The Repossession (24 page)

since the flood and your house was wrecked, Genie. I just can’t believe you’re alive.’ She turned to Rian. ‘Your ma has been going insane, seen her wheeling around town putting up posters everywhere. I can see now why no one recognized you though. Don’t look a bit like the kid on the poster.’

Rian had no idea as to what she was talking about and couldn’t remember the last time his mother had taken a photo of him. He looked at this well-toned, broad-shouldered girl and couldn’t seem to remember her at all.

He was annoyed she’d spotted them. It was kind of inevitable, it being such a small town.

Genie smiled at Mandy. ‘How’s school?’

Mandy shook her head. ‘Well, we’re having classes in the gym. The east wing is full of homeless people now and there’s people with broken legs in just about every class and no one is really doing anything serious. You’re missing nothing. You coming back now?’

Genie shook her head. ‘Uh-uh. Done with school.’

Mandy looked kind of surprised. ‘Really?’ She couldn’t imagine what a person could do if they didn’t finish high school. ‘I can’t wait to tell the girls you’re alive. I mean, we heard all kinds of stuff. I didn’t believe it, but hey, at least I can rule out abducted by aliens.’

She laughed at her own joke and Genie smiled.

‘Where you going? What are you gonna do?’ Mandy asked, a look of genuine concern on her face now. ‘I can’t wait till Grad. I’m heading to Victoria.’

It was Genie’s turn to be surprised.

‘Of course, you don’t know. I won a gold medal at the BC Summer Games and I’m representing BC in the Aaron Baddeley International Championships at Lion Lake in November. I’m going semi-pro as soon as I can. Already got sponsors lined up and everything.’

Genie looked at Mandy with amazement. She’d known this girl for three years already and never once knew she played golf, let alone was good at it.

‘Wow.’

Mandy nodded excitedly. ‘I won a Nissan Leaf in the Alberta tournament last month. Can’t even learn to drive it until my birthday, but I was like stunned for days when it arrived.’

‘Double wow. I’m jealous.’

‘And you?’ Mandy asked.

‘I’m going to raise pigs. Already got my first sow. She’s huge, with the softest ears you ever saw.’

‘Pigs?’ Mandy whispered, clearly taken aback. ‘Like farming? Dirt and stuff?’

‘That’s where we’ve been,’ Rian intervened. ‘Studying animal husbandry. It’s a big career now, lots of opportunities.’

Mandy was now definitely thinking that Genie had been abducted by aliens after all.

‘Pigs?’ she repeated, not quite able to remove horror and disbelief in her voice.

Rian enjoyed watching her face. It wasn’t even a lie. Mandy began to back away like they had some kind of virus.

‘Really cool to see you guys. I’m so glad you’re alive.’

Genie nodded. ‘Me too.’ She gave Mandy a little wave as she scooted back to her table and the safety of her parents.

Genie glanced at Rian and rolled her eyes. It would take like twenty whole minutes for the whole town to know she was alive and going to raise pigs. She realized that she didn’t care. Rian was the only person she cared about and he was right here. Her foot stroked his legs under the table and he smiled at her.

‘Just remembered I need to go to the bathroom. Don’t run off with anyone. Even if she does have an electric car, fa-na.’

Rian grinned. ‘Not even for a Leaf.’ He looked back towards the door. ‘I hope Miller comes soon, they’re going to bring the check any minute now.’

‘He will,’ Genie reassured him.

She headed off towards the restroom, her tummy

bloated. She hadn’t eaten so much ever and she was definitely experiencing a sugar-high or something.

She heard a hiss as she walked by a table and there was one of Reverend Schneider’s disciples eating her dinner with her spotty child. She glared at Genie and Genie immediately remembered her, the petite poisonous pale face with tight thin lips viciously spitting and name-calling from behind the barred doors. It shook her momentarily and all her terrors instantly came flooding back. She stumbled and fell against the woman’s table, upsetting a glass of orange juice over her. The woman shrieked. Genie backed off, stunned. This was why she could never return to Spurlake. The whole town was full of poison that could appear around any corner her whole life. She rushed into the restroom and rested her head against the wall a moment, feeling dizzy and not a little sick. She remembered the woman
exactly
now. Her expression of hate as she prayed on her bony knees and tried to grab her and pinch her flesh when she handed food through the bars. She instinctively rubbed the scar on her arm that would be there forever now to remind her of their cruelty.

Genie suddenly turned around and went back out of the restroom and returned to the woman’s table. She was trying to mop up the juice and her kid was whining. She looked frightened when Genie suddenly reappeared.

Genie leaned in towards her, whispering. ‘I’m out. I’m free, and remember this, Satan and I know where you live, Mrs Garvey.’ Then turned on her heels and headed back to the restroom. She didn’t know why she’d done it, but it made her feel a
whole
lot better.

There was a Missing Child poster behind the toilet door. Rian’s face peered out of it – and Mandy wasn’t kidding, he had to be about twelve in this picture. She wondered why his mother didn’t have any recent photos.

She guessed there weren’t any ‘Missing’ posters for herself behind any toilet doors.

When she returned, the evil woman was gone and Miller, the cop, was sitting with Rian. They both glanced up as she sat down.

‘Dessert?’ Miller asked her. ‘Blueberry pie is pretty good here.’

‘Eaten enough for a week,’ Genie answered, rubbing her tummy. ‘How’s Marshall?’

She noticed the fresh scars on Miller’s knuckles and how his neck was bulking out. He needed to watch his weight, like most other cops in Spurlake. Altogether too much blueberry pie, in her opinion.

‘Marshall was conscious for a while. Real grateful you got him here. Me too. He would have died without you guys taking responsibility. I really appreciate what

you did.’ He was feeling awkward. ‘He seems pretty fond of you both.’

Genie said nothing. She noticed Rian seemed edgy, but then again it was kind of natural in the company of a cop. They didn’t know what he would do to them and he had every right to force Rian to go back home.

‘He’s going to be all right?’ Rian asked.

Miller shrugged. ‘He won’t be heading back to the farm for a while, that’s for sure. He’ll fret about the apple crop, ’bout the only thing that brings in any money for him.’

‘Barns gone,’ Rian pointed out. ‘Nowhere to store the apples, I guess.’

‘If they get picked, Pickards might take ’em. They’ve got refrigeration.’

Genie looked at Rian, a question on her face. He picked up on that quickly.

‘Who’s gonna pick them?’ Rian asked.

Miller looked at them both and you could see he was making a big decision.

‘You know I’m supposed to turn you in, right?

I’m guessing, Rian, driving without a valid licence?

You don’t have to admit anything. You can go home, of course. Your mother is pretty frantic to have you back.

Posters all over town. But then again, there’s so many

missing or dead now and people have to face up to the fact that the flood took a whole lot of people with it.’ He looked at Genie and sighed. ‘You’ve got no one.

Your home is gone and your mother claims you aren’t even her daughter.’

Genie felt her heart lurch a moment.

‘She said what?’

‘She was mad at you. But then again, she and Reverend Schneider . . .’

‘Don’t even mention his name,’ Genie snapped. ‘He’s utterly evil.’

Miller put his hand over hers.

‘He is and you aren’t. That’s the one thing I am sure about. Dad is a good judge of character. You have a choice, Genie. You can go into foster care. You’re still only fifteen.

And back to school, of course.’

‘Yeah right, foster care,’ Genie remarked with sarcasm, withdrawing her hand from the table. ‘That’s so gonna work out. Anyway I’m finished with school. At least in Spurlake.’

‘Or we can come to a deal,’ Miller suggested. He leaned back in his seat to allow the waitress to bring his pie and coffee. He looked up at the waitress when she arrived and smiled. ‘Bring the check, Shannon. Put the kids’ on mine.’

The waitress looked surprised but nodded, moving away without comment.

‘You and Rian go back to the farm. I want you to straighten it out. Record all the damage. I’ll mail you the insurance forms. You know where to collect the mail?

The mailboxes by the crossroads?’

Rian nodded. ‘Marshall went twice a week to collect mail there.’

‘Good. If you can find the digital camera Dad keeps in the back room, all the better. Take pictures. Fill in the forms and send them back to me. I’ll include the postage with the letter and you can just mail it back at the crossroads. The barn can be rebuilt. Marshall is a great believer in insurance. You guys pick the crop and keep the place running until my dad is better.’ He looked at them both, gauging their reaction.

‘It’s not just the apples, you understand, that’s just Dad’s pocket money. You just can’t leave a place like that empty and I can’t get out there as often as I like with the bridge down.’

‘What about the Fortress? They just came in and torched the place. The whole forest could have gone with it. You going after them?’ Genie asked.

Miller said nothing for a moment and took a taste of his pie. He shrugged.

‘They will deny everything.’

‘One of their vehicles is burned-out there,’ Rian pointed out.

‘They will either claim it was stolen or it will be gone already. Fortransco is well protected in this town. They’re powerful and secretive. I don’t have their influence.’ He shrugged. ‘Sorry. Just trying to be honest.’

Genie and Rian exchanged glances again. They didn’t need to say anything. Going back to the farm was exactly what they wanted to do, but she was scared the people at the Fortress would come back. She guessed this was the catch. There was always a catch.

‘We’d be happy to go back,’ Rian said, after a moment.

‘We can pick the crop and fix the farm up, but we’ve got no money, not even for gas.’

Miller held up his hands.

‘That’s taken care of. The real stuff is this, Rian. I am happy for you two to go back. I know you guys are in love. Got married at nineteen myself. I understand why Genie would want to go back, but what about you? Your mother says you’re bright; you’ve got a future. You can go back home, go back to school, no harm done, you understand? You have to think hard about this.’

‘And Genie?’ Rian queried. ‘You think I want her to go into foster care? You think I can walk away from her?

She’s—’ Rian was about to explode and Miller weighed in quickly to diffuse.

‘She can go back to the farm. She’ll be safe there. You visit on weekends. I’m just trying to say that there is a sensible option and a—’

‘He’s right, Ri,’ Genie intervened. ‘He’s not being mean.

You could go home. I’m cursed, remember? I ain’t going into care, but wherever I am, I’ll still love you and be part of you and—’

Rian slammed his hand down on the table. Heads turned across the restaurant.

‘No. I made a promise. I look after Genie. I don’t care about school or my mother or anything. I’m never leaving her. We’re going to the farm.’

Miller said nothing. Just ate his pie and stirred some sugar into his coffee as conversation resumed around the diner.

‘Well,’ he declared after a moment, smiling at Genie, ‘he seemed to pass that test, OK, eh? Looks like we have a deal.’ He looked at Rian directly. ‘And you have to do one thing, Rian. Go see your mother. What you say to her is your business, but she’s been going frantic for news of you. At the very least she deserves that you see her. You understand?’

Rian understood. He’d rather be facing giant rats

than the wrath of his mother, but it had to be done. He owed her that.

‘And you,’ Miller informed Genie, ‘I know I’m not supposed to say this, but stay clear of Reverend Schneider.

Don’t go near him, or your mother. I really don’t think they have your best interests at heart.’

‘He’ll know I’m here. Mrs Garvey was here. She’s one of his disciples.’ Genie pulled up her sleeve. ‘See this scar?

She twisted the skin off my arm. Her friend, Mrs Meyer, branded me with this.’ She showed him the Celtic cross scar on her other arm.

Miller looked away. There was nothing he could say to comfort her. Certainly not tell her that Mr Garvey was a big-time lawyer who effectively kept the police off Reverend Schneider’s back. How could he tell these kids how little power and influence he really had in this crazy town?

‘What do you know about some scheme to give kids two thousand bucks for participating in some fool experiment? You think some kids believe that?’

Rian looked at Genie and she nodded, it was OK

to talk.

‘Your dad said that you didn’t believe that the Fortress was responsible for all the kids going missing from Spurlake.’

Miller sighed. ‘It’s not about me believing anything, it’s about getting proof. You have proof?’

Rian wasn’t sure they had. ‘Speak to Tunis Lehman. He showed me a printout. It comes with a toll-free number so they can give you directions.’

‘The deputy-principal’s adopted son?’

Rian nodded.

Miller shook his head. ‘He’s listed as missing.

The flood . . .’

Rian felt his heart skip a beat. Tunis, his friend, was dead. But maybe he wasn’t missing. Maybe he’d gone to find his girl in Vancouver. He didn’t have to be missing at all. He was with the blonde girl he met online.

‘His truck washed up in the river along with a few others,’ Miller added.

Genie squeezed Rian’s hand. She knew how that had to hurt.

‘You guys were so lucky to survive. That flash flood came out of nowhere, caught a lot of people by surprise.

You OK?’ He was looking at Rian.