“Because Benny was approached by someone talking about the number six and saying a demon was coming or warning people to repent. I don’t remember the exact conversation. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I mean, this was going on, but that might well mean that anyone working on the square as a palm reader, tarot reader or anyone with a crystal ball might be zeroing in on the situation we have going.” She hesitated. “I think Benny said she was warning about something supernatural... I guess it could be the same person.”

“Maybe,” Dan said softly. George was still speaking with the casting director.

He waited for George to finish his call.

George looked at the two of them. “Carly says that she’s available after four this afternoon. She has an office on Magazine Street. I’ll text it to you.”

“George, thank you,” Dan said.

As they prepared to leave, Dan absently took Katie’s hand.

It was...a gesture.

She’d made a point of not letting him think that she’d become...clingy. Expecting anything.

And yet...

Holding his hand felt natural, good. Like being with him... When she’d hated him, she just hadn’t seen how striking he was, even charming at times, honest, determined, strong...

Perfect.

She lowered her head, sighing.

This was not a time to think that she was falling into...whatever it was that she was falling into. But she was glad of his hand.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“He just looked at me. And I knew!” the woman whispered.

Her name was Greta Marks; she was forty-six, an attractive woman with long dark hair and eyes as dark as coal.

If someone was looking for a stereotype, she did appear to be the perfect medium. And she knew it; she was dressed in a peasant blouse and colorful skirt and carried a large black bag. She’d opened it for them, displaying her crystal ball, tarot cards, and several books on discerning tarots, reading palms and understanding the messages that could be found in a crystal ball.

She was at Ryder’s station, and they weren’t in an interrogation room; they were talking to her in his office.

Dan had asked Ryder earlier how he had come to know about the woman. Had she been one of the hundreds to call in a tip, or had something happened with her?

She had been part of a tip. A tourist had called in to tell about a reading on the square at which she’d become afraid. The medium had told her the gates of hell were breaking loose, subtly, and that her lifeline wasn’t very long. She was susceptible to a demon, and an immortal demon was in the city.