Page 54 of The Psychic

The bus driver pushed open the door with a handle like a long arm, like when Emma was in school. Emma looked at the dirty man who’d waved for the bus. He was coming closer.

He was giving the bus “the finger.” Two “the fingers.”

The bus driver looked worried. He said, “Hop in,” to Emma.

“FUCK YOU ALL!” the dirty man yelled. He bumped into Emma. He smelled bad. Sour.

Emma nearly lost her balance, so she grabbed on to the bar inside the bus and hauled herself onto the steps.

The dirty man wanted to come in, but the bus driver slammed the door shut. The dirty man pounded on the door, but the bus was moving.

Emma took the nearest seat, then twisted to look out the back, past the rows of women and kids and saw the dirty man give two more “the fingers” through the rear window. He then turned around, bent over and pulled down his pants. Harley had a name for that. Mooning.

Emma could tell the people on the bus were all looking at her. She kept her head down. She didn’t like staring eyes.

She would call Harley when she got to where she was going. Where she would be saved.

One of the women had a big stomach like Jamie, so she was pregnant. Emma slid her a sideways look. “You’re pregnant like Mary Jo.”

“Who?” The woman looked kind of scared.

“I’m Emma.”

“Hi, Emma.”

Emma glanced around at the other women. They all looked kind of worried. She thought maybe they were all hiding something from her. Lots of people tried to hide things, but Harley and Jamie and Cooper and Theo and Marissa promised to always tell her the truth.

“Mary Jo ran away to your church with my sister’s baby inside her.”

“She was lost in your world as Mary Jo!” the woman said. “But she has found salvation with us as Rebekkah!”

Emma frowned at her. If Harley were here, she would say the woman was “getting all worked up.” She wasn’t really listening to Emma. “Mary Jo’s not lost. I don’t know about Rebekkah, but Mary Jo is home with my sister’s baby inside her.”

“It’s not her baby. It’s … Rebekkah’s.”

Well that wasn’t right. Emma stated clearly, “It’s Jamie Whelan Woodward Haynes’s baby, and if Mary Jo won’t give it back, she’s going to jail.”

“Tell me about Angel,” Sloan repeated. Quick’s pallor had been ghost white and he’d led her to a living room chair.

He’d worried she was in some kind of trance, a wild effect of his leeriness over her psychic “powers.” But then he’d realized she was simply reacting to something that scared her.

“He’s your neighbor. What’s his last name? ”

“Vasquero.” Her brows drew together. “He got rid of the bat for me. I didn’t tell you about that.”

“What bat?”

She glanced toward her front door and Sloan did the same, half expecting to see something himself.

“It was left on my doorstep and Angel got rid of it for me. He’s a P.I.

and he was trying to protect me, I think.

He moved in about the same time I did.” She drew a long breath and said, “His cousin is battling a wealthy family over an inheritance. Angel asked me to help Daria, and I told him, and her, that she needed to talk to the lawyer handling the estate. But then she backed off. Didn’t want any help. ”

Ronnie stopped for a moment, but Sloan encouraged her, “Go on.”

“Angel’s other purpose in moving next to me was to protect me.”

“To protect you?”

“I’ve been envisioning him … he’s been haunting my thoughts.” She stood up abruptly. “And this … bombardment … of information I’ve been getting … ever since Mel … and then Shana and now Angel …” She pressed her hands to her face.

“You don’t know Angel is dead.”

“Don’t I?” she asked miserably.

“When was the bat left on your doorstep?”

“A few days ago. I heard something early that morning. A noise outside my door. Must’ve been whoever delivered the bat. It was a warning. Intimidation of some kind.”

“You said Angel got rid of it. Where?”

“I don’t know. Probably in the trash in the back?”

For a second she thought he was actually going out to check the dumpster. Instead, he rubbed a hand around the back of his neck. “Okay. So, do you have his cousin’s phone number?”

“Yes … in my files. Daria Armenton.”

“I’ll check with her, too.”

“What’s going to happen to Clint?” she asked, her blue eyes capturing his. His mind filled with images of those eyes from the night before, half closed, staring up at him …

“We’re placing a guard outside the ICU.”

“He needs a lawyer. Tomorrow’s Monday, I can … oh …”

“What?”

“I have somewhere I need to be tonight. A dinner that I’ve put off too many times already.”

“Put it off again.” A slow smile spread from one side of his face to the other.

Finally, a bit of her spark returned as she said dryly, “That will only delay the inevitable, and I just need to get it over with.”

His cell phone buzzed and he saw it was from Abel Townsend again. He ignored it. “Meet later, then?”

“Back here?”

“I’ll take that as an invitation.” His phone rang again. Townsend.

“Someone wants you pretty badly,” she observed as she walked him toward the door.

“I hope you’re talking about yourself.”

That netted him a real smile. He bent down and kissed her impulsively and she momentarily melted in his arms. But then she pushed him away. “Later,” she promised.

He was still smiling when he answered the call as he clambered down the stairs to his Bronco. He looked up at the sky. Clouds were gathering again as twilight descended. Maybe more snow … maybe rain.

“Hi, Abel,” he answered as he pressed the remote to unlock his doors.

“Hart, you’re not the only one who has someone who’ll go that extra mile at the lab. We got some results back today.”

“From Mercer’s truck … ?” Even as he said it he knew it couldn’t be. He’d barely sent in those samples and it hadn’t been through the sheriff’s department.

“The coffee cup lid from the McNulty crime scene. It’s got your psychic friend’s DNA all over it.”

Harley was doing her damnedest not to panic.

She’d shown up at four o’clock and no Emma, and now it was after five.

She’d tracked down the number for Annette Brown, the woman Emma had worked with today, but she’d answered Harley’s questions with a long whining tale about how it wasn’t her fault Emma was missing, and how she hadn’t signed up to be a handicapped person’s babysitter.

Harley had clicked off that call, pissed off to no end.

But Emma was nowhere to be found. Harley had left two voice mails for her. Normally Emma was really good at returning calls. The only time she delayed was when she felt something was more important, which could be something as mundane as petting Duchess first.

However, Harley had specifically told her to be ready at four o’clock and Emma had agreed. If Emma agreed to something, she followed through.

So, what had happened?

Her mind flew back to that conversation with Emma about the Heart of Sunshine Church.

They pick up people and take them away. They asked me if I wanted to come and meet the Lord … They said I was special. I know what that means …

But had she gone with them? Had she gotten on the bus with the people Theo had shooed from her thrift shop? Had she ignored Harley’s warnings and gone with them anyway, in an attempt to keep Mary Jo safe?

Oh, Emma … you didn’t, did you?

Like it or not, Harley was going to have to call Cooper.