She did not want to go home. That was going to be too much like showing up for prison on the first day of a life sentence. Dad hated her now— she was sure of that. Melissa was in trouble, too.
On the other hand, running away was not really an option. It sometimes felt like a plan, but there was no way to make it work. She didn’t have money. She was a minor. She was a girl. She had no place to run to. There was no one who would risk taking her in. And Dad would find her. The cops would find her.
Maybe the angel would find her.
And that was a weird thought, because Angelo had been arrested.
Did that mean her visions would stop? After all, how could iron bars stop him from stepping into her dreams? Would he haunt her? Would he target her and try to destroy her? Or more correctly, destroy what was left of her life?
The street corner was empty, and no one stepped out from behind a tree to offer her answers or solutions.
“Ethan,” she said aloud, surprising herself by speaking his name. And then she said, “Sunlight.”
They were still out there. Sure, Ethan had been a jerk, but he was a friend. Maybe more than that. Would he help her? No, she decided, he probably wouldn’t. His uncle Frank was the one who was heading up this investigation. Asking Ethan for help would be cruel and unfair. It would force him to make decisions that could only do him damage.
Which left Sunlight.
Dana turned and faced the direction that would take her to Main Street. She thought about going there, but then realized that Corinda would be there, and probably a lot of reporters. Even so, Sunlight was smart, and he was the most powerful psychic around. If anyone could help, he could. And maybe he would.
Thinking about how lost she was turned some of her fear and heartbreak back into anger. This wasn’t fair. None of it was fair. She hadn’t asked for any of this.
And it made no sense. Everyone lately had been asking her if she was getting high, that her eyes looked weird. She’d seen it in the mirror, too, but assumed it was from everything she’d been through. After all, she really did not take drugs. Just the thought of taking something that would take away some control of her thoughts and actions was both frightening and disgusting. She liked being in control. That was why she did not think she would ever want to do more of the astral projection she’d done with Sunlight. She imagined that was what being high might be like, and she wanted no part of it.
That did not explain the blood test. It didn’t explain Eclipse.
How did she get that drug in her system? Seriously, how was it even possible? She demanded her mind to make sense of it. She went over everything she had eaten or drunk in the last few days. The only things she could not say for sure could not have been tampered with were the food at school and the stuff she ate at Beyond Beyond. She started walking again, not heading in any particular direction beyond “not home.”
If it was the food at school, that could account for some of the victims having it in their system. But if it was cafeteria food, wouldn’t everyone have been exposed? How could someone target specific students? Angelo worked there, but not in the cafeteria. On the other hand, the school janitors went everywhere, and they had keys to every door.
If it had been at Beyond Beyond, then it would make more sense. Angelo worked there, too, and it would have been pretty easy to tamper with a tea bag or a scone. Melissa hadn’t been drugged, as far as Dana knew. She only drank coffee. So did that mean it was the tea?
The tea.
Yes. She had tea every time she went to Beyond Beyond. Every single time.
Dana felt a flush of excitement. Could she get into the place and get some of the tea bags? If Uncle Frank had them, he could do some kind of tests.
Her pace quickened, and she began to walk more definitively in the direction of Corinda’s store.
CHAPTER 75
Craiger, Maryland 8:10 A.M.
“There she is,” said Danny.
He was Gerlach’s driver today because the usual guy had called in sick again. So had the new guy. It was becoming a thing with anyone who spent a lot of time with the red-haired agent. Danny understood it. No one was sick. They were just afraid of Gerlach. The rumors among the lower-level agents was that Gerlach could sometimes get inside their heads. Danny knew it firsthand, and though it creeped him out, he could roll with it. Maybe if the other agents were there to watch the monitors and see what the angel was doing, they wouldn’t be as freaked about Gerlach.
“I see her,” murmured Agent Gerlach. He had his hat on, the brim pulled low so that it rested on his small, powerful binoculars.
“What’s the call? Do we pick her up?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Don’t we have to, though? She can ID our boy.”
Gerlach watched Dana Scully stride away from Francis Scott Key Regional High. He sat chewing his gum, saying nothing.
“She’s moving,” said Danny.
“I see that.”
“She’s not going home, though.”
“I can see that, too,” agreed Agent Gerlach.