Indelible, Laurie Buchanan [the kiss of deception read online txt] 📗

lays it on her left palm and covers it with her right palm. Then just like before, she rests both hands on her lap and closes her eyes.

Fran has the tablet and pen ready.

“Dark. Dank. Canyon. Foul. Slippery.” As before, there’s a long pause between each word. “Emma is above ground, yet under. She is alive. Burnt, or Berndt,” Cynthia corrects herself. “Devil.” Another long pause is followed by, “Jagged edges.”

When Cynthia opens her eyes a few minutes later, Fran bursts out, “There are two extra things on the list, canyon and devil. The rest of them are the same.”

“What?” Fran asks Niall and Libby who had both just gasped and are looking at each other with incredulous looks on their faces.

“I think she’s right under our noses,” Niall says. “Thoreau cottage sits on the ridge overlooking El Cañón del Diablo—The Devil’s Canyon.”

A surge of anger flares through Jason as he marches back to Emma. Grabbing her by the hair, he yanks her head back, and says, “Don’t pull a stunt like that again.” Through clenched teeth he continues, “I could kill you now, and I’d feel nothing but pleasure. But I won’t because I want to watch McPherson’s face when I slit your throat.”

“Shouldn’t we go outside? You’re trapped in this cave. Unless there’s a back door, there’s no way out. You’re going to get caught.”

Jason pronounces each word carefully so she can’t possibly mistake his meaning. “Risk is shrouded in complacency, and I’m never complacent.”

Mick’s cell phone vibrates in his pocket. Pulling it out, he views the screen and sees it’s his sister. “Libby,” he answers. “What’s up?”

“Mick, you’re never going to believe it. Hemingway found Emma’s other pearl earring. Niall marked the spot like you did when you found the first one. When he brought it home, Cynthia read its energy. In addition to the previous impressions, there are two more.”

“What are they?” Mick asks, hope filling his heart.

“Canyon and devil,” she answers. “Mick, we think they’re in The Devil’s Canyon.”

“We’re on our way,” he all but shouts into the phone. “Call the station and have them radio Herb and Chris. Tell them it’s a Code 2—urgent, no emergency lights or siren.” Then he ends the call.

“Joe, turn the car around. The other earring’s been found. Cynthia read its energy, and there’s a good chance that Emma’s being held captive in The Devil’s Canyon, right below Thoreau cottage, the one that Jason Hughes was staying in.”

Joe punches the gas, “I’ll switch to Code 2 when we’re ten minutes out. If Hughes fell over the side of the cliff, and with Ms. Benton in a wheelchair, it would have been difficult to make it this far. It makes a lot more sense that they’re closer to Pines & Quill.”

Toni offers, “It feels like a bit of a wild goose chase to me. I find it hard to believe that we’re chasing Hughes and Benton all over kingdom come based on ‘impressions’”—she places air quotes around that word—“a psychic gave us.”

“I’m not one to buy into the hoodoo-voodoo realm either,” Joe says. “But if you’d seen what I saw, you’d be much more inclined to believe what she has to say.”

They ride in silence; the pursuit lights bathing the night in blue and white hellfire.

Beyond the cave’s mouth, the evening sky is the color of a bruise. Backwashed in the dim light, Emma sees Jason cock his head. He heard it too.

Turning toward her with menace, he hisses, “Don’t make a sound.”

Returning to the kitchen, Libby says, “I just phoned the station. They put me through to Herb. He and Chris are on their way.”

“Do you think Emma’s okay?” Fran asks the room at large.

“I do,” Cynthia says with confidence, both of Emma’s pearl earrings still nestled in her palm.

“I do too,” Niall says to a large bowl of over-stirred dough he’s taking his worries out on.

To shift his and everyone else’s mind from what might be happening in The Devil’s Canyon, Fran says, “Niall, tell me how you learned to cook.”

Looking up with a smile from a distant memory, he says, “My seanmháthair taught me.”

“Seanmháthair,” she repeats, trying to pronounce it the way Niall had done. “What does that mean?”

“It’s Scottish Gaelic for grandmother.” He then describes the hours he’d spent in the restaurant with his seanmháthair, the herbs and spices that had developed his nose, the aromas wafting from the kitchen out to the street. His heart swells and squeezes with the memories.

“Thank you,” Libby mouths to Fran.

The vehicle sensor buzzes, notifying them that Herb and Chris have arrived.

Pushing a button on the wall by the intercom, Libby swings the entrance gate open remotely.

A few moments later, headlight beams wash across the kitchen walls as the patrol car pulls into the curved drive in front of the main house.

Libby opens the door as they’re about to knock. “No lights, no sirens. Thank you for honoring Mick’s request. He, Joe, and Toni have their radios off, and their cell phones on vibrate so they don’t make a sound.”

“What’s going on?” Herb asks. And the four of them—Niall, Libby, Cynthia, and Fran—bring the two officers up to speed.

“I want night vision goggles,” Joe whispers to Toni after tripping, sliding down the slope, then tripping again.

Jutting her chin toward Mick’s back, she answers, “Yea, he moves like a mountain goat with those things.”

Mick waits for Joe and Toni to catch up. Leaning in, he whispers, “Once we’re on level ground, don’t make a sound. I’m lead on this case, and I can see.” He indicates the night optics on his eyes. “If Jason Hughes is Andrew Berndt’s brother, he’s probably armed, definitely dangerous, and I don’t want any harm to come to Emma.”

“We’ll be careful,” Joe assures him. “If Hughes is the guy who slashed the throats of those women, he’s deadly.”

“I’m going ahead, alone,” Mick emphasizes. “Wait here until I come back or yell for you.” And