“The crow called you?” DeMarco guessed.

“Nothing as definite as that. I think.” She rubbed her temple harder and watched as two more crows joined the other on top of the sign. All three were gazing directly at them. “Just . . . we need to talk to the pastor.”

“About?” DeMarco was patient.

Hollis frowned at him for a moment, then said slowly, “About Danny Dryden.” She turned her head and stared at the crows, the fluttering sensation in her mind distinctly unsettling. “Damn. That’s . . . weird. Not images and concepts this time. His name is clear as a bell. Almost in neon.”

“The name Bishop and Miranda got from Megan’s sister. Who Megan was involved with before she decided to leave Salem.”

“Yeah.”

“They’re going with Finn to talk to him.”

“I know, but . . . I think . . . the crows have been sharing information with each other. Connecting things they’ve seen. One of them saw Danny Dryden up where Megan was buried. More than once.”

“So more evidence he could be the father of Megan’s baby and so possibly our unsub?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Her voice was a bit absent. “They really didn’t think anything about it, about him being up there, because he was up in the mountains a lot. It didn’t seem strange to them until Megan’s remains were found. Until . . . Tia . . . started asking her family and friends if they’d noticed anything odd during the last few months.”

DeMarco eyed her. “Another coincidence is bothering you.” He didn’t have to explain how he knew that.

“Well . . . yeah. Danny. Daniel.”

“Don’t spirit guides have to be dead by definition?”

“You’d think. But living people do appear in the gray time. Diana and me. That psychic Bishop sent in to prove to Diana that she could be deceived there. God knows who else.”

“Okay. But Daniel the spirit guide was a kid. Right?”

“Appeared to be. But one kind of deception in the gray time pretty much clears the way for other kinds. Samuel certainly was able to appear as someone—something—else. To be something else or project the image of someone different.”

“But?”

“But . . . mediums aren’t even supposed to exist in Salem, at least as far as we know. Not an ability any of the five families has. So if Danny is Daniel, then how did he even know about the gray time, much less be familiar enough with it, or strong enough, I guess, to go there and draw Diana there?”

“However he discovered it, he must have visited it more than once.”

“Maybe lots of times, yeah. Which is really going to creep Diana out. It creeps me out.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“But what’s really bugging me is why. Assuming he did know about the gray time, had visited it before however many times, why use it the way he did? Why go there, appear as a kid, a spirit guide, and offer a warning to Diana and me about what was happening in Salem?”