Light from Her Mirror (Mirrors Don't Lie Book 3) (25 page)

“I
like that our grandparents are so down-to-earth. They’re nothing like the image
I had for rich politicians. I enjoyed spending time with them this week and
getting to know them better. And it was so sweet of him to get our approval on
running for President before he made his final decision.” Makenna was already
quite fond of the older couple. “So what do you think about their invitation?
Are we going to go for a visit?”

“Do
you
want to?” Kenzie countered.

“I
guess. I mean, we have to meet the rest of the family sooner or later. We have
uncles, aunts, and a half dozen or so cousins.”

“I
just don’t want them to think we’ve suddenly come out of the woodwork, just
because he’s going to be President.”

“He
may not get it, you know,” Makenna reminded her. “In fact, if it’s up to the
people in his own voting district, he won’t. If you recall, few people in
Haverhill had much good to say about him.”

“Hav’rill,”
Kenzie corrected her with a grin, popping a cheese covered sliver of red pepper
into her mouth. “They’re just looking at it from a personal angle. They feel
like he betrayed his hometown, voting for the NorthWind expansion to come
through. Plus, I think they’re all a little jealous of how well he’s done for
himself. I bet they’ll change their tunes the minute he gets nominated. Fame
does that to people. That, and a chance to be on television.”

Makenna
nodded. “They can do the whole ‘I knew him when’ thing.” She pushed her plate
back and proclaimed, “Okay, I’m stuffed. And don’t think I didn’t notice how
you evaded my original question. Are we going to visit next weekend, or not?”

“You’re
getting married in a month. Do you really have time for a trip to Colorado?”

“Wait.
I thought it was at their house on the coast. I thought we were going back to
New Hampshire.” Makenna’s face scrunched in confusion.

“There’s
a tropical storm brewing in the Atlantic, so they’ve changed it to their home
in Denver.” Kenzie waved her hand distractedly. “They have too many houses. How
can they ever keep up with what’s where?”

“One
of the few downsides of being rich, I suppose. But you still didn’t an- what on
earth are you looking at?” Makenna interrupted her own sentence when she saw
the intent way her sister was staring out the window.

“I
think I just saw that guy again,” Kenzie murmured.

“What
guy?”

“He
was standing over there, wearing a brown shirt… Let’s get out of here.” Without
taking her eyes from the spot across the street, Kenzie pulled a few bills from
her wallet. She glanced down only long enough to confirm that she was tossing
twenties onto the table.

Makenna
followed her sister to the door, sprouting questions. “What guy? Who is he?
What is going on?”

“The-The
guy from before, the one who was watching Craven and me that day.”

“He’s
probably just a local,” Makenna rationalized.

“Maybe.”
Kenzie stopped at the door, scanning the area across the street. There was no
trace of the mysterious man now. Still, unease slithered up her spine and
coiled tight around her shoulders. After a moment of hesitation, she admitted
something else. “I didn’t say anything earlier, but I thought someone might
have been following us today. There were two guys-”

“One
young, with longish blond hair, the other middle-aged, dark hair?”

“You
saw them, too?”

“I
wanted to think it was just co-incidence that they kept showing up where we
were.”

“I
think the dark haired man was the one in the blue car a few weeks ago, but I
tried to convince myself I was being paranoid.”

“I
know, I did the same thing,” Makenna commiserated, falling into step with her
sister as they started down the sidewalk. “I thought we were finally free of
all this cloak and dagger stuff. Now that everything is out in the open and
we’re no longer under protection, I thought things would go back to normal.”

“Yeah,
well, have you thought what it’s going to be like if there really is a Harry Lawrence
presidency?” Kenzie snorted.

“In
that case, I may campaign for the other guy.”

Kenzie
continued to scan both sides of the road as they walked. “Uh-oh,” she said
suddenly. “There they are. That’s definitely the same men from earlier. Come
on.” She whirled around, doing an about-face in the middle of the sidewalk.

“But
the car is that way, across the street.”

“Don’t
point! Keep your head down. Come on, let’s cut through here.”

Kenzie
led the way through a small maze of senior citizens decked out in bright pink
t-shirts touting their church group. “Excuse us, coming through,” she said,
elbowing her way into their midst. The elderly women harrumphed and grunted,
but grudgingly moved aside.

Once
past the solid sea of pink, Kenzie made a sharp turn, disappearing from sight.

“Kenzie!
Where did you go?” Makenna hissed. She had looked over her shoulder for only a
second.

“Over
here,” Kenzie called from a narrow passage that ran between the buildings. It
was barely wide enough for her to slip into.

Makenna
had passed these very buildings dozens of times and never noticed the sliver of
ground running between them; leave it to her sister to find adventure in the
most mundane of places.

Adventure
or not, it was a tight squeeze. “I’d better not get hung in here. My hips are
wider than yours, you know.”

“Not
by much. You’re wearing my capris,” Kenzie reminded her. “Watch your head up
here. There’s a breaker box.”

Ducking
beneath the box mounted on the building’s exterior, Makenna noted the label
with curiosity. “So this is where they plug in their Christmas lights,” she
murmured. “I always wondered about that. This town is lit up like Vegas around
the holidays.”

“Hurry,
before the pink sea departs,” Kenzie urged her, picking up the pace as she
rushed down the slim passageway.

“Do
you even know where this leads?”

“Sure.
To the back.”

Much
to their surprise, the ‘back’ turned out to be a beautiful garden oasis. A
brick-paved courtyard fanned out in an intricately laid pattern, leading to a
small set of apartments behind one of the buildings. Hand-twisted iron railings
and turn-of-the-previous-century gingerbread work edged the rear wing of the
old commercial building. In the center of the courtyard sat a flowing fountain
surrounded by lush flowerbeds and several sets of wrought iron patio furniture.
Though just a few dozen feet away from the busy activity of the main street,
the garden was quiet and serene and decidedly upscale.

It
was also filled with a dozen women dressed in summer finery, complete with
frilly hats and strings of pearls. A slender four-tiered cake and crystal punch
bowl dominated half of a linen-covered table; the other half held gaily-wrapped
presents in all shapes and sizes.

All
eyes turned upon the sisters as they burst from the narrow ingress and skidded
to a halt amid the intimate setting. Their mode of arrival was as shocking and
out-of-place as their denim capris and costume jewelry.

“May
we help you?” one of the women finally asked, her cultured voice ringing with
formality. Even though she remained seated, she gave the impression of looking
down her long nose at the intruders.

“Uhm,
photographer,” Kenzie improvised, grabbing the camera case that hung off her
shoulder.

“Oh,
how splendid!” The woman was suddenly all smiles as she clasped her hands
together in delight. “Mary Alice, did you do this?”

“Not
I.” A woman in a beige linen suit denied the claim with a diamond studded hand
placed upon her bosom. “Sheree, this was your doing, wasn’t it? No? Miriam?”

“Where
would you like us to set up?” Kenzie asked hastily. At the rate they were
going, the group would be out of candidates before she and Makenna were out of
the courtyard.

Playing
along, Makenna pretended to be looking for just the right light. When she
spotted the exit, she motioned for her sister. “This will be perfect, right
here.”

Without
looking back, the sisters shot out of the courtyard and disappeared behind the
high stone wall. They were half-way down the alley, their laughter spiked with
adrenaline, by the time the unsuspecting women realized what had happened.

“Good
grief, that reminds me too much of my childhood!” Kenzie proclaimed, slightly
out of breath.   

“You’ve
done this before?” Makenna asked sharply.

“Unfortunately,
yes.”

Until
just then, Kenzie had forgotten the many times she and her father had run down
alleys and similar city streets, avoiding unseen threats. Unseen to her, at
least; her father surely knew exactly who they were running from - the mafia,
or someone else he had swindled out of money. Kenzie slowed, trying to decide
their next course of action.

“You
do realize we’re still going the wrong direction from the car,” Makenna said
through labored breaths.

“Yes,
I know. But first we have to worry about crossing the street without being
seen.” She looked around for a moment, until a bright smile lit her face. “Oh,
look, a bus. Come on, let’s hurry!”

“Are
you crazy? We can’t get on there! The doors are closed.”

“Hurry,
go around behind it.” Kenzie motioned with her arm as she ran down the alley
toward the bus, which sat idling at a red light. “It’s in the turning lane.
When it starts across the street, we’ll run alongside it.”

“You
have got to be kidding! We’ll be killed! A car will hit us!” Makenna protested,
yet she ran alongside her sister, lest she be left behind.

“Who’s
going to run into a bus? Ready? Come on!”

They
raced behind the bus and up along its side, keeping pace as it turned left at
the light. Swinging wide, the bus temporarily blocked traffic as it straddled
both lanes in order to make the corner. Without the threat of merging traffic
to worry with, Kenzie led the way straight ahead, even when the bus turned. She
heard horns blaring and a few people shout, but her focus was on making it to
the sidewalk. Makenna glanced up apologetically into the faces of the bus’s
startled passengers. As the great vehicle straightened into one lane and
lumbered its way down the main thoroughfare, Kenzie and Makenna hit the
sidewalk without missing a beat.

“Come
on!” Kenzie urged. They ran straight into the first building they came to,
hurrying deep into the interior of an art gallery.

“I
can’t believe we just did that!” Makenna said, stopping to catch her breath.
She fanned her blazing face, ignoring the strange looks of other shoppers. “We
could have been killed!”

Kenzie
was straining to see the door. So far no one had followed, not even the police.
“We made it fine, didn’t we?” 

“The
jury’s still out on that one,” Makenna declared, patting her heaving chest. “I
may have a heart attack yet.”

“Do
you think you can make it up those stairs without passing out on me?”

“You
don’t have to be so sarcastic.” Makenna was unusually grumpy as she followed
her sister up the curved staircase of the old building. Under normal
circumstances, she would admire the century-old architecture and its fine
attention to detail; she might even linger over the array of colorful blown
glass and intricately carved art pieces. But these were not normal
circumstances. She had just run across a busy intersection alongside a bus,
while escaping from two men with probable ties to their father’s nefarious
past. At times like these, she did not even recognize her own life.

“Why
are we doing this? Aren’t we potentially trapping ourselves up here?” she
hissed as they ascended the final step.

“We
have a better view up here, and less people staring at us like we’re crazy.”

“We
did just cross the street, running beside a bus,” Makenna reminded her. “They
might have a point.”

Kenzie
made no comment as she sidled up beside the large windows and stared down at
the street below. Summer tourists milled down both sides of the street, keeping
the shops busy even though it was mid-week. After studying the crowd for a few
minutes, she spotted the two suspicious men across the street. They were
dipping in and out of storefronts, looking around in confusion as they wondered
how two women had disappeared so completely. “There they are,” she said. “We
need to get out of here while they are still on that side of the street.”

“I
think this building has a side entrance. Maybe we can sneak out and make it to
the car without being seen.”

“Too
risky. We need to change our appearance. Cover our hair, at the very least.”
Travis would be so proud, knowing she had learned a thing or two from their
experience at Red Rocks.

“I
thought we were supposed to be safe now, now that the scam is out in the open.
What do they have to gain by harming us now?”

“I
guess someone still wants to find our father. That, or to get even.”

With
that discouraging thought, the sisters made their way back down the stairs and
out the side door of the studio. It opened onto a tiny plaza with a scant
handful of shops set further off the street, an open-air cafe, and to a
familiar ice cream vendor.

“I
almost forgot about that first guy,” she murmured, glancing around uneasily for
any sign of him now. “This is almost the exact place I saw him before.”

“And
there’s where we ate lunch,” Makenna said, pointing directly across the street.
“He must hang out around here all the time.”

“You’re
right. Let’s get out of here. Walk along the edge as we make our way to that
dress shop down there. Maybe we can buy a disguise in there.”

They
turned into the tiny plaza, edging the inside perimeter furthest from the
street. They walked quickly, keeping an eye on the two men still searching for
them across the street. As Kenzie brushed past a clump of green shrubbery, she
heard a low voice hiss, “Psst! Hey, Lady!”

She
whirled to see where the voice came from, just as Makenna grabbed her arm. “Oh,
no, I think they spotted us!” Makenna gasped.

Kenzie
glanced at her sister, then turned again to see the retreating back of the man
who called out to her. There was no time to wonder who he was or what he
wanted. She and Makenna had to move, fast.

“What
do we do?” Makenna asked frantically.

The
man had disappeared into the shrubbery. It was risky, but one villain was
better than two.

“This
way,” Kenzie said, ducking behind the bushes. She grabbed her twin’s wrist as
she climbed through the prickly limbs of the ornamental conifers.

“Where
in the…” Makenna’s squeak was short lived, as the gymnosperm seemed to swallow
them whole.

She
followed Kenzie as they crawled through a double row of bushes and exited on
the other side, into an alleyway of sorts. It lead in only two directions- a
narrow overgrown path alongside a brick building, or back onto the street they
had just come from. Kenzie chose the overgrown path.

“Do
you know where we’re going?” Makenna hissed. “It looks scary back here!”

“All
I know is, it’s away from those men,” Kenzie said over her shoulder, searching
for any sign of being followed.

“This
way, Lady.”

Kenzie
whirled back around, stumbling on the rutted pathway as she searched for the
voice. The man in brown was several feet ahead, beckoning them to follow his
lead.

“Are
you insane?” Makenna saw the man ahead of them and jerked on Kenzie’s arm to
stop her. She dug her heels into the ground, her nails into flesh.

“Ouch,
that hurts!”

“Have
you totally lost your mind? We can’t follow that man! What is wrong with you?”
Makenna hissed.

“There
are two men behind us, both younger and stronger and a full head taller than
either one of us. At least this man is smaller, not to mention older,” Kenzie
reasoned. “Now come on.”

“No.”

“Quit
being stubborn.”

“No.
I am not budging. You want to go, you go without me.” Makenna crossed her arms
stubbornly. Jutting out her chin, her auburn hair glowed red in the sunlight.

They
were still not far from the street, even though there was no direct line of
sight. There was, however, a straight audio course. “Yeah, man, they went
that-a-way!” they heard someone say. 

Without
further protest, Makenna followed her sister deeper down the overgrown path. It
ended abruptly into a graveled parking area, wide and open and with nowhere to
hide. 

“Lady,
over here!” The man in the brown shirt stood at the back of the art gallery
they had previously vacated. He waved them over, motioning for them to stay
low. Ivy, briers, and climbing vines grew thick and dense around the old brick
building, seeming to sprout from its very mortar. Fearing they were trapped
with nothing but foliage for cover, Kenzie almost didn’t see the tiny basement
door.

“Hurry,”
the man said. He fairly pushed Kenzie into the small opening, before forcibly
pressing Makenna’s head down, just in time to save her from banging the top of
it on the low threshold. A small set of stone steps sank into the
understructure, leading into a surprisingly large space.

As
the women’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, the man pushed the door closed and
slid a heavy bar in place. A low bank of casement windows lined either side of
the stone-laid room. Several of the panes were obscured with vines and leaves
and undergrowth, others were caked with mud and dust and the grime of decades
past, yet adequate light managed to penetrate the heavy glass panels, enough
for the women to see. Once their eyes adjusted, Kenzie surveyed their
surroundings, while Makenna surveyed their host.

Or
was he their captor? Makenna watched him warily, wondering why he was willing
to help them. What was in it for him?

“Who
are you?” she asked, her voice surprisingly strong. Brave, in fact.

“Shh!”
the man cautioned, holding a finger to his lips.

Makenna
thought he was being melodramatic, until shadows moved along the side of the
building. They watched as two sets of legs passed by. Moments later, the
shadows returned, as the men outside retraced their steps. This time they
stopped just beyond the cellar, their voices muffled but discernible as they
plotted their next move.

“Where
the hell did they go?”

“Hell
if I know. They must have gone inside one of the buildings. The parking lot is
empty.”

“You
take this building, I’ll take the little row. They couldn’t have vanished into
thin air.”

“Offer
twenty bucks to anyone who can tell us where they went. Fifty if they help us
find them.”

“What
about the old man?”

Even
muffled, the laughter had an evil sound. “He’s worth a hundred.”

The
men shuffled off, leaving the trio alone again in silence. Instinctively,
Makenna edged closer to her sister, as the man guarding the door turned toward
them.