Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4) (37 page)

Clay vanished before I even finished what I was saying
but I was certain that he still heard every word that I said. He
wasn’t able to venture far from me and I was fearful that soon
he wouldn’t be able to even do that. Come hell or high water, I
would find Sophie and hope that it would be enough to set him
free.
Finding her would be less dangerous than solving his
murder—or at least I hoped that it would be.

I lay down in my bed and tried to sort out the myriad of
thoughts scattered around in my weary brain. More and more,
I felt that I was slipping into something that wasn’t going to end
well for me. The veil that separated me from the world of the
dead seemed to be thinning at a frightening rate of speed. If I
was right, I was about to have a stare down with Death one
more time.
And this time, I was going to be the first one to
blink.

23. Rain of Terror

If April showers truly do bring May flowers, Charlotte’s
Grove was only a few weeks away from being the world’s
largest botanical garden. It rained every single day. Some days,
it was
barely more
than
a mist.
Other days,
a complete
downpour. One thing’s for certain—this month was nothing
short of one giant April Fool joke on my hair.

Once Dad had a chance to really think about
the
possible dangers I was now facing in regards to ratting out
Shane and Dylan to the police, he decided to hold off on buying
me a new car. For one thing, he did it as a safety precaution.
Without a car of my own, I was now forced to have a chaperone
of some sort everywhere I went. Zach picked me up for school.
Rachel brought me home from school after every soggy track
meet. Shelly took me to work on the weekends then escorted
me back to the mansion.

With Clay still shadowing my every move—including
my non-waking ones—that meant zero independence for me.
After two weeks, I was ready to scream.
Before I had my
license, bumming rides from whoever was never a problem.
But now, I was spoiled. When I wanted to go somewhere on a
whim, I hated having to track down someone who was willing
or able to take me. I seriously needed my freedom.

Since I hadn’t seen nor heard from Shane or Dylan in
those two weeks, I finally broke down and
begged
my dad to
get me
another car.
It took two full
hours
of hardcore
convincing on my part, but eventually we struck a deal.
He
agreed to get me a new vehicle but only if I agreed to carry
pepper spray, call the police at the first sign of trouble, and stay
away from the wrong side of town. I considered myself lucky—
he
caved
right
before
I
was
about
to
offer
whine-free
housework for a month in exchange for unsupervised parole.

I was desperately hoping to drive away in something
red. Yet again, I did not. The least of all the evils was a black,
semi-sporty car that was almost as old as I was. It wasn’t that
bad actually. The color was acceptable and according to Big Al,
the previous owner put a lot of work into it before deciding to
sell it. Dad took those words with a grain of salt—“All used car
dealers
say that about every car,” he insisted—until Clay
confirmed it for us.

“That was my friend Jeremy’s car! As a matter of fact,
I’m the one who helped drop a new tranny into that thing
shortly
before—” He
trailed off for a second then added,
“Jeremy knows what he’s doing. I’m sure that car runs like a
dream.”

When I relayed his message to my dad, he didn’t
hesitate and soon, I was rolling off the lot with my new set of
wheels.
As happy as I was, Clay seemed even happier.
He
hadn’t been very much fun to be around since our conversation
about him being a dream hijacker.
I was hoping this would
grease up the wedge that had been shoved tightly between us
since then.

“Oh, the fun we used to have in this car, Ruby!” Clay
exclaimed as we took our maiden voyage downtown in my new
beast. “We used to cruise down this very street looking for
girls!
Until I met Sophie, that is. I would love to know what
Jeremy is up to these days. He always said that the only way he
would sell that car is if he could get his hands on a vintage
Barracuda. We were going to open up our own garage together
after high school—somewhere far away from this stupid little
town. He had family in Ohio. That’s probably where he ended
up. I wonder if he and Sophie stayed in touch?”

This was a topic that I wanted to steer clear of until I
had an opportunity to follow up on my lead. It was very odd—
all roads now suddenly seemed to point to Ohio.
Zach and I
were going to have to make another trip out there and see if we
could find Jeremy, too, while we were there.
At least if the
whole Sophie situation turned out not to be a good one, finding
Clay’s best friend for him might help ease the pain.

Enough depressing thoughts for one night—time for
something more light hearted.
I flipped through the radio
stations until I found something Clay and I could both sing
along to. It was a dreary Friday night, but I wanted to have a
little fun. When I’d asked Zach to join us, he declined because
of the fight that he’d had with his dad right after school.
Instead, he was spending the evening at the shelter with Andy
in order to plan out the upcoming dog show charity event.

Zach’s worsening depression troubled me. I knew that
it had nothing to do with me but that actually made me feel
worse. If he were upset over something I’d done, I’d be able to
apologize and make everything better. But I didn’t know how
to fix what was currently broken in him.
All I could do was
offer my support then stand back and let him try to figure
things out for himself. And try to solve my own problems in the
meantime. Speaking of which….

Clay and I had been driving around town for nearly an
hour when I noticed something odd. Someone was following us
and had been the whole time. Under normal circumstances, I
probably wouldn’t have even noticed it.
But
after what
happened to the Neon, I was on high alert. And yes, high alert
for me meant an hour’s worth of suspicious activity before I
took note of said activity.
My powers of observation were far
more keen when there was nothing there to see than when
danger was right in front of my nose.

“Clay,” I said as I made the turn by the library and
watched as the small, dark car did the same, “Someone’s
following us.”
“What?” he replied as he tilted his head to look into the
passenger side mirror. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. They’ve been following us since we left
Rosewood.
I saw that exact car pull out of the road leading
down to Silver Lake at the same time we were turning onto the
main road.”

“It’s dark, Ruby. There isn’t anything special about that
car—I think you’re mistaken. And besides, neither Shane nor
Dylan
would be caught
dead driving
something
like that.
They’ve driven pickup trucks for as long as I’ve known them.
Even if it
is
the same car, lots of kids cruise town on Friday
nights and we’ve been driving the loop they always take.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I responded even though
my gut told me that he was the one who was wrong. I made a
few more laps through town but my zest for adventure was
gone and I wasn’t going to find it again tonight. “Let’s go home
now. I have to get up early for work.”

Distracted by the fact that I’d insinuated that he actually
lived with me, Clay began to talk about how great my family
was for accepting him into our home. He didn’t seem to notice
that I did nothing but nervously glance into the rearview the
entire drive. When the car followed us out of town, I knew that
my theory was correct—someone
had
been following us the
entire night and still was.
When I pulled into the oak lined
drive of Rosewood, the car continued on in the direction of
Silver Lake.

I parked my car in the garage as my dad suggested I do
for a little while at least and turned off the engine. With my
new pepper spray keychain at the ready, I exited the car and
walked out into the dark night. As I moved swiftly toward the
mansion, every noise seemed magnified. Every bird squawked
louder, every stone crunched more noisily under my feet, every
raindrop fell with a sharp thud. It was like nature itself were
trying to give away my location to whatever might be lurking in
its midst.

A loud click sounded as I set my foot on the bottom step
of the porch and I ducked instinctively. Then instantly felt like
a complete moron. That clicking sound was coming from the
motion activated light that my dad recently installed at our
front door. I smiled as I realized that it made complete sense
for someone like me to be more afraid of the light than I was of
the dark.

When I left for work the following morning, I watched
anxiously to see if that car would pull out of the lake behind me
again. Nothing. I kept one eye on the rearview until I got to
Something Wick-ed. Still nothing. I parked my car and—with
pepper spray poised—made my way to the front door of the
shop.
Again, nothing.
Maybe paranoia
was
responsible for
what happened last night.
Or what I
thought
happened last
night. I was starting to understand exactly what Clay meant by
being confused about what was real and what wasn’t.

Work was perfectly boring.
The battering rain kept
customers at bay and kept me in a funky mood. I’d always
enjoyed the rain—considered myself a hardcore pluviophile—
and prided myself on knowing what a pluviophile actually was.
But lately, I found the rain depressing.
The fact that I felt
depressed by something I’d always enjoyed depressed me even
more. And Zach, my eternal ray of sunshine, was too miserable
himself to be able to pull me out of it.

With no customers to speak of, Clay and I played poker
with an old deck of cards I found in Rita’s filing cabinet. I was
never a big poker fan but it was even less enjoyable when
played with a ghost. Since he couldn’t hold his cards himself, I
had to hold every hand up for him so that he could decide his
next move. Being able to read Clay’s body language the way I
could meant that I walked away with the pot ninety percent of
the time.
I must have looked like a complete nutcase when
Captain Donaldson’s wife walked in and caught me vehemently
telling “myself” that I was most certainly not cheating and
resented the accusation.

By the end of the day, boredom had erased my fear of
being followed and I bounded out onto the sidewalk excited to
finally be going home.
Until I saw what was parked on the
other side of the street. There it was—the car that I was certain
had been following us the night before.

Under the glow of the streetlights, I could see it better
now. Well, kind of. I couldn’t tell if it was black or a very dark
shade of blue. Make and model? Beats the hell out of me—cars
didn’t excite me and therefore identifying them wasn’t my
forte.
The interior of the car was obscured by darkly tinted
windows—so dark, in fact, that I couldn’t even tell if there was
a driver inside it.

While my back was turned as I locked the front door to
Something Wick-ed, I whispered to Clay, “There’s that car from
last night. Directly across the street from where I’m parked.
Do you recognize it?”

Clay whirled around quickly to get a peek. “Are you
talking about that piece of crap Buick? The charcoal gray one?”

 

Since there weren’t any other cars parked nearby when
I first saw it, I whispered back, “Yes.”

 

“Are you sure that’s the same one that was following
us? It looked smaller last night.”

Intuition, a gut feeling, paranoia—whatever you chose
to call it, I
knew
it was the same car. I needed to get a closer
look at the driver—if there was one in it.
Correction.
Clay
needed to go take a peek in those tinted windows—not
me
. It
would be a lot safer for me plus he knew people that I didn’t.

“It’s the same one—trust me.
Go look inside and see
who’s driving that thing. I’m going to get in my car and waste a
minute or two while you’re over there.”

“Yes, Dom,” he fired back at me sternly then cracked a
smile.

I chuckled to myself as I got into my car. At least if I had
to be tied to a ghost, I ended up with one with a good sense of
humor. He was also coming in pretty handy right now. Using a
ghost to handle potentially dangerous situations for me was
sheer brilliance on my part. “Good thinking, Ruby,” I said out
loud as I slipped the key into the ignition. Now, all I needed to
do was fumble around for a bit while he took care of business.

As I reached for my bag though, I found Clay sitting
right on top of it. “That was quick!” I said excitedly, “What did
you find out?”

There was no sign of his stellar sense of humor when he
replied, “I found out that our bond’s gotten stronger, Ruby.
When I got about five feet away from you, I couldn’t go any
further. If you want me to look in those windows, you’re going
to have to at least pull up next to that car and stop for a few
seconds.”

What?
now—when
I

Of all times for this to happen, it had to be
most
needed
his
ghostly
assistance.
I
contemplated the situation for a moment, tempted to do exactly
what he had suggested that I do.
Then I changed my mind.
Stopping in the middle of the street and just sitting there would
be no less suspicious—or dangerous—than going over to the
car myself. No.
I was going to do the smart thing this time. I
was going to accept this temporary defeat gracefully and drive
home.