Page 70 of Silver Claw

Max walked into the room. “You spelled bodyguard wrong,” he said, then took my arm. “Excuse us, please.”

I went with him to the other side of the room. “What is it, Max?”

“Um, you still have a dozen clients in the waiting room?”

“Yeah,” I said. “But this is an emergency.”

He pursed his lips. “I want you to let me hire another ghost hunter, Kait. I’m good at it. You see how well Gracie Dawn is working out. We’re growing, and you can’t do it all.”

I absolutely didn’t want to think about sharing my space and my clients with another medium/psychic/ghost hunter, but once Max got his teeth into something, he was unlikely to stop bugging me about it. So I simply put him off for now. “I’ll think about it,” I told him.

He put his hands on his hips. “Think about it hard, Kait. And now I’m going to go give those people the news that you’re not going to see them.”

“Max,” I said, before he could leave. “I think we need to stop taking walk-ins.”

“It was your idea,” he reminded me.

“So now asking everyone to make an appointment is my idea.”

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll order a sign and put the information on the website.” And as though afraid I’d find something else to change, he rushed away.

I walked back to Leah and Keith. “Do you have everything you need to get us in?”

“Everything’s set,” Keith said, and for the first time since they’d entered the office, he gave me a faint smile. “Thank you.”

“You’ll help her,” Leah said, her voice strong. “I can feel it.”

“I promise you that I will give it my very best,” I told them.

“Find Remy and tell him where we’re going,” I told Joe as the Kellys left the building. “I’ll apologize to everyone waiting and be right out.”

Honestly, I didn’t think they had a ghost.

I thought their daughter had a demon possession.

I made it to my car before Joe, and while I was waiting for him, I read a text Lucy had sent while I’d been speaking with the Kellys.

When I finished reading, I stared through the windshield, not really seeing anything. Lucy had dreamed—and it was a normal dream, she said—that Rick was in trouble.

I have nothing more than that. He’s in danger, and that’s all I got. Maybe it’s only because my head is being screwed with right now because of the…changes. But warn him to be careful.

I could feel that something was going on with Rick, but I was nearly certain it was because of Beth’s abruptly rekindled interest. He would be torn, stressed, uncertain.

Maybe he would take her back.

That wouldn’t put him in danger, though. So maybe it was the serial killer situation. Or Voss, or just a regular day in the life of a police detective.

Regardless, I’d warn him.

I didn’t call him, though. I sent a text.

Lucy dreamed you were in trouble. Please be careful. If you need me, call me.

He surprised me by calling my phone immediately.

“Rick?” I asked. “Everything okay?”

He sighed, and I could almost see him rubbing his tired face. “There’ve been two more murders, Kait. And this time, they were called in by a man claiming to be the killer.”