Page 38 of Deadly Misfortunes

Gregory stared at her in surprise, his mouth slightly open.

Sascha smiled sweetly and patted his knee. “Anyway, sounds like a great story, doesn’t it?” She looked over at Stephanie, whose small eyes widened.

Sascha had really goofed this time. It was all true, of course. And how would she have known about any of it? Then she figured Stephanie’s response meant she must have been there when it happened, but Sascha hadn’t seen Stephanie in her vision. Why not?

Had she been staying the night? Maybe it was earlier in the evening. Sascha could see it was dark out in the vision when the alarm went off.

Then she frowned and looked back at Gregory. Had she become linked with him when she held his hand to do his reading? She rubbed her temple. She hadn’t ever done such a thing, and she had no idea how it felt. Was that how she knew so much about what had happened? She assumed she received only a glimpse of what he thought at the time. Not something that would tie his thoughts to her for an indeterminate period.

When Katrina had linked with Prescott, neither of them knew how to get rid of that condition. Though in retrospect, they were glad for it.

What was Gregory pondering now? Her mind grew muddled. She couldn’t think clearly. She’d compromised herself.

“Listen, maybe I need to go home,” Sascha said.

“Yeah,” Stephanie said.

“I don’t want you to go, Sascha,” Gregory said.

“I think I need to.” She needed to sort out her feelings about all this and even talk to Kat about it.

“Have you read the book?” Gregory said.

“What book?” Sascha realized he was trying to find out whether she had seen more of what had happened that night.

“The one I read the night the alarm went off. I was sitting on the⁠—”

“Couch. Oh…” Sascha frowned. “Stephanie was there. Rose and Marvin were playing dominoes, and Stephanie was waving her leg up and down, like she’s doing now. Annoyed. Bored.” Now that Sascha couldn’t have known.

“I was reading the true story about the murderer of migrant workers.”

She concentrated on Gregory’s thoughts. Certain he tried to trick her up, she wasn’t sure what to say. He thought of another story, not the one he’d read that evening. She just knew it.

Running her hand over the couch, she shook her head. “No, not that one. You were reading one about pirates on the high seas.” The time had arrived to change the subject again. Back to the one that she had to focus her attention on more importantly. “Did he do anything else?”

“What?” Gregory was still thinking about the book.

She took a deep breath. She had to think before she spoke. “You said twice before he tried to kill you. How?”

“Sascha…” Gregory’s tone of voice was meant to dissuade. He undoubtedly didn’t want to speak about that subject right now, either.

“Do you want me to figure out who it might be?” Sascha ran her fingers over his hand. “Have you received any threatening letters? Anything at all that would give some clue to his identity?”

“I thought you were leaving.” Stephanie tapped her hand on the arm of the loveseat. “The police have the evidence, and they’re doing the investigation.”

“So you have received threats.”

Gregory nodded. “Two cryptic notes. They didn’t make any sense at all.”

“What did they say?”

Stephanie frowned. “Don’t tell me you’re a police detective under the guise of being a gypsy fortune teller.”

“You never know, now do you? How do you fit into all of this, by the way?”

The look on Stephanie’s face was precious. Like she’d just swallowed a goldfish. Her eyes narrowed as her face scrunched into a scowl.

Gregory wrapped his hand around Sascha’s. “Okay, two weeks ago, I received a note. All it said was ‘It’s time to even the score, Gregory. Soon. Your friend, Bill.’ Then, the next day, a car nearly ran over me in the parking lot of the country club. A few days later, I received another note. Similar message. This time, a monster truck chased me down.”