knew that Claire had had her share of nightmares.
“Do you want to talk about it?” her friend asked. “I’ve learned quite a lot about dream interpretation—”
“From your friend the tarot-card reader?” Kat guessed.
Claire smiled. “Sometimes it helps if you understand what the dream is about. I have a book I’ll drop by.”
“I know what the dream’s about,” Kat said as she looked toward the window. “My mother.” The moment she said the words, she wished she hadn’t. Her mother was thought to have been the first victim of the serial killer who’d terrorized the town twenty years ago, and perhaps was even the same man who’d attacked Claire five years ago.
“I’ve often wondered why I was spared,” Claire said. “I know he planned to kill me, too.”
Kat didn’t want to talk about this. Especially today. She knew that half the people in town, including Claire at one time, believed that the attacker had been the ghost of McFarland Leary. Kat couldn’t deal with that discussion, not today. There were enough weird things going on in her world right now without digging up Leary, no pun intended.
“You said there was something you needed to talk to me about,” Kat said, hoping to change the subject.
Claire nodded. “It’s my little brother, Tommy. I’m worried about him. He’s spending too much time with those older boys who hang out at the arcade, Razz and Dodie, and my mother is so busy with the younger children…” Claire came from a huge family with the kids ranging in age from twenty-three to three.
Kat was very relieved Claire’s request had nothing to do with ghosts or fortune-tellers. Tommy, she could handle. Tommy Cavendish was a sullen fifteen-year-old, who Kat had seen hanging out along the wharf with the boys Claire had mentioned, two locals who were always in trouble. She thought Claire probably had reason for concern.
“I think Tommy might be involved in something…illegal,” Claire said quietly.
“What makes you think that?” Kat asked.
“He’s so secretive and he has money, more money than a boy can make at his age running errands. I’ve tried to talk to him….”
Kat nodded. “Emily doesn’t listen to me either. What is it you’d like me to do?”
“I was hoping you would find out where Tommy’s getting the money,” Claire said.
Kat could see how hard it was for Claire to involve someone outside the family, even a close friend.
“I would pay you—”
“We can talk about a fee later,” Kat said, not wanting to offend Claire by refusing her money, and at the same time feeling she owed her friend.
The rest of their lunch, she and Claire chatted about Elizabeth’s wedding, their bridesmaid dresses and how lucky Elizabeth was after everything that had happened with the recent murders. How lucky they all were that René Rathfastar had been stopped before he killed any more young women. Moriah’s Landing, they agreed, attracted weirdos.
The one man they didn’t talk about was the one who was believed to have killed Kat’s mother and attacked Claire. That man, whom Claire hadn’t been able to identify, was still at large.
Kat noticed her friend staring across the street at the fortune-teller. “Want to tell me what Cassandra Quintana said to you?”
“She said I will find peace soon. But first I must confront my past by going back to where it all began.”
“You aren’t really going to go back to the cemetery based on what some fortune-teller told you, are you?”
“She knew what I’d been through,” Claire said, sounding a little defensive. “I could see it in her eyes. She knew.”
Sure she did. Kat wanted to tell her it didn’t take psychic powers to know about Claire’s attack. It had been in all the newspapers. Everyone knew. But advising her to go back to the cemetery…
“I think you should ask your doctor at the hospital about this first,” Kat advised.
Claire nodded and looked toward Cassandra’s booth again. “Did you notice her eyes? It was almost as if she can see everything.”
Yes, Kat thought, remembering only too well what Cassandra had said to her. The seer did seem to see everything. But being observant wasn’t the same as being all-knowing.
For just an instant, Kat was almost willing to pay the fortune-teller just to find out who her mystery date was, and why, since he’d come into her life, she no longer felt safe.
As Kat was paying their lunch bill, she spotted her sister, Emily, walk past in the new bright red jacket Kat had bought her because she’d just “die” if she didn’t have it. Claire’s concern for her little brother, Tommy, mirrored Kat’s own for her sister as she watched Emily head toward Main, then disappear into the side door of the arcade, a local hangout, and not a safe one. Also, unless Kat’s watch had stopped, school wasn’t out yet.
“I just saw Emily,” she told Claire. “I need to talk to her. I’ll see you later at Threads?” Kat and Claire were both scheduled to get their dresses fitted for Elizabeth’s wedding.
“Sure,” Claire said distractedly. “Thanks for lunch. You won’t forget about Tommy?”
She squeezed her friend’s hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll see what I can find out.”
Emily was talking to a couple of girls from school when Kat entered the arcade. The moment her sister saw her, she looked horrified.
“Are you checking up on me?” Emily demanded in an embarrassed whisper.
“I just want to talk to you for a minute.”
“Here?” Emily glanced around as if she feared everyone had seen her talking with her older sister. Heaven forbid!
“If you don’t want to be seen with me, we could go outside,” Kat suggested, only half-serious.
Emily took her arm and steered her out of the arcade. “That was so embarrassing.”
“Being seen with your sister?” Kat said, trying to remember when she was a teen if she acted this weirdly.
“What do you want?”
“For starters, why aren’t you in school?”
Emily rolled her eyes. “I told you last week that we were getting out early today.”
Kat raised an eyebrow.
“You never believe anything I tell you.”
Kat didn’t want to argue. “I was just having lunch with Claire and I had a thought. I know you’re looking for a job this summer before college.” Another eye roll. “I was thinking, I could use someone to do filing and other things around my office.”
“You aren’t serious?”
