both ordered cokes.
"No, not like they are now. They're really watching their backs so to speak. They're second guessing themselves and triple-checking everything." Guy paused as the waitress served their food in paper lined plastic baskets. He then continued speaking. "They're even more tight-lipped than usual."
Munching on her crab cakes, Kate answered, "It's not much to go on."
Guy kept nervously glancing around to make sure no one was listening to them. But the level of chatter and the clinking of glasses at the bar made it hard for Kate to hear him.
"I wish I could give you more, but as I said, no one is talking. If I hear anything else, I'll call you the usual way."
"Thanks, Guy. I'll pay for lunch."
Before he rose, he cocked his head to one side and kind of looked at her sideways. "Do you think we could meet for a drink while I'm here? I mean, you know, to talk about something besides business."
"I don't think that would be a good idea," Kate said, getting up from the table.
"I'll be in touch," Guy said quickly and left without glancing back.
Kate drove back to St. Simons thinking that what Guy had told her echoed what Bob had told her on the phone.
Even though it was late when she reached the condo, she called Carina for advice. She couldn't concentrate on her job because of Rod. Carina was a medium whom she along with two girlfriends had visited during summer vacations. They swore an oath never to tell anyone. Kate had returned many times to visit her, telling her things a skittish fifteen-year-old had a hard time sharing with anyone. Carina was half Cherokee Indian and half African-American, whose ancestors had hidden in the mountains of Tennessee and avoided the infamous Cherokee death march.
The next morning Kate put Rod's coffee cup in her large shoulder bag and drove over to Carina's neighborhood, one of the few areas of small houses and moss-covered live oaks where longtime residents on the island still lived. The condos, the resort hotels, and plush homes were devouring the old bungalows.
Carina, almost as wide as she was tall, hugged Kate, then stood back and declared, "I haven't seen you in a coon's age. Where have you been?"
Kate shook her head. "A lot has happened since I've seen you."
Carina told her not to tell her anything else. Instead, she took her by the arm and led her into the reading room which was lined with shelves containing ceramic statues of American Indians and ebony carvings of Africans.
Kate took the plastic bag out of her handbag and handed it to Carina who placed it in the middle of a table. She and Kate sat across from each other. After opening the bag, Carina held her hands over it without touching it and closed her eyes.
"I see a man. His cosmic path has been destined to cross with yours. I also see great turmoil around the two of you. Carina paused, concentrating hard. "There is great danger in this whirling turmoil," she said as she opened her eyes.
"I've started to investigate some big operation the government has started, involving drugs. Is he involved in it, too?" Kate asked.
"Well, I can't see exactly what it is; only that it involves both of you, and it is big and dangerous. But I do feel you will be all right," Carina answered and rose from her chair.
They said good-bye and Carina reminded her to be careful, for even though she had seen her all right, she still had to do her part.
Does he work for the government? Is that why he is so secretive, or am I going to put him in danger? Kate wondered. Those questions and many other sped through her mind as she returned to the condo.
Her grandmother called, and Kate promised she would drive up to Athens and pick her up the following day. It was about a five-hour trip, but she left early and arrived by lunchtime. After having lunch in the Hancock Assisted Living Center's dining room with Betty, they left. On the way home, Kathryn told Kate she had called Betty's grandson who was her only living relative. She told him that his grandmother had a great deal of money, but what she didn't have was someone to love. Kathryn then said, "I'm not very different from Betty."
"I love you, Grandmother and I promise I won't shut you out again," Kate replied.
* * *
That night in her Victorian hang-board mahogany bed, Kate tossed and turned. The bed had belonged to her mother Constance. Her grandmother had given Kate the bed after her mother had died. Her father let her accept the bed but had refused to move it around with them because it was extremely hard to assemble.
While sleeping in the bed, Kate often dreamed of her mother. Most of the dreams comforted her, but tonight they didn't. In her dream she saw her mother waking from her sleep and playing with a doll who looked like Kate. Shadowy creatures kept trying to take the doll away from her mother, but her mother would not let her go. She hid her and protected her from the creatures. The creatures went after a boy doll sitting on a shelf on the other side of the room. The boy doll looked like her brother Tom. Her mother tried to get to the boy doll and save him from the creatures too, but she wasn't fast enough. The creatures stole the boy doll before her mother could reach him. Kate woke up crying.
Walking by her room, Kathryn heard her and came to her. "What's wrong, Kate?" she asked.
"I had a dream about my mom and Tom." Kate then described the dream to her grandmother who had sat down on the side of the bed next to her.
Kathryn put her arm around her and said, "I think your mother is trying to protect you. How about I make you your favorite breakfast, French toast and bacon?"
"Thanks, Grandmother, that sounds terrific. I'll just first take a quick shower."
Kate took her plate out to the small table on the balcony. She loved the sound of the surf and the singing of the birds in the mornings. She cleaned her plate for she had always relished her grandmother's cooking and sat there sipping her coffee.
The phone rang and Kathryn working at the kitchen sink answered it. "It's for you, Kate," she called out through the open screened window.
Taking the cordless phone from Kathryn, Kate listened and then replied joyfully, "Maria, I can't believe it. Is it really you? It's been so long since I've talked to you."
CHAPTER THREE
"Kate, I'm getting married," Maria announced.
"You're kidding. I don't believe it. You mean after only three years Oliver has finally asked you?" Kate talked as she carried the phone into the living room and curled up on the couch.
"Yes, but I can't talk too long. I'm calling you from my desk at the State Police headquarters in Albany. I just couldn't wait any longer; you've only been my best friend since we were roommates at Skidmore College."
"Maria, I'm so happy for you, but I still can't believe it," said Kate, smiling.
"Do you know what I'm doing now?" Maria asked.
"No, what?"
"I'm holding up my hand so that the light catches my diamond," Maria replied.
"I can't wait to see it, but how did it happen? I want to know everything," Kate demanded,
