Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (103 page)

“Thanks for being there all through this.”

“It’s just the beginning of me being there for you,” he said. “I have a lot to make up for.”

“No, you don’t,” I said.

Even though it was hard when we broke up last year, it had worked out okay. Our relationship was better than it was before. More honest. Stronger. He had come around about the ghosts I saw and my visions. He might not understand all the strange things that went on in my life, but he believed that they were real.

And he finally understood that I loved him with all my heart, even with Jesse still hanging around.

Someone brought our food over.

“I see you went with your usual as well,” I said.

“Hell, yeah,” he said. “Doctor’s orders. They do the breakfast burrito right.”

I demolished the Cristo. It was delicious, the French toast crunchy and buttery, the ham and eggs cooked perfectly. When I finished I eyed Ty’s plate.

“Something else?” he said.

“I’m always starving after a win.”

He cut off a chunk of his burrito and put it on my plate. It was good, too.

“Hey, I just remembered,” I said, sitting back and pushing my plate to the side of the table. “Now that the trial has been canceled, maybe you can still get in on that trip to Idaho.”

10 Barrel was opening a new pub and brewery in Boise and had asked Ty to go and train the new staff. He had told them he couldn’t go because he was coming to Seattle with me for the trial.

“Hawaii sounds like more fun,” he said. “Wanna go?”

“It does,” I said. “But seriously, you should see if it’s not too late. I could tell you wanted to go when they asked you.”

“No, I think I’ll pass. I’m happy here. I don’t think now is…”

I knew why he really didn’t want to go.

“Ty, we can’t not do things because I had a nightmare two months ago about Nathaniel Mortimer,” I said. “I don’t want us to live like that. You need to go if it’s something you want to do.”

I had told Ty about the vision I had of the two young Mortimer brothers playing by a Christmas tree, and about what Nathaniel had said. The vision had thrown me back into a black hole of fear, had twisted my insides around, and for weeks I lived in an intense state of panic that I would run into him, out on the street, in my house, at work.

But I hadn’t seen or heard anything since Christmas night. There were no new visions, no dreams. No ghosts waiting for me.

The feeling of dread eventually lifted. I focused my attention on the trial, and fell into a normal routine. I went to work, went to the gym, saw Ty. But I still kept an eye open for Nathaniel. I knew, in my heart, that he wasn’t gone.

“Maybe Dr. Krowe is right,” I said. “The trial has been on my mind, bringing back all sorts of memories I had buried. It could have just been a nightmare, and nothing more.”

Ty gave me a funny look.

“Come on, Abby. I know you don’t believe that. And how come you’re calling it a nightmare now when you usually call it a vision?”

“Okay, you’re right. It was a vision.”

He watched the snow for a moment.

“I know you think about him more than you let on,” he said in a low voice. “You’re always looking around when we go somewhere. When we walked in here, you did that. You’re looking for him, right?”

I nodded.

“Well, yeah. Sure, of course I’m looking for him. If he’s around, I need to know. But that doesn’t mean we should put everything on hold until he shows up. That’s no way to be.”

He was quiet. I took a deep breath.

“Ty, one thing I’ve learned in these last few years is that I can’t let fear control me. I can’t become obsessed with a dead man. And you can’t either. You know I’m right and that you should go to Idaho if you want to.”

He nodded.

“And Boise isn’t that far away,” I said. “You can always get back here if something comes up.”

“All right, Abby,” he said finally, his face glowing again. “I’ll talk to the boss and see if he still wants me to go.”

“Good.”

I drained the last of the coffee and put down the cup.

“What now?” I said. “We still have time before work. Bachelor?”

Ty shook his head and took my hand.

“I have a better idea,” he said, softly. “I propose that we head back to my place, get a toasty morning fire going, and continue celebrating.”

“That is a better idea,” I said, smiling. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER 3

A few minutes after eleven, Kate came out of her bedroom dressed in sweats and thick socks. She shook her head and I muted the TV as she sat down on the sofa next to me. She had been on the phone with Dr. Mortimer for the last half hour.

She let out a long sigh.

“What’s going on?” I said.

“Well, Ben’s coming anyway,” she said, rubbing her face. “He said it doesn’t matter that the trial was canceled. He’ll be here next week.”

We hadn’t talked to Dr. Mortimer in a long time. He had been in India for the last year, working at a hospital there. He never provided too many details in his emails, at least not to me, but I imagined he was still in a lot of pain. Trying to wrestle that gun away during my rescue, he had accidently shot and killed his brother. I couldn’t imagine all the emotions he must be feeling.

As the trial date got closer, I started getting more emails from him.

I was happy that he was coming. Besides needing to talk to him about my vision, I missed him too.

“I can’t believe it,” Kate said. “I haven’t seen him in more than a year. Does he think I’m waiting for him? Does he think we’ll just pick up right where we left off?”

She seemed to be jumping to conclusions. I could see the strange, quick gray energy circling around her like water in a drain.

“I even told him about Evan,” she said.

Evan was the firefighter that Kate had started dating in December. He worked out of the station on the south side of town and was really friendly. She seemed to like him a lot.

She sighed again.

“Dr. Mortimer still has that house here, right?” I said. “Maybe he’s just coming back to check on things or to put it up for sale.”

“I forgot about his house,” she said. “That could be, I guess. Sorry, Abby. I got a little carried away. It wasn’t easy to hear his voice again after all this time.”

Something sure had pushed her buttons. It made me wonder if she still had some feelings for him.

“I think Dr. Mortimer needed this year to get things right in his head,” I said. “It would be hard for anyone to live with what happened. You know, how it turned out. It’s sad.”

“I know,” she said, her voice softer. “I know. But I still wish he hadn’t left like that.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“He sounds good on the phone,” she said. “I think he’s doing a lot better. And I’m happy for him and I’ll try to focus on that. By the way, did he ever respond to your email?”

I had tried to explain the vision to Dr. Mortimer, but I didn’t do such a great job.

“Yeah, but he didn’t say much,” I said, putting my feet up on the coffee table. “I don’t think he took it too seriously. But I’m hoping I’ll have better luck with him face-to-face.”

“Well, don’t expect much,” she said. “He doesn’t do well with any of this paranormal stuff, as you know. Look at what happened the last time you told him about your visions.”

I flashed back to when we were sitting in the hospital and I was trying to tell him about the serial killer in Bend. He didn’t believe me then and told Kate that he thought I was losing it, that I could be having a mental breakdown.

“I know,” I said. “But I have to try.”

“You’re right, Abby. He needs to know that he’s in danger, whether he chooses to believe it or not.”

Kate stood up and walked over to the window. It was snowing again, small flakes fluttering around in the air like butterflies. The fire crackled, sending a burst of bright, hot embers upwards into the chimney.

“So how is the job search going?” I said.

I was glad to hear that she had been looking for a new job at a bigger newspaper and had started sending out her résumé. It was time for her to go after her dreams.

“Nothing yet,” she said. “From what I hear, it’s tough out there. Most newspapers are cutting positions, not hiring new staffers. But you never know, something might turn up. And Erin’s putting in a word for me at
The
Oregonian
. We’ll see.”

She sat back down again and I unmuted the cooking show, catching the last segment of the competition. It was late.

“Well, it’s been a long day,” she said, yawning. “I’m calling it.”

“’Night, Kate,” I said.

“Try and get some sleep tonight,” she said, running her fingers through her hair. “I’ve been hearing you out here, wandering around the house at night.”

I caught my breath as I looked over at her, the goose bumps creeping up my arms. I didn’t wander around the house. I usually just stayed in my room, reading or going online.

“You’ve got the pills, remember,” she said, grabbing the fleece blanket off the chair. “Take them if you need to.”

“Okay.”

But I wasn’t going to take any sleeping pills. If I did meet him in a dream again, I had to be strong, strong enough to push my way back into consciousness and get away. Those pills wouldn’t allow me to do that. I could stand to lose a little sleep, but I didn’t know if I could stand to be trapped in a nightmare with Nathaniel Mortimer.

CHAPTER 4

At 2:30 I closed my laptop and placed the white candle on my desk. I put the piece of paper with the handwritten prayer in front of me, even though I had already memorized it.

Outside, the clouds moved swiftly across the moon sitting low in the sky. The backyard was a large white field and the pine trees were heavy with snow.

I closed my eyes, inhaled slowly, and cleared my mind.

It was something my friend Claire, the psychic in London, had told me about. She was once haunted by a spirit and had started doing a ritual each night before she went to bed. She said it had worked for her and she was sure it would work for me too.

I wasn’t so sure, but I figured I needed all the help I could get. And whether it was a coincidence or not, I hadn’t had any more visions of him since I started.

I cracked open the window and sat back down, touching the talisman David had given me hanging from my neck. I lit the candle and whispered the words slowly.

Lo, there do I see only darkness

Shine a light that I may see the truth

Grant me strength that I may do the hard things

Protect me from my own weakness

Protect and shield me from evil.

CHAPTER 5

There weren’t many people out in the chilly afternoon, just a few brave runners here and there. I put a pair of Yaks on my shoes, zipped up my jacket, and pulled a knit cap down over my ears as I made my way over to the path by the river.

I walked quickly at first, but as I warmed up I slowed down a little. I stopped on the bridge. The Deschutes flowed beneath me peacefully, although there was a lot of ice near both banks where fat ducks slept in rows. There were only a few clouds out, the last of the afternoon light lining their edges on the horizon.

I whispered his name and closed my eyes, hoping he would come. A happy, warm feeling suddenly ignited inside.

“Jesse,” I said even before I saw him standing next to me.

“Hey, Craigers.”

I looked over at him and took his hand, putting it up to my cheek.

“Good to see you,” I said.

“Likewise,” he said, leaning his elbows on the railing and looking out. “But this weather of yours sucks. We’re never going to get back out on the basketball court if it keeps up like this.”

“We can try and find a gym,” I said. “Maybe at the college or something.”

“Naw, better not,” he said. “We’ve done that before and it just got us into trouble.”

It took me a minute to realize that he was talking about the time when Nathaniel had seen us playing basketball together.

“Oh, hey, that was good news about the trial, by the way. I was glad for you, Craigers. You didn’t need to go through that.”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it,” I said, shivering. “But I was ready. Man, it’s really cold out here. Let’s walk for a bit.”

We crossed the bridge and stopped at the massive steel sculpture of two horses pulling a log that was made up of old recycled items like sewing machines and saws and golf clubs.

“This is way cool,” Jesse said, reading the plaque and trying to find the items. “But what in tarnation is a misery whip?”

“Beats me.”

“Funny,” he said.

We walked on and he grabbed some snow, made it into a ball, and pelted me in the arm. I threw some back at him but the snowballs missed as he darted around me.

“Not fair,” I said. “You don’t have to deal with the ice on the ground.”

“Ha! One advantage of my world. No traction devices needed.”

I nodded, picking up the pace as we passed by a couple of teenagers.

“So where did
Hops Along Cassidy
hop off to?” Jesse said.

Jesse never called Ty by his name, and lately he had been trying out all sorts of nicknames.
Hops
was just the latest in a series.

 “Idaho. For work. How did you know he was gone?”

“Just doing what I do,” he said. “Keeping an eye on things.”

“Speaking of keeping an eye on things, see anything I should know about?” I asked, nervously.

He shook his head.

“Nope. Everything looks and feels the same. From what I can tell, he’s isn’t around.”

I exhaled, a small cloud of fog rolling out from my mouth.

“Good,” I said. “That makes me feel better.”

The last time Nathaniel Mortimer had plans for me, Jesse saw him coming. He told me that he could see an ocean of darkness heading my way. But I didn’t understand him in time, and I was kidnapped anyway. We both were a lot better at dealing with this sort of thing now. I was hoping that between the two of us, there would be no more surprises.