She tried to stop him, but even as she did, she felt it was futile. Hed already made up his mind. Please, Mr. Banacek, I know I can help. I just need you to let me see her room, touch some of her things.
He wasnt about to parade Bonnies things in front of a stranger, no matter how altruistic she pretended to be. No. Now go back and pull your innocent act on someone else. Ive been through it all and Im not buying.
One swift movement was all it took. The door was closed.
Eliza looked down at the card still in her hand. She knew that even if she rang the bell again, Walker Banacek wouldnt answer. Wouldnt listen to what she had to tell him. Wouldnt be swayed. Hed isolated himself so far away from hope that right now, there was no way to reach him. She needed something tangible to show him, to make him change his mind.
After debating for a moment, she took her business card and inserted it between the double doors just above the doorknob. Walking away, she glanced back at the card. She had no way of knowing whether hed take it when he opened the door tomorrow morning.
Not for the first time, she wished her insight would allow her some way to access it at will.
But she was as much in the dark about what caused the visions, the sudden rifts in her own present, as most people. All she knew was that it worked when it worked.
Glancing again over her shoulder as she walked back to her car, she thought of the man holed up inside the big house.
Despite his pain, Walker Banacek wasnt the important one here, she reminded herself. It was his daughter. Eliza couldnt lose sight of that.
Things would probably be a great deal easier for her if the girls father gave her his help, but one way or another, she intended to try to find the lost girl. She knew she wouldnt get any sleep unless she did at least that much.
He hardly slept.
As he got out of bed the next day, Walker blamed his endless night on the woman who had come to his door, offering to do magic for him. Offering to find a child whom he had forced himself to accept was forever out of his life. Several times in the wee hours of his night, he damned the petite woman for disrupting the life he struggled to keep orderly.
If he were honest with himself, he thought as he got dressed, his life was in a continuous state of disruption and had been for the past two years.
Nothing was ever going to be the same again. The ache that had suddenly surged through him threatened to undo him completely. He banked it down.
She had brought it to a head, he thought angrily, this Eliza Eldridge and her claims of clairvoyance. It didnt take a clairvoyant to see that she was just out to make some money for herself and this so-called organization she belonged to.
Well, she wouldnt be making it off him, or his grief. He wouldnt allow it.
Too agitated to eat, Walker deliberately walked past his refrigerator without stopping. Crossing to the front door, he decided to pick up a coffee on the way to the office.
Maybe coffee would wake him up.
A small, pearl-colored rectangle floated to the step by his foot as he opened the door. He stooped to pick it up, then cursed softly.
Shed left her card.
What part of no didnt she understand?
About to throw the card away, Walker stopped and looked again. Changing his mind, he pocketed it. Hed call his lawyer this morning when he got a chance and tell Jason to look into getting a restraining order against this Eliza Eldridge and ChildFinders, Inc. Undoubtedly, she didnt give up easily.
There was something in her eyes
He didnt have time to think about a nicely packaged huckster. Didnt have time to think about anything that had to do with Bonnie and the life hed had before everything had turned pitch black for him.
Forcing himself to think of nothing but the work piled up on his desk in the office, Walker hurried to his car.
Shes
on the level, Walker.
Walker frowned, wondering if the connection had somehow gotten scrambled. Hand on the phone receiver, he sat up in the rigid office chair. What? Arent you too old to believe in witches and women who cast spells?
There was a deep chuckle on the other end of the line. God, I hope Im never too old to believe in women who cast spells. Jasons comment was directed at Walker as his lifelong friend rather than as the client who kept him and his law office on year-round retainer. But I looked into her just as you asked me to yesterday, and Eliza Eldridge isnt any of the things you accused her of being. As far as the police are concerned, shes the real McCoy. Shes helped solve several prominent kidnapping cases here, in Texas and in Georgia.
Walker found that impossible to believe. By doing what, looking into her crystal ball?
Of the two of them, Walker had been the more practical one, even as far back as grammar school. His only dreams had revolved around the creation of the company he now headed.
Hey, even Shakespeare said there were more things in heaven and earth than we could ever possibly understand.
Yeah, like people who prey on other peoples grief.