Page 80 of Trouble Comes in Threes

His embrace made me feel protected and safe, and I covered his arms with my own. “I realized Muffy hadn’t been outside since Jed and Neely Kate went home.”

“Did Daisy spend the night?” he asked quietly.

“No, Jed and Neely Kate decided to take her home.”

He was silent for a moment before he said, “Was your nightmare because of the recent murders?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. It was the same nightmare I had a couple of nights ago, but this one was expanded.” I paused. “It wasn’t just a nightmare, Joe.”

He stilled, then asked, “What was it?”

I turned in his arms and placed my hands on his shoulders as I looked up at him. “I had a vision yesterday, the morning after my first nightmare, and they were the same.”

His eyes narrowed. “Wait. You’re telling me the vision was identical to your nightmare?”

“I only remembered bits and pieces of the first nightmare, but yes. And the same is true of my nightmare tonight.”

“Who was your vision of?”

“That’s just it. I thought it was from Neely Kate, or possibly Miss Adolpha, the elderly woman we spoke to about the box, but when I tried to recreate it, I came up with nothing. And tonight…well, I was alone.”

He looked troubled as he studied me. “What was the vision?”

“A woman was murdered in a warehouse. I didn’t see her face clearly in the first dream or vision, so for a while I thought she might be me, especially when I thought the vision was attached to Neely Kate’”

“Rose.” Joe lifted his hands to my upper arms, sounding agonized as he said my name.

“I thought maybe I saw my death because we were poking around about the box, so I told Neely Kate we couldn’t look for the owners anymore. I tried to force the same vision, but nothing happened, so I figured maybe that had fixed it, but my dream tonight confirmed it wasn’t me who was murdered. It was someone else.”

His hands tightened on my arms. “Do you know who she was?”

“No. I saw the man who murdered her, but I’ve never seen him before in real life. The woman I was seeing the vision through was named Selena, but I don’t know any Selenas. I have no idea who the murdered woman was.”

He pulled me into a tight hug as Muffy bounded up the porch steps, jumping up on Joe’s legs and begging for attention.

“Just a minute, Muff,” he said burying his face into my hair.

“I’m fine, Joe. The woman wasn’t me.”

“Did you recognize where this took place?”

I shook my head. “No. It was a big warehouse, and in one section there were tall shelves with boxes. A good portion of it was empty. The woman who was murdered was in the back corner. The man was pissed at her and Selena, and he told Selena it was her own fault. Selena begged him not to murder the woman, but that seemed to piss him off more, so he dragged Selena back to where the woman was and shot her in the forehead.”

He gasped. “That had to be terrifying.”

I didn’t respond since the answer was obvious.

“Let’s get you inside,” he said as he dropped his hands and wrapped an arm around my back, ushering me through the back door, then holding the door open for Muffy to follow.

Joe walked over to a kitchen cabinet and reached for a glass. “What did Neely Kate think of the vision?” He filled up the glass with water, keeping his back to me.

“She was just as puzzled about it as I was, and equally confused as to why I couldn’t reproduce it.”

He turned to face me and lifted the glass to his mouth for a sip. When he lowered it, he said, “Why didn’t you tell me about this last night?”

“Because you were tied up with the murder, and I couldn’t reproduce it after we agreed to stop looking for the box’s owner. I figured the vision was a non-issue.”

“But you’re still lookin’ for the owners of the box?”

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