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“There was blood…Blood everywhere. But now the police are trying to cover it up.”

Kendra Michaels stared at Janet Sanders in the parking lot outside her office. The woman was carrying on like a paranoid lunatic, but Kendra knew better. She had known Janet too long.

“Slow down, Janet. Where was the blood?”

Janet took a deep breath. “My fiancé’s house. I saw it three nights ago. I went over there and saw it. He was gone, but there was blood all over his kitchen floor and walls!” She shuddered. “It scared me, Kendra.”

“Understandable.” Kendra was attempting to process the disturbing information Janet was hurling at her. She hadn’t even known her old friend had a fiancé. She certainly hadn’t expected to see Janet waiting for her outside the medical office building where Kendra based her music therapy practice. She had just seen her last client of the day and was heading to her car when Janet suddenly approached her.

Kendra tried to remember how long it had been since she had seen Janet. A year? Maybe two?

Janet Sanders had been her teacher at the Woodland Institute for the Vision Impaired more than a decade before, during Kendra’s teenage years. A lifetime ago, Kendra thought, when she was still blind and living in the darkness. Janet had helped her learn how to live in that world.

No, not just to live there; Janet had shown her how to flourish as a sightless person, to feel beautiful and worthy at an age when she might have felt strange and awkward. Then, just a few years later, when Kendra gained her sight via a revolutionary stem cell procedure, Janet had been one of her first visitors, doing everything in her power to help her adjust to an exciting yet bewildering new world.

Now, however, Janet was anything but the calm and reassuring presence Kendra had always known her to be. Her clothes were disheveled, and her mop of blond hair was falling over her eyes. Her hands were jammed into the pockets of her oversized sweater. She looked as if she hadn’t slept in days.

“Calm down.” Kendra motioned toward a large bench just a few feet down the sidewalk. “Let’s sit down, okay?”

“I don’t need to sit down, Kendra, I just—”

“You do need to sit down. You’re starting to hyperventilate.” Kendra took Janet by the arm, guided her to the bench, and sat with her. “I need you to slow down. Tell me exactly what happened.”

Janet nodded and took a moment to catch her breath. “Okay. I’ve been dating this guy for a year. His name is Dale Baylor, and we met in the Sierra Club.” She moistened her lips. “He’s pretty special, Kendra. I never thought I could feel this way about anyone. You know my job was my whole life.”

“And there were a lot of us who were grateful you felt that way. You’re a great teacher, Janet.”

“I love my students. I love my job. It makes me feel worthwhile. But Dale…He made me feel beautiful. He told me that inside and out I was wonderful. I know I’m not pretty, but when he tells me I am I believe him.”

“You should believe him. You are wonderful, Janet.”

“That’s not important.” She gestured impatiently. “What’s happened to Dale is the only thing that matters right now. I spend pretty much every weekend at his place. But when I went over last Friday night, the door had been busted open…. And there was blood.” Tears welled in Janet’s eyes. “So much blood, Kendra.”

“Where?” Kendra asked.

“Everywhere, like I said. All over the kitchen floor, some splattered on the walls and even the cabinets. And Dale was gone. But his wallet, keys, and cell phone were on the counter.”

“What about his car?”

“Still in the driveway. I can’t tell you how scared I was. I got out of there and called the police. They met me back there and took my statement. The forensics team went over the place, and they took pictures and video. There was a detective in charge, his name was Sutker, and he seemed like a nice guy. He said he would be in touch.”

“Has he called you?”

“Hell, no. I called them about a hundred times over the weekend. No one was ever available to take my call, so I left messages. No one called me back.”

“That would not be unheard of, especially on a weekend and if the police hadn’t made any progress.”

“Well, I went back to Dale’s house Sunday—last night—to get a few things of mine. I brought some friends with me. My key didn’t work on the front door. The lock had been replaced and the broken door frame had been repaired and painted. So I tried my key on the back door, and it opened. All of Dale’s things were gone, and so were mine.” She shook her head in bewilderment. “It was as if he’d never lived there. And there was no trace of the blood.”

“It had been cleaned?”

“More like cleaned out. No furniture, no car, no food in the refrigerator. I mean, it was empty. My friends probably thought I had made the whole thing up. If they hadn’t already met Dale, they might have thought I’d made him up.”

“Maybe a family member of his cleared it.”

“He had no family. Anyway, I staked out the police station this morning and waited for Detective Sutker. While I waited, I called him a few times. They kept saying he was busy and that he would call me back. Same old runaround. Finally I spotted him, and I blocked his car with mine.”

“Not a good idea, Janet.”

“Yeah, for a second I thought he was going to shoot me. But I wasn’t going to let him get away without answering a few questions.”

“And did he?”

“He practically called me a liar.”

“What?”

“He said I was being hysterical and that I was exaggerating. That there was no sign of a break-in, and that what little blood may have been on the scene could have been from a carving accident or maybe from a tin-can lid. He said there was nothing unusual about the scene.”

“What? He said that with a straight face?”

“Absolutely. He told me that I just needed to get on with my life and get used to the fact that Dale had left me. He said it wasn’t unusual for women to manufacture stories like this when faced with romantic rejection. He said it makes it easier for women to deal with.”

Kendra bit her lip. “Hmm. Charming guy.”

“That’s why I came here. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Kendra leaned closer to her friend. “You know I’m always happy to see you, Janet, but what made you come to me?”

“I need help. Dale needs help.” Janet glanced around and lowered her voice. “And I’ve heard things about you.”

“What things?” Kendra asked warily.

“That you sometimes help the police.”

She had been afraid this was where Janet was heading. It was a side of her life she didn’t often discuss, even with her friends and family. “And where did you hear this?”

“From Lynne, our school administrator. I think she speaks to your mother fairly often.”

Kendra nodded. Her mother. Of course.

“The teachers at the school still talk about you all the time, and not just because you can see now. You were amazing even when you were just fourteen years old. The first time I met you, you knew that I was wearing glasses, what kind of shoes I was wearing, what I had eaten for breakfast, and that I had spent the previous night with my boyfriend. Even when you were blind, you saw the world more clearly than anyone.”

Kendra shrugged. “I used what I had.”

“You used it like no one I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen thousands over the years. And you’re even more amazing now that you have your sight.”

“I don’t take anything I see for granted, that’s all. After all those years of seeing nothing, I just want to absorb every detail and know what things mean.”

Janet nodded. “And what details have you used to figure me out today, Kendra?”