To Tell a Tale (Season One)
Ep 5 - Part Two: Peaceful Surroundings

Airianna stared at her father, and the two detectives. She had a feeling about who they were on the phone with and knew why she wasn’t allowed to talk during the call. If her grandmother heard her voice, she could claim her as a part of their clan and take her from her father, or that’s how she understood it happened. She wasn’t sure about the details.

“What did Grandmother say it means?” Airianna asked, watching the three men in the room.

Nash looked at her, and she could tell he was confused. She looked at the other two men and saw they also looked a bit confused.

“Tell me,” Airianna said, watching them.

Nash moved over to her and took her hands into his. He explained to her what her father had feared it meant. Airianna’s mouth opened as she looked over at her father.

“She didn’t need to know that part,” her father grumbled.

“Papa, you should have told me.” Airianna frowned at her father. “I have the right to know when it is my time to go.”

Nash turned her face to face him and told her about the conversation they had with her grandmother. She blinked up at him, her mind working overtime. Airianna had figured it was something like that. That’s why she’d run to her father for answers.

“I think my grandmother is right. The same man killed the woman in the older dream, and now he’s going to strike again. But how many times has he killed, and I didn’t see it?” A tear slid down her cheek.

She sucked in a breath when Nash caught the tear on the pad of his thumb. He looked at the tear, then into her eyes.

“You have no control over other people….”

She looked away from him. “But if I’d dreamed….”

“Or your dreams,” he said, forcing her to look at him.

“But…”

He kissed her to shut her up, and she sighed against his mouth. He could silence her with his lips any time he wanted. Her father cleared his throat. Nash lifted his head and smiled down at her.

“What did you realize about the paintings that had you running to your father?” he asked, looking deep into her eyes.

Airianna swallowed. “The same thing as my grandmother,” she whispered.

Nash grinned. He’d figured as much.

“This means that there is an unsolved case at the station. We need to check out,” Smitty said from his side of the living room.

Nash looked up at his partner, then back down at Airianna. He repeated his partner’s words to Airianna, and she nodded.

“Looks like I’ll be looking through the old cases sooner than we thought.”

Nash grinned as he lightly kissed her lips.

Smitty chuckled as he watched his partner with the young seer. “It appears we’ll be killing two birds with one stone.”

~🔮~

“Okay, so how do we replace the case if the body was moved?”

Nash looked up at his partner. They’d been shuffling through files for hours, and he wondered the same thing his partner had just questioned.

“Good question.” Captain Dish looked up from the folder he was looking through.

Nash looked to his captain. When they’d told him about Airianna’s newest dream, he’d been thrilled that they would be solving an old case and a new one. He’d insisted on joining them.

“What’s going on?” Airianna asked, looking between the three men.

Nash turned her to face him and told her what Smitty had asked.

Airianna looked at Smitty, then back at Nash. “Maybe I could try and paint the victim’s face clearer?”

“Can you do that?” Smitty asked, tossing yet another file onto the table.

Nash repeated Smitty’s question so Airianna could understand him.

Airianna shrugged her shoulders. “I have never tried.”

“Take her home and see if she can help with her paintings. Take the old one with you and leave the new one here for us to observe,” the captain ordered Nash.

Nash nodded and told Airianna what the captain suggested, even though Nash knew it was more than a suggestion.

Airianna nodded, and they grabbed her old painting and headed out to his car. Once the painting was secure behind her seat, they got in, and he headed to her father’s house.

“Thank you for believing in me,” she whispered, not looking at him.

Nash smiled as he took hold of her hand and held it. His heart skipped a beat when she didn’t pull back but instead intertwined her fingers with his.

They continued down the road in silence. She never looked at him so he could answer her. She sat in her seat, looking out the window, her fingers still attached to his.

“Pull off there,” she said, pointing to a dirt road.

Without a word, he pulled off onto the dirt road and followed her directions to what looked to be a lake.

Airianna reluctantly let go of Nash’s hand and opened her door. Before she was fully out of her seat, Nash was beside her, helping her exit the car.

“Why are we here?” he asked, looking into her eyes as he talked slow enough that she could easily read his lips.

She loved when he looked into her eyes. It made her feel… normal. Or as normal as a deaf girl with the sight can be. Other people looked at her nose, or her throat, or her tits. They’re either afraid she’d suck out their soul if they looked into her eyes or scared she’ll see the evil they have done.

But she doesn’t work that way.

She has no control over her dreams; they have control over her. And she can’t get a dream by looking into someone’s eyes. Sometimes she’s had a vision from someone touching her—but that was rare and dangerous. Because if she’s not somewhere she can draw or paint, she will have a seizure. Her father had talked about the ones who’ve gone into a coma because they couldn’t release their dream before it took them under.

“It is peaceful,” she whispered, looking up into Nash’s deep brown eyes.

She could easily get lost in his eyes.

“How do you know how peaceful it is when you cannot hear anything around you?” he asked, his eyes roaming over her face.

Airianna smiled as she slid her hands up his chest. A shiver ran down her spine when his muscles rippled beneath her touch. Her hands slid up his shoulders and around to the back of his head. Her fingers played in his hair, making him take a breath.

Airianna smirked. “Do you hear anything around here?”

He looked around them, then back at her, and shook his head. “It’s peaceful.”

She chuckled. “It is. I may not hear much, but the ocean is calm when I’m here, and my hearing aids pick up the crickets and birds. Because it is so peaceful here.”

“I see.” He grinned and moved closer to her. “You can hear when you’re here. That must put you at ease.”

She nodded. “It does.”

“I thought we were going back to your father’s house so you could try and paint the woman in your painting….”

“Shh,” she whispered, leaning into him. “Don’t talk.”

She kissed him and felt him give up as he wrapped his arms around her and slipped his tongue past her lips.

“You’re so beautiful,” he mumbled against her mouth, and she heard every word.

~🔮~

“This is ridiculous,” Smitty grumbled, tossing another dead end onto the table.

“Don’t give up now, Son.” The captain picked up another folder to go through.

“Without the woman’s face, there is no way for us to replace her.”

“Not true.” The captain looked at his detective. “It will just make things easier.”

Smitty grumbled with agitation. “I bet they aren’t even at her house. I bet they’re somewhere making out.”

Captain Dish chuckled. “I have a feeling you are probably right. Those two have been inseparable since they made up.”

“I told the fool what he was giving up,” Smitty mumbled.

Captain Dish nodded. “Maribelle told him as well. But he’s too stubborn. That’s one of the things I like about him and what makes him a good detective.”

Smitty sighed. His captain was right. His partner is stubborn, and it helped make him one of the best detectives in their district.

“Look at this.” The captain handed Smitty a picture from one of the folders.

“Hey, I’ve seen her before.” He squinted his eyes as he studied the picture.

“That is your partner’s mother.”

Smitty’s head snapped up to the captain. “Yeah, I saw it in his father’s den on the mantle.”

Captain Dish nodded.

“She’s an unsolved case,” Smitty whispered, looking down at the picture again.

“She is. And maybe, just maybe, our little seer will see where her killers may be.” The captain took the picture from Smitty and placed it back into the folder.

Smitty watched his captain place the folder away from the other files. To save it for later, or hide it from Nash?

~🔮~

“It really is peaceful here,” Nash said with a deep sigh.

He was sitting on the ground against a large rock, Airianna between his legs, her back against his chest. Occasionally, when she moved, her breast rubbed against his arm, and his cock had a mind of its own as it came to life. He had to think of stupid things to get it to go away. But it wasn’t easy.

“I felt your chest vibrate. I know you spoke, but I have no clue what you said.”

He chuckled, and she turned her head, smiling up at him. He held her chin so she wouldn’t turn from him.

“I said, it’s peaceful here.”

She grinned at him and leaned forward so her lips touched his.

“I told you so.”

He grinned as she turned from the kiss and nestled against his chest again.

“I come here when I have trouble with my dreams. Some of them aren’t for the weak of heart. Not that mine is weak.”

He squeezed her arms, letting her know he knew she was not weak.

She sighed and cuddled deeper into his embrace. “I’ve never been here with anyone before,” she whispered.

His heart swelled, knowing she had never brought a man here before.

“Nash,” she whispered, panic in her voice.

“What is it?” he asked, lifting her and turning her to face him.

“I need paper and pen,” she whispered.

Nash set her back and jumped to his feet. He ran to his car and searched through the vehicle until he found a pad of paper and a pencil. He ran back to Airianna and gently pressed the items into her hands. She’d told him about this before. When she feels a dream coming on, she needs something to draw or paint on right away. He watched her eyes gloss over as her right hand connect to the paper and the pencil scrawled out her dream. He watched in amazement as a small circle turned into a face. Long straight hair—he wished he knew the color—but the face was so detailed they didn’t need the color of hair or eyes. They will be able to replace her in the system if she was reported missing or her body was found.

Airianna’s eyes cleared. She blinked at him, then looked down at the notebook in her hand.

“That’s her,” she whispered. “The girl from the painting. The one I painted when I was twelve.” She looked up at him—elation in her eyes.

He smiled and placed his hand on her shoulder. “We’ll replace her,” he promised, then helped her to her feet and headed back to the car.

“I will be able to solve a puzzle,” Airianna whispered as she looked out the window at the scenery buzzing by.

Nash smiled as he drove down the road. The captain wasn’t the only one anxious to solve old cases. For Airianna, the paintings are what the old cases are to his captain.

Unsolved mysteries.