Sixth Sense (A Psychic Crystal Mystery)

by Baron, Marilyn

  Jack barely managed a bittersweet smile. “They said my dad was a hero, but there’s not much comfort in a dead hero.”

  Katherine blew out a breath and slid down to sit in Jack’s lap. “Thank you for telling me, honey. You know, at the reverend’s house, you had your gun, and when I came back into the living room, you were tied up. You’re twice as big as he was. You could have overpowered him. Obviously, you gave up your weapon for me, Jack, when he threatened to harm me. I know you did, because you loved me. You went against your training and all your instincts, you broke the rules—to keep me alive, even for a moment longer.”

  “He surprised me,” Jack objected.

  “Do you deny it?”

  He sighed.

  “Feel a little better, now?” she said softly.

  Jack nodded. “I guess I needed to get that out.”

  “What about that psychic you told me about, Madame Hydrangea?” Katherine wanted to know. “What ever happened to her?”

  “After a couple of years of holding hands around the table, the psycho bitch tried to put the moves on me, a twelve-year-old kid. I had lost my father, and then she made it worse.”

  Katherine pursed her lips in clear disapproval. “She didn’t—”

  “No.”

  “Did you ever tell your mother?”

  “No. She believed in Madame Hydrangea. It would have broken her heart.”

  Katherine hesitated, but had to ask again, “And she never got through even once? She was never able to contact your father on the other side?”

  Jack shook his head. “Of course not. I told you before. It was all a con. She was nothing but a scam artist. But my mother believed it. She believes to this day that she can communicate with my father. That love lasts forever, even beyond the grave. I always thought that was bullshit—until I met you. I told Madame Hydrangea if she didn’t leave I would tell some of my father’s friends on the force what she was doing. She got the message, because she just disappeared, along with most of my father’s savings.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “I was a mess. After that night, I was the biggest juvenile delinquent on the block. I caused my mother a lot of grief for a lot of years. Losing my father like that really messed me up. Eventually, I worked it out myself, but what I really needed was professional help. Finally, one of my father’s friends set me straight and got me back on the right path. And I decided that when I became a cop I was going to follow the rules to the letter. I was convinced that was the only way to stay safe. But I always associated psychics with my father’s death.”

  Katherine kissed Jack’s nose and smiled. “Now I understand why you hate psychics. It makes perfect sense.”

  “But you’re different. You’re real.” Jack hugged her. “And speaking of psychics, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”

  “What’s that?” She snuggled up against him.

  “You know, ever since I met you, my luck has changed. We make a pretty good team. Do you want to make this arrangement permanent?”

  Katherine tilted her head in confusion. “I thought you already asked me to marry you?”

  “I’m talking about a business arrangement, Kate. I was thinking we could combine our talents and start a psychic detective agency. Hale & Crystal.”

  “Crystal & Hale,” Katherine proposed, her eyes sparkling.

  “Crystal & Hale, then,” Jack agreed. I’ve given this a lot of thought, Kate. I’m serious about us forming our own agency. I’m quitting the police force.”

  Katherine pulled back from Jack’s embrace. “Where did this come from? I don’t want you to give up something you love, something you worked so hard for. Wouldn’t your father have been disappointed?”

  “That was my father’s dream. I don’t want you to go through what my mother went through. Being married to a cop is rough. I don’t want you to be a widow like my mother. And I don’t want my child to ever have to go through something like I did.”

  “You’re already thinking of children? We haven’t even walked down the aisle.”

  “Hell, yes,” Jack answered, his face exploding into a grin. “I can’t wait, Kate. I want us to get started on a family right away. As long as we don’t name him Beauregard, after me.”

  Katherine crinkled her nose. “What if Beauregard turns out to be a girl?”

  “Hell, we’ll have one of each. I’m turning my resignation in right after the wedding. And we’re going to build a new business and a new life together.”

  Katherine twisted a lock of Jack’s hair. “But we don’t know anything about being in business.”

  “I’m a hell of a detective, and you’re the most talented psychic I know. We’ll need an office, though.”

  Kate pursed her lips in thought. “The Crystal Palace is big enough for us to live in and work there too. We have a huge guest house, with a private entrance, that I could redecorate. It would make a great office space.”

  “We’ll need a receptionist.”

  “What about Juliette? If you can stand working with two psychics. She can also help us on cases, with her special abilities. She’s been working with me to hone my skills. She really is talented.”

  “Perfect.”

  “Do you think we’ll get enough business?”

  “Kate, your phone is still ringing off the hook with people and agencies wanting your services. Business from the APD alone would be enough to keep us going.”

  “You’ve really thought this through, haven’t you?”

  “I have.”

  Katherine placed her hand on Jack’s cheek. “You’re still thinking about your father, aren’t you?”

  “I miss him something fierce,” Jack admitted. “It’s like a dull ache that never goes away.”

  Kate took Jack’s hand in hers. “You know, Juliette says she really can communicate with the world beyond—the spirit realm.”

  “You know how crazy that sounds.”

  “Juliette says she can bring back our loved ones, that they’re still around us and are able to communicate with us, that they still care about us. I’m going to get her to try to contact my parents. She can try to reach your father.”

  “You don’t really think that’s possible, do you?”

  “Yes, I do, Jack. I trust her and I think she can do it. I think we should give it a try. It might give us both some closure.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Jack, Mrs. Hale, Juliette, and Katherine held hands around the dining room table in a darkened room at the Hales’ house. Katherine was nervous. She had arranged the séance because she thought she was doing the right thing. But it could easily backfire and send Jack and his mother hurtling back to the worst time in their lives, just when Jack was finally beginning to put the past behind him. If it didn’t go according to plan, it might reignite his hatred of psychics, maybe diminish his feelings for her.

  Mary Ellen Hale was smiling dreamily as if she knew how the evening would turn out. She would soon be communicating with her beloved dead husband, if only in spirit, and she looked as anxious as a schoolgirl with her first crush.

  What was Jack thinking? His big hands were sweaty, but who knew where his head was? Perhaps he was hopeful, perhaps doubtful. But he had agreed to go along with it, for her sake.

  Juliette, on the other hand, had already crossed over into the spiritual world. She was making mental preparations to communicate with the dead. Juliette had insisted they conduct the séance in the house of the dearly departed. She said that spirits stuck to their houses, to the people they loved and had been ripped from, in this world. That made sense to Katherine. Juliette had taught her the basics about how to conduct a séance, and she felt she could do it herself, but this was too important. This was Juliette’s show.

  The lights were low. Candles were glowing and flickering around the room, throwing shadows across the table. The setting was serene. She was surrounded by love and family, her new family. And she was harboring hope that maybe she
would get a visit from her parents.

  Mama. She prayed silently. Mama, if you’re here, if you can hear me or see me, give me a sign. Jack squeezed her hand. Could it be? Could her mother’s presence be in the room? Katherine swallowed hot tears.

  Juliette said they all had to believe. And Katherine thought they all did. With Juliette’s guidance, they had picked an auspicious date. The night before Katherine and Jack’s wedding. She was sorely missing her parents, especially her mother. They were to be married on the same date as Jack’s parents’ anniversary. That way, the date would take on a new, happier significance in their lives. This evening was the day before Jack’s father had died, the last day the Hales had all been together as a family.

  Katherine heard the steady beat of the clock, tick-tock, tick-tock, as if they were being collectively hypnotized. And Juliette had likened the state of mind in the room to hypnosis. Reality was suspended, belief in a higher being reinforced. They were about to enter a new realm, take a journey to the unknown. Would it work? She desperately wanted it to, for Jack’s sake.

  Juliette spoke. But, at first, her chanting seemed unintelligible to everyone but Mary Ellen.

  “I feel the spirit of Jackson Hale in the room,” Juliette continued. “Jackson is trying to tell you something, has been trying to tell you something. He’s sending us a message, a message of love and hope and happiness about the upcoming wedding of his son.”

  “Jackson, is that you? Jackson?” Mrs. Hale was agitated. Katherine saw Jack squeeze his mother’s hand when she called out her husband’s name.

  A hush fell over the room. The temperature dropped precipitously. A benevolent fog seemed to envelop them. Their hands were linked, each participant murmuring a secret prayer.

  When Juliette next spoke, she had assumed another presence, a deeper, masculine voice.

  “Jackson,” Mrs. Hale cried out when she heard his words. “Sweetheart, I love you. If you are hearing this, please, give me a sign.”

  A picture frame fell over on the bureau in the dining room. The vintage wedding picture of Jackson Hale and his new bride, Mary Ellen.

  “He’s here,” Mrs. Hale cried out in happiness, tears flowing. Katherine could feel Mrs. Hale’s emotion, predict that her hand was going to fly to her mouth.

  “Don’t break hands, don’t break the bond,” Juliette’s spiritual guide channeled.

  The chain held.

  “What is it, Jackson, my love?” Mary Ellen implored. “What are you trying to tell us?”

  “I love my little honey bunch. I’ve loved you since I stole that first kiss on the Halloween hayride.”

  Katherine’s jaw dropped. If that were true, how could Juliette have known something like that?

  Jack squeezed her hand, indicating that it was true.

  Mary Ellen’s eyes were tearing up again.

  “Honey bunch. That’s what you used to call me. Your little honey bunch, because I’m so tiny and because you love me a bunch.”

  Juliette spoke again and again, but it was not Juliette speaking. “I wish I could be there with you at the wedding, on our anniversary. But I’m never far away. I’ve been with you all these years. I’ve been right here.”

  “I felt him. I knew he was near,” Mary Ellen sobbed.

  “Mama,” Jack said. “Don’t cry, now.”

  “I’m so proud of you, Jack, the way you’ve watched over your mother all these years, the man you’ve become, the partner you’ve chosen.”

  Now it was Jack’s turn to be heard. “Daddy, is that really you? Give me some proof. I have to know. Is this for real?” The anguish in Jack’s voice was genuine.

  The room went silent and then Juliette was back.

  “He says the night he died you called for backup using your special code—Jack Sprat.”

  “No one else knew that code,” Jack exclaimed, “no one around this table.”

  “He says when you were a little boy and you threw a temper tantrum, you always went to your special hiding place, the tree at the old Watson place.”

  Jack raised his voice. “Why did you give up your weapon, Daddy? Why did you let them shoot you?”

  “He says he would do whatever it takes to save you, because he loves you more than life itself,” said Juliette, adding, “and he says he would do it again.”

  Jack was openly weeping. “Daddy, I love you.”

  Jack’s hand was squeezing Katherine’s so hard it hurt. Mary Ellen was sobbing in happiness.

  Juliette’s voice broke through the stillness. “Did he come? Was he here?”

  “You did it, Juliette,” Katherine said. Even though she hadn’t gotten to reach her parents, she was thrilled for Jack and Mary Ellen. She couldn’t have wished for a better outcome. It would make their wedding day so much more meaningful.

  After the séance broke up, Jack pulled Kate aside.

  “That was him. I know it. It was my father. The words he used... My father said he was proud of the partner I’d chosen. That’s you, Kate. Do you think that means he approves of our new business venture, that maybe he’s not disappointed in me?”

  “It certainly sounds that way. It’s not like you’re giving up law enforcement. We’re going to be helping people. You’re going to be doing what you always did, just independently. And you’ll have more time to finish law school like you always wanted. I think we’re doing exactly the right thing for our future.”

  “Thank you for suggesting this, Kate. It meant a lot to my mother, and to me.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue. A wedding tradition to be shared with a mother. Katherine stood at the cheval mirror in her parents’ bedroom, trying not to cry.

  “I’m getting married today, Mom, Dad. I wish you could have met Jack. He’s great. I know you would love him as much as I do. I wish—so many things. I wish you could be here. I hope you’d be happy with the wedding we’ve planned. It won’t be the same as you’d do it, Mom. It will be small but intimate, still lovely.”

  Suddenly, Katherine sagged on the bed, devoid of energy.

  “Katherine, dear, don’t cry, you’ll muss up your makeup,” said Juliette, sweeping into the room in her eggplant-hued gown and examining Katherine. “I’ve been looking all over for you. What’s wrong? You’re missing your mother, aren’t you?”

  It was uncanny the way she and Juliette could communicate. They didn’t need words. They always knew what the other was thinking, feeling. Not just because they both had the gift, but because they were truly mother and daughter. Katherine was fighting it, felt it was disloyal to her parents, but the bond she shared with Juliette was real and growing stronger every day.

  Juliette pulled Katherine up from the bed and wiped her tearstained face with a tissue she plucked from a box on the nightstand. Katherine had left the room exactly as she’d found it when she got home from Sydney. She couldn’t bear to change anything. The judge’s robes still hung pressed and encased in plastic in the closet along with her mother’s work clothes, gowns, her shoes and purses.

  “I know I’m a poor substitute, but here I am,” announced Juliette. “So, I know the wedding tradition is something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. That’s why I invited Mary Ellen up here to be a part of this.”

  Mary Ellen Hale walked into the room in a lovely cream-colored floor-length gown. She smiled at Katherine. “There you are, Kate. Now we can do this right.”

  Juliette began. “For the something old, I’ve got this antique diamond bracelet a wealthy client gave me in a trade for my services. I gave her some investment advice and she made a lot of money, so she was grateful. Now it’s yours.” She put the bracelet on Katherine’s wrist.

  “Juliette, you don’t need to do that. It’s beautiful.”

  “Are you going to take away my happiness? Now hush, and let us finish.”

  “We’ll save the something new for last. Mary Ellen, it’s your turn.”


  “Kate, my new daughter, for something borrowed...” She removed a delicate necklace with a single diamond enhancer from around her neck.

  “But that’s the necklace Jack’s father bought you the night he, the night that he—”

  “Go ahead, you can say it. The night he died.”

  “But Jack said you’d never taken it off.”

  “I know, but Jackson is always with me, in here,” she said, touching her heart. “And he would want you to wear it. So, something borrowed, something meaningful, something tangible to connect our families. Here, let me put it on for you.”

  Mary Ellen fastened the necklace at Katherine’s throat.

  “Thank you,” Katherine said gratefully. “I love it.”

  “For the something blue, I have this garter,” beamed Juliette proudly, lifting Katherine’s dress and sliding it up her leg. “I got it at a fancy lingerie shop and it wasn’t on sale.”

  Katherine laughed.

  “Now, for the something new.” Juliette’s eyes teared. “I told myself I wasn’t going to cry.”

  Katherine was puzzled.

  Juliette held out a small oblong box, beautifully wrapped, and handed it to Katherine.

  “Juliette, you shouldn’t have! This is from Tiffany’s. That’s way too expensive.”

  “I didn’t. Your mother did.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I walked into your room earlier, looking for you, and there, on your bed, was this box with your name on it.”

  Katherine wanted desperately to believe. She smoothed her hands over the wrapping. Tiffany’s was her mother’s favorite store. She always bought a piece of jewelry for herself or for Katherine to mark special occasions, often without her father’s knowledge.

  “There’s a note,” said Juliette.

  Katherine quickly opened a miniature white envelope that was fastened under the turquoise ribbon and read the inscription.

  To My Darling Daughter “KC” on Her Wedding Day.

  Love Always, Mother

  “But how?” Katherine stammered.

  “She must have bought these for just such an occasion,” said Juliette.