Immortal Secrets (10 page)

“It wasn’t just you. It was anyone within a hundred feet of that room. When she really concentrates she can mess with every mind in a given radius. Now, notice that you didn’t go hear what Dr. Greene was talking about. Everyone has free will. She can put the idea in your head. She can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

“So how do you know she isn’t messing with your head? How often do you or Dr. Greene do something and wonder whether it was your idea or Allison’s?”

“After a while, you can recognize thoughts that she puts in your head. For us, it is more of a communications system. For instance, if there was this pretty girl in my history class that I was trying to check out.”

“What about this pretty girl? Is it anyone I know?”

“I think you may have seen her a few times in the mirror.”

“So what does Allison have to do with you checking me out?”

“I can tell when Allison puts a thought in my head, so she would tell me when you were checking me out and when it was safe to look your way. But it’s not foolproof since I think there might have been once that you caught me looking at you.”

I wished we could have continued our conversation but Tina came walking into the waiting room and gave us a report. Brenda was awake and alert. She could talk but she tired rather easily. The doctors had told Brenda that she would eventually get her strength back but that it might take a few days. Tina also told us that Brenda was asking for me.

I walked into Brenda’s room. She gave me a weak smile. At least she was moving. That made her appear a thousand times better than she had looked twenty four hours ago. Hopefully, she would be able to tell the police who did this to her. I was almost positive it was her husband. I wanted whoever it was held responsible.

Brenda weakly
waved me over to her bed. “Hey g
irl.”

I put my hand on her arm. “You really gave us a scare, Brenda.”

“The nurses said you never gave up on me. They said that even when the doctors didn’t think I would wake up, you and Tina believed in me.”

“We knew you would make it.”

“Listen, I wanted to say I’m sorry about the other day. You were right. I’m never going back to my husband. I should have listened.”

“Hey, maybe you shouldn’t be talking so much. I’m sure you’ll want to save your energy for when the police want to talk to you.”

“I guess you’re right. I just wanted you to know that I was sorry.”

I only stayed for a few minutes with her. Just talking to me had made her fatigued and she drifted off to sleep. There was no doubt now who had almost beaten her to death. I could only hope that her husband was going to be locked up for a very long time. I hoped that I would be able to be at that trial. It would almost be more gratifying to see him led away in handcuffs than the mobsters I was hopefully going to help convict.

Jeff and Allison were sitting in the waiting room when I returned. Apparently, Tina had left and was going to try and make it to some of her classes today. I really didn’t feel like going to school or to work. Although I knew that I needed to go back home and check in with Jenny. I was pretty sure that was going to involve some sort of lecture about being out all night.

I walked over to Jeff, leaned down and kissed him. “I would really like to stay but I probably need to go home and check in.”

Allison stood up. “Why don’t I give you a ride home?”

That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. “Well, I was hoping Jeff could give me a ride.”

Allison frowned. “I’m not sure you want the boy that you’re dating to be the one that brings you home after you’ve been out all night.”

I dismissed her concern. “Jenny would be fine with it. I’m sure she knows exactly where I’ve been.”

Allison persisted. “Actually, I was thinking about the neighbors. I wouldn’t want my new best friend getting a reputation as ‘that kind of girl’.”

I surrendered. “Okay, you can take me home.”

Jeff squeezed my hand. “I’ll come by in a little while, that is if Allison thinks it would be okay for the boyfriend to show up in broad daylight.”

Allison gave him a dirty look. “I don’t even know what she sees in you.”

As I rode home with Allison, I felt like my life was totally out of control. Somehow I didn’t think the others girls going to Tech had their lives revolving around mobsters, marshals, and immortals. It didn’t help that I hadn’t gotten very much sleep the night before. I had been running on adrenaline and it was starting to wear off.

I looked over at Allison. “So do you think Dr. Greene will kill me if I miss another day of class, tomorrow?”

She shook her head. “I’m sure he won’t mind. Although you probably should try to maintain your normal schedule, for the sake of appearances.”

I nodded. “I guess you’re right. Speaking of Dr. Greene, what are you going to do about that paper that you and Brenda are writing? Can you get a new partner or something, since she is still in the hospital?”

“We’re not writing a paper together.”

“In the hospital, you told that cop that you were writing partners.”

“I had to explain my presence somehow. I couldn’t tell him the truth. Excuse me
,
Mr. Policeman
,
but I’m really just here to mess with your head and make sure that you see things our way.”

“So you lied.”

“I often stretch the truth. Lie is such an ugly word.”

“Then what was all that stuff about the evil white man and the noble Indians?”

“Here’s the deal. Everyone has some level of mental defenses. People don’t always accept my little suggestions. I have found that the more distracted or the more things I can make them think about at once, the better. If that cop was busy thinking about what kind of air head I am, the more likely it was that he would think letting us see our friend was his idea.”

“Wow, I have met some manipulative girls in my life, but you take the cake.”

Allison sat up a little straighter. “That is one of the nicest things anyone has
said
to me in a long time.”

I sort of wondered if the airhead thing was
an
act or not. I hadn’t really meant that as a compliment.

Chapter Nine

I walked through the front door and tried to head straight for my room. Maybe ‘Aunt Jenny’ wouldn’t make a big deal about my being gone all night. Maybe she would be totally cool about the whole thing. Yeah, and maybe there really was a Santa Claus. I almost made it to my bedroom before I heard her voice. To make matters worse the voice was coming from my bedroom.

Jenny was sitting on my bed. “Well, there you are. I thought that you might try to sneak into your bedroom.”

I folded my arms in defiance. “I was not sneaking
into my bedroom. I was really
taking the quickest route from the front door to my bedroom.”

She cut her eyes at me. “When I was your age, my parents called that sneaking.”

I smirked. “That’s because
when you were my age, you had to sneak past the dinosaurs.” Okay, that was mean.

Jenny looked like she really wanted to let me have it. “Whatever, the point is that you said you wanted to go visit your friend in the hospital. What you wound up doing was running all over town, doing God knows what. You spend the night at that girl Allison’s house. I mean, I thought you two didn’t even like each other very much.”

“Well I guess someone’s spies have been busy.”

“This is getting us nowhere. Why don’t you sit down so we can talk?”

I sat down at my desk. “Look, Brenda’s condition improved. The doctors wouldn’t let us visit anymore last night. So I went over to Dr. Greene’s house and hung out for a while with Jeff and Allison. Then I went over to Allison’s, but I was so tired that I just crashed there.”

“So Brenda is better? I thought the doctors said there was almost no hope.”

I jumped at the chance to change the subject. “It was like a miracle or something. I went to the hospital and talked to her this morning. I actually talked to her. Isn’t that great?”

Jenny looked troubled. “I need for you to stay away from her
from now on. No more visits to the hospital.”

I was stunned. “What are you talking about? She is my friend!”

Jenny nodded her head. “I know she is, but now she is going to be a news story. We can’t take the chance of you being seen on TV. I’m truly sorry. As long as the media is paying attention, you have to stay away from her.”

She was right, but I was no longer in the mood to be reasonable. “You enjoy this don’t you? You couldn’t wait for a chance to get me away from anybody who might
want
to be friends with me.”

Jenny put her hand out. “Just calm down, Lisa. That’s not true. In fact, that is sort of what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Why? Did you find some reason why I can’t see Jeff now?”

“Listen, I don’t know what you and your friends did last night. The problem is that it is much harder to keep you safe while you are running all over Lubbock and we have no idea where you are going.”

“Is that why I was able to spot the marshals following me last night?”

“They were surprised by you leaving the hospital. There was no easy way for them to keep up. That’s why I am asking you to stay home more.”

“And give up any sort of social life? I am not going to let you or the Demarco’s dictate how I live my life.”

“Slow down. I was going to say that I don’t know what was going on with your friends. Whatever it was, you could have done it here. You are the key witness in a major mob trial. I am prepared to look the other way for almost anything.”

“What are you talking about? What do you think we were doing?”

“Here’s the bottom line. I need you safe. If that means letting you do drugs in this house, throw wild drunken parties, or sleep with the entire football team, then so be it. If you don’t want me here when your friends are here, then I will leave and sit down the street in my car.”

“What brought all of this on?”

“When I first realized that you weren’t going to come home last night, I was furious. If you really were my niece, you would be so grounded right now. But you’re not my niece. I realized that it’s not my job to judge you or tell you how to behave. I only have one job and that is to keep you alive until you can testify.”

I hated that she was being nice to me. “Alright, I’m sorry I said you didn’t want me to have any friends. If it’s any consolation, I didn’t do any drugs, drink any alcohol, or sleep with half the football team or anyone else, for that matter. I was just really pumped up that Brenda was doing better and wanted to celebrate with everyone.”

“So, we’re okay?”

“Yeah, but it sucks that I can’t go visit Brenda.”

“I tell you what; I’m not supposed to talk to the local cops. But I do have a friend in Dallas who could ask them about Brenda’s situation and keep me updated. I’m sure there is an active investigation into her assault. My friend can probably make up some reason why the Justice Department is interested.”

I tried to smile. “You know, for a cop, you’re actually pretty nice.”

For the second day in a row, I had missed school. I promised myself that I would make it to school tomorrow. Besides
,
it was going to be a Friday. That meant History class with Jeff and Allison. It was also taught by my new favorite professor, although Dr. Greene really hadn’t had that much to say to me.

He seemed like one of those quiet types. The ones neighbors always talk about after they do something horrible. I could just see one of his neighbors talking about how they never would have thought Dr. Greene was capable of killing a bus load of cheerleaders.

The day wasn’t
a
total loss. About seven o’clock Jeff called and said he was coming over. I made sure that Jenny knew he was coming. It was time to find out if she was really serious about my friends being welcome. Jenny agreed to being conveniently gone by the time Jeff arrived. I was finally going to have a rare chance to get Jeff alone.

I heard a knock at the door a little after seven thirty. I looked through the peephole in the door and saw Jeff standing there with another bouquet of flowers. A girl could get used to getting flowers all the time. Of course, there were plenty of things about Jeff that I could get used to. I opened the door and invited Jeff in. I took him
by
the hand and led him into the living room. He sat on the couch while I found some water for my beautiful flowers.

Having put my flowers in a vase, I came and sat down next to Jeff. “So, how is everything now? Anything exciting happen to you today?”

Jeff took my hand. “Not up until right now. Seeing you is the highlight of my day.”

I moved in closer to him. “You’re the highlight of my day and hopefully, my night.”

Jeff started to kiss me but stopped. “Where is Jenny, and how is she going to take it if she walks in on us?”

I put a finger on his lips. “It’s okay, she’s not here. We have an understanding.”