T*Witches: Building a Mystery (9 page)

Alex never had
heard
what Madison was thinking.

"Can we please go inside now?" Beth asked. "It's getting way too freaky-deaky out here."

"You guys go on. I'm cutting out," Alex told her. "I'll meet you later. At the food court."

"Alex, don't," Cam said. "We're not supposed to."

"Supposed to what?" Beth asked.

"Date," Cam said,
Especially not
, she added silently for Alex's benefit,
strangers.

"We're only strangers 'cause I haven't had a chance to get to know him better. See you in fast-food heaven," she called to her sister and Beth. "At Hamburger Heaven, a million sold; only two digested."

Any doubts that she had about Cade were forgotten the moment she caught sight of him.

He was leaning against the ice machine, checking out the Galleria trekkers. Lanky and cool in a black tee, clean jeans, and biker boots, his dark hair flopped casually forward onto his brow, framing those clear, blue-sky eyes.

"Hey." Alex raised her hand in greeting.

"Hey, yourself," Cade said, taking her hand and drawing her close. Although the relationship—if that's what you could call it—was new, somehow Cade must have known it would be all right. His lips brushed hers. And the buzz stayed in her ears and vibrated on her lips so wonderful and loud that Alex could hardly hear what he was saying.

"...or just wander around?" was the part she tuned in to.

"Sure," she said. "Let's wander. And talk."

"Oh, no, not that," Cade kidded. He was still holding her hand. "Anything but that."

"But we have to talk," Alex teased back. "I mean, I can't read your mind; how else will I find out what you're thinking?"

"Believe me, you wouldn't want to," he assured her. "I don't even want to."

Want to or not, it didn't matter. No matter how intensely she concentrated, Cade's mind was all crackling babble again. Alex couldn't break through the static.

"You start," he suggested. "What's on your mind?"

"Well, first thing," she said, looking around, "I'd like to check out some tunes."

"Done," Cade said, his hand on her back, warm, firm, steering her across the mall into the blue-tinted bubble-flashing music megastore.

They walked up and down the aisles, until Alex came to the section she wanted. Cade waited while she shuffled through some CDs. "So how do you like school? Being new and all." He grinned. "See what a cool conversationalist I am?"

"Brutally chill." Alex laughed, then shrugged. "It's okay."

"Your sister's really into it. How come she knows so many kids if you guys just moved here?"

"Long, weird story. Cam's lived in Marble Bay all her life. I'm from Montana. I just got here this summer—"

"Get out." Cade was incredulous. "But you guys are identical twins. I mean, you've even go the same necklace—"

"It's not the same," Alex said, lifting the amulet so that he could see it. "Mine is a moon charm. Cam's got a sun."

Cade took the pendant from her fingers and turned it over.
Nice
, he said sincerely.

Sincerely? How did she now that?

Because he hadn't said it aloud, Alex realized. He'd thought it. She'd done it again! She'd gotten past his chaotic jabbering. Or maybe it was the necklace, the charm that had done it. The moment Cade touched it his mind had opened to her.

And now she heard him think,
Oh, no. There's Robins.

Alex looked up. Edgar Robins was a couple of aisles away. "Oh, there's Eddie," she said, as if she hadn't heard Cade's thoughts. "I ran into him before. He just got out of juvie. Someone from school sprang him. I don't know why anyone would do that. I mean, everyone thinks he robbed your house."

"Yeah," Cade said, rubbing the moon charm with his thumb. And then,
But he didn't. Man, I wish he had. I've got to get out of here.
"Hey, how about...?"

"A slice?" Alex asked, making it easy for him. "I'd love some pizza."

Unexpectedly, Cade hugged her. "You read my mind." He laughed. As they left the store, he slung an arm over her shoulder; his hand, on the back of her neck, idly touched the necklace chain.

Alex was torn. Every move Cade made sizzled inside her. Every thought he had dumped ice water on that fire. He was thinking right now. Thinking... something noisy. A racing engine. Screeching tires.

She wished Cam were here. Cam could describe things that had gone unsaid.

Then, all of a sudden, Alex recognized the noise.

A car! The red convertible Cam had pictured. The speeding car that had hit the little boy.

"Do you drive?" she asked as they crossed the mall, heading for the gourmet pizza shop. "I mean, have you got your license yet?"

He seemed startled. "No," he said. "But that is amazing. I was just thinking about... about a car."

"Hmmm." Alex put her hand to her forehead, swami style, and pretended to be concentrating deeply. "A car. A blue... no, wait. A red car, am I right?"

His hand tightened on the back of her neck. "Well, yeah..." he said cautiously.

"Convertible?" Alex asked. But she was sickeningly sure now. "A red convertible sports car."

My sister's car,
his scurrying mind was saying.
Karen's BMW. How does she know?

"The little boy," Alex said abruptly. "What happened to him?"

Cade freaked. "Cut it out," he hollered, leaping back. "What are you, a witch or something?"

"I guess," she answered, relieved.

He didn't know she was a witch!

Warmth flooded her again, replacing the breathless chill she'd gotten when she thought Cade might be the messenger.

But the little boy... the little boy who'd been hit by his sister's car meant more to her now.

"Is it her child? Your sister's?" she asked him.

He shook his head no.

Again Alex wished Cam were here to see what she could not. Thinking of her twin, she mindlessly toyed with her necklace—feeling, on the mottled face of the half-moon, the delicate dents Aron's hammer had left.

What had Karsh called it? An amulet, a sacred charm. The sacred charm her father had made for her. Her father.

She'd always known that Ike Fielding, with his stupid get-rich schemes, big talk, and bad debts, could not have been her real father.

And then her thoughts were interrupted by a steady, pulsing hiss. Shoes squeaking on a linoleum floor. Rubber-soled shoes. Efficient shoes. Like the ones the nurses taking care of Sara had worn. Steady beeps. A monitoring machine.

"The little boy—he's in a hospital."

Cade stared at her. Gone was the pleasure, the warmth she'd seen in his bright eyes. Fear had replaced it. Fear and then shame as he nodded yes. The boy, the child his sister's car had hit, was in the hospital.

"I... I've got to go. I'm sorry," Cade said, flustered, angry, ashamed. "I've got to get out of here."

Alex watched him stride away, caught a last glimpse of him as he disappeared into the crowd at the mall.

Alex, I'm waiting. Let's go, girl. Where are you?

She looked around. No one she recognized was near.

Hello.
Impatient, sarcastic.
Alexandra. We're at the food court.

No one she knew called her Alexandra. Except Madison. Ugh. The girl really was a pain.

But the summons Alex had just heard. It hadn't been spoken aloud. It had been
sent
. So it couldn't have been Madison.

Could it?

"Lucky you, you just missed your biggest fan," Beth said as Alex approached their table at the food court. Cam's willowy best was munching her way through an order of French fries.

"Who, Cade?" Alex asked hopefully.

"Not exactly," Beth answered, licking ketchup off her fingertips. "Weren't you with him?"

"Madison," Cam told her. "She was waiting for you. Then all of a sudden, she split. You know how antsy she is."

"Did you, um... call me?" Alex asked her twin.

I did
, Cam answered her sister.
You were late. I was worried.
Taking in Alex's flushed face, she forgot herself and asked aloud, "What happened? What's wrong?"

Alex couldn't answer with Beth staring at her. "Nothing." She reached over to Beth's plate and snagged a handful of fries. To Cam, privately she announced,
We have so got to talk!

While Alex sucked down the filched fries like strands of spaghetti, Cam felt a headache coming on. It was the one she always got when the visions started. Closing her eyes, she saw, in a series of lightning flashes, Cade Richman's horrified face, the speeding red convertible, an oxygen tent set up in a hospital room, and Madison Knudnick grinning impishly.
Whoa, girl.
Cam's eyes flew open.
You are throwing way too much at me at once.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"Cam's right. You don't look all that well," Beth answered. Pushing back from the table, she gathered up the shopping bags mobbed at her feet. "We'd better boogie. My mother's probably waiting for us—"

Cam started to get up. Alex stopped her. "I told Mom we'd be taking the bus," Alex said.

"Mom?" Cam was flummoxed. "Excuse me?"

Hello. I was trying to sound normal
, her sister informed her.

How are you spelling that, D-O-R-K?

Actually, yes,
Alex sniped back.

Beth shrugged. "Suit yourself, Armani. Text you later."

They were barely on the bus when Alex began to unload on Cam. "Okay, first of all, you were right, right, right. Eddie was telling the truth. About not robbing Cade's house, anyway. Don't ask me how, but Cade knows that Eddie didn't do it—"

"You read him!" Cam squealed, delighted.

"It wasn't easy. Until he started fooling with my necklace and then, open sesame noodles, I knew what he was thinking. And one of the things was that red convertible you saw. It's a—"

"BMW," Cam said. "Of course."

"It's his sister's car. Nelly Nutso... only her name's Karen. And Cami, the little boy. She did hit him, or whoever was driving that car did. And he's not dead!"

"Is he the one who's in the oxygen tent, in the hospital room?

"He's definitely in a hospital. But I don't know which one or where. I don't even know where the accident happened. Do you?"

Cam shook her head. "Dark road, that's all I saw. Dark road, the red blur, top down, headlights, a kid running—"

"And I heard the laughing," Alex added. "Coming from the car. And then the screams and the... the sound, the terrible sound, when they hit... the boy, I guess. But why would a little kid be running across a dark road? Was he alone? You didn't see his mom or anyone with him? I mean, maybe if you try—"

"Oh, no," Cam said forcefully. "Give me a break. I don't want to go back there now. My head's just starting to feel better."

"Well, what are we going to do? I mean, I didn't
see
any of it. The hospital room, Cami. Can you zone in on, you know, like a chart or something? Those plastic bracelets they wear? If we just had the kid's name, then we could check out hospitals until we find him."

"And when we do? I know what you're thinking—that we could save him, cure him, fix his bones or brain or whatever is wrong with him. But this is a person, a child, a real human being, Alex. He's not—"

"I know, I know." They had fixed things before. Things, not people. Cam using her phenomenal sun power and Alex the amazing hearing that told her what was happening in the dark. Together, they'd bent iron to their will. But could they mend a broken boy the same way?

Alex turned her back, looked out the bus window—as if that would hide her doubts from Cam. They said nothing for a time. Then, when they were almost at their stop, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Its touch sent an icy shiver through her.

"Karsh did say we were born healers—"

Alex twisted around and stared at her look-alike. Cam's eyes were unfocused, barely open. She was squinting in pain. "And that we're supposed to help people," she said, her voice shaking.

"You did it." Alex wrapped her arms around her shivering sister. "You went back. You found him."

"Not really." Cam shook her head. "I found his name. N. Tung, I think. I don't know which hospital. But the room... The beds are all in a circle with partitions but no doors. The nursing station is in the middle of the room. I saw 'ICU' and a girl with a cart... She was wearing this pink apron and talking to a nurse."

"A cart?" Alex asked.

"You know, with juice, magazines—"

"Stuff that candy stripers give out?"

"The apron!" Cam remembered. "That's what 'Manda wore last year when she volunteered at Mount Bay Medical!"

"And ICU stands for Intensive Care Unit. He must be in bad shape," Alex said dully, remembering that her mother—no, Sara, she reminded herself, feeling tears welling, blurring her sight. Sara had died in a long, crowded ward down the hall from the brightly lit, carefully monitored Intensive Care Unit.

Alex realized that she was still hugging Cam. Feeling dumb, she let go, but her sister clung to her.

"Als," Cam whispered. "What are we supposed to do? I don't know anything about healing—"

"He said herbs," Alex recalled. Closing her eyes, she rested her chin on Cam's head, on a cushion of clean, thick auburn hair.
Get to know your herbs and flowers,
Doc had told her back in Crow Creek—Doc, whose real name was Karsh.
Study your crystals and stones. You've already got a flair for incantation—

But which herbs and flowers, crystals and stones, which incantations or spells would they need to help a very sick little boy?

"The only herbs I know anything about are herbal bath foams and shower gels," Cam confessed. The bus lurched to a stop. "O.M.G., this is us." She jumped up, banging Alex's chin. Then, grabbing her hand and hauling her to her feet, Cam dragged her sister off the bus.

Ten minutes later they were racing up the stairs to their room, when Emily called, "Alex, that boy phoned. Cade Richman. He's been calling every ten minutes for the last half hour. He left his number."

"I don't want to talk to him," Alex replied, not even stopping.

"Cade called and you're not interested?" Cam asked when they were in their room.

"I'm annoyed at him," Alex decided. "He knows Eddie didn't steal money from his house. I heard him thinking that Eddie didn't do it. So why didn't he tell the police that, instead of getting his dad to pay Eddie's bail? I mean, that's pretty lame."

"Cade's dad is the one who bailed Eddie out?"

"Looks that way. I mean, Cade wouldn't have the cash. However bustable Eddie is, if he didn't rob Cade's place, he doesn't deserve to go to jail for it—"

"I've got it," Cam shouted, digging in her knapsack for her cell phone. " 'Manda."

" 'Manda what?" Alex asked, miffed at the quick convo switch.

"She's into all this alterna-stuff—especially herbs, right?"

"But she's not a witch," Alex reminded her.

"Do you have a better idea? Got Karsh's digits? Or Ileana's? I'd love to call them but, duh, I don't think they're listed."

The phone rang the minute Cam laid hands on it. "Amanda?" she asked.

"Whoops, another rank mojo failure," Bree laughed. "But you get partial points. She's here. We're at Sukari's. Scoop time, Cam-era. Someone from school broke Eddie out of juvie!"

"Saw him. Talked to him. Galleria. Today," Cam announced. "Put 'Manda on, please."

Alex rolled her eyes and plopped down on her bed. Then she jumped back up again. The crystal Karsh had shown her after Sara's funeral... when he'd said that Alex would make an excellent healer... where was it? Had she seen it in her duffel bag?

While Cam grilled Amanda, Alex searched the beat-up canvas carrier Karsh had packed for her. And found the faceted pink gemstone.

She drew it out, feeling it grow warm in her hand. It reminded her of that terrible day, the funeral, the wrenching loss of Sara... Tenderly, Alex rubbed the heated crystal with her thumb. And thought suddenly of violets—Sara's flower.

Violets, mint, chamomile,
she heard. Karsh's raspy voice whispered the names of the medicinal plants.
Rosemary for contentment. Sage, of course. It gets its name from the Latin word for healing. Thyme, to inspire courage.

The voice changed abruptly.
Oh, for goodness' sake!
The edgy, crooning complaint could only be Ileana's.
Get your sister off the phone. Now. She knows where the herbs grow.

"What about the boy?" Alex asked, revolving slowly, looking around the room, checking the ceiling. "Where is he?"

Do I look like OnStar?
Ileana sounded indignant.
Use a little ingenuity. Let your fingers do the walking. Try the telephone book.

"Excuse me. What are you doing?" Cam put her phone on pause. She was staring at Alex, alarmed.

"Hang up," Alex told her. "Now!" She dived for the Yellow Pages stashed under Cam's night table and started riffling through the book, looking for hospitals.

Cam's gray eyes blazed rebelliously. But she said, "Thanks, 'Manda. I think I've got it all. BBGF.

"BBGF?" Alex didn't look up from the phone book.

"Bye-Bye Girl Friend," Cam said coldly. "Amanda recommends chamomile, mint, and thyme."

Alex hid her astonishment. "Three out of six. Not bad," she said evenly. "Did she tell you where to get them?"

"I don't need Amanda to tell me," Cam declared. "I know where to go."

Mariner's Park was at its most peaceful in late afternoon. Though it was still light out, by five o'clock the families who used the playground and sailboat pond had gone home—as had the checkers and chess players and the bystanders who commented on their every move. The elderly had evacuated their benches and the teens who gathered after dinner had not yet assembled.

Alex and Cam walked along the pebbled path in silence for a time. They had checked the three hospitals listed in the phone book. One of them, Mount Bay Medical—the hospital where Amanda had been a candy striper for a summer—had a patient named N. Tung. Nguyen Thanh Tung, a little Vietnamese boy. "We call him Nelson," the ICU nurse had told them. "He doesn't know that, of course. Cutest little fella you ever saw, but he's still in a coma. I'm going to miss him."

Cam had gulped, thinking the nurse meant Nguyen was going to die—until the woman added, "They're moving him to a private room as soon as one becomes available."

"Here it is," Cam said, breaking the silence. They turned onto a dirt trail that wound through trees and brambles up to the park's highest point, a hidden, gently sloping field that offered an awesome view of the harbor below. At the center of that secluded meadow was a thick, weathered elm tree.

In that hidden place, under that ancient tree, Cam had often found solitude and serenity. The sweet perfume of thyme, which carpeted the meadow, pleased her senses, as did the tufts of wild mint and chamomile and violets nestled among the stones and pungent, prickly sprigs of rosemary... The little field was rampant with soothing herbs and wildflowers, which, up until today, Cam had simply thought of as pleasant plants.

Whether listening to music or writing in her journal or just staring up at the clouds or out at the water, it was one of the few places in Marble Bay where Cam was perfectly content alone. She'd shared her private haven with only one other person—Alex.