Page 81 of In Her Eyes

“Shut up, the both of you!” Ava’s voice rises. “Get me a damn map right now. A fucking paper map. Not digital crap.”

We both look at her, mouths agape for a second. “I don’t know if I have a paper map.”

The chief walks out the door. “Hold on.”

I look at her. “Ava?”

She smiles. “That’s okay, Jake. I got this.”

The chief returns a minute later, making sure the door is locked. He opens the map of New Hampshire on my desk and Ava approaches it. “Help me position myself in relation to the map. Which way is the shore?”

I look at the map, but before I can say or do anything, the chief turns it a quarter of the way. “The shore is to your right, that way.”

Ava hovers a hand over the map starting at the seaside and moves it across. She closes her eyes. “Show me. Where are you?” Her voice is no more than a whisper. Her hand stops, and she points down, her index finger pressed against the map. “Here. She’s here. There’s a clearing and a path, not a trail. A wide path that leads to a well or a water hole. He dumped her into a hole. There’s water, but not deep. You’ll need ropes or some kind of climbing equipment or a winch to retrieve her.”

The chief looks at the map, grabs a pen, and makes a circle around the spot Ava pointed at, then turns to me. “Look up the area on the computer and see if you can get a more detailed map.”

I can’t believe he’s going along with this. I log into my computer and go to Google Earth.

“I want an aerial view so we can get an idea about the terrain.”

The two of them hover over my shoulders as I compare the paper map to the screen and try to figure out the exact location. But there’s no way. “No. Too many trees and it’s in the middle of the state park.”

Chief Malone crosses his arms and stares at the screen. “I’ll get a team together to search the area.”

“No!” Ava and I say at the same time.

He frowns at us. “And why not?”

I take charge. “This information, how we know it, cannot leave this room.”

He scratches the back of his head. “I wasn’t planning on calling a press conference to inform the town folk we got a psychic on the payroll.”

“No one is paying me. I volunteered to help, with the condition that no one—and I mean no one—knows of my involvement. If you go out there and get a team to search for the body, there will be questions. They’ll do the math and it won't take long for them to come for Jake and me for answers.”

“Are we at another impasse, Miss Ava?”

“No, Jake and I will go. And once we find the body, he’ll call dispatch. I’ll be long gone before anyone shows up.”

“I don’t like this. Not one bit. We can’t get a civilian involved in the investigation. It breaks just about every rule in the book.”

“Is there a rule against going for a walk in the woods in a state park?”

He rubs at the scruff on his chin. “Miss Ava, something tells me you’re trouble.”

Ava shrugs. “Heard that before.”

“Let us go, Chief. When she finds the body, you'll be the first one I call.”

He looks at her. “You’re certain you can find the body?”

Ava looks past him toward the door like she can see someone there. “I am. I have a question. Why do you believe me? You didn’t question any of this, not once.”

“Ah, my family is from St. Louis. My mother is a Hoodoo priestess, as my grandma was, and her mother before her. I have an entire family line going back generations and I’ve seen things.”

If I wasn’t already sitting, I would fall on my ass. And what’s Hoodoo?

Ava smiles. “I would very much like to meet your mother one day. We could have some very interesting conversations.”

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