Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (97 page)

“So he would just observe me?”

It left a sickening feeling inside as memories of Nathaniel and his team of doctors studying me came back.

“I’ll think about it,” I said, having already made up my mind.

“In the meantime I’ll see what else I can dig up,” he said.

“Thanks, but that’s not why I came to see you, actually.”

I told him about my latest visions, April, and her reaction when I tried to warn her.

“You’ve known for a while that there are people out there who don’t believe in your gift,” he said. “Put yourself in her shoes. It’s a lot to digest, someone telling you you’re going to die. Even if someone were open to the paranormal… I think you need to give her some time.”

“But that’s just it, she doesn’t have time. The nearest I can figure, this thing is going down sometime between now and Christmas. Christmas is just a few days away. I wish I could give her some time. But I can’t. Not if I can’t save her.”

He winced and put down his pad. He tried to cross his legs, but then thought better of it. I stared at his one argyle sock and pushed over the ottoman that was just out of his reach.

“Thank you,” he said. “And you’re sure that her boyfriend is the killer?”

“No,” I said. “I can’t be sure. I didn’t get a look at his face in the vision. But there’s something wrong about him. I mean I didn’t see any bruises on her, but he doesn’t talk to her right, doesn’t respect her. And she seems scared of him.”

“It’s not always just about physical abuse,” he said. “There’s mental and emotional abuse as well.”

I nodded.

“These cases are tough to deal with, Abby. I’ve come across a lot of them in my 20 years of practice. Women who are abused, but don’t seek the help they need and deserve. It sounds like April is sadly typical. And it always comes down to the same thing. You can try to help someone as much as you want, but if they’re not ready, it’s not going to happen.”

“So there’s nothing I can do then except wait for her to die?”

“I wish I could tell you something more encouraging. You can try giving her my card. I can offer her a free consultation. But that only has a chance of working if she’s ready to help herself.”

I know he meant well, but it wasn’t helping. It failed to take into account the deadline I was facing.

“I’ll give it a shot,” I said, reaching over and grabbing a business card from the coffee table. “But I need another plan too. Something with more urgency. There isn’t much time. Can you think of anything I can say to her?”

“Well, I think I would emphasize the good you’ve done. Tell her about the kids you saved at the school. Tell her about Paloma. Maybe that will ease her doubts. Sadly, you probably have a better chance of convincing her that you see ghosts than I do of getting her to see she might be in an abusive relationship that she needs to get out of.”

There was nothing more to say.

I started to get up.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” I said. “I wanted to invite you over for Christmas dinner. I’m sorry it’s kind of last minute and I thought you’d probably be spending it with your kids, but if not, Kate and I would love to have you. But no pressure.”

“Are you cooking the dinner?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“Thanks, Abby. It’s my ex’s turn to have the kids this Christmas. I’ll see them for New Year’s. I’d love to come for dinner.”

***

As I drove to work I thought about what Dr. Krowe had said about April and abused women. I parked and grabbed my bag. And then I noticed something black on the passenger seat. My camera had fallen out.

I remembered the photos I had taken of the alley. I hadn’t even looked at them. There was no reason really. But I still had a few minutes before my shift started. I switched on the camera.

There was nothing unusual. Just the same details I now saw with my eyes closed.

And then my mouth fell open.

The row of theater seats was in the background. And the ghost was looking out at me from the camera. April was at her feet, her throat slashed. A chill rushed through me.

Here was the proof that I needed. The proof that would convince April that I was telling the truth.

The proof that would save her life.

CHAPTER 42

Angie and Sutter were standing just inside the door when I walked in.

“Hi, Abby,” she said. “Sutter here has something he would like to say. Sutter?”

“I’m sorry for losing it the other night,” he said. “It won’t happen again.”

“Okay,” I said, resisting the temptation to say something more polite.

Angie walked with me back to the kitchen.

“I’m sorry too,” she said. “He’s okay most of the time. But that kind of thing just isn’t acceptable. I’m giving him one more chance. I don’t care if we are shorthanded.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say.

“You can work in the kitchen tonight if you like,” she said.

“That’s fine.”

I was hoping to see April, but it didn’t really matter. I had her phone number and knew where she lived. I decided I would go over to her place afterwards.

As we were cleaning up, Sutter came back and helped himself to a piece of cake. It looked like a birthday cake with dark flowers on it.

“That which we call a rose,” he said, frosting smeared on his chin. “By any other name would smell as sweet.”

He was staring at me again with those eyes. They seemed to be dancing all over me to a waltz I couldn’t hear.

At least he wasn’t screaming. Or calling me “slim.”

On my way out the door the old man stopped me and gave me an update on his cat.

“It doesn’t look good,” he said. “She hasn’t eaten in four days. Looks like I’m going to have to put her down. Everyone leaves. My wife. My children. All I have left in the world is that cat. Now she’s leaving too.”

***

I drove over to the apartment building and parked on the street. I got out and saw the moon behind a tree. There was no ring around it. It wouldn’t be tonight. It wouldn’t snow tonight.

I walked up to the door and was about to knock when it opened.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi,” she said slowly.

She was dressed up, wearing thick eye makeup. She towered over me, and then I realized it was the three inch heels she had on.

“What do you want?” she said, a cold look in her eye.

I held up a paper bag.

“I’m sorry about everything,” I said. “And I didn’t see you and Logan at the Center tonight. I was worried I had scared you off and that you were hungry. I stopped by and picked up a couple of sandwiches. Kind of as a peace offering.”

She took the bag and placed it on a table near the door.

“Logan’s not here, but I know he’ll appreciate it,” she said. “Thanks.”

Her eyes softened a bit.

“Look, I didn’t mean to go off on you the other day,” she said. “But I hear from everybody all the time about what a loser Logan is. From my mom. From my friends. How he won’t ever amount to much, how he’s a tweeker and will never pull out of it. But they don’t see what I see.”

I wasn’t sure where she was coming from. I hadn’t said anything to her about Logan. Maybe she just assumed that I was referring to him when I told her that in my vision someone slit her throat.

“They don’t see that he’s trying,” she said. “I know he’s not perfect. Anybody can see that. I mean, you met him, right?”

She smiled a little.

“But he’s really trying to turn it around. See, that’s why we don’t have any money. We’re in transition, kind of. I’m back at school and Logan stopped selling drugs. That’s why we go get those stupid free dinners. When he was a drug dealer, he was rolling in dough and would take me out all the time. But you know what? I like this better. I’ll eat at the soup kitchen any day. It’s honest.”

I nodded.

“He even found a regular job. His first paycheck is in three days. So we probably won’t be back over there.”

“I’m glad,” I said. “Where’s he working?”

“He’s one of the maintenance guys over at the nursery, you know, that big one over on the east side. He was just telling me earlier how he was working in the greenhouse today. He really likes it there.”

I shuddered.

Thinking of the roses.

The roses inside that greenhouse. With Logan.

“By the way, you look great,” I said.

“Thanks,” she said. “It’s a, a thing I have to go to. I better get going.”

She locked the door and I walked with her to her car.

“Was there something else?”

I pulled the camera out of my jacket pocket.

“I wanted you to see something,” I said. “It’s a photo I took. If you look at it and don’t believe me, I’ll go away and you’ll never see me again.”

I turned the camera on and held it out to her. She sighed loudly and ripped it from my hand. She stared at the photo for a moment. She didn’t seem to have a reaction.

“What?” she said. “What am I supposed to be looking at here, some chairs and bricks? It’s very artistic but—”

I took the camera back from her and looked at the photo. The ghost was gone. April’s body was gone. It was just the alley. I frantically flipped through the other shots, hoping I was looking at the wrong photo. But it was gone.

“I don’t understand,” I stuttered. “It was just here. You were dead.”

“That’s it,” she said, almost whispering it in my ear. “If you come near me or Logan again, I’m calling the police. In fact, if you weren’t so pathetic, I’d call them right now. Hurry home now before I change my mind,
psycho
.”

I backed away and headed over to the Jeep. Her words stung as much as the freezing air, but I was more determined than ever.

I was going to save April, whether she wanted me to or not.

CHAPTER 43

I didn’t want to end it like that with Ty. Drilling him in the head with a soccer ball and then breaking up.

I wanted to make him a dinner, to do my part to see that he was eating, but I didn’t have time. Instead I offered to buy him another breakfast.

“No, let me buy you breakfast,” he had said when I called him.

“Yeah, whatever,” I said. “I’ll see you there at 9:30.”

“Where?”

“How ’bout Chow?” I said.

“Well, yeah, of course, chow, but where will we eat this chow you speak of?”

“No, Chow on Newport.”

“Oh, okay,” he said. “See you there.”

Ty had bacon and thyme biscuits with chorizo gravy. I had coffee and watched him eat.

“I want to hear about the ghost you’ve been seeing,” he said suddenly.

“That doesn’t sound like you,” I said.

I didn’t see the point. I knew he didn’t really want to know. It was just more of that desperation talking. But David wasn’t back from Portland. And I could really use someone to bounce ideas off of. Instead of soccer balls.

So I told him, leaving nothing out.

And for the first time, he asked questions. A lot of questions. Some of them felt forced, but overall it was nice and he seemed sincere. I tried to stay in the moment and not let my mind start working overtime on what this meant for us, for the future. If he was finally coming around.

“So what’s your next move?” he said after I told him about April’s reaction to the photo.

“I don’t know,” I said. “A stakeout of the alley seems to be my only hope. To be there at the right time and stop it from happening.”

“That sounds nuts,” he said. “And you said it’s supposed to happen when it’s snowing?”

“Yeah, at night, the snow’s just starting to fall.”

“You know, I caught the end of the forecast on the radio as I was heading over here,” Ty said. “A big storm is supposed to be coming in tomorrow night and last through Christmas. They said we could get more than a foot.”

CHAPTER 44

I looked out the window every few minutes, checking for snow. Like Ty had said, the forecast called for more than a foot in the Bend area in the next few days. And it was supposed to start tonight.

But so far, nothing.

I had my jacket by the front door, just in case.

I grabbed the stack of cooking magazines and a couple of cookbooks off the coffee table, and I pulled a pad of paper from the kitchen drawer before sitting down at the counter.

I wanted Christmas dinner to not only be delicious, but also elegant. I wanted it to be a long evening filled with plenty of courses, wine, and good times for everyone. After taking the Italian cooking classes last month, I felt inspired by the way the Italians treated dinner, how the meal could last deep into the night with good food and good conversation. For the last class, the chef had us come to a typical Italian dinner with his family, and it was almost like being transported there. Through the food, I felt like I could almost see the hills of Tuscany and hear the ringing of the cathedral bells.

I wanted to recreate that feeling for my guests and make it an evening that they would remember for years to come.

All my cookbooks had been ruined by Clyde. I hadn’t gotten around to rebuilding my collection, but Ellen had been nice enough to let me borrow some of her magazines and cookbooks.

I just about had the menu finalized when Kate walked in.

“Hey, Abby,” she said, putting her bag down and taking off her coat.

“Hey, Kate. Man, those meetings are getting longer and longer. Seems like you would have less to talk about now that half the staff is gone.”

“I stopped off for a beer,” she said.

“Where did you guys go?” I asked.

“Goodlife Brewery. But it wasn’t with anyone from the paper,” she said, looking at the pile of opened magazines in front of me. “Hey, what’s for dinner?”

“Good stuff,” I said, smiling. “It’s going to be a night to remember. I just have to find some music to go with it. You know, some elegant, classy stuff.”

“Sounds good,” she said. “Opera would be a natural choice if you’re sticking with Italian.”

I felt a cold wind blow through me as she said it. I liked opera, and she was right, it would go perfectly with the meal. But ever since I was held captive on that island by Nathaniel, in that giant house where he would blare opera from the speakers, I just couldn’t stomach that kind of music. It brought back images of him, standing by the fire, drinking sherry, and talking about all the horrible experiments they were going to conduct on me.