She nodded. “Come into the parlor.”
He followed Meg into a handsome room with furnishings from the mid-1800s—all of it polished and well maintained. But this meeting wasn’t a cozy sit-down in the parlor; Matt almost felt as if he had arrived at a war summit. Nancy sat at the head of the table, where a service for tea and coffee was already set. Nancy briskly asked them if she might pour and if they preferred coffee or tea.
When that nicety had been observed, she sat back. “I haven’t seen Lara in the past few days. Nor have I heard from her. As time goes by, I’m more and more concerned. However, I don’t believe she’s dead.”
Meg bowed her head for a moment.
“I pray you’re right,” Matt said. “But is there anything in particular that’s convinced you she’s alive? Has she contacted you in any way?”
“No.” Nancy took a deep breath. “I would know. I’m sure of it. You may think this is silly, Agent Bosworth, but I knew the moment my sister—Lara’s mother—died. She was my twin. They say that twins intuit these things. And I did. Lara’s parents were killed in a horrible car accident more than fifteen years ago when we had that freak blizzard late in the season. At least twenty people in the area were killed in that storm. But I knew. Patricia and I—we often read each other’s thoughts. Make fun of me if you will.”
“I have no intention of making fun of you,” Matt assured her.
“Really?”
“Really,” he repeated. “I’m a big believer in intuition.”
“Aunt Nancy,” Meg said, “I should explain. Matt belongs to a special FBI unit—and so do I, as of yesterday. We’re called the Krewe of Hunters. We all have some...intuitive abilities, I guess you could call it. We see people, like I saw Mary Elizabeth after she was killed.”
Nancy seemed to relax as she studied them both. Then she let out a sigh. “The police are just humoring me, I think. I realize that when a young woman goes missing and she fits the profile of a serial killer’s victim, most people would assume there’s little hope.”
Meg reached across the table and took Nancy’s hand. “Aunt Nancy, I have to tell you—I feared she was dead.”
Nancy turned to Meg, meeting her eyes. “You had one of your visions?” she asked.
Meg glanced over at Matt. “Brief. It was very brief. I’d taken a shower and the bathroom was filled with steam. I cleaned the mirror and she was standing behind me. I turned and she was still there—just for a second or two. I gave up hope—well, you know why. But Matt and some of the Krewe members believe I might have seen her in the mirror because she was reaching out to me...for help. That she might still be alive.”
“She is alive,” Nancy said. “And that isn’t just hope speaking.” She looked at Matt. “My husband and I had no children. Even before her parents died, Lara was like my own child. She’s an idealist, the same way her father was. George was a columnist, and he wrote political essays that pointed out not only the negative, but how it could be fixed. He also worked tirelessly to petition congressmen for bills to benefit education and health care. Lara is a crusader, as well. She works passionately when she believes in a cause.”
“I’m disturbed that, if she did go into hiding, she didn’t try to get back to either you or Meg,” Matt said.
“If she felt she was in danger, she wouldn’t have done so. Lara would never have put me in danger,” Nancy said. “There’s also the possibility that she’s being held somewhere—that she was kidnapped!”
Matt meant to be gentle—but Nancy didn’t seem the type who wanted lies.
“We’re aware of that possibility,” he said. “But I can’t figure out why she would’ve been kidnapped and held,” Matt said. “If she was taken, it’s because she knows something she shouldn’t. She’s an idealist, as you’ve both told me. If she’d learned about a lie or some political scandal, she would’ve stood up against it. So there’d be no reason for anyone to abduct her—and keep her alive. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.”
Matt wasn’t sure what else to say. There was very little that could be tracked that the Krewe wasn’t capable of tracking. Lara’s credit cards hadn’t been used. She’d been in Congressman Walker’s company, left his office late and was never seen again. She hadn’t withdrawn any large sums of money before her disappearance.
He didn’t want to tell Nancy that he hoped there was a reason for her to be held; if not, her chances probably weren’t good.
“You’re going to look for her, right?” Nancy asked, staring at Meg and then Matt. “You’ll look until you find her. If she’s hiding, no one knows where she’d go better than you do, Meg. You two were like little peas in a pod, loving all the same places. I know she’s somewhere, Meg, I can feel it.”