Page 30 of Shenanigans

Teri was a heavy set Hispanic lady in her forties. She wore red scrubs and a surgical mask hung from her neck. Behind her was a sheet draped gurney.

“Thanks again for agreeing to meet with us. This is the friend I told you about. We desperately need to find out if Maria was murdered,” Jana stated.

“Hi, I’m Kandi.” I held my hand out until I noticed her bloody latex gloves. I jerked my hand back. “I’m really grateful you could arrange this for us, and hopefully, we can discover how Maria died.”

Teri shrugged. “My abuela could talk to the dead and I owed Jana a favor.”

“Oh, how awesome.” I looked at the sheet draped body on the gurney. “Is that Maria?”

Jana shot me a worried frown. “You can’t sense her?”

“I locked down my psychic senses.”

“Why on Earth would you want to do that?” To say Jana was not happy would be an understatement.

“It’s a new talent. I have no control over it yet. Would you want to walk into a room filled with talking dead people unprepared?”

“Probably not. Do your thing,” Jana instructed.

“Yes, ma’am.” I dropped my mental shields and tried to tune into the spirit world. I couldn’t sense a damn thing. Not a single ghost appeared. No eerie wailing. No glowing portals. No voice of God. Even better, no demons or hellfire.

Jana kept asking, “Is she here yet? Is she here yet? Is she here yet?”

“No. She’s not here yet,” I snapped.

“Why not? Emma Dutton just popped right in.”

I rubbed my aching forehead. “I didn’t summon Emma. She came to me on her own.”

“It takes a lot of juice to summon the dead. Maybe you’re not strong enough,” Teri commented.

“You might be right. I’ve never done this before and I don’t have a friggin’ clue on how to summon spirits.”

Teri shot me a surprised look. “You didn’t bring a crystal to help you focus?”

“No. I didn’t know I needed one.”

“Good thing I brought one with me,” Teri said. She plucked a crystal ball off the gurney and held it out.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No.” She handed me the ball. “Just try it.”

Doing my best to ignore the bloody fingerprints Teri had left on the crystal, I held it out and concentrated. To my amazement a light flickered to life in the center of the ball.

“Form an image of Maria in your mind and focus on summoning her,” Teri advised.

Following her instructions, I poured my psychic power into the crystal ball. The light grew brighter and brighter and brighter.

Teri added urgently, “Whatever happens do not touch the doorway when it forms.”

“And if I do?”

“You die.”

“Gotcha. No touching the pretty light.”

“Now, command Maria to appear,” Teri directed.

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