them see the truth!”
Keisha was getting a very bad feeling. She grabbed Gail by the shoulders, steadied her and looked into her eyes. “Gail, stop, just stop for a second. Who’s your brother?”
“Wendell,” she said. “Wendell Garfield.”
Keisha exchanged a look with Kirk, who was standing to Gail’s side. He mouthed, “What the fuck?”
“Okay, Gail, come sit down and tell me all about this. Do you want something to drink? Kirk, get her something to drink.”
“Do you have anything diet?” Gail asked, allowing Keisha to lead her to the couch.
“Just get something,” Keisha said, sitting down next to Gail, knees touching. She was massaging the woman’s shoulder comfortingly. “It’s going to be okay. You just need to tell me what’s happened, but slowly, from the start.”
Kirk handed Gail a can of Diet Pepsi that he’d already cracked open. Gail looked at him and said, “What happened to your face?”
“Shaving,” he said.
She nodded, then answered Keisha’s question. “A few days ago, Ellie, that’s Wendell’s wife, she disappeared.”
“I saw something on the news about that,” Keisha said.
Gail nodded. “They held a press conference and everything yesterday. Wendell and Melissa. Oh, God.” She set the can of Pepsi on the table and put her hands over her eyes. “It’s all so unbelievable! Why would they hold the press conference if Melissa had something to do with it?”
“Gail, so what are you saying? It was the daughter?” As soon as she said it, Keisha realized how it might sound; that she was surprised that Wendell wasn’t the one responsible. She had to recalibrate her thinking, to act surprised by everything she was about to hear, to listen and react without preconceptions.
In fact, she wouldn’t have to try all that hard.
“That’s what they’re saying,” Gail said, shaking her head. “That Melissa killed her mother.”
Keisha tried to get her head around that. If Melissa had killed Ellie Garfield, why had the husband tried to strangle her? He must have been in on it, or at the very least, been helping his daughter cover up after the fact.
“And what exactly happened to Wendell?” Keisha asked. “Where did they find him?”
“At home,” Gail said. “I don’t really know all the details. But none of this makes any sense. That Melissa would kill her mother, that someone would kill Wendell. It’s insane.”
Keisha put her arms around Gail. “You poor thing. This is so horrible for you.”
As she held the woman, Keisha’s mind raced. Once Kirk finally disposed of the bloody clothes, the only thing that connected her to Garfield was the business card she was sure the police would find. She’d convinced herself she could explain that away by saying there were a hundred places Garfield could have picked one up.
But now there was a definite link between Keisha and the dead man.
The dead man’s sister. Who just happened to be one of Keisha’s clients.
Not good, not good at But wait a second.
Maybe there was an opportunity here.
“Tell me about your brother,” Keisha said. “Was he older, younger?”
“He was my baby brother,” she said, and began to weep again.
“I think-haven’t you mentioned him in some of our sessions?”
She nodded, grabbed a couple of tissues from the box on the table, which was right next to the unfinished Twinkie and beer, and blew her nose. Then she had a sip of her soda, and said, “That’s right. I mentioned a few times to him that I came to see you, that you helped me to connect with my past lives.”
“What did he think of that?”
“Oh, he was very dismissive, but no more than my husband. Jerry thinks I’m a total crackpot.” She managed a short laugh. “Maybe I am.”
“No, not at all,” Keisha said. “Everyone has different things they believe in. They’re coping strategies. They help us deal with the world out there. Was Wendell dealing with a lot of things? Difficult things?”
“Oh, my, yes. Melissa’s been a constant source of stress for him and Ellie. She-oh, I can’t believe Ellie’s actually dead too. Melissa left home at sixteen, lived on her own, then met this man who got her pregnant. Ellie and Wendell were worried sick about her.”
“Did you try to offer advice to them? Give them any suggestions? I mean, you’re Melissa’s aunt. I could imagine you wanted to help them where you could.”
“Of course, of course, I tried.”
“Is that why you took my card?” Keisha said. This was either going to work or it wasn’t. “To give it to your brother and his wife? In case they ever wanted to consult with me? Because, given what you’ve said about him, it seems unlikely he’d have been in touch.”
Gail pulled away from Keisha’s embrace. “Did I do that?”
“You don’t remember?”
Gail blinked a couple of times. “I don’t… I’m not sure.”
“It was some time ago. You know that period where you believed you were channeling Amelia Earhart?”
Gail nodded. “That was a couple of years ago.”
“I think it was while you were talking as Amelia that you asked me for a card. You said you had someone you thought I could help.”
Gail was still trying to recall. “That’s possible. I think I remember. Maybe I was thinking of giving it to Ellie. She probably wouldn’t have believed in what you do any more than Wendell, but at least she wasn’t totally closed- minded.”
Keisha liked the way this was going. Gail, like so many of Keisha’s regulars, was very suggestible.
“So you must have given it to your brother or your sister-in-law at some point, or else one of them saw the card at your place and helped themselves to it.” Keisha waved her hand as though it didn’t matter. “But what I need to know is, what can I do for you, right now? How can I help you through this?”
“I knew you’d be here for me,” Gail said. “I tried Jerry’s phone after I tried calling you.” That must have been when the phone rang earlier, Keisha thought. “But his went to voicemail, and the truth is, I didn’t really want to talk to him anyway. He’s never been there for me the way you have.”
For fifty dollars an hour.
Keisha hugged her again. “I just want you to know that any time you need to come by and talk, it’s okay.”
Gail smiled and dabbed her eyes again. “There is something. And I’d certainly be willing to pay you for your time, more than your usual rate.”
Keisha said, hesitantly, “Well, Gail, like I said, any time you want to talk…”
“No, I need you for more than that. You see, Keisha, the police don’t know what they’re doing. They have Melissa in custody for something she couldn’t possibly have done. And if they’ve got that all wrong, I know they’re going to get the investigation into my brother’s death all mixed up too.”
“I don’t really know what I could-”
“I want you to help me. I want you to help me find out who killed Wendell, and what really happened to Ellie.”
“Gail, I’m not a detective,” Keisha protested.
“I know!” she said. “That’s what makes you the perfect person to help. You see things no one else can. I’ll bet you-I’ll bet you if you came with me to my brother’s house, you could just tell what happened. Remember that story you told me, about the little girl who was abducted and was in the neighbor’s house, with all the sports trophies around her? You solved that! If you hadn’t had that vision, that girl would be dead now. You told me that yourself.”
Keisha disentangled herself from Gail Beaudry and stood up. “I might have embellished that story just a little bit.”
Gail slapped Keisha’s hand. “You’re just being modest. I know what you can do.”
“But I really don’t think I could help you here. I mean, the police aren’t going to want me sticking my nose into this. They have a thing about mediums and psychics. They think we’re crazy.”
