Sad came later, but for a long time, anger was the driving force behind getting out of bed and going with his father to work every day.
But now, fuck, now he got it. He fucking got why Baek had done what he’d done. Not just the drugs, but all of it. His brother was screaming for a way out—doing everything he could think of to get free of his responsibilities.
Tipping his head back, he rinsed the soap out of his hair. It was the accidental overdose that had gotten Baek out of the life he hated.
Seok wasn’t there. He wasn’t about to hurt himself to get free. He had to be smarter.
Montreal…
The answer was there—right at his fingertips—if he could just figure it out.
Chapter 23
Ryan
With all the technology in the world, why weren’t more books available outside of the Brownington Law Library?
He could literally type anything into a search engine and find it, but this stack of old books from the 1800s were only available here. On microfiche. Head pounding from staring at the screen, Ryan leaned back against the plastic chair and sighed.
One of the librarians caught his eye and smiled, eyebrows lifting. When Ryan had complained about the microfiche, the guy had shrugged sympathetically and let him know Brownington had no plans to scan the pages and put them online.
He barely resisted glaring.
Rubbing his forehead, he sighed again and pulled his chair closer. Between the background noise and the blurry pages that inevitably had to be focused and refocused, he had a major headache looming. But he wasn’t going to stop. When school started this summer, he needed to be on point, ready for anything. These books were cases from a law firm in Massachusetts, Hammond and Field, where Calvin Coolidge had apprenticed. The spidery handwriting along the margins could well be of the man himself, though he doubted it.
As he studied, he became aware of the voices around him getting louder. Glancing up to see what was happening, he met the gazes of a group of students huddled around the reserves desk nearby.
When they saw him looking, their gazes dropped.
Huh.
They turned, facing the desk, and after watching them for a moment longer, he went back to work. But the same thing happened. Voices around him got louder, and now he was paranoid. His neck prickled and heated, so he glanced up, ready to glare at whoever was watching him.
A girl stood next to him, hand outstretched as if to tap him on the shoulder. “Sorry,” she said quietly. Nervously.
Wondering if she was a student from one of the classes where he’d been an assistant, he studied her. “That’s okay. Can I help you?”
All at once, the library seemed to go silent. The girl glanced around and cleared her throat again. “I just wanted to say…”
He could barely hear her. Leaning closer, he widened his eyes when she trailed off. Was this a joke? Gazing back at the reserve desk, he found the kids there watching them.
Great. It was probably some girl who wanted to ask him out, and that was her support network.
He forced himself to smile. “Yes?”
“I think Nora is really brave,” she got out, and he jerked back in shock.
“What?”
“Nora Leslie? Your girlfriend? I think she’s really brave talking about what happened. And I think that what you did, with the professor, that was amazing.”
Had he missed something? Had Lucy put him on camera? But no. He’d watched the entire thing, and the only time he was mentioned was as the person working with Professor Bismarck for Legal Aid. So what in the shit was going on right now?
“Will you tell her?” the girl went on. Now that she’d found her voice, she had a lot to say. “Tell her lots of people believe her. The whole thing is so horrible. I can’t believe she was locked up in a psych ward after the shooting. And that one of our professors mentally tortured her. That’s crazy. Were you afraid to come to campus today? I bet the administration is pretty pissed. Have you heard from them?”
Ryan had to get out of here. It wasn’t that he hadn’t expected his story to be public knowledge, but he had thought he’d read about it in the papers with everyone else. Not to hear from some random girl, who was blinking at him like some kind of cartoon character.
Pushing back his chair, he grabbed the microfiche to return. “I have to go. Thanks.”
Thanks. A weird sentiment, oh well, at least he hadn’t elbowed his way past her on the way out of the library. He needed to see Nora, let the other guys know that the media circus had begun.
And they were the main event.
Chapter 24
Nora
Matisse had been all about a walk. “When the sun comes out, so do I, chére.” He kept his face tilted toward the sky and took deep breaths every so often. “I can feel it. When Ryan is done with school, do you want to stay in Vermont?”
Nora tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. “What?”
Taking her hand, he entwined their fingers. “When Ryan is done with law school. I wonder where else you’d like to live. If you’d like to go anywhere.”
Law school would last a long time. And then would come apprenticeships, or whatever lawyers did… internships! They were interns. But after that… “I don’t know. I’ve only lived here.”
A warm breeze blew the tree branches above their heads. “I get tired of the gray.” Tisse glanced at the sky again. “Gray branches. Gray sky. Concrete. Pavement. Dirty snow.”
Mississippi had been bright. Warm. At least Nora was used to the gray. “Have you and the other guys talked about different places?”
“Honestly, no.” A person walked by them and Matisse pulled her behind him to make room. When she was next to him again, he went on. “I wouldn’t mind moving somewhere a little warmer. Virginia.”
That seemed really far south.
“Massachusetts.”
She laughed and Matisse grinned, jamming his finger on the crosswalk button. They were almost at Frank’s. She wasn’t out of breath, or anything, and she was proud of not needing a break. Granted, the entire walk was downhill, but still.
“Seok’s business is here.” The sign came on to walk, and they crossed.
“Seok’s business may be in Seoul,” Matisse grumbled. His pace picked up, but Nora touched the inside of his arm, dragging him to a stop.
“Do you really think that? Do you think he’ll go back?” Because she didn’t. There were times he seemed uncertain, but not about what he wanted. He wanted to stay with them and be a family.
“I don’t think he wants to.” He glanced at the ground, hair falling into his face. Flipping it back, he glared ahead of them, like Seok’s dad stood there. “But it’s hard to say no to family.”
And didn’t Matisse know it. She knew what he’d done for his family—for his dad specifically—so no one among the six of them really understood what Seok was going through like Tisse.
She bit the inside of her cheek. “I don’t think Seok’s father will make him go.”
Matisse barked a laugh. “You haven’t met him.”
“You have?”
He shrugged. “In Montreal when Seok had business. Right before we came down to the States, after Seok got his degree. He was still taking classes and had missed some business meeting his father set up. The man flew all the way from Seoul to drag him over the coals. The kid went to classes, meetings, stayed up late to get everything done, fucking schmoozed the most boring people in the world, and one missed meeting meant he was being disloyal and irresponsible.”
Annoyance on Seok’s behalf had her narrowing her eyes. “You’d think he’d be proud.”
“Well…” Matisse got a look on his face like there was more to the story—a little twist to his lips and a wicked glint in his eyes gave him away.
She couldn’t help smiling back. “What?”
“Your man is clever. Like a fox. He got it all together. The degree. The job. The visa. So when his father came from Seoul and was like—get
your ass back to Seoul—he could say, actually, no thank you. I have a job and a visa, and I’m going to Vermont. See ya.”
It wasn’t funny, but she laughed anyway. For the life of her, she couldn’t imagine Seok telling someone, “See ya!”
They started down Congregation Street. Not many people were out, probably because it was early on a weekday. After lunch it would probably pick up, especially if the weather stayed nice.
“Do you want me to come in?” Matisse asked at the door to the comic shop.
“If you want to,” she replied. “But if you have other things to do, don’t worry about it.”
“No.” He opened the door and held it for her. “I want to come in. See Frank.”
The Frank in question was sitting behind the glass counter, reading a paper and drinking from a paper cup. He glanced up when the bell above the door chimed and smiled broadly when he saw them. “Nora!”
He put his cup down, rounded the counter, and surprised the hell out of her by giving her a hug. “I was worried about you, kid.”
Her throat got tight. Wow. She hadn’t expected that greeting, especially not after only having worked for him a handful of times. But he was smiling broadly and studying her. “I like the new ’do. And who’d you bring? Matisse!”
“Hey.” Matisse held out his hand, and Frank high-fived him. Nora giggled, stepping back until she could lean against Matisse’s arm.
“Thanks for seeing me.”
He waved her words away. “I had a feeling you forgot about me, so when I saw Seok’s comic come in, I thought to myself, I should give her a reminder.”
“I did forget,” she answered, embarrassed. “I’m sorry.”
He waved that aside as well. “Don’t worry about it. I had a kid hired, but after midterms he let me know he had to cut down on his hours. Wasn’t making the grades his parents wanted. So I figured now was a good time to see what you could do.”
It was hard to keep from grinning, so she didn’t even try. “Anything, really. I’m done with my rehab. I can work as much as you need me.”
He held up his hands, palms out. “I don’t need you full time just yet, maybe this summer, but I could use someone to close. When the weather is nice like this, I like to get home early, get in the garden. Drink a beer. Relax.”
“Every day?” she asked, trying not to get excited and calculate what she could make with a week of work. “I could do that.”
“Yeah?” he asked. “We can figure out weekends, maybe an every other weekend, and a Monday off or something…” He rubbed his hand over his wispy gray hair. “What do you think?”
Feeling Matisse staring at her, she glanced at him. “I can do it.”
“I know you can, chére.” He was grinning, face open and happy.
“Can you stick around?” Frank asked. “We have some new merchandise I’d like to show you, and I want to retrain you on inventory and checkout.”
Nora looked at Matisse and lifted her eyebrows.
He laughed. “Don’t look at me.”
“I want to stay. I’ll walk home later.”
“Just call me,” he said. “I’ve got plenty to do around town. I’ll swing by and we’ll walk home together. Or better yet, we’ll walk down to the water and get an ice cream.”
“Creemees?” she asked.
He looked confused for a second. “Cree…” Shaking his head, he chuckled. “Right. Soft serve. Yeah. Whatever my girl wants, she gets.”
Waving, he left. Nora could still feel her smile stretching her lips when she turned back to Frank. “So… want to show me everything?”
“Absolutely.”
Nora spent an absolutely blissful day with Frank. Who knew logging inventory could make her feel so happy? The only thing that went through her head as the day went on was that she was being productive. She’d get a paycheck and she’d be contributing. It was a big thing as far as she was concerned, especially after everything the guys had done.
She dusted the toys—sorry, figurines—and watched people walk by. The crowds got thicker as the day went on and the sun stayed out. Every so often the bell above the door rang, and she or Frank would help a customer. A lot of what Frank had taught her about comics had stayed with her, and a huge part of her was utterly relieved. Every time she found a hole in her memory, she went on guard, wondering what else her brain failed to hold on to.
The bell dinged and she glanced up, ready to smile at whoever walked through the door.
“Honora Leslie?”
That didn’t bode well. No one who knew her used her whole name.
“Can I help you?” Frank’s voice interrupted the man speaking. When he turned to Frank, her boss’s face went white and then rosy. “I know you.”
The man laughed, loud and jolly. “Kenneth Morris.”
Nora glanced between them. She didn’t recognize the guy, but his voice sounded oddly familiar.
“Nora,” Frank said, “This is Kenneth Morris. From Newsline.”
Her entire body froze. Okay. She let out a breath and then inhaled. Okay. That’s why his voice was familiar. “Hello,” she managed to say.
“This is wild.” Kenneth laughed and held out his hand for her to shake. “We were interviewing some of the people who know you before we contacted you. We had no idea you still worked here.”
“This is my first day back…” There was a pause between each word. “I’m confused. What’s going on?”
“Lucy Merrill’s piece was picked up by a New York affiliate and we came right down to get started. An amazing story.” He rubbed his hands together. “Utterly amazing.” Someone tapped him on the shoulder, a younger woman with dark skin and curly hair. “Sorry. This is my producer, Serena Tanner.” He held his phone up. “I need to make some calls. What a coincidence!”
He left and the young woman turned to her, hand outstretched. “Would you be willing to sit down for an interview, Honora?”
“Nora,” she replied, taking her hand like a zombie. “Um. I’m not sure. I did Lucy’s interview. Everything I know I talked about there.”
“We have some different questions. We’re also taking a different angle.”
Glancing back at Frank, she found him staring out the window at the other reporter and shaking his head in wonder.
Turning back to Serena, she asked, “What kind of angle?”
“Character development.”
Character development? “I don’t understand.”
“We really like to round out the people in a story, give them life. Talk to their family, friends…” She gestured toward Frank, “Bosses. It helps us understand how we want things to look.”
Character development. Like she was just some fictional creature who needed a backstory in order to seem real. The idea of her experience being a “story” made her a little sick, and more than a little angry. Taking her silence as misunderstanding, Serena went on.
“We spoke with some of the people who work with Dr. Murray, the ones who are allowed to talk to us, and then we follow their leads.”
Lucy’s story had aired about twenty-four hours earlier. “You work fast.”
“We have to.” She took her phone out of her pocket and checked it. “People lose interest in news so fast, we have to get boots on the ground immediately.”
“So you’ve already spoken to…”
Serena smiled. “If you agree to an interview, I’ll be happy to fill you in.”
The bell above the door dinged, and Nora glanced over to see Seok.
“Hi!” She went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
He stared at Serena for a moment before his arms came up to hug her back. “Hi. I thought I’d meet you and Tisse for ice cream.”
“Seok Jheon. Of Jheon Imports.” Serena held out her hand, approaching them with a wide smile. “My name is Serena Tanner.”
Seok lifted his arm from Nora to shake her hand. “Should I know who you are?”
Inwardly, Nora winced at his tone, at how
cold and distant it was, and how it reminded her of his voice when they’d first met.
To her credit, Serena didn’t seem flustered. “No. I’m a producer on the show Newsline.”
“I’ve heard of it.”
“We’re trying to interview people peripherally involved in the Daniel Murray study and the Alexander Twilight shooting. After Lucy Merrill’s report, there’s a public interest and so here we are. You were on our list of people to approach. When you say Tisse, do you mean Matisse Boudreau?”
“Hey, Nora, if you want to head out, go on,” Frank called.
“I’m closing,” she reminded him, and that was what she was going to do. All the guys had said this might happen, Erik Bismarck had said it might happen, and Lucy had said it might happen. So here it was. Happening.
“Serena,” she said, getting the producer’s attention. “Do you mind if I think about it and get back to you? Do you have a card?”
“Sure!” She dug a card out of her pocket and handed it to Nora. “What about you Mr. Jheon?”
“I’ll think about it,” he replied between clenched teeth.
“Great! In the meantime, I’m going to chat with your boss over there and see what we can work out.”
“Oh…” Frank’s face pinked. “I don’t know.” He glanced at Nora, as if asking permission.
“It’s up to you.” He was a good man, and she trusted him. It was nice he was looking to her at all.
“Then, okay!” He nodded. “Let’s do it. Nora, can you hold down the store?”
It was the first time since Serena’s arrival that she felt like smiling. “I can.”
The two of them went toward the back where Frank kept his tiny office and the inventory, leaving her and Seok alone.
“Why did you tell him to go ahead?” Seok asked as soon as Frank closed the curtain.
“It’s Frank. He’s so excited, and I—I don’t know—maybe instead of fearing all this, I should be embracing it. Or changing my mindset or whatever. I’m so sick of the constant knot in my stomach.”
Finding Unity Page 12