CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Z dodged the dream catcher as she and Sabrina approached the turquoise door. Z knocked twice. No answer. She hadn’t considered that no one would be home. They’d wait all day, though, if they had to. She was about to knock again when the door suddenly cracked open just enough for a woman to pop her head out. She pushed her long, disheveled black hair out of her face so she could get a good look at Z and Sabrina. Her eyes were sunken and hollow, and the puffy purple bags underneath them looked like bruises on her dark skin.

“What do you want?” she growled, exposing a few cracked teeth. “If you’re selling something, you’re wasting your time.”

“Mrs. Hanson?” Sabrina asked with much more confidence than Z could’ve mustered.

“Yeah, who are you?”

Z wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or disappointed that they had the right woman. Although now that she really looked at her, the similarities to Amy Hanson were obvious. The same skin tone, the same long, straight nose and the same pronounced eyelids.

“My name is Sabrina. This is Z,” Sabrina explained calmly, ignoring the woman’s withering look. “We’d really appreciate if we could talk to you about your daughter, Amy.”

Mrs. Hanson’s face went slack. Z felt almost ashamed. Maybe they hadn’t thought this completely through. What mother would want to have a conversation with two strangers about her dead daughter?

“Nina?” A soft, female voice came from inside the house. “Who are you talking to?”

The door suddenly swung open and another woman joined Mrs. Hanson. This woman looked like Mrs. Hanson might have if she were to take a shower and get some sleep. And maybe a little dental work. As opposed to the loose clothes that were hanging off Mrs. Hanson, the dress this woman was wearing hugged her curvy body.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked, toying with the lapis crystal pendant around her neck. She sounded suspicious but not rude.

“We’re sorry to show up unannounced like this,” Sabrina began again. “I know it’s an incredibly difficult subject, but we were hoping to talk to Mrs. Hanson about her daughter, Amy.”

The woman put her arm protectively around Mrs. Hanson’s gaunt body. “Nina, go inside. I’ll handle this.” Amy’s mother shuffled away, and the woman turned back to them. “I’m Nina’s sister. Amy’s aunt. What do you need to know about Amy?”

Their auras are fascinating. Such a bright yellow. And the one with the buzzed-off hair is a darker blue than I’ve ever seen.

As soon as Z heard the thought, she knew exactly how they’d get the answers they needed.

Z stepped forward. “My friend here keeps seeing Amy’s ghost.”

Sabrina shot Z a look she didn’t need to interpret because Z heard her next thought.

Z, if you are listening, what the hell are you doing?

But Sabrina’s annoyed look shifted to surprise as soon as the woman opened the door wider.

“Please come in.”

Sometimes the truth actually worked.

*    *    *

“Do you both have the gift?” Kaya Hanson asked.

Z and Sabrina were sitting on a velvety pale blue couch across from the woman in her living room. A distinctive scent hung in the air — apparently she had just finished her weekly ritual of burning sage before they’d arrived. She was probably the type of person who thought meditation was the answer to everything.

“Just me,” Sabrina answered.

That explains the bright yellow, Z heard Kaya think.

She continued trying to listen to Kaya’s thoughts as she looked around the strange room. The antique walnut bookshelf housed no books but instead was brimming with multicolored crystals and candles. The couches and chairs were various shades of purple and blue, and with the dim light in the room, the ambience was almost ethereal. Z could imagine someone holding a séance there.

“And you saw Amy?” Kaya asked Sabrina, not a hint of doubt in her silvery voice. Her fingers toyed with the small box of Amy’s keepsakes that she’d brought out for Sabrina to look through.

Sabrina nodded. “I’ve seen her a few times. I haven’t been able to speak to her much, though, so I guess that’s why we’re here. I was hoping if I learned a little more about her, I could figure out why I keep seeing her.”

“When she appears to you, what does she seem to want?” Kaya asked.

“It’s like she wants me to understand something about her. Something no one else but me can understand,” Sabrina answered honestly. “Was there anything strange about the way she died?”

Kaya paused for a second. “I always thought so, but no one else seemed to.”

Z’s pulse quickened. “We read about what happened. It was a car accident?”

“Yes. Amy was driving a few of her classmates one night. They were new friends of hers. Amy didn’t have a lot of friends, so it was nice that she suddenly found this group.” She rummaged through the box and pulled out a strip of three photo-booth pictures of Amy with two other girls. In each photo, the girls were in a different pose, making funny faces at the camera.

“Danielle and Catherine were in the car with Amy and the two boys that night. That’s Danielle,” Kaya said, pointing to a punk-looking girl in the middle. She had short bleached hair with streaks of blue and a gold hoop through her nostrils. Even through the silly face she was making, there was something tough about her, as if she could handle anything. In one photo, she had her arm around Amy, like a protective big sister.

Kaya pointed to the other girl in the photo. Out of the three, she was hamming it up for the camera the most, holding up a chubby middle finger in one photo and flashing her bra in another. “That’s Catherine. She was quite a handful, according to Nina — Amy’s mom.”

“A handful how?” Z asked.

“From what I gathered, she didn’t have much of a filter,” Kaya answered. “Nina tried to throw her out of the house once when Catherine said some derogatory things to her about her addiction. When I brought it up to Amy, though, she was immediately defensive. She told me everything Catherine said to Nina was true and it was nice to have someone honest around. Amy made it very clear that these new friendships were not up for discussion.”

Were the three of them Lost Causes or just three girls who became fast friends? “Do you know where they were going the night of the accident?” Z asked.

“I’m not sure. Neither is her mother. There was a storm that night and the streets were flooding. That’s part of why I thought it was strange. Amy would’ve known better than to get on that bridge. I used to live down in those parts years ago. Everyone around there knew how slick that particular bridge would get in the rain, and everyone knew alternative ways to get around it.”

“The police said that’s what happened?” Sabrina asked. “That the car skidded and went over the bridge?”

“That’s what they said, but there wasn’t much of an investigation. It took them two weeks to find the wreckage, and even then, it was just” — Kaya steadied her voice — “parts of bodies. They weren’t able to test for drugs or alcohol in Amy’s system, which they assumed was one of the reasons it happened. But she never touched that stuff. Not with her mother the way she is. It had to have been something else. Maybe that’s why Amy is appearing to you. She wants you to know the truth.”

Sabrina was nodding effusively, but Z knew they still had zero in the proof department. “Was there anything different about Amy leading up to the accident?” Z asked, trying another angle.

Kaya cocked her head at Z curiously. “A few weeks before Amy died, Nina went to rehab and I stayed with Amy at their house. And yes, there was something different. Amy’s aura had always been reddish brown. Some days it was cloudy, some days it was clear. But when I saw her then, her aura was bright white like it was beaming off her.”

Z inwardly groaned. A change in Amy’s spiritual aura wasn’t the hard evidence they were searching for. She was getting impatient but tried not to be rude. “What about the way she was acting? Was there something different about that?”

“Yes, her behavior mirrored her aura. She was always dark. Troubled. Western medicine might diagnose her as bipolar. And usually when Nina went to rehab, Amy was despondent. But when I was down there, there was a lightness to her. Like I said, she suddenly started hanging out with a new group of friends. But it was more than that. It was a bit like she was looking at the world through different eyes.”

Sabrina leaned forward. “So, she suddenly seemed less depressed? Like it almost happened overnight?”

Kaya paused, thinking it through. “Sort of. The depression might have faded, but something melancholy still lingered inside her. She became obsessed with this news story about a missing girl from Albuquerque.”

Something stirred inside of Z. A missing girl?

“It was all incredibly morbid, but Amy wouldn’t stop talking about it. So much so that I had to ask her to please stop bringing it up because it was so upsetting. Every word out of her mouth was about finding this little girl. Sam something-or-other.”

Z’s heart stopped. “Sam Carpenter.”