Read The Blue Hour for Free Online

about a week ago? Last Tuesday night? That would be
August third. Kamala, I'll be right here but you can go ahead and talk to Merci
just like you were talking to me. Okay?"
    "Sure."
    Merci took out her notebook and pen. "Kamala,
you told me last Friday that you worked at the Laguna Hills Mall the week
before. Why did you call me?"
    "I
saw on TV that a woman had disappeared from the mall? She disappeared the same
night I was working there. It really like bothered me. And I remembered that
I'd seen a... a ... rememberable man the night
she vanished. And that was why I called you.
    "Merci looked at Joan, who mouthed to her: go slow...
    "So
you saw this man Tuesday night of last week. Tell me why you thought of him when you learned that Janet Kane had disappeared."
    A few
seconds passed before Kamala spoke. "He was kind of... strange
looking. I would use the word startling. He was standing in the parking lot
when I left. It was dark but I saw him
in my headlights. He was looking at his car in a very interesting way. Now, I saw him only for maybe two seconds or three? As long as it takes to
see someone in your lights? And
then again for maybe two seconds right when my car went by him. And he made an impression on me. But I forgot all that until I heard about
the woman."
    "What time did you see him?"
    "It
was about nine."
    "All right. Now,
you said this man was strange looking. You said he was startling. Describe him
to me now, in as much detail as you can."
    Kamala exhaled.
"Blond hair, long. Golden. Goldilocks. Dark eyes. Mustache. Neither tall
nor short. Average build. He was wearing a full-length coat, like a duster. A
light one, cotton, probably. Like a cowboy would wear."
    Merci pictured the
long-haired, long-coated man. A long beat. "Age."
    "Twenties, maybe
early thirties. And his eyes, when I got up closer? Because I could see them in
the headlights? They looked wet and sad. He looked like a model. I mean a male
model, not a female. He looked like a model that was my first impression. I
notice faces. And it seemed strange to me that I could notice this much about
him when I was driving past him. But I think things happen for a reason, and so
I noticed him for a reason."
    Merci didn't comment
on Kamala's cosmic outlook. To Merci, the only reasons things happened were the
ones you supplied on your own. She also noted on her pad the apparent
contradiction in Kamala Petersen's story: how could she see his "wet and
sad" eyes when she was driving her car past him at night and he wasn't
even looking at her? "So the strangeness was more in the way you reacted
to him than the way he looked?"
    "Well,
maybe. Now that you put it that way, somewhat."
    "What
was startling about him?"
    "It
was partly his appearance. But it was something else." Kamala lay still
and silent for a long minute. Then she exhaled
rather loudly and shook her head. "This is just amazing. You guys aren't
going to believe what I just thought of. What I just remembered. Oh my
God." I think I will, Merci thought. Because I think you liked what you saw, and I think you had a moment with him,
a little something, a look, a glance, maybe even a word... She glanced at Joan but the
doctor was staring intently at her subject.
    "You
see, well... you know ... I didn't realize it until just a
minute ago, but the reason he seemed so strange and startling to me is because
this wasn't the first time I saw him."
    Merci
thought holy shit and looked at Joan. The psychiatrist's eyebrows were raised
and a smile was forming on her lips.
    "I
mean, like the first time was about a month before, at a mall in Brea. He was
walking past the pet store. The girls and I were on our way to set up. And
there he was, walking by alone, just like I saw him last week. He even had on
the same coat. God ... that's very
weird I just thought of it now. This hypnosis is like really strong."
    Merci's
heart sped up at the word mall and she looked at Joan. The doctor was looking over her tented fingers