Callie's Redemption (Callie's Secret Book 3)

by T. Jones

  "What's it like? Being with a girl, I mean."

  "It's, nice. Not that different. I mean of course, there's the anatomy. But if you really connect with someone, the closeness is there anyway. Generally speaking, girls kiss better. They're not in such a hurry, you know."

  "Oh. I've never kissed a girl." There was a very long pause. "Could I kiss you, just to see what it feels like?"

  "No, I can't kiss you, Lucy."

  "Oh. The girlfriend thing, or you just don't find me attractive?"

  "Lucy, we're not in college, and this isn't a fucking sorority, go to sleep." She tried to make it sound angry, but failed. She wanted to do both equally, sound angry, and kiss her. But there was Anna. "Lucy?"

  "Yeah?"

  "I don't want to kiss you because I wouldn't want to stop. Okay? You're very attractive, too much so. But I really am going to try with Anna, so that means no kissing other people, even cute seismologists."

  "Yeah," She laughed. "Probably for the best, I wouldn't want to stop either." She was snoring in two minutes, but Danielle lay awake. She had wanted to kiss Lucy, badly, nearly had given in. Should she want to kiss anyone but Anna? What was that about?

  They fell asleep with their backs to each other, but in the morning Danielle woke to find the young woman snuggled against her, their bare legs tangled together. She eased away gently and went to climb in the shower. When she had dressed and went back into the bedroom, Lucy was awake. She smiled shyly at Danielle.

  "That Anna, she's a lucky girl."

  "Thanks, but let's go back to fighting okay? I'm only human, and all this flirting is getting to me." Lucinda looked disappointed.

  "Alright, I'll save it for Lamar. Seemed like a good idea last night, but like you said, there's Anna."

  They unpacked Lucinda's equipment from the little Subaru and stacked it in a pile, waiting for the replacement car. Danielle was on the phone for an hour, trying to track down the person she had talked to the day before. By ten o'clock, she was furious, and had called the company twice more. Eventually, they admitted the truth. Because of the Festival, there wasn't another car to be had. If they could wait until tomorrow, a tow truck would pick up the rental and they could ride back into the city with them. Finally, William Evans volunteered his Land Rover, insisted they take it.

  "We don't ever go anywhere." He laughed, gesturing at the mountain and the ocean. "Why would we, it is too beautiful here. You and Lamar, or Lucy, can bring the truck back when you get another car. Don't worry, just bring it back when you can."

  "Thanks, so much, Mr. Evans. We'll get it back tomorrow, maybe the next day." They drove down the gravel onto the main road, dropping down toward the city. Danielle told Lucy about Felicity, and her stubborn mother.

  "After I drop you off with Lamar, I'm going back over there. I'll knock her ass out and drag her out of there if I have to."

  "Not that you couldn't, but that's probably not a good idea."

  "Well, I'm going back there, I have to try."

  ***

  It was ten forty-seven. Deep in the forest, the Doctor bird jumped from his nest, followed by his mate, flying away to the north, away from the shaking and the trouble.

  Danielle had the wheel in one hand, talking to Lucy about their plans, when it suddenly twisted away from her. She grabbed it quickly with both hands.

  "Now what, is the wheel falling off this one?"

  Lucinda pointed to the road in front of them as the Road Runner lurched violently to the side. The road looked like an asphalt wave, rippling up and down, and from side to side. Lucinda looked to her right, and watched a huge crack opening up across the ground, swallowing bushes and rocks. The crack was quickly becoming a crevasse. It darted across the landscape, coming right at them.

  "Drive, go!" She screamed and Danielle pushed the accelerator to the floor. The truck leapt forward and careened another fifty yards before Danielle stopped, afraid they would be overturned.

  "You’re the earthquake expert, what the hell do we do?" She asked Lucy.

  "Pray Danielle, just fucking pray!"

  Chapter Eighteen

  Callie Fisher woke up early, took a shower, and got dressed. Seven o'clock. Knowing Danielle, she would be up, but it might be better to wait until she'd had her morning coffee. There was a good chance she wouldn't be thrilled that Callie had ignored her advice and followed her to Kingston. Granted, she didn't have the physical attributes that Danielle did, but she did have the ability to convince people to do things her way, and that was going to be important. Convincing Danielle of that might be tough, but it wasn't like she could send her home.

  She ordered breakfast, and ate it looking out the window to the south. How far across that ocean was it to Brazil? Was he still there, the blue-eyed man, and his son? Her brother. She could feel him, the younger of the two, some sense of him reaching out to her. Did it matter that they were closer? Was the connection like gravity, the closer you got, the stronger it became? It felt different somehow than back in Minnesota, clearer. She moved to the couch, closed her eyes and concentrated.

  ***

  Filipe Eklund pulled the comforter around himself and sneezed loudly. He hadn't slept most of the night, the cough kept him awake. There was a bug going around school and it had finally caught up with him. Missing school was fine, but there was a soccer match, no school, meant no soccer. He definitely wasn't up to it, his fever had come back. He looked longingly out the sliding glass door, wishing the water was warmer, wishing he was sailing. He wondered what it was like there, where his sister lived. Warm now probably, their summer was just ending, the seasons were reversed up there. The Nyquil did its job and he dozed a little, fitfully, dreaming of her, and of a place of frozen lakes. Thousands of lakes? She felt close, he was sure he could see her clearly for some reason, or it could be the Nyquil, twisting his dreams around. He tossed and turned for a bit, then slept soundly for an hour. When he woke up again his fever was gone and he felt better. He stood up and went into the bathroom, looking north across the Bay, smiling. "Callie." He said.

  ***

  She woke suddenly and looked at the clock, then got up, upset that she had dozed off. It was nearly nine, so she tried calling Danielle, both the room and her cell phone, but didn't get a response. She had the number of Lamar Henry, and called him.

  "Danielle and Lucinda are staying with a friend of mine on the Blue Mountain. I understand they stayed last night, instead of coming back, but they should be here before too long. Lucinda was getting readings to try to convince everyone that an earthquake is coming."

  "Probably before the end of the week."

  "So, would you like to meet Danielle here? I am looking forward to meeting you. Danielle tells me that you can look into the future better than anyone else in your group of fortune tellers."

  "Danielle must trust you very much to tell you that, but then no one really believes it until they see it."

  "If the ground starts to shake, I will believe."

  "I'll come down around ten or ten thirty. Don't say anything to Danielle, I want to surprise her."

  Callie spent half an hour looking at the map of Kingston that the hotel supplied her with. It was designed to help tourist find the local attractions, but was detailed enough to give her a sense of where she was in relation to the rest of the city, where to find Lamar Henry, and where Danielle and the woman seismologist were. Callie smiled wondering if the woman still thought she was working for the SSW, or if Danielle had confessed to the little lie. They would have to come up with a better acronym if they went public.

  She jumped in her rental, bound for the police station, reminded by the steering wheel to drive on the left side of the road. She managed to get a little turned around and didn't find the station until ten thirty. The station had holding cells and a uniformed constable had to buzz her in, then direct her to the second floor, where the Inspector's office was. The door to the Inspector's outer office was open, and a jovial woman named Bernice told her to
go ahead into the smaller office, that Inspector Lamar was expecting her.

  The door was open, so Callie walked in, tapping on the doorframe as she did so. Lamar Henry was younger than she expected, dark skinned, and stocky. He stood and stretched a hand out, smiling.

  "Callie Fisher, Danielle has told me a lot of good things about you. Are all the women of America so beautiful? Lucy Mitchell, Danielle, you, you're all very attractive."

  "Thank you, but Danielle was born here, Jamaicans are an attractive bunch as well, present company included." Lamar laughed at her.

  "Now that we have flattered each other enough, tell me, why have you come? Do you think Danielle needs help? The hard work is past for her, they are on their way here. She and the woman from the Institute are planning to take their findings to the City Council, if it can be arranged. I do not mean to offend, but because you are blond, everyone will know you're a tourist. Jamaicans are tired of being told what to do by foreigners."

  "I would not presume to tell them what to do, I will let the earthquake expert explain things. I am only here for Danielle. I have seen her in one of my dreams, lying in the street, bleeding. I want to prevent that if I can."

  "So, you can see the future, and change it? That truly is Obeah magic, if such a thing was possible. I am still not convinced of such things."

  "I didn't believe it at first either, Inspector Henry, but things just keep happening, things I see. It's never perfectly clear, sometimes I misinterpret my dreams. I hope like hell that's what is happening with Danielle. Sometimes the things I see can be changed, sometimes not. I might be able to prevent what I saw for Danielle, but I sure as hell can't stop an earthquake. All we can do is try to warn people."

  "Lucy, she's the seismologist, very attractive, might be able to convince the council, or the Deputy Mayor. But we've been hearing about the big earthquake for years, and we're still here. I promise you, they will not take the word of a psychic group. If they will be convinced, a scientist will have to do it."

  The inspectors phone lit up. "Sorry Lamar," Bernice called from the outer office. "Shooting up on the north side. Constable Forrest is all cranked up and wants to talk to you."

  "Sorry Callie, can I ask you to step out for a minute? Bernice will grab you some coffee." Callie shut the door behind her, then settled into a chair and grabbed the local newspaper. Bernice offered to get her a cup of coffee, poured it for her and started in her direction. Callie looked up as the older woman started toward her with the hot liquid. She looked drunk, wobbling from side to side. As the cause dawned on Callie, the woman threw the coffee to the side and dropped to all fours.

  "Earthquake!" She screamed. The table that housed the coffee pot was six feet long with sturdy metal legs. Bernice lurched over to it, swept the coffee pot and machine away with one arm, then dove under the table, covering her head. She screamed at Callie. "Get under here! It's a bad one."

  Lamar Henry ripped the door of his office open as the opaque glass in the upper section exploded. Callie made it to her feet, and he pushed her under the table, throwing himself over the top of the two women as best he could. Bernice was screaming and crying. The big window that looked out over the street exploded, and the ceiling tiles began dislodging and tumbling down like a deck of cards thrown into the air.

  Despite her certainty that she was in no danger, Callie couldn't quell the panic that built as the quake continued. The instinct was to run, get outside at any cost, and she tried to get up, but Lamar Henry wouldn't move, and he had a grip on Bernice. She was trapped between them.

  "Just a few more seconds." Lamar shouted. "It won't last much longer. This building will stand." It sounded like hope more than certainty, and the shaking continued. Despite what her visions had shown her, nothing she ever experienced prepared Callie for the sheer terror she felt, trapped by the big man, sure the building would collapse at any second, killing them all, or worse, burying them alive. And still the shaking continued, growing even more violent. Callie could hear Bernice, crying and praying behind her. She might have prayed, but she was afraid that if God hated hypocrites, the building would surely fall on them. The thought almost made her laugh aloud. Maybe it was time to rethink her stance on the Almighty.

  And then it stopped.

  Lamar Henry rolled out from under the table, stood and helped the women stand. Alarms shrieked in the hallway, the air was filled with dust, parts of the suspended ceiling had collapsed, and none of the glass in any of the doors or windows had remained intact. He held onto Bernice, who was crying uncontrollably, and looked at Callie over the top of her head.

  "Okay, now I'm convinced."

  Chapter Nineteen

  Danielle Ogren opened the door of the truck and stepped out. Her legs were shaking a little. She had been in tough situations before, plenty of times when her bravery was tested. But there was always something to do, some action she could take to improve her odds. The truck had bounced and jumped around violently for a full two minutes, maybe longer, while they huddled down helplessly, hoping that another hole wouldn't open up in the ground and swallow them, truck and all. It was that helplessness that scared Danielle the most.

  Lucinda climbed out of her door. Her side of the truck was a full foot higher than the driver's side. Danielle expected her to be terrified, or at least a little upset. Instead she was in full scientist mode. She had her phone out, taking pictures of the landscape around them, dictating her thoughts on what had happened. A single car pulled up to them, and an older man got out.

  "Are you two alright? Any idea what the road is like, I have to get up the mountain, my wife, I have to get up there."

  "I don't think it's possible." Danielle said. "Not with a vehicle at least. There's a hole where the road used to be. How far is it?"

  "Couple miles. How big is the hole?"

  "It looked like a major fracture line." Lucinda said looking up. "If you decide to try it, don't go within a hundred feet of the edge. It's bound to be unstable, and there will be aftershocks. You'll have to go way around it."

  "I have to try, my wife is up there, I have to make sure she's alright. My cellphone isn't working." Danielle motioned to the west, looking down into the town.

  "I'm guessing there won't be service for a while, look at that."

  They were still several miles from the city, but the wail of sirens reached their ears, and smoke had already found its way into the air in several spots. To the west, even in the midday sun, they could see flashes of blue and white resembling lightning, as transformers exploded and power poles collapsed. They were too far away to see actual damage, but the shaking had been incredible. Danielle reached into the truck and handed the man a bottle of water.

  "Good luck to you. I wish we could help, but we have to go into the city." He left, striking out across the rocky slope on foot, following the crevasse south, where it appeared to end a few hundred yards away. Lucy was still taking pictures. Danielle walked around the Land Rover and realized they had a flat tire. She started hunting for the jack, pulling Lucy's equipment out of the back. "Hate to say it, Lucy, but we should leave this shit here. The less weight we have the better, and we may need the room, if we can get all the way into town. Hard to say how bad the road will be."

  "If my predictions are right, the worst of it will have tracked to the west side, but it's hard to tell how far out the damage will extend. I've never actually been in an earthquake before, but judging by the violence, and the geological displacements that we saw, shit! It had to be on the high side of the sevens, maybe eight two, eight five on the Richter Scale. There will be major, catastrophic damage. Any older structure would be in danger of collapse."

  "We have to get this tire changed, and get down there."

  "Screw the equipment, throw it." Lucy took her own advice, but pulled the cases out into the brush, doing her best to camouflage them. "If nobody swipes these we can pick them up later. I don't think that hole is going to get fixed real soon, so I should be able to find th
em."

  "Damn it! Two or three more days, we might have been able to convince people." Danielle was struggling with the tire, wiping tears from her eyes.

  "Short of moving everybody out of the whole city, I don't know if anything would have helped. Nobody wanted to believe this was possible."

  "Right now, I just wish I could have convinced Felicity's mother."

  ***

  Lamar Henry tried to pull the door to the stairwell open, then gave up and put his foot through it, smashing what was left of the wood casing. Shards of glass tumbled onto the floor, razor sharp projectiles that might have impaled Callie, had Lamar let her succumb to her panic. The stairs were intact, but littered with broken glass and chunks of plaster that had dislodged from the ceiling. Lamar led them carefully down the stairs and out into the street, to a landscape of chaos.

  The air was filled with dust, and there was already a faint smell of smoke in the air. The building had stood, but parts of brick littered the ground, peeled from the structure and shaken into fragments. Callie helped Bernice walk to the edge of the street where she sat on the curb. The two officers that were in charge of the lockup brought four prisoners out in handcuffs, all looking ashen. Callie could hear horns blowing in the direction of the main highway, where she could already see gridlock, and to the west she heard the shrieking of more alarms and the siren of a fire truck. Lamar Henry took charge quickly.

  "Patrick," He motioned to the detainees. "What are these four charged with?"