Blue Midnight (Blue Mountain Book 1)

by Tess Thompson

  And a true exercise in living in the moment. Choosing to love without knowing the future? Perhaps this was the ultimate faith.

  “Thank you for trusting me,” he whispered, as if I’d said all my thoughts out loud. That’s how well he could see inside me with his hawk-like sight and my unprotected heart.

  “Thanks for inviting me in.” Tears blurred my vision. I sniffed.

  “Ah, now, no crying.” He caught a tear as it drifted down my cheek.

  “Sometimes women cry when they’re happy.”

  He smiled and kissed my eyelids, then pulled me against his chest and stroked my hair. I closed my eyes and breathed in his scent. A few minutes later, I felt his body tense before he spoke. “I hate to leave you but I have to go into town. Somehow, in all the excitement, I ran out of dog food for Shakespeare. He needs the special diet kind and only the hardware store has it. When I get back I’ll call someone I know in the Boise police department. See if he can advise me what to do next.” Kevan rose, taking the stack of papers.

  I walked him to the door and watched as he got into his truck and left down the driveway. I hadn’t yet showered, and as I headed toward the bathroom, I stopped near the doorway. The same sensation of being watched came over me. I went to the window and looked out. There, next to the tree, was a man. A man in a black suit. Edward? I moved closer to the glass. I blinked, like you do when you see something you can’t believe. And in that instant, he disappeared. What was wrong with me? Had this ghost chasing made me insane? Taking deep breaths, I went into the bathroom and sank onto the toilet seat.

  CHAPTER 20

  STARTING THE SHOWER, I stripped off my clothes and got in, washing my hair and body. I’d just finished shaving my legs when I heard a noise from the other room. Was it Kevan again? Perhaps he had news from the police department. I turned off the shower and opened the glass door, reaching for a towel. I buried my face in it for a second, wiping water away. When I looked up, Blake stood in the bathroom doorway. He had a gun in his hand.

  Pointing it at me, he shook his head, apparently anticipating the scream that wanted to make its way out of my body. “Be quiet.”

  I covered myself with the towel, shaking. Just behind him, Rori, gagged, was tied to the bedpost. Rori met my gaze. She widened her eyes, as if to tell me to cooperate. Not that I needed any encouragement. A crazy boy had a gun pointed at me.

  He motioned for me to come into the bedroom. “Get dressed,” he commanded, looking at the floor.

  After grabbing for the shorts and T-shirt I’d laid out on the bed, I moved over to the dresser, pulling out panties and a bra but almost dropping them, my hands shook so badly. Blake continued to look at the floor and not at me. I pulled the clothes over my damp skin as quickly as I could. When I was done, he motioned toward the chair by the window. “Sit.”

  I did so. My wet hair soaked the sleeves and collar of my shirt.

  He took a rope from his pocket and tied both my wrists to the arms of the chair. Then, he stood in front of me with the gun pointed at my head. “What did you tell Rori last night? Whatever it was, you need to untell her. She belongs to me, you see. And nothing you do will change that. We have a bond.” His eyes blazed with the light of the insane; he wagged the gun at me. “Otherwise, I’ll tell the police what I saw. And then Rori’s dad goes to jail. Do you really want that?”

  “What did you see, Blake?” I kept my voice as level as I could.

  He flicked his hair out of his eyes. “I saw Kevan run them off the road.”

  “Where were you when you saw this?”

  “Behind some trees.”

  “On the side of the road?”

  “That’s right,” he said.

  “What were you doing there?”

  “Hanging. It’s a spot me and some of my friends go to smoke up. But my buddies were late so I was just out there waiting for them. That’s when I saw the two cars. At first I thought they were racing but then I realized the car on the left was bumping the other car. Then, Kevan’s car rammed against the other one and knocked it off the road and into a tree.”

  I skirted my gaze to Rori. Tears slid out of her eyes, soaking the gag over her mouth. I knew it would be painful for her to hear about the last moment of her parents’ life but I had to get him to talk, to spill the truth.

  “How did you know it was your father’s car?” I asked him, as if he’d said that all along.

  He opened his mouth. I thought for a brief moment he might slip and tell me the truth, but he caught himself and shut it tightly, glaring at me. “It was Kevan’s car.”

  “What color was it?”

  His pupils dilated. Again, he opened his mouth as if to speak, but then shut it the next instant. “I don’t remember. What does that matter?”

  “Because I know it was your father’s car. You’ve made this whole thing up.” An unseen force had taken hold of me, making me brave. “Rori knows the truth now. You can let go of all the lies, Blake, and tell the truth.”

  His face turned from pale to purple. He shook his head vigorously, and his eyes blazed like a boy with a fever. He lifted a finger to his mouth and made a shushing sound. “Stop. Talking. About. My. Dad.” Each word was staccato. Then, with the voice of a child, he said, “He has ears everywhere. He sees everything.”

  “Why did he do it, Blake? Do you know?”

  “Finn wouldn’t do what he wanted.”

  “What did he want?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “He knew about his gambling debts, Blake. He knew your dad blackmailed this family for years. They were going to the police. That’s why your father killed him. To keep him quiet.”

  “What? No. That’s not true.”

  I looked at him closely. Something had shifted in him. He seemed unsure now instead of the moment before when he’d seemed like he was lying. Could it be he hadn’t known this?

  “It’s true. Finn was on his way to the police in Boise. Your father ran him off the road before he could do it.”

  “No.”

  “Come on, why else would your father kill them? He didn’t want to but he was protecting you—his family. He didn’t want to go to jail and leave you behind.”

  “My father doesn’t give a shit about me. He’s ashamed of me.”

  “He did it all for you, I bet. That’s what fathers do.”

  His eyes went wild. His need for me to know the truth outweighed his sense of self-protection. I didn’t understand it until later, when this next sentence came out of his mouth. “That’s not why I killed them. I don’t care if the old man goes to jail. I killed Rori’s mother because she was a lying whore just like my mother. And Rori would be hurt when she told her the truth about who her real father was. I found the evidence in my dad’s office. And I knew that once my dad threatened Finn, that Finn would get Meredith to tell Rori the truth. The truth would hurt her. I was protecting her. That’s all I was doing. Rori and I are soul mates. She needs me to look after her.”

  I’m sure I gaped at him with my mouth half-open during this diatribe. Rori had stopped crying, probably too shocked to shed any tears.

  “You ran them off the road?” I asked. “Because Meredith lied about Rori’s paternity?”

  “That’s right. I was keeping Rori from pain. On my way out here to find Rori, I saw Meredith and Finn leaving together, so I followed them. Then I saw my chance to solve everything and took it.”

  “Does anyone know what you did?”

  “My dad. He helped cover it up.”

  At this point Blake understood he’d told us too much. His face twisted in rage. He moved his gun from one of us to the other, pointing at my head and then Rori’s. Now I felt the cold fear course through me. Desperate, caged animals are violent. But as I watched him, I, too, began to piece everything together. Doctor Sloane had helped cover up the fact that his son drove the car that sent Finn and Meredith to their deaths on the side of that icy road. If he’d planned on killing them, his son beat him to it.<
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  Just then, I heard a noise coming from the patio. It was Kevan, most likely. Please let it be Kevan. Or, no, not Kevan, unless by some miracle he had a weapon with him. I went completely still, hoping Blake wouldn’t hear so that Kevan might have some chance of surprising him. I started talking, hoping to distract him from whoever it was. “Blake—”

  The doorway filled with someone. It was Moonstone.

  Yes, Moonstone. She held the antique pistol I recognized from the B&B in her hand, and she pointed it with surprising steadiness at Blake. “Come on, now, young man, no reason to get yourself into any more trouble than you’re already in.”

  “Who are you?” asked Blake, aiming his gun at her.

  “No matter about that.” She spoke in her soft and airy voice, like it was nothing out of the ordinary to see a boy with a gun and his two hostages. “I’m just here to get you. It’s time for you to go.”

  “Go where?” His eyes had lost some of their wildness. He looked somewhat sleepy, actually. Was Moonstone hypnotizing him with the gun?

  “There’s a nice place where you’re going to get some rest.”

  “Rest?”

  “Aren’t you tired of hanging on so tightly?” she asked.

  “No. I’m not tired.” He sounded like my girls when they were toddlers before their naps.

  “Put your gun down,” she said.

  “No way.”

  “Don’t make me shoot you,” said Moonstone.

  “Are you serious, old lady?” he said.

  Just then I heard footsteps coming from the living room. This time it was two deputies: one appeared to be fresh out of school, the other bald and pushing fifty. Moonstone, as if it were planned, moved out of the way. The deputies swarmed into the room in a rush of blue. Blake, surprised and caught off guard, lowered his arm with the gun for a moment and screamed, high-pitched like a trapped animal. At first the deputies seemed unsure about what to do, their gazes darting from Blake to Moonstone to Rori and then to me. But then the older one seemed to understand the situation and rushed Blake, knocking him to the floor. Blake’s gun slid, stopping at my feet. Before I could fully comprehend what was happening, the older deputy had slapped handcuffs around Blake’s wrists and pulled him up to standing. Blake, with his gaze on the floor, slumped over like a rag doll. The deputy appeared to hold him up with little effort.

  Moonstone lowered her gun, grinning. “How did you boys know to come?”

  The young deputy’s face shone with sweat as he pointed his gun at Moonstone. “Miss, put your gun down, nice and easy.” He had a voice like Mike Tyson, high-pitched and slow.

  Moonstone’s expression changed from satisfaction to confusion. Her shoulders raised an inch or so as she kept her gun at her side. “I’m not the criminal here, young man.” She gestured with the pistol around the room. “I only just arrived on the scene myself to see this unfortunate creature holding these ladies captive.”

  The older deputy looked over at Moonstone. “Do you realize we’ve been chasing you for miles?”

  “And why would that be, Mitchel?” said Moonstone, with considerable venom in her voice. Mitchel? She knew him? What was this expression on her face I hadn’t seen before? Was it that of a scorned woman?

  “Because, Moonstone, you were driving like a bat out of hell, that’s why. We followed you out here to arrest you for reckless driving.”

  She fluttered her fingers at him. “Don’t pretend, Mitchel, that this has anything to do with my driving. You’ve been looking for a reason to arrest me for months now.”

  Mitchel scrunched up the muscles of his face and shook his head like she was crazy. “No, I haven’t. Why would I do that?” Through the rest of their exchange, it was apparent they’d forgotten the rest of us were in the room.

  “Revenge.” Moonstone said this like it was obvious. “You know, for the voodoo doll thing.”

  Mitchel turned red and rubbed a place on his leg. “I knew it.” He looked over at the young deputy. “It’s fine, Darrin. Moonstone’s harmless.” The young deputy lowered his gun. “Unless you break up with her and then she tortures you with one of her crazy dolls.”

  Moonstone shook her big hair. “Anyway, I was driving like that because I had a vision of this creep here holding my friends and then the peregrine landed on my flower basket and I knew to follow him. Fortunately for you, I did your detective work for you and now you’ll get all the credit for arresting this troubled young man and saving these ladies.” She turned toward the young deputy. “You should be thanking me right now, not pointing your gun at me.”

  I looked over at Rori just then. She seemed frozen, probably in shock at this point. I tried to get her to make eye contact but she only stared into space.

  “Um, do you think someone could untie us?” I asked. But no one seemed to hear me.

  Moonstone raised her eyebrows, as if in disgust. “Shouldn’t one of you read him his rights or something?”

  Mitchel, with a scathing glance back at Moonstone, did so, before shoving Blake toward the door. They were almost out of the bedroom when I heard Shakespeare’s bark. The deputies and Blake disappeared from the room. A moment later, Shakespeare arrived, panting and dusty. Kevan was just behind him. His glance went from Rori to me. “What in God’s name happened?”

  As he untied Rori, I told him, as succinctly as possible, all that had transpired since he left. When Rori was free, she fell into her father’s arms. I heard him whispering reassurances into her ear as he pulled her onto his lap, like she was still a little girl. “Shakespeare was at the end of our dirt road and headed up the highway when I came back from town. He’d run all that way, knowing you two were in danger.”

  Moonstone untied my arms and I knelt to the floor, hugging a tired Shakespeare. “Oh, buddy, how did you run so far?” I picked up a front paw. It was red and raw. His tail thumped as he lowered his head onto my knee and closed his eyes.

  “I didn’t see him on the dirt road,” said Moonstone. “I was too busy looking up, I guess. Lucky for me Blake didn’t know this thing hasn’t had a bullet in it since 1946.”

  “Seriously, how did you know to come?” I asked.

  “I told you, I followed the peregrine,” she said, like it was the most ordinary explanation in the world. “Visions are wonderful things.” She grinned. “Told you I was psychic.”

  Shakespeare thumped his tail.

  ***

  Both Blake and Barry Sloane were booked that night. It was months before their trials were held but at the time we didn’t care. We were safe now. And the truth had been told. Regardless, it took several days for Rori and me to stop shaking. Riona left for California the next day. When only the scent of her Chanel No. 5 lingered as a reminder the devil clad in pink silk had been there, I moved into the big house and Kevan’s bed.

  Every night that week Kevan held me until I fell asleep. But, often, I wakened from sleep to the sound of Rori crying, and I would go to her room and crawl into bed where we talked for hours. Strangely, we didn’t talk about the events of the last several days but of her dreams for the future, her remembrances of her mother and Finn, her love for Cole. I told her about my marriage, my daughters, and my childhood. I told how I’d fallen for Kevan the first night I’d met him. During these talks, eventually, her eyes drooped until she fell asleep. It was in the middle of one of the nights that I became her mother. I cannot be sure of the exact second but it was there, suddenly, without either of us knowing when the invisible threads of love connected us. We became family.

  Still, there was Finn. It was unfinished, somehow. I wrestled with it for days, unsure what I needed, what was undone. Was it as simple as closure? Hadn’t he given that to me when he came to me in the dream? He’d given permission for me to love Kevan, of that there was no doubt in my mind. Because the woman who hadn’t believed in that which she could not experience with her five senses, no longer existed. I’d witnessed too much now to think otherwise. There were mysteries we could not fathom in
this lifetime. Unexplainable, indefinable incidences I could not explain. Things that cannot be explained. Like falling in love in three days. Dreams. Moonstone’s visions. My own visions of Edward. Men that fly the sky in peregrine’s bodies.

  None of which I could capture with my camera lens.

  Were they angels? Had God sent them to us?

  I do not know.

  I know only this. We must accept there are things we cannot fully understand. It was our job only to lean into the mystery, to accept what we didn’t know, to listen for whispers of God or the universe. To seek the truth with brave hearts.

  One morning I woke early with a sentence, loud and clear, from Finn’s voice. Do not abandon your camera.

  I sat up. Kevan was asleep, snoring softly.

  Lou, I mean it. You’re special with that thing. Don’t let it go any longer.

  But I’m not good enough to matter.

  It matters to you. That’s good enough.

  It was quiet in my head after that. I went to my camera case and pulled out the digital camera. I dressed and went outside, capturing the lake in the early morning light and some swallows in a swarm. I walked along the path near the creek, snapping shots as I went. After a time, I reached the large oak where I’d first met Ardan. I sat, leaning against the trunk, gazing up into the leaves. “You happy now?” I whispered. “I’m taking pictures.”

  But there was no answer from Finn this time. The leaves fluttered. Several sparrows called to one another. Then, I heard the call of the peregrine. I looked between branches and spotted him, soaring so high he was merely a speck. And then he was no more. I whispered, “Goodbye, Finn.” The pressure on my chest, intense since the day Blake had held us captive, lifted, replaced by a sense of joy and peace, like I imagine one might feel at the moment they meet their maker. I rose to my feet and walked back to the house. Kevan and Rori were there, making French toast. The smell of coffee and syrup mingled in the air and it was the smell of home, of love, of all that mattered.