Page 25 of The Shop on Hidden Lane

“True,” she admitted. She reached over to rub Bruce’s ears. “You mentioned your psychic-grade vision. Is there anything else I should know about your paranormal profile?”

“Nope. I’m just good at connecting dots,” he said. “It’s not a talent—more like a character flaw.”

“Why do you say that?”

He hesitated so long she wondered if she would get an answer.

“Sometimes,” he said finally, “I’m afraid that one of these days I will start seeing connections that aren’t real.”

“Ah, got it,” she said. “I wouldn’t worry about that, if I were you.”

He shot her a wary look. “Why not?”

“If you ever get concerned, you can hire me or Chloe or Aunt Bea to tell you if you’re in danger of falling down a conspiracy rabbit hole.”

“What makes you three experts?”

“We’re librarians. We are duty-bound to establish the credibility of sources. We know how to do research. We can help you confirm or dismiss your theories.”

He concentrated on his driving for a moment. Then his mouth twitched a little in a small smile. “At triple the usual rates?”

“Of course. I told you, special prices for members of the Wells family.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Luke said. In the blink of an eye, he was all business again. “Here we go. Rivington is turning onto Hudson Road. Whatever happens, remember our number one priority.”

“Protect the families.”

“This isn’t only about protecting Deke and Bea. We’ll be doing Rivington a very big favor, because he’ll be in way over his head if it turns out the runner was murdered by paranormal means.”

“I know,” she said.

They followed Mack onto Hudson Road. Luke stopped the SUV behind the other vehicle. He rested his hands on the wheel for a moment and studied the scene. “If this was a murder, whoever dumped the body didn’t even try to hide it.”

“No,” she said.

Luke climbed out. Bruce bounded across the console and onto the ground.

Sophy took off her regular glasses and let them dangle on the rhinestone chain. She replaced them with the oversized sunglasses. The visions were never as strong in daylight as they were after dark, and neither was the fever. But she knew from past experience that she would still get the scary eyes.

She got out of the passenger seat and joined Luke and Bruce. They all walked toward Mack, who was waiting beside his vehicle.

“Why the Hollywood shades?” Luke asked quietly. “You said Rivington has seen your trance eyes.”

“I’d rather not go through that embarrassing scene again. Oddly enough, it’s hard on my ego when people lock eyes with me and then proceed to panic. Go figure.”

“Your eyes didn’t bother me last night.”

“Yes, well, evidently you’re different.”

“As in, not normal?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“I know what Mack saw when he got a good look at your trance eyes,” Luke said, “because I’m pretty sure I saw the same thing.”

She stopped in mid-step. Shocked. “How bad was it?”

“It wasn’t bad at all.”