by Eden Maguire
I had only one question battling its way to the surface, and Phoenix
didn't need any telepathic super-power to know what it was. I kept my back towards him as I spoke it out loud. 'Who was it you or Dean?'
'Me or Dean what?'
'You know. Was it you who set up the barrier that pushed Logan from the rock, or was it Dean?'
'Neither.'
I turned and strode back along the ridge. 'So it was the storm?' I demanded. 'A force of nature kil ed him?'
'Believe me. We were across the val ey, checking the Government Bridge camp ground.'
I held my breath, stared into his beautiful grey eyes. 'You're saying the wind battered him, pushed him over the edge?'
'Maybe. I don't know for sure. I wasn't there.'
'But you know everything!' I cried. 'One of you - Iceman or Donna, you or Dean must have seen it happen, or at least heard it.'
'None of us.'
'And you couldn't save him?' I remembered the rain and the howling wind, Logan's white car parked in my usual place, the panic in my heart as I found him lying almost dead at the foot of the rock. 'Why are you standing here now, looking at me like that?'
'I'm waiting for the pain to ease.'
'For me to come back to you?' It was as if I was on a wild, lonely
journey, in the middle of a vast emptiness.
'You only have to believe me,' Phoenix said. 'How can I?'
'Ask yourself, did I ever lie to you? In al the time you knew me before I died, I never hid anything from you. The same since.'
I was close, studying his smooth skin, his clear eyes, the downward
sweep of his dark hair. I was back in a place where I could let his heart speak.
Then he was holding me - softly at first, then tightly, locking his hands together in the smal of my back, pul ing me towards him.
I was off balance, swept back in by the force of my love for him, letting it open my closed mind. The thril when he kissed me ran through my lips, down my spine, reaching every part of me.
'In the end you'l leave me,' I murmured, holding hands with Phoenix and walking between the slim, silver trunks of the aspens. A crescent moon rose in the indigo sky, the pole star shone bright.
Try not to think that way. Remember we stil have some time together.'
'Wil I come back to Foxton in a year's time?' I wondered. 'What happens when I final y walk down to the barn and there's no one there except ghosts?'
Say my name out loud,' he told me. 'You won't see me but I'l be here.'
You promise? I've prayed - often - for you to haunt me. I couldn't bear for you to go away and never come back.'
He stopped and raised his hand to stroke my cheek. 'It won't happen. Come looking for me, Darina, and you'l find me here. Always.'
127
Brandon Rohr was the type who didn't get up before midday, but he was there at my door early next morning.
I was leaving the house for our final concert rehearsal, under so much pressure since my last trip out to Foxton that I'd skipped the normal things like sleeping and eating and was stil in the clothes I'd worn for the previous twenty-four hours. When I saw Brandon leaning against my car in the drive, my first thought was that he was through doing me favours and was there to col ect the keys. I held them up for him to grab.
'Get in,' he said, opening the driver's door for me. Then he went and sat in the passenger seat. 'Drive,' he grunted.
'I have a rehearsal,' I began weakly.
'This is short,' he promised. He waited for me to reach the end of the
street then delivered his message in plain, one syl able words. 'Don't go near Wil Stone.'
I took my foot off the pedal and stal ed the car. 'Who? I don't know what you mean.'
'Zak's a loser,' Brandon said calmly. 'But he's family. How long do
you think it took him to admit what he'd leaked to you?'
'Thirty minutes?' I guessed. 'Don't tel me - blood is thicker than water, he was stricken with guilt and spil ed everything.'
'Right on target.' Waiting for me to re-start the car, he studied me closely. 'You're just a kid, Darina.'
'Yeah, thanks for patronizing me,' I muttered back, turning the corner and cruising through town towards school.
'You and Phoenix I wonder how it would've worked out.'
I took my eyes off the road to stare back. ' He loved me. I loved him.'
He shrugged. 'Maybe it would've been enough, who knows?'
I know! I thought. I stil practical y had the feel of Phoenix's arms around me, the taste of his lips on mine from the night before.
'Whatever. I'm stil saying, stay away from Wil Stone.'
'Even if it turns out that he's the guy who shot Summer Madison?' 128
'Stop the car!' Suddenly Brandon grabbed the wheel, steered me up the kerb on to the sidewalk and slammed on the handbrake. 'I'm not asking where you got that idea; I already know. I'm tel ing you word for word what I told Zak Stone is a heavyweight, the real deal. If he hears a whisper that you're poking your nose into his business, you're history -
get it?'
I stared at Brandon until my eyes felt like they were popping out of my head. What had happened to his cool-guy persona, and where had this freaked-out guy come from? I mean, Brandon's hand was stil on the brake and it was shaking.
'Darina, don't mess with Stone.' 'I'm not scared,' I tried to say.
He grabbed my wrist. 'Be scared!' he warned. if Wil Stone hears that
you're saying his name in the same breath as Summer Madison, he won't think twice.'
'OK, I hear you.' Brandon was hurting my wrist. 'I won't do anything
stupid.' I meant what I said. In any case, wasn't I planning on handing
everything over to Jardine?
'No, listen. You won't just not do anything stupid. You won't do
anything!'
'OK, cool.' I was trying to twist my arm out of his grasp and failing. Al the time I was thinking, Brandon is up to his neck in this shit and that 's why he 's trying to scare me. I wasn't thinking that what he was saying was fact.
Maybe he knew he wasn't getting through because he suddenly let go of me and flung open the car door. He got out, slammed it shut and walked off without looking back. I got back on the road and arrived at rehearsal with five minutes to spare.
As last run-throughs go, this one was easy. Miss Jones wanted to make a
change and bring in 'Time to Go' as the new final number - she checked that we al felt OK about this, then rehearsed it with me, Jordan and Hannah singing the verses and everyone joining in on the chorus. There was a hitch on some lighting cues, but apart from that everything ran smoothly and we were out of the theatre by eleven-thirty. In my head, as I 129 headed for the car park, I was already thinking ahead, picturing myself sitting in Jardine's office.
I never made it. JakB jumped out from behind the janitor's office and cut me off. He hooked one arm around my throat, slammed the other hand
across my mouth and dragged me into an outbuilding containing grass-
cutting machinery.
'Let go of me!' I yel ed as I tried to bite his sweaty palm. The storeroom was dark and windowless, I was trapped.
JakB flung me against the mower. 'You know what your crappy
teacher did?' His voice came out strangled and hissy. 'She banned me
from the concert. She banned me!'
'Don't blame me,' I croaked before I bit again - this time I got his forearm.
He slammed his fist into my stomach and I doubled up. 'She took away my pass, told Security don't let me anywhere near.'
'How do you know that?'
'I know! Now what do I do?'
I ducked the next punch aimed at my head. 'Stay away from me!'
'What do I do now?' Suddenly he lowered his fists and began to cry
like a baby in the dark. 'What am I going to tel Summer? She won't believe they took away my pass.'
I tuned in, played it hi
s way. 'Summer wil understand,' I said between sharp, painful breaths. Breathe. Look him in the eye. 'She knows you care.
JakB stopped snivel ing as fast as he began. 'You think?' he sneered. 'Isn't it like it is in her song - I worship her but she doesn't even notice I'm there?'
Slowly I stood upright and edged away from the machinery towards the door. 'Sure she does. Summer cares about you, she cares about al her fans.'
'No one loves Summer the way I do,' he sighed, his outsized Adam's
apple working up and down his skinny throat. 'I tel her that every single day.'
'And she hears you. She'l understand about the concert, believe me.'
'I have to go tel her again,' he decided, turning impulsively towards the door.
'Do it now,' I urged, blocking a strong image of him crouched by 130
Summer's grave spil ing his insane guts, saying whatever crazy stuff whirled inside his demented brain.
'No - later,' he argued, turning back towards me. 'These days I keep her waiting, the way she used to make me wait. "You acted like I was invisible," I tel her. "Al those emails - you never replied."'
Take a deep breath. Don 't try to predict his next move. JakB went updown, up-down and he was making my flesh creep big time.
,she laughs at me, tel s me she has a thousand emails. But the others didn't mean anything. It's me who loves her best.'
She knows that,' I whispered. I was near the door but not near enough. My heart was hammering, I could hardly breathe.
So I'd never in my life been so glad to see anyone as when Ezra pul ed open that door and stepped inside.
'Dude, you need to let Darina walk out of here,' Ezra said calmly. Daylight flooded into the storeroom. I was out of danger.
'They took away my pass,' JakB whined, wiping his cheeks with the back of his hand.
'I know. I'm the guy who told you,' Ezra reminded him. 'It doesn't fol ow that you harm Darina. How does that help?'
'She hates me. She went to the teacher and took away my pass.'
' Yeah, that's what Darina does - steps into areas that don't concern
her. It's a bad habit.'
As my breath came back and the pain in my stomach eased, I started to protest. 'Ezra, for God's sake let me out of here! I warned you about this guy and you wouldn't listen.'
'Hey, how about thanking me for rescuing you?' He did that tipping his shades up his nose thing and gave that smirk.
'Yeah thanks. Now let me out.'
We al three emerged from the storeroom into the car park, me stil breathing hard and JakB looking drained and exhausted. Only Ezra kept his cool. 'Dude, get out of here,' he told the maniac, who walked unsteadily towards his car. Then Ezra fixed his attention on me. 'Bad mistake,'
he muttered.
'Me?' I demanded.
'To mess with a guy like that.'
'I told you he was crazy. You're the one who fixed for him to come to the concert.'
'Because he's crazy,' Ezra explained. 'Think about it. Give him what he wants and he's not a problem. Take it away from him and he gets out a gun and shoots people.'
I gasped long and hard then nodded. 'Exactly!' I yel ed, relieved in a way that Ezra got my point, but scared too. 'JakB didn't get Summer, and he wanted her more than anything.'
Ezra shrugged, ignoring my major point and getting ready to move off when he saw Lucas heading our way. 'Like I said - bad mistake to take away his pass.'
'Darina, are you OK?' Since Logan, Lucas seemed to be stepping into the
role of best platonic buddy and I was truly grateful. 'Was there a problem with Ezra?'
'No, it's cool.'
'What about the other guy?'
'Yeah, there was an incident.' Briefly I gave Lucas the details and
al owed him to walk me to my car. 'How come you thought Ezra was the problem?' I asked.
Lucas got into the car beside me. 'No reason,' he mumbled, coughing and clearing his throat.
Not good enough. I always knew when Lucas was hiding something for a start his face turned bright red. 'Actual y, to tel you the truth, Ezra was mixed up in that last little incident. He's the one who implicated me in Miss Jones's decision to take away JakB's pass.'
'Nice!' Lucas's response was sharper than I expected. 'You want me to talk with him, tel him to keep his nose clean in future?'
I shook my head. 'No thanks. And listen, Lucas, right now I have to be somewhere ... '
'You don't get rid of me so easy,' he insisted. 'I plan to ride with you to your house, make sure you arrive safe.'
'You think JakB is stil hanging around?' Glancing round the car park, I saw that his red car had gone and that Ezra's Toyota was also leaving by the main exit. 'See - al clear!'
'Drive, Darina,' Lucas insisted. 'There are a couple of things I need to 1 32
tel you.'
I didn't head straight home with Lucas. Instead, I drove through
Centennial towards Hartmann Lake, stopping on the overlook when Lucas's story got real y interesting.
'You want to know why Logan and Ezra had that second fight?' he asked. 'It was over you again, Darina.'
'No way!' I was staring across the wide val ey, down at the lake.
'I'm serious. Out at the cabin on the night of the storm, and earlier, outside the theatre ...'
'They fought over me?' I repeated.
'Ezra made a bad comment and Logan reacted.' 'What kind of comment?'
Lucas screwed up his mouth in embarrassment. The kind guys make about a girl's reputation.'
'He cal ed me cheap? How did you find out? I thought no one knew why Logan fought with Ezra.'
'That's the way Logan wanted it. He didn't want the comment repeated.'
'So it was bad,' I sighed. 'I kind of picked up that Ezra didn't like me, but-'
'No,' Lucas interrupted. 'That's the point, Darina. Ezra did like you -
a lot!'
'Oh my God!' I was having to paint a whole new picture and at this stage the brush strokes were broad, the details blurred. 'Ezra liked me!'
'A year ago, before you dated Phoenix, he had a crush.'
'Ezra?' The geek in the goth T-shirt, the tongue-tied guy at the school prom who never got himself a date. For Ezra Powel , think in stereotypes.
'Then Phoenix came along and blew him out of the water.'
'Ezra was never in the water!'
Lucas was quiet for a while. 'Did you ever think how hard it is for a
guy like Ezra?' he asked.
I breathed out sharply. 'Yeah sorry.'
'So, he's hurt that you were never into him. OK correction, he's hurt that you never even noticed him.'
'To argue my corner, Lucas, I never thought I was the type of girl a guy would have a crush on. I'm not an Arizona or a Jordan.'
There was another long silence from the passenger seat. ' I' m never going to understand women,' he said at last, making me smile in spite of everything.
'So, Ezra is licking his wounds,' he went on. 'He's pretty fixated on you, according to what Logan told me. Then Phoenix-'
'Dies,' I cut in. 'And Ezra is ready again to make his move.'
'But this time Logan gets there first. He's your shoulder to cry on, your rock.'
'I knew Logan for ever,' I sighed. My throat constricted and tears wel ed up.
Lucas pushed on with the point he was making. 'So at this point, Ezra can't take any more. One day he's ready to die for you, the next he's turned one hundred and eighty degrees.'
'He hates me?'
'That's the kind of guy he is. He makes a habit of running after girls he knows he can't have you, Arizona, Summer...'
'He had crushes on al of us?'
Lucas nodded. 'Al inside his head, never any real action.' 'And he ends up bitter and twisted, bitching about us?' 'And choosing the wrong guy to offload on.'
'Logan.' And now I got the picture - al the details. Ezra cal s me
cheap to Logan's face and like a medieval knight Logan figh
ts to defend me, not once but twice. 'Lucas, out at the cabin did you hear what Ezra said?'
'Some of it.' He was turning red again and staring down at the
glittering water of the distant lake. 'Logan and Ezra were in the kitchen.
Ezra claimed he'd ... '
'What?'
'He'd ...' 'Had me?'
Now that I'd said it, Lucas felt able breathe again. 'He started in on the detail. Logan grabbed him and threw him out.'
'I never ... he didn't!' I whispered.
' I know that, Darina. Logan knew that. But you need to watch out for
Ezra, is al I'm saying. He's out to cause problems and there's no Logan to protect you any more.
JakB was an extreme version of Ezra Powel , and now I saw why Ezra
took on board the crazy fan's reasoning. They wear matching T-shirts, I 134
reminded myself darkly.
After Hartmann, I'd dropped Lucas off at his house and insisted on driving home alone. I'd thanked him for tel ing me the truth and said I'd see him the next morning before the concert. Meanwhile, I was stil on my way to Deputy Sheriff Jardine's office.
'The deputy sheriff is busy,' the officer at Reception told me when I went in.
This is important,' I told her. I felt myself come up against that
authority barrier that people in uniform present the look across the desk that says: You are a smal , insignificant person unworthy of my ful attention. 'He would want to see me.'
'I would?' Jardine asked, coming through from his inner office and recognizing me right away. 'Thanks, Sheryl. I've got five minutes to give to Darina before I go off duty.'
Go through,' Sheryl-in-uniform sniffed.
So I sat in Jardine's room eagerly spil ing out al the Brandon-linked information he'd asked me for. I named Oscar Thorne and Wil Stone, told him about the bad blood between the drugs gangs, the suppliers, the dealers, the middle men.
So Stone was on his way to meet with Thorne in the mal ?' Jardine checked with me. And now you want me to talk this through with Thorne?'
'Right now!' I said. 'You can't let this go through the weekend. It has to be today!'
I got the authority barrier again the level, narrow-eyed look, the tap-
tap of the pen against the desk. Then Jardine thrust out his bottom lip. ' Darina, did you ever think of a future career in the police department?'