The Dead of Summer (17 page)

“What’s the matter?” Carson asked, craning his neck to see over my shoulder.

“Nothing!” I yelped and shoved the phone back in my pocket. My best friend might have been trying to blackmail me, but she had just given me a very good idea. “Come on,” I said, grabbing Carson’s arm.

“Where are we going?” he asked, trailing behind me, Colt excitedly trotting ahead of us.

“The library!” I exclaimed.

Carson cocked his head to the side as we stood in front of the library. “Kind of tiny, ain’t it?”

I nodded. “Pathetic, actually. But it has Internet access and that’s all that matters right now.”

On the brief walk over, I had explained that we could use the library Internet.

“Won’t the librarian be suspicious?” Carson had wondered.

“Marnie’s cool. She never gets in my business. And if she asks, we can tell her that we’re doing a project for school or something…”

“Didn’t school get out weeks ago?”

I smiled. “It did. But there’s summer school now for kids who failed a class.” I poked him in the chest teasingly. “And I think that you might have failed a class or two.”

Carson puffed out his chest. “Why do I have to be the one who failed a class?” he pouted.

“Because,” I replied with a grin. “Marnie would never buy the story that I was in summer school. She thinks I’m a genius,” I stared down at my sneakers, embarrassed all of a sudden. I was far from a genius, but I didn’t want Carson to know that. I wasn’t sure if he was the type of guy who liked smart girls or preferred them a little dumb. “She doesn’t know
you
, however,” I continued.

With drooping shoulders, Carson pretended to sulk as he followed me. “What about Colt?” Carson asked. “He can’t go into the library.”

“Oh, Marnie won’t mind,” I assured him.

“What about the other people in the library? The other customers or whatever? Won’t they get annoyed there’s a dog in the library? Even though he
is
a well behaved dog.”

I spun around and faced Carson with my hands on my hips. I certainly was channeling my inner Lindy today. Maybe this was why she was so successful with all the boys. “Carson, you’re
looking
at the only other customer in the library.”

He wrinkled up his nose. “Really? Nobody uses the library around here?” He was apparently as surprised as I had been to discover this little tidbit.

I shrugged as I continued to walk toward the building at the end of the town square. “There’s a limited selection, I guess. And people get their books on their Kindles and their Nooks and don’t much go to the library. Plus, a new big bookstore opened in the next town, so a lot of people go there. I don’t though. I don’t have all that extra money for books, so I get them for free.”

“Oh,” Carson replied and then shut up. I guess there wasn’t much else to say to that. “Come on, Colt.”

The dog bobbed along happily next to his master, almost like he understood that he was going to be visiting a place that was usually off limits for his kind.

We reached the steps of the library and Carson raced up to hold the door for me. “After you, my lady,” he said with a bow. I chuckled as he added, “And you, my four legged, smelly friend—you better not fart in the library or we will never be allowed in there again.”

“Well, hello there,” Marnie exclaimed brightly as the three of us wandered over to her desk. She raised her unibrow at me. “And
who
do we have here?”

“Marnie, this Carson. He just moved to Novella and unfortunately, he’s stuck in summer school because of the move.” I tried to stifle a laugh. I could see Carson scrunching up his lips in displeasure next to me. “He has a project to do. And this”—I reached down and patted our companion on the head—“is his dog Colt. I told him you wouldn’t mind if Colt joined us.”

“Oh, of course not,” Marnie replied airily as she attempted to discreetly give me the thumbs up sign under the desk. She nearly fell off of her rolling chair in the process. Marnie could be quite absentminded and accident prone. One time I saw her fall off the ladder while she was climbing the stacks because she reached for a dust bunny that had floated through the air.

“Thanks, Marnie!” I pointed to the small table in the farthest corner of the library. On top of it were two ancient desktop computers. They were slow as molasses because I think they were older than I was, but they would have to do. And since nobody else would come in to use them for the rest of the afternoon, we would be able to use both of them.

I settled down in the not-so-comfy wooden chair at the table while Carson spoke to Colt about behaving, not chewing books, and no barking in the library because it was a place of learning. Colt stared at him with his sincere brown eyes, appearing as if he was drinking in every word his master uttered. Even though it made absolutely no sense, I smiled in spite of myself—they were just so damn cute. I wanted to kiss both of them. Colt in a completely platonic way, of course. Carson. . .not so platonic.

“So where do you suppose we start?” I asked as Carson plunked down on the other chair and scooted closer to me. Colt plopped onto the floor, laying his head on his paws and immediately closing his eyes.

After scratching his head for a moment, Carson replied, “Well, the best place would be the local newspaper. They do have that online, right?”

I nodded. Mama religiously read the local
Novella News
every day. That was the only way she would know what the hell was going on in the town. There wasn’t much in it, considering nothing much ever happened in Novella. It was full of fluff stories about sweet-sixteen parties and engagements and fat men who managed to eat the ninety-six ounce steak at Warren’s, a steakhouse in town. It was the only restaurant in town besides the diner, so it served everything from steaks to sushi. Not that I would recommend the sushi. Lindy had it once and had diarrhea for a week. But rest assured, we were getting a T.G.I. Friday’s soon. They were building next to that huge Walmart.

“You check that newspaper out and I’ll look at the paper in the next town,” Carson said.

“That would be the
Tennville Times
,” I informed him. “And the town on the other side has the
Readington Reader
.”

“Jesus Christ, does everything have to be alliteration around here?” Carson muttered as his fingers clicked away at the keys.

I smiled down at my keyboard. I had always thought the same thing. Sometimes I felt like I was smack dab in the middle of the most unoriginal place on the planet.

“Wow, these things are slow,” Carson observed while squinting at the screen.

I bobbed my head. “They sure are. But the privacy is worth it.” I jerked my head toward Marnie whose mop of hair was covering her face. She was completely absorbed in a book. “She’s reading and in a whole ‘nother world right now. The only sound she’ll respond to is the chimes attached to the front door.”

Just then, I felt my phone vibrating violently in my pocket. I just knew it was Lindy, but I pulled it out to look at anyway. Sure enough, the text icon was flashing with a minuscule thumbnail picture next to the text
.
I squinted at the screen, but I still couldn’t make out the picture. Great. Another picture. My curiosity getting the best of me, I tapped the screen. There was a picture of me and Carson, walking away from Lindy’s house. The text next to it said,
I guess you’ve forgotten about me and don’t want to be friends?

Just as I finished reading that, another picture flashed across the screen. It was Samantha, sitting alone at the loser table next to the words,
Sam c%d uz co. @ lch NXT yr.
She was taunting me, clearly PO’d that I had chosen Carson over her today. I sighed loudly.

“Are you okay?” Carson asked.

“Um, yeah, I’m fine,” I said, torn.
Do I continue my quest to find the dead man or do I abandon Carson and rush to Lindy’s side and attempt to soothe her bruised ego?

I glanced at Carson, watching the computer so intently, waiting for it to boot up so he could help me. And then I knew the answer. Two weeks ago, I would have rushed to Lindy’s side; today, I was staying here.

Screw Lindy…if I don’t get this mystery solved, anything she does won’t make a bit of difference in my life.

“Was it Lindy?” Carson asked curiously as I shoved the phone back in my pocket.

“Yeah, but it’s not important,” I told him, actually believing it for once.

With Lindy and her threats out of my mind (which I was surprisingly calm about), soon the computers had actually booted up and we were browsing through the features pages and police blotters, looking for missing person’s reports or a picture of someone who matched the description of the man in my cellar. After about a half hour and one stiff neck later, I turned to Carson who was stretching out his fingers to relax them.

“Any luck?” I asked. I was met with a frowning face and a shake of the head.

“No repairmen reported missing.” Carson shook his head. “I’m thinking it probably wasn’t the repairman, though, anyway. You didn’t see the repair truck anywhere, did you?”

I shook my head. He had a point. And Mama certainly wasn’t leaving the house to move a repair truck, I didn’t think.

“Damn.” I leaned my chin on my knuckles. “He could be from anywhere, then. We’re going to have to scour the national news.”

“That could take all afternoon,” Carson said.

“It could, but we could get lucky right away, too.”

Carson shrugged. “It’s worth a try I guess. But what if nobody reported him missing? It’s not impossible. He’s a grown man. I’m sure grown men disappear all the time. It might be weeks before someone notices he’s gone.”

“He had on a wedding ring,” I said, suddenly recalling that detail. “His wife probably reported him missing the first night he didn’t come home.”

“Maybe. But what if he was on a business trip or something and she doesn’t know he’s missing yet.”

“True.” I chewed on the ragged end of my thumbnail. This might be a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. “Well, let’s keep looking. I’ll look in the national news and you keep checking the local police blotters.”

We sat in silence, the computers humming as they crawled through the newspapers. After a few minutes, I leaned over to glance at Carson’s screen. Our shoulders touched and the feeling of his warm skin touching my bare shoulder sent electrical impulses down my entire right side. I tried not to look at him; I knew my heart would start racing uncontrollably if I did.

“Did you find anything new?” I asked

“Not really. There’s two missing persons reports in Readington, one male, one female. But the male is an eighty-seven year old with Alzheimer’s driving a silver Corolla. I’m pretty sure that’s not our guy unless he had a fantastic plastic surgeon.”

I gave him an appreciative laugh, then I noticed something on the computer. “Hey! What about this?” I leaned in toward him and my hand accidentally brushed the inner part of his thigh very close to…well, you know. My head jerked up, my expression, horror-stricken.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” I yelped pulling my hand away.

Carson grinned. “Trust me, it’s perfectly okay. No harm.”

Mortified, I didn’t look at him as I pointed at the computer, trying my best not to touch him.

“Look, there’s an article here about an abandoned car. It’s not a repair truck, but still could be something,” I said.

“Really? How did I miss that?” Carson’s eyes scanned the article, his lips moving rapidly as he read to himself. I couldn’t help but stare at those lips, wanting desperately to touch them with my own mouth. I could practically taste his saltiness in my mouth, could practically feel the pressure of his lips on mine, I could—

“Wow, that’s ironic,” Carson mumbled, snapping out of my erotic reverie.

“Um, what’s that?” I asked, blushing as if he could somehow read my mind.

Carson pointed to the screen. “They found this guy’s car last week, abandoned only a few blocks from here. There was no registration in the glove box or anything, so the police impounded it. They had to run the plates to see who owns it. The guy’s name is Mark Ryan. That’s just like your name! That’s really—”

I barely heard him because I had passed out cold when I heard my daddy’s name.

When I came to, I was staring up at the ceiling of the library, flat on my back on the floor. Carson and Marnie were hovering over me, Marnie with a downright panicked expression on her face and Carson with more of a concerned look. Colt was licking my face and whimpering. I blinked my eyes a few times and Marnie gasped.

“Oh my goodness! She’s having a seizure! Dogs sense seizures!” Marnie squealed as she gripped Carson’s arm. He cringed as her fingernails dug into his bare skin.

“You know you really ought to dust the ceiling every once in a while,” I said, pointing upward. “I’m fine, Marnie.”

“Oh, thank heavens!” she cried as she relaxed her death grip on Carson and clutched her chest, ignoring my observations about her housekeeping. “Dear Lord, Kennedy, I reckon you nearly gave me the vapors passing out like that!”

“You’ve been reading too many Victorian novels,” I told her, rolling my eyes.

“What happened?” Carson asked as he crouched down next to me.

I reached for the chair I had been sitting in to pull myself up. Both Carson and Marnie came at me at once. “Don’t try to stand up yet!” Marnie chastised as she pushed me back down, bumping my head on the leg of the table.

“Ouch,” I moaned as I rubbed the back of my head. “I need to at least sit up. I wasn’t going to stand.”

“Oops, sorry!” Marnie bit her lip as Carson offered his hand to help me into a sitting position. “But you passed out. It’s so hot out—you probably need to drink something. Or eat something. When was the last time you ate?”

I shrugged. “I ate,” I replied defensively. Marnie was starting to sound like Mama. “I think.” My brain was feeling swimmy, so I couldn’t remember if I actually ate.

“Oh land’s sake, Kennedy. You best not be doing one of them crazy starvation diets. You know—”

I cut her off by frowning at her. I didn’t want Carson to think I was one of those nutty girls that starved themselves for boy-attention. Like Lindy.