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first?”
    “I didn’t call them first.”
    Needles of fear pricked the back of Jessica’s neck as she imagined Iris making phone call after phone call until she found someone who felt just right. Careful to keep the apprehension out of her voice, Jessica asked, “Who did you call first?”

THREE
    While Sully waited he let the piece of silk drop to the coffee table and examined the tarot deck that was still in his hand. The cards were oversize, and the back design was a yellow and brown canvas with a disturbing and very realistic eye—as if someone was looking out of the cards at him. The pictorial sides of the cards were dark, muted paintings. Many of the cards depicted people or ideas such as Justice or Temperance. Each time he looked at the pictures he saw something new, objects hidden in the background of the paintings like owls or peacock feathers or rippling water. Hell if he knew what any of it meant, though.
    Sully shuffled the cards absently until Jessica and Iris came into the room. His qualms about the case, which had subsided, came roaring back as he looked at their faces. He expected Iris to be a little scared considering her prank; he expected Jessica to look embarrassed or even angry with the girl. But neither of them should have been frightened to the point of becoming pale and solemn.
    What the hell had gone on out in the hall
?
    When Iris’s eyes widened at the sight of him shuffling the deck, he stopped and held it out to her. “Awfully big cards for such small hands. Are they yours?”
    “They were my mother’s.” Iris took them and clutched them to her chest protectively. As she spoke Sully noticed the mood ring on her index finger go black. “She died a long time ago, so I guess they’re mine now.”
    Sometimes Sully hated his job. Right now was one of those times. “Sit down, Iris.”
    Jessica gave Iris a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder and stood beside her as the girl took a seat in one of the striped chairs. With her back ramrod straight Iris looked very much like a condemned woman waiting for last rites. Sully looked up, his gaze marking Jessica. Slowly her head came up, her eyes soft and gentle for a moment before she shifted gears to mother tigress. Seconds passed before Sully realized he hadn’t begun. Clearing his throat and crossing his arms, he asked the obvious question.
    “Did you call the police last night? Tell us you were Madame Evangeline and that your father was going to be kidnapped?”
    Her eyes dropped. “Yes, sir.”
    “Did you have a reason to be worried about your father?”
    Iris looked up at Jessica, but he couldn’t tell if it was for support or coaching. “No.”
    “Why did you call, Iris?” he pressed, moving to hunker down beside her so she had to look at him and not Jessica. “Were you mad at your dad? Did you do this for attention?”
    “Of course not! I’m not a baby!” Some of the attitude was back, and that made him feel less the bad guy. She rubbed her fingers across the cards. “I get thesefeelings sometimes. Momma had them too. Everyone says we’re alike that way. Yesterday I had one of those feelings.”
    “Let me get this straight,” Sully said trying to control his exasperation. “You called the police because of a feeling?”
    Jessica spoke up for the first time, her eyes sending the message to back off. “Yes, a
feeling
, Sully. It’s a seven-letter word for hunch. You know what one of those is, don’t you?”
    “Yeah.” Sully shifted his full attention upward. He had no intention of backing off. “Isn’t that when I think someone is lying to me and I can’t prove it?”
    Misunderstanding the byplay between the adults, Iris objected, “But I’m not lying! It
was
one of my feelings. I did a reading with the cards to see what it was about, but it didn’t help this time. Lincoln and Rosa wouldn’t listen. Well, Lincoln listened, and then he laughed. Rosa crossed herself like she does every time I get one of my