44 Book Five (13 page)

I nodded.

“Well,” she said, looking back down the hall. “She’ll be home tomorrow, if you want to stop by and see her. Or you can call me.”

She reached in her pocket and handed me a card.

“I better get back. Thank you so much again, both of you.” She took each of our hands and gave them a tight squeeze. “I don’t know how to thank you, but when things settle down I’ll think of something. God bless you. God bless you both.”

CHAPTER 32

“So tell me again exactly what happened last night,” David said as he sat down across from me. “And don’t leave anything out.”

I had already told him twice, but I didn’t mind repeating it. It was all I could think about anyway, and it was nice to talk about it instead of having it stuck in my mind. Lyle was up at the register, but there was no line and not much to do. I was struggling to stay awake and thought about seeing if I could go home early.

I laid out the story once again, everything I could remember, even the part about how Paloma fainted in the water.

“I was right over at Velvet when all this was happening,” David said. “Why didn’t you text me? We would have come.”

“It’s not like it was a party,” I said. “Anyway, tell me again what she said when she called you yesterday.”

“She was adamant about finding you. I mean, now that I can put it into context, she was out of her mind I guess.”

He stopped and was quiet for a moment.

“But she didn’t even try calling me,” I said. “And I know she has my number.”

“See?” David said. “Cray cray.”

“So you told her I was at Amber’s?”

“Yeah. I told her you were at a party over there, at a house behind the store. So she found you, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said.

I told him about her arms, how she had a fever, and how she just took off running.

“So do you think she’s a total whack job or what?” he asked. “Or does this have to do with her ghost?”

“I don’t know what to think. I have to talk to her, but they wouldn’t let us see her at the hospital.”

“Maybe Paloma just had too much to drink,” he said. “Or drugs. Remember that weird cannibal story in Florida about the guy eating the other guy’s face? Maybe it was like that.”

“But Paloma wasn’t trying to eat someone.”

David broke out laughing.

“No, silly. They found marijuana in his system and they think he had a bad reaction to it.”

“Maybe,” I said.

“So how’s Ty doing? Did he recover? I saw him on TV. He looked hot.”

“Yeah, he’s all good,” I said.

“Abby Craig, between the two of you, it’s like you’re some superhero couple,” he said as he stood up. “Going around saving people. They’re going to have a movie about you two.”

Lyle laughed.

“I’d go see that movie,” he said.

“Oh, me too,” David said, raising an eyebrow and walking away. “Me too.”

***

I got a text from Kate asking if I could stop by the store on my way home from work.

I hated going into Safeway during the dinner hour. It was always crowded and full of exhausted, grumpy office workers. I grabbed a cart and weaved quickly down the aisle, throwing in items on my list. Milk, cereal, orange juice, bread.

I could hear Grace’s voice on the store’s intercom. She was one of the checkers I knew. She would always ask customers if they needed help to their cars. She would ask several times. It didn’t matter how old or young they were or their physical condition or how many or how few groceries they had.

“And do you need help out with that today?”

She repeated it so often that sometimes it played over and over in my head for the rest of the day.

“And do you need help out with that today?”

I walked down the pasta aisle and it made me sad, thinking about how I used to have a lot of time for cooking. I missed it. I thought about the dinner party and how nothing had turned out right. I was looking forward to next month, when I would have more time. This fall would be my return to the kitchen. Until then, there wasn’t time for anything other than Mondo pizza and pub burgers.

I turned down the next aisle and jumped, my heart almost stopping.

He was all the way down at the end, but I knew who it was. I couldn’t see his face, but it looked just like him. He was even wearing that stupid Real Madrid soccer jersey he wore on the island.

It was Jack.

He was pretending to look at something on the shelf, but I knew better. He was waiting. Waiting for me.

I didn’t stick around long enough to make sure it was him. I flew out of the store, leaving the shopping cart behind. Sweat collecting on my face. I rushed up to the Jeep and started it, eyes glued to the front doors of the supermarket.

I sped away.

CHAPTER 33

I parked the Jeep a few blocks away from home. My breathing was still ragged and erratic. I closed my eyes for a minute and thought about what I had seen at the store. What I had really seen. Truthfully, I couldn’t be sure it was Jack.

It didn’t make sense. Why would he be back here, in plain sight, when the police were looking for him? Jack was nothing if not cunning and calculating. This would be the last place he’d be.

I talked myself down. I was tired from lack of sleep and all the recent excitement. That was all. I must have imagined it.

I turned the key in the ignition and drove back to the store.

***

I called Rosie the next afternoon during my break. Paloma had been released. She was at Rosie’s. Her sister said that the doctors had given her some pretty strong sedatives and that she was still sleeping a lot. And that she probably would be for a while. I had asked if she needed anything and offered to stop by after work. But Rosie said no.

“I meant to ask you,” I said. “Did they find anything in her system?”

I felt a little uncomfortable asking, but I had to know.

“You mean like drugs or alcohol?” she asked. “No. There was nothing, Abby.”

“What did they say caused her fever?”

“Fever?” Rosie said. “She didn’t have a fever. All her vital signs were normal.”

She asked me if I could call back later that evening.

“It would be good for her to talk to a friend,” she said. “I would invite you over, but I think we better wait until she’s more rested.”

I called Paloma before my soccer game, but there was no answer.

It was drizzling and a cool wind was blowing. I looked across the field and studied the team we were going to play. They had gotten new jerseys and had a new name, but I recognized them from last season. It was going to be a tough game.

Tim hit me with a perfectly timed pass, which I took in full stride, and after making a move around two defenders, I cut in and took a hard shot to the left of the keeper and into the back of the net. Sam scored the game-winning goal on a bending free kick in the second half.

I checked my messages after I said goodbye to the team.

Paloma hadn’t called back.

***

I talked to Rosie again the next day. She said Paloma was feeling better. But when I called her a few times from home and Back Street, I still got no answer.

She was probably trying to work through everything that had happened. But I still had a lot of unanswered questions and talking to her sister wasn’t going to help me find out anything more about that ghost.

I needed to know what really happened that night in front of Amber’s house and then in the river. Paloma might remember more now that some time had passed.

I figured that it was worth a shot. After my shift I drove over to Club 6. I thought that if she was feeling better, she might be back at work. It was just past seven, but the place was still closed. I knocked a few times anyway, hoping someone would answer.

“Not till nine,” said a scruffy voice right before I was about to give up. A man wearing a ZZ Top tank top opened the door just a few inches, ready to close it again.

“Wait,” I said. “I’m a friend of one of the dancers who works here. Paloma Suárez. Do you know if she’s working tonight?”

“Pali’s history,” he said.

“What do you mean history?”

“She’s done here, got it? She’s missed three straight shifts without so much as a peep. I haven’t heard squat. I can’t have people working here who don’t work here.”

“You must be Eddie,” I said.

He sighed and scratched the stubble on his chin and looked at me and then opened the door.

“Yeah, that’s me. Come in for a minute,” he said. “She left some of her stuff.”

“Abby,” I said, following him inside.

It was strange seeing the club so quiet. There were no blinding strobe lights or disco balls spinning, no scantily clad barmaids or people dancing in the middle of the room. It was just him and a television over the bar, tuned to a baseball game.

But even though it looked just like a regular room now, something about it didn’t feel right.

We stopped at the bar and he faced me.

“So, you’re a friend of hers, huh?” he asked.

I was getting a bad feeling, like we were being watched.

“Yeah.”

His eyes were on me, checking me out.

“She’s been going through a hard time,” I said.

“Yeah, whatever. She can take a number. Anyway, she left one of her, uh, outfits here. Hold on, let me get it.”

He left me standing there while he went into the back.

I wandered around a little, hoping that I could see something. But I didn’t. There was nothing, then or now. Nothing except a feeling.

I saw ghosts all over town. I saw them rising up from rivers, in coffee shops, and at parks. It felt like there was something here. Why wasn’t I seeing it? It didn’t make any sense.

I looked around some more and then glanced up at the cage.

I jumped back.

It wasn’t exactly a ghost, but there was something there just the same. Something I had never seen before. A dark mist was moving around inside the cage. It looked like black fog, and it was hovering behind the steel bars.

I blinked hard, my back glued to the wall. I was too scared to move.

I just stood there watching as mist moved around the cage. Suddenly it started spilling out, falling down onto the dance floor like a black waterfall.

Oozing and dripping, it slowly started to crawl toward me.

I held down a scream just as the owner came back out.

“Got it,” he said. “Hey, you okay?”

I looked at him.

“Huh?”

I looked back over at the floor but the fog was gone, like it had never been there.

“Here,” he said, handing me a bag. “I don’t know, maybe you want to try it on. See if it fits.”

I stared at him for a moment, not knowing what he meant.

“What are you talking about?” I said.

“Well, I’m short a girl now that Pali’s gone. You don’t exactly have her curves, but I think you might do. You might do just fine. I pay good and there’s tips. What’d ya say?”

I gave him back the bag and walked away.

“Say, if you talk to her, tell her I’m really pissed,” he yelled. “And think about the job offer.”

I let the door slam hard behind me.

CHAPTER 34

“Mo!” I said as I walked in.

She looked up from behind the espresso machine and cracked a smile.

“Hey,” she said, pulling a shot.

She was dressed in her usual tank top that showed off all her tattoos. Her hair was short and choppy and she had a small ring in her nose.

“How was your tour? How was Europe?”

“Sick,” she said, nodding.

I slid my bag in the drawer.

“Are you guys playing a show here sometime?”

“Next week at The Horned Hand,” she said.

“Cool. I’ll be there,” I said.

Mo was still the same. We didn’t say much more the rest of the day, but it was nice having her back. The morning was smooth and lot of the regular customers treated her like a rock star. And even though she was still serious and quiet, I could tell she was pleased that so many people were happy to see her.

David showed up later and after talking to Mo for a good 15 minutes finally started helping me up front with the line.

“It’s like our little family is all back together,” he said as he walked by.

I sat in the crisp air outside on my break, the sun hitting my face but not helping much. I hadn’t brought a jacket. But I didn’t want to go back inside. It was too beautiful.

I still hadn’t gotten ahold of Paloma. Even though Rosie had said she was doing better, I was still worried about her. I was also starting to feel a little resentment. I had reached out to her. Ty had pulled her out of the river. She could call me back. It wasn’t too much to ask.

Lyle wandered out and handed me a small cup.

“Here, try this,” he said, touching his afro. “It’ll straighten your hair.”

I took a sip.

“Wow,” I said.

“Beans are from Hawaii. It’s our newest blend. It’s a bit more expensive, but it’s my new favorite.”

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s really smooth.”

He went back inside as I eyed Kate’s Subaru while she drove into the lot. I waved slowly as she got out of the car, surprised to see her.

She was wearing her new dark suit, the one she bought on her trip to Portland last month, and looked professional and serious. She walked over to me and sat down.

“Spiff,” I said.

“Thanks,” she said. She looked around at the customers sitting at the other tables and then smiled.

“Want some coffee? Lyle just brewed up our new blend. Here, try some.”

She took a sip.

“This has a really nice flavor,” she said. “I don’t want any now, but can you bring a pound home?”

“Sure,” I said.

There had to be a reason she was here.

“Looks like the tourist season finally tapered off. I can actually find a seat in this place now.”

“Yeah, it’s a little better,” I said. “Hey, I thought you were busy all day. I wasn’t expecting to see you.”

“My interview got cancelled, so I thought I would stop by and say hi.”