The Rivers Webb by Jeremy Tyler Page B

actually have any questions that pertained to the investigation. He couldn’t think of one plausible reason to ask the burning questions he had.
    Common sense told him to turn the car around and forget this stupid idea. And Dan would have, except for one thing. If common sense had opened its damn mouth earlier, he could have saved his gas. But instead—and here is where Dan parked in the gravel driveway—it decided to wait until he’d actually arrived before pointing all this out.
    He got out of the car and walked to the front door and knocked.
    â€œCome on in, Deputy. I just got a pot o’ coffee on, so’s we can set and talk a spell,” came the voice from inside.
    Dan felt a shiver go up his spine. Sam Posey was a scary character without even trying to be, sometimes. He opened the door and walked into the kitchen. Sam was sitting at the table quietly.
    â€œDoc,” he said in greeting.
    â€œDeputy,” Sam replied in kind.
    Dan let the silence settle in for a while. If this man were really clairvoyant, he thought, then he would already know what questions he wanted answers to. And he could just save old Dan a lot of awkwardness.
    â€œI’m not much a one for formality, Deputy. So, if y’er waitin’ for an invitation to sit, please don’t think me discourteous. Consider yourself invited,” Sam chided, reminding the deputy that he was just standing there like an idiot.
    â€œYou knew I was coming?” Dan asked, taking a seat across from the old man.
    â€œI knew you would be. Though I’m a little surprised it took you this long.”
    Dan eyed the man. Was he trying to suggest something that Dan wasn’t catching? He could never tell with the man.
    â€œI hope I’m not intruding…I had though about just calling you on the phone…”
    â€œOh no, you did not,” Sam chided. “You couldn’t ask what you need to ask without seein’ my face, Dan. It’s as simple as that, and you know it. You needed to look into my eyes, see the little twitches and tics that tell you when I’m nervous or hidin’ something. You needed to SEE what I was THINKIN’!”
    Dan didn’t even try to hide his surprise. His natural gifts of observation had helped him a lot over the years. And that was exactly how it worked. The thing is, he never told anyone. Not even Roy. He felt that it added to the effect if nobody knew how he could “guess” at little details that people revealed without realizing it.
    â€œHow did…”
    â€œI’ve often thought that what you and I can do are very similar, Deputy. You see things that everyone else sees, but don’t know it. That’s kinda’ how it works with me, I think.”
    He looked like he was about to say more, but the coffee percolator made its announcement, and Sam smiled broadly as he got up to fetch it.
    As he poured coffee into two ceramic cups, he switched gears for a moment.
    â€œReverend Rivers talked with me about three weeks before he died, you know. Dropped by, just like you did today. It was kinda’ strange, now that I think about it. Not that he stopped by—that’s nothin’ unusual. He and I been friends ever since…” Sam stopped himself quickly, as though he had nearly parted with some secret piece of information. Dan noted it, but decided to let it pass.
    â€œWe been friends for a long time. Naw, what was strange was that he asked me somethin’ that he never bothered with in all the time I known ’im.” Sam looked at the coffee cups in his hand, apparently searching for his next thought in their murky depths, before announcing, “He wanted to know where my visions come from.”
    â€œWhat did you tell him?” Dan asked, without really knowing why.
    â€œWell, Dan,” he replied, as he put a mug in front of him. Dan noticed it had just the amount of cream that he liked, and he somehow knew