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the thought of seeing that tree again.
    However, our potential client, Honoria Lowe, had given me a really decent clue. She’d led me right to Dead Eddie’s mom’s place with that sketch she’d made. Maybe I’d be able to figure out who killed Eddie without having to deal with him again at all. Maybe she’d just draw it all for me.
    Wouldn’t that be nice? Solving a murder without dealing with the dead guy? Just dealing with someone who dreamed about the dead.
    I sighed deeply as I parked the car and trudged up the stairs to James’s office. I couldn’t seem to get away from the dead, no matter how hard I tried.
     
    I GLANCED AT my watch and was surprised to see only an hour and a half had gone by. Having a vehicle certainly cuts down on the away time , I thought as I let myself into the office proper. I could get used to that .
    James looked up from one of his books and smiled.
    “My car all right?” he asked.
    “Absolutely,” I replied. “Hardly hit anything.”
    His face whitened at my pathetic excuse for a joke, and I mentally kicked myself. He’d been through enough, lately.
    “It’s all good, James,” I said, hastily. “Didn’t have one problem. Thanks for letting me use it.”
    As I handed him the keys and he pocketed them, I was relieved to see the colour come back to his face.
    “Glad it helped,” he said. “So, how went the wild goose chase?”
    “Very well,” I replied, trying to keep my smile from disappearing, even though his words instantly ticked me off. “I ended up at the dead guy’s house. Well, not his house, exactly. His mom’s house.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Seriously.”
    “Huh.”
    He looked suspicious. Like maybe he thought I was lying to him. Which, of course, ticked me off even more.
    “I’m telling you the truth,” I bristled, like a stupid cat ready to do battle. “That address on the sketch took me right to her house. I even talked to her.” Sort of.
    “I didn’t think you were lying,” he said, but something in his tone still sounded off. “But maybe Honoria knows Eddie’s mom. Maybe she knows Eddie.”
    “She said she didn’t.” I frowned. “If she knows them, why wouldn’t she tell us? The cops will figure that out quickly enough. Won’t they?”
    “They should,” James said. “That murder was messy enough, and public enough, that they’ll want to catch the people responsible. For the media, if nothing else.”
    “Well, then, why would Honoria lie to us about knowing Eddie?”
    “People say a lot of things to protect themselves,” he replied. “Maybe she figures that going back to the nuthouse would be better than going to jail for murder. If she has us following her ‘vision’ leads, this might convince the cops that she’s gone crazy again.”
    This took me aback. I never once thought that Honoria was lying about being a clairvoyant. But what if she was? What if she was playing us—me?
    “Did you ask Mrs. Hansen if she knew Honoria?” James asked.
    “I didn’t even think of it,” I admitted. “She’d just found out about Eddie being dead.” I shrugged. “Probably not the best time for me to drop by for a chat. She was sure I was one of Eddie’s ‘drug fiend’ friends. She mentioned someone named Luke. Luke Stewart. She called him another drug fiend. Maybe he’s someone we can check out?”
    “Maybe,” James said. He glanced at the bare desk top, and sighed. “If we had our computers, this would be so easy,” he said. The police had taken them both, as evidence from our last—and only—case, and it looked like we weren’t going to get them back for a while. If ever. “We need to get a replacement. You know, something cheap, just for searches and stuff, until we get ours back.”
    “Sounds like a plan,” I said, and then burst out with, “Can you afford that?” without thinking.
    “Yes,” he said, with that superior smile all those people with a bank account that doesn’t hover around zero use that drives the