The Ghost Files (15 page)

“I’m fine,” I say. “He might need some ice for that nose. I broke it.”

Dan hauls him up.  “You wanna press charges?”

“Yeah, I sure the hell
do
!” Tommy spits out. “She attacked me.”

“I wasn’t talking to
you
, shit-for-brains.” Dan glowers at him. “Squirt?”

I shake my head. “Nah, he’s not worth the paperwork you’d have to fill out. Just get him away from me.”

“
That
I can do,” he says and forces Tommy away from the table and towards the door. I know, I know, I over-reacted. Probably shouldn’t have hit him, but it’s a built in defense most foster kids have. Hit first, hurt them before they hurt you. We learn it early and it’s a lesson that stays with us forever.

Jake is looking at me strangely as I sit back down. It’s a look I know. Most guys who get to know me eventually give me that look. It says: ‘Who are you and what did you do with my girlfriend?’ I knew it wasn’t gonna last, I’d hoped I could keep him a little longer. After today, though, that might not be an option. My chest hurts. The thought of losing Jake is making me sick to my stomach and my heart actually hurts. He’s the first guy who’s ever seen past my walls. I glance at Meg and she is staring at me, too.

“Damn, Mattie, remind me to never, ever get on your bad side,” she whispers. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”

My mind drifts back. “David Green.” I half-smiled. “He and I got put into the same foster home together when I was ten and he was sixteen. He said that I needed to be able to protect myself and he spent almost six months teaching me how to fight.”

“You guys must have been pretty close,” she nods.

“Not really.” I shrug. “Foster kids just take care of each other. He used to get picked on a lot and Eric taught him how to fight and he was just paying it forward.”

Wow. It’s been years since I thought about David.  He’d been as close as a big brother as I’d ever had. I might shrug it off to Meg, but we had been close. He’d taken care of me and took most of the beatings our foster dad dished out. He said if it hadn’t been for Eric he’d have never survived. Eric had saved him and he’d saved me.

Wait.

Eric Cameron.

No, it couldn’t be.  OH. MY. GOD.

“Mattie?”

That was why Eric was so familiar to me. I know his freaking name.

Mirror Boy had been a foster kid.

Chapter Eighteen

It’s all I can do to sit still while the bands play. I can’t believe Mirror Boy was in the system. I don’t know if he was when he died or not. He could’ve been adopted or something, but now I have a starting point. I have to start researching
this
angle. I want to do it now! Nancy will be my best chance, but how am I going to get answers out of her without twenty questions? Now,
that’s
going to be the tricky part, but I’m a sneaky girl by nature. I’ll figure it out.

My phone starts buzzing. I frown and pull it out of my back pocket. It had better not be Mrs. O. She’s been freaking out recently over the smallest things. Just yesterday, she yelled at all the little kids for playing too loud. I mean seriously, they’re kids. It’s what they do. They like to laugh and squeal. The woman needs to chill and cut them a little slack.

I have a text from an unknown number. I almost delete it like I do any text from people I don’t know, but I find myself curious. I’m not sure why, but I open it and nearly have a heart attack sitting there in the booth.

I’m giving a lecture at UNC in Charlotte tonight at 4pm.

I left you 2 passes at the door. Meet me after - Olivet

My mouth drops open in shock. Holy crap. He actually responded! My ghost expert responded. I never expected him to get in touch.  Whoa. It was just an off the wall shot in the dark. This is my chance to get some answers. I text Dan to ask him if he can take me. Jake and Meg are out of the question. Neither of them knows my dirty little secret. Plus I’m not too sure if Jake and I are kosher right now. I can’t get that look of his out of my mind.

Jake slides into the seat opposite me. Not a good sign. Dan takes the spot beside me. Jake does look up at that and glares. Dan completely ignores him. He looks downright depressed.

“You should have forfeited,” I told him snidely.

He sighs and nods. It really was that bad. “Yeah, but you did a great job, Jake. Thanks, man.”

“Whatever.”

Dan finally looks up at him and frowns. He looks ready to say something when Jennifer comes over. Greg is behind her and looks ready to commit a serious act of bodily harm. My kind of guy.

At that moment, Dan digs his phone out of a pocket and scans his messages. He glances at me once, so I know he’s read my text. The next question is given how Jake is obviously feeling, do I want him to know I asked Dan to take me somewhere and not him? Not a chance.

“Jake, can we leave now? I’m tired and my ankle hurts.”

“They haven’t even started the solo challenges yet,” he says. “Can you wait just a little longer?”

“That’s okay, Jake,” Dan tells him. “I can take her home.  I was gonna leave since I’m not signed up for any of the solo stuff and we stand zero chance of winning anyway.”

“But
I’m
not ready to go!” Jennifer complains. I can see Dan wince and I just barely stop myself from grinning. She
really
is not who I pictured him dating.

“Greg…”

“Hell, no!” Greg almost shouts.

“Then stay as long as you want, Jen. I’ll swing by later and pick you up.”

Her eyes narrow into slits and center on me. I can see the calculations there and can’t suppress a smile. That really sets her off. Dan rolls his eyes and slides out of the seat.

“You are actually going to leave me here and take some little kid home?”

Little kid?  She so did not say that. Meg and Jake both wince. They know me.

“Yeah, he’s taking this
little kid
home.” I let the sarcasm drip. “At least I won’t whine like a spoiled brat, unlike
you
, you bleach-blonde brainless moron. Really, Officer Dan, I am sooooo disappointed in you. This is your girlfriend? Really? I thought you had better taste than
this
.”

Poor Dan looks a little uncomfortable, but honestly, even
he
has to know what an idiot she is. He obviously isn’t dating her for the stimulating conversation.

“Looks like,” he says at last and Jennifer’s expression turns murderous. He stands up so I can get out.

“Jake, call me when you make up your mind.” I push myself up and out of the booth. Jake nods and I realize that I’m right. He
is
rethinking our relationship. I feel tears try to well up. I don’t cry. I am not a person who cries. I take a hasty step forward and pain shoots up my leg from my ankle. White-hot pain. The little show with Tommy earlier had done more damage than I thought.

Dan catches me before I fall. “Can you walk, Mattie?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” I wave him off and take a tentative step forward. He has to catch me again. Dang it. Before I can say anything, he swings me up in his arms and asks Greg to get the door. Jake is standing, looking like he wants to hit Dan, but I see Meg catch him and pull him back.

Once we are in Dan’s truck and headed for the interstate, I stare pointedly out the window, trying to ignore the tears that are streaming wet paths down my cheeks. I guess maybe I thought Jake really could look past everything, but deep down, he’s like every other guy I’ve ever known.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Dan asks quietly after a while.

I shake my head, refusing to look at him. I hate the fact that he’s seeing me like this.

“He’s a jerk,” Dan says. “I can still press charges if you want.”

“What?” I turn startled eyes on him.

“Tommy. If you’re this upset, Squirt, I’ll turn around right now and go arrest him.”

He thinks I’m upset over Tommy? I almost laugh out loud. If that was all it was. I may have just lost my boyfriend. Crap. Being me crushes the best things that ever happen in my life. At the rate I’m going, Mrs. O. might ship me off any day.

Get a hold of yourself, Mattie. This place, these people have gotten past my walls and this is not a good thing. I need to distance myself from everything. It’s these danged ghosts. I’m feeling more emotions because of them. I feel what
they
feel. When I used to ignore them, I didn’t leave myself open to all these emotions. I
knew
letting them in was a bad idea, but I did it for Sally. Where has it gotten me? Nowhere. I’m sitting here crying and feeling worthless and not an inch closer to finding her killer, not really.

“I could care less about Tommy,” I whisper and turn away from him. I don’t want him to see me crying. I need to stop these tears. This is not me. I am fearless and I will not let myself get hurt like this, not ever again.

“What’s wrong, Mattie?”

“You are such a guy,” I say at last. “I think Jake finally figured out that I’m exactly who everyone says I am, the reject foster kid with a chip on her shoulder. He put up with a lot from me, but when he saw me actually get in a fight, I think that was it. It was just too much for him.”

I hear Dan exhale slowly and then he pulls the truck over on the shoulder of the interstate. He turns off the radio before reaching over to unbuckle my seatbelt. He hauls me over and lets me cry all over his shirt.

“Mattie, you were defending yourself against a creep. If Jake doesn’t realize that, then he’s an idiot.” He hand is patting my back and I hiccup. “You are not a reject. You are wonderful, and special, and yes, you are a little weird, but it’s a good weird. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel bad about the person you are. You are
not
worthless. You are you and I for one wouldn’t trade you for all the mundane girls in the world. I like you the way you are, a fighter, a hellion, and a person I care a great deal about.”

“You don’t understand, Dan.” I pull away from him and stare into his eyes, flashing with anger. “I’ve never met a guy before who looked past all the walls I put up and saw me, who liked me for me. Jake was that guy. He saw ME. I kept thinking to myself, this is too good to be true, eventually he’ll get sick of my crap like everyone else and leave. I think today was his day to leave.”

“Why? Because you hit a guy who got in your face and threatened you? Any girl would have…”

“No,” I stopped him. “They
wouldn’t
have. Most girls would have cowered or waited for their boyfriend to take care of it.”

“You’re not most girls, Mattie Louise.”

“I KNOW!” I yell. “That’s my point, Dan. I’m screwed up and it eventually costs me everyone who means anything to me. My first reaction is to hit before I get hit, to hurt them before I get hurt.”

I burst into tears again and I see the sadness in Dan’s eyes. I can’t take his pity and try to move away from him, but he won’t let me. “Shh,” he soothes and pulls me back into his arms. “It’s alright, Mattie. I’ll make you a promise, okay? I promise that no matter what you do, I will always be here for you, Squirt. I will never leave you and I will never let you drive me away, no matter how hard you try. You’re stuck with me kid.”

There is a wealth of emotion in his voice and I know if I look up, I’ll see his face full of determination. I know he means it. Officer Dan is the only person who has ever managed to make me feel like anything except the poor little foster girl. Jake is great and I know he likes me, but sometimes I think he only asked me out in the beginning because he felt sorry for me. I was the new girl, the foster kid who had no friends. That’s the kind of person he is. It’s why I knew he and I would never last. I just didn’t think it’d be over this soon.

Dan is different. I know he cares, that he means exactly what he says. I’ve never in my life connected with someone like I have with him. It scares me more than I can say, but I won’t give it up either. I need Dan in my life. He makes me feel safe.

“So,” he says when I pull myself together, “why are we heading to UNC?”

“Dr. Olivet.” I wipe my face with the napkin Dan pulled out of an old McDonald’s bag. It smells like fries, but I know my face is a mess. Dan’s truck is old so it doesn’t have mirrors in the visors and I’m grateful that I’d put on very little makeup today, only a bit of lipstick really.

“Who?” he asks, and pulls back onto the interstate.

“He’s a parapsychologist,” I tell him and try to finger-comb my hair. “I found him on the internet.”

Dan’s sigh is loud enough to make me wince. “Mattie, tell me you didn’t go trolling the internet looking for ghost hunters?”

“What?” I ask defensively. “I need a little help here, Dan. I may have been able to see ghosts my entire life, but I don’t know anything about them, not really. I certainly didn’t know one could hurt me. I have to be able to protect myself. This guy has a lot of press, he seems to know what he’s talking about.”

“All it means, Mattie, is he is good at BS and a Twitter fanatic. I bet he has thousands of followers on Twitter doesn’t he?”

I refuse to acknowledge this is true. He has over three million followers.

“Mattie, ghost hunters are just there to take advantage of people and fuel their nonsense beliefs. They find reasons to take a situation that has a perfectly rational explanation and make it into the haunting of the century. I can’t believe you of all people would fall for that. I gave you way more credit than that.”

“So you think that what I believe is nonsense? You don’t believe that I can see ghosts?”

He sighs. “Mattie, I firmly believe that
you
think you can see ghosts and yes, I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff around you, but to say I believe in ghosts? I’m still not there yet.”

“You think I’m crazy then? Then how did I know all that stuff about Mary? Huh? Think I imagined that?” I’m yelling, I know I’m yelling, but I can’t help it. Dan was the one person who I thought believed me. Now he’s saying he doesn’t.

“No, you are not crazy. If I thought that, I’d not be helping you try to find a killer no one else thinks exist. Yeah, you do know a lot of stuff you shouldn’t, stuff that wasn’t released to the general public, especially about Mary. That’s why I’m here. I will go as far as to say you might be a little psychic, but ghosts? I’m just not sure, Mattie. I told you I’d keep an open mind and I am. Just give me some time okay?”