“Who?” asked Ethan.
She did not explain. Dana folded the drawings and took a step toward the stairs, but Ethan caught her arm.
“Look, Dana, if you’re pissed at me,” he said gently, “I’m sorry.”
She gave him a small smile. “I’m not mad. Not at you, anyway. I’m scared about this stuff, and I’m absolutely furious that someone is doing this. I’m confused, and I hate being confused. There has to be an answer, and you said it—we don’t really know what we’re doing. We can’t go to anyone in authority with this because, first, you’ll be grounded forever for showing this stuff to me. Second, your uncle Frank could lose his job. And third, they’d never believe us. You know I’m right.”
“Okay, but who can we talk to?”
“Not ‘we,’ Ethan. Me. I have a friend who might be able to look places no one else can. Maybe she can lead us to the evidence you want.”
He paused. “Who?”
“Corinda Howell. She owns—”
“Beyond Beyond,” he finished for her. “She’s that nutty psychic lady, right?” Ethan stood his ground for five seconds. Then he sighed, nodded, and stepped aside. “Call me?” he asked. “Let me know what she says?”
Dana paused, nodded. “Sure.”
She lingered at the foot of the stairs. Both of them started to say something, stopped. The moment held and then stretched, and Dana felt that something was supposed to happen, but she didn’t know what it was. Ethan seemed to think so, too, but his smile was turning into a plastic mask that looked as awkward as her own face felt. Was he starting to lean forward a little?
“Um … see you,” she said, stepping back nervously.
“Sure. Um,” he murmured. “Bye.”
“Bye.”
She stood there a moment longer and then turned and hurried up the stairs, certain that her face was bright red. A man in a black suit was coming down the steps and stood aside to let her pass. She barely registered him.
Had that almost been a kiss?
Yes.
Maybe.
She didn’t know.
If it was, she’d screwed it up.
“Idiot,” she told herself.
She thought about Ethan’s smile for blocks and blocks.
CHAPTER 40
Craiger, Maryland 5:31 P.M.
Clouds covered the sky, and it was already getting dark. The streetlights came on early, and Dana kept to the lighted side of Main Street, avoiding the open black mouths of alleys. A homeless man was squatting in one alleyway under a shelter made of moldy cardboard, rags, and splintered boards. He held out a cup, and although in daylight Dana would have stopped and given him some coins, tonight she said, “I’m sorry,” and hurried on. The man yelled something as she passed, and she was half a block away before her mind translated it from his wine-soaked guttural.
“God protect you.”
It stopped her and she turned, looking back. The man sat with his face in his hands, rocking forward and back.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Then she turned and hurried toward the lighted storefront two blocks away that was Beyond Beyond.
A few cars went up and down the street, and Dana only glanced at them. She did not see the black sedan parked on the shadowy side of the street. She did not see the two men who watched her.
CHAPTER 41
Beyond Beyond
5:53 P.M.
Corinda was there but busy at the checkout with people buying the latest astrology book by a New York Times–bestselling author.
Dana got to the store too late to catch Melissa, who had gone into the advanced yoga class already. It made her anxious, because she needed to tell everything to her sister. Every single detail.
She was too nervous to sit and drink tea, so she wandered around the shop, killing time and fidgeting.
“?Qué pasa, mai?” said a voice, and she spun so fast that she knocked a statue of the Hindu god Ganesha off a table. Angelo ducked and caught the statue before it hit the floor. It was an incredible feat, and Dana gaped.
“Wow!” she said.
Angelo straightened, hefting the small stone statue in his hand, then placed it neatly and carefully in its spot. He adjusted two other statues that had been knocked askew.
“They’re expensive,” he said. “Wouldn’t want to see you have to buy it, ’cause they have that whole ‘you break it, you bought it’ thing going on.”
He had an accent, but his voice was soft and there was an almost musical lilt to it. He wasn’t wearing his blue uniform, but instead had on jeans and an FSK High T-shirt that looked to be several years old. His arms were sinewy without being bulky, and he looked like he was on springs, ready to move at a moment’s notice. Dana realized that it was his natural state, even though his posture seemed to be casual, even slouchy. It was the kind of feline grace she’d seen in the big cats at the San Diego Zoo.
His smile was slow, too. It was knowing, personal, amused, unconcerned, and yet there was interest there.
“I—I’ve seen you at school,” she said when absolutely nothing else occurred to her.