The Festival of the Moon (Girls Wearing Black: Book Two)

by Baum, Spencer

  When she finished the program, she went and looked out her window. In her mind’s eye, she looked just like her mother.

  The sun was starting to set. She had to go.

  She gathered up her overnight bag and her laptop, then went out the front door, closing it quietly behind her. The green station wagon followed her out of the neighborhood.

  Chapter 26

  It wasn’t until she arrived at Nicky’s that Jill fully realized the havoc she had created with her one-night disappearing act.

  Helena was furious, snapping at Jill about “how professionals behave,” and “people all over the world who were counting on them.” Gia too was angry, and told Jill that, were it not for Nicky’s bravery, the mission might have crashed and burned last night.

  “I thought you were going to be monitoring Melissa’s movements,” Gia said. “How were we caught so off guard?”

  “I didn’t finish the program in time. I’m sorry,” said Jill. “But it’s done now. Let me show you.”

  Jill sat at the dining room table and pulled out her laptop. She opened Where in the World Is Melissa Mayhew. The program asked her to input Melissa’s last known sighting in order to narrow its airport search. She typed in Potomac, MD.

  The hard drive spun as a message on the screen said, “Checking flight logs from nearby airports.”

  Beneath the message, there was a table of flight data that was labeled “Chartered Flight Log.”

  “The program uses the Marsh Hawk Protocol to break into the FAA database. From there it monitors passenger manifests and chartered flights,” Jill said. “But the rules are different for Melissa. She doesn’t have to go through security and show an ID like the rest of us.”

  “Can’t your program watch for chartered flights that seem suspicious?” said Gia. “Even if she doesn’t have to report her presence, her plane can’t take off until the FAA says it can.”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what it’s doing,” said Jill. “The program notifies me of any chartered flight leaving from Melissa’s last known location with nighttime takeoff and arrival. What you’re looking at on the screen is last night’s chartered flight log from South Florida to DC. All of these flights that are listed came from Miami. Their passenger logs have a bunch of politicians.”

  As Jill was talking, a bright red alert flashed on the screen.

  Flight 3192, private charter. James Mackler, pilot. Arrival at GIG 0800. Origin: IAD. No flight plan submitted.

  “What’s that?” said Gia. “Is it trying to tell us something?”

  “Yes, something’s happening,” Jill said. “Looks like it picked up a landing somewhere. IAD is the airport code for Dulles. The software didn’t catch the takeoff because somehow they were allowed to go without a flight plan.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Gia. “What is it telling us?”

  “It’s telling us Melissa left DC in the early morning and just landed at the GIG airport.”

  “What’s G-I-G?”

  “Hang on, I’m looking it up.”

  Jill had an Internet browser open and was searching for GIG airport code.

  “Galeao,” she said. “She’s in Rio.”

  “Rio de Janeiro?” asked Gia. “How’d she get all the way down there?”

  “She took off from Dulles at five in the morning and has been in the air all day,” said Jill.

  “Are you saying we’re not going to see Melissa tonight?” said Helena.

  “Yes, it sounds like she’s left,” said Gia. “What’s she doing in Rio?”

  “She was in Annika’s mind last night,” said Jill. “She knows about Shannon. She’s gone to Rio to find the Evans family.”

  Jill pulled out her phone.

  “What are you doing?” said Gia.

  “I’m calling Annika.”

  Chapter 27

  Shannon Evans might never have run away with her parents had they not tricked her into it. When she boarded the yacht, all she knew was that her mother wanted to have a family outing on the bay. She didn’t know that, for the past three years, the lowest section of her family’s yacht, the part that Shannon just assumed was all gears and wires and motors and things that made a giant boat run, was actually a storage hangar for a sea plane. She didn’t know that her father had been taking flying lessons.

  She didn’t know that her family’s fortune, that their mansion in Arlington, their giant yacht, her tuition at Thorndike, and all the endless cash that paid for her trips around the world was financed by Falkon Dillinger. She didn’t know that her parents had been preparing for a great escape like this for many years.

  Or, she didn’t know it then. After they arrived in Rio and drove straight to their Colonial villa, an 8-bedroom home even more luxurious than their mansion in Arlington, after she was presented with her identity and told to introduce herself to others as Teresa Silva….then she knew. Her parents had been living a double life all this time. Now she would live a double life too.

  She was still Shannon Evans, the daughter of DC royalty who was in love with Annika Fleming, but she was also Teresa Silva, the white girl who couldn’t speak the language, knew nothing of the culture, but liked to hang out at the beach.

  It was on the beach where she could see Raquel.

  Raquel was a twenty-eight-year-old bronze goddess who lived somewhere deep in the hills, but spent all day every day carving waves on her surfboard. Raquel took an immediate interest in Teresa Silva and, like a wild animal having staked its claim, was aggressive in her courtship. They were barely done with their first surf lesson when Raquel had her arms around Shannon’s waist. It was as if Raquel wanted everyone at the beach to know that this new arrival belonged to her.

  Shannon didn’t mind. She just rode the wave.

  With Raquel’s help, Teresa Silva became the person Shannon Evans could never be. Shannon had to wear cashmere sweaters and designer heels, but Teresa wore cutoffs and sandals. Shannon kept her hair long and wore it in a braid, but Teresa buzzed the left side of her head and put blue highlights in the long locks that remained. Shannon wore diamond studs in her earlobes. Teresa put hoops along the lengths of both ears and a stainless steel spike in her lower lip.

  Shannon never felt like she was cheating on Annika. Raquel was a lover to be sure, but more than that, she was a teacher. She was teaching Shannon to be real. Some day, Shannon and Annika would run away with many millions in the bank, and when they did, Shannon would share these lessons with Annika. It was a beautiful thing to be real, as natural as the waves in the ocean.

  Shannon was out in the surf with Raquel on the night that Melissa Mayhew came looking for her. Her phone was tucked away in her clothes, which were piled in the sand far from the water.

  The first phone call came from Annika at 11:30 Brasilia Time. Shannon missed it. She missed the second call too. And the third. And the text that said: Where are you? Call me back right away. URGENT!!

  Shannon didn’t return to the beach until after midnight. When she saw the text from Annika, her first inclination was to ignore it. There was a pig on the spit and drinks at the bar and Raquel was waiting for her there. It wasn’t until Shannon listened to the voicemail and heard the utter panic in Annika’s voice that she decided to call back.

  She looked down the beach. Raquel was sitting by the fire, drinking a beer. Shannon walked back toward the surf as she called Annika.

  “Shannon, is that you?” Annika answered.

  “Of course it’s me, Babe. Who else would it be?”

  “Oh my God, Sweetie. I’m so glad you’re okay,” Annika said. “I was so worried.”

  Annika was crying now, practically sobbing.

  “Babe, what’s going on?” Shannon asked.

  “Where are you?” Annika said.

  Suddenly, Shannon felt very defensive, like she was a criminal about to be interrogated.

  “I’m just walking on the beach. Tell me what’s going on. Why did you call me in such a huff?”

  “Ji
ll says that Melissa Mayhew is coming to find you.”

  “Melissa Mayhew?” Shannon said. It had been a long time since she’d heard that name. “Why would she be coming for me?”

  “I don’t know, Hon. Hang on, I’m bringing Jill on the line.”

  “Jill?” said Shannon. “You can’t just bring Jill on…Annika, I’m supposed to be in hiding!”

  Her protests were too late. She could already hear the tone as Annika dialed Jill in for a 3-way call.

  Shannon thought about hanging up, but curiosity kept her on the phone.

  “Hello, this is Jill.”

  Shannon didn’t wait for Annika to make an introduction, but rather, dove in with a loud, “What the hell is going on?”

  “Hello, Shannon. What’s going on is Melissa Mayhew took a chartered jet from Washington to Rio and landed a few hours ago.”

  “What does that mean? She’s an immortal. Maybe she has business here.”

  “I think we’d better assume she’s coming for your family,” said Jill.

  “I don’t want to assume that,” said Shannon. “That would be a royally shitty assumption. You understand that, right?”

  “Shannon, I only want you to be safe,” said Jill.

  “I am safe,” said Shannon. “My family is hiding out here. There’s no way Melissa is going to find us. We have new names, new papers, new ID’s.”

  “Documents can only get you so far,” Jill said. “I found you using facial recognition software and the photo on your ID. There’s no reason Melissa can’t do the same.”

  Shannon caught herself biting her pinkie nail, a nervous habit her nanny had beaten out of her in elementary school.

  “This is no good, Jill. No good at all.”

  “Annika said you were on the beach,” said Jill. “Are your parents with you?”

  “No. They’re at home.”

  “Dammit,” Jill whispered.

  “You’re not making me feel any better here, Jill.”

  “Sorry. I’m just…here’s what you need to do.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Go someplace private, someplace where even the sounds around you won’t give away your location, and call home. If your mom or dad answers, tell them Melissa has come to Rio. Tell them about me. Tell them everything if you have to. Just make them believe you so they’ll get out of there.”

  “And go where?” Shannon said.

  “Someplace you both can figure out using coded language.”

  “What?”

  “Just like you and Annika did in your emails. Your parents’ phones aren’t secure like yours is. Find a way to communicate without tipping off anyone who might be listening in on your conversation. If you went to dinner someplace recently, meet there, but don’t give its name, just say ‘The place we went to dinner the other night.’ Or if there is someplace special to your family, someplace where you’ll all know what you’re talking about without mentioning it by name--”

  “Okay, okay, I get it,” said Shannon. “Then what?”

  “Then you hide until you hear from me again. I’ll let you know when I’ve got evidence that Melissa is gone.”

  “This is crazy,” said Shannon.

  “Listen to me, Shannon. There’s more. When you meet up with your parents, look for signs that they’ve been brainwashed. If they ask you to do anything that doesn’t make sense, get out of there and don’t look back.”

  Shannon shook her head. Was this girl paranoid? Maybe that’s all this was. Maybe Jill was some paranoid wacko who got off on this sort of thing.

  Still, she couldn’t dismiss the possibility that Jill was telling the truth. Had someone told Shannon six months ago that one day she was going to get on a yacht and never come back, that her parents had a secret hideaway in Brazil, that her father was doing illegal work for Falkon Dillinger—she never would have believed any of it. But here she was.

  “Jill, what am I going to say to my parents? They don’t know you. They’re not going to drop what they’re doing and run just because some teenager told them to.”

  “That’s for you to figure out,” Jill said. “You know them better than anyone. Find a way to make them go. Their lives depend on it.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Shannon said.

  A minute later, having given a hurried goodbye to the people back in Washington, Shannon was phoning her dad. When a woman answered the phone, a woman whose low, sultry voice was most definitely not her mother’s, Shannon dropped to her knees, the soft sand cushioning her as she fell.

  “Good evening Shannon.”

  “Who is this?” Shannon said.

  “Strangely, I think you know who it is,” Melissa said. “I can hear in your voice that you already have some idea. So why don’t you tell me. Who is this?”

  “Melissa Mayhew,” Shannon whispered.

  “Indeed it is, my dear. Now tell me, how did you know it was me?”

  Shannon said nothing.

  “Oh dear, now she’s gone silent. That’s alright. I can do the talking for both of us. Let me tell you what happens next, Shannon. I am at your house, with both your parents already under my control. I made each of them tell me their whole story, and what an interesting story it was. Now it’s your turn. I want you to come home and let me have a look in your mind. It’s a painless process, and when I’m done, I’ll let you live. You’ll forget you ever spoke with me. I’ll just carefully remove myself from your memory and let you get on with your life. So what do you say? When shall I expect you?”

  Melissa’s voice was soothing. It was a calm beacon in a world of chaos. It reminded Shannon that life didn’t have to be this hard. All this running and hiding and cloak and dagger—it was just pointless. There came a time when it made sense to stop running, to face up to the difficult situation and get it over with.

  “I’ll be there in about ten minutes,” Shannon said.

  “Good,” said Melissa. “I can’t wait to see you. Now come straight home so we can get this all behind us.”

  Shannon ended the call and got to her feet. She was almost at the end of the beach when Raquel started yelling at her. She was yelling in Portuguese. The slight mental strain required to hear and understand Raquel’s words shook Shannon from her stupor.

  “Hey! Shannon hey! Where are you going?” was what Raquel was shouting.

  Shannon stopped. Raquel was running up the beach now. Shannon spoke in English.

  “I’m going….home,” she said.

  Raquel responded in kind, her heavily accented and broken English forcing Shannon to pay close attention.

  “Home already? Without saying goodbye?”

  “I…just…”

  I just what? I just want to go home? Why do I want to go home? What was I doing? I was talking to Melissa. Yes, and before that I was talking to Jill. And before that I was talking to Annika.

  “What is it?” Raquel said.

  Shannon was frozen in place. She felt her mind divided in two, a part of her wanting to go home and end the hiding once and for all, another part of her wanting to stay here, where she knew it was safe.

  Raquel grabbed her by the back of the head and kissed her hard. Her lips were salty and moist. Shannon gave herself fully to the kiss, and when their lips detached, she fell into Raquel’s arms.

  “I don’t want you to leave,” Raquel said. “You will stay. The night is young.”

  Just then, Shannon’s phone started to ring. It was Annika.

  “You take your call,” Raquel said. “Then you come join us at the fire.”

  Shannon nodded. She waited until Raquel was a few steps away, then she answered the phone.

  “Hello.”

  “Sweetie what happened? Did you get hold of your parents?”

  “No,” Shannon said. “Melissa Mayhew answered. She said that she had my parents, and if I came home she’d take a quick look in my mind and then let us all go.”

  There was some shuffling and clicking noises on the other end, then
Jill was on the line.

  “Shannon, you know it’s a lie, right? You know that your parents are already gone, and if you go to your house Melissa will kill you,” Jill said.

  “Yeah, I think I do,” Shannon said. It was a realization she was coming to as Jill said it. She had been in some sort of trance, some spell Melissa had cast on her over the phone, but now it was broken and she understood that she couldn’t go home.

  “I can get you a fake ID and tickets out of Rio,” Jill said. “But it will take time. You have to lay low for a bit. Do you have some place you can hide?”

  Shannon looked down the beach, to Raquel and the other surfers dancing around the fire. She licked her lips, tasted the sea salt Raquel had left there.

  “Yes,” she said. “I have some friends here. I can hide for a while”

  Chapter 28

  “Such a shame,” Melissa said. “These people clearly had taste.”

  She was in the courtyard of the villa where she found Shannon’s parents. Inside, both of them lay dead, as did two servants and a friend who was apparently over for a visit.

  “Here, take a look,” she said. She pulled the phone away from her ear, set it to video, and held it out in front of her, moving it slowly, giving Dominic a panoramic view of the entire courtyard.

  “It does have the look of a vacation paradise,” Dominic said. “Perhaps when all of this is over, we can claim it as our own.”

  “Perhaps we can,” said Melissa. “I have to take care of Shannon first. She wasn’t at the house tonight, but I just spoke with her on the phone. I invited her to come home and see me.”

  “How long until she arrives?”

  “She said she was only a few minutes away.”

  Melissa had heard ocean waves in the background when she spoke with Shannon. The beach was a short walk from here. She considered going there to find her, but decided it was much cleaner to bring Shannon back to the home instead.