Chapter Twelve
“Stalker - someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions.”
Piper
Morning classes seemed to drag by, like this entire week.
I just wanted to get to Wednesday. I wanted to know what Frankie would find out about the guy from the diner.
If she got his address, maybe I’d just go to his house and knock on his door.
Part of me really wanted to. But part of me thought I was insane.
I shouldn’t care so much about this one guy.
But I did.
I couldn’t get him out of my mind. Whenever I went to sleep, my dreams were filled with his face and then the dream would change and I’d be staring at the man who died.
As much as the guy in the diner filled my thoughts, the one who died was there more.
There was something about him that pulled at my insides—a part of me that wanted to know him. And now I never would.
“Girl, what’s with that long face?”
I looked up to see Frankie coming toward me. She was hard to miss in that red coat, and today she was wearing a pair of black knee-high boots and a black and white scarf full of butterflies.
“Frankie. What are you doing here? I thought you were allergic to college.” I teased.
“I’m breaking out in a rash as we speak. Hurry, let’s go to the food court so I can get some sugar to counteract all the…”—she made a face—“learning that goes on here.”
“That’s where I was heading. I don’t have another class for an hour.”
“Yes. I know. BFF here, remember? I know your schedule,” she said, exasperated.
I smiled. “Well, shouldn’t you be at work?”
“I took a lunch break.” She shrugged.
“Is everything okay?” I asked. She never came to see me at school.
“Of course,” she said, then leaned in close. “I got the info you wanted early.”
Excitement tingled along my fingers. “How did you manage that? I thought you had to wait until your supervisor wasn’t there.”
“I like a challenge.” She smiled slyly.
I grinned and shifted the weight of the books in my arms. “Well, tell me!” I demanded.
“Girl you’re going to collapse under those books.
Come on. I parked right over there.” She pointed to the parking lot.
“You can put these in there until after we eat.” She grabbed a couple books off my stack and headed toward the car.
“You must really want to be a doctor, putting up with all these books.”
“You know I want to help people,”
“I help people all the time. You should’ve seen this woman today that came in for her license renew.
She was blind in one eye and only had half the vision in her other eye!
I have no clue how she even got a license in the first place.
I refused to renew it. You know how many lives I saved by keeping her off the road? ”
I snickered as she unlocked the passenger door of her Jeep Wrangler and threw in my books.
After I added the rest to the pile, she slammed the door and we began walking.
A strange feeling crept its way up the back of my neck and I turned back, looking over my shoulder at the parking lot.
I didn’t see anything other than students heading to and from campus.
“What’s wrong?” Frankie asked.
“Nothing. I just got this weird feeling,”
Frankie looked over her shoulder too and saw exactly what I saw: nothing.
“You need sugar,” she said, pulling me along.
“So what did you find out?” I asked, trying to ignore the prickly feeling I couldn’t seem to shake. It felt like someone was drilling a hole into my back with their watchful eyes.
“Crap!” I said suddenly, stopping midstride. “I think I dumped my money in your car with my books.” I turned to face back toward the parking lot and I swear I saw a dark shape almost glide behind a nearby building. My eyes narrowed on the spot, waiting for more movement, but none came.
“Are you sure?” Frankie asked.
I shook my head and stuck my fingers into my coat pocket. The little pouch I used to carry my money was there. “Oh, never mind, it’s here,”
We started walking again. “Frank,” I whispered quickly. “Six o’clock and a little to my left. Is someone following us?”
Frankie laughed like I said something funny and threw her head back and to the side. I saw her eyes darting around. “I don’t see anyone but a couple of students walking around.”
I nodded. “I could’ve sworn I saw someone behind the building back there.”
“You’re jumpy today,” Frankie said, sliding me a look.
“I do feel a little anxious.” I thought it was because I wanted to know what Frankie would dig up about the man in the diner. Now I was wondering if that had been the real reason.
We picked up our pace toward the building that housed the food court.
Students were coming in and out steadily.
I glanced at my left toward a pile of snow left over from the plow and caught another dark shape duck down behind me.
How had it gotten just ahead of me when only moments before it was behind?
I watched the spot, but nothing happened so I kept quiet.
The building was just in front of us now with a long, clear sidewalk leading to the main doors.
I pulled them open and we walked inside.
The student center was three stories with us coming in on the middle landing.
There was a wide open area with wide steps leading down to a bookstore and some leading upstairs toward the food court.
Over to my right was a large, bright blue UAF tapestry with the college logo on it—a polar bear—that hung from long cables in the ceiling.
Behind it, I saw another dark movement.
Someone was definitely watching me. Someone who was incredibly fast.
I had enough. I lunged forward, quickly covering the space between myself and the tapestry, my eyes locked on the hooded figure that was frozen. He knew I saw him. He knew he’d been caught.
I made it to the side where he stood and I pulled back the tapestry, stepping behind it, reaching toward the darkened shape that now turned away. My hands closed around his arm… and went through.
I was left grasping at black smoke… my fingers trying to hold something that had no shape.
And then it was gone.
I stood there, stupefied, staring at the wall, wondering if I’d imagined the entire thing.
I felt the tapestry being yanked forward and then from behind me Frankie said, “Umm, are you having a private moment back here with… the wall?”
“I… I thought I saw someone.”
“There’s no one here,” Frankie said gently, grabbing the sleeve of my coat and pulling me toward the stairs. “Come on. You’re gonna eat some sugar whether you like it or not.”
“Yeah.” I agreed. “I think I will.”
As we went up the stairs I gazed back. The tapestry was swinging slightly from our movements, but otherwise there was nothing there.
I looked beyond that out the glass doors and onto the sidewalk.
Someone was walking swiftly away from the building.
Someone in a dark coat and hat. His shoulders were hunched up around his neck and his hands were jammed into his pockets.
A whisper of something—recognition?—went through me before he disappeared from sight.
At least he looked solid and real, not at all like a ghost.