“No. Oh, maybe, a little. But I felt as if I were meant…” She stopped. “There’s so much I have to learn. It’s all coming at me now like a giant wave. I’m getting stronger and stronger. That little girl … If she was the reason that I’ve been waiting. Maybe I was meant to help her, Eve?”
“I don’t know.” Yet Eve had said much the same thing to Joe about Jenny. “If that’s true, I do know it’s worth doing. But Walsh has to be caught first, or that can’t happen.” She added, “And I’m not forgetting you. We’ve got to bring you home to your parents. You’re important, too, Jenny.”
“Am I?” Her voice was fading away. “I told you, I don’t think so. Not yet…”
“Jenny, I’m losing you!”
“I can’t … help it. As I said, I’m in and out…”
She was gone.
Eve drew a shaky breath. Those moments had flown by, and yet she had to go back and try to remember every word that had been uttered. As Jenny had told her, she was learning, changing, moving back and forth from child to adult, from weakness to strength. And Jenny wasn’t the only one who was learning every minute.
And the primary thing Eve had learned from that conversation was a name.
Walsh.
*
“Walsh,” Joe repeated. “No first name. Initials?”
“Don’t be greedy,” Eve said. “We have a name. What are databases for?”
“Not generally to be used by ghosts searching for their murderers. You’re sure that your Jenny got it right?”
“I’m not sure about anything. But it’s our best bet.” She thought about it. “Yes, I’d trust her.”
“General location?”
“Unknown. But I’d think he was going back to California.”
“Because he was going to try to find the evidence he’d left at Jenny’s crime scene?”
“And because he had another victim in mind.” Her lips tightened. “He’d marked her. Whatever that means. He wouldn’t just have gone on to another kill.”
“Then I’d better get down to the precinct and start running this name through the databases with emphasis on California.” He got to his feet. “And the chances of Walsh being his real name are slim to none. But if it’s the one he’s been using most recently, we might get lucky. What are you going to do?” His brows lifted. “Try for a séance?”
“Very amusing. I’ve told Jenny what I need from her. I’ll just have to see if she can do what I asked.” She took out her phone. “And I have a few calls to make myself.”
“Nalchek?”
“That’s one of them.” She started to dial. “And the other is to a friend who came through for me a few months ago. I’ve just got to hope she’s still in California…”
*
“I’m not sure where you can find Margaret Douglas,” Kendra Michaels said. “I think she’s still in California, but you never know with Margaret. She’s something of a gypsy.”
“I thought she went to California because you were there,” Eve said. “But she’s not answering her phone. I was hoping that you might still be in touch.”
“I tried, but Margaret marches to her own drummer.”
“Like several other people in our circle,” Eve said dryly. Including Kendra Michaels, who was sometimes a music therapist and sometimes worked with the police and FBI. She was truly an original since she had been blind until her twenties and had learned to use all her senses with incredible accuracy. “No idea where Margaret could be?”
“She worked as a volunteer at the San Diego Zoo,” Kendra said. “But it wasn’t challenging enough, so she moved on. Maybe she went back to Summer Island to work with those dogs in that experimental program.”
“I’ll check with them and see if they’ve heard from her. But it would be difficult for Margaret to go back there when she has no papers.”