Revelations (11 page)

Keep on driving. That’d be nice,
she thought. But Marcus pulled into the parking lot next to the playground and let
go of her hand.

“See that little donkey over there?” Rae asked after she climbed out of the car.

“That plastic thing’s a donkey?” Marcus said.

“Of course it’s a donkey. Look at the ears,” Rae said. “Anyway, when I was little, I thought it was alive. I’d lie on the
grass right here-” She sat down on the grass and patted the spot beside her. When Marcus joined her on the
ground, she continued. “I’d lie here for hours, waiting for it to move. And sometimes… sometimes I thought it did.”

Marcus raised one of his perfectly arched blond eyebrows. “Did you see it move?”

There was something off in the way he asked the question.
Oh God. He’s thinking it was some early sign of

insanity, the insanity I got from my mother.

She wished she could tell him the truth. But to explain that her mother hadn’t been crazy, she’d have to explain
that her mother had been given a battery of treatments to enhance her psychic ability. She’d have to explain that the
scientist who gave her the treatments decided she was dangerous and made sure she died in the mental hospital.

And if Rae tried to explain even a little of that, Marcus would be absolutely certain that Rae was nuts. Who could
blame him?

Rae realized Marcus was still staring at her. “You know how little kids are. I was at the age where I still believed in
Santa and the Easter bunny,” shesaid quickly, then opened the pizza box and handed Marcus a slice.

She’d planned to try and make their picnic totally fun and light. But maybe that wasn’t the way to go. Rae couldn’t
tell Marcus the truth. She couldn’t even try to explain why she felt so sure that her mother had never killed anyone.

Explaining that would mean explaining Rae’s fingerprint-reading ability. Still, that didn’t mean there was nothing Rae
could say to Marcus. There was a little bit of truth she could tell. “You-I guess you’re probably wondering why I
never told you about my mother,” Rae said. “I mean, about the murder and the-the mental hospital.”

Marcus took a huge bite of his pizza, then shook his head. “No,” he mumbled. He chewed in silence for a moment,
then swallowed hard. “No,” he repeated more clearly. “It makes sense you wouldn’t want to talk about it.
I
wouldn’t
have wanted to talk about it.”

“Even to me?” Rae protested.

“Even to you. So don’t worry about it,” Marcus said. “Hey, look at that kid,” he said, pointing. “He’s done skin the
cat four times in a row, and he’s going for five.”

Okay, so he doesn’t want to talk about it,
Rae thought.
That’s fine. That’s good. We can just keepeverything

between us the way it was. We won’t let any of this outside garbage touch us.

Anthony scanned the bowling alley, and his heart slowed down a little when he saw Aiden Matthews waiting for
him by lane eight, just the way he’d agreed to. Anthony had been afraid he’d have to track Aiden down again. And he
would have done it. But he was glad he didn’t have to. He didn’t want to have to waste any time. He wanted to figure
out exactly who was harassing Rae-with full names, addresses, and phone numbers included.

“Here’s the flyer I told you about. They were all over the school.” He thrust a flyer into Aiden’s hands and plopped
down in one of the molded plastic chairs.

“Uh-huh, uh-huh,” Aiden muttered as he read. He sat down next to Anthony. “I still say this isn’t the work of
anyone in the agency. If I were you, I’d look for someone-”

“Hold it. What’s this ‘if I were you’ bull?” Anthony demanded. “You’re in this until the end. You owe Rae that. That
and a hell of a lot more.”

“I gave you my cell phone number because I care about what happens to Rae, and I wanted to do what I could to
help,” Aiden responded calmly. “But atthis point having any contact with me could put Rae in more danger.”

“That’s more bull,” Anthony interrupted again. “You’re not worried about Rae. You’re worried about yourself.”

Aiden gave a tug on his graying ponytail, then he sighed. “Maybe you’re right. At least partly. As you know, I
was

forced to clear out of my own house.” He frowned. “But the truth is that if Rae is seen near me, the agency could
very well decide to come after us both.”

“So you’ll stay away from her. You’ll go through me,” Anthony said. As far as he was concerned, Rae never had to
know that Anthony was in contact with Aiden. “Listen, on the phone before, you were starting to say something
about Erika Keaton.”

“Right. I was saying that the fact that the flyers make reference to Erika Keaton’s murder makes it even more
definite that this has nothing to do with the agency, for several reasons.”

Anthony waited, and finally Aiden continued.

“First, the agency knows-well, we are all quite confident that Rae’s mother didn’t actually kill Erika.”

Anthony’s eyes narrowed. “That’s what Rae said.”

The muscles in Aiden’s neck tightened. “Whatdoes Rae know? What exactly?”

Anthony frowned. “She doesn’t know anything,” he said carefully. He wasn’t about to mention the letter or Rae’s
fingerprint power. Yeah, Aiden probably knew all about what Rae could do, but Anthony wasn’t going to be the one
to spill it-just in case. Who knew how much he could trust this guy? “It’s just that she’s sure her mom didn’t kill
anyone,” Anthony continued. “But what makes you guys think that?”

Aiden looked away. “I feel certain-as do most of the members of the agency-that that kind of violent action didn’t fit
Rae’s mother’s personality profile.”

“Even with the experiments you guys did on her?” Anthony pressed.

“The experiments didn’t change the basic character of the person involved,” Aiden answered.

“So what’s your theory? Who do you believe killed Erika?” Anthony asked.

Aiden picked up a pencil and began doodling on one of the bowling score pads. “I-we-don’t know. We just never
accepted the police’s version. We never believed Melissa Voight was capable of murder.”

He’s holding something back,
Anthony thought.
There’s no way some government agency just thinks that Rae’s

mom was too
nice
to kill someone. He’s got to know more.
Anthony decided not to pressure him. For now. There
was too much else he needed to know first.

“So what’s your theory on who put those flyers all over school?” he asked, over the crashing sound of someone
getting a strike in the next lane.

“As I said, I’m sure it wasn’t anyone from the agency,” Aiden said. “Aside from their feelings about Melissa actually
committing the murder, they wouldn’t want people talking about the incident.” Aiden started doodling faster. “Just
on the off chance that someone got interested in the group that Erika and Melissa were both members of.”

“We’ve covered who you think it isn’t,” Anthony said. “Now who do you think it
is
?”

Aiden tilted his head to the side. “To be honest, the personal nature of these attacks makes it seem like someone is
trying to avenge Erika Keaton’s death. Since Melissa is dead, they seem to have moved on to Rae.”

“So we have to find whoever it is. And fast.” Anthony stood up and paced around the table with the plastic score
sheet in the center. “Does Erika have any relatives around here or anything?”

“Not that I know of. She was an only child, she didn’t have any children, and her parents are dead.”

Aiden paused. “But there could be some relatives out there. I’ll do some checking. I still have some sources.”

“And what should I do?” Anthony asked. He had to do something. Anything.

“Wait until you hear from me,” Aiden replied.

Wait.
Aiden said that like it was easy. What if Anthony was waiting for Rae to get killed?

So what could top Rae’s mom’s being a murderer in Sanderson Prep’s gossip? Rae asked herself as she walked
to the cafeteria the next day. She needed something to keep her thoughts off all the stares and whispers that were
following her everywhere. Hmmm. Maybe if someone’s dad was a cross-dresser. That might do it.
There would need

to be visual aids, though,
she decided. Like if someone did a purple flyer that showed Vince’s dad in a satin bra and
panty set, that could become the day’s hot topic. Especially because the murder Rae’s mom supposedly committed
happened before any of the people at school were even in kindergarten.

Maybe I could do some kind of fake photo,
Raethought.
I could take J Lo’s body in some outrageous outfit and

put
-

But no, she wasn’t that sadistic. And anyway, no matter what new gossip came up, no one was going to forget that
Rae was the possibly insane child of an insane slash homicidal mother. They might latch onto a new juicy tidbit
about somebody else, but that didn’t mean they’d ever forget about Rae. Well, screw them if they couldn’t deal. She
was who she was.

“Hey, you.” Rae glanced over her shoulder and saw Marcus heading up to her. “Turn around. We’re not doing the
caf today. I’m taking you to this new place I heard about over in Little Five Points.”

Rae turned to face him. “Kind of far away, isn’t it? Will we be able to eat and make it back in time?”

Marcus took her by the shoulders and started walking backward down the hall, pulling her with him. “We’ll get it to
go and eat in the car on the way back. Come on. It’s supposed to be amazing. With falafel and hummus and all that
stuff you like.”

“You hate that stuff,” Rae reminded him as he maneuvered her toward the exit.

“But you like it. And I like you,” Marcus answered. “So pick up the pace or we’ll be late for fourth period.”

Rae could barely keep up with him. He waspractically dragging her along with him, as if the school was on fire.

It’s not just the pizza place I ruined for him,
Rae realized.
It’s the caf, too.

Wait. No.
Nothing’s ruined if we don’t let it be,
she thought.
Forget them if they can’t deal. That’s your new

philosophy, remember?

Rae stopped short, refusing to budge even though Marcus kept tugging at her. “You know what? If we keep
hiding, it’ll make people stare more. We should just stop slinking around, eat here, let everyone say what they’re
gonna say and-”

“What are you talking about?” Marcus protested. He ran his hands down her arms. “I just wanted to do something
nice for you. I thought, you know, since the last couple of days haven’t been so great.” His eyes darted around the
hall, making it painfully obvious that his real concern was for them not to be spotted.

But he actually believes it. He actually thinks he’s doing me some big favor,
Rae thought.
When he wants to get

away from the stares more than I do.

“Why haven’t we talked about it-about my mom?” she asked suddenly. “It’s actually pretty stupid of us to pretend
nothing’s happened. It’s not like it really makes it go away.”

“Rae, come on. We’re blocking traffic,” Marcussaid. He gave her wrists a pull. “Let’s just go try the place.”

Out of the corner of her eye Rae caught sight of Lea walking by them, pretending not to see them. Clearly she
didn’t feel like being seen around Rae. And Marcus felt the same way. He was just being less obvious about it. And
trying to make himself believe that wasn’t even what was going on with him.

Rae yanked free of Marcus’s grasp. She walked over to the little marble bench next to the drinking fountain and sat
down. She needed to think, think hard, and she couldn’t do that with Marcus yanking on her.

“What?” Marcus strode up and stood in front of her. “What, Rae?” he asked impatiently.

“Nothing,” Rae answered. “Nothing,” she repeated. Why shouldn’t Marcus want to avoid the stares and whispers?

It wasn’t like he didn’t want to be with her. He just didn’t want to be with her
here.
“Let’s just go.”

Anthony pulled up in front of Jesse’s house and honked. A second later Jesse burst through the door, sprinted to
the car, and got in. “What’s up? Did something happen? All my mom said was that you called and you were coming
over because youwanted to go get ice cream.”