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keeping her life from unraveling.
    “Detective Hain told me that you came in a week after the children were found to tell her to look for a silver car. What made you think it was silver?”
    She sighed. “Didn’t Detective Hain tell you that too?”
    “No, she didn’t actually. I think she might be tired of talking to another investigator.”
    “Well, whether you believe me or not, I saw it when I was scrying. I saw an open trunk with a tarp in it, but later I wondered if the silver was just the chrome bumper and not the car color.”
    * * * * *
    Gabe had no idea what scrying meant, but if Shylah knew any facts about the case that were not general knowledge, that would put another nail in her coffin.
    When he’d first arrived, her raven-black hair had been tossing about in the wind, but she’d fixed it when she’d gone into the kitchen. Now it fell down her back in loose curls and waves. Her sky-blue eyes—yes, actually the color of the sky on a clear fall day—were slitted in suspicion, but he could tell she had easy laugh lines. Barely there, so he guessed she was in her late twenties. She was petite but curvy in all the right places. She’d seemed to be washing her siding when he’d first pulled up, but when she’d dumped the bucket he could distinctly smell eggs.
    “Did you discover anything else while scrying?” he asked.
    “The killer wore work boots, heavy brown work boots, and black driving gloves.”
    Well, that wasn’t specific enough to incriminate her. “And that’s all?”
    “I have only scryed twice. The grief was too much to bear.”
    “You felt grief for the kids?”
    “Of course, but it wasn’t my grief; it was their parents’ grief I was feeling, unending pain.” Her eyes glistened from unshed tears. “And Lalia’s naked body tossed on the ground like a sack of potatoes. No, I couldn’t deal with that again.”
    “Tossed on the ground?”
    “He pulled the tarp from the trunk, the tarp they were wrapped in. When the bundle landed, the bodies rolled free.”
    “He? Did you see him?”
    “No, I think I was seeing from his point of view and I had the impression he was male, partly because of the heavy boots and partly because of the strength it must have taken to pull the bodies from the trunk.”
    If the kids had been dead or knocked-out before being taken to the scene, it would have taken a lot of strength. Perhaps Shylah had had an accomplice? He didn’t believe in visions, so her details were either from memory or entirely made up from details she’d learned later. “Explain this scrying to me.”
    She set her mug on the scarred coffee table. “It’s a way of opening up to the vibrations and spirits that you wouldn’t normally be aware of. Your third eye, it is sometimes called. Clairvoyance.”
    “Okay.” It sounded like a lot of bullshit to him, but she looked intense as she explained it, as if willing him to understand. “And how is it done?”
    “You’re familiar with a crystal ball, of course. But a black mirror is far more common, because it is easy to make and a lot less expensive. The first time, when I saw the car, I was using a silver bowl filled with clear water. The energy of the water usually works best for me.”
    He still didn’t get how this was done. He’d been subjected to palm reading and tarot cards at parties, but no one had pulled out a crystal ball and claimed to see his future in it. “You see images in the water?”
    “I think of it as reflecting the knowledge of our third eye back to us.”
    “You said the ‘first time’. Was there a second time?”
    “Yes. That time I used several herbs that help with clairvoyance.”
    Okay, this seemed wackier and wackier. He’d laugh if she was anyone else, but her beauty combined with her earnestness kept him silent. He noted that she hadn’t mentioned any sort of sacrifice to gain power. He knew of some in the Cuban neighborhood who practiced Santeria, which involved killing chickens, but his