Free Eyes to the Soul by Dale Mayer Page A

of going back there. The last thing she wanted to do was to have the doctor repeat that there was nothing wrong with her. He wouldn’t say that in so many words, but the message would be the same. “If I go, that is.”
    “Of course you need to go. Who knows what he might find?”
    She lowered her gaze to stare at the table and the cup she could feel in her hands. That was the problem. She was petrified to hear what the doctor would find. But for all she could tell Jillian, she hadn’t yet told her about the voice – it was hardly the same element as her friendly ghosts like Mimi.
    “We’ll see,” she compromised. “At the moment I’m not so sure what to do. The last thing I want is to be here with that,” she waved her hand in the direction of the bathroom, “but neither do I want to leave my space. I hate trying to navigate strange places.”
    “And you don’t have to. You could always get a dog. You are allowed a small one in the apartment complex. A service dog would be ideal. A dog to help you get around and for companionship.”
    Celina loved the idea of a dog, but not because of being blind. And that went back to the idea of not accepting her condition. She didn’t want to be blind. A seeing-eye dog would be permanent. And she refused to accept that her vision would never return.
    Jillian’s fingers brushed the top of hers. “Easy, sweetheart, you’re going to break the cup.”
    Celina released her death grip. She flexed her fingers several times. “Sorry. I’m still a little tense.”
    The doorbell rang once, and then a second time. Celina’s stomach sank. Great, here was round two. “That’s the cops. A different group,” she muttered, pushing her chair back to stand up.
    “Ugh,” Jillian said.
    Celina called back, “I know you can’t stay for long. If you want to take off now while they are here, you could always come over later.”
    “Will do.”
    Celina opened the door and frowned. Heat and power radiated toward her. “Hello?”
    “Hello,” said a calm, masculine voice. “I’m Detective Brandt Sutherland and I have Stefan Kronos, a consultant working with the department, with me.” He hesitated. “May we come in? We won’t be long, but we’d like to see the crime scene.”
    She stepped back and away from the entrance. By rights she shouldn’t even be here, but it wasn’t like she had any place to go. She motioned in the direction of the bathroom. “Help yourself.”
    “Thank you.” Two men walked past her. The second one caught her attention as he moved past her. She lifted her head and sniffed gently. She recognized that aftershave…and there was just something else about him…she recognized him…or maybe it was his name.
    Celina waited at the door but the consultant didn’t say anything. She wracked her brain as to why his name rang a bell in her memory.
    Jillian stepped closer and whispered in Celina’s ear, “Oh my God, they are both hunks.”
    Celina’s lips twisted. “Really? Well, their looks don’t do anything for me.”
    “Maybe not, but wow.” Then her voice changed. “I feel like I should know the first guy but can’t place him.”
    “Hmm. I thought I recognized the consultant’s name, but I don’t know from where.”
    “Think about it, and be good while I’m gone.”
    “Like I have a choice,” Celina muttered as she closed the door behind her friend. She really needed to give up her self-pity and get on with her life.
    “Like hell,” she said to no one in particular, then realized how odd she must look standing in the hallway talking to herself. She made her way back to the kitchen where she sat down with her tea and waited. She lifted her cup ever so slightly when she felt it – almost a ghostly poke.
    It was a weird, snaky, sneaky feeling. She frowned and lifted her face in the direction of the doorway.
    “Did you want to talk to me?”
    That deep milk chocolate voice that promised a million midnight dreams spoke, his tone curling