“If I knew that, I could rule the world. You know Aunt Jackie works on a different set of rules for herself.” I nodded toward Greg’s closed door. “My guy in yet?”
She nodded. “Something came up this morning and he’s been locked in there with Doc Ames for a good hour now.”
“On Kent’s murder?” The question came out of my mouth before I could stop it. So much for good intentions.
Esmeralda shrugged. “Greg doesn’t talk to me much lately. I get the feeling he’s trying to keep the investigation under wraps.” She laughed. “Like I’d tell anyone. You wouldn’t believe the secrets people tell me during readings. I need to write a book someday, but it would be going against the professional code of ethics.”
“Fortune-tellers have a code of ethics?” I’d never considered that they might be like lawyers or doctors.
“Maybe not all of them, but I do. That’s why you have to make sure your psychic consultant is trustworthy. Many of the people in the business are trying to get rich, no matter what the method.” She picked up the phone. “Let me tell him you’re here.”
I pressed my lips together, trying not to smile at the image of a convention full of fortune-tellers dressed in their gypsy finest, sitting in a ballroom, listening to speakers. Maybe they had topics like Ten Ways to Reach the Departed Quickly, or Reaching Out to the Historical Dead, Things to Consider, or even Fashion Tips to Upsell Your Predictions.
“He says to go on in.” Esmeralda broke into my daydream, her look amused.
Maybe she could read minds, but I knew she could read body language better than anyone I’d met, and my face heated as I thanked her and quickly turned toward Greg’s office.
Doc Ames stood as I entered the small office. “Hey, Jill, nice to see you.”
“At least you’re not trying to break up a catfight this time.” I extended my hand to the coroner and smiled. “I thought those women were going to plow right through you.”
“Emotions around a loved one’s death can be extreme.” He looked at Greg. “I’m heading back to Bakerstown. Did you need anything else?”
Greg shook his head. “Thanks for driving out this early. I could have come to you.”
Doc Ames waved off the comment. “Does me good to get out of the office. I enjoy driving the coastal highway; it clears my head.”
I thought about all the work the man did with the dead and the families of the dead and wondered if a short drive would be enough to bring him back to the world of the living. Every time I saw Doc, he was cheerful and kind to everyone he met. That would be a hard act to keep up day in and day out. Maybe he went home and punched the wall—or maybe he was just a caring man.
“Well, I appreciate your time. Let me walk you out.” Greg smiled at me. Not quite the smile he had during my dream, but not the scowl I’d expected after yesterday. “I’ll be right back, honey.”
I settled into the chair that Doc had left and pulled out my shopping list. I needed flea treatment for Emma and I’d forgotten to write it down. I dug in my purse for a pen, but came up empty. So I reached over onto Greg’s desk and promptly knocked a few loose sheets of paper onto the floor. Sighing, I set down the notebook and gathered up the pages. It was the tox screen for Kent. Two words stood out, written in Greg’s neat block style. Cocaine use and poison—epibati-dine. I wrote the unfamiliar name down on my shopping list and had just sat back down when Greg came back into the room.
He kissed me on the cheek as he passed by. “Hey, you, I’d hoped I’d see you today. I planned on stopping by this morning, but I got a call from Doc that he needed to see me.”
Funny, my dream had been almost on target, yet the day had turned out differently. I shook the coincidence away. “I know I shouldn’t ask, but was it something on Kent’s murder?”
Greg sat in the chair behind his desk, gathered up the loose papers, and put them into a manila folder. “Yep. Seems like the rumors of his drug use were true. But there’s more that we can’t figure out.”
“Like?” I pushed.
“Good try.” He leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “Have you talked to your aunt today?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. Did she tell you why she was in that office?”
Greg pulled out a different folder and read aloud. “The man is a scammer and needs to be put in jail.” He closed the file. “Direct quote.”
“She seems to be on some kind of a mission. Mary was taken by this guy, and Aunt Jackie believes she can fix the problem.” I leaned forward. “Tell me the truth, is she going to serve time for this?”
Greg rubbed his face. “Hell, I can’t even confirm that she’s going to be charged. I guess the district attorney is on some type of Caribbean vacation, and no one else wants to make the decision.”