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Hers still shook when she reached the kitchen and got a glass of water.
“I panicked.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Owen said.
“What did it feel like?”
“A hand, Trey.”
“I mean, a man’s hand, a woman’s?”
“Oh. I…” She gulped more water, tried to think. “I honestly thought it was Cleo’s, but I was expecting Cleo’s.”
Closing her eyes she took herself back to the moment. “A woman’s, or girl’s. God, it was probably hers. Hester Dobbs.”
“I don’t think so.” Cleo stroked a hand down Sonya’s hair. “You didn’t say cold. The hand.”
“I didn’t notice.”
“You would have, I’m sure of it. The bell, Trey, it got icy.”
“True enough.”
“You said you reached for my hand, and took a hand. It got cold when the door slammed, and the lights went out, but not like the bell. I think it was one of the others. And she let you take her hand to reassure you.”
“Didn’t work that way. I screamed.”
“Again,” Owen said, “who wouldn’t?”
She sent him a wan smile. “Thanks for that.”
“Just fact. Let’s try it again,” he said to Trey.
“Oh. Do you have to?”
“Just give us a minute.” Trey bent down, kissed the top of Sonya’s head.
“I’m not going back down there, Cleo.”
“Why should you? Let them check it out. They’ll feel better. And I don’t think she can play that trick again so soon anyway.”
Sonya’s phone played the Eagles’ “Take It Easy.”
“Trying to.”
“It might have been Clover, or even Molly.” Cleo wandered as she spoke. “But someone who cared enough to let you take her hand. An opposing force. I know it scared you. It would’ve scared the hell right out of me, too. But I don’t think that was the intent.”
“You’re right. You’re right. When I brushed up against Dobbs, I got an ice burn. This wasn’t like that. At all.
“But I’m not going back down there.”
When the men returned, Trey sat beside her, took her hands. “Nothing down there now that shouldn’t be.”
“Good. I’m putting it on my never-go-there-again list.”
“Why don’t we do this? We’ll see what it takes to get those desks up here, and anything else you want, then we’ll call it. We’ll go out, grab some dinner.”
“Why don’t we do just that?”
