Supernormal (13 page)
“That’s called cheating,” Cam said when Danny paddled over to the edge.
“Yeah,” Danny agreed, grinning.
“You could’ve just told me.”
Danny shook his head. “This was much more fun.”
Later, when the courtyard had emptied out, they sat at the edge of the pool and kicked their feet in the water.
“So you really are Aquaman,” Cam said.
“Yeah. Well, not really. I can’t talk to the animals. And, uh,” Danny leaned in as if telling a secret, “I’m black. Looking forward to that hook-hand, though. I mean, I know he got his regular hand back in
Brightest Day
, but I’d keep the hook. Hooks are cool.” He paused. “And the trident. And the whole ‘being complete and abject ruler over the merpeople’ thing. I’d have to give up sushi, though, which would suck, but it’d be too weird. You know—swimming around, chatting with the fishes and the porpoises and, um, the assorted sea-dwelling denizens of the deep—”
“‘Denizens’?” Tyler echoed.
“We have conferred about this at length, Mr. Lopez; there is no need to be covetous of my erudite and accomplished vocabulary.”
“You gave me shit last week about using ‘ardent.’”
“‘Cause nobody uses ‘ardent’ outside of romance novels,” Danny said. “And, you know,
Thud.
”
“Is everyone here special?” Cam asked.
“You should know better that that, Cam,” Liz said. She was stretched out on a sunny lounge chair with her eyes closed. “We are all of us our own unique snowflake.”
“You mean are we all superheroes?” Danny asked. He was the only one still in the pool, treading water.
“Yes,” Cam said.
Danny nodded, and dipped under the surface.
“Not everyone,” Tyler said. “Like Sneaky Pete. He’s just very into ninjas. But there’s lots of you here.” He started ticking them off on his fingers. “Fast Peter, for one. Tom, at the hair salon. Ruby Stuart, the really tiny brunette who works down at the shake place.”
Danny popped back up in time to catch the last part. “Yeah, but she’s heading off to the ABC in September.”
“It still counts. She lives here now and she can do that heat thing. Mr. Tanner, chemistry teacher over at SBHS,” Tyler went on.
“No way. Mr. Tanner? Seriously?” Danny asked. “I thought he was just a vegan.”
“He can be both,” Tyler said. He glanced at Liz. “Who am I missing?”
“Jimmy Pope,” she said.
“Jimmy Pope,” Tyler repeated, “that’s right.”
“We don’t hang out with him a lot,” Liz told Cam. “He smells. Literally. That’s not his superpower,” she explained, smiling at Cam’s expression. “He just hasn’t worked out how to shower.”
“How did you know about Mr. Tanner?” Danny asked. “I didn’t know about Mr. Tanner. I know all the superheroes here.”
“Maybe if you didn’t skip half of chemistry, you would’ve known,” Tyler said. “And that’s not even half of them,” he told Cam, holding up a hand to shade his eyes. “Not to mention all the ones who haven’t, uh—”
“Come out of the Batcave?” Danny suggested.
Tyler shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense. Batman doesn’t have any superpowers. He just has a ton of money and PTSD. But there’s a lot of you people here.” (“What do you mean by ‘you people’?” Danny objected.) “I don’t know what it is. People like you tend to gravitate to this place.”
“It’s like that island from
Lost
. You know, pulling everyone in, polar bears,” Danny said.
“Not really,” Cam said after a second.
Danny grinned. “Nah, man, not really. You just…hear about it. You know, message boards, friend of a friend. Mom did her research, you know, after we realized what was up with me. She thought it’d be easier for me if I was around others. It can get lonely out there,” he said frankly, “if you think you’re the only one.”
The sun was hot, which was why Cam slipped off the edge and ducked under for a second. The only reason why. “Ashley?” he asked when he surfaced.
“Yes,” Tyler said.
“No,” Danny said.
They looked at each other.
“Yes and no,” Danny said. “Ashley—”
“Whatever Ashley is or isn’t,” Liz interrupted, “that’s for her to say, and not for us to gossip behind her back.”
“It’s not gossip if it’s true,” Tyler said. “She’s got a thing about gossip,” he told Cam. “Ever since we were freshman, when Jared Zilecky told everyone she was a dyke ‘cause she kicked his ass on the basketball court.”
“Didn’t help that Jared was on the varsity team at the time,” Danny said, and he and Tyler started laughing.
Liz didn’t. “He had his mom tell the principal that they shouldn’t let lesbos play.”
“Ran to his mommy,” Danny snickered, and he and Tyler laughed harder.
“You guys are real fucking sensitive, you know that?” Liz said.
“Relax, babe,” Danny said, climbing out of the pool, and she shrieked as he splashed down next to her. “You gotta be Zen about it. Release that negative tension out into the world. You know, forgive, forget.” He pulled her in for a wet hug.
“God, don’t you have a towel?” she laughed.
“You don’t have to address me formally, we’re with friends,” Danny informed her as Tyler rolled his eyes at Cam.
“Reese?” Cam asked.
The laughter faded, and there was one of those shared looks. “Yeah,” Danny said.
Questions crowded his mind. Cam selected one at random. “Do the police know?”
“Please, this is Sugar Beach,” Danny said. “Of course they know.”
“Then they need to do something. There has to be a connection, it can’t just be a coincidence. Danny, you could be in danger.”
“Probably,” Danny agreed, as Liz’s hand tightened to a white-knuckled grip on his arm. “But, hey, so are you.”
Cam climbed into his aunt’s Jeep and buckled his seatbelt. “When were you going to tell me that this was Superhero Town?”
Meg eyed him down. “I wasn’t,” she said. “I knew you’d figure it out sooner or later.”
“Danny told me.”
“Or that Danny would tell you.”
“He put on a show for me,” Cam said. “I thought he was going to drown.”
“I am not at all surprised, honey. And I didn’t tell you because, well, it wasn’t my secret to tell. You sort of happened here, Cam, but for most people on the island, they don’t come here by accident. And most of them here don’t have your modern, forward-thinking full disclosure policy. Believe it or not, a lot of them are worried about what someone might think, or do, if they found out.”
As Meg parked in front of their house, he asked, “Danny said that Reese was…one of us.” It sounded odd, saying that. Odder still, knowing there was an “us.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think that had anything to do with what happened?”
Meg hesitated, then said, “I don’t know. I think it’s possible. Then again, this is Superhero Town. Just about anything’s possible.”
Santa Barbara was supposed to be beautiful. Ashley couldn’t tell. Brody was keeping them to the back alleys, so the most she caught was glimpses of palm trees arcing overhead and plants bursting with bright, hot color.
It was a little unreal. It was the first time she’d been off island since—well, since she’d come to the island, and the mix of thrill and fear had a giddy knot of dread jumping in her stomach. They’d been gone for a week. A full week. Cole had to have figured it out by now. And Proom. Ashley kept straining, waiting for that white van to come around the corner and the door to roll open and—
She jumped when Brody touched her arm. He didn’t say anything, thank god, just nodded her in the right direction and kept walking. He led her to a small house, not far from the UCSB campus, about three stories tall and, judging by the rusty fire escape tacked on the back, cut up into apartments.
“Top floor,” Brody said and cupped his hands to prop her up.
“Seriously?” Ashley said.
“Seriously. Your shoulder—”
“Is fine,” she bit off and managed to kick off the wall and snag the bottom rung of the fire escape. Okay, the one shoulder ached a little as she hauled herself up, but it was fine. That guy had just gotten lucky. It’s not like it had even been dislocated, or broken, that long, and besides anyone who wasn’t sore after a full week of Brody’s ninja shit, well…they were a robot. She unlatched the ladder for Brody. “See? Fine.”
“You don’t have to prove anything to me,” he said, and the sun suddenly felt very hot on her neck.
“Good, ‘cause I’m not trying,” she said. She pulled at the edge of Ian’s T-shirt as Brody climbed up, very aware that she hadn’t changed clothes since they left Sugar Beach. “Maybe we should’ve cleaned up first.”
“No.” Brody yanked the ladder back into place and secured it.
“I mean, it has been a while, Brody. I probably smell really bad. Almost as bad as you,” she tried to joke. He just headed up the fire escape. “It wouldn’t take that long. Quick shower, change of clothes, then we give her a call or something—”
“You’re not a coward, Ashley. You don’t get to act like one.”
“Don’t I get a say?” she called up.
“Yes,” Brody called back. Like it was that simple. And she didn’t like to think that, for him, it probably was. That he’d let her chicken out on the fire escape, if that was her choice.
She didn’t want to do this. To have to go up there and look Dr. Mac in the eye and tell her that they hadn’t found Ian.
“Let’s get this over with,” she said.
They climbed to the top floor, where a single small window was cut into what looked like the attic. Brody knocked on it so hard the glass rattled in the frame.
There was a muffled shriek, and a second later the faded lace curtain was pushed aside and the window was shoved open by a younger version of the doc, with Ian’s brown eyes. “Oh my
god
, you guys gave me a heart attack. Are you guys breaking in? ‘Cause this really isn’t a good time.”
Brody shook his head. “No, ma’am.”
“I don’t even have anything. I’m a college student—”
“Miss Reese—”
“I don’t even own a TV.”
“We’re here to speak to your sister. Is she at home?”
“She went to get coffee,” the girl said. “I don’t keep any in the house, caffeine makes me drowsy. Do you want to come in and wait? She’ll only be a couple minutes.” The girl stepped away and held back the curtain as they stepped inside.
The apartment was a small studio—very small—and there had been an obvious effort to divide the cramped space into rooms: a couch and coffee table in one corner, a bed shoved in another. There was something very young and feminine about the small, sunlit space, with the fluttery curtains and the extensive collection of throw pillows.
“I have a gun,” the girl announced. She was built like the doc, fine-boned and slim, and there were large stuffed Snoopy slippers on her feet. Her long, honey-colored hair spilled over her shoulders.
Brody nodded. Ashley could see that he was tired. The lines on his face seemed to stand out. “That’s good. Personal protection is important.”
“It’s not a real gun. It’s actually a water pistol. But it’s got pepper spray in it. Did you find him?”
Brody seemed to wake up at that, and he looked at the girl sharply.
“Ian’s missing and Annie comes to stay for…who knows how long. There’s only one reason a strange guy comes knocking on my window at seven in the morning. You’re Brody, right?”
“Yes, miss.”
“Did you—” But she looked at their faces, and didn’t have to finish her question.
Ashley tried to speak, but her mouth felt like it was full of chalk. Brody said it for her. “No. We didn’t.”
The young woman took in a hard, bracing breath and pinned Brody with a look that reminded Ashley so much of the doc that she blinked. “Is he dead?”
“No,” Brody said firmly. “I don’t think he is.”
“Would you tell me if you thought different?”
“Yes, ma’am. I would.”
She let out a hard breath, and Ashley could see relief seep into the girl. “Okay. Okay. I’m sorry. It’s just been hard. Ian—he’s my brother, and I love him, but Annie… She hasn’t been like this since her husband died, and I was just a kid when that happened. It was Ian that pulled her out of that, and if he’s gone—if he’s not coming back, then I don’t…I don’t know what to do, I just make things worse…” She shook her head and then smiled at them. It was a little strained, but it was all Ian. “Sorry. I shouldn’t… You guys want something to drink? Like I said, I don’t have coffee, but I did pick up this amazing locally-sourced yuzu-raspberry lemonade at the farmers market the other day.”
There were footsteps on the stairs, and the doc came in with a brown paper bag in her hands. She was wearing flip-flops. It shouldn’t have seemed weird, but it was the first time Ashley had ever seen her not wearing proper shoes. It was always heels—expensive-looking and impossibly high—or, once, a pair of hound’s-tooth flats. Her hair was combed and pulled back, but she didn’t have any makeup on, and her shirt was obviously not hers. It was several sizes too big, and it had the Blue Lantern logo on it.
The doc saw them, and Ashley saw the split-second of hope. But the doc seemed to realize what their being there meant. She went to the counter and set her bag down. “I got you a…a chai, Allie, and they had, um, butterscotch muffins, I thought you might like one. I’m sorry,” she told them. “If I’d known you were coming, I would’ve gotten more.”
The rich smell of chai was mixing with the sharp tang of coffee and the sweet scent of butterscotch. Ashley couldn’t remember the last time she ate, and for once she was glad of it. Her stomach was jumping too much to handle food.
The doc slowly unpacked her bag, not looking at them. “What did you find?”
Brody looked at Ashley. Ashley looked back at Brody. Brody
looked back
at Ashley.
Ashley swallowed her frustration. “We were able to, uh, track Ian to the airport. Burbank, that is. We, uh, we tried to go into the airport. Brody—that is, we were thinking, you know, surveillance cameras. But we got stopped ‘cause we didn’t have luggage or a ticket. So we tried to track down the guys—I could smell them outside the airport, going into LA. Eagle Rock, that is. We found the driver. He said he thought it was just some frat prank. One of the guys, he just disappeared, and another one—” Ashley tried not to think of the sheet in the morgue. “—was not available for questioning. We found the one guy, but he didn’t really want to talk at first and he had several, um, really big friends—”
Brody took over. “He said he was approached by his friend, the one who’s missing, to take Ian as ‘some rich guy’s joke.’ They took him to a private plane at the airstrip; the gentlemen they met there were joking about taking a bachelor’s party weekend in Cancun.”
“Cancun?”
“I have a friend looking into it, but I think we can safely say Ian’s not there. The gentleman we spoke to was concerned about the way Ian reacted.”
The doc ignored her sister’s quick, nervous glance. “What way would that be?”
“A way that people usually don’t,” Brody answered, in what Ashley recognized as his you-know-what-I’m-talking-about-so-I-don’t-have-to-say-it-out-loud voice.
The doc finally looked at them. “Is that it?”
Ashley looked away.
“Brody, what can you do?” she asked.
“As I said, I’ve got a buddy in Mexico. He’ll check things out for me, but I doubt Ian’s there. The man we spoke to said the guys on the plane were really pissed off that they’d dinged Ian up a bit.”
The doc nodded. “You think it’s Proom, don’t you?”
Brody hesitated before answering. “Ordinarily I’d say it’s not his style. Proom buys and sells people. He doesn’t kidnap them.”
“He couldn’t buy Ian,” the doc said bitterly. “And he’s been after him for a long time. Trying to buy up the real estate around the store, sending Ian letters about the possibility of a Game Stop opening in town. Allie got one about a scholarship that’ll give her a full ride.”
“They’re just letters. They’re not proof. I don’t have proof and I don’t have time to get any because I need to get Ash back to Sugar Beach. We can’t stay away any longer. We’re pushing it as is. Cole’s going to want to know what’s going on with Ashley. I can tell you this,” Brody added. “If Proom is doing this, it’s without authorization. Cole and his people are not going to be happy about that. They’re going to want to look into it.”
The doc nodded and turned her head away, but Ashley caught the tears. Allie went to her sister and looped an arm around her waist.
“Cole called here,” Brody said.
“He may have.” The doc turned to them defiantly. “I’m afraid Allison and I have been far too concerned with our brother’s safety for me to check my work phone or bother to return any other calls.”
Ashley stared at her. Brody smiled. “Good girl.”
The doc glared at him. “Oh, get out.” Her voice cracked on the last word, and she buried her face in her hands.
“You have to get back, too,” Brody told the doc. Because of
her
, Ashley knew, because therapy was a condition of her freedom, and she felt sick with it. “You have to get back soon.”
Dr. MacNamara nodded, swiped away the tears on her face and fought to blink back the ones that were still coming. “I’ll be back by Monday. Thank you,” she called after them when they went to leave. She nodded to Brody, then gave Ashley a smile, all the more horrible for the effort she put into it. “Thank you, Ashley.”
“You’re welcome,” Ashley muttered, and the words burned her tongue.
They were crossing the familiar bridge back to Sugar Beach when Ashley finally asked the question that was eating at her. “What did you mean? When you said that if Proom was doing this it was without authorization.” She couldn’t bring herself to look at Brody.
“Exactly what I said. I wasn’t exactly being subtle. Program’s on hiatus, you know that.”
“The Director could have started it up again.”
“Not without telling me,” Brody said, “and he wouldn’t have told me without me telling you. No, this is Proom, and he’s doing it on his own.” He let out a hard breath and glared out at the water. “And it’s my fault.”
“What? How—”
“I told Cole he had to shut down the program.”
“He won’t listen to you.”
“I think he will. Cole owes me. And he likes me. Likes me more than he likes Proom,” Brody amended. “And—I don’t think he was really happy with how things turned out. With the program. With you and Jase. If that sort of thing got out, it would be really bad for him. So I think he’ll listen. Just like he seemed to listen when I told him I wasn’t sending you back. Not if you didn’t want to go.”
It was only when Brody had to turn back to look at her that Ashley realized she had stopped. The sun was glaring up from the water, it was like a knife in her eyes. She tried to say something, tried to think of something to say, but she couldn’t.
Brody walked back to her. After a moment, he sighed. “I didn’t want to say anything until he gave me a solid yes or no. Until I knew whether or not it was going to be a fight. But—fuck it.
“After the incident, with the rabbit, I called up Cole. And I guess he talked to Proom. I told him you’d put up with enough of their shit already, and that, go or stay, it wasn’t their choice. And it isn’t mine. It’s yours. Do you want to stay?”
“Brody—” Ashley almost choked on the word.
“Do you want to stay?”
“Cole—Proom—they’ll never approve—”
“Not up to him. Your choice. You want to stay that’s…that’s fine.” Brody cleared his throat. “You want to go somewhere else, that’s fine too. But you are not going back. Not if you don’t want to.”
Ashley swallowed hard. “Proom won’t—he’ll come after me.”
“Yeah, he will. Stay or go.”
“Stay.” It came out almost on a sob. She wasn’t aware of even thinking the word.
