Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4) (40 page)

Once the rest of the mess was cleaned up, Clay and I
went to the front window to observe the rain.
It was nothing
short of torrential. I hadn’t seen rain that heavy since the day
Hurricane Erica swept through Charlotte’s Grove. That thought
inevitably led to memories of what happened to me later that
night. I hadn’t thought—let alone spoken—of that incident in
detail in a long time.
I never really wanted to either but for
some reason, I felt compelled to talk about it now.

Clay knew the basics of the story but I’d never shared
with
him
the
more personal
aspects
of the haunting
at
Rosewood. The emotional aspects—the fear, the loneliness, the
pain I felt inside—were things I kept locked deep inside of me.
That’s where I thought they would stay but they obviously
needed to come out.
And they came rushing out of me in a
metaphorical flood.

I got so deeply entrenched in my account that Clay had
to remind me that it was time to close the store. With only one
customer and zero sales, all I really needed to do was lock the
door and put the till into the safe.
While my hands were more
occupied than my mouth, Clay pointed something out to me.

“You’re a pretty good detective, you know that? You’re
good at piecing together clues and stuff. If it weren’t for the
fact that my killers are still alive and a danger to you, I’m
positive you would have had some answers for me by now. I
mean, all you did was wander around your own house and you
solved a hundred year old mystery without ever questioning
anyone involved.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, dumbfounded that I hadn’t
thought of that idea myself. “I know you hate it there but we
need to spend some time at Silver Lake.”

“Why?” Clay asked with doubt in his voice.

“Spending time in the place where you died might be all
you need to jog your memory about what happened that night.
We don’t really need to solve the mystery for anyone other
than you. I don’t have to put my life in danger by pointing
fingers at suspects—all you need is some closure so you can
move on.”

“But you seem to forget that before I met you, that’s
all
I
did—hang out surrounded by memories of my own death. It
didn’t help me before, what makes you think it will be any
different now?”

I finished what I was doing, found an umbrella I could
borrow, then waved it at him as though I were wielding a magic
wand. “Because before, you didn’t have me.” With a flourish of
my wrist, I cast my spell. “May Clay remember what happened
that day!”

I knew he couldn’t resist my charm using either sense
of the word. He wanted to, but he couldn’t. “Yes, Dom. When
do you want to do this?”

“We’re doing it right now, silly.”

 

“Are you serious? Have you taken a single look outside
that window today? It’s still pouring out there!”

“It’s not about what I see out there—it’s about what I
don’t
see out there. No Buick. Which means we need to do this
while they’re not around, rain or no rain.” I opened the front
door a crack, just enough to stick the umbrella outside before
pushing its button. There was no need to tempt fate by putting
it up indoors.

“You’re going to get drenched, Ruby. That umbrella is
going to soak through before we even get to the car.”

“But you aren’t going to feel a drop of it and I give you
full permission to make fun of me when it happens.” I popped
out onto the sidewalk and turned the key in the lock. “And
besides, it isn’t like you have any choice in the matter. You go
where your dom goes.”

“Yes, Dom,” Clay said with a bow of his head. “But first
you have to admit that I was right about the Buick. It wasn’t
following you—it was following your car.”

“Yes, Master, you were right,” I said begrudgingly as we
got into the car. I started the engine excitedly, having no idea at
the time that I was right on schedule for the moment that
would change everything.

26. Hell and High Water

Daisy slogged down the road at a snail’s pace—and not
simply because the car was barely bigger than a snail. The rain
was terrible and the wipers barely made the road visible even
on full tilt. I couldn’t drive more than ten miles an hour before
starting to hydroplane. Every car I passed along the highway
blasted its horn at me.
I knew the car I was driving looked
ridiculous but did they really have to point that out at a time
like this?

Clay tried to convince me to drive home and do this
some other day but I refused. Once I got an idea in my head, it
was next to impossible for me to change my mind on the
matter. I couldn’t change the fact that I got laughed right out of
the police station but I
could
make myself feel better about it by
discovering the truth. The wet, soggy truth.

I could barely read the sign to Silver Lake as we pulled
off the main road and onto the dirt path leading down to the
water. Ten miles an hour was a now unachievable dream. I
drove in at that speed and immediately hit a pool of water that
was wider than the car itself.
As we bounced back out of the
rain-filled gully, one of Daisy’s eyelashes dislodged and hung
limply below her eye. Rachel was going to kill me.

The further down the road we traveled, the worse it
became. I literally could have walked down to the lake faster
than I was driving there. When Clay suggested one more time
that we give up on my plan for the night, I agreed. Sort of.

“Turn around, Ruby. This is insane.
If it keeps raining
like this, this road is going to wash out and we’ll get this car
stuck here for who knows how long.”

“I know, Clay. As soon as we get to the end of the road,
I’m going to turn around and head back. I knew that it rained
hard all day long but I never realized the road would be this
bad down here.”

“Don’t go any further—turn around right here. I’m
telling you, we need to get out of here ASAP!
Who knows, the
road might be the least of our worries. We haven’t had a
completely dry day in weeks—that lake could be ready to
overflow.”

I started to panic a little.
Okay, I started to panic a lot.
The road was filled with watery spots that I was afraid to drive
through. Turning around in the middle of the road would be
impossible to do without steering right into one.
When I
explained why I was
going
to wait to turn
around, Clay
mumbled something that thoroughly pissed me off.

“Women drivers!”

I brought the car to a halt and sat there letting it idle
while I barked out a very insensitive command. “Fine. You can
drive instead then.” Time for the second annual Angerpalooza.

He stared at me with disbelief. “Girls are mean—
way
meaner than guys could ever think of being!
You sound just
like Sophie did the last time I talked her. Cold and vindictive.
When she didn’t get her way, look out. Even after I promised
her that I would get out of the drug business before the baby
was born, that
still
wasn’t enough for her. I couldn’t do it
my
way—
my
way wasn’t good enough. If I didn’t do it that night,
she
swore
that she would disappear somewhere where I would
never find either of them. And then the bitch hung up on me.”

OMG.
Goodbye, Angerpalooza.
Hello, Answerpalooza.
“Did you hear what you just said, Clay? Did you hear that? You
remembered! You remembered something from the night you
died!”

It took a minute for it to sink in.
It took a minute for
him to cast away his anger long enough to analyze his own
words.
But once it did, it sank all the way to the bottom.
And
he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“I’m a Dad, Ruby! I’m a Dad!” he bounced up and down
in his seat like a child himself.

“Congratulations!” I exclaimed, stunned myself by the
information that he’d just pulled out of his subconscious. Then
I remembered what I found when I Googled Sophie’s name and
my excitement drained. But I couldn’t tell Clay about it yet—I
couldn’t risk having that information block or taint his
memories. “Do you remember anything else about that night?”

“I’m not sure that I need to, Ruby! I want to find Sophie
now. I want to see my baby.”

I fumbled for a response. This was a delicate situation.
On one hand, I felt like this might be the right time to tell him
what I knew about Sophie. On the other hand, telling him could
make him not want to remember anything else about the night
he died. I didn’t want to block his memories but it wouldn’t be
fair for me to give him
false hope.
Fully
aware that my
hesitance wasn’t going to help in the matter, I quickly decided
what to say.

“We can’t go looking for her now—you know that. It’s
still raining and we’re going to have a hard enough time getting
home. We’ll go to Ohio soon—Scout’s Honor.
Right now, you
need to concentrate and see if any other memories surface. I
need you more than she does.”

Clay’s demeanor changed in a flash. “Ruby, I’m sorry. I
just got so excited by what I remembered that I didn’t stop to
think about how it would affect you.
I—,” he paused midsentence, “I’m sorry.”

Our conversation was getting complex. Was he on the
same page that I was? I was afraid to ask. I could no longer
hold eye contact with him—it was too intense and I felt bad for
keeping vital information from him. A glance out the window
revealed that the once torrential rain had slacked off a bit. We
couldn’t stay long but I figured that we could at least take
advantage of a few semi-dry moments and press forward with
our mission.

“Apology accepted,” I replied curtly as I put the car in
drive. “Let’s see if you remember anything more.”

Clay gave no objections as I slowly made my way down
the road. When the lake became visible, we both gave a slight
gasp. While it was nowhere near to overflowing, the rain had
noticeably caused it to swell since the last time we were there.
I got a bad feeling—and not the usual kind either.
Silver Lake
looked bloated as though it had swallowed countless bodies—
and was still hungry for more.

I steered Daisy into the parking lot carefully and as far
from the water’s edge as the overflowing potholes would allow.
Two people who were afraid of drowning were caught in a
storm only feet from the lake where one of them actually
did
drown. This plan made perfect sense. Why didn’t I ever realize
what poor decision making skills I had until it was too late?

And by too late, what I really mean is that I drove too
close to one of the giant puddles and Daisy sunk in on the
passenger side. With a triumphant splash of muddy water, the
engine sputtered and died. There was no way to see the bright
side of this because there
was
no bright side. We were stuck.

Even with Clay’s abundant knowledge of cars and how
to fix them, he only had one thing to offer.

 

“If I were alive, I could push us out of this trench but
even then, the engine’s flooded.”

“If you were alive,” I retorted, “We wouldn’t be stuck
here. But thanks for trying.” It was going to have to be Zach or
Dad to the rescue—preferably Zach.
He would be less likely to
yell at me for my stupidity. I was well aware—
now
—of how
stupid it was for me to drive down here in the first place. Time
to pull out the helpless girlfriend routine. That was an area I
had lots of practice in.

When I took a look at my phone, I realized that I was
about to get more experience at it than I ever hoped to have.
No reception.
At first, I thought that maybe it was because of
how remote and surrounded by trees the lake was. It wouldn’t
be a pleasant task, but I assumed that I at least might catch a
bar or two if I got out and walked around a bit. Then I noticed
something.
The
text I sent
to Zach
hours
ago
and
never
received a reply to had actually not even been sent at all. The
rain must have knocked out cell service to the entire area the
same way it did the night of the hurricane—the night I almost
drowned.

A prickly feeling of foreboding overtook me but I tried
not to panic. This sense of déjà vu was a result of seeing that
file and telling Clay the story of my near death—not a warning
that something bad was about to happen again. Optimism was
not my forte but I squeezed out every ounce of it I possessed.
And then some. I typed out a quick SOS anyway and hit send.

“Ruby, I think more memories are trying to surface. We
need to get out of the car. I need to go take a look at something
while we wait for help to get here.”

“No, Clay, I don’t have any cell service. Help isn’t
coming. The only help I have is you. Rosewood isn’t that far
but it’s going to be dark soon. We need to start walking. Now.”

“Please, Ruby? It will just take me a minute—I swear.”

 

I shook my head no until he said the magic words.

 

“Scout’s Honor.”

There was
something
about the innocence of that
phrase and the way he said it that I couldn’t resist. It softened
his bad boy exterior in a way that made me feel like I was
seeing the real Clay, the Clay he would have been if he’d had a
better start in life. So I caved.

“Fine,” I conceded and reached for the umbrella.
“Seriously, though, five minutes and that’s it.” I tapped my
finger on my phone to indicate that I was going to be timing it.
“Clock’s ticking—let’s go before time runs out.”