Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (7 page)

“Are you going back to school?”

“Naw,” I said.

Some of Jesse’s senioritis must have rubbed off because there was no way I was returning. Once you left that school parking lot, it was nearly impossible to go back. But I didn’t feel like going home either.

“Maybe I’ll go down to the library and study there for a while.”

“Okay, see you later,” she said.

The library wasn’t too far, down a few blocks or so. I made my way in the cold, noticing that the giant banners for Snow Fest were now hanging high over the streets. Candy cane decorations and plastic poinsettias were tied onto the lampposts and shoppers huddled together as they walked store to store. Snow was piled up at the edges of the streets.

The library’s automatic doors slowly opened and warm air rushed out.

I loved the library. The smell, the quiet, the calm. When I was a kid, Mom and I came here all the time and stayed for hours in the children’s section, pulling books off the shelves and reading them in the big, fuzzy beanbag chairs. 

I headed upstairs and found an available computer. I started surfing around the web for a while. I checked the soccer scores of my favorite international teams, new clothes from PacSun Online, and the prices of airline tickets to Maui. Then I started looking at psychic web sites, which brought up a whole slew of sleazy pages, most of which were blocked by the library Internet system. But then I came across an article about a woman who had visions of earthquakes that always came true. A university was studying her.

I was about half way done with the article when someone tapped me on my shoulder. I jumped and turned around to find a plump, gray-haired librarian standing behind me.

“Oops, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” she whispered in a soft voice. “I just wanted to let you know your time is up.”

“What?” I said.

“On the computer, dear,” she said, adjusting her glasses. “We have people waiting. One hour is the max allowed at one sitting, but I saw how busy you were so I let you go over by 10 minutes.”

“Oh, sorry,” I said, catching my breath.

I clicked off my visited sites while she waved a young woman over. The librarian put her hand back on my shoulder, but I was expecting it this time.

“Abby, if you’re staying in the library a while, I can let you know when a computer opens up again,” she said.

I glanced up at her. She knew who I was. My stomach tightened and I braced.

“It’s nice to see you getting around so well, dear,” she said. “Glad you’re doing better.”

I breathed a sigh of relief as she walked back to her desk and started helping a mom with a toddler in her arms.

CHAPTER 14

Kate was excited as she talked.

“They found an unidentifiable drug in her blood, too,” she said. “So now they are keeping both cases open until the toxicology reports are in. But those reports always take a while.”

We were sitting in her car in a parking lot, waiting for Matt.

“Well, that’s good, right?” I said.

“Yeah,” she said. “But I can tell nobody is too excited. They still think it was an accident and if the drug report doesn’t show something else, that’s what it will remain.”

“What about all the water on the floor?” I asked.

I remembered the struggle. The floor must have been soaked.

“He must have mopped it up,” she said.

“What about her ankles then?” I said. “Shouldn’t there have been some bruises from where he grabbed her? Or on her hands and arms from hitting the bathtub?”

“They didn’t find any.”

Kate had already written one story about Lana Chang, who worked as a receptionist at a physical therapy office on the east side of town. She was 32 and worked as a bartender on the weekends at Velvet, a bar that was popular with locals.

“Did I mention that Erin kind of knew her?” Kate said.

“No,” I said. “Did you tell her that you thought she was murdered?”

“We talked about it, but I just kept to the facts,” she said. “She thinks it’s strange. She said that there was no way it was a suicide. Not in a million years.”

“But you didn’t tell her about my visions, right?” I said.

I was sure Kate wouldn’t have done that, but if she got angry enough she might have let it slip out.

“Of course not,” she said. “Nobody knows. Well, except for Matt.”

That didn’t bother me. He would be cool about it.

“Good,” I said.

Matt walked across the parking lot and was all smiles when he saw us. He climbed in the backseat.

“Hey, guys,” he said.

He gave Kate a kiss and patted my back.

“Hey, Matt,” I said.

We drove over to Rosa’s for tacos. Matt seemed really interested in the visions and the murders and we talked about them as we ate dinner.

“Hey, I know some of the homeless who hang out in that area where that first guy bought it,” Matt said, digging into the salsa with a big tortilla chip. “You know, those teenagers who hang around the river near downtown selling drugs and stuff. Anyway, I could ask around, see if they have seen anybody suspicious lately.”

“Great,” Kate said, taking a bite and not looking over at him.

She rolled her eyes at me. I knew she was wondering at that exact moment why she was dating someone who had friends who were homeless drug dealers.

CHAPTER 15

Everything settled down in the weeks before Christmas, letting us slip back into our somewhat regular lives. The investigations were still open, but stagnant. I hadn’t had any more visions and there hadn’t been any more murders in town either.

Jesse was up at the mountain every weekend and even during the week sometimes. He had landed a part-time job serving burgers and fries, which paid minimum wage plus a free lift ticket for the winter. He invited me along, but I didn’t see the point. I couldn’t board anymore and just sitting around at the lodge would make me think of the things I couldn’t do, the person I used to be.

I took some jobs that included walking the neighbor’s dog in the afternoons and gift wrapping at Macy’s. I didn’t mind them so much. The dog was friendly and Macy’s gave me good discounts. I worked in the back of the store out of view and although I occasionally saw a familiar mom or a teacher, it wasn’t too often. It was also kind of nice to associate with other people who weren’t part of Bend High, even if the store was filled with grumpy old women employees complaining about their adult children.

It amounted to just Christmas money, but I was able to buy Jesse some cool snowboarding goggles, a Kate Spade leather wallet for Kate, and an Italian silk tie for Dr. Mortimer.

I hadn’t seen much of Dr. Mortimer lately, but he still kept in touch through emails and text messages. He always asked about my health and school. He also talked about the insane hours he worked at the hospital, sometimes not even having one day off all week. I figured that would help Kate in that he didn’t seem to have too much time to find a girlfriend.

The local meteorologist predicted that we were heading for the coldest winter on record. Jesse loved it. Besides snowboarding up at the mountain, he could be found flying down inclines all over town, including the hills at local golf courses.

Even though we hadn’t talked about my new feelings since that day at the house, I was sure I was still in love with him. And at least he knew it. I had decided to just let it sit for a while. I couldn’t take any more rejection, and at least we were back to being friends. That felt good and for now it was enough. But I was still hoping that he would be able to forgive me someday and that we could be together.

Matt was still hanging around, especially at the six o’clock hour, but I was getting the feeling that Kate was growing a little tired of him. Most nights she didn’t get home until late and while I assumed she was probably working, I kind of had my own hunch about things. Kate was tight lipped, as always when it came to her personal life, but on Saturday especially I began to wonder what was really going on.

She had left a message saying she was working late and then would be out for the evening. I had assumed she would be with Matt.

Jesse and I had gone out to see
Blood Thirsty 2
and I got home late. I had forgotten to leave the lights on and the house was dark. As I walked up, fumbling for my keys, I saw Matt sitting on the doorstep, shivering.

“Hey, Abby,” he said.

He had a canvas under his arm and was only wearing his usual long-sleeved striped T-shirt with a thin down vest. He must have been frozen to the bone. His scraggly goatee had snow sticking to it.

“Matt! What are you doing out here?”

I opened the door and quickly handed him one of my coats. He put it on and I turned the heat up high.

“You must be freezing,” I said.

“Yeah, a little,” he said. “It’s cold out there.”

“Hey, where’s Kate?” I asked. “I thought you guys were hanging out tonight.”

He suddenly looked sad.

“I don’t know. I was hoping she was here, that’s why I stopped by.”

I realized that Matt probably had been out in front for hours.

“She canceled earlier ’cause she said she was working late. I went over to her office, but she wasn’t there. I wanted to give her one of my organic carob muffins that I made this morning.”

He looked around the living room as I turned on lights and took off my coat.

“But she’s not here either,” he said.

Matt handed me a small foil package. I could only imagine what germs were festering in the muffin, but I took it anyway.

“I’ll give it to her,” I said. “Kate’s a workaholic. I’m sure she is on some huge story. Did you try her cell?”

“Yeah, since the afternoon.”

That told me something right there. I had called her a little while ago and she picked up right away. What was she up to?

“Well, here’s the new one,” he said. “Wanna take a look?”

I took the canvas from him and leaned it up against a wall. I studied it for a few minutes, and then studied it some more. It was very abstract with thick brush strokes and depressing shades of blacks and grays. I tried to imagine it in full color, that there were oranges and blues and purples dancing together, that maybe it was really amazing. Maybe I didn’t get it because of my color blindness. It probably was much better than how I saw it.

“Cool,” I said. “Is it the desert at sunset?”

Matt put his hand under his chin and was quiet for a minute.

“I like to think my art meets the viewer half way. It presents itself uniquely to each person. So that’s cool if you see the desert at sunset.”

I smiled. We stood looking at it for a few more minutes.

“Does it drive you crazy, Abby, not being able to see colors anymore?” he asked. “I think that would be the worst thing. Living in a black and white world.”

I shrugged. Matt rarely talked about my accident. In fact, this was probably the only time. I don’t know if it was his gentle demeanor or the way he said it as he stared at his painting, but my stomach didn’t tense like it usually did when someone asked about it. And I could imagine the idea of not seeing colors would be horrible if you were an artist.

“It’s not the worst thing,” I said.

He smiled for a moment before grabbing his canvas.

“Hey, wait,” I said as he headed toward the door. “Did you have dinner? I could make you a sandwich or something.”

Matt was okay.

CHAPTER 16

The house was dark when I woke up. I walked over to Kate’s bedroom and saw that her bed was still made. The alarm clock on her nightstand said it was 3:33.

Where was she?

As I reached for my cell, it hit. I sat on her bed and fell back into the soft pillows and was soon drowning in the lake again, bubbles floating toward the surface, the light disappearing from above, and that horrible pull at my feet, dragging me down into nothingness.

But then, like before, I was thrown out of the water and again I could breathe. It was night and I was walking through a neighborhood in my pajamas and bare feet. There were tall pine trees and houses around, the moon a half crescent. I could see the stars and I could see my breath in front of me.

A light glowed in the far distance. I walked toward it and I saw that it was a fire. It was hot, sudden and fierce, and my heart was racing as sweat dripped down my face. The smell of smoke filled the air as I stood with a small crowd that had gathered in front of bright flames that were shooting up into the black sky.

People talked around me. Nobody saw me. I stood next to a man, the fire made his face glow. I could feel his emotions the strongest out of everyone. He was happy and proud as he watched. 

This was his fire.

I stood right next to him, but he didn’t see me. I could hear him breathe, saw the smirk on his face. Waves of happiness flooded his body as he stared up into his creation.
This is mine, this is mine
, he said in his head, over and over again.
It’s so beautiful
.

Sirens blared in the distance. The arsonist looked in the direction of the fire trucks turning down the street. Three large engines pulled up to the house, firemen ran to the blaze.

Then I saw another car pull up behind the trucks.

Kate.

She wasn’t alone. She was with Dr. Mortimer.

They got out of the car and she started talking to people while Dr. Mortimer stared at the burning house. I shouted and ran up to her. I was sure she saw me, but she walked past me and started talking to a woman standing close by. She didn’t see me at all.

I walked around. The flames were hot, and I was dripping in sweat. Why was I here? Then I saw it. A darkness in the trees, still and ominous, close to where we stood. He was there.
The killer
.

I walked toward him, saw that the arsonist was in the woods too and the killer was following him.

I didn’t want to follow anymore, I wanted to run back to the fire, but I couldn’t. Something was making me watch. The killer caught up to the fire starter, threw a plastic bag over his head, and after a brief struggle they both fell to the ground.