Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance Page 14

  Jimmy let out the breath he had been holding. Then he quickly clamped his hand over his mouth. Jesse was still there and now Jimmy knew that Jesse was involved in whatever was going on with Sapphire. Had Jesse been there when Devlin and whoever else had done something horrible to her? Or had he just come along later to cover things up?

  Jimmy stayed where he was, peering around the corner and waiting. It seemed to take a long time before Jesse finally came out of the back room. When he did appear, Jesse was walking slowly, his head down. He looked like a broken man.

  Jesse had a shock of thin white hair on top of his head. He wore wire-rimmed glasses that were continually perched on the end of his beak-like nose. He had a soft chin and an easy smile. He wore sweater vests a lot and blue shirts beneath. Beneath that he wore blue jeans, which he always wore with blue sneakers. He was wearing the same thing as always, but something about him seemed sadder than Jimmy had ever seen before.

  Jimmy crouched down near the floor and watched as Jesse paced back and forth in front of his desk. Then he sat down and put his head in his hands. After a moment, Jimmy realized Jesse was crying. Then Jesse reached into his desk drawer and pulled out what Jimmy guessed was a photo, or perhaps a newspaper clipping. He studied it for a while, tears streaming down his face. The front door opened and Jesse suddenly straightened, wiping his eyes and reaching for a tissue. He blew his nose and fixed a smile on his face.

  A woman and a little girl came in. Jesse stood up and greeted the two of them. The woman immediately began asking questions about various children’s books. Jesse stood there with the smile affixed to his face and nodding. Then he pointed to the children’s section near the back and led the two of them away.

  Jimmy sat there for another moment and then got to his feet. He stepped away slowly and crept back down the aisle. He peered around the corner of the end of the bookshelf and saw that Jesse, the woman, and the little girl were still back in the children’s section. Jimmy crept slowly toward the door and opened it quietly.

  Outside, the sun was bright and the sky was blue. In his gut he felt like a storm was brewing. He was angry. He was confused. He felt as if his entire world had just come apart.

  This was not turning out to be a good day.

  Plus, he now had to worry about what George was up to and if Devlin Little was about to kill him. Jimmy sighed and then made his way around the side of the building. For the first time, the library felt like a hostile place. Jimmy felt betrayed.

  He pedaled off into the distance. He had to visit Tabitha, and he needed to talk to her soon.

  Jimmy rode the rest of the way to Tabitha’s office in a kind of fog. By the time he reached the newspaper offices, his head felt like it was about to explode. He could not stop thinking about Jesse and Devlin. What had the two of them done? How many others were involved? What the hell had happened all those years ago? The thoughts tumbled and churned through his brain like stones through a rock polisher.

  He parked his bike outside, locking it to a street lamp, in the downtown area of Knorr. Just a few blocks to Jimmy’s right was the spot where the newspaper offices had been. Now it was a parking lot. The restaurant that had been there was long gone, the owners having decided that when your establishment is literally blown up, it’s time to leave town. Now the offices of the newspaper was in a stone and glass building just a few blocks away that held nothing but offices for doctors, lawyers, and accountants. The newspaper held the bottom northeast corner of the building.

  Jimmy stepped inside. Upstairs was the office where his dentist plied his trade, and just off to his left was where his doctor did his work. Jimmy had never been in the newspaper offices before. He turned right, then went down a short hallway, and then through a very nondescript glass door.

  Inside it was pretty much what every office Jimmy had ever been in looked like. There were gray cubicle walls seemingly everywhere the eye could see. Right inside the door was a desk and high wall where a receptionist would sit. Somehow, Jimmy had expected something more. He had envisioned a printing press chugging away somewhere and reporters running around screaming for copy boys.

  “Hello, Jimmy,” a voice said off to his right. Tabitha emerged from around a corner. “Not what you expected, huh?”

  Jimmy shrugged. “I guess I’ve seen too many newspapers as depicted by movies.”

  Tabitha laughed. “Well, there may be a lot of action and shouting and running around in some big city newspapers, but here we use freelancers and reporters who work from home. They upload stories to an FTP website, I do edits on the computer and send them back through email, and our printing press is located outside of town. Most of the work is done electronically and we keep desks here for meetings and writers who want to have interviews or do research.”

  Jimmy nodded. Modern times.

  “You look a bit pale,” Tabitha said.

  Jimmy sighed. “I found out some things. By accident.”

  “I found a few things, as well,” Tabitha said.

  Tabitha gestured and Jimmy followed her down another short hallway to a wooden door at the end. Inside was a corner office. Pictures that should have been hanging on the wall were leaning against them instead, situated on the floor. A beautiful wooden desk that must have been an antique took up much of the space. Two leather chairs, a bit beat up, but nice, were situated in front of that desk. A leather couch took up one wall just inside the door and a coffee table was in front of that. Bookshelves lined another portion of the wall and two sets of windows overlooking the corner of the street dominated the rest.

  “Not bad,” Jimmy said.

  “Thanks,” Tabitha said, sitting down on the leather sofa. “So tell me what you found out.”

  Jimmy relayed the story of what had happened to him at the library. As he spoke, Tabitha’s eyes grew wider and her mouth more grim.

  “That certainly complicates things,” Tabitha said once Jimmy had finished. “Devlin Little may be a complete jerk, but he does have pull in this town. I am very sorry to hear that Jesse is involved in this thing at all, but it does help explain how the archives at the library have been tampered with. Jesse also has some computer experience, but I am not sure how much. Possibly enough to get into the newspaper archives.”

  “I thought Jesse was a friend,” Jimmy said, “Since my dad died, Jesse’s been like a father to me. He’s one of my best friends. I feel betrayed.”

  Tabitha put a reassuring hand on Jimmy’s knee. “From your description, I get the feeling that Jesse is mixed up in things, but not really at the center of it all. Maybe he was sucked into this thing after the fact, maybe even years later.”

  Jimmy looked down at his hands, which were fiddling with each other in his lap.

  “OK, let’s look at what I found,” Tabitha said. She reached over the coffee table and produced a very unimpressive looking book with a gray cover. As she lifted it Jimmy saw “Knorr High School” stamped in gold lettering on the cover. “A yearbook.”

  Tabitha had marked a page and she let it fall open. She handed it to Jimmy. Jimmy took it with shaking hands and looked down at the page she had marked. His breath caught in his throat. There she was.

  Her hair was the same as it was last night. The photo was in black and white, but Jimmy just knew that her eyes were green. Sapphire had a bright smile across her face. Her skin looked flawless, again, just like it did last night. She looked full of promise and full of hope. She looked like a girl that any of the boys in the school would have fought for and would have been proud to have on their arm. So much potential was wrapped up in that one photo that it hurt Jimmy’s heart.

  “Wow,” Jimmy said at last.

  “That was her freshman year,” Tabitha said. “The sad thing is that she does not appear in any other yearbooks after that.”

  Jimmy shook his head. “What happened? Did you find anything else?”

  “No,” Tabitha said. “So much of our actual archives were destroyed in the explosion and fire. I put s
ome feelers out to other area newspapers and I am waiting to see what comes back. There aren’t many other papers currently active in the surrounding towns, but there were back then.”

  Jimmy frowned. “Whom can we talk to about this? She had to have had a family here. There have to be records. She had to have had friends, and there must be teachers still around who were at the school then.”

  Tabitha smiled. “Just one. One teacher that I think would be of help.”

  She paused, and Jimmy stared into her eyes. They both said the name at the same time.

  “Mrs. Walters.”

  Mrs. Walters was a woman respected and loved and feared and hated. It all depended on how well you did in her class and if you were decent at the English language. She had taught the advanced English class for as long as anyone could remember. She was tall, with a short crop of curly hair, and rail thin. Those who hated her said that she had the coldest room in order to keep her corpse fresh. The skin on her face was very tight and close to her skull, and gave her a slightly frightening appearance. She was tough, hard as nails, and demanding in her classes. Many a student had quaked with fear upon seeing the words “SEE ME” written on the top of their papers.

  Jimmy, however, had always liked Mrs. Walters. Not only had he done well in her classes, he had also gotten to know her as a person by doing work around the school. He worked in the office at times, helping to answer phones or mail out report cards. He found her to be in firm possession of a very wry and dry sense of humor. She had a mind like a steel trap. She would be perfect to talk to and get the story.

  “I’ll go see her,” Jimmy said. “What about Sapphire’s family? She had to have a mother, a father, and maybe siblings.”

  Tabitha nodded. “It’s not like she has a normal or average last name. The name Lumire is pretty rare. I ran a check this morning using some databases I have access to, and I found nothing.”

  Jimmy frowned. “What about back during the time this photo was taken?”

  “You’re right,” Tabitha said, “but things were not digital back then. I have some of those feelers out right now, but have not heard back. However, there was nothing even on the various ancestry sites. No scanned-in copies of birth certificates or anything.”

  “That makes no sense,” Jimmy said. “How could that happen?”

  “I don’t know, Jimmy,” Tabitha replied. “This is weird stuff we’re dealing with here. You are in telepathic contact with a dead girl, remember? We are well beyond normal.”

  Jimmy sighed. She was right, of course.

  Jimmy began flipping through the yearbook. He came across photos of the football team and saw a young Devlin Little, captain of the team that year. It was the year they had won the championship. Jimmy had heard stories for most of his life about how amazing that team was. The town of Knorr was still living off of the high of that school year.

  He flipped a few more pages. He was really not reading anything, just looking, scanning, seeing more faces with sixties-styled hair than he ever wanted to. Then, as he neared the back of the book, something caused him to freeze and look back.

  “Tabitha,” Jimmy said, his eyes growing wide. He held the book out to her.

  Tabitha furrowed her brow and looked at the photo. Her eyes got wide.

  It was a shot of the football team playing. Most of the offensive line was sitting on the sideline. The photographer grabbed the photo at just the right time, catching Devlin standing there, yelling commands to his team on the field. They included the current mayor of Knorr, several prominent businessmen, and a man who had gone on to be a state senator. Yes, the team that year had won the championship and the hearts of the people all across this area. They had then parlayed that into success in business, politics, and more. There was one other person there, standing next to the bench, a towel over his shoulder and holding a metal basket holding plastic containers of water.

  It was Jesse.

  “They knew each other back then,” Tabitha said, “from the football team. That lends credence to the idea that Jesse was there when Sapphire died. It also starts pointing towards murder. And if you look at all of those people on the bench, there could be some very powerful people involved in this. Of course, we already suspected that because of the rather elaborate attempts to cover up the incident and wipe out any trace of Sapphire.”

  Jimmy and Tabitha stared at each other. They still had nothing that amounted to solid proof. Not a thing they had found meant a damn thing in a court. They had nothing they could bring to a cop or the FBI or a courtroom, but it still seemed to confirm things in their own minds. They were on the right track. How far did this reach? It reached perhaps as far as a state senator, a man who had the potential to wipe out Sapphire, and Sapphire’s family, and their entire past. Jimmy felt chills run up and down his spine.

  “I know a few people at the FBI,” Tabitha said. “So does Warren, for that matter. We might be able to dig pretty deep, but I am not sure how deep.”

  “I think I need to talk to Mrs. Walters,” Jimmy said. “I also think someone needs to talk to the senator and some of these other people.”

  Jimmy grabbed the book and flipped a few more pages. It was only a few page turns before one more photo grabbed his attention. It was the homecoming dance. His blood turned to ice.

  “Son of a—” he muttered.

  It was Jesse. He was smiling at the camera. Behind him was some kind of arch with flowers. He was wearing a suit, probably his best one. What had stopped Jimmy, however, was the girl on his arm. There she was, smiling, looking radiant even in a black and white photo.

  Sapphire.

  Jimmy stood up and walked toward the front door. It took a moment for Tabitha to determine what was going on and she stood up and followed him. She held the yearbook in her hand and had a worried look in her face.

  “Jimmy, what are you doing?” she asked. “Where are you going?”

  “I need to talk to Jesse,” Jimmy replied. “I should have stayed there at the library earlier, but I was scared. I was so freaked out, I just had to come see you. I need to go back and find out what’s going on.”

  Tabitha reached out and grabbed Jimmy’s arm. She had a surprisingly strong grip, and Jimmy stopped in his tracks.

  “Hang on a second,” Tabitha said. “You just left there, and you just found out that Jesse was involved in something that may have included the murder of a young girl. He also may have been covering this thing up for a very long time. What does that mean? That means that your friend, Jesse, a man I know you feel betrayed you, might be dangerous.”

  Jimmy shook his head. “He was crying. I don’t think he was involved in the murder. Hell, we don’t even know for sure if there was a murder. We know nothing, and besides, Jesse and I have been friends for years.”

  “But he’s been living with this, dealing with this, for much longer than he’s known you, Jimmy,” Tabitha said quietly. “It’s second nature to him at this point. And he’s been involved in cutting away the people who were there from newspapers and history books. That means he has no problems with eliminating anything that might expose this whole thing. You never know where it might come from, Jimmy. Trust me, Warren and I found out the hard way when we were involved in the whole Boogeyman thing.”

  “I know what it’s like to deal with things from the other side, too” Tabitha said, and Jimmy saw fear in her eyes. “The Boogeyman was punching through to this side and controlling people. We kept that out of the books and the press coverage, because, well, it sounds insane. My point is that things happen here in Knorr and not all of them make sense, and not everyone is who they say they are.”

  “So what should I do?” Jimmy asked.

  “Don’t go there to talk to him alone. Bring George, or wait and I’ll go with you. We can bring my husband for added safety,” she said. “Go see the teacher. See her after school today, if you can. Just leave the confrontations for a later time. I don’t want you to end up missing, or part of some new vanishi
ng hitchhiker story. This town has enough ghosts.”

  Jimmy’s shoulders sank. “I don’t know who to trust anymore.”

  “I know. Trust your friend George, and trust Warren and me. We’ve been there, and we know the territory a bit.”

  Jimmy sighed and shook his head. “I guess I’d better get going.”

  Tabitha gave a weak smile that Jimmy guessed was her way of trying to be reassuring. It wasn’t entirely successful.

  “We’ll figure this out,” she said.

  Jimmy nodded and then turned and walked out the office door.

  “Call me if you hear back from the FBI contacts or anything else,” Jimmy said.

  Jimmy turned away and pushed his way through the glass door. He headed out into the hallway and walked through the building. The walls felt cold and the world felt like it was spinning out of control beneath him. It seemed like every turn and everything he found just sent them flying off in another direction and led to more questions. He had just wanted to go to a dance, and now he was involved in a mystery that might have involved a murder and some very powerful people.

  Maybe he should just give up. Maybe he should just abandon this whole thing and try to get back to his regular life. Except, of course, that was impossible. He had now crossed the powerful people who owned the school hallways. He had placed a target directly on his back. Nothing about his life was ever going to be the same.

  Jimmy opened the door into the sunlight and blinked up at the sky. What was next? He had started the day excited, and now he felt betrayed and crushed.

  He moved around to the side of the building and unlocked his bicycle. It felt like a long way to ride home. He started pedaling, making his way out of the downtown area, and was soon riding up and down the hills and around the curves and across the wooded areas. Above him the sun shone and the sky was a dazzling blue. It was a day that he would normally dream about and wish he could take the day off. Now he had the day off, and he felt sick. He just wanted to crawl back into bed.