When the vision ends, I rub my lower back and inspect it as if expecting to see a cut from the knife. I can’t seem to get my brain to understand that what I experience in a vision isn’t real. I take a few deep breaths to compose myself before opening the door and exiting the restroom. Mitchell is waiting directly outside, and I nearly bump right into him.
“Jeez.” I glare at him as I walk over to the water fountain.
“Sorry. I was guarding the door, though. Some people started to arrive.” He motions to the cars in the parking lot across the park. “How did it go?”
“She was jumped from behind. The guy came out of a stall while she was drying her hands. He held a knife to her back.”
“Did you see who attacked her?”
“No. I witnessed the vision from Sky’s perspective, and like I said, she was attacked from behind.”
“Did you get a sense that she knew the guy, though?”
“I couldn’t tell. Sorry.” I start walking toward Mitchell’s Explorer.
“Would you stop apologizing? You’re the only one keeping these cases moving forward.”
“Am I though? Maggie’s been missing for days. We have no new information about who took her. And now we can add two more women to the list. I’m not getting anywhere, and the missing persons just keep piling up.” My chest is heaving. The pressure of this case is nearly crushing me. “I don’t want to add three more names to the list of people I couldn’t save.”
Mitchell stops walking and grabs my arm. “I don’t like losing people either. We’re doing everything we can. Let’s go back to the office and hope your dad found some connection between all three women. And if that connection turns out to be Christopher Ackerman, I’ll find some reason to detain him. At least then if the kidnappings stop, we’ll know we’ve got our guy.”
Except I don’t think Ackerman did this. I haven’t gotten a sense of this person at all. Each assault was different, and that’s totally screwing me up.
“No connection to Ackerman,” Dad says the second we walk into the office. “The women don’t seem to have any connection to each other either.”
“Nothing matches up. I’ve never seen a serial abductor who didn’t stick to any sort of pattern. Even the women he took couldn’t be more different.” Mitchell rubs the two-day scruff on his chin as he takes a seat opposite my desk.
“Not to mention the method of kidnapping,” Dad adds. “Blunt object to the head, chloroform, and the knife.” We filled him in on my vision on the way to the office. He looks expectantly at me. “We could really use your insight on this one.”
Mitchell smirks, and I brace myself for the awful saying he’s about to spew on the room. “Yeah, drastic crimes call for drastic insights.”
“Seriously, you need to stop doing that. No one but you thinks you’re funny.” I roll my eyes and sip the last of my coffee.
“Not true. Marcia laughs at my jokes.”
“Marcia is nice to everyone. Don’t for a second think her laughter is genuine. She probably thinks she has to laugh at your pathetic jokes since you’re always leaving her huge tips.”
“She deserves those tips. I’ve seen the way she takes care of you.” There’s an implied “Lord knows you can’t take care of yourself” attached to Mitchell’s comment.
“If you two are finished, can we focus on the case, please?” Dad huffs and shuffles through the files on his desk, which is plenty big enough to display about ten case files and still have room for his laptop. Not that I’m bitter or anything that he takes up more of my office than I do when I’m the one who started the PI business.
“There has to be a reason why these women in particular were targeted,” Dad continues. “What aren’t we seeing?” He lays three pictures out in a row.
“Maybe he just hates women,” Mitchell says.
I glare at him. “That’s your answer? They’re all women, so he hates women in general?”
“Why is it always two steps forward, three steps back with you? I thought we were past the bitterness and actually on friendly terms.” Mitchell crosses his arms in front of his chest.
“Are we here to discuss our feelings or solve a case? You should know me by now. If you’re failing at your job, I’m going to call you out on it because what you do affects my reputation.” And Lord knows I’ve struggled to keep a positive reputation. Most people look at me as a hack. They think I’m good at using deductive reasoning and pretend to have these psychic abilities. Even after they witness me reading objects.
“Piper,” Dad says, “where is all this anger coming from? This isn’t like you.”
“Yeah, I’m used to your sarcasm, but you’re bordering on...”
I wag a finger at him. “I dare you to say ‘bitchy.’ Go ahead. See what will happen.”
“See. That. What is up with you?” Mitchell asks, getting up and walking across the office as if he doesn’t want to be near me.
I look at Dad. “I don’t know. I’ve felt weird ever since I had that vision at the park. Angry. Really angry.”
“Are you channeling the kidnapper?” Dad asks.
“It’s possible I guess. But if the vision was from Sky’s perspective, why would the kidnapper’s emotions be affecting me?” It doesn’t add up.
“Why don’t you tell us more about the vision itself? What exactly did you see?” Dad places his hand on top of mine on my desk.
I take a deep breath, not allowing myself to get upset that Dad is coddling me when he knows I hate that. “Sky was washing her hands and thinking about some girl named Tamara.”
Mitchell walks over and whips out his pad and pen to take notes. “Tamara. Did she have a last name?”
“Do you often think about people and refer to them by their full names?” I snap.
Mitchell points the cap end of the pen at me. “I know you’re channeling the kidnapper’s anger, so I’m going to let that slide. Go on.”
“Sky was upset that this Tamara person got an office job straight out of college while Sky is left to walk dogs for money.”
“We can look into where Sky went to school and find out who was in her graduating class. Tamara isn’t that common of a name, so we might be able to track her down.”
“No need. Tamara isn’t important to the case.”
Mitchell looks up from his notepad. “What makes you say that?”
“I just know. Tamara is only important as far as Sky being angry because of her.”
“So maybe it is Sky’s emotions you’re tapping into,” Dad says, squeezing my hand.
No. I know it’s not. “Her feelings for Tamara go beyond anger. She’s...”
“Jealous,” Mitchell offers. “Her friend landed the job Sky wanted, and Sky feels inadequate because of it.”
That’s it. “Jealousy.” I nod. “But Sky doesn’t feel inadequate. She legitimately felt that job should have been hers. I get the sense they both interviewed for the position.”
“Okay, but what does this have to do with why Sky would be kidnapped?” Mitchell puts the pad and pen down on my desk. “You’re focused on this, so it has to mean something.”
My visions always mean something, but they can be so damn cryptic.
“Let’s go back to looking at all three women together,” Dad says. He displays the three pictures across his desk. He taps Maggie’s first. “What stands out to you about the visions you had concerning Maggie?”
I reach over and place my hand on her image. “The kidnapper put an apple in her lunch bag and asked if he could tempt her.”
Mitchell holds up a finger. “There was the decaying pomegranate in Carmen’s car.”
“And in my vision, the kidnapper said the ‘aged forbidden fruit’ was still tempting.” My gaze volleys between Carmen’s and Maggie’s pictures.
“Could this guy be targeting women who rejected him?” Mitchell asks. “That could be why he didn’t let any of them see him when he attacked them.”
“That does make sense,” Dad says, “but what about Sky? You didn’t find any fruit at the park, did you?”
I slam my hand against my forehead. “How could I be so stupid? I didn’t even think to look, yet I’ve questioned the fruit being important all along.” I get up, grabbing my jacket from the back of my chair. “Let’s go. We need to get back to that park and check for fruit in the restroom.”
Mitchell stands up, but he shakes his head. “The entire park looked like it had just been cleaned. I doubt the trash would still be there if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“You’re right. Damn it. That bathroom was cleaned before we got there this morning.” A thought pops into my head. “If only we knew who found the dogs and untied them from the water fountain.”
“Does the change in topic mean you don’t think any fruit was left in the restroom?” Mitchell asks, slipping into his jacket.
As soon as he poses the question, I know the answer. “My senses say no.”
“Okay, why don’t you two head back to the park? See if any maintenance people are around and if any of them remember cleaning up fruit in or around the restroom,” Dad suggests. “See if anyone saw who untied the dogs, too. I’ll keep trying to find a connection between the three women.”
“Good thinking, Dad.” I wave to him before heading out.
Mitchell breaks just about every traffic law to get to the park. Time isn’t on our side, though. This kidnapper is abducting women at an alarming rate. Sky could be dead by this time tomorrow and that would free the kidnapper up to take another woman.
Or man.
“That’s weird,” I say as we pull into the park.
“What is?” Mitchell looks around, assuming I saw something.
“I just had a thought pop into my head. The kidnapper has been focused on women, but that’s going to change.”
Mitchell cuts the engine and turns to face me. “Did you foresee the future?” If he widens his eyes anymore, they might pop right out of his head.
“No. I don’t think so. The kidnapper must have already decided who his next victim is, and it’s a man.”
“Does that mean Sky and the other women are dead?”
A sinking feeling in my gut tells me if they aren’t already, they will be soon. “We need to move. Quickly.”
We get out of the car and head for the restrooms. There are plenty of people at the park now, which isn’t going to make this easier. I look around for signs of maintenance staff, but don’t see any. There’s a group of mothers with their children in the pavilion attached to the restrooms, so I decide to approach them and see if any of them were here yesterday when Sky disappeared.
Mitchell doesn’t ask what my plan is. He just lets me take the lead.
“Excuse me,” I say when we approach the table of women. They stop talking and look up at me. “Hi, I’m Piper Ashwell. I’m a private investigator. And this is Detective Brennan.” I motion to Mitchell. “We’re investigating a missing persons case and were wondering if any of you were here during the day yesterday.”
“Are you saying someone went missing from this park?” The brunette woman at the far end of the table jabs her index finger into the tabletop.
“Unfortunately, yes.” A few moms stand up and start gathering their things. I should have thought about how to best phrase this so I didn’t start a mass panic. “You’re all in a group, which is a good thing. The woman who was abducted was alone in the restroom at the time.”
“It was a woman? Not a child?” a redhead near Mitchell asks.
“That’s correct.”
“Do you know why she was taken?” the redhead adds.
“No, we don’t. But we’re fairly certain the kidnapper is targeting adults, not children.”
“Fairly certain isn’t good enough for me.” The brunette at the other end of the table flings her diaper bag over her shoulder and walks to the sandbox to collect her son. I can’t blame her. I guess I’d react the same way if I had a child. Not that I’ll ever find out.
“Were you here yesterday?” Mitchell asks the redhead.
She nods. “With both of my boys. I homeschool my oldest son. He’s right over there.” She points to the swings where a boy about nine years old is sitting but not swinging. “He doesn’t like coming here. Says it’s too babyish for him. He was excited yesterday when all the dogs were here, though.”
The kid who freed the dogs. “Ma’am, did your son untie those dogs by any chance?”
Her face turns almost as red as her hair. “He’s a handful. I was distracted by my toddler, Freddie, and Jack slipped by me. I think he wanted to walk the dogs. He’s always asking for one, but my husband is allergic.”
“Do you think I could talk to Jack?” I ask. “I promise I’ll make it quick, and I don’t have to tell him it’s for a police investigation. I don’t want to scare him.”
“He’d probably think it was cool. He wants to be a police officer when he grows up.”
This is great. “Is that a yes, then?”
She nods and walks us over to Jack. “Jack, this is...” She pauses, having forgotten our names.
“Piper Ashwell, private investigator, and Detective Brennan with the Weltunkin PD,” I say.
Jack hops off the swing. “Cool.” His face lights up, but then he suddenly looks worried. “Am I in trouble for letting those dogs loose? Are you going to arrest me?”
Mitchell bends down to Jack. “Not at all, champ. In fact, you might be able to help us crack a case. Would you like to try?”
Jack smiles and does a perfect impression of a bobble head doll.
“Great.” Mitchell ruffles his hair.
“Jack, did you see any fruit in the pavilion yesterday?” I ask.
“Fruit? I thought we were talking about the dogs.”
“We are, but we think someone left some fruit behind, too. Do you remember seeing any?”
Jack shakes his head. “There was an onion, though. Right on top of the water fountain. I thought that was weird, especially since it didn’t smell like an onion.”
“An onion?” Mitchell asks. “Are you sure?”
“I think it was a red onion. Mom puts them in our salads. I don’t like them.”
An onion wouldn’t make sense. I wrack my brain for a fruit that looks like a red onion, and snap my fingers when the answer comes to me. “Could it have been a fig?”
“A what?” Jack asks.
“He’s never had one, so he wouldn’t know,” his mother says before rushing over to the sandpit to grab her toddler, who is trying to crawl out of the contained area.
“Did you notice the dogs barking at all?” Mitchell asks.
“Yeah, that’s how I found them. I was over there on the other side of the pavilion. I heard the barking and came to see what it was about.”
“Did you see anyone with the dogs?” I ask.
“No, but they were all turned in the same direction and barking, so I guess whoever made them bark had already left before I got there.”
So the kidnapper put the fig in the water fountain and then took Sky. The dogs were probably barking at both the kidnapper and Sky, since Sky left them.
“Thank you, Jack. You’ve been a big help.”
After thanking the mother too, Mitchell and I start for his Explorer.
“What do apples, figs, and pomegranates have in common other than being fruits?” he asks me.
“Forbidden fruits,” I blurt out without thinking. “There all types of forbidden fruits according to the Bible and Greek mythology.”
“Really? A fig? I don’t remember that from church.”
“Adam and Eve made clothing from fig leaves after they ate from the tree of knowledge and realized they were naked.” I stop walking and grab Mitchell’s arm.
“What is it?”
“This is all just coming to me. Don’t you see?”
“See what?”
“Church. This is all stuff you learn about in church. That’s the connection between the three women. They all attend the same church.”
“You think the kidnapper is someone from their church?”
I nod, equally as horrified by the revelation as Mitchell is.