“Slipped my mind. Sorry.”
“We’ve been busy.”
He reached for her hand and squeezed, then looked around. “I don’t think the cops have been here yet, but they’re going to show up sometime.”
“What about Eric Smithson?”
He shrugged.
With her heart pounding, she crossed to the corner where she kept her Tarot decks. She had just picked up the one that Evelyn Morgan had handled when the shop door opened, and she froze, remembering that she hadn’t locked it.
When a tough-looking man in a business suit stepped through the door, Jake grabbed her free hand, holding tight while he turned to face the guy.
Rachel’s pulse was pounding as she slipped the cards into her purse.
“Who are you?” Jake said as though he had every right to be there and the other guy was trespassing.
“Detective Peter Overly.”
Not the same detective Jake had met outside the Bourbon Street Arms.
As the man stared at them, his eyes widened. “What the hell?” He must have been reaching for a gun, but his hand stilled as a look of confusion swept over his face.
Rachel knew what Jake had in mind. As he pressed his shoulder to hers, she added her silent voice to his.
We’re just customers. We came in here looking for a reading. You don’t recognize us. We aren’t the people you’re looking for.
“We’re just customers looking for Rachel Gregory,” Jake said in an even voice.
Overly gave them a hard look. “No, you’re . . . “ He stopped looking even more muddled. “You’re . . .”
“Customers looking for Rachel Gregory,” Jake repeated, reinforcing the statement with a mental message. “Sorry to intrude.”
The guy wasn’t totally ready to buy it.
“How did you get in here?”
“I guess the same way you did. The door wasn’t locked.”
As he spoke, Jake edged around the detective, heading for the exit. Rachel came with him, her fingers digging into his as she prayed that they could pull this off. They’d gotten Eric Smithson to crash through a window. An act of violence.
This wasn’t violent. It should be easier. Except that there was something about this cop that helped him resist them. She didn’t know what it was, but it gave her the idea that some people were more susceptible than others.
“You consulted Gregory before?” he asked in a challenging voice.
“No,” Jake said.
“Yes,” she said.
Unfortunately, they were both too focused on the detective to be in synch.
He gave them a hard look.
Rachel tried to recover. “I have, but my husband hasn’t.”
“Why are you here?”
“I persuaded him to try her,” Rachel said, both of them still backing away.
