The Hunt (4 page)

‘I know. I can’t believe he’s really gone,’ Jess said. They started walking again, heading towards Main Street without discussing it. Two and a half blocks of the street were crammed with shops and restaurants, and it really was the only place in town to go.

‘Now I can’t stop thinking about what I said,’ Eve murmured. ‘It’s like I have our whole talk on a loop.’

‘Let it go,’ Jess told her. ‘You’ve known Kyle for ever. We all have. You’ve had hundreds and hundreds of conversations with him between first grade and … and yesterday. The last one isn’t the most important one.’

Eve let out a sigh that felt as though it started deep in her belly. ‘I thought we’d gotten through the horribleness, you know?’ she told Jess. ‘I thought after I defeated Malphas, after he was gone … I guess I thought that the rest of the year would be calm. That everything would go back to normal.’

‘Yeah. Me too.’

Eve felt as if inky darkness had flooded her soul, weighing it down. ‘But now I’m starting to wonder if it’s possible for Deepdene to ever be normal again.’

Luke stepped through the bright yellow front door of Big Ola’s and took a look around. Yep, the place was packed, just as he’d expected. Not that that was bad. People needed to be together when they were grieving or afraid. He’d seen that over and over at the rectory and at the many funerals his father had presided over as a minister, and the wakes and receptions they’d gone to together.

‘Thompson! Over here.’ James Frankel waved and pointed to the empty chair next to him. A bunch of kids from school had pushed three of the little café tables together. Luke walked over and joined them, at the same time glancing around for Eve – Eve and Jess. He didn’t see them, which was weird. He’d been almost positive that they would be here. They were pretty much the centre of Deepdene High’s most popular group.

‘Can someone walk me home later?’ Victoria Matthews asked, putting down her cell. ‘My mother is sure that in the two blocks between here and there I’ll be mauled, without someone to protect me.’

Her tone was exasperated, but Luke caught a whiff of underlying fear. And Vic seemed a little relieved when Alexander Neemy immediately volunteered before Luke even had the chance to open his mouth.

Victoria would be more than a little scared if she knew what had been happening in town a few weeks ago
, Luke thought. Several of her good friends had had their souls sucked out by the demon Malphas. If Eve didn’t have the powers passed down by the Deepdene Witch, the only place Vic would be able to see those friends was in a mental hospital.

Luke did another check for Eve. She might be the protector of the town, but he kind of felt like he was the protector of
her
.

‘I guess my parents aren’t the only ones who’ve jumped to Code Red,’ Dave said. He downed a giant spoonful of his mudslide sundae.

‘I think your parents were right to make you cancel your camping trip,’ Vic told him. ‘Walking two blocks on the sidewalk in the middle of the day is one thing.
Camping in the woods overnight – that’s something else. Something crazy stupid else.’

‘There’s nothing out there I can’t handle,’ Dave insisted.

‘Yeah, don’t forget Dave has his trusty potato gun,’ James said. Everyone laughed for about two seconds, then suddenly fell silent, as if they’d all remembered at the same moment that Kyle was dead.

‘Potato gun?’ Luke asked. He’d only moved to Deepdene a few months ago, while almost everyone else had lived here their whole lives. There was still a lot of inside stuff he didn’t get.

‘Dave really wanted a BB gun for his eighth birthday. That’s all he talked about for six months beforehand,’ Jenna Barton explained.

‘And then he got one of those guns that shoots potato pellets instead,’ Luke guessed.

Jenna shook her head.‘No, he got the BB. Shot himself in the foot less than a half an hour after he unwrapped it.’

‘It could have happened to anyone!’ Dave protested.

‘So of course the BB got taken away,’ Jenna went on, ‘and he got the tater gun as a replacement. No replacement for that bit of toe though.’

Everyone laughed again. Softly. Funeral-reception laughter.

‘I heard some people are planning to buy
real
guns – at least until the animal that … that got Kyle is caught,’ Vic commented. Luke noticed she’d had trouble coming up with a more accurate word, like ‘killed’ or ‘mauled’.

Phoebe, one of the regular Ola’s waitresses, stopped by. She had to be almost thirty years old, but she looked just as spooked and upset as the kids from school. Luke ordered a vanilla shake with a shot of espresso. As she stepped away he heard the bells on the front door ring out. He immediately looked over, and a smile spread across his face. Eve and Jess.

He got up and hurried over to them. ‘Gossip exchange,’ Jess commanded, instead of saying hello.

‘Victoria can’t walk home without an escort, Dave can’t go camping this weekend and on my way here I heard that Mr Groshart has Helena locked in her room on suicide watch,’ Luke answered obediently.

‘We saw Helena’s father while we were on our way here. He’d just gotten a couple of frappuccinos from Java Nation to take home for him and Helena,’ Eve said. ‘He said Helena’s upset, and that she’ll probably take some days off school until she’s had time to
adjust. But he was out buying coffees for them, and didn’t seem worried that she was alone, so I think the suicide watch thing definitely falls into the “false rumour” column.’

Luke nodded. ‘Oh, I forgot: there may be a spike in gun buying.’ Luke knew that when Jess asked for gossip, she wanted it all.

‘You know, if I wasn’t afraid of guns, I might get one,’ Jess said.

‘A gun would ruin the line of every outfit you wore,’ Eve teased gently.

‘Also, and admittedly much less important than the outfit thing, it would be illegal. You’re still a minor,’ Luke pointed out. He pushed his blond hair out of his face. He liked it long, but it had been a while since his last haircut and it was almost to the point where there would be vision impairment.

‘But I need some protection against the mountain lion. Maybe a knife in a little sheath strapped to my thigh?’ Jess said. ‘With that plaid Catholic-schoolgirlesque miniskirt of mine, it could be hot.’

Eve nodded. ‘In a badass anime-heroine way.’

‘Exactly,’ Jess agreed.

‘Back up. Mountain lion?’ Luke asked.

‘On our way over we heard it was a mountain
lion that killed Kyle,’ Eve said, exasperated. Luke noticed that Eve hadn’t had any trouble saying the word ‘killed’. It made him a little sad. When he’d first met her, she would’ve been more skittish, like Vic. But Eve had changed. He had too, actually. Experiencing evil at such close range did that.

‘I’ve been telling Jess that there aren’t any mountain lions on Long Island,’ Eve continued. ‘Or anywhere within a thousand miles.’

‘And I’ve been telling Eve that global weather changes have caused weird animal migration patterns,’ Jess said. Luke raised his eyebrows. He was surprised to hear such a scientific theory coming from Jess. ‘I’m not stupid,’ she informed him, noting his reaction. ‘And besides, my brother likes to watch the Discovery Channel.’

‘Much as I’d like to see you with a dagger strapped to your thigh – you too, Eve,’ he added with a wink, ‘I’m sure the police and animal control will be able to handle this solo.’

‘So you don’t think this is anything abnormal?’ Eve asked. ‘I mean, of course it’s abnormal, but is it
extreme
abnormal?’

‘I don’t think we have to go there,’ Luke answered.

‘Please let’s not go there,’ Jess added.

‘Horrible things happen sometimes,’ Luke went on. ‘It’s life. Normal, hugely sucky, life.’ He looped one arm around Jess’s shoulders and one around Eve’s waist. ‘How about you two smokin’ babes let me buy you an ice cream?’

‘Let’s hope that’s not your A game, player,’ Eve joked.

‘Is that a “yes”?’ Luke asked.

Eve gave a queenly nod. ‘Yes, you may buy us ice cream. You may also procure chairs for us.’

Luke looked around the crowded room, spotted a couple of free chairs and carried them over to his table. ‘My ladies,’ he said to Eve and Jess.

‘We have the new boy well trained, don’t we?’ Jess asked as they all sat down with their friends.

‘You two can train me if you want to,’ Dave said. ‘I’m open to most types of discipline.’

‘How much longer am I going to be the new boy?’ Luke asked.

‘Until we have another one,’ Vic told him. ‘You could still be the new boy a year from now.’

Phoebe put Luke’s glass down, the frosty silver shaker next to it. ‘I’ll be back for your orders in a few, girls,’ she told Eve and Jess. ‘The place is, well – look around.’ Luke didn’t think he’d ever seen the café so
crowded, even in the summer, with all the tourists.

‘OK, I started looking for more info about animals around here. This site says that foxes and big birds – the hawk kind, not the yellow googly-eyed kind with a person inside – are the only real predators in the Hamptons.’ Jess fiddled with her BlackBerry. ‘I can take a fox or a bird barehanded, although it might mess up my manicure.’

Another one of those silences fell across the table. Eve quickly broke it. She pressed one hand over her heart. ‘You’re not suggesting Big Bird has a person inside, are you?’

Nice save
, Luke thought as their friends broke into relieved laughter. The group clearly wanted a break from thinking about wild animals. And what a wild animal had done to Kyle.

‘I used to be afraid of Big Bird,’ James admitted. ‘He was just so–’

‘Big?’ Vic offered.

‘Yellow,’ James said.

‘What does that even mean?’ Eve asked. ‘Were you afraid of other yellow things?’

‘Rubber duckies? Bananas?’ Jess suggested.

‘Forget it, OK? Just forget it. Never should have brought it up,’ James told them, clearly realizing that
the group could spend the next half-hour at least analysing his yellow phobia. ‘Luke, you saw Kyle after school yesterday, right?’

‘At football practice, yeah,’ Luke answered. He’d been asked the same question about five times already.

‘Did he seem weird or anything?’ James asked.

Luke shook his head. ‘Same as always. Same killer tackle, same bad jokes, same …’

Jess’s phone rang. She rolled her eyes as she checked to see who it was. ‘Mom,’ she mouthed to Eve, then answered. ‘I have safely made it from the sidewalk in front of Jildor’s to inside Ola’s,’ Luke heard her say. ‘OK … OK … OK,’ Jess continued, then hung up.

She sighed. ‘I think I’m going to go home. My mother has been calling, I swear, every five minutes. No exaggeration.’

Eve stood up. ‘I’ll go with you.’

‘Thanks, Evie. We have a ton of ice cream at home. Unless Peter has piggied it all.’ Peter was Jess’s younger brother.

‘See you guys tomorrow,’ Eve told everyone. Jess gave a wave. Luke walked them over to the door.

‘Want me to come with?’

‘We’re fine. Stay and drink your milkshake,’ Eve answered.

The door opened and Briony came in. ‘You’re already leaving?’ she asked them.

‘We are, but Luke’s not,’ Jess answered. She gave Luke a smirk. ‘That’s his table over there.’ She pointed to the table they’d just left. ‘Grab one of the empty seats before someone else does.’

‘Thanks.’ Briony headed that way.

Luke took a step after her, then turned back. ‘You’re sure you don’t want me to come with you?’

‘Go!’ Eve insisted. ‘Briony’s the new girl. You’re contractually obligated to flirt with her or we’ll have to take your player licence away.’

Luke pointed at Jess and Eve and made texting motions with his thumbs. ‘Let me know when you get there, OK?’

Eve smiled at him. ‘Yes, Daddy.’ She opened the door and led the way out. Luke watched for a moment as the two girls started down the sidewalk. Eve was gesturing wildly as she talked. He realized she’d been even more animated than usual since she came into Ola’s.
Trying to push the badness away
, he thought.

He returned to his seat. ‘Glad you came,’ he told Briony. ‘I thought maybe I’d scared you off.’

‘Eve told me that you had a strange sense of humour, and everyone kind of explained that this wasn’t a completely insensitive thing to do,’ Briony answered.

‘I’ll have to thank Eve for interpreting,’ Luke joked.

‘I hope I won’t need her to explain me too often.’ Although if anybody could do it, Eve could. She was starting to know him better than anyone else. Which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. He hoped she didn’t go around passing out stats on how many girls he’d gone out with since he’d arrived in Deepdene. She seemed to have them memorized and think he was some kind of hound, even though Luke would describe himself as just your basic, friendly guy.

A little friendlier to cute girls
, he could almost hear Eve add. Well, she should know, being a cute girl herself.

Luke took a gulp of his milkshake – forgetting, the way he always did, about brain freeze. When the cold pain receded from behind his eyes, he realized that a new person had taken a seat at the table behind theirs. He couldn’t see the guy that well as Briony was blocking the view.

Luke slid his chair a little to the right until he caught a glimpse of the guy’s profile. He was old,
maybe in his thirties, and his face was unfamiliar. He had on a beat-up, dirty trench coat and battered cowboy boots. He wasn’t from Deepdene. Which, Luke had lived here long enough to know, was weird. Once the summer ended, it was pretty much regulars at Ola’s and everyplace else in Deepdene, especially on a weekday.

‘Hey, Luke, did Jess or Eve say anything about Helena?’ Jenna asked, interrupting his thoughts. ‘Is she really suicidal?’

‘They saw her dad getting coffee like everything was normal. They don’t think she’s in any danger.’ Luke caught a jerk of motion out of the corner of his eye. The guy behind Briony was taking notes, typing furiously into his laptop. Luke shook his head. He should have realized right away that stranger after tragedy equalled reporter.

He stood up. ‘That’s off the record, by the way,’ he said more loudly.

‘I’m with the
New York Post
,’ the guy announced, acting like it was nothing to have been caught eavesdropping. ‘I’m here to cover the tragic death of Kyle Rakoff. Did any of you know him?’