The Gathering
Page 26

“Like herding cats,” Mayor Tillson said. “Annabelle’s thinking we might need to slip a GPS in Sam’s running shoes, just so we can find her if we need to evacuate.”
“And we now have Rafael and his sister,” Dr. Hajek said. “We may want to consider offering them a place in town until the threat passes. At the very least, we need to get them cell phones.”
The others agreed and so the conversation went—plans for a potential evacuation. All very important. And very dull. I motioned to Daniel that we should leave, but he shook his head.
After a half hour more of evacuation strategy, Mayor Tillson said, “And now, as long as we’re all here, I’ve asked Dr. Inglis and Chief Carling for an update on our recent tragedy.”
Daniel nodded in satisfaction.
Chief Carling spoke first. “The young woman’s name, as most of you know, was Mina Lee. Or that’s the name on her ID, which appears to be fake, as we discovered when we tried to notify next of kin. That would seem to confirm our suspicion that she was a corporate spy. I have her description out to my contacts, and with any luck, we’ll find out her real name so we can notify her family. Her death hasn’t been ruled a homicide, so my main priority is identifying the victim. But I have, of course, started a case file, should the situation change.”
“And, at this point, I don’t think it will,” Dr. Inglis said. “Cause of death was exsanguination. Fatal loss of blood. The damage to the throat tissue makes it impossible to determine whether it was homicide, misadventure, or predation. For now, I’m going to say it was most likely predation, given the rising number of cougar encounters and the obvious signs of feeding. When we find the young woman’s family, if they want to get a second opinion, we can do that.”
Everyone agreed this was fair. My dad excused himself to get home and resume tracking the fires. After he left, they continued talking about the murder but only boring stuff like moving the body to cold storage at the medical lab. Daniel agreed we could leave now. Time to check out the Braun place.
We parked down an old logging road, then walked back, sticking to the woods. We got the spare key from the shed and went inside.
The cottage had already been searched. It wasn’t a rip-the-place-apart kind of search, just kitchen and dresser drawers opened and stuff inside left piled on top, like Chief Carling had been looking for anything that might help her find Mina Lee’s family.
We’d hoped to find a laptop, but there was no sign of one.
While Daniel searched more thoroughly, I checked caller ID on the landline. It said she’d had five calls since yesterday, presumably all after her death. Three came from unlisted numbers. The other two had the same number attached with an area code I didn’t recognize. I wrote it down. Then I played her messages. There was only one, and it must have come in after Chief Carling searched the place, because no one had listened to it yet.
“Hey, it’s me.” The voice was male. “You did get my text messages, right? The Nasts paid me a visit. They’re starting to think we’re holding out on them, that we found something and we’re seeing if the Cortezes will pay more. I told them we aren’t stupid enough to try that.”
A pause. “We aren’t, right? Double-cross a Cabal and we’ll be paying the price into the afterlife.” Another pause. “You know that, right?”
The man swore. “I can’t believe you’d ever be that stupid, but if I don’t hear back from you soon, I’m bolting—and taking everything we have so far with me.”
Daniel walked in, frowning as the message finished. “When did that come in?”
“Tonight. If anyone else left messages, someone erased them. This one’s from the only number on caller ID.” I lifted a scrap of paper. “I wrote it down.”
“Can you play it again? I missed the beginning. Someone drove by on a dirt bike and drowned it out.”
I did. As he listened, his frown grew.
“Could be corporate espionage,” he said. “A drug company wants to buy stolen research. Sounds like that guy’s really afraid of them, though. I imagine it’d be a shady company, if they’re willing to buy that information. Maybe that’s what cabal means. Industry slang.”
“It doesn’t explain what she wanted with us,” I said. “How would cozying up to local teens help?”
“I don’t know.”
He walked over to the desk and started moving stuff around, looking under the phone and the answering machine, searching drawers. I kept thinking about the message.
We’ll be paying the price into the afterlife.
It was probably just an exaggerated phrase, like saying “kick our asses into the next century.” But put it together with that book on witches and the stuff on skin-walkers and it just … It bugged me.
“Daniel?” I said.
He bent to run his hand under a drawer. “Hmm?”
When I didn’t continue, he straightened. “What’s up?”
“I found out something today, and it’s going to sound crazy—”
The back door clicked. I waved Daniel to silence and mouthed, “Someone’s here.”
He opened the folding door to the closet. I hesitated. Even thinking about being in such a small place made my skin crawl. I glanced at the window instead, but he shook his head. No time for that.
The closet was even smaller than it looked. Daniel went in first and I had to back in. To get the door closed, he had to put his arm around my waist and pull me against him.
“Just relax,” he said, his breath hot against my ear.
His hand slid to rest against my hip. He stayed bent over my shoulder, as if trying to see through the slats in the door, his breath ruffling my hair. When I shifted, he put his other hand on my other hip. I shifted again.
“Stop squirming,” he said. “I didn’t wear my steel-toed boots.”
I stepped off his foot. “Sorry.”
“I know you hate small places. Just close your eyes and relax.”
I did and focused on the light footsteps. Chief Carling?
Drawers opened and shut. Papers rustled.
The intruder finished in the living room and went into the bedroom. More searching. Now Daniel was the one getting restless, fidgeting and shifting. When I tried to pull away to give him room, he jumped like I’d startled him, then murmured, “Just relax,” like I’d been the one fussing.
Finally, the intruder came into the study. Through the slats, I could make out only a dark figure, but I picked up a faint smell of—
A day ago, I’d have told myself I was smelling perfume or hair gel or fabric softener, something that would identify a person. Now I realized I was smelling the person’s scent.
I leaned forward. Daniel tried to stop me, but I waved him off. I bent, putting my face to the slats. It was a far from perfect peephole, but I could see enough to confirm my guess.
I pushed open the folding door and stepped out. “What are you doing here?”
Sam spun.
Her eyes narrowed when she saw me. “What am I doing here? I’m not the one hiding in—” Her gaze lifted over my shoulder. “Daniel?”
She looked from me to him.
I realized I was in a notorious make-out spot with Daniel. “We’re not—”
“What are you looking for, Sam?” he said, stepping toward her.
“Looking for? N-nothing.”
“You were really interested in Mina Lee,” I said. “You thought she was here because of you.”
“What? No.”
“Why are you going through her things?”
“None of your business.”
She brushed past me. As she walked away, I saw papers sticking out of her rear pocket. I snatched them. She yelped and spun, swiping at me as I backed out of reach.
“That’s mine,” she said.
“No, it’s not.” I held the papers up for Daniel to see. “Recognize the handwriting?”
He nodded. “It’s Ms. Lee’s.”
“You don’t know that.” Sam lunged to grab them, but I backed up again.
“She left a note for Daniel,” I said. “That’s her handwriting.”
Sam went still. “A note about what?”
I scanned the first page. “Not about you. This one is, though. Background notes. Where you’re from. What happened to your—” I looked up at her. “Your parents didn’t die in a car accident. They were—”
“Give those back,” she said, advancing on me.
“Your parents were murdered,” I said. “Why does everyone think—?”
She hit me. A right hook to the jaw. I flew off my feet. Daniel knocked her out of the way before she could hit me again. She grabbed the pages and took off.
Daniel started to go after her, then saw me and ran back, grabbing tissue. I tasted blood. As I winced, blood gushed from a split lip. Daniel pressed the tissues to my mouth.
He moved me back to sit on the edge of the desk. “Hold that. I’m going to find some ice.”
I shook my head. “Sam. Those pages—”
The roar of a dirt bike stopped me. I tried to get up, but he tugged me back onto the desk.
“She’s gone,” he said. “We need to stop the bleeding and get some ice on that.” He paused. “Are your teeth …?”
I ran my tongue over them, ignoring the sharp tang of blood. “Present and accounted for.”
“Good. Hold on then.”
THIRTY
IDID HOLD ON—TO the tissues. I didn’t stay put, though. With my free hand, I mopped up drops of blood from the hardwood floor. If this turned into a murder investigation, I definitely didn’t want my blood found in the victim’s house.
When Daniel came back, he had some ice wrapped in a dishcloth. As he exchanged it for the bloody tissues, he said, “I can’t believe she did that. I mean, Sam is way too fast with her fists, but to deck you? Over papers?”
I’d been thinking the same thing. I felt weirdly hurt—and not because my jaw ached. I always thought Sam and I got along okay. In the last few days, she’d even been friendly. Now I realized that was only because she thought I might have more information on Mina Lee.
I told Daniel that, then said, “I’m still shocked that she hit me. I know she took a swing at Rafe’s sister—” I stopped, realizing what I was saying, then continued. “She’s … brain damaged. That’s why he’s away from school a lot.”
“Looking after her.” Daniel wadded up the bloodied tissues inside clean ones, then stuffed them into his pocket. “I hadn’t heard that.”
“No one knows. And no one can know. She’s his guardian, and if people find out …”
“They won’t from me. You know that.” He leaned beside me, against the desk. “So, what happened? Sam didn’t realize Rafe’s sister was brain damaged and lashed out when she provoked her?”
“Not unless being extremely friendly can be considered provocation.”
Daniel shook his head. “The girl’s definitely got some loose wiring, and it seems to be getting looser.” He glanced at me. “Steer clear, okay?”
“I intend to.”
“So those sheets said her parents had been murdered? What else?”
“That was as far as I got. Her parents were killed in a home invasion, and it said Sam ‘survived,’ which must mean she was there. I guess that might explain some of the loose wiring. And why the Tillsons told everyone her parents died in a car accident.”
“Less traumatic.”
I nodded. Made sense, but it still bugged me. Why had Sam still been determined to get those papers before I read more? What else was in there?
“Bleeding’s stopped,” I said, taking the makeshift ice pack. “We should keep looking around. Sam found something. Maybe we can, too.”
We discovered where Sam had found the pages—under the mattress in the main bedroom. We hadn’t looked there earlier, and we wouldn’t have now if we hadn’t noticed the bedcovers were wrinkled.
Under the mattress was a file containing background info on every kid in our class. Parents’ names, date of birth, hobbies. Mina had put a lot of emphasis on hobbies, underlining some of them, like wrestling, boxing, and law for Daniel. The emphasis on sports and extracurricular interests would make sense … if you were filling out applications for a dating service. Why would a corporate spy care what local teens liked to do in their spare time?
“It’s a cover,” Daniel said. “If anyone gets close, she can pull out these, and the hobbies and stuff make it seem like she really is doing a general interest story.” He flipped through the pages. “She’s got everyone here. Even Rafe, though his is filled with question marks and notes for follow-up. Seems she wasn’t having much luck getting background on him. Weird.”
I kept my gaze on the pages, so he wouldn’t see that I knew it wasn’t weird at all. “Where’s my page?”
“Right—” He flipped through again. “Huh. Seems someone is missing.”
“Me?”
He didn’t answer until he’d laid out all the sheets on the bed, in alphabetical order. Everyone was there except Sam and me.
“I bet she grabbed yours, too,” Daniel said. “Sam, I mean. They weren’t in any kind of order, and she had a bunch of pages. Yours was probably behind hers.” He folded the sheets and stuck them in the backpack we’d brought. “Let’s keep looking.”