Angel's Dance (10 page)

“
It’s just a phase. She is
trying a bunch of new looks.”

“
They are being influenced
by someone.”

“
Sure, the people she sees
on TV!” Laura snapped. “And… well, the dancers that come through
the school. Some of them are so… edgy…was the word she
used.”

“
The dancer’s from her
dance school?” Clear probed. Something about that felt right. The
man had criticized something she had done… yeah, that felt
right.

“
Wait, you think someone
from the dance school had something to do with her disappearance?
No, no way. She wouldn’t have been anywhere near the studio when
she disappeared.”

Grant butted in. “That doesn’t mean
they weren’t involved. If someone was stalking her?”

“
Don’t you think I would
have noticed some sleaze ball hanging around?!” Laura
yelled.

“
Not all sleaze balls look
like sleaze balls,” Grant countered, obviously trying to remain
calm.

“
Trust me, no one from
that school would have done this!” Laura insisted.

Clear waved her hand to get their
attention. “Please, stop yelling. I can only help if we keep the
headaches at bay. You two going at it is so not going to help!” She
turned to Laura. “Maybe this has nothing to do with anything, but
it is possible that someone who was not involved with the dance
school, but who may have seen her from the dance school is
involved, right? They do live performances, right?”

Laura looked at her speculatively, the
doubt showing in her eyes.

“
Good lord, come on Clear.
I know where her studio is.”

“
No. She changed studios a
few months back,” Laura countered.

“
What? Why? No one told me
anything about this.” Grant turned on her, barely keeping his
temper.

“
Well, you’ve been a
little busy with those other kids,” Laura snapped back, venom in
her voice. “She was invited to try out for a scholarship and she
got it. The scholarship made it a lot cheaper than the school she
was in and there would be smaller classes, more one-on-one
training… It seemed like a good deal and.. she had seen the other
dancers. She wanted to go…”

“
But something bothered
you about it,” Clear finished.

“
Yeah, at the beginning,
but not now. They are wonderful… amazing. They clearly know what
they are doing and Kat has just blossomed under their
training…”

Clear cut her off. “What bothered
you?”

Laura hesitated, but the thoughts came
to her mind unbidden and Clear, fully charged and wide open, caught
them. “You didn’t understand why they would have accepted her. She
wasn’t really that good. Why would they accept her, let alone give
her such a big scholarship.”

“
How dare you?!?!” Laura
growled, coming at Clear in a very threatening manner.

“
I can’t help what you
thought,” Clear said calmly as Grant stepped between them. “I could
also see from your head why you thought it and you’re right. It is
weird.”

“
It is not!” Laura
insisted, tears streaming down her face. “They just can see talent
more clearly than we can. They saw her potential and they were
right…” Laura was shaking her head, trying just as hard to convince
herself as them. “They were right, she is amazing now. She is at
the top of her class and she… she always loves it there. If she
were in danger… I would have… should have…” she burst into
sobs.

Clear felt the pressure building in
her head again and the emotional-roller-coaster-that-was-Laura was
more than she could take at that moment. She muttered on her way
out. “You couldn’t have, and you shouldn’t, blame yourself.” She
moved into the kitchen mostly to put some space between her and
Laura. She opened the fridge, thinking food might help and grabbed
the carton of milk. Who bought cartons anymore?

As soon as she touched the
carton, she gasped. The shock hit her so hard that she dropped the
carton and it splattered all over everything. ‘
Oh God!
’ Clear thought
‘
This is not good!
’ Images flashed through her mind of a mother crying, a room
in a hotel being searched, police with dogs, the mother talking to
the police and the mother sitting alone on a bed.

The girl that Clear had seen Kat
talking to was missing too. Clear’s knees began to buckle under the
weight of the mother’s misery and on her way to the ground a
fleeting thought as she hoped she wouldn’t hit the
counters.

Grant walked into the kitchen behind
Clear and saw the carton fall. He was about to tease her when her
knees buckled and she started going down too. He barely made it to
catch her under her arms, but the floor was slick with milk and her
weight threw him off balance. They hit the ground, not as hard as
she might have, but hard enough to hurt. Grant’s shoulder took the
brunt of the damage, bouncing off the kitchen cabinet.

“
Shit!” Grant yelped.
“Clear are you ok?” He looked down and saw she still had that
glassy look in her eyes. He carefully shifted to a more comfortable
position and sat waiting.

Laura came tearing into the kitchen
hearing the commotion. “What the hell!!” she started, but Grant put
his hand up to silence her. She looked at Clear and the shock and
fear filled her face. “Is she…?” Laura whispered.

Grant felt for her pulse. It was
racing, but solid. “I think she is… in a trance?” he ventured.
“Don’t disturb her. This could be important.”

“
Christ,” Laura muttered,
grabbing a dish towel and wiping up the milk around them. Grant
couldn’t help thinking that even in this situation the woman was a
fortress. Cleaning up the milk was the least important thing, in
his mind. He watched Clear’s face looking for any signs of what was
going on. It was completely slack. She almost looked like a
catatonic. Suddenly Grant realized that she wasn’t breathing. He
checked her pulse and it was becoming thready.

“
Damn,” he
muttered.

“
What is it?” Laura asked,
looking over as he got Clear into position to perform CPR. He
expertly felt for the sternum and counted three fingers down then
put his hands in position. Just as he was about to start pumping
Clear sat straight up like a corpse rising from the grave. She was
inhaling so hard and so fast that a horrible moaning sound echoed
through the deathly silent kitchen. The sound was so horrific that
Grant heard Laura drop something. He looked over to see her house
phone in three pieces on the floor.

“
Clear….” Grant spoke to
her, trying to get her to focus. Her eyes were flying wildly all
around the room.

“
What in God’s name is
going on?!” Laura snapped, fear breaking through her angry
façade.

“
Clear, honey, look at me
if you can hear me.” Grant patted her hand and watched carefully as
she tried to focus on him.

“
Clear, I’m here.” Her
eyes locked onto his face and the craziness seemed to pass. All at
once she burst into tears.

“
What is it? Talk to me
Clear” Grant said soothingly.

“
She’s dead,” Clear
murmured.

Laura fell to the ground and when
Grant looked back it appeared she had fainted. His heart was
clenching, but he had hope. He knew Clear’s reaction to human
suffering and he knew it could be anybody. He held onto that
desperate ray of hope. “Who is dead Clear?” She was sinking into
her sadness and he pulled her chin up to look at him. “Clear
sweetie, who is dead? Is it Kat?”

Clear shook her head and he felt the
sweet release of the vice on his heart, but someone was dead and he
couldn’t lose focus. “Who is dead sweetheart? Do you remember who
she was?” He knew that until she could get this out, she would not
be able to stop crying.

“
The girl with Kat. Oh
Grant, we have to hurry, or Kat will die too.”

Grant still felt sick, but he had
gotten Laura conscious and Clear calmed down and now he was waiting
for his old partner Bryce. Bryce worked missing persons. He would
know who this girl was. Clear was working hard at a sketch book and
Laura was glowering at her. Poor Clear was never gonna get Laura’s
respect. Despite Laura’s intense distrust in general, she had
always despised people who claimed to be psychics. She thought that
any con man who preyed on people in their weakest most vulnerable
state deserved a special ring of hell just for them. If Grant
believed in God, he would probably agree with her. Clear’s methods
were extremely nerve-wracking and Grant could understand Laura’s
fear and anger. He also knew from working with Clear in the past
that no matter how bad it was for Laura and himself, Clear had it
so much worse. He couldn’t be angry with her for scaring him when
he knew she had just experienced the last few minutes of a young
woman’s life. He couldn’t berate her for not thinking to clarify
when her brain was still recovering from her body mimicking the
other girl’s drowning.

Grant was jerked from his thoughts by
a knock at the door. He looked to Laura and she got up to answer
it. He and his old partner weren’t exactly friends. Of course his
ex-wife and ex-partner probably were. He shoved that thought from
his mind as Bryce walked in.

Clear was taken aback with Detective
Bryce. She didn’t know why exactly, but there was just something
about him. He seemed very… rough around the edges. He was very
average in appearance, probably about five nine or five ten; not
fat but certainly not thin. He had a little paunch over his belt.
His hair was a mousey brown kept trimmed short, but even the short
cut could not hide the fact that he was balding very rapidly. His
skin was a bit sallow and there was a beard shadow that simply made
him look grimy. His eyes were a bit narrow and a very non-descript
hazel color. He walked straight up to Grant and as Grant rose to
take the proffered hand Clear realized that by himself Detective
Bryce was average, but next to Grant he became almost ugly.
Although they appeared to be about the same age, the years had been
much kinder to Grant.

“
Hey there boyo, been a
time hasn’t it?” Bryce growled out in a voice made octaves deeper
from too much coffee, cigarettes and boozing, Clear guessed. Sure
enough nicotine stained his hand and teeth. His eyes were a bit
bloodshot. Being a cop, coffee was just a sort of given.