Read Murder on the Astral Plane (A Kate Jasper Mystery) for Free Online

shaggy hair for a moment before standing. Then she strode to the phone and called the Paloma Police Department.
    The first two officers arrived with a siren. Officers Yuki and O’Dwyer. Yuki was trim and female, O’Dwyer round and male. But they moved in perfect synchronization toward Silk’s body, inspecting it and then turning simultaneously as if to guard Silk from further attack. If only they could have guarded her. But it was too late. My eyes welled up again for the woman I hadn’t even known. And then I heard new voices approaching.
    The next two members of the Paloma Police Department didn’t need any siren. They were already arguing as they came through the open door. Loudly and clearly.
     
     
    - Four -
     
    “Whaddaya mean, psychic soiree?” boomed a small, gaunt man with an intelligent face. His voice was bigger than he was as he walked into Justine’s living room. And rougher.
    “Psychics, Chief Wenger, sir,” the taller, younger man answered, his voice quivering with excitement as he tailed the older man through the doorway. “As in telepathy,” he expanded. “That’s what the woman said on the phone, that it happened at a psychic soiree, some kind of experiment. Sir, the very possibilities—”
    “Is this more Marin, New Age hoo-hah?” the man who had to be Chief Wenger demanded. “Kettering, you know I hate that crap.”
    “It’s not crap, sir,” Kettering replied eagerly. “Actually, studies show that many Americans believe—”
    “I don’t give a rat’s behind what many Americans believe,” Wenger cut in, surveying the room. “Fer Pete’s sake, someone was killed. Right, Yuki, O’Dwyer?”
    The two uniformed officers nodded almost imperceptibly. Kettering’s reply, however, was not imperceptible.
    “Right, sir,” he continued, still smiling, his eyes glinting under his dark eyebrows. He was well over six feet tall with an eager-beaver face and a jutting chin that Kirk Douglas would have coveted. Kettering was so excited, I had a feeling he would have rubbed his hands together, except that he couldn’t because he was carrying a huge stack of books, The Enneagram Made Easy by Wagele & Baron on the top. “Can’t you see the opportunity? I’ll be able to facilitate all of my studies now. This is cosmic, sir. A real murder, and a group of people attuned to the very—
    “Oh, please, Kettering,” Wenger moaned heavily. “You should have stuck to fingerprints. Remember when you were excited by the little whorls?”
    “But people, sir, I like them better. They’re even more complicated.” Kettering bounced on his heels. “And the pathology. We’re on the leading edge here—”
    “Well, I’m certainly on edge, Kettering,” Wenger interrupted again. The chief looked like he should have been heading a university department somewhere. The heavy-lidded, intelligent eyes and high forehead were classic. And the sour, just-sucked-a-pickle expression.
    “Sir, perhaps if you would be a little more open-minded, we could target our energies more effectively here.”
    Wenger shot Kettering a long-suffering look, sighed, and pointed to the group of us, all still seated conveniently on the rug.
    Kettering smiled back at Wenger, then turned to the rest of us.
    “Well, hello,” he said, with all the enthusiasm of the guy who announces the movie times on the telephone. “I’m Lieutenant Kettering, and this is my boss, Chief Wenger of the Paloma Police Department. It looks like we may have a crime on our hands.” He glanced over at Silk’s dead body and paled a little. I was pretty sure it was the first time he’d actually looked at her. He made a quick comeback, though. “But we don’t just have a crime.” He surveyed us, his face as earnest as a door-to-door solicitor’s. “We have an opportunity. An opportunity to use our skills, telepathic and otherwise. An opportunity to share a profound adventure, an opportunity—”
    “Can it,” Chief Wenger ordered, turning to