Whirlwind (25 page)

Linda finally stopped talking. Had she heard him?

“You’re in your car, right?”

“Yes. How about I call you later, okay?”

Jason didn’t even try to hide his laugh this time, and I slapped his shoulder.

“Hold on, Melissa. Are you alone?”

Busted. “No.”

Silence…then Linda’s angry voice. “Quit stalling. Who’s with you?
Where
are you?” I knew she’d call me until she’d figured out why I was avoiding her, but I wasn’t going to cave that easily.

I answered one of her questions. “I’m just pulling into
Ventura
.”

Jason snorted.

“
Ventura
? You didn’t go home last night?”

I didn’t bother to answer, counting to twelve before she spoke.

“Melissa, you
didn’t!
Mitch said you were joking around about sleeping with his brother…it
wasn’t
a joke, was it?”

Thanks, Mitch.
I sighed and changed lanes, avoiding Jason’s arched eyebrow and smug grin.

“No, it was anything but a joke,” Jason answered happily, and I groaned. “Best wishes to you and Chase, by the way,” he added.

There was another long pause on the line. “Hello,
Jay-son
,” Linda sing-
songed
. “I thought
you
were heading back to school today.”

“I changed my plans after the incident at the hotel. Melissa shouldn’t be alone right now.” He put his hand on my shoulder, suddenly serious.

“How nice,” she said suspiciously. “Wait, what incident?”

“You’re not going to believe this, Linda,” I started, quickly detailing the murder and probable involvement of Ron.

“No way! You must be terrified! He touched your
things?”
The rising pitch of her voice got my own heart racing.

“The cops will get him—they probably already know who he is. Don’t worry,” I said. Seeing an exit, I pulled off the freeway. Maybe a cold drink could calm the knots bouncing around in my stomach. “Just out of curiosity, does Chase still have his bow tie?”

“Yes, I took it off him myself in the limo. Why?” she asked.

I explained how Jason’s bow tie was stolen and left with the body. “
Slimeball
Ron got a really good look at Chase too,” I said. “Just be careful, okay?” I couldn’t see how Ron could find them at
Disneyland
, but better safe than sorry.

“Don’t worry about us. I’ve got my own pepper spray, remember?” she laughed.

I
did
remember, and suddenly my hands began to tremble. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel.

“Listen, Linda, I’ve got to take a break from driving. I’ll call you soon to get the full story of your night at
Disneyland
, okay? Catch you later.”

I abruptly pulled into the parking lot of a hamburger joint and slammed the car into park with a jerk.

“Okay, Melissa. Be careful yourself. You too, Jason. I’ll talk to you guys later.”

It took me two tries to push
End
, Jason’s worried stare making the task even harder.

He reached over and turned off the car, then unbuckled and faced me. “You’re shaking all over, Melissa,” he said, taking my hand in his. “What’s wrong?”

“I know what Ron took out of my purse. My pepper spray. He
is
coming after me.” Paranoid, I checked my mirrors, as if he could be right behind us.

Jason leaned over and put his arm around me. “He won’t get near you, Melissa. I promise. He doesn’t know where you are, and you said yourself there’s no way he can find you. It’ll be okay.”

His voice was low and calm. Only a hint of fear lurked around the corners of his eyes. “Let’s get something to eat, and then why don’t you let me drive for a while? You can call Detective Clark and tell him what you remembered.” He cradled my cheek in his hand and kissed me very softly. “It’ll be fine, trust me.”

I let my head fall onto his shoulder and closed my eyes, trying to muster my common sense.

Jason was right, of course. How
could
Ron find me? I took a deep breath.

“Thanks,” I said, wishing there was a better way to tell him how grateful I was he’d stayed. Somehow I’d make it through this mess, with Jason’s help. I tried not to think about what would happen when he left on Friday.

What would I do then?

Eleven

After a basket of fries and a large Diet Coke, I calmed down. Jason took the wheel, and I called Detective Clark—Tim, he reminded me—and told him about my missing pepper spray. He noted it and gave me a brief update on the progress of the investigation.

In the few hours since we’d left
L.A.
, the police had confirmed unknown fingerprints on my driver’s license and phone. The computer was currently trying to match them to a name. San Jose Police had put a remote surveillance unit in front of Mom’s house in case Ron, or anyone else suspicious, showed up there. Tim assured us we were safe and promised to call if he found out any more information. All we could do now was wait.

After I relayed the information to Jason, he immediately changed the subject. “So what’s next on the things-we-should-know-about-each-other list?”

The road took us inland again, away from the ocean and
Santa Barbara
’s offshore oil rigs. “I know,” I said and retrieved my stack of newspapers from the back seat. “How about ‘what are you reading right now?’”

“I just started a Clancy novel. Spies and suspense are probably my favorite, but I’ve read a lot of different things over the years.” He looked past me at the dead grass covering the rolling hills and frowned. “I’d forgotten how dry things are here. One thing I’ll miss about
Michigan
is the green. It’s much different than all this brown.”

I giggled. “It’s not brown, it’s
golden
. The
Golden
State
, remember?”

He rolled his eyes.

The rest of his statement took longer to register in my brain. “You’re leaving
Michigan
?”

“Once I graduate in August, I’ll be going on to medical school. U of M has one—a very good one—but I’ve applied to several around the country. I’m hoping to get into USC so I can come back to
California
. Brown or golden, I miss it here; and now I have even more reason to come home.” He reached a hand out to me, and I felt the blood rise in my cheeks as I took it. “So what do
you
like to read, besides the news?”

I gave his hand a squeeze and then released it. “Murder mysteries mostly. Christie, Parker, Grafton, you know. I occasionally hit the sci-fi and fantasy sections, though, and I’ll admit I’ve read all of Harry Potter.”

I looked down at the papers in my lap. “The news is my favorite, though.” The
Los Angeles Times
was still on the top of the stack, and the same article I’d read yesterday stared up at me. “I wonder if this is the murder Detective Clark thinks might be connected to Vanessa. Kerry Stanton was a USC student who was strangled in a similar way, with her sorority scarf conspicuously left behind.”

“It could be, but USC isn’t in the best neighborhood, you know. What sorority did she belong to?” Jason asked.

I scanned the article. “Theta Pi.”

Jason’s hand became motionless. “Ann’s a Theta Pi,” he said quietly.

“Maybe that’s how Ron ended up at the hotel. I bet everyone at the sorority knew about the wedding,” I said.

Did Ron learn about the wedding from Kerry? He’d said he was “a friend of a friend of the bride”—and he had an invitation. My stomach turned. Was that
her
invitation he’d been flashing around?

Jason shook his head as he looked out at the road. “I’m sure Detective Clark figured that out when he talked to Tricia. She’s a Theta Pi too. I want to find out more about you, not do his job.”

Keeping one eye ahead, he slid a different section out of the pile in my lap. The sports page landed on the top. “There’s a much more important topic we need to discuss before this relationship can go any further,” he said ominously.

My muscles tensed.
First he mentions Tee, and now this?

“What’s your favorite baseball team?”

I mirrored Jason’s somber tone, hiding my relief. “The Giants, of course. You’re
not
a Dodger fan, are you?”
Damn, he isn’t perfect after all.

His face fell. “I’m sorry, Melissa. I thought we had something special going.” He couldn’t maintain his false disappointment for long, though, and chuckled. “There had to be something we don’t agree on.”

“Oh, Jason, the
Dodgers?
How could you?”
I wailed dramatically, throwing the back of my hand against my forehead, à la Scarlett O’Hara. Two seconds later we exploded with laughter. It felt good to laugh with him, so easy and natural.

After I caught my breath, Jason asked what I’d be doing over the summer and beyond.

I quickly ticked off my plans: summer with Mom, internship in the fall, graduation next spring. He listened intently, glancing at me often. I could tell he was curious, but something else lurked in his eyes. I had no luck reading
his
mind, however.

He caught me staring and changed the subject again, asking about my favorite movies. When we discovered our mutual love of
The Princess Bride
, we traded so many quotes we ended up reciting most of the script.

Before I knew it we pulled into Santa Lucia. I directed Jason to the closest market so we could restock my bare pantry. Luckily, I hadn’t packed up the kitchen yet.

Walking through the grocery store with Jason was surreal. I’d pushed a metal shopping cart down these aisles a hundred times, listened to the same annoying music, shivered in front of the same freezers, and selected the same generic ingredients—always alone. Now he was here with me, and I was suddenly aware of how even this mundane task changed with his presence.

His eyes drank in everything, watching with marked interest while I chose a bottle of spaghetti sauce, as if it would give him some great insight into my being. We discussed the pros and cons of bagged salad as well as the economy of fresh parmesan versus canned. When I struggled to reach a jar of capers on the top shelf, Jason smiled and brushed his finger across my cheek before handing them to me.

He was constantly renewing that contact: a touch on my hand, a caress across my back, a whisper in my ear. The thing that scared me the most was how
right
it felt having him with me, and the déjà vu of my first vision of Jason returned. I could see us repeating this scene together for years to come.

It could happen! If he gets into USC and you got an internship in
L.A.
then…

Naughty Melissa ignored all ifs and
coulds
, distracted by the definition in Jason’s deltoids instead.

Slowly I inhaled, trying to clear my thoughts. What might happen in the fall didn’t matter. We’d already proven email didn’t last long, and we had the whole summer between now and then.
Friday. It ends on Friday.

After the market we switched seats again, and I drove the few remaining miles to my apartment. When I signaled at the driveway of my complex, Jason sat up with an astonished look on his face.

“This is your apartment?” he asked.

“Yes. What were you expecting?” My complex consisted of about twenty small, two-unit buildings spread over a hillside—not the most common arrangement. Someday they were destined to become condos, I was sure.

“I don’t know, something more like those, I guess.” He pointed to the long, brown, three-story apartment building next door. “But these are nice. You don’t have to worry about anyone stomping around over your head while you sleep.”

I could tell he was impressed.

“What’s your place like in
Ann Arbor
?” I asked, pulling into the spot right in front of my unit.

“It’s more like a high-rise dorm: eighteen stories with a couple hundred units. I live on the fourteenth floor. I have the place to myself all summer,” he added, his expression unreadable.

I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I popped the trunk and hopped out, grabbing the smaller bags. Jason’s grin returned as he extracted his monster suitcase and waited for me to dig my house key out of my purse.

“Home, sweet home,” I said and unlocked the door. Inside, the dark hallway contradicted my welcome. I flicked on the light, illuminating the stairs that rose to the left.

“I think we’ll start the tour upstairs, if you don’t mind,” I said and walked up the steps. We passed an empty bedroom at the top.

Jason glanced in that direction as we passed. “You had roommates?”

“Just one, but she left right after finals.” I tilted my head as we passed another darkened doorway. “The one and only bathroom,” I said, pausing for a split second before continuing to the door at the end of the hallway. I pushed it open and flicked on the light. “Our accommodations.”

My bedroom was completely empty but for an open suitcase, a digital alarm clock, and a lamp—all of which sat on the floor. The only decoration was the vanilla curtains covering the sliding glass door.

Jason set down his suitcase next to mine and peeked outside. The view wasn’t that spectacular; the twelve-inch-deep “balcony” hung directly over the front door. All he could see was the laundry room in the center of the parking lot.

“Where’s the bed?” he asked, mimicking my comment from last night and earning a poke in the ribs.

“I wish I could just lead you into another room and say ‘Ta-da,’ but I can’t. All the furniture is in my mom’s garage in
San Jose
, thanks to Dave. You know him, right? One of Mitch’s groomsmen?”

Jason looked confused for a second, then nodded. “He’s a good guy.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, he is. His folks live in the Bay Area too, and he managed to fit my stuff in his trailer. Everything got moved for a pizza and a case of beer a week ago.” I opened the closet and grabbed a large gray roll. “Here’s the bed.”

“A sleeping bag? That’ll be cozy,” Jason said doubtfully.

I sidled up and slowly slid my arms around him. “It’ll be fine. You’ll see.”

His frown disappeared. “I’ll just have to trust you,” he murmured, bending his head down to mine. It’d been hours since I’d kissed him, and when our lips met, all the electricity we’d been storing during our drive was released in one giant jolt. He held me tight, the mint he’d had earlier tickling my tongue.

When his hands wandered toward my waist, I pulled back and wagged my finger at him. “Hey now, I thought we had an agreement.”

Puppy dog eyes greeted me. “We do,” he said with a sigh.

I kissed him lightly and slipped out of his arms. “How about some dinner?” I took his hand and led him downstairs.

“It’s going to be a very long night,” he said.

Before unloading the groceries, I showed Jason the equally vacant downstairs. A couple of empty boxes, another lamp, a phone, and a boom box were all that occupied the family room. The half-full dish rack in the kitchen was the only evidence the place was inhabited.