“I’ll have a farmer’s omelet,” Nick said. “I’ll take whole wheat toast as well.”
“You’ve got it.”
“Wait.” Nick stilled, his face taking on a peculiar look. “You know what? I want blueberry pancakes and bacon instead. Is that okay?”
“Absolutely,” the waitress said, grinning. “That’s a good choice. We just got fresh blueberries today. Do you want juice, too?”
“Uh, yeah,” Nick said. “Orange juice please.” He waited until the waitress was out of earshot to speak again. “What’s with the face, Mad? I wasn’t flirting with her no matter what you think.”
“What?” Maddie shook herself out of her reverie. “Oh, no. I wasn’t worried about that. I just … I remembered the dream I had last night.”
“Oh, yeah? What was it?”
“My mom was with me in the clouds and we sat on a cliff,” Maddie replied. “She was wearing Sage’s sweater and when we looked down we could see the campus.”
“That sounds … not normal,” Dwight said. “That wasn’t a prophetic dream, right?”
“I didn’t think so until … .” Maddie bit her lip as she stared at Nick. “Why did you change your mind about what you wanted for breakfast?”
Nick shrugged, unbothered by the question. “I don’t know. I just decided I wanted pancakes instead. What’s the big deal?”
“Mom told me you were going to get blueberry pancakes and bacon.”
Nick snickered. “Do you often talk about my eating habits with your mother when you share dreams?”
“She’s not in my dreams very often,” Maddie clarified. “I don’t know why she visited last night.”
“Do you remember what you were thinking right before you fell asleep?” Dwight asked. “I find my dreams are often influenced by my last thoughts.”
“I was thinking that I love Nick,” Maddie replied honestly. “My head was on his chest and I could hear his heart and I just … felt how much I loved him.”
“Oh, you make my heart sing, Mad,” Nick said, rubbing the back of her neck.
“Then why did you dream about Olivia?” Dwight asked.
“I don’t know. She told me to follow my intuition … and that Nick was going to have pancakes for breakfast.”
“Well, I’m guessing the first part of that message is the important part,” Nick said. “What does your intuition tell you to do?”
“Talk to Allison and Jackson.” Maddie answered without missing a beat. “I think they both know something.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Nick said. “We can only take it one step at a time, Mad. If dream Olivia wants us to follow your intuition, then I think it’s a good idea. You haven’t led us in the wrong direction yet.”
“But you think it’s bound to happen, right?”
Nick shifted on his chair. “I … don’t know, Mad,” he said, refusing to lie. “I think it’s impossible for anyone to be right all of the time. Your track record is solid, though. Even if you eventually get one wrong, more often than not you’re right. I’m not going to second-guess you on something like this.”
“That goes double for me,” Dwight said. “I think that’s the mistake we made from the beginning. We approached this entire thing as cops. We should’ve let Maddie decide how to approach it. We wasted time not doing that.”
Maddie balked. “I don’t know that I would’ve done anything differently.”
“And you don’t know you would’ve done it the same either,” Dwight said. “It doesn’t matter now. We’re setting a new course today. Whatever your intuition tells us to do, that’s what we’re going to do.”
“I think that’s a good plan,” Nick said, leaning back in his chair. “Is your intuition still telling you to focus on Jackson and Allison?”
Maddie bobbed her head, although she was internally conflicted.
“Then that, my love, is what we shall do,” Nick said. “We’ll start first thing after breakfast and see where the day takes us.”
Maddie forced a smile but inside she was worried. What if this was a mistake? What if she had no idea what she was doing? What if she squandered Sage’s few remaining hours and wasted their time and resources investigating something that turned out to be useless? What if Sage was already dead and Maddie simply refused to admit the possibility to herself?
“I think I’m going to add bacon to my breakfast,” Maddie announced. “I’m really hungry and I think I’m going to need my strength today.”
“That’s the spirit, Mad,” Nick said. “There’s nothing in this world that can’t be made better with bacon.”
Maddie could think of one thing, but she wisely kept it to herself.
17
Seventeen
“That was Hicks,” Dwight said, pocketing his cell phone as he joined Maddie and Nick outside the diner thirty minutes later. “He wants us to stop by the medical examiner’s office. He says he has something to show us.”
Nick lifted his eyebrows, surprised. “Seriously? I wonder if that’s good news or bad news.”
“It’s bad for me,” Maddie said. “I’m not going to look at a dead body.”
“You can wait in the lobby,” Nick said, absentmindedly brushing her hair away from her face. “Hopefully it won’t take very long.”
Maddie wrinkled her nose. “Nicky, I don’t want to go to the medical examiner’s office.”
“Well, Mad, I don’t know what to tell you,” Nick said, tamping down his irritation. “We have to go and it won’t hurt you to spend an hour in the lobby while we look at whatever Hicks has to show us.”
Maddie wasn’t thrilled with his tone, but she tried to hide her annoyance. “How about we compromise?” she suggested. “I’ll go to the dorms and talk to Allison and you guys go to the medical examiner’s office and talk to Hicks. Then you can meet me back at the dorms and tell me what he said before we make a plan. How does that sound?”
“Like crazy talk,” Nick replied. “Maddie, we just had this discussion. I don’t want you separated from me – especially right now.”
“I won’t really be separated from you,” Maddie said, adopting her most reasonable tone. “You can drop me off at the dorms before going to the medical examiner’s office. I’ll go upstairs and talk to Allison and then sit in the lobby until you come back. I’ll be out in the open the entire time. I’ll be perfectly safe.”
“Maddie … .” Nick hated how whiny he sounded so he tried to calm himself. “Why can’t you come to the medical examiner’s office with us and wait in the lobby? You can bring your Kindle and read. I promise we’ll be as fast as we can.”
“I can’t go there, Nicky.”
“Why?”
“Because … .”
Dwight cleared his throat as he patted Maddie’s shoulder. “Let me explain it to him,” he said. “Nick, what are Maddie’s gifts?”
“She’s sweet and has the best heart.”
“Oh, I want to puke … or rip my rotting teeth out because of all the sugar,” Dwight grumbled. “What are her other gifts?”
“Why is that important?” Nick asked, glancing around to make sure no one was listening. “She’s psychic and she can see and talk to ghosts.”
“And what’s at the medical examiner’s office?”
Things clicked into place for Nick, and when they did he felt guilty for pressuring her. “Oh.”
“Oh,” Dwight intoned, making a face. “She wouldn’t go there with me when I was working with her either. I kept pressuring her and she finally explained why she can’t visit a morgue or medical examiner’s office.”
“Those places are packed with spirits, Nicky,” Maddie said, her eyes flashing. “They’re freshly departed spirits, too, which means they’re lost and confused. Sometimes there are a lot of them. I … can’t.”
“Okay, Mad,” Nick said, cupping the back of her head as he kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry. I should’ve realized you weren’t fighting just to fight.” Nick rocked Maddie back
and forth as he considered their options. “Okay, we’ll take you to the dormitory and let you talk to Allison. She might be more open with you than she was with us. We’ll go to the medical examiner’s office and swing back around to pick you up. You have to promise not to leave the building until we come back, though.”
“I promise.”
“Okay.” Nick rubbed Maddie’s back as he pressed her closer. “I really am sorry, love.”
“It’s okay, Nicky,” Maddie said, chuckling. “I should’ve explained it right away. I just didn’t want you thinking I was being a baby.”
“I could never think that.”
Dwight rolled his eyes as the couple cuddled and then inclined his chin toward the Explorer. “Let’s get moving,” he said. “I want to hear what Hicks has to say and the faster we get there, the faster you can be reunited with Maddie. Although, the way you’re acting makes me think you’re going to die if you’re separated for more than five minutes.”
“I just might do that,” Nick said, shaking his head as he gave Maddie one more squeeze before releasing her. “Don’t make fun of me. I’m perfectly fine with being whipped. I’ve come to accept it as part of my life and even embrace it.”
“It takes a strong man to admit that,” Dwight deadpanned.
“I’m like Batman,” Nick said, grinning as he kissed the tip of Maddie’s nose. “Come on, trouble. Let’s get this over with. I want to prove how strong I am.”
“Yes, sir.”
“See, sometimes it’s cute when you do that, Mad, and sometimes it’s annoying.”
“Which one was that?”
“Cute.”
“Just wait until I do it again later when we’re alone,” Maddie teased.
“Oh, then it’s going to be adorable.”
“Where is a puke bucket when you really need one?” Dwight lamented.
MADDIE took a moment to study the dormitory lobby as she entered. A handful of students milled about, although they looked perpetually bored more than anything else as they tapped away on their smartphones. She knew Allison’s room was on the fifth floor, but she decided to take a detour to the front desk before getting in the elevator.
The boy sitting behind the desk had a decidedly “hipster” vibe about him. He wore a black hoodie, a T-shirt touting a band Maddie didn’t recognize, a black beanie to cover his long hair, and glasses. He glanced up from whatever he was doing once and immediately looked back down. He did an exaggerated double-take when he saw Maddie approaching.
“Hi.” Maddie flashed a bright smile.
“Um … hi.” The boy looked as if he was caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. “Are you lost?”
“I don’t think so,” Maddie replied, chuckling. “I was hoping to get some information, though.”
“Do you need a tutor?” The boy looked almost hopeful. “I’m great in science and math.”
“I’m not a student.”
“Do you want to be my tutor? I’m terrible in English and social sciences.”
“Um … .” This conversation wasn’t what Maddie expected and she didn’t quite know how to handle it. It was times like these she missed Nick – or even Christy – because they were better with people than she was. “Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?”
The boy mutely nodded.
“My name is Maddie Graves. I’m from Blackstone Bay, but I’m here because a friend of mine is looking for his daughter. She’s missing.”
“He should file a report with campus security,” the boy suggested.
“Yes, he’s already done that and he’s working with the police department,” Maddie said. “What’s your name?”
“Why do you want to know my name?”
“I want to know who I’m talking to.”
“It’s … Brian.”
“Well, Brian, I’m very glad to meet you.” Maddie wasn’t good at flirting – not like Christy, who could wow a man in ten seconds flat – but she was hoping Brian’s obviously limited conversational skills would benefit her if she approached him in the correct manner. “I’m sorry you have to work on a holiday weekend like this. That must be a bummer.”
Brian shrugged, noncommittal. “It was either this or listen to my sister complain about her pregnancy hemorrhoids,” he said. “I think this is the better option.”
“Wow. There’s no doubt about that,” Maddie said, fighting the mad urge to laugh. “Do you work the front desk here often?”
“I have to if I want a free meal plan,” Brian replied. “I work here five days a week, three hours a day. It’s not so bad. I get to keep up on my class work while I’m here and there’s always someone to talk to if I get bored.”
“Does that mean you know the kids in the dorm relatively well?”
Brian shrugged and Maddie couldn’t help but wonder if his shoulders got tired from the constant workout. He seemed to have bad posture on top of moving his shoulders up and down at a near-constant clip.
“Brian, I’m going to ask you a few questions and it would be really helpful if you could answer them,” Maddie said, resting her hands on top of the desk. “Do you think you could do that for me?”
Brian bobbed his head up and down.
“Great,” Maddie said. “Did you know Heather Ketchum?”
“Yeah,” Brian replied, rubbing the back of his neck. “She’s really dead, right?”
“She is. What can you tell me about her?”
“I’m not sure how much there is to tell,” Brian replied. “She was kind of full of herself. I know you’re not supposed to say mean things about people once they’re dead – especially when they were murdered – but she was not a nice person.”
Maddie pursed her lips. That was the exact opposite way Jackson described her. “How so?”
“She was just really stuck up,” Brian answered. “She thought she was better than everyone else. She would be nice to people when they talked to her and then the second they left she would gossip about them behind their backs.
“She made fun of their clothes … and shoes … and hair,” he continued. “She played this game where she and her buddy guessed what kind of losers everyone would be once they left this place.”
“I’m not sure I understand what that means,” Maddie said. “Is that a game everyone plays?”
“Only if you’re a jerk,” Brian said. Apparently he was quite chatty when given a topic he was passionate about, and he clearly hated Heather Ketchum with a passion. “She would sit on that couch over there and make up a story about everyone who walked by – and they were terrible stories. She would say they were going to end up married to a wife beater and live in a trailer park. She would guess that someone would have eight babies because she was too ugly to hold onto a man unless she trapped him with children. Stuff like that.”
“That sounds awful,” Maddie said, horrified. She knew someone like that in high school and it wasn’t an appealing trait. “Did anyone ever find out about the things she said?”
“Everyone knew the things she said because she would say them in front of multiple people,” Brian explained. “They knew she was talking about other people so most everyone figured she was talking about them, too.”
“So you’re saying she wasn’t exactly liked,” Maddie prodded.
“No one liked her, but she was popular,” Brian said. “People wanted to be her so she always had someone to be mean to … and with. I didn’t feel too bad about what she said, though, because people talked about her behind her back, too.”
“What did they say?”
“Just that she was going to get murdered by whoever was dumb enough to marry her because she was hateful and no one would be able to put up with her for more than three months,” Brian replied. “People were doing a death pool to see when and how she would die.”
“That’s … lovely,” Maddie said, wetting her lips. It sounded as if Heather was hateful, but it also sounded as if the people working against her weren’t much better. She was
a loner in college so she didn’t remember things being like this. Of course, people could’ve relentlessly talked about her and she wouldn’t have known the difference because she lived in her own little world. “Can you think of anyone who would’ve had a motive to kill Heather?”
“Everyone hated her, but believe it or not, most people aren’t murderers,” Brian said. “Why are you asking these questions? I heard that Heather was attacked by some random frat dude. I heard they arrested the guy.”
“They didn’t arrest anyone,” Maddie said. “They questioned someone but had to release him because they didn’t have enough evidence.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Brian said. “I don’t suppose you can tell me his name, can you? I’d like to buy him a drink if he really did off that witch.”
Maddie shot Brian a dirty look and he had the grace to look abashed.
“I didn’t mean it as a bad thing,” Brian said.
Maddie knew exactly how he meant it, but she decided to change the subject. “How about Sage Kincaid? Did you know her?”
“I know Sage,” Brian said. “Why are you asking about her?”
“I … .”
“Wait … did something happen to Sage?” Brian looked genuinely upset at the prospect. “She isn’t dead, too, is she?”
“We don’t know where Sage is,” Maddie replied. “She’s missing. She’s been missing for a few days.”
“I didn’t know that,” Brian said. “How come no one is talking about that?”
“My guess is that the holiday got in the way,” Maddie said. “Heather’s death kind of trumped it, too.”
“Heather’s death was a good thing,” Brian said. “Sage being missing is the exact opposite.”
Maddie would never admit it out loud, but she was secretly relieved Sage didn’t appear to have a bad reputation like Heather. “What can you tell me about Sage?”
“She’s really nice,” Brian answered. “She seems a little shy, but that’s why I like her. She focuses on her schoolwork more than anything else.”
“Does she go out on the weekends?”
“Everyone does.”
“Was she dating anyone specific?” Maddie asked.
Grave Seasons (A Maddie Graves Mystery Book 8) Page 14
