Eternal (18 page)

T
WENTY

T
he next morning, after her father left for work, she returned to his computer. She assumed Dr. Bertel still had her laptop. She spent a couple of hours researching the story of Abelard and Heloise. After a while, it was difficult to see the computer screen through the tears in her eyes. She’d never gotten this worked up over Romeo and Juliet—but then they weren’t real, and Juliet wasn’t her.

A year ago, Julia would have considered the idea of a past life ridiculous. But she was beginning to accept that perhaps science just hadn’t progressed far enough yet. It was difficult to deny the uncanny coincidences swirling through both her waking and dreaming life. And when she looked up historic portraits of Pierre Abelard and Heloise d’Argenteuil, it was impossible to deny the uncanny resemblance they bore to Austin Moore and herself.

She thought back to recent events. If she were Heloise and Austin were Pierre, then it was possible that the phone call she had received from a Frenchman saying he had come back for her was Heloise’s uncle, Fulbert. If so, Austin was in even more trouble than she was. In another lifetime, Fulbert had taken an unspeakable revenge against Pierre for marrying his niece in secret and thereby ruining his reputation. Julia winced as she read from the computer screen.

Heloise insisted on keeping the marriage secret to protect Pierre Abelard’s rising career in the Church, which required its men to be celibate and unmarried. This enraged her uncle. Abelard helped Heloise to escape Fulbert’s rage by hiding her in a nunnery. While she was in hiding, Fulbert hired henchmen to exact his revenge against Abelard. Abelard himself wrote of the unmentionable brutality: “One night as I slept peacefully in an inner room in my lodgings, they bribed one of the servants to admit them and there took cruel vengeance on me of such an appalling barbarity as to shock the whole world.” The henchmen tied him to the bedposts and “cut off the parts of my body whereby I had committed the wrong of which they complained.”

Julia was horrified to picture such bloody torture and the cruel deprivation that followed. She could only imagine the cruelty required to perform that hideous extraction. In this lifetime, she had yet to share those parts of any man’s body, although Tyler had been pressuring her for some time.

Her thoughts turned to Tyler, and she knew what she had to do. It wasn’t fair to wait any longer to give Tyler the bad news. She texted him, “We need to talk.”

Thirty seconds later, her phone rang. “What’s up?”

“I think we should talk in person.”

“Sounds serious. Why don’t you tell me now?”

“I don’t want to talk about it over the phone.”

“You mean you don’t want to break up with me over the phone.”

“Well, I, uh …”

“I may not be as smart as you, but I’m not a complete idiot, Julia. Why don’t I just save myself some gas money and do this now: we’re done.” Julia was stunned.

“That’s pretty cold.”

“I’m not the one who wants this.”

“I’m sorry, Tyler.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about me. The girls are lined up waiting for you to get the hell out of the way.”

She heard a click, and the line went dead.

When Austin asked Julia where he could take her for their first date, out of habit she suggested they meet at Shakes. When she walked in, several familiar faces looked her way, a couple of people flat-out stared, and it seemed that half the place was whispering about her. She heard someone say, “Tyler,” and she realized that either the word had already spread about their break-up, or people were wondering why she was here without him. She instantly regretted bringing Austin to her college hangout.

Nadia was sitting a few tables away with their friends, Britney and Kate. Brit was an aspiring actress and usually hung out with the thespian crowd, but she always came to Julia for help with math and science. She’d nicknamed Julia “Julius Calculus.” Kate was the freakiest of high-school anomalies: the straight-A cheerleader. She threw the best parties and was always trying to get Julia to blow off studying to hang out.

Until she had gotten busy with her summer internship, Julia had been the lynchpin of the group. In fact, although Nadia was Julia’s best friend, Julia felt more relaxed around Britney and Kate. The two could be a little silly for her tastes—their two favorite subjects were celebrity gossip and local gossip—but they didn’t seem as obsessed as Nadia was about being the prettiest girl in every room, dating the hottest guys, brown nosing with the most influential teachers, and partying with students who had the most well-connected parents. Nadia was an ambition machine.

Julia was surprised to see the girls here. They usually preferred the organic bakery a few streets away. She waved, and they wiggled their fingers in return, giggling. Nadia turned and pointedly directed her eyes two tables down, to where Austin was already sitting.

Austin was off-duty, so he was sporting a T-shirt and jeans, both of which fit snug to his body in a way that accentuated every long, lean muscle. His face looked troubled but brightened when he saw her. As she walked over to his table, he stood to greet her, and she saw a half dozen pair of female eyes turn to stare at him: his eyes, his arms, his pecs.
Great deltoids too,
Julia added to herself. “Julia, hi!” he said, with sincere pleasure in his voice, as he took her arm and kissed her cheek, causing half the eyes that had been staring at him to turn daggers on her.

Julia breathed deep, feeling dizzy, both from the stares and from the feel of his lips on her cheek. She saw Tyler’s buddy, Rob, and one of his new basketball teammates—she thought his name was Carter.
Oh boy. I’m in trouble now,
she thought. Austin pulled her chair out for her, and they sat down.

She tried to adopt a casual tone, as she said, “So, I’ve been practicing with Larry’s Super Taser. I’m getting pretty good at it.”

“Are you packing right now?”

“Yep. Beware. I’m a mean quick-draw.”

“I’m at your mercy.” His gaze suggested another meaning for the phrase.

“Austin, there’s something I have to talk to you about …”

Before she could continue, Nadia walked over to their table. She wore a flirtatious smile, chest pushed forward, hand reaching up to tuck a long strand of hair behind her ear.

“Why hello, Julia!” Nadia said. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your new friend?”

Austin withdrew his eyes from Julia and turned a curious gaze toward Nadia.

Julia smiled at her friend’s amusing dramatics and said, “Detective Moore, this is my best friend, Nadia.”

“Hello,” Nadia breathed, her voice purring like a cat as she shook his hand.

He gave her hand a polite shake and a warm smile. “Any friend of Julia’s and all that.”

“Julia’s told me so much about you,” Nadia said, lifting her eyebrows. That wasn’t true. Julia and Nadia had barely spoken in the past few days. Julia had too many other things on her mind. But Julia didn’t bother correcting her.

“All good, I hope?” Austin said.

“Of course,” she said. “Julia has great taste in people. A very good judge of … character.” She seemed to pull her eyes away from Austin with some effort as she turned to include Julia in the conversation. “Hey, you two have to come to the beach party this weekend. All the info is on my Facebook page.”

“I’m not on Facebook,” Austin said.

“Not on Facebook? How could you not be on Facebook?” Nadia tipped her head in Julia’s direction. “I thought
this
geek was the only one who didn’t bother with Facebook.”

“I have an account, Nadia, but I rely on you to plan my social calendar,” Julia quipped, grinning.

“Don’t you know that’s true,” Nadia smiled. “Although someone’s been keeping me out of the loop, lately.” The words were delivered with a punch that Julia recognized.

“Maybe Julia’s the type who prefers talking face-to-face.”

“Like you, you mean?” Nadia said. “Face-to-face certainly seems optimal in your case. Well, I must get back to my
face-to-face
friends. Talk to you later, Julia?” She leaned over, put her cheek against Julia’s, and made kissy noises in the air next to her ear.
What was that?
She walked away, rolling her hips in exaggerated fashion.

Austin suppressed a smile. “Shall we order?”

Julia put a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle. She made a mental note to call Nadia later this afternoon and find out why she was upset. She opened her menu, hiding her face behind it so she could sneak another look around the room. Tyler’s friend Rob was texting, and so was his teammate Carter.
Crap. This could be bad.

Julia ordered only a plate of French fries, claiming she wasn’t hungry. In reality, she wanted to get out of Shakes before those texts brought Tyler running. Austin ordered a burger, and she hoped the kitchen would make it fast. She could only hope Tyler was in the middle of a video game. He would never interrupt a chance at a high score.

While they waited for their food, Austin said, “So, what’s on your mind?”

“Have you ever heard of—”

“Oh, wait a minute. There’s some news I should tell you, first. Remember that suspect I mentioned, Dr. Bertel’s assistant?”

“The guy who jumped on the car and tried to strangle you?”

He bobbled his head, neither a yes nor a no. “Allegedly. Turns out his mom reported him missing this morning. Since he’s an adult, normally we’d wait before starting a missing person case. But I’m telling you, this tells me he’s our guy. It also tells me Bertel’s not alone in his little foray into weirdness.”

“Is weirdness the crime we’re looking at here?”

“Well, so far, we’re looking into two cases of assault and a possible stalking.”

“So, do you know where he is?”

“Not yet, but Jack and I spent some time on it today. Oh, and I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to cut our dinner a little short. It seems cops got a report of a violent mugging across town.”

“And they need a detective on the case?”

“Normally, no. But get this: the victim said the attacker had blood red eyes and super-human strength.”

Julia’s mouth dropped. “No way!”

“Way,” he said, straight-faced.

“It was probably just someone hopped up on meth or something. But you never know. So I’m looking into it.” He paused when the waitress brought their food. Then he asked, “Now, what did you want to tell me?”

She picked up a French fry and twirled it. “Have you ever heard of Pierre Abelard and Heloise d’Argenteuil?” She popped the fry in her mouth and then reached for the ketchup, trying to avoid his eyes as she waited for an answer. When he remained silent, she looked up.

His eyes were thoughtful. “You mean the French Romeo and Juliet?”

She slumped in her chair. “Why does everyone seem to know the story except me?”

He shrugged. “I’m into philosophy, French history, and crime. It kind of fits, doesn’t it?”

“True. What would you say if I told you that those dreams I’ve been having, those dreams about you and me, are also dreams about them?” She was suddenly glad to be in Shakes. The casual atmosphere made the question seem a little less monumental.