Tucker answered on the second ring. “Darroch,” he said.

I started to cry.

“Mojo?”

I sniffled. Got control of myself. “Tucker,” I said, “Gillian’s dead.”

“I know,” he answered, his voice hard with anguish and disbelief. “We just found her body half an hour ago. In a ditch alongside a desert road.” Pause. “Which begs the question—how did you know?”

“I saw her.”

“The way you ‘saw’ your ex-husband?”

I sobbed. “Yes.” If he didn’t believe me, I didn’t know what I was going to do. The burden was too big to carry by myself, and the image of that poor, frightened child, in her ruined ballet clothes and missing a slipper, was seared into my brain, probably for all time and eternity.

“Her stepfather was arrested twenty minutes ago,” Tucker said, his voice toneless.

I felt a tug at my arm and looked down.

Gillian stood beside me, a tiny ghost ballerina, her eyes huge with sorrow.

“Did your stepfather do this to you?” I asked.

Slowly, somberly, she shook her head from side to side.

A woman walked by, staring at me. I could understand her horrified interest; she couldn’t see Gillian, so from her perspective, I was talking to nobody.

“Tucker,” I squeaked.

“What?”

“You’ve got the wrong man. Gillian says her stepfather wasn’t the one to—to hurt her.” I swallowed hard. I hadn’t chosen this new path or talent or curse or whatever the hell it was; it had chosen me. And whether I liked it or not, whether Tucker liked it or not, I was involved. I knew I couldn’t turn my back on a child who needed me, dead or alive.

I had a visual of Tucker running splayed fingers through his hair. “She’s actually there? Right now?”

“Right here, right now,” I said.

Gillian’s eyes filled with tears.

Tucker thrust out a sigh. “Listen, Moje, I know you mean well, but you can’t be part of this. You’re not—official. You don’t have a badge or a P.I.’s license.”

I held out a hand, and Gillian took it. Her grasp felt small and solid and stone-cold. “No,” I said, “but I have a heart.”

He swore under his breath. “You’re not going to back down, are you?”

I squeezed Gillian’s hand. “No,” I repeated.

I’d just stumbled into my next case.

* * * * *

Excerpt

SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM

Thanks to his dark past, Deputy Judd Laramie has built walls around himself that most people have difficulty penetrating. But Cleo Delaney isn’t most people. Although his childhood friend has always held a special place in his heart, will the big favor she’s asking him for summon old ghosts…or rekindle everything they once shared?

Read on for a sneak peak of Hot Texas Sunrise, part of the Coldwater Texas series from USA TODAY bestselling author Delores Fossen.

CHAPTER ONE