by C. J. Urban
“We?”
“Sorry, me,” Julie said.
“No, I don’t mind helping. I’m just surprised you want me to help you with something so personal.”
“I’ve pulled you in this far,” she said, drawing him a little closer.
Skye couldn’t help it. He reached over and kissed Julie tenderly. Just a small one, but she surprised him by kissing him back. She put her hand on his hair, stroking it. They were both lost in each other, and nothing else existed except that kiss.
Julie pulled back, though, glancing toward the stairs. Sam was up there, and he could come down at any moment.
“Sorry,” Skye said, but his eyes burned into hers and he looked anything but sorry.
“Don’t be,” Julie whispered. “I’ve been dying to know what your lips feel like against mine.”
He kissed her again, briefly. But he respected the fact that she didn’t want Sam to see them making out.
“Well, you have pulled me in, as you put it,” Skye said, smiling. “So, where should we start?”
Julie made herself look away. She took a sip of coffee. “I want to go to the library tomorrow, and look at any old newspaper articles having to do with the murders. It’s our best shot at gathering more information.”
“Unfortunately, I have work tomorrow morning. So you’re going to have to fill me in later.”
“If you come by after work, I’ll tell you what I found.”
“Wouldn’t miss an opportunity like that for the world,” Skye said with a grin. “I’m off at five. Are you going to be here?”
“Yeah, I’ll be here after five.”
“Look, Julie,” Skye blurted out, “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. But I don’t think you should be alone here. Not after…” he didn’t want to say after you’ve already had a Peeping Tom. “I could stay here on the couch. I promise I’ll be a gentleman. For as long as you want me to be.”
Julie tried to think clearly. This was all becoming too much for her. So much had happened; the move, the diaries, Jacob Leigh, and now this. She did want him to stay. She trusted him, but she didn’t quite trust herself. It had been so long…Well, you’re going to have to be strong, she told herself. It’s the smart thing to do.
“Really? You’d do that for me?”
“Baby, I’d do anything for you. I’m worried now, and I want you to be safe.”
Julie took his hand in hers. She almost kissed him again, but forced herself to get up. “Thank you, Skye. I’ll get you some blankets.”
Before he could say anything, she turned and went up the creaky stairs, and came back down with a couple of blankets and a pillow. He took them from her and tossed them onto the couch.
Skye kissed her again, and he could feel his body temperature rise. Apparently Julie could too, because she pushed him away playfully, and without another word, hurried upstairs to tuck Sam into bed.
Skye sighed and began arranging the blankets on the couch. He picked up the pillow and sniffed it, closing his eyes. It was hers, it gave off the same scent as her beautiful hair.
As Julie climbed into bed, she did feel safer knowing that Skye was just downstairs. She pulled her covers up over her, re-living his kiss. She smiled, remembering the sweet taste of coffee on his tongue.
But as she fell asleep, Julie couldn’t help but feel watched, as if a pair of eyes was trained on her.
Chapter 16
Julie awoke to a stream of sunlight shining into her room. Little particles of dust danced in and out, through the rays, and she lay there a moment, thinking about the past few days’ events.
Her thoughts kept coming back to Skye. She’d slept well the night before, thanks to him. She’d had bad dreams; dreams of Tara and the boy named D, but whenever she woke, she remembered that he was downstairs. She knew he was probably gone now, as he had to work early.
Julie got dressed, taking a little extra care to look nice. She hummed as she brushed her hair, and put a little mascara on. It felt good to want to look pretty.
She poked her head into Sam’s room to see Lincoln Logs scattered everywhere. “We’re going to the library in a half hour, all right? So, make sure all this is cleaned up by then.”
“Why are we going to the library? That sounds boring.”
“Because we don’t have Internet here yet, and I need to research something.”
“I don’t want to go.”
“Well, I have to go, and that means you have to come with me.”
“Mom wouldn’t have made me go!” Tears welled in his eyes as he yelled and slammed the door in her face.
Julie stood still, momentarily stunned. She made herself walk calmly downstairs into the kitchen. She nuked a cup of instant coffee, sipping it slowly. I will not argue with him, she told herself firmly, working on keeping her temper under control. She wasn’t their mother, it was true. But she couldn’t argue or fight with him like brother and sister now. Those days were gone. But neither would she allow Sam to treat her this way, especially not when she was making so many sacrifices to give him a decent shot at a good life without their parents.
She heard Sam make his way down the stairs, and she met him in the hall holding a water bottle and two pieces of sourdough toast.
“For the road,” she said, handing them to him.
“I’m sorry for yelling,” he said, looking down at the floor.
“It’s okay. But you have to understand that I do what I do to make our lives better, okay?”
“I know.” Sam reached his arms out, and Julie knelt to hug him. “I’m trying to be good,” he said, tears rolling down his cheeks again.
“I know you are, buddy. I am, too. We’ll make it, you and me. Okay? We’re gonna be fine.”
Sam didn’t answer, but kept hugging her. When he finally let go he said, “Let’s check out the library.”
Julie smiled, wiping his tears away. “Good idea. Come on.”
They got into the truck and followed the GPS’s instructions to the Dupont Library.
“This should only take a little while,” Julie said as they headed toward the entrance.
The library building was small and rectangular and looked newly painted. Julie pushed open the heavy glass doors and made her way to the main area where the books were shelved. As she looked around, she began to lose hope, seeing no area with newspapers. Then it occurred to her that the older newspapers would have been transferred to a database somewhere. She walked up to the front desk and waited behind a tall elderly man until it was her turn.
“Hi there,” Julie said to the clerk as the tall man left. “I need to look through the town’s old newspaper articles.”
“Sure thing. Let me show you where they are,” the woman said.
“Hey, Sammy,” Julie said, after being escorted to the media center, “Do you want to go to the children’s section until I’m finished? I think they’re having story time right now, so you won’t be as bored.”
“Yeah, I guess. But don’t take too long, okay?”
“I’ll do my best, bud.”
She watched as Sam stalked off and sat down on a brightly colored rug before heading to the media center to find an open computer.
Julie rubbed her hands together and set them on the keyboard. “For you, Tara,” she whispered, and started her search.
It only took Julie a few seconds to figure out how to use the newspaper database; a simple program with drop-down menus for the year, month, and day of the paper sought. There was even a keyword search box, so she could narrow the amount of articles she had to look through.
She typed in the date of the month and year to start and found that she didn’t need to go much further. Dupont apparently hardly ever had a juicy news story like Tara’s murder, because it was on the front page of nearly every paper she looked at for the month of October. The title and subject would change slightly, but each article was the same: Jacob Leigh had been arrested and was waiting to stand trial. Julie was frustrated to discover n
o new information at all. All of it was the same, and all of it was probably lies, she thought to herself.
Finally she came to the end of her search and found one last glimmer of hope. There was a paper with a title different than the others: “Second Person Sighted at McGuire Home.” Julie clicked on the link to the article, but was frustrated once again at the lack of information.
There had definitely been another person at the house that night, but they were never charged with anything. The name hadn’t been released, but Julie felt sure it was the boy Tara called D. She felt as though she had hit a road block in her search, but decided she would try one more avenue to get information and visit the city clerk’s office.
She exited out of her search and cleared the browser history, a little paranoid that others might see what information she was looking for.
She found Sam in the children’s section, and much to her surprise, he had become part of a little puppet show being performed. Julie sat down to watch for a while, relieved that Sam was no longer upset or sulking. Once the puppet show was over, she motioned to him and they left the library, stepping out into the warming sunlight.
Chapter 17
“The next place we have to go is the city clerk’s office,” Julie told Sam.
“Is it far?” he asked.
“Nah, we’ll be there before you know it,” she said, trying to be upbeat.
The library was only a few blocks from City Hall, and Julie hoped the visit would be a quick one. In reality, the murder-hunting should be a side job, one that she did when she wasn’t out looking for a real job. Julie found it incredibly difficult to concentrate on even starting to look for a job though, especially after how strange settling in had been.
She parked in the thirty-minute parking in front of City Hall and walked inside with Sam grasping her arm. Julie had never known Sam to be clingy, but figured maybe the building looked intimidating from his point of view.
“You okay, Sammy?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he mumbled.
“Let me know if you need something okay?”
Sam nodded silently.
Julie walked up to the front desk and waited a moment for the receptionist to acknowledge her. After a few seconds of being ignored, she cleared her throat to get her attention.
The receptionist didn’t bother to make eye-contact. “Yes?”
“Could you direct me to the Clerk’s office?”
“Down that hall there,” said the woman, motioning to a hall to Julie’s right, “the Clerk’s office is the last door on your left.”
“Thank you,” Julie said, and started off down the hall, wondering how some of the people she’d met so far in Dupont had been extremely kind, and others had been very rude. She shook it off as she reached the entrance to the clerk’s office, finding the door wide open. There was an older woman sitting behind the desk with a sharp look on her face. She seemed peeved about something, and Julie took a big breath, determined to be nice.
“Hi,” Julie said brightly.
“How can I help you?” asked the clerk, with a tone suggesting Julie’s very presence bothered her greatly.
“I need some information about my house,” she paused for a moment thinking how best to phrase the next part. “There was a murder there twenty years ago, and I’d like to find out what information was recorded.”
“What’s the address?” the clerk asked, seemingly unaffected by Julie’s mention of a murder.
“1724 Dale Street.”
The clerk entered the address in her computer, got up from her chair without a word and headed toward a door in the back, opening it and disappearing behind it as it closed. A minute or so later she was back, empty handed.
“I’m sorry,” she said without a hint of sincerity. “Unfortunately, the files containing the information you’re looking for have been sealed.”
“What do you mean they’ve been sealed?”
“That information is confidential.”
Julie was extremely annoyed. “But it’s about my house.”
“Not my problem. They’re sealed from everyone.”
“Fine,” Julie said, leaving the desk without thanking the clerk.
Julie exited the building quickly, with Sam practically running after her. She was tired of people she hadn’t even met being rude to her, and upset that she hadn’t gotten the information she wanted.
Then an idea popped into Julie’s head. She knew how she might get the file. It was extremely risky, but she thought with Skye’s help she might be able to pull it off.
She and Sam hopped back into her truck and headed toward the hardware store. On top of recruiting him for her risky mission, she also wanted to tell him what she had discovered while looking through the old articles.
They arrived at the store and, once inside, Julie looked in the direction of Skye’s workstation. She started to smile at him, but then she saw Chief Langley there too, looking disgruntled with both hands on the counter, tapping her foot. Julie walked up to the counter, careful to keep a good distance between herself and the chief, but strained her ears to hear to their conversation.
“I just need a new duplicate key made,” she said, handing him a small key.
“Sure thing. Give me a minute, and I’ll get you one made up.”
Julie watched Skye disappear into the back room and hoped that Langley would just ignore her, but it was too late. The chief turned and eyed her suspiciously.
“So, what did you find out about Jacob Leigh during your visit?”
“How did you—” Julie began, but the chief cut her off.
“Word travels fast in this town. So what did he say to you? If that crazy fool can speak at all,” she added with a callous laugh.
“He said quite a few things, actually,” Julie said, wrestling with a sudden surge of anger. “And he was very coherent.”
Julie stood there fuming, irritated that the chief had evoked such a reaction from her. She needed to keep cool. She turned away from Langley, who apparently had nothing more to say, and stared at the counter.
Why was Langley so hateful toward her? She hadn’t done anything disrespectful. Something about her, though, thoroughly irked the chief, and she wanted to figure out what it was.
Skye reappeared holding a small key, and handed it to Langley. “There you go.”
“Thank you very much.” She took a few steps away from the counter before turning back to Julie. “I already told you to stay out of this town’s business.”
“It’s not a crime to visit someone in a hospital,” Julie countered. “I don’t have to do what you say.”
“Someday that could get you in some trouble,” Langley answered menacingly.
Before Julie could respond, the chief had turned and left.
“What was that about?” Skye asked, finally meeting Julie’s gaze.
“I was hoping you would know.”
Julie felt a small tug on her arm and looked down at Sam.
“We’re almost done, Sammy. What do you need?”
“I’m starving,” he whined.
“Just give me a few more minutes and we’ll go. I promise.”
Sam just nodded, pouting now. Julie sighed and turned her attention back to Skye. After the chief’s warning, Julie’s idea of how to get the file would be more risky, but in her mind it was the only way.
“Skye, remember I told you I was going to go to the library today?”
“I remember. I also remember that I was supposed to come over after work.”
“I found something,” she said excitedly.
“I figured you had. You had a triumphant look on your face the moment you walked in,” he said, grinning at her.
Julie rolled her eyes at him, but continued. “Yes, well you’ll never guess what it is,” she said and recounted everything she had read in the archived papers.
“Dang, I read that article when it was first released, but I never figured that the kid could have been involved.”
“Did you check the city’s records to find out anything?”
“As a matter of fact, that’s the other reason I came over here.” Julie paused, hoping he wouldn’t refuse her idea altogether, because she couldn’t do it without him. She leaned in to whisper so Sam couldn’t hear her. “I want to break into City Hall.”
Chapter 18
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Skye said, keeping his voice low. “Langley will hunt you down and skin you alive if she finds out.”
“Well then, we can’t let her find out. Please, Skye, I can’t do this without you.”
“But…you can’t be serious,” he said. “This is dangerous, Julie. It’s not like just visiting someone in a hospital. It’s probably a federal crime.”
“Think about it,” Julie said, trying to persuade him. “It’s worth the risk, at least to me. I’ve got to find out the truth of what happened.”
Skye just stood there, dumbfounded, thinking the situation over. If they didn’t go, his part in the search for the murderer would stop, and he wouldn’t have to deal with any potential trouble. Then again, she would probably try to do it without him anyway, and he thought she would have a better chance at success if he came with her.
He looked into her eyes, and they seemed to be silently pleading with him. He relented. “If I help you with this,” he said in his most serious voice, “you have to do everything I say, got it? I say jump…”
“And I jump, got it,” Julie said, finishing his sentence. “Listen, I have to go get Sam something to eat, but come by my place after work, okay?”
“I’ll be there.” He watched Julie leave the store and then looked at the clock. He had three more hours until he was off, and he knew watching the clock wasn’t going to help any. Instead, he threw himself into his work and before he knew it, five o’clock had come.
