Krista broke from the line. “Mrs. Schwartz! What’re you doing here?”
“I have no idea, dear. I was hoping you could tell me,” Myra said, lifting the strap of her bag onto her shoulder. Then she spotted me. “Oh, hello, Rory!”
“Hi, Myra,” I replied, with a faint, strained smile.
“If you could just wait one second, I’ll hopefully have an answer for you,” Krista said. “Rory? Would you come with me to talk to Officer Dorn, please?” Her voice pitched up three octaves with the request.
“Sure.”
We skirted around Myra and pulled Dorn toward his car. “What is going on?” Krista hissed. “She’s not on the bad-guy list.”
“Mayor wants to try ushering one of the good ones,” Dorn said with a sniff, chewing on a piece of gum like a cow.
“What? Already?” I demanded. “Does she really think—”
“What she thinks is, we need to get things back to normal. Get this fog out of here. Clean up the beaches and figure out what the hell to do about the ferry,” Dorn said tersely, looking Krista in the eye with a no-nonsense kind of glare. “If this works, it means Pete was working alone and we can be back to business as usual.”
“Yeah, except my sister and my dad and at least ten other people will still be stuck in the Shadowlands,” I hissed.
“Well, if things get back to normal, we can focus our energy on other things,” he said pointedly. “Like getting them the hell out.”
Krista hugged herself, processing this. She glanced over her shoulder at her charge, a stiff wind blowing her hair back from her face.
“So, what? Mrs. Schwartz is our guinea pig?” Krista demanded. Over by Joaquin’s truck, Myra had taken out her wallet and was showing Bea and Lauren pictures of her grandkids.
“She won the lottery, yep,” Dorn said, hiking up his waistband.
“But what if it doesn’t work? What if she ends up in the Shadowlands?” I asked, my heart pounding.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. No pun intended.” Dorn smirked. Krista and I exchanged a horrified look. “Think of it this way: We’re gonna have to do this sooner or later,” Dorn told us. “And at least if she goes to the Shadowlands, we’ll know we still have someone working against us out here.”
I groaned and shook my head. “I think it’s up to you, Krista. She’s your charge.”
Krista took a deep breath. “If the mayor thinks it’s a good idea, I’m not going to contradict her.” She shook her hair back and squared her shoulders. “I just hope this works.”
“Good luck.”
Krista smiled wanly and walked over to Myra. I saw her take the woman’s hand and slip a coin into it. As I moved closer, I heard Myra thank Krista. I stood next to Joaquin, hoping for that feeling of confidence his presence usually lent me, but he took a slight sidestep away, putting a respectful distance between us. My heart ached and I stared at my toes.
“We’re just
going to go for a little walk, okay?” Krista said politely. “This way.”
Myra smiled as Krista led her slowly toward the bridge but paused just inches from the wall of mist.
“Where am I going?” she asked Krista.
My heart nearly broke. A few weeks ago, the answer to that question would have been clear, but now…Krista’s knees actually wavered, and for a second I thought she’d go down, but she held on somehow.
“Someplace beautiful,” Krista told her with a smile. “I promise.”
Myra’s smile widened. Then she turned toward the mist and was gone. I instinctively reached for Joaquin’s hand but caught air. He stared straight ahead, not noticing—or trying to look like he hadn’t. I pinned my wrists together behind my back, straining to ignore the awful sadness welling inside my throat. In seconds, we heard the sucking sound. The mist undulated and swirled, and then everything was still.
Joaquin lifted his walkie. “Kevin? Whaddaya got? Over.”
He looked me in the eye.
“Nothing yet,” Kevin said. “Over.”