The scents exuding from the small store front were the same ones that had startled his senses yesterday, and Steve smiled, as he closed the door behind him and glanced around.
A black metal table surrounded by three chairs featured a glass bowl with an assortment of rainbow-colored beads and cards. Across the small room was a large comfy couch, four pillows inviting visitors to sit down and snuggle in.
Artisan drawings of the galaxy and imaginary landscapes lined the walls, and a thin film of smoke from incense burning nearby gave the store quite the peculiar atmosphere.
"You had to follow the call, now didn't you, Detective Keller. You never heard about what curiosity does to the cat?", came the warm voice from the backroom, before Andrea reappeared, the same welcoming smile on her face from a day ago in the bullpen.
Dressed in only jeans and a t-shirt this time around, she looked nothing like the esoteric personality that sought him out yesterday.
Returning the smile confidently, he shook his head.
"It's in my nature, I guess. It's what us cops do."
"Then let me ask you this, Detective, what is it that brought you down here today?"
"You can call me Stephen.", he interjected, before taking off his beige overcoat and hanging it on the nearby clothes rack, trying to keep his body language guarded and relaxed at the same time, "I guess…I had a few more questions about what you said yesterday."
"That happens when the things I say…the things I see…come true.", watching his every move, Andrea circled the young Inspector, before nudging him toward the couch, "And yet, you didn't bring the Lieutenant with you, Stephen."
"He prefers to operate on lower planes of existence than the one you were describing.", Steve countered flippantly, before yielding Andrea's pressure to sit down and lean back.
"I gathered as much.", the young woman replied and turned to face him, before reaching out her hand to touch his cheek, a move that caused him to freeze in his spot, "You are no less skeptical than he is. And you are here because you suspect that I gathered my knowledge about your victim and the murder scene not from my visions, but because I was there, possibly involved."
Steve drew in a deep breath, part of him regretting coming here alone, and suddenly feeling painfully vulnerable.
"You don't have to say anything.", she continued with a smile, "I saw it in your eyes when you first walked in. I am not offended. Your doubts become second nature in your line of work."
"Then I guess you wouldn't mind if I asked where you were yesterday morning, between 3am and 5am."
"Your charm and professionalism honor me, Stephen.", Andrea countered and pulled her hand back, before resting it in her lap, "I was here, in my studio, meditating. I have no witnesses to support my alibi other than the spirits that visited me."
Trying to conceal his disappointment, Steve nodded faintly and glanced down, his eyes tracing the outline of the red and gold carpet that covered her entire studio. When his silence lasted longer than a few seconds, she stretched out her hand, and carefully lifted his chin with her index finger, forcing him to look up at her.
"For such a young man, Stephen, your soul is terribly heavy with pain and resentment. You hide it well, but it's there, like a dark shadow looming in the background. And it becomes more overbearing the more you try to silence it."
Remembering Mike's advice on educated guesswork, he shrugged indifferently, trying not to let her words get to him. Instead, he reached for the hand below his chin, and grasped it gently.
"Have you ever had contact with Roy Sullenger? Did you attend one of his shows perhaps?"
"I did not.", Andrea returned sternly, "My practice allows me plenty of access to human drama and tragedy, I have no desire to indulge in it in my free time as well. I am sure you can relate."
When Steve nodded understandingly, she grabbed his hand with both of hers, then turned it around before running her fingers across his palm, stopping in a few spots and closing her eyes, as if to concentrate better.
Growing nervous at the strange encounter, Steve swallowed hard, but decided to stay in place for the time being.
"The loneliness gets overbearing sometimes, doesn't it?", she said beneath closed eyes, "You've ran from it your whole life, looking for a purpose, to belong. And you've finally found it. But when he's not around, you can feel it eating away at you again. It's making you anxious; it's pushing you into the arms of those who want to only share your body, not your life. And you tell yourself that that's what you want too, but you know it isn't."
Steve bit the inside of his lip when she said that, working increasingly hard at remaining professional at the words that cut a little too deep for comfort.
"And now, your worry about your partner is beginning to feed those demons again. You fear that he is…withdrawing from you. You're afraid he'll abandon you."
He flinched and pulled his hand back when she said that, his heart beating faster at the unexpected exposure of his innermost thoughts; thoughts so secret that he didn't dare to even say them out loud. When Steve felt himself begin to tremble unperceptively, he drew in a deep breath and looked up in time to meet Andrea's blue eyes again.
"Your souls are bonded. He will not leave you. But you must help him, for he is facing a crisis, one that might endanger his safety, if he doesn't find his way back."
The alarming words caused him to tense up even more, his hands clasping the soft cushions of the couch in a death grip.
"What crisis?"
"The worst crisis of all. A crisis of faith."
He was about to dig deeper into the matter, when the door to her shop opened unexpectedly, causing both of them to flinch.
The fraction of a second passed by, before an older lady appeared around the corner, smiling, as she looked for Andrea.
"I ehm…I have an appointment now, but I need to tell you more. And I think I have something else on your case. Can you come back around…say 2pm?"
Recognizing the intimate situation, the lady turned around, pretending to stare at the paintings to give them some privacy. When Steve nodded, Andrea sighed in relief, then reached up to caress his cheek again.
"I will see you then, Stephen. Be safe out there."