Runaway Fate: Moonstone Cove Book One

by Hunter, Elizabeth

Baxter kissed her firmly. “You risked your life four days ago to stop a criminal. Let me drive please.”

  “Fine.” Katherine grabbed her messenger bag and her travel mug as she followed Baxter out the door to their small garage. Her husband opened the car door for her and waited until she was inside to shut it carefully. It was a little chivalric gesture that she enjoyed even after twenty years of marriage.

  As they drove the ten miles to the university, Katherine stared out the window, watching the familiar green-and-blue hoodies of the many students on bikes and skateboards that grew more frequent the closer they got to the college.

  “Have you heard any more about the young man they arrested?” Katherine asked.

  “No. They’ve mentioned the basics of the incident in the newspaper, but nothing more than that. It seems the town doesn’t want to dwell on a near miss.”

  “He was a student.” She glanced at Baxter’s profile. “Justin McCabe. Does the name sound familiar to you?”

  “No. Was he local?” They were stopped in traffic as they approached the faculty parking lot where they parked their old Prius.

  “I don’t know.”

  Baxter raised an eyebrow. “But you’re going to look.”

  She shrugged slightly. “Wouldn’t you be curious?”

  “I probably wouldn’t be observant enough to tackle a would-be gunman in a fitness center, darling. So it’s hard for me to imagine what curiosity that would entail.” He turned his eyes back to the road as traffic started to move. “I can ask if anyone in the math department knows him.”

  “Sure.”

  “There might be rumors swirling anyway. It’s not as if Moonstone Cove gets much excitement.”

  “I know.” She waited until Baxter parked before she opened the door. “It’s one of the reasons I like it.”

  * * *

  Katherine’s office was tucked away in a corner of the physics department. Because she was often loaned out to other departments, she tended to float through the building without becoming embroiled in any of the politics typical of large institutions. As cochair of the mathematics department, Baxter was constantly dealing with this grievance or that annoyance. Katherine managed to avoid all that.

  She opened her office and nearly tripped over a pile of mail that had been shoved under her door.

  I have a mailbox for that.

  She tried to remember the last time she’d checked her mailbox in the main office. She couldn’t remember. Hmmm. That might be the reason the secretary had shoved things under her door. She kicked the mail into a messy pile to sort through later and managed to find her way to her desk.

  Some professors were tidy; Katherine was not. Her brain just didn’t work as well when things were organized, or at least that’s what she told herself. If Baxter didn’t organize their house, it would be complete chaos.

  Scholarly journals were piled on one chair and mail on another. Papers that needed grades were stacked on the edge of her desk, and various Star Wars memorabilia was scattered around her crowded bookshelves.

  She didn’t care how many physical laws the movies had broken, she loved them. One of her grad students had 3D printed her a completely unique lightsaber based on those carried by the Jedi temple guard, and it was hanging on the wall next to her diplomas. People were usually far more interested in the lightsaber than the diplomas, and she didn’t blame them.

  She tucked her messenger bag under her desk and woke her desktop computer as she called into the Fred lab.

  The phone rang three times before someone picked up. “CNMS lab. This is Kaylee.”

  The Fred lab was technically the Center of Neuroengineering and Marine Sciences, but no one called it that except for whoever was answering the phones that day.

  “Hey, Kaylee, it’s Professor Bassi. Is Job or Britt available?”

  “Oh my God, Professor B! Everyone is talking about what happened last week! How are you? Are you okay? Did you really tackle that gunman? I mean, you were kind of my hero before this, but wow!”

  Katherine was a little taken aback at Kaylee’s enthusiasm. The young woman was usually friendly but very focused on her work. She was one of Professor Shaver’s graduate students and a great asset to the lab. “I’m fine, Kaylee. Thanks for asking. Just a little sore.”

  “I bet.” A door opened and closed. “Britt just walked in. Do you want to talk to him?”

  “Please.”

  “Hey, Britt, Professor B is on the phone.”

  “Katherine!” The timbre of the call switched to speakerphone. “Do you mind if you’re on speaker? I haven’t eaten yet.”

  The break room of the Fred lab was usually overtaken by various tanks of water, the occasional dead fish, and often elaborate puzzles for Fred. Those unfortunate enough to have to eat meals at the lab had only the front office to use.

  “No problem. I’m in my office today. I have hours this afternoon and a lecture at ten. Are you and Job still working on the prototype?”

  “Yeah, he’s having trouble with some of the joints.” There were crunching sounds on the speakerphone. “I don’t think we’ll be ready for you until next week at the earliest.”

  “That’s fine. I’m trying to take it easy this week, so that’s kind of a relief. Did Ansel get the last numbers back to you?”

  “I think he maybe sent them to Maria, but I didn’t see a copy.”

  “I’ll email him.” She’d need that before she started on programming for the prototype. “So I can be out this week with no problems?”

  “Yeah.” He was speaking with his mouth full. “We’re good over here. How you feeling? I read about what happened. That’s crazy shit.”

  Katherine logged into the university’s internal server and immediately saw two dozen messages pop up. She clicked on the messages and found the usual business forwards and department memos but also a surprising number of concerned messages from colleagues.

  That was unexpected. And nice.

  “I’m feeling fine. I’ve taken more than my share of tumbles trail running, but it’s been a while. It’s a good reminder why I stick to treadmills these days.”

  Britt snorted. “I can’t blame you. Strange about that kid though, right?”

  “Have you heard anything about him? I know he was a student here.”

  She shot off reassuring replies to most of the emails. Yes, she did copy and paste a few, but she’d only had coffee with Professor Mehdi in the psychology department once. A copy-and-paste reply was sufficient.

  “Justin McCabe,” Britt said. “Kaylee and I were talking about him this morning. She didn’t know him.”

  “I didn’t.” Kaylee chimed in. “But my roommate dated someone in his fraternity. She was friendly with him.”

  “Fraternity, huh?” Katherine had her issues with some of the fraternities on campus, but that wasn’t a typical profile for a lone gunman. A young man in a fraternity would be socially connected and well known, part of an established group. “Has he ever had any problems in the past?”

  “No. And it wasn’t a real wild fraternity either. Professional-social. He was in the agricultural business school.”

  “That’s very odd.”

  “Weird, right?” It was Britt again. “No record. No problems with the law or any of his classmates. Then he just goes off and tries to shoot up a gym.”

  A cold shiver ran down Katherine’s spine.

  “It’s possible there was a mental illness that was undiagnosed.” Undiagnosed neuropsychological conditions could account for erratic behavior, but Katherine hated mentioning them because it played into too many stereotypes. Those suffering from mental illness were far more likely to be the victims of crimes than the perpetrators.

  Nothing about this added up.

  “I’m just glad you’re okay,” Britt said. “That could have been really bad.”

  It would have been. Katherine flashed back to the vision she’d seen of the gym. Blood and broken glass and screams.

  “Y
es.” A heavy feeling sat in the pit of her stomach. “It could have been very bad.”

  “I heard he had a bunch of guns,” Kaylee said.

  “No, just one.” Katherine sorted through her memories. “But Megan, the woman who got the gun away from him, said it was an extended magazine, I think?”

  “That’s bad,” Britt said. “We’re fucking glad you’re okay, Bassi. We couldn’t finish this project without you.”

  It might have sounded self-interested, but Katherine knew that for Britt, it was about as affectionate as she could expect.

  She skimmed through the rest of the messages in her inbox and made a few notes on her calendar. Her lecture wasn’t until ten o’clock.

  “I wonder if anything else is going to happen,” Kaylee said. “They say weird things come in threes, right?”

  Katherine looked away from her computer and frowned at the phone. “Threes? What else happened?”

  “Oh, nothing like what happened at the gym or anything.” Kaylee began to stammer nervously. “I heard… I mean, I didn’t hear directly, but I know the person they were talking about. Kind of. I’m not on the rodeo team, but this girl was and… It was really weird, but I don’t know if what happened to her—”

  “Kaylee,” Britt said. “What are you talking about?”

  “It was just so sad and strange. This girl… killed her horse.”

  Katherine’s stomach turned. The silence over the phone was leaden.

  “She what?” Britt’s voice was horrified.

  “It was awful,” Kaylee said. “Same kind of thing, completely out of nowhere. She was on the rodeo team, and it was her own horse, and no one knew what to think. Some people said it was an accident and she just gave the wrong dosage to the horse when it was sick, but then other people on the team were like, no way that’s even possible, she knew exactly what she was doing. She was completely wrecked. Her family is from Santa Cruz, and I heard she ended up moving back and quitting school completely.”

  The world around Katherine went grey and muffled again. She saw herself reaching for a piece of paper and writing down a name. Saw herself tucking the paper under her keyboard when someone knocked on her door.

  Her ears popped and Kaylee’s voice became clear again. “I think her name was Sarah Jordan. She was studying marketing, but she came from a ranching family—that’s why she was so into the rodeo stuff. It happened months ago.”

  “That’s terrible,” Britt said.

  Katherine reached for the paper she’d seen in her vision, wrote down the name, and slid it under her keyboard just as the knock sounded at her door.

  When she realized what had happened, her breath caught.

  Vision number two, Professor Bassi.

  Someone knocked again.

  “Hey, guys.” Katherine’s finger hovered over the phone. “I need to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “See ya later. Glad you’re safe.”

  “Bye, Professor B.”

  As Katherine rose and walked to her door, she tried to dispel the heavy feeling in her stomach. There had been another vision. There had been another crime. Was it unrelated? Something buzzing in the back of her mind told her it wasn’t.

  She needed to call Megan and Toni. She needed to find out what they knew and if they were still having the same psychic powers she was. She needed to find out more about Sarah Jordan, Justin McCabe, and what they might have in common.

  Something very strange was happening in Moonstone Cove.

  Chapter 7

  “I am so glad you called me.” Megan sat across from Katherine at the small café on Beach Street. “I was thinking about calling you, but I didn’t have your number and I wasn’t sure if you were listed.”

  Megan was listed, much to Katherine’s surprise. She’d left a message on an answering system, only to receive a call back less than two hours later.

  “I’m just glad I was able to find you.” Katherine tucked her purse under the table.

  It was Tuesday afternoon and lunch traffic had died down, but there was still a steady trickle of customers going in and out of the restaurant.

  Megan looked around. “This is cute. I’ve never been here before.”

  “It’s within walking distance of my house, so I come here a lot.” Should she have told a relative stranger that? What if she wanted to avoid Megan in the future?

  Do you actually think the woman is going to stalk you?

  “You live this close to the beach?” Megan’s eyes lit up. “Jealous!” She sighed a little. “Rodney and I looked at places near the beach, but he didn’t want to spend the money.”

  “They’re expensive now.” Katherine sipped her green tea. “When we bought, North Beach was pretty cheap. So lots of our neighbors work at the college too.”

  Megan gave her a smile, but it looked a little forced. “You must know so many interesting people.”

  She could see the tension around the woman’s eyes. “You don’t like it here, do you?”

  “The café?” Megan’s eyes went wide. “No, it’s nice. I—”

  “California.” Katherine had the urge to take Megan’s hand. Which was strange as she wasn’t an affectionate person. “You don’t like Moonstone Cove.”

  Megan’s mouth fell open. Then shut. The cheerful facade slipped, and her smile fell. “No. I kind of hate it here. My kids love it. My husband loves it. And I hate it. It leaves me absolutely cold.”

  “I don’t think you’re talking about the weather.”

  “That too.” A bitter smile curved Megan’s lips. “Women here are not the friendliest. Back in Atlanta, I had so many friends. College friends. Mom friends. Work friends. Here, I don’t know anyone and they all think I’m stupid and shallow because I guess if you like pink and have a Southern accent, that’s what you are.”

  Katherine sipped her coffee. “I don’t think you’re stupid. Or shallow.”

  Megan narrowed her eyes. “But I have a feeling if we hadn’t experienced what we did on Thursday, you wouldn’t have said hello at the gym. Am I right?”

  “I don’t say hello to anyone I don’t know.” Katherine clutched her mug. “Unless it’s in a professional setting. I’m not outgoing.”

  “At least you’re honest about it. Women here…” Megan shook her head. “There have been a few work events for my husband that wives were invited to, but most of the women there were phony as a five-dollar Rolex. And so much plastic surgery! Dear Lord, is it that common around here? Every single one of those girls had the same nose and teeth.” Megan’s eyes went wide. “It was unnerving.”

  “I have no idea.” Katherine thought about the women she knew from work. “Not as much plastic surgery among college professors probably.”

  “So most of your friends.” Megan paused to taste her coffee. “Did you get to know them through work?”

  “Friends?” Did she consider her colleagues friends? “Um… no. I mean, I’m friendly with a lot of the people I work with, but I wouldn’t consider them friends.”

  “So…” Megan frowned. “Who do you hang out with? Outside of work?”

  “My husband.” She thought a little bit. “And I want a dog.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, dogs are great, but what about girlfriends?” Megan set her coffee down. “Who do you talk to about your husband? Or that annoying thing your mother is doing? Or… hell, hot flashes and all that crap.”

  Katherine blinked. “I… don’t.”

  Megan cocked her head. “You don’t what? You don’t talk to anyone about that stuff?”

  Baxter’s question from the day before popped into her head. “Who would you ask to watch a dog for us?”

  Oh. This was why she had a hard time answering that question.

  “I guess I don’t have many friends.” Katherine frowned. “I never have. I talk to my sister in San Francisco, and I really like my sister-in-law, but she lives in London. Most of my friends from college have very different lives than me. And… my husband is wonderful
. He’s a great person to talk to.” When she could actually get him to pay attention. Baxter could be a little… distracted at times.

  “Katherine, no offense, but you need some friends. I can at least video chat with my girls from Atlanta and have a drink. You need to get some girls.”

  Katherine’s previous life experience with groups of women was far from positive.

  She’d tried to join a quilting club once because she was so impressed by the precision of the craft, but she wasn’t coordinated enough with needles and she felt awkward asking for help. Her neighbor had invited her to a pottery class, but she’d only gone once. She didn’t attend a church or temple. Her department was dominated by men.

  She frowned at Megan, with her perfectly coordinated outfit and effortless, charming manners. “I don’t think I fit into most women’s social circles.”

  Megan’s blue eyes were kind and more than a little amused. “Well cheers.” She lifted her coffee cup. “I don’t fit in with any of the women here either, so I’m officially volunteering to be your girlfriend. Want to form a book club where we don’t actually read anything and drink wine instead?”

  A short laugh burst out of Katherine. “Are you serious?”

  “As a heart attack.”

  The grey feeling fell over her in a flash, and she saw Megan fumble her coffee cup and spill caffe latte all over her pristine white pants. She jumped up and jostled the table, causing even more coffee to spill everywhere.

  Katherine blinked and the grey feeling cleared. Her ears popped and sounds were crisp again; the smell of ground coffee was pungent in her nose.

  Megan was sitting across from her, coffee cup in hand. “You know, I was thinking when you called—”

  Katherine reached across the table and grabbed Megan’s cup before it could tip over.

  Megan blinked. “If you wanted some coffee—”

  “You were about to spill.”

  “How—?”

  “I saw you spill.”

  Megan sat, silent and staring.

  Okay, Katherine, here you go. “The back of your right hand was going to hit the edge of your coffee cup and you would have spilled on your pants. Then you were going to jump up and the coffee would spill on your purse.” Katherine folded her hands in her lap, wondering if that admission was the end of Megan wanting anything to do with her.