Free Chill of Fear by Kay Hooper

casual.
    "The very idea of psychic ability is still denied by many in the mainstream, but as more and more research is being done, we're learning that very few things are impossible when it comes to the human mind."
    "You seem to know a lot about it," she said slowly.
    Quentin followed his instincts. "The unit I belong to was designed around the idea that psychic abilities could be channeled constructively and used as investigative tools. So we've done plenty of research and have several years of experiences now to study and draw on. Empirical evidence, the scientists call it.
    Not absolute scientific proof, but we're getting there."
    "You believe you're psychic?"
    He could hear the tension in her voice and answered carefully. "I have the ability to use my five senses with more control and precision than most people, given the belief that it was possible and years of practice. And, yes, I believe I possess an extra ability most others don't have or can't tap in to."
    "What ability?" The tension was growing.
    "Sometimes I know things before they happen."
    Diana sat back abruptly and crossed her arms before her. "So you can see the future? Tell me my fortune?"
    "I don't see anything," Quentin said. "I don't read tarot cards or gaze into a crystal ball or study the lines on someone's palm." His voice was dry now. "I just know things sometimes before they happen."
    "Just," she muttered.
    "It's a perfectly human ability, Diana, even if it is a rare one."
    "How can you possibly know something is going to happen before it does} That doesn't make sense."
    "It's one ability we really can't explain scientifically," he admitted. "Using today's science, that is. If time is linear, as we believe it is, then it certainly doesn't seem possible that the human mind could, as you say, perceive something that hasn't yet happened. Then again, maybe we don't understand time any better than we understand our own minds."
    She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I have enough trouble with reality as it is, thank you.
    Even if I believed what you say is possible, I—"
    "Explain your drawing," Quentin invited.
    "Like I said, I must have seen a photograph."
    "As far as I've been able to find out, Diana, Missy and her mother had no family. They had lived here from the time Missy was three or four. And less than a year after she was murdered, the North Wing was left nothing more than a hollow shell after a fire gutted most of it, destroying all of her and her mother's possessions. So how did you see a photograph of her? In fifteen years of searching, aside from crime-scene and autopsy photos, I've never been able to find one."
    Diana was silent, clearly uneasy.
    "Your sketch shows her the way she was that summer," he continued. "The heart-shaped locket around her neck? I gave her that. In late July, at her birthday party. It disappeared when she was murdered, and hasn't been seen since."
    "You can't possibly know it's the same locket, not from a simple—and badly drawn—charcoal sketch. I'm not an artist, Quentin—" She broke off as their waitress appeared to take their plates and inquire about dessert and coffee, finally leaving them alone again with the latter.
    "I'm not an artist," Diana repeated steadily. "And nothing in that sketch can be taken seriously. I don't even know where that— that image came from, but there has to be a perfectly rational explanation for it."
    "I agree. But my idea of rational and yours might just be light-years apart."
    "If you believe in the paranormal, probably so." She shook her head. "It's just... mysticism and junk science. It isn't real. There are valid medical explanations for why people see things that aren't there, or hear voices, or—or whatever. It's not their fault, it's just that they're sick. They have an illness."
    "And what if they don't?"
    She stared at him.
    "What if they don't, Diana? What if all those valid medical explanations are wrong? It wasn't all that long ago that medical science