“What? You did?”

“Of course,” she said. “You made it very clear how you felt and these past few months I noticed that you only really seem satisfied when you have a puzzle to solve. Psychics don’t tend to solve puzzles.”

“So, what are you suggesting?”

“Well, I don’t want you to become a fortune teller, but if you use your gifts and your police training you could help a lot of people.” She paused and held my gaze. “I think we should open a detective agency—together.”

I laughed, so glad to realize she was just trying to cheer me up.

“That’s a good one,” I said, still giggling. “I needed a good laugh—thanks, Vi.”

Her face turned stony.

“I’m not joking.”

My stomach dropped. “What?”

Vi took a step toward me. “Think of it, Clyde. It would be great. You could help people find things they’ve lost, and solve mysterious disappearances. And I could deal with any strange psychic events. Plus, I’m going to learn more about ghost hunting.”

I shook my head and backed away from her.

“With my ability to interview animals, and your multiple abilities to see the future and find things, we’d be great together. Your mom said she’d pitch in with tarot if we need it.”

“Mom is in on this as well?”

“Yeah, we all think it’s a great idea.”

“Who thinks it’s a great idea?”

“Me, Rose, Lucille, and your father.”

“You’ve all discussed this? Dad would never think it’s a good idea. And what about Seth? Does he know?”

Vi shook her head. “We couldn’t risk telling Seth—he can’t keep a secret.”

I took a deep breath. If Vi only knew about the secrets Seth could keep.

“And why are you discussing this with Lucille?”

Vi looked down and hung her head. “That was an accident. Your Mom slipped up and mentioned it. Lucille thinks Mac is worried you might move away when your year is up.”

“Wait, what?” Mac thought I was going to leave? Now I was less concerned about the detective agency and more concerned about my mother and Lucille discussing my life.

“We all want you to be happy and to stay in Crystal Haven.” She stood up to pace and gesture wildly to make her point. “I think this would solve everything.”

“And all of you have decided this is a great idea?” As usual, Vi ignored my threatening tone.

She nodded and grinned. “They see what you’re good at and know we’d make a great team. C’mon, it’ll be great!”

“No offense, Vi, but you don’t know anything about solving murders.” I turned away from her.

“I think I’ve done a good job so far when it comes to asking the right people the right questions. I could figure it out. You aren’t the only one with a deductive mind.”

I snorted and sounded like Vi. Then I sighed. Everyone had ideas on how I should live my life.

Vi and I could argue about this until the next winter, but I didn’t have the mental energy to keep fighting her. And yet, I needed some space, so I told her what I knew she wanted to hear. “Let me think about it.”

She shook her head. “No. I know what that means,” she said. “You’ll just keep putting me off, hoping I’ll give up.”

Damn, I hated it when she did that.

I opened my mouth to respond, but she wasn’t finished.

“I have a deal for you,” she said.

This was classic Vi. With nothing resembling a winning hand, she would continue to up the ante.

“Okay, let’s hear it.” I crossed my arms.

“Let’s have a contest,” she said. “If I solve this murder before you do, you’ll give the business a try for one year.” She held up one knobby finger. “If you solve it before me, and without any help from me, I’ll let this drop.”

“You’ll move on with no more sneaky plans to get me to change my mind?”

“Correct. If you solve it first, you’re free to make your own plans.”

I chose not to point out that I was already free to make my own plans without her blessing. This was going to be interesting. At the very least, it would leave Mac and me to investigate on our own. Vi would have to gather her own information and wouldn’t be badgering us. I wondered what Mac would think of it. I didn’t know if he would love it or hate it. However, if I lost the bet, Mac wouldn’t have to worry that I would leave Crystal Haven anytime soon. I was almost willing to just agree to work with Vi for a year to get Mac to back off on the police idea. And to reassure him that I was sticking around.

“Okay, Vi, you’ve got a deal.”

She grinned.

I stuck out my hand and we shook on it.

25

At lunchtime, I walked into the dining room after the knitters had already arrived. René had set up another buffet and Emmett was busy refilling serving platters. The knitters seemed subdued and were not chatting as animatedly as they had at other mealtimes. Finding a murder weapon among their things must have put a damper on their spirits.

I spotted Dad and Seth across the room and headed in their direction after filling my plate with beet salad, risotto, and grilled salmon.

I sat between them, feeling cowardly. I was still unsure of just how mad I felt about Mac snooping around behind my back. And Vi’s comment that he thought I would leave Crystal Haven bothered me. We hadn’t really talked much about the future—our future—but I thought he knew I planned to stay. And to give us a chance. I wasn’t ready to talk to him just yet and didn’t want to give him an opportunity to engage me in conversation. I planned to use my human buffers to keep him at a distance. I glanced at Seth, who had nodded at me in between bites when I sat down.

Dad leaned over and whispered, “I’ve been keeping an eye on that maintenance guy.” It took me a moment to remember why he had it in for poor Kirk.

Dad didn’t like posers and he had pegged Kirk as a fake from the moment he fixed the generator.

“I know that everyone’s a suspect, but I really think he’s just new at this, Dad,” I said. “It doesn’t mean he’s up to anything.”

“Maybe, but I don’t like coincidence.” Dad tore off a piece of French bread and stuffed it in his mouth. He took a swig of water and continued. “Doesn’t it seem strange that that poor woman was killed right after the power went out and the man in charge of the generator is incompetent?”

I shrugged, letting Dad know I really didn’t want to engage much. Plus, my own suspicions were in a different camp entirely and I didn’t want to encourage Dad’s speculations.

“I saw him outside working on the snowblower,” Dad continued. “He had the whole thing torn apart and then he put it back together and got it working again—all in about ten minutes.”

I looked at Dad and must have appeared as clueless as I felt.

Dad huffed. “If he can fix a snowblower in a few minutes, how come he couldn’t fix the generator in many hours?”

“You think he wanted the power out all that time?” I said.

Seth leaned forward.

“Papa, if he wanted the power outage to give him a chance to kill someone, why wouldn’t he just fix it after he was done? There’s no reason to keep everyone in the dark and cold.”

I agreed with Seth. Kirk had seemed sincere in his efforts to fix the generator. Plus, I was having a hard time imagining the guy who was assisting with the yarn bombing wielding a flashlight as a weapon.

“To deflect suspicion, of course. It’s clearly working on you two,” Dad said. “If he had conveniently fixed it later, then you would have suspected that he had left the power off on purpose to suit his nefarious schemes.”

“Nefarious?” Seth said.

I put my head down and smiled.

“It means—” Dad said.

“I know what it means,” Seth said and held up his hand. “Just seems like something Vi would say.”