Shadow Child Page 3

  Charlie said, "Would you like a glass of tea? Or I could make hot tea if you'd prefer.” She gestured toward the couch. "Please make yourself comfortable."

  "Thanks, iced tea would be great." He eased himself into the comfy chair.

  Charlie headed toward the small kitchen at the back of the house. One half-wall separated the spaces.

  "This place is nice. Does your uncle own it?" He heard her open a cabinet and then, judging from ice clinking against the glass, the freezer door. The fridge door opened followed by the sound of gushing liquid swirling against the ice.

  "He does. He rents it to me for a steal. I think he likes his family close." She came around the corner carrying a tall glass filled with an amber liquid. She bent over the trunk and placed the glass in front of him on a coaster. "There you go." She walked around the trunk and took a seat on the couch near him, and he wondered how she could act like nothing out of the ordinary was about to take place. She leaned forward a little, looking him straight in the face.

  "So, how does this work?" He picked up his glass and took a sip of his tea.

  "I take your hands in mine, concentrate, and open myself up to your energy and the energy around you. If there's a spirit there, hopefully, it will make itself known."

  "And if there's not one?" he said. He wanted to regain the ease he felt talking to her on the porch before dinner.

  "Then it's probably your guilt influencing your dreams. There are therapists that can help you with that,” she said.

  "No shrinks,” he said adamantly. "I don't need that kind of stigma hanging over me at work."

  "Why do people at your work have to know?" she asked.

  Cameron shook his head. "No shrinks."

  Charlie shrugged one shoulder. "It's up to you. You ready for this?"

  Cameron took a deep breath and nodded his head. "Ready as I'll ever be I guess." In truth, he was starting to regret the whole thing, but it was too late now.

  Charlie opened her hand and offered it to him. He stared at it for a moment, remembering how she had tried so hard to avoid touching him the first time they met. Now he couldn't bring himself to move his hands. He rubbed his fingers against his palm aware of how sweaty they felt.

  "You okay?" Charlie asked.

  "I don't know." He laughed nervously. He rubbed his hands on his pants.

  "You don't have to do this."

  "I know. I –" He closed his eyes. The image of his brother filled his mind. The gray-skinned boy who was a mirror image of him.

  Finally, he reached for her hand. "Let's do this."

  Charlie took his hand between hers and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. Her skin was warm against his. Part of him expected to feel some sort of tingling, but there was only warmth and softness. He focused on her pretty face and the deep lines forming on her forehead. She breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth several times. Her body squirmed, and after another minute she opened her eyes.

  "I'm sorry, but I'm not getting anything,” she said.

  "So he's not ... haunting me?" Cameron pulled his hand out of hers and sat back in the chair.

  "I didn't say that. Spirits can sometimes choose who they reveal themselves to. It may be your brother just doesn't want me to see him. To see what he's up to. Why don't you tell me more about the dreams you've been having?"

  Cameron leaned his head back, resting it against the cushy chair. He scrubbed his mouth with one hand. They were just stupid dreams. Why was this so hard?

  He closed his eyes. "In the dream, I'm here in this time. But he's still twelve."

  "Go on," Charlie said. He could feel her gaze on him. Heavy and unrelenting.

  "It's the day he disappeared. We were late getting home from ball practice. We were supposed to stick together, but Kyle wanted to stay at the ball field and practice his swing. He always had trouble with flyballs. He had this tendency to hit pop flies. He hated that the coach would use him as a sacrifice to get a man from 2nd to 3rd because of his pop flies. He'd come up to the plate and get a runner on 3rd, and then the coach would bring me in to bring them home."

  "Uh huh," Charlie said.

  He had the feeling he was talking too much. About the wrong things, but she wasn’t stopping him. "Anyway, you gotta know baseball to understand I guess. He wanted to get better. I wanted to walk past Karen Fleischman's house at twilight, so I left him there at the field. Alone."

  "And he went missing?" Charlie prodded.

  "Yeah. The police searched for him for over a week. A month later his body was found in a field. It just about killed my mother to lose him." The shards of ice in his belly were back, knife-like and biting into his gut like when Kyle first disappeared.

  "What about you?" Charlie asked.

  "I ..." Cameron pursed his lips together so she wouldn't see them quivering. He shook his head. "I ... um ... I went on. That was all I could do."

  "I'm so sorry. I wish I could tell you he was with you right now, but I don't feel him,” she said. "Of course that doesn't mean he isn't there."

  Cameron ran his hand through his hair. "So what do I do?"

  "Well …" Charlie sighed and glanced toward one of the bedrooms. "You protect yourself.” She put her hand up like a crossing guard to pause the conversation. “Hang on just a second." She rose from the couch and crossed the room in five steps, her long legs aiding her. The door opened before she was in front of it. Cameron sat up straight, the hair on the back of his neck stood at attention.

  "Charlie, how –" he began. She disappeared into the bedroom. He heard her rifling through a drawer. When she returned her gaze focused on the trunk in front of the couch. She sat back down and clicked the lock and opened the lid. Cameron peered inside. Charlie lifted up a box with craft supplies and placed it on the couch next to her. At the bottom of the trunk was a flat wooden box with a carved symbol on top. Charlie set the box on her lap and opened it. Sparkling colored stones were organized by color within wooden dividers.

  "Crystals? Really?" Cameron said.

  Charlie leveled her gaze on him. "You came to me for answers, remember?" She plucked two purple stones from the box. One with sharp edges and one smooth and polished covered in creamy white speckles. She pressed the sharp stone into Cameron's palm. "This is violet fluorite. They call it the dream maker stone. Place it on your nightstand when you sleep. It will help protect you."

  Cameron stared down at his hand. "Okay," he said, but his voice conveyed doubt. "What's the other one do?"

  "It dispels negative energy and can help with nightmares." She took one more crystal from her box. A black, glassy stone shaped and polished into an uneven polygon. "Take this one too. Keep it with you. All the time. It will protect you."

  Cameron closed his hand around the stones. For a second he thought he felt them vibrate, but he shook his head. That was ridiculous. They were just rocks. Pretty. Polished. But still just rocks.

  "Thanks," he said. "I appreciate it. You sure you don't need them?"

  "I've got plenty," she said. "You have my number?"

  "No. I don't, sorry.”

  "No worries." Charlie retrieved her purse from a table by the door and pulled her phone from her front pocket. "What’s your number?"

  He rattled off the number, and she sent him a quick text. His phone vibrated in his pocket. “There you go."

  "Thanks." Cameron rose from his chair.

  "I mean it. Text me if things don't improve."

  "I will," he said. He jerked his thumb toward the door. "You coming back to Jack's?"

  Charlie glanced at her watch. "No. I should give Tom a call."

  "Sure. I'll talk to you later." He slipped the stones into his front pants pocket and left her house. Why on earth had he thought she'd somehow fix everything? Jason had told him not to get his hopes up. He reached into his pocket and removed the crystals she'd given him. He brushed his thumb over them. Whatever energy he thought he felt before wasn't there now. Only the cold weight remained. What
an idiot he was. He reared his hand back and flung the stones into the darkness into the woods separating the property from the river. Magic didn't exist, and Charlie Payne was not really psychic. She was just really good at reading people. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stalked back to the white house looming in the distance.

  Chapter 3

  "Yes, ma'am. Thank you for calling Bel-Com. Have a great day," Charlie said. She pressed the end button on her phone and punched the break code into the keypad. Her chest expanded with a deep breath, and she closed her eyes a moment to center herself. She'd been taking calls non-stop for nearly four hours without a break. Since she'd moved to these split-shifts and fill-in hours, working had become more stressful, not less, as she'd hoped. Her fingers found the back of her neck, and she did a quick massage on the tight muscles for a minute. The drone of her co-workers taking calls filled her head.

  The sound pulsated against her skull. Images of Cameron Reed filled her mind. She'd seen him through the kitchen window, walking across the yard to her uncle's house. He'd thrown the stones she'd given him away. Why had he come to her at all if he didn't believe she could help him?

  "Hi Charlie," A familiar voice startled her from her reverie. Charlie opened her eyes and peered into the smiling face of one of her supervisors. Kaylee. Charlie returned the smile.

  "Can I speak with you for a minute?" Kaylee asked. She pushed her long, straight, straw-colored hair behind her ear. A worried expression lay underneath the carefully constructed smile, though.

  "Sure," Charlie slipped her phone from her keyboard tray and glanced at the screen. A picture of her with her arms wrapped around Evan at the picnic shelters at Palmetto Point Beach Park this past summer stared back at her. Across their chests, the time read 1:45 pm.

  "I have to go to Daniel Island to pick-up my son from school at three."

  "Don't worry. This shouldn't take long," Kaylee's smile widened. A cold finger touched Charlie's heart. Kaylee was lying. Charlie just wasn't sure about what.

  "Okay," Charlie logged off her phone and reached inside the file cabinet next to her chair where she kept her purse. A few moments later Charlie followed Kaylee into her office.

  "Can you shut the door please?" Kaylee asked. She walked around to her chair and took a seat. The L-shaped desk held two computer monitors. One that showed the calls coming into the call center, the wait time and other stats used for metrics. The other monitor had a document open. Kaylee closed the file from view with a couple of keystrokes and turned her attention to Charlie. She placed her elbows on the desk and folded her hands. Charlie noticed Kaylee's fingernails digging into the back of her hand.

  "Everything okay?" Charlie asked, her voice wary.

  "Everything is ... fine,” Kaylee said. The icy feeling in Charlie's heart spread throughout her torso with the lie.

  "What's going on Kaylee?" Charlie narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. She met Kaylee's steady gaze.

  "I'm afraid I have some bad news, and I need you to keep this conversation between us for now. No sharing with anyone. Can you do that?" Kaylee asked.

  "Of course," Charlie said.

  "We received notice today, that Bel-com will be outsourcing the call-center."

  "Outsourcing?" Charlie's hand floated to her throat, and she sat back in the chair.

  "Yeah, to India."

  "When?" Charlie asked.

  "The whole process should be done by March of next year," Kaylee said.

  "There are a hundred people out there, plus another dozen part-timers and schedule fillers like me. What are they supposed to do?" Charlie asked. "Some of those folks have worked here for twenty years."

  "I know. It's an unfortunate situation,” Kaylee said. "There are other call centers in the Charleston area. Some people will be able to get jobs there. Everyone who doesn't transition to another department will get a severance and can take time off for job interviews without penalty."

  "Kaylee, why are you telling me this?" Charlie said. "Why isn't there an all-hands meeting scheduled to break this sort of news?"

  "There is. Or there will be. I just wanted to ..." Kaylee squirmed in her chair and her gaze shifted to her folded hands. She let her fingers loose, and Charlie saw the dark half-moon indentations in the skin of Kaylee's hands.

  "You wanted what?" Charlie asked, but she already knew the answer.

  "I'm going to be applying for a job as assistant human resources director. And I was just wondering if you ... might know anything."

  "How would I know anything?" Charlie asked, but she already knew the answer. It wasn't a secret that her co-workers sometimes came to her for "advice" on future matters. She'd gained a bit of a reputation, even though she didn't really want it. Not here.

  "They say ..." Kaylee hesitated. "They say that sometimes you can see the future."

  Charlie gritted her teeth and blew a breath out through her nose.

  "Who told you that?" Charlie said. She tried to keep her voice steady and free of the anger she felt boiling in her chest.

  "Marcella Lutz. She's a credit analyst in Loans Services. She said you were the real deal,” Kaylee said.

  "Right," Charlie said. "Marcella. She's very nice. She booked a reading with me."

  Kaylee’s head jerked. "You want me to pay you?" Clearly, she was taken aback.

  "No. But I don't like being put on the spot like this Kaylee. Especially when the news involves my whole department losing their jobs." Charlie glanced up at the framed degree on the wall behind Kaylee's desk. "You have a degree in business and you just finished your masters, right?"

  "Yes, I finished up my coursework over the summer. I've got to write my thesis, and I should graduate in December."

  "You'll be fine then," Charlie said. "If you don't get that position, I'm sure one will come up for you at another company.” Charlie was done with Kaylee. "Is that all? I really need to leave."

  "Wait. So you don't know?" Kaylee asked.

  "You just told me I'm losing my job and my health insurance, Kaylee. I'm sorry, but your future is not really on my mind at the moment. You’re educated and likable, most of the time, and obviously more political than I realized. You'll be just fine."

  Charlie rose from her chair and slung her purse strap over her shoulder and headed for the door.

  "Charlie, remember you can't tell anyone until the official announcement," Kaylee said.

  "Don't worry," Charlie said. "I can keep a secret."

  Chapter 4

  Charlie drove through the pick-up line in front of Evan's school and waited for her son to say his good-bye to one of his friends. A moment later, her boy climbed into the passenger side of the car and put his bookbag on the floor. He stretched the seatbelt across his body and snapped it into place. Charlie put the car into drive and slid into the traffic of mothers and fathers who had also picked up their children.

  "How was your day, sweetie?" Charlie asked.

  "Fine," Evan said. "I aced my math test."

  "That's great," Charlie said. She turned onto the street and sped toward the main street of Daniel Island and the exit onto the expressway.

  "What's wrong?" Evan asked.

  "Nothing's wrong, baby. Did you have any other tests today?" Charlie could feel him staring at the side of her face, but she ignored it.

  "A pop quiz in language arts, but I got a hundred on it," he said. "You sure there's nothing wrong? It seems like there is."

  Charlie stopped at the red light. She could go on lying to him and denying any problems, but her son had inherited more than just her blonde hair and gangly arms and legs. She let out a heavy sigh.

  "I just got some bad news today at work, that's all," she said. "Other than that I'm fine. Are you getting excited about your birthday?"

  "Is there anything I can do?" Evan asked.

  "No, baby," Charlie brushed her knuckles over Evan's cheek. "You are sweet to offer, though."

  "I have some money saved. It's yours if you need it."

>   "Oh Evan, why are you offering your piggy bank?" Charlie asked.

  "Because ... I can tell you're worried about money,” he said. "Do you need it?"

  "No. I’m fine. I promise." Charlie noticed the light changed and pressed the gas pedal.

  "You don't have to get me a birthday gift," Evan said. "Dad's gonna let me have a couple of my friend's stay over on Friday that week, and Cora's gonna make a cake. Will you come?"

  "I would love to come," Charlie said. "But I should probably talk to your dad first."

  "He won't care. He said I can invite anybody I want,” Evan protested.

  "It's not really about that. It's about Halloween and your actual birthday night,” Charlie said. "Are you trick or treating with your friends?"

  "Yeah," Evan said. Charlie could tell by his voice that he wasn't as thrilled by the prospect of Halloween as most kids. "I guess. Reese Patterson said something about it. He plans like all year."

  "I know it's tough having a birthday on a holiday. Especially one like Halloween when everybody is more focused on costumes and trick-or-treating. It won't always be like that. One day you'll be too old to dress up and go out."

  "Yeah, it's a little kid's game, that's for sure,” he said sounding more like the teenager he was about to become. She couldn't believe in a little more than three weeks her baby would turn thirteen. How had he grown up so fast?

  "Well, if you want, after you go trick-or-treating, of course, I'm going to ask your dad if you can join me at Uncle Jack's for his All Hallows Eve bonfire."

  "On a school night? Really," Evan's voice perked up. "Is this a witch thing?"

  "Um ... what do you mean?" Charlie asked.

  "I mean are you and Jen and Lisa and Daphne going to do some sort of sacrifice?"

  "No - nobody's sacrificing anything," Charlie said. "Why did you ask if it's a witch thing?"

  "I'm not stupid, mom. Or blind,” Evan said.

  "Of course you're not stupid," Charlie mumbled.

  "I know you're a witch. That all of y'all are witches. Even Ruby,” Evan said. "I don't think Uncle Jack is though, is he?"