with her hand. A river? A snake? “A trail,” Emma said. “I should start at the beginning and follow the trail.”
“From the crime scene.”
“Yes. We should start there.” Emma had also seen the VDG symbol again. “VDG is important.”
Again, Miguel’s interest picked up. “Is VDG connected to your cousin’s disappearance?”
“It could be.”
She remembered the girl in the white dress. Her presence had nothing to do with Aspen. She was Miguel’s sister. Teresa. She had died young, less than a year after her quinceanera, the ceremony and party that celebrated the fifteenth birthday of a young woman. Teresa wanted her brother to know that she was all right, that she’d found the light and gone to the other side. Teresa believed that Miguel would understand.
But Emma wasn’t sure. Though Miguel seemed more open to her ability as a medium, he might not be ready for contact with his tragically dead sister, and she didn’t want to alienate him. She needed Miguel to help her find Aspen.
Looking into his eyes, she measured her words, trying to find a balance between proving to him that she wasn’t a phony and not freaking him out. Teresa had shown her a family photo with Miguel standing beside his brother, who appeared to be the same age. She said, “You’re a twin.”
He nodded slowly.
“Fraternal, not identical. Alike, but different.”
The silver medal he wore around his neck on a chain glittered in the sunlight. Though she couldn’t make out the design, it didn’t appear to be a saint. Instinctively, she reached toward it. When her fingers touched the surface, her hand glowed. She identified the image on the front: El Santuario de Chimayo, near Taos in New Mexico.
“Chimayo,” she said. A legendary healing place like Lourdes. The words etched on the back of his medal were Protect and Heal. Teresa wanted her to know that Miguel had been near death, close enough to see the light.
His near-death experience was why her ability to communicate with dead people threatened him. He knew she was telling the truth, knew there was something beyond this world. He’d been there.
IN THE BACK OF HER CAR, the baby had begun to fuss, and Miguel knew their time for further investigating was limited. He didn’t want to believe that Emma’s pronouncements were anything more than random guesses, but he couldn’t ignore her accuracy. How the hell did she know he was a twin? How had she described his relationship with his brother, Dylan, so accurately? Alike but different. That pretty much summed it up. They were both in law enforcement, but Miguel relied on forensic science while Dylan was a supermacho FBI agent.
Emma reached toward the backseat, hoping to calm Jack. “I should get him back home.”
“Mijo,” Miguel said. “Give us a break. You’ll be okay.”
Immediately, Jack’s cries modified to quiet little sniffles. He was a good baby, a good boy.
“Amazing,” Emma said. “I can’t believe the way he responds to your voice. It’s almost like you’re his father.”
“His father is a pig. If mijo was my baby boy, I would never abandon him. Family is everything.”
“But you’re not married.”
“Don’t remind me.” Though he and his brother were thirty-three, neither of the Acevedo twins had found a wife and settled down. “I get enough nagging from my mama.”
The leftover snow had melted enough that he could pull onto the shoulder at the edge of the road. This area—where Aspen’s vehicle had been found—was outside Kenner City, but there were houses within sight. There had been no witnesses, no one who stepped forward and said they heard her scream.
“This is it,” Emma said. “The start of the trail.”
“We won’t find anything here. I did the crime scene analysis. There’s nothing more to be learned.”
Not unless she did that weird vision thing. When she’d touched the car in the impound lot, he’d felt the tension in her body. She seemed to catch her breath. Her blue eyes went blank as a corpse. Muy loca, like a trance. But it had lasted less than a minute. If he hadn’t been standing beside her with his hand on her shoulder, he wouldn’t have noticed.
She shoved her car door open. “I want to take a look around. Jack seems okay. We can leave him in his car seat.”
Reluctantly, he joined her. If she managed to somehow turn up evidence that had been overlooked, he needed to be with her to verify and to maintain proper procedure.
Her gaze scanned from left to right and back again. What could she possibly hope to find? The blizzard had erased any footprints. He and the other crime scene investigators had already measured and photographed the skid marks on the pavement.
She lifted her chin and gave a sniff.
“Now what?” he asked. “Are you channeling a bloodhound to scent the trail?”
Instead of bristling, she chuckled. “Might be handy to have a ghost dog. I wouldn’t have to pick up the poop.”
“You made a joke, Emma.”
“But you didn’t laugh.”
“On the inside, I’m in stitches.”
“Seriously,” she said, “were search dogs involved?”
“There wasn’t time before the blizzard hit.” And he regretted that they hadn’t been able to call on that resource to locate her cousin. “We only had a few hours to process the scene, and the sheriff’s first concern was taking care of Jack.”
“I know. As soon as he checked the car’s registration, he came to me with the baby.” Guilt furrowed her brow. “I should have been here, should have gone out into the snow to look for my cousin. But I was overwhelmed. I wasn’t prepared to care for an infant.”
“You managed.”
“Only because I could order all the baby equipment online. I hired someone to come in four hours a day so I can get my work done, but I’m still sleep-deprived. Sometimes I’m so exhausted that I think I’m losing my mind.”
“Losing your mind?” He couldn’t resist teasing. “How can you tell?”
“Very funny,” she said. “Laughing on the inside.”
She walked to the intersection, turned and walked back toward him. Her purple sneakers dug into the snow and mud. Then she went in the opposite direction.
Noises from the baby seat in the back of her SUV reminded him that they didn’t have much time. “We can come back here later.”
She hunkered down beside a pile of dirty snow. “Over here.”
He joined her. The dark leather of the medallion stood out against the snow. The black design, etched into the leather, was a grizzly paw print.
