Blind Trust (28 page)

“Existentialism is a survival tool we use,” Frei said. “Thing is,
she was injured and, judging by her vital signs, she’s fading. The shock of
seeing him must have triggered something.”

Frei looked like I felt, like she wanted to pick Renee up and
shake the life back into her or bawl like a child.

“We can’t give up.” The tears burst out. My sobs shook my
shoulders. I couldn’t do this without her. “I won’t give up.”

Frei looked away. I saw the glimmer of tears. She walked to the
cabinet and pulled out a bottle of liquor. “Neither will I.”

She took the bottle and two glasses to the table. “You don’t get
to hear the full story much of the time,” she said, tapping the seat next to
her, “but . . . I need you to understand the full picture.”

She motioned to the bottle but I shook my head. “You drink too
much.”

“I know.”

“Renee really respects you.”

Pouring a glass, she nodded. “I know.”

“So do I.” I slumped down into the chair. “Right now I need you to
tell me what I’m supposed to do.”

“I know.” My confession made her aura warm for a few seconds and
she sipped at her shot. “For the moment. You are going to have a drink.” She
poured a second glass and shoved it my way. “Then I’ll put your shoulder back
in.”

I frowned, not knowing how she could tell.

She just smiled. A gentle smile. A smile that I needed to see.
“Then we do the only thing we can, wait . . . and pray.”

Chapter 29

FREI AND I kept a constant vigil day and night but two days passed
and Renee was no better. I mean we tried everything. I sat and told her all
that was going on in the town. How Hal had two operations to save his leg but
he was doing good and Marie had already agreed to marry him. I thought it would
make her smile to tell her that Marie had loved the dumb fool all along but it
was such a surprise to him that when she agreed, he fainted.

Frei told her how things had been in CIG and that if she didn’t
come to, she was gonna be shipped back to her mom, who was safe and well, and
then she’d have to face her sorrow. The threat would have worked if she’d been
in there at all, I was sure, but nothing, not even a flicker.

I’d brought Zack around, he’d signed for her and Martha and Earl
had translated as he’d been teaching them how to read his gestures. He’d drawn
some pictures of superheroes for her and we’d told her all about how he’d given
her a cape because all heroes flew.

Nothing.

I was catching some morning air on the porch when Blob appeared
beside me and I smiled at the floating smudge.

“Sorry I ain’t been much use to you so far,” I said to him. “With
everythin’ . . . I just . . .”

Blob yawned.
“I am missing something . . . but your friend, she
needs your help more.”

“That’s real honorable,” I told him. “How did it go with Seth Jewel
after.”

If floating blobs could smile, I swore he was smiling.
“You’ll
see soon enough. If you don’t find my name . . .”
I waited while Blob
grappled with what he wanted to say.
“Can I come with you?”

“Who said I was goin’ anywhere?”

Blob hissed his derision at my answer.

“Okay, okay . . . but you ain’t allowed to spook Renee.”

“Deal.”

Martha waved to me as she headed up the path and I stretched out
my back. I’d been hunched over for so many hours, too many hours.

“Martha, could you watch Renee for a while?” I asked. “I just want
to get a change in perspective.”

“Course. I have her breakfast so you’ll only be in the way.”

I headed down the steps only for a whoosh of air to hit me in the
side of the face. “Hey, Nan.”

“Oh, Shorty. I hate seein’ you this way.”

I shrugged. What could I say to that? I didn’t want to be
miserable, I just wanted Renee back. I wanted her fixed.

“She still silent?”

I nodded, tears brimming all over again. I swear I’d cried myself
stupid over the last two days.

“Want to do something nice?”

“Like what?” I asked. “Nan, I’m not in the mood for riddles.”

Nan breezed through me, making my insides feel like I’d swallowed
ice.

“Hey, quit it.”

“Stop your whining and head over to that outhouse over there.”

To stop her icing up any more of my organs, I followed the order
and found myself in a ramshackle hut with holes in the floorboards. “What now?”

“Can you feel where I am?”
she asked.

I nodded and headed over to the spot she was hovering in.
“Rip
up the board.”

Her voice was full of mischief and normally it would make me smile
but all I’d done for two days was worry and cry like I had overactive hormones.
Nothing seemed to calm me. I’d even thought about joining Frei in drinking a
few times. Well, until I smelled the stuff and remembered the one shot she’d
made me drink. It nearly knocked me clean off my chair. The woman drank paint
stripper, I swear.

“Hey, sleepy,”
Nan said, knocking over something behind me and I jumped.
“Floorboard.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered, taking the board in one hand and ripping
it upward with ease. There was nothing I enjoyed more than dismantling and I
half wanted to keep going till there was no floor at all. “You got a reason for
this?”

“Look down,”
Nan muttered.

I did so and saw a battered . . .
something
. “You’re gonna
make me pick it up, ain’t you?”

“Darn shooting, I am.”

I sighed and picked up the battered plastic. “Are you going to
explain why I have a decrepit toy mouse in my hand?”

“Out to the oak tree . . . the one you like so much.”

“I do?”

Nan breezed through me again.
“Walk and talk, Shorty, let’s get
you in good spirits.”
She chuckled at her own joke as I shuddered and
followed her out of the building.

“Nan, What do you mean I like the oak tree? What oak tree?”

I stood, looking at a magnificent guardian. Its gnarled knots
twisted up its mighty thick trunk. A meandering maze of bare branches stretched
up to the crystal blue heavens. I had stared at it countless times without
realizing and when I got to the weathered wood, I grounded myself, feeling its
life beating below the bark.

“Bury the little fella right where you’re standing,”
Nan instructed.

“The ground is solid.”

Nan chuckled.
“Then it will take longer.”

Groaning, I left the mouse and went to a small shed to retrieve a
shovel. It took nearly half an hour to dig any kind of sizable hole but Nan
chatted to me the whole while. I took comfort from her babbling on about how my
grandpa was a card shark. I could hear how much she adored him in her voice.

“Is he where I get my height from?” I asked between my grunts.

“Oh no,”
Nan said, chuckling.
“He was only a nose taller than me.”
I
could feel her glowing with love.
“When we met, he was a skinny little
thing, long black hair and skin like redwood.”

“Ah, so he’s where the Native roots come in?”

“Yup,”
Nan said. She sounded like a teenager.
“His folks understood
about my gifts . . . good people his folks.”

“They play cards too?”

Nan laughed again. Her bright mood lifted me.
“Sure do. Your
grandpa learned some tricks from them!”

“Nan,” I said, finishing digging and leaning on the handle. “Why
am I so tall?”

“You ate your veggies
.
”

“Funny,” I muttered. “I’m serious, why am I so tall?”

“My family,”
she said.
“They were all giants. I was just a tiny thing
compared to my brothers. You get it from them.”

Brothers? Why did I know nothing of my family? “What happened to
them?”

Nan sighed.
“War, Shorty . . . war.”

“Well, I for one, think that violence sucks.”

Nan made a mumble of agreement and I popped the mouse into the
hole. “Rest well, little friend.”

I filled in the hole and patted the top. Blob appeared next to
where Nan was sitting. I blinked a couple of times as a shape not much like a
nineteen-year-old boy came into view.

“You’re a cat?”

Blob licked his paws and a set of yellow eyes peered up at me.
“Guess
so.”

“So there is no mystery?” I asked Nan.

“He lost his mouse,”
she said.
“And his name is—”

“Tiddles. Yeah, I see.” I knelt down and peered at the name tag.
“Should have figured.”

“And why is that?”
Blob asked in a bored tone.

I smiled. “I got an affinity with animals. If I was gonna see any
ghost, it was gonna be an animal.” I looked down at the mound of dirt. “So what
was with the ‘he’s older than me,’ thing?”

Nan swooshed around to my side. “
He is, in cat years
.”

Figures.

“Where do I go now?”
Blob sounded so lost and, I guess, cute. He was a handsome cat.
All fluffy and grey.

Nan clicked. My heart leapt up into my mouth and clattered around.
“What is it with the weird noises?”

“Hush now, Shorty. Tiddles and I are gonna go level the score in
the game.”

I rolled my eyes. I’d never known she was so into cards but I
guessed maybe time was different where she was now. “Say hi for me, won’t you?”

“Sure thing, Shorty.”

I fought the urge to lean forward and scruff Tiddles between the
ears. Talking to ghosts was one thing but the cabin still had windows. “And
Nan?”

“Yup?”

There were times when I really did want to hug her. Times like
now. Times that just reminded me how separated we were. “Thanks.”

“That’s what I’m here for. You did good.”
Nan disappeared and
I stared at the fresh dirt.

A cat who couldn’t rest without his toy mouse. It was cute.

If only I could fix Renee so easily.

URSULA FREI SCOWLED at the noise as a teenager burst into the
police station.

“How long to fix it?” she asked Ewan, trying to ignore the
shrieking.

“Few hours, ma’am.”

Ursula studied the wall. It looked as good as new. The locals in
town had come to the meeting Lilia had suggested. When Ursula explained the
need for discretion to help keep Aeron incognito, they had all agreed there on
the spot. St. Jude’s had been blown over by hurricane Aeron and were totally
besotted by her. Having watched the giant-hearted woman at Renee’s side, Ursula
was with them every step of the way. She caught herself thinking it and almost
smiled.

Almost.

And the damn kid was still shrieking.

“Why are you yelling?” Her voice cut across the mayhem and
silenced the room. She had a gift for it.

“I did it,” the boy wailed. “I did it!”

“Did what?” Her head was pounding. Hair of the dog was needed.

The boy hurried to her, his eyes pleaded with her as he gripped
hold of her jacket. “Ronny. I ran Ronny down in the car . . .”

Ursula looked down at his hands and back to his face. Her favorite
jacket.

“Er . . . why don’t you explain to the deputy?” Ewan ushered the
kid away from her.

No one touched the jacket.

The sheriff raised his eyebrows and exchanged glances with
Charlie, the deputy. “You confessing, Seth. You should have your mother here.”

Seth was undeterred. “I hit him because he got picked. I didn’t
get picked.” He took a couple of breaths. “I swear I did it, just make it
stop!”

Ursula narrowed her eyes. “Who? Make
who
stop?”

“The ghost,” he whined, gripping his head. “The ghost of my
conscience!”

“Okay, kid’s lost it.” Ursula turned and walked away. “He’s all
yours.”

To get away from the hysterics, she headed out into the street.
The snow had fallen again overnight and it crunched beneath her boots. Renee
loved this time of day and Ursula had always hated it. She had never been a
morning person. She sighed. She missed Renee’s gentle chastising.

“Yannick’s truck got hit. He’s been taken.” Aeron’s accusatory
tone made her turn to look at her. “I heard Ewan saying that the police think
somebody got tipped off.”

Ursula kept her face impassive. Aeron wouldn’t understand. “Thanks
for the newsflash.”

“I know that he is like Sam but that ain’t right.” Aeron was
looking at her and Ursula knew that she could read her.

“He won’t ever let her be free.” She needed to see that.

Aeron said nothing. Shock filled her eyes.

“Aeron, please.”

Aeron turned on her heels and strode off, her hand whipping
through her hair as she headed down the street. Ursula sprinted after her and
tried to keep up with her long strides.

“Things aren’t always black and white.” Ursula knew it was a call
that Aeron would find hard to understand but it was a call that she’d make
again.

They reached the path to the cabin and Aeron finally stopped.
“You’re supposed to be the boss. You’re supposed to be the one who makes the
right calls.”

“And I’m also human. I care about her too.” Ursula sounded more
like she was asking the question not answering. “Yannick won’t stop. He’s
fixated on her. You must know that what has happened to her. It’s all his
fault.”

Aeron flinched.

Ursula nodded. “Yannick gave her those scars and could rob her of
her mind.” She put her hands on her hips. “You
want
him to finish the
job?”

“No,” Aeron whispered.

“You want him to go looking for her mother?”

Aeron shook her head. Her amber eyes flicked over the ground. “He
won’t, he can’t.”

“He
will
.” Ursula had no doubt in her mind. She’d made the
right decision.