by Kat, Bob
Austin gave her an understanding nod. “That’s right. That’s not necessarily Wendy. Keep looking.”
Again they crowded behind Scott as he scanned the pages. They didn’t have to look too far. The October 18th issue confirmed their worst fears.
“There’s her yearbook picture!” Scott exclaimed, then went on to read the article. “Dead Girl Identified. The Lee County Sherriff’s office released the details of their investigation of the young girl discovered on October 15th near the Fishing Pier. The Lee County Medical Examiner’s office has determined that the young girl who was found by college student, Dan Denucci was seventeen-year old Wendy Lynn Summers, a senior at South Beach High School. Miss Summers apparently committed suicide by slashing her wrists. There were signs of bruising on her wrists and ankles that are being investigated further. She was last seen leading cheers during the Panthers’ loss to the Golden Eagles at last Friday’s homecoming game. She was also a National Honor Society member, debate club member and drama club member. Miss Summers is survived by her father Jack Summers, her mother Louise and her brother Steven. Services will be held on Friday at the Fort Myers First Baptist Church.”
“But why?” Austin muttered, his dark browns drawn together in a bewildered frown. “Why would anyone kill herself?”
“Why did she have bruises on her arms and ankles?” Scott wondered aloud.
“She was a cheerleader. Maybe she got hurt. Our cheerleaders get pretty roughed up sometimes.” Austin explained.
“I may have led a sheltered life and not really know about this sort of thing, but Wendy seemed to have everything going for her at school. Why would she do it?” Kelly mused. “I wonder if she was depressed about something. Maybe her parents were divorcing, or maybe she had just broken up with her boyfriend. Or maybe she had some sort of incurable disease.”
“Everyone I’ve ever heard of that killed themselves had some pretty heavy stuff going on in their life,” Austin added. “Do you think they tested for drugs back then?”
“Don’t know, but I could try and find out.” Scott made a note on a piece of paper. “I like research.”
“Suicide is tragic for everyone. It’s sad that she must have thought she had no alternative than to kill herself. Didn’t she have any friends? Any teachers she felt like she could go to and talk things out? Were people making fun of her or bullying her?” Kelly needed to know for her own peace of mind. “Nowadays, kids can get counseling or help of some kind if they’re feeling depressed or bullied. But maybe they didn’t have anything like that back then.”
“It’s also the pits for her family, because they might not have known why she killed herself. All these years have passed and no one knows the truth. They might have felt guilty for something they said or did that they think might have caused her to do it.” Austin was genuinely upset about this as well.
“It’s awful that someone couldn’t have talked her out of it. Unless drugs are involved, most growing-up kind of problems will go away and things will get better once they’re out of school. But if they’re dead, they’ll miss it all.” Even Scott was affected by this young woman none of them had ever actually met, but with whom they felt a strange bond.
“That’s why she’s asking us for help,” Kelly said. “She wants us to find out the truth and to try and fix it.”
“It’s taken her all these years to get someone to listen,” Scott agreed. “She wants to set the record straight.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Kelly suggested. “Why not stop by the school so I can pick up the forms I need? Maybe there will be someone there who knew her or knows something the paper didn’t get into.”
“Mrs. Carter,” Scott and Austin said simultaneously.
“Who is Mrs. Carter?”
“She’s been working at the school since the Calusa Indians held classes, I think,” Scott remarked.
“She knows everything about everyone, so we’ll ask her what she remembers.” Austin stood up to leave. “Are we done here?” They quickly put the microfilms away and turned off the machine before exiting the library.
Austin popped the locks on the stallion’s doors, and they piled in.
“Is it far away?” Kelly asked.
“Ten minutes.”
“Who were the Calusa Indians?” Kelly had claimed shotgun on this part of the trip. She was wide awake now and watched her surroundings with interest.
“They were the Indian nation that was here a couple thousand years before the Seminoles arrived in the 1600s,” Scott spoke up from the backseat. “They came here because of the abundant wildlife and great fishing. No one is really sure why they left or where they went.”
Austin parked in front of the school that had only about a half dozen cars in the parking lot. They walked to the front door where he pushed the button on the intercom.
“May I help you?” a female voice crackled over the speaker.
“Hey, Mrs. Carter, it’s Austin Burke and Scott Talton. We’ve got a new student with us who needs to register.”
A buzzer sounded and the lock released on the front door, allowing Austin to pull it open. Kelly entered first, followed by Scott, then Austin.
“This way,” Scott said as he pointed to a hallway on the left.
As they walked down the hall, Kelly looked around with growing excitement and a fresh surge of nerves. In just a couple months, she would be here for real, surrounded by hundreds of students who knew way more about high school and each other than she did.
“Here’s the office.” Scott bumped her to his right to get her to turn into the office.
“Well, well, well, this is a surprise,” said the little old lady peeking over the counter. “How are my favorite young men doing? Did you miss me already? We’ve only been out a week.” Her smile was as broad as she was tall.
“You say that to all the guys,” Austin scolded her good-naturedly.
“Mrs. Carter, this is Kelly Welch. Kelly needs a new student package to take home to her aunt. She moved in next door to us.”
“Sure thing. Where are you from Kelly?”
“Friendswood, Texas. It’s sort of between Houston and Galveston.”
“You and you aunt just moved here?”
“No ma’am. My aunt has lived here forever. She’s an assistant District Attorney.”
“And your parents?”
Kelly took a deep breath. “They were recently killed in a car accident. My aunt is my guardian.”
Mrs. Carter stopped in mid-staple and looked up from her paper sorting. “You have my condolences, Kelly. I think you’ll find South Beach High a very welcoming place. You’re in good hands with Scott and Austin. They’re two of the nicest kids here, and I don’t say that to everyone.” She finished getting Kelly’s package together and opened it to indicate the items as she talked. “This folder has all you need. In the left pocket is your recommended reading material. In the right pocket are the forms you’ll need to complete, like your registration papers and the standard physician package, all signed by your aunt and the doctor. You’ll need to have everything turned in at least ten days before school starts so we can get your grades transferred. Everything is computerized now, so it can be done relatively quickly. I remember when we had to do everything through the postal service which could take over a month.” She handed Kelly the packet. “Any questions?”
“I was home schooled, so there aren’t any official transcripts.”
“That’s okay. We’ll get your scores from the state. I’m sure you took the standard achievement tests, didn’t you?”
Kelly nodded. “I’ll get these all filled out. Thanks.”
“Mrs. Carter, I have a question,” Austin asked. “Ahh . . . do you remember a girl named Wendy Summers? She went here in 1963 through 1966.”
Mrs. Carter turned white as a sheet and her hands began to shake. She swallowed hard and her eyes darted from Austin to Scott to Kelly. She rubbed her hands together and then as if she ran out of ways to delay any lo
nger, she responded, “I do remember her. She was one of our brightest and best students ever. And beautiful inside and out. Very popular and she participated in all kinds of clubs. I don’t recall exactly which ones, but I know she was a cheerleader.” Her gaze lowered to the counter, and she was silent for several moments, then she lifted her head and shook it sadly. “She had it all and did it all.” Mrs. Carter’s eyes welled up.
Kelly rushed to add, “It sounds like she was really special.”
“As you kids say, she owned this place. We were all so shocked when she . . . well, it was just very sad.”
“We saw the newspaper article,” Austin told her. “It said she committed suicide.”
“Such a tragedy,” Mrs. Carter sighed.
“Do you have idea why she would do such a thing?” Kelly blurted out.
“No one knows. She didn’t leave a note. She didn’t tell anyone anything. Not even her best friends were aware of her plans. Her poor parents . . .”
“Was she having trouble at home or with a boyfriend?” Kelly asked.
“No, her parents were wonderful, always involved with her activities. And, as far as I know, she didn’t have a boyfriend at the time. But then you know how quickly those things change.”
“Any rumors?” Austin prodded.
Mrs. Carter looked at Austin and cocked her read slightly. “No, nothing. Why the questions?”
“No reason. We were just talking about the kids here at school . . . and her name sort of came up,” Austin explained.
“Kids just didn’t do things like that back then,” Mrs. Carter mused. “Lately, it seems like every year, there’s one or two who take their own lives. I didn’t get it then, and I sure don’t get it now.”
“Me either,” Kelly agreed. “Well, it’s very nice meeting you, Mrs. Carter. I’ll see you in a few weeks, ready to go.”
“You kids enjoy your summer.”
Once outside, they felt they could talk. “Mrs. Carter really looked shook up when you asked about Wendy, didn’t she?” Kelly said as they headed to the stallion.
“She sure did,” Austin agreed.
They got in and drove back toward home. “Anyone hungry?” Kelly was a little embarrassed that it was a question always asked by her.
“There’s a Wendy’s up ahead.” Austin looked at her in the rearview mirror. Kelly nodded her agreement.
“Ironic. Lunch at Wendy’s,” Scott concurred.
It was already the middle of the afternoon, so there was no line. They quickly got their food and drinks and went to a corner table at the front of the restaurant, away from the counters so they could talk privately.
They had finished their hamburgers and were picking at their fries when Scott pulled out his notepad
“Okay, let’s review what we know.”
“We know her name, where it happened, sort of when it happened and what happened,” Austin summarized. “We just don’t know why.”
Kelly suddenly sat up straight, startling both Scott and Austin. “She didn’t kill herself.”
“But the police report said . . .,” Scott reminded her.
“But she said she didn’t do it. That’s what she meant! Don’t you see? That’s what she was trying to tell us.” Kelly was so excited, she could hardly sit still.
Austin considered that for a minute, then said. “There are two problems with that. First, that would mean someone else killed her, and who would want to do that? And second, what could we do about it?”
“I don’t know.” Kelly rubbed his eyes. “She kept asking us to help her.”
“Well, unless we can find a Delorean to take us back to 1966, we’re not going to be able to do anything else.” Austin wadded their trash into a ball and neatly lofted it into the trash container.
“Let’s go talk with Wendy and maybe she can give us more information. Maybe we can help her get past it and move on to the other side . . . or deal with whatever is holding her back. Maybe all she wants is for us to tell her parents the truth. We could do that for her.” Kelly stood, and without waiting for Scott and Austin, she headed toward the truck.
“If they’re still around,” Scott pointed out.
In agreement they jumped into the stallion and within minutes they were back at Scott’s house and in his lab.
Kelly positioned herself by the mike, and they all huddled around the Spirit Radio’s speaker. The vacuum tubes glowed bright red and the speaker hummed. The familiar mix of voices, words, phrases, questions and even sounds of people singing or crying all mixed together and rose and fell in volume.
“Wendy? This is Kelly. Wendy Summers, please speak to us.”
They sat patiently for almost an hour before they could pick out Wendy’s voice from the rest. “Kelly . . . what did . . . find out . . . me?”
“Wendy . . . did you kill yourself?” Kelly asked bluntly.
“I did . . . it . . .” Her voice drifted in and out.
“Did you say you did or you didn’t?” Kelly persisted.
They waited for another few minutes for the rest of her uncompleted message.
“Wendy, did someone kill you?” Kelly decided to get right to the point.
“. . . help me . . . please.” Her voice was overwhelmed by the others, all clamoring for attention.
They kept trying for another half an hour, until Kelly put down the microphone in defeat.
Austin stood and stretched his cramped muscles. “We’re kind of stuck, aren’t we?” Wendy doesn’t tell us enough. Mrs. Carter doesn’t know anything more than what was reported. And the bigger issue is that even if we had all the answers, there’s nothing we could do to help her.” He walked over to the wall and pulled some darts off the board and began throwing then at the bullseye with respectable accuracy. “Got to keep my arm in shape, ya know.”
Kelly leaned her back against the wall and clasped her hands together behind her head. “If we did find out she’d been killed, how would we even go about getting the sheriff to open up a closed case from over 40 years ago? Maybe I could ask Aunt Jane.”
“You heard what she said yesterday. She’s like two months behind with her current cases. Why would she want to take a case that happened almost five decades ago that nobody cares about but us?” Austin suggested. “By now even her parents have moved on, if they’re even still alive.”
Kelly’s expression was gloomy. She hated to lose, and this felt like a big loss.
“So, you guys didn’t exactly think I could pull this Spirit Radio technology off, did you?” Scott asked, seemingly out of the blue.
“We’ve just met, so what would I know?” Kelly remarked.
“I’ve known you since . . . well, forever . . . so I was all in. I just didn’t really understand exactly what I was in for, you know?” Austin commented.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Kelly and Austin. I think we might have another option to help Wendy. I agree with you guys, given our age and this crazy story that we turn this old radio on and chat with a dead girl every day would be sort of hard to believe. So, as I see it, we need another way to help her.”
“Do you have an idea?” Kelly asked hopefully.
“I don’t want to say right now . . . I have a little more work to do first. Kelly, here are the specifications for the cell phone and carrier that you need to get this weekend when your aunt takes you shopping.” As he talked, he wrote in very neat printing a list of features on a page of his notebook. “It must be exactly like this. Do not vary one little bit. Okay?” Scott tore the page out, folded it and handed it to Kelly.
“Okay.” Kelly didn’t object since she knew absolutely nothing about cell phones anyway, so any advice would help.
“You have to go to the Cell Hut at the Edison Mall and ask for Dave Reed. Got that?”
“Yes.”
“He understands what I’m asking for and won’t try and sell you something else. I’ll set the phone up for you, but don’t let anyone talk you into anything except just what’s
on that paper.”
Kelly and Austin glanced at each other and rolled their eyes.
“Okay, okay . . . got it.” Kelly stuffed the paper into the pocket of her shorts. She’d almost forgotten that tomorrow was the big shopping day.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SATURDAY
Kelly walked into the kitchen and was startled to find her aunt sitting at the island, drinking coffee and checking messages on her Blackberry. She was dressed in shorts, a sleeveless blouse and sandals. Outside the sky was dark, brightened by occasional lightning bolts and punctuated with rumbles of thunder. Rain poured with a tropical intensity, dumping out of the over-flowing gutters in sheets, all of which probably explained the absence of her bird friend this morning.
“Morning,” Kelly said, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “Are we in the middle of a hurricane?”
“No, just a Florida summer thunderstorm. It won’t last long.”
“You didn’t go to work today?”
“I thought we should get an early start.”
Kelly was pleased that her aunt had taken time from her busy schedule to do something so trivial. It meant a lot to her.
“You ready to head out?” her aunt asked.
“Sure am. Where to?”
“First, the Oasis. They serve breakfast all day, so it works well on weekends when I’m up late and can’t get moving early enough. I think you’ll like it.”
“Sounds good.”
“We’ll go to the Edison Mall after that. They have everything there, including cell phones. Ready?”
Kelly got up and followed her aunt out the door. Last night she had showed her the specifics of the cell phone Scott had recommended, and her aunt had had no objections. She, like Kelly, wasn’t too tech savvy when it came to cell phones. It seemed that a new technology came out every week, making them obsolete almost instantly. That’s why Jane clung to her reliable old-school Blackberry. She said she and it understood each other.
Oasis was a charming Florida-style restaurant with lots of windows and live plants. They were seated in a booth and while they were waiting for their food, Kelly filled her aunt in on what she knew about Scott and Austin’s families.