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To Kate’s relief, Jamie’s bright green suite smelled like coffee. Six in the morning with Jamie and without coffee would have been hell. He sprawled in a red armchair, his hair wild and uncombed, the layer of little braids beginning to frizz. An obese cat sprawled in his lap. Ezra was playing host, greeting people and serving coffee, an acknowledgment that Jamie wasn’t well. The prescription bottle by the glass of juice on the coffee table made it doubly clear.
Kate and Lobo took the spot on the far side of the room where there was the least furniture, by the window looking out on the alley and the A&B Diner. Bernadette, Mae, and the children sat on the couch by the front windows, and Don and Ezra at the pink dining table. Jamie accepted a banana from Ezra, took a bite, swallowed pills with a gulp of juice, took another bite and drank coffee. “That enough for ‘take with food?’ ” he asked Don.
The doctor replied, “Eat the whole thing.”
“Since you’re taking pills for something,” Kate said, “can I ask what you’ve got? Is it contagious?”
Jamie surprised her by standing and doing a little dance with his cat, holding it out by the armpits as if it were a partner and singing “Cat Scratch Fever.” The cat warbled, ears laid back.
“Do you really?” Mae asked.
“Yeah.” Jamie cuddled the disgruntled cat and kissed its head. “Sorry, mate. You’re a good sport.” He sank back into his chair.
“I’m glad that’s all it is.” Mae ended the statement on a questioning up-note.
Bernadette concurred, also with a puzzled tone. Don said nothing. Ezra opened a small plastic box of beads and began threading a new one into a half-finished bracelet. What did these reactions mean? Why didn’t Don and Ezra seem as confused or curious as the others? Maybe they already knew what was wrong and Jamie was actually telling the truth.
“We’ve got half an hour,” Kate said. “Can we get started?”
Reading from notes, Mae told them everything she’d discovered through her psychic work and then shared a few questions. Kate appreciated the preparation and detail. Mae had asked them to meet at this ungodly hour, but at least she was organized.
“The mandalas.” Jamie sat forward. He took a gulp of coffee and clunked the mug onto the table in front of him. “Sierra’s parents were some kind of weird neo-Buddhists. Yeshi said he’s been trying to straighten her out, but he’s not getting through.”
The twins fidgeted. Brook asked, “Can we go outside?”
Stream added, “Can Lobo play?”
Kate had to disappoint them. Tim took Lobo for long walks without her, but he was the only person she trusted that much with her service dog. “I’m sorry. Not without me there. Maybe later.”
Mae opened the curtain behind her and looked out. Across the parking lot at the back of one of the other spa buildings, a violet colored one, Kate could see turquoise, pink, orange, and purple linens on a clothesline. A fit-looking woman in jeans and a Hawaiian shirt, wearing her gray hair in a ponytail, was taking items down and folding them into a laundry basket.
“I reckon it’s okay,” Mae said, “but stay close. I want to be able to see you from here.”
“Yes’m.” The girls darted out the door.
“I’m glad they went,” Don said. “I didn’t want to say this in front of them.” He looked around at the group. “This will sound bizarre, but Sierra might believe the twins are reincarnated demons.”
“You’re kidding. Demons?” Mae frowned, and then her eyes opened wide. “Oh my god. Would she hurt them?” She headed for the door.
“I don’t think so,” Don replied.
Mae paused with her hand on the knob. “But she was yelling at Brook outside of Bullock’s yesterday. It was pretty crazy.”
Ezra offered to go outside with the girls. “If she shows up, I won’t let her near them. You need to talk with everyone.”
“Thank you. And don’t let them get near her. They think it’s funny to call her Mrs. Moo and moo at her.” Mae returned to her place but remained standing, watching out the window. “If you see her, bring them in right that second. We’ll try to wrap this up fast.”
Ezra went out, promising to do as Mae asked.
“I’m so glad he’s here,” Bernadette said. “Okay, let’s figure out some next steps. What can we do today to get more answers?”
Jamie spoke up. “Ask her if there were demon twins on Mu. It’s supposed to be the source of a lot of cultures, right? Most Native cultures have hero twins in their origin myths.”
“Not demon twins,” Bernadette said.
“Yeah, but she’s fucked up, right? Fucked-up anthropology, fucked-up religion, she could think anything.”
Mae briefly took her gaze off the scene outside to look at Jamie. “I got the feeling from my vision of her and Posey that she might be making things up as she goes along. Getting ideas on the spur of the moment. Is it possible she’s faking her whole religion?”
“Nah.” Jamie rolled the banana peel into a neat package, tucking its ends under, and propped it against his glass. “Yeshi wouldn’t have to clear it up for her if she was. Don’t they live together? She couldn’t pull an act all day and all night.”
“Are you sure they live together?” Mae asked.
Kate reviewed her one visit to the house on Quintana Street. Yeshi had been in the kitchen and his dog had been in the yard, but she didn’t really know if he lived there. Tim had acted very much at home in Kate’s house before he moved in. “I think I had living together on my mind when I went to her place. Tim had just moved in with me. I might have jumped to a conclusion.”
“I wonder if they’re even lovers,” Don said. “I never see them touch.”
“They did when I saw them at Bandstand,” Mae said. “They acted like a couple.” She turned to the window again.
“Yeah.” Jamie closed his eyes and let out a sigh. “They could be having some problems now.”
“We’re getting off topic,” Kate said. “We need to do what Bernadette said, figure out things we can do today. And I think what matters most is that we learn how much money Sierra’s been collecting and what she’s doing with it.”
“And if Magda went off her meds for her and is leaving her a bloody fortune,” Jamie added.
Don suggested, “Maybe Rex can get Sierra to talk with him about money.”
Mae nodded. “And maybe Chuck and Daphne could volunteer to help Sierra’s whatever it is—her fund with estate planning. They could find out a lot that way.”
“You don’t think she’s already got that set up?” Kate finished her coffee and glanced toward the pot on the kitchen counter. Though she would have to reach up, the space was accessible. She started to move her chair, but Don was on his feet and took her mug along with his for refills.
“She believes in demons,” he said from the kitchen. “Do you honestly expect she’s that organized?”
“No, but it seems like Yeshi would be,” Kate replied. “He organized this retreat.”
Don brought Kate her mug, set his on the coffee table, and asked if he could get refills for the others. They declined. He sat down. “Is that everything, then? I can go talk to Rex if it is.”
Mae volunteered to talk to the Bradys, but Jamie interrupted. “Better not. They’re in the Red Pelican, and Sierra might see you. Mother of demons, y’know? I’ll go over. And I have a Yeshi session this afternoon. I can ask about him and Sierra.”
“He’ll let you?” Bernadette sounded doubtful. “He’s pleasant enough, but he doesn’t strike me as approachable.”
“Y’think?” Jamie rubbed his head, probing around the roots of a braid. “I never noticed.”
No, he didn’t notice things like that, did he? Kate took a few sips of coffee. “Go right ahead. If anyone can ask nosy questions and act normal about it, it’s you.”
Jamie made a face at her, raising one eyebrow and lowering the other, twisting his mouth to the scowling side. He can’t tell if that was an insult or a compliment. She smiled at him. “I’ll see if I can hang out with Leon, get him to open up to me.”
Jamie snorted. “Yeah, you’re so good at that.”
He had a point. She might need Bernadette along.
Mae promised to do more psychic work later that morning, and the group began to break up. Mae was the first out the door. Though of course she had the children to think of, the quick departure didn’t look like a good sign for her love life. She and Jamie had been no more affectionate than Yeshi and Sierra were. Bernadette stayed with Jamie, saying she would clean up. He protested that he could wash a few mugs, but thanked her as she took them to the kitchen.
Thinking the girls and Lobo might enjoy some playtime, Kate joined Mae outside, where the twins, with Ezra hovering like a bashful bodyguard, were chatting with the housekeeper at the clothesline.
“She has a golf cart, Mama,” Stream declared.
“There are so many parts to this spa,” the woman explained, “sometimes it’s easier to load it up and drive over to do the rooms. I hate to disappoint you, young ladies, but I don’t drive it this early. I can’t change people’s sheets while they’re sleeping in them.”
“Can we come back and help you drive it later?”
The woman offered Mae a hand to shake. “I’m Barb.” Mae introduced herself, and Barb continued, “I’ve been enjoying your girls. But I don’t think my boss would like them driving.”
“That’s okay. I don’t want them to drive.” Mae looked down at the twins and stroked their heads. “Thank Miss Barb for her time.”
They did as she asked. Barb took her basket into the violet-colored building, and Kate told the twins they could play with Lobo. The girls checked with Mae for permission, then Kate let her dog loose and tossed the tennis ball from her bag. Running with him, the twins began a game.
“Thanks,” Mae said. “And thanks for getting up this early. I think Ezra and I are the only people in this group who really like to be up at the crack of dawn.”
He’d made himself so invisible, Kate was a little surprised when Ezra spoke. “I like running in the morning,” he said. “I’ll go with Refugio and Misty later, but it’s not spiritually the same as sunrise.”
Kate asked him, “What do you think of all this so far, spiritually?”
Ezra tucked his chin and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m not an expert on things like that. I’m just here to learn stuff.”
“But you can have an opinion.”
He picked up a clothespin from the dirt and clipped it on the line. “Not really. I just got here. But I had a dream about Ms. Stein last night. Would that be useful?”
Kate and Mae both said “yes” at the same time.
“It was kind of sad. She was in a hospital bed with oxygen tubes in her nose, and there was a younger lady sitting with her, showing her some pictures. I didn’t think she was a relative. She was acting more business-like.”
Kate described Sierra. “Was that her?”
“Yes. She wasn’t actually in the room with Ms. Stein. I don’t know how to explain it. She was there, but she was outdoors somewhere at the same time, at the place in the pictures. It looked like one of those ghost towns around here, with the house falling down and everything.”
“There are ghost towns?” How did Kate not know this? She and Tim needed to get out of Santa Fe more often. “Where?”
Mae kept her focus on the children and Lobo scampering back and forth. “All over Sierra County. Old nineteenth-century mining towns.”
“We’re in Sierra County?”
“Funny, I noticed that coincidence, too, when I saw Sierra’s childhood—shoot. Ezra. That dream. Was it a small house? Might have been painted red once? Were there three steps to the front door? A fenced place to the left of the yard that might have been a garden once?”
As she progressed through her questions, he nodded, agreeing with each detail of the description.
“I think she’s from around here,” Mae said, looking at Kate and Ezra. “Her parents could have named her for Sierra County. Maybe she wants to buy back their old farm with Magda’s money. To start the retreat center.”
Ezra drew his head back. “In that rundown place?”
Kate seconded his doubt. “Why? There’s a big Tibetan community in Santa Fe, and people with money to spend on alternative healing.”
“We have a Tibetan meditation center here,” Mae said.
“And I bet that’s all the area can support. Your town’s pretty small and it’s in the middle of nowhere.”
“It is. But people travel to retreat centers and ashrams that are out in the middle of nowhere. Isn’t that part of the appeal?”
Kate tried to picture Yeshi buying a rundown, abandoned farm in the desert for his retreat center. She couldn’t. “You haven’t met Yeshi. He strikes me as down-to-earth and practical. I can’t see him buying a place they’d just have to tear down.”
“He might if she asked him to. But I wonder why Sierra would want her old home back. I didn’t get the feeling she was happy there.”
Jamie emerged from his suite, heading toward the Red Pelican, and Kate checked the time. They had to break off the discussion, as the retreat’s morning session was due to begin.
On entering the Loft, she noted that Sierra was conspicuously absent. Kate asked about her, and Yeshi only shrugged, saying, “Perhaps later.” Kate was both relieved and frustrated. Most of the plans they had made that morning were based on the assumption that Sierra would be around.
Yeshi sat on the corner of the bed and translated some of the mantras Jamie would be chanting. Once again, Jamie’s voice had a transcendent effect on Kate, which faded as Yeshi guided a long meditation. She was restless but drowsy by the time he started his lecture on the fundamentals of Tibetan medicine.
Kate moved her chair to park between Bernadette, who sat on a cushion on the floor taking notes as always, and Jamie, who had sunk deep into the couch beside Chuck and Daphne Brady. Reading over Bernadette’s shoulder could be informative, and Jamie might be distracting enough to keep Kate awake.
Yeshi began with a review of the three nyepa, or systems—lung or wind, tripa or bile, and badken or phlegm—and their interactions with the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space. Now Kate better understood the advice he’d given her, and noticed Bernadette had written, “consistent, accurate.” In other words, not Sierra-like. Yeshi explained that his wasn’t a disease-oriented model of medicine, and that a healthy lifestyle was often the most beneficial treatment.
Jamie muttered, “Healthy lifestyle,” under his breath with unmistakable sarcasm, and Posey, on a cushion near his feet, gave him a disapproving look. Kate moved her chair closer to Jamie and nudged him. He whispered, “Sierra eats cheeseburgers.”
Kate doubted Yeshi approved, not after what he’d told her to eat. The Tibetan doctor’s subtle straightening betrayed that he’d overheard, but he continued, saying that spiritual and behavioral changes would address the root cause of conditions. Massage and mantras were most helpful. Herbs, acupuncture, and medicines weren’t always needed.
Sierra’s core supporters didn’t like to take medicine. Was he building up to a solicitation for the retreat center?
Bernadette nodded as she wrote: effective preventive health care. Maybe Yeshi was telling the truth about Tibetan medicine, not making a sales pitch, but he and Sierra had to be influencing each other and agreeing on ideas. Otherwise, how could they be working together?
Kate thought she detected traces of Sierra when Yeshi mentioned something called Dzog Chen, self- liberation of samsara nirvana. Between his use of Tibetan and Sanskrit, she didn’t quite understand it, but “self-liberation” echoed the support group’s lingo of getting free of self-stories.
As Yeshi’s lecture progressed, he mentioned that his training included the study of death omens. Jamie let out a soft, “Bloody hell,” and interrupted to ask, “You actually tell people if you see one?”
The Tibetan doctor smiled. “Only if they ask. I do not think it is healthy to frighten people.”
“Then you should—”
Kate put a hand on Jamie’s arm, in the same the way Tim sometimes reminded her to chill out when she was losing her cool. Yeshi resumed his talk, and Jamie hissed in Kate’s ear, “He should remind Sierra about that. She told her soul group we could all die if we don’t do what she wants.”
That was one hell of a way to manipulate people who were trying to heal themselves. Kate had been looking for evidence of collaboration, but Sierra appeared to be acting without Yeshi’s approval. As a team, they made less and less sense.
After the talk ended, Posey nervously announced that she’d received a psychic message from Sierra and would, at her request, be running the soul group meeting. Kate caught Jamie’s skeptical eye roll and mimed texting. He nodded.
The caterers delivered a light vegetarian meal. Since Don had said Yeshi’s tripa diet could be good for her, Kate let Jamie serve her a plateful of the unsatisfying stuff, and then felt obligated to endure his random small talk as he poked at a fruit salad, going on about how kiwi fruit made his tongue feel funny, the best way to core and peel a pineapple, and other fruit-related trivia. Annoying though it was, perhaps his chatter meant he was feeling better.
Leon stood beside the breakfast bar, his long thin arms folded over his narrow chest, his eyes fixed on Yeshi, apparently waiting to speak to him, but Yeshi was busy talking with several participants about the qualities of the various foods in terms of the three nyepa. Leon finally walked off with small, rapid steps toward the second bed. Kate finished her meal quickly and followed him. This was one aspect of the plan that didn’t require Sierra’s presence.
“What’s the matter?” she asked. As soon as she spoke, she remembered that she’d meant to be diplomatic and to have Bernadette with her. Had she been too abrupt?
Leon didn’t seem to mind her question. He removed a yoga mat from the stack between the bed and the far wall and unrolled it on the floor. “We need to do the Tibetan yoga. It’s part of our self-healing. Doesn’t Yeshi realize that? How could he skip it?”
“I don’t know. It does seem odd, now that you mention it. Don’t he and Sierra work closely together?”
“They say they do.” Leon sniffed. “But she’s the real spiritual teacher. He’s just a glorified massage therapist.”
Kate disagreed but held her tongue. “She does come across as more of a mystic. Is it normal for her to send psychic messages to people?”
He sat on the bed to remove his shoes, fumbling with the Velcro closures. Was he upset, or were his symptoms worse than she’d realized? Maybe he’d suspected what Kate and Jamie had, that Posey was lying.
Kate prodded. “Did that upset you? Sierra contacting Posey that way?”
“She chose Posey.” He looked away. “Posey was healed. I haven’t been. Excuse me. I still have to work on myself.”
With grim dignity, he rose and began to spin slowly, hesitating after every few turns. Kate and Lobo moved out of his way. Afraid he could fall, she watched him, though there was little she could do to catch him if he did.
Leon had sounded aggrieved that Posey was healed. Posey, who had never been sick. She’d been stuck in a sick role, and was stuck in an outmoded feminine role as well, along with a saccharine pseudo-spirituality. She could probably be persuaded to do anything. To believe she was healed, or play the role of being healed, and now, conduct a soul group gathering.
To Kate’s relief, Leon didn’t spin as long as Sierra had the previous days, and he descended to his mat to begin the repetitions of the more yoga-like moves. Her phone buzzed and she checked the screen. The text message came from an unfamiliar number with a 505 area code. Northern New Mexico.
Did you bring your Tarot cards with you? I need a fortune told.
Strange. What person with a 505 number knew she was in T or C but wasn’t in the room to talk to her? Sierra? It had to be. Posey could have given her Kate’s number.
Kate replied, Yes. Why did Sierra want to know her future?
Meet me at Passion Pie Café ASAP. Don’t tell anyone. Come alone.
What a line. Sierra must have seen a few too many movies. Did she really think Kate wouldn’t tell anyone? On her way out, she showed the message to Bernadette and then to Jamie. He told her where the coffee shop was, just a few blocks up Main Street, and that the barista was his friend, Misty Chino. “Her boyfriend brought Ezra here. She’s one of the skateboarders who saw Magda fall. She called 911. They’re both fans of Magda’s books. If you need anything, Misty can help.”
Kate couldn’t imagine why she would need a backup person, but she thanked Jamie for the information and left.
Upon entering the busy café, Kate spotted Sierra hunched over her phone at a small square table near the counter. The table itself drew Kate’s attention. Its surface was a black, white, and gray abstract design that reminded her of a Navajo rug. Many of the tabletops were works of art, and paintings for sale hung on the wall. An old blues song played through speakers at just the right volume to set a mood. As Kate approached, a middle-aged woman wearing a suit, a misfit in the casually dressed crowd, was just rising from Sierra’s table. The woman leaned down and said something Kate didn’t make out. Sierra frowned and nodded, and her companion wove between the tables to exit.
An athletically built young woman, presumably Jamie’s friend Misty, removed a chair from Sierra’s table as Kate pulled up. Sierra resumed tapping steadily on her phone. A half-finished breakfast of waffles and bacon sat by her elbow. Kate wished she hadn’t eaten the healthy food already.
“I usually take orders and money at the counter,” said Misty, “but since I’m here, what can I get you?”
Kate ordered chai tea and gave her cash. The barista departed and Sierra, still doing something on her phone, asked, “How did the morning sessions go?”
“Really well.” Kate couldn’t resist needling her. “Probably the best day yet. Yeshi did a great lecture. I learned a lot. I guess he didn’t need you this morning. Gave you the day off.”
“I do what I want. I’m volunteering. I don’t work for Yeshi.”
Interesting. “Leon missed you. He wanted you to lead the Tibetan yoga. I got the feeling he was kind of annoyed that he had to do it on his own.”
“Well, at least he’s committed. Not fighting the work. Have you been visualizing the yoga?”
Kate had forgotten she’d said she would do that. Lies were hard to keep track of, so she made her answer as honest as possible. “It felt like a waste of time.”
“You’re afraid of moving forward.” Sierra shook her head, regarding Kate sadly. “You’re so invested in your self-stories, I doubt you’ll ever get anywhere with self-healing.”
“But Leon will?”
“He may have to move into a parallel life to do it, but yes.”
“A what?”
“A parallel life. We can share souls and lives without being full co-souls. Didn’t you listen to what I said about the bodhisattva? What Yeshi said about the Medicine Buddha?”
“I didn’t get that out of it at all. I thought that was about healing and compassion.”
“And about the nature of reality. You’re not really a spiritual person, are you?”
“Maybe not by your standards. But apparently Posey thought I was a competent fortune teller, since you called me.”
“Yes.” Sierra tapped on her phone, frowning. “I need an ... indicator. How something will go. A Tarot reading would do that, right?”
“It can. Do you want your palm read, also? I’d charge only two thirds of my usual fee since I don’t have the ball.”
“No, I don’t want my palm read. This isn’t about me.” Sierra resumed eating, finally putting her phone down. Its screen showed she’d been using its calculator function. She glared at Kate. “And I’m not paying you. This is part of your karmic healing, your work in my support group. We help each other out. I didn’t charge you for that, did I?”
Kate tried to read the screen upside-down. It showed some large numbers. In the thousands. “Yeshi is charging for this retreat.”
“Well, that’s Yeshi. It’s not me.” Sierra, observant for a change, turned her phone over and took another bite of bacon. The sleeve of her sweater had bits of dried vegetation stuck to it, as if she’d been through some weeds or bushes. In Ezra’s dream, she had been outdoors at her old home and yet in Magda’s room at the same time. “You’re going to help me because I can help you.”
“With my dolphin karma?”
“Don’t mock it. I know what I see in you, and it’s dragging your body down with your soul.”
It took all of Kate’s self-control not to lose her temper. She knew she didn’t sound convinced, gritting out a stiff “Okay,” but as far as she could tell, it didn’t require much acting skill to flatter Sierra’s ego. “Maybe you can help me. So, I’ll help you.” She put her Tarot deck in front of Sierra, telling her to cut and shuffle it. “Posey should have let you know I can’t tell you someone else’s future. What kind of question is this, since it’s not about you?”
Sierra fumbled the shuffling. “I can’t tell you. I just need a sign.”
With such a vague question, Kate saw no point in giving Sierra a full reading, especially for free. “For that, just pull a card.”
Sierra scrunched her face up like a child making a birthday wish, drew a card, and handed it to Kate.
Holy shit. The three of swords, the one Posey had drawn for her past, was the sign for Sierra’s future. Kate laid it on the table. “You should look at this.”
Sierra studied the heart pierced with three swords. Her eyes narrowed as she sucked in her breath.
Kate was intrigued. She hadn’t even explained it yet. “Do you know the Tarot?”
“I don’t need to.” Sierra shoveled a final bite of waffle into her mouth, stuffed her phone into her purse, and took it with her to the counter. Misty was busy with a customer, and Sierra began talking to the next person in line. Then she hurried to the restroom, pulling her phone back out again. Sending Posey another psychic message?
Misty delivered Kate’s tea, and Kate asked her if she’d heard what Sierra had been talking about.
“She asked for directions to the hospital.” Misty looked down at the card. “Whoa. That looks bad.”
“Sierra drew that card for some sort of indicator. And then she got up and asked for directions.”
“Maybe she thought the card was about a heart attack or heart surgery. Like, it could be about Magda Stein.”
As familiar as Kate was with the cards’ deeper meanings, she had overlooked the obvious. “I should have thought of that. Sierra does take symbols literally.” Kate tried to connect Sierra’s reaction to the card with the secret question for which she had sought an answer. Did it relate to crunching big numbers and meeting with a woman in a suit? “Do you know the woman who was with her when I came in?”
“Not really. She’s a realtor. Suzie somebody.”
Half-formed ideas collided in Kate’s mind. Ezra’s dream. Mae’s vision. The retreat center. Money. Magda. Something was about to happen.
Sierra returned to the table, snatched the three of swords, and hastened out the door.