by Jim Johnson
Abbie prefers to use the free weights and machines at the gym, and Bonita is like a freak of nature—she eats a lot of greens and is holistically healthy, but even so, manages to down the occasional barbecue dinner or pastry and doesn’t seem to suffer for it. But me, I need regular exercise to keep my hips and thighs from expanding beyond my clothing’s capability to contain.
Running’s always been my thing, and it’s always been there for me even when things were at their worst. Except that brief period of time at UPenn, when I wasn’t running or doing much of anything except hiding in my dorm room and being miserable.
Anyway. I worked my way down Mount Vernon, passing through the Hispanic neighborhood north of Del Rey, strip malls and gas stations and fast food joints passing me on both sides. The afternoon rush hour was well underway, so there was a lot of car traffic on the roads. I did my best to sidestep most of them and just let my feet lead me along the sidewalks and roads I’d run for the past couple years, since getting back to Virginia from UPenn.
I indulged in a bit of a luxury and let my mind wander, emptying my brain as I just let my body take over and hit the pavement over and over with my sneakered feet, one foot after another, chewing up the miles.
I let myself drift into that flow state of running, where nothing mattered other than my feet hitting the ground, the wind rushing past my ears and chilling my cheeks and the tip of my nose, and the sweat that gathered on my brow and cooled almost immediately in temperature left behind by the setting sun.
I was so completely in that flow state that I nearly crashed right into Detective Bello as he stepped out of an alleyway in front of me. I stumbled and nearly lost my balance. I staggered to a halt, the chill in the air and a sudden strange ringing in my ears leaving me off-balance mentally even as I was out of breath physically.
I leaned over and rested my hands on my knees and caught my breath, feeling my lungs tighten from the sudden stop of exertion. I stared at him and his perfectly tailored navy blue suit. “Who the hell do you think you are jumping out like that? You scared the crap out of me.”
Both of Bello’s dark eyebrows shot up his dark brown face and up toward his bald head. “Whoa, hold on there, Rachel.” He raised a hand toward me, palm out and fingers spread wide. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” He gave me the once-over. “And it looks like I did startle you.” He offered a slight smile. “Again, sorry about that.”
It was hard to stay mad at him with the contrite sound of his voice, but I sure did try to hold onto the little ember of anger that had popped up after getting knocked out of my run-flow.
“It’s all right, you know…just… Just don’t do it again.” I knew it sounded lame the moment I said it, but come on. I was catching my breath and had been thrown for a loop. I instinctively raised a hand toward my crystal, and touched the lumpy form of it where it was safely encased beneath my hoodie and t-shirt. Its warmth gave me comfort. I sensed the low-powered glow emanating from it, even saw the glow through my Sight.
I stood up straight and focused on Detective Bello. “So, apologies aside, what the hell are you doing out here, anyway? Out for an evening stroll in Del Rey?”
I frowned, a sudden suspicion coming to mind. “You don’t live around here, do you?”
He snorted. “Not on my salary, I don’t. Del Rey may be eccentric, but it sure isn’t cheap.”
I moved my hands to my hips, feeling regular breaths returning to me. “Tell me about it. That new Metro station over by Potomac Yards didn’t help to drop the cost of living around here.”
I waved vaguely in the direction of my house. “If it gets much worse, me and Abbie are going to have to move to a lower-rent district. We’ve almost been priced out of the area, and we’re just renting.”
He gave me a sympathetic nod that seemed to have some substance to it. I didn’t like the look of that, not to mention how much I didn’t like talking about my money issues with something of a stranger.
I glanced behind Bello, at the alley he had emerged from, a glimmer of remembrance tickling my brain. Then it hit me, and I was confused all over again. I frowned. “So…what are you doing here, again?” I moved to circle around him, in order to get a better look at the alleyway he’d come out of. I made a show of stretching out my legs and arms and back in order to cover the move to get around him.
It seemed to work. He sidestepped to keep the distance between us, and didn’t seem to pay any attention to the alleyway he’d come out of. He stared at me for a few moments, with an unreadable look on his face. When I glanced at him and gave him a challenging look, he said, “Well. I’m sort of working on a case. An old file, one that had been left open for twenty-odd years.”
“What sort of case?” The tickle of memory was really starting to bug me, and I risked reaching out toward the ley grid for a little etheric boost to help me scan around a bit.
“A murder case, actually. A woman was killed in this alley a number of years ago; very tragic.”
Just as he said that, my etheric scan pinged, right about the same time my memory clicked into place. This alley was the exact same alley in which I had first met Kareena Mathison, the first lost soul I had encountered and then led home toward the Veil.
Tears started to well up in my eyes as I remembered that moment, and I covered them by wiping my face and brow and eyes all in one swift movement and rubbing my hands on my thighs.
Bello stared at me as he continued. “I stumbled across the case file while doing some early spring cleaning. I was in the area and thought I’d poke around a bit. You know how it goes.”
I’m not sure that I did, not at all, but I made an affirmative grunt and crossed my arms in front of my chest. My suspicion meter was going off the scale.
Bello shrugged. “Not that I expected to find anything after twenty years, but…” He glanced around. “Places like this don’t change much, really. These old residences aren’t going to get bought up by a commercial developer, and unless a bunch of the neighbors get together to remodel the alleyway, I bet it’s pretty much as it was back when she was killed.”
“Probably true.” I wasn’t sure if he was going to get to whatever point he was going to make. I decided to push him along a bit. “Did you find anything?”
He glanced around the alleyway. “No, not that I really expected to.” He focused on me with his dark brown eyes, seemingly boring into my head with that penetrating gaze. “I didn’t find a thing.”
I didn’t get what he was getting at, but the weight behind his gaze was enough to make me mentally reel back and even dip into the ley grid again for another ley thread for mental support.
I rallied and found a smile for him. “Well, besides, what did you expect to find, a ghost or something? I mean, really.” I made a little hand-wave, looking for some sort of way to break this weird conversation off so that I could get home. With my phone fried and the sun starting to set, I wanted to get home in time for dinner with Abbie and the others. Besides, ol’ Bello was starting to weird me out.
A slow smile broadened his mouth as he crossed his arms in front of him. “Now, that’s interesting. Do you believe in ghosts, Rachel?”
Put on the spot, I wasn’t sure I could cover my sudden surprise. I held onto that ley thread like a lifeline and rallied. “Oh, you know. Maybe. The scare at the nursing home a few weeks ago made me think about things. Like wondering what’s beyond this life, you know?”
He nodded, his smile disappearing back into that scary all-business look he adopted the handful of times I had encountered him. “Like wondering what’s on the other side?”
I frowned, alarm bells going off in my head. “The other side?”
He shrugged. “You know, beyond the mortal coil? The other side of the, ah, curtain separating life from death?”
I stared at him more closely, a worm of suspicion starting to gnaw away at me. “I’m not sure…”
Bello lifted a hand and waved it off. “It’s nothing. Superstition and mythology.�
�� He tried a disarming smile that put me on high alert. “Just curious, is all.”
I liked to think I could read people fairly well, and I was pretty confident that Bello didn’t believe a word of what he’d just said.
He glanced at the large gold watch on his wrist. “Anyway, I should really get going.” He glanced in the alleyway and then focused on me. “I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I’m glad we had a chance to chat.”
I offered a smile that I hoped looked genuine but which I only really half-heartedly felt. “Hope you have a good night, Detective.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say, and besides, I was still scratching at that suspicion.
He turned away and headed for the road connected to the alley, but paused and turned. “Oh, incidentally. If you are interested in ghosts?”
I glanced at him and nodded. “Yeah?”
“You might want to check out the Lincoln Memorial one of these days. Sounds like some interesting things are happening there.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Some say it’s haunted.” He shrugged. “If you believe in that stuff, anyway.” He offered a small wave. “Anyway, have a good night, Rachel.”
I couldn’t muster a smile, but I managed a wave, then watched him walk out of the alley and turn down the road without looking back.
I turned to focus on the alley behind me and let go of the ley thread, barely sensing it snake back toward the grid far below. I didn’t feel anything from the alleyway—the spirit I had guided to the Holding had been gone for a few weeks, and there was nothing else here to spark my senses.
I resumed jogging toward home, but any joy from the exercise had been squashed by my growing suspicions that Detective Bello had a whole lot more going on than he was saying.
Chapter Eleven
THE REST OF MY RUN HOME was uninterrupted, save for waving to a few neighborhood folks I didn’t know by name but recognized on sight. The moon was just starting to work its way up into the sky as I jogged up my house’s path and up the porch stairs. The porch had a bunch of broken-down cardboard boxes folded up on it, which suggested our new roommate had managed to unpack at some point during the day.
I opened the front door and stepped through and closed it behind me. Penny and Cooper and the new girl, Jackie, were lounging in the living room to the right of the doorway. I didn’t see Abbie and of course I didn’t see Tonia, who spent all her time out of the house or downstairs in the private basement suite.
I paused by the archway that separated the central hallway from the living room on one side and the old formal dining room on the other, which the owners had long since converted into a sitting room.
Penny glanced at me with a thinly-hidden frown. “Jackie, this is Rachel. She lives with Abbie in one of the two upstairs bedrooms.”
I reached my hand out to take Jackie’s and shook it briefly. “Nice to meet you. Welcome to the house.” I gave her a warm smile, one I had a lot of practice giving new housemates.
And I’d had a lot of practice with that smile. I don’t know if we were cursed, blessed, or something in between, but we tended to go through roommates pretty regularly. Penny and Cooper and me and Abbie were the core four people that had been here the longest, and even then, Penny and Abbie had been here before Penny met Cooper and before Abbie and I got together.
The other two bedrooms, the one on the main level off the kitchen and the private suite downstairs in the converted basement, had seen more regular turnover.
I smiled at Jackie. “You’re taking the room on the main level, right?”
She nodded. “I’m pretty much moved in. Finished the bulk of the unpacking today. I hope you don’t mind the boxes out on the porch.”
I shook my head. “No problem here. I like stacking boxes—it makes me feel like I’ve made progress, even if I’ve just moved stuff out of the box and stacked it somewhere in the room. Baby steps, right?”
She grinned and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She was cute, in a sort of young Ginnifer Goodwin way.
Jackie shifted focus over to Penny. “I usually get up around five so that I have time to run and get ready for the bus. Classes at UDC start at 7:30.” She glanced at the three of us. “Will that schedule mess anyone up?”
I raised an eyebrow. It had been a while since we had a college girl in the house, other than me of course, though I didn’t consider myself much of a college student any more. Washing myself out of UPenn had pretty much cured me of that.
She added, “I hope I don’t wake anyone up by puttering around the house in the early hours. I’m grateful there’s a shower stall on this level.”
Penny glanced at Cooper and then shot me a look. “No problem, Jackie. Most of us are early risers as well, except for Rachel, and she sleeps like the dead most mornings.”
I plastered a smile on my face, deciding in an instant two things—first, to play along with Penny’s lead because I was just too tired to bother getting into it now; and second, I needed to extricate myself from this conversation right now before I threw a riposte at Penny that I’d regret later. Besides, it’d leave a bad first impression with Jackie.
I made a show of wiping my brow with my jacket sleeve and made a slightly louder-than-necessary sigh.
It got their attention. I gestured up the stairs. “I just got in from a run and I’m in desperate need of a shower. I’m gonna go up and do that and settle in.”
I focused my attention on Jackie. “I’ll see you tomorrow maybe, and we can get to know each other better?”
She offered another smile. “That sounds good.”
“All right,” I said. “I’ll see you all in the morning.” I didn’t wait for a response. I gathered up my satchel and bounded up the stairs two at a time. Once in the upstairs hall, I pushed my way into the bedroom I shared with Abbie.
She was settled in at our little white desk with the faded roses stenciled on it, laptop fired up and a mug of tea by her side. That the tea wasn’t steeping suggested it had been sitting there a while.
I closed the door behind me and kissed her on the crown of her head. “Good evening, gorgeous.”
She glanced at me with a smile and sniffed indelicately. “You’ve been running.”
I tossed my stuff into a corner and started stripping off my clothes and launching them in the general direction of the empty hamper. “And training, and walking, and getting mad at my brother.”
She turned away from the laptop and focused on me. “Sounds like an eventful day.”
I nodded, and then, naked, I made a little pose. “And I got paid today, sort of.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Robert gave you your monthly pittance again.” She said it like a fact. She had put two and two together—my girl Abbie is a smart cookie.
I nodded and then fished out the business envelope from my satchel and handed it to her.
“Leave me a hundred but deposit the rest in your account and put it toward the rent and groceries or whatever.”
She opened her mouth to protest, like she always did, but I raised a hand to forestall the inevitable argument. “I’m better off if it’s out of sight and out of mind. If I leave it in my wallet, I’ll end up blowing it on food and stupid stuff. I need to be more responsible.”
She glanced into the envelope, and then nodded. “I’ll run by the bank tomorrow. Thanks, honey.”
I smiled and gave her a peck on the cheek. “I know it’s not much, but I’m trying to help. I have a few more hours at Bonita’s shop this week too. I should be able to bring in a little more before next month.” I snapped my fingers. “And I also emailed my resume to a couple job possibilities. I’ll check email later and see if there’s any movement.”
She tossed the envelope on the desk next to her laptop and then rested her hands on my hips and pulled me close enough so that she could kiss my belly. “I really appreciate what you’re doing, Rachel. You know it’s not entirely necessary, but I like that we’re trying to work a
s a team.”
I smiled down at her and rested my hands on her shoulders. “I like our team, and I’m really sorry I didn’t play within the rules when I got home so late last night.”
She nodded into my belly and kissed me on my navel again. “You taste like sweat. Go take a shower and then get in my bed.”
I gave her a false shocked look and then grinned. “Abigail Ross, we have a new roommate downstairs.”
Abbie snorted and then whispered, “She’s not invited.” She tugged on my hips to turn me around, then gave me a playful swat on the butt. “Go on, get yourself clean.”
I grinned and then donned a bathrobe before heading to the bathroom to take one of the quickest showers I could manage. I was back in the bedroom with a soft towel wrapped around my body and another one entwined with my hair. I pushed the door shut with my hips and padded over to the bed and sighed as I sunk into the mattress.
Abbie glanced up at me from her ereader and chuckled softly. “Rough day?”
I shrugged against her and found comfortable spots for my arms and legs, pressed up against her warmth. We had flannel sheets on the bed, and she had been under the covers long enough to bring them up to nice and toasty levels.
“You have no idea. One thing after anther, and then my cell phone went kablooie.”
“Kablooie? Like, your battery died?”
I shook my head and then kissed her shoulder again before snuggling in. “No, I mean kablooie, like sparks and the smell of ozone and then a dead, blank screen. Nothing.”
“Ugh. Sounds like your battery crapped out and killed your phone. Happens with those older models.”
“Something like that, I guess.” I told myself the lie was of the little white varieties, and the less Abbie knew about the details about how my phone popped, the better. I didn’t know when I was going to tell her everything, but it sure wasn’t going to be tonight.
“What’ll you do?” she asked.
