Revelations (14 page)

Anthony ripped open another box, not bothering to use his pocketknife. More science bull on top. He dug through
the papers with both hands. Science, science, science. Another whole box full of science. That wasn’t going to help
Rae.

Aiden flipped through the pages of the notebookhe was holding. “I’ve got something,” he announced, a tremor
running through his voice. “This is crazy,” he murmured, more to himself than to Anthony and Jesse.

Anthony was on his feet instantly, heading over to Aiden. “What is it?” he demanded.

“Well, as we know, Mercer was tracking the offspring of everyone in the group,” Aiden said, his eyes never leaving
the notebook. “And of course, so were we. We never had any information about Erika Keaton having a child. But-according to these notes, it seems Mercer was convinced that Erika did give birth.” He shook his head.

“Fascinating.”

“What does it say?” Anthony asked, the frustration nearly ripping him apart.

Aiden cleared his throat. “It says that Erika left town in the middle months of her pregnancy and returned after the
baby was born, leaving the baby to be raised by someone else. He didn’t know who.” Aiden turned a few more
pages. “This whole notebook is devoted to theories about where the child might be now.”

“So this kid, he could be the one going after Rae,” Anthony burst out.

“The agency had no suspicions of a Keaton offspring,” Aiden insisted. “I wonder if Mercer wasright or if he’d
become delusional to the point-”

“We’re checking it out,” Anthony interrupted. “It doesn’t matter if there’s a ninety-nine percent chance Mercer was
wacked-we’re checking it out.”

“You said he was tracking all the offspring,” Jesse piped up. “Does that mean Mandy Reese, too?”

“We’re not here to find out about Mandy Reese. No one is after Mandy Reese,” Anthony said. He grabbed the box
of science junk, lifted it over his head, and hurled it toward the pile of other boxes of science junk. It didn’t get that
close, and he couldn’t care less.

“But Steve Mercer killed Mandy’s mom, just like he killed Rae’s mom,” Jesse pushed.

“I know that,” Anthony answered. “But Mercer’s dead. So it can’t be him who’s after Rae. We have to forget about
him for now. Forget about Mandy, too. She has no reason to want revenge on Rae, so we’re not interested in her.”

“I met her, okay?” Jesse shot back. “I just don’t want anything to happen to her.”

“I think Anthony’s right,” Aiden said. “We’re almost positive there’s a connection between the fact that Rae’s
mother was accused of killing Erika Keaton and the threats Rae’s been getting. This should have nothing to do with
Mandy.” He used the bottom of his T-shirt to wipe off his sweaty face.
He’sin decent shape for an old guy,
Anthony
thought. That was good. If they needed to get physical when they finally found out who was after Rae, then-

Mr. Potato Head, the guy who’s after Rae isn’t going to start throwing punches if you find him,
Anthony told
himself.
He’s probably going to start shooting. And being in shape
-
not gonna help.

“We need to find out more about Keaton’s kid,” Anthony said. He opened another box. They weren’t even halfway
through. And maybe that was good. Because they hadn’t found one thing-one
useful
thing-so far.

“I feel like I’ve been breathing in dirt instead of air,” Jesse complained as he rooted through the box in front of him.

“You think there’s a soda machine around here?”

“If Erika
did
have a child, the child would be seventeen now, according to Mercer’s theory,” Aiden said, ignoring
Jesse.

“Plenty old enough to go after Rae,” Anthony said. They were on the right track. He could feel it.

Rae, Erika, Rae, Erika, Rae, Erika,
he chanted to himself as he checked out the box he’d opened. That’s all he was
hoping to see. Something about Rae or Erika. But he got nothing. Aiden and Jesse must be having the same kind of
crappy luck he was since neither of them was saying anything. Anthony shoved the box away. Opened another one.

Rae, Erika, Rae, Erika, Rae, Erika.
Nothing. He tore open another box.
Rae, Erika, Rae, Erika, Rae-

“Yes,” he muttered as he caught sight of Erika’s name. “What do we got?” Medical charts. Useless. Copy of her
birth certificate and driver’s license. Useless. Copy of some work evaluation. Useless.
Man, did Mercer keep records

of how many times she hit the head a day, too?
Anthony wondered. Copy of her income tax records. Useless. A
picture of Yana’s dad.

Wait. A picture of Yana’s dad? What was a picture of Yana’s dad doing in the box? He’d seen some pictures of Yana
in the surveillance photos of Rae he’d found, which made sense because Rae and Yana used to hang together a lot.

But Anthony was pretty sure Rae’d never met Yana’s dad. The guy definitely wasn’t the type to take his daughter’s
friends out for ice cream or anything like that. Anthony held the picture up to Aiden. “Any idea why-”

“You are not going to freakin’ believe this,” Jesse interrupted. His voice got higher with every word. He cleared his
throat and rushed on. “This is from some notes Mercer wrote last week, the day before he died, I think. Anyway, it
says he figured out whoErika’s child was-Yana Savari.”

“Yana?” Anthony repeated.
“Yana?”
Hot bile splashed up into the back of his throat. He’d kissed Yana. Her hands
had been all over him. He swallowed hard, but acid bile came right back up. Any second he could start to puke.

“Yeah, it says that Mercer thinks Erika never told Yana’s dad about her being born,” Jesse answered. “She left
Yana with a friend in Oregon and came back here. But then after Erika died, when Yana was still really little, the friend
got sick. She knew who Yana’s dad was, and she took Yana to him.”

“So we’re saying Yana’s the one after Rae?” Anthony said. He slapped the top of his head. Like that would get his
brain functioning better or something. It was just so freaking unbelievable. How long had Yana been coming after
Rae? When did she decide to get close to Rae by becoming her friend? He swallowed again, trying to keep from
spewing.

“Yes,” Aiden answered. He tightened the rubber band on his ponytail.

Anthony lurched to his feet. “I’ve gotta get to Rae. Right now.”

Rae heard Yana’s bedroom door swing open. “How did it…” Her words trailed off when she sawthe expression on
Yana’s face. Make that the lack of expression. It was like Yana was wearing a mask.

“I have to get out of here. Right now.” Yana strode to her closet and pulled out a purple-and-yellow gym bag. “If I
don’t, I’m going to be locked away from now until God knows how long.” She jerked open the top drawer of her
dresser and shoved in some bras, panties, and socks.

“What? Where?” Rae couldn’t even form a complete sentence.

“I know a place,” Yana said. She pulled open the next drawer down and threw a couple of pairs of jeans, some Tshirts, and a sweatshirt into the bag. Then she turned to face Rae.

I was wrong,
Rae thought
. Her face isn’t like a mask. Well, it is, except for the eyes.
Yana’s eyes were like blue fire,
so intense that Rae expected anything Yana looked at to burst into flame. Including Rae herself.

“I need you to come with me,” Yana said. “Please,” she added before Rae could even form a thought. “Just for a
few days, until I get myself settled.”

“Of course. Yeah,” Rae answered. What else could she say?
No, Yana. I’ve got a quiz in English, so I can’t really

help keep you out of the insane asylum right now.
And besides, it’s not like she had a boyfriendwho’d miss her or
anything. “I just need to get some of my stuff and give my dad some kind of excuse so he won’t flip out, then we’re
outta here to… wherever.”

Yana dropped her gym bag and rushed over to Rae. She hugged Rae so tightly it hurt, and Rae could feel Yana
trembling. “Thanks. Thanks, Rae,” she said.

*

I can’t stop trembling. I ’m way too excited. It ’s finallygoing to happen. I ’m finally going to kill Rae Voight. It is

goingto be like eating a whole box of Godiva chocolates at once, but slowly, one delicious piece at a time.

I’ve made Rae suffer a little-putting the “blood” on her clothes, spreading those flyers all over her school. But

that’s nothing compared to what I ’m going to do to her when I get her away from here, away from Anthony, away

from her daddy, away from anybody who can help her.

I can’t wait until she realizes the truth. I can ’t wait until she knows that the only reason I ever pretended to be her

friend was so that I could get close enough to hurt her the way I’ve been hurt. Finally I ’m going to be able to make

her pay for everything.

Anthony forced himself to slow down as he turned onto Rae’s street. He didn’t want Rae’s dad to see him driving
thirty miles over the speed limit. Which he hardly ever did. But today he hadn’t been able to stop himself.

“What are you going to say to him?” Jesse asked as Anthony pulled into Rae’s driveway and parked.

“Come on,” Anthony said, ignoring Jesse’s question. He didn’t have time to answer it. He might not have a second
to spare. He strode up to the front door, rang the bell, then rang it again before he could stop himself.
Chill, all right?

he told himself.
You don’t want to freak the guy out.
He jammed his hands in his pockets to keep from ringing the
bell a third time-or ripping the door off its hinges with his bare hands.

“What are you going to-” Jesse began again. He was interrupted by Rae’s dad opening the front door.

“Hello, Anthony,” Mr. Voight said, smiling like he was actually glad to see Anthony. The guy was a college
professor, but he always treated Anthony, well, basically like Anthony wasn’t a moron. Like he was-like he was
Marcus Salkow or something.

“Hey,” Anthony answered, making sure to meet Mr. Voight’s eye. He saw Mr. Voight glance at Jesse, and Anthony
realized Rae’s father was waiting for an introduction.
I would have already done that if I hadn’t been raised by

wolves,
Anthony thought. “Uh, this is Jesse Beven. He’s a friend of Rae’s, too. We were wondering if Rae was up for
a movie.”

“Rae had to go out of town for a few days,” Mr. Voight answered. “Your friend, Yana? Her aunt died.”

Anthony’s intestines squirmed around like snakes. Yana. God, no. Was Rae with Yana?

“Rae wanted to go to the funeral with Yana since Yana’s dad couldn’t get off work,” Mr. Voight continued. He ran
his fingers over his bald spot, then seemed to realize what he was doing and put his hand in the pocket of his
sweater.

“Where does Yana’s aunt live? Do you have an address?” Anthony burst out. Mr. Voight raised an eyebrow.

“We might want to send a card. My mom, she sayseveryone likes to know you’re thinking about them when, you
know, someone dies,” Jesse jumped in.

Anthony’s intestine snakes started biting each other at the word
dies. Rae’s not going to die,
Anthony told himself.

You’re not going to let that happen, even if that’s what Yana has planned. Which maybe it isn’t.

“One second and I’ll write it down for you,” Mr. Voight said. “Do you two want to come in, have something to
drink?”

“No, thanks,” Anthony answered. “We should get going.”

“Okay, be right back.” Mr. Voight disappeared, leaving the door halfway open.

“What do you think Yana’s going to do?” Jesse whispered. “I mean, what’s she been waiting for all this time if she
knew who Rae was?”

Good question,
Anthony thought. “I think she might be kind of twisted,” he answered. “Maybe she got off on being
around Rae without Rae knowing who she was. Like I told you, she hooked up with me for a while just to stick it to
Rae.”

And now what? Now what’s Yana’s sick plan?

“Do you think-” Jesse said.

“Wait. He’s coming back,” Anthony cut him off, hearing Mr. Voight’s footsteps heading in their direction.

“Here you go,” Mr. Voight said as he steppedback into the doorway. He handed Anthony a slip of paper. “I put the
phone number on there, too.”

“Great. Thanks a lot,” Anthony said. He backed away from the door. “We’ve got to go or, uh, we’ll miss the
beginning of the movie.”

“I hope it’s a good one.” Mr. Voight gave Anthony and Jesse a wave and shut the door.

Anthony bolted for the car. He pulled a map out of the glove compartment as Jesse got in the passenger seat.

“You’re not going to call first?” Jesse asked. “The aunt’s house is supposedly in Louisiana. It’ll take at least six
hours to get there. And you don’t know if that’s where they’re really headed.”

“Yeah,” Anthony answered, tracing a route with his finger. “But if I call and talk to the aunt-if there is an aunt. Yana
might take off again as soon as she gets there. Anyway, it’s better than sitting on my butt, wondering what’s going
on. It’s a shot at least.” Anthony tossed the map on the dashboard, then pulled out of the driveway.