The Gathering dr-1

by Kelley Armstrong

  So I settled for, “It just didn’t work out. Big shock, I’m sure.”

  “He wasn’t who you thought he was.”

  True, yet not in the way Daniel meant. Rafe really was the person I’d seen the other night on the roof, a decent guy thrown into a hellish situation, forced to grow up fast, be strong, take responsibility.

  Even now, as much as I despised being part of his solution, I understood why he’d had to find me, whatever it took. He wasn’t a bad person. He wasn’t even someone I could hate. That made it all the harder.

  “You liked him,” Daniel said softly.

  I forced a smile. “Fell for the wrong guy. Every girl has to do it once in her life. At least it was a quick lesson.” I got to my feet. “I could really use that dinner.”

  He plucked the front of his sweat-soaked shirt. “I should have a shower and change. Guess I wasn’t thinking this through too well.”

  He glanced toward the house, and I knew he wasn’t eager to go in. For the same reason he’d been out here boxing.

  “You’ll dry,” I said. “And if the smell doesn’t fade, I’ll just sit at another table. Now come on before I starve.”

  We started circling wide around the house, heading for the road. The Blender was only a ten-minute walk, so we didn’t have to bother with the truck. We made it about ten steps before the front door banged open and his dad yelled, “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  Daniel hunched his shoulders, as if against a blast of icy wind and mumbled, “Just keep walking.”

  Footsteps pounded behind us. A hand grabbed Daniel’s shoulder and whipped him around. I could smell the booze.

  Even before Daniel’s mom left, I’d never seen his father much. If he was around, he’d joke with us in that awkward way grown-ups sometimes do with kids—a little too loud, trying a little too hard—and there’d be the smell of beer on his breath.

  Daniel would get embarrassed and herd us outside to play. We all knew something was wrong, but everyone’s parents had a drink now and then, and everyone’s parents did embarrassing things. So no one thought about it much until his mom took off, and we realized his dad wasn’t like every other parent, and maybe he never had been.

  In the old days, his dad was always dressed up—shirt and tie, pressed pants, shiny shoes, dark hair slicked back, clean shaven, smelling faintly of cologne. Now, he still wore the shirt and slacks, but they were rumpled and stained, the shoes scuffed, his hair slick with oil, face covered in stubble. The only thing he smelled of was booze, so strong he seemed to have showered with it.

  “I asked where you’re going. You tore the kitchen apart trying to cook dinner, and now you’re going to leave me with the mess?”

  “No,” Daniel’s voice was low and calm, like he was talking to a child. “I said I’d clean it before bed. Maya and I are going out for dinner.”

  His dad blinked at me, like he hadn’t seen me there. Then he scowled. No awkward joking for me these days. He didn’t have much patience for any of Daniel’s friends, but he seemed to like me the least, I suppose because I was the one Daniel stayed with when he needed to escape.

  “Maya,” he said. “Can’t stay away, can you? Always coming around, teasing the boy.”

  Daniel’s fingers wrapped around my elbow “We’re leaving, Dad. There’s a casserole in the—”

  “You like teasing, don’t you, Maya?” His dad stepped closer as Daniel pulled me back. “Just like all the girls. Tease and flirt and keep the boys running after you, spending their money building a climbing wall for you. Maybe get a kiss on the cheek for it. Holding out to see if he makes something of himself, because that’s what counts for you girls. Is he going to be a hotshot lawyer? Olympic wrestler? Or just a lowly public defender? Or washed-up gym teacher?”

  “That’s enough.” Daniel eased me behind him, while casting glances at the surrounding houses. He wanted to get out of there, but he didn’t want to make a scene. “I’ll be back—”

  “Of course you’ll be back. Got nowhere else to go. You’re a parasite, boy. Just like your little not-yet girlfriend here. She’s waiting to see what you’ll make of yourself first, so she can live off you. That’s what all women want. Find a good man. A stupid man who’ll keep paying the bills even when she brings home a brat that doesn’t look anything like you. She’ll tell you he’s yours, and you’ll believe her until one day she finds someone else, and off she goes, leaving you to raise the bastard brat.”

  “See if they’ll give you another job in the company,” Daniel said. “Leave me here and go.”

  His father laughed. “You think they’ll allow that? I’m trapped here, looking after a freak who isn’t even my son—”

  “And wishes to God that was true,” Daniel muttered.

  His dad swung. Daniel caught his arm and yanked it behind his back, spinning his dad around.

  “If you don’t think I’m yours, test it,” he said. “You’ve got access to everything you need. But you won’t, will you? You know I’m your son. You just like to torment me. You think that’s getting back at her somehow. Well, it isn’t.” He wrenched his father’s arm up until his eyes bulged. “I’m tired of it.”

  Daniel thrust him out of the way. They faced off. It didn’t last long before his dad spun and walked away, spitting curses.

  “I’m sorry,” Daniel murmured to me. “He’s just—”

  “Drunk. And angry and bitter, and taking it out on you.” I looked up at him. “Come stay with us.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I’d better not go home tonight.”

  “I mean for good.”

  “It’s only another couple of years, until I can escape to university like my brothers.”

  “Can they help? I’m sure there’s something—”

  “No. They’re gone and happy to be gone. When they come home, they see things are worse and just pat me on the back and tell me to hang in there.”

  “Will you think about it? Staying with us full-time? Please? We’ve got the room, and my parents have always said you’re welcome for as long as you want.”

  “I’ll … think about it.”

  As we walked, I knew I wouldn’t be telling him what Rafe had said tonight. He had too much else on his mind. It could wait. Let me work it out for myself first.

  We reached the Blender—a soda shop owned by the Morrises. It looks like something out of the fifties, and sells burgers and ice cream. There’s even a jukebox in the corner.

  We walked in as Mayor Tillson and his wife were walking out, Nicole dawdling behind them, Sam even farther back.

  “Maya. Daniel.” The mayor gave us an election-poster smile and thumped Daniel on the back. “Practicing for regionals? Good to see it.” He winked. “Even if you could already win it with one hand tied behind your back.”

  Mrs. Tillson rolled her eyes, murmuring, “Leave the kids alone, Phil,” and smiling as she prodded him past us.

  Nicole frowned at me as her parents left. “Daniel said you were eating at Rafe’s.”

  “It didn’t work out.”

  “Nicole,” her mom called. “Dad has a town meeting tonight.”

  “What’s this with you and Rafe?” Sam said as she walked up.

  “Nothing.” I turned to Nicole. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Tonight,” she said. “Call, okay?”

  “I’ll try.”

  She looked hurt by that, so I said I would call. She left, Sam trailing after her, casting glances back at us, like she was trying to figure out what was up.

  When we sat, Daniel said, “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No, I want to talk about our plans for tonight.”

  While we ate, we quietly made a list of things to look for. As we left the Blender, Dr. Hajek drove by. She honked and waved. Then Chief Carling passed and did the same.

  “Looks like the whole council is going to that meeting,” Daniel said. “Aren’t they usually the last Tuesday of the month?”

  I n
odded. My dad went if there was anything on the agenda about the park.

  “So why call a special …?” He stopped walking.

  “Mina Lee,” I said. “They’re meeting to discuss her death. Guess we have a stop to make.”

  TWENTY-NINE

  THE TOWN COUNCIL MET at the school. That meant we knew exactly how to sneak in. There was a window in the guys’ locker room that never closed right. Well, it didn’t after grade eight, when Corey and Brendan broke in to set up a video camera in the girls’ locker room. No videos were ever taken. Daniel had caught them and said if the camera wasn’t gone by Monday morning, he’d give us photos from the last time they went skinny-dipping, when the lake had been really cold and … well, the photos wouldn’t have been flattering.

  Corey had busted the window frame trying to get in to set up the camera. Daniel had fixed it, but only good enough so the damage wasn’t obvious from the outside. Now we all had an after-hours entrance.

  The hardest part about getting in was waiting for a break in the traffic flowing into the parking lot. A seven o’clock town council meeting in Salmon Creek means “come by when you’re done with dinner,” so at seven-thirty, cars were still driving into the lot—right beside the broken window.

  As we watched from the bushes, a minivan pulled in, headlights illuminating the far side of the lot, where one lone vehicle sat apart from the rest. My dad’s Jeep. Seeing that made my heart give an extra thump. Even if I thought the town was involved in Mina’s death—which I didn’t—I knew my dad had nothing to do with it. But why was he here? If the meeting was about dealing with the cougar problem, they didn’t need the whole council for that.

  Finally, Daniel boosted me through, then vaulted in himself. We stepped out of the locker room into the pitch-black hall.

  “Lead the way,” Daniel said.

  After taking a moment for my eyes to adjust, I led him to the classrooms at the end.

  “Hear anything?” he whispered.

  I nodded. “Do you?”

  He shook his head. He didn’t question why I could and he couldn’t. That’s the way it has always been, like me being able to see better in the dark. Serena used to say it was because I lived in the “middle of freaking nowhere,” so I was used to the silence and the dark. Only now I knew that wasn’t the reason at all.

  Improved night vision. Improved sense of smell and hearing. Improved agility. Improved stealth. Signs that something more than human blood flowed in my veins. Signs that I was—

  I shivered and Daniel rubbed my shoulder. “We can turn back if you’re not sure about this.”

  “I’m fine. We’ll need to get closer. I’m just hearing voices, not any words.”

  I crept along the hall. When Daniel’s shoe squeaked behind me, I winced. No one came racing from the meeting room, though. They were deep in a heated discussion.

  I led Daniel into the intermediary grades classroom. It was beside the meeting room and there was a vent joining the two. When we’d been in that class, Serena and I had figured out that if I took a seat at the back, I could hear who was getting in trouble. That’s a lot less useful than it sounds—at our school, there was never anything interesting going on or anyone getting in trouble who we didn’t already know was in trouble.

  Daniel moved a desk under the vent. He motioned me up, but I whispered that I could hear fine where I was.

  We’d only needed to listen for a minute before realizing there was another reason why the town would call an emergency meeting tonight, one that had nothing to do with Mina Lee, but that explained why my dad had to be there.

  “Okay,” Dad was saying. “So far, the fires are all to the west and the wind is blowing in the same direction, meaning we aren’t in its path.”

  “Yet,” Chief Carling said.

  “Exactly. At this point, the fires are under control, but we all know that can change. So can the wind direction. We’ve been lucky enough to have wet autumns for the last five years. That means, though, that our evacuation plan is designed to deal with children, and, as we all know, teenagers are a bit tougher to manage.”

  “Like herding cats,” Mayor Tillson said. “Annabelle’s thinking we might need to slip a GPS in Sam’s running shoes, just so we can find her if we need to evacuate.”

  “And we now have Rafael and his sister,” Dr. Hajek said. “We may want to consider offering them a place in town until the threat passes. At the very least, we need to get them cell phones.”

  The others agreed and so the conversation went—plans for a potential evacuation. All very important. And very dull. I motioned to Daniel that we should leave, but he shook his head.

  After a half hour more of evacuation strategy, Mayor Tillson said, “And now, as long as we’re all here, I’ve asked Dr. Inglis and Chief Carling for an update on our recent tragedy.”

  Daniel nodded in satisfaction.

  Chief Carling spoke first. “The young woman’s name, as most of you know, was Mina Lee. Or that’s the name on her ID, which appears to be fake, as we discovered when we tried to notify next of kin. That would seem to confirm our suspicion that she was a corporate spy. I have her description out to my contacts, and with any luck, we’ll find out her real name so we can notify her family. Her death hasn’t been ruled a homicide, so my main priority is identifying the victim. But I have, of course, started a case file, should the situation change.”

  “And, at this point, I don’t think it will,” Dr. Inglis said. “Cause of death was exsanguination. Fatal loss of blood. The damage to the throat tissue makes it impossible to determine whether it was homicide, misadventure, or predation. For now, I’m going to say it was most likely predation, given the rising number of cougar encounters and the obvious signs of feeding. When we find the young woman’s family, if they want to get a second opinion, we can do that.”

  Everyone agreed this was fair. My dad excused himself to get home and resume tracking the fires. After he left, they continued talking about the murder but only boring stuff like moving the body to cold storage at the medical lab. Daniel agreed we could leave now. Time to check out the Braun place.

  We parked down an old logging road, then walked back, sticking to the woods. We got the spare key from the shed and went inside.

  The cottage had already been searched. It wasn’t a rip-the-place-apart kind of search, just kitchen and dresser drawers opened and stuff inside left piled on top, like Chief Carling had been looking for anything that might help her find Mina Lee’s family.

  We’d hoped to find a laptop, but there was no sign of one.

  While Daniel searched more thoroughly, I checked caller ID on the landline. It said she’d had five calls since yesterday, presumably all after her death. Three came from unlisted numbers. The other two had the same number attached with an area code I didn’t recognize. I wrote it down. Then I played her messages. There was only one, and it must have come in after Chief Carling searched the place, because no one had listened to it yet.

  “Hey, it’s me.” The voice was male. “You did get my text messages, right? The Nasts paid me a visit. They’re starting to think we’re holding out on them, that we found something and we’re seeing if the Cortezes will pay more. I told them we aren’t stupid enough to try that.”

  A pause. “We aren’t, right? Double-cross a Cabal and we’ll be paying the price into the afterlife.” Another pause. “You know that, right?”

  The man swore. “I can’t believe you’d ever be that stupid, but if I don’t hear back from you soon, I’m bolting—and taking everything we have so far with me.”

  Daniel walked in, frowning as the message finished. “When did that come in?”

  “Tonight. If anyone else left messages, someone erased them. This one’s from the only number on caller ID.” I lifted a scrap of paper. “I wrote it down.”

  “Can you play it again? I missed the beginning. Someone drove by on a dirt bike and drowned it out.”

  I did. As he listened, his frown grew. />
  “Could be corporate espionage,” he said. “A drug company wants to buy stolen research. Sounds like that guy’s really afraid of them, though. I imagine it’d be a shady company, if they’re willing to buy that information. Maybe that’s what cabal means. Industry slang.”

  “It doesn’t explain what she wanted with us,” I said. “How would cozying up to local teens help?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He walked over to the desk and started moving stuff around, looking under the phone and the answering machine, searching drawers. I kept thinking about the message.

  We’ll be paying the price into the afterlife.

  It was probably just an exaggerated phrase, like saying “kick our asses into the next century.” But put it together with that book on witches and the stuff on skin-walkers and it just … It bugged me.

  “Daniel?” I said.

  He bent to run his hand under a drawer. “Hmm?”

  When I didn’t continue, he straightened. “What’s up?”

  “I found out something today, and it’s going to sound crazy—”

  The back door clicked. I waved Daniel to silence and mouthed, “Someone’s here.”

  He opened the folding door to the closet. I hesitated. Even thinking about being in such a small place made my skin crawl. I glanced at the window instead, but he shook his head. No time for that.

  The closet was even smaller than it looked. Daniel went in first and I had to back in. To get the door closed, he had to put his arm around my waist and pull me against him.

  “Just relax,” he said, his breath hot against my ear.

  His hand slid to rest against my hip. He stayed bent over my shoulder, as if trying to see through the slats in the door, his breath ruffling my hair. When I shifted, he put his other hand on my other hip. I shifted again.

  “Stop squirming,” he said. “I didn’t wear my steel-toed boots.”

  I stepped off his foot. “Sorry.”

  “I know you hate small places. Just close your eyes and relax.”