A Haunting Dream (A Missing Pieces Mystery) by Joyce Lavene, Jim Page A

rummage around until I find something. You go ahead and find out what happened to poor Gilligan.”
    He hugged me. “Don’t worry, honey. It’ll all be fine. Everything will turn out right. You’ll see.”
    Someone knocked at the back door—a quiet rap, not pounding. It startled me, and I looked at the clock over the mantle. A little after two A.M . Not even the most stalwart Duck citizen would come to see me that late.
    “Who could that be?” Gramps opened the drawer in the table beside his recliner where he kept his old service revolver. The Dare County Sheriff’s Department had given it to him as a gift when he retired.
    “It might just be the wind. It’s picked up out there. I’ll look.”
    “You’re barely decent!”
    I pulled my old robe closed over my shorts and tank top. “Girls wear less on the beach over the summer. I’ll be fine. Better me in my shorts than you with your gun.”
    Before we could argue about it anymore, I yanked open the door—amazed to find Kevin standing on the porch.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I had a dream and I just couldn’t put it out of my head. Are you okay?”
    I nodded, not sure what to say. We stood there and looked at each other for a minute or two. Gramps had turned back to Gilligan again as soon as he saw there wasn’t a threat.
    “Let’s sit out here,” I said, closing the door behind me.
    We sat in the old rocking chairs on the porch. We could see the Currituck Sound from there with the moon as bright as day. The wind ruffled up the water and stirred the bushes around us. Chimes rang out from Old Man Sweeney’s house next door.
    “Is something going on with you besides that problem with your neighbor?” Kevin finally asked.
    “There’s been a new development in that.” I told him about finding Chuck’s body at the beach and about Chuck’s dead, and almost-dead, form talking to me.
    “I knew it.” He sat back in the rocker as though he was vindicated in coming over at this late hour.
    “I appreciate you coming over but—”
    “I know. I shouldn’t be here.” He got up and leaned against the screen door leading off of the porch. “I’m sorry. This isn’t easy for me either. I’ve grown so attuned to you that I guess I could just tell something was wrong.”
    I kept rocking, not saying anything, glad I couldn’t see his face in the shadows.
    “Maybe you could call me. I know it sounds like a bad movie line, but I wish we could still be friends through this. You know you mean a lot to me.”
    I wasn’t sure I could put a smile on my face and deal with this in a cheerful way.
Sure, Kevin, let’s be friends. I can still tell you all the strange things happening to me. You can tell me about Ann and how your relationship is going.
    “Dae?”
    I drew a deep breath. “I don’t want this to sound mean, but I can’t do that right now. Maybe later when it’s not so fresh. I know this isn’t something you meant to happen, but here we are. I need some time and space to get over it.”
    He didn’t answer for a long time. Finally he said, “I understand. I’m just worried about you. I don’t know what it means that someone in a vision could see you and talk to you. It’s a change in your gift. Be careful. Until you understand it, you don’t know what will happen.”
    I closed my eyes and tried to tell my heart to stop being so stupid. It was like his words were part of me. I could feel them resonate, soothing the tension I’d felt from the dream.
    When I opened my eyes, he was gone. He was out there with the wind, walking back to the Blue Whale Inn—without me. I couldn’t express, even to myself, how much I wanted to be with him.
    But encouraging him to want to be with me would be wrong. That poor woman had been through so much. Kevin was a good man, and I wanted him, but Ann needed him now. I hated it, and I hated myself in some ways for being willing to step aside and let him be with her. Maybe I should have fought for him.
    I