Page 12 of Night Owl Books

And now here was Arthur apologizing for what I’d heard all my life. Feeling decidedly off-balance, my throat tightened as I nodded. “It’s okay.” I turned to Arwyn, who was sitting beside me, and asked, “Did you see anything?”

“I did,” she said, taking one of my hands and holding it between her two gloved ones.

I probably shouldn’t have been remembering difficult things while sitting next to a psychic. All the focus was on her and what she saw, thankfully. I blinked rapidly to get rid of the sudden tears the apology and her kindness had brought. When I looked up, I found Nick watching me. After a moment, he gave me a sad smile and then turned his attention to Arwyn.

“He’s been doing this for a while,” Arwyn said. “I don’t think he’s a local,” she said to Declan. “The vision seemed to be connected to the truck. I couldn’t see anything beyond what he saw from his seat in the truck. The landscape changed, though, sometimes big city, sometimes country.”

“A lone wolf?” Declan guessed.

She nodded. “I think so. He definitely has a type. I kept seeing him pulling up on young women wearing jeans. He likes the way their butts look in tight jeans. And he likes long hair. The rest of what they wore didn’t seem to matter. There was one woman walking alone on a country road. She had his preferred thin athletic body type and long red hair, but she was wearing a sundress. She was almost perfect and there was nowhere for her to run for help before he caught her. Still, she wasn’t quite right, so he gunned the engine and drove off, frustrated and angry.”

“Did you see anything that would help us identify him?” Arthur asked.

She thought about that a moment. “It was an old truck. A long gear shaft coming up out of the floorboard. An AM radio.Clean. He keeps his truck clean.” She paused again. “He’s not too tall. When Declan’s driving his truck, his knees are close to the dashboard. This guy’s weren’t. He had a decent amount of room. He wore battered cowboy boots and blue jeans.”

“What you saw,” Declan said, “was it like looking through his eyes?”

She nodded. “There was a moment, though. He looked in the rearview mirror, saw a police cruiser following him, and kept on driving, ignoring a woman in jeans waiting by a car with its hood up. The cop stopped to help her. The man’s knuckles whitened on the steering wheel as he had to leave his perfect victim in his rear view.”

“What did you see in the mirror?” Arthur asked.

Arwyn considered. “He has light blue eyes. That kind of ice blue that looks painful.”

“Could you get a sense of hair color?” Nick asked. “His eyebrows maybe?”

She closed her eyes for a moment. “Light. His hair is kind of a sandy color. He’s tan but has little white lines.” He pointed to the outside corner of her eye. “Like he works in the sun and spends a lot of time squinting.”

“Makes sense,” I said. “Lighter eyes are more sensitive to the sun. I have to wear dark sunglasses if I go out in the day.”

“So we’re looking for a guy, medium build, maybe five foot ten,” Arthur said. “He has light brown hair, light blue eyes, and doesn’t like sunglasses.”

“It may not have to do with liking,” I said. “People can be wary of who’s behind the sunglasses. They get uncomfortable if they can’t see your eyes. If he has an open, friendly face, he wouldn’t want to cover that up because it disarms the women he’s after.” I turned back to Arwyn. “In the vision, does he mostly hunt at night or during the day?”

She thought a moment. “Most were during the day and I think you’re right. I couldn’t see him, but I could see the reactions the women gave him. They started off worried and then relaxed almost at once, relieved to have help, get a ride, whatever.”

“Can you tell,” Declan asked, “if he’s still around here or has he moved on to another town?”

Arwyn squeezed my hand and then let go. “No idea.”

Nick stood and began pacing up and down the row of bookshelves. “Is there a pattern of locations where he likes to hunt?”

Arwyn closed her eyes again, remembering. Finally, she said, “If he’s in a city, it’s an empty, industrial area. If he’s in the country, it’s a long, lonely road.”

“So,” Arthur said, “it’s somewhere a woman would feel vulnerable and relieved she’s been found and is getting help.”

“It could also be places where cell phone service is spotty,” I said, “like this neighborhood. Most people around here have a landline because they can’t rely on their cellphones at home. If these women we’re talking about were in trouble and cut off with no signal, that would put them on edge and desperate for help.”

“Okay, Mr. Policemen,” Arwyn said to the cousins, “where are the dead spots in Monterey? It sounds like we need a woman with long hair, wearing jeans, to walk around in that area to lure him out.”

“No,” Declan growled.

“No what?” she said.

“You are not offering yourself up to some serial killing wolf,” he ground out.

She was turned away from me, looking at Declan, but her hair moved, the curls tightening. “A. You’re not the boss of me, so quit trying to order me around. And B. What am I, an idiot?I can’t have some random psycho touch me and drop me into a vision.”

Declan blew out a breath. “Sorry.”

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