Glamorous - A Grace Bishop Novel - Chapter 19
© Denise Bossarte
“I am here to support the work on the case with another viewing.
Sometimes different clairvoyants get different things from reading the same
object. We do not want to miss out on opportunities to get as much information
as possible,” Anthony answered.
Grace was appreciative Anthony
refrained from mentioning how much more experienced he was with this whole type
of endeavor. He did this sort of thing on a weekly basis with strangers in
front of a crowd at the theater. But Grace only had a few chances to try
readings, outside her and Billy.
“It sounds like a solid plan for more than one person to do this
tonight,” Billy said. He eyed Grace in a way she knew meant later he would want
a full explanation of how Anthony came to join their group.
Grace was glad Billy was
taking everything in stride. She owed him an explanation about Anthony. She was
relying on Billy’s unflappable nature to help DL take this
in stride and give them a chance to do the readings. She realized Billy was
going out on a limb a bit, career wise, to help her with this case and he was
focused on using all the resources available to solve it.
She didn’t expect Anthony to admit he was clairvoyant, let alone
be willing to do a reading tonight. Eli promised Anthony would assist with the
case. She supposed this was what he meant when he made the offer.
Grace held out one hand for the sweater. After a moment’s
hesitation, DL handed the sweater to her, still looking a bit skeptical. Grace
settled into her chair, spreading the sweater out on her lap, smoothing the
creases on the front of the cardigan. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes.
She laid both hands on the sweater visualizing a dark material sliding away
from her fingers and palms and up her arms, leaving her hands in direct contact
with the soft material.
She felt an overwhelming
sense of fear, pain, despair, and a bone chilling coldness. She had a flash of
a concrete floor, pools formed from water dripping off broken pipes in the
ceiling, then a blank nothingness. With a sigh, she got control of her
emotions, and opened her eyes, smoothing out more invisible creases in the
sweater. She visualized the dark material sliding down her arms, and over her
palms and her fingers, closing her off from Sabra’s sweater.
Leaning forward, DL asked, “What did you see? Do you know where she is?”
Grace looked at DL. “I got something, but it’s vague,” she said
shaking her head.
“Anthony, do you want to try?” she asked, offering the sweater
to him.
Anthony nodded and took the sweater from her, holding it in his
both his hands. It was the first time Grace was able to watch another
clairvoyant do a reading. She couldn’t tell if he was doing anything special to
interact with the sweater or to engage his ability. He only sat there looking
at it without moving.
“Can you see anything happening?
Is he doing something special?” She looked over at Danny to see if he was
able to see something she couldn’t.
“I can’t see him doing
anything like what you do,” Danny admitted, squinting in concentration at
Anthony. “The only thing I see is his
aura is growing stronger, brighter, but that’s about it.”
After a moment of silence, Anthony shook his head and passed the
sweater back to DL. “I am sorry, DL. I cannot read anything specific off the
sweater either.” He hesitated, waiting for Grace to share what she learned.
“What did you see, then?” DL asked, turning to Grace.
“I saw the insides of a warehouse, an old unused warehouse.
That’s all I was able to get. I didn’t get a sense of Sabra’s presence though.”
Grace glanced at Anthony and he nodded his confirmation to what she read about
the girl.
“DL, I’m sorry. There’s no easy way to tell you this. Sabra’s
dead,” she said, reaching out to place one of her hands on top of his holding
the sweater.
He grasped the sweater, starring hard at her. “Dead? I can’t
believe it! Did you see her dead?”
“DL,” she said gently. “We know she’s dead and we have some idea
of where it happened.”
“Do you know who did it?
The bastard who did this to her?”
“I have a general ‘picture’ of him from Beth’s reading,” she
said. She noticed DL’s look of surprise but continued. “Enough to recognize him
if I saw him again, but together we can figure out more of what is happening.”
Grace pointed to the map on the table and the markings they
added earlier. She reviewed what they knew.
“We’ve got five main areas the women and girls are disappearing
from. The areas are all near Midtown, but not equidistant from it. Names and
locations and not much else.”
“We’ve got dates,” DL reminded her.
“Dates?” Anthony asked.
“Dates the girls disappeared,” DL said, reviewing his list of
names, “Or at least approximate dates.”
“I’ve got dates too,” Billy said shuffling through his notes.
“Approximations for when the prostitutes went missing or dropped off the
radar.”
“If we add the dates to the map, starting with the earliest one
and moving through to Beth, the latest, we might see a pattern,” Grace
suggested.
Billy and DL worked through their lists, adding dates to each
circle on the map.
“It’s not making sense,” DL said, when they finished, examining
all the marks on the map. “It’s only a random mess,” he said disappointed,
moving to sit back down in his chair.
“Wait a minute,” Anthony said. “I think I see something.”
He leaned closer. “How far apart are the dates?”
“About a month each, give or take,” Grace observed.
“Each month another person goes missing,” Anthony pointed out.
“Yeah, but they’re not all in the identical place the identical
time each year, or in the identical place multiple times in a row. They jump
around,” Billy noted, his hand sweeping to take in the spots marked on the map.
“Not quite,” Anthony said. “Read them off in order, by date, one
by one for me. Leave out the ones that are not part of these five major
groupings,” he said, pointing to the overlapping areas from Billy’s and DL’s
groups. “Those are most likely not related.”
As DL and Billy read off their lists, Anthony wrote down each of
the dates on a fresh sheet of paper. After they were through, he bent his head
and began scribbling out to the side of each date.
“Still not seeing anything
but a mess of dates,” Danny said, unimpressed.
“Neither do I. But it
looks like Anthony is on to something,” Grace said.
Anthony finished his scribbling and handed the paper to Grace.
“Read off the locations in the order of the numbers I wrote
beside them,” he said. “I will show you on the map what I believe is the
pattern for the attacks.”
As Grace read through the dates, Anthony pointed to the spots on
the map. For the first several items, it did not appear to be anything but
random motions of his hand. But by the end of the list Grace thought she saw
what he was getting at.
“A star!”
“No,” Anthony corrected her. “It is a pentagram.”
DL was on his feet and
back at the map.
“A ‘what’-a-gram?” Billy asked staring at the drawing on the
map.
“A pentagram,” Anthony
repeated. “According to history, it is a shape that holds special significance
for people with supernatural powers.”
Grace glanced at Anthony. “You think a Par…someone with supernatural powers is involved in
this?”
Anthony nodded. “I suspected it once I picked out the pattern.
The pentagram pattern of attacks is based on the Dreamspell calendar. The
Dreamspell is an esoteric calendar, a modern interpretation of the Maya
calendar by New Age spiritualists and supernaturals. It uses a 260-day sacred
calendar rather than a 360-day solar calendar. That is why the pattern made no
sense until I converted it and interpreted it,” Anthony said pleased with
himself.
Despite herself, Grace was impressed. She had to admit having
Anthony as part of the group was paying off.
Anthony continued. “It
would explain a great deal if someone with supernatural ability was involved.
It would be unusual for several disappearances to happen and no one to see or
hear anything; gone without leaving a trace. It is not what a normal person
would be able to do multiple times. Not without leaving no clues.”
“Anthony’s right,” Billy said. “It’s been driving me crazy
wondering how John Doe is able to get away with this. But someone like you and
Grace could, right?”
“Not a clairvoyant like Grace and me,” Anthony admitted. “But
someone with a different ability, yes. One who can make people forget he and
the women were even there.”
“That’s way cool!”
said Danny. “Sick way to use that type of
Paranormal ability, but way cool.”
Grace felt her stomach sinking. “There are people with the
ability to control minds?”
“It’s not true ‘mind’ control,” Anthony said, correcting her.
“They do not have that strong a capability. The ability to convince people to
ignore them, not see them, or forget they’ve been there? Yes, they can do that.
When it showed up in the past, it was termed a ‘Glamour.’”
“Who in the city can do this?” Grace asked, annoyed to be
learning about it now and not earlier.
“No one who I am aware of,” Anthony said. “I only know it is
possible.”
“It might be someone outside your circle, who’s got this
ability?” Billy asked.
“Well,” Anthony said, sounding uncomfortable. “It is possible
someone came and settled in without us knowing about him. He could avoid the
other supernaturals and focus on areas vacant of people with abilities to look
for women,” he said motioning to the clusters of color on the map.
“And there is something else you all need to be aware of,” he
said with reluctance. “These types tend to be unstable. They become addicted to
their ability to manipulate people and escalate their use of Glamour over
time.”
“Where does that leave us?” Grace asked. “How do we catch him?
Where is he going next?” she asked the group.
DL tapped the circle with Beth’s name. “This was Beth five
nights ago.”
Anthony followed the lines of the pentagram with his finger to
the next point of the pattern. “Here. He will be here, next.”
“But when?” Grace asked.
“Every month or so, right?” Billy interjected. “Starting in
about three weeks we should look for him. It will be a month from the last
attack.”
“I think we can be more accurate,” Anthony said. “Can someone
pull up the moon cycles for the last couple of years on the Internet for me? I
want to compare those dates to the ones we have for the missing girls.”
Grace pulled out her phone and searched for a website with the
information Anthony needed. She set the phone down in front of Anthony to let
him compare the data to what was on the map.
“As I suspected, the dates are all falling near the full moon.
An auspicious time for our Glamour. We should focus our efforts around the full
moon next month at the expected location. We will have a chance of catching up
to him before he kidnaps another girl.”
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