Karma's A Bitch (A Pet Psychic Mystery) Read Online Free Page B

come down on someone else’s. “Sorry.”
    Then I froze as I emerged in front of the crowd and could see down the slight embankment. My heart almost stopped. A body lay sprawled out, face down in the grass near the lip of the water. And there, standing over it was Karma.
    “Karma!” I cried. Then I ran. Yep, under the police tape, straight to the place where the guns were pointed. Not my brightest moment, I know. But, I’d read enough stories to realize Karma was in danger of being shot. He was big and barking like a slathering, crazed beast. The police were probably scared of him but needed to get to the man.
    I heard someone yell, “Stop!” from a distance, but I kept focused on Karma, who was now turned my way, his ears up, eyes alert. My sandals slipped in the wet grass and I fell hard on my knees in front of Karma. I looked up. “It’s okay, boy. It’s okay.” He was hot and panting. He collapsed beside the man and laid his head on the man’s back with a whimper.
    “Mad Dog!”
    “Ma’am, step away!” Two officers had followed and now had guns pointed at me. “You can’t be here!”
    “Stop pointing guns at us and help my friend!” I pointed at Mad Dog. “Please!” They were staring at Karma with skeptical fear.
    “Oh for heaven’s sakes, he’s not gonna bite y’all. He doesn’t even have any teeth!” My southern twang really emerged in a crisis.
    At that moment, a man in a suit pushed between the officers and told them to lower their weapons. It took my panicked brain a few seconds to realize I knew this man. The detective I had spilled tea on. Perfect. He came forward with a nylon rope and held it out to me. His eyes met mine and sparked with recognition.
    “Ma’am, I’m Detective Blake. You seem to know this dog, if you would lead him away from the victim so we can do our job, I’d appreciate it.”
    Oh, thank heavens. I took the rope and looped it around Karma’s thick neck. As I did, he licked the side of my head with a dry tongue. Zap!
     
    ***
     
    I fell back, landing in the water. As the vision-energy lit up my brain like the Fourth of July, a sequence of shots played in fast forward. A townhouse. Running down streets. Water splashing as I jumped in the lake, Mad Dog’s body floating. The images came with red hot rage and searing white sadness. I cried out as my skin burned from the inside out.
    Detective Blake was leaning down, talking to me but I couldn’t hear anything beyond the rush of energy like the ocean in my own head. The lake water began to churn around me. I forced myself up and tried to jog in place. Dizziness threatened to knock me back on my butt. This was bad. Real, real bad.
    Once in awhile, an animal’s trauma would hurt slightly, sort of like a jolt of electricity, but this felt like a nuclear explosion. A lake breeze blew over my wet shorts and sweaty face but the heat was still building, scalding me from the inside out.
    “I have to go for a quick run,” I heard myself say from inside a tunnel. That sounded rational, right? I tried for some jumping jacks.
    “Are you all right?” Detective Blake tried to catch my eye as I bounced up and down. I shook my head. I have to run! But it was too late.
    Pop ! Pop ! Pop !
    The officers surrounding me spun around and drew their weapons at the series of loud pops. A collective gasp came from the crowd. I didn’t have to look. I had blown out lights before. This time the victims were the police cruiser headlights.
    I did feel better though. The chaos in my body began to subside. I stopped jumping up and down like a crazy person and rested my palms on my knees, doubled over, breathing hard.
    “Seriously, are you okay? We have a medic on site.”
    I waved him off. “Hot flashes. I’m okay now.” I wrapped my arms around Karma and replayed each image, burning them into my memory. “Okay, boy. I saw. I saw and we’re going to figure it out together.”
    “What the hell?” The tall officer walked over to join