Reunion (A Psychological Suspense with Murder, Mystery and the Paranormal) (14 page)

Maria and the others nodded.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, really. But are you planning a class reunion?”

Maria leaned forward. “Yes, we are.”

“That’s wonderful!” Julie did the math in her head “Twenty years? Is that right?”

“Yes,” replied Kate. “Twenty—long—years.”

“Wow! I can’t believe it’s been that long since—” Julie’s smile faded. “I’m sorry.” She dropped her eyes.

Maria looked at the others. She sensed that they were examining their thoughts, checking their emotional status.

Bryan spoke up. “No. It’s fine, Julie. Don’t worry about it. We’ve all been dealing with this for the past twenty years. There isn’t anything you could say that we haven’t heard already.”

“That’s right,” added Maria. “You can’t keep the Fighting Cougars down! We’re still alive and we intend to go on living.” Maria rolled her eyes, mocking her own words.

Lana laughed out loud. “Oh, Maria! You’re starting to sound like me! Maybe you should write that down.”

“I don’t think so,” replied Maria. “There isn’t any room in my life for speaking engagements and book signings. There are too many people to help out there.”

“Is that what you do?” asked Kate. “Help people?”

Maria nodded. “I’m a therapist.”

“Very cool,” responded Kate.

“Thank you.”

“What kind of therapy do you do exactly?” asked Julie.

Maria chuckled. “Ironically, I counsel people who suffer from PTSD.”

Lana added, “I bet you’re good at it too. You were always so engrossed in psychology class. You seemed really interested in how the brain works.”

“I am.”

“Okay! Okay!” said Bryan. “Let’s save the reunion for later. We’ve got some planning to do here.”

The other three nodded in agreement.

Julie interrupted again. “Excuse me. I have one more question and then I promise I’ll leave you alone.” She had their full attention. Her words came out quick and perfectly articulated. “I really think it’s neat that you’re getting together for your twentieth reunion. And I would love to do a story about it. I think the town would be very interested to know what you all are up to now and how you’ve been dealing with what happened. It would make a great series and maybe even drum up some financial support for your reunion.”

Maria watched the others stare at Julie, apparently taken off guard by her suggestion.

“What do you think? Could we meet after you get some of the details ironed out? I’ll post an initial press release, tentative date, announce the series and direct all donations wherever you’d like.”

Maria’s jaw dropped. “Uh…sure.” Her eyes opened wide, expressing her interest.

The others agreed.

“Great! Here’s my card.” She passed out her card to each one. “Who’s the point person here?”

“I am…I guess,” answered Maria.

“Excellent. Do you have a card?”

Maria nodded and grabbed a card from her purse, scribbled her cell phone number on the back, and handed it to Julie. “Here you go. Use the number on the back.”

“Okay. Thanks. I’ll call you in a day or so.” She stuffed Maria’s card into her purse and waved as she walked back to her table.

“Have a great night everyone. And it was a pleasure meeting all of you!” With friendly smiles, the foursome said goodbye to Julie.

“Well that certainly got the ball rolling, wouldn’t you say?” asked Lana.

“Yeah. Never saw that coming,” said Maria.

• • •

Bryan’s cell phone began buzzing.

“What’s that?” asked Kate.

“It’s me.” Bryan reached down and pulled the phone from his belt. The message read:
Code 3—1211 High School Rd. Call dispatcher.

“Damn!” Bryan muttered to himself.

Kate noticed Bryan’s irritation. “What is it?”

He put his mouth near Kate’s ear and whispered, “There’s an emergency at the school. I gotta go.”

He immediately got out of his chair and headed toward the door. Kate reached out to touch him but he moved too fast. He turned back, put his hand to his ear with his pinky finger and thumb pointing out and mouthed, “I’ll call you.” Then he turned away and ran out of the building.

Kate watched Bryan leave and then dropped her head. She was worried that the call had something to do with Nick.

The others asked about Bryan. Kate briefly explained her situation with Nick and the meeting continued.

• • •

Bryan hurried to his patrol car and quickly got inside. He turned on his lights and siren and sped away. He drove toward the school and radioed the dispatcher.

“Three o’seven to base.”

“Base. Go ahead, three o’seven.”

“What’s the status on the code three?” Bryan’s eyes focused on the road ahead.

“We have an eleven-eighty with an ambulance dispatched.”

Eleven-eighty? Bryan thought to himself, that’s a major injury. Why are they calling me? I’m not on duty.

“What’s your twenty, three o’seven?”

“I’m approaching Jefferson and 18
^th
Street. ETA’s approximately five minutes.” Bryan hit the gas and watched as the other drivers pulled over to allow him to pass.

“Copy that, three o’seven. Base clear.”

“Three o’seven, clear.”

Bryan slowed down to turn on 18
^th
Street, and as he began turning, a Jeep Wrangler cut across him and squealed its tires as it barreled around the corner. The driver didn’t seem to notice him. Bryan looked closely at the driver’s face as they both turned the corner simultaneously. The face looked familiar, but Bryan couldn’t place him.

• • •

Tanner arrived at the bar about thirty minutes late. He rubbed his tired blue eyes and then entered the bar and grill. He wore faded jeans, an old Coca-Cola T-shirt and leather sandals which completed his “beach bum” ensemble. At least that’s the image he wanted people to get. The grunge look always kept his financial success out of the conversation, and he liked it that way. He loved his adventurous life, while money and status ranked very low on his list of priorities.

When he entered the establishment, he surveyed the tables and immediately recognized his old classmates sitting together. Knowing full well that he wouldn’t be recognized, he strutted toward their table.

“Hi girls!” Tanner stood tall, smiling, his skin glowing, emitting a West-Coast charm.

“Well, hello!” said Lana, just before she blushed.

The other women stared at him quietly.

Tanner was arrogantly confident that their responses were more modest than their thoughts. He’d heard less-reserved and inebriated women speak their minds about him when he had made similar entrances in the past.

“Hi,” said Kate.

Maria stuttered, “H…hey!”

Tanner pointed to the women as he called out their names. “Maria? Lana? And…there’s no black eyeshadow, but I’d say you must be Kate Schmidt?” They looked spellbound.

“Kate Schmidt
Tooley,
“ said Kate, still staring.

“Tanner?” asked Lana.

“In the flesh.” He threw his arms out as if saying,
Ta-da
.

Kate’s jaw dropped and Lana’s eyes practically popped out her head.

“Wow! I almost didn’t recognize you,” admitted Lana.

Tanner replied, “Yeah, well, it’s me. Take me or leave me.”

“If I didn’t know you were coming, I wouldn’t have believed it was you!” Maria said.

Kate chimed in. “Well, nice to see you anyway. Why don’t you have a seat? We were just getting started.”

“Thanks. So…” Tanner grabbed a chair, turned it around and sat in it with his chest to the back of the chair. He slapped his hands and began rubbing them together. “What’s the plan? Are we going to kick some Crescent Falls ass or what?”

Taken aback, Maria giggled and asked, “What? What are you talking about?”

“Well, I figured if we are going to get together after all these years, we should have the reunion where it all started…or ended, depending on how you look at it.” Tanner looked over his audience. They looked confused.

“Are you saying we should have the reunion at the school?” asked Kate. “Meaning…
in
the school?”

“That’s exactly what I mean!” Tanner wasn’t about to miss his chance to have his say.

Maria protested, “Now wait a minute. You’ve only been here a total of thirty seconds, and you’re already dictating where we should have this thing?”

“Uh, no. Not dictating…suggesting.” Tanner put on his business face and relaxed his voice tone. “I’ve thought about it quite a bit since you called. I just feel like I have some issues, you know, that are holding me back. And I…” He took a deep breath. “I don’t think I’ll ever get past those issues, if I don’t face them head on.” Tanner watched their eyes as he spoke, examining their expressions, deciphering their thoughts. “Something tells me that I’m not the only one who could use a little loose-end therapy. I mean, I don’t know how all of you feel about it, but I’ve got some ghosts in my closet that I need to let out. You know what I mean?”

No one said anything. It seemed that Tanner’s words had taken the three women down a road they weren’t planning to travel. He looked at them. They seemed to be caught up in a simultaneous daydream, staring, and thinking deep thoughts.

“As much as I hate to admit it, I think you’ve got a good idea. It would be hard, but you know, I think I need to go there myself,” said Maria. “I think that’s why we’re here. I called you because I feel like something’s undone in here.” She pointed to her chest. “So, I get what you’re saying. I need to resolve this, whatever it is, and bring that part of my life to an end.” She paused, locking eyes with Tanner. “Am I making any sense?”

“Yes,” said Lana. “You both make perfect sense, but I’m not sure what I think. I mean, this could be pretty traumatic; maybe more than we can handle.”

Tanner interrupted. “Yeah, I thought of that. But, you know, we’ve all been through some pretty traumatic stuff already…more than most. And I guess, the least we can do for the rest of the class is to create an environment that encourages healing.”

“What exactly
do
you mean?” asked Lana.

“Well, like maybe doing some kind of ceremony. You know, like lighting candles and having a time to remember the ones who were killed—something like that.”

“Okay,” said Lana. “I agree with what you’re saying. It just seems a little extreme in our case. What if it does more harm than good?” Lana turned toward Kate. “What do you think, Kate?”

Kate exhaled. “Whew.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I…I don’t know. Personally, I think I can handle it. But I’ve been hearing about some strange things going on at the school lately. I mean, you guys don’t live around here, so you don’t hear the stories. You don’t hear the rumors. The place is a mess. It’s overgrown with weeds and boarded up. It just looks as scary as you’d imagine after being closed for twenty years.”

“Okay. What kind of stories are you talking about, Kate?” asked Lana. “You don’t mean ghost stories do you?”

“Well, not necessarily. Just strange occurrences, like noises and stuff like that. Bryan’s been getting a lot of calls out there lately. But he doesn’t talk about work much, at least not around me anyway. And Nick? He’s always claimed that there’s something in there. But he’s—well, like I said, he’s having a hard time right now. And honestly, he’s probably the source of half the calls the sheriff’s department gets.” Kate grinned wryly. “In case you hadn’t noticed, things aren’t going very well for me in the marriage department.”

“I’m sorry.” Maria put her arm around Kate in an attempt to console her old friend.

Tanner fell short in the empathy department. He wanted action. In the silence of the moment he asked, “So, what do you think? Is it a plan?”

Lana seemed reluctant, but agreed. “I’m in, but
only
if we have some kind of ceremony.”

“Me too,” replied Maria.

All eyes remained on Kate.

She sounded unsure, but was willing to go along with the others. “Sure. I’m game. Nick will probably have a heart attack, but, oh well.”

Tanner smiled, and took a deep breath as if he had just overcome a major obstacle. Perhaps he had.

• • •

When Bryan arrived at the school, the parking lot was closed to the public. Yellow caution tape cut off access to the school entrance. He parked and headed toward the scene, weaving his way through the crowd of emergency personnel and sheriff’s vehicles. Deputy Rik Burns lifted the caution tape, allowing him to pass through.

Bryan nodded, “Thanks, Rik.”

“My pleasure.”

Bryan passed under the tape. This wasn’t the usual courtesy call. He watched the other officers carefully collecting evidence. This looked pretty damn serious.

S
heriff Larry Richards, a long-time member of the department and good friend of the Jacobs family, greeted Bryan. A towering figure with a white goatee and aging skin, he was dressed in a crisp uniform. His brawny and immaculate appearance alone had won elections. Thick-jawed and armed to protect, Larry maintained a continuous squint that could intimidate even the most hardened criminal.

Bryan joined Larry and asked, “What the hell is going on here, boss?”

Larry took a sip of coffee from a Styrofoam cup, and with a deep, commanding voice said, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” He sounded uncharacteristically rattled. He took his hat off momentarily and scratched his thin white hair.

“Try me,” said Bryan.

Larry put his hat back on. “Well…” Larry hesitated. “It’s like this: we’ve got a dead body over there and nobody knows exactly what happened. It’s gruesome, and we can’t figure out how he—” Clearly disturbed, he glanced toward the scene of the crime, and looked back at Bryan. “We’ve got two boys in custody. They’ve admitted they were vandalizing the school; you know, spray-painting, throwing rocks, the usual. But what we’ve got over there is…well, it’s certainly not normal.”

“Okay,” said Bryan. “Why did you call
me
? It looks like you brought in the National Guard for God’s sake.”