Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance (30 page)

Jesse was getting
animated now.

"Do you think
I like living with this?" he asked.  "Do you think that over the
years I haven’t thought a thousand times that this was the chance to go to the
police?  When tough economic times hit, I figured that Devlin would take a hit,
too, and that would be the time to pounce.  I don't know how, but somehow the
bastard managed to not only ride out that period, but get richer and own more. 
He's been buying up homes like they're going out of style."

Jesse shook his
head.  His face was now flushed red and his eyes blazed.

"No
way," he said.  "You come in here with your clever questions and your
way of getting people to talk and get me to spill my guts on the one thing that
has haunted me my entire life and then expect me, once unburdened, to just
waltz right into the sheriff's office?  Do you know who else was there that
night?  One of them is a state representative and another is a U.S.
senator—some say he has a real shot at the White House in a few years.  This is
not a game, Tabitha.  You run a small town newspaper, not the
New York Times
. 
You almost died and lost everything once.  Now you're poking around in
dangerous places again, and this time the people you are messing with won't
stop until you are really gone, one way or another."

He turned and
faced Jimmy.

"And
you," he said, pointing a finger at Jimmy.  "You should butt out as
well.  You should be ashamed of yourself, Tabitha, dragging a young man like
Jimmy into all of this.  What right do you have to endanger his life?"

"None,"
Tabitha said.  "Jimmy came to me. Devlin Little has already tried to kill
him."

Jesse's eyes went
wide.  "What?"

Jimmy relayed the
story of his bicycle ride the other day, conveniently leaving out the fact that
he had overheard Jesse and Devlin talking that morning.  Jesse's eyes threatened
to fall out of his skull.

"See what I
mean?" he yelled.  "This is what happens!  You two need to drop this
now.  Just drop it!  Jimmy, you need to just keep your head down and your nose
clean.  Stop mixing it up with the football players."

"You know
what happened this past Friday," Jimmy said calmly.  "You know that I
showed up at the dance with a girl who has more than a passing resemblance to
Sapphire."

Jesse shook his
head.  "That's nonsense.  You're trying to play some kind of joke on me
and I do not find it funny."

"You know it
because you heard it from other people," Tabitha interjected.  "It
wasn't Jimmy that told you.  He just told you right now, and I can tell by your
reaction that you've heard the stories of the phantom hitchhiker and the ghost-girl. 
You know that what happened this past Friday is almost exactly what happened
between you and Sapphire and the football team all of those years ago."

"Was it your
plan to come in here and get me to spill my heart out and then scare me with
ghost stories?" Jesse said with a laugh.  Jimmy could tell that there was
fear there.

"You know
what Knorr is like," Jimmy said, pointing at the shelves of books. 
"You keep the history of this place.  You know that Knorr is a place where
weird things happen.  You know that things get a bit…thin here.  Plus, you know
that someone has been in the microfilm archives and has removed every mention
of Sapphire and what happened to her."

Jesse opened and
closed his mouth, as if he were a fish gasping for air.  He was struggling to
find an excuse, a reason, something to convince them that he was right and the
best course of action was for them to turn around and stop this entire line of
questioning.

"I need to
get back to work," he said.  With that, he went around to the other side
of the desk and sat down.  He turned on the computer and started typing.

"You can't
hide this forever," Tabitha said.  "We can go to the sheriff on our
own.  He's a friend of mine and he knows that I'm honest.  What we have is
mostly hearsay and rumors, but it's enough for him to open an investigation. 
One of the first places he'll come is here."

Jesse stopped
typing.  He swiveled in his chair slowly, turning to face Tabitha.

"And what do
you think will happen?" he said.  "I will deny that I know anything
about any of this.  And then Devlin Little will make a few phone calls, call in
a few favors, and our beloved sheriff will somehow find himself out of a job,
and a new, more favorable, sheriff will be put in his place.  Then things will
get really interesting around here.  Jimmy will spend the rest of his high
school years in and out of jail, arrested for every infraction the new
sheriff—and Devlin Little—can come up with.  And your newspaper will suddenly
find itself under investigation from the IRS, and who knows what else?  Leave. 
This.  Alone."

Jesse stood there
breathing hard, staring at Tabitha, unwavering.  Tabitha stared right back,
showing no emotion.  It was like watching a telepathic battle of wills. 

"If you think
I am going to do that, you have no idea who you're dealing with," Tabitha
said evenly.

"Then you
live with the consequences," Jesse said.  Then he turned and faced Jimmy. 
"You should know better, Jimmy.  If she wants to tilt at windmills and dig
up fifty-year-old mysteries, then let her.  She's done it before and it nearly
got her killed.  So let her.  You just focus on school, instead of football
players and old mysteries."

Jimmy stood up. 
"I wish I could, Jesse, but I can't.  You see, I've met Sapphire.  Whether
you believe it or not, the fact is that she's been coming back since that
night, and now she's able to retain her form, in the flesh, and intact.  I can
hear her thoughts."

"You're just
as delusional as she is," Jesse said.

He continued to
talk, but Jimmy couldn't hear a word he said.  The buzzing in his head suddenly
reached brain-splitting levels.  It was as if a radio station caught between
stations had been implanted directly into the center of his brain and then
turned the volume up to maximum level.  Jimmy cried out and clutched at his
head.  Tabitha stopped staring at Jesse and turned to Jimmy in concern.  Jesse
was still talking, his words an imperceptible hum in the background.

"He's
lying!"

Jimmy sat down. 
Only then did Jesse stop talking.

What?
Jimmy projected into the static filling his mind.
What was that,
Sapphire?

Jimmy!
She was distant, buried in the static.  Jimmy could tell that
reaching him was very difficult, like trying to get a shortwave radio station
in the middle of the day. 
Jimmy, he's lying.

"He's
lying," Jimmy said out loud.  His voice was weak.

"What did you
say?" Jesse asked.

"Jimmy, is it
Sapphire?" Tabitha queried.

Jimmy nodded.

How do you
know, Sapphire?
he thought.

Whenever a new
piece falls into place, my memories come back
,
Sapphire said in his mind. 
Even if I'm not listening in through your
thoughts, suddenly these memories come flooding back. They're overwhelming.
This time I was listening and nothing came back.  Nothing about what he said
came back as a memory. That can only mean he's lying.

"She says…she
says that her memories come back whenever another piece of the puzzle falls
into place," he said to Tabitha. "And she was listening and no
memories came back. Nothing Jesse said is filling in the memories."

"This is
insane," Jesse said.  "I don't have to stand here and be lied to by
two people I used to trust.  Get out of my library.  Get out before I call the
sheriff and tell him that you're trespassing."

Jesse stood up
violently, knocking the desk over.  Blackie even jumped up, letting out a
bark.  Jesse grabbed some papers and made a crude attempt to stack them.

"I am not
kidding," he said.  "Get out of here."

"We're
leaving," Tabitha said.

Tabitha walked
over to Jimmy and put her hand on his shoulder.  The buzzing in his head was
still intense.

Sapphire,
he thought. 
You're hurting my head.  Back off.

The buzzing died
down, but did not vanish entirely.  Jimmy got to his feet and things around him
swayed; it felt like the world was moving up and down like a roller coaster. 

They headed for
the door.  Somewhere deep within the library, a door slammed.  Jimmy jumped,
but kept moving.  Tabitha took the lead, opening the front door and holding it
for him.  The fresh breeze outside cleared Jimmy's head, but it was still too
warm for his tastes.  He was feeling nauseous now.  They walked hurriedly to
the parking lot.

"What the
hell is happening?" he muttered as he put his hand on the hood of
Tabitha's car to steady himself.

Tabitha hurried
along after him, using her key fob to unlock the car.  Jimmy got into the
passenger seat and collapsed.  His head was throbbing.  Tabitha opened the
driver's door and sat down.

"Are you
OK?" she asked.

"My head
feels like it's going to explode," Jimmy said.  "What do you think is
going on?"

"I got the
lie vibe off of Jesse the moment he started talking about what happened between
Sapphire and Devlin," she said, starting the engine.  "Something
about it just didn't make any sense.  I mean, how come it took him so long to
get to where Devlin and his friends were?  And how come he wasn't hurt when the
car went off the road?  Why didn't his car work?  And how did Devlin even find
him?  It must have taken some time to get him stitched up.  What the heck was
Jesse doing during that entire time?"

Jimmy shook his
head.  "I don't know.  Sapphire is nearly panicked.  It's like she's
afraid."

"I hate to
say this," Tabitha said, "but I think we might have to face Devlin
Little."

Jimmy shook his
head.  "No way.  Not in this condition."

Tabitha nodded and
they pulled out of the parking lot, heading down the main drag. 

"Fine,"
Tabitha said.  "Let's head home.  I can't believe it's not even lunchtime
yet.  We'll talk things over with Warren and, later on, we can talk things over
with your mother and even George, if he's interested.  Then we can plan our
next move."

Did you catch
any of that, Sapphire?
Jimmy thought.

Yes
, came the reply.  It was still so dim, so soft.  She still sounded
scared.
 I'm sorry, Jimmy.

It's OK
, Jimmy thought. 
My head is just throbbing.  Do you remember
anything else about Jesse?

No
, Sapphire replied. 
I think I really liked him at the time.  I
thought there was something between us.  I just can't remember what happened
when we left the dance.

Jimmy could sense
her frustration; he felt it, too.  He was also losing faith in Jesse.  Jesse,
the man who had always been his one adult friend, someone he had trusted.  The
library had always been his favorite refuge from the world when it got to be
too much.  Jimmy felt like his world was collapsing around him.

Sapphire
, Jimmy thought,
could I have a little time to myself? I think I
need to rest.

The feeling of
sadness increased, but the static faded. 
I love you, Jimmy.

I love you,
too, Sapphire
, he thought.

The static faded
away. His thoughts were his own again.  Jimmy laid his head back against the
seat and closed his eyes.

He wished that he
could get rid of the sickening feeling in his gut.  However, he felt that this
was unlikely. 

Things were just
going to get worse.

When
Jimmy and Tabitha arrived home, it was just barely noon.  Tabitha
immediately wanted to sit down with Warren and start going over things, but
Jimmy begged off. His head was pounding, his stomach was churning, and he felt
as if he were coming down with a bad bout of the stomach flu.  Tabitha had
mercy on him, given the morning so far, and suggested he go lay down until it
was closer to dinnertime, when George would be here.

Jimmy climbed the
stairs slowly, as if his feet had grown weights.  He had never felt so
completely drained.  The buzzing in his head was still there, and he could
sense the profound fear and sadness that Sapphire was feeling, but it was
distant, like a mosquito buzzing in his ear.  He pushed past it, opening the
bedroom door and kicking off his shoes before falling full-length on the bed,
his clothes still on.

Normally it took
Jimmy twenty minutes to half an hour to fall asleep.  This time, he was
instantly asleep as soon as his head sank down into the pillow.  The world felt
as if it were spinning away beneath him.  Jimmy was almost instantly in the
middle of a dream that felt more like reality than a dream. Only this time, it
was not a trip to fifty years in the past.  This was definitely in the realm of
nightmare.