The Burning Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

had robbed them. Some people were looking for lost things, answers to questions, to unbury secrets. Once a man was looking for money he knew his father had hidden in the forest. According to Agatha, he’d found it and given her a 10 percent finder’s fee, as per their arrangement.
    Agatha had encouraged Eloise to get into this area of the business, as it was very lucrative. But Eloise had zero interest in money. She’d made enough to meet her needs, leave money for her family when she passed on.
    Furthermore, Eloise couldn’t imagine constantly sitting across from so much suffering. It was hard enough working with Ray, who handled most of the client interface. She was still unsettled even from her brief visit with Tim Schaffer. And it was hard enough dealing with visions, which were getting more and more draining every day. She didn’t want to look into the face of grief over and over again. She saw it enough when she looked in the mirror.
    “Is it an emergency?” Amber asked now. “I can have Agatha call you between sessions.”
    “No, no,” said Eloise. “It can wait.”
    “Okay,” said Amber. Agatha said that the girl was an empath, someone very attuned to other people’s feelings. And Amber sounded unsure that Eloise was being truthful. “Call me if you change your mind.”
    Eloise promised that she would. Eloise didn’t think it was an emergency. Or was it?
    She went upstairs to her bedroom to lie down. Her encounter with Nick had drained her. She was tapped into the family in some weird way, and this experience was different than any other she’d had. She didn’t like it. For some reason, as she lay on her bed, it made her think of her first conversation with Agatha.
    • • •
    Agatha had just turned up at her doorstep one day. Eloise had watched as the chauffeur-driven Lincoln Town Car pulled into her driveway. She’d thought, “Oh, God. Now what?”
    Eloise had had a hard couple of weeks as she approached the second anniversary of Alfie’s and Emily’s passings. She’d been inundated with requests after she led The Hollows PD to Tommy Delano in her first high-profile case. She had no idea how to manage any of it. Amanda had been acting out, doing poorly in school. And Eloise’s visions were coming hard and furious, but she had no way to make sense of them. She was frazzled, confused, not dealing with things very well at all. She would get Amanda off to school in the mornings, come home, and then get into bed with the blinds drawn, the phone unplugged. She had stopped answering the door altogether. It was Eloise’s first bout with depression. She had no energy reserves to fight off the darkness. Would it swallow her whole?
    Eloise hadn’t answered right away when Agatha rang her doorbell, hoping the woman would just leave. But then she began to knock, gently but insistent.
    “Ms. Montgomery,” Agatha called through the door finally. “I know you’re in there. I can feel your despair. I’m here to help you, dear.”
    Eloise had leaned against the other side of the door and was overcome by a powerful wave of relief, that same blessed feeling that comes when a migraine disappears. She’d opened the door a crack, and the older woman smiled at her.
    “I don’t want anything from you,” said Agatha. “I promise I just want to help you find your way.”
    “Why?” asked Eloise. She was suspicious now of everyone. She’d never been that way before. “Why do you want to help me?”
    “Why do you do the things you do?” Agatha had asked. “This is our calling, to help the people who need us. For better or worse, this is our thing. You know that, I think. You can feel me, can’t you?”
    Eloise could feel her. Agatha’s power was enormous. It swept in with her as she entered and filled the house. She jingled, smelled of flowers. Her clothes flowed around her when she walked. Eloise showed her into the living room and offered her a drink, which Agatha declined.
    “So where does it