Chapter Twenty-Two
(Wednesday Morning—Owen)
Aaron stared at Owen for a moment, then moved past him to the kitchenette. He picked up one of the coffee mugs and half-filled it with Scotch. He sneered at the whiskey, then raised the mug and drained it.
“Kid . . .” Maybe it was okay for him to have a drink. Or even two, or three. After what he’d done last night, the legal drinking age just didn’t seem relevant. Though the Lagavulin deserved better treatment—anyway, it wasn’t Owen’s call to make, because Aaron wasn’t his kid.
But that Scotch had been for Shawna. Owen got the bottle and put it into a bag, along with some of his clothes.
“Yeah, okay,” Aaron said. “She’s dead. How?”
“Beaten, maybe raped, found in the trash outside the hotel early this morning.”
“Those were cops in here?” He jerked a thumb toward the door.
“Yeah.”
“So…how’d they know it wasn’t you?”
“Too much evidence says it was. They found that implausible, they said.” Owen felt like apologizing, but for what? He didn’t owe the kid an explanation.
Aaron went to the sink and washed out the mug. “There’s a story there, I guess.” He wiped the mug carefully. “Okay, less evidence of that crime.” He faced Owen, his expression scrupulously blank. “You want to tell me the story?”
Owen didn’t even want to think about it. The kid acted hostile, but it was probably just because he didn’t know what else to do. He wanted to believe he had the situation under control.
Owen knew how that felt. “Yeah,” he said, surprising himself. “I do want to tell you. But not here. We need to leave.”
Aaron nodded. His eyes flickered to Owen’s, then away. “I don’t suppose you’ve got the keys to my car?”
“No. But mine should still be okay. For the moment.”
Outside, Aaron gawked only briefly at the swarm of FBI jackets that filled the back corner of the parking lot. “You okay to drive?” he asked, standing beside Owen’s rental.
“Yeah.” But where to? “Did you have a plan?”
“Sure. I was gonna get Shawna and drag her out of here. My sister and I got worried when she didn’t come back last night, so I rode with her and we looked for the Bug. She dropped me off when we saw it and went on downtown.”
“And if you hadn’t seen it?” Owen folded himself into the driver’s seat.
Aaron climbed in on the other side, looking worried. “I was gonna drop her off at work and then come find you anyway. I promised last night we’d talk later. Shawna was supposed to talk to you about what you saw, and I’m supposed to stick with you for a while.”
Owen started the car and left the FBI jackets behind. He turned onto SPID and headed for the Crosstown Expressway.
“Ah, she did talk to you about last night?” Aaron asked.
“Yeah. She did. Who says you’re supposed to stick with me? Why? And how come you’re not worried about getting in the car with me, after what happened back there?”
“Uh…I’m not worried because my sister said you were okay. And last night you jumped off the pier when you thought she was hurt. And, anyway, Shawna talked about you a lot.” He glanced at Owen. “Um. Sorry. I guess I didn’t say that earlier, but I am. Shawna was a neat lady.”
Owen’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. Aaron reached across and touched his arm. Owen nodded, willing his hands to relax.
Aaron watched him for a few seconds, then continued. “As for sticking with you, right now I’m doing it because I want to. But it’s also sort of my job. I’m kind of a scout, I guess.”
“For what? An invasion?”
Aaron laughed, then chopped it off. He gave Owen an uneasy glance. “I guess, if you want to look at it that way. We’re not really very organized, and the decisions we make are…well, different when we’re under the water. Nobody told me to stick with you, exactly. But we needed to know what was going on with the Cold Ones, the sharks, and my sister was trying to help Shawna. It was kinda obvious to everybody what I needed to do.”
“What were you and Andrea arguing about last night? Before you went in the water.”
“She’s different this way. Out of the water, I mean. She’s started to think being up here, on the land, might be a mistake. Too dangerous, for all of us, in and out of the water. Stuff like that.” He shrugged.
A teenager, Owen thought, was probably always a teenager. “You don’t agree?”
“No, I think it’s cool. So does she, most of the time. But that’s why we went back last night. It’s an important question, I guess.” Aaron paused. Owen could sense him trying to be fair. “We don’t like to argue, and in the water we really can’t. We sort of pass our ideas around. Besides, we like to stay in touch with the others. And they’re a little worried about it too.”
“Aren’t you worried that I’ll say something to somebody about all this?”
“Not really, no. Who would believe you?” He looked around. “Where are we going?”
Owen shrugged. “Hadn’t decided. But there’s somebody I promised to get in touch with this morning, so I guess that’s where we’re going.”
“Who?”
“Andrea’s boss. Martina.”
Aaron nodded. ”‘Kay. That way I can talk to my sister too.” He turned on the radio and slouched in his seat, apparently satisfied.
Owen looked at him. Aaron idly watched traffic, nodding his head in time with the music. Owen shook his head at the kid’s ready acceptance, and headed toward downtown.
Shiver on the Sky Page 35
