3

by Shera Eitel-Casey

He finally looked away, thank goodness, because I couldn't have held his gaze much longer. I let out a breath. There was a bit of silence until Jett broke it. “Should we file charges against him or some kind of report?”

  “Well if you saw his face and could identify him then I would say yes. But from what you’ve told me, and if it was Winters, then I doubt you saw his face because he's too careful, every move he makes is calculated. I'll record this and put it in my report in case anything comes of it later. That way it will be official, but right now there’s nothing else we can do without evidence.”

  “So this guy can turn into a werewolf or a bat, that's how he makes a quick get away at the first sign of trouble,” I remarked. Jett laughed and got up to stretch and his uncle looked up slowly at me, he looked mad, stared me down again with his piercing eyes and mouthed to me 'What do you know?' I raised an eyebrow at him and said quizzically “It's in a book I'm reading.” I was so startled by his response that I lied.

  He slapped his knees and stood up, Jett and I stood up too. I shook his hand, he grabbed mine firmly. “Nice to see you again, please keep me updated on anything, no matter how inconsequential it may seem.” Grey said it as though he was talking in code and I was to decipher the message. I blurted out “Did you ever find Jewel Richardson's bracelet?” He paused shaking his head saying “I don't remember any reports of a bracelet.”

  “It's in the field where she was murdered; it's silver and shiny with a bunch of charms on it.” I said in a very neutral voice. “Nooo…” he said suspiciously, “We haven't found the location of the murder as of yet.” He didn't ask me how I knew that bit of information, but he knew where it came from. Jett on the other hand didn't even question it which I was glad for, because I shouldn’t’ have said that in front of him.

  Jett added “Were you able to check Cale’s house?” His uncle looked at him shaking his head. “We checked out his apartment and we didn't find a thing, it was spotless, looked like no one lived there, as a matter of fact. We don’t have a record of Cale living in a house, just an apartment, what makes you think that?”

  “I think Cale lives in a house,” I announced. The fact that when I woke up on our so called date and we were outside a house means nothing, anyone could have owned it, maybe his friend lived there and he just visited. But for some reason between my story and Topher’s and seeing him there sick, it seemed as though he lived in that house.

  “Don't look at me, I don't know all the details, just that it's right off of 77 in Brecksville and it's a white ranch with green trim. “ Jett looked at me like I was crazy. Grey said “Don't ask.” I took the pad of paper from his hands “Do you know what a river birch is?”

  “Yes, but I'm surprised you do.”

  I drew the house and then the backyard which looked like a wavy shaped oval or “U.”

  “This is a river birch with four trunks.” I had drawn a stick tree and pointed to the right of my oval, then pointed to the field. “This isn't a really big hill but it slopes downward, and here is where, I believe, she was killed and where the bracelet was dropped.” I marked it with an 'X'. “I've only seen Cale's house once, the other time I was half asleep so it doesn’t count. Maybe it's Cale's very own back yard.” I volunteered the information because if it was Cale, I wanted him caught.

  Jett looked at me in astonishment or was he looking at me like I belonged in a Looney bin, not sure which; I shrugged and handed Grey his pad of paper and pen back. “He isn't registered to own anything in the area, but I'll check into this.” Grey said. “I'll get in touch with you if I need you for any reason, but by all means call me if anything else happens and please keep me updated. Maybe we'll put a tail on one of you to see if anything turns up.” Grey seemed like an alright guy.

  After Detective Grey left Jett turned to me and asked, “How did you know some of the stuff you were sharing with Grey? I mean was that what you and my uncle were talking about before when he came to the school?” So I told him that Topher and I put everything together from conversations we overheard from Cale. Jett and I got in his car shortly after that, so he must have been satisfied with my answer, in any case, I didn’t talk I just looked straight forward. I couldn't shake the feeling his uncle knew a lot more than he was telling us. Of course I didn't tell Jett about my dreams, so he was being left in the dark twice, however, I did say more than I should have. “Jett did you get the feeling your uncle was holding back info?” He turned to me and shook his head “I felt like you both were. Maybe there’s information he's not allowed to give us, maybe they don't want anyone else knowing certain details yet.” I gulped at his comment and there was a short pause, “I know you’ll tell me more when you’re ready.” I smiled at him and shook my head.

  The sky was fire reds and pinks as the sun was about to go down and the clouds looked like popcorn making our moods brighter, Jett took my hand. I was very relaxed and happier now that we let Detective Grey know all about Cale. I felt like I could finally breath and I let a smile slowly come across my face.

  Even though it was dusk and the sun was at our backs Jett still put his sunglasses on, which I had never seen before. I asked him about them and he told me ever since Christmas break his eyes and all his senses had been overly sensitive, the doctors thought that was normal though.

  Jett asked. “The house you went by that you think is Cale's...”

  I didn't even let him finish because I knew where he was going with it. “I don't know the address but I know how to get there, it's off of the Brecksville exit. We can try and go by there now.”

  “Awesome. Tell me what you know.”

  I rattled off all the information that I knew about how to get to Cale's supposed house. As Jett pulled down the street he drove slowly, it felt very ominous. I pointed to the house and as he passed it I ducked. “What are you doing?” Jett asked laughing. “I'm hiding, of course.” He handed me a rumpled envelope and pulled a pen from the ashtray “Here, write down the address “2620 Shea Ct.” I scooted on the floor, put the paper on the seat and wrote it down. He turned the car around, in the next driveway when Jett said “Oh shit!” and floored the car back onto the street and sped all the way back to the highway.

  I got back in my seat, “Did you see him?”

  “No, but I saw someone coming out of the house. I'll get that address to my uncle right away.”

  Right before I got out of the car Jett asked me again how I knew some of the stuff I did. I told him that was a whole other conversation, and we were both so tired he left it at that for the moment. Something was still bothering me about Jett not expecting more of an answer out of me. Maybe he wasn’t telling me everything either making it acceptable for me not to have to tell him everything myself. I should have tried to get some more information out of him about his senses and his illness, not sure I know how to go about that though.

  I got a personal call from Detective Grey the next day. He told me they raided the house that morning with the address Jett gave them, and I was right. They found the bracelet with traces of blood. They are testing it to see if it matches Jewel's. The house was being rented by a woman named Dr. Cassandra Westman. The landlord thought she had a couple of guys living with her too. One was thought to be her boyfriend and he gave them a similar description to Cale's. The house is locked up and under further investigation. I asked if they arrested Cale and he said no arrests were made, no one was there and it looked like they packed up in a hurry.

  A week went by and I hadn't heard from Jett nor seen him in school, and then, another week; he wasn’t returning my phone calls either. Finally, I saw him at his locker, I always took the routes that passed by his locker if I could. When I saw him my heart leapt, and panicked all at once. I practically froze, I didn’t know what to do and before I could decide I found myself walking up to him like some mystical force forging me forward. I said “Hi” and his senior friend made a smart remark, something to the effect of “Look your little friend is back, she’s been looking for you e
very day like a little lamb.” I didn’t look his way. I looked right at Jett, who was staring back at me until he turned to regard his friend and tightened his jaw “Brett don’t be an ass, if you talk to Addie like that again we’re going to have issues.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears, all I could do was smile ear to ear. Jett looked back at me and said “Sorry Addie, I don’t have time to talk I'm late for class, we’ll talk later.” He got his books out, kissed me on the cheek and he was gone. I turned around and Brett smiled mutinously at me, he puckered his lips and made a smooching sound in the air, what a jerk.

  CHAPTER 19

  After wrestling was over and the guys were walking toward the locker rooms I said “Hey Jett” but he didn't hear me so I said it louder and I added “Can I talk to you?” Of course all the guys went “eeeww” in unison. I turned a little blush, not because I was embarrassed for me, but for Jett.

  He turned and started walking toward me. His bibs were down and his chest was bare and that's what I was looking at, but then I averted my eyes up to his. I raised my water bottle up to him; he took two steps back and casually leaned against the wall next to me using one arm to hold himself up, crossed one leg and downed some water from my bottle, not putting his mouth on it, just pouring it in. We both watched as the other guys filtered out of the gym and then the coach.

  Nic was putting everything back in the closet. I looked at Jett, “So are you okay? Were you sick?” He inched a little closer to me leaning forward and giving me a peck on the cheek. “I was really sick and all I did was sleep for two weeks. Mom was threatening to take me to the hospital the whole time. Glad she didn't because I'm fine now, actually, I'm feeling really good now.”

  “So then you were sick and that's why you didn't call me?” I said.

  “Yes, that would be why I didn't call you, but you have a phone too.” he said smiling.

  “I did call once.. Storm took the message, since you didn't call me back I didn't want to bother you again. I didn’t want to seem like a stalker.” He just laughed...

  “One or two phone calls are not too many, after four maybe. I'll have to talk to Storm; I never got your message.”

  “So did you need another blood transfusion?” I asked. He said nothing back, but looked at me with concerned eyes. I changed the subject right away, knowing he was annoyed with my question. “Are you feeling good enough to do something this weekend? Maybe a movie.... with me?” I bit my lip. “Or you could come over and we could just hang out.”

  Even though he smelled of sweat he still smelled good to me. He turned placed both hands on the wall on either side of my face and leaned in and gave me a sweet full on kiss. His lips were warm and soft, when he pulled away he replied “Sure let's do something, but I really have to catch up on all my classes, so we'll talk more about this later.”

  I placed my hand on his chest, it felt like he had a fever he was so warm, I pressed my face to his and our lips parted. He grabbed my hand on his chest lightly and said “None of that here.”

  “Excuse me, you started it” I replied. He gave me a peck on the lips and walked toward the locker room. I stared at his backside the whole time, Nic walked up to me, “Nice view.”

  “I know, right.”

  I didn’t want to screw things up with Jett, and bug him about this weekend but my parents were going to be out of town and our babysitter was Peyton for the first time, so I bet we could get away with doing stuff we normally wouldn't. And if Jett wouldn't do something with me, then by god I was going to make plans. Nic was tired of hearing me whine about it so I asked her what I should do. We decided to make plans that Jett could be included in; I thought it was brilliant.

  I talked to Tori to see what she was doing and we decided each of us would invite a couple friends over and have some pizza and snacks. When Peyton heard our plans she was fine with it and asked if we cared if she invited a couple friends. We all pow-wowed and decided as long as we all invited no more than four friends each and told no one it was a party, we'd be fine.

  Jett had been acting distant and weird, so after practice on Thursday I told him the plan for Saturday and he acted like it was a boring idea. I got mad and snapped “whatever, your welcome to come by if you get really bored.” I turned on my heel and walked away.

  Saturday, Tori and I woke up and started cleaning the house like we did every Saturday and Peyton asked us “What the hell are you two doing? You don't clean before a party, you clean after.”

  Tori chimed in with “I thought we weren't calling it a party.”

  “That's right” Peyton replied “We're just having some friends over.” She winked at us and grabbed the car keys off the counter “Now, let's go pick up some snacks.”

  By 7:30 all our friends had arrived, by 8:30 it had turned into a party – I just wished I could have invited everyone I wanted had I known this was going to happen. However, just about everyone was here, except for Jett. Cale even showed up, I turned immediately and looked for Peyton so she could give him the boot but instead I found myself trapped on the driveway by the garage. His arms were twitching nervously by his sides, he was staring me down and demanded “Where's Jett?”

  I replied cautiosly “Not sure, he's around.” I lied.

  “No he's not,” he accused, his jaw tightening. “Why would you lie to me?” He took a step closer, I stepped back.

  “Cale, what are you doing here? You’re not welcome.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest. He stepped so close to me it was uncomfortable, so I pushed him gently backward. He grabbed my wrists so fast and pushed me back up against the brick wall. He scrunched his nose, squinted his eyes and gritted his teeth.

  “My you have big teeth.” My smart ass mouth said and he shook me and slammed me against the wall again. I was trying to get my wrists free but he was holding on really tight. I thought I saw Jett out of the corner of my eye coming down the driveway. Whomever it was stopped as he saw us, he just stood motionless. I put my head on Cale's chest like I was going to surrender, relaxed my arms and I felt Cale ease up, then I heaved my knee up as hard as I could between his legs and whipped my head up hitting him in the chin. I twisted and turned my wrists trying to get them free.

  ”Let go!” I roared in a voice that projected so loud and so deep I wasn't sure it was really me. I shook loose, I shouted “Someone help me!” but that gave Cale incentive to surge toward me again, his eyes watering and a look to kill on his face, I kicked my foot in the middle of his chest, he snagged my foot making me lose my balance but caught myself on the half wall before falling. Cale stumbled backwards into Jett; Jett grabbed him from behind and threw Cale to the middle of the driveway like he was a ragdoll.

  “Damn it!” I retorted. Jett was in front of me in a split second, protecting me. Cale got to his feet, specifically looked at Jett gave him an approvingly sly smile and left. Jett turned toward me and I put my face in his shirt and breathed him in, “thank you.” I put my hands inside his opened jacket and around him. He put his hand on my head and caressed my head. “You okay?” he asked, his voice cracked. “You know for a minute I thought you and Cale were getting back together, my heart felt like it dropped out of my chest when I saw the two of you, but then you proved me wrong. Anyway, I'm glad to see you can defend yourself.” He kept stroking my hair.

  “I can't defend myself, I can't and if I hadn't seen you coming I'm not sure what would have happened.” I started pacing back and forth a bit. “And I’m not sure what's wrong with me, I seem to keep attracting freaks and getting attacked! I need to learn self-defense.”

  Jett laughed, “one freak, and he just won't leave you alone. I should call my uncle.”

  “Well...” I almost told him about Logan but then I didn't. “I had no idea what to do, I saw you and a few seconds later I was defending myself. I need to know what to do all the time.”

  He was just looking at me with a half cracked smile, arms folded in front of him in a wide spread stance. Yeah, he was a bit of a bad ass
.

  “I haven't seen Peyton in a while do mind helping me find her?” I asked.

  As we looked around the house I headed toward my parent’s bedroom, Peyton and her boyfriend were just coming out, their corduroy pants filled with white fuzz, the same color as my parent’s bedspread. She acted all cool like nothing had happened I gave her a look and glanced down at her pants. She stammered she lost an earring and I just gave her another look. “So the two of you were looking for an earring... while rolling on the bed??” pointing to their pants. Obviously we knew where it came from, they were definitely busted. They both started to laugh – “Shhh” she said “Don't tell anyone else...” she stumbled away pulling her boyfriend with. I looked at Jett and we both said simultaneously “She's drunk.”

  “Do you want a drink?” I asked Jett as we turned into the kitchen. He leaned up against the counter and crossed his arms and legs almost like he was still upset. I opened the fridge and looked in “Do you want a beer or a soda?” I closed the fridge part way and saw his face and said “You need a beer.” He replied by saying “No, I'll take a soda.”

  I opened two bottles and handed him one and sat on the desk across from him.

  “So were you grouchy before you got here or after you saw me being assaulted by Cale?”

  There was a moment of silence “I was just wondering if you wouldn't have backed Cale off if you didn't see me comin’.”

  I rubbed my face and replied “Probably not...” he stood up and went to walk away. “Seriously, would you let me finish.” He stopped for a moment and I continued “As I was saying, he had such a grip on me I didn't know what to do. He was hurting me bad, but when I saw you, I knew if I fought back and it didn't work, you would have backed me up.” He leaned back up against the counter. “I was way panicked before I saw you but when I did, I felt the urge to defend myself. I'm not even sure where I learned those moves but thank goodness I did them...... If you hadn't come along, I probably would have just screamed and if I got loose I would have tried running. I’m really glad you came though... and not just because you helped me out of a jam either, because I wanted you to come.”