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“There’s one problem with your theory,” Detective Jackson pointed out. “In order to brush up on you and your CO’s past, Madame Anna would have had to know who was coming. I didn’t call ahead. Did you?”
Uncertainty swept over Sergeant Giovanni’s face. “It’s some sort of trick.” Her dark eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Aren’t you supposed to tell me I’m going to meet the man of my dreams and live happily ever after?”
Liliana put aside persistent visions of the sergeant’s dangerous commanding officer and peeked at her romantic future. What she saw made the spider-kin cringe. “You will meet a man soon who will give you chocolate and jewelry, but he is dishonest. He desires another.” Sergeant Giovanni did not seem very skilled at choosing her mates. “Do not trust the man with the silver rose. Absolutely do not wear the locket.”
The sergeant shook her head and laughed. “Seriously? You need to go back to fortune-teller school or whatever. That fortune sucks.”
This objection Liliana had heard before. In her practiced singsong voice, she said, “I see only the truth of what might come to pass, not what you wish the truth to be.”
“She’s got you there,” the detective said with a chuckle.
Liliana glanced with her third eyes quickly at the policewoman from under her veil. She saw grudging respect dawn in her sharp eyes, along with a firework sparkle of suppressed laughter.
The spider-kin smiled back. This police detective was also a Normal, with deep moral principles. The rich, dark blues of profound courage interlaced her aura, shaded generously with the softer green of compassion.
Detective Jackson’s smiling eyes turned to a squint as she tried to see the spider seer’s face better through the obscuring veil.
Quickly, Liliana closed her third eyes.
Peter Teague nudged Sergeant Giovanni with an elbow. “We didn’t actually come here to talk about Zoe’s terrible taste in men.”
Sergeant Giovanni’s wry face reflected in the crystal ball.
“You have questions. Now, ask and I will answer.” Liliana waited patiently.
“Right,” Peter Teague said, but he didn’t ask her anything. The soldier and the man of science looked at one another, as if each expected the other to speak.
Detective Jackson rolled her eyes. Perhaps the annoyance she kept expressing was not Liliana’s fault. “Ma’am, we’re investigating a string of murders. Soldiers from Fort Liberty have gone missing. Some have been found dead. We thought you might be able to help us.”
Liliana stood up so quickly she knocked over her chair. “NO!” She tore the veil off her head and faced the corner, turning her back to the strangers.
Her second set of eyes, the domed green eyes that shone like polished chrome on her temples, opened without conscious thought as they always did when Liliana felt threatened. They allowed her to see in nearly 360 degrees, although in spectrums different from her human vision.
The man slipped one hand into the sleeve of his jacket to the hilt of a knife. The two women both had guns.
Liliana knew better than to startle armed people. She knew better. She shouldn’t have done that. She wished these strangers would just go away.
The spider-kin picked up one of her new scarves from the messy pile on the corner shelf. “No one asks me to see murdered people. I don’t want to see murdered people.” Her nightmares were rich enough. “Please, don’t ask me to see murdered people.”
She ran the scarf through her fingers, facing the corner of the room next to the inner door that led to her living room. Burnout velvet cloth was her favorite. The sensation of silk then velvet trailing in patterns between her fingers always calmed her.
“It’s all right,” Detective Jackson said gently. “You don’t have to look at the murdered soldiers.” Her voice soothed like someone talking to a frightened child. “We just want to ask you a few questions. That’s all.”
Liliana swallowed and nodded at the corner. It was all right. She’d misunderstood. They wouldn’t make her watch people be murdered. “Okay.”
Talking to people with her back to them was a violation of a strict social rule both her mothers had ingrained in her. “Okay. You can ask.” She took a deep breath to steady herself and turned around, still holding and staring down at the burnout velvet scarf in her hands. “But I won’t look. Okay? I don’t want to see murdered people.”
Peter Teague followed the spider seer to the corner of the room.
Liliana tried to step back from him, but her heel touched the wall next to the door.
“Right.” His voice wasn’t gentle like Detective Jackson’s. “Tell us where you were last night.”
Chapter 2
Other Nature
“Did you go dancing?” Peter Teague asked.
