The Case of the Sin City Sister by Lynne Hinton

up.
    Eve smiled. “I mean, I know it seems like a real stretch that you could have that kind of a relational gift with your daughters and all, but who’s to say?” She shrugged. “Who’s to say Dorisanne isn’t in trouble? Who’s to say she didn’t send every bit of psychic energy available to her in your direction to ask for help or that Mama didn’t send some message from heaven to advocate for her daughter? Who’s to say they weren’t both moving heaven and earth to get your attention so that they could get your help?”
    He shook his head.
    “What?” Eve asked, unsure of whether he was disagreeing or there was something more.
    “It just seems odd is all.”
    “Yeah, well, anything that can’t be proven with science or facts is odd to you.” She picked up her glass and took it over to thesink. When she turned back around, he was still shaking his head. “What?” she asked again. “I get it. You have a hard time believing this spiritual stuff.”
    “It isn’t that,” he explained. “If she wanted my attention, why did she wake me up to ask for you?”

FIFTEEN

    Caleb Alford was at the detective agency office on Firehouse Lane first thing the following morning waiting for the Captain and Eve. The sun was up, the sky a perfect blue, and there were songbirds singing, perched high in the branches of the cottonwood tree to the east of the long, rambling row of shops and offices next to the fire station.
    Their client, dressed in a pair of khaki pants, a light jacket, and hiking boots, was sitting on the small wooden bench beside the front door, his back leaned against the wall. He was eating a pastry—a doughnut maybe or one of Twila’s famous cinnamon buns—and a cup, probably holding coffee, Eve thought, was situated near his feet. She saw right away that the man’s breakfast came from the Java Junction, and it made her wonder how long he had been in town. She glanced down at the clock on the dashboard of the truck and saw that it read ten minutes before eight. Mr. Alford was about six hours early for his scheduled appointment. She was a bit disappointed because she wanted to continue her conversationwith the Captain about the events of the previous night. He had not wanted to talk about them over breakfast earlier.
    “Good morning, Mr. and Ms. Divine,” he called out as Eve and Jackson exited their vehicle. He stood up with his greeting.
    “Div-een,” the two of them replied at the same time.
    “Right, sorry.”
    “Good morning, Mr. Alford,” the Captain said. He had already slid his legs out of the truck, so he righted himself, stood up, and shut the door. “You’re out bright and early.”
    Eve smiled and waved as she shut the driver’s door and headed toward the office. She was wearing jeans and boots, and when she got to the door, she glanced down, noticing the scratches in the dirt around the front of the building. She thought about Daisy and hoped the cat was okay, safely inside, and that she had not run into trouble with some wild animal during the night.
    “Yeah, I just couldn’t sleep last night. I found out the skeleton isn’t Caleb.” He put down his pastry, wiped his hands on the front of his pants, and held out one to Eve.
    “That didn’t take long,” Eve noted. She quickly shook his hand, stuck the key into the door lock, and hurried inside.
    “You sure you want to come in here?” Jackson asked the client.
    He seemed surprised by the question. “Oh, the cat,” he said. “No worries, I took a pill,” he noted.
    “Oh good,” Eve commented, not as a part of the conversation of the men just outside the door but because Daisy was waiting for her when she walked into the office. The cat was fine and Eve heaved a sigh of relief. She bent down and gave the cat a good scratch under her chin.

    “They were able to tell that my DNA and the mitochondrial DNA extracted from the skeleton bones weren’t a match,” she heard the voice behind her say.
    The two men walked in