The Vision (18 page)

and she was willing, I’d give it a go—even if I questioned her sanity. I mean, you don’t

have to be sane in bed. In fact, I think it’s better when there’s a little insanity going on.”

Screw breakfast. Thor stood, trying to remember that these people were her friends, that

they cared about her. And he had to admit, he was feeling a little guilty.

Part of him did want to keep his distance. He didn’t want to find himself inextricably involved with someone who hallucinated on a regular basis.

“I have an appointment. I think I’ll skip breakfast,” he said.

Alex came walking toward the tiki bar just as he was leaving. “Hey, hey, hey. I hear

you’ve got a new thing going.”

“Have a great fucking day, Alex,” Thor muttered, and headed for the parking lot.

9

A udrey looked pretty and completely normal—just as she had always looked—when

they met. They chose Pierre’s, an off-the-beaten-path local place up by the Bahamian

village. Anthony, Audrey informed them as they waited for the owner to prepare them a

special table, believed in her powers.

“What powers?” Bethany asked. “Exactly.”

“The powers I don’t have,” Audrey explained ruefully. “Oh, there we go—the table by

the fountain.” As they were seated, she introduced them to the tall, thin Bahamian who

owned the place.

He smiled and shook Bethany’s hand, first, but when he took Genevieve’s hand, his smile

faded and he looked worried.

“You’ve come for help,” he said gravely.

She shook her head, suddenly uneasy. “I’m just here for lunch with my friend,” she said

lightly. “And what a lovely place. I can’t believe I haven’t been here yet.”

He didn’t take her comment lightly. He didn’t even thank her for the words. He shook his

head, muttering something in a language she didn’t understand, then told her, “I will pray

for you, our special prayers. We know the dead walk among us. Others are blind. They

are afraid. They think pretending not to see things will make them go away. They are

mistaken. The dead come back for a reason.”

He nodded somberly at her, then gave himself a shake and offered them a broad white

smile. “Enjoy your lunch.”

After he left, they all sat in stunned silence for a minute.

Bethany reached across the table, covering Genevieve’s hand with her own.” That was

the luck of the draw. He had to say something like that to one of us. He happened to pick

you.”

“Bull!” Audrey exploded. “Anthony knows things.”

Bethany stared at her wide-eyed. “You’re a fake. You told us so yourself.”

Audrey sighed. “I’m a fake, yes. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know people who are real,

that I don’t hear the buzz on people who really do…know things.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Bethany asked.

Audrey looked at Genevieve. “I’ve taken the liberty of calling in…a man.”

“Oh, no,” Genevieve groaned softly.

Audrey shook her head. “No, no, you don’t understand. I got his number from a friend

who got it from a friend…he handles investigations for the government, for God’s sake.

He’s the real thing.”

Genevieve sighed. “How do you know that?”

“Because I read all the articles, and I go to meetings and…Trust me, the only way I pull

off any of this is because I know what’s going on. It’s like any job. I do my research. I

know when I’m reading about a bunch of fakes—like me—versus the real thing. Go

ahead and look him up yourself. His name is Adam Harrison, Harrison Investigations. He

and his company don’t troll for business. He isn’t in it for the money.”

“Then why…?” Bethany asked skeptically.

“He lost someone years ago. Anyway, he has a knack for knowing when people are

seeing someone, getting a message from someone beyond the grave. He doesn’t have the

gift himself, but he can recognize it in others. Even though he doesn’t see them himself,

he isn’t blind, like Anthony said. He knows.” She reached into her handbag and handed

Genevieve a folded sheet of paper she had apparently ripped from one of her psychic

journals. “You’ll see, once you read it. Look, weird things are happening to you, right?”

Their waitress arrived, so Genevieve didn’t answer until they ordered.

“Yes, weird things are happening to me,” Genevieve murmured once the waitress had

gone.

“So weird she wound up in a hot new relationship with Thor,” Bethany said, grinning.

Audrey stared at Genevieve. “Thor Thompson, huh? Cool. Except that…well, it will

probably be different with you.”

“What will be different?” Genevieve asked.

“Well, he’s not known for sticking around anywhere,” Audrey murmured. “But then,

you’re different.”

She was different, all right. She was worse. Far worse. She was crazy.

“Thanks,” Genevieve murmured.

Audrey shook her head. “I’m sorry, that came out wrong. You know what’s freaky,

though?” Audrey asked her.

“What?”

“Well, you know how I keep telling you I’m a fake? But I don’t even know everything

that’s happening to you, but…I get a creepy feeling. As if there’s an aura around you. In

fact, when you two left the other night, I was afraid. As if some kind of dark shadow remained when you were gone.”

“It’s her, not me,” Bethany said quickly.

“Bethany!” Genevieve snapped.

“Sorry.”

“Anyway, don’t worry. Like I said, Adam Harrison is coming himself. He’ll talk to you,

probably bring in a few investigators.”

“Audrey, no! I can’t let that happen. I’ll be thrown off the project so fast you won’t

believe it,” Genevieve told her.

“These aren’t the kind of people who come in and make a big splash. Trust me. Adam

will be discreet.”

“You’re acting like you know the man, but you don’t. You got his number from a friend,

who got it from their friend,” Genevieve said.

“Genevieve, please, have some faith in me,” Audrey implored.

“I do. I just wish you hadn’t asked anyone in without talking to me first,” Genevieve

murmured.

“Do you want to go on just being scared and miserable?” Audrey asked.

“It will be okay,” Bethany said quietly. “Look, as long as people are discreet, who’s to

know what they’re doing?”

“I don’t have a great feeling about this,” Genevieve said doubtfully.

Audrey waved a hand in the air. “Most people think ghosts are fun. They enjoy being a

little bit scared.”

“That’s because they’re not really seeing ghosts,” Genevieve said.

“Open up a little. That ghost is probably trying to help you.” Audrey sighed. “I wish a

ghost would help me find a treasure.”

“I found one coin,” Genevieve said. “Not exactly a treasure.”

“But she’s leading you to the treasure. Let her,” Audrey said. She reached down into her

bag again and brought out a stack of papers. “I looked into the ship you guys are trying to

find. Which I know you already did, but I had my own reasons.” She stared shrewdly at

Genevieve. “You don’t believe the woman you’re seeing is the poor dead girl they found

on the beach, do you?”

Gen stared at her in shock. “How did you…? No, never mind. I don’t want to know.”

“I knew it,” Audrey said. “So listen, Gasparilla had quite a crush on this one woman.

Interesting, because he could kind of plunder, pillage and rape at will. Maybe all guys

just want the girl they can’t have. Anyway, apparently he had a real thing for the captain’s daughter, Anne. But even when he got hold of her, she spurned him for her

young Spaniard, Aldo. Gasparilla was known for his violent temper and you’re talking

about a time when people were hanged for the least offense. Life was cheap. To

Gasparilla, execution might have seemed like the right punishment for a woman who

spurned him. So maybe your ghost is Anne, the captain’s daughter.”

“Maybe,” Genevieve heard herself say.

“You know it makes sense. She likes you. Maybe she knows you care about more than

just the treasure. Whatever. I truly believe once Adam gets here, he’ll find a way to

explain things and make you comfortable with what you’re seeing. Your days are going

to be a lot better.”

“And what do I do about my nights?” Genevieve asked.

“Easy,” Audrey grinned. “Keep sleeping with the stud.”

Despite the savage damage done to the body by the sea, salt, exposure and hungry ocean

creatures, it was still possible to see that the young woman had been pretty. Once. Even

the fact that she had been sewn back together after the autopsy couldn’t hide the fact that

she had been blessed with great bone structure. Her hair had been a soft, natural blond.

As the M.E. discussed the way the marks at her ankles gave evidence of her desperate

effort to free herself, Jay’s phone rang. The M.E. continued speaking unemotionally to

Thor, detailing the water in her lungs, and the blood marks in her eyes. Because of the

man’s dispassionate tone, Thor was surprised when he met the doctor’s eyes across the

width of the gurney and saw sadness there. “Poor thing,” the M.E. said. “All that

potential, lost. She was young. She wanted to live,” he added softly. Looking up at Thor,

he told him, “I have a daughter just about this age. And as long as I’ve done this, there’s a part of me that is still staggered by man’s inhumanity to man.”

Jay came back into the room. “She has a name,” he said. “Amanda Worth.”

“Family?” the M.E. asked.

Jay shook his head. “None known. We got her name because some guy called in

anonymously to tell us who she was. What she was.”

“And what was she?” Thor asked.

Jay looked at him, troubled. “A working girl from Miami. Drifted south from somewhere

up north. I guess she started out as a cocktail waitress on the beach, then found out that in certain clubs she could make a lot more money by being a little bit friendlier. The years

went by. Younger girls came in. Then guys with the bigger bucks weren’t so interested.

Business had begun to slide for her.” He shook his head. “Old and used up—at thirty.

She’d picked up a cocaine habit, too, and started hitting the streets.”

“None of that seems surprising, even if it’s sad,” Thor said. “She got mixed up with the

wrong guy in Miami, I guess. He took her out on a boat and…hell, boats in Miami.

There’s a needle in a haystack for you.”

Jay shook his head. “The caller seemed to know her pretty well. He said she had been all excited about a week or so ago, thought she was going to hook up with someone who

might turn out to be more than a john.”

“And…?” Thor prodded.

Jay stared him, then sighed.

“According to the caller, she said she’d be heading south. The guy wanted her to see his

home. In Key West.” Jay shook his head sorrowfully. “It sucks. I’m looking for a local

murderer.”

“Then people need to be really careful,” Thor said softly. He was disturbed to feel a deep

sense of unease. He tried to talk himself out of his fears. After all, the people he knew,

the people he worked with, weren’t hookers and coke addicts. Even so, he found himself

thinking with relief that the dead girl was a blonde, not a redhead, like Genevieve, not

that that was necessarily even a factor. Besides, Bethany was a blonde, so maybe she

needed to be especially careful.

He was bothered by the bizarre turn his thoughts were taking. He found himself realizing

he was becoming involved, something he wasn’t sure he’d intended to do, and it made

him feel…disturbed. It was the only word he could think of. He was falling for a woman

who saw ghosts. And there was a murderer on the streets.

None of it connected, he told himself.

He and Jay thanked the M.E. When they left, he asked, “Think your higher-ups would let

me use a police computer?”

Jay shrugged. “Sure. With your connections…don’t see why not. Just what are you

looking for?”

Thor hesitated. “Disappearances…murders.”

“We don’t have much of a crime rate down here,” Jay said, his tone slightly defensive.

“Should make it easy, then,” Thor told him.

Marshall didn’t know quite what possessed him that day. He knew that any significant

discovery could take not just days, but weeks or months. Sure, they had a coin, but the

debris field could stretch well over a mile, taking into consideration the battle was fought just before the storm delivered the coup de grâce.

He didn’t believe in diving alone. Even top-ranked divers died that way. And he had a

crew, a great crew.

A crew that included Genevieve Wallace, who despite having suddenly gone off the deep

end on him—no pun intended, he assured himself—had made the first discovery. So…

So everyone had Saturday off. And God knew what they were all doing. Trying to take

their minds off things, probably. It wasn’t every day a body washed up on the beach.

His own mood wasn’t great, but the urge to dive was on him. It was like a senseless itch, as if someone were pushing him to do something he didn’t want to and knew he

shouldn’t. He fought it for a while. Then, just after lunch, he took off by himself. He

found his coordinates, set out a dive flag and plunged in.

The reefs here were familiar to him, as familiar as the back of his hand. For people who

spent their time in these waters, there were landmarks, just like tall buildings, statues,

even curves in the road. He knew where Genevieve and Thor had found the coin; they

had left a bright blue marker to identify the spot.

Staghorn coral covered the seabed beneath him. Beds of brain coral also found a home in