by Mayer, Dale
His beloved features faded, before dissipating altogether in front of her.
Tears sprang to her eyes as he vanished. She should have asked him some more questions. Questions about the conversations he might have heard. People talked. And the one who been in his vehicle would say something to someone someday.
Todd had sounded so different at the end. So…mature. As if dying had hurt in ways unimaginable. And his experience was so far out of her realm of hers she didn’t know what to say, what to think. He was expanding her world with every sentence, and she had no time to absorb everything. No time to process. No time to re-evaluate her beliefs about life and death – and that place somewhere in-between.
Where Todd existed.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ten minutes after last bell, Jessie slouched against the school gates, waiting for Cassie. She’d called earlier.
He wasn’t keen on going to the crash site. Still, he wouldn’t let her go alone. True, she was obsessing over the missing phone, but he understood her determination. He respected it.
Todd had been lucky to have her as a friend.
"Hi, Jessie. Thanks for coming with me." She stood before him, a vision in yellow. Her hair bounced in a high ponytail held together by a yellow clip that matched her bright t-shirt. Fresh and pretty as spring flowers, she pleased him in ways he’d never known before.
Straightening, he gave her a goofy grin. "No problem. Let’s go, though. I have a ton of homework."
They fell into step and turned toward the Shake Shop.
"I do, too. I figured we could grab a coffee on the way." When Jessie’s face scrunched, she smirked. "My treat."
His sidelong glance made her laugh out loud. "It’s not that bad, surely?"
"Right."
They picked up coffees, then headed to Pinnacle Point, just out of town. The traffic was steady. However with a wide shoulder they weren’t bothered. Fifteen minutes later they could see the turn up ahead, with all its warning signs in bright yellow. Cassie’s footsteps slowed at the sharp reality. Jessie stopped at her side.
"Rough corner."
"No kidding." The corner had black skid marks going around it in both directions. The gravel was scuffed up and there were distinct tracks heading off the highway. Silence fell between Cassie and Jessie. What was there to say? This is where his brother had died, driving off the highway and crashing below. The gas had leaked and supposedly, within a short time, the vehicle had been engulfed in flames.
Todd had been found yards away, dead.
***
Cassie stood at the corner, staring down at the horrific skid marks, scattered metal pieces and charred marks centered on one huge black spot. Shivers settled in on her spine and wouldn’t stop. She pulled her sweater out of her backpack and put it on. Her heart sank. Poor Todd.
With a quick sideways look at Jessie, Cassie noted his grim features before turning her attention to the accident site below.
Todd stood below her, waving wildly at her, a big grin on his face. Cassie turned to Jessie. "I’m going down."
"What?" He glanced around to see if anyone might bother them. The highway was empty. "Are you sure you want to?"
"I’m here. I might as well."
The hill had a surprisingly steep slope. She couldn’t imagine what it had been like inside a car smashing over and over again. Here goes nothing. Cassie started down, only to have Jessie pass her with his first jump. Half-sliding, half-skidding, they made it down to where the car had come to its final resting place. The car had been hauled away. Still skid marks and a mess of footprints had churned the soil up, easily pointing to the spot.
At the bottom, Cassie smiled at Todd, after a quick look in Jessie’s direction. She managed to keep her mouth shut. Jessie would freak if he knew. She wandered around trying to decipher the mess left behind from the recovery operations. There were scorch marks and burnt shrubs making it easy to see where the vehicle had been, but where had Todd dragged himself to?
"Cassie, what are you looking for?"
She didn’t know, just knew she’d recognize it when she saw it. Cassie had the presence of mind to check who was speaking before answering. "I don’t know, Jessie. Anything. Something to help determine if a second person had been in the vehicle."
Todd walked over. "There’s nothing here. Or too much; look at the footprints. Looks like a freakin' party happened." Todd wandered around the same area as Cassie. "I don’t feel any connection to this place. I don’t get it." Moodily, he kicked at a rock and hissed when his foot went through it.
Wanting to answer him, and not knowing how to with Jessie around, Cassie could only give him a commiserating look and keep an eye on Jessie. She needn’t have worried as Jessie wandered around the far side of the site. Cassie widened her search, heading around the brush and trees. "Todd," she whispered. "At least try to help. Search for your cell phone. That’s why we’re here."
"Hey! What are you two doing down there?" A strange voice hailed them from the top of the embankment.
"Uh, oh. Now you’ve done it." Todd smirked at Cassie.
She shot him a dirty look before holding a hand to her eyes to block the sun so she could see who spoke. The sun was still too bright for her to see the speaker. "Nothing. Just looking for a friend’s cell phone."
"That’s not a good place to be right now. Didn’t you hear a kid died down there a few days ago?"
Cassie glanced at Jessie, who only shrugged. "We’re on our way up."
With Cassie leading the way, they struggled back up the side of the hill. The old timer was still there. Cassie gasped for breath as she glanced around. An occasional vehicle passed, but there was no sign of this guy’s vehicle. She studied the scrawny senior citizen in front of her. Mid-seventies, gaunt. Suspenders held up his pants, and his long sleeved shirt was clean and buttoned to the neck. She smiled at him. "Are you walking, too?"
"What? No, I live up there." He pointed to a barely visible rooftop in the trees on the opposite side of the road.
"Really?" Cassie studied the hidden location. "Wow. I’ve lived here all my life and never knew that place existed." Even now that she knew, it was hard to pick out the house. If he hadn’t pointed it out, she’d never have seen it. "I guess this is a bad corner for accidents, huh?"
The old man rubbed a hand over his thin head of hair. "Terrible. That boy’s was something awful to see. I called for help right away. The last thing we needed was to have that fire take off. If it hadn’t been for the heavy rain these last few days, it would have burned down quite a patch. "
"Did you see what happened?" Jessie asked curiously, stuffing his fists into his jean pockets. His mannerisms were so like Todd's, Cassie had to turn away. She searched the area for Todd, but there was no sign of him.
Turning her attention back to the conversation, Cassie watched the two men interact. One old, with a weather-lined face, probably from having seen so much he’d like to forget and Jessie, so young he couldn’t imagine what the other had forgotten.
"Like how it happened? Nope. Not that I saw it exactly. I heard it, then saw all that fire. It had to have been over quick."
"Yes, except the boy managed to get out of the vehicle. He never was injured by the fire." Cassie studied his wrinkled face, hoping he’d remember something.
"Is that right?" He hitched up his faded jeans, tucking his plaid shirt in as he looked down at the burn area. "Figured he’d have been burned to a crisp by the time the police got there."
Cassie couldn’t resist asking, "Did you see him moving around at all? Getting out of the vehicle? Or anyone crawling up the hill? Voices? Anything? We’d like to find out if Todd was alone, or if he had someone in the vehicle with him."
The old man directed his sharp blue eyes at her, before saying in a slow, thoughtful way, "Ain’t that for the police to figure out?"
Cassie looked at Jessie and both turned to face the stranger. "They’ve decided he was drinking and driving and was alone in the vehicle.
Todd was Jessie’s brother and my best friend." She lifted her chin. "He didn’t drink and drive."
The stranger studied them. "Well, I can see as you might be a tad upset about their ruling. Did you speak to them about it?"
"We both have, actually. They were going to get back to us on a few questions that we raised. Like where’s Todd’s cell phone?"
"You thinking he called someone?"
The sun came out from behind a cloud. Cassie rubbed her temple, wishing she’d remembered to bring her sunglasses. "He often picked up friends who had been drinking and gave them rides home."
"Still, he’d have been behind the wheel, right?"
After a moment, Cassie nodded reluctantly. "Probably. He loved that car. It was his first one."
At that the old man rubbed a hand along the side of his cheek, pondering her words. "Well, I could ask Martha, I suppose. She stayed outside to keep an eye on the fire while I went to call the police."
"Oh. That would be great! It would make us feel so much better if we knew the truth."
"It can’t do any harm. That Martha, she’s got the eyes of hawk, she has. But she’s resting right now and I won’t be waking her for this."
"No, not necessary." Cassie fished around in her purse, looking for a piece of paper, when Jessie held a small notepad under her nose.
"Use this."
With a grateful smile, she snagged up one of the half-dozen pens lying at the bottom on her purse and wrote down both their names and numbers. "After you talk to her, would you contact one of us and let us know what she says?"
He read off the names and nodded. "I reckon I can do that." Spearing them with sharp blue eyes, he added, "It might not be tonight, you know. Martha’s in a bad way and has been known to sleep for a long time sometimes."
Jessie smiled. "No problem, sir. Tomorrow or the day after would be fine. My brother’s funeral is tomorrow."
"Is it now? Well, you give that young man a good send-off. It’s too bad he's gone so young, however, we can’t have everyone thinking he’d done something he didn’t do, now can we – not if there’s another explanation."
"No, we can’t. Thank you so much." Cassie smiled brilliantly at him. "We really appreciate it."
They waved good-bye and started down the long road into town.
CHAPTER NINE
Friday was a crappy day to be buried on. Okay, so it’s not like there was a good day but everyone hates Mondays, so why not then? On the other hand, Todd had loved Fridays. Maybe he’d appreciate this day.
Cassie didn’t. The whole concept depressed her and would most likely ruin her whole weekend. She’d wanted Penny to come with her, only she couldn’t get out of her shift at work. She’d asked Suzie. Suzie's excuse was that she detested funerals and graveyards and that ‘whole dead thing,’ as she put it. Jessie would attend with his family. She’d called Ivan and Bryce, who’d already left for the ceremony.
That meant Cassie had to go alone. She’d thought about asking her mom to go with her but had vetoed that idea pretty fast. Her mom hadn’t liked Todd. She wouldn’t insult her best friend by bringing people who hadn’t appreciated him. Their loss, not his. So Cassie found black jeans in the back of the closet and paired them with a navy t-shirt and a black pullover.
Thankfully, the forecast for rain had turned out to be wrong and the sun had chosen to bless the day. Afraid of being late, she took the back way into the cemetery and joined the small group surrounding a simple raised wooden casket. Todd stood beside Jessie, a mocking grin on his face as he watched the proceedings.
Cassie beamed at him and gave him a little wave, only to blink in horror as people turned to stare. She stuffed her hand in her pocket and tried to hide amongst the gatherers. Looking around, she hated it that less than two-dozen people had attended, and that included the family, the minister and Todd. She recognized the school principal and several teachers. That made her grin. She figured Todd would appreciate the humor that his teachers showed up for his funeral, when he hadn’t bothered to show up for their classes.
"A perfect day for a perfect service, don’t you think?" Todd appeared beside her, making her jump. Cassie shuffled to give him room only to belatedly realize he didn’t need any, having squeezed in, between her and another person. She glared at him, wanting to punch him, only not wanting to draw attention to herself. She rolled her eyes at him instead. He was so juvenile sometimes.
Noticing the strange look at her from another student, Cassie stared forward and concentrated on the proceedings. The ceremony took so little time, she didn’t notice it was over until the casket was lowered and Jessie and his mom threw dirt on top on top of it.
Where was Todd’s father? There, in a rumpled suit, his nose red and bulbous. He followed behind his ex-wife and son.
Cassie waited until most of the crowd had dispersed before standing at the end of the grave. She’d only ever attended Grams’ funeral, which had been a church service and not a service beside an open gravesite. She figured Todd would prefer this one.
"Oh, Todd." Pressure built up inside. She hated crying in public but figured that funerals might be the one place where it was allowed. She sniffled and sighed. "Damn it, Todd, why did you go and get yourself killed?"
"Like it’s my fault now, huh?"
She glanced sideways to see that killer grin of his. As he stared down at his own coffin the grin fell away. "Makes it a little too real, doesn’t it?"
"Yeah," she whispered. "Then having you stand there as a ghost is fairly disturbing, too."
"You know me, always gotta have some drama in my life."
She smiled. A little watery, but it was a smile. Resolutely she turned and walked away. Several cars and a limousine stood at the cemetery gate. By coming through the back, she’d missed seeing everyone arrive. Jessie stood beside his parents, speaking with the principal.
"Cassie, come on over here." Principal MacIntosh called to her, a concerned look on his face. "How are you doing?"
She gave him a wan smile, hoping the redness on her face had calmed down. "I’m okay. It’s a tough day for all of us."
"It is that." He motioned toward the people beside him. "Do you know Todd’s mother and his brother?"
"I know Jessie," she interrupted, smiling gently at Todd’s mother. "Hello, Mrs. Spence. I’m so sorry about Todd. He was my best friend, and I couldn’t have asked for a better one."
Tears collected in the older woman’s eyes. She blinked several times before speaking. "Thank you for saying that, Cassie. I wish I’d known him as well as you did. Unfortunately, these last few years, well, we’d grown apart."
"Really, is that what you call it?"
Cassie’s eyes widened as she realized Todd was standing between them, staring at his mother.
"She could have tried harder, you know." Todd turned to look at Cassie, a frown on his face. "I’ll take some of the blame, except she has to take some of it, too."
It was hard to focus on what Mrs. Spence was saying when Todd was being so difficult. She turned slightly so he wasn’t in her line of focus. Directing her voice at Todd’s mother, Cassie said, "I’m sure Todd loved you regardless of how far you might have drifted lately. There’s a strong bond between mother and son."
A watery smile peeped out. "Thanks. And thank you for being such a good friend to him. He cared for you. He did share that much."
Cassie tried not to look at Todd, who’d decided to be a major ass. Was he really doing the chicken dance? Forcing her attention back to his mom, she said, "Thank you. I’m just sorry he’s gone. He was way too young to die. He had such plans for his future." Cassie’s heart lightened at the memory of Todd’s dreams. "He wanted to travel, and try bungee jumping and planned on windsurfing in Canada." Her smile dimmed slightly. "Todd was a good person. Given a chance, he'd have made you proud. I miss him terribly."
Cassie gave the group a small wave, tears burning in her eyes. "Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head home. Today has been diffic
ult."
"For all of us." Mrs. Spence reached over and gave her a quick hug. "Thank you so much for coming."
"Thanks, Cassie." Jessie opened the door and helped his mom get into the limo. "I’ll see you at school on Monday."
Cassie nodded, offering a small smile just for him. "Sure. If you want to get out, go for a walk, have coffee or something on the weekend, just give me a call."
***
Jessie watched Cassie stride away. Alone. He’d never admired her more. She’d lost as much as the rest of them, maybe even more. Yet she’d come alone, without supportive friends. Regardless of being dressed in black like the rest of them, Cassie would never blend into a crowd. Her blond hair bounced with the very vitality of her step. Although, she looked skinnier.
