“For chrissake, Jo. Am I that pathetic?”
“I felt sorry for you, yes, but I was also looking for a good police officer. You fit the bill.”
He shook his head, his thoughts returning to an earlier preoccupation. “Have you seen Cleo?”
“A few hours ago. I paid her the other five thousand dollars. I know she didn’t find the key, but she was instrumental in exposing Dr. Campbell.”
“You gave her money?” He swung his legs to the side of the bed, his bare feet hitting the floor.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“She’ll leave, that’s what’s wrong!
He ripped out several snaps and dropped the hospital gown to the floor, leaving him in a pair of pajama bottoms. His shoulder and arm were wrapped in gauze, his arm anchored to his side.
“Of course she’ll leave,” Jo said. “She’s done here.”
“What do you mean, done here? What about the key? She still has to find the damn key.”
Daniel opened a closet and pulled out the shirt Beau had brought. He realized he couldn’t put it on. He picked up a pair of jeans and realized he wouldn’t be able to get into them either. He tried to stuff his feet into a pair of stretchy blue terry-cloth slippers supplied by the hospital. “Screw it.”
“The key?” Jo repeated with hesitation.
“Drive me home.” He headed for the door.
“I’ve given up on the key,” Jo said, running to keep up. “I’ve decided to go ahead and get all new locks.”
“That will cost a fortune. Just get Cleo to stay and find it.” His heart was beating fast. How the hell had this happened? He’d planned on Cleo being around for at least a couple more weeks. That would give him time to make things right, to make things up to her. In the last few morphine-laden days he’d imagined them going out to eat, maybe taking in a movie or two. Going back to his place…
“We can’t let her go,” Daniel said. “Not until she finds the key.”
“Daniel…”
He kept walking. When he got to the exit, he paused to check on Jo. She wasn’t coming. He went back to get her.
“Daniel.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a closed fist. He watched as she opened it. There in her hand was a key.
“So?”
“It’s the key,” she whispered. “The
He broke out in a sweat. Black spots floated in front of his eyes. He blinked them away, and grabbed Jo by one arm. “Okay. We can fix this.” He lowered his voice. “Don’t tell her. Don’t tell her about the key.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t want her to go.”
“Oh. Won’t she know about the key, though?”
“She didn’t pick up on it before.”
“Maybe that’s because there was something bigger distracting her.”
“We have to try!”
“I don’t like the idea of lying to a psychic.”
He shoved her toward the door. “We’ve got to stop her.”
Cleo slipped two hundred dollars into the envelope and sealed it. She double-checked the address: Quick Fill, Shanghai City, Missouri, attention Chad and Jed. That should be enough. She deposited the envelope in the mailbox then walked over to the wooden bench to wait for the train.
It was the train station where Daniel and Beau had picked her up. It hadn’t been that long ago, but it felt like years. She’d arrived that day with a suitcase and her dog. Now she was leaving with nothing but the clothes on her back.
How could something so simple have turned into such a mess?
The night before, she and Beau had sat outside near the gazing ball, waiting for the stars. And when they came, they had been so brilliant, so breathtaking. It had seemed as good a time as any to tell Beau that she would be leaving in the morning.
“When you come back, maybe my mom will be here and you can meet her.”
Was that the best way to go through life? she wondered. Hanging onto your illusions? It seemed to work for Beau.
“Have you ever been anyplace other than Egypt?” she’d asked.
“Why would I want to do that?”
Why, indeed.
“They’re always there,” he said.
“What?”
“The stars. They’re always there. You just can’t see them.”
A shout drew her back to the present, to the train station and the cool breeze moving across her skin, a warm sun beating down.
She looked up to see a man striding toward her. He wore green hospital pajama bottoms and a white bandage across his shoulder.
She got slowly to her feet. What was he doing here? He should be in the hospital. She’d wanted to tell him goodbye but she’d felt awkward about it. Then she found that she really didn’t have time, and it had seemed easier to leave him a note.
Daniel stopped in front of her, slightly out of breath, his forehead creased with pain. A wind kicked up, lifting his hair, revealing the dark roots beneath the blond. “Your dog,” he said, breathlessly. “You forgot your dog.”
She shook her head. He was bleeding under the bandage. She could see a spot of red seeping through the gauze. “I want Beau to have him. I told you that.”
“The key,” he said, as if he’d only just remembered it.
“I have the feeling it’s never going to be found,” Cleo said. “You’d better just go ahead and change the locks.”
“The rest of your money. It’s at my house.”
“Put it toward getting the locks replaced.”
He got a funny look on his face. “I don’t think we’ll need it.” He seemed to search his mind for more words, finding them. “You know what people in town are saying about you? That you used your psychic powers to save us both.”
“I can’t take any credit for Campbell ’s carelessness.”
She didn’t want to talk about that. To herself, she could finally admit that she had a skill that went beyond normal. But it was still a subject she wanted absolutely nothing to do with. At least not now. Maybe someday, but not now. “About the hostage case you were involved in,” she began. Cleo wanted to leave him with something- reassurance-as well as a memory of her that wasn’t all bad.
“It’s not something I like to think about,” he said. “People died. It was my fault.”
“We can’t always be the ones to fix things. If I had died out there the other day, it wouldn’t have been your fault.”
Yet he’d been willing to die for her. And he would have died if something hadn’t distracted Campbell. “And if you’d died-” She swallowed. She reached out and took his hand. “If you’d died, it wouldn’t have been my fault. Bad things happen.” She turned his hand over. With one finger, she unconsciously traced the lines on his palm.
From far off came the sad, lonely cry of a train whistle.
“The ring,” Daniel said. “I still have your ring.”
Her mind spun back to another time, to a sweet, dark-haired boy who had loved her. A sweet, dark-haired boy who had died.
For the first time in years, the guilt she’d felt whenever she thought of Jordan was gone. She would never know if she’d really transcended time and space. But if she had, maybe she’d gone there to save him, maybe she’d gone there to try to stop the accident, not cause it. And maybe the only person she’d been able to save was herself.
“Mail the ring to me at my brother’s address.” She wanted to turn the conversation away from Jordan and her
