Jack_ Secret Vengeance - F. Paul Wilson [43]
He nudged Levi and pointed toward Saree. “Think she’d be interested in what colors she can see around Toliver’s car?”
Levi looked at him, then at Saree.
“She might be.”
“Talk her into it and meet me by his ’stang.”
6
Jack grabbed the lock-pick kit from his backpack and raced to the parking lot. With the lunch period coming to a close, no one was about. When he first got the kit from Mr. Rosen, he went around his house picking every lock he could find. That included the family cars. Cars were easy. Their door locks tended to have big pins that responded smoothly to a little raking.
He had Toliver’s Mustang open in twenty seconds and had the kit hidden away before Levi and Saree showed up.
“What do you want me to do?” she said, hanging back and staring at Jack.
“You said his locker was cold. Is his car cold too?”
She took a hesitant step forward and gingerly touched the hood with her fingertips. After a second, she pressed her palm flat against it.
“No … it’s warm.”
Yeah, well, of course it was warm—he’d just driven to a hardware store for the lock and glue.
Jack pulled open the passenger door. “How about inside?”
Levi gawked. “He left it unlocked?”
Jack didn’t look at him, but scanned the parking lot instead, check for anyone who might spot them.
“Sure looks that way.”
“You and locks,” Levi said with a chuckle. “You got a talent, all right.”
Jack gestured Saree toward the front passenger seat. “See any colors there?”
Said aloud, the question sounded ridiculous. What did he expect to get out of this? Probably nothing—the girl seemed a little off her rocker—but he couldn’t see a downside to trying.
She bent, looked, then shook her head. “No.”
“Maybe if you sit inside.”
She looked at Levi who shrugged and said, “Go ahead. But make it quick. We gotta get back to class.”
As Saree slipped into the seat, Levi turned to Jack. “Why you so tore up about this guy, anyway?”
Jack had figured this was coming, but hadn’t come up with an explanation he could use.
“Red,” he heard Saree say. “It’s all red.”
“It’s personal,” he told Levi.
“I figgered that. But what you ’spect to get outta this?”
“Well, I’ve got him thinking he’s haunted. Can we leave it at that?”
Levi nodded slowly. “I reckon we can. But about your talent—”
Jack heard Saree making noises like “Uhn-uhn-uhn!” and when he looked her eyes were rolled back in her head and she was twitching like she was being electrocuted.
“Get her outta there!” Levi shouted.
They both pulled her out and the noises and twitching stopped as soon as she was free of the car. Her eyes fluttered open as they started to lay her on the ground and she pushed herself up to standing. She leaned against the neighboring car, panting, a wild look in her pink eyes.
“Red! All red! Blood!”
“Blood?” Levi said. “Whose?”
“I don’t rightly know.” She rubbed both hands over her face and eyes. “He hurt somebody there. Hurt them bad. He’s got blood on his hands.”
Jack stood stunned, speechless.
Blood on Toliver’s hands? Not Weezy’s. She’d just been bruised and scared—bad enough, but no blood. So if not Weezy’s, whose?
“Levi?” Saree said, her voice quavering. “It’s piney blood.”
7
Between the final bell for dismissal and boarding the bus home, Jack squeezed in a trip to the boys’ room to unlatch the window. He didn’t know what he was going to do about Toliver’s latest lock, but if he came up with something, he wanted to be able to act on it.
As he exited the stall he let out a yelp of surprise when he almost bumped into Levi.
“How long’ve you been waiting here?”
“Long enough. Figgered this’d be your last stop. Listen, this ‘piney blood’ thing’s got me riled.”
It had been nibbling at Jack too. Gnawing was more like it. The whole episode had been majorly upsetting. But when he stepped back and took a hard look at it …
“How do you know there’s anything to it?”
“Saree said—”
“She doesn’t know. It’s just a feeling she’s got. She doesn’t know who, she doesn’t know when—”
“That don’t matter. She knows what she knows, and I gotta do something about