Page 15 of Highball Rush
“Of course.”
“Well, a while back she escaped the farm and disappeared for a week or so. She came wandering back like nothing had happened. Turned out she got herself knocked up.”
I laughed. “Really?”
“She had three little goat babies last week on Jax’s side of the bed. They’re still trying to figure out how she let herself into the house.”
Only in Blue Moon. “I bet that didn’t make him too happy.”
“I suppose not. The baby goats sure are cute. Where are you now? Costa Rica? Japan? Maybe Australia?”
“No, I’m back in the States.”
“Welcome home, then. But your aura is vibrating so loudly. What’s bothering you?”
I took a deep breath. “I’m in West Virginia. It’s for work, but… I saw someone I used to know.”
“Did you? How did that feel?”
“Honestly, it scared me. I thought I was past this, but it’s making me feel like a kid again.”
“You’re not a child anymore, sunflower,” she said, her voice soothing. “I’m sensing a lot of imbalance in your divine energies. Have you been meditating?”
“Not as much as I should.”
“That will help. Find your center and unwind the flows of energy that are twisted inside of you.”
I smiled. Of course Henna would suggest meditation. It was her solution to most problems. Facing an important decision? Meditate. Fighting with a friend? Meditate. Stuffy nose? Meditate.
“You’re right. I’ll do that.”
“Good. I’m lighting my candles for you right now. They’ll send their light into the universe for you.”
“Thanks, Henna. I appreciate that.”
“Sunflower, remember, the past is the past. It can’t hurt you anymore. But dwelling there is just going to reopen old wounds that don’t need to be opened. I’d feel a lot better if you weren’t in West Virginia.”
I sat up straighter. All her talk about meditation and energies was what I expected to hear. But why was she worried about me being in West Virginia?
“Why?”
“People are looking for you again. For Callie.”
I clapped my hand over my mouth to keep the whiskey down. My stomach turned over and it took me a second to answer. “What are you talking about? The case went cold years ago.”
“They reopened it,” she said. “I thought you’d know about that.”
“What? How would I know? Is this recent? You never said anything.”
She kept talking in the same breezy voice, as if she hadn’t just dropped a bombshell on me. “I don’t know much about it. Just things I’ve heard here and there. I thought you might have seen something on the neterweb.”
“The internet?”
“Yes, that.”
For the most part, I’d always loved Henna’s spacey obliviousness to the outside world. She and Quincy had naturally insulated me from the fallout of my disappearance, at a time when I’d needed to be protected. And they’d been the ones to tell me Jonah Bodine had passed away.
But my case had been reopened? If there was an active investigation, I really needed to get out of West Virginia.
