Fade (14 page)

bringing something called „dump cake," and I just don"t even want to

know what"s in there.”

They chitchat a little about the party and about the chem. fair, and when

the bell rings, Stacey hustles off. Janie peers between the bookshelves

and, after the library empties out, sneaks over to where Cabel"s sitting.

“Are you okay?” she whispers, giggling.

“Me? Oh sure. You might have to carry me out of here, though.”

“What happened?”

“I created a distraction.”

“I gathered that.”

“Step stool, encyclopedias, floor.”

“I see. Well, I can"t thank you enough.”

“Sure you can. Help me flunk enough tests, so I drop out of the

"torian

range.”

“Can"t you just tell Abernethy that you have a reputation as a dumbshit

to keep up, and you don"t want the attention?”

“Flunking is more fun.”

Janie shakes her head and laughs. “Maybe the first few times. But I bet

you won"t be able to handle it after that.”

“I"ll take that bet.”

Janie puts her hands on her hips. “All right. After the fourth flunk of

something quizlike or weightier, you will struggle and fail to flunk number five. That"s my prediction. Winner pays for our first real date.”

“You"re on. Start saving your money.”

SHOWTIME

March 3, 2006, 10:04 a.m.

Chem. 2 is buzzing with excitement, and the students goof around more

than anything else. Mr. Durbin lets them. They all did relatively well on

the most recent test, the chemistry fair garnered them higher-than-expected results, and everyone is jazzed for tomorrow"s

party. Mr. Durbin is practically giddy himself, and when Coach Crater

stops at the door, because of the ruckus, he pokes his head in.

“Must be a Chem. 2 party coming up,” he remarks, eyeing the students

one at a time.

“Tomorrow night, Jim,” Mr. Durbin says. “Stop by, if the wife will let

you out.” They chuckle.

Janie"s eyes narrow at the comment, but she goes back to her text book.

She"s looking for a formula—the formula for date-rape drugs. Not that

she"d find it in a high-school text book. There"s a recipe for disaster. Yet

maybe a clue lies within.

But when Mr. Durbin starts walking around to the various stations, she

flips her book to the current lesson page and pretends to read. Mr.

Durbin pauses for a moment behind her, but she ignores him. He moves

on.

ı

In PE, they"re in the weight room for four weeks, learning the machines

and proper free-weight stance. Dumbass calls Janie up to the front to

help demonstrate.

“How much weight do you want, Buffy?”

Janie looks at him. “Well, sir, I guess that depends on the exercise you"d

like me to demonstrate.”

“Right!” he says, like it was a teaching question. Janie"s expression

doesn"t change. “How about the bench press,” he says.

“Free weights or machine?”

“Oooh, aren"t you smart? Let"s start with free weights.”

She gives him a long look. “Are you spotting me or not?”

He chuckles for the audience, like he"s doing a magic trick. “Of course

I"ll spot you.”

Janie nods. “All right, then. One-twenty"s good.”

He laughs. “How about we start at, say, fifty or something.”

“One-twenty is fine for a single lift.” She bends down and starts adding

the weights herself. The students are highly amused, at the encouragement of Coach Crater.

Janie tightens the caps and lies down on the bench, the bar above her

chest. “Ready?”

She waits for him to get into spotter position, and grips the bar. Closes

her eyes. Concentrates, breathes, until she no longer hears the distraction

around her. She pushes up on the bar, holds it a moment, then lowers it

evenly to just above her chest and presses upward with all her might.

She holds it for a few seconds, and then lets it down slowly in the cradle.

“Eighty-five for reps,” she says, making the proper adjustments. She

presses eight reps, replaces the bar when she"s finished, and only then

does she tune back in to the room. It"s pretty quiet. Coach Crater is standing, looking down at her, amazed, stupid grin on

his face. Janie turns to her side and sits up on the bench, and then walks

to the back of the room. Later in the class, she"s getting in half her workout for the day. Bonus.

“Asshole,” she mutters to Coach Crater as she leaves at the end of class.

“What?”

She keeps walking.

ı

Five minutes into study hall, a paper wad from Cabel hits her in the ear.

She rolls her eyes. Opens it up.

Stacey
, it says.

ı

Janie looks up. Stacey"s head is on her books. Her eyes are closed. Janie

bites her lip and nods at Cabel. He gives her an encouraging smile.

Her blood is still pumping from PE. She feels strong. She slept well, ate

well…has everything going for her. Now all she needs is for Stacey to—

ı

She grips the table, and they are in Stacey"s car. Stacey"s driving furiously, as before. From the backseat, the growl, the man, his hands

gripping Stacey"s neck.

ı

Janie wonders if this is the best shot she"ll have or if she should wait.

She decides to take it, in case Stacey wakes up before they get to the

woods.

ı

Stacey"s driving erratically. Janie concentrates and squeezes her hands

into fists, pumping them before they become numb, focusing on pausing

the dream. It"s slowing, and Janie tries to turn to look at the man. But the

dream speeds up again. She can"t do both things at once. Janie concentrates again on pausing the scene, and she knows her power is

limited. One broad push of energy, and the scene slows and stops. She

stays perfectly focused, turns slowly, evenly. Sees the look of horror on

Stacey"s face, sees the man"s hands around her neck, his arms, and then

slowly, slowly, turns to see the face of the man. ı

He"s wearing a ski mask.

Janie loses concentration, and the dream goes to regular speed again.

Damn it. They hit the ditch, the bushes; the car rolls, comes to a stop.

Bloody Stacey climbs out through the broken windshield and runs, the

rapist follows, into the woods, and Janie tries again to pause the dream,

when he grabs Stacey. Janie tries with all her might. But she can"t do it.

The rapist has Stacey, she trips, he falls on top of her, and then it ends

abruptly, just where it always does.

ı

She wishes now she"d tried to help Stacey change it. Next time, maybe.

She actually hopes there isn"t a next time.

Fifteen minutes later, when she can see and move again and the library

has emptied out for the day, Cabel spends a moment squeezing her

tightly, and she can"t explain how amazing that feels. He walks with her

to the parking lot, takes her home, and goes back for her car, like last

time. Janie eats and drinks, checks on her mom, and falls asleep on the

couch.

ı

He"s there when she wakes up. Reading a book, his feet on the coffee

table.

“Hey,” she says. “Time?”

“A little after eight p.m. How you doin"?”

“Good,” she says.

“Your mom here?”

“In the bedroom, like always.”

Cabel nods. “Captain wants to meet with us in the morning to go over

tomorrow night.”

“Yep, I figured.”

“I"m worried about you, Janie.”

“About the dream? It was only worse because I paused it.”

“You did it? Cool!”

“Yeah. But I didn"t see anything.”

“Oh well. What I"m actually worried about is tomorrow night.”

“Please don"t be. It"ll be fine. Eighteen students there, Cabe. I"m not

going to get drunk. I"ll have a beer or something in my hand, so Durbin

doesn"t get suspicious, but I"ll just fake like I"m drinking it. I"ll eat a lot

before I go too.”

“I hope Captain has an escape plan. You"ll have your phone?”

“Yep. And all I need to do to call you is push one button.”

“I"ll be close by.”

“Not too close, Cabe, okay?”

Cabel tosses his book on the table. “You can still back out of this, you

know, Janie.”

Janie sighs. “Cabe, hear me: I. Don"t. Want. To. I want to do this. I want

to stop this guy! Why can"t you understand that?”

Cabel cringes. “I can"t help it. I can"t stand the thought of that creep

touching you, Janie. What if something awful happens to you?

God, I

just hate this.”

“I know.” Janie pushes up on her elbows and sits up. The last thing she

wants right now is a fight. Changes the subject. “Is Ethel back home?”

“Yes, she"s in the driveway.”

“Thank you. I don"t know what I"d do without you.”

“I wouldn"t worry about it if I were you.”

Janie leans against him. Strokes his thigh with her fingertips.

“Why do

you put up with this?”

Cabel relaxes and twirls a string of Janie"s hair. “Well, duh. Because one

day you"ll be really rich and famous, I bet. Your own TV show, people

throwing money at you just to get you to change their dreams. I"m holding out for the money. After that I"m outta here.”

She laughs. “Did I tell you I benched one-twenty in PE today? And then

I called Coach Crater an asshole.”

Cabel roars in laughter. “He
is
an asshole. And one-twenty is probably a

national record or something. That"s almost more than you weigh.”

“The national record is more than two hundred for my age and size

category. But I"ll take it.”

They talk for an hour, and then Cabel heads home. Tomorrow they"ll

meet again in Captain"s office.

ı

After Cabel leaves, Janie pulls out her chemistry book; curiously searches through a chapter; uses her cell phone to peruse the Internet for

an hour or so, until she finds the information she"s looking for on date-rape drugs; and goes to bed.

March 4, 2006, 9:00 a.m.

Baker and Cobb join Cabel and Janie in Captain"s office. Janie meets

Cobb and says hello again to Baker.

Captain goes through the schedule for the evening. Janie will arrive at

six p.m. along with another girl. The rest of the guests will come at seven.

Captain gives Janie a thin, sexy cigarette lighter, one of the newly popular, old-fashioned flip-top kinds. “It"s not a real lighter, Janie. If

you flip the lid open, it sends a distress signal to Baker and Cobb outside

the house. They"ll call your cell phone first, just in case it"s an accident,

and don"t panic if that happens. Answer if it happened by mistake. But

just try to keep the lighter in your pocket, and it"ll be fine. If you don"t

answer your phone, they"ll move in and call you once again. If you do

not pick up, they will come in for you.

“In other words, if you"re in trouble, flip open the lighter lid. Put your

cell phone on vibrate and wear it in your underwear if you have to, but

you must answer that phone if nothing"s wrong. If you do not answer,

they will assume trouble is afoot. Is that perfectly clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Janie says.

“Good. Let"s talk about drinking. Believe me, Durbin"s going to be watching that everybody has a drink in hand.”

Janie looks at her suspiciously. “You"re not going to arrest me or anything if I have a drink in my hand, right?”

Captain raises an eyebrow. “Not unless you do some thing stupid. But I

think you should carry around a beverage, yes, so nobody gets suspicious. I don"t encourage drinking on the job, though.”

“Okay…and no setting my beverage down at any time, right? No keg,

no punch bowl, no mixed drinks.”

Captain nods, impressed. “You"ve done your homework on daterape drugs, I see. Good job.” She pulls a small package of date-rape drug

testers from her desk drawer and hands them to Janie. “Are you familiar

with these?”

Janie smiles, reaches inside her bag, and pulls out an identical package.

“Excellent.” Captain nods. “Cabel. What"s your job?”

“Watching in agony, sir.”

Captain suppresses a smile. “I"d make you stay home if I didn"t know

you"d sneak out, anyway. While you are watching in agony, feel free to

take note of anyone who comes or goes that"s not on the list.”

“Thank you,” Cabel says meekly.

“Baker and Cobb, you clear on procedure?”

“Yes, sir,” they say together.

“Great. You two may go.”

Baker and Cobb slap Janie on the back, like she"s one of the guys, give

her the thumbs-up, and head out. Janie grins.

ı

Captain turns to Janie.

“Tonight is not the night to get sucked into any drunk person"s dream.

Try and steer clear if you can. If you can"t, we"ll deal with that later. I do

understand you can"t control the actions of other people, so don"t panic

if it happens and you get stuck.”

Janie nods.

“And be safe. Follow your gut. You"re smart. You have a terrific sense

of intuition. Use it like you have in the past, and we"ll all walk away just

fine. All right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Any questions?”

“No.”

“Good. Call me if you think of any,” Captain says. “And, Janie, I have

never been more serious. Use that panic lighter if you need it. Don"t be a

martyr and don"t think you can handle this job alone. We work as a team.

Got it?”

“Got it. I"m ready, sir.”

“And a reminder. This could be nothing more than just an ordinary party.

Our goal is to find and arrest a sexual predator. Not to bust the guy for