“Clare!” Chester said as he grabbed my arm so tightly that I slid again, and just barely stopped myself from falling.
I looked at Chester.
“Let me,” he said sternly. “Stay here.”
My hands went over my mouth, and my eyes went wide as I tried to understand the scene before me. I couldn’t possibly be seeing a dead man, one who’d been stabbed with something I didn’t even recognize but looked like some sort of handle.
“Call 911, Clare,” Chester said when he was sure I was listening.
Chester moved much more carefully than I think I would have. He stepped around the body and a pool of blood to get to a spot where he could lean over and check for a pulse. He bit his bottom lip as he must have gotten confirmation that Donte was in the state he looked to be in. Dead.
Chester stood and came back to me. I found my phone and hit 911. He took the phone out of my hand as someone answered. In a much calmer voice than I’m sure I would have managed, he told them what we’d found.
“Will do,” he said before he ended the call. “Come on, Clare, let’s go sit down.”
Chester and I had come upon a dead body once before. Twice felt extremely unlucky and a trend we needed to exorcise as soon as possible. However, the first body hadn’t belonged to someone I’d known, someone I’d gone to high school with, someone I’d recently had a friendly conversation with.
Donte Senot was dead. Had been killed; the second murder of one of my classmates in less than a week’s time. This was not the stuff of successful reunions.
Jodie, Omar, and Kelly joined the contingent of Salt Lake City Police officers and detectives who’d arrived on scene only a few moments after the call.
It had been a flurry of uniforms, suits, and people with questions. I couldn’t pay much attention to the questions, so I wasn’t sure of my answers, but no one threw handcuffs on me. When Jodie asked me if I was okay, I said that I was okay, but I wasn’t.
It took two cups of water that Chester gathered for me and a good hour to feel like I was almost back on an even keel. And when I did feel like I fit into my skin again, I became angry and curious.
I stood up from the bench I’d been sitting on as Jodie reentered the building through the front doors. I merged with her heavy, fast footfalls as she cruised down the hallway.
“What do you know?” I said.
“That Donte Senot was murdered and you and Chester came upon his body,” she said, more reluctantly than I would have liked.
“Any clues?”
“The police have just started gathering the clues, Clare,” she said. “This won’t be our case. Not our jurisdiction. They’re letting us stick around because everyone’s pretty sure this murder is somehow tied to Lloyd’s. Listen, I have to get back into the press room. We’ll talk later, I’m sure. I’m sorry you had to see him that way.”
I nodded. We’d made it to the pressroom door and she had her hand on the knob.
“Is Sarah okay? She wasn’t at the funeral either,” I said.
Jodie understood my somewhat random comment. Since we hadn’t seen either Donte or Sarah, it was normal to feel concern for her.
“We know she’s fine. Well, distraught, of course, but not hurt.”
I nodded. “All right. I’ll wait for you out front.”
“No, you and Chester are going to be dismissed soon. You need to go home. I’ll call you when I’m done here.”
“Promise? You don’t always do that when you say you will.”
“I know. How about I’ll call you if I’m not too busy? It might be a long night.”
I nodded again. “Where’s Creighton?”
She looked back down the hallway with a concerned frown, and lowered her voice. “He’s being detained in Star City. He and Harold. It’s the way it had to be handled.”
“Oh. Of course, that makes sense. Please call me if you can.”
“I will. I have to get in there, and you absolutely cannot come inside. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Go back out front and wait for someone to tell you to go home.”
“I will.”
Jodie waited by the door as I retreated toward the front of the building. I was less freaked out, but it still felt like my limbs weren’t attached appropriately, like they were way too fluid; they’d fall off if I didn’t hold on to them tight enough.
“Clare, you okay?” Kelly, Creighton’s partner, was exiting Donte’s office.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I said as I peered over his shoulder and then at the bag he held. It was a plastic ziplock type of bag, but he held it so his hand covered up anything that might be inside it.
“Did you find anything that might help?” I said.
“I’m not sure. We’ll see. We’ll catch a clue soon. We always do.”
I silently agreed with his statement and swallowed the mean words I wanted to say that had to do with the fact that they might want to hurry it along before someone else got killed. I knew the Star City Police weren’t dragging their feet, but it was difficult not to feel outrage at the murders, and then project that outrage in their direction. Maybe now that the Salt Lake City Police were involved, things might go better. I kept that thought to myself too.
“I hope so,” I said before I continued down the hall. But I stopped and turned again. “Creighton upset?”
Kelly’s eyebrows rose. He might have thought I was concerned about Creighton’s welfare. I wasn’t; I just wanted to know his reaction to being “detained.”
“Yes, he’s upset. He wants to work the case, of course,” Kelly said.
“But he’s under suspicion now?”
Kelly’s eyes slanted. “Excuse me, Clare, but I have to get back to work.”
“Sure,” I said as he went back into the office.
“Ms. Henry,” an officer said as he approached. “You can’t be back here, and we’ve told your grandfather that the two of you are free to go.”
“Got it,” I said as we passed each other. He made sure I didn’t turn around in the other direction again.
“There you are!” Chester said with too much relief when I was back in the reception area.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. Let’s go home, Chester.”
“Yes, right away,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”
23
We escaped the crowded freeways of the valley and made it back up the canyon to Star City in one piece, despite my heavy foot on the accelerator. I was feeling an urgent need to get home and escape the horrors of the big city.
I debated going inside The Rescued Word with Chester to check on Adal and Nathan, and sharing the terrible news together, but Chester somehow convinced me that it would be better for him to do it alone. I dropped him off outside and texted Seth to see if he could meet me somewhere. If he couldn’t get away from work, I was going to go to his office.
He had a small office down the hill and amid a Star City retail district that included a few chain restaurants and a grocery store. But Seth spent most of his time out in the field, and much of his fieldwork took him to southern Utah, so I was glad he was currently in town. I didn’t wait for his answer to my text but drove directly to the office.
He responded just as I got out of the car. Just in the office. Come on over. I’ll buy dinner.
“Uh-oh,” he said as he removed a magnifying headpiece that had been awkwardly plopped on his head, and placed a sparkly rock on the desk. “What happened?”
I closed the door and told him.
“Clare, that’s absolutely terrible,” he said when I’d finished. “I’m so sorry you had to see that, and I’m sorry about your classmate.”
I nodded. “I wish the police knew what was going on.”
“They will.”
“I hope soon.�
�
“Me too. I’m trying to understand more of the dynamics here. Did you say you and Donte were or weren’t friends in high school?” Seth asked. “What about his wife? The séance was strange, but I got a definite impression that they made a good team, if you know what I mean. Were you friends with Sarah?”
“I know what you mean. Honestly, I don’t remember much about Donte, or any of them, from high school, but Chester seems to think we were sort of friends at one time. He remembers Donte, at least, coming into The Rescued Word to see me. I don’t remember that at all.”
“Chester’s got a pretty good memory,” Seth said.
“He does, but it’s been just over ten years for me. I should remember too.”
Seth shrugged. “Weird things are important to us when we’re young. We only hold on to a few moments, probably either the really good ones or the really bad ones.”
“Yeah . . .”
“What?”
“I just had a thought. Want to help me do a little research?”
“I’m always up for research, the more tedious, the better.”
I laughed, though it felt inappropriate. Seth sent me a supportive smile.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said.
“I know.”
“So, what are we going to research?”
“Some high school yearbooks.”
“Let’s go,” he said as he stood. “I can’t wait to see what you looked like back then.”
“Dinner first, though?” I said.
Seth smiled. “Definitely.”
We headed out, but I had second thoughts about taking the time to eat, so we picked up garlic burgers from O’Malley’s, where we had our first date. Even though I’d been terribly distracted at the time and I made for a horrible date (I gave myself a C-, though Seth claimed it was no lower than a B), we’d managed to still be together, so our memories of O’Malley’s were now fond, though still punctuated by the owner’s disapproving glares when we went into the bar together. Orin O’Malley thought I’d be better suited to one of his reformed (I think only one had reformed) felonious sons than to the new geologist in town. I had to keep proving to him that Seth and I hadn’t broken up quite yet.
Armed with delicious garlicky-smelling bags, we made it up the hill and into Little Blue. Soon, we were poring over my high school yearbooks as we tried to keep greasy smudges from the food at a minimum.
“You were adorable,” Seth said as he looked at my sophomore picture.
“You have to say that,” I said. “I wasn’t. Look at that hair. Oh my, why did it take so long for me to figure out hair conditioner? And I could have chosen better glasses. You know why I’m not smiling?”
“No.”
“Braces. Big ones. I think I got them off the week after the picture was taken. Oh yeah, I remember that now. Jimmy thought it was the funniest thing. The orthodontist would not take them off early. It was traumatic.”
“See what I mean? We only remember those sorts of things when prompted. You look like Marion. Or Marion looks like you.”
“She’s the athletic ‘after’ version. I’m the nonathletic ‘before’ version. I skied, but I wasn’t athletic. She works out. I always enjoyed O’Malley’s garlic burgers.”
“Still, you two look lots alike.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. There’s no one I’d rather share my high school phase with than you.”
“I’m honored.”
“How about your high school days?” I asked as I caught some ketchup before it fell off a fry and landed on the marching band’s picture.
“Well, I was good at math and science and baseball, and even then I was fascinated by rocks. I bet you can imagine how popular and dashing I was.”
“I bet you were cute.”
“Not any typical cute, mind you, but the nerdiest kind of cute.”
“That’s the best kind.”
We smiled at each other for a couple of beats. I hadn’t known such an easy relationship before. We were friends and found each other ridiculously attractive. It was as if we’d found this new secret place to inhabit together.
Seth cleared his throat. “Back to work?”
“Right.”
He turned back to the yearbook on the table in front of him. “Okay, to me it looks like Howard and Donte were friends this year. They’re in a few random pictures together. Things like the homecoming game and a track meet.”
“I remember them being friends, I think.”
“Lloyd’s not even in this book at all,” Seth said.
“Not even in the individual class picture?”
“Not that I saw. Gavin, right?”
“Yeah.”
I scooted closer and thumbed to the page where his picture should be. No Lloyd Gavin.
“Not pictured,” I quoted from the small print at the bottom of the page. “Lloyd Gavin. I remember that he was in Chess Club. Nothing?”
Seth turned back to the name index; Lloyd’s name wasn’t there either. Or on the Chess Club page.
“He certainly avoided cameras,” I said. “Even if you’re just rolling along through high school, there were yearbook people snapping pictures at everything. I’m even in there a few times.”
“You are. Three pictures. Your class picture, and one of you and Jodie.” He turned to that page.
“Oh my,” I said.
The photo captured two young women who hadn’t grown into the women part yet. For whatever reason we both thought that we should salute the camera with small milk cartons after we’d both given ourselves milk mustaches.
Seth smiled. “Can’t wait to show you some of mine.”
“Where’s my third picture?” I said.
Seth smiled again. “You don’t remember, do you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Is it that bad?”
Seth turned to the page he’d held with his thumb. I’d forgotten my tiny step into the world of theater. I’d been Juliet for a classroom production of a scene from Romeo and Juliet.
“Oh,” I said.
“You and Marion, almost twins,” he said.
“Well, this one was after the braces came off.” And someone had smoothed my hair back into a braid and put pretty girlie clothes on me. “You know what? I just remembered that it was Sarah who helped me with my hair and the dress. She and I had nothing in common, but I remember how sweet she was.” I laughed. “Well, I remember how stunned she was that I wasn’t going to do ‘something with my hair,’ so she jumped in and took over, but in a very nice way.”
My voice trailed off and I felt my eyes squint. Other than her friendly helpfulness, something else had happened that day, something I thought had given me an unpleasant jolt of sorts. I couldn’t remember all the pieces except that Sarah had been involved. It couldn’t possibly have been something important to the murders, but a nagging in my gut told me to think hard to remember it.
“What?” Seth said a second later.
“Sarah was kind to me that day, but something tells me she and I didn’t get along perfectly.” I bit my lip and then shrugged. “She probably wanted me to wear makeup or some such thing that I frowned upon back in those days. As you can see, I got over that hang-up.”
“Did Sarah date Donte back then?”
“I don’t know exactly when they got together, but I think they were at least friends in high school.”
“And this is Creighton,” Seth said as his eyebrows rose at the senior picture. “I get the appeal.”
“Yeah, he was definitely all that. He and I started dating right before my short stint as Juliet.”
“See, you remember the important stuff,” he said with a false jealous tone.
I smiled.
“I can see why he might have turned your head,” Seth said. “High school jock mater
ial.”
“Most definitely. And two years older. Imagine how cool I felt.”
“You guys got along for a long time,” Seth said, matter-of-factly. There was no jealous tone to his voice now, either real or false.
“Not really. We were intrigued by each other, but even when we got along and were friends, we never connected,” I said. “I only know that because this new relationship I’m in is all about connection.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Seth closed the yearbook.
It looked like the research was done for the evening. Both of us read the signals the same way, and we leaned toward each other.
“Wait!” I said when our lips were only about half an inch apart. If he hadn’t had a garlic burger too, I would have been horrified by my breath.
“What?” Seth said, checking his own breath.
“No. I remembered what happened between me and Sarah.”
“What?”
“I need to call Jodie and then I can tell you both.”
She was just pulling into the Star City Police Station when she answered, telling me first that they’d found nothing yet that could tell them who killed either Donte or Lloyd.
“Listen, Jodie. I remembered something,” I said, interrupting her explanation.
“Okay.”
“Back when we were sophomores, I was Juliet for English class, do you remember that?”
“Kind of.”
“Sarah helped me get ready, and she said something to me that I just remembered and might not be pertinent to anything that’s going on now, but you were trying to find a connection between Creighton and our classmates.”
“I’m listening.”
“She was nice, but then she said something that I later decided was why she pretended to be nice. Anyway, as she was fixing my hair, she said she heard that Creighton was going to ask me out and that he’d asked her out a couple weeks earlier and the date had been horrible. He’d been mean, she said, and she just wanted to warn me.”
“Sarah wanted to warn you about Creighton being mean? Sarah might have spit in your lunch if you looked at her the wrong way back then. She was the mean one. Well, sometimes, at least.”
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