Through Her Eyes (Mind's Eye Book 4)

by Deborah Camp

  She can see evil and evil can see her

  Through Her Eyes

  Deborah Camp

  A Mind’s Eye Novel

  © 2017 by Deborah Camp

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  About the author . . .

  Other Novels by Deborah Camp

  Evil roams the streets of New Orleans . . .

  S urrounded by the romance and mystery of the French Quarter, psychics Trudy Tucker and Levi Wolfe search for a taker of lives. Combining their unique skills, they zero in on a serial killer who has been murdering for more than a decade. Their suspect is in a wheelchair, partially paralyzed in an accident a few years ago, but the latest victim was murdered after his paralysis. Are they on the wrong track or has the murderer found a protégé to continue his reign of horrors?

  The Mind’s Eye Novels

  (Available on Amazon)

  Acknowledgments

  Cover design by Patricia Schmitt (Pickyme)

  Editor, Joyce Anglin

  Copyeditor, Pat Wade

  Design, Deborah Camp

  As always, thanks to Barbara Lowenstein and Associates for their professional guidance.

  Tremendous gratitude to the bloggers and readers who reach out to me and inspire me to continue writing.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

  Visit Deborah’s website at www.deborah_camp.com

  If you enjoy this novel, please leave a review of it on Amazon and Goodreads as a courtesy to other interested readers.

  Through Her Eyes

  (#4 Mind’s Eye series)

  Chapter 1

  The paint-chipped sign in the shape of a tea cup creaked on rusty hinges, barely set in motion by a lethargic breeze. The words “Madame Jazeem – Fortune Teller” written in curled, smoky letters floated above credit card symbols and “All sales final. No refunds.”

  Chuckling under her breath, Trudy Tucker fanned her face with the paper fan she’d bought on Bourbon Street and looked up and down Camp Street. For late February, it was unseasonably humid even for Louisiana and only a few people were out. Her gaze lingered on a couple holding hands and laughing as her thoughts winged to her own love – Levi Wolfe, who was waiting for her back in Atlanta in the penthouse she now shared with him. Her heart constricted with longing. Was he thinking of her right now as she was thinking of him?

  Three children riding bikes zipped by and waved at a woman sitting across the street on her porch stoop, shelling peanuts and tapping her foot to whatever was playing in her earbuds.

  Trudy turned back to examine the wrap-around metal roof, seldom seen any more in New Orleans. They’d been used primarily on old neighborhood groceries. She congratulated herself for squirreling away that bit of architectural trivia. Levi would be proud of her. Levi, with his vast knowledge of subjects as varied as architecture, psychology, and, oh yes, all things paranormal.

  “I know you hate the commercial part of it,” Quintara said, breaking into her thoughts as she nodded at the sign overhead. “But it’s necessary in this day and age. When you work for free, giving away your gifts, people don’t value them. It’s a fact, dear.”

  She knew that Quintara, her psychic mentor, referred to the credit cards and “no refunds” warning on the sign, although she hadn’t been dwelling on that. But Quintara liked to think that she could read minds, so Trudy didn’t correct her. Instead, she placed an arm across her friend’s rounded shoulders and hugged her. This little jaunt with Quintara to New Orleans to attend a psychic fair was a gift after six months of nonstop upheaval mixed with extreme bliss. Last fall Trudy had agreed to work on a serial killer case with Levi and Quintara that had completely changed her life. For the good, she conceded, but she needed a few days away from the whirlwind that was Levi Wolfe just to center herself. Spending time with Quintara was an extra dollop of divine.

  “You’re preaching to the choir, Quintara. I like being paid the same as the next psychic.”

  Quintara patted her hand. “You’ve been doing well for yourself, dear, and I’m proud of you. You know that.”

  Trudy dropped a kiss on her forehead. Quintara was her and Levi’s tireless cheerleader. “Thank you. So, you met Jazeem . . . when did you say? Twenty years ago?”

  “Something like that.” Quintara stared up at the sign, watching it swing slightly to and fro, its hinges singing. “Right here in this place. She was just starting out and it was my first visit to New Orleans. This place just drew me in.” Quintara’s bright brown eyes shone in the failing light. “It was destiny, my dear. We’ve been fast friends ever since. You’ll get on like gangbusters, I promise you.” Leaning closer, she whispered, “When it comes to reading tea leaves, nobody does it better than Jazeem.”

  Suddenly, the door swung open and purple-tinted light fell across them. A girl, probably seventeen or eighteen, stood on the threshold. Her straight, black hair was shiny and her brown eyes were wiser than her years. A white crop top and low-rider pink jeans exposed a large wedge of creamy brown skin and an “inny” navel. She smiled and deep dimples buried into her cheeks.

  “Jazeem expects you, Ms. Quintara and guest.” Her sneakers squeaked on the gray linoleum as she stepped back. “I’m Kit Kat, her protégé. Please, enter.”

  Trudy hesitated, so Quintara breezed right past her.

  “Where’s Jazeem?” Quintara glanced around. “Jazeem! Get yourself in here. I know you’re hiding back there so that you can make a grand entrance.”

  The interior of the front room was dark, lit only by a few tea lights and two small table lamps that had sheer purple scarves draped over them. From what Trudy could make out, the walls were dove gray. A ceiling fan whirred, stirring the long, flowing drapes at the two front windows and the wind chimes hanging from the exposed ceiling beams. The usual posters of astrological signs and seeing eyes adorned the walls. A round table just big enough to seat two or three people held reign over the room. A silver tea service on an ornate silver tray sat on the table next to scattered Tarot cards.

  It was a shotgun style house, but the rooms beyond it were obscured by a deep plum velvet curtain with gold tassels along the hem.

  “You’re her protégé.” Smiling, Quintara ran her detecting gaze up and down the girl. “How old are you, dearest?”

  “Nineteen.”

  “How long have you been studying under Jazeem?” Trudy asked her.

  “Two years.”

  “I wish I’d started that young.” Trudy shrugged. “I’m a novice like you.”

  The curtain over the doorway parted and a strikingly sexy woman entered the room. She wore a leopard body suit that left little to the imagination and her brown hair streaked with white sprang from her head in a b
lown-out Afro. Smoky, cleverly applied make-up emphasized her almond-shaped brown eyes and a bronzer made her skin glisten in the dimly lit room. High cheekbones, a haughty nose, and full lips combined to grace her with unquestionable beauty.

  “You think she is a novice, Kit Kat?” Her voice went along with her package – exotic and memorable. A strong Creole accent shaped her words. Although she spoke to the girl, her gaze never left Trudy.

  “No, Madame. Her aura is too strong to be newly born.”

  “Sans doute.”

  Trudy shifted uneasily. She believed she’d just been called a liar, but in a complimentary way. The woman’s gaze slipped over to Quintara and a smile of pure joy spread across her beautiful face.

  “How it delights me to see you again, mon amie.” She held out her long-fingered hands and grasped Quintara’s bejeweled ones. “I dreamt of this meeting last night and it has filled me with excitement, and ultimately I hope, relief.”

  The two women embraced, holding tightly to each other as the seconds ticked by. Trudy and Kit Kat exchanged a bewildered smile before the two women finally separated.

  “Relief?” Quintara’s penciled brows arched. “I am intrigued. You think I will bring you relief?”

  “Not you so much as your protégé.” Jazeem nodded in Trudy’s direction. Stepping around Quintara, she held out her hand to Trudy. “I am Jazeem, Trudy Tucker. Welcome.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Trudy shook her hand. Her skin was cool and soft. “You think I’ll relieve you of something? I hope it’s not a debt . . . or gas.”

  The others chuckled at her little joke. Jazeem kept hold of Trudy’s hand and led her to the table.

  “S’il vous plâit, sit. You, too, Quintara. Let’s have some tea and see what the leaves say.”

  They sat at the table while Kit Kat did the honors of pouring the tea into dragonware china cups. Before Kit Kat poured the dark amber tea into her cup, Trudy lifted it toward the light to admire the translucent image of a geisha girl’s face in the bottom of it.

  “Lovely,” she murmured. “My family has pawn shops, so I’ve gained a working knowledge of antiques and collectibles. This is a treasure of a tea service.” She set the cup down so that Kit Kat could finish pouring.

  “It was my grandmother’s. She bought it right here on the docks of New Orleans.” She motioned to the Tarot cards scattered on the table. “Gather those into a pile, won’t you? Make some more room for yourself.” She took a sip of the tea as she watched Trudy pick up the cards and stack them. “Do you really see yourself as a novice?”

  “Well, yes. I haven’t been promoting myself as a psychic for very long.”

  “But you’ve had the gift your whole life.”

  Trudy set aside the deck of cards and tasted the brew. It was strong with hints of orange. “I didn’t try to reconcile with it until I was an adult. Until I met Quintara.”

  “You fought it.” Jazeem surmised.

  “I fought and it won.”

  Jazeem lifted one shoulder in a lazy shrug. “As for me, I prayed to be special. My grandmother was a voyant, but it skipped my mother’s generation. I had older and younger sisters, but none had shown any signs of the third eye. Then, when I was ten years old, my grandmother summoned me. She poured tea, read the leaves, and told me I had the gift. I was the one to carry it on. I felt as if I’d been crowned. A coronation, if you will. From that day on, she schooled me.”

  From the rooms behind the plum curtain came a rattling of what sounded like pots and pans. Jazeem looked at Kit Kat and they both rolled their eyes and heaved huge, put-upon sighs.

  “Is someone else here?” Trudy asked.

  “Just Henri,” Kit Kat said, replacing the teapot in its cozy. “I’ll go settle him.”

  “Tell him to scat like a cat.” Jazeem flicked her hands in a shooing motion before turning back to Trudy and Quintara. “He is a ghost who comes here every week or so. He was a chef and he likes to stack and unstack my skillets. La peste.” She hissed the last like a feline.

  Trudy swallowed the tension that corkscrewed in her throat. Talk of earthbound spirits unsettled her. She didn’t want to believe in them, but she had little choice.

  “Ghosts bother you?” Jazeem asked, clearly catching on to Trudy’s apprehension. “Have you ever seen one?”

  “One. I’ve seen one. My . . . uh . . . spirit guide, I suppose you could call her. Ethel. She pops up every so often.”

  Jazeem smiled, knowingly. “I have seen more ghosts than I can count.” She drank more of the tea. “A few nights ago I was driving home from visiting friends in the countryside. I passed some cotton fields and I saw . . . oh, a dozen or more spirits in those rows, picking cotton and singing low. I could barely hear them.” She looked at Quintara. “Former slaves. Why would they go back there?”

  Quintara shrugged in bewilderment. “They’re caught, I suppose. Caught in a loop of time. Poor souls.”

  “Can they be released?” Trudy asked.

  “The right person could do so, I think.” Jazeem lifted her gaze slowly from her nearly empty cup to Trudy and then to the engagement ring on her finger. “Your Levi could set them free.”

  Your Levi. The sound of that made her heart expand a little, sending a ribbon of giddiness through her. An image of him filled her mind – his achingly handsome face with his piercing dark blue eyes, strong jawline, perfect nose, and barest of a cleft in his chin. She ached for him. Seven months ago if someone would have said that the enigmatic, sexy, gorgeous, talented, Levi Wolfe would want to work with her, much less become her fiancé, she would have busted a gut laughing. The world was full of strange, inexplicable occurrences and her relationship with Levi was one of them.

  “You like working with him?” Jazeem asked. “It’s a good partnership?”

  “Yes.”

  “And he protects you? He shields you?”

  “Um . . . well, yes. As much as he possibly can.”

  “C’est bien. That makes me feel better about this.”

  Trudy furrowed her brow and glanced at Quintara, who also looked worried and confused. “Better about what, exactly?”

  “Drink the rest and let me read your leaves.”

  Not sure about the whole tea leaves thing now, Trudy swallowed the last of the brew and handed the cup to Jazeem, who had slipped on a pair of cat-eye glasses. With obvious relish, she peered at the scattering of tea leaves marring the geisha’s face. Her gaze flicked up to Trudy a couple of times before she finally spoke.

  “No surprise, the spiritual signs are strong. Incredibly strong. Beside you is a man. A troubled soul, but a man with a pure heart.”

  “Levi,” Quintara said what everyone was thinking.

  “Yes. You’ve undergone many changes and you don’t handle change very well. There are more changes to come. They will build more patience in you.” She squinted and studied the leaves for a few moments. “There is danger ahead, of course, given what you do. Ah, here is a woman – a wily, worldly woman, who will try to take what’s yours. There will always be females testing the bonds of your relationship.” She glanced over at Kit Kat and then at Trudy with a quick grin. “You must learn how to deflect them while keeping your bond strong with your man.” Looking at the tea leaves again, she wrinkled her nose. “There is a man in your future who is a real threat. He isn’t who he appears to be. He is set on disrupting your life because he is riddled with jealousy. You must step carefully and keep Levi always at your side. You see and feel more than he does, but he knows and understands more than you do about the world.”

  Trudy smiled grimly. “I won’t argue with that.”

  Jazeem tapped her long fingernails against the table for a few seconds as she studied the leaves. “You lack confidence in yourself and this holds you back. Quit fighting your instincts and you will become stronger and happier. You have a task ahead. A personal task that has to do with someone you love. It will take time, but the rewards will be sweet.”

  She’s talking
about Levi, Trudy thought. Sorting through all his phobias and inner demons had become a priority for her. And Jazeem was right. It would take time. She filed away everything else Jazeem had said for a closer inspection later. “Is that all?”

  Jazeem nodded and set the cup down. “The rest you already know.”

  Trudy leaned forward to examine the leaves for herself. She gleaned nothing from them. They just looked like little brown flecks and globs. “Will I get married?”

  “Oui!” Jazeem’s laugh was like a distant, melodic fog horn and Quintara joined in with her girlish belly laugh. Jazeem’s fingers closed around Trudy’s and she rubbed her thumb lightly across the large tear-drop shaped diamond surrounded by dark blue sapphires that Levi had chosen for her. “We don’t need the leaves for that! You have this, don’t you? Just set the date and do it.”

  “From what I hear, Trudy is the one dragging her feet,” Quintara offered up.

  Trudy scrunched up her nose. “I’m not dragging my feet. I’m just trying to plant them firmly before I dive into another deep end. I mean, marriage is a big deal. And we’ve only been together for a few months.”

  “Since September,” Quintara said for Jazeem’s benefit. “But they met a year before that.”

  “The key word being ‘met,’” Trudy emphasized. “We saw each other and exchanged a dozen words at a few of Quintara’s Psychic Roundtable sessions. But I never dreamed that he’d give me a second glance, much less want to be with me.” Sometimes, it was still hard for her to believe. Levi was a modern day Prince Charming and she was . . . well, more like Cinderella before the Fairy Godmother did a number on her.

  “Lack of confidence,” Jazeem noted, her eyes warm with wisdom before she closed them slowly. Everything in the room seemed to still – even the candle flames – for a few moments before Jazeem opened her eyes again. “You have always felt as if you’re second best. You’ve taken the back seat, purposefully hiding in the shadows so that you wouldn’t be made fun of or ridiculed.”