Oblivion (23 page)

Cameron’s eyes lingered on Lindsay. “It’s too bad you had to run to the cops, Lindsay. I can’t help what happens now. Nobody likes a narc.”

Lance looked livid as Cameron and his friends left the snack bar. Lindsay shivered from the threat in his words. It was obvious Cameron wasn’t going to let it go. She had three weeks until graduation.

She debated the sanity in not leaving with Lance and Marnie now. But now it looked like Marnie might not be able to leave. She knew Lance wouldn’t go without her. It gave her hope she could see this through.

“He’s just blowing smoke,” Lance assured Marnie. “He can’t force you to stay.”

Marnie looked sick as she sat back in her chair. “He has rights if it’s his. The lady at the welfare office said so. There’s a test I can have done to find out now. We talked about it if this should happen when I went through the adoption process. I didn’t think Cameron would do this.”

“Forget it! You’re not getting stuck with some needle to prove a point.”

“What are you talking about?” Lindsay asked in alarm. “What needle?”

Lance looked angry. “They have a test they can do to establish paternity of the baby. They stick a needle into her stomach to extract blood from the baby. It’s dangerous and I told her no.”

“He’s not going to leave me alone unless we do it.”

Lance appeared sick too. “Marnie, I won’t ask you to do that.”

“He meant what he said, Lance. He’s going to make everyone as miserable as he is now. He knows I can’t leave if it’s his. I’m calling that lady Monday and take the test. What choice do we have?”

“I told my uncle I would be back July first; no later. We gotta figure this out or I’m out of a job.”

“Uncle Ed won’t fire you, Lance.”

“Jobs are hard to come by, Lindsay,” her brother reminded her. “It’s no different there. Sure he’ll understand, but I don’t want to risk my job by staying here any longer than that.”

“Cam is just trying to make everyone as miserable as he is. He’s on bail. He wouldn’t dare try to come after me and Marnie.”

“Don’t even guess what he will do, little sister,” Lance said coldly. “Remember what he did to Jace? I don’t put anything past him.”

“Now do you see why I was helping the Sheriff?”

“No more of that,” Lance warned her, his dark eyes filled with anger. “They get paid to take those risks; you don’t. Leave it to the cops, Lindsay.”

“What if he gets away with it?” she asked and looked devastated. “How can I accept that?”

Lance’s expression softened. “He was my brother, Lindsay. How do you think I feel? All these years I wondered why I liked the guy so much.  I want to rip Cam’s head off, but I have to let the cops do their job.”

“Jace wouldn’t want to see you take these risks, Lindsay,” Marnie added and her hazel eyes filled with sadness. “He was one of the kindest people I knew. He wouldn’t want you hurt trying to catch his killer.”

“You know, this last month has been an eye opener for me,” Lindsay said softly. “I almost feel like I didn’t deserve Jace at all. Everything he did was for his family and for us. The choices I forced him to make for me will haunt me forever.”

“He made his choice. He was staying. You guys would have worked it out,” she consoled.

“Did you ever wonder why Cameron did it?” Lindsay asked them both. “He already knew he was getting the scholarship by default. Jace told him he wasn’t going with me before he even told me. We all know he could care less whose baby it is. I can’t help but want to know.”

“He’s a sicko; that’s why!” Lance exploded under his breath. “Don’t wonder about it. Any guy who would hack up his best friend is just nuts. Does he need a reason?”

“No, she has a point,” Marnie pointed out. “Why would he kill Jace? I’ve wracked my brain trying to figure it out. Sure he was jealous of Jace. Who wouldn’t be? He was as close to perfect as you could get.”

“Sheriff Wilson said some people get off on killing. I can’t help but wonder if he’s sick like that. Now do you understand? What if he kills again?” Lindsay said urgently. “I couldn’t live with myself if I did nothing.”

Lance and Marnie both considered what she said. Her brother ran a hand through his dark hair and gazed at her with understanding in his gaze. “You mean you think he might be a serial killer who is just getting started?”

“Nothing else makes sense, Lance.”

“We might never know, Lindsay. I know you’re missing Jace, but you have to let this go. Cameron is nobody you want to mess with.”

Lindsay finished her pizza and her private thoughts disagreed with her brother. She very much wanted to mess with Cameron. It was pretty clear unless she met him head-on he would come at her from behind. Her brother had his hands full with Marnie and her situation right now.

As much as she would like to assure him she would stay out of it; she had no intentions of letting Dooley handle the case on his own. Sheriff Wilson retired in a few weeks. He assured her once he was out of the department he would devote himself to the case fulltime.

He said Dan hadn’t the experience to work the case. Just knowing Cameron was likely to walk made her more determined to help. Jace wouldn’t die in vain. She had to have some justice. Her whole life was upside down.

On the outside she looked like she was handling her grief. On the inside, she was falling apart. Everything she once thought was important no longer was. She even second-guessed her decision to be a doctor one day and go to Georgia at all. Worse, she no longer wanted to live without Jace. She refrained from talking about that. The desire to join him in death was a constant thought.

Lance would have her dragged to a padded room if he knew how much she wanted to end her own life and be with the man she loved. The only thing that kept her going was seeing Cameron pay for what he did. Once he was sitting in prison, she would see where her life took her. Right now; she lived to get justice for Jace.

  “I’m going to drop you at home and help Marnie get all her stuff packed up,” her brother told her as he closed the leftover pizza box. “You gonna be alright for a while?”

“Yeah, I’m going to take a bath and get to bed early,” Lindsay replied and felt more secure knowing her brother had her back.

“She doesn’t have much and we won’t be long,” he warned and got up. “You hear one noise; you call my cell. I don’t trust those guys.”

Marnie looked at her worriedly. “Lindsay, you don’t know Cam the way you think you do. He’s not right. He’ll come after you or put somebody up to it. You need to be real careful until we leave.”

Lindsay realized they were both right. The boy she grew up with was an animal. He killed Jace in cold blood for no apparent reason. Why would he hesitate to hurt her after she went to the police? Fear coursed through her in waves. Hysteria was making it difficult to think rationally these days. Every noise and creak in the apartment put her on edge.

The three of them left the bowling alley and Lindsay ignored the taunts and jeers at her back. Lance sent warning looks as he walked behind the two girls. Once they were in his car and leaving, she exhaled.

“Lindsay you need to listen to Marnie for your own good. Every kid in town who bought from Cam has you on their short list now. Don’t go anywhere alone. They can’t get to you on your job, so that means they’ll try to draw you out.”

“I’m not worried, Lance.”

He looked angry. “You need to be! Lindsay, he’s in with drug dealers in Helena. We need to get you out of here.”

Lindsay sat in the backseat and stared out the window as they drove back to the apartment. Lance walked her up and checked the apartment before he left her, making her lock up after him. She realized everyone took this all very seriously except her. For some reason she was in denial Cameron would hurt her.

She sat in the bathtub and soaked for over an hour, thinking about what a mess everything was in such a short time. Six weeks before she was planning her and Jace’s future, now it appeared she didn’t have one unless Cameron went down.

Sheriff Wilson wasn’t sure Cameron wouldn’t just get probation for the drug charge. If that was the case; he was walking free next month at his hearing. His Father hired the best criminal defense attorney in Helena. She knew the evidence against him in Jace’s murder was all circumstantial.

Thoughts of Cameron beating everything he was charged with kept her up at night. He would bide his time until after the hearing. She knew instinctively she had nothing to worry about right now. He wouldn’t risk coming after her now. He would wait until the charges were dropped and he was assured of probation.

She waited until Lance and Marnie arrived and helped them unload Lance’s trunk. They took her Mom’s old room and she left them to unpack. She lay down and stared at the ceiling. Thoughts of Jace filled her mind.

Tears sprang to her eyes to know she could do so little for him. Frustrated anger filled her to know that wearing a wire wasn’t enough. Sheriff Wilson was right. She needed to step it up if she was going to get a confession out of Cam.

~ ~ ~

Jace was cleaning weapons when he saw Daphne on the close circuit TV outside the warehouse. He rose and hit the button to open the door, excited to see her back. She was three days early. She entered the warehouse and he closed the door. Her expression was sober.

“How did you close the door?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I did what you said and concentrated. I had to run all the way here. Those creeps were everywhere when I came through.”

“How did it go?”

She looked away from Jace’s inquisitive expression, appearing tense. “We can talk later. Is Merrick here?”

“No, he’s with Raymond and McNeal on patrol.”

Daphne looked relieved. “Jace, are you sure you need to go back?”

Jace froze at her worried look. “Why? What happened out there? Tell me now.”

Daphne wrung her hands and sat at the work bench, her blue eyes meeting his with reluctance. “It’s not how I thought it would be. One thing I can tell you is that there are plenty of us up there.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ghosts, Jace. They’re everywhere. It’s sad really. They must have gotten trapped there after they died.”

“What happened with your husband and his boss?”

“Aaron was in on it the whole time,” Daphne reported with a grimace. “He broke it off with her right after I died. She won’t leave him alone. I didn’t know it but my boss at the diner invested in security cameras for the restaurant. The cameras got her car and a partial plate. The cops are investigating her and she is close to breaking. It’s really sad. She did all that to be with Aaron and he doesn’t even care about her.”

“Where’s Jacob?”

“He’s with my mom like I told you,” Daphne said and smiled. “Aaron agreed to give her and my dad custody. He lied to them and said we had no insurance so they had to pay to bury me. What a jerk! Why am I surprised?”

“It’s only a matter of time before she confesses and takes him down with her,” Jace told her and nodded. “All in all, do you feel like you got closure?”

Daphne paused and regarded him with a sad look. “My son could see me, Jace. He smiled at me and followed me with his eyes. Isn’t that something?”

Jace felt for her, knowing she missed her baby son. “So how was the haunting?”

“That was fun,” she remarked with a chuckle. “All you have to do is concentrate really hard and you can move objects. Aaron about came unglued when I paid him a visit. He started to cry. Natalie hid in her closet. It was priceless. I should tell you that you can walk through walls and run really fast. You use this trick to move things and you get tired too.”

Jace looked fascinated. “But they couldn’t see you or hear you?”

She looked crestfallen. “No, nobody heard me or saw me; just Jacob. I tried; trust me. I saw how well my husband is living now and wanted to scream the house down. Another cool trick is steam. You have an outline then. I thought Natalie would lose it when I waited for her to get out of the shower. You should have seen her face.”

“Why did you come back so early?”

“I did what I wanted to do,” she explained and shrugged. “They’ll both get caught it looks like. My son is where I want him to be. There wasn’t much else I cared to find out.”

“Anything else I need to know before I go?” he asked.

Daphne smiled and rolled her eyes. “I’m sure, knowing you that you’ll discover more powers out there than I did. The trick is concentration and we both know yours is better than mine. I also think I made physical contact with Aaron.”

Jace stilled. “How?”

“I got so mad I swung at him,” she explained and shook her head. “I was so mad I couldn’t see straight. One of my blows he felt. I could see by the look on his face. He held his cheek and looked freaked out.”

Jace smiled grimly. “Good, what I got in mind calls for a little more action.”

“Did Merrick ever wonder where I went?”

Jace laughed. “He knew. I didn’t have to tell him. We told Raymond you went off to explore convinced you could lead a normal life down here. He didn’t think much of it. Goose and Will took off the week before so he thinks you’re all just ungrateful and hard-headed.”

“What will he say when you go missing?” she asked in concern.

“You just say I went off to look for the Newbies who are still missing; that’s it.”

“Jace, just be prepared to find that things aren’t the same. I would warn you now you won’t like some things. That was the hardest, not having anything to say about anything anymore. My mom spoils my son rotten. It was hard to sit and see it. Things like that. You aren’t there anymore. Life goes on without us.”

Jace sighed and thought of Sara and Dougie. He knew he could do nothing for them. His father hadn’t been sober one day since he died; he could almost bet. And Lindsay, how was she taking it? Not knowing was worse than discovering things he didn’t like. He had to know everyone was alright. He might have extended his time here in Oblivion, but it was worth it to him.

“When are you leaving?” she asked in a soft voice, her pretty face sad.

“Tomorrow after Merrick leaves for patrol.” 

“Jace, I think you should also know that the other ghosts are a nuisance. They’re bored or something. I was constantly inundated with them, asking questions about what lies beyond. Their stories will really get to you.”