by Laurel Veil
“Let’s begin with your personal information first,” he said. He scratched down my full name and my grandma’s address and phone number. “When was the last time you saw Danielle Moretti?”
“When we dropped her off at her house last night.”
“We?”
“Uh, Jace, and me. Jace Randall.” My grandma quickly retrieved her small, black address book that lay by her phone in the den so she could give him Jace’s information.
“Approximately what time was that—that the two of you dropped off Miss Moretti?”
“A little after eleven, I think.”
“She was alone?”
I had forgotten entirely about Nolan. “No, sir. Nolan Masters, he lives next door.” I pointed in the direction of his house. “He was with her.” I cringed thinking about the two of them together.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Are you sure you didn’t just remember something?”
“No. Why?”
“You made a face. That’s all.” He must have thought I sounded defensive. He studied my eyes without blinking. It made me nervous, and I looked down. “I thought maybe you’d remembered something. Sometimes it’s the little details that people think aren’t important that help the most.” He waited a moment before clearing his throat. “Anyway, is,” he looked down at his notepad, “Nolan, Danielle’s boyfriend?”
Boyfriend? I was careful not to let my disgust show. “They’re just friends.” I gave him Nolan’s information and had never been so relieved to see someone leave as I was when Officer Harvey turned to go.
Grandma and I sat across from one another in the den. Neither one of us spoke for several minutes as we tried to process what had just happened. Officer Harvey said that Dani had called her mom to tell her that she’d made it home safely last night. But when her mom got off her shift at the hospital this morning, she came home to find that the back door had been forced open and Dani was gone. My emotions were a whirlwind of grief and optimism. Was my friend gone forever? But hope that she would return kept surging through me.
Where was she? Was she hurting? Was she terrified? I looked at my grandma. Her face was ashen. And then I remembered. “Grandma.” My voice was so timid, I didn’t recognize it. “Do you think the ball of fire you saw was about Dani?” I swallowed. “Do you think she’s . . . dead?”
I didn’t think she could get any paler, but she was now as white as milk. “Of course not.” When she finally looked at me, I knew she didn’t believe that. She shifted nervously in her seat.
“You thought that ball of fire might have been for me. That’s why you were so worried earlier.”
Reluctantly, she nodded. “The deaths I’ve foreseen in the past have always been for people who are pretty old. I wondered if maybe the last fireball was a different color because it was for someone young.” She was quiet for a while, and when she began speaking, my heart pounded at the seriousness of her tone. “We don’t know who’s behind Dani’s disappearance. We don’t know why they did it, or if they’ll strike again.” Her voice caught, and she sighed heavily. “I’ve never had a premonition about anyone I’m not related to. I’m sorry if I’m scaring you, but I need you to be extremely cautious. That ball of fire could still be about you.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Grandma didn’t want me out of her sight. I understood why, but I wanted to talk to Nolan. “Grandma, I’m going next door.” She knew that meant Nolan’s house. Even though her yard and his touched, she still looked nervous about my leaving. “I want to talk to him. I need to.”
I didn’t give her a chance to tell me no and dashed out the door. My fast pace slowed drastically as I approached the edge of Grandma’s yard. I peered at Nolan’s house through the hedges. I usually ran into Nolan outside. I hadn’t been inside his house or even to his door in ages. I felt nervous about knocking.
“Spying on me?”
I jumped. “I told you not to do that, Nolan!” It took a moment for my heart to stop racing. “What were you doing?”
“We’re about to head to church. I saw you and thought I’d scare you. I guess with everything that’s going on, it was a bad idea.”
“Ya think? Anyway—Now that you know Dani is missing, thinking back, do you remember anything that seemed odd last night?”
He shook his head. “You sound like Officer Harvey.”
“Did you go inside Dani’s house last night? How long were you there? What did you two do?” The last question left my mouth before my brain had a chance to filter it and tell me not to ask it.
He raised his brows, and I could feel heat radiating from my cheeks. “What did we do?” he repeated. He waited for me to respond. When I noticed the corner of his mouth hint at a smile, I knew he was deliberately not saying anything so he could watch me squirm in the silence.
“Whatever,” I snapped. “You know what I meant.”
“No. What did you mean?”
I was never at a loss for words, but I found myself tongue-tied. I wasn’t used to being uncomfortable around Nolan. This was a first.
“I-I’m just trying to figure out what happened to Dani. Remember her?”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s way too soon to be making jokes. It’s just—”
“It’s just what?”
He sighed. “It just doesn’t seem real. She’ll probably be home any minute.”
“But the back door—Officer Harvey said it had been forced open.”
I could almost see the heaviness of my words settle on him. His shoulders seemed to slump from the weight.
My grandma called my name from the porch. “I’ll be there in a sec,” I replied. “I gotta run. She doesn’t want me out of her sight.”
Just as I turned to go, he said, “I didn’t go inside. I walked her to the door and said goodbye.”
His words shouldn’t have mattered to me, but they did more than I was willing to admit, even to myself. “I gotta go,” I said and then left before he could say anything else.
♦ ♦ ♦
“Did he have any news?” asked Grandma as soon as I stepped inside.
“No.” I felt so helpless. I wanted to search the neighborhood and knock on doors like Officer Harvey. I knew my grandma wouldn’t want me walking around, though. “I want to do something to help.”
“Right now, we’ll pray. Go get dressed for church. If we hurry, we can make it.”
Word traveled fast. Pastor Thomas already knew about Dani. He told the congregation, and we prayed for her safe return.
I looked up several times to find Nolan looking at me. He looked worried. Maybe it will make him feel better to help too. Grandma might agree to let me out of her sight if Nolan is with me.
I told Grandma what I was thinking as soon as the service ended, and sure enough, she was fine with me leaving as long as Nolan was with me. I caught Nolan in the parking lot and told him to come over as soon as he could.
We finished lunch just as Nolan knocked on the door. “I’ll be back in a while,” I said.
I just started down the front steps when Grandma called out, “Nolan.”
“Yes, Ma’am?”
“Would you mind walking her to her mama’s house before y’all come back this evening?”
“Why?” I asked.
“I want you to stay here for a while, and you’ll need to get some more things.”
“But—”
“Please don’t protest, Noelle. You know why I want you here.”
“Fine.”
“I’ll go with her, and we’ll be back before dark,” said Nolan.
“Thank you, hon.”
“Why is she acting so protective?” asked Nolan as soon as we were down the sidewalk a bit. “Does she seriously think Dani’s not coming back, and there’s a serial killer on the loose?”
“She had a premonition the night Dani disappeared.”
Nolan’s head whipped in my direction. His eyes were boring throu
gh me. “Does she still see a ball of fire before someone dies?”
I nodded.
“That used to scare the crap out of me when we were kids.”
“Used to?” I watched as Nolan rubbed his arms briskly.
Nolan laughed. “Yeah, yeah. It still gives me chills.”
“Well, it gets worse.”
“How? Wait . . . does this mean Dani’s—”
“No. Well, Grandma doesn’t know. She’s only ever had premonitions about the deaths of relatives—old relatives.”
“So, she doesn’t know who this one belongs to yet?”
“No. But . . .”
“But what?”
“It was a different color this time—the fireball.”
“So?”
“She thinks the color change may mean it’s for someone young. She’s worried it could be for me.”
Nolan was quiet for a minute. “Your grandma is worried that whoever got Dani could get you.”
I nodded.
“That’s not going to happen,” he said flatly. I wondered how he could be so sure. “Where are we going, anyway?”
“Dani’s.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I just feel like I need to. She’s all we’ve talked about for the last several hours. I don’t even believe she’s missing. I need to see it with my own eyes.”
We froze when we saw Dani’s mom throwing a bag into a trash can that stood near the garage. I gasped.
“What’s the matter?” said Nolan.
“I-I forgot about her mom.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I just forgot about her. That’s all. She must be so upset, so worried. We should go talk to her and try to make her feel better.”
“I don’t know,” he said hesitantly. “The last thing she may want is company.”
“I don’t want to go alone. We won’t stay long. Come on.”
I took a deep breath before knocking on the door. My stomach tickled with butterflies when I heard the knob rattle.
“H-hi, Ms. Morretti. I don’t know if you remember me. I’m—”
“Noelle. Of course, I remember. Dani talks about you all the time.” Her smile was sweet but weary. “Please, come in.” She held open the door.
“This is Nolan. We all go to school together,” I said.
“Nice to meet you, dear.”
Nolan smiled before looking down shyly.
“Let’s go to the kitchen, and I’ll get us something to drink.”
We followed, but I stopped when I came to what was obviously Dani’s room. Her bed was made neatly, and a couple of stuffed animals were lying on her pillow. Nolan pointed toward her nightstand. There was a small frame, with some brightly colored gems glued to it, sitting by her lamp. I was surprised to see it held a picture of Dani and me. Without asking, I stepped into her room and picked up the frame. When did we ever take a picture together? I couldn’t even remember, and yet she felt it was special enough she printed and framed it.
As if reading my mind, Dani’s mom said, “I took that the evening you two went to a party at the park,” said her mom.
“That’s right,” I said. “I remember now.”
“Dani thinks a lot of you.” She hesitated. “The other girls, not so much. But you, I think she thought you two were on the road to being best friends.”
I hardly ever showed my emotions. But the next thing I knew, my hands were trembling, and my eyes were welling with tears. I tried my best to set the picture down without breaking it. “I have to go.”
“Oh, honey. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“No. You didn’t. I-I just remembered there was something my grandma asked me to do. That’s all.”
I felt like a terrible person lying to Dani’s mom, but I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. “Wait up,” Nolan called after me. I rubbed my eyes until they were dry. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.” Nolan knew me well enough to drop it, at least for now. We walked in silence for a while. “You don’t have to go with me to my mom’s, you know? I don’t need a babysitter.”
“I told your grandma I would, so . . .”
For once, I was glad I couldn’t get rid of him. I don’t even know why I’d said that. I didn’t want to go to my house by myself. I didn’t want to face it alone if it was empty and I didn’t want to face it alone if it wasn’t. Luckily for me, Nolan knew everything there was to know about my mom, so I never had to feel embarrassed. And, regardless of how annoying my grandma could be, the truth was, I was afraid to walk alone in my neighborhood now.
I opened the door, cautiously. Rick gave a small wave and got up from the recliner and went into the kitchen. My mom had been dozing on the sofa but perked up a little when she saw Nolan. “Hey, stranger. Haven’t seen you in ages.”
“Hello,” said Nolan.
“I’m just grabbing some things. I’m going to stay with Grandma for the next few days.”
Of course, my mom didn’t ask me why or beg me to stay. I knew she was looking forward to her and Rick having the house to themselves. “Sounds good,” she said before taking a sip of wine from the glass sitting on the end table.
Rick came back from the kitchen and popped open a beer before lighting a cigarette.
I motioned with a jerk of my head for Nolan to follow me to my room.
“I haven't been in here in forever,” he said as he picked up a stuffed bear that was resting comfortably on a dusty shelf in the corner. “Hello, Roscoe. It’s been years. I’m glad to see she hasn’t chucked you yet.” Nolan gave him a squeeze before gently returning him to his perch.
“I would never do that to Roscoe.” I placed my duffel bag on my bed and began filling it with everything I thought I might need. Just before zipping it, Nolan stuffed Roscoe inside.
“Don’t leave him here.”
I smiled. “Let’s go.” We headed back into the den and stood near the door. “We’re leaving now.” I waited a moment for my mom to say something. I had a duffel bag with me; for all she knew, I was running away to elope with Nolan. I glanced at Nolan and quickly looked away because I thought I saw pity in his eyes caused by my mom’s lack of concern. “Well, bye.”
“Bye,” said my mom.
Just as I went to open the door, a commercial for the local news came on. “Oh, have you seen this,” said my mom, sitting up. She reached for the remote and turned up the volume. “Some girl is missing.” She looked at me. “Do you know her?”
“No,” I said, and I closed the door.
“Why did you say that?” asked Nolan.
I shrugged. “Why not? Dani and I have been friends for months, and she’s asking me if I know her. And before you lecture me about trying harder to communicate with my mom, Dr. Phil, I used to. A lot. Sorry if I don’t feel like it anymore.”
“Who’s that?” said Nolan as we approached my grandmother’s house and saw a strange car backing out of her driveway.
“It’s Autumn. She never comes here.” Autumn stopped and rolled down her window when she saw us. “Hey, Aut—”
“You little bitch,” she snapped.
6.
My mouth fell open, but nothing came out. “Oh, don’t look so surprised,” snarled Autumn.
“What happened? Why are you mad at me?”
“Most people tend to get pissed off when their boyfriend is accused of abducting someone. I can’t believe you gave the cops Kayne’s information.”
“I didn’t!” Autumn scoffed. “I promise.”
“The cops have been going around the neighborhood. They questioned me too. It doesn’t mean anything,” said Nolan in his calm Nolan voice.
“Well, Kayne doesn’t live around here, so someone had to offer up his name.”
“Well, it wasn’t me. Or Nolan, for that matter.”
“Whatever,” she hissed before driving away.
“I don’t really know Kayne, but I don’t like him very much,” I said.
“Why is that?” asked Nolan.
“The other night at the park, it seemed like he couldn’t have cared less about Autumn, and he seemed very interested in Dani.”
“Maybe someone else at the party thought so too.”
