“And saying what? I’m a stranger, but please tell me what Julie’s room looked like?”

“No, not exactly. We could explain that we were trying to help.”

“What? Oh, hey, I’m a psychic and I think I can see your missing friend’s room but I just want to double-check?”

She was right about that. “Okay, so you want to call her old house and say … what, exactly?”

“Well, you can pretend to be like, one of her friends or something.”

“I can pretend? Clara …”

“Please, Lily. I can’t do this all on my own. It was bad enough talking to him the first time around and seeing how upset he was. Plus, what if he’s the one who picks up the phone, and he recognizes my voice? Please help me with this. I’ve got a lot … a lot on my mind. I can’t sleep.”

I wondered if she was asking for help with other things, too, besides the call, and maybe she didn’t know how to say it. “Are you still seeing strange men?”

“It’s under control, okay?” Her eyes shined, and I realized how afraid she must be. How all of that defiance, when she first marched into the spa, must have been hiding so much. I believed that she wanted help finding out what happened to Julie, to Victoria, to Peaches, but I also thought that maybe she wanted help for herself, too. I had told myself I would help this time around, hadn’t I? This time, I wouldn’t sense trouble—watching Steffanie stumbling into the man’s shoulder—and tell myself that everything would be okay.

“Okay,” I relented. “So tonight we’ll call …”

“Tonight? Why not now?” Clara was all raw nerves, desperation; so different from when I had met her a few weeks ago. A girl who shook with fear, who could hardly raise her eyes to meet mine.

“Here?” I looked around. I knew we didn’t have any appointments coming in for two more hours, but still it made me apprehensive. If someone else, one of my coworkers, Emily, even Carrie, overheard, I would probably be fired on the spot.

“I can’t spend another minute wondering. And then, at least if my visions are right … well. I don’t know which to hope for. Whether I’m seeing something real, or whether I’m totally insane. And I don’t know what it means, seeing her room like that. I’m worried that it means she’s in trouble, or she’s scared, or hurt. Sometimes … when things are uncomfortable, I think of something that makes me feel safe. I think of my mother, of the way she talked about her house in California. I just wonder if Julie is doing the same thing, only I can see it, too.”

I looked up to the ceiling. “You have the number?”