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Especially if she just happened to mention that fact to her two million Instagram followers.
Then my thoughts slid around to Boden Marsh. I told myself I had to consider him a suspect, even if I didn’t want to. For all I knew, he’d put forth the pretense of being friendly and open and not at all threatening just so I would dismiss his possible guilt out of hand. I hadn’t gotten any bad vibes off him, but, to be fair, I hadn’t sensed that Violet Clarke had been an accessory to Lucien Dumond’s murder, either. Sometimes those sorts of things managed to slip past you, no matter how attuned you thought your psychic senses might be.
The teakettle began to emit a faint whistle, and I turned off the gas before the water could start to truly boil. After pouring water over the waiting teabag in the mug I’d set out, I took the cup with me to the living room. Archie was gone, and since I hadn’t been paying him much attention, I didn’t know where he’d slipped off. Probably back to his favorite spot in the office, but I wouldn’t bother to go check.
I stood for a moment next to the couch, realizing that Boden had sat there just a few days earlier. Had I been playing hostess to a murderer without knowing it?
Possibly.
A shiver went down my spine that had nothing to do with the air conditioning blasting away in the background. The mug was almost uncomfortably warm against my cold hands, and I went ahead and set it down on a coaster. I needed to let the tea steep for a few minutes before I could drink it, anyway.
Thus unencumbered, I stood for a moment, staring at the couch and thinking of the man who’d sat there only two days earlier.
Was Boden Marsh really capable of killing Lilith Black?
My grandmother’s words echoed in my mind.
You already know everything you need to know.
I wanted to complain that it was easy enough for her to say. Then again, she had the proper perspective, and I didn’t. The view from the afterlife was much broader than anything we could see with our mortal eyes.
If I already knew something, how could I let myself know that I knew it?
I ran a hand through my hair and pushed with annoyed fingers at my bangs, trying to get them to lie flat and behave. For several weeks, I’d been planning to get a trim, but something had always seemed to come up and get in the way.
One of the throw pillows on the couch looked slightly squashed. Was that where Boden had leaned back during our conversation? I supposed it was possible; I’d been too busy the past few days to lounge on the sofa, and besides, I usually sat at the other end so I’d have a better view of the screen when I was watching TV.
On a sudden impulse, I stepped forward and grabbed the pillow. I’d never done much with my powers of psychometry — the talent for getting psychic flashes from touching inanimate objects — but I knew I had them, even if they weren’t as developed as some of my other skills.
Fingers clenched on the nubby linen fabric, I thought,Let me see Boden.
Nothing. Right then, I was really glad no one was around to see me standing in the middle of my living room, holding on to a pillow for dear life.
However, I resisted the impulse to toss it onto the couch in disgust. No, I continued to hang on to the thing, willing it to give up its secrets, to let me see what was happening with the man who’d leaned against it only forty-eight hours earlier.
The briefest flash of an image swirled in my mind — Boden sitting with a pretty girl who looked like she was in her early twenties, with long fawn-brown hair and a heart-shaped face with high cheekbones. They sat on a couch, feet up on the coffee table in front of them. All the furniture in the room looked almost brand-new, as if it had been recently ordered out of a catalogue or something.
That was all I got before the image faded. Still, it told me that Boden wasn’t alone, that obviously he’d found someone to take him in while he made himself scarce.
I thought then of the girl he’d mentioned to me, the one he’d hooked up with after Lilith’s ritual.
What was her name?
It took me a minute to rifle through all the memories of the past few crazy days, but then it popped into my brain.
Emily.
No last name, although that didn’t necessarily have to be a huge problem. After all, I was pretty good friends with a woman who had an encyclopedic knowledge of everyone in Globe.
I sat down on the couch — at the opposite end from where Boden had sat — and picked up my mug of tea and took a very cautious sip. It was still too hot, and I thought I just barely escaped burning my tongue.
That little sip was all I needed, though. I put down the mug and reached for my phone, then went through my contacts until I got to Josie Woodrow’s entry. As I touched the green button to call her, I prayed she wasn’t showing a house or doing something else that might prevent her from answering.
To my relief, she picked up on the second ring. “Selena!” she exclaimed. “How are you? I heard that Calvin questioned you, but then Hazel said — ”
“I’m fine,” I cut in, but gently. It was heartwarming to know she’d been worried about me. “Everything’s okay. I wanted to ask you something, though.”
“Go ahead.”
