Hunted (11 page)

Again, she was swept with the feeling that she’d just caused the young man an unnecessary amount of trouble.  That knowledge bothered her.  It ate away at her actually, knowing that she’d set her dad on him and yet feeling that there really had been no reason for her to do it.  She really hoped, that if he truly didn’t have anything to do with what had happened to Stacy, that he was out of town and long gone. 

Letting out a breath, Lanie sat down in the rocking chair by the front door, feeling the cold instantly seeping through her favorite pair of old jeans.  She turned her gaze to the tree lined street and the houses running up and down it, all with darkened windows and empty lawns.  Normally, she liked getting up and outside early.  She liked the quiet and the peace, the eerie charm of feeling like she was all alone in the world.  But, at the moment, it felt more depressing than charming.

Putting her elbows on her knees, Lanie closed her eyes and pulled in a deep breath of the chill, damp air, and tried to force her racing thoughts to be still.  They were bouncing around so that she was starting to come down with a headache and all that bouncing wasn’t getting her anywhere at all.

However, her effort to still her ping-ponging thoughts was promptly ruined when she found herself suddenly seized by that same feeling she’d had in the cemetery, that feeling of sinister eyes on her, watching her.  The feeling was strong enough to cause apprehension to tingle along her spine and her eyes to fly open so that her gaze could dart up and down Rosetree Lane.  But, there was not a person to be seen.  No one was out in their front yard getting the morning paper nor was there a shadowy and mysterious figure peering at her from behind a tree or around the corner of a house.

Yet, that feeling persisted, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to rise up and her stomach to clench hard.  The feeling became so insistent that it pushed Lanie to her feet and though she probably should have went straight back into the house, she instead headed across the porch, down the steps, past the fancily dressed scarecrow and bales of hay, and out into the yard, stopping when she reached the white picket fence. 

Taking hold of the cold, damp wooden pickets, she leaned over the fence and again glanced up and down the street, searching for anything that didn’t belong, a shadow, a flash of movement, some sign that there might be a pair of eyes watching her.  But, the street was deserted and still.  Nothing was moving.  Not even the wind was blowing through the tree tops. 

Annoyed with herself, Lanie huffed out a sigh, causing a slight burst of steam on the cool air.  Clearly, she was becoming paranoid!  On the upside, probably everyone else in Fells Pointe was in the same boat with her.  Everyone was undoubtedly jumping at shadows and feeling imaginary eyes watching them.  She could take
some
comfort in that fact.

“Lanie!” a voice boomed in her ear just as a hand clamped down onto her shoulder.

A shriek was ripped from Lanie as she whipped around to face her attacker, terror skittering along her nerve endings and her heart leaping up into her throat.  Instantly her self-defense lessons flooded back in on her and she pulled her arm back to swing, but let out another shriek and jerked her fist to a halt. 

Her attacker was not an attacker at all, but instead was only
Devyn
, who was shrieking right along with Lanie as if
she
was the one who’d had the life scared out of her!

“Devyn!  What are you doing!” Lanie snapped, dropping her arm to her side.

Devyn, still shrieking like a banshee, couldn’t answer.  Her shrill yelps were echoing up and down the quiet street like ear piercing gunshots.

“Devyn!  Why are
you
screaming!” Lanie demanded, thinking the girl had lost her mind.  “
You
scared
me
!”

Hearing that caused the girl’s ear piercing squawks to abruptly cease, which plunged the street back into dead silence.  There was a long moment during which she and Lanie just stared at one another, neither of them saying anything.

“Well!” Lanie demanded, trying to force her heart back down into her chest where it belonged.

“
Oy
!  Well what?” Devyn said breathlessly, clutching at her own heart.

“Why on earth were
you
screaming?  You snuck up on
me
!” she stated, feeling addled.

“I don’t know.  I-I thought you saw something that scared you,” Devyn explained, fanning her cheeks now.

“The only thing I saw was you!” Lanie said, shaking her head at the girl.

“Well!  I didn’t think I was that
meeskeit
!  How was I supposed to know seeing
me
would scare you that much!” Devyn said defensively.  “I figured if it was bad enough to make you scream, I should scream, too.  That way, maybe more people would hear us and come out to help.”

Lanie stared at the girl for a few seconds, torn between bursting into tears and bursting into laughter.  Laughter won out, though it came out sounding rather a bit more like a scornful snort than she meant it to. 

“Come on.  Let’s get inside before the neighbors come out looking for the two idiots that woke them up,” she said, taking hold of Devyn’s arm and steering her back toward the house.

As they reached the porch, Lanie cast one more glance up and down the street, but again, the street was deserted.  There wasn’t a single soul in sight.  Even if there had been someone watching her, she and Devyn would have probably scared them away with all that screeching and caterwauling.

Really!  She and Devyn were both about as pathetic as it could get!  She was just glad that no one else had been around to see their little performance.  They never would have lived it down!

CHAPTER SIX

By the time Lanie and her friends had finished breakfast, chocolate chip pancakes that Johnna had only slightly charred, the grey skies had cleared up and the sun was shining brightly.  Devyn placed a quick call to Heather Langley, the head cheerleader, while Johnna placed a call to Finn, and it was decided that the memorial for Stacy was a go.

Lanie shot a quick text to her dad to let him know they were heading out to get the memorial set up in the park and once Johnna and Devyn were dressed, which took nearly an hour because they were two big…
girls
!...they all climbed into Lanie’s yellow Bug and headed toward downtown and The Craft Emporium on Center Street.  They were going in search of poster board, markers, streamers, glitter, and anything else they might need to get the memorial set up.

The morning traffic was light and the drive into down town took only a few minutes.  They found the majority of girls from the Spirit Squad waiting on the sidewalk outside the Craft Emporium, which was housed in a little lavender painted clapboard building next to the New To You Thrift Store, which was where Lanie found most of her clothing, unlike the horde of cheerleaders who were now watching her with cold, judgmental eyes as she stepped out of her car.  They were all dressed as if they were going to be walking the runway of a fashion show and most of them had probably never even stepped foot in a thrift store.  Snobs!

“Are you coming in with us?” Devyn asked as they made it to the sidewalk, where the Spirit Squad all fell silent in an effort to freeze Lanie out.

Johnna shot the group of girls a nasty look, her large brown eyes shooting flames.  “Knock it off, you guys!” she hissed at her friends.  “This isn’t the time to act all bitchy!  Lanie just lost her friend!  She isn’t thinking about stealing anyone’s boyfriend right now!”

Actually, she wasn’t thinking about stealing anyone’s boyfriend at any time.  Not just right now.  And as a side note, she wouldn’t have to
steal
a boyfriend.  If she wanted one of them, it would not be hard to just walk up and have him
willingly
follow her away.

“Yeah.  Thaw out, you guys!” Devyn agreed snappishly tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder.  “You don’t have to act like a bunch of
pishers
!  This isn’t even cute on a regular day!”

Lanie watched as some of the Spirit Squad seemed to lose a bit of their standoff-ish air.  However, it was too little, too late for Lanie.  “You guys go on and do whatever you need to do.  I’ll be in the thrift store.”

“Are you sure?” Johnna asked her, looking guilty.  “You can just ignore these idiots.  I usually do.”

Lanie shook her head.  “Nah.  You go on.  Just come and get me when you’re done.”

That said, she pushed through the horde of overdressed Spirit Squaders and started down the sidewalk toward the thrift store, not feeling as peevish as she probably should have.  Who cared if the Spirit Squad girls didn’t want her to be included in their shopping trip?  They didn’t want her included in anything, yet she was on every single committee that they were on and she was the head of most of them.  Thus, she would have her revenge.  Perhaps, someday soon.

With that thought bringing a little spring to her step, Lanie continued on her way toward her favorite shop, which she hadn’t visited in a while.  The bell jangled merrily as she opened the door, but something flashing from the corner of her eye stopped her from stepping inside.  The flash of movement or flicker of shadow was further on down the street and when she focused in that direction, she didn’t see anything other than a few people window shopping and a couple of cars way up at the intersection of Center Street and Bisbee Avenue. 

Lanie stalled for a moment in the open doorway, scanning the sidewalk and the street as far down as she could see, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.  Nothing that shouldn’t have been there.  There was no faded yellow car cruising the street, no very handsome man wearing a long, faded leather coat lurking about.  There was…nothing. 

Wait.  Did she really expect to see
him
lurking about, watching her?  Did she really
want
to see him lurking about, watching her?  No!  No, she most certainly did not!  She wasn’t that nutty balls just yet!  Annoyed, Lanie let out a breath and went on into the store. 
What
was the matter with her!

“Hey, Lanie!” a cheerful voice chirped as she entered the store, which always smelled of incense and the strong coffee that was constantly being brewed behind the front counter.  “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Hi, Patti,” Lanie greeted the round faced, red haired woman who owned the shop. 

“How ya’ doing, girl?” Patti questioned, her voice soft with sympathy, which caused Lanie to have to bite back a sigh. 

Ugh!  Not here, too!  “I’m fine.”

“Are you?  Really?” Patti urged.

Lanie turned her attention away from the woman and headed through the maze of clothing racks, focusing on that instead.  “I’m okay.  Really,” she answered for what felt like the millionth time.

“It’s a nasty business, what happened to poor Stacy.   I couldn’t believe it when I heard,” Patti said in a somber tone.  “I mean,
here
of all places!  This kind of thing just doesn’t happen here!”

Well, that was no longer true, was it?  “Do you have any sweaters in?” Lanie questioned, hoping to shift the topic of conversation.

“Yeah.  They’re on the back rack over there,” Patti answered.  “How’s your dad holding up?  I know he’s never had to deal with anything like this.  He must be pulling his hair out, the poor man!”

Lanie found the appropriate rack and began looking through the variety of sweaters hanging there.  “He’s doing alright.  He still has all his hair.”

Patti let out something that seemed as if it was supposed to be a chuckle, but there was no humor in the sound.  “I’m not close with the family, but Stacy came in here almost as much as you did.  Do you think her parents would mind if I stopped by and gave my condolences?”

Lanie looked at Patti then, feeling her throat constrict.  “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully.  “But, there’s going to be a memorial set up for her in the park today and the Spirit Squad is putting together a flower sale to raise money for her family.  You could help that way.”