Sixth Sense (A Psychic Crystal Mystery) (18 page)

“I’m coming with you.”

“It’s too dangerous. This guy is packing, and I don’t think he’s afraid to use his firepower.”

“This is about me, and I’m going to be there when it happens.” Katherine stood firm.

Jack shrugged. He parked the car on the next block, and he and Katherine walked back to Psychic Juliette’s place. When they arrived, they heard raised voices in the anteroom behind the blue curtain where Juliette had conducted their session earlier that morning. The reverend and the psychic were having an argument. Jack raised a finger to his lips and with his other hand ushered Kate along. They tiptoed farther into the shop and listened.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Juliette’s voice. “It’s my daughter.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That beautiful girl. She came to my shop. After all these years. I knew her. I felt it. Anyone can see she’s mine. Katherine Crystal is my daughter.”

“You’re hallucinating, Juliette, and if they come snooping around here again, I want you to send them away.”

“I won’t. I’ve stayed here thirty years waiting—waiting for some word, waiting for you to tell me what you did with her. Now she’s come back to me. Of course I’m not going to turn her away.”

Katherine’s hand flew to her throat and she shifted away, but Jack held her close, wrapping his arms tightly around her so she couldn’t move. She was shaking and crying silently, and he tapped her lips softly and shook his head. Don’t talk, he was saying.

Don’t talk?
That woman just said that Katherine Crystal was her daughter, which meant that her beautiful mother was not really her mother. That she, Katherine, was not really who she thought she was. Then who was she?

Reverend Carter Coulter had grabbed Juliette and was shaking her.

“You will do exactly as I say, or I will make sure you never see the girl again.”

“But she’s your daughter too. Don’t you even want to know her?”

Kate shuddered. This man, this evil man was her father? Impossible. But documents don’t lie.

Jack held her tighter.

“We agreed thirty years ago that it was best for the girl if she didn’t remain here with us. Remember, I told you I had a vision that great harm would come to her if she stayed here. We gave her up for her own safety and well-being.”

“That was when I believed in you, when I was in love with you. Now that I know your true nature, I know you never loved her. And you never loved me. You never had a vision. You sold our child for money. How much did Katherine’s father give you? When you ripped her from my arms, you ripped out my heart and killed any feelings I had for you.”

“If you think I’m so evil, then why did you stay with me all these years? Why did you warm my bed?”

“You used me, you seduced me. I was barely a woman. You made me love you and then you stole my child. And being here, near you, was the only way I knew to get her back. You told me, you swore that you loved me, but you’ve stayed married to someone else. You promised you’d tell me, one day, what happened to my daughter. And I was foolish enough to believe you.”

“I did love you.”

“And what about all the other unfortunate young girls, those innocents who have wandered into Casa Spirito? Yes, I know about all the other women you seduced, Carter. And you fed them the same lies. Did you love them, too?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Juliette.”

“Look up and down the street. All these women, drawn here by your evil spell, forced to stay because you pay their way, set them up in business, seduce them and sell their children.”

Kate struggled to get free. Jack held on tighter and refused to release her. He clamped his hand over her mouth.

“You can’t prove a thing.”

“All the while you grow richer and more powerful. You hide your wealth from the community. You need to be exposed.”

“Bitch!”

Reverend Coulter spat out the word as the sound and sting of his slap against Juliette’s tender flesh reverberated around the shop.

Katherine recoiled at Juliette’s outcry, but Jack never loosened his grip on her body.

“I thought you had learned your lesson. You can’t survive without me. I am the leader of this church and this community—and your master.”

Juliette planted her feet firmly on the carpet, her bleeding lip protruding.

“You’re just jealous,” Reverend Coulter said, stroking Juliette’s face. “You’re jealous because you’ve seen your daughter, and you know what I see in her. I see you, the you who used to attract me, the you who has become a tired, sad, bitter old woman. And if you don’t keep quiet, I will have to handle Katherine. She’s really very bewitching, don’t you agree? She is a major talent. I’ve been following her progress in the newspapers all these years. She has our blood and she has surpassed us. Outshone us. I will keep her here, with me, tutoring her, until I find a proper use for her powers. Imagine what I could do with her knowledge of the future. I could rule the world.”

“I won’t let you. I’ll tell your wife. I’ll go to the council. And to the police.”

“And you think they’ll believe you? If you expose me, I will take it out on our daughter. I know you don’t want that.”

Katherine saw Juliette sag against the back of the loveseat.

“Perhaps once more, for old time’s sake?” The reverend moved toward Juliette. His hand fondled her breast. She bit him and he pulled back.

“You’ll pay for that, you little hellcat. You’re nothing but a used-up whore, and I will have you brought up in front of the council for punishment.”

The reverend bared his teeth and turned to exit. Juliette began to whimper.

“Jack,” Kate whispered. “You have to do something.”

Jack rubbed her back.

“Now is not the time. We’re going to have to gather some more evidence.”

The reverend turned back toward Juliette. “You’ve been warned. If you think I’m making empty threats, then you don’t know me at all. Katherine’s parents proved an impediment, an impediment that had to be removed.”

“What did you do to them?” Juliette demanded.

“They had a little accident. And the same will happen to you, if you’re not obedient. A shame, about the judge. Now that money source has dried up. I’ll be back to check on you after you’ve come to your senses and stopped your sniveling. You’ve put me in a mood, Juliette. I think I’ll pop in on Psychic Serena. She’s so young and naïve, with such a beautiful body. A body made for loving. Reminds me a lot of you when you first came to town.”

“Jack, did you hear what he said?” Kate whispered harshly. “He killed my parents.”

“It sounds that way.”

“I want to go to Juliette.”

“We don’t want to give our hand away, and she is in danger if we go near her. While the reverend is otherwise occupied with Psychic Serena, I think we’ll make a stop at the good reverend’s house, snoop around and see what we can find.”

Kate hated to hear Juliette’s tears. Her birth mother’s tears. But Jack made a lot of sense.

When they got out into the sunlight, Kate threw up all over the sidewalk. She saw the reverend’s dark car parked outside Psychic Serena’s shop. The Closed sign was hanging at an angle in the window. That poor young woman might be a fortune reader, but she was out of luck.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Jack said, a disgusted look on his face.

“Jack, I can’t believe this. That woman, Juliette, is my real mother and that evil man is my father? All those years, and I never suspected anything.”

“You’re nothing like him, Kate. We’re going to get him for fraud, for murder, for bribing a federal judge, for whatever other charges we can make stick. That sick bastard’s been hiding out here in this quiet little community, building his evil empire, hiding behind his religion, while all the time he was seducing young women and selling their children. And I could kill him for what he said about you. That he was going to—”

Jack couldn’t say the words. His breathing was ragged, his face red. “His own daughter.”

Kate placed her arm on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For stopping me. I was going to attack him. I would have confronted him, and you could have gotten hurt.”

“Or you. I couldn’t take that chance with your safety.”

“But he has to pay for what he’s done.”

“He will. I promise you, he will.”

Chapter Seventeen

While the randy reverend, Katherine’s real father, was otherwise occupied in some horizontal hocus pocus with Psychic Serena, Jack and Kate retraced their steps and raced back in Jack’s car to the reverend’s house. When they arrived, Jack veered the car off the driveway and wound around to the back of the property.

“I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around everything that’s happened,” Katherine said.

Jack grabbed her hand and they walked toward the back door together. “I know, it’s unbelievable.”

He strode toward the back of the house, with Katherine close on his heels. Spying a barn across a long stretch of lawn, they checked inside the outbuilding to make sure no one was lurking there. They only found several thoroughbred horses in their stalls.

“Oh, these horses are beautiful,” Katherine sighed, stroking the mane of a handsome black stallion.

“No time for petting. We need to get moving.” Jack pulled her away. When they got to the back door of the house, he glanced up at the alarm system.

“The reverend made a serious mistake. He must either have been in a hurry or preoccupied, because he forgot to arm his security system. The red light isn’t blinking, and that will make it easier to find our way in.”

“Don’t you mean break in?” Kate corrected.

“You say potato, I say potato.”

“Let’s call the whole thing off,” she quipped, managing a half smile.

“No way. We’re going in.” In one movement, Jack dropped Katherine’s hand, took out his gun, smashed the glass, and picked the lock.

“Is that legal?”

“Details,” Jack said, and warned her to be careful of the glass as he shut the door behind them.

They walked in through a mudroom and a set of French doors, which led into a spacious kitchen. “Okay, let’s head for the den. We need to get into the reverend’s safe.”

“Breaking and entering
and
robbery.” Katherine shook her head.

“Add it to the list,” Jack said dismissively as he moved into the den.

“How are we going to open this safe?” Katherine wondered.

“I don’t suppose you can conjure up the combination?”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“First, I’m going to remove this priceless painting you’re so hung up on. Maybe we’ll take it with us. You deserve it.”

“Jack! That’s a felony. Anyway, I’m pretty sure it was already stolen.”

“Add stolen art to my tab,” he said. “Although I’m pretty sure you can’t steal stolen art.”

Jack was busy removing the painting. He started to toss it onto the couch.

“Jack, be careful! That painting is priceless.” Katherine studied it. She couldn’t believe the treasure she was looking at and how much this masterpiece could command at auction.

“Now I remember where I saw this,” Katherine recalled. “A thief broke into the Chagall museum in Nice, France, a few years ago and just walked out with this painting. It was never recovered.”

“Well, then we’re taking it as evidence,” Jack stated.

“Give it to me.” Katherine lifted the painting from Jack’s hands and gingerly placed it on the couch.

“Okay, now we shoot off the lock.”

“Will it work?” Kate looked at the safe.

“We’ll find out, won’t we? Cover your ears. We’re so isolated out here, no one will hear the shot except the horses. Hope it doesn’t spook them.” He aimed his pistol and shot off the lock. The sound reverberated around the room.

What they found inside the safe shocked them both.

“We hit the mother lode.” Jack pulled out a velvet pouch full of loose diamonds, some estate-type jewelry, and Kate’s birth certificate, along with several other contracts and documents, enough cash to finance a minor war, and several passports, all with different names and countries, all with the reverend’s picture.

Jack spread the loot out on the coffee table. “The reverend sure didn’t take a vow of poverty. Wonder where he got all this cash?”

“What are we going to do with all this stuff?” Katherine asked.

“Take it back to Atlanta, as evidence in the case I’m going to build against the rotten reverend.”

“But this is Florida. Atlanta doesn’t have jurisdiction over this case.”

“What about selling children across state lines?”

Katherine frowned.

“Go see if you can find some pillowcases we can stash all this loot in.”

Katherine set out to explore the rest of the house.

“And don’t dawdle or gawk over the paintings. We need to get out of here before the reverend returns. He’s dangerous, Kate.”

Katherine held up her hand in assent as she walked down a long hallway in search of some bags or pillowcases. Distracted as she came across painting after painting, signed print after signed print—in the hallway, in the bedrooms—she marveled at what she saw. The art in this home could fill a small museum, and she had the feeling that’s where most of these paintings had come from. There were several Monets, a Matisse, a Cezanne, even a Fragonard—the Holy Grail. The reverend seemed to favor French artists. Could they be copies? Very fine forgeries, if they were. Katherine looked at the signatures and touched the frames. No, these were originals. She was definitely in the presence of genius, paintings she had only studied in books, seen in museums, or dreamed of owning.

Speaking of dreams, she was here on a mission, in search of a pillowcase. Katherine walked into what was likely Reverend Coulter’s bedroom at the back of the house. A spacious master room, overlooking the ocean, with museum-quality decorative arts—an antique French writing desk worthy of Napoleon, French Aubusson rugs, the best satin sheets money could buy. Was this where she got her love of fine things? Her love of art? Only her real father didn’t just appreciate art. He stole it and hoarded it so no one else on earth could bask in its beauty.

She put all thoughts of Reverend Coulter as her father out of her mind. Pillowcases, that was what she was after. She threw back the comforter and removed all the pillowcases from the bed. They would fill them with all of the reverend’s possessions. How could he even sleep at night?