Dark Visions Read Online Free PDF Page B

everything to their
daughter. Not a penny was willed to Esmerelda. Her family had not
approved of psychic readings. They'd called it a sin.
    Her husband's will was specific. A trust
fund was set up for Denise once John's company was dissolved. If it
was to be revealed that Esmerelda profited from any of it, the
trust fund was to be dispersed to charity.
    It was this callousness that drove Esmerelda
out two years before her husband's death. They'd separated and
Esmerelda joined the Psychic Fair to travel with Dolan. She didn't
attend her husband's funeral and only talked to Denise when she
called to ask why she wasn't there.
    That was almost twenty years ago.
    When Sarah had walked into the fair
yesterday she couldn't help but stare. She thought she was looking
at Denise.
    Her husband and daughter were a part of the
past.
    Meeting Sarah and seeing Denise in her face
was more than a coincidence. It was time for mother and daughter to
talk. Something told her she would see her daughter again soon.
    Esmerelda picked up her cell phone and
dialed information. Then she stopped, hit end, set the phone down
and leaned back in her chair. Maybe it was too late. She could try
tomorrow.
    The remote was on the table. She picked it
up and turned the television on.
    She flipped through channels until she got
to the news. The news anchor was pleading for the girl who pulled
her from the river to come forward. A story came on about a
kidnapping a few months back and how a teenager had intervened
there too.
    She knew that sometimes Dolan helped locate
missing people. She couldn't count how many times he'd worked with
the police. He hated it though. It wasn't that he didn't like
helping children; it was the notoriety it gave him that he
complained about. The Psychic Fair would get busier after he was in
the newspaper for finding a missing child. People would swarm him
for help with lost loved ones. They would stay after the fair
closed, trying to get a chance to talk to Dolan.
    An odd thought struck her. If Dolan could
locate kidnap victims, then why couldn't he just tell the police
where the culprits were?
    Esmerelda leaned forward and set her cup on
the table before her twitching hands spilled it. Could it be that
Sarah knows something about this? That's why Dolan's name was in
her book. It would explain all the interest Dolan and Alex have in
her.
    She had to talk to Sarah and evidently Sarah
wanted to talk to her.
    A thump from the window behind her made her
jump.
    She spun around in her chair just in time to
see the edge of a face disappear.
    She got up from her chair and went to the
kitchen. In her baking supply cabinet she found a rolling pin. The
light switch was near the door. To turn it off would expose her to
the open window and whoever may still be out there.
    Her hands shook to the point where she
almost dropped the rolling pin.
    With the light on she was too visible. She
had to risk being in the open to turn it off.
    She sauntered across the hallway, flicked
off the lights, and dropped down, her back against the door. She
sat there, listening for any sounds from the outside of the
trailer.
    After a few moments of silence, she let her
breath wheeze out, chest pumping with the action of breathing.
    The doorknob rattled. Her free hand covered
her mouth as a little squeak slipped out.
    She looked up at the brass knob as it
stopped moving.
    She edged away from the door with as much
stealth as she could muster.
    She picked up her cell and dialed 911.
     

Chapter 9
     
    The cigarette dropped into the ashtray where
she butted it out. She'd held it too long. Ashes had fallen from
the tip and now lay in her lap. She moved to brush them off,
smearing their fragile nature into the red skirt that covered her
thigh.
    She looked up at the ceiling tiles of her
office and gritted her teeth in an effort not to lose control.
    Documents lay before her on the desk in
disarray. She gathered them up and tossed them into a corner tray.
She picked up the