Spooked (3 page)

So I kept my head down so as not to inadvertently send out psychic fingers and probe the minds of anyone near me.

“Lorelei,” a voice said.

I looked up to see Kerry standing at my locker a few feet away. Her eyes were haunted.

“What is going on?” I asked her.

“It’s not good,” she said, her face paler than usual.

“For God’s sake, Kerry. I’m really getting freaked here. Tell me what happened.”

She took a deep breath before saying, “Eliza Ford is missing.”

***

“What?” I stared at her, dumbfounded.

“She’s missing.” Kerry’s huge, raccoon eyes watched me as she nibbled a thumbnail.

“Oh, shit. That is not good.” I chewed my bottom lip. “When was the last time she was seen?”

“Just before last period yesterday. She had a study period that she apparently skipped out on. Nobody even saw her leave the school. Her car is still in the school parking lot.”

Eliza drove a cute little powder blue Honda Civic.

“She never made it off the property?”

Kerry shook her head. “Not in that car, she didn’t.”

“Her parents must be worried out of their minds,” I said.

“I guess her father sat in her car all night while her mother stayed home, waiting for her.”

“What about the boyfriend? Devin?”

She nodded. “Devin Moran. Football hero.” She rolled her eyes. “He said he hadn’t seen her since third period. They broke up. He said he was done with her and has a new girlfriend so he doesn’t pay attention to where she goes now.” Kerry lifted her brows at me to punctuate how much of a jerk she thought he was.

“Nice.” I looked around at the students gathered in small groups in the hall, and others that walked by slowly, as if they were caught in a dream. Everyone was shocked.

Kerry sighed and looked around, as if she were looking for Eliza just in case she decided to show up late and make a grand entrance. “The princess is missing. There’s going to be a huge hunt for her. They’re organizing search parties as we speak,” Kerry said.

“Jesus,” I murmured. It was unbelievable. Dread crept over me and settled in my belly, clutching at my insides.

“I want to go and see whether Irene is still there,” Kerry said. “Take her down, if we can, before anyone sees her.”

Thank God. I nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

“I think we can slip away while they’re organizing the search party. You game?”

“Absolutely. Where’s Mick?

I heard spooky music that I recognized but couldn’t place coming from her leather jacket pocket. Then it came to me: the theme to an old eighties horror movie, a classic. Under the circumstances, it lifted the small hairs from the back of my neck.

Kerry pulled the cell phone out of her pocket. “That’s him right now.” She lifted her cell to her ear. “Where are you?”

I scanned the halls again. The Pretty Pack huddled in front of Eliza’s locker, eyes wide with fear. They knew more than what they were letting on. I was certain of it. Eliza probably texted them before, during, and after she peed. She’d definitely tell them where she was headed if she were skipping study hall.

I pulled my gaze away from them. Again, I had to make an effort to block them from my thoughts. I could easily find out what they knew, but if I did that, I made myself and Delia targets. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to her because of me.

“Come on,” Kerry said, shoving her cell into her jacket pocket. “He’s parked in back of the school waiting for us.”

We headed down the hall, taking a set of stairs that were not used much. The stairs led to the basement, where the cleaning supplies were kept. Dark, it smelled of heavy industrial cleanser and mildew that wouldn’t quite stay away. We headed out the exit and down the metal set of stairs at the back of the school.

Mick’s car was waiting in front of the stairs. There weren’t parking spots, but just a paved area. Nobody ever parked here.

I slid into the back seat, mechanically pulling the seat belt around me and clicking it into place. I was one of those kids who pretty much always did what I was supposed to do. I followed all the rules. Never stepped out of line.

Except last night.

“Hey, Lorelei,” Mick said over his shoulder, giving me a small grin.

“Hey.”

“Don’t worry. It’ll turn out okay,” he said.

“We hope,” Kerry said. “We just need to get that mannequin back. Get her down.”

The mannequin seemed so unimportant to me, in light of the fact that Eliza was missing. “Where do you think she is?”

Mick shook his head. “No telling, really. She wasn’t a friend of mine. But I’m sure she’s okay. She must be.”

Kerry stared out the window. “It’s all over the news.”

“Someone knows where she is,” I said. “I bet her friends do.”

“Or that jock ex-boyfriend,” Kerry said.

I chewed my bottom lip, my stomach clenching. I was thankful that I hadn’t eaten anything. The pumpkin muffin was still in the front compartment of my backpack.

We rode the rest of the way to Frenchy Pointe in silence. Getting Irene back wasn’t really going to make any of us feel any better. We were guilty of harmless mischief, not of actually hurting anyone. Still, for some reason I felt somewhat responsible for Eliza’s disappearance. As if our prank had somehow led to it, or aided it in some way. Like we’d started something dark in motion.

“What the hell?” Kerry said, sitting forward in her seat.

I sat forward too, following her shocked gaze.

“Holy shit,” Mick murmured.

My mouth dropped open. Irene was still there, but she wasn’t wearing the jean jacket and jeans that she’d been in when we’d hung her from the tree.

She was wearing Eliza’s clothes. Right down to her pink hairband.

Chapter Three

“Oh shit,” Mick said. “We can’t take her now. She’s part of an investigation. She’s evidence of a crime.”

“Oh, my God,” I said. “Mick’s right. This is a crime scene. We’re the first at the scene. We can’t just leave. We have to call the police.”

“No!” Kerry said. “We can’t! They’ll think we’re involved.”

“What are we going to do?” Mick said. “Take the mannequin, which is wearing Eliza’s clothes, and not say anything? We can’t.” He shook his head.

The whole thing seemed so surreal to me. But one thing was certain—Mick was right. We couldn’t just take the mannequin down. Somebody had dressed her in Eliza’s clothing and now Eliza was missing. That mannequin was evidence. Whether we liked it or not.

“Shit.” Kerry looked at the mannequin, and then down at the ground.

“We didn’t really do anything wrong, Kerry. We hung a mannequin from a tree on Devil’s Night. So what,” I said, shrugging. I didn’t believe this for a second, but I wanted to get her to back off.

“Yeah,” Kerry said. “A mannequin that I stole.”

Kerry would get into trouble for that part of it. I looked at Mick. Our eyes locked for a moment before his gaze slid away. His mind was working.

“Shit,” Kerry said. “I’m screwed. They’ll send me back to juvie.” Her eyes were huge and fearful.

Mick placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans and walked a slow circle, looking at the ground. “What if we just found the mannequin like that?”

I looked at him. “Then what are we doing here?”

He let out a breath. “Right. Good point. Damn.”

We were all part of this. I couldn’t let Kerry take the brunt of the fall. “Look, if we’re not going to fess up to having her at all, then we blow this place right now and let them come up on her themselves.” I looked at Kerry and Mick.

They looked back at me, and then at each other, wheels turning and hope glimmering in their eyes.

Mick nodded his head slowly, thinking. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”

Kerry looked at the mannequin, apparently undecided.

“Kerry, it’s the only way to avoid you getting into trouble.”

“They’ll send me to juvie,” she said again, looking at the ground. “I’ve messed up too many times now. I’ve been warned.”

I wondered why she pushed her luck so much. “Okay, then. That decides it. Let’s go, now, before they find us here having this little party.”

Mick nodded once. “Right. This never happened.”

We headed to the car and rode back to the school in silence. Police cars sailed past us, going in the opposite direction.

“I bet we just missed them,” Mick said, his eyes darting between the rearview and side mirrors. “They’re headed to the Pointe now.”

I was certain the police had checked there last night, but knowing that the Pointe was where kids went parking, figured they’d check again.

Or maybe they’d gotten a tip from someone. Someone who took her.

“Okay, folks. We’ve officially obstructed a police investigation by failing to come forward with information concerning the crime.”

Kerry turned in her seat. “What the hell are you? A cop?”

“No, but I watch a lot of cop shows.” I stared out the window, trying to slow my hammering heart.

The air in the car was heavy with a single unspoken truth.

Someone had taken Eliza, and it didn’t look good.

***

I called Delia on her cell to tell her what was going on.

“Oh, dear Lord, no,” she said in an urgent whisper.

“She’s been missing since yesterday. She had a study period at the end of the day that she skipped out on. She hasn’t yet been gone twenty-four hours, but Eliza wasn’t one to just take off and not tell anyone. And she’s, well, Eliza. So they’re starting to search early.”

Eliza had won countless pageants since she was a little girl. She currently held the much-coveted title Pumpkin Princess, for which she’d been crowned just the week before at the annual Saints Hallow Pumpkin Festival.

“I’m glad. Oh, Lord,” Delia said again. This just didn’t happen in our sleepy little town. People kept their doors unlocked. “I’m leaving now. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

The search party began at the wooded area that edged the school parking lot. The school sat on ten acres of land, much of it woods and water. A swampy area of dead black trees reaching toward the sky was home to various types of wildlife. We often saw fox, raccoon, deer, snakes, frogs, and a variety of birds. They made their way to the school grounds now and then, reminding us that we were infringing on their territory, and not the other way around.

Side by side, the long row of students, teachers, and concerned citizens stepped carefully, slowly into the woods, watching every inch of ground for any sign of Eliza. Nobody spoke. Even the clowns who joked in nerve racking situations to lighten the mood were quiet. Devin Moran, Eliza’s ex-boyfriend, looked out into the woods, as if expecting Eliza to come out from behind a tree at any moment. His rugged, handsome face was drawn. But was it worry for Eliza or for himself? Was he involved in her disappearance? He had to have hard feelings about their breakup. I wanted so badly to open my mind and search through his, but I heard Delia’s warning in my head.

The air around us was heavy with tension. The idea that we may not find Eliza alive weighed heavily on us all.

I turned back and saw Delia coming up behind me, her face ashen. She took a spot next to me and briefly patted me on the lower back. “Good Lord,” she whispered. “Please let us find her okay.”

Looking up, I spotted Cole Nichols, who just graduated from the academy in the spring. Seeing him with a police uniform on was strange to me. His baby face looked grim as he looked over the faces. He caught my gaze and held my eyes for a moment, giving me a friendly nod.

Pretty eyes
. His thought came through to me clearly. Then, a glimpse of a thought that my dark, shiny hair matched my eyes.

I blinked. This was an unusual happening and despite the somber situation, I felt the blush on my cheeks.

I nodded back, lowering my eyes to the ground again. I’d always liked Cole in a schoolgirl crush kind of way, but always thought that he would never give me a second glance in that way. The way that boys look at girls. But now, in the midst of this melancholy and chaos, he noticed me as a girl. How strange.

When I glanced up again he had moved into the trees and his eyes searched the ground, looking for any clue that would tell him where Eliza had gone.

I gave myself a mental shake and said a silent prayer of my own, keeping my eyes down.

I looked around for Kerry. She and Mick were farther to the right, several students and a few teachers between them. Mick seemed to feel me watching and lifted his head. His gaze met mine and a spark of regret flashed between us. We understood that we hadn’t caused Eliza’s disappearance, but we were involved in the crime, just because the mannequin that we hung was now wearing Eliza’s clothes.

I wondered whether the police had found Irene yet. They must’ve. I’ve heard stories, told in an embarrassed hush, of police coming up on teenage couples in compromising positions. They mostly made sure the girl was okay, and not being forced into something they didn’t want to be a part of.

I wondered where the police were when Eliza’s abductor dressed Irene in her clothes.

Where were they when we’d hung Irene? I’d been so afraid we’d get caught. Now I wished that we had been. We wouldn’t now be unwitting participants in the abduction of a young girl.

My throat constricted as we peered under fallen logs, moving them as best we could to see beneath them. I held my breath as long sticks were used to search for anything that could be Eliza’s in creeks and small ponds. Would they send divers out? I thought they probably would. I wanted to know where Eliza was, but I didn’t want to find her in that swampy, dank water. If we found her there, I didn’t think I could take it. I knew that I’d never be the same.

None of us would.

A light wind lifted my hair from my forehead and blew it back from my face, and on that breeze I thought I heard the voice of a child. I couldn’t make out the words, but a child whispered, close to me, feathery soft breath on my ear.

I looked around, wild-eyed, my heart drilling against my chest. The closest person to me was about a foot away but he was no child. He was Mr. Tanner, the gym teacher that so many girls in my school had a crush on. Mrs. Tanner, beautiful in faded jeans and a sweat shirt, kept her auburn, ponytailed head downward, her face a study in deep concentration. Everyone knew her. She was an ex-cheerleader, ex-Pretty Pack girl from this school. She was about ten years my senior, and about ten years younger than Mr. Tanner.