Shadows (Bayou Magic 1)

“My sister,” she responds. “She’s psychic and psychometric, meaning she knows and sees things by touching objects. It works with people, too.” Her attention turns to the phone call. “Hey, Daph? Can you come to the police station? It isn’t going to be a fun visit. I need you to touch a dead body. I know. Are you sure? Okay, see you soon.”

“I’m not sure I want a civilian touching my vic,” Asher says.

“If she’s not a victim, Daphne will know. And if she is, Daphne might be able to see the killer.”

“I’ll call up and tell them to escort her right down,” Asher says immediately, making us both smile.

“Oh. While we wait, I should let you both know that I’m going back to work,” Brielle says as casually as if she’s talking about going to the grocery store.

“Negative, ghost rider.” I shake my head emphatically. “Now that we know you’re his target, you are absolutely not going to work.”

“Cash, I need to try and lure him out. If he’s really after me, if I’m his sick end game, I need to be somewhere that he can easily take me.”

“No way.”

“Actually, she’s not wrong,” Asher says. “And she won’t be alone. We can have undercover officers on her tour. Hell, you can be on her tour. I’ll go one night and take my wife and kids. We’ll rotate. There will be eyes on her at all times.”

“And eyes on everyone around me,” she says. “If he’s lurking nearby, there’s a better chance that someone will notice him. I mean, he must be watching me, right?”

“What if this all blows up on us?” I ask desperately. “What if we do everything right, and he still manages to take you? I will not lose you to this sick asshole, Brielle. I’ll protect you, no matter what it takes.”

“I’m not Carlson,” she says softly. “This is not the same thing. There are cameras in our town.”

“Trust me, we’ve tried using them to find him,” Asher says in disgust. “He must know where they are and has figured out how to evade them.”

“He’s smart,” Brielle says. “But you said yourself, he’s getting impatient. We need to end this. And doing that might just mean me putting myself out there as bait.”

“This is a bad idea,” I whisper. “And there will be rules. Strict rules, Brielle, I mean it.”

“I won’t do anything stupid,” she says immediately. “Trust me, I don’t want to get caught. But I do want to catch him.”

Asher’s phone rings. “Excellent. Bring her down.”

“Is Daphne here?” Brielle asks.

“She’s here.”Chapter SeventeenBrielle“I can honestly say that no one’s ever invited me to touch a dead body before,” Daphne says when she walks through the door. She hugs me tightly before being introduced to Asher and then turns to the covered form on the table. “Let’s get this over with.”

“I want to reiterate what Brielle said,” Cash says. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Are you kidding? I might see this bastard. Of course, I have to do this.”

“Do you need her to be uncovered?” Asher asks.

“Yes, please.” Daph takes a long, deep breath. She links her fingers with mine, and we silently recite our protection spell, the one we’ve used since we were small girls. When we open our eyes, the body is uncovered. “She wasn’t tortured.”

The surprise in Daphne’s voice mirrors my own from earlier.

“That’s why you’re here,” I say softly. “We need to know for sure if she was his victim.”

“Lucky me,” she whispers and licks her lips. She reaches out, her palm hovering over the girl’s arm. As she touches her, skin to skin, she inhales sharply. “Oh, she was absolutely his.”

“What do you see?” Cash asks.

“A lot, actually. Let me make some sense of it.” She frowns, taking it all in. It’s always been fascinating to watch Daphne see. Her eyes cloud over, her pupils dilate. “Okay, she was there a couple of days. She watched what he was doing to the others. She listened to them cry out, beg, sob. She didn’t react much. And she knew that she wasn’t going to let him do what he did to the others to her. So, when she was able to get her hands free of the ropes, she looped them over the bedpost and hung herself.”

“Christ,” Asher mutters, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. “Can you see him?”

Daphne scowls. “Yes. I can see him. His back is to me, and he’s sawing up a victim on his workbench.”

“Has he turned around?” Cash asks.

“Not yet.” Daphne pauses, and her breath hitches. “He’s going to turn around. There he is. But…”

“But what?”

“I can’t see his face. He’s wearing a mask and something over his hair. Goggles.”

“A disguise?” Asher asks.

“No, it’s a surgical outfit,” Daphne says. “Like he’s protecting a patient from his germs. It’s so fucking creepy.”