Beautiful Dead 03. Summer

by Eden Maguire

  'It's too raw. Wait until after the funeral, then we can talk.'

  I nodded. He was close to me, I was breathing him in but stil resisting. The embers of my anger stil glowed.

  'About the visit to my house,' Phoenix mumbled. 'It's not Brandon

  that Hunter wants you to talk with, it's Zak.'

  116

  'Logan was like a lot of kids we know. He didn't fol ow any recognized faith, he just had a clear, natural sense of the difference between right and wrong.'

  Byron Lavel e had chosen our music teacher, Katie Jones, to speak at the open-air funeral service. She was someone Logan liked, who we al looked up to. Now she stood on a hil side under a stand of tal redwoods, her hands folded in front of her, speaking to hundreds of people who had come to mourn Logan's passing.

  'We al have our special memories,' Miss Jones continued. 'People have come forward with stories of Logan out at Hartmann Lake, casting a line far out into the clear water, of Logan chil ing with the guys in a cabin out at Foxton. They say he never pushed himself to the front of the line, but would always listen and offer to help, even before he was asked.'

  The casket lay two metres from where Hannah, Jordan and I stood. It

  was an eco-casket, this was an eco-burial, straight into non-consecrated ground - surprising choices by Logan's dad. Among the mourners were Logan's teachers, fel ow students and friends like me who had known him since kindergarten.

  'I have talked with scores of people,' Miss Jones said, and not a

  single one has had a bad word to say about Logan Lavel e.'

  It came time for us to step forward to sing 'Time to Go'. Jordan, Hannah and I began with faint voices and fingers that fumbled the chords.

  But we owed it to Logan to do this, to make it the best song ever, so we

  looked towards the clear blue sky, gathered strength and sang from the bottom of our hearts to make him proud.

  When we finished, I reached out to skim my fingers across the smooth white lid of the casket, then stepped to one side.

  'Your song was beautiful.' Heather Madison came up to me at the close

  of the service. People were turning to wander slowly down the hil side, 117

  away from the peace of the place that would be for ever Logan's.

  I smiled at her, glad that she'd made it here today. 'Summer wrote it.'

  ,I knew it was hers, the moment I heard the first notes.'

  'It must have been the last one she wrote. I found her handwritten copy.

  Slipping Summer's paper from my pocket, I offered it to Heather. 'Please take it,' I said. *It belongs with you.'

  Jon Madison came alongside and gently took the paper from me. 'Thank you, Darina,' he told me. Then, putting his arm around his wife, he walked her down the hil .

  I stayed until almost everyone had gone. I liked the way the pine trees stood tal and straight like soldiers guarding the place. I liked the stil ness.

  'Walk with me,' Logan's dad said at last.

  Our feet crunched over the pink sandy ground, the granite rocks

  sparkled in the sun. Looking back, I saw the tops of the redwoods sway slightly in the breeze.

  I hadn't expected the Rohrs to be there, and I only spotted them Sharon,

  Brandon and Zak when Byron Lavel e and I reached the National Forest

  car park at the bottom of the hil .

  Sharon was the one who came forward to shake Byron's hand, tel ing him how sorry she was, then letting the unspoken bond between two parents who had each lost a son develop in silence.

  Brandon hung back, obviously not eager to engage and probably only there because his mother had pressured him. Zak likewise. I made the usual comparison between Brandon and Phoenix - they had the same deep-set grey eyes, both were tal , but after that Brandon came off way worse. He was thicker set, more heavily muscled and less graceful, plus the biker leathers always gave him an aggressive edge. I went off on a tangent, picturing Phoenix in my mind's eye, almost hearing his voice in the rustle of the wind in the pines.

  I swear I wouldn't have stepped forward to talk with Zak like Phoenix 118

  had told me except that Brandon unknowingly set it up for me. As Sharon accepted a ride home with Byron and walked away with him, Brandon turned to Zak and said, 'Kid, how about taking a ride in Darina's convertible?'

  Zak shook his head. 'I'l ride the Harley with you.'

  'Not an option. I have to be somewhere. Darina's heading your way, isn't that right, Darina?'

  'Sure.'

  'So go,' Brandon ordered, and he too walked quickly away.

  'What's the problem you think I'l bite?' I asked Zak.

  He was trailing behind me, scuffing his shoes in the dirt.

  'Get in,' I told him. I'd started to wonder why the hel Hunter wanted me to talk with the monosyl abic, moody kid. 'And by the way, did I ever hear a thank you for talking to Jardine and getting you off the fire-setting rap?'

  Zak's eyelids flickered shut. 'I can take care of myself,' he grunted.

  'Sure you can. That's why you hang out with Jacob and Taylor, the big bad guys, because nothing scares you, huh?' I started the engine and glanced sideways at my passenger. 'You want to know something?'

  'No, but I guess I'm going to hear it anyway.'

  I reversed out on to the track then pointed the car in the direction of town. 'I had a talk with Brandon the other day. He's freaked out that you're using him as a role model.'

  As we joined the highway, Zak struck a pose, winding down the window and leaning his elbow on the car door. The wind pushed his hair back from his face making him look somehow softer-featured and younger.

  'Why would that concern Brandon?' I persisted. 'What does Big Bro do that he doesn't want you to copy?'

  'Brandon's a jerk,' Zak said suddenly and with genuine anger. 'He thinks he's a big player. Like, yeah!'

  'You two had a fight?' I asked. I realized I could mine this seam and with luck I'd strike gold.

  Zak shrugged. 'He pushes me around do this, don't do that.' 119

  'And he's not even your dad. I get it.' 'He's nothing. A big fat zero.'

  'That's not what I hear. I hear he's wel connected.'

  'We're talking Brandon here, right?'

  'He got me this car,' I pointed out. 'It's a high-end machine.'

  'Yeah, from his dope-dealing buddy,' Zak muttered. *I just found out

  - Wil Stone owed Brandon big time, that's why he gave him the car.'

  Whoa - I was driving a vehicle belonging to a drugs dealer! Suddenly

  it didn't seem so shiny red and desirable, but I registered the name, Wil Stone, and stored it.

  Now that he'd started, Zak was on a rol . It seemed to me there was a mountain of resentment for the kid to offload. 'Then what,' he went on,

  'the next time Stone asks Brandon a favour ...?'

  'When did he last ask him?' I cut in.

  'Last year. It was some crap about delivering a package to a guy cal ed Oscar. Brandon tel s Stone no, and that's how come-'

  'Wil Stone had to deliver the package himself?'

  Zak nodded. 'Which is why Oscar Thorne was sitting in Starbucks waiting for Stone the day-'

  'That Summer Madison was shot.' I ended his sentence for him, turned off the highway and delivered Zak right to his door.

  This was big. Zak's information put two pieces of lowlife in the right place at the right time, and it was down to me to carry the facts back to Foxton.

  Any other time except the day of Logan's funeral I would have hit the highway and been out there before sunset.

  Tonight was way different. Instead of parking my car and walking down from the ridge and across the yard to hear the barn door banging in the wind, I sat in my room listening to Summer's demo disc. Tomorrow,

  after rehearsal, I told myself. It'l be soon enough.

  And no one appeared in a halo of silver light to tel me otherwise. 120

  'About yesterday,' Miss Jones announced next day b
efore the last-but-

  one rehearsal began. 'I was so proud.'

  There was silence in the theatre. Parker halted his sound check. Even Ezra dumped the coils of cable he was carrying and slouched across to listen.

  'It was the hardest thing,' Miss Jones said. ' Especial y for you three girls Hannah, Darina and Jordan. You came through for Logan.'

  It was Lucas who led the applause. He started slowly and soon others joined in, turning towards us with serious expressions, letting us know how they agreed with our music teacher until she stepped in and reminded everyone it was time to rehearse.

  'Jeez,' Hannah mumbled, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

  I dabbed more careful y around the edges of my mascara. 'Give me your laptop,' I sniffed. 'Let me take a look at angelvoice, see who posted comments.'

  So I hid away in a corner, expecting to find excited Summer fans looking ahead to the concert. Sure enough Can't wait til Saturday, Zoe Zee wrote. Skygirl fol owed up with: It's gonna be awesome.

  JakB came in with his usual sick stuff. You heard the news? Another kid from El erton High got buried. Who cares? The big thing is Summer lives!

  I jumped up from my seat when I read that and ran over to Ezra to

  make him read it too. 'This is the guy you gave the backstage pass to!' I told him. 'This is one sick psycho.'

  'Back off, Darina,' was Ezra's response, tipping his shades higher up the bridge of his nose - a kind of repetitive geeky gesture he had.

  'The guy can express an opinion, can't he?'

  'No, he can't!' I fol owed him backstage. 'You're going to go out of here and find him, take away his pass, end of story.'

  Ezra shook his head. 'What's the big deal?'

  'The deal is, JakB seriously needs help. Someone has to tel him he

  can't act this way.' 121

  Ezra escaped from the corner I'd backed him into. 'This is a free country,' he said, not looking where he was going and barging into Parker.

  'Read this!' I said, thrusting the laptop under Parker's nose. 'The stuff about Logan dying and nobody caring. Tel Ezra it's sick.'

  'No comment,' Parker muttered, making space for Ezra to squeeze past. But then he got how mad I was and tried to calm me down. 'Don't expect sympathy from Ezra,' he told me. 'He and Logan weren't best buddies, remember.'

  'Oh yeah, the fight outside the theatre. What was that about exactly?'

  'I have no clue. I only know it didn't end there. It blew up again in the cabin that night ...'

  'Ezra and Logan had another fight?'

  'No fists were used,' Parker corrected me in a mocking, schoolteacher voice. 'They yel ed at one another then Ezra made his exit.'

  'Out into the storm?' I asked.

  'We're talking seventy-mile-per-hour winds,' he agreed. 'But Ezra

  total y lost it. He swore Logan was a jerk, then he was out of there.'

  'Nice,' I muttered. 'So who's going to deal with crazy man JakB on Saturday night, now that your bonehead buddy gave him a backstage pass?'

  My heart wasn't in the rehearsal. I went through the motions, my mind flying ahead to the point where I'd be heading out to Foxton at last, wondering how Summer would be and how I would feel about Phoenix now that the line had been drawn tinder Logan's funeral. Meanwhile, I sang my songs, then left the theatre without stopping to talk with Hannah and Jordan.

  Sick in my stomach, I drove my druggie boy's toy out of town, running through the new facts I'd learned from Zak. I was hoping to see Summer without running into Hunter and the others, also dreading another clash with Phoenix. I paid no attention to the sun on the granite rocks to either side of the highway, or to the big blue sky above.

  I reached the ridge and Hunter was waiting for me, statue-stil among the fluttering aspens. He greeted me with an impassive expression, then surprised me when he said. 'Hel o, Darina. I'm sorry about Logan.'

  I nodded and took a sharp intake of breath.

  'I mean it. He was a good friend.'

  'The best.' I walked on under the trees, calming myself with the soft, whispering breeze running through the canopy of fresh green leaves.

  'And I have to thank you for not pursuing my family history.'

  'You made the situation pretty plain,' I muttered, then changed the subject. 'Where's Summer?'

  'In the barn, waiting for you.'

  We walked down the hil together, him keeping pace with my shorter stride, saying nothing, but giving me the intense stare which meant he was busy reading my mind. When we reached the weed-strewn yard, he stepped out across my path. 'Summer has only forty-eight hours here on the far side,' he said quietly. Two days for you to find her kil er.'

  'And if I don't?' My voice quivered over the biggest mystery of al .

  'We fail,' Hunter said, staring steadily into my eyes. 'She's back in limbo.'

  'Unable to rest,' I sighed. A soul in permanent torment.

  Hunter read the thought. 'Exactly that.' He paused to let this settle inside my throbbing head. The consequences are huge. And don't think we can do what we did as a last resort with Jonas and Arizona.'

  'You mean, time-travel back to the day of Summer's death to let her

  relive the event?'

  He nodded.

  'Why not? If this new Wil Stone lead doesn't work out, and JakB slips through the net too, we may need to take her back.'

  'Not possible,' Hunter insisted. 'It's too painful. She's not strong enough.'

  I frowned. 'Even if there's no other option?'

  He took me by the arm and walked me down the side of the barn into

  an old corral with broken fencing and tal yel ow Indian tobacco plants 123

  growing through the cracks in the flattened, parched earth. 'You're not listening,' he said impatiently. 'Time travel is the hardest thing we Beautiful Dead get to do, and even the other stuff the storm of beating wings, the memory zap, the appearing and disappearing - they take a lot of supernatural strength, which Summer no longer has.'

  'But if she rests up ... '

  'Not possible.'

  'If you help her ...'

  Stil not possible. Each restless soul who is permitted to return to the far side has an individual store of energy. If I tel you that Summer may not even make it through to Saturday, then do you understand what I'm saying?'

  'I do now,' I whispered, pul ing away from the overlord and retracing my steps to the front of the barn. 'I need to see her, work through some new ideas.'

  'Go ahead,' Hunter said, standing on the spot, watching me drag open the huge, creaking door.

  The moment I saw Summer, I knew al too clearly what Hunter meant.

  She sat on the steps to the hay loft, the long, dark-green silk skirt that she'd worn on the day of the shooting bil owing out over her ankles and feet. Her blonde hair cascaded around a face so thin and shadowed that it seemed impossible that she was stil here with me on the far side. I walked quickly across the straw-strewn floor to sit beside her.

  Slowly Summer turned her head and fixed her heavily lashed eyes on me, the rich violet irises now darkened to midnight blue, the pupils enormous. 'You sang my song at Logan's service,' she murmured in a voice almost too faint to hear.

  I nodded. Your mom loved it. I guess she felt you and she were close again.'

  Thank you, Darina.'

  'I'm sorry I haven't been here for you these last few days.' The words

  didn't go anywhere near to expressing the wrung-out, strung-out guilt and despair that had entered my heart since I set eyes on her. 124

  'No need to be sorry. You've worked so hard, and it was always a long-shot that we'd find my kil er.'

  'But listen - I picked up some new information. There's a guy cal ed Wil Stone, a dealer. And a guy named Oscar Thorne. There was a fight for territory, or some big drugs deal that went wrong. Stone wanted to deliver a packet. They were both in the mal the day you were shot.'

  'And I got in the way?' Summer whispered.

  'My plan is
to go back and talk to the cop, Henry Jardine, like he asked me to. I'l push Thorne and Stone's names into the centre of the frame. Thorne is already in jail - I'm thinking that Jardine can put the pressure on him, maybe offer him an early-release deal in return for information that would nail Stone. So no more violence, in case you were

  stil worried about that.'

  'Sounds good.' Summer smiled briefly before a frown creased her pale forehead.

  'And tomorrow I'l track down JakB,' I promised. 'He's the guy who's coming up with al the crazy comments on your website. Plus I've seen him in the creepy flesh he could definitely be our guy.'

  'Also good,' she sighed, leaning her head against the rough plank

  wal . 'But you know, what matters is that you tried. I won't turn against you if you don't come up with the answer.'

  She closed her eyes and I felt her drift, almost as if the last micro-gram of energy had drained away. When I took her hand in mine it was ice cold. 'Don't give up,' I pleaded. 'Two days - we stil have forty-eight hours to solve this!'

  Misery weighed me down as I walked back up to the water tower. I'd made promises, begged with Summer to hang on, while my heart was secretly gripped with giant doubts.

  I stopped to lean against the blackened, rusting uprights of the tower, seeming to hear the words of Summer's last song echoing around the hil sides. ' There's a hil / I'l wait until / The stars appear / And the sky 125

  grows clear.' In the distance, the dark, conical shape of Angel Rock seemed like a long-robed figure in prayer. 'Then it's time for me to go.'

  Dusk was gathering over Amos Peak when Phoenix joined me, the sky a deep shade of purple, the mountains darkening into jagged outline.

  My already bruised, battered heart was squeezed again.

  He stood by my side, waiting.

  'Did Hunter tel you to come?' I asked, almost taunting him. 'No.'

  'So you came because you wanted to?' 'I asked him.'

  'Yeah, don't forget to ask Hunter for permission,' I mocked.

  He ducked his head backwards as if I'd thrown a punch, but he stayed

  silent.

  'Sorry. You didn't deserve that.' I walked out from under the shadow of the tower, amongst sweet grasses and pale-blue flowers along the ridge.

  Phoenix watched me go, letting the distance between us grow, waiting for me to turn around.