Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (30 page)

“Come on, it’s a totally unexpected day off. Look, I’ll invite Amber and Jake along if that would make you feel better.”

But I still said no. I told him I wasn’t feeling well, which was kind of true. I had barely slept the last few nights and felt exhausted. I was looking forward to a long nap.

Ty seemed okay about it, but I could tell he was a little disappointed.

“All right, call me if you change your mind.”

I slept for most of the afternoon. When I got up, I saw that Kate had called. She left a message saying that they brought the body to the medical examiner’s office and that she was working late, writing up the story. I called her back to check in.

“Nope, nothing else,” she said. “But it’s buzzing around here. It’s going to be a big story. I won’t be home until late.”

I went and checked my email. There were no messages from Claire.

I decided to go to the park to clear my head. I was still confused. As much as I liked Claire, I wasn’t any closer to finding Jesse. It was getting harder and harder to quiet the doubts that were running frantic in my head, doubts that were haunting me more than Annabelle had. That voice that whispered that Jesse was gone forever.

I walked along the path in the woods searching for him again.

“I miss you so much,” I said to the trees. “Where are you? Please, Jesse. Come back. Come back to me.”

He wasn’t on the swings where we used to have contests when we were little about who could go up the highest. He wasn’t on the grass or the basketball courts. He didn’t answer me.

My heart was heavy as I walked.  I knew it wasn’t his fault. He would be with me if he could. Nobody would choose this kind of pain.

I headed back home, feeling foolish.

I couldn’t keep doing this. I couldn’t spend my life searching for something that wasn’t there.

***

It was a tough game. We tied it, but couldn’t score again for the win. As we came off the field, Jack was doing math.

“If the Lost Boys lose tonight and the Rebels Without Applause win tomorrow, we might still have a chance to make the finals.”

He mumbled some more as he walked away.

When I got home, Kate was on the sofa still in her work clothes. She looked tired. Her hair was up but in a mess and her eyes had dark circles under them.

“Abby, there you are,” she said. “I totally forgot you had soccer tonight. How’d it go?”

“We tied,” I said, pulling off my cleats.

I sat down next to her.

“How’d it go today?” I asked.

“Good. Just a hell of a long day,” she said, rubbing her face. “But you did it. They found the body and should have a positive ID in the next few weeks. It’s gotta be Annabelle.”

“I hope she can move on now,” I said. “We can all move on.”

“I still can’t believe all this, that you see spirits and ghosts,” Kate said. “Doesn’t it scare you? I wouldn’t want to see dead people. It’s hard enough dealing with the living.”

I shrugged.

“Yeah,” I said. “But I don’t have a choice whether to see them or not. At least I didn’t with her. But I wish she could have given us some sort of clue about the killer. It’s kind of frustrating that we don’t know.”

“I guess real life has to step in somewhere along the line. It would be too much to expect her to have some incriminating evidence on her that would lead directly to the murderer. Or for her to walk up to the killer and point a ghostly finger. But the cops might get lucky,” Kate said. “Look at all those cold cases they solve on TV. There must be evidence they can check through again.”

“I hope so,” I said.

Kate nodded and yawned.

“I’m turning in early tonight,” she said. “I’ve gotta get some sleep.”

CHAPTER 41

The river was open the next day and I was happy to get back to work. On the way up to the launch, everyone was talking about the body and who it could be. Amber thought it was a woman who disappeared last year. Jake guessed it was the fisherman who fell out of his boat and disappeared up at the dam at the beginning of the summer.

 “I wonder when they’ll release the name,” he asked.

“Depends,” Ty said. “If there’s no ID on the body, then they’ll have to do DNA tests and dental records and all that.”

I was quiet. I was tired of thinking about bodies and death and ghosts. I looked out at the trees as we drove along the highway.

Ty hadn’t said much to me and I hoped he wasn’t angry about the hike.

“So what did you end up doing yesterday?” I asked while we waited for the bus of customers.

He looked at me, but seemed kind of sad.

“Laundry. A bike ride. Not much.”

I smiled, but he turned and walked away.

I wanted to talk to him, but I couldn’t do it quite yet. I needed the right words and I was still figuring it all out.

As I paddled and steered through the rapids on the last run, I looked around at the tall trees and black lava rocks and the rushing water. A strong whiff of pine was blowing around. The sun was warm.

Such a beautiful place for such terrible sadness.

CHAPTER 42

It was Annabelle. She was alive.

Someone was with her. A man.

The words were muffled, but I could tell they were arguing.

His long straight hair hung down over his angry face.

“This isn’t working, Bill,” I heard her say, turning away from him.

He was quiet. When he spoke again his voice was low and calm.

“You’re not leaving me,” he said.

A moment later he picked up something shiny. A silver baseball bat.

He raised it over her head and swung. I heard the sickening crack.

Everything exploded.

And then it all went black.

CHAPTER 43

I woke up gasping, unable to breathe, my mind screaming.

I fought the urge to try to inhale and instead closed my eyes. Then I focused on taking short, small breaths as I sat there in the dark. After a time I finally began to feel the air reaching my lungs.

“Jesus,” I whispered.

It wasn’t a nightmare. It was too real. Too horrible.

I couldn’t get the image and that sound out of my head.

If there had been any doubt before, it was now gone. Annabelle had been murdered.

I also knew something else. Her killer’s name.

Bill
.

***

I was still up when I heard Kate’s alarm go off at 6:15.

I met her in the kitchen.

After making some coffee and a little small talk, I took a deep breath and asked her.

“Hey, did you ever find out the name of the guy Annabelle was supposed to be having the affair with?” I said, trying to sound casual.

“No,” Kate said. “Why?”

I didn’t want to tell her about the vision, or whatever it was, until I had something more to go on.

“I was just thinking that if it wasn’t the husband, and I don’t think it was, that maybe it was him, her lover.”

“That would make sense,” she said. “Most murder victims know their killer. I’ll see what I can dig up.”

The day dragged on in an uneventful kind of way. I paddled and steered between yawns and got through it. I checked my phone several times, hoping Kate had found something. But there were no messages from her.

I went home after work and tried to take a nap. I tossed and turned and heard the front door open a few moments after I finally fell asleep. I shot up and went out to the living room.

“Did you find out anything?” I said.

“Hi to you too,” Kate said. “Yeah. Let me change and I’ll fill you in.”

I went to the kitchen and brought out our collection of take-out menus. I didn’t get the feeling either one of us was up for making dinner.

“Well, I wasn’t able to learn much,” Kate said five minutes later. “But I did get the guy’s name.”

“What was it?”

She took out her notebook and flipped through the pages.

“Here it is. His name was William Reynolds. William Hamilton Reynolds.”

William.

Bill.

I felt the room starting to spin.

“You all right, Abby?”

“No,” I said. “I need to tell you something.”

I went ahead and told her about my vision.

“I wish you had said something about it this morning,” she said.

“I wanted to be sure. And now I am. Now all we have to figure out is how to point the police in his direction.”

“We’ll find a way,” Kate said. “We’ve got time.”

I didn’t understand her relaxed attitude. There was no urgency in her words. Maybe she was just tired.

“This guy needs to pay for what he did,” I said, starting to get mad.

“Maybe in a way he already has,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“William Reynolds died four years ago. Cancer.”

I was quiet. I didn’t know how to feel about it.

“And you’re sure it was him? That he killed Annabelle?”

“I’m sure,” I said. “He said she wasn’t leaving him. And then he killed her.”

“If that’s how it happened, I hope he suffered,” Kate said. “I hope the bastard suffered.”

CHAPTER 44

It had been almost two weeks since they had pulled up Annabelle, and she still hadn’t been identified.

I hadn’t had any more visions and hadn’t seen her ghost since that night she came to my room. Not on the cliffs, not by the river, not at the park. I wasn’t sure if she knew her killer was dead. Or if it even mattered to her. I was hoping she was appeased, if not at peace, and that she had watched as they pulled her body out of her watery grave.

I was hoping it was enough for her.

On Saturday afternoon Kate sent me a text asking if I could meet her at Mondo for dinner. She had been working nonstop at the paper lately and I had barely seen her. Pizza sounded good. I drove over about six, got us a table, and waited.

Kate walked in, the screen door slamming behind her. She sat down in the rickety chair across from me.

“Hey, Abby. What do you want? It’s on me.”

“Cheese, please,” I said.

She went up to the counter, ordered, and came back with two slices on paper plates while I got the water. I grabbed my pizza and started stuffing it in my face. I hadn’t eaten all day and was ravenous.

I wiped my face with a napkin and leaned back, suddenly full.

“So, is it strange to be working with Colin now?” I asked.

Kate had broken up with him the week before.

“Yeah, a little,” she said. “He’s been giving me weird looks, but I’m getting used to it. No, I can’t say I’m comfortable working with him, but whatever. In the future I’ll pay more attention to that advice about office romances. About not fishing off the company pier and stuff.”

She had told me that the breakup had nothing to do with Dr. Mortimer. But I wasn’t sure about that. At the very least, after hanging out with him, Kate would have been reminded how she really should be feeling about her boyfriend.

I watched as more people jammed into the small pizza place. A huge line was forming up at the counter.

I finished my water.

“I’m getting another slice,” Kate said. “Want one?”

I shook my head.

She was in line for a while, but finally showed up with a large slice with the works. The pungent smell of onions and garlic closed in around me.

“So you think that you and Claire are done with Annabelle Harrison?” Kate asked.

I had told her about Claire a few nights earlier when she came home late and found me on the computer reading her website. I figured I might as well come clean and just tell her, even if she would make fun of me. But I was surprised by her reaction. She looked through the site with a serious expression, and even spent some time reading Claire’s biography.

“I’m hoping it’s the last of Annabelle,” I said. “My part is done. She’s been found, and we know who killed her.”

She finished and got up, throwing away the trash. I saw that there was a sea of gray mist surrounding her. She was nervous about something.

She grabbed her plastic glass and sucked on the straw.

“I got a job interview back East,” she said suddenly. “New York.”

My stomach tightened.

“Wow,” I said finally. “That’s great.”

“The telephone interview is on Thursday. If that goes well then they’ll invite me to go out there for a real interview with the higher ups in a couple of weeks.”

“Of course it’ll go well,” I said.

“I’ve been at
The Bugler
a while now and if I’m going to move up in this business, I need to break through now. I haven’t decided anything yet, even if they offer me something. But I wanted you to know.”

The Cure’s
Fascination Street
vibrated through Mondo as I sat thinking about Kate moving away. We had never been apart before and although I should have been happy for her, I was mostly feeling freaked out. I didn’t want her to go.

“You could come with me,” she said. “Or you can stay here in Bend, keep living in our house. It’s paid for, so you don’t have to worry about that. And I’ll come back to visit often.”

I tried to smile, but couldn’t. I tried to keep my eyes from filling up, but I couldn’t do that either.

“You deserve it. Really. I’m glad you’re focusing on your career.”

But as I said those words, I was breaking apart inside.

Kate looked at me.

“We’ll find a way to make it work. I promise.”

“Have you told Dr. Mortimer?”

I already knew the answer. I think I would have felt his sadness radiating all the way from the hospital if he knew.

“No,” she said. “Not yet. But he must remember that I had applications out. When we were dating I always talked about leaving Bend and going to a city to write important stories.”

“Annabelle’s story is important,” I said.

“Yeah, I know. But that was a fluke. That’s not your usual Bend story about the city council voting to kill all the geese because there’s too much poop in the park. That’s much more the norm.”