Eve Snow Psychic PI: The Case of the Secret Admirer 1 (3 page)

EXACTLY ONE HOUR later, Eve and Hunter were inside the morgue area waiting for Chad to arrive. Having familiarized Skylar with where everything that she might need was located, they told her they would check back in shortly. She was so involved in the computer that she barely acknowledged their farewell with just a nod of her head. They had left her with their cell phone numbers along with strict instructions to call them in the case of emergencies or if she just had a rather important question. After all, they were leaving her on her own immediately after hiring her.

Finally, Chad burst through the front double doors and headed straight for them. Shaking Hunter’s hand and giving Eve a quick hug in greeting, he motioned for them to follow him through another set of doors. These doors led to the back part of the morgue where bodies were stored and autopsies were conducted. It also held the viewing area where family members or close friends could identify bodies with some modicum of privacy and dignity.

Eve was kind of hoping that body viewing wasn’t something that they were going to be doing today. She had done it in the past on more than one occasion, but it was never at the top of her list of favorite things to do. Therefore, she was more than a little relieved when Chad led them into the area that housed the offices of the ME and her assistants.

Stopping at a closed door that had the words “Dr. Irina Novak” on it, he rapped quickly. A voice from within called to them to enter.

Sitting in a rather small room on the other side of a desk was an attractive woman with a small stature and wild, dark red hair. A pair of glasses perched on her nose and she looked up at them with moss green eyes. Her mouth was almost heart-shaped and looked as if she were pouting even when she wasn’t. There was also a no-nonsense attitude about her that people rarely missed in their dealings with Irina. She was damn good at her job as the Medical Examiner and she knew it.

Eve and Irina had met on a few occasions in the past. They had a mutual respect for each other even if that didn’t exactly extend to a genuine friendship. It was almost as if they were still sizing each other up in a more personal way.

“Hello, Detective, Eve,” Irina said as she stared at Hunter.

“Thanks for seeing us, Doc,” Chad said. “This is Hunter Vale, Eve’s partner.”

“Ah, hello, Mr. Vale,” Irina said.

“Please call me Hunter,” he said.

“Of course, Hunter,” she smiled slightly.

“Can you go into more detail about what you found with Sara Cranston?” Chad asked Irina.

“Yes, of course,” she replied, as she picked up a file from her desk. “Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll try to explain this to you.”

Eve and Hunter settled on a leather couch and Chad sat in a chair that was on the other side of Irina’s desk. They all looked at her expectantly.

“Okay,” she began. “How much do you know about poisonous spiders?”

“Well, not a lot,” Eve piped up first. “I know that the brown recluse, black widow, and tarantula are supposed to be pretty dangerous.”

“Yes, well those are all spiders to stay away from, but the ones I’m talking about are the truly deadly ones. These are the spiders that we don’t hear that much about because they’re either very rare or they aren’t found in the U.S.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that there are some pretty nasty tropical spiders,” Hunter offered.

“Have any of you ever heard of the Australian Funnel Web Spider?” Irina asked her captive audience.

Everyone agreed that they had never heard of the spider.

“I thought as much,” Irina said. “To be honest, I wasn’t all that familiar with it, either. There’s a reason for that, too. The Australian Funnel Web Spider isn’t normally found in the United States, hence the name Australian Funnel Web Spider. It is considered to be one of the, if not THE, most deadly spider in existence.”

“That’s all very interesting and pretty damn frightening, Irina,” Eve commented. “But what does that have to do with Sara’s death?”

“It has everything to do with Ms. Cranston’s death,” Irina replied. “It is the bite of the Australian Funnel Web Spider that killed her.”

“How in the hell could that have happened?” Hunter asked.

“Well, that would be the interesting part,” Irina said as she pushed her glasses back up onto her nose.

Looking at the file more closely, she gave them a short rundown on what happens when someone is bitten by this spider. By the time she had finished, Chad, Eve, and Hunter all looked a bit ill. They were imagining what poor Sara had endured up to the point when the poison had claimed her life.

“How would one of these spiders that is native to Australia get into Sara’s house?” Chad asked.

“I would hazard a guess that someone acquired this creature in some way and then went about raising it. If the spider was startled or hungry or both, it’s a good assumption that it would attack. This bite appears to be larger and more vicious than most of the ones showing up in the research that I’ve done on this.”

“What else do you know so far, Doc?” Chad asked.

“Well, I do know for sure that it is the bite of this spider. It may sadden you to hear this, Eve and Hunter, as you knew the victim, but Ms. Cranston died a very painful death. The only positive here is that, while not instantaneous, her suffering most likely didn’t last very long. Detective, am I to assume that the spider was not found on the premises of the death?” Irina asked.

“Yeah, that’s right, Doc,” Chad replied. “Forensics was all over the house and didn’t come up with a spider, weird or otherwise.”

“In that case, you may want to send a team back in now that we know what we’re looking for,” Irina said. “It’s possible that it’s hiding. I hate to think of this thing on the loose.”

“Agreed,” Chad said. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that and have another team comb the house for this spider. Most likely, specialists in deadly insects will be sent in because I doubt that many people on our Forensics team will know much about how to handle a spider this deadly.”

“If you need anything from me, Detective, just let me know,” Irina offered. “I’m happy to expand on what I’ve already printed up about this spider. Please reiterate just how important it is to exercise care. This spider is deadly. Ms. Cranston’s body leaves no room for dispute on that point.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Chad said. “Thanks so much for your time, Doc. We’ll get out of your way for now. Let me know if you get anything else important.”

“Will do, Detective,” Irina said. “It was nice seeing you again, Eve, and meeting you, Hunter.”

“It was, Irina,” Eve said. “Hopefully, one day we can see each other outside of this place.”

“That would be wonderful,” Irina replied with a smile.

“Nice meeting you, Doctor,” Hunter said as he got up to take his leave.

“Oh, please, call me Irina,” she said.

“Irina, then,” Hunter said, as he shook her hand.

As the three of them headed back out of the building to the parking lot, the shock was still very palpable among them. Lost in their own individual thoughts, there was also an air of horror. Eve was the first to speak.

“Chad, can you get me inside of Sara’s house?” she asked.

“Sure, I can do that,” he said. “But probably not until Forensics has gone over it again. That spider is certainly nothing to take lightly.”

“Oh, I couldn’t agree more,” Eve said. “The problem is that the energy won’t be as strong after they go through. I need to go there as soon as possible if I’m going to pick up anything useful.”

“I hate to hear that, Eve, and I wish I could help you but, after what the Doc said, I can’t put you at risk that way.”

“But, Chad, I thought you wanted my help.”

“And I do, Evie,” he replied. “But not at the risk of you getting hurt or worse.”

“I see,” she said in a defeated tone.

Hunter cut his eyes over to her sharply. This was Eve giving in? He highly doubted it but he waited to see what would come.

“Look, I’ll get you inside the house just as soon as Forensics clears out and deems it safe for humans, okay? It’s really the best I can do.”

“Sure, Chad, I get it,” Evie said. “Just don’t say I didn’t warn you about the low energy threshold.”

“I know you’ll do your best, Evie,” Chad said as he patted her on the back. “Now, I’ve got to get back to the station. But I’ll call you as soon as the house is cleared.”

“Okay, thanks, Chad,” Eve said as she waved goodbye.

Once they were out of earshot, Eve turned to Hunter.

“We’ve got to hurry because we’ve probably only got about an hour or so before the Forensics team shows up at Sara’s house,” she said.

“What do you mean we’ve got to hurry?”

“Oh, don’t pretend that you didn’t know this was coming,” she said. “I truly don’t feel that the spider is still anywhere near Sara’s house. All I want to do is get in there while there’s some of her energy left so that I can get a better chance of seeing what happened to her. Get in the car. I’ll drive.”

Hunter sighed as he opened the passenger side door and entered the car.

“Evie, it’s amazing that you’ve lived this long,” he said.

“Come on, Hunter,” she said. “You trust me, don’t you?”

“In theory,” he said, smiling to take the edge off of his comment.

“You’ve got to know that I wouldn’t put you in danger.”

“Yeah, like you haven’t put me in danger ever before.”

“Shut up and kiss me,” she said, leaning over to him before starting the car.

He complied without a complaint. Their mouths molded together for longer than either of them planned simply because of the passion that always instantly ignited between them. Heat and desire rose quickly as their kiss took hold.

“Whoa,” Eve said as she forced herself to pull away. “Let’s put this on simmer for now.”

Hunter groaned as he felt her mouth leave his. It was a rather bereft feeling that he didn’t particularly like.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” he growled.

Giving him a smile that promised everything, she started the car, put it into gear and drove in the direction of Sara’s house.

THE HOUSE WASN’T that far away and they arrived within a very few minutes. Pulling over a couple of houses down from Sara’s, Eve cut the engine. She and Hunter watched the house for a few minutes to assure themselves that no one else had arrived ahead of them. Then they exited the car and casually strolled to the back of house.

Climbing up the few steps to the deck, they approached some sliding glass doors that looked directly into the eat-in area of the kitchen. They had just stopped to look into the doors when a sudden energy of such malevolence slammed into Eve that she staggered and would have fallen if Hunter hadn’t caught her.

Black! No, black with blood red streaks twisting through it like small little rivulets of blood. She couldn’t remember ever having felt such rage and madness. Her head instantly felt as if it was on the edge of exploding.

Oh, yeah, she thought. This is a bad one.

She knew instinctively that she was seeing through the killer’s eyes. Sara would never be capable of producing such rage as she had been a rather sweet and gentle soul. No, this was something much more intense and horrible.

Without being aware of it, she clung to Hunter while her vision started to turn into a replay of what had happened to Sara on the day she died. While she stared straight ahead, Eve watched as Sara entered her house carrying a package wrapped in black paper with a silver ribbon tied around it. Eve saw quickly that Sara was unsettled, almost frightened, as she carefully set the package on the bar in the kitchen and simply stared at it.

In slow motion, Eve watched in horror as Sara slowly opened her package. She wanted to scream at her not to open it but knew it would do no good. What Eve was seeing had already happened and there was no saving Sara now. All Eve could do was continue to watch as this drama unfolded before her eyes and then report what she had seen.

And she saw it all.

Eve saw Sara open the box and then put her hand inside of the box, pushing around the black tissue paper in search of whatever the box contained. She watched as Sara withdrew her hand from the box screaming as she did so. Eve saw the spider that had attached itself to Sara’s wrist and helplessly watched as Sara spun around and around, still screaming. This terrifying event seemed to go on forever until it ended with Sara sliding down the wall and half sitting on the floor.

As Eve came back to herself, her wide eyes stared unseeingly at Hunter, who still had his arms around her. A sharp pain stabbed through her head and the last thing she saw was blackness.

When she came back to, she was lying on a chaise lounge on Sara’s deck. Hunter was speaking softly but urgently to her.

“Evie, wake up baby,” he said. “Come back to me, Evie.”

She tried to open her eyes, but it was too bright for her to tolerate at first. However, she did manage to wave her hand weakly to show that she was now conscious.

“Oh, thank God,” Hunter breathed. “You know, I really wish there was an easier way for you to do this. It scares the hell out of me every time this happens. Tell me what I can do to help you.”

“Nothing,” Eve whispered. “Just let me lie here for a couple of minutes and then help me to the car. This will pass.”

“I don’t want to seem insensitive, Evie, but the Forensics team will be here shortly. It doesn’t seem to be the best idea for them to find us here, do you think?”

“No, of course not,” Eve said as she struggled to sit up. “Let me just do this slowly. Then you can help me to the car.”

Within about five minutes, Eve was strong enough to stand. Leaning on Hunter, they made their way back to the car. They hoped that no one saw them coming or going, but little could be done about it all now. Chad was going to be furious when she told him what they had done, but she did have some new information for him.

Hunter helped Eve get into the car and then he went around to take the driver’s side. It went without saying that she wasn’t in any condition to safely handle a car right now.

“Why I don’t take you home so you can rest for a little while?” Hunter suggested.

“No, really, I’ll be fine. I probably need something to eat and that will boost my energy level. Besides, I want to check on Skylar. Did you hear from her?”

“Nope, not a word. Do you think that’s bad?”

“Who knows? But she did seem to be pretty computer savvy and starting her off with moving the files into the computer wasn’t all that challenging. Still, I want to see how she’s doing.”

As they headed to the office, Eve took the opportunity to tell Hunter what she had seen in her vision. By the time she had finished talking, he looked slightly pale but also very angry. He parked the car in front of the office and turned off the engine.

“That’s just too horrible for words,” he said. “No wonder you passed out! I would love to get my hands on the person responsible for this. Sara was a good person and she certainly didn’t deserve such a terrifying death.”

“I know,” Eve agreed. “That’s why we’ve got to do all we can to find out what really happened and why Sara was targeted. Of course, it’s totally possible that she was just being stalked by some lunatic because that does happen more than I’d like to think. But that doesn’t feel like what it was all about, if that makes sense.”

“Yeah, it does make sense. But we’re going to figure this out, Evie. No one should get away with that kind of evil.”

Reaching over to Hunter, Eve pulled him to her across the seat for a hug.

“You’ve got such a good heart, Hunter,” she smiled. “And I love you.”

He embraced her back and gave her a quick kiss.

“It’s so nice to be appreciated,” he said.

“Consider yourself appreciated,” Eve replied. “I’ll show you just how much later.”

“So you keep saying…”

Playfully punching him, Eve laughed.

“Is that all you ever think about?” she teased.

“Not all, but it occupies a lot of my time lately,” Hunter replied.

“Come on,” Eve said. “Let’s go check on our new office manager.”

When they walked into the reception area of the office, they stopped in amazement. The entire room had been rearranged. The thing was that the way it now appeared worked so much better than the way it had been. Skylar was sitting at her desk diligently typing at the computer. They were still standing there simply staring when Skylar glanced up and saw them. She removed her headphones and grinned.

“So what do you think?” she asked eagerly.

“I… I think it looks amazing,” Eve finally managed to say. “What about you, Hunter? Don’t you think it’s amazing?”

“Did you do all of this by yourself?” Hunter asked.

“Yep,” Skylar said. “It wasn’t hard. You just have to know how to use your body.”

“I suppose…,” Eve said. “It actually does look a lot better this way.”

“I thought it would, too,” Skylar said excitedly. “Let me show you what I did with your office!”

“You changed my office around, too?” Eve stuttered.

“Wait until you see it!” Skylar said as she hurried down the hall.

Eve and Hunter exchanged looks. Then they ventured slowly behind Skylar. She stood in the doorway looking very pleased with herself as she presented the grand changes in the room. Peering cautiously into the room, both Eve and Hunter’s eyes widened.

The office really did look great. Eve was actually rather astounded to see what a difference it made with things moved around the way Skylar had somehow managed to arrange them.

“Wow,” she said. “That’s about the only word I can find at the moment, Skylar. How on earth did you do all of this? I mean, seriously. Did you call some of your friends or something?”

“Nope. I did it all myself. I meant it when I said that you just have to know how to balance things with your body weight. It wasn’t so hard.”

“I find that difficult to believe,” Eve said, laughing. “But I won’t ask any more questions.”

“Oh, and I finished putting in all of those files you needed. Also, I set up a message program for you on the computer. It’s something that will work while the office is closed and it can be set up to forward calls to your voice mail so that you can decide whether or not it’s important enough to call back right away.”

“Just how long were we gone?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah,” Eve said. “I don’t know how you managed to get all of that stuff done in such a short time.”

“I told you,” Skylar said. “I’m very organized.”

Hunter and Eve laughed as they shook their heads. Skylar explained the new computer message system to them and then showed them how to access the files she had input. Eve knew that she was going to rub Hunter’s face in this later since he had been a bit skeptical about hiring her.

“Well,” Evie said, with a rather bemused expression on her face, “I’m very impressed with your organizational skills, not to mention your furniture moving ability, although I’m still not sure I believe you did all by yourself.”

She added a little laugh onto the end of that one because she didn’t want to make Skylar think she was being called a liar, especially since everything looked so much better. Not only that, she had done all of the data entry plus setting up a computer message system. Where did this girl come from?

“I think that Skylar has earned a well-deserved lunch break,” Hunter said. “You’re probably starved after all that work especially since it’s nearly 2:00.”

“Actually, I do kind of need to run a couple of errands if you’re sure it’s okay.”

“It’s fine,” Evie and Hunter both said at the same time. “Take your time. We plan to be here for a while.”

“Sweet!” Skylar said as she grabbed her bag. “I’ll be back.”

As she flew out of the door, Eve certainly hoped she would be back. This girl was a miracle worker! There would be time to ponder that later, though. Right now, she needed to call Chad. She was pretty sure he would want to know what she had witnessed as soon as possible.