Fatal Charm (23 page)

Finally—a chance to talk with her. I hurried over to her tent and peeked inside.

Jade was not happy to see me. “What do you want?” she asked coolly.

“To talk about … about something serious.” I ached with sympathy for her loss. “I have to warn you.”

“I’m warning you to get out.”

“She’s dead, isn’t she?” I said softly.

“What! How did you … ?” Jade’s face paled. “Get the hell out of here!”

“No, Jade.” I dug my heels in and refused to budge. “I know what happened … and I want to help. Please listen to me.”

“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say.”

“Jade, I was there … I saw him. How can you pretend everything is okay?”

She faced me defiantly. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“But you know a lot about me,” I said quickly. “That’s why you pretended to do everything that I did; cheerleading, the school newspaper, fencing. It’s all a lie, isn’t it? You’ve never done any of those things.”

“You’re full of crap!”

“I only just found out about you, but you’ve known about my family for four years. Is that how long you’ve been spying on my life?”

“Get out!” She reached out forcefully and shoved.

I reeled back, catching the edge of the tent flap to stop from falling over.

“Wait, Jade! If you know about me, then you know I see things sometimes. That’s what I have to tell you—”

But she’d zipped up the tent, shutting me out.

Real slick, Sabine, I told myself in disgust. Instead of gaining her trust, I’d pissed her off. No way would she listen to me now.

A short while later, Melina and the other girls sharing my tent showed up. There was giggling and pillow tossing and trips to the Port-O-Potty, but finally the kids settled down.

My body throbbed with weariness as I sank into my sleeping bag. I didn’t even bother to change my clothes. I’d thought riding a few times on Stormy would prepare me for this trip—wrong! I hadn’t been on a ride like this since I was a little kid, and my muscles ached painfully. I closed my eyes and sank quickly into sleep.

Wake up!

I heard the shout and wasn’t sure if it was from outside or inside my head.

But I was instantly awake, fumbling for my flashlight and running out of the tent. Confused, I expected other people to be running around, too. But in the fading light of the dying fire, I saw no one else.

Then I heard footsteps—coming from the tent next to mine.

Odd—the tent flap was wide open. Why wasn’t it zipped shut?

I ran over to the other tent and shone my flashlight inside. A man! Bending over Jade’s sleeping figure. His hands reached out—and I screamed.

Everything happened at once.

Jade jumped up, girls started screaming, and the intruder scrambled backwards, knocking me over as he burst out of the tent and fled.

In that moment when I fell back, my flashlight had shone directly in his face.

My worst fears were realized when I recognized him.

The man who strangled Crystal.

Jade told everyone it was a bear.

“But you saw him—” I started to argue.

“I know, and it was horrible!” she cried to the excited crowd around us. “The bear would have attacked me if Sabine hadn’t chased him away. Thank you so much, Sabine! You saved my life.”

What was I supposed to say to that?

Simon came over to thank me, adding how strange it was to have a bear sighting this low in elevation. Others gathered around to praise me, too. I was completely tongue-tied—and terrified because of what almost happened.

Maybe I owed Jade her lie about a bear, because I’d led the killer to our camp, putting everyone in danger. And Jade had nearly been killed. I had no doubt that the killer had mistaken Jade for me. Everyone said we looked alike, and with her hair pulled back in a ponytail like it was now, we looked more like sisters than ever.

“We’ll talk in the morning,” I whispered to Jade before I returned to my tent.

She didn’t argue.

Dominic found me early the next morning, not at all fooled by the “bear” story.

“The horses would have let me know if there was a bear,” he said simply.

So I told him the truth. I thought he’d be angry about Jade blaming it on a bear, but he surprised me by praising Jade for her quick thinking. If the others found out there was a murderer following us, the ride would end abruptly and the kids would be sent home disappointed.

“I should have gone after him when you first told me,” Dominic said. “I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again. Keep an eye on Rocky while I’m gone.”

“You can’t just go off alone. He’s too dangerous,” I argued.

“I can be dangerous, too.”

There was no reasoning with him, and then he was gone. I was too anxious to eat my pancakes and bacon. I noticed Jade, looking pale, didn’t have an appetite either.

I caught her eye across the table and mouthed, “Talk. Now.”

She nodded with the weariness of someone surrendering in a war.

Moments later we were alone in my tent.

Jade sank cross-legged on the vinyl floor and covered her face with her hands. “I’m so tired of all of this.”

“Me, too. Talking will help.”

“I never planned to tell you anything but after last night … ” Her voice cracked. “You saved my life.”

Shaking my head, I knelt beside her. “You saved my life. He was after me but went to you by mistake.”

“Not a mistake. He tried to kill me because of what I saw.”

“You were asleep, you didn’t see what happened. But I did.”

“Impossible.” Her eyes widened. “You weren’t there.”

“I was,” I insisted keeping my voice low so no one outside could hear. “I saw you sleeping with your rag doll. Then I went into the next room. They argued and he grabbed the ribbon off the candy and … ” I couldn’t say it. Poor Jade … her own mother.

She was staring at me with disbelief. “I don’t understand … how could you have seen anything? Were you hiding in a closet or peeping through windows?”

“No. My body wasn’t there—just my soul,” I said. “I was astral traveling.”

“No, really. How did you know?”

“I just told you. I’m psychic, like my grandmother.”

“Psychic?” she echoed. “No shit. Dad never told me.”

“He wouldn’t,” I said wryly. Then the horror of this situation hit me and I added softly, “I’m so sorry about your mother.”

“My mother? What about her? And why are you looking at me like that?”

“Don’t make me say it,” I whispered hoarsely.

“Say what? There’s nothing going on with Mom. She’s fine.”

“No, she isn’t.” I started shaking. “I watched him … take the ribbon … and strangle … ”

“Ohmygod!” Jade grabbed my hand and clawed my skin. “The ribbon? I found a ribbon on the carpet right afterwards but I had no idea what happened … ohmygod!”

“It was so fast … your poor mother—”

“NO! Not her!” Jade shook her head furiously. “I talked with Mom on the phone two nights ago.”

“But she was in the room next to yours. It was dark but I recognized her dark red hair.”

“The hair was a wig and the room was rented to my mom’s friend. My mother is okay—but Darlene isn’t.”

“I don’t understand. Who’s Darlene?”

“I better start from the beginning,” Jade said, pushing out a deep sigh. “That night I went to bed early after cheerleading practice—I was not lying about being a cheerleader … well, maybe not head cheerleader.”

Then she explained how her mom had this “little problem” with gambling and was off on a casino binge. Sometimes she stayed for weeks. And to help pay bills, she rented out rooms to some “independent business women.”

Jade didn’t say it, but from her disapproving tone I had a feeling these women did more than sleep in their rooms. I remembered the first time I’d spied on Jade’s house and saw the man coming out early in the morning with handcuffs in his back pocket. I bet the handcuffs weren’t used in any official way and the guy was a “customer,” not a cop. That would explain why so many cars were parked in Jade’s driveway.

Deep in sleep, Jade had no idea what was happening in the next room until she heard someone shout for her to get up. She opened her door as a figure ran past carrying something bulky. She followed and heard the front door close. Curious, she opened it and saw a man slam his car trunk. He turned and saw her, illuminated in the porch light.

“I didn’t get a good look at him, but I thought he was going to come after me, only he panicked when a car drove by and he drove away,” Jade added. “I wasn’t waiting around for him to come back and toss me in a trunk, too. So I grabbed some stuff and stayed with a friend. I watched the news, hoping to hear the guy was arrested. But nothing. Mom came home a few days later, and when I told her about Darlene, she freaked and said I had to hide somewhere far away.”

“Why Nona’s house?” I asked.

“What could be safer? No one knows about my bio dad, and it wasn’t like I’d be welcome at his house anyway. Your uppity mother would have kicked my ass out in a minute. But your grandmother was cool, welcoming me like real family, and I felt safe—until Mom called. She told me our house had been broken into while she was shopping. The only thing missing was a note on the fridge with my name and your grandmother’s address. I knew the bad dude was after me, so I jumped at the chance to hide out on horseback. But he must have followed me.”

So Jade was right—the killer was after her. When he saw her in the porch light, he assumed she was the only witness. But she hadn’t even seen his face.

I had.

And I’d seen it again last night.

Now it was my turn to explain, which was embarrassing because I had to confess to spying on Jade.

“I was curious about you,” I told her, reddening. “But I only drove to your house once. The other times—going there out of my body—were an accident. When I fell asleep, this whole astral travel thing happened, and I ended up in your room.”

“While you were sleeping? Impossible!”

“It sounds weird, but I was there in spirit. I saw you sleeping with your rag doll.”

Jade blushed. “My stepdad gave me Annie.”

“Was his name Douglas?” I asked.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“I saw him at a séance. He looked like a hippie, wearing love beads and a tie-dyed shirt. He was worried about you and asked for my help.”

“He did?” she asked softly. Like she was starting to believe me.

“He loves you very much,” I told her. “It takes a lot of energy for a spirit to pass on a message, and he did it to help you.”

The tough edge around her crumbled and real emotion shone on her face. “Is he okay? Can I talk to him now? Is he with us?”

“I’m a psychic, not a medium,” I tried to explain. “I see ghosts sometimes, but it’s not something I can make happen. Still, I know he’s fine. Everyone is on the other side. It’s our world that has ugly stuff … like killers.”

We stopped talking for a moment, sitting in the tent across from each other. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but I sensed we were a little closer. When she wasn’t spewing bitchitude, she was okay. Maybe not someone I’d want for a best friend, but someone I could grow to like.

“So what do we do now?” Jade finally asked, shifting away from a glint of sun coming through a tent window.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Maybe we should tell Simon.”

“No. He’d report it to the cops.”

“At least the kids wouldn’t be in danger.”

“But my mom would be. You probably guessed she doesn’t exactly play by legal rules, although don’t you tell Dad. He’d cut off our money if he knew half of the schemes Mom gets involved in. Promise you won’t tell him.”

“Like I promised him not to tell anyone about you?” I countered. “Look where that lie has led us.”

“I know,” she said sadly. “I hate lying, too. It wasn’t like this when Daddy was alive. He worked hard and was always there for us. He even got Mom to go into a gambler’s anonymous program. I thought he was my real dad until he died—then Mom dropped that bombshell. I hated my bio dad at first. But then he was so sweet that I started to care about him.”

“And hated me instead,” I guessed.

“Not just you—your sisters, too.” She laughed wryly. “But mostly you.”

“Thanks,” I said half-teasing.

“Well, you looked a little like me yet had this great life. I wanted what you had—so I asked Dad for riding and fencing classes. I joined the school newspaper. It’s a small school and nobody else wanted to be editor anyway,” she added. “I even dyed my hair blond for a few weeks, but my friends hated it so I went natural. Weird how we can have similar faces but I suck as a blond and it looks great on you.”

“Wow, was that a compliment?”

She laughed. “Okay, I’ll admit I’ve been a little hard on you.”

“Only a little?” I offered a smile of truce. Then I sobered again, remembering why we were having this private talk. “We still need to figure out what to do. I think we have to tell Simon and the others in charge.”

“That won’t be necessary,” a male voice interrupted. There was a swish of netting pulled aside and Dominic stepped in the tent. “That dude is gone.”