To Tell a Tale (Season One)

Nash looked at the girl beside him and noticed she had a strange smile on her face.

“Look, I need to go. I’m interrogating the girl….”

“You mean the girl who saved our asses?”

Nash could hear his partner chuckling.

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” he grumbled, then turned off his walkie.

Nash looked at the girl again and couldn’t help but smile. Her smile was contagious.

“So, you were going to explain your dreams and paintings to me,” he said, watching her.

Airianna bit her lower lip. She read his words but didn’t know how to answer them. How do you tell someone who has never seen someone like her how her gift works?

“Uh, well. You see, I have dreams. They tell me things that are going to happen. Sometimes I have them when I’m asleep, and sometimes when I’m awake. The ones I have when I’m awake come out in my paintings. Sometimes I don’t even know I’m having them until the painting is complete.”

Nash stared at the girl. Was she an escapee from a nuthouse? Visions? Paintings? She’s saying she’s a psychic.

“So, uh, you’re a psychic, is what you’re trying to say?”

She sighed and closed her eyes. Nash watched her as she thought of what to say next. Maybe she’ll tell him the truth. She opened her eyes and smiled.

“Not a psychic, per se. Like I can’t tell you your fortune. We are seers.”

“Like an oracle?” he asked, watching her closely.

She shook her head, “no. Oracles were shown signs, and I really wouldn’t want to cut into a cat to see what God wanted me to see that day.”

Nash blinked. ‘What the fuck?’

Airianna giggled at the look on his face. “Oracles interpret signs sent by God through bird signs and animal entrails. Which to me says, Devil. But who am I to accuse of anything so foul when I see things I would rather not see….” She stopped talking when images of her mother’s death swamped her memories.

“Entrails, huh?” he asked, still staring at her like she was the Devil himself.

Airianna sighed, “yeah. Like I said, not something I would ever do.”

“How were you able to disable the noise without passing out?” Nash watched her as she watched his lips move.

‘What was she doing? Waiting for the perfect time to attack?’

She lifted her hand, and he moved his hand toward his gun.

“Don’t,” she whispered, watching his movement.

Nash stopped and watched her remove two devices from her ears. She handed them over to him, and he held his hand out for her to drop them into his palm.

“I could hear some of what you were saying with them in, but without them, all I hear is the ocean.”

Nash looked up at her. She’s deaf. No wonder she hadn’t answered him any of the times he had talked to her. She hadn’t heard him.

“I’ll be damned,” he said, looking back down at the two hearing aids in his palm.

“I can read lips,” she informed him with a smile.

He chuckled. That answered his next question. He handed Airianna the hearing aids back, and she placed them into her ears.

“I don’t know if I can believe everything you have told me. But I can see how you were able to dismantle whatever was making the noise. Is that why you wear white?”

Airianna looked out the window and nodded. She’d heard some of what he’d said and asked and read the rest.

“Even with my hearing aids, I can’t always hear when a car is close. I learned my lesson the hard way about wearing dark clothes at night.”

She turned to him and watched a frown form on his handsome face. Why did fate send her to him? He’s good-looking enough, but he seemed to be out of reach. Something about him had her wondering if he would ever accept her—even if he believed her.

“Okay. So, I won’t take you in….” He smiled at her. “This time.”

She smiled as she read his lips and listened to his voice. She could fall asleep to his voice.

“Can I go home?”

He sighed and nodded. “I’ll have my partner pick me up.”

She watched him slide out of her car and closed her eyes. Will she see him again? Her door opened, startling her. She looked up at him, and he smiled.

“Are you able to drive?” Nash asked, making sure she could read his lips.

She nodded, and he helped her from the car.

“Don’t let me catch you doing this again,” he warned her as he watched her eyes roam over his face.

She nodded. “What if I get another vision?”

He smirked, “contact me and tell me what you saw.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out his pad and pen, wrote down his number, and handed it to her.

She looked at it and smiled.

He shook his head. What was he going to tell his captain? He sure the fuck wasn’t going to tell him that some seer had saved him and Smitty. Shit—they’re screwed.

~🔮~

Airianna walked into the house she shared with her father. Yes, she still lived at home. It was the safest place for her. So her father claimed. She agreed to stay because she didn’t know anything else, and she didn’t want to live alone. Her father was the only one who truly understood her and who could help when her dreams had her screaming in the middle of the night.

“Airianna, is that you?” Jeremy Williams called out, pressing the button under the counter, which made the lights blink in the hall.

“It’s me!” Airianna called out when she saw the lights in the hall flashing.

She found her father in the kitchen fixing dinner and smiled.

“I met him, Papa. He is so handsome.”

Jeremy turned to his daughter. He knew who she spoke of. The man she has been fretting over saving for the past two months.

“Is he safe?” he asked, ensuring she could read his lips.

She nodded and sat down at the table. She placed her chin in her hands and stared at the clock on the wall.

“He listened when I told him not to move for five minutes.”

Jeremy smiled. “What caused the bleeding?”

Airianna blinked and looked at her father. She knows he’d asked her a question. She heard his voice, but she’d been dreaming about the detective and what fate could possibly want her to do with him.

Jeremy smiled at his daughter. He knew she hadn’t heard his question by the look on her face, so he asked it again, this time making sure she read every word.

“There was this horrible noise. I found where it was coming from and destroyed them. I saved them, Papa.”

She beamed up at him, and Jeremy’s heart swelled.

“That’s two more lives saved by the Williams seers.” He smiled at her, then turned back to the stove.

“Papa, what do I do next? I have this feeling that fate wants me to stay close to him. Do you think something bad is going to happen to him again?”

Jeremy thought about it for a moment, then turned to his daughter. He held up a finger to let her know to give him a minute. He pulled out a pad of paper and pen and wrote to his beloved daughter.

I don’t know what fate has in store for the two of you. But if you feel there is something special about him, then you should listen to your soul. Because, my dear heart, you are a Williams Seer.

He pulled the paper off the pad and handed it to his daughter, a larger-than-life smile on his face.

Airianna took the paper from her father and read it. When she finished, she smiled up at him.

“Thanks, Papa. I’m going to go get ready for supper.”

Her father nodded as she pulled herself out of the seat and headed to the bathroom.

~🔮~

Nash looked at his partner as they sat together in their captain’s office. They had a lot of explaining to do… and neither knew how they would explain anything and not look like they were just as crazy as the girl who had saved them.

“Now, what happened? What really happened?” their captain asked, holding their report up and slapping it down on his desk.

Nash closed his eyes and sighed. How is he going to tell him…?

“Do you believe in psychics?” Smitty asked, looking their captain straight in the eyes.

Nash’s eyes flew open, and he stared at his partner. ‘Seriously?’

Their captain studied Smitty for a minute until he was sure the man was serious.

“Depends on the psychic,” he answered, shocking both detectives.

“Well, sir. She helped us. She found all the devices making the noise that had us pinned down, then told Nash not to move for five minutes. If he hadn’t listened, the crate would have fallen on us rather than the man who thought he had us trapped.”

Captain Michael Dish stared at his detectives. He has worked with psychics before. But none were brave enough to put themselves in danger to save others.

“Who is she?” he asked, looking at Smitty.

“He talked to her, sir,” Smitty said, pointing to his partner.

“Thanks a lot,” Nash grumbled.

“Jackman?” Michael asked, looking at one of his brightest, toughest detectives. If he believed the girl was a psychic, maybe there was something there to look into.

“She said her name is Arinna Wills.”

Michael blinked. ’Seriously?’ “Do you mean Airianna Williams?”

“Yeah, that’s her.” Nash nodded.

Nash almost grumbled out loud. He’d intentionally messed up her name, hoping to keep her out of his captain’s claws. But apparently, the man has heard of her. Why hasn’t he?

“Damn.” Captain Dish shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything about her in a long time. Not since the rape….” He stopped talking when Nash let out a loud predatory growl. “Something the matter, Jackman?”

Nash shook his head, “you were saying about the ra… ra….” He couldn’t say it. Not when it concerned that sweet, innocent girl he’d met tonight.

Michael watched his detective. The man was enchanted by the young woman. That may be a good thing if they can use her for some of their unsolved cases. He has been trying to get the girl to help them for years, but her father keeps blocking him. Doesn’t help that her father is best friends with a federal judge.

“As you probably know by now, the girl is severely deaf. It happened when she was seven. Anyway, she has had trouble when she’s alone. Twice I have arrested men for trying to rape her. Luckily, someone found them and stopped it in time. And her father sent her away to learn self-defense and other things to keep her safe. I have been trying to get her father to allow her to help us, but he has friends in high places,” he grumbled the last few words.

“Fucking fucktards,” Smitty mumbled.

“What kind of help have you been looking for with her?” Nash asked.

“We have so many unsolved cases. If she could just look at them….”

“I thought she only got her sight in dreams,” Nash said, watching Michael.

Michael smiled, “yes, but if she could look at the cases, maybe she has had a dream stashed away with no one to talk to….”

“How did she lose her hearing?” Smitty asked.

Both men looked at Smitty. The man shrugged.

“Sorry. I know Nash has wondered about it for a while now, thought I’d ask.”

Nash grumbled as he folded his arms over his chest. To be honest, he has wondered. But what business was it of his?

“She shot a man when she was seven,” the captain answered, his face blank of any emotion.

“Do what now?” Nash asked, staring at the man across the desk from him. “She shot a man?”

“Yes.” Captain Dish nodded and rubbed his face with his hand.

“Why would a seven-year-old shoot someone?” Smitty asked.

“The man was beating her mother. She’d had a dream about the man and went to find him to see what she could do. Not realizing he was her mother’s ex-boyfriend, who had beaten her until she’d lost their child. He thought Airianna was his and beat the woman for telling him she’d lost their child.

“Airianna knew where her father’s gun was and the code to the safe. She shot him when she saw he was beating her mother to death. Being seven, she couldn’t control the pistol, and it jerked her arm back, deafening her and tearing her shoulder out of the socket.”

“Fuck,” Smitty gasped.

“What happened to her mother?” Nash asked.

“By the time Airianna’s father got home, the man and his wife were dead, and Airianna was unconscious.”

“Fuck, me,” Smitty mumbled.

Nash looked at his partner. That is the most he has ever heard the man use that language.

“She’s a smart girl. I would appreciate it if you could talk her into helping us. Tell her we plan to pay her for her time.”

Nash closed his eyes. After hearing her story, he wondered if he could ever look her in the eyes again without feeling pity.

“Was the bastard her father?” Smitty asked.

Nash opened his eyes. He wondered the same thing.

“No. She really had lost that child and left him. She met Jeremy Williams a while before that and found out the man had a crush on her. They fell in love, and she got pregnant with Airianna. The girl is a true Williams.”

“What do you want me to do?” Nash asked.

“Just what I said. Talk the girl into helping us.”

Nash sighed. He didn’t know how convincing he could be, but he would give it a try.

“Fine, but I won’t promise anything.”

Michael Dish grinned. Having a Williams Seer on their side could solve a lot of cases.

“I will expect your first report in one week.”

With that, he dismissed the detectives.

Nash walked to his desk, thoughts of Airianna on his mind.

Was she really a seer, or did she and her family have the entire city fooled?