hard for you to believe me. And I wouldn’t have called the police unless I believed...unless I believed it helpful. I’ve heard that several victims have been found over the past few months in the Everglades. I know it’s ridiculous! But I also know various police departments have accepted the services of mediums and psychics. I’m not psychic—not usually. I’ve never had anything like this happen to me before.”
“Trying on a dress and looking in a mirror and seeing the mutilated body of a woman. And the sign for the airboat ride company and a mile marker and the whole bit,” MacDonald said as he shook his head slightly.
He was speaking skeptically, but she replied earnestly. “It wasn’t as if I was looking in a mirror. It was more like a window. I’m from here, born at South Miami Hospital, and I’ve spent a lot of time out in the Everglades. I’m an animal trainer. I usually work with dogs, but I’ve also been called in to work with dolphins, horses, cats and even a few ferrets and skunks.”
“Skunk whisperer, eh?”
She sighed, trying once again for patience. “I really like animals and I believe I am able to comprehend what causes certain behaviors,” she said.
“Is that why you killed her? She was a meat-eater?”
This was getting worse and worse.
“I have nothing against meat-eaters. We are omnivores. I don’t like the way we treat and kill many animals we use as food sources. But no, I don’t think people working for slaughter houses need to be murdered in turn.”
He leaned closer to her. “She’s dead. She was found exactly as you said she would be. There was no way you could know that. Unless you knew her killer or killed her yourself.”
Raina leaned back, suddenly angrier than she was frightened.
“I was with a client and a troubled K-9 pup until almost ten o’clock last night. The woman is with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as is her dog, Jake. They came to me. I didn’t leave my apartment after that. We have cameras, so you can check. I left my house at nine this morning to go dress shopping. And then I called in what I saw, and the next thing I knew, I was being picked up. You can check out every move I made—something I assume you’re already doing. There was no way I would have had time to get out to the Everglades.”
“She’s right, you know,” a voice said.
Both Raina and Detective MacDonald started. They’d been so intent on one another that they hadn’t heard the door quietly open.
They both stared at the man who had entered.
Raina let out a soft gasp.
She knew him.
She hadn’t seen him in years and years, and he had definitely changed, but it was him.
Axel? Axel Tiger? The storyteller she had met deep in the Everglades years and years ago?
“Special Agent Tiger. To, uh, what do we owe the...pleasure?” MacDonald asked warily.
Special Agent?
Her mind was working in ridiculous circles. Axel. Here, now, in a blue suit, older, a man, filled out...special agent. Agent of what? Special—why?
“Hey. Yeah, you know we were called in,” Axel said quietly, handing MacDonald a paper—something official.
Very official.
MacDonald shot her a hostile and suspicious look and rose, indicating Axel should take the chair.
“Knock yourself out, my friend.”
She wasn’t sure how sincere the “my friend” part of his words might be.
But Axel nodded, thanked him and took the chair, watching grimly until MacDonald had left the interrogation room.
When the door closed, he turned to Raina. She was surely staring at him just like a stereotypical deer in the headlights.
“Hello, Raina.”
She continued to stare. He gave her a weary grimace.
“I’m FBI now,” he explained. She hadn’t asked the question. Maybe he could read her mind.
She managed a nod. And then because she was worn down and exhausted and hating herself, she added simply, “Dear God, I did not do this, nor do I know who did. I called because I thought I could help.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“I realize that,” he said.
Was he trying to trick her? She thought of all the shows she had seen on investigations and questioning. Was this good cop versus bad cop?
She didn’t reply.
“And I know,” he continued, “you’re wishing you’d never called. But you have done us a tremendous service. We both know the Everglades. We understand the landscape is brutal and that a body can be consumed by the creatures, the water and the vegetation there with amazing speed and certainty.”