“Yeah, once or twice, and she was really good, but I had never seen things happen that fast.” She sipped her tea, and her eyes stared past me for a moment. “The dead husband started to give a message to Melanie. He was talking to her about her golf swing, of all things. I thought it was pretty silly to come back from the other side and waste your time talking about golf, but she seemed to think that was typical of him. Then, right in the middle of his message, Sara’s voice changed, and another spirit seemed to come into the room. This one made everyone feel uncomfortable.”
“Was it the sound of the voice, or something else?” I asked. I put my fork down and tried to catch her eye. But she looked down at her plate.
“I don’t know how to describe it, but it seemed angry, and for the first time I was scared at a séance. Sara started saying, ‘Where are you’ and looking around the circle. She didn’t sound friendly. Then she looked straight toward the end of the table, and said, ‘No murder will go unpunished.’ I couldn’t tell if she was looking at Tish or Joe or Milo. They were all at that end of the table, and Sara was unfocused and still seemed to be looking for someone.” Diana had been mashing her cake with her fork and suddenly seemed to notice what she was doing.
“What happened after that?” I was getting all the signals that I usually tried to ignore: buzzing ears, cold hands, tight chest. Something important had happened that night.
“Tish broke the circle.” Diana shrugged. “She stood up and sort of stepped behind Milo and Joe. Sara looked at her, and said, ‘I know what you did.’ But I couldn’t tell if she was talking to Tish. Tish was totally freaked out and backed up into the cabinet Sara has there in the dining room. A few of the display plates fell and shattered. That was the end of the séance. Sara came back from her trance and was disoriented for a minute, but she quickly recovered.”
“Did she remember everything that happened?”
Diana shook her head. “I couldn’t tell. She acted like she did, but she ushered everyone out pretty quickly. The rest of us were shaken up and didn’t linger to discuss the séance the way we normally would. I just wanted to get home and get warm again.” She rubbed her arms.
“Wow, it sounds like someone got a message. It’s just not clear who.” I’d lost my appetite and pushed the cake away.
“Well, they never really did clear Milo of that whole mess in high school.”
“That’s true. . . . Did the voice sound like a man or a woman?”
“You know how these things are. It’s hard to tell.” Diana lifted her shoulder and tilted her head.
“Tish has been acting really strangely. My mother says it has to do with the city council and Sara, but I saw her arguing with Milo over at the Reading Room this morning. Do you think she could have something to do with Sara’s death?”
She finally raised her eyes to mine and took on her serious tone. “Clyde, Tish was more like a mother to you than your own mother. She was always there for you, for both of us, whenever we got in trouble. I just can’t imagine her hurting anyone.”
I put my hand up to ward off any further lecture. “You’re right. I just don’t know what’s up with her, and I’m not convinced it was Gary who killed Sara.”
“If they arrested him, it sounds like the police believe it was Gary.”
“I know. Mac won’t even talk about continuing to investigate. I haven’t been able to talk to Tom.”
“Well, Mac hasn’t had the best luck with psychic intervention. . . .” She sipped her tea again and then focused on her smushed cake.
I chose to ignore the comment. We had been over this ground too many times. Diana knew Mac and I had clashed over my psychic abilities in the past. I was about to launch into a whine about my mother when the buzzer sounded.
Diana jumped up and peeked out into the store.
“I’ll have to go deal with this. It’s a whole group and they look a little lost.”
“Okay, I should be getting home anyway.”
After pushing my way out through the crowd, I walked toward the police station, where my car was parked. I checked my watch and tried to remember how much time was left on the meter. When not fighting crime, the Crystal Haven police aggressively ticketed all expired meters.
Rushing to rescue my car from a ticket, I almost ran right into Sara’s daughter Alison, who stood outside the police station wiping her eyes with a wad of tissue and breathing heavily. We had met about a month before when I first started walking Tuffy. She didn’t see me coming, and I didn’t see her until I was almost on top of her.
“Alison! I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there.” I grabbed her shoulders to keep her from stumbling.
“Oh, hi,” she sniffed. “I met you at my mom’s right? Are you a client?”
“No, I took care of Tuffy for her.” I stuck out my hand. “Clyde Fortune.” She briefly gave me a damp, limp hand. Must have learned that from her father.
She nodded. “I remember. You’re the brave one taking care of him.” She gave me a watery smile.
“Are you okay?”
“No.” She took a shaky breath. “I just found out that it was my statement that got my father arrested.” Tears began leaking out of her eyes again.
“What statement?”
“I don’t know if I should be talking about this.” She glanced back at the police station. “But you were a friend of my mother’s, weren’t you?”