“Absolutely.” Eden nodded enthusiastically.
Reaching into his back pocket, Dan pulled a small business card from his wallet. Reaching over the table, he handed it to her. “If you ever want to talk to her, either just to visit or run something by her, call that number. Tell them you’re a friend of mine and ask for Mia. They’ll put you through.”
“Thanks.” Eden ran her thumb over the embossed letters. “I wish I’d known about Mia and all the others years ago.” Her voice became laced with sadness. “If I had, maybe I wouldn’t have felt so different. So alone.”
Alex reached for her then. With his hand on her forearm, he gave her a gentle squeeze. “You’re not alone anymore.” She looked up at him. “You’ll never be alone again.”
Her eyes rose to meet his, and he prayed she could see he meant every word. “I know.” Her lips curved in a sad smile. “It’s just hard sometimes. You have what some people refer to as a gift, but more often than not, it seems more like a curse. I can’t help but think if I’d known so many others were out there, that The Lotus Circle actually existed, I would’ve felt there was a place for me in this world. I wouldn’t have been ashamed or thought I needed to keep myself isolated from everyone else. I—”
Eden cut herself off so abruptly Alex thought maybe she was getting choked up. A stretch of silence passed as she sat there, staring out at nothing while her wheels spun at what appeared to be a rapid pace. When she looked back up at him, the first thing Alex noticed was the light suddenly shining there again.
“That’s it!”
“Sweetheart, what’s it?”
“The Liberator’s victims.”
“What about them?” Dan asked, joining in the conversation.
Eden was so worked up by the conclusion she’d just drawn she was having a hard time relaying it. “The colors. Their colors were muted.” She swung her gaze back up to his. “Remember when I said they were mostly dull and…and grey? That it felt as if they were alone, that they’d isolated themselves from everyone around them?”
“Yes, but what does that—”
“The people the FBI and your team spoke with…the ones who knew those women. They described them as loners. As being odd, right?”
“Well, yeah. But, I still don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”
“She thinks they were like her and Mia,” Dan jumped in.
“Exactly.” Eden nodded.
Alex looked at his friend then back to her. “What?”
Drawing in a deep, calming breath, Eden shifted in the seat to face him more directly. “It’s just a theory, but I think those five women held some sort of psychic ability. It may even be the reason they were chosen.” She grabbed her purse. “We need to get back to the station. I need to go through the evidence again.”
Alex had never doubted her instinct nor her gift. He wasn’t about to start now. Sliding out of the booth, he made a move to retrieve his wallet, but Dan stopped him.
“I got this.” He had his wallet out and his credit card in hand before Dan could reach for his cash.
“You sure?”
Dan nodded. “Go. I’ll catch up. Besides…” He wiggled the card between his fingers and grinned. “I can put this on the company card. After all, we did talk business, right?”
“Thanks, man. I owe ya.”
“I’ll remember you said that.”
Feeling one step closer to solving this case, Alex took Eden’s hand in his, and the two headed for the door.
Chapter Nine
Eden ran her fingertips over Chloe Howard’s scarf again. When she’d first gotten the idea that the victims could possibly have been psychic, she’d been excited. Hopeful. After going through each of their things a third time, she was all but certain her theory was correct.
I just wish I’d figured it out sooner.
When she’d explained to Alex what she’d felt this time around, both he and Garrett immediately left for their desks to begin making phone calls. They wanted to talk to the women’s families again.
The goal was to find out whether or not any of the victims had ever exhibited signs of having a psi ability. Or, better yet, if any of the people they were calling had witnessed the women’s gifts themselves.
