“Something worse.” She lowered her lids. Was she going to cry again? He scanned his counters for a tissue box. Nothing. Maybe she could use a dish towel. He started to rise but she spoke again.
“It’s what I saw. Not today but before. I see it often but nothing like this.” She met his gaze. Seth found himself falling into her eyes. He looked away. Not now. Not ever.
“I have never told anyone else what I’m going to tell you except my grandmother.”
He wished he hadn’t opened his door. Her revelation sounded like the kind of thing a woman should hear. Not him. He didn’t do personal testimonies. He took a gulp of his soda. “Sorry, want a can?”
Again she shook her head no. “Let me get to the point. Something bad is going to happen to the Bend. Really bad. Hundreds of people will die. That’s the only reason I’m going to tell you what I am. Because only you can help stop it.”
His skin prickled. Now she worried him. “What are you talking about? Hundreds of people are going to die?”
“I said I would sound crazy but trust me, I’m not.” She drew her feet up onto the chair. Propped her chin on her knees. “A bad thing happened to me when I was twelve. Before that something, I was a normal kid. I had a brother and mother and father. I attended a private school, loved my friends and planned to be a veterinarian someday.” She paused. Took a long breath. “Then it happened. This really bad thing. There was this guy. He belonged to a cult. But at the time, no one knew it was a cult. We found that out later.” Her voice shook now. Seth renewed his search around the room for a tissue.
“It was a Friday night. My school was having a choral concert. I couldn’t sing, so I helped with the stage crew. I remember a packed audience. My family sat toward the back but I could still see them from behind the curtains. I also remember a man arriving late and sitting next to my mother. He carried a backpack with him. I remember thinking how ugly a color it was. Maybe dark green. Not cool at all. When the concert drew to an end, I had to go to the bathroom. My teacher let me slip out.” She swallowed hard. Tears rimmed her eyes again.
Seth pushed his soda toward her. She shook her head. “I need to get through this.” She changed her mind and took a sip. Settled her gaze back on his. Seth saw strength grow in in her eyes. The fear gone.
“Then the blast happened. The bomb killed everyone in the school.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Except me.”
“The Miracle Girl.” Seth’s mouth dropped open. He’d heard the story his whole life. How a bomber had taken out an entire school, but one child lived. She shouldn’t have but did. “The whole country is looking for you.”
Kate held out both arms. “In the flesh.”
CHAPTER 52
She told the Trainer her name. Shelly. She added that she turned eighteen on her last birthday and liked country western music. He tuned the truck radio to a channel that blasted the stuff. She leaned back in the seat, and pulled out a cigarette. Offered him one.
The Trainer shook his head no. He didn’t partake in anything that would hurt his body. He needed it to be healthy and strong to do his work. He watched her draw the smoke into her lungs and blow lazy rings into the space in front of her.
“You really are beautiful,” he said.
She turned in the truck toward him. “You told me that already.” She flashed a smile. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
A flirt. Good. Those were the easiest kind.
He started the engine and drove south. Back toward his place. Time for the party to begin. He had a guest. What more did he need?
“So you’re from around here, huh? It looks pretty desolate to me. Farms and more farms.”
“I like it that way. Gives you more freedom.”
She shifted closer to him. The scent of roses drifted up to him.
His breathing increased. He scolded himself to keep it under control. Wait for the best moment.
“Where is this place you told me about? The place with the good chicken. I’m starving and it’s getting dark. Do you think they’ll still be open?” She checked her cell phone.
“They’ll be open. Don’t worry. I’ll get you back on time.”
She settled closer, humming some country jock’s song. When he thought he couldn’t stand the music anymore, she snapped it off.
“I’m starting to think this place is too far for me to go and make it back in time to see the show. Maybe you should take me back now. We can grab a hotdog or something.”
“It’s just around the bend. Hang on, darling. You won’t regret it at all.”
She might. But he certainly wouldn’t.
The lights from his house showed through the trees. In minutes, they would be in his driveway. He pulled the truck to the side of the road.
“Why are you stopping?” Her voice rose as she slid across the seat toward the door.
The Trainer snaked his arm around her and pulled her closer. “One kiss before we go in. I’m kind of shy but you are driving me wild.” He used his best suitor’s voice.
It worked.
The rest of the night—easy.
She never got her chicken but she got something better.
CHAPTER 53
Seth stared at her like she had a green head. Of course he would have heard of her. Back then, bombings were unheard of. Every newsman in the country had been trying to get her twenty-year anniversary story. What has your life been like? What do you remember most? Especially with the recent bombings in the country. She’d never given any interview. Her grandmother had kept her away from the reporters. Now and then one slipped passed but got nothing.
“I’m not done. There’s more.”
“More?” His voice sounded strangled. Not at all the confident Seth she knew.
“I was injured in the blast but survived, obviously. My grandparents took me in and raised me. I had good days and bad. But when the bad ones came, my grandma and I invented a signal.” She held up two fingers horizontally. “It’s the sign for H. It was our personal signal for help. My aunt had been deaf so Grandma showed me how to sign. In case I needed her anywhere.”
Seth signed the letter H to her. “One of those times now?”
She nodded. “Shortly after the blast, I took a picture of my grandfather. I loved my new camera and was always trying out different poses. Grandpa played along.” She pulled a strand of hair behind her ear. This was the hardest part. Would Seth judge her? Would he call her crazy or a liar?
Could she trust him with her curse?
She thought of Trevor. And the church photo. A sickening fear burned in her gut.
With no other choice before her, she continued her story. “One day, I brought home pictures I’d taken of Grandpa. I noticed a funny aura around him. A faint white glow. I showed it to Grandma but she couldn’t see it. My grandfather was killed two days later. That’s when Grandma asked me to look at the picture again. The aura was gone.”
“A fluke? Maybe you imagined it.”
“I sustained a head injury in the blast. We think that’s why it happened. From that day forward, I see auras around a lot of different people in their photos.” She paused. Watched for something. Rejection. Fear. She didn’t know what. “They all died.”
His reaction came slow but soon spread over his entire face. “You’ve seen your auras here? In the Bend.”
“Over the church where the next rally will be held.”
Kate dropped her feet to the floor, exhausted from the telling of her story. A pounding headache sliced into her temples. Daisy jumped to her lap, meowed until she petted her. “I know it sounds crazy. It does to me too. My grandma thinks God blessed me with this gift but I think it’s a curse. Do you know how awful it is to see an aura around your best friend’s kid?” Her voice broke at the thought of Trevor. “I’ve never been wrong. I wish I was but I haven’t been.”
He rose from his chair and paced the small room. “You know that picture you took of me carrying Amy . . .”
“She was already
dead. And no, in answer to your other question, I haven’t seen any rings around you.” He gave her a half-smile and returned to his seat.
“Where do we go from here?” she asked, uncertain he even listened.
###
What story did he believe first? The one about her being the Miracle Girl or that she saw stuff around people in pictures. Both blew his mind. He raked his fingers through his hair. Kate looked like she expected him to absolve her of some horrific crime. He didn’t know what to feel. Crazy. That’s what her story was but something about the way she told it . . .
“You’re telling me the truth. Aren’t you?” He retook his chair across from her.
Kate frowned as fresh tears filled those green eyes. Too blunt. He should have played along until he got more proof.
“Do you want to see my scars?” Sarcasm. Yes, she was good at that too.
“What do you want me to say? You come over her and share this crazy story about being able to predict death. Give me time to process it. It isn’t every day I’m handed front page news.”
She scowled. “Who said I gave you the story? I’m trusting you, Seth. The least you can do is play along. If you go public with this, I will deny everything.” Her lips pressed into a straight line.
She looked serious.
“Okay, so let’s say what happens to you is true. For the sake of argument. If you saw this aura,” he waved his hand in the air, “around the church, that means you think everyone in there is going to die. Probably at one time. You think a bomb? He’s strange and I believe he’s got a cult going, but a bomb?”
“A crazy cultist killed everyone I loved. It happens. Think about Jim Jones. David Koresh. Leaders of cults and their followers will do anything if threatened. It happens all the time. The bomber who blew up my school had only been with the cult a few months. It doesn’t take long to control the mind. I’ve done the research. We think it’s crazy when thousands of people follow a man to the ends of the earth and then feed poison to their babies, but they do it. So a bomb in the Bend is not out of the realm of possibility.”
“When do you think this bomb is going to go off?”
“At the next rally.”
The flyer that Seth snagged from Amy’s funeral lay between them on the table. He looked at the date. Two weeks.
CHAPTER 54
As Seth reached for the flyer, his cell rang. “What’s up?” His brows knitted together as he listened to the speaker. Kate waited, wishing she could go home and crawl into her bed. Shut out the evil in the world, but now she’d included Seth and she needed to be sure of his commitment.
“I’ll be right there. Thanks.”
“They found a body.” His lips pulled at the corners. “I’ve got to go, so . . .” He stood and scooped his keys from the nearby counter.
“I’ll drive.” He wasn’t going to do this story by himself. She sidestepped him and darted to the door she came in.
“I can drive myself.”
Kate spun around. “We’re a team now. We go together.” A prickly feeling pulsed at her neck while she waited for him to make up his mind. He could be so stubborn. But then so could she. His decision didn’t take long.
“Fine. The body’s at Doc’s. He’s also the Bend’s one and only coroner.”
While he locked his house, she started her car and peeled out as soon as he hit the seat. Why didn’t she know Doc was the coroner as well? The scenario fit, though. Tied up the town nice and tidy. She took the next curve a little fast but relished the pleasure of watching Seth dig his fingernails into the dash. “Sorry.”
The night had grown blacker and with no street lights on the back roads, she half-worried that she might smack into an unsuspecting deer. Thankfully Seth didn’t live that far out of town and a moment later they rolled into Doc’s driveway.
Seth led the way up the sidewalk, rapped twice on the door. When Mary opened it, he said a few short words and brushed by her leaving Kate to offer further pleasantries. She caught up with Seth in Doc’s brightly lit office.
On the table lay a woman clothed in a muddy waitress uniform.
Kate covered her mouth.
Becky.
###
Mary set the steaming cup of tea in front of Kate and patted her shoulder with a soft murmur. “It took me quite a long time to get used to seeing dead bodies in my house. I finally had Doc put that side door on the office so I wouldn’t have a front row seat to the comings and goings.”
She wiped a dribble of tea from the table with a clean dishcloth. Then with a faint rustle of her long skirts, she settled next to Kate. “Feeling any better now? You looked like you wanted to faint. Good thing Seth caught you or I would be nursing more than your queasy stomach.”
“I’m fine now.” Kate didn’t tell her that the sight of Becky’s dead body brought up the memory of her school’s bombing. It was bad enough she told Seth who was now in the room with Doc getting the scoop. “I better get back in there. It’s my job. I should be with Seth.”
When she stood, a dizzying wave overcame her and she slouched back into the chair. “Maybe I better wait here for him to finish.” Finish discovering why Becky had wound up in the river.
“Maybe so. Molasses cookie?” Mary rose and brought a chunky cow cookie jar to the center of the table.
The smell of fresh baked cookies crept into Kate’s nose. She dipped her hand inside the ceramic jar and grabbed two. Seth might be in there all night and she hadn’t eaten dinner. She bit down on the soft morsel. “Oh, Mary, these are heavenly.”
Her compliment made Mary sit straighter. “That goes to show you what being a good wife is all about. If it weren’t for Doc and his training, I would be sitting alone somewhere.” Her expression took on a faraway look. Was she remembering life before the Doc?
Another swallow. Kate wiped her mouth with the mint green napkin Mary had given her. “What sort of training did you get?”
“The best.” She tipped her head closer. She tendered the ghost of a smile. “The best training the Bend offers.”
Her answer didn’t give Kate enough information. If she pushed, would Mary open up or retreat back into that puritan head of hers? She’d take the risk. “Who exactly trained you? Doc?”
A blush grew in her cheeks. “Oh, no. No. I went to the Club. Where women who care about their husbands go. Haven’t you heard about it?”
“The Club?” She tread carefully. Mary reminded her of a sparrow that would take off if spooked. “Who runs this club?”
The woman looked over her shoulder as though she expected to see Doc hoofing it down the hall. He wasn’t. Nor was Seth. Kate would push a little harder.
“I’m not supposed to talk about it but you seem sweet. Maybe if you went to the Club you could find yourself a good husband. The men who send their fiancées and girlfriends end up happier than those who don’t. I’m so blessed that I was given the chance. If not, I don’t know if my marriage would have survived. Now I know how to take care of Doc the best way I can.”
“Did any of your children go there when they reached the age?” She glanced toward the room with the photos of her eight children.
Mary gripped her fingers together. Had she hit a nerve?
Kate pushed her tea aside. “You can tell me. I won’t tell anyone.”
“Doc sent our sixteen-year old. Liz. She was a tiny thing. She didn’t . . .? Mary glanced over her shoulder again. Her bottom lip protruded out.
“Didn’t what? Want to go?”
“She fought hard. But we knew it was best for her. She needed to learn how to be a good wife someday. Like her friends had. Brother Earl said he had refined the Club to include much more than when I went there. She would learn how to please her husband in many more ways.” Her face reddened.
“How long was she gone, Mary?” A nagging thought pressed against a nerve in Kate’s forehead. A sixteen-year-old teen sent to camp she didn’t want to attend. A camp for errant women. What must it have been like for her
to live in Brother’s Earl’s cabins? Trained by who? For what? Her thoughts spun into a troubling arc.
Mary blinked hard. “Can’t say.” Her hands fluttered in front of her face then she stood abruptly nearly knocking over the teapot. “More cookies, dear? You look like you could use a pound or two.”
So that’s how it would go. Kate exhaled. She finished her cookie then excused herself to find Seth. She found him talking with Doc outside of his office. A wave of relief shot through her at the realization she would not have to see the body again.
Seth glanced at her, his eyes asking if she was okay. “Sorry about my dizzy spell. Mary fixed me up with cookies.”
“Those molasses cookies will do the trick.” Doc nodded. “Told you what a good cook she is.”
Kate didn’t want to hear about his wife’s attributes, in fact, it made her slightly nauseous when she considered how Mary learned her culinary skills. “What’s the cause of death?” Might as well get to the point. It was late and she wasn’t sure how long she could stand being there.
“Drowning. Probably accidental or suicide. Can’t be sure. She had some good sized cuts on her. Probably done by the rocks. Surprised she washed up the way the current is going.”
“Why would a young woman be out in the river alone?” She almost said Becky but wasn’t positive that either Seth or Doc knew her identity yet. She would tell Seth later.
Doc shrugged. “She could have gotten separated from friends. Who knows. I’ll get Earl to pick up the body in the morning. He’ll take care of the details. Like always.”
Like always.
“Let’s go, Kate. It’s been a long day.” Seth tugged on her arm and they left through the front door after saying goodnight. She pulled her keys from her purse. Seth grabbed them from her hand.
“I’ll drive. I’m not taking a chance that you nose-dive while I’m in the car with you.”
“Fraidy-cat. I’m better. I promise. Besides, you need to get home and that means I’d be driving anyway.” She held up her open palm. Seth dropped the key ring onto it.
The Bend Page 13
