Spooked. Part 18

I sighed and sat back against the seat. Four minutes went by.

I texted him again: She hasn't come back yet?!

His reply was: No. And I'm getting worried.

I frowned. I sat straight up. Something was wrong.

I tapped out my response, dread clawing at my insides: Go in there after her. Now.

His response: I asked Addy to check on her.

Addy was the forty-something waitress that had been at the diner for more than twenty years. She wasn't familiar with Fiona, so she'd have noticed her coming and going.

I tapped another message to him, my fingers urgent and fumbling.

Mick?

Nothing for a long few minutes. I speed dialed his cell.

He answered on the fourth ring.

"Lorelei." His voice was spiked with panic.

"Mick. What's going on?"

"She's gone," he said.

"What?" My heart raced and my ability to breathe seemed to have evaporated.

"Fiona's not in there. She's gone."

I sat in the car for another hour while people from the diner were questioned. n.o.body was allowed to leave. But mercifully, Mick, sitting near a window facing the parking lot, used his remote car starter to give me fifteen minutes or so of warm air from the truck's heater before it would shut off again. The temperature was rapidly dropping, according to the radio. I didn't need the radio to tell me it was cold as h.e.l.l. The frigid air found me just fine.

Between blasts of luxuriously warm air, I shivered as I thought of how Fiona could've simply disappeared from a public bathroom in a very public place. Whoever took her was pretty c.o.c.ky. But then, he'd gotten away with it at least three times before, if not more. I felt helpless, not being able to do a thing to help. I slunk down low and closed my eyes, trying to pick up any thoughts from anyone near the diner. The only thing I picked up on was alarm-buzzing, loud and hectic. It had happened again. No girl was safe.

The abductor was likely long gone, with Fiona.

How the h.e.l.l had he done it? A gun? He would've had to walk her out of there.

Then a grim realization came over me.

Her ghosts would've been all around her, trying to protect her, hiding her from view as he took her away. Chances were that he was shielded, too.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Mick came out to the truck.

I looked at his pale face as he started the engine. "Jesus," he breathed. "He took her with everyone around." He looked back at me, his eyes wild and panicked. "How could he do that? How the h.e.l.l did he get away with it?"

"He snuck her out the back door. The one near the restrooms," I said. "Her ghosts might've hidden them both."

"Wouldn't people notice the ghosts moving around?"

"People often don't see what's right in front of them."

He nodded as he navigated the truck out of the diner parking lot. "Yeah. It's crazy."

"Add to that the fact that everybody knows him, Mick. It's the only way he'd get away with it. They are so used to seeing him that he isn't even registering on their radar. He is completely nonthreatening and familiar."

"Tanner. It has to be." Mick's gloved hands shook each time he lifted them from the wheel. "He was conveniently missing when Fiona vanished."

"This can't go on. What the h.e.l.l are we going to do?" I sat up and forward, watching his face. Fear made me hyper and I felt as if I might jump right out of my skin.

He shook his head slowly. "Whatever it takes."

As we drove, something gray and wispy moved in my peripheral vision. I followed it, and my heart sank.

Fiona's ghosts were seeping through the cracks in the doors, moving in and around me.

I leaned my head back against the seat of the car and said a prayer that the reason they were no longer with her was for some reason other than the one that was in my mind.

That she was no longer of this world.

That she was dead. Just like them.

Chapter Sixteen.

"There is only one thing left to do." I pulled the paper that Mr. Tanner gave Fiona from my coat pocket.

Mick's eyes were wide as he looked at me. "Are you out of your mind?"

"What else can we do before he kills her?" I said, looking down at the map and the phone number scrawled beneath it.

"Call the cops? Give them the map?"

I looked at him. "Mick. We can't be sure he'll be there. We know what Tanner likes. Young girls. I'm a young girl. I can get him."

"He can get you, too." Mick shook his head. "No way. It's too dangerous."

I dug my cell out of my coat pocket. "I'm not asking for your permission."

"Oh, Jesus," Mick muttered under his breath. He moved a hand over his face.

"We have to get him before he kills her. I have a feeling he likes to take his time with the girls, when he does get them alone. We may have some time. He just grabbed her." I punched Edward Tanner's number.

No answer. I waited for the tone to leave a voice message. "Mr. Tanner. This is Lorelei. I know everyone is looking for me, but I had to take off for a while. I couldn't handle everything going on. But my cousin Fiona is missing now. I found your number on a piece of paper she had in her backpack. " I let my fear and panic thicken my voice with tears. "I don't know who to turn to. Please help me." I rattled off my cell number, even though I knew it would come up on his phone anyway.

As we pulled into Mick's driveway, I noticed his face looked so white he seemed almost incandescent.

"This is a really bad idea, Lorelei," he said, glancing at me, his face looking stricken. "How are you going to explain how you knew she was missing so fast?"

"I heard a radio news bulletin." I shrugged. "I want to get her back, Mick. I don't want her to be one of the missing."

He reached over and touched my face, his fingers trembling. "I don't want you to be one of the missing."

My breath had caught in my throat, my head dizzy. The intensity in his eyes reminded me that this was not a game. This was real, and I might not come back.

But if I didn't do this, if I didn't try this one last thing to get Fiona back safely, I wouldn't be able to continue living. I'd be dead inside.

I'd be the walking dead. I'd never be the same.

Seventeen minutes later Mr. Tanner called me back.

"Lorelei!" His voice was breathy, surprised and pleased.

"Yes," I said, my voice sounding small.

"Thank G.o.d you're okay," he said. "Tell me where you are."

"I'll meet you," I said. "But I don't want to be seen."

He didn't even pause. "I understand. Do you have the paper I drew the map on for Fiona?" His voice sounded too casual. It bothered him that I had it-it was evidence.

"Yes," I said, my voice shaking.

"Good. Does anyone else know about it? I just want to make sure that you remain hidden, if that's what you want."

I just bet you do. I couldn't help grinning. He really was a slimeball. "No. I just found it and n.o.body knows about it."

"Okay. After dark, meet me in the cemetery, behind the big angel. You know the one?"

I nodded my head, though I knew he couldn't see me doing it. "Yes, I do. I'll be there."

"Seven o'clock?"

I nodded again. "Seven."

He paused. "Don't worry, Lorelei. Everything will be okay. I'm here for you."

"Thank you, Mr. Tanner."

"Call me Eddie."

"Okay." But I couldn't bring myself to call him Eddie right then. Eddie the pervert? Eddie the abductor of young girls? Eddie the killer?

And his last words before he ended the call chilled me, stealing my breath. "Lorelei, I'll keep you hidden. No one will find you."

Just like the others.

Mick dropped me off a block away and I walked quickly to the cemetery. One gloved hand clutched the collar of my parka tightly while the other fisted a switchblade deep in my pocket. My hood covered my head and obscured my face, and I felt Fiona's ghosts moving around me, but giving me plenty of room. I couldn't help wondering whether Fiona had sent them to watch over me or whether they just had nowhere else to go and were familiar with me, having woven themselves around me at Brianna's vigil.

I shivered, making my way steadily into the cemetery. A light snow flurried around me in the quiet. I knew that Mick was watching me, staying far enough away that he wasn't being obvious-watching me from some side street or something. Still, my hands shook.

In moments Mr. Tanner came seemingly out of nowhere, walking toward me. His shoes were silent on the pavement, and it freaked me out that I wouldn't have heard him coming had he decided to creep up behind me without warning.

Almost before I could blink he was in front of me, leaning in close, a hand on each of my shoulders.

"Lorelei," he murmured, my name sounding slightly obscene on his lips.

I thought I felt his breath on my face, but I hoped it had been wind.

He hurried me out of the cemetery and to his smoke silver sedan-a Lincoln, a few years old. White hot fear pumped adrenaline through my blood, making my heart race as I sat on the black leather seats.

"These seats are heated, so you'll warm up fast." He patted my thigh. "Don't worry. We'll get you somewhere safe."

I barely noticed the heated seat. My fight-or-flight instinct had kicked in and I had to grip the edges of the seat to keep myself from leaping out of the car.

"Where have you been, Lorelei? Everyone is worried sick." He looked at me, his eyes intense.

"I can't tell you that. Not yet, anyway."

"Does anyone know where you are?" The concern in his voice sounded contrived. Saccharine sweet.

A chill moved over me all over again and I quivered. "No."

I thought I saw something pa.s.s over his face. Relief? Satisfaction? "You poor girl." He turned the heat up so the air blasted out toward me. "You're freezing."

"Thank you, Mr. Tanner," I said, trying to keep the quiver out of my voice.

"Eddie," he said. "Please."

I tried to smile. "I'm not used to thinking of you as Eddie."

He smiled back. "I know. It would take some time, wouldn't it?"

"Are you taking me to the place on the map you drew for Fiona?"

"Yes. You'll be safe there. And there's a fireplace. You'll be toasty in no time."