“I mean, why do you think you’re receiving this information? If these women are sending out … I don’t know, signals? Why are you getting them? What are you supposed to do?” I could feel the heat rising in my face. Talking that way, about signs and symbols and visions, still made me anxious, made me feel like I was on the wrong end of a prank. There was a part of me, too, that didn’t want to trust Clara. I couldn’t imagine what she might be after. I was wary, on edge. But every time I thought about telling her it was too much, too strange, I saw Steffanie again.

“I don’t know that either. Trust me, this sounds crazy even in my world. But I feel like I have information, whether I like it or not, and now I have to figure out what to do with it. Some things just are. I don’t know why so many people refuse to believe that we live in a world where not everything can be explained. Just because something is hard to explain, that doesn’t mean it’s not true or real. And maybe if other people around here were open to listening, to feeling things, they’d know it was off, too.”

I thought again of New York. Of all the signs I’d missed. The creeping sense that something was off-kilter, but being unwilling to say it, because I couldn’t point to it, couldn’t say exactly what it was. Like trying to describe a color in the dark. “So now what? What about going to the cops?”

“With what? I believe what I see, but I still don’t know exactly what happened. Or how the visions are tied together. But they’re getting more violent, more detailed, and I think if we can find Peaches, we’ll have time to warn her. Were you able to look at the cameras?”

“No luck,” I said. “My security clearance won’t work, and I couldn’t get into Emily’s account.” My attempt at guessing her password had been nearly comical. I didn’t know her middle name, or which state she came from.

“Maybe we need to be more organized. Go to other casinos—maybe Peaches got in trouble with security here and can’t come back. Happens to Des and me all the time.”

“Clara, can I ask you another question? Aren’t you worried? About yourself?”

“What do you mean?” she said slowly. Something hardened in her face.