Jim bent over to pick up his meter, staring at it with a frown. She waited for the expected explosion. "Damn, I think I broke it."

"I'm sorry, it's my fault."

He shook his head. "Accidents happen."

A little surprised, she peered at him. "The old Jim would have exploded."

He shook his head. "The old Jim was an asshole." Her eyebrows went up and he laughed. "I realized that was one of the reasons why I lost you. After you left Pine Forest I started to change." He looked deep into her eyes. "When I saw you last night at the meeting, I knew I had to see you again, and not just to make sure you were safe. I wanted you to know the new Jim Leggett."

Taken off guard by the sudden confession, discomfort made her take a step back. "Okay, that's fair. It's been a long time since we've seen each other."

He smiled. "You expected me to get mad and unreasonable. To prove that people with red hair have a temper."

Her eyebrows rose. "Some do. I'm not the most conservative person with my anger."

"Oh, I don't know. You sure knew how to handle me. You kept calm when I was going off the deep end about you leaving Pine Forest."

Memories flowed strong inside Clarissa, a fountain of images and regrets she'd long forgotten until this moment. A mingling of disappointment for what never was and could never be swamped her. Old regret bit like teeth into her recollections.

She took a deep breath. "We both didn't know what we were doing then."

"That's for sure." His voice held a little sarcasm. "I know I'll never make mistakes likethat again."

Damn him. Why did he have to remind her of her stupidity? "Maybe we should finish up and get out of here." She stuffed her hands in her pockets. "So, we need to get you another meter?"

He looked down at the instrument. "Look at that. It's working again. Weird."

"Ha. Nothing unusual is actually weird in this town. Remember that."

They continued, and this time she kept her attention on the ground. "So if you're a skeptic about supernatural phenomena, why did you turn to psychic research? You could have gone on to be another type of scientist."

"Iam another type of scientist, remember? Psychology?"

"How easily I forget." She took a photo of a contorted tree, menacing clouds rearing behind it in the afternoon sky. "How long have you been into the psychic research side of things?"

"About three years."

"And before that?"

"I was a private practice therapist."

"That didn't satisfy you any more, I take it?"

He shrugged, his movement nonchalant. "I wanted to research the phenomena that made people believe in things that weren't there. I wanted to prove to people that psychic phenomena are a figment of the imagination."

Smiling, she turned her camera on him and clicked off one picture. "I think you're going to fail miserably. You're going to spend your entire life chasing something and never have the answer."

She saw his deep frown through the camera lens as she snapped one more photo of him.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." She walked on and he caught up to her seconds later. "You've got an edge I don't remember you having when you left Pine Forest. I'm not sure I like it."

Without looking at him or slackening her pace, she said, "Yes, I've changed. I'm not the same hopeful, grateful girl you knew. My edge, as you call it, is maturity. I know what I want, and I don't need anyone to tell me it's okay to want it."

His silence weighed heavy in the air. She knew she'd taken him off guard with her honesty. Okay, her bluntness. Her edge had sharpened over the years, and she didn't regret it.

"So you put down others to make yourself feel good."

Shocked, she stopped. He came to halt beside her, reading his meter apparently forgotten. She gaped at him a minute, then found an indulgent smile somewhere.

How can I grin without feeling like tearing his arrogant head off?

"I'm sorry if you felt I was putting you down when I said you wouldn't be able to debunk psychic phenomena. It wasn't my intention to downgrade you. I was giving you what I believe about the supernatural. Yes, there's much we don't know about the world.

I don't think anyone knows all the answers until we're dead. Before that it is speculation and small truths revealed here and there." She took a deep breath, on a roll. "This is one of the reasons why I said you and I shouldn't work together. My opinions have nothing to do with my confidence in you as a psychologist. It has to do with the phenomena itself.

The mysteries curious people chase after aren't ultimately definable. I learned that a long time ago."

"Then why are you here taking photographs? Aren't you investigating psychic phenomena in your books?"

She pulled her stocking cap down over her hair a little more as a crisp wind picked up.

"Not really. I'm cataloging it."

"How?"

"I can see you haven't read one of my books."

He shifted, a flicker of discomfort in his eyes. "No."

"I take photos of the mysterious. By giving people a glimpse of what I see in the supernatural world. It's an art form to make ordinary things look scary, or to take pictures of scary things and make them seem even more frightening."

He smiled. "You always did love Halloween."

"Still my favorite holiday, I'll admit. Except for Easter. I still like hunting for eggs."

That made him laugh.

They walked on in silence for a few more minutes, and Clarissa drank in the graveyard like a woman in desperate need for water. She loved this place and the atmosphere.

"This place has such personality. Like it's a living, breathing person," she said. "It's almost like evil stopped here for a break, then left."

"Now that sounds like something to put in a book." He snorted a soft laugh. "Wait a minute. You don't still have those strange...visions, do you?"

Exasperation reared inside her, but she kept ire in check. Better to give him a calm, smooth facade even though she wanted to belt him. "I've never stopped having them."

A tolerant expression replaced his teasing. Before he could make another comment, she moved off. She snapped photograph after photograph, conscious of her discomfort at being around Jim and his disbelieving personality. She meandered as he concentrated on making notes on a little pad he produced from his jeans pocket. Putting distance between them seemed like the best way for her to come to grips. Jim Leggett had changed a little, but not as much as he claimed. Had she come out here hoping he might be different and they might rekindle something?

Then again, would any man support her in her endeavors? Believe her when she told him that Pine Forest would be destroyed on Halloween?

She headed toward a crypt on a low hill. Sitting alone with a few trees to shelter it, the crypt looked like a smallGreek temple perched lonely and forlorn. She stopped at the bottom of the hill and took photos, then moved onward. As she walked up the slope she noted the hillside had been spared most of the snow, the rocky surface easier to navigate.

Clarissa imagined the person who'd been buried here had been wealthy or revered in some way. Her muscles drew tight the closer she came to the crypt. A strange throbbing started in her temples and she took a deep breath. When she reached the top of the hill a wave of apprehension floated over her, her heart pounding with a bizarre fear she hadn't tasted even when she'd been mugged. Her mouth went dry and she swallowed hard. The crypt door was smashed in, and at the angle she couldn't see much inside.Good thing she'd brought the right lens for taking shots in the dim interior. Still...

Something was here.