“How do you control a vision?” North demanded.

“You know when you’re hallucinating, right? You’re aware that what you’re seeing and hearing is not real.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t make them any less disturbing. The voices . . . whisper.”

“Tell me about the hallucinations you’re having right now,” Sierra said. “What do you see?”

He concentrated on a foggy figure. Gradually it coalesced into a recognizable image.

“This one is different,” he said. “It’s Garraway, the director of Riverview.”

“Why is this vision different?”

North shrugged. “He’s not whispering.”

“Focus on him,” Sierra said.

“Why?”

“If my father were here, I think he would say that your intuition is trying to tell you something. Describe Garraway to me. Is he lying dead on the floor the way we found him?”

“No. He materialized out of the abyss. He’s sitting behind his desk. Just sort of floating there.”

“The abyss is probably a manifestation of your anxiety about the possibility of losing control of your talent,” Sierra said.

“No shit. I’m not a doctor, but even I could figure that out.”

“Sorry. Let’s keep going here. Why did Garraway appear?”

“How should I know? He’s a hallucination.”

“Think of him as a manifestation of your intuition,” Sierra said patiently. “We spent some time with him in his office. You found those financial papers in his cabin. We were in a hurry but you must have collected a lot of impressions at the scene of the murder. Maybe we missed something important? Try asking Garraway why you’re seeing him.”

North studied the dead man and tried to ignore the ghostly whispers telling him that he was risking his sanity by talking to a vision.

“Why am I seeing you?” he asked half under his breath.

Isn’t it obvious? I was just the money guy.

North stilled.

“What is it?” Sierra asked. “Did you get an answer?”

“He was the money guy. He financed Riverview. That was clear from the records we found in his house. But I figured that out already, so why would he repeat the information?”

“Keep going with questions,” Sierra said.

North made himself concentrate on the vision. “Why did the Puppets murder you?”

I knew too much about what went on in Loring’s lab. Things were coming apart because you showed up. Couldn’t take the risk that I’d talk.

“Now you’re dead, so you can’t talk,” North said, feeling his way through the crazy conversation.

True, but I’m the money guy, and money always talks.

“Damn, you’re right,” North said.

Garraway vanished back into the abyss.

North realized that Sierra was still watching him.

“Well?” she said.

North tried to blink away a few more ghostly images while he concentrated on what had just happened. “If we’re right about Garraway, he provided the financial backing for the whole Riverview setup, including Loring’s lab.”

“So?”

“So the ghost of Garraway reminded me of one of the most basic rules of crime solving. Follow the money.”

“Okay, that sounds like a great idea.”