Suddenly Psychic (Glimmer Lake #1)(29)

For years she’d had dreams about the old town of Grimmer lying under the serene waters of Glimmer Lake, rotting away as decades passed, a ghost town in the deep.

A ghost town with a real ghost.

“Maybe where he died isn’t far from where our car went in,” Val said. “Maybe that’s why all this is happening.”

“So if we find out what happened, do you think it’ll all go away?” Monica asked. “Do you think our lives will get back to normal?”

“Maybe?” Robin said it, but she didn’t believe it. “Either way, whoever that man was saved our lives. We owe it to him to find out who killed him.”

“How the heck are we supposed to do that?” Monica said. “We’re not detectives, Robin. We don’t know how any of that stuff works. Reading crime novels does not mean I’m a cop.”

Val looked over her shoulder and handed the sketchbook back. “Seriously, Robin, what do we know? We’re a homemaker, a coffee shop owner, and an antiques dealer. We don’t know how to solve a decades-old murder.”

“You can’t think of it that way.” Robin knew in her gut that they needed to do this. She felt more alive than she had in years. More confident. She had purpose. She had a goal. “We’re a medium, a touch telepath, and a seer. Or something like that. Also, we have Monica’s kick-ass minivan, and she already told us that’s what private detectives use a lot, so we’ll be fine.”

Monica snorted and Val cracked a smile. “You’ve already kicked into super-organized-mom mode, haven’t you?”

“Yes.”

Monica turned in to her driveway. “Super-organized Robin is a fearsome thing.”

“Think about it,” Robin said. “Between the three of us, we’ve handled three marriages, one divorce, one ex-husband, eight mostly great kids, and two successful businesses. Not to mention all the laundry and the Parent Club meetings.”

“And being a room mom.”

“And planning funerals,” Monica said quietly.

Robin continued, “We have stayed up to all hours nursing babies and finishing science projects on things we knew nothing about twelve hours before they were due. We know how to find information when we need it. Plus we have all the psychic stuff now.”

“Okay,” Val said. “But where do we even start with this? This isn’t a middle school science project.”

“No, but I think we can start the same place.” Robin got out her calendar. She knew most people kept everything on their phones now, but she liked the visual and tactile experience of keeping a paper calendar. “Monica, you’re really good at online research. Why don’t you start with finding out everything you can about why they decided to flood Grimmer Canyon? There’s got to be stuff online. When the café closes tomorrow, maybe you and Val can go to the library and see what they have there.”

Monica nodded. “I can do that.”

“Café closes at two,” Val said. “I’ll have a couple of hours before I have to pick up the boys. They both have practice after school right now.”

“And I’ll go talk to the only person I know who was alive when our mystery man was drowned.” Robin closed her calendar. “I’m about due for a visit to Grandma Helen anyway.”





It was nearly midnight when Robin walked through her door. Mark was sitting at the kitchen counter, drinking something steamy.

He looked up. “Hey.”

Robin glanced at the clock. “Hi. You’re not in bed?”

Mark frowned. “You were gone a long time. Everything okay with Monica?”

Robin scrambled. She had expected Mark to be in bed. He was usually an early riser, so he went to sleep by nine or ten at the latest. “Uh… she’s okay. Just haven’t had time to really catch up with her since the accident.”

“Val there too?”

“Yeah.” She swallowed. “It was just the three of us. Hanging out.”

“Huh.” He flipped his phone over and over. “I texted you and you never got back to me. I was kind of worried because you were out so late.”

Shit. She’d forgotten about his text. “I’m sorry. We were in the middle of something, and I forgot to text you back.”

To be fair, it was right after they’d tossed the bag of Val’s post-psychic-vision puke in the dumpster in Bridger City. Robin hadn’t been thinking about anything but how to get that smell out of the car.

Mark held up his phone. “When I got worried, I looked on the family locator app we got when Austin got his phone and… you weren’t at Monica’s. Why were you in Bridger City?”

Robin’s jaw dropped. “You were spying on me?”

“Spying?” Mark’s eyes went wide. “It was past ten thirty and you weren’t responding to texts. Your car went into a lake three weeks ago, Robin. I was worried. And now you’re lying to me about it.”

“I’m not lying to you! I was with Monica and Val. We were hanging out.”

“In Bridger City?”

“Yes.” Looking at gross old bones and touching rusted chains from murder victims.

Mark tossed his phone on the counter. “I don’t believe you.”