Marilyn Kaye - Finders Keepers

Oh, we can still talk. I’m just not going to be asking you to do me any more favours.

Oh. OK.

You said you had a really bad day. What happened?

Long story. Can I tell you tomorrow? I need to get some sleep.

Sure. And if Lucy keeps coming on to you, feel free to blow her off.

I already did, Ken thought dismally. He wondered if he could drum up the energy to sit down at his computer right now and compose an apologetic email to her.

Hello, can you hear me?

He thought Jack had gone.

Yeah, I hear you.

Excuse me, I ’m sorry to disturb you .

Well, it definitely wasn’t Jack. He’d never be so polite.

I need your help. It’s important.

Look, I’m sorry , but this isn’t a good time, OK? Would you mind going away?

Please, young man, you could save my family!

Right. They were always dramatic, these spirits or ghosts or whatever they were.

Another time, OK?

It won’t take long. I just want to tell you where I left a lottery ticket.

AN HOUR LATER, WHEN the guard finally returned, Amanda did something she’d only done once before in her life, when she wanted her parents to buy her real diamond studs for her pierced ears.

She begged.

‘Please, please, please, don’t tie me up! I promise I won’t hit my head against the wall again! Honestly, I swear to you, I won’t!’

The guard didn’t even look at her. She spoke to the other guard.

‘Let her out. She made bail.’

Amanda jumped up. ‘You’re kidding! Who bailed me out?’

But these guards apparently never shared any more information than they absolutely had to. The guard opened the door, and Margaret-Amanda made a hasty exit. She was directed down a hall and told to go through the last door on the right.

She was clinging to one big hope — that Jenna had read her mind when she was in Cassandra-Serena’s apartment. Jenna was the only person who just might know that the Margaret Robinson who was arrested at the seance was really Amanda Beeson. And Amanda made a promise to herself. If this was the case, and Jenna had arranged to get her out of jail, Amanda would never be mean to Jenna again. She would never criticize her or laugh at her behind her back — or in front of her either. She’d even persuade her own personal friends to let Jenna into their clique.

But she started regretting her promises even before she reached the door. Jenna would never fit into Amanda’s clique. She had the wrong style, the wrong personality, the wrong everything.

So it was almost a relief when she walked through the door and found that Jenna wasn’t waiting for her. But someone else was.

‘Come on,’ Serena said, leading the way out of the room and down the hall, towards the main doors. ‘I’ve got a taxi waiting for us outside.’

‘Who bailed us out?’ Amanda asked.

‘Very funny,’ Serena snapped. ‘Really, Margaret, I’m not in the mood for jokes.’

Amanda was on the verge of telling her that she wasn’t Margaret, but she didn’t think this was the right time or place. Serena probably wouldn’t slap her right in front of a police station, and even if she did there was no guarantee it would send Amanda back into her own body. Besides, the idea of a taxi taking her back to Margaret’s apartment was a lot more appealing than walking or looking for a bus stop.

They settled into the back of the taxi, and Serena gave the driver an address that was unfamiliar to Amanda. It was neither Serena’s address nor Margaret’s.

‘Where are we going?’

‘Where do you think ?’ Serena retorted. ‘Honestly, Margaret, what’s the matter with you? Did one hour in a jail cell turn your brain to mush?’

Amanda managed a weak smile. ‘I guess I’m just a little tired.’

‘Yeah, me too,’ Serena said, sinking back in the seat. ‘Not to mention extremely aggravated. I really thought we’d score tonight. We were so close! I could taste that lottery ticket!’

‘Yeah, me too,’ Amanda murmured.

‘I can’t believe Ken went and told his idiot classmates about the seance,’ Serena went on. ‘When I was the student teacher in that class they barely talked to each other — they were like strangers.’

She was right, Amanda realized. A lot had changed since those days when she herself had first entered room 209, just before Serena appeared as a student teacher. Not that she would call any of them her best friends now or even invite them to a party.

But they’d shared some very peculiar stuff, and they’d helped each other in and out of some very weird situations. A strange sort of bond was forming. She just had to be very careful that the rest of Meadowbrook Middle School never found out or her reputation would be in tatters.

‘Do you think Stevie will ever find the lottery ticket?’ she asked Serena.

‘Who knows?’ Serena shrugged off the question. ‘Who cares? It won’t be ours.’ She sighed. ‘Well, it’s no big deal. It would have been nice to have the two million, but we’ve got bigger stuff in the works.’

Amanda choked back the words ‘we do?’ Apparently, she and Serena were connected well beyond the seance scheme. What kind of terrible activities were next on the agenda?

This wasn’t the life for her. Among the many fantasies Amanda had entertained for her future, being a criminal just wasn’t one of them. All the money in the world wasn’t worth the churning, sickening feeling she had right now in the pit of her stomach.

But if she was stuck in Margaret Robinson’s body, what were her options? Serena was dangerous. She wasn’t just going to let Margaret walk away from a life of crime. In the back of her mind, she started considering the various possibilities. Those parents in Florida. She could go down there and stay there, far away from Serena Hancock. It wouldn’t be easy pretending to be Margaret in front of Margaret’s own parents though. She’d managed to do it with Tracey’s parents, but that hadn’t been so difficult since Tracey’s parents had never paid much attention to her. From that phone conversation she’d had with Margaret’s mother, she got the feeling they were a lot closer. Mrs Robinson might be able to see that a stranger was occupying her daughter’s body.

If she could find the code for Margaret’s bank account, she could take all her money — but how much money would a substitute teacher have? She could buy a flight with one of Margaret’s credit cards and flee the country, but that meant having a passport, which meant providing documents like birth certificates — assuming Margaret didn’t have one already. She had no idea how to get her hands on stuff like that, and she hadn’t found a passport on any of her hunts through Margaret’s apartment. And even if she did make it to, say, France, what would she do there? She couldn’t even speak the language.

Suddenly she felt like she was going to throw up. But she was too scared even to do that.

The taxi pulled up at an ordinary medium-sized house on a tree-lined street. Amanda started to breathe a little easier. This didn’t look very scary. Serena turned to her.

‘Ready?’

For what? Amanda wanted to ask. But she just managed a weak smile and nodded.

‘Remember,’ Serena said as they went up the path to the front door, ‘we’re members of the team too. And they’ve all had missions that didn’t work out. The big project is still on schedule. I realize that this is the first time you’ll be meeting them, but don’t let them intimidate you.’

‘I won’t,’ Amanda whispered.

‘And let me do the talking.’