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Authors: Terri Blackstock

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BOOK: River's Edge
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R
ani Nixon let the top down on her Roadster as she flew through town. Her bones felt weary from not having slept the night before. She’d spent too much time dialing and redialing Lisa’s cell phone, yelling messages for her to call and put them all out of their misery. She’d gone to every property that Lisa might have shown the day she disappeared, searching every room and praying that she wouldn’t come upon Lisa’s body. But so far she had no clues as to where her best friend was. So this morning, when the telephone call came from the psychic, she agreed to meet him without hesitation.

His name was Carson Graham, and though she didn’t know him, she had done a quick search on her computer and found a webpage that described the services he performed. He did palm readings, astrological charts, and tarot cards, and his bio claimed he had helped the police solve several cases through doing psychic readings on victims.

“I just wanted to offer my services,” he’d told her. “Perhaps you could bring me something of Mrs. Jackson’s—something she wore that I could use to do a reading.”

Rani had frowned and clutched the phone. “Why did you call me and not the police or her husband?”

“I tried calling her husband,” he said. “I kept getting his voicemail, and I don’t know how to get in touch with him. As for the police, I used to help the department all the time until Chief Cade was hired. Let’s just say he hasn’t needed my services, and I didn’t think he would be open to my helping with the case, but I know I can at least generate some clues.”

Rani liked the sound of that. One good clue and they could find Lisa. She was sure of it. “What do you need? I’ll bring it to you.”

“Just something of hers, something personal. Something she wore or used a lot. Whatever you have in your possession.”

“I have a sweater,” she said. “She left it in my car the day before when we were previewing properties.”

“That would be perfect.”

“Where can I meet you?”

“How about if you meet me at Winston’s Restaurant? You can buy me lunch, and I won’t charge you for my services.”

She hadn’t thought about a charge, but she figured it was worth it. She’d pay anything to know where Lisa was. “All right. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“Just ask the hostess for me,” he said. “She’ll lead you to the table.”

 

R
ani got to the restaurant a little while later, holding Lisa’s sweater folded over her arm.

The hostess led her to Carson Graham. He looked like he belonged on an infomercial for Ronco products. His goatee needed trimming and his hair needed to grow. She suspected he shaved his head as an offensive against his baldness.

She greeted him and handed him the sweater.

“I took the liberty of ordering you coffee,” he said. “I didn’t know how you take it.”

“Black’s good.”

“What about lunch? Would you like to order before we get started?”

She really didn’t want to be bothered with food right now. “You go ahead. I’m not hungry.”

“From the looks of you, you could stand a good meal.” His laughter was inappropriate and a bit too loud.

At five ten, Rani had always been bone thin. When she’d worked in New York, she had learned to eat high-protein and low-carb to stay lean. She’d kept the diet ever since. She preferred lean meats and salads over the breads and pastas that everyone else considered staples. “I’ll pass, thanks.”

“Gonna make me eat alone?”

She saw that her lack of appetite was distracting him. She was going to have to order. “Okay, I’ll eat something.”

He called the waitress over and placed an order big enough to feed a baseball team. When it was her turn, she ordered a salad.

The waitress hurried off, and Rani turned back to the man. “Tell me, can you see anything yet just from holding the sweater?”

He smiled and brought it to his face, taking in a deep breath. “Actually, I think I need to be alone so I can concentrate.”

She wished he’d take a to-go box so he could get on with it. “When will you know something?”

“I think later today. I realize that time is of the essence.”

“You don’t have any impressions yet? Nothing?”

“I told you, I have to be alone.”

She sank back into her chair. What if she was barking up the wrong tree? But what could it hurt, giving a psychic a chance to find Lisa? It was as good as any other leads they had.

“Tell me about your friend.” He took a long sloppy drink, dribbling some on his chin. “Any information you give me might help me to get a better handle on her.”

She dug into her purse. “I brought a picture of her. You’ve probably already seen it on the news.”

“Yes. She’s very pretty.”

“You got that right.” Rani handed him the photo. “She’s my best friend. I’ve known her since college. We were roommates the whole four years. Then we each kind of went our separate ways, had our own careers for a while. She got into real estate, and I was in modeling. When I decided to leave New York, she asked me if I’d like to come here and go into business with her. I did, and we’ve been together ever since.”

“Tell me, what kind of person was Lisa?”

Rani didn’t appreciate the use of the past tense. She hoped he hadn’t come up with that from some kind of psychic vibration. “Lisa
is
a wonderful person. She’s devoted to her husband. She’s ambitious, efficient, diligent, vibrant, effusive…all the things that spell success. That’s what Lisa
is.”

He leaned in, his eyes squinting. “Did she have any dark secrets she was hiding?”

That aggravated her. “Look, I don’t have to tell you this stuff. Either you know it or you don’t. You said you could find her based on something she owned. I’m hoping you can do that. If you can’t, I want that sweater back.”

“Of course. I didn’t mean to step on any toes. I was just trying to get a feel for her.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not my job to fill in the blanks for you. Either you’re for real or you’re not.”

“I assure you, I’m for real. You’ll see.”

The waitress delivered their food, and Rani watched him dive in. He wasn’t even insulted by her doubt in him. Maybe that was a good sign.

With a mouthful of baked potato, he said, “Perhaps I should tell you a little bit about my background.”

“Yes, that would be helpful.”

He swallowed and took a long swig of iced tea. “I’ve known since I was a boy that I had some powers. ESP, some people call it. I seemed to always be able to find lost things, and I knew things
about people that no one had told me. When I got into college, I joined a parapsychology club and started to meet other people like myself. We sort of encouraged each other and helped each other develop our gifts.”

Rani’s anger started to fade. This was the kind of thing she wanted to hear. It sounded authentic.

“You claimed that you had helped the police solve crimes before. Which crimes?”

“Oh, there’ve been quite a few.” He buttered his roll. “I gave the Atlanta police clues one time that helped them find a sniper who was terrorizing the citizens, and two or three times I’ve given Savannah police information that has led to convictions of bank robbers, kidnappers, drug dealers. Before Chief Cade was here, I used to help Chief Baxter from time to time. He wasn’t one to give me a lot of credit, but I think I was helpful in a number of cases.”

Rani smiled.
Perfect
.

“When Elizabeth Smart was missing, I had a vision that she was with a man and a woman. Saw her wearing a burka-type thing on her head, and I knew she was alive.”

“Did you tell the police?”

“Yes, I called them, but that wasn’t much to go on. Turns out I was right, though.”

Rani was impressed. “Is that documented?”

“What? Who Elizabeth Smart was with? Of course it is.”

“No, I mean your phone call to the police.”

He breathed a laugh. “I doubt it. Like I said, it wasn’t a lot to go on. I didn’t have a location or a name. Since it wasn’t a real physical siting, they didn’t put much stock in it.”

He went on about other cases he’d solved, and by the time he’d finished eating, she was a believer. She was glad she’d come.

As he took Lisa’s sweater and went toward his van, which had “Palm Readings” in big letters on the side, Rani shook his hand. “You’ll call me the moment you have something?”

“Of course I will.”

“And don’t worry about the police. If you have a lead, I’ll make sure they follow it.”

“Good deal.”

She hurried back home to wait for his call.

T
he phone call Rani had been waiting for came an hour later. She saw Carson’s name on her caller ID, and she snatched up the receiver. “Hello?”

“It’s Carson,” he said.

She’d gone back home and paced her living room a thousand times since lunch. “Have you got anything?”

“Yes, I’m afraid I do. But I’d rather not discuss it over the phone. Do you think we could talk in person?”

Rani hesitated. What could be so bad? She cleared her throat and swallowed hard. “Okay. Do you want me to come to your place?”

“Yes. Do you know where it is?”

“The palm reader’s shop on Ocean Boulevard?”

“That’s right.”

“I’ll be right over.”

She drove too fast, her heart pounding. If the news was good, wouldn’t he have told her over the phone? Did guys like Carson ever deliver good news? Then she
thought of Elizabeth Smart. He’d had good news then, if anyone had listened.

She pulled into the parking lot in front of his small eggplant-colored house. There was a painted sign out front that had been faded by the sun. It read, “Palm Reading and Tarot Cards—$20.” She went up the steps and knocked on the door. He answered quickly.

His face was sober as he invited her in.

The front room looked as if it had been decorated by an elderly spinster. The walls were paneled in dark laminate, and the furnishings were old enough to need replacing, but not old enough to qualify as antiques.

She stepped into the front room. It smelled of strawberry candles and incense, and the lights were too dim. She turned to face him. “Tell me.”

“Sit down.” He pointed her to a plush easy chair. Her heart raced as she sat down, terror taking her breath away. He took the seat across from her. They were almost knee to knee.

She couldn’t wait any longer. “So what did you find out?”

He picked up the sweater he had lying on an end table and moved it around in his hands. “Rani, I’m really sorry. I hate to be the bearer of bad news.”

Rani wilted back. She knew it. “Just spit it out. Come on.”

“I’m afraid your friend is dead.”

Rani had expected it—had even rehearsed it—but now she found that it hit her in the gut.

“That’s what you saw? That she’s dead?”

“I saw more than that. I’m sensing that there was foul play of some kind, though I can’t say exactly what the nature of it was. When I hold the sweater, I just feel a lot of tension and fear.”

Rani sat up straighter, blinking back the tears in her eyes. He could be wrong…He could be blowing smoke, conning her. He probably didn’t know what he was talking about.

“I believe I know where she is. In a vision, I saw her car going into the water about half a mile east of Bull Bridge.”

Fear rammed its fist into her chest again. This was more specific than she’d expected.

“I believe if you find that car, you’re going to find her. Tell the police to search there first.”

She got up, trying to think. Lisa wasn’t dead. The man was a fraud. Just an evil, conniving, con artist trying to get his name in the paper. She tried to believe it was a hoax, but her heart wasn’t buying. She looked down at a statue of a Buddha on a table, trying to think.

“I tried to get more,” he said. “But it just didn’t come to me. It’s hard to know how these visions work. Sometimes I get parts of things, sometimes wholes. I guess the important thing, though, is that we notify the police.”

Rani nodded and started digging through her purse for her keys. Then she realized she already had them in her hand. “I’ll go straight there from here.”

“If you need me to talk to them, I will, but as I’ve told you before, Chief Cade doesn’t like me very much.”

Rani wanted out of there. She started for the door. “I’ll handle it.”

“And would you do me a favor? Let me know if and when you find her?”

Nodding absently, Rani headed back out to her car and closed herself in. She sat there for a moment, staring at the steering wheel.

Lisa wasn’t dead. He was flat wrong.

She pulled out into traffic, wishing for numbness. It couldn’t be true, yet what if it was? What if her friend was dead at the bottom of the river?

She couldn’t make herself go to that place for fear she would find her. Instead, she drove to the police station as fast as she could.

C
ade had gone to the site where Lisa was supposed to have shown property yesterday—a plot of land on the edge of some forest land, on the eastern side of the island. Rani got the location and decided to go there and tell Cade herself what Carson Graham had said. If she gave the information to someone else, it might be ignored.

She found the site easily. Cars lined the street out in front of the land, and a table was set up near the road, where police officers were registering volunteers and giving them instructions. She tromped in her high heels through the grass, right up to the table.

“You’ll need to change your shoes, ma’am,” a young cop said. “It’s rough treading in those woods.”

“I’m not here to search. I need to speak to Chief Cade.”

“He’s busy right now.”

She leaned on the table and glared into his face. “Go find him and tell him it’s Rani Nixon, and that I have information about where Lisa is!”

The cop sprang up. “Okay, just stay here for a minute.”

She paced back and forth in front of the table, waiting for Cade to come out of the house. In a moment, he emerged, looking fatigued and distracted. His limp was more pronounced than it had been earlier.

“What is it, Rani?” he asked. “Have you heard from her?”

“No. Cade, I need to talk to you privately.”

He looked concerned and motioned for her to walk with him. Taking her away from the crowd, he said, “Okay, Rani. What is it?”

Rani shoved her fingers through her cropped hair. “Cade, I know this is going to sound crazy, but this man named Carson Graham contacted me. He’s a psychic and he told me—”

“Hold it.” Cade raised a hand to stop her story. “I’m not buying anything Carson Graham told you. That guy is a complete fraud.”

She hesitated, gaping at him. “He
told
me you didn’t like him, but that doesn’t matter. I just need you to listen to what he said.”

“Rani, that guy tries to get in on every investigation. Trust me, he just gets in the way. Every now and then he hits on something that’s vaguely close to the truth, and then he takes full credit for it when the crime is solved. You can’t believe a thing he says.”

“Okay, maybe he’s just a lying jerk. But what if he’s right?”

Cade looked down at his cane. “Okay, Rani, what did he tell you?”

“He told me she’s dead.” She burst into tears. “That she’s in her car at the bottom of the Bull River, half a mile east of the Bull Bridge.”

Cade sighed. “Rani, I can’t send divers to a place based on some psychic’s vision.”

“Just go over there. Wouldn’t you see something if a car had gone into the water? I mean, wouldn’t there be tire tracks or something?”

He seemed to consider that. “All right, Rani. I’ll go over there myself and have a look. That’s all I can promise you. I’m
not wasting a lot of my department’s resources on one of Carson Graham’s wild-goose chases.”

“Good enough. I just want you to see. I don’t want it to be true.”

BOOK: River's Edge
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ads

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