wall of family pictures in the entryway.
Gilbert and Monica on their twentieth anniversary. The kids’ high school graduation pictures. Sylvia’s college graduation. Kids riding dirt bikes and building tree houses. There was a little of everything on that wall, twenty-five years of life with a man she adored, raising four excellent kids.
She looked at Gabe and remembered the look of disdain when she told him about her visions. Guess you only get lucky once.
“Why don’t we sit at the kitchen table.” She pulled out her chair and sat down, reached for her beer, took a drink. Then she folded her hands and waited.
Monica would be damned if she offered them any information. She wasn’t going to make it easy on them.
Gabe cleared his throat. “Thank you, Mrs. Velasquez. We had a few questions related to the three recent fires in the area.”
“Should I have a lawyer present?”
Whatever Gabe had been about to say, he swallowed it. “Wha—? I don’t… I don’t think—”
Sully cleared his throat. “You were home the night of the first and the third fire, right?”
“Yes. I called you right after I woke up from the visions to warn you. I was home in bed.”
Sully barreled through, ignoring Gabe’s infuriated expression. “And the second fire? Where were you then?”
“I was actually with Chief Peralta all that morning. We were going over some changes we’re making to the exterior of Russell House to create more defensible space before fire season.”
Sully’s eyebrows went up. “Oh yeah? What are you doing?”
“We’re going to clear some trees along the back; then I’m gonna have Sam and Caleb build a gazebo and kind of a seating area around that area the porch overlooks. Add in some woodland-garden kind of plantings. Some flower beds. Very rustic. Kind of a craftsman look to fit the style of the house.”
“That’s a great idea. Good for parties and stuff, right?”
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
“Nice.”
Gabe was glaring at both of them. “Can we get back to the fires please?”
“Sure.” Sully turned back to Monica. “Is there anyone who can verify your movements during those times?”
“You mean other than Chief Peralta?”
“Was he in bed with you when you called me? Or just the one time at Russell House?”
“For fuck’s sake, Sully!” Gabe looked ready to explode. “Can you take this a little bit seriously?”
“I told you I believe her, Gabe. You’re the one who wanted to do this.”
“Just because your girlfriend thinks she’s psychic—”
“My girlfriend doesn’t ‘think she’s psychic’; she’s a verified psychometric whose abilities were triggered by the same accident that triggered Monica’s. And since I’ve seen the value of listening to Monica in the past—like the two fires she fucking predicted this month—I’m not so narrow-minded that I write her off.”
“You expect me to believe she can see the future?” Gabe turned to Monica. “Okay, predict something. Predict something I can actually verify.”
“Someone is going to burn down the entire town if we don’t stop them,” Monica said quietly. “Verify that.”
Gabe shut his mouth.
“I’ve seen the same vision three times now. Every time I close my eyes these days, I remember it. The entire town of Glimmer Lake burning up. It has something to do with a redwood cabin. That was the dream I had before the third fire. I dreamed about a different cabin than the one that was burned. There’s something different about it. It’s old, and it’s by a waterfall or a creek. It’s made of square-cut redwood logs. The roof is covered in moss and falling down in parts. The fire will start in the underbrush, like the others, but this one will reach up to the top of the canopy. It’s remote. Way off all the fire roads. By the time you get to it, it’ll be too big to stop.”
Gabe’s face was pale, and Sully’s was grim.
“Have you seen anything new?” Sully asked.
“Not since the last one I told you about. Has Robin found any cabins like that? Does the city have records? There’s a small sequoia grove nearby.”
“So far she hasn’t found any record of a cabin like you’re describing. Once she’s narrowed down the cabins that were built before the 1940s, she’ll look at the county records. Those probably go back further, but it’s still a crapshoot. Unless a surveyor went out there, there’ll be no way of knowing who owned what land. People didn’t exactly ask for permits back in the forties.”
Gabe looked at Sully. “Why the forties?”
“Because that’s when Grimmer was flooded,” Monica said. “All the cabins that have burned—the Alison cabin, the Lewis cabin, and the most recent one—they were all built by families from Grimmer.”
“Grimmer is the town that was here before the dam?”
“It wasn’t here,” Sully said. “It was in the bottom of Grimmer Canyon, which is now the bottom of Glimmer Lake. The cabins people built around here were all hunting cabins or seasonal summer houses for when it got hot in the valley.”
“And you think the arsonist is targeting these old cabins?”
“They’re remote,” Monica said. “They’re abandoned for the most part. Robin was going to try to find a list of cabins built during that time. She can talk to ghosts.”
Gabe rolled his eyes. “So there’s three of you.”
“Yep.” She opened her computer and turned it around so Sully could see the screen. “Here’s the security log for the house. The tracker is attached to my car keys, so you can see anytime I leave the house or come back with my keys, because the system automatically disarms when I approach.”
“Okay, so this tells us when you come and go.” He scanned it and looked at Gabe. “Oh look, she was home all night the two nights in question.”
“Unless you think I’m leaving my minivan here and riding my broomstick into the night to set fires at abandoned cabins around Glimmer Lake.”
“Fine.” Gabe stood and stuffed his phone in his pocket. “This is useless. Email Sully a copy of that report and let’s go.”
“Okay.” Monica rose and showed Gabe and Sully to the door. “So nice seeing you again, Chief Peralta.”
Gabe said nothing.
Sully patted her shoulder. It was the closest he really came to hugging. “See ya tomorrow. I’ll tell Val to call if she picks up anything new tomorrow on the evidence.”
“Sounds good. I’ll let you know if I see anything weird tonight.”
“Thanks.”
Gabe stood by Sully’s truck, fuming.
Monica really wished he wasn’t so handsome. It was just annoying at this point. When Sully turned his back, she crossed her arms under her boobs again, wiggled her fingers at Gabe, and mouthed Bye.
His jaw twitched. “You should trim your trees.”
“Is that some kind of weird fire-inspector innuendo? I haven’t heard that one before.”
His expression never wavered when he pointed to the cedars that hung over her porch. “One hundred feet. You should cut them back.”
“Sure, I’ll get right on that at…” She looked at her phone. “Eight o’clock at night.”
Monica turned her back and walked back into the house, making sure to put just a little extra swagger in her step. She could practically feel Gabe’s eyes burning her backside.
Good.
Maybe she’d found her new middle-age hobby: annoying Gabe Peralta.
Who knows? Could be fun.
Chapter 18
After a night of fitful sleep, Monica wen
t in to Russell House with a massive headache. She was annoyed by the late-night interview. Annoyed that despite his rudeness, she’d had another sex vision about Chief McDoubty-Pants that left her aroused and angry at the same time, and annoyed that someone was trying to set fire to her very nice hometown.
And doubly annoyed that Gabe was right, and she really did need to cut her cedar trees back. She was dialing the tree company when she pulled into her parking spot.
“Yeah. It’s Pete.”
Monica was relieved to hear a familiar voice. “Hey, Pete. It’s Monica Velasquez.”
“Monica! How you doing?” He cleared his throat. “Let me guess, you want some trees cut back.”
She laughed a little. “Me and everyone else in town, right?”
“I tell ya, I called folks from Bridger City to come take some of these calls. I can’t keep up. Everyone’s finally cutting back those trees they’ve been meaning to take care of for five years now.”
“Guilty as charged. I think the last time we got them cut back around the house was when Gil was alive.”
“Sure.” Pete was about seventy years old and he had known Gil. Everyone had known Gil. “Whatya need, hon?”
“I do need some trims around my house, but I’m actually calling about the hotel, so it’s a bigger job. How soon can you fit me in?”
“For a big job, I’ll make time.” Clearing big trees paid a lot better than trimming back branches. “How many we talking about?”
She tried not to cringe when she said it. “About twenty.”
Pete whistled. “You cutting around back?”
“Yeah. So it’s dense and a lot more than what we needed when we built the ropes course.”
He gave her some nonspecific muttering and a whistle. “I’m gonna need to look at my calendar and talk to the kid before I can give you a date. Probably not before end of the month at the earliest.”
“The kid” was Pete’s son Steve, and he’d graduated two years ahead of Monica. “As soon as you can get it in, I would really appreciate it.” She had an idea. “And as a bonus for fitting us in, I’ll give you and Dorothy and Steve and Taylor a couple of rooms at the hotel next month. You can take a weekend and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning.”
“Is that so?” Pete sounded impressed. “Well, I might be able to squeeze you in the end of next week if something opens up.”
Score. “That would be awesome.”
She saw Eve approaching the car with a steaming cup of coffee. “Just give me a call and let me know. Thanks, Pete.”
“You bet.”
She opened her car door and was met with the scent of sweet, sweet caffeine. “Eve, you’re a goddess. How did you know?”
“I saw you out the window still in the car, and Val mentioned this morning that Sully and Gabe had been over to the house last night.” She presented the cup to Monica. “Your hazelnut latte, my friend.”
Was it too dramatic to weep with joy? Did she care? She took the coffee. “You are my favorite person today. Well, you’re up there with Pete the tree guy, but only if he fits us in next week; otherwise, you’re definitely my favorite.”
Eve nodded. “I’ll take it. The tree service for my condo association told us that they can’t come until next month. People are taking matters into their own hands.”
“Oh, that’s not good.” She grabbed her purse and exited the relative safety of the minivan.
“Looootta weekend warriors with chain saws out there. I hope the ER in Bridger is prepared to sew on some fingers this month.”
She locked her car and walked toward the kitchen. “Anything else happening right now?”
“Not much. Jake and Kara are down in the boathouse.”
Monica wiggled her eyebrows. “For business reasons, I’m assuming.”
“Ha!” Eve grinned. “Jake said something about ordering a new security system for the boathouse, and Kara said she’d need to take a look at it, and I haven’t seen them in about half an hour.”
Should she be annoyed? Monica sipped her coffee and felt the irritation drift away. “It’s fine. If they’re gone another fifteen minutes, I’ll call him.”
“I have to say you’re really understanding about all this.” Eve looked impressed. “They are your employees.”
“I know that, but he’s my kid and I like her a lot. Have you noticed anything falling behind at the main house?”
Eve shook her head. “Not even a little. If anything, Kara has been working more lately, not less. She seems kind of stressed, to be honest. The only time she looks relaxed is when Jake is around.”
“As long as he doesn’t screw this up, I’m not going to make a big deal about it.” She shrugged. “They’re young and it’s Glimmer Lake. Where else are they going to meet people other than work?”
“Good point.”
She sat in her office, drinking her coffee and checking emails.
Still no new reservations for September.
An email from their insurance company, talking about fire safety and precautions.
An email from the winery who was very enthusiastic about creating some special events for Russell House. That was good news.
Someone tapped on her door. “Come in.”
Kara popped her head in the office. “You have a minute?”
“Do you?”
The young woman’s laugh was high and tight. Monica looked up. Eve was right. She looked stressed. “Hey, sweetie, come have a seat.” It was impossible for Monica not to feel maternal. Kara was the same age as her own daughter. “You okay?”
“Yeah!” She quickly schooled her expression. “I’m great. I just wanted to suggest something for the security at the boathouse.”
Monica sat back and really looked at her. There were faint lines under her eyes. Her jaw was tensed, and her nails were bitten down to the quick. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Kara sighed. “I’m just… Insomnia has always been a problem for me. My whole life. I’ve been having a really bad spell over the past month, probably just worried about work and the busier schedule with end-of-summer rush.” She held up a hand. “I promise it has not affected my work.”
“I know it hasn’t; I just don’t want you to burn out.”
“I won’t. I promise. I think after this month is over, I’m going to ask for a week off or so if that’s okay. Maybe visit some friends at the coast. Just get a change in scenery, you know?”
The tension around her eyes was so obvious now that she was looking, Monica wanted to rub the girl’s temples and force Kara to take a nap on the couch.
“If you feel like it needs to be this month, you better tell me.” Monica had no idea how she would juggle the extra duties, but she’d find a way. She didn’t want a sweet girl who was her best employee to burn out her second year on the job.
“I promise I will. But for now I wanted to recommend this security system for the boathouse. I saw it at the electronics store in Bridger, and I think it’s perfect for older structures.” Kara held out her tablet. “It’s connected entirely by Bluetooth, so you don’t have to run any new wiring.”
“No new wiring? Tell me more.”
Monica reclined on a large granite rock jutting up from the lakeside. It was more comfortable than it looked. Then again, she’d been scrambling on granite rocks her whole life, and she had a lot of padding in back to make her comfortable.
Yes, her ass was comfortable. It was just her knees that would make her pay later.
“Anything?”
Robin sat across from her on the beach in a folding chair, her eyes halfway closed and her hand moving over the page. “It’s not like making a phone call, Monica.”
She knew that. She did know that. But it was nearly sunset, and it was getting cold. She’d put all her electronics away—Robin had said something about electronics irritating ghosts—and she was trying not to think about all the junk emails in her inbox that she needed to delete.
She was over three th
ousand now. It was getting ridiculous. She had no time to go through every junk email that was sent her way. Was there a way to just delete everything prior to a certain day?
That was probably a bad idea.
Was it?
If she hadn’t opened it or missed it in six months, did she really need to keep it?
The idea of deleting every unread email in her inbox gave Monica a dangerous thrill. She should do it. She should just go for it and throw caution to the wind. What did she have to—
“She’s here.” Robin’s voice was soft.
Monica sat up slowly. “Is she alone?”
Robin had been trying to call Bethany, but the little girl hadn’t been cooperating.
“Bethany?” Robin’s voice was soft, soothing. It was the voice of a mother. “Hello, sweetheart. I think we know why you’re scared, and we want to help.”
Robin was quiet for a long moment.
“Robin?”
“She says we can’t help. She says that it’s all going to happen again because she’s angry and Bethany doesn’t know why. She never tells Bethany anything.”
Robin and Monica exchanged a look. Being the parents of multiple children, they recognized the tone.
“Are you talking about your big sister?” Robin said. “Bethany, are you talking about Rosemarie?”
“We know about the fire,” Monica said softly. “We know about the fire that took you and your sister and your daddy, Bethany. I am so sorry. I know you were probably scared.”
Robin murmured, “She’s listening to you, keep going.”
“We know you were probably so scared, Bethany, and we don’t want you to have to remember that. But we also don’t want other little girls in Glimmer Lake to be scared. I have dreams.” Monica took a deep breath. “I have horrible dreams about what is going to happen. We just want to keep everyone safe.”
Robin had tears in her eyes. “She says no one kept Rosemarie safe, but Rosemarie kept her safe. She didn’t mean for the fire to happen the way it did.”
Monica’s heart broke. “Was your father hurtful to your sister, Bethany?”
Robin whispered, “All she’s saying is ‘He drank a lot.’”
Psychic Dreams: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Glimmer Lake Book 3) Page 13
