“So, he knows about us then? He must if he helped with Gaby.”
Trying not to jostle Raleigh, Melody crooked a finger under the front of her tank top and pulled it away from her body, hoping to get a little breeze on the sweat puddle that was forming on her stomach.
“The way I see it, this guy either has a thing for Aunt Hazel or he’s done some stuff that is very blackmail-worthy.”
“You don’t think Aunt Hazel would send us to someone with a criminal past?”
“I’m sure Aunt Hazel thought if we found ourselves in the position to need Roger’s help, we probably weren’t going to give a crapola who he was or what he’d done.”
Zellie slowed down. They must be in Avery’s neighborhood. She couldn’t really see from her position in the backseat.
Thank you, baby Jesus.
Melody thought she was gonna roast alive.
“I’m just going to pretend that Roger and Aunt Hazel used to date, okay?” Zellie said.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself.”
“Speaking of telling people things...”
“What secret do you want me to keep for you now? Did you and Avery find a new place to park?”
“No! I wasn’t thinking about that at all! Jeez!” Blotches of red crept up Zellie’s neck, blooming on her cheeks.
“Oh please, you’re always thinking about that,” Melody said, smiling.
“Be serious, Melody.”
“Be realistic, Zellie.”
Zellie spun around in her seat and glared at Melody. “Ugh! You can be such a pain in the ass.” She turned back around and jerked the steering wheel, narrowly avoiding hitting a mailbox. “Just don’t say anything to Avery about us trying to take down Mildred on our own. You both are such freaking martyrs that I know he’d try to convince me not to do it.”
“And he’d be right in trying. I don’t know how we’re going to do this without
any
help.”
Zellie gripped the steering wheel tighter. Melody could see her knuckles go white.
“Is it too much to ask that the people I love get to live without fear hanging over their head every second of every day? You and I? I get it. We have to deal, but can we give everyone else a pass this one time?”
“How are you going to explain this?” Melody gestured to Raleigh. “What am I allowed to say?”
Zellie turned the car into the driveway and stopped. “Nothing.”
Chapter Seven
I parked next to Avery’s Jeep in the driveway. He’d sold the truck in March, spending half of the money he’d made to buy a used Jeep Wrangler from the late Nineties and the other half he’d put into his college account.
His dad, being a former insurance agent, had wanted him to disclose to the guy he’d sold the truck to that it had been in an accident, but everyone else had been against it. How exactly were we supposed to explain an accident that had been rewound to the point where the truck didn’t show any signs of being in an accident?
I was glad to be rid of that stupid truck. The damn thing was cursed. Of course, the Jeep wasn’t nearly as
roomy
.
I stopped before going in the front door and ducked my head, sniffing myself. I smelled like sweat and cigarettes and funky dead skin. Raleigh’s body was getting a little ripe.
Happy birthday, honey!
I opened the front door.
Claire and Avery were sitting on the couch in the family room playing a video game. When I’d told Amanda it was a family dinner, I’d of course included Claire in that. She and Avery had become like brother and sister over the past year and I couldn’t have been happier about it.
“Hey, Zel!” Claire said, furiously pounding on the controller in her hand with her thumbs. “I don’t care if it is your birthday, Adams.” She dropped the controller into his lap. “This is me symbolically handing your ass to you.”
“Very funny, Vargas.” Avery chucked the controllers and stood up, walking over to me and pulling me into a bear hug. “How’d the rewind go?” he said into my hair, kissing my forehead. “Did the Wells girls get their man?”
“Something like that,” I said, peeking into the dining room where Mom and Mrs. Adams sat playing patty cake with my baby brother Wyatt. Avery’s mom had been on her meds for a year and from what Mom had told me, was back to her old self. Like,
way
old self. Like,
when Mom and her were besties in high school
old self. I mean, fine, whatever. It wasn’t like our situation wasn’t totally fricking weird anyway.
I caught Mom’s eye, waved, and then made the thumbs-up sign.
Avery gave me a questioning look.
“The rewind was a setup,” I whispered. “When the cops were leading the guy to the car he mouthed ‘Zellie. Help me.’ at me.”
“W.T.F,” Claire said, coming over to stand next to us.
I glanced toward the dining room again. All the parentals seemed occupied. Dad and Mr. Adams emerged from the kitchen. Dad was carrying a big platter of flank steak and grilled veggies. I grabbed Avery and Claire’s hands and pulled them into a huddle. “Avery, I need to borrow your Jeep. The guy, Raleigh, is in the car with Melody. He’s really screwed up and needs medical attention, but we can’t take him to a regular hospital. Aunt Hazel told Mel about a dude in Bend that can help us. Can you guys cover for me?”
“Of course,” Claire whispered.
Avery shook his head no. “I’ll drive you.”
I knew if I’d said anything to Avery that he’d want to get involved. I half wanted him to help me and half wanted him to go be normal and eat flank steak. Well, go be normal and eat flank steak while sitting at a table with his ghost dad, my dad who was dating his mom, and my mom and our baby brother. Yikes.
“Okay, c’mon.” I pulled on Avery’s hand to go and dropped Claire’s. I’d have to figure out what all I could tell him on the drive to Bend.
“Now I wanna go,” Claire whined.
Avery and I both sighed.
“Fine.” She crossed her arms and pouted.
“Kids!” Dad called from the dining room. “Dinner’s ready!”
“Please,” I begged.
Claire thought for a second. “Here’s your cover. The cops have asked you and Mel to come down to the station for questioning. It’s no big deal. You’ll be back in an hour. Go!”
I gave her a quick hug and she waved me away. I loved my BFF. I could always count on her. Sometimes it was like I had two Lookouts. She turned to face the parents while Avery and I hurried out the front door.
Avery went to the Legacy and opened the back door. A rush of hot stinky air hit us at the same moment.
“So that’s why you smell like a cemetery,” Avery said, wrinkling his nose. “Jesus, are you sure this guy’s alive?”
Melody stretched out her leg that wasn’t pinned underneath Raleigh and kicked at Avery’s shins. “Get him off of me!”
Avery took in a deep breath and held it, then leaned into the car, hoisting Raleigh up under the arms.
“The car keys are in my pocket, Zel. Let’s put him all the way in the back,” he said in short bursts, trying not to inhale. I reached into the lowest pocket of Avery’s cargo shorts and retrieved the keys.
Melody sat up and grabbed Raleigh’s backpack from the front seat and then scooched out of the station wagon, slamming the door shut behind her. “Do you at least have some blankets back there or something? If he bounces around too much, more of his skin will get messed up.”
I opened the back hatch of the Jeep. “There’s a sleeping bag.”
Melody hopped into the Jeep with the backpack and positioned herself sitting up, hauling the rolled up sleeping bag onto her lap. “Lay him down here.”
Avery looked around, no doubt hoping that none of his neighbors were watching him put a lifeless body in his car.
We got Melody and Raleigh situated and then got in the car. Avery backed out of the driveway and headed for the highway.
An hour later, we turned off onto a dusty gravel road and drove deep into the woods.
“The driveway should be up on the left about a quarter of a mile,” Melody said.
Avery nodded and continued on. To his credit, he’d asked few questions about what had happened at the diner and I’d told him what little I thought I could get away with.
My story was that Wes had escaped from Mildred and taken over Raleigh’s body. I claimed he had tried to tell us where she was located, but that his mind had grown fuzzy and he’d had to go back before we got any real details, leaving us with a half-dead guy to deal with. I hoped that if someone had glimpsed me telling Avery that, at least Wes would be the only one to get in trouble. He had to have enough integrity to not give the whole plan away, right? Ugh. There was a first time for everything.
“I think this is it,” Avery said, slowing down so he wouldn’t miss the driveway that was overgrown with blackberry brambles. He eased the Jeep through them and then sped up as we made our way toward the house at the far end of the lane.
The house was something else. Part log cabin, part suburban rambler, part hacienda. It looked like the main cabin area had been built first and then an addition was tacked on according to what was in style every decade or so.
A man of about seventy got up out of a rocking chair on the cabin’s front porch and walked down the steps. He had long, curly, gray hair, a beard to match, and small round glasses perched on his large nose. He pulled a pair of rainbow suspenders up over his shoulders and tucked his purple and hot pink tie-dyed shirt into faded cut-off denim shorts. I expected to see sandals on his feet, but he was wearing black low-top Chucks instead.
“Oh my God,” Avery said. “Jerry lives.”
I got out of the car before Avery had even turned it off and went toward Roger, waving.
“I’m--”
“Zellie Wells,” Roger said, nodding. “I’d recognize one of Hazie’s people anywhere.” He looked around me at the Jeep. “You bring me a live one or a dead one?”
“Live one,” I said. “Just barely.”
He stuck his thumb out over his right shoulder, pointing at the bright orange stucco addition. “That’d be this way. Tell Avery to pull around back.” Roger turned and went inside. He sure did know a lot about us for someone we’d never met. I had a hard time picturing Aunt Hazel as a blabbermouth, but maybe Roger was her confidant. Everybody needed one.
I ran over to the Jeep. Avery rolled down the driver’s side window. “He wants you to pull around back.”
Avery nodded. “Groovy.”
We were in the process of taking Raleigh out of the car when Roger emerged from the house wearing clean blue scrubs, pushing a wheelchair. Unceremoniously, he and Avery each took hold of one of Raleigh’s arms and plopped him in the chair.
“Careful!” Melody said.
Roger put his fingertips to Raleigh’s wrist and checked his pulse, seeming satisfied with what he felt.
“Don’t worry sweet pea, this boy’ll be just fine.” He wheeled him up a rickety wooden homemade ramp and through a wide doorway.
“He calls our aunt
Hazie
,” I whispered to Melody on the way in.
She didn’t respond, her eyes tracking Roger’s every move.
We followed him down a short hallway until we came to a set of metal swinging double doors.
“You come with me,” he said to Avery and then nodded at us. “You two head on into the main house and get cleaned up. You both reek to high heaven. There are some spare clothes in the hall closet next to the bathroom.”
“I’d rather not,” Melody said, holding her head up high, making herself a good three inches taller than Roger.
Roger smiled at her in a grandfatherly way. A deranged, burned-out hippie sort of grandfatherly way, but still. “Honey, we’re going to have to strip this boy’s clothes and I’m not going to be responsible for your first viewing of a man’s bits-and-pieces.”
I noticed he wasn’t addressing me.
Roger pushed the chair through the double doors and left us standing in the hall. Avery gave me a wide-eyed look, shrugged his shoulders and went in after him.
“C’mon,” I said, taking Melody’s arm and leading her into the cabin. “If Hazie trusts him, so should we.”
Melody and I cleaned up as best we could. We poured water over each other’s heads using a faded plastic Big Gulp cup. We’d found it sitting on the edge of a humongous white utility sink in what passed for a bathroom at Roger’s house. The other amenities in the room had confused us. The shower was on a timer we couldn’t figure out how to start and while the toilet looked like a regular toilet, it didn’t have a flusher and it smelled like the Wilco farm supply store. But the sink was just a sink, thank God.
We got dressed in the clothes we’d found in the hall closet. The plain white t-shirts were fine, but the elastic waist burgundy running shorts with the yellow Bend High School logo on the leg looked like they were cast-offs from the Eighties. The outfits were definitely not what I was expecting and even though we matched, at least we didn’t look like we lived on a commune.
Melody and I slipped our flip-flops back on and headed over to the stucco addition. On the way out I stopped, grabbing Melody by the wrist, and pointed to a painting on the wall. It was a nude of Aunt Hazel done a really, really long time ago. She was reclining on the grass in front of a field of sunflowers.
“Guess you don’t have to pretend that Aunt Hazel and Roger are together,” Melody said, scrunching up her nose. “Man, she looks hot, but…
all
of that armpit hair.”
“
That’s
the hair that you notice?”
“Ick. Let’s make a pact, here and now, to never discuss this painting again.”
I held up my hand. “I solemnly swear.”
“...now Melody’s the blonde one, she’s a Lookout like Hazie,” we heard Roger say as we went through the double doors.
“Melody,” Raleigh repeated.
“You’re awake!” Melody said. She hesitated for a second, like she forgot how to walk, and then ran to his side.
Raleigh was laid out on a hospital bed, a white sheet draped over his lower half and a small travel pillow tucked under his head. If I’d never been in the hippie cabin portion of the house I would have thought we were in a regular operating room. The stucco walls were painted a crisp white and lined with stainless steel tables holding all sorts of medical equipment. There were two microscopes, one of those blood spinner things I’d seen on TV, and a case full of scalpels and scissors being bathed in sterilizing ultraviolet light.