The Gathering

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.”

I did and focused on the light footsteps. Chief Carling?

Drawers opened and shut. Papers rustled.

The intruder finished in the living room and went into the bedroom. More searching. Now Daniel was the one getting restless, fidgeting and shifting. When I tried to pull away to give him room, he jumped like I’d startled him, then murmured, “Just relax,” like I’d been the one fussing.

Finally, the intruder came into the study. Through the slats, I could make out only a dark figure, but I picked up a faint smell of—

A day ago, I’d have told myself I was smelling perfume or hair gel or fabric softener, something that would identify a person. Now I realized I was smelling the person’s scent.

I leaned forward. Daniel tried to stop me, but I waved him off. I bent, putting my face to the slats. It was a far from perfect peephole, but I could see enough to confirm my guess.

I pushed open the folding door and stepped out. “What are you doing here?”

Sam spun.

Her eyes narrowed when she saw me. “What am I doing here? I’m not the one hiding in—” Her gaze lifted over my shoulder. “Daniel?”

She looked from me to him.

I realized I was in a notorious make-out spot with Daniel. “We’re not—”

“What are you looking for, Sam?” he said, stepping toward her.

“Looking for? N-nothing.”

“You were really interested in Mina Lee,” I said. “You thought she was here because of you.”

“What? No.”

“Why are you going through her things?”

“None of your business.”

She brushed past me. As she walked away, I saw papers sticking out of her rear pocket. I snatched them. She yelped and spun, swiping at me as I backed out of reach.

“That’s mine,” she said.

“No, it’s not.” I held the papers up for Daniel to see. “Recognize the handwriting?”

He nodded. “It’s Ms. Lee’s.”

“You don’t know that.” Sam lunged to grab them, but I backed up again.

“She left a note for Daniel,” I said. “That’s her handwriting.”

Sam went still. “A note about what?”

I scanned the first page. “Not about you. This one is, though. Background notes. Where you’re from. What happened to your—” I looked up at her. “Your parents didn’t die in a car accident. They were—”

“Give those back,” she said, advancing on me.

“Your parents were murdered,” I said. “Why does everyone think—?”

She hit me. A right hook to the jaw. I flew off my feet. Daniel knocked her out of the way before she could hit me again. She grabbed the pages and took off.

Daniel started to go after her, then saw me and ran back, grabbing tissue. I tasted blood. As I winced, blood gushed from a split lip. Daniel pressed the tissues to my mouth.

He moved me back to sit on the edge of the desk. “Hold that. I’m going to find some ice.”

I shook my head. “Sam. Those pages—”

The roar of a dirt bike stopped me. I tried to get up, but he tugged me back onto the desk.

“She’s gone,” he said. “We need to stop the bleeding and get some ice on that.” He paused. “Are your teeth …?”

I ran my tongue over them, ignoring the sharp tang of blood. “Present and accounted for.”

“Good. Hold on then.”