Oracles & Obituaries Read online

  “What do you want?” he grumbled as he moved out from behind the lectern. “Can’t you just sit here and be quiet for, like, five minutes on this beautiful day?”

  The sweat trickling down my back wanted to smack him across the face ... and then laugh like a cartoon villain. Yes, my sweat laughs. It’s talented. “It’s like you’ve never met me,” I complained. “You know I can’t be quiet. I have that thing the doctor diagnosed me with. It’s physically impossible for me to be quiet.”

  Derrick rolled his eyes. “You are ... too much. I mean, way too much. I hope when Devon and I have our kid she’s nothing like you.”

  I narrowed my eyes. He’d let something slip without realizing it. “You’re having a girl?”

  He realized his mistake too late. “I ... you ... .”

  That was all the answer I needed. “You are. Does your mother know it’s a girl? I bet she’ll be thrilled. She always said she wished you’d been a girl so she could dress you up. That would’ve made your toddler years a lot easier without all those photos of you in dresses, huh?”

  His gaze darkened further, which shouldn’t have been possible. “I did not wear dresses.”

  “You did so. There are photos.”

  “You’re making that up.”

  I was indeed making that up. Unfortunately for him, he and his sister Lexie looked so similar as infants I could use a photo of her and there was nothing he could do about it. People would believe it. They had the same dark eyes and hair. It was uncanny.

  “Push me and see what happens,” I suggested. “I’m guessing it won’t end how you think.”

  Derrick was used to dealing with me — and for almost three decades now — so he knew better than most that was true. “What do you want?” he gritted out. “Jake will be down in a few minutes. He’s the one answering questions.”

  Ah, Jake. My high school boyfriend all grown up and just as handsome as ever. It turned out that fortune teller I hated back in the day had been right. Jake and I were not destined to remain romantically linked. We were still in each other’s lives, though. Almost daily, in fact.

  “I don’t understand why he had to have this thing outside,” I complained. “I mean ... why? He usually holds conferences inside. You know, where the air conditioning is. There has to be a reason he’s holding it outside today.”

  “There is.”

  I waited for him to expound. When he didn’t, I imagined jabbing him with a red-hot poker. “He probably wants to have it outside because he saw that report on Channel 4 news about how fluorescent lights wash you out and you look five years younger under natural light.”

  When Derrick didn’t immediately respond, I made a crowing noise. “Oh, that is why. I’m going to give him so much crap for this he’ll never hold another conference outside again.”

  “You give him crap for whatever strikes your fancy on any given day. That’s what you do.”

  “The experts say you should embrace what you’re good at. It keeps you regular.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I can’t even talk to you sometimes. Why must you be such a pain? Why can’t you just be normal like the other reporters?”

  That was the most absurd statement he’d ever uttered, and I’m including the argument he made when trying to pretend Jurassic World was better than Jurassic Park. News media representatives are odd. Like ... Freddie Mercury odd. Sometimes they’re even Jeffrey Dahmer odd. They’re not normal. I’m proof of that. Derrick’s love muffin Devon is proof of that. Every person working in the newsroom at The Monitor with me knows it. There’s no such thing as a normal reporter. But that was hardly the argument I wanted to participate in today.

  “What can you tell me about this missing girl?” I challenged, hoping to get a jump on the other reporters. They knew what I was doing. They thought they were slick with the dark glances but I caught the occasional side eye before they could fake a smile. I was famous in media circles ... and rarely for anything good. Being notorious in this business is a blessing, though. Er, well, at least most of the time.

  “You’ll hear the facts with everyone else when the conference starts,” Derrick supplied, firm. “You’re not getting special treatment on this one.”

  That showed what he knew. I always got special treatment when it came to the sheriff’s department. Jake’s attachment to me — which had grown into a rich friendship that could never be anything more — meant that he was well aware of the torture I could dole out on a regular basis. He didn’t want to mess with me any more than my true enemies did.

  “She’s sixteen, right?” I refused to back down. “Dana Adams. She’s from the north side of Hall Road. She went to a party at a house in Shelby Township two nights ago and never came home. Is there any more to add?”

  Derrick shook his head. “What did I just tell you? There are rules we all have to follow, including me. I can’t give you anything you don’t already have. Jake will handle that.”

  Did that mean there was more to give? I’d been following the story of the missing girl for more than forty-eight hours.

  She went missing in the middle of the week. Most high school students didn’t party in the middle of the week because their parents put the kibosh on it. This particular party was held at a ritzy house in one of the more affluent suburbs. The host kid’s parents had been out of town at the time, and he took advantage of no parental authority to do what teenagers the world over do when they see an opening.

  Almost one-hundred kids from neighboring school districts attended the party. The house was reportedly overflowing with kids. Dana rode with friends and then disappeared at the party. No one knew what happened to her. She simply faded into nothing.

  At first, when I heard the initial report, I figured she went home with a guy and panicked when she realized her parents had contacted the police. A pretty blond teenager going missing in the suburbs draws a lot more attention than a kid from Detroit going missing under the same circumstances. I assumed she would show up before the end of the day, tearful and apologetic.

  It didn’t happen. Nobody knew what happened to her. She was simply gone, and even the friends she rode with lost track of her at the party. Everyone denied seeing her once the party was in full swing. She was simply gone. If she’d been upset and hiding, she would’ve given in by now and called her parents. She hadn’t, which made me think something else was going on.

  “Do you think she’s dead?” I asked. It might’ve seemed a crass question, but I’d covered enough of these stories to know that the longer she was gone, the less likely she was to come back. Odds were something terrible had happened to her. “You didn’t find a body, did you?”

  Derrick growled. “Just ... wait for Jake to get out here. I can’t answer your questions. I really can’t. He’ll be out here in five minutes. I’m sure you can remain patient until then.”

  He was giving me more credit than I deserved. If I could hold it together two more minutes in this heat — seriously, it’s fall, it’s not supposed to be this hot — it would be a Michigan miracle. “He’d better hurry. If she’s dead, I’m going to have a lot of leads to chase this afternoon.”

  Now it was Derrick’s turn to be suspicious. “What leads?”

  Oh, well, like I was going to share information with him after he’d been rehearsing his part as king of the buttheads for the past five minutes. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “Actually, I would.”

  “Oh, well, it’s too late.” I inclined my chin toward the spot behind him. “Jake is on his way. I guess it’s time for him to be the star. You missed your chance.”

  He shook his head. “There are times I really hate you.”

  “I can see that.” No, really I could.

  JAKE AND I WERE ESTRANGED THROUGH my college years. Slowly, after I started working as a reporter for The Monitor, we started reconnecting. Our initial interactions weren’t exactly what I would call pleasant.

  By the time he was elected the youngest sherif
f in Macomb County history — his father retired from the neighboring county the year before — I was a rising star in the journalism game. I’m not making it up. I’m a total star, and not just a diva. I have a certain innate ability when it comes to digging for information. I refuse to let up until someone either gives in or cries.

  Jake respected that. Totally. Kind of. Er, well, mostly.

  In truth, he finally couldn’t stay away any longer. I think, maybe for about five total minutes, we both wondered if we could put the relationship back together. But we’re too different. He may love me — he even volunteered that information when he thought he was going to die — but he could never live with me. I feel the same way. Jake is a “by-the-book” guy and I’m a “let’s-see-what-happens-when-we-press-the–red-button” girl. We don’t mesh.

  We’re still friends. We’ve come to an understanding of sorts. He’s over the fact that I’m living with his former military buddy Eliot Kane, a man who never tries to change me even when I do eight nutty things in a row. And I picked out Jake’s most recent girlfriend. She’s much like me only better behaved, and she has respect for law enforcement and politicians. Jake is going to be a career politician, so she’s the sort of woman he needs. She can talk policy with the big wigs and Stranger Things with me. She’s a remarkable woman.

  She was also the furthest thing from my mind when Jake ended the news conference without uttering a single new tidbit of information. The entire five-minute event was simply a rehash of how she went missing — a story I already knew — and then he wrapped things up without taking questions.

  Something very odd was going on.

  “Where are you going?” Derrick, apparently reading my mind, tried to slide in front of me to block my path. Jake was already across the parking lot and about to hit the sidewalk. I had limited time.

  “Did you know you can’t have sex with a pregnant woman after the six-month mark because you might accidentally poke the kid in the eye?” I offered out of the blue, causing his eyes to go wide. “Then you can’t have sex for another two months after because that’s how long lady parts remain stretched out. Even after that, they’ll never be the same again. Essentially, that means you’re about to go without sex for five months, and then it will never be the same. Good job.”

  I slapped his shoulder really hard, internally smirking at the way his eyes bulged, and then hopped around him and broke into a jog. There was no way I would let Jake escape after that paltry showing. He’d just repeated the same information his office sent in a news release the previous day.

  “Hey.”

  Jake slowed his pace. His expression was a mixture of resignation and amusement. “The conference is over,” he announced. “I’ve said all I’m going to say.”

  Oh, right. Like that was going to work on me. “Where are her parents?”

  Jake’s staid face never shifted. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  He was full of it. “Her parents,” I repeated, refusing to back down. “Where are they in all this? All that we’ve been able to get out of them is a statement put together by your office. Why aren’t they on every news station in the tri-county area pleading for their daughter’s return?”

  Jake merely blinked. “You’ll have to ask them that.”

  I intended to ... just as soon as I managed to track them down. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. They were laying low. Perhaps Eliot and his superior search software would be able to help me. He would demand something in trade, probably some romance or an evening uninterrupted with the remote control. I was fine with that. I liked bargaining with him. We turned it into a game.

  I studied Jake for a long beat, suspicious. “Why did you call a news conference and repeat the same information twice? I don’t understand.”

  Jake dragged his hand through his messy bird’s nest of hair. “We were getting round-the-clock calls regarding her disappearance. I thought it was best to have the conference to lay everything out again since there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary questions.”

  He was hiding something. There was no doubt about that. Obviously he wasn’t going to tell me. I had to guess and see how he reacted. He couldn’t lie to me over the long haul. Eventually I would wear him down until he cracked. That might take more time than I was comfortable with right now, especially when there was obviously a story to track down.

  “Do you think she’s dead?” I asked on a whim.

  “I have no knowledge of her being dead.”

  It was a well-rehearsed response, one that only served to irritate me to the point of no return. “Do you think the boy who owns the house did it?”

  “I told you that we have no reason to suspect she’s dead at this time. I don’t want you telling the public the odds on that, by the way. It will cause parents to panic. That’s the last thing we want with Halloween coming. Panicking parents are never fun. At this time of year, it gets ridiculous.”

  I smirked. “I’m dressing up as Han Solo this year.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “How is that any different from previous years?”

  “I wasn’t Han Solo last year. I was Kylo Ren. I was Han Solo at the party Eliot threw for me. There’s a difference.”

  “Ah, well, as long as you have it figured out. Is that all? I really need to get back to my office.”

  Before he could escape, I reached out and snagged his wrist. There was something off about his demeanor that I couldn’t put my finger on. He usually didn’t act this way, and while I was never his favorite person when a big story was brewing, he never outright dismissed me.

  “Are you mad at me or something?” I asked.

  His eyes widened. “Would it bother if you if I was?”

  “I don’t know.” I held out my hands and shrugged. “I thought we were getting along these days. If you’re going to be mad at me, then I’m going to have to block out some time to figure out why and torture you with inane questions until you decide it’s easier to forgive me.”

  His gaze was withering. “Isn’t that what you’re doing right now?”

  I didn’t like his tone. I sensed, however, his anger wasn’t directed at me. Something else was definitely going on, and I was almost positive it had to do with the missing girl. “Well, if you’re not going to add to the statement you’ve already made, I guess I should get going so I can turn in my story and head out. It’s family dinner night. If I’m late, my mother will make me pay.”

  Jake held my gaze for what felt like a really long time. Finally, he sighed. “I’m not angry with you,” he said. “You haven’t done anything — at least not this time — to tick me off. I’m sure you will eventually, but I have other stuff on my mind today.”

  Uh-oh. I didn’t like the sound of that. “You didn’t break up with Lauren, did you?” I was suddenly suspicious. “If you did, I’ll smack you around. I had to search long and hard to find you a girlfriend I can tolerate.”

  “Oh, geez.” Jake rubbed his forehead. “You make me so tired.”

  “Believe it or not, I hear that all the time.”

  “I didn’t break up with Lauren. Things are fine between us. In fact, we’re going out to dinner tonight. It won’t be as exciting as your family dinners, but few things can measure up.”

  “So ... what’s wrong?” I was genuinely curious. “You’re starting to worry me.” That wasn’t easy for someone like me to admit — a woman who’d spent years perfecting a cool sense of detachment that most people could only dream of — but I cared about Jake and didn’t want him needlessly suffering. “If someone is bothering you, point me in their direction and I’ll take them down. If it’s Tad Ludington, I won’t even ask for a favor in return.”

  Jake let loose a hollow chuckle at the mention of my former boyfriend, a man so poorly endowed that medical science turned down his offer to donate his body to anatomy students because they thought he was a woman rather than a man and didn’t want to ruin their studies.

  “It’s not Tad,” he promise
d. “It’s not anything. I’m simply tired.”

  It was more than that. “Are you sure?”

  “I am.” He nodded, firm. “It would be helpful if you took a step back and left this one alone. I think it’s best for everyone if you find another story to obsess about for the next few days.”

  Oh, right. Like that was going to happen. The more he tried to point me elsewhere, the more I realized there was something big happening right here. Jake must have read the keen interest on my face because he let loose an exaggerated sigh.

  “You’re not going to let it go, are you?” he asked.

  “Nope. If anything, I’m doubling down.”

  “I figured.”

  2 Two

  My article was boring, which I hate, but there was little else I could do until I managed to find Dana’s parents or track down more students who were at the party. So far, that had been a losing endeavor because the other students at the school — a ritzy private one in northern Macomb County, so I couldn’t just show up on campus and start questioning students without getting arrested — were closing ranks, trying to serve as a wall of protection. Normally I would applaud that sort of thing. There’s nothing I like better than loyalty. But because they were stymieing me at every turn, I wasn’t a big fan.

  “What do you have?” my editor Fred Fish asked when he saw me trudge into the newsroom. “Is she dead?”

  Of course he would ask that. Everyone I knew assumed she was dead. There could be no other explanation. She was a good student, no problems, laden down with extracurricular activities and had no reason to flee. There were no abuse reports involving her parents and she reportedly didn’t have a boyfriend to run off with. Even if she did, none of the boys in the school were missing. I’d checked with the increasingly belligerent administration assistant just to be on the safe side.