about the investigation with someone outside the Birmingham Police Department, even with another lawman.
“Why did you call Theo Baker instead of me?” McBride asked.
“I thought he’d be more likely to be open about your wife’s involvement in the Walters kidnapping case.” Checking his watch, Daniel looked across the parking lot at the glass-fronted entrance of the office building. Rose had been inside for thirty minutes. She’d probably be on her way out soon.
“You’re right about one thing,” McBride said after a short pause, “these death veils are news to me.”
“So they’re not something she’s had all her life.”
“No, they’re not.”
Daniel frowned, remembering his conversation with the Willow Grove mayor soon after he’d met Rose. The mayor had implied that Rose and her sisters were well known in the community for their odd ways. Of course, if one sister claimed to be a psychic, maybe the whole family was tainted by it. “So I take it you thought your wife was the only one of her sisters with any sort of…unusual ability?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“It’s not a hard question to answer, Lieutenant.”
“All three of them have…unusual abilities,” McBride answered, his voice tight.
“But seeing death veils isn’t one of them?”
“Rose used to see something else. But she lost that ability a few months ago.”
“Around Christmas?” Daniel asked, reminded of what the Willow Grove mayor had told him about the murder- suicide Rose had witnessed.
McBride hesitated.
“I know about Carrie and Dillon Granville,” Daniel added, hoping to spur the detective into filling in the rest of the blanks. “I know Rose planned their wedding and I know that she walked in on Dillon right after he’d killed his wife. I know she saw him commit suicide.”
“That’s when it happened,” McBride conceded.
“When she lost her other gift.”
“Understandable, I guess,” McBride murmured. “The true-love veils had brought those two together. Seeing them ripped apart in such a violent, horrible way-”
“True-love veils?”
As he listened to McBride explain the concept of true-love veils in a flat, expressionless voice, Daniel’s stomach settled into a hot, queasy knot beneath his rib cage. It explained so much that had puzzled him about Rose-the sense he got from time to time that she had once been a very different woman.
Maybe it even explained the searching gaze she’d given him that morning as she’d taken him into her arms. Had she been looking for a true-love veil, some evidence that what they were about to do was more significant than just using sex to temporarily escape the looming specter of death?
“Are you still there?” McBride’s voice buzzed in his ear.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“I’m not going to try to convince you to believe what Rose is saying,” McBride said. “I wouldn’t have listened in your place. But I’ll tell you this. I saw Lily’s visions come true in ways I can’t explain. And even then, I almost didn’t listen to her. It would have cost me my daughter if I hadn’t. So be skeptical all you want. Convince yourself that she can’t possibly be right. But don’t ignore her.”
The hairs on the back of Daniel’s neck prickled.
“If she tells you something is going to happen, check it out,” McBride continued, his voice softening. “If she’s wrong, you’ve chased your tail for an hour or two. Big deal-you do that in any investigation. But if she’s right, you just might save a life.” McBride hung up without saying goodbye.
Daniel closed his phone and laid his head back against the headrest, shutting his eyes. McBride’s words rang in his head.
Daniel released a slow breath, shaking his head. No worry there. He couldn’t ignore Rose Browning if he tried.
IF ANYTHING, Daniel was even more preoccupied when Rose returned to the car. He answered her attempts at small talk with flat, one-word responses, his gaze glued to the folder in his lap. Rose fell silent for the rest of the drive.
The meeting with Sandra Martin had gone well, a much-needed distraction from the past few tragic days. For a few minutes, Rose had almost felt the old excitement that had always made being a wedding planner the most enjoyable job in the world.
So much had changed that day in Bridey Woods.
Daniel followed her into the house and took a cursory look around before returning to the kitchen. “I’m going to my motel room to grab my things. Not a good idea, your living alone here while Orion is sending you messages.”
She licked her lips, the memory of his body, hard and hot against hers, sending heat flooding into her belly again. She tried to read his intentions in his shuttered expression. Was moving in here about more than keeping her safe?
“If you don’t have a spare room set up, I’ll make do with the sofa,” he added.
She crossed to the refrigerator and opened it, chiding herself for feeling disappointed. “I’ll put some clean sheets on the spare bed. You want something to eat before you go?”
He shook his head. “I’ll pick up something on the way back. Unless you’re too hungry to wait.”
Though she hadn’t eaten all day, the thought of food made her queasy. She closed the refrigerator door. “I can wait.”
“Chinese okay?”
“That’s fine. I like shrimp in lobster sauce.” She reached for her purse, but he closed his hand over hers.
“My treat.”
Beneath his fingers, her flesh tingled. Amazing how much one simple touch from him could affect her.
He let go of her hand. “When I get back, we need to talk about a few things,” he murmured.
She lifted her gaze, unnerved by the serious tone of his voice. His eyes locked with hers, his expression searching, as if she were a mystery to be solved.
Maybe she was. She didn’t understand herself these days; she could hardly expect it of Daniel.
“Lock the doors behind me and don’t let anyone in till I get back.” He headed for the back door.
She locked up behind him, parting the pale blue curtains covering the window in the back door to watch him stride up the slope to where his Jeep was parked in the alley. She didn’t let the curtains fall until he was out of sight.
With Daniel gone, silence surrounded her, looming and oppressive, broken only by the faint rumble of thunder in the distance. Dark clouds were rolling in from the west, promising a rainy night. With an old house like hers, there was a fifty-fifty chance the power would go out. That meant candles.
Candles and Daniel. A dangerous combination.
Restless, she went to the living room and put a CD in the player, turning the volume up until Patty Loveless’s raw alto bounced off the walls, driving the quiet into the recesses of the old house. By the third song, she was singing along, the music bleeding from her taut nerves. She pushed herself off the sofa and moved to the beat of the twangy waltz, tension flowing out of her as she twirled and swayed.
When her doorbell rang, the discordant noise scraped along the nerves of her spine, jerking her out of rhythm. She turned down the player and crept to the front door. Heart pounding, she peered through the fish-eye lens.
Her sister, Lily, stood on the porch.
Shaky with relief, Rose unlocked the door, barely resisting the urge to throw herself into her sister’s arms.
But the grim look on Lily’s face cut her relief short. “What’s wrong?”
Lily’s lower lip trembled. “When were you going to tell me about the death veils?”
Chapter Twelve
Daniel checked his e-mail before packing up his laptop. There were a handful of official university e-mails and a
