“Good thinking,” Riley said. “Hey, Wander.”
Her sister greeted her with an aloe-scented hug before delving into her vegan leather messenger bag. “My Wiccan friend, Mertha, let me borrow his locator-spell pendant. I thought it couldn’t hurt to try.”
She produced a large, ugly amulet that looked as though it had been commissioned by someone’s fussy Great-Aunt Eugenia. Riley winced and realized that wasn’t an assumption, it was a reading.
“I’ll have you know that amulet was designed by none other than Sir Theobold Vincent,”someone’s Great-Aunt Eugenia huffed in her head.
“Sorry, Great-Aunt Eugenia, your amulet thing is really nice,”Riley told her.
She turned her attention back to the living. “So exactly what should we do? I know I can just pop in and talk to my spirit guides, but I was hoping we could do something more structured. Something that would get us more specific answers.” Her spirit guides talked in a strange kind of visual code that she didn’t yet understand.
Blossom rubbed her palms together. “I think we should start in a circle to link our power. Gabe, you’ll help Riley and Wander as they communicate with their spirit guides. I’ll use the necklace thingy, and if all of that fails, I’ll consult my cards.”
“It is a wonderful plan,” Gabe announced.
Blossom beamed at the man’s praise.
A toilet flushed upstairs.
“Great. We just need to find Beth before Mrs. Penny gets bored going through Mom and Dad’s closets,” Riley added.
“Then let’s circle up. Time’s a-wasting,” Blossom said.
A meditation cushion hit Riley in the face. Wander caught the one their mother threw in her direction.
They joined Gabe on the floor, then in the center of their circle dumped the amulet, a pile of crystals, the deck of tarot cards, and a printout of a map of the United States.
“Okay, folks. Let’s get this show on the road,” Riley said, pulling a photo of Beth that she’d snagged from Nick’s case file and adding it to the pile. “We’re looking for this woman. Elizabeth Weber. Are you guys ready?”
Team Psychic Shenanigans nodded, joined hands, and closed their eyes.
Riley dropped into what she called her spirit guide realm.
“Oh, my. Someone wanted to have sex this morning but didn’t,” Blossom teased.
“Mom!” Riley hissed.
“Sex is a very natural thing. There’s no need to be embarrassed by it.”
Riley thought she heard a wistful sigh coming from Wander. “Can we please focus on Beth and not anyone’s sex life?”
“Of course, dear.”
The clouds pulsed brighter, and Riley wondered briefly what her spirit guides looked like. Were they the clouds themselves, or were they something else hidden beyond the ether? Were they human? Did they look like super models or regular people? Little pastel squirrels scampering around the universe and collecting energetic nuts?
A subtle river of energy poured forth from Gabe through her left hand, re-centering her. On her right, Wander’s energy danced between their clasped hands, light and delicate like the bubbles in a glass of champagne.
From somewhere farther away, she could hear her mother quietly chanting as she shuffled cards.
“Okay, spirit guides. Come out and play. I need some help finding Beth Weber.” Bringing the image from the photo to mind, Riley concentrated hard.
She braced as the clouds began to part. Anticipation rose in her blood, making her heart thump faster. Then her body was flying through the mists like Peter Freaking Pan.
It seemed dark, and there was music. A Christina Aguilera club mix thumped inside her head. Shoes. Magenta platform wedges moved against some kind of rough, gray carpet.
“This might be a little too specific,” Riley said. “How about a more general location?”
She forgot to brace, and her stomach dipped violently as she rocketed out of the shoe vision and into another. Scenes flashed before her eyes at high speed. A fast-food restaurant. Houses. A blur of commercial buildings. Circling around and around until the vision became a circle. And then finally, one perfect sesame bagel floated in the spotlight of her consciousness.
