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  “Keep your phone close, but I got this. If I haul Derenne in for questioning without Escoe in the room, he’ll lose it. This way, I get nearly private face time with Derenne and can read his body language. If he’s lying or BS’ing me, I’ll call you. I need to see firsthand what his relationship is with Mandy’s sister.”

  “You think they had something going on the side? Was Mandy’s boyfriend sleeping with her sister? That’s messed up.”

  “I’ve seen stranger things.”

  “If that’s true, good old Aunt June might have another motive for murder. Jealousy. She already thinks she can step into Mandy’s meth-making shoes. We’ve got to move that kid.”

  “You believe his life’s in danger?”

  I sighed out my frustration and shared Doodle’s claims of being pressed into meth-lab service by his aunt. “He’s lying about something or everything, but I don’t know what. As a mom, I want to protect him, but he says he wants to live with June. It makes no sense to me. Worse, I can’t get a good read on him.”

  “He’s a kid who’s lived in a meth lab his entire life,” Wayne reminded me. “He knows what to say and how to blend into the woodwork. A kid who’s the top of his class with grades. Street smarts plus book smarts add up to a big red flag in a case like this. Doodle is no innocent.”

  “You’re leaving him there?”

  “Unless people brandish weapons or unless he demands to be removed, my hands are tied. June hasn’t endangered him. You said he was lying, but he wants his aunt in his life. If Derenne or Hendrix are drunk and disorderly, I can lock them up for an overnight stay. Chances are they’ll settle down soon as I show my face. Unless Doodle speeds back over here, he won’t be part of the domestic violence dialogue.”

  “He’s a kid. We should act like responsible adults and consider his welfare.”

  “Not buying it. People don’t change. Take you, for example. You’ve been helping people your whole life, and you’re trying to help this lying kid. I’m a cynic. Trust me, this kid knows the score. He needs to offer more than lies for me to remove him from his aunt’s care.”

  “That’s cold.”

  “That’s life.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  After the call ended, I pocketed my phone, stepped out of the woods, and glanced around my parents’ yard. Everyone had reconvened around the fire pit. Mayes was in conversation with Running Bear and Gentle Dove. Dad sat by Mom, who was flanked by her new pet pigs. Feeling out of sorts after the phone call, I eased toward my mom and the pigs and sat. As I watched the flames and heard the pop and crackle of the fire, I relaxed and took a deep breath. My mom-brain kicked on. “Where’s Larissa?”

  “Sleeping in your old room,” Mom said. “She’s fine.”

  Good . “And Bubba Paxton. Wasn’t he here?”

  “Pastoral emergency with a teen from his church. He cut out right after Mayes awakened from the voodoo attack,” my father said.

  With Larissa and Bubba Paxton accounted for, every one of our dinner party was where they should be. I’d hoped Charlotte and Duncan would join us, but they weren’t here. Across the fire, Mayes glanced at me and smiled, then he resumed his earnest conversation with Running Bear. “They seem to be getting along great,” I said to my father.

  Dad nodded. “They know the same people and faced similar challenges as mainstreamed Indians with tribal talent. At one large powwow, Running Bear was asked to consider a spot on the national council.”

  “Sounds prestigious. Did he do it?”

  “Nah. Said it would take too much time from Gentle Dove, though I suspected it was because he was already helping me with cases and dealing with the aftereffects.”

  “But still. His peers wanted him to represent them. That’s quite an honor.” “He was pleased to hold their respect, but he never regretted his decision to live life on his own terms.”

  “I wonder what Mayes would do if offered a similar lure. Would he choose to be mainstreamed or tribal?”

  “He’ll do whatever you do.”

  His statement sent a shiver of unease down my spine. “I don’t have any sway over him.”

  “He says otherwise.”

  I closed my eyes to gather myself. Mayes had read too much into our togetherness earlier today, courtesy of Rose taking over my body. My sex life wasn’t something I planned to discuss with my dad. “I’m married.”

  “Are you?”

  Dad’s pointed question made me flush hot and cold. It felt as if the solid ground I sat on had turned to quicksand. He and I had been on the same wavelength about my allegedly deceased husband’s unknown whereabouts the entire time. From his remark, I could see he’d changed his mind. Did he know something I didn’t?

  My skin prickled, and I didn’t like it one bit. I felt the need to put forth my logic for Roland’s state of being. “We can’t find Roland among the dead. Therefore, I believe he’s still alive.”

  Dad let my words settle before he replied. He stared resolutely into the embers. “Perhaps as the Watcher?”

  Ice formed in my veins. My Watcher was private. I fought to use my voice, but it still came out ragged. “How do you know about that?”

  “Your connection to Mayes lowered your normal firewall. Your thoughts became part of the healing circle. Those of us here now know about the entity you call the Watcher. That he’s harmless, except to people who wish you harm. Is he present tonight?”

  “I’ve only felt him when I’m at home,” I said. “And he isn’t there all the time. Most of the time he isn’t around.”

  “Where is he? Or should I say, what is he?”

  I didn’t like where this was going. “Shouldn’t we be talking about the Patterson case or why Mom is Queen of the Pigs?”

  “Don’t change the subject,” Dad said sharply. “This is important. Have you ever seen the Watcher?”

  Tears filled my eyes at the stern rebuke. “No.”

  “How does he contact you?”

  “He doesn’t. Some nights he’s just there, that’s all.”

  “How so?”

  “If I open my extra senses, I can detect if anyone’s in the vicinity. When I got my first dreamwalker case, I was worried someone would break in and try to harm me or Larissa. I started doing a mental perimeter check every night as I went to bed. I detected my Watcher’s energy signal out there for a long time before I figured out how to reach him. I had to retune my thoughts to his frequency.”

  “Hmm.”

  My parents fell silent, and I followed their lead. I thought I’d feel better after unloading my biggest secret, but I didn’t. I felt all prickly, as if I’d done something wrong.

  When the silence weighed too heavily on me, I cracked. “What are you thinking?”

  “This is something new. None of us have summoned a being from Beyond before.”

  His words added to the shards of ice in my veins. “You’re saying I called the Watcher into being? That I summoned him? No way. I don’t know how to do that.”

  “But you only detect him when you’re anxious about your safety.”

  “Yes. One time he helped me by tying up that sleazy realtor Buster Glassman.”

  “Did you see him?”

  “No.”

  “Has he manifested physically again?”

  “No.”

  “It could’ve been a one-shot deal, though possibilities abound.”

  “The Watcher could hail from another realm, like the Little People,” Running Bear said, joining the discussion.

  I hadn’t noticed that Running Bear and Mayes were paying attention to our conversation, but they seemed keenly interested in the Watcher. I tried to grasp the concept of Roland being trapped in another dimension and couldn’t. The Little People we’d encountered in the mountain were the stuff of myths and legend, but they’d been real and powerful.

  “You’re sure it’s a male?” Mayes asked.

  “Sure.”

  “And he’s protective of you?’

 
“Yes.” My hackles rose. I didn’t like being on this end of the barbed questions. “I’ve wondered if it’s Roland, but I don’t know. It doesn’t sound like him or feel like him. But if he’s done something to change, and if Roland is the Watcher, I sense he’s far away. My Watcher has thought-energy most of the time he’s in contact, but that’s about it.”

  “I haven’t said anything, but before I drove down here, I asked an Army buddy to look into Roland’s last few months alive,” Mayes said. “He was involved in a top-secret dream research program. From what my friend told me, they trained the special ops guys in extreme dreaming to better prepare for missions and debriefings. This program is highly classified. I couldn’t find a trace of it anywhere.”

  “Extreme dreaming?” I asked. “What is that?”

  “I’d never heard the term either, but it could explain how your husband might be trapped in an advanced lucid-dream state somewhere.”

  I gazed at the people around the fire. My people. My family. And Mayes. “Why doesn’t he wake up?”

  “Perhaps he can’t,” Mayes suggested.

  “Why?”

  “Injury. Research. Imprisonment.”

  None of those sounded hopeful. I couldn’t imagine Roland—my vital, fit, and dynamic husband—trapped in a sleep-state for years. He wasn’t the Sleeping Beauty type. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Believe what you like. Other explanations about your energy manifestation venture into the realm of science fiction and time travel. This explanation makes the most sense to us.”

  An awful feeling squeezed my gut. “You’ve been talking about this? Without me?”

  Mom reached across Petunia and caressed my shoulder. “We’ve been so concerned about you. We want to help.”

  “These are my private thoughts we’re discussing. You’re prying into my personal life. Your intentions may be good, but I’m angry about this. I feel violated.” I scrambled to my feet and ran for all I was worth.

  My feet found the wooded path to the dock, and despite the shouts behind me, I kept going. Starlight guided me. I fought back tears. The temptation to reach out to the Watcher was strong, but I couldn’t. I needed to think about this. Never in my wildest dreams had I considered that Roland might be someone’s research project. Why would he agree to such a thing? Why would he put our family at risk?

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Mayes joined me at the dock. I knew he’d come. Just as he knew I knew. God, this was so circular. So incestuous. Through the healing circle, my parents and friends accessed my private thoughts. They knew about the Watcher. They knew what I knew about the case.

  I gulped. They knew I’d had sex with Mayes. Heat flamed in my face. This was messed up.

  “I’m sorry,” Mayes said, sitting beside me.

  I raised my hands, palms out. “Don’t touch me.”

  He didn’t move away, but he respected my request. He seemed to be waiting. So I lit into him. “You took something from me. My privacy.”

  “Not on purpose. Please, let me explain. Our mind link has always been strong. We worked the energy transfers in the mountains with your parents, so our energies were already familiar with blending. When both of us were knocked out by the voodoo, your parents and their friends linked to protect us. They created an energy barrier to block the attack. Since you were the primary victim, I was the least affected and came around first. My thoughts became their thoughts. By the time I became fully conscious and erected my own barriers, the damage was done. None of us purposefully invaded your privacy. My privacy was invaded too. How do you think it feels to have my hopes and dreams for us become group knowledge?”

  His words eased the sting. I hadn’t considered that his privacy had also been violated. “It’s too much.” I rubbed my temples, trying to ease the tension headache that was gathering speed like a tornado.

  “It isn’t what I wanted either. I would never embarrass you. What we have is between us. Everyone was trying to do the right thing here. Your parents and their friends weren’t intentionally prying. You and I were in agony from the psychic attack. Due to their combined talents and their years of teamwork, they joined forces and made it stop. The take-home you’re overlooking is that they succeeded. Whoever tried to harm you failed miserably.”

  I sniffed back a few tears. Drat . He made perfect sense. My privacy had been violated, but I’d been saved from a painful attack. My folks must think I was the most ungrateful, emotional wretch in the world.

  An owl called nearby, the sound both spooky and provocative. Maybe everyone thought the worst of me. “I am thankful for their help and for your compassion. My pride will be the death of me. It was embarrassing to realize they knew about us being together and experienced it through our memories.”

  “My turn?” Mayes asked.

  I nodded, afraid to meet his gaze.

  “Whatever the reason for our intimacy earlier today, I have no regrets, because it underscored something I’ve known from the start. We fit. Maybe my timing is wrong because of your missing husband, but I’ll wait. No pressure from me. And you know what? Both of us wanted to learn more about our talents. We wanted to know what else was out there. Today, we learned psychic attacks are real. We learned they can be blocked. From you, the rest of us discovered that protective entities like your Watcher can be summoned.”

  “You really believe Roland is my Watcher?”

  “Makes the most sense to me.” After a long moment, he spoke again. “Your power. He knew about it even if you denied it. This may not be the case, but have you ever considered he signed up to be a test subject so he could be your equal? That he wanted the ability to protect you from wherever he was stationed?”

  “You’re such a good person. You ascribe good motives to Roland. The sheriff swears Roland isn’t—or wasn’t—the man I knew. According to Wayne, Roland was a womanizer like the sheriff. I can’t believe that. I refuse to believe that.”

  “No offense, but I wouldn’t put much credence in anything Wayne says about your husband.”

  “Because he wants to sleep with me?” I shot him a covert look. “So do you.”

  “We’re not the same. What has he done to look for Roland for you? What has he done to help you through this troubling time?”

  “He gave me a job.”

  “Not entirely true. Your father had the same arrangement when he was the Dreamwalker. Wayne knew he needed you to solve crimes, so he put you on the payroll.”

  Everything I knew clashed with the universe of what I didn’t know. “This is too much to absorb after a long day. I need to get some sleep.”

  “Larissa’s already tucked in and sleeping at your folks’ house. We could spend the night out here at your dad’s cabin.”

  “I can’t spend the night with you.”

  “Your parents know we were intimate. Your dad wouldn’t have suggested the idea just now if he didn’t approve.”

  Another yawn slipped out. “I’m too tired to argue. But all we’re doing is sleeping. That’s it. You hear me?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  My father’s cabin was little more than a lean-to shelter crudely assembled by his dock. The enclosure served to keep his fishing gear out of the rain, or so I thought until Mayes’ flashlight pierced the thick gloom inside. Shelves held fishing tackle and other dock supplies, but two lounger cushions situated side by side on the floor caught my attention. Mayes took a moment to shift everything around—checking for snakes, I guess—before he allowed me to sink onto the nearest one.

  Sleep grabbed me hard, and I plunged into a restless dream in which I ran all night long. Morning rolled around, and I awakened cocooned in a man’s arms. I felt peace and serenity, something unusual for any morning. His familiar scent sighed in and out of me. Mayes.

  He nuzzled my hair, and my eyes opened to glints of daylight through the roof and walls. We’d spent the night together. Little by little, Mayes was wearing down my defenses. He
’d said we were a good fit. I felt that way too, but until I had proof I was truly single, I couldn’t act on any desires. I eased away from him and sat up. With the cushions occupying the whole floor, there was no place to stand.

  “Good morning.” His rumbling, sleep-edged voice gave me a pleasant thrill.

  “Morning.” I fiddled with my hair, finger-combed the tangles, and generally avoided looking at him. Sunlight glinted between the slats of wood on the shelter’s sides. How late was it? “We should be getting back. Larissa will wonder where I am.”

  He stacked his arms under his head and grinned. “Larissa’s a big girl.”

  “She’s ten.” I crawled on my hands and knees for the door.

  “Guess we’re headed to your parents’ house,” Mayes said, rising. “Give me a sec outside. I need to use the facilities.”

  His straight dark hair hung around his shoulders, clouding my thoughts. I remembered well the glide of its silky texture on my fingers and skin. “What? Oh. Yeah. Me too.”

  We’d barely finished freshening up and enjoying the high-tide vista from the dock when Charlotte and Duncan joined us. Thank goodness we’d exercised restraint this morning, or they’d have caught us in the act.

  “They’ve got pigs,” Duncan crowed, setting down the metal pail he carried. “I’d give anything to have pigs.”

  Charlotte grinned and handed me the pail he’d carried. “Your mom sent breakfast. Looks like you two might’ve worked up an appetite sleeping out here all by your lonesome.”

  Great . Charlotte thought I was cheating on Roland. At least she and Duncan were both unattached. They had no moral or ethical dilemmas to overcome.

  I reached for the thermos and poured coffee in both cups. After handing one to Mayes and tossing him a fresh muffin, I glanced at Charlotte and encouraged her to walk farther down on the dock with me. “What are you doing awake so early?”

  “Working the story. I came for a report.”

  “You walked all the way out here?”

  “I did, and you know I hate most forms of exercise, so spill.”

  “I have nothing to tell. Yesterday was full of weird dreamwalks and at least three psychic attacks. But you can’t report on any of those things.”