CHAPTER 15
Because of Richard Fenton’s love of the sound of his own voice, they did not have to crawl all the way back to the ladder beneath his office. While he’d been shoving her along that route at gunpoint on the way in, he’d mentioned he would be leaving by way of a very short passage on the other side of the chamber. When he’d dared her to guess where it came out, she hadn’t even tried.
Building 13. Of course.
The investigators working inside that horrible place had reacted with shock when a panel in the floor flew open and Derek and Kate’s faces appeared. For a second, she’d thought they might be shot, but Derek immediately put his hands up, identified them both, and everybody calmed down.
There was only one good thing about emerging from the dark pit that far into the swamp: Nobody at the school had seen them. They didn’t have to walk a gauntlet, deal with the press, or be gawked at by the kids and faculty.
All Kate wanted to do now was go home. All Derek wanted to do was whatever she wanted to do. They were both determined to have their way. Gabe, who had come out as soon as his officers radioed him, agreed. But not until after he’d gotten a quick rundown, including the fact that the police were on a recovery mission and not a rescue one. Poor, poor Charlie.
“You know you’re gonna have to talk eventually and give the whole story.”
Derek, his arm around her waist, said, “I know. Tomorrow.”
“All right.” The detective beckoned one of his officers over. “Put ’em in your car and take them all the way out.”
Derek looked at Kate and lifted a brow. “Feel like taking a fast ride?”
She suddenly remembered his motorcycle was still parked out on that dirt road, far from prying eyes. “That sounds perfect.”
As they were getting into the officer’s car, they saw a crew bringing Richard Fenton up out of the hole. He was still rambling, but louder now. He demanded to be taken to his office, and then insisted the officers line up and salute.
Kate turned her head and looked at the lily pads, and they drove away, leaving the man and his ugly vision of the world behind them.
Riding back to town on Derek’s motorcycle, she ignored the looks they got from people in cars all around them. Their clothes were filthy enough to stand on their own, she had worms in her hair, and mud on every inch of her body, but she just didn’t care.
A monster had taken her down into that dark tunnel.
Derek had come for her. He’d brought her back into the light.
There they would stay.
“You willing to share another shower with me?” he asked when they reached her place and went inside.
“Only if you scrub all the mud off my back.”
Following her toward her bedroom, he muttered, “Hope you have sandpaper.”
They went to bed wet, made love to replace every dark memory with hot pleasure. Then they slept…woke up and ate…slept some more.
It was exactly what they needed. But they should have known nothing good lasted forever. Because, at ten o’clock that night, somebody banged on her front door.
She and Derek exchanged a look from over the kitchen table, where they were eating ice cream right from the container, sharing a single spoon.
“How much do you want to bet that’s Julia?” he muttered.
“No bet. If we don’t answer, will she go away?”
“I doubt it.”
She got up and handed him the mouthful of ice cream she’d just scooped out. He licked the mint chocolate chip, and the sight of that tongue and that mouth savoring something sweet and cold made her want to bathe in ice cream and invite him to indulge his hunger.
Sex. God, did she love having sex with the man. He only had to look at her with that intensity in his dark eyes and she was ready to have him all over again.
Hearing another hard knock, she called, “I’m coming.”
Opening the door, expecting to see Derek’s energetic boss, she was shocked to see two other people instead.
“I should have taken your bet,” she yelled, knowing Derek would catch her meaning.
“Kate! You’re okay? We’ve been hearing bits and pieces, we’ve been so worried!”
Taylor Kirby grabbed her hands, and Vonnie Jackson rubbed her arm. She didn’t know the two girls well, but she’d liked them from the start, and found it very sweet that they’d stopped by to see how she was.
“Wait,” she said, something occurring to her. “How did you find out where I live?”
“Julia told me,” Taylor said.
Derek had come out of the kitchen to join her. “That was really inappropriate.”
Taylor and Vonnie both dropped their jaws when he walked into view under the overhead light in the foyer. Glancing at him, she understood why.
He was wearing a towel slung low around his hips. And nothing else.
Holy mother of God, that body would make a ninety year old drool—even with the bruises that showed what the past few days had been like.
No, especially with the bruises, because they took the word male and turned it into man.
“Umm, sorry, we didn’t know you were here,” Taylor whispered. Her face had turned red. Vonnie’s eyes were so wide they looked ready to pop out.
Kate looked at Derek. “Please go get your pants out of the dryer and put them on before you put these girls into a state of shock.”
He grinned, nodded to the co-eds, and walked away. She turned her head to watch, knowing Vonnie and Taylor were staring too, right up until he turned toward the small laundry room. Three sighs followed.
“Okay,” she said, stepping back, “would you like to come in?”
Taylor pushed right past her. Vonnie grimaced in apology and followed. As Kate sat on the couch, Vonnie took the chair, and Taylor plopped onto the floor, criss-crossing her legs.
“Don’t get mad at Julia for giving me your address,” she said. “She knows I’ve been trying to reach you. I think I’ve called her twenty times since yesterday.”
Vonnie rolled her eyes. “She’s called you at least fifty.”
“I lost my phone.”
“I couldn’t wait anymore for you to get back to me. Especially when I saw on the news what was going on.” Taylor was jittery, almost bouncing. Her fingers twisted into her shorts. Then there was the expression on her face. Far from being worried, or heartbroken, she looked…excited.
Not understanding her mood or the reason for their visit, Kate asked. “What exactly is this about?”
Taylor shimmied closer, until she was sitting at Kate’s feet. Taking a deep breath, she tilted her chin and looked right into Kate’s face. A big smile appeared.
“I’ve got something to tell you.”
Kate’s heart skipped a beat. The young woman looked like someone who’d stumbled into Santa’s warehouse and was told she could have every toy. She was…joyful. That was the only word Kate could come up with. The only thing she couldn’t understand was why.
“I found him.”
No longer just skipping, her heart danced right over several beats, twirling in her chest, but not sending out any oxygen. She felt dizzy and lightheaded, and had to remind herself to breathe. Eventually, she managed to whisper, “Taylor, what are you talking about?”
The pretty girl rose onto her knees and clasped both of Kate’s hands with her own.
“I found Isaac, Kate. He’s alive.”
Derek had really thought he’d live the rest of his life without ever hearing Kate scream again. Truth was, he’d only gone about seven hours.
Hearing her shriek, he ran toward the living room, holding his pants at the waist since he hadn’t even had a chance to button them all the way up.
“Kate, what is it, baby? What’s wrong?”
She stood in the living room, shaking from her head to her feet. Taylor and Vonnie stood with her, both of them with arms around her waist.
“Isaac’s alive?” she whispered.
Derek was so shocked he let go of his pants. Only Taylor’s gasp prompted him to grab them before they fell all the way off his ass. Yanking them up, he buttoned as quickly as he could and went to Kate. She looked like a person caught between hope and desperation.
“Why would you say that?” Kate demanded, gripping Taylor’s arms. “How could you know?”
“Maybe we should sit down and let her talk,” Derek said. He took Kate’s hand and squeezed. He had no idea what craziness had just re-blasted their lives open, but whatever it was, he knew they could handle it.
They sat down. Taylor and Vonnie both began to speak.
When she heard Taylor claim she had left her body to gain her sister’s help in finding Isaac, Kate sagged against his side. Derek kept his arm around her, whispering, “Hold on, let’s hear her out. You believe in what Julia and Liv can see. What’s a ghost if not a soul outside of its body?”
“Yes!” Taylor squealed. “That’s absolutely, 100% what it’s like! I left my body, Jenny put it on for a while…”
“What?” Kate gasped.
Vonnie glared at her roommate and took over. “I know it sounds crazy, and I’m the last person to believe in this stuff. But I know Taylor, and I knew her sister. I have absolutely no doubt that I spent an hour with Jenny Kirby in my dorm yesterday.”
“And I spent an hour with Isaac Lincoln. Well, with his spirit, anyway.”
Kate leaned forward, dropping her elbows onto her knees. “You’re serious?”
“I’m totally serious.”
“But…you said he was alive.”
Taylor smiled, looking completely pleased with herself. “He is. His body is lying in a hospital somewhere in Florida. He couldn’t tell me where, because he doesn’t know for sure.
Kate stood, brushing her hair off her face, grumbling, “This is ridiculous.”
“I swear, Kate,” said Taylor, leaping up to go to her. “I swear to you on the soul of my sister…who I loved with all my heart. I am telling you the truth.”
Kate studied her face, found something she believed, and returned to the couch. Derek felt her trembling, though she maintained a calm expression. Inside, he knew, she was a jumbled, confused blend of hope and mistrust. He pulled her closer, waiting to hear the rest.
“What else did Isaac…say?” Kate whispered.
“He said his old high school principal tried to kill him.” Taylor scowled. “He told Isaac he had to come to his office for special discipline in the middle of the night without telling anybody.”
Just as Derek had suspected. The boys were so conditioned to expect unusual, outrageous punishments, they probably had never imagined how deadly the request could be.
“Once he got him alone, he hurt him really bad. But the school custodian who was supposed to bury him realized he was still alive. He liked Isaac, so he drove him into Florida and dumped him on a beach. He was found and taken to a hospital. They treated him, but his body never woke back up. He thinks he’s in a coma. He’s been that way ever since. They have no idea who he is.”
Derek had a sudden flashback to those moments with Slate and muttered, “He’s a nice boy. He’s sleeping.”
Kate flinched and looked at him. “You don’t really think…”
“I don’t know what I think. I do know I want to hear more.”
They both turned back to Taylor.
“He’s not dead,” Taylor reiterated. “It’s like, I don’t know, like he’s wandering around this strange, misty place where people go after they die…but before they go to whatever final afterlife is waiting for them. Isaac was really confused for a long time. Jenny knew I was looking for him—she watches over me, but she can’t appear to me. She found him and helped him figure things out. He knows he’s not really dead, and isn’t supposed to go away yet.”
“He didn’t get on the train,” Derek murmured.
Taylor and Vonnie both gasped and exclaimed, “Yes! That’s exactly what Jenny said.”
He shrugged. “Julia and Liv have both talked about it. Their ghost friends have told them about the train whistling, and their refusal to climb aboard. Which, from the sound of it, is what Jenny did, too.”
Taylor nodded, not exactly looking displeased that she had gotten to see her twin again, even if not physically. He supposed that having the chance to reunite with a loved one was a lure few spirits could resist. Especially ones like Jenny, who had died so violently and unexpectedly.
He couldn’t help wondering about his parents. He only hoped that if they’d hung around for a while, they had, by now, followed the whistle and hitched their ride to somewhere better than here.
“You believe me, right?” Taylor said. “You have to believe me.”
Kate the healer, Kate the doctor, Kate the rational one was slowly shaking her head back and forth. Despite what they’d just lived through, and the paranormal things she’d come to believe in, this one was really tripping her up.
Finally, she sunk back and dropped her head onto the back of the couch. She closed her eyes. She started counting.
Ten. Nine. On down from there.
He heard the whispers, and the deep even breaths she took between each number.
He knew this routine. She was trying to center herself. Trying to regain her calm and figure out how to proceed.
If it’d been him, and he’d found out his comatose sibling’s spirit was trying to get back into his body, he’d probably have started at five hundred.
When she was finished, she opened her eyes. She sat up. She looked at all three of them.
And then she said, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go find my brother.”
* * *