The caring about her part was not necessarily a good thing where Wyatt was concerned. She’d let this lingering thing between them get way out of control way too fast. She should have kept her distance.
Too late now.
“Afternoon, Ms. Nichols.” Adeline pulled out a chair across the table from the elderly woman. “I’m Detective Cooper. I believe you’ve already met Deputy Womack.”
Nichols’s eyes opened and her lips stopped moving. She lifted her gaze to Adeline’s and went wide eyed as if she’d seen a ghost.
“Okay.” Adeline placed the folder she’d brought into the room on the table and opened it. She positioned the two photos inside in front of Nichols. “Do you know either of these women, ma’am?”
Nichols picked up first one photo, then the other, examining each one at length. She placed the photos back on the table, one by one, and clasped her hands once more. “Only in my dreams.”
Womack scooted his chair forward and rested his elbows on the table. “Ms. Nichols, when you called the hotline related to the abductions, you mentioned that you believed these women were being held near the water.”
Fact was, Adeline didn’t bother mentioning, most anywhere in the area was near water.
Nichols nodded emphatically. “That’s right.” She set her gaze on Adeline. “They gonna be under the water soon. You need to find them quick or it’ll be too late.”
Adeline cleared her throat, searched for the right way to go about this. As nonbelievers went, she was a total skeptic. “You had a dream, you say? That’s how you know where the women are being held.”
More of that ardent nodding. “But it don’t happen when I’m asleep. Most of the time I’m awake. I guess it’s more a vision than a dream.”
Getting better all the time. “Can you describe, in detail, what you saw related to Cherry Prescott and Penny Arnold in yourvision?”
“I was watching the news yesterday.” She looked from Adeline to Womack and back. “Sitting in my chair minding my own business like I do most days. Don’t pay to get in nobody else’s business, if you know what I mean.” She heaved a big breath. “Anyways, the news broke in to tell about the Arnold woman going missing.”
She pursed her lips, appeared to carefully search her memory banks. “I was thinking what an awful thing this was. Poor woman. Her husband gave that heartfelt plea to whoever took her.” Her pale blue eyes filmed over with emotion. “I wondered what the law was doing about this bad, bad thing. I know if she went missing in Moss Point nothing might get done. It’s a pure shame.” She eyed Adeline, then Womack. “What y’all doing about this?”
“We’re doing all we can, ma’am,” Womack assured her. “That’s why we’re talking to you. We’re following all leads.”
“That’s when,” Nichols went on, “the vision came. I could see them two. The ladies that’s missing. They was all tied up and crying. But their crying sounded funny, like their mouths was full.”
“So they were alive,” Adeline clarified. Yeah, right. Like they could depend on this woman’s vision to confirm the status of the victims.
Nichols looked to Adeline. “Oh, yes, ma’am. They still alive. But they won’t be for long. I had a bad feeling about that part.”
Adeline got that part. Beneath the table her foot wouldn’t be still. Every time she halted its movement, it started right back up with that anxious bouncing. “Can you see anyone else? Or hear anyone speaking, besides the women crying?”
Nichols gave an eager nod. “A man. I can’t see his face, though. Only his back. He don’t have no hair.” She narrowed her gaze. “I can see that real plain.”
“The man who is holding the women is bald,” Womack restated so there was no misunderstanding.
“Yes, sir. Bald as a baby’s behind.”
“Did you hear him speak or hear either one of the women speak?” Adeline didn’t know why she bothered to ask the question. This was clearly bullshit. The longer she listened the more convinced she wasthat sheer desperation had driven her to have Womack haul this lady in for questioning.
You’ve discovered an all-time low, Adeline.As long as the boys back home don’t hear about this ... you might just live it down.
“Well, it’s not exactly clear to me who’s saying what,” Nichols admitted. “The sobbing I know is coming from the women.” She shook her head, her face pained. “Lots of sobbing. They’re scared. Someone keeps saying something, but I can’t tell if it’s a woman or man.” Her face pinched with fierce concentration as if she was trying to make sure she got this part right. “The voice keeps saying that the princesses have to die.”
Adeline’s spine stiffened. “What else did you see or hear?” That her voice quavered pissed her off. That all-time low had just dropped a few more pegs.
“At first,” Nichols went on with her bizarre story, “I didn’t understand what the voice meant. But then I remembered that they was wearing crowns. You know”—she urged Adeline with her eyes—“like a princess would wear. Them Miss America types. Both the women had crowns on their heads.”
The bottom dropped out of Adeline’s stomach. “What about their faces?” she prodded, her instincts screaming at her that this could be real. As damned ridiculous as that sounded.
This could be real.
“Pale. Eyes were red and swollen from crying.” Nichols paused, cocked her head. “No.” She shook her head. “Their faces wasn’t all pale. They had big,” she rubbed at her cheekbones, “red smudges on their cheeks. And black stuff, like mascara, smeared.” She trailed her fingers down her cheeks. “Maybe from all that crying, I guess.”