Glass Eye: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective

Chapter 54

The car triggers everything for Zandra. It's the final pixel in the picture.

Steve's car is gone. What happened between then and now?

"Just out of curiosity, Fred, can you tell me when your people were last at the park?" Zandra says after Fred finishes calling in the discovery. The four of them stay close to Soma Falls, although they stand a good distance away from the body.

"Last I heard, they were looking for you," Fred says.

"And when was that?"

"What do you mean? You were there."

"I mean when did the police leave?" Zandra says.

"They towed the car you stole, apparently stole, about an hour ago. They left once they got word you'd turned yourself in," Fred says.

"I imagine they cleared out the park of any visitors once they showed up," Zandra says. "And I'll bet most of those visitors were at Soma Falls, but none of them reported a body. It's not like Elle washed up in the meantime. She's too far from the water for that. No, someone dumped her. They had to have done it between the time the police left and now, or while the police were still here."

Herman perks up. Follows right along. "There's no way it could've been you, Zandra," he says.

"Exactly. Because where was I an hour ago?" Zandra says to Fred.

"At the station with Charlie," Fred says. He pauses in thought. "And there's no way you could've disposed of a body while my officers were still in the park."

Zandra raises the handcuffs around her wrists. Gives them a decent shake. "Mind taking these things off me? It's pretty obvious I had nothing to do with this," she says.

Fred shakes his head. "You're not out of the woods yet. Even if you are clear with Elle, you can't break into crime scenes, threaten people with knives and steal cars without consequences," he says.

"We'll get to those things later," Zandra says, already thinking ahead to how she'll slide out of those issues. "Right now we need to find the person responsible for this. Care to take another look at that drawing?"

Fred holds Zandra's drawing so she can't see. "What am I supposed to be looking for?" he says.

"The car. There must be something else in the car that can help," Zandra says. She's not sure if there's anything overtly helpful, but she's willing to bet she can conjure something up. "There were letters in the waterfall that helped us. What about the car?"

Fred looks close. It's a crude parody of a car. Not much to interpret. "I don't see anything. This isn't the best drawing," he says.

No, Fred, the best drawings are the ones that need a little help to "see."

"Letters. There must be letters. Look hard," Zandra says. She imagines the sketch in her head. Then she has it. "An L, an E...a C."

Zandra inserts a flicker of a pause before saying C to make it stands out. Says it slightly louder, too. She also chooses preceding letters that require an "an" before them, so the "a" before C is highlighted. It's an old sales trick to force a customer into subconsciously choosing one of several options. In a quick decision where all options are otherwise equal, the brain will choose the one that it remembers the fastest. Nine times out of 10, that will be the option that stands out from the others.

"I guess I see...," Fred says, trailing off as he studies the drawing.

"Let me know if you need help," Herman says. He inches toward Fred. "I've been training to see these types of things. Patterns no one else notices, that's all me."

There must be a C in there somewhere. Right, Fred?

"There it is," Fred says and points. He turns the paper so Zandra and Herman can see. "A C. There are three of them that make up the wheels. I guess you forgot the fourth one, Zandra."

"A C. Of course. I see them now, too," Herman says. "But what do they mean?"

Zandra gnaws over her answer before saying anything. Then she has it. "Charlie's cop car, meaning the Sunfire."

She lucked out with the alliteration. "Charlie" or "Charlie's car" would've worked, too, had the C count been different.

Fred looks confused. "Seems like quite the leap. How do you figure that's what they mean?" he says.

Zandra connects the last dot for him.

"Charlie blended right in while the police were in the park. She probably waited until she was alone, then somehow disposed of Elle before heading back to the station," Zandra says. "Prove me wrong. Check Charlie's car. You might want to start with the trunk."

"Again, you're making some serious accusations here. I'm going to need more than the letter C to start searching a vehicle," Fred says.

Zandra smiles. "You'll notice our group of four is now three. We're down a Charlie," she says.

Fred raises an eyebrow. Scans the area. "She must be around here somewhere. Probably checking on something," he says.

After a few minutes of looking, it's obvious. A quick check of the parking shows the squad car they rode over in is also missing. Fred makes it official and radios in. Charlie is gone.