Pendell gently eased her into my arms and looked me stonily in the eye. “If I'm not mistaken,
you
were the one who jumped
me
. Not a good idea to start stuff you can't finish, Glass.”
I shook my head and let Marisa burrow her face into my chest, her ribs shaking with silent sobs. All I wanted to do was glue her broken pieces back together. And sleep. “I'm tired. We're both tired. Seriously, can't this wait? Look at her. Have a heart.”
Pendell's mouth was set in a firm line. The redhead glared at me, arms crossed in front of her chest. Clearly the Dynamic Duo had no intention of letting up.
“There's a dangerous person on the loose,” Pendell said. “I saw the whole thing. He wore a black bandana. It's not just about catching a maniac. It's about⦔
The redhead had opened her palm to display a silver button. Pendell tensed up at the sight of it, his eyes blank and unfocused.
Wrenching herself free of my embrace, Marisa said, “That's my coat button. How did you get that? And how did you know aboutâ
What the hell kind of freak are you?
”
Pendell continued to stare straight ahead, frozen like he'd been turned into a wax figure.
“What the hell is wrong with him?” Marisa shot me a panicked look.
The redhead looked on in fear. No one seemed to know what to do.
The loud knock made us all jump. Except for Pendell, who remained inert and unblinking, as if he hadn't heard a thing.
“Campus security. Open up!”
7
Bobby
Saturday: 1:37AM
I
t had felt wrong to bust in and violate their privacy like that. And taking advantage of Glass's disability the way we did made me want to run into the bathroom and puke.
I hadn't told Gabe everything. I'd insisted that it was our duty to stop a criminal before he hurt anyone else. I knew that would rile her up and she'd want to take action.
I should have asked her to tuck that silver button away somewhere safe. Explained to her how touching it had detonated an explosion in my brain. How I had been trapped inside the scene of Marisa's attack and couldn't get free.
She'd known all along about my visions and the tumor that had nearly blinded me. When she'd finally put the button away, the vision eased up, but its remnants still clung to my sight in frayed strips.
The moment I spotted the button glinting on her open palm again, I was instantly sucked back in. And I didn't even have to touch it. This had never happened before.
My heart was pounding wildly, their voices echoing faintly as if from miles away. Half-deaf to what was around me, all I could see was the continuous loop of Marisa fighting off the man in a bandana who'd overpowered her. She'd never had a chance.
I was stuck, as if I'd been dropped into wet plaster that had begun to thicken.
I blinked and tried to shrug off the bone-deep exhaustion that had turned my limbs to rubber. I was about to keel over any second. The real room behind the vision shimmered in a vague blur.
“Easy, dude. We got you.” Glass had me by the arm.
“Was there some kind of party in here?” I heard the security officer ask. “Underage drinking is not tolerated on this campus.”
“No ma'am,” Glass said. “We were just, uh, roughhousing a bit.”
My ears rang, words reaching me in muffled waves. I teetered as they led me to the bed. Gabe whispered, gripping my arm, “It's okay.”
“Is that guy all right?” someone asked. “Looks really out of it.”
“He's fine,” Gabe said. “He's just blind.”
It was true for the moment, anyway. I tried to blink things clear, but it was little use. Sounds were garbled and tinny. My heart sped up. I was so going to be sick.
There was a silence, and then Marisa spoke. I strained to understand through the distortion. “It's my room, Officer. We were just getting a bit silly. My boyfriend and I knocked heads.”
“You shouldn't have this many people in your room at this hour.”
Marisa laughed. “I know. But it's a special time. My good friend Gabriella Sorensen, the famous pianist, just got accepted here. She brought her friend along on his first trip to New York. He lost his sight when he was thirteen and has always wanted to visit. You're familiar with Isabella Sorensen, aren't you?”
“As in the Sorensen Theater?” asked the officer.
“Yep,” said Marisa. “As in the famous opera singer that donated half the money for the concert hall.”
“Ah, I see,” said the officer. “But we did get an alert from the NYPD. A body was found a few blocks from here. Maybe consider calling it a night?”
The words slashed through my daze like cold steel. A body? I began to shake as if I'd been packed in ice.
“Oh, shit,” Gabe said softly beside me.
Fingers dug into my arm. Glass hissed in my ear. “Don't even think about saying anything, Pendell.”
Now there was a body. And an attacker on the loose, and Glass wanted me to stay quiet. It was insane. Jeremy Glass was insane.
But with Marisa unwilling to speak, I was in no position to argue. No one would believe me. Plus, I was still frozen, unable to utter a word.
After the campus security officers left, things came slowly back into focus. I could move again, if a bit sluggishly. Marisa had pulled her dark hair back into a semblance of a ponytail.
“That was pretty smooth,” Gabe said, eyeing her warily. “How on earth did you know all that about me?”
Marisa had crumpled, all traces of bravado gone. “When Jeremy told me he was at the Smoke and Jazz Lounge, I looked up the website. I saw your face and read about your background.”
Marisa leaned against Jeremy, her face hidden. He pulled her close, protectively stroking her hair. “How do you think she got here in the first place? Research is Marisa's middle name. Especially when it comes to my whereabouts. Nice work about the blind thing, girls.”
Marisa looked up at him and managed to smile. But I could see she was still shaking. And with the vision waiting to pull me back into madness, so was I.
“So, I guess that's it, then?” Gabe threw up her hands and began to pace the dorm room. “We don't go to the cops?”
“Absolutely not. I thought we were clear on that,” Glass said.
“I can't. You wouldn't understand. If Papa ever found outâ¦he never wanted me to come here in the first place.”
“It's not their business,” Glass snapped.
“These guys are ridiculous.” Gabe said. “Let's just try to enjoy our weekend and buzz out of here, Bobby. I've had enough.”
Phantom shreds of the vision streaked across my sight like cobwebs. I knew if I didn't do something, it would only get worse. I clenched and unclenched my fists. “No,” I said, softly.
“What?” Gabe swiveled on me. “Bobby, you're not thinking clearly. Let's go now. Please.”
“No,” I said. “We can't.”
I didn't just want to find out who Marisa's attacker was.
I had to.
8
Jeremy
Saturday: 1:52 AM
P
endell sat on Marisa's dorm room bed, his eyes unfocused.
“Tell him, Marisa. Tell him what happened,” he said gruffly, as if the words scraped on the way out of his throat.
First, an apparition had spoken to me in the park. Now there was a body. And it seemed that from just touching her coat button, Bobby Pendell knew exactly what had happened to my girlfriend.
I thought about the ring I'd found and wondered where it all connected. I didn't understand what was happening. I wasn't sure I wanted to. “You seem like a good enough kind of person. Gabe, is it? You're aware of his creepy shit? Doesn't it bother you?”
Pendell blinked rapidly, his eyes glazed and watery. He wouldn't look at me. Or couldn't. “Do you think I want to be like this?”
The redhead was at his side, staring me down. “You don't need to explain yourself to
him
.”
Pendell lowered his head and blinked into his open palms.
“Well. I think you should take your cryptic warnings and go,” I said. “I never promised Agent Reston I'd babysit your strange ass. I think we're done here.”
“Don't speak for me, Jeremy.” Marisa rose abruptly from my lap and strode across the room. She sat on the bed beside Pendell and asked, “What exactly
did
you see, Bobby?”
After he'd described in harrowing detail what he'd witnessed in his vision, Marisa melted into a puddle of sobs and confirmed the whole thing. I couldn't decide if I wanted to strangle the bastard or have him knighted.
It was clear that we weren't getting rid of Bobby Pendell just yet.
But that didn't mean I had to like him.
None of us were going to be able to go back to sleep anytime soon, so we agreed to get coffee at the all-night diner around the block.
Pendell had recovered sufficiently from his supernatural grand mal seizure to walk without Gabe holding him up. He shuffled along beside us, reminding me a little of the Scarecrow, as if any second his straw legs would give out. My stump ached inside Veronica, every step a conscious effort. Marisa clung to my arm and I held on just as firmly to her.
We were the only customers in the overly bright restaurant. The cadaverous waiter, who looked like he probably despised the entire caffeine-slurping population of humanity, led us to a spacious booth. A TV flashed soundlessly above the counter where the waiter's humanity-hating counterpart, a sour woman with hair the color of curdled yogurt, goggled at us from behind oversized designer glasses.
“Soooo,” I said after an extended silence. “How about those Yankees?”
Marisa giggled softly. “Jeremy has this incredible talent for knowing exactly the wrong thing to say at exactly the right time.”
“I pride myself on my impeccable timing,” I said, waggling a straw in my mouth, Groucho Marx style.
Gabe started to laugh but stopped when Pendell cut her a look.
“Just a little levity,” I said. “Feel free to return to your regularly scheduled brooding.”
Pendell's mouth pressed into a straight line. “I really don't like you, Glass.”
“Lighten up, Bobby,” Gabe said, and shook out her thick red-gold hair, bright eyes dancing over the spray of freckles. “He's just a joker,” she added.
“Humor is a sign of intelligence, Pendell,” I said, grinning at him. “You need it on the receiving side as well.”
Marisa poked me with a sharp elbow. “Don't you know better than to go waving a red flag in front of an angry bull?”
As if to emphasize the angry bull metaphor, Pendell's nostrils flared. I could swear I saw little rings of fire circle his tired blue eyes.
“Fair enough,” I said. “Now that we all agree there is a crazed rapist roaming the streets of the city. And a body. And a ring that an apparition led me to. Are you ready for the next step, Pendell? Are you ready to touch the ring? The one ring to rule them all?”
Pendell leaned suddenly over the table and tried to grab for my collar, but Gabe yanked him back. “I already told you I don't like you, Glass. I don't care if you only have one leg, because I'm this close to breaking it.”
“Guys!” Gabe said, slapping her palms on the table. “This isn't a date. No one cares if you like each other, okay? We've got some stuff to deal with, so can we get on with it?”
“I am not touching that ring,” Bobby said. He'd slumped back in his seat, staring hard at the tabletop. “It has nothing to do with Marisa's attack.”
“And you know that how?” I probed. I really couldn't muster total dislike for the guy. Pity, maybe, mixed with a little awe and a dash of fear. The dumb lug just didn't get my style of communication.
If Pendell replied, I didn't notice. Instead my eyes shifted to the muted TV where the news flashed a still photo of a woman with the caption that read M
issing Woman Located
. I didn't need to hear the crap the announcer was spewing to know that she was dead. And that her body had turned up tonight.
Because I recognized her instantly.
9
Bobby
Saturday: 2:05 AM
“I
t's her,” Glass said. “She's the one.”
“What on earth are you talking about, Jeremy?” Marisa said. “What one?”
“The dead woman,” he said. “The one that showed me to the ring.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and gripped the table edge, Agent Reston's words reverberating in my ears. There really was no escape. No matter what I did, the nightmares would follow me. And now they had taken on the shape of Jeremy Glass.
“No,” I said, the words burning my tongue. “I'm not touching that ring.”
I kept my eyes closed tightly and wished that I'd just gone blind, that the terrible third eye in my mind had gone dark with my sight. Black nothingness was better than the things I was being forced to see.
“Bobby,” Glass said, suddenly serious. “I get you. You don't want to see the crap you're seeing any more than I want to meet see-through stalkers in the park. But it's not like we can just turn it off. You said that you've got to solve the crime to make the visions go away. For some reason, I think this is a lead. It's all just too⦔
“Coincidental,” Marisa finished. “Please, Bobby. This guyâhe was horrible. Cold and sadistic. It was likeâhe was almost robotic⦔ The girl cut off in a blubber of tears. My eyes snapped open.
Agent Reston knew me too well. She knew I'd never be able to walk away.
“Okay,” I said. “I'll do it. But we've got to go back to Gabe's apartment. Because I can't promise you won't have to carry me out if I do it here.”
My words were like anchors weighting me to the bottom of the sea. I was going to drown, but I didn't see any other way out of this mess.
I glanced up at the TV. The news was now showing a tanned guy being interviewed at some celebrity gala. With those dark, greased-back curls, swimming-pool eyes, and smug smirk, I thought I'd seen his face somewhere. He looked like he was famous. Or at least thought he should be.