Lethal Outlook: A Psychic Eye Mystery Read Online Free

truth be told, I suddenly wasn’t so hungry. Once he’d left, I said, “She’s dead.”
    Candice nodded like she had assumed as much. “Murdered?”
    I sighed. “It seems like it, doesn’t it? I mean, if Kendra is who Smith was talking about, then yeah, she was probably murdered.”
    “By the husband?” Candice asked next.
    I shrugged. There’d been no photo or news footage of Kendra’s husband, so it was really hard to tell. “Not sure.”
    Candice lifted a chip from the top of the stack and crunched on it thoughtfully. She then took a sip from the fresh margarita our waiter had just set in front of her. I watched and waited her out. For once I didn’t want it to be my call.
    “What do you want to do?” she asked when it was obvious I wasn’t going to speak.
    I threw the question back at her. “I’ll go along with whatever you want to do.”
    Candice smiled knowingly. “Nice dodge, Sundance.”
    I pulled up on a chip; it came with three cheesy friends. “After the year I’ve had, can you blame me?”
    “You want to take a pass on this one?”
    “Do you?”
    “No. I want to take it on.”
    I frowned. “Crap. I knew you’d say that.”
    “I have no problem investigating solo, if you want to sit this one out, Abs,” she said kindly.
    My frown deepened. “What if the family doesn’t have the money to hire you?”
    “Then I’ll do it pro bono.” Oh, yeah. I forgot. She didn’t need the money anymore.
    I still hadn’t answered Candice’s question, which I knew was a total dodge, but the truth was that I was tired of Trouble. I was tired of always being the one to get involved and then get hurt. I’d been beaten up but good over the years, and my broken pelvis wasn’t even the worst.
    “Well?” Candice said, eyeing me again. “You in? Or do you want to sit this one out?”
    I shook my head no. Vigorously. “Yeah, okay,” I said at the same time.
    Candice laughed. “That’s what I love about you, Sundance. You’re a straight shooter. Never a mixed signal from you.”
    I smirked. “I’m in. But I’m in under protest.”
    “As long as you’re sure,” she mocked.
    We ate and drank in silence for a little while, watching the weather—both of us relieved to see some rain in the forecast. It doesn’t rain much down here in central Texas, and since I’d grown up in Michigan—where it rains or snows with relative frequency—it always awakens an unsettling feeling in me to go several weeks without a drop of the wet stuff.
    Finally I turned to Candice and asked, “Where do we start?”
    “I’ll call my contact at APD and take her out for coffee.” Candice had recently made friends with a beat cop. I’d met the cop. She had a definite thing for Candice, which I knew my friend must have been aware of. Candice doesn’t play for the girls’ team, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t willing to flirt with someone of the same sex to get a little intel now and then.
    “You think she’ll know much?” I asked. Kendra’s case didn’t strike me as beat-cop material.
    Candice shrugged. “She might. But even if she doesn’t, she should be able to hook me up with one of the detectives on the case. It never hurts to nose around.”
    Inwardly I disagreed; I was living proof that it definitely hurt to nose around, but I kept my thoughts to myself. “Then what?”
    The corners of Candice’s mouth quirked. “Careful, Sundance, or I might think you’re anxious to sink your teeth into this one.”
    I rolled my eyes. “I’m only thinking of the family. They’vegotta be crazy with worry, and it’s not fair to leave them hanging.”
    “I agree. So let me nose around and see what I can discreetly bring up about the husband and Kendra’s family, and then we’ll go snoop a little, okay?”
    I nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
    A n hour and a half later Candice dropped me off at home. The prickly pears had hit me hard, and I was already unsteady enough on my feet. I invited her in for