Through Her Touch (Mind's Eye Book 5)

by Deborah Camp

  “This must be it,” Trudy said. “It’s a bucket, anyway. And there’s the gravel road next to it. We’re supposed to turn here.” She eyed the setting sun. “I wonder if we should leave bread crumbs to help us find our way back tonight.”

  Levi smiled. “Might be a good idea if we had some handy. Keep an eye out for any landscape markers that will help us find the route back to the highway. Do we stay on this road until we get to his place?”

  “No. We turn onto a dirt road after a mile and a half. He writes that there is a fence post that’s painted yellow with a sign attached. The sign reads, No Trespassers. That Means YOU.” She laughed, nervously. “Hopefully, it doesn’t mean us.”

  “We were invited,” he reminded her. “The dirt road leads to his place?”

  “Yes. It dead-ends at his cabin. I’d be terrified living out this far from neighbors.”

  “I get the feeling that’s how Joshua likes it.”

  “He’s not married. Has he ever been? Does he have children?”

  “Never been married. No children. He has scads of relatives, though. I don’t know how many siblings he has . . . fourteen? Something like that. And none of them seem to be interested in birth control. His parents and grandparents were still alive the last time I inquired. Joshua had a woman living with him for quite a while.”

  “He did? What happened?”

  “She left him and married someone a year or so later. I guess she wanted him to pop the question and he wouldn’t. He doesn’t want for company. He knows or is related to just about everyone in this area.”

  “What tribe is he from?”

  “Cherokee.” He peered ahead. “There’s the post.”

  “Right! I see it.” Excitement bubbled in her at the prospect of seeing Joshua Longfeather read bones. A lot of clairvoyants offered bone reading and had their share of devotees, but it was generally looked upon, even by most seers, as gimmicky. So few people actually knew what they were doing. Most of them she’d heard about were self-taught and amateurs, at best. Deceitful and pretentious, at worst.

  “Has he ever given you a reading?” Trudy asked.

  “No. I never asked for one.”

  She examined him in the slanting sunlight that painted his face with brushes dipped in pale orange and gold. “You don’t believe in bone reading?”

  “Depends on the practitioner. Joshua is one of the best.”

  “But you never asked for a reading.”

  “No.” He glanced at her and smiled. “I don’t ask for readings. Haven’t you noticed?”

  “I have.” She tilted her head, regarding his smug expression. “Why is that?”

  “I don’t want to know what’s ahead of me. I don’t want to be warned or flattered or cajoled.”

  “You know how odd that is, given that you’re clairvoyant.”

  “Is it odd?” He sent her a questioning look. “I don’t think so. What we do is different, Trudy. We aren’t predicting the future or telling someone’s fortune. We’re stopping crimes, finding unmarked graves, helping people find lost objects, or receiving a message from a deceased loved one. What good does it do anyone to tell them that they will get a new job soon or will be pregnant by spring?”

  “It gives them something to look forward to. It gives them hope.”

  “And if it doesn’t come to pass? What does that do for them?”

  “I suppose they’ve either forgotten the prediction or they assume the fortune teller wasn’t very good.” She threw up her hands. “I don’t know! To me, it’s just interesting. I don’t take it all to heart.”

  “To me it puts psychics on the same level as magicians. And that is what I’ve been fighting for years. You can’t be taken seriously if you have so-called psychics spouting drivel to anyone who crosses their palms with a twenty dollar bill.”

  Pondering his words and appreciating his fervent tenacity, Trudy faced front just as a wood cabin with a green metal roof came into view. A chicken coop and hog shelter squatted to one side of it in a cleared field. Two horses grazed near the barbed wire fence that separated the field from the house. “There, there! We made it, Levi. Oh, it’s charming, isn’t it?”

  “Charming.” He looked at her as if she’d lost her senses. “I’d love to see you live in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t, but it’s still charming.”

  Joshua Longfeather opened the front door and stepped out on the small porch to welcome them. He wore leather fringed pants, a red, double-breasted shirt, scuffed brown boots, and a big smile. To Trudy’s eyes, he looked like a hero who’d stepped from the pages of an historical romance. His black hair was shot through with silver and brushed over his shirt collar. As she neared and shook his hand, it seemed to her that his chocolate-colored eyes missed nothing.

  “I’m so happy to be here,” she told him as he shook Levi’s hand and patted his shoulder with the other. “It was an adventure just getting here! It must be lonely at times for you.”

  “It’s not. It is more populated than it appears.” He extended an arm in a sweeping gesture. “I have family living all around me. My father and mother live only a short walk that way.” He pointed east at a wall of trees. “I have three brothers and two sisters who also live in walking distance. Every day I see a relative, go fishing with one of them, or berry picking. I am never lonely.” He stared at the other car that had parked beneath a canopy of trees. “They’re with you?”

  “Yes, our security guards.”

  “They can come inside, too, if you want.”

  “No.” Levi glanced back at the car. “They’re on the job. I’ll take a plate out to them later, if you don’t mind feeding them, too.”

  “Not at all.” Joshua indicated the open door. “Please, come inside and make yourself comfortable. I have a big pot of oil heating over a fire out back. I’ll fry the fish out there when we’re ready to eat.”

  “I’m ready now,” Levi said.

  “Levi!” Trudy turned wide eyes on him. “Where are your manners?”

  Joshua laughed, heartily. “I’m glad to hear it, Levi. I’m also hungry. You two sit and I’ll get things going.” With that, he strode to the back of the cabin, followed by the sound of a door opening and shutting.

  Trudy surveyed the large room with a kitchen at the back, sectioned off by a partial wall, a dining nook, and a living room. A staircase along one wall led to an upstairs loft. The other wall had two closed doors that Trudy assumed gave entrance to a closet and a bathroom. A big fireplace dominated another wall, equipped with pots and utensils for cooking inside it. Two rifles, a crossbow, and a wicked looking saber were mounted above the mantel.

  “I bet he hardly ever goes to the grocery store,” Trudy mused.

  “He’s not a wild man. I’m sure he takes his clothes to the laundromat, washes his car at the Spiffy Clean car wash in town, and hightails it to the Eureka Market when he needs charcoal for his grill, is out of deodorant, and other toiletries.”

  “He looks like someone who lives close to nature.”

  “You can live close to nature and still enjoy a microwave and toilet paper.”

  She popped him on the shoulder as she swept past him to sit in one of the overstuffed chairs by the fireplace. “Quit raining on my fantasies, sunshine. You should check to see if he needs any help. Make yourself useful, Wolfe.”

  He gave her the evil eye and made her giggle before he sauntered out of the cabin in search of their host.

  Two hours later, stuffed with catfish and crappie, corn on the cob, hushpuppies, and berry cobbler, Levi, Trudy, and Joshua Longfeather sat around the cleared dining room table. Their host had even fed the two security guards, who had taken their meals sitting on the front porch.

  Joshua sat two fat candles on the table and lit the wicks. Their light threw jittering shadows on the cabin walls. He held a leather pouch tied with a length of rough rope. He jiggled it and smiled.

  “This holds my bones and charms. I�
��ve collected them since I was a boy and my oldest grandmother showed me her collection. She said I must find my own amulets, charms, bones, shells, rocks. Whatever spoke to me and told me that they would be my guides.” He jiggled the pouch again. “And so I did. These have served me well.”

  “I confess that I know very little about bone reading.” Trudy propped her elbows on the table and rested her chin in her hands. “I was hoping you’d teach me about it.”

  “Few know that much about this way of scrying. Many make attempts, but they do it all wrong. They’re amateurs. I was taught by elders, who were taught by elders. What I know has been passed down through centuries.”

  “Which is one reason why you’re so damned good at it,” Levi interjected. “The best, from what I’ve heard.”

  Joshua’s wide mouth twitched at the corners. “I won’t argue that point.”

  Trudy grinned, finding his candidness appealing. “Have you done it in reference to the Eureka Springs murders?”

  “I have.”

  “Did you glean anything useful?”

  “Have you?” His deeply set, brown eyes tracked to her and locked on. “You’ve been in the person’s head?”

  “I have,” Trudy assured him.

  “Is this person angry, jealous, listening to inner voices?”

  “She’s angry. I’m certain that it’s a woman.”

  He nodded. “As am I.” His dark eyes glittered in the candle light. “It is a woman on a mission, but I’m not clear about her goal. She is a practical person, not given to studies of intangible things. She has two faces. One she shows to the world and one she keeps to herself. One face does not completely acknowledge the other.”

  Trudy shook her head. “I don’t understand. Like schizophrenia?”

  “No,” Levi corrected her. “More like BPD. Borderline Personality Disorder with a dose of dissociation thrown in. There have been cases where ‘blackouts’ occur. The person doesn’t recall his or her actions or might even think they’ve dreamed it or that it happened to someone else. I don’t believe that’s the case here. She does have two faces and she likes both of them.”

  Joshua’s brows shot up. “The psychologist appears. I bow to your expertise in these matters, my friend.”

  “She might have had a black-out initially, brought on by rage,” Levi added. “But she plans these attacks. She’s aware of her actions.”

  “Point taken,” Joshua agreed before turning to Trudy. “I understand that you telephoned Chason to warn him that someone meant him harm in Las Vegas.”

  “Yes, I did. She was definitely focused on him and wasn’t thinking too kindly about him, either. She has something against psychics, but with Billy’s attempted murder, I’m on shaky ground again.”

  “Rockabilly was sniffing too close and she decided he had to go.”

  “That sounds right to me.” Levi folded his arms, giving Joshua a nod of accord. “Some people sell Billy short. He’s not some dumbass with a badge. He’s smart and intuitive about who is lying and who isn’t. Wouldn’t surprise me if he had a suspect and that suspect decided to kill him.”

  “I get the feeling that the state police might have the same suspect in mind.”

  “I hope so,” Trudy said. “And Chason had better be very careful. I mean, we know he’s on her hit list, right?”

  “I called Chason shortly after you did. I, too, had felt that he was in danger. He even said that he’d had an inkling that someone was out to attack him again, which made it even odder that he canceled his security. I would think that he’d want to keep Sabra safe, too.”

  Trudy blinked hard as the name registered. “Sabra? She was in Las Vegas then?” She looked at Levi. Pieces of the puzzle moved closer to each other in her mind. From Levi’s expression and the shrewdness she glimpsed in the depths of his eyes, she knew that the same picture was being pieced together in him. Looking at Joshua again, she sensed that he also had narrowed the suspects down to one. She also sensed that none of them were ready to give voice to it.

  “Yes.” Joshua looked from Levi to Trudy. “He didn’t tell you? Yes, Sabra was joining him there for a day or two.”

  “Sabra and Chason hooked up?” Levi said, shaking his head, slowly. “Are they an item now?”

  “I wouldn’t say that.” Joshua rubbed his jaw. “But they were meeting for a tryst. I’m not sure anything else transpired after that.”

  “She asked where he was at the hospital. Remember, Levi?”

  “She certainly did. Probably assumed he’d be there and they could hook up again.”

  “She’d have to fight off Sunshine and Perchance,” Trudy noted. “They were all over him when he was in Eureka Springs for Glenn’s funeral.”

  Joshua chuckled. “They are all over every available man.”

  “You included!” Trudy grinned and gave his shoulder a playful shove.

  Smiling mysteriously, Joshua hefted the leather bag again. “Let us see what the bones tell us tonight. Which of you will be my guinea pig and have them illuminate your current situation?”

  Knowing that Levi wouldn’t volunteer, Trudy held up her hand. “Me! Please.”

  He jiggled the items in the pouch, loosened the top, and spilled the contents onto the table between the candles, which were giving out scents of pine and cedar. Several white bones lay on the green tablecloth, but also colored rocks, a couple of marbles, a shiny subway token, some seashells, a rifle shell, and an old, rusted soda pop bottle cap. Trudy gave the Cherokee a quizzical look.

  “Not what you expected?”

  “Not at all. But I’m fascinated! Please, tell me what it all means.”

  He studied the items, his dark gaze moving slowly, but his expression giving nothing away. After a minute, he nodded once and gathered in a breath. “You know what this is?” He held up a thin, white bone about as long as his little finger. “No? It’s a raccoon’s penis bone.”

  “Oh!” Trudy drew back and laughed with Levi. “I didn’t know they had them. Bones in their peckers, that is. What does that tell you?”

  “It points out sexual problems or infatuations. But in this, it tells me nothing, so I set it aside.”

  Trudy released a sigh. “That’s good, I guess.”

  Levi sat forward, resting his arms on the table. He sent Trudy a quick grin.

  “These small bones are from chickens. The way they fall, what they’re next to or surrounding, helps me to focus on what is important. As you can see, several of them are touching this weasel’s jaw bone, which is a sign that you are clever and agile-minded. This blue rock is touching the subway token. This signifies that your life is going to take a different route. Something new and life-altering will enter your path within the next year.”

  She glanced at Levi. He wasn’t smiling anymore. Giving him a kick under the table, she let her exasperation show on her face and in her voice. “Hey, sunshine. It could be a good thing. Don’t immediately go to the Dark Side.”

  “I believe it will be a good thing for you, but it will require a lot of adjustment,” Joshua confirmed. “This is a buzzard’s feather. It landed in the middle with nothing touching it, but to me that means that death is at the center of your life right now. No surprise. That same pattern showed up in my own reading yesterday. Probably would pop up in Levi’s, too. So, we remove it for now.” He pushed aside the feather and leaned closer to the items that remained. “The cowry shells, they are bunched together and that tells me that your family will remain close to you, circle you, protect and defend you.” He frowned, hunching closer to the scattered articles. “This troubles me the most.”

  Trudy and Levi angled closer, too, staring at the red rock he’d touched with his forefinger.

  “This is my sign for danger. Five chicken bones are touching it, so that tells me that danger is imminent. It is near you, Trudy. So, it is near us.”

  At that precise moment, a shiver raced up her spine just as Levi shot to his feet as if he’d been goosed. His gaze swiveled
toward the front door. Joshua rose slowly from his chair, too, and stared at the same spot.

  “Someone’s out there,” Trudy whispered, knowing it in her very bones.

  “Stay here, baby.” Levi moved around the table with Joshua on his heels. Joshua stopped at the fireplace and lifted one of the rifles from the rack.

  Trudy wound her arms around herself, warding off a shiver. “Be careful!”

  If they heard her, they gave no sign of it. Levi flung open the door and he and Joshua strode out onto the porch. Levi motioned for Thompson to join them and for Beckell to stay with Trudy. Thompson switched on a flashlight that separated the darkness and swept over the area as he conferred with Levi and Joshua. Trudy moved on quick feet to the doorway to watch them veer left and right to scout the area. Her heart drummed in her chest and her pulse pounded between her ears, drowning out the night sounds. She blinked against the darkness and sent out her own kind of feelers, but nothing registered. Concentrating on connecting mentally with the trespasser, she could come up with nothing. There was no doubt, though, that someone had been there, watching, perhaps even waiting for a chance to do harm.

  “You should go back inside, ma’am,” Adam Beckell said.

  Hugging herself to ward off the nervous shivers, Trudy closed the door and sat in a rocker, tipping it to and fro as her mind raced with scenarios. She shut her eyes, forcing her thoughts to settle before they created more tumult inside her. After a few minutes, her stomach muscles quivered and her mind’s eye blurred as her own thoughts gave way to someone else’s. As if some kind of mystical squeegee swept across her mind, her thoughts came into sharp focus. She was outside in the gloaming, moving with quiet feet. Looking down at her careful steps, she noted that she wore gray tennis shoes with pink racing stripes.