Page 21 of In Her Dreams
The morning sun felt incongruously bright and cheerful.Birds chirped in the trees lining the quiet suburban street, and somewhere a lawnmower hummed.The normalcy of it all created a jarring contrast with the tragedy inside the house.
Jake stood leaning against his car, his expression shifting from professional detachment to concern when he saw her face.
“That bad?”he asked as she approached.
“Worse,” Jenna replied, keeping her voice low.“I dreamed about her death, Jake.Just after it happened.I saw her being swarmed by birds.”
Jake’s eyebrows shot up.“And she had a bird phobia?”
“Ornithophobia.According to her roommate, she’d recently ‘overcome’ it, around the same time she acquired the dreamcatcher.”
“Just like Winters and his claustrophobia,” Jake muttered, opening the passenger door for her.“This is getting weirder by the minute.”
Jenna slid into the seat, her mind whirling with connections and implications.They drove in thoughtful silence, each processing the mounting evidence of something beyond ordinary crime.The courthouse came into view, its imposing brick facade a familiar landmark in the small town.Beneath it lay the county morgue, where Melissa Stark would already be preparing for their arrival.
Jake parked then turned to Jenna.“Ready?”
She nodded, though “ready” was hardly the word for the churning mixture of dread and determination she felt.They entered through the side entrance, descending the stairs that led to the basement level where the morgue was located.
The temperature dropped noticeably as they entered the sterile environment.The harsh fluorescent lighting bounced off gleaming metal surfaces, and the pervasive smell of antiseptic filled the air.Dr.Melissa Stark stood over a body—Anita’s body—her gloved hands moving with precision.
She looked up as they entered, her expression professional but with an undercurrent of concern that Jenna had come to recognize over years of working together.
“Sheriff, Deputy,” she greeted them, straightening up.“I was just getting started.”
“What can you tell us so far?”Jenna asked, approaching the examination table.
Melissa sighed, pulling down her mask.“Preliminary observations suggest cardiac arrest, just like Winters.No obvious external cause.No immediate evidence of drugs or alcohol.”She gestured to Anita’s face.“And then there’s this expression of terror.I’ve been a coroner for twenty-two years, and I haven’t seen anything exactly like it.”
She looked directly at Jenna.
“Do you have any idea whether she had some kind of preexisting condition?”
“No, her roommate said she was perfectly healthy.”
Melissa shook her head.“This is one of your peculiar cases, isn’t it?The kind that makes me question whether my scientific background is comprehensive enough to explain what happens in this town.”
Jenna didn’t answer immediately.Her relationship with Melissa was built on mutual respect and a tacit understanding that some things defied conventional explanation.Melissa had never pushed for details about Jenna’s methods or insights, but she recognized patterns that fell outside normal parameters.
“We’re looking into connections between this case and Winters,” Jenna said finally.“Both had recently claimed to overcome long-standing phobias.”
“And both appear to have died of fright,” Melissa added grimly.“I’ll expedite the autopsy, but I suspect we’ll find the same results as with Winters—a heart that simply couldn’t withstand the surge of adrenaline and terror.”
Jenna and Jake exchanged a glance, then moved a few steps away for privacy.
“We need to talk to Cassie Rivera,” Jenna said quietly.“Whatever this is, it’s not standard police work anymore.”
Jake’s expression showed brief hesitation.“Your fortune-telling friend?”he asked.“You think she’ll have insight about those dreamcatchers?”
“If anyone in town knows about esoteric symbols, it’s Cassie.She’s been deep into that world for years.”Jenna paused, then added, “Let’s hope she doesn’t ask too many questions about how we’re connecting these cases.”
Jake nodded, his slight reservation giving way to trust in her judgment.“Let’s do it, then.”
They turned back to Melissa, who was already resuming her examination.“We’ll check in later for the full report,” Jenna told her.“Call if you find anything unusual—anything at all.”
“Don’t I always?”Melissa replied without looking up.
As they prepared to leave, Jenna cast one final glance at Anita’s body.In death, the teacher looked impossibly young, her potential cut short by something Jenna couldn’t yet name.Was somebody using fear itself as a weapon?
