Page 8 of Jon's Helter Skelter Cold Case

“Okay.”

We had to quickly sign back in, then we retraced our steps through the main floor toward the interview rooms. Abby stayed by my side the entire walk, asking questions.

“What happens? Can we get him out today?”

“No, sadly, we can’t. A psychic’s word is invaluable during an investigation, but it’s not treated like hard evidence. It can’t be. Psychics are human too; we can lie or bend the truth to suit our wants. The law’s smart about that. But what wecando is learn about the case directly from the man himself and then ask him to take us on as PIs. We’ll have to work the case pro bono or something, but until I have his clearance, we can’t touch this.”

Abby looked like she was taking mental notes. “So we have to convince him. I don’t think that’ll be hard. Surely he wants out.”

“You’re likely right.” Although people could be stupid and stubborn about things in the weirdest ways sometimes.

Lopez was true to his word. We barely got into the room when the door opened behind us and Dwayne Evans walked in. A very tall, extremely thin man, I could tell he didn’t work out at all and was one of those people who forgot to eat. His handswere shackled in front of him, confusion and something akin to alarm running through him. Then again, likely nothing had been explained to him, so his reaction made sense. His lines showed he was a very gifted psychic, twenty-six, had lived in the Nashville area all his life, and he was cut off from his anchor. Ouch. From what I could see, this man had been through hell recently.

Then he spotted me and stopped dead, dark brown eyes flaring wide. I got that reaction from psychics a lot. I was far, far too bright for their vision and they had to adapt to me.

Abby beat me to the punch, going straight to him and grabbing both of his hands. It brought his gaze sharply down to her, and I did mean down—he could have been a pro basketball player with his height.

“I’m Abby Moore.” She looked earnestly up into his eyes as she introduced herself. “I can see you’re innocent, and I want to help you get out of here.”

Welp. That was one way to introduce yourself, I guess.

Shell-shocked, he stood there staring at her for several seconds. Then, interestingly enough, his head lifted and he looked at Donovan. Dwayne’s voice rasped as he said, “One Black man to another, can I trust what she’s saying?”

Ah. Considering the prejudices he’s faced, I could see why he’d want another man of color to verify things.

“You can,” Donovan said. “Abby is a Reader. Do you know what that is?”

Dwayne did. His eyes filled with tears, although none of them fell, and his hands grasped Abby’s in return.

“Then you can see,” he choked out. “You can see I didn’t kill my sister.”

Ouuuuuch. That was what he’d been locked up for? Okay, that was just wrong.

His eyes came up to mine and he said more than asked, “You’re just like her, but stronger.”

“He’s my teacher!” Abby beamed at him. “He’s Jonathan Bane.”

My name meant something to him. His lines flared nearly neon yellow-green with…relief? Like he’d been anxious to meet me. Then again, word around the prison labeled me as an annoying know-it-all, so he’d likely heard some kind of account about how I could see guilt. Maybe he thought a lucky meeting with me would get him out of here.

He wasn’t wrong.

Or at least, I’d do my damndest to get him free from a sentence he didn’t deserve.

I came in closer, nudging Abby out of the way, and shook hands with him. “Sir. Far as I can tell, you’ve never even had a parking ticket.”

He laughed, the sound garbled with emotion. “Correct. I kept praying I’d run into you somehow, and here you are. You came to me.”

“You can thank Abby. She spotted you first.”

Dwayne shot her the widest smile I’d ever seen. “Thank you.”

She grinned back, pleased with herself. “I do try. Here, sit, tell me thewholestory. We want to be your PIs and help prove your innocence.”

Her offer sounded good to him, but as he let go of my hand, his worry nudged back in. “I can’t pay you right now.”

“Don’t worry about it, we can work payment out afterward. Right now, let’s focus on getting you out of here. Warden Lopez, can you act as a witness for this interview?”

“I most certainly can. Uh, I’ll record it on my phone.”

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