Free Following Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci Page B

arrived here. "You know what quantum thought is, obviously?"
    "I don't own any books on it," he said. "But I read the Amazon bestseller lists."
    "Do you believe in it?"
    "You live around here, you don't
disbelieve
anything. I'd say you're pretty lucky, at any rate. If you're looking to do some updated story to what's on ChristopherCreed.com , your only problem is that you'd have a hell of a hard time chasing down that cast of characters. Bo Richardson is in the military in Kenai, Alaska, Ali McDermott is a senior at Boston U, and Torey Adams we all know about. This particular funeral, sad as it is, is the only thing I can think of that would bring them all back."

EIGHT

    I GOT US A ROOM at this little motel called the Twilight Inn, that looked off into the Pine Barrens, but it was close to the bay that separated Steepleton from the barrier islands, and you could smell the salt in the air. Mr. Spencer had given RayAnn hotel money. His stipulation for her going halfway across the country was that he didn't want us camping out in the middle of April when all the mid-Atlantic campgrounds were closed before Memorial Day. I wondered if we were any safer in this dusty old motel that reminded me of the Bates place in
Psycho.
    "I can't believe your parents let you come out here," I said, after dropping my bag, finding the chair, and taking off my muddy sneakers. "Last week, you were sixteen."
    She stood and moved her laptop bag over to a table. "Parents let their kids go to Florida on spring break. Is this somehow worse? Helping to cover a story for a newspaper?"
    "There's been a murder here."
    "There's been a death every year in spring break havens," she countered. "And besides. Nobody's screaming 'serial killer,' not even Chief Rye, beyond his bogus warnings at the Lightning Field. It's a domestic squabble that got carried away—that's what he said once they weren't listening."
    "True." I recalled our final moments by the cars. "He says he's brain weary, looking for any excuse to keep those kids out of the Lightning Field. The police really hate those kids being back there. They'd need an SUV to patrol it, and I don't think that's in Steepleton's budget."
    I sat on the edge of the bed, and RayAnn plopped down in the desk chair, looking disheveled. "Four months—wow. Do dead bodies decompose that quickly?"
    "She might have had some help. Carbolic acid is ringing a bell, though I'm basically clueless. If she was burned or dropped in acid, then her clothes were put in the grave with her to keep all the evidence together. Maybe. It's hard to say how a skeleton gets in a grave with fairly intact clothing, but it's among the questions we'll ask at police headquarters tomorrow."
    We had made plans to meet with Chief Rye or one of his officers and pick up any news on the whereabouts of this boyfriend, Danny. I'd have a load of questions for him then.
    "We're supposed to be heading out of here Sunday. So, what's up with this funeral? I know you really want to go. But it won't happen that fast. I'm out of finances if we need an extended leave, so if I'm supposed to start working on my dad, I should probably know when I call home tonight. I'll have to call my professors..."
    "One step at a time," I said, sensing that an extended leave would be a real mess. I also had four classes next week. Claudia had me contributing one byline almost daily to the
Exponent.
"A funeral is not a great place to be asking questions. Maybe they'll all come back tomorrow."
    I had saved seventy bucks for food, and beyond that, I was out of resources. I thought, as I often did, of the $6 million settlement I had pending with Randolph over the dorm scrimmage that cost me my sight. Settlements do not happen quickly, and it might be another year until I saw that money. In the meantime, I had a free ride and any counseling I would have wanted, but I had to struggle for anything extra, right down to a pair of shoelaces. Randolph kept filing extension papers, thinking I