A Finder's Fee Read Free

Orleans to help find Dae.”
    Ann stared at Shayla, nearly her polar opposite. Her lips compressed into a thin, white line. “I don’t think we need any mumbo jumbo to find Dae. Thanks anyway. She’s lost in a powerful psychic hold that developed from a necklace she received. We have to find it and take it from her. Then we’ll have to hope she’s still normal. You never know what the aftermath of something like this will be.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shayla said. “But you need to stay out of my way. We can handle this fine without the likes of you.”
    Ann put her hands into the pockets of her gray slacks as though to keep from hurting the other woman—which she was fully capable of doing. “Dae and I have a significant connection. I don’t understand it but I know it’s there. I know what happened to her, and I know how to find her.”
    Shayla’s dark eyes flashed in Ann’s direction. “
A significant connection?
You mean after you almost ripped her head off? I’m sure Dae will want
you
to find her.”
    “Ladies!” Kevin returned from the kitchen with a tray of chocolate chip cookies. He began pouring coffee into cups and passing them around. “I agree there’s something odd going on, but fighting about who’s going to do what won’t help. We have to work together.”
    “You only need me and Gram,” Shayla defiantly stated.
    “Betsy and I can find her. I know you don’t understand.” Ann glared at Shayla. “But this is science. You know about science, right? They teach that here?”
    “Please!” Trudy took Tim’s hand in hers without realizing it (to his delight and consternation). “We need to work together, like Kevin said, so we can find her. We all care about her or we wouldn’t be here.”
    No one disagreed with Trudy’s outburst. They drank their coffee while exchanging angry scowls at each other anyway.
    Trudy sat down, hoping everyone would think her flushed cheeks were from the fire and not her agitation. Tim squeezed her hand and smiled at her.
    Kevin pulled out the old whiteboard he used in the kitchen so the staff would know what was on the menu while they were working. He was a tall man, over six feet, with broad shoulders and a disciplined physique he still maintained from his time in the military. He was hard in many ways from the life he’d led, and still prone to make snap judgments based on what his FBI training told him was right.
    Being with Dae, and looking after his guests at the Blue Whale, had softened him during the time he’d spent in Duck. He didn’t regret it. That other life was over. He didn’t want to be that suspicious, paranoid person anymore.
    “We know Dae left abruptly three days ago.” He wrote the information on the board as he would have when he’d worked for the government—only this time he had to erase last night’s main course and dessert first. “Ann and Betsy received a psychic flash at that time. They both saw her taking an amber necklace out of a wooden box. She was getting ready to put it on.”
    “The necklace is imbued with heavy psychic energy.” Ann relaxed a little in the more familiar format Kevin had presented. She knew how to do this.
    “Where did the necklace come from?” Shayla asked. “She didn’t say anything to me about it.”
    “I think it had recently been delivered to her. Putting it on was probably a spur-of-the-moment decision,” Kevin said. “I found the box in her shop. It was from Dae’s father. Ann drew a picture of the antique necklace from what she saw in her vision and after she’d touched the box. However, she couldn’t pick up anything regarding Dae’s whereabouts.”
    “Let me see the box.” Shayla took it from him. She closed her eyes and concentrated, but she was a medium, not a finder of lost things, like Dae and Ann. She was good at talking to spirits but not at communicating with inanimate objects. “I’m not getting anything.”
    “You had to sense the