Beautiful Dead 02 - Arizona (13 page)

'So did Raven run away before - when Arizona was around?' I

wanted to know.

'A hundred times. Arizona and her parents fought over it al the time. She said it was obvious he wasn't happy at the school, they should bring him home. Frank and Al yson wouldn't listen.'

'And whose side were you on?'

He spread his hands, palms up. 'I'm no expert on autism. Not like Arizona - she read al the books, looked up every site on the internet. She even joined an organization dedicated to beating the condition through alternative treatments. She was sure she could help make Raven better.

And the boy related to her and only her - his face would light up every time he saw her.'

' Yeah, that sounds like Arizona. She wouldn't sit back and do nothing.'

Peter badly needed to offload, so he spoke over me. 'She hated the medication they give him at the school. She'd read a theory that every kid with autism needs a shadow - someone to be a bridge between him and the outside world, to be at their side twenty-four seven to help them make sense of things.'

'Don't we al ?' It sounded flip, but I meant it. 'Anyway, like I said -

Arizona never did things by halves.'

'She would have done that for him - been his shadow,' he said,

choking up. 'She would have given her life to help him.'

For the first time Peter paused, but I was fal ing apart now and didn't find any words to fil the gap.

'Like, on the day she died. It was a Thursday. Al yson and Frank were busy with work commitments, Raven was in school. Then the principal cal ed home to tel Arizona he'd run away again.' 89

'What did she do?'

'She went crazy, accusing her dad, saying he should take Raven out of the school permanently even if Al yson disagreed.'

'And where did Raven go?' I wanted to know.

'He went looking for his sister, I guess. She ended up in the bottom of Hartmann Lake so he never found her.'

Poor kid it must have been brutal 'Arizona took her car for repair.' It was an unguarded moment and I spoke my next thought out loud. Any second Hunter's wings would be beating down a storm.

'Actual y, yes. How did you know that?'

'Someone told me I don't remember. Where did they eventual y find

Raven?'

'In town, wandering in the mal when the stores were closing.' 'And no one knew where he'd been al day?'

Peter took a deep breath. 'By that time, news was coming through about a body in Hartmann. We were too swal owed up by subsequent events to wonder where Raven had been hiding out.'

'I hear you,' I agreed. My mind was in overdrive - since Raven had gone looking for Arizona that awful day, was there any chance he'd found her? And if he had, did it make an impact on what had happened?

There were new questions and no one around to answer them - not Raven, for sure. Maybe Arizona though. I needed to get out to Foxton fast. *I have to leave,' I told Peter. 'I skipped class to come here ...'

'OK, you go,' he told me. 'But look out for Raven, wil you? And don't tel anyone. I'm in trouble if Frank and Al yson find out I talked out of turn.'

'Sure. And you'l cal me if when they find him?' Hurriedly I gave

him my cel number. 'Try not to worry, Peter. Raven always turns up -

you said so yourself.'

'Maybe not this time,' he sighed. 'This time it feels different.' 'How, different?'

'Weird, as in spooky. It's like there's someone else, something else involved. I keep thinking of those rumours that are going around town, about ghosts or spirits walking the ridge out at Foxton. I'm not a guy who freaks out easily, don't get me wrong. But this time, just maybe-'

'Don't. You're giving me the creeps.' I faked a shudder as I left the annexe and hurried down the drive. I was thinking: Arizona wouldn't ... even she wouldn't use her zombie powers to spirit her beloved kid brother out of his school ...

I was driving over the limit again and I'd reached the cross out at Turkey Shoot when Phoenix and Arizona materialized right beside me inside the

car. They appeared in their fuzzy-edged halos of light, shimmering into their solid shapes as shock made me swing out towards the central reservation.

'Pul over,' Phoenix said, no greetings, no loving smile. 'We were at Westra, at Arizona's house. We heard everything Peter told you.'

I turned the wheel and crunched on to the dirt-covered hard shoulder, raising dust and insects into the stil , warm air.

From the back seat, Arizona answered the biggest of my panicky,

unspoken questions. ' I had nothing to do with this, Darina. Raven made his own decision to take off, just like always.'

'You didn't take him out of school?' I asked, turning in my seat to see

the new, real Arizona - no more Miss Cool, but instead a crazy-eyed girl with hair flopping over her face whose kid brother was missing.

'Why would I?' she demanded.

'Because you hate the place, you wanted your parents to take him

away.'

She stared at me, reading deep into my thoughts. 'That was back then,' she said quietly. 'When he had me to come home to.'

'I get it,' I nodded. 'Sorry.'

'Come on, Darina,' Phoenix cut in. 'We're going to join the search for Raven. You'l be our link to the far side, like always.'

'Where do we start?' Again I turned to Arizona, this time for guidance. 'Where does he head when he runs away?'

Phoenix answered for her. 'He usual y doesn't get far, so we're going

to start on the school premises. There'l be cops - we have to take care.'

'Which way?'

'Back towards town.' Arizona spoke with a hint of robot - too calm, too distant - to mask her panic. 'Turn west before we get there, along the Peak Road.'

I turned the car around, thinking through the directions and ending up 91

with a chil running down my spine. 'That road leads to Hartmann.'

'Yeah.'

' So?'

'So it also leads to the Lindsey Institute, fifteen minutes down the road at the foot of Amos Peak. On a good day Raven can see the lake from his bedroom window.'

So I drove my two Beautiful Dead passengers down to Hartmann Lake, feeling the restless tension build. Phoenix sat beside me, his dark hair lifting in the wind, staring ahead and hyper-aware, as if every tree or rock we passed held information about the missing kid. In the back seat, Arizona sank down as we passed Hartmann, unable to look at the place where she'd drowned.

'You remember - Raven pul ed this same stunt the day "it"

happened?' I queried, trying to focus on the road ahead, though the glittering water distracted me and the horror of what had taken place there.

'Peter reckons Raven came looking for you.'

'I hear you.' Arizona's non-committal reply was almost too quiet to notice.

'He didn't find you?' I checked her expression in my overhead mirror.

She closed her eyes, her lips barely moved. 'After I was through shouting at my dad, I went to Mike's Motors. Raven wouldn't know to look for me there. As far as I can recal , we didn't hook up.'

I glanced at Phoenix to check that this time Arizona was tel ing me the

truth. He gave a slight nod. 'Tel me something, Mister Zombie - how come everything turns into a blur around the "event"?' It had been the same with Jonas - when he came back to the far side, courtesy of his overlord, the al -powerful Hunter, his memory of the actual crash was wiped. 'You and Summer you don't remember either.'

'Not the details,' he admitted. 'Hunter says it's the trauma of the

occasion that does it - it kind of scrambles your brain. You have a tiny amount of recal - maybe a smel or a colour around what happened - but the thing itself is wiped. That's why we're here, to bring it back, set it straight and get free.'

'Until then we're trapped.' Arizona's tone was bitter. 'Here in this nowhere place - dead but not at peace, here but not here, not able to trust anyone or to take a moment's rest. You have no idea, Darina, of what that 92

feels like.'

The wind hit the windshield then caught us in a swirling gust. I blinked hard. Keep the car on the road! I told myself. Straight ahead was Amos Peak, blue-grey in the distance, already snow-capped in late October.

'You're right - I have no idea,' I agreed. 'But like you, Arizona, the deeper I get into this, the less I can trust people, I tel you that for sure.'

Raven's school, a low-rise development of log-cabin units built around a smal manmade lake, was cal ed the Lindsey Institute after the guy who founded it in the nineteen-sixties. When we reached there, at about twelve noon, instead of a place crawling with cops we found a single sheriff's car by the main door to a big, ranch style building, with Frank Taylor's red Mitsubishi parked alongside.

'They're sure putting everything they've got into this search,' Arizona said bitterly. I'd parked outside the gates from where we could look down on the school.

'Hey, at least it makes it easier for Darina to snoop around,' Phoenix reminded her. *I guess the log cabins are where the kids sleep, but what about the main building?'

'That's where they have lessons, therapy, visits from family.' This was getting harder for Arizona as the painful memories flowed. 'Everything looks low tech and friendly, but this place is a prison camp, believe me.'

'So where do I start?' I got out of the car and looked for a back entrance I could reach on foot, spotting a narrow track across some scrub ground that I planned to take. 'What happens if I bump into someone -

what's my excuse?'

'You're smart, Darina, you decide,' she said sharply, then sighed.

'Sorry, forget I said that. The staff here don't look like medics, they dress in jeans and sneakers, even the principal, Rebecca Davis. She's slim built with curly blonde hair, but don't let appearances fool you. If you run into her, watch out.'

'She'l be with Frank and the sheriff,' Phoenix suggested. ' Skirt around the back of the main building to start with. If someone asks, say you're a tourist. You lost your way coming away from Hartmann.' 93

'Raven usual y stays close to the school when he does this,' Arizona explained. 'He knows he needs to leave but he doesn't have any idea where he wants to go, so he walks up into the pine trees or goes to sit by the lake. Or maybe he'l wander along the creek and gets as far as the Pooles' place a mile downstream. That's the furthest he ever got.'

'We'l try the creek,' Phoenix decided. ' Darina, you search closer to

the buildings.'

'I'd put my money on you two any time,' I grinned. 'Given that you hear every leaf fal .' I set off down the hil not too worried but anxious to stay out of Frank Taylor and Rebecca Davis's way. My excuses would have to be more sophisticated if I bumped into them.

I'd covered half the distance when the front door opened and a blonde woman walked out with a guy in uniform - the local sheriff. I dropped back behind a convenient rock, waiting for them to finish their

conversation. While I was there, I studied a parking lot at the back of the building where the staff most likely left their cars and deliveries were made. I watched a kitchen guy exit the building and throw a bag in the trash container. Then he stood, arms folded, staring up at the sky.

Go back inside! I wil ed him. I'm stymied with you standing there.

Eventual y the kitchen worker left off gazing and went back to work. I

edged down the hil until I was a hundred metres from the parking lot, then I had another scare as the sheriff got into his patrol car and set off up the track, only to stop halfway up the hil and step out. Then I was down behind another rock, holding my breath and waiting again.

The sheriff spoke into his two-way radio, leaning against the side of his car, taking his time. 'Wes, do you copy? Yeah, it's the usual kid -

Raven Taylor.' His voice was faint but I could just make it out. 'Staff reported him missing at breakfast this morning. Over.' There was a pause while he listened, then he spoke again. The father is here. Rebecca has staff out searching the grounds. So far, they didn't find him. Over.'

Leaving the sheriff to report back to base and decide on his next move,

I carried on down the hil , creeping towards the giant trash can that would 94

give me good cover, al the time not real y believing that it would be me

who found the missing boy. I was crouching low and working my way between a black Jeep and a silver SUV when I heard the first noise.

It came from the SUV - a faint tapping sound which stopped then started again, as if somebody inside the car was knocking a smal object against a metal surface. I caught my breath. What did I do now? If I suddenly popped up in view, what would the person in the car think? If I carried on with my stealth assault, the game was up anyway. The tapping happened again and I stood up.

At first I thought I'd made a mistake - there was no one inside the car after al . Then I looked and listened again. Tap-tap-tap from the back of the vehicle - the section behind a metal gril e meant for bags or dogs. I went round to the rear window and took another good look inside.

The kid was sitting cross-legged in the baggage space, a book resting

across his knees, a sketch pad by his side. He was rocking back and forth, locked in his world, tapping his metal pen against the gril e.

Without thinking, I opened the door. Raven didn't stop rocking or tapping. The book in his lap showed a picture of the famous Warhol Marilyns, al sunshine yel ows and oranges, purple hair and crimson,

pouting lips.

Hi, Raven,' I whispered.

He rocked and tapped as if I wasn't there. 'What are you doing here?'

He ran the pen along the mesh gril e, like a pianist running a finger along the keys. The cover of the pad by his side was covered in tiny, complex sketches of his house in Westra.

'Hey, I like your drawings,' I told him, and he looked up at me. I offered him my hand. He took it.

Of course, Phoenix and Arizona knew the second I found Raven. They were there by my side in an instant, in the parking lot to keep an eye on me but staying out of sight as I gently helped the kid from the vehicle.