Murder on the Astral Plane (A Kate Jasper Mystery) Read Online Free Page A

family secret,” Elsa replied winsomely. “Handed down for generations.” Silk laughed and turned to the rest of us, answering her own question.
    “Okay, forties: me, Denise, Justine, Linda, Barbara, Kate, right?”
    “Subtract a few years, and I’ll be glad to count myself as forty-nine,” Justine answered with a wink.
    “Oooh, me too,” Linda piped up.
    “And thirties: Tory, Artemisia, and oh yes, Rick, our resident narc, and Gil the Lotto freak.”
    “Hey,” Gil objected. “I’m only—”
    “And Isabelle, you’re about sixty, right, honey?”
    Isabelle didn’t answer her, but merely averted her face again. I wondered exactly what Silk had done to put Isabelle off. Or was it just her very being?
    “And my sweet Zarathustra, you’re too young to even imagine.” Silk put her hand on her heart and performed a mock swoon.
    Zarathustra didn’t reply either. He seemed to be too busy moving chairs around in the center of the living room. Slamming them around, actually. And I had a pretty good guess how Silk had put him off. No one wants to be made fun of, especially at seventeen.
    “So,” Silk concluded. “Does Elsa have the best sex life of us all? Does it get better and better?”
    “You’ll just have to guess, young lady,” Elsa answered, her thin, rasping voice full of good humor. “Or wait, I suppose. Maybe even you could get a good sex life.”
    Laughter filled the room. Even Isabelle smiled.
    Before the laughter had even died away, however, Justine chose to change the tone of the event. She clapped her hands and announced that we were going to do a little exercise in intuition. I wondered about her timing. Why stop when we were finally having fun? But maybe it was simply the first chance she’d had to catch everyone in relative harmony.
    “We’ll each sit down, put on a mask, and try to connect with other members of the group,” she explained quietly. She pointed at the tight circle of chairs that Zarathustra was arranging, and then pulled a black sleeping mask from a wicker basket. “I’ve cut a whole at the sixth chakra in each mask. That way each of you will be more able to receive impressions—”
    “What’s a ‘chakra’?” Gil interrupted.
    “A chakra’s a center of spiritual energy in the human body.”
    Justine continued, “Remember, everyone’s impressions are different. You may see something, or feel something, or hear a word, or maybe a sound. A symbol may come to mind. Or a sequence of dreamlike images.”
    “Who are we trying to connect with?” asked Gil, obviously confused. He didn’t even mention the word “Lotto.”
    “Whoever,” Justine answered easily. “I’ll call out names periodically for those who’d like guidance, and you might want to concentrate on the named person. But it’s just an exercise. Let it lead where it will.” She paused and looked around the group. Linda and Zarathustra headed for the door to an adjoining room. Well, at least they knew where they were going.
    “Linda and Zarathustra won’t be joining us today, and Denise will be observing,” Justine added.
    On cue, Denise sat down across the room from the circle of chairs, pulling out a notebook and pen from her purse.
    “But the rest of you can take your seats.” Now Justine grinned. “And remember, this is free. Let yourself relax.”
    “Once she starts her school, she’ll be charging,” Silk grumbled, pulling out a chair and claiming her seat first.
    “You bet I will,” Justine agreed, her grin widening.
    And then our leader sat down in a chair across from Silk, and everyone else piled in, Tory next to Justine and Artemisia on Justine’s other side. Gil shrugged and sat next to Artemisia. Rich took his place next, then Elsa and Isabelle, and finally Barbara and myself. The chairs were so tightly packed, I had to pull mine out and pull it back in again behind me. Already, the circle of chairs had begun to feel claustrophobic. There was an empty seat on either side of