want something with some power to it.”
He stared at my wrists. “Looks like you burned yourself under them gloves.”
“ That’s right, I burned myself. What about that one? No, the big one next to it.”
He brought the gun over, a black beauty that could take out anything with a beating heart. “You got a carry permit?”
“ No, what do I do about that?” The gun felt cool and powerful in my hand.
“ You buy the gun now or you buy it later. Either way, you go to the sheriff’s office.” He took a greasy pencil and scrawled an address on the back of a receipt. “Go in and fill out an application, which takes four to six weeks, and they notify you by mail when it’s approved, and then you go in again for your photo and you pay the fee.”
Ten minutes later, I walked out with a black Desert Eagle Mark XIX .357 Magnum with a 6 inch barrel and a box of ammo, crumpled up the address, and tossed it out the window. It was way, way too late for me to be a good girl.
The whole thing was a monstrous lie. I’d realized that after I finally stopped screaming and forced myself to face reality. Ben wasn’t lying around with a broken jaw on some crazy island in the Pacific. He’d died on a rural road in Adams County, Pennsylvania, burned to death after his car flipped over in a ditch. They’d pronounced him dead at the scene and identified him by his dental records. You can fake a lot of things in life, and everybody knows what they are, but you can’t fake dental records. You can’t. As much as I wanted to believe he was alive, yearned for it with my whole heart, I knew he was gone. I’d gone to his funeral. I was there when they buried him in the St. Thomas cemetery.
Somehow John Savenue had lifted Ben’s likeness from the obituary or somewhere else and he was using it in a sick fantasy program. The shadows and the whispers didn’t fit into the picture, but I couldn’t get past Ben’s death and dental records. And if John Savenue thought he was going to show up at my house and threaten my sister again, he was in for the thrill of a lifetime when I found him first.
I rang Mike. “I want to talk to you about something.”
“ About us?” Cars rushed by in the background. He had to be out on the road again with those stupid shoes.
“ No, Mike, I need a favor. You’re still collecting shoes?”
“ You want to donate something?” The hope trailed out of his voice.
“ No. I donated Ben’s boots at the college, and I’ve changed my mind, and I want to keep them.” I took the gun out while I held the cell phone.
“ I’ve picked all those up. I’ve done Gettysburg.”
“ You could look for them.”
Silence, then he said, “I just don’t think they’re around now. I mean, what kind of boots are we talking about?”
“ Boots, brown boots. You’re taking them to the Grasslands, right? I want to meet you out there to look for them.”
“ No, John said nobody can go in there except me because of the construction.”
“ Okay, then I’ll stay in the Jeep and tell you what they look like.”
“ I guess that’d be all right,” he said, sounding like he didn’t want to do it. I knew he was agreeing just to see me. “I should be out there at ten. That’s my last run.”
“ I’ll be in the parking lot.” I put the cell phone on the seat by the gun and headed down the Fairfield Road to pick up Nikki. I wasn’t leaving her out of this fight.
Once I was in the professor’s house, I took the device from the closet and raced through it one more time. It wasn’t working, not in the same way. The probe didn’t shoot out and only half the symbols appeared.
But I found something interesting, a map with a point of light that had to be the Grasslands, and another marker in the deep state park woods behind Catoctin Furnace in Maryland, and more markers through the mountains that ran up the coast of the United States into the Canadian wilderness. The map disappeared, though, and I couldn’t
He stared at my wrists. “Looks like you burned yourself under them gloves.”
“ That’s right, I burned myself. What about that one? No, the big one next to it.”
He brought the gun over, a black beauty that could take out anything with a beating heart. “You got a carry permit?”
“ No, what do I do about that?” The gun felt cool and powerful in my hand.
“ You buy the gun now or you buy it later. Either way, you go to the sheriff’s office.” He took a greasy pencil and scrawled an address on the back of a receipt. “Go in and fill out an application, which takes four to six weeks, and they notify you by mail when it’s approved, and then you go in again for your photo and you pay the fee.”
Ten minutes later, I walked out with a black Desert Eagle Mark XIX .357 Magnum with a 6 inch barrel and a box of ammo, crumpled up the address, and tossed it out the window. It was way, way too late for me to be a good girl.
The whole thing was a monstrous lie. I’d realized that after I finally stopped screaming and forced myself to face reality. Ben wasn’t lying around with a broken jaw on some crazy island in the Pacific. He’d died on a rural road in Adams County, Pennsylvania, burned to death after his car flipped over in a ditch. They’d pronounced him dead at the scene and identified him by his dental records. You can fake a lot of things in life, and everybody knows what they are, but you can’t fake dental records. You can’t. As much as I wanted to believe he was alive, yearned for it with my whole heart, I knew he was gone. I’d gone to his funeral. I was there when they buried him in the St. Thomas cemetery.
Somehow John Savenue had lifted Ben’s likeness from the obituary or somewhere else and he was using it in a sick fantasy program. The shadows and the whispers didn’t fit into the picture, but I couldn’t get past Ben’s death and dental records. And if John Savenue thought he was going to show up at my house and threaten my sister again, he was in for the thrill of a lifetime when I found him first.
I rang Mike. “I want to talk to you about something.”
“ About us?” Cars rushed by in the background. He had to be out on the road again with those stupid shoes.
“ No, Mike, I need a favor. You’re still collecting shoes?”
“ You want to donate something?” The hope trailed out of his voice.
“ No. I donated Ben’s boots at the college, and I’ve changed my mind, and I want to keep them.” I took the gun out while I held the cell phone.
“ I’ve picked all those up. I’ve done Gettysburg.”
“ You could look for them.”
Silence, then he said, “I just don’t think they’re around now. I mean, what kind of boots are we talking about?”
“ Boots, brown boots. You’re taking them to the Grasslands, right? I want to meet you out there to look for them.”
“ No, John said nobody can go in there except me because of the construction.”
“ Okay, then I’ll stay in the Jeep and tell you what they look like.”
“ I guess that’d be all right,” he said, sounding like he didn’t want to do it. I knew he was agreeing just to see me. “I should be out there at ten. That’s my last run.”
“ I’ll be in the parking lot.” I put the cell phone on the seat by the gun and headed down the Fairfield Road to pick up Nikki. I wasn’t leaving her out of this fight.
Once I was in the professor’s house, I took the device from the closet and raced through it one more time. It wasn’t working, not in the same way. The probe didn’t shoot out and only half the symbols appeared.
But I found something interesting, a map with a point of light that had to be the Grasslands, and another marker in the deep state park woods behind Catoctin Furnace in Maryland, and more markers through the mountains that ran up the coast of the United States into the Canadian wilderness. The map disappeared, though, and I couldn’t
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