Chasing Shadows (38 page)

Schuyler laughs. "Whatever works."

"I'm thirsty."

He nods. "I picked up some flavored vitamin
water. It's pretty good. You want some?"

"Sure."

He scrambles around and pulls some out of his
bag. He watches while I take a swig. "Good, right?"

I nod. "Be better with some rum in it." He
smiles. I smile. "What time is it?"

"4:30"

"When's the lawyer coming?"

And on queue, "Right now Miss Jones if you're
up to it."

I slap on my ready-for-anything face and extend
my left hand. "Mr. Abraham." I say. "Thank you for taking care of
me. I signed those papers you sent."

He shakes my hand. "Good, good. Glad to hear
it. Now, Mr. Chambers will be here in an hour..." And the rest is
fuzzy. He goes on coaching me, and I try to pay attention. Pretty
much the story is that I happened on Sturgis killing Mads and went
to meet Luis, found him dead, you know, the story but not
the
story
. It's all what I'd have said anyway in my attempt to not
sound crazy. All this reasonableness is not distracting me from the
pain. The pain is making me tired. This frustrates me because I
know I've done nothing but sleep for the last however long and I
should not
be sleepy. Mr. Abraham's phone rings and he
excuses himself to take the call.

"How many days have I been here?"

Schuyler takes a sip of his vitamin water.
"Three."

I press the button to raise the head of the bed
and I lean back against it. "Is that long for this kind of
thing?"

He shrugs. "I guess not."

Mr. Abraham walks back in. His short, fleshy,
body is surprisingly graceful but his face is flushed. "Well, it's
off." He says. "That was the Tribune. They axed the story, so there
won't be any interview. If Mr. Chambers shows up anyway, we don't
have to talk to him. I'm sorry for wasting your time, Miss
Jones."

"Uh, okay."

He adjusts his blazer. "This is good news for
us, but I wish they'd told me sooner."

Schuyler smiles. "You'll bill for the
time."

At this Mr. Abraham returns the grin. "Of
course, Mr. Mills, but a waste is a waste none the less. Good
evening to you." And with that he grabs up the paper work and turns
to leave.

When he's gone, I look at Schuyler, "Will you
go get us some coffee?"

He looks at me happily. "You must be feeling
better."

I smile. "Actually I'm tired, but I don't want
to sleep anymore. Who knows what I might say?" Schuyler rolls his
eyes. "You're pretty cute you know that?"

He stares at me a second. "Yeah."

I laugh, which hurts but fuck it.

Schuyler laughs too. "I'll go get some. They
have a Starbucks in the lobby. Anything special?"

"Black."

"That's easy." He walks out of the room and I
notice how his shoulders move. I think he's strutting. This makes
me smile. And now I'm alone for the first time in days. I take a
deep breath. It feels good. I want some music. Where did Schuyler
put my phone? I steel myself for the inevitable pain, and hoist my
bruised body off of the bed. I take it slow, breathing evenly and
concentrating on nice smooth movements until I reach his bag. I'm
just lifting it onto the bed when a voice startles me.

"Meegan."

I look up. It's Officer Clark. "Aaron." My
voice sounds strong. I like it.

Officer Clark looks nervously around. "I came
to give you this." He pulls a card out of his pocket and crosses
the room to hand it to me. It's his office number, and he's
scrawled another number on the back.

"Okay."

Aaron Clark meets my eyes. "I came to warn
you." Oh shit. "The investigation has been closed."

Huh. "Okay." Sounds fine to me but I keep my
mouth shut.

"It wasn't finished, but the order to shut it
down came from pretty high up. I don't know what you've gotten
yourself into, but I thought you might need some help." I just look
blankly at him. "I've been waiting to talk to you alone, but
they've had you watched every second until now." He glances over
his shoulder. "I'm not supposed to be here, but something about
this case still doesn't smell right to me. I think you know more
than you've told us and Mr. Mills... Well, I don't know what I
should say to you." He looks so concerned, touching. I don't trust
it.

"Aaron, Officer Clark... Which Mr.
Mills?"

He looks at me earnestly "All of them." Now
he's fidgeting back and forth. "You just keep that, okay? Call me
when you're ready to tell me something, when you need help. That's
my cell number there. Call anytime. I should go."

I nod. "I think you should too." At this he
looks exasperated, and strides quickly out of the room. "Well, that
was weird." I say to the air. I unzip Schuyler's bag and find my
phone right on top. Thank God. I feel so weak, damn it. I don't see
my head phones so I toss the bag back on the floor and climb into
bed. I bring up the music player and try to relax as the tiny
speakers give Sleater Kinney their best effort. I'm tempted to sing
along, but I'm sure if I did I'd drown out the little stereo so I
hold myself back, close my eyes, and give the music all my
attention. Damn, it's nice to be alone. I feel Aaron's card in my
hand. It's tempting to throw it out. I hate dragging around useless
shit. I flip it around my fingers while the musical interlude kicks
in. I sigh. This music was meant to be loud. I open my eyes and
look for the trash can. Well poo, its way over there by the
bathroom. So, I tuck the card into my cast. I'll have to remember
to chuck it next time I go... Or maybe I'll keep it. I don't know.
Songs fly by and by the time it gets to Modern Girl I'm feeling
much better than I have in days.

"Hey." It's Schuyler.

"Hi." I smile at him and reach out to take my
coffee. "Smells great."

"Found you're phone." His eyes flash to his
bag. This strikes me as odd, but that's probably just Aaron Clark
fucking with my head.

"It was on top."

"Did you see the clothes I brought
you?"

"No I didn't go digging. Why?"

He shrugs. Does he look relieved? "Just
wondering if they'll stretch to go over your cast."

"We'll worry bout that in the
morning."

He nods. "Careful. It's hot."

"Thanks." I take a little sip. "It's good.
Schuyler?"

He looks at me. "Yeah."

"I'm so glad you're here."

Schuyler gets this weird look, steps closer and
brushes my hair back form my face. He seems about to speak, but
after a moment he just leans over and kisses me on the temple. Now,
wordlessly, he takes his seat and flips on the TV. My heart thumps
in my chest. The TV clashes with my music, which makes everything
seem a bit off. I feel sweaty and I wish very much I was going home
alone tomorrow.

The End.

###

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