“You’re not the only one.”
Great. Last night Eve was talking to a skull. And now she was talking to herself?
Or was she? She looked down at the delicate bone structure of the skull. Poor child. But suddenly that skull didn’t look as fragile to Eve as it had before. The bones were still delicate but they appeared stronger. It was as if she were changing before Eve’s eyes.
Delusions and hallucinations. She had gone through that before, after Bonnie had been killed. But she had found Bonnie was not a hallucination. Just a spirit sent to comfort her.
But there was no reason to think that what she was going through now was anything but a hallucination. Jenny was not her own child as Bonnie had been. She was a stranger. Eve felt a chill run through her. This whole episode was strange and unsettling and she wanted it to go away.
“I’m scaring you. I didn’t mean to scare you. You’re not ready. I thought—but I won’t—I’m sorry. I won’t do it anymore.”
Eve felt as if she’d frightened a helpless doe and sent it flying away from her.
Okay, get control. What was happening? Assume it wasn’t a hallucination. Stranger things had happened to her. Reach out.
“Jenny, are you trying to communicate with me?”
No answer.
“Because, if you are, we have to figure this out. I was caught off guard because this hasn’t happened to me before. When I work on a skull, it doesn’t usually want to have a conversation.” She shook her head. “Well, that’s not quite true, it did happen to me once before, and that may be why I got a little nervous. I was working on a very nasty, vindictive man who only wanted to bring me into his world and hurt me. I had to fight to get away from him. I know that’s not what you want.”
No answer.
The doe had truly fled and wasn’t returning.
She should try again anyway to make sure that Jenny wasn’t hesitating in the shadows, waiting.
“Look, it’s not as if I don’t believe that there are spirits among us. My daughter, Bonnie, comes to visit me, and she was one of the lost ones, like you, Jenny. It’s just that I find it strange, and I’m a little at a loss. You’ll have to help me.” She paused. “If that’s your choice?”
No answer.
“Okay, maybe I blew it. I hope I didn’t if you need something from me.” She sat down in her chair at the worktable. “But in the meantime, I have a job to do. I’ve got to return a face to these bones. I’ll be doing a lot of things that will seem strange to you. Or maybe not. What do I know? You may be psychic and all-knowing and that kind of stuff, but somehow I don’t think so. I measure, I stick markers in your face, then I start sculpting. You’ll have to be patient.”
And so would Eve.
Still no answer.
*
“Are you all right, John?” His father’s hand grasped Nalchek’s shoulder as the gurney with Ron Carstairs was rolled by them to the medical examiner’s van. “Anything I can do?” He grimaced. “Stupid question. You’d think after working law enforcement for more than forty years, I’d know better. But you always want to find some way to help when it’s a friend. Hell, he spent Thanksgiving at our house last year.”
“Yeah.” Nalchek could feel the moisture sting his eyes as he watched them put Carstairs into the van. “He didn’t want to come out here with me, Dad. He thought I was crazy to spend so much time on this case.”
“Your mom and I have wondered why you— Never mind. Water under the bridge.”
“Which means you thought I was crazy, too.”
“Nonsense. You had a rough time in Afghanistan, and it was natural that there were aftereffects that made you a bit edgy on occasion. I’m just grateful that it translated to sensitivity and not callousness.”