Farewell Seas

by Lily Harper Hart

Michael made an incredulous face. “How could you tell given the way your girlfriend was acting?”

  Quinn felt the need to stick up for Rowan. “She wasn’t feeling well. Things got away from her. I think you should give her a break. It’s not as if you haven’t tied one on here or there since we’ve met.”

  “And you forced me back to my quarters when I did it, too.” Michael broke out in a wide grin. “You’re a fabulous Boy Scout. Has anyone ever told you that?”

  “No one who has lived to tell the tale.”

  “Perhaps I’ll be the first.”

  “Perhaps.”

  ROWAN FORCED HERSELF TO FOCUS ON taking photos even though her mind insisted on wandering all over the place. She figured the normalcy of the task would be calming. Oddly enough, she turned out to be right. Once she got used to being watched by her father and uncle — from a distance of course — she allowed herself to relax. Her camera was a natural extension of her hands and, before she knew it, she was fully engaged in her task. She’d taken more than a hundred photos when the first blip in her day arrived. It was blonde, and rather obvious when approaching her.

  “I’m surprised you’re up this morning,” Darcy offered. She had a drink in her hand, a pink umbrella sticking out of it, and appeared amused. “I thought you might call in sick and spend the day in bed.”

  “That’s not really my style,” Rowan replied. “I drank a little more than was necessary last night — and I’m sorry if I said anything rude or weird — but I feel much better today.”

  “Your stomach bug passed then?” The question was laden with innuendo.

  “It did,” Rowan confirmed. “I feel much better.”

  “Well, that’s good.” Darcy licked her lips and glanced around. It almost looked as if she was making sure nobody was eavesdropping. “You should probably take it easy with the alcohol. It’s not exactly going to help your particular situation.”

  Rowan’s antenna was up. “What’s my particular situation?”

  “You know ... under the weather.”

  That wasn’t what she was talking about. Rowan was convinced, at least in a roundabout way, the woman was trying to warn her. She’d been unsure the day before, but now she believed Darcy showed her the photo to tip her off. Rowan wouldn’t have thought to take a selfie and check herself without a little prodding. Perhaps Darcy understood that because she was like Rowan.

  The notion was interesting ... and a little chilling.

  “That was an interesting photo you showed me,” Rowan started, opting to go for it. Quinn would probably be unhappy but she had to follow her gut on this one. “Is there a specific reason you were taking photos of my boyfriend and me on the deck that night?”

  Darcy feigned innocence. “I was just testing my camera. I didn’t even realize you guys were in the photo until I was looking at them the next day.”

  She delivered the line with flat indifference, but Rowan was convinced there was something in the depths of her eyes that hinted at despair. For an instant, Rowan wondered if Darcy’s gift was being used against her will. Perhaps that’s why she warned her, so Rowan had a chance to make sure the same thing didn’t happen to her.

  Of course, it could’ve been something else entirely.

  “Tell me about your job,” Rowan insisted, changing course quickly. “What do you do?”

  “I’m an accountant.”

  They both knew that wasn’t true. “You don’t do anything else for the company?”

  “I work with numbers.” Her delivery was flat. “It’s a boring job, but somebody has to do it.”

  “Yeah, well ... .” The more Rowan stared at the woman, the more uncomfortable she got. “Was there something you wanted to specifically talk about?”

  “I was just saying hi. I wanted to make sure you were none the worse for wear after your binge last night.”

  “I feel fine.”

  “That’s good. I would hate for your reflexes to be delayed.”

  A threat or a warning? Rowan couldn’t decide. “My reflexes are fine.” She moved to leave and then stilled. “You don’t seem to like your co-workers all that much. Have you ever considered changing professions?”

  Darcy merely shrugged. “I have obligations to meet right now. That’s not really an option for me.”

  “And in the future?”

  “Who knows what the future will hold.”

  It wasn’t an answer, and yet it was. Rowan was more convinced than ever that Darcy was somehow trapped in her current position. It might’ve made her naive, but Rowan believed the young woman really was trying to warn her. This was the only way she knew to do it.

  “Well, if you want to show me more photos later, just let me know,” Rowan offered. “I’m sure we can carve out time to talk.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  11

  Eleven

  By the time lunch rolled around, Rowan was feeling much better. Quinn suggested a group lunch with Nick, Paul, and Fred at the tiki bar. He insisted Nick bring a map of the dive site so it looked as if they were working, and then related his conversation with Michael.

  “I honestly don’t believe he knows anything,” he volunteered. “He seemed almost embarrassed on Spencer’s behalf.”

  “It sounds to me as if Spencer has always been obsessed with the paranormal,” Fred noted as he leaned back in his chair, amusement lining his face as he watched Rowan attack the mountain of fried food on her plate. “I’m glad to see you still have an appetite despite everything that’s going on.”

  “I’m fine.” Rowan dunked a battered mushroom in ranch dressing. “I feel a lot better. I have something to add to the conversation, too, but we’ll wait until Quinn is finished.”

  Quinn offered her a crooked grin as he stole a fry from her plate and popped it in his mouth. All this fried food is going to give you heartburn if you’re not careful.”

  “That’s what acid reducer is for. Besides, I already have heartburn from the gin last night.”

  “I take it you’ll be foregoing alcohol for the remainder of the trip.”

  “Yup.”

  “Good girl.” He leaned over and kissed her temple, smoothing her hair as she held up a fried pickle for him.

  “Your favorite,” she offered.

  “You’re my favorite.” He bit into the pickle and then kissed her before he swallowed, causing her to laugh. He loved the sound and was thankful she could still make it despite everything going on.

  “And you guys are back to being disgusting,” Fred lamented. “It’s a sickness. I swear.”

  “We’re fools for love,” Quinn countered. “As for my conversation with Michael, I left feeling better than I did when I entered. I also want to research this Edgar Torrance guy. I figure there might be a lead in there, although I honestly have no idea what it would be.”

  “I know a bit about that case,” Fred offered, taking everybody by surprise. “My mother lived about two blocks over when all this went down. She filled me in on all the gory details when I was overseas.”

  “Really?” Quinn bit into his massive burger. “Tell me about it,” he prodded around a mouthful of food.

  “Oh, how can you resist him with manners like that, Rowan?” Fred teased. “I can see why you fell in love with him.”

  “I fell in love with his muscles,” Rowan countered, not missing a beat. “The eating habits were just a bonus because I eat the same way.”

  “You certainly do,” Quinn agreed, sneaking a fried clam from her plate. He was thrilled her appetite was back. It only helped to cement the fact that the previous night’s meltdown was an aberration. She acted out of sorts because she was confused and afraid. That could’ve happened to anyone.

  “As for Torrance, he was a sick piece of work,” Fred volunteered. “He was always weird, though. He was the guy in the neighborhood who went overboard for Halloween.”

  Rowan made a face. “What’s wrong with that? When I have a place of my own, I’m going totally over
board with Halloween decorations. I have a ton of ideas.”

  Quinn grinned at her. “Let me guess ... are they all based on horror movies?”

  She bobbed her head. “Pretty much.”

  “Somehow I knew that.”

  “Yeah, but you’re cute and sassy and can get away with it,” Fred countered. “Torrance was a single guy in his forties at the time who put some of the goriest tableaus you’ve ever seen on his front lawn and then, when curious kids grouped around, he invited them in his house for private tours.”

  Quinn lifted his head, surprised. “He invited neighborhood kids into his home for private tours?”

  “Yup.”

  “Pedophile?”

  “That I don’t know,” Fred hedged. “If he was, I never heard anything about it. He showed more interest in the girls than the boys, but once I read the stories about what was going down with him, that made sense for a different reason.”

  “And what reason would that be?” Paul queried. “Just for the record, by the way, I can guarantee if some weird guy invited Rowan into his house for a private tour of anything when she was a kid, he’d be dead.”

  “Yeah. I can’t imagine putting up with anything like that with a child of mine either,” Quinn agreed. “Still, we don’t know that he was a pedophile.”

  “We do know he was a killer,” Paul stressed.

  “There is that,” Fred agreed. “Anyway, he was caught through a fluke. One of the neighbors lost a cat and let himself into Torrance’s yard, was down on his hands and knees and happened to look through a basement window. The girls were all sitting in chairs — as if they were posed — and were long dead.”

  Rowan was horrified by the picture he painted. “How were they posed?”

  “Oh, don’t answer that,” Quinn muttered. “I just know it’s going to be gross.”

  “They were tied to the arms of the chair, braces holding up their necks. It looked as if they were having a conversation.”

  “Oh, geez.” Quinn rubbed his forehead. “That is worse than I thought. They weren’t like … nailed to the chairs or anything, were they?”

  “No.” Fred shook his head. “They were tied, not impaled. The autopsy reports indicated they were dead long before they were tied to the chairs, too.”

  “How did they die?” Rowan asked.

  “They were poisoned. Apparently when taken into custody, Torrance didn’t deny anything. He said he picked those particular girls because they were psychic and could control the minds of others. He said he had a demon in his mind and required the girls to remove it if they wanted to go free. They refused, instead poked around in his head even more, so he locked them in to change their minds. They never did, so he killed them.”

  Quinn made a face. “The girls refused to release the demon or couldn’t?”

  “I’m sure it was the latter,” Fred conceded. “The thing is — and this is something I pushed out of my head until I found out about Rowan — there were odd things about the girls. The newspapers did stories about them, and through the years, they’d all participated in one or more wondrous miracles.

  “I can’t remember the exact specifics, but one of them found a missing child,” he continued. “Another saved the family down the street from a horrendous fire that would’ve killed them all, got them out a full twenty minutes early. They were on the front lawn arguing with her when the house exploded. There was a gas leak nobody knew about.”

  Rowan’s mouth dropped open. “Wait ... they really were psychic?”

  “I didn’t really believe in psychic abilities before you so it was a story I disregarded for years. Now I’m not so sure, especially given Spencer’s ties to this guy.”

  “Michael made it sound as if Spencer only joined the fraternity to get information on Torrance,” Quinn volunteered. “He wasn’t in it for the camaraderie or rampant sex and booze.”

  “And that’s the only reason I would join a fraternity,” Fred lamented. “I mean, seriously, what other reason is there?”

  Quinn chuckled as he wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “There’s nothing that could entice me to join a fraternity. They’re not my thing. That being said, I think Torrance is a good lead. He’s still in prison. Maybe we can find a way to get someone over there to talk to him.”

  “To what end?” Paul queried. “What do you think he can tell us?”

  “He might have information on Spencer, including the man’s motivations. If Spencer is loony like Torrance, that’s information we need to know. If Spencer is smarter than Torrance, that’s also something that might be beneficial to know.”

  “Good point.”

  “Thank you.”

  Rowan shoved more mushrooms in her mouth and chewed, thoughtful. When she was finished, she decided it was time to volunteer the information she’d uncovered. “So, I talked to Darcy again.”

  Quinn’s eyes flashed with disbelief as he focused his full attention on her. “You did what?”

  “Don’t worry. I didn’t seek her out. She found me on the deck.”

  “Why?” The worry that had been slowly pushed out of his gut all morning roared back with a vengeance. “What does she want from you?”

  “I don’t know that she wants anything from me,” Rowan countered. “I think ... well ... I think she might be trying to warn me.”

  “Warn you about what?”

  “My imminent death.”

  Quinn’s lips curved down into a rigid frown. “I don’t want you saying things like that. You’re not going to die.”

  “Eventually we’re all going to die.”

  “You’re not dying until you’re a hundred years old. Even then, we’re going together. I’ve given it a lot of thought. We’re going to go like that old couple did in The Notebook. No, don’t bother arguing. That’s the way it’s going to be.”

  Despite the serious tilt of his head, Rowan found his determination amusing. “I think that’s a fabulous idea,” she said. “I don’t want to get Alzheimer’s, though. Can we not do that part?”

  “Absolutely.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Tell me why you think Darcy is trying to warn you.”

  “Because it makes the most sense,” she replied without hesitation. “I mean, think about it, why else would she show me a picture of myself knowing I’m one of the only people on the planet who can identify the symbol?”

  “That’s a fair question,” Quinn conceded. “What if they don’t know what you can do, though?”

  Rowan was understandably confused. “How is that possible?”

  “Your father was part of an experiment at college. My understanding is that those participating displayed a variety of abilities. How could they possibly know which ability you would display?”

  “Because ... I ... um ... .” Rowan didn’t have an answer for him. “But she can do the same thing. Maybe she recognized it in me.”

  “Or maybe she was testing you,” Paul countered. “Maybe she wanted to see your reaction. You said yourself that you didn’t handle things well. Perhaps that was enough for her to realize she was on the right track.”

  Rowan couldn’t argue with the assumption and yet she remained committed to her initial opinion. “I have a feeling,” she stressed. “I know that’s not enough for some of you — okay, it’s probably not enough for all of you — but I feel something when I look at her.”

  “And what’s that?” Quinn queried. “I’m not making fun of you,” he offered hurriedly when she pinned him with a dirty look. “I really want to know. I’ve learned to trust your gut. You have good instincts. I need to understand, though. I can’t blindly trust this woman when your life is on the line.”

  “I don’t expect you to blindly trust her,” Rowan reassured him. “I’m not even sure I truly believe that she’s trying to help. It’s just ... I feel it here.” She tapped her chest for emphasis. “I don’t know how to explain it and I’m not comfortable enough to risk my life. Trust me. There’s just something about he
r.”

  “Fair enough.” Quinn snagged another mushroom from her plate. “Tell me.”

  “If they want to observe me in my natural environment under the radar, why show me the photo she took of us on the deck?” Rowan asked. “All that served to do was put me on edge.”

  “Maybe that was part of their plan,” Nick suggested. “It’s possible that they wanted to prod a specific reaction out of you. That could be fear ... or anger ... or something else entirely. They might simply have wanted to see for scientific reasons. We might never know their true motivations.”

  “We do know that Darcy is like me,” Rowan argued. “She can do the same thing I can. She showed me because she knew I could recognize the symbol. She also made sure I was alone when she did it. Spencer and Julia were nowhere to be found when she dropped her little bomb.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean what you think,” Quinn argued. “I mean ... maybe she’s sadistic. Maybe she was warned away from engaging with you in private and decided to break the rules because she thought it would be fun.”

  “There’s also the other possibility,” Nick interjected. “Perhaps Spencer wants Rowan to believe Darcy is on her side so she’ll start confiding in her. This all could’ve been a setup from the beginning. If so, it was the smart way to go because Rowan is clearly leaning toward believing Darcy.”

  Rowan made a protesting sound with her mouth. “I didn’t say I believed her. I just said it was possible.”

  “You have a good heart,” Quinn countered. “That’s one of the first things I noticed about you. I’m worried that you’re projecting your feelings on Darcy, though. Because you wouldn’t willingly join the Phoenix Society, you assume she’s the same way even though there’s no proof of that.”

  Rowan stubbornly folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t care what you say. I still think it’s possible.”

  “As long as you treat her like the enemy and don’t share anything important with her, I can live with that,” Quinn said, making a face when his phone dinged. “That’s probably the paperwork I’m waiting for from the medical wing. They’re supposed to get me the final autopsy report on Deborah.” He focused on his phone as Rowan risked a glance at her father.