Devlin Little's truck was nowhere to be seen. Some other cars were scattered about, but Jimmy guessed that most of them belonged to people who worked at the hotel and restaurant and maybe the little bar and store across the street. There were souvenir stands and such scattered about, but they appeared dead and silent at the moment. Overhead, the sky was turning a brilliant blue, and as of that early hour there were still no clouds. If anything, it was threatening to be an unseasonably warm day.
"Nervous?" Tabitha asked when she had shifted into park. Jimmy realized she had been looking at him.
"Yes," he said.
"I'll be doing most of the talking, Jimmy," she said. "I think we'll be fine."
Jimmy nodded. "Everything has me on edge. The fact that Jesse was involved in any way has me worried."
"I know," Tabitha said. "And you're right to be. Don't let your guard down."
With those inspiring words of comfort, Tabitha opened the door and stepped out. Jimmy sighed and got out. Normally he was glad to come to the library and looked forward to talking with Jesse. Right now, however, the steps leading up to the front door of the library had never seemed more like the steps to a gallows. He chided himself for being such a drama queen, but it did little to calm the feelings in his gut or the analogy in his brain.
They reached the top of the stairs together and Tabitha grabbed the door handle. The door swung outward without resistance. Technically, the library did not open for another hour or so, but Jesse always unlocked the door when he got in, and he never locked the door behind him. If anyone showed up at any time that he was there, he was glad to welcome them in and show them around the place, since it was a historic and ancient library.
Inside, the silence of the place was absolute and images of tombs and graveyards and other ominous, but silent, things filled Jimmy's head. That familiar scent of dust and old books filled his nose. These were normally happy and exciting smells to him, but now they smelled dangerous.
"Hello?" Tabitha called out. "Jesse?"
Her voice was so loud that Jimmy jumped. Her voice echoed like a cannon shot in the silence of the building. A sound off to their right caused both of them to react in surprise, and then Blackie came out from his hiding place behind the desk.
The dog padded over to both of them calmly. Jimmy smiled and reached down to let Blackie smell his hand, and then he petted the dog. Tabitha knelt down and gave Blackie a friendly scratch behind his ears. The old dog seemed very pleased by this, and after sniffing them thoroughly he trotted back to his place behind the desk and lay back down.
"Well, hello there, Tabitha and Jimmy," Jesse said from behind them. Jimmy felt his muscles flinch and he cursed himself for his fear. Jesse had been in the upstairs area, apparently, and had come down behind them.
"Hi Jesse," Tabitha said, smiling. "We came here to ask you a few questions."
Jesse frowned. He was carrying a couple of hardbound books that had no covers. He pushed past them and headed for his desk, where he put the books down.
"Me?" he said. "Why on Earth would you want to talk to me? And Jimmy, what are you doing going around making inquiries with Tabitha? I heard what you did at school the other day, by the way. It's all over town. I cannot say I approve."
Jimmy shrugged. "You can only take so much."
Jesse nodded, but did not smile.
"I'm staying with the Hollises for a while," Jimmy said.
Again, Jesse frowned. As Jimmy looked at him, he noticed that the librarian's forehead was creased where it had not been days before. Jesse's eyes were very red, and he appeared to have bags under his eyes.
"What’s going on, Jimmy?" Jesse asked.
"It's for his own safety, Jesse," Tabitha said. "But that's not why we're here. We're here to talk to you about Sapphire. I'm sure you remember her."
Jesse's eyes went wide. His mouth opened and then shut. Then he opened his mouth again, made a strange noise, and then shut his mouth.
"I really don't have time to talk," he finally said rather weakly. "Maybe we can discuss this some other time. I have work to do."
"There's no one here, Jesse," Tabitha replied. "What do you have to do?"
"There's a lot of things I have to do to make sure the library is ready for people once it opens."
"So I take it you remember Sapphire?"
Jesse bit his lower lip and the muscles of his face spasmed. Jimmy knew that Jesse was probably cursing to himself in his own mind, wishing that Tabitha and Jimmy would just go away.
"Of course," he said evenly. "You don’t forget someone like that."
"You loved her," Tabitha said. She was speaking quietly, not ordering him around or anything. Jimmy instinctively let her take the lead.
"Everyone loved her," Jesse said. He was trying to work his way around behind his desk. However, he was having a hard time doing it while also looking down and studying the random papers scattered about.
"But you truly did, didn't you?" Tabitha said, moving forward. "She was the girl that you loved, right, Jesse? And when the dance came, you managed to work up the courage to ask her to go with."
"Yes,” Jesse said. “It took me months. I mean, in the time the Christmas break came and went, all I was thinking about was asking her to the dance. But it took me the entire rest of winter and into the spring to do it."
"What happened?" Tabitha cajoled. "How did you ask her?"
Jesse smiled to himself, his eyes still down, studying the papers on his desk. "Sapphire and I shared a class. Biology. Anyway, I knew that she liked to get there early. So I left lunch early and got to the classroom. She was in the back working on something. I don't even remember what it was , but she was working on a lab or something. She and I started talking and I just sort of blurted it out."
He laughed, remembering, his eyes cloudy with the memories, or perhaps misting over with sadness at times gone by.
"She said yes and seemed so excited. She even kissed me. I mean, it was a quick peck, but it was right on the lips. I was on cloud nine. We actually went out that very weekend and saw a movie. She held my hand. You could have punched me in the face that night and I wouldn't have felt a thing, I was so happy. She was so beautiful. She was so smart and so strong, and that was such a rare thing back then. Well, anyway, it seemed rare. In a few years’ time, every woman would be protesting and burning her bras. But this was a year before John F. Kennedy would get his head blown off in Dallas. We were all thinking that some perfect society was just around the corner and everyone would walk hand in hand into a brighter future."
He finally looked up. It was as if he was seeing Tabitha standing there for the first time. Yes, Jimmy thought, as he stared at Jesse's face, he was on the verge of tears. Crying for Sapphire, maybe even crying for the world that should have been and would never be. Jesse shrugged.
"We were naive," he said. "Who could imagine that such evil would exist in the world?"
"What happened that night, Jesse?" Tabitha said.
Jesse shook his head. "You know; I can tell you do. We got into a confrontation with Devlin Little and his cronies. He wanted Sapphire. Hell, every man in the school wanted Sapphire. She exuded beauty, intelligence, and light. She was amazing, and it was impossible not to want her. Devlin could not believe that she wanted me. I don't know for sure if he had asked her out previously and been rejected or maybe even asked her to the dance and been rejected, but I always suspected."
He sighed. It was a deep sigh. A sigh from the very pit of his gut and the very depths of his heart.
"I thought I was a dead man that night," Jesse said. "When we got back to my car, I drove off so fast. And Sapphire was just screaming and yelling about how unfair it was and that we were going to show them. She was so mad. She was not beautiful at that moment; she was full of anger."
He fell silent. He looked down at his hands.
"I really should get back to work," he said quietly. There was no conviction in his voice. "So much to do."
"Not
yet," Tabitha said. "Look, we need to know the full story. There are reasons why we need to know, Jesse."
"I know, but it's painful," Jesse said.
"She died that night, didn't she?" Tabitha said. The question seemed to thud to the floor like it was made of lead.
Jesse hitched a great sigh that seemed to catch in his throat and chest. A single tear flowed from his right eye and down his cheek.
"Yes," he said.
"How?" Tabitha asked.
"I can't," Jesse replied.
"Was it Devlin?"
Jesse let out an actual sob. He reached up and wiped his eyes, reaching up beneath his glasses.
"Yes," Jesse whispered.
"Tell us."
Jesse wiped his eyes and then cleaned his glasses. He put the glasses back on and looked first at Jimmy and then at Tabitha. There was so much sadness in his face.
"Devlin caught up to us on the road," Jesse said. "I hadn't been driving very fast, as I was trying to calm Sapphire down. Suddenly there were these lights in the back windshield. I knew who it was before I even saw the car. He was a madman. He nearly drove us off the road. Sapphire screamed and I floored that car. You know what the roads are like around here—now imagine taking those hills and curves in the dark at about seventy miles per hour."
He paused to let that image sink in. Jimmy shuddered.
"We eventually drove off the road, not far from the bridge. Sapphire and I were fine, but she jumped out of the car to confront Devlin and his friends. They had stopped their car about fifty yards farther down the road and were already out of the car. I was so scared. I was still in the car, fumbling with my seat belt. When I got out, she was already facing off against Devlin."
He shrugged his shoulders, his palms held up, as if asking what could he have done.
"I tried to run, but I slipped," he said. "I could hear them yelling at each other, but I couldn't make out the words. When I looked up, Devlin had Sapphire by her arms and was leaning in. I thought he was trying to kiss her. She kneed him in the groin."
He laughed at the thought. If it was possible to laugh sadly, Jesse's laugh was exactly that.
"I saw Devlin bend over and heard him cry out. Then two of his pals reached out and pushed Sapphire. She staggered back, but didn't go down. I was still trying to get over to them. I couldn't seem to find any support for my feet and my legs just didn't want to work. I wanted to yell for help, but you know how deserted it is over there now, and it was even more so back then. There was no one to help. I just stood there in terror, frozen in place, as they all tried to knock her down. Then someone punched her, and I saw Sapphire's head snap back."
He heaved a great sigh that was a combination of a sigh and a sob.
"I saw Devlin recover," he continued. "I don't know how he did it so fast. If you kneed me in the groin, I would be down for about twenty minutes, but he was back up and raging in less than two. He came right for her. When I saw him coming at her with his fist balled, I regained my ability to speak. Of course, by then it was too late. He punched her so hard, connecting squarely with her chin. I could hear the blow all the way over where I was. I bet he broke her jaw."
Jimmy shuddered. At the same time, he felt anger well up from the bottom of his feet and all across his face. He had never wanted to strangle someone as much as he wanted to wring Devlin Little's neck right now. Had the man been here, even with a shotgun, Jimmy would have torn him apart with his bare hands.
"She went down. It was as if she had had her strings cut. I finally reached the group. All of them were crowded around Sapphire and she was on her knees in the middle. Somehow she was still conscious—I have no idea how. She was always so strong, though. She was dazed and making moaning sounds. As I said, I think her jaw might have been broken at that point. Devlin was standing over her with both hands in fists and breathing hard. He had his legs spread apart as if he was ready for her to get off of her knees and come at him."
He wiped a tear from his eye. Tabitha's eyes were wide and staring as Jesse spoke. Dust whirled about them as the first rays of the sun made their way through the high, dusty windows set in the walls of the library.
"I yelled. One of Devlin's cronies grabbed me and I had both hands pinned behind my back before I even realized what was happening. I struggled, but it was no use. Devlin told me to shut up and watch what he did to headstrong, stubborn, prudish girls who should have known their place in this world. The he reached down and grabbed her by the shoulders and hauled her to her feet."
Jesse's breath was ragged now. He was struggling to contain the sobs that were threatening to break through at any moment.
"He grabbed her and her head lolled back, and I could see that her eyes were open. Already one side of her face was swollen. Blood was leaking from a corner of her mouth, but her eyes were so alert . She was pleading with me, with the other football players standing around, with anyone. She needed a hero, but instead she had me, and I was pinned and helpless and kicking at the air uselessly.
"She didn't let out a sound as Devlin dragged her to the bridge. With both hands, and incredible ease, he lifted her off her feet and threw her over the bridge. It all happened so fast. One moment she was there, and the next she was gone."
Again, Jimmy felt himself shudder. He wanted to weep. Deep in the recesses of his brain, he could feel the static that indicated Sapphire was near and that she was listening. There was an odd tone about the static this time, though, but Jimmy put it out of his mind. He was concentrating on what was going on.
"Devlin whirled on me at that moment. He said that I could join her or I could shut up. The water was much deeper back then. I knew that Sapphire was likely drowning right at that moment, being unable to swim, plus wearing that dress that was now waterlogged and heavy. I begged Devlin to let me go down there and pull her out. He punched me in the stomach. I fell to the pavement. Then someone kicked me in the head. I have no idea who. It might have been one of the others. Everything went black.
"I have no idea how long I was out, but it must have been a long time. When I woke up, my head and my stomach hurt. I had no idea where I was for a moment, and then remembered everything in a kind of rush. I got to my feet and ran down the embankment. I stumbled and fell at least half a dozen times, but I finally got to the bank of the river. Back then it was almost like a beach down there. It wasn't the swampy run-off river that it is today. The water was rushing that night, though. We had had weeks of rain before that. Big, heavy storms had gone through, even a tornado a couple of towns over. And the water was rushing. I could see her blue dress just below the bridge. She had fallen straight down and, despite the current, sank like a stone. She was wedged between something down there; her ankle was caught. Her eyes were wide and staring, pleading."
Jimmy suddenly felt weak. The buzzing in his head was louder. He could almost hear Sapphire's voice at the back of his mind, yelling at him, telling him something. He felt as if the room were spinning and looked for a chair. He found one and sat down.
"I couldn't get her out," Jesse said. "The water was rushing too fast, and I’ve never been a very good swimmer. I just stood there and screamed into the night sky. What could I do? I was young and scared and the most powerful people in town had just killed a girl? Who was I to take them on? I got back into my car and drove home. After a long and hysterical discussion between my parents and me, my father agreed that it was best to find the body, bury it, and cover this up. My father drove me back to the bridge. By the time I got there, she was gone. Maybe her ankle had become unstuck and she floated away with the current. That little river meets up with a much bigger one just a few miles away. We searched and searched, but we couldn't find her."
Jesse hung his head. Tears flowed freely down his face, hung on his chin, and then fell off into his lap or onto the floor.
"Why didn't you report it to the police?" Tabitha asked.
"Why do you think?" Jesse replied. "The Little family was not quite as rich then as they are
now, but they were certainly powerful and up-and-coming. Devlin was the star of the football team. He had influence even then. He meant it when it said he would drown me next, and over the course of the years, he has reminded me of that fact on an almost weekly basis. My father knew that trying to report this incident was asking for trouble. More than likely, we would end up run out of town. So my father made some phone calls. I guess someone told Sapphire's parents that something had happened, and then her family was just up and gone."
He shrugged again, holding up his hands in a kind of supplication. He knew how weak he sounded. He knew how weak his excuses were. He had been scared and his father had been scared, and because of that Sapphire had never had her justice. Her killer was now a rich and powerful person with great influence all the way to Washington, D.C., and Jesse had not done a thing to stop it. What's more, his own family had become complicit in the cover-up. Jimmy hung his head, the buzzing in the back of his skull was louder than ever, but he didn’t respond to the faint cries he could hear.
I'm so sorry, Sapphire, he thought. I'm so sorry.
They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Jimmy had his head down. Jesse was blowing his nose and sobbing softly. Blackie even came out and licked Jesse's hand to make sure his master was all right. Jesse managed to smile and pat the dog's head, which seemed to satisfy Blackie, because he promptly spun around and lay back down behind the desk. Only Tabitha seemed to still have her wits about her. Her face showed sadness, but there was a hardness in her eyes. She was a pure journalist through and through.
"Jesse," she said, "there's no statute of limitations on murder. We can still bring all of this to the sheriff. Devlin Little cannot hurt you anymore."
Jesse snorted. "Oh no? You do realize he is the biggest property owner in Knorr, right? Who do you think owns the library? Or my house, for that matter? The man has his fingers in so many pies in this town that you can't swing a dead cat without hitting something that he owns, either outright or partially. He could crush me like a bug in seconds if he even suspected I had talked to the sheriff."
Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance Page 20