she had your card.”
“I’m afraid those cards are scattered around town like leaves. She could’ve picked one up almost anywhere.”
“You wrote a note on the back.” I flip the card over and read it to her. “You have to remember her. She’s about five-five, dark hair?”
“I can check my journal if you’d like, but I remember everyone who comes to see me.”
“Would you mind?”
I lean against the counter and listen to her shuffle through papers on the other end of the line. She’s quiet for a while then says, “When did you say she was here?”
I give her a set of dates.
Lisa repeats them back to me, absently, then I hear pages turn, one after another.
“I keep accurate records of every reading I do, and I don’t have anything for her. I’m sorry.”
“But the note on the card says to call you.”
“Someone else must’ve written it.”
“This is the only phone number.”
Lisa tells me again that she’s sorry.
I feel a dull pain build behind my eyes, and I reach up and press my fingertips against my forehead.
It doesn’t help.
“We can schedule a reading, if you’d like. It could provide some insight into the situation, maybe show you another path you haven’t considered—”
“I don’t need a goddamn reading.” My voice comes out harsh, but I don’t care. “I need to know what you talked about, if she said anything important.”
Lisa pauses. “Mr. Reese, even if I had met with your wife, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what we talked about. That’s personal information.”
“Let me guess, psychic–client privilege?”
Lisa sighs. “I believe it’s more spiritual than that, but yes, you have the right idea.”
The pain behind my eyes begins to glow, and I feel the muscles in my chest get tight.
I force myself to breathe.
When I’m sure I’m not going to yell, I say, “Listen, you’re all I’ve got. My wife is missing, and I need to find her. She has no family, no close friends. All I have is your card and—”
“Mr. Reese, I—”
“No,” I say, my voice growing louder. “Don’t do that. Don’t brush me off.”
“But I don’t know your wife. Do you understand?”
From there, the conversation goes bad.
It ends with Lisa hanging up and me standing in the kitchen, screaming into a dead line.
– 12 –
I spend the rest of the day finishing off the beer in my refrigerator. It helps with my headache, and for a while I don’t feel too bad. It’s not until I call Nolan and open the missing-persons report that I start thinking about something stronger.
The sun is going down, and the house is turning dark. I toy with the idea of walking down to the campus liquor store and picking up a bottle, but I don’t want to be away from the phone, just in case.
Eventually, things get worse, and I grab my coat from the closet and force myself to leave.
The wind outside is cold and cuts against my skin. I zip my coat tight around my neck as I walk. There are no cars on the street until I get to the university. Then they are everywhere.
I can’t take another step.
I stand on the side of the street, unable to move. My knuckles ache from squeezing my hands so tight. I pull them out of my pockets and massage the pain away, then I cross over to Main Street and cut through someone’s yard, heading north toward Fifth Avenue.
There’s a party in one of the houses up ahead. I see several people standing outside on the porch, shouting and laughing. When I get close, I hear glass shatter, then more laughter.
I keep walking, head down, trying to stay calm.
Fifth Avenue is at the end of the street, and I can see the liquor store on the corner. There’s a crowd out front, students mostly, all smoking and talking, sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against the building.
I don’t look at them as I walk by.
The chances of running into one of my students is slim, but it’s a chance I don’t want to take.
Once inside, things get worse.
The liquor store is tiny and crowded. People move through the lanes in loud groups, talking and laughing and turning the air stale.
I stay focused.
I know exactly where I need to go.
I weave my way through the crowd and grab a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black off the shelf then head to the counter at the front of the store. I get in line behind an older couple and wonder if they feel as out