Vi and I swiveled our gazes to look at her.
“I talked to Jillian yesterday.” Mom set the tray on the coffee table. “She asked how I had gotten you to finally use your talents. I told her that’s not what you were doing, but she didn’t believe me. I’m so sorry. I think she started that rumor when you were helping Tom.”
Vi sat back and crossed her arms, giving me a self-satisfied smile.
“I’m sorry, Vi. I should have known you would never . . . gossip.”
She nodded. “Da—arn right,” she said and glanced at Seth.
He shook his head and pulled Tuffy onto his lap.
After we finished eating, I was subjected to another tarot reading with dire predictions. They brought out the pendulum again, and it was adamant that Milo was not the killer. I was inclined to believe it at this point, but Mom and Vi decided they needed to go buy a new one. They also announced they would take care of the dogs for me, since Seth knew the routine, and the three of them set off, leaving me alone.
I didn’t mind. It gave me time to think, something I couldn’t usually do in my mother’s house with all the activity, psychic and otherwise. I was furious at the thought of someone tampering with my brakes. I hadn’t thought to ask Milo where he’d been coming from when he saw me in the ditch. Maybe he saw someone leave the parking lot.
I had no idea where Gary had been this morning. I assumed Mac would be looking into that, although he’d refused to discuss it when we were at the clinic.
The crew had left me in the living room with enough food for a wake, a Thermos of coffee, and my laptop. I was under strict orders to remain on the couch until they returned. Since my Jeep was in a ditch, I was stuck. I hoped it was fixable. It was fifteen years old, but I didn’t want to replace it. Apparently, excessive attachment to cars was genetic.
I felt fine, and my arm hardly hurt. I used the time to visit some of the websites of mediums and psychics in town. I also researched whatever I could find on Gary. Someone had killed my friends, and now they were after me. Maybe there was a person in town I hadn’t even considered who had a grudge against Sara and Tish and now me.
After an hour on the computer, I had learned the following: there were hundreds of psychic websites, it wasn’t hard to cut a brake line, and Gary actually looked better now than twenty years ago when he sported a mullet and a mustache. A quick search of psychics took me to sites where people promised all sorts of mystic knowledge for $1.99 a minute—precisely the people I thought of when I refused to join Mom’s “psychic empire.” I finally found blogs and websites of people in town by searching for specific names. I noticed Sara had been updating her site a few times a week until about a month ago, when things tapered off to once a week or less. The comment section of her site had been locked. I tried to find some of the comments Alison had mentioned, but it looked like Sara had removed them. She must have been trying to discourage the threats. Or maybe she just lost interest in the anonymous masses once they started getting nasty.
Scarier than the psychics were the instructional videos on how to cut a brake line, accompanied by the disclaimer that you shouldn’t try this at home because you could hurt someone.
I pulled out the file of newspaper clippings that Seth had copied from Sara’s desk. A quick perusal confirmed what I had thought the night of the séance. Sara had collected old news articles from Crystal Haven’s twice-weekly newspaper and even some from the Grand Rapids Press. One thick set covered Julia Wyatt’s disappearance; the other was a thin pile describing Mike Jones’s fatal hunting accident.
I read through the stack, remembering the summer Julia had disappeared. Everyone had gotten involved after they found her clothes in Greer’s Woods. Huge search parties formed and spread out through the woods, hoping to find her alive, but fearing they would find her dead.
July 10, 1997
JULIA WYATT STILL MISSING
Authorities suspect foul play in the disappearance of a recent high school graduate from Crystal Haven.
Forty-five-year-old James Wyatt reported his daughter missing on the morning of June 22. Mr. Wyatt reportedly awoke on the morning in question to find his daughter gone. Phone calls to her friends and place of work yielded no leads. He could not provide information on whether any of her belongings were absent. Police began a search immediately, but it was not until June 24 that some of her personal items were found in Greer’s Woods.
Authorities report that there were signs of a struggle and fear for Julia’s safety. No further leads have materialized.
If you have any information regarding Julia Wyatt’s disappearance or her current whereabouts, please call the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department at 1-800-555-6239.