Karen slammed the storage room door on Stephanie, locking her in again. She then pulled out her cell phone and called her husband. Daniel immediately jumped into his truck and sped off toward the hotel, parking in back where the employees gathered to smoke. His wife was there in her maid's uniform. "I can't believe she had the nerve to come back here," Karen fumed.

Daniel got out of the truck and slammed the door. "Where is she?"

"Locked in the storage room," said Karen.

Daniel's grin was nearly hidden by the hair that covered his entire face. "How'd you manage that?"

"I didn't. She was already in there, bangin' to be let out."

"How…"

"I don't know, Dan. She was probably snooping around again and got herself locked in. The point is we got her. Now let's get her out to the house before anyone knows she's here." Karen shoved a large laundry bag into Daniel's hands.

* * * *

"You've got a psychic," Patrick said.

"We do now," Landon grinned at him.

"No," said Patrick. "What about Sarah? She taught me everything I know."

Ruth looked at Landon. "He doesn't know?" she asked him.

Landon shrugged.

Ruth reached across the table and put her hand on Patrick's arm. "Sarah died last week, honey," she said gently.

He put his fork down and stared at her, unable to say anything for a moment.

"I'm so sorry," Ruth said.

"How?" was all Patrick managed to say.

"Heart attack," answered Landon. "You'd think she'd have seen that coming…"

"That's not funny," Patrick said sharply.

"I meant with the cigarettes," Landon amended.

But Patrick was no longer listening. He was eleven, or maybe twelve, and it was 1979, somewhere in Oklahoma or Arkansas. Patrick was watching Sarah pack down her tent. She had joined the troop at the beginning of the season four weeks ago and Patrick spent nearly all of his spare time observing her with an intensity boys of his age usually reserved for Saturday morning cartoons and video arcade games. Sarah was tall, dark-haired, beautiful and exotic – well, she was actually from New Jersey, but she put on a great Eastern European accent for her clients. Today they were packing up and the accent was gone and the flowing dress and scarves were replaced with blue jeans and a Norma Rae T-shirt.

"You gonna just stand there, kid? Or are you gonna help? 'Cause you're starting to give me the creeps," she said.

"I can help," he said.

"Great. Then fold up these tarps and load 'em up."

"Will you teach me?"

Sarah laughed. "Teach you? You know how fold a tarp."

"No," said Patrick. "Teach me what you do."

"I can't teach you how to be a mystic, kid. You're either born with it or you're not," Sarah said, taking apart her folding table.

"I don't want to be a real mystic," he said. "I want to do what you do."

Ruth squeezed Patrick's arm and he returned to the present. "I'm sorry," she said. "I thought you knew. I thought that's why you came back."

"No," he said.

"But now that you're here you'll help us?" she asked.

"I'm not really in that game anymore," he said.

Ruth looked confused, but some customers entered the diner before she had a chance to speak. She reluctantly stood from the booth. "You'll talk to him, Landon?"

"I'll talk to him, Ruthie."

Ruth went to tend to her customers and Landon looked questioningly at Patrick.

"You kidnapped me to ask me to be your town psychic?" demanded Patrick.

"I rescued you," protested Landon. "You were in police custody. They'll never find you here."

Patrick had nearly forgotten about that ruse. "What about the cop you locked in the storage room?"

"What about her?"

"They'll be looking for her."

"Well, whether they find her or not depends on you," Landon said.

"How so?"

Landon smiled. "If you help us, they won't find her. Vincent's got a pair of tiger cubs that can make sure of that. If you don't help us, they will find her. And the natural assumption will be that she was killed by her escaped prisoner. Who they will also find."

* * * *

Tied up, gagged and stuffed into a laundry bag in the back of Daniel and Karen Westcott's pickup truck, Stephanie considered whether or not she had made the right decision in not telling Jane what she knew. She had tried to tell Dan and Karen her plans to make amends, but they hadn't been in the right frame of mind to listen. Their position had been that she had not only ruined their lives, but also the lives of all the people in the town of Hockley, their relatives not living in Hockley, their pets, livestock and future generations. Dan and Karen planned to Do Something About It, and Stephanie didn't think their plans involved the print media.