"Did you see who shot him?"
"No. No, I only saw a … shadow. Maybe a flash of metal on his hand?"
"His? It was definitely a man?"
"No, I—it was just a hand. Too dark to tell man or woman. But it was a white person. I saw the skin color on the hand … unless they were white gloves?"
She clutched her head. "Argh! I just don't know. If I have to see these awful things, why can't they at least be useful?"
I stood and pulled her close, murmuring soothing noises into her hair, frustrated with my inability to help.
"And the way Cletus looked at me. Like I was the Grim Reaper. I hate that so much."
"Are you going to tell him what you saw?"
She shuddered and pulled away to pace around the room, so I sat back down to give her space. Lou curled up on the back of the couch and watched her walk back and forth like she was watching a tennis match.
"I don't know. I don't know! Do I owe that to people? Do I owe them a duty to tell them what I see in their future? What if you're right, and it's not guaranteed? Will thinking it's unavoidable cause them to do something, anything, different that might circle the wheel around so that very death does actually happen?"
"I think you're the only one who can answer any of that," I told her. "But mostly, it seems unknowable."
Her phone buzzed on the table, startling her, and she glanced down at it and then back at me, her expression bleak. "I guess I'd better figure it out sooner rather than later. That's Cletus McKee calling."
13
Tess
"My car is still at the shop," I reminded Jack as we drove to the Gardner nursery to meet Cletus.
"I know. We'll pick it up after this, if you feel like driving. If not, I can drive you to work tomorrow."
Ollie Gardner and his fiancée Prism had texted me they had some time to talk about deactivating magical items. Magical trackers specifically, so I'd told Cletus this when I'd called him.
Before I could say a word, he'd made it very clear that he didn't want to know anything about my vision.
"Not one word. And don't tell anybody else either."
I'd told him I wouldn't, and we'd arranged to meet Ollie and Prism.
In the never-telling thing, though, husbands don't count. Jack and I had made a pledge on that beach in Atlantis to tell each other everything. But nobody had to know that, and even if Ollie suspected, it's not like he was going to ask.
"I don't understand why he'd come back to Dead End when nobody here seems to like him much," Jack said.
"I have no idea. It's kind of sad, really. Especially if it's all really about his dad, who was the con man."
"It wasn't his dad who bid on the fireworks contract, when he had to know it would cause problems. I heard Hatfield has had that contract for a very long time."
I shook my hair out of my face. I'd left it loose and not in a braid or ponytail like I wore to work, because Jack liked it that way. I glanced over at him and then reached over to hold his hand.
"Jack."
"Yes, sweetheart?"
"Thank you. Thank you for carrying me out of there and for taking care of me. Thank you for loving me."
"Always." His hand tightened on mine, and then he raised it to his lips. "Always."
We swung into the nursery parking lot to see that Cletus was already there, standing next to his car and talking to Ollie. I didn't see Prism.
