She leaned against the glass wall of the phone booth, feeling oddly lost, as if she had somehow been abandoned by everyone. That wasn’t true, of course, but the feeling was so powerful and persistent that Dana tested the folding door to make sure it was all the way closed. Better to be locked in a glass booth than be out there, exposed, vulnerable.
That, too, was an irrational thought. She was a target in a fishbowl, and she realized that safety was incredibly subjective. It was what people made of it in the moment. That was not a comforting realization. She looked at the darkened street, at the passing cars and the occasional pedestrians, seeing no one she recognized. Not at first. Then she saw Angelo come out of the alley that ran alongside Beyond Beyond. He wore a dark long-sleeved hooded sweatshirt that made him blend almost completely in with the shadows behind him. He looked up and down the street, obviously looking for something or someone. Dana pulled the handle of the folding door, opening it inward until the edge of the metal door released the button that triggered the light. The booth went dark a split second before Angelo looked across the street. His gaze swept toward the phone booth, seemed to pause for a moment, and then moved on. Then he pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt, jammed his hands into his pocket, and hurried across, slanting away from where Dana stood trembling.
She lingered there in the dark, watching his figure vanish into the night.
Why did I hide from him?
Why am I afraid of him?
The questions burned in her mind, but she did not try to answer them. Not out here, alone in the dark, confused and still off balance from whatever had happened in Sunlight’s Chrysalis Room. Not after everything Corinda had told her.
She put another dime in the slot and dialed a number. It rang five times before Ethan answered.
“I need to see you,” she said, her voice urgent and breathless.
“Whoa, wait, are you okay? Is something wrong?”
“Everything’s wrong,” said Dana, but then she took a breath. “Look, can I come over? I need to talk about some things with someone who understands.”
“Understands what?”
It was a good question, and it took Dana a few seconds to figure out how to answer it. “The case,” she said at last. “I have more information, but I don’t know if it’s real or not. Actually, I don’t know if anything’s real anymore. My head is so messed up right now.”
“Messed up how?” asked Ethan.
“I’ll tell you when I see you. I’ll tell you everything. Can I come over?”
“When?”
“Now.”
Ethan paused and hushed his voice. “I think Uncle Frank brought the file home for Todd Harris. I saw him putting the big case folder in his desk, and it looked thicker. But the thing is, my uncle’s still here. He was supposed to work another double today but he said he wasn’t feeling too good and called in sick. But after he took a nap, he said he was doing better and was going to go in after all. He said it was probably just too much spicy food at the diner last night. But he won’t be leaving for an hour. I’m cooking dinner first. He wanted oatmeal to calm his stomach. Can you come over after? Like around eight?”
Dana thought about it. She felt like going home and hiding under the covers in her room, but she was afraid of what her parents would say, especially if her pupils were still dilated from whatever it was that had happened with Sunlight. Last thing she needed was to have her folks think she’d been getting high. As if. But with everyone in Craiger talking about dumb kids getting stoned and then getting killed, she’d never be able to convince her parents that it was the aftereffect of meditation and astral projection. Yeah, that wasn’t something she could sell. She didn’t even know if she believed it herself.
However, if she didn’t go home, that left a lot of time. She glanced along Main Street in the direction of the dojo.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll be over after my class, but I have a curfew, so I won’t be able to stay long.”
“Good,” said Ethan, sounding relieved. “And Dana…?”
“Yes?”
“Be careful, okay?” He paused, then added, “I just found you. Don’t want to lose you already.”
Dana took too long trying to decide how to answer. Ethan hung up.
She stood in the darkened booth and stared at the phone.
And smiled.
CHAPTER 52
Kakusareta Taiyou Dojo
7:35 P.M.