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I push her off me with my elbow. I’m going to wipe that smile right off her face—with my fist.

The poor detective blinks at her. Lynn has mastered the art of standing on the line between deadly serious and overtly flirtatious. One can never tell if she’s being polite or a tease.

His gaze is back on me. “Three women went missing in the last six months. All three disappeared without a trace and no clues as to what happened to them. That necklace and your . . . visions are the closest things I have to a lead.”

“How often does something like this happens?”

“For us, not often at all, and when it does, it’s usually a runaway teen, and we find them in a day or two.”

“Three missing women? Isn’t that a lot?”

“Currently, there are reports of thirty-five missing persons for the whole state. Is it a lot for us? Maybe. For a state like California, which has over two thousand missing persons this year alone, no. It varies by location.”

Wow. “I had no idea so many people go missing. How come we don’t see this on the news? Shouldn’t everyone be talking about it?”

He shakes his head. “More than six hundred thousand people go missing every year in the US alone. Each state has its own procedures, and within the states, the towns handle those cases differently, too. Unless it’s a child, someone who’s mentally or physically impaired or in need of medical attention, or there’s suspicion of a crime, there isn’t much that can be done. Being missing is not a crime.”

“So, nothing happens? That’s crazy. No one is really looking for them?”

His eyes go hard. “I am. I’m looking for them.”

A shiver runs down my spine. I clear my throat. “Are the three women local?”

“Two are from here. The other is from a couple of towns over.”

“And you have no idea what happened to them.”

A muscle ticks in his jaw. “No, and that’s why I need your help.”

My defenses are cracking. God, what if there are more? What if I see something that can help him? Help the women? “What do you need help with?”

He looks around before speaking again and lowers his voice. “I need to know if you can do the same with other objects. If you had access to some objects that belonged to the missing women, do you think you might find out more?”

“I can—if the objects have something to show me. That’s not always the case. Or the objects might hold images that have no bearing on what happened to the owner at all.”

“It’s worth a try.” He looks away again, hands on his trim waist, and then nods to himself. “I can’t pay you for it. The department would never approve, but you would do the missing women and me a huge favor if you could give it a shot with the touching thing . . .”

Lynn grabs my arm. “Your first case. I’ve always told you that you should do this.”

True. She has told me to work with the police dozens of times. Hundreds even. “Lynn, this is not an Alex Cross book and I’m not changing careers.”

I turn to the detective, tilting my head up to meet those mismatched eyes, even more startling and beautiful in the sunlight. “What do you have in mind?”

“Before you say yes, you need to know that doing this wouldn’t be exactly . . . legal.”

Not legal? If anyone at my job finds out . . . apprehension skitters across my chest like a bug and I squash it. “How not legal are we talking about? Get yelled at illegal? Or get thrown in jail illegal?”

He presses his lips together and then exhales. “The second one.”

“Let me get this straight. You want me to help with your case, and doing so would be illegal because . . .” I wave my hand.

He shoves his hands in his jeans pockets. My fob with it. “Technically, it could be said it’s tampering with evidence.”

My eyes widen. I’m not up on all the laws involving evidence, but I have watched enough cop shows to know that’s a serious offense. “You can’t be serious.” There’s a swarm of bugs in my chest now. “Don’t the police use consultants all the time? I thought as long as the evidence has already been processed, detectives can sign it out and show it to consultants or people they’re interviewing.”

“That’s true. We can bring in an expert for certain cases, but a psychic is not an expert.”

“And yet you expect me to do this?”