OMG, A CUL8R Time Travel Mystery (12 page)

“And you
r parents?”

Kelly took a deep breath.  “They were
recently killed in a car accident.  My aunt is my guardian.”

Mrs. Carter
stopped in mid-staple and looked up from her paper sorting.  “You have my condolences, Kelly.  I think you’ll find South Beach High a very welcoming place.  You’re in good hands with Scott and Austin.  They’re two of the nicest kids here, and I
don’t
say that to everyone.”  She finished getting Kelly’s package together and opened it to indicate the items as she talked.  “This folder has all you need.  In the left pocket is your recommended reading material.  In the right pocket are the forms you’ll need to complete, like your registration papers and the standard physician package, all signed by your aunt and the doctor.  You’ll need to have everything turned in at least ten days before school starts so we can get your grades transferred. Everything is computerized now, so it can be done relatively quickly.  I remember when we had to do everything through the postal service which could take over a month.”  She handed Kelly the packet.  “Any questions?”

“
I was home schooled, so there aren’t any official transcripts.”

“That’s okay.  We’ll get your scores from the state.  I’m sure you took the standard achievement tests, didn’t you?”

Kelly nodded.  “I’ll get these all filled out.  Thanks.”

“Mrs. Carter, I have a question,” Austin asked.
“Ahh . . . do you remember a girl named Wendy Summers? She went here in 1963 through 1966.”

Mrs. Carter turned white as a sheet
and her hands began to shake.  She swallowed hard and her eyes darted from Austin to Scott to Kelly. She rubbed her hands together and then as if she ran out of ways to delay any longer, she responded, “I do remember her.  She was one of our brightest and best students ever. And beautiful inside and out.  Very popular and she participated in all kinds of clubs.   I don’t recall exactly which ones, but I know she was a cheerleader.” Her gaze lowered to the counter, and she was silent for several moments, then she lifted her head and shook it sadly.  “She had it all and did it all.”  Mrs. Carter’s eyes welled up.

Kelly rushed to add,
“It sounds like she was really special.”

“As you
kids say, she owned this place.  We were all so shocked when she . . . well, it was just very sad.”

“We saw the newspaper article,” Austin told her.  “It said she committed suicide.”

“Such a tragedy,” Mrs. Carter sighed.

“
Do you have idea why she would do such a thing?” Kelly blurted out.

“No one knows.  She didn’t leave a
note.  She didn’t tell anyone anything.  Not even her best friends were aware of her plans.  Her poor parents . . .”

“Was she having trouble at home or with a boyfriend?” Kelly asked.

“No, her parents were wonderful, always involved with her activities.  And, as far as I know, she didn’t have a boyfriend at the time.  But then you know how quickly those things change.”

“
Any rumors?” Austin prodded.

Mrs. Carter looked at Austin and cocked he
r read slightly.  “No, nothing.  Why the questions?”

“No reason.  W
e were just talking about the kids here at school . . . and her name sort of came up,” Austin explained.

“Kids just didn’t do things like that back then,” Mrs. Carter mused.  “Lately, it
seems like every year, there’s one or two who take their own lives.  I didn’t get it then, and I sure don’t get it now.”

“
Me either,” Kelly agreed.  “Well, it’s very nice meeting you, Mrs. Carter.  I’ll see you in a few weeks, ready to go.”

“You kids enjoy your summer.”

Once outside, they felt they could talk.   “Mrs. Carter really looked shook up when you asked about Wendy, didn’t she?” Kelly said as they headed to the stallion.

“
She sure did,” Austin agreed.

They got in and drove back toward home.  “Anyone hungry?”
Kelly was a little embarrassed that it was a question always asked by her.

“
There’s a Wendy’s up ahead.”  Austin looked at her in the rearview mirror.  Kelly nodded her agreement.

“Ironic
.  Lunch at Wendy’s,” Scott concurred.

It was already the middle of the afternoon, so there was no line.  They
quickly got their food and drinks and went to a corner table at the front of the restaurant, away from the counters so they could talk privately.

They
had finished their hamburgers and were picking at their fries when Scott pulled out his notepad

“
Okay, let’s review what we know.”

“We know her name, where it happened,
sort of when it happened and what happened,” Austin summarized.  “We just don’t know why.”

Kelly
suddenly sat up straight, startling both Scott and Austin.  “She didn’t kill herself.”

“But the police report said . . .,” Scott reminded her.

“But she said she didn’t do it.  That’s what she meant!  Don’t you see?  That’s what she was trying to tell us.”  Kelly was so excited, she could hardly sit still.

Austin considered that for
a minute, then said.  “There are two problems with that.  First, that would mean someone else killed her, and who would want to do that?  And second, what could we do about it?”

“I don’t know.
”  Kelly rubbed his eyes.  “She kept asking us to help her.”

“Well, unless we can find a Delorean to take us back to 1966, we’re not going to be able to do anything else.”  Austin wadded their trash into a ball and neatly lofted it into the trash container.

“Let’s go talk with Wendy and maybe she can give us more information.  Maybe we can help her get past it and move on to the other side . . . or deal with whatever is holding her back.  Maybe all she wants is for us to tell her parents the truth.  We could do that for her.” Kelly stood, and without waiting for Scott and Austin, she headed toward the truck.

“If they’re still around,” Scott pointed out.

In agreement they jumped into the stallion and within minutes they were back at Scott’s house and in his lab.

Kelly positioned
herself by the mike, and they all huddled around the Spirit Radio’s speaker.  The vacuum tubes glowed bright red and the speaker hummed.  The familiar mix of voices, words, phrases, questions and even sounds of people singing or crying all mixed together and rose and fell in volume.

“Wendy?  This is Kelly
.  Wendy Summers, please speak to us.”

They sat patiently
for almost an hour before they could pick out Wendy’s voice from the rest.  “
Kelly . . . what did . . . find out . . . me
?”

“Wendy . . .
did you kill yourself?” Kelly asked bluntly.

“
I did . . . it . . .
” Her voice drifted in and out.

“Did you say you
did
or you
didn’t
?” Kelly persisted.

They waited for another few minutes for the rest of her uncompleted message.

“Wendy, did someone kill you?” Kelly decided to get right to the point.

“
. . .
help me . . . please
.” Her voice was overwhelmed by the others, all clamoring for attention.

They kept trying
for another half an hour, until Kelly put down the microphone in defeat.

Austin stood and stretched his cramped muscles.
  “We’re kind of stuck, aren’t we?” Wendy doesn’t tell us enough. Mrs. Carter doesn’t know anything more than what was reported. And the bigger issue is that even if we had all the answers, there’s nothing we could do to help her.”  He walked over to the wall and pulled some darts off the board and began throwing then at the bullseye with respectable accuracy.  “Got to keep my arm in shape, ya know.”

Kelly leaned
her back against the wall and clasped her hands together behind her head. “If we did find out she’d been killed, how would we even go about getting the sheriff to open up a closed case from over 40 years ago?  Maybe I could ask Aunt Jane.”

“You heard what she said yesterday.  S
he’s like two months behind with her current cases.  Why would she want to take a case that happened almost five decades ago that nobody cares about but us?”  Austin suggested.  “By now even her parents have moved on, if they’re even still alive.”

Kelly’s expression was gloomy.  She ha
ted to lose, and this felt like a big loss.

“So, you guys didn’t exactly think I could pull this Spirit Radio technology off
, did you?” Scott asked, seemingly out of the blue.

“
We’ve just met, so what would I know?” Kelly remarked.

“I’ve known
you since . . . well, forever . . . so I was all in. I just didn’t really understand exactly what I was in for, you know?” Austin commented.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence
, Kelly and Austin.  I think we might have another option to help Wendy.  I agree with you guys, given our age and this crazy story that we turn this old radio on and chat with a dead girl every day would be sort of hard to believe.  So, as I see it, we need another way to help her.”

“Do you have an idea?” Kelly aske
d hopefully.

“I don’t want to say right now . . .
I have a little more work to do first.  Kelly, here are the specifications for the cell phone and carrier that you need to get this weekend when your aunt takes you shopping.”  As he talked, he wrote in very neat printing a list of features on a page of his notebook.  “It must be exactly like this.  Do not vary one little bit. Okay?”  Scott tore the page out, folded it and handed it to Kelly.

“Okay.
”  Kelly didn’t object since she knew absolutely nothing about cell phones anyway, so any advice would help.

“You have to go to
the Cell Hut at the Edison Mall and ask for Dave Reed.  Got that?”

“Yes.
”

“
He understands what I’m asking for and won’t try and sell you something else.  I’ll set the phone up for you, but don’t let anyone talk you into anything except just what’s on that paper.”

Kelly and Austin glance
d at each other and rolled their eyes.

“Okay, okay . . .
got it.”  Kelly stuffed the paper into the pocket of her shorts.  She’d almost forgotten that tomorrow was the big shopping day.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

SATURDAY

Kelly walked in
to the kitchen and was startled to find her aunt sitting at the island, drinking coffee and checking messages on her Blackberry.  She was dressed in shorts, a sleeveless blouse and sandals.  Outside the sky was dark, brightened by occasional lightning bolts and punctuated with rumbles of thunder.  Rain poured with a tropical intensity, dumping out of the over-flowing gutters in sheets, all of which probably explained the absence of her bird friend this morning.

“Morning
,” Kelly said, wiping the sleep from her eyes.  “Are we in the middle of a hurricane?”

“No, just a Florida summer thunderstorm.  It won’t last long.”

“You didn’t go to work today?”

“I thought we should get an early start.”

Kelly was pleased that her aunt had taken time from her busy schedule to do something so trivial.  It meant a lot to her.

“You ready to head out?”
her aunt asked.

“Sure am.  Where to?”

“First, the Oasis.  They serve breakfast all day, so it works well on weekends when I’m up late and can’t get moving early enough.  I think you’ll like it.”

“Sounds good.”

“We’ll go to the Edison Mall after that.  They have everything there, including cell phones.  Ready?”

Kelly got up and followed her
aunt out the door.  Last night she had showed her the specifics of the cell phone Scott had recommended, and her aunt had had no objections.  She, like Kelly, wasn’t too tech savvy when it came to cell phones.  It seemed that a new technology came out every week, making them obsolete almost instantly.  That’s why Jane clung to her reliable old-school Blackberry.  She said she and it understood each other.

Oasis was a charming Florida-style restaurant
with lots of windows and live plants.  They were seated in a booth and while they were waiting for their food, Kelly filled her aunt in on what she knew about Scott and Austin’s families.

“Why don’t we invite them over for a cook-out tomorrow
evening?” her aunt suggested.  “I think it’s my duty to get to know your friends better . . . not that I don’t trust them.  They seem like really nice boys.  But for all I know, their parents are axe murderers.”