Heather Graham - The Evil Inside

“But what was it going to achieve?” Angela asked.

“Jenna’s death?” Sam stared at Jenna and let out a soft sigh. “I don’t know if our killers know what you all do, with ghosts and spirits and all that…but I do think that the killer is afraid of her. He or she-or they- believe that she can see more than most people, somehow.”

Of course, when they eventually went to bed, they didn’t sleep, not right away. Jenna wondered if her own brush with the edge of an ax had made her more appreciative of living that night.

She and Sam made love until exhausted, and as they lay together she wondered what he was thinking.

“Thanks, by the way,” she murmured.

“For?”

“Helping me out with Jamie.”

He was silent, and she wondered if her time with him was ending soon. Sad, for in such a short time she had realized that he was what she wanted desperately. Sam was the reason she’d never been serious before-she’d been looking for someone just like him, with his eccentricities, and his sense of honor and ethics. She cared far too deeply. He had what she needed in a man, and she was falling in love, even with his arrogance.

Sam rolled over to look at her. His eyes were deep and serious.

“Do you still think I’m a jerk?” he asked.

“Sometimes,” she said, threading her fingers through his hair, smiling.

“Good. Because sometimes I still find you scary as hell.”

“Because I see ghosts and have postcognition?”

“Because…because I thought I was going to die tonight when I believed you might have been struck by an ax.”

“You’re always out there on the front line,” she said.

“I’m an attorney.”

“Oh, now…that’s the truth, and not the truth. Last I heard, you defended a man who was entangled with the mob.”

“The son of a mobster, and he was innocent. That’s different… I don’t know if I can bear being with you,” he said.

“It’s all right,” she told him.

“No, it’s not. Because I don’t know if I can bear not being with you.”

She rolled into his arms. He held her against him. “On this one, though, will you give in to me? Will you promise not to try to slip into the school? Call it silly, I have this weird premonition about tomorrow. I want you safe.”

“I won’t slip into the school tomorrow,” she told him.

She felt guilty, because she had no intention of telling him what she really was going to do. But they were going in circles. And she thought that she knew the way to end it.

“This is even crazier,” he murmured, rising above her.

“What?”

“I think I’m falling in love with you,” he said.

She pulled him down to her. “I like crazy,” she assured him.

John Alden was true to his word; he was at the school, which had been in lockdown over the weekend. When Sam and Jackson arrived in the morning, the wardrobe mistress-the drama coach-swore up and down that Martin Keller had been telling the truth about the inventory, but other than that, she couldn’t vouch for what might have happened with the costume earlier.

Some of the parents were at the school; although the boys that Sam really wanted questioned were the seventeen-year-olds, he had nothing against the parents being present.

Joshua Abbott was brought in to speak with John, Sam and Jackson alone-without David Yates there to tell him what to say or give him leading gestures. Just when they were about to begin, Joshua’s father, Ben, arrived.

Sam thought that he’d be belligerent, angry that his son was being questioned. But Ben Abbott was just the opposite.

“Damn it, Joshua! This is serious. Perjury. You follow that Yates kid around like a puppy, but you straighten out right now. You want to go to college? You want a football scholarship-you want a life? You’re not in any pact with David Yates. You’re just a kid, and he’s just a kid, and the two of you might wind up with jail time. Tell the truth! ”

Joshua looked at his father miserably and lowered his head.

“Did you see Malachi Smith leave Earnest Covington’s house the day he was murdered?” Sam asked quietly.

“The truth!” Ben Abbott repeated.

“Yes,” Joshua said. Then he looked up. “I mean-I didn’t actually see him, but David did. And David wouldn’t say that he saw him if he didn’t. He said that people might not believe him if someone else didn’t say the same thing. And then…then I had to stick to it because…because I’d said it, and I couldn’t turn on David and…Dad! Dad, I’m sorry. But David wouldn’t lie to me-we’re friends.”

With that, John, Sam and Jackson thanked Joshua for his honesty and stepped out of the room. “John, listen to me, please, and I know that this is hard. I honestly believe that Councilman Yates and Samantha Yeager conspired to commit these murders,” Sam said once the door had closed.

John stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. Sam spoke quickly, with Jackson’s help, explaining that it was his belief that Samantha Yeager had engaged in an affair with Andy Yates. On her part, it was sheer greed. She wanted Lexington House. Andy Yates had watched what he thought was his son’s terrible suffering; he had to right a wrong.

“You’re crazy!” John said, looking at him.

“John, help us out here, please. Half the parents are here. Can you get Andy Yates to come down? If we can all talk to him with his son present…?”

John sighed. “All right. I’ll get him down here.”

“You want to what?” Angela demanded.

“I want to get back into Lexington House,” Jenna repeated.

“Oh, Jenna, I don’t know if that’s necessary. Why don’t we wait and see what happens at the school today? When they actually get to the kids…”

“No. Angela, I’ve been twice. The first time, I saw Eli Lexington kill his family. The second time, I saw the day that the Braden son killed his parents. My cognitive self might be working in a time pattern. If I can get back in there one more time…”

“Maybe you’re right. But, still-”

“If we wait, Sam will have to call John again, and what I’ll probably get won’t actually be proof, just an idea of the direction we should take to find proof. They’re about to go in with cleaning crews. We’ve got to go now-before they do that,” Jenna said.

“I’m still uneasy about it. The killers are out there. They hired people to look for you, for God’s sake.”

“And they wouldn’t dare do it again, not so quickly,” Jenna said.

While Angela drummed her fingers on the table, Jenna’s phone rang. It was Sam.

“Joshua Abbott’s dad came in and gave it to him, and he admitted he’d been lying,” he told her.

“That’s a start.”

“It gets better. John is bringing Councilman Yates in, saying that he wants him present when David is questioned. You never know what happens when you get that kind of dichotomy going. We could get somewhere today.”

“That’s great!” Jenna told him. “Keep us posted.”

“Will do,” he said, and hung up.

“No one is going to be out to get me,” Jenna assured Angela. “They’re bringing Councilman Yates to the school.”

Angela nodded. “Maybe the ghosts will talk to me, too, today…” She groaned and rolled her eyes. “We’re going to go under the police tape, huh?”

“We’ll put it back, just the way it was. No one will ever know.”

“Where’s Jamie?” Angela whispered.

“He went back in to spend some time with Malachi. Angela, I feel that I have to do this.”

“All right,” Angela agreed. “Then…let’s go.”

Jenna drove. As they pulled out of Jamie’s driveway and headed down the street, Angela frowned and looked into the rearview mirror.