Chapter 31
It was still dark outside when I finally gave up on sleep and slid out of bed, careful to avoid stepping on Sarah and disturbing Mardi.
I checked my phone again to see if Cooper had texted or if I had missed a call, but there was nothing.
I’d texted twice, asking him to call me, so his silence meant that he was avoiding me.
I might have tried to tell myself that he’d lost his phone, but the entire incident with Michael had at least taught me never to be that na?ve again.
I sat on the edge of my bed for a long time, watching the gray light creeping around my window shades shift to blue and then yellow as the sun began its climb.
I’d been going over all the unanswered questions about what had happened to Adele and Buddy Ryan, as well as about the odd disappearances of Mark, Jessica, and Lynda following the murder of Mark’s mother, Sybil.
After the harrowing events at the Esplanade house, I was glad Sarah would be leaving and getting far away from whoever was lurking upstairs in the room where a rug had hidden a bloodstain for decades.
They said that the dead kept their secrets, but a select few of us knew that wasn’t true.
For the first time since moving in with Jolene, I was up before her.
Despite the noise I made trying to figure out the coffee maker, she remained in her room.
Because I hadn’t ever actually seen her sleeping, and I thought that maybe she was a freak of nature and didn’t need any sleep, I cracked her door and verified that she was sound asleep in her bed.
I closed the door quietly, hoping she wasn’t coming down with something.
Jolene lived for the Christmas season, and she’d be disappointed to miss even half a day of the preparations and hoopla that surrounded the holidays.
Before we’d gone to bed the previous night, she’d suggested going tree shopping with Sarah today, with a promise to FaceTime me so I could be part of the excitement (her word) of choosing our first tree for the apartment.
Since today was Sarah’s last full day in New Orleans, I didn’t want to keep her cooped up inside with me, so I’d feigned enthusiasm and told Jolene it was a great idea.
Fortunately, Jolene had then begun discussing our matching outfits (including Mardi’s) for our joint Christmas card and didn’t notice the lukewarmness of my response or Sarah’s hesitance.
Sarah entered the kitchen rubbing her eyes, with Mardi trotting in her wake, and took over the coffee maker without any resistance from me.
As she scooped coffee grounds, she said, “I’m leaving tomorrow, and nothing’s been resolved.
I didn’t help figure anything out. So much for my psychic abilities.
That creepy baby doll has given you as much new information as I have. ”
I squeezed her shoulders. “Sarah, as I know Melanie would tell you, you have very little control over your abilities. And, as I’m sure she will also tell you, sometimes you won’t know what you’ve learned right away.
It’s like you’re only allowed a tiny scrap of the whole picture at a time.
Whether or not the people in the spirit realm are sadistic jerks is not for me to say, but I can only hope that there’s a purpose behind their stingy doling out of information. ”
Sarah’s blue eyes were serious as she carefully poured coffee into my mug. “Has Beau told you what Adele told him?”
“I’m in danger, apparently. That seems to be the running theme from the netherworld these days. Too bad the spirits can’t be more specific.”
“You know that’s not how it works.” Sarah looked at me hopefully. “Maybe I should stay longer. I can call Mom and Dad and tell them that you need me here.”
“Thanks, but no. That’s sweet of you, and I know it has nothing to do with skipping school, but I think between Jolene, Jaxson, and me—”
“And Beau.”
“We don’t need him.”
“You sure about that?” Sarah asked quietly.
“Very.” I put my mug down on the table, next to the two bags of stones I’d pulled from my backpack the previous day. I untied the string of the one Zoe had given me and spilled the stones out onto my palm.
Sarah placed a plate of frozen waffles in front of me, along with a tub of margarine with a knife protruding from the middle, and I was glad Jolene wasn’t awake to see the sacrilege. Sarah sat down in the chair next to me and used her index finger to mix up the stones.
“I feel like I’m letting you down leaving you without any answers.”
“Oh, my gosh—really? We don’t have all of the answers, but I think we’re getting closer because of you. I’m sorry you got stuck babysitting me over your Thanksgiving break.”
She grinned, and she looked so much like our dad that it made me homesick. “I had fun. I’m glad you let me stick around.”
“Me, too.”
“Still no idea what ‘Find the stones’ means?”
Before I could answer, Jolene emerged from her bedroom. She was in her nightgown and robe, her hair a red cloud around her head, and her face devoid of makeup. She was holding the Bible that I had found on her floor.
“Jolene, are you all right?” I asked.
“Yes, thank you. I’m sorry—I think I overslept. Too many late nights catching up and chatting with my family.” She held out the Bible. “Did y’all put this on my bed?”
Sarah and I shook our heads.
“But while you were gone it did fall off your nightstand and onto the floor,” I offered. “It landed open at the book of Luke.”
Her face paled. “Do you remember which chapter?”
“Yes, actually. I figured someone was trying to tell us something, so I paid attention. The first chapter number that appeared on the page on the left was in a large, bold font, so I think I remember it. I’m pretty sure it was twenty-two.”
Her face paled even more. “Twenty-two? Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure. Why?”
“Verse forty-seven is where Judas betrays Jesus. When Mimi’s Bible flew off the shelf in front of everyone, it fell open at the exact same chapter.
I didn’t think it meant anything at the time, but now…
but now…” She gave us an anguished look before she clutched the Bible to her chest and ran back to her room.
Despite the drama of her exit, her good manners wouldn’t allow her to slam the door.
Sarah looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Should I go see if she wants to talk?”
“Don’t worry. I will. But not yet. She’ll want to get dressed and put on her makeup first. But you could put Mardi in her room. He’s really good at offering comfort—better than any man I’ve ever met.”
“Ew.” Sarah picked Mardi up, then walked over to Jolene’s closed door and tapped. “Jolene? Can Mardi come in?”
The door opened and Jolene reached for the dog. “Thank you, Sarah. I’ll be ready to go tree shopping in an hour. Wear the pretty plaid hair band I got you. I’ve got one, too, and we can match.” After offering a wobbly grin, she closed the door.
Sarah returned to her seat and rested her elbows on the table, her head perched on her hands. “That was weird.”
“It was.” I took a sip of coffee, wishing the caffeine would reach my tired brain faster.
I needed to think. There were so many loose pieces of information floating around like alphabet soup in my head, and none of them would come together to make sense.
And behind them all was the awareness that Cooper hadn’t returned my calls or texts, and that he was in California, where his fiancée lay in an irreversible coma.
The fiancée he’d neglected to tell me about.
And I knew about her—Lilly—only because Beau had decided to do a background check on Cooper.
Maybe it was a good thing that I was so distracted with the unanswered questions surrounding Adele’s murder and the disappearance of Jessica and Lynda, because it meant that I wouldn’t have to dwell on the facts that I was too trusting and that I hadn’t learned a thing from my mistakes.
The overwhelming need for a drink hit me like a punch, and I quickly took another sip of coffee to make it go away.
“So,” Sarah said, interrupting my thoughts. “You know that Adele song that keeps playing on our phones and stuff?”
“ ‘Rolling in the Deep’?” I felt encouraged that I remembered the name.
“Yeah, that one.” She looked over her shoulder at Jolene’s door to make sure it was still shut. “I’m not good at lyrics like you are, so I Googled the song to find out what it’s about.” She paused. “It’s about betrayal. Just like that Bible verse that keeps popping up.”
“Betrayal?” I looked at Jolene’s closed door, my mind tossing the implications about. Lowering my voice, I said, “Do you think it’s about Jolene?”
She shook her head. “No. Because it’s a message from Adele.
The dead Adele, not the singer,” she clarified.
“That’s why she’s using Adele’s songs, and that one in particular.
The dead Adele is trying to tell us something, and I feel so stupid because I can’t figure out what it is about her death that’s somehow related to a betrayal.
I think it’s urgent, because she keeps trying to get the message across to us, but we’re not getting it. ”
“A betrayal,” I said, feeling a tinge of the PTSD from my recent encounter with Michael. “Speaking from personal experience, I’d say that a betrayal is a great reason to stick around and seek justice.”
“Or revenge,” Sarah said.
We stared at each other, sorting through the implications. Eventually, Sarah stood. “I need to get dressed. Hopefully you or I or both of us will have figured something out by the time Jolene and I get back with the tree.”
I held out my empty cup. “I can’t think if I’m undercaffeinated. Could you please fix me another cup before you go?”
She sighed heavily and took the cup before going back to the kitchen. Pausing in the doorway, she turned and said, “One more thing. I don’t think it takes a psychic person to notice, but there’s something weird going on between Jaxson and Jolene.”
“Thanks, Sherlock. I have noticed. Maybe you can get her to talk while you’re looking at trees.
Speaking of which, I know she wants a big one, but I’m thinking tabletop.
Remember that it has to come up those stairs and I can’t help.
So it’s your job to talk her out of anything over three feet tall. ”
She rolled her eyes and began heading to the kitchen just as the landline phone on the desk began to ring. Our gazes locked. “Should I answer it?” Sarah asked.
I wanted to tell her no, but I couldn’t force the word out of my mouth.
She slowly approached the desk, but before she reached it, the ringing stopped. Sarah stared at the silent phone for a moment, then turned away from it. “I’ll get that coffee for you now.”
I looked at the innocuous phone and wondered who could have been calling and what the message would have been. And if the ringing alone was just another warning of danger.