Sage pounded on the dream whisperer’s door. The sign read “By Appointment Only,” and it looked dark inside, but he hammered anyway.
“Can I help you?”
Sage looked around and saw that the voice belonged to a man in a business suit, standing near the bottom of the stairs. It was the dream whisperer’s neighbor. The lawyer whose office was below hers.
“I’m looking for the dream whisperer,” Sage said.
“Did you have a nightmare?” the lawyer asked with a chuckle.
I’m living in a nightmare, Sage thought, but he shook his head.
“It’s about an important matter.” Sage ran down the stairs. “Do you know where I can find her?”
“If she’s not there, no,” the lawyer said. “She must be out somewhere. Oh, but I think she did have some family visiting from out of town.”
Family? As far as Sage knew, the only family Jade had alive was Rick. Could he have come here to visit her? What if he had come to finish what he started all those years ago when he murdered Lily? Sage glanced back at the dark door of the dream whisperer’s building. No, he was jumping to conclusions. He didn’t even know for sure if Jade was the dream whisperer.
“What’s her name?” Sage demanded.
The lawyer blinked in surprise.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch who you were.”
Sage pulled his badge from his pocket and flashed it at the lawyer.
“Her name’s Phelicity,” he said. “Phelicity Green.”
He took out a pad and pen and had the lawyer spell it for him.
Sage’s hopes sank. He found himself at another dead end. He thanked the lawyer for his time and started to walk back to his car.
Phelicity Green. What the hell kind of name was Phelicity anyway? It sounded like the name of someone who would choose “dream whisperer” as their occupation. In fact it sounded exactly like the sort of name that someone who considered themself a dream whisperer would choose for a name. He stopped and spun around. The lawyer pushed his now unlocked office door open.
“Do you know if that’s her real name?” Sage shouted.
“Pardon?” the lawyer said, even though he had clearly heard Sage’s words.
“Is Phelicity Green her real name?”
“It’s her legal name,” the lawyer said.
“What’s her real name?” Sage asked.
“By real, do you mean—”
“What’s the name she was born with?” Sage demanded. His patience was wearing thin.
“Jade Esposito,” the lawyer said softly, and Sage felt a current of happiness run through him. He had found her! Well, sort of. It would have been a bit more of a thrill if she had actually been there. “You can’t blame her,” the lawyer said.
“Blame her for what?” Sage trembled with excitement for what the lawyer was about to say, or maybe it was the shakes from sleep deprivation.
“For changing her name, of course,” the lawyer said. “I mean she couldn’t exactly walk around this town with a name like Jade Esposito, could she? She would never have any peace. It would be like having your name on a wanted poster.”
The tremble changed to a flash of recollection that rattled his whole head.
The wanted poster. That was where he had seen that man who walked into the police station earlier. He was the guy from the psychic girl’s sketch artist drawing.
Even as he thought this, he could see how it made no sense. That drawing was from nineteen years ago, but he didn’t have time to worry about that.