That was unexpected. And nice.
“I’m feeling fine. I’ve taken more than my share of tumbles trail running, but it’s been a while. It’s a good reminder why I stick to treadmills these days.”
Britt snorted. “I can’t blame you. Strange about that kid though, right?”
“Have you heard anything about him? I know he was a student here.”
She shot off reassuring replies to most of the emails. Yes, she did copy and paste a few, but she’d only had coffee with Professor Mehdi in the psychology department once. A copy-and-paste reply was sufficient.
“Justin McCabe,” Britt said. “Kaylee and I were talking about him this morning. She didn’t know him.”
“I didn’t.” Kaylee chimed in. “But my roommate dated someone in his fraternity. She was friendly with him.”
“Fraternity, huh?” Katherine had her issues with some of the fraternities on campus, but that wasn’t a typical profile for a lone gunman. A young man in a fraternity would be socially connected and well known, part of an established group. “Has he ever had any problems in the past?”
“No. And it wasn’t a real wild fraternity either. Professional-social. He was in the agricultural business school.”
“That’s very odd.”
“Weird, right?” It was Britt again. “No record. No problems with the law or any of his classmates. Then he just goes off and tries to shoot up a gym.”
A cold shiver ran down Katherine’s spine.
“It’s possible there was a mental illness that was undiagnosed.” Undiagnosed neuropsychological conditions could account for erratic behavior, but Katherine hated mentioning them because it played into too many stereotypes. Those suffering from mental illness were far more likely to be the victims of crimes than the perpetrators.
Nothing about this added up.
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Britt said. “That could have been really bad.”
It would have been. Katherine flashed back to the vision she’d seen of the gym. Blood and broken glass and screams.
“Yes.” A heavy feeling sat in the pit of her stomach. “It could have been very bad.”
“I heard he had a bunch of guns,” Kaylee said.
“No, just one.” Katherine sorted through her memories. “But Megan, the woman who got the gun away from him, said it was an extended magazine, I think?”
“That’s bad,” Britt said. “We’re fucking glad you’re okay, Bassi. We couldn’t finish this project without you.”
It might have sounded self-interested, but Katherine knew that for Britt, it was about as affectionate as she could expect.
She skimmed through the rest of the messages in her inbox and made a few notes on her calendar. Her lecture wasn’t until ten o’clock.
“I wonder if anything else is going to happen,” Kaylee said. “They say weird things come in threes, right?”
Katherine looked away from her computer and frowned at the phone. “Threes? What else happened?”
“Oh, nothing like what happened at the gym or anything.” Kaylee began to stammer nervously. “I heard… I mean, I didn’t hear directly, but I know the person they were talking about. Kind of. I’m not on the rodeo team, but this girl was and… It was really weird, but I don’t know if what happened to her—”
“Kaylee,” Britt said. “What are you talking about?”
“It was just so sad and strange. This girl… killed her horse.”
Katherine’s stomach turned. The silence over the phone was leaden.
“She what?” Britt’s voice was horrified.
“It was awful,” Kaylee said. “Same kind of thing, completely out of nowhere. She was on the rodeo team, and it was her own horse, and no one knew what to think. Some people said it was an accident and she just gave the wrong dosage to the horse when it was sick, but then other people on the team were like, no way that’s even possible, she knew exactly what she was doing. She was completely wrecked. Her family is from Santa Cruz, and I heard she ended up moving back and quitting school completely.”
The world around Katherine went grey and muffled again. She saw herself reaching for a piece of paper and writing down a name. Saw herself tucking the paper under her keyboard when someone knocked on her door.
Her ears popped and Kaylee’s voice became clear again. “I think her name was Sarah Jordan. She was studying marketing, but she came from a ranching family—that’s why she was so into the rodeo stuff. It happened months ago.”
“That’s terrible,” Britt said.
Katherine reached for the paper she’d seen in her vision, wrote down the name, and slid it under her keyboard just as the knock sounded at her door.
When she realized what had happened, her breath caught.
Vision number two, Professor Bassi.
Someone knocked again.
“Hey, guys.” Katherine’s finger hovered over the phone. “I need to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
“See ya later. Glad you’re safe.”
“Bye, Professor B.”
As Katherine rose and walked to her door, she tried to dispel the heavy feeling in her stomach. There had been another vision. There had been another crime. Was it unrelated? Something buzzing in the back of her mind told her it wasn’t.
She needed to call Megan and Toni. She needed to find out what they knew and if they were still having the same psychic powers she was. She needed to find out more about Sarah Jordan, Justin McCabe, and what they might have in common.
Something very strange was happening in Moonstone Cove.
Chapter 7
“I am so glad you called me.” Megan sat across from Katherine at the small café on Beach Street. “I was thinking about calling you, but I didn’t have your number and I wasn’t sure if you were listed.”
Megan was listed, much to Katherine’s surprise. She’d left a message on an answering system, only to receive a call back less than two hours later.
“I’m just glad I was able to find you.” Katherine tucked her purse under the table.
It was Tuesday afternoon and lunch traffic had died down, but there was still a steady trickle of customers going in and out of the restaurant.
Megan looked around. “This is cute. I’ve never been here before.”
“It’s within walking distance
