The Endless Road to Sunshine - Nicky James Page 0,144
at the station, but he’s claiming he doesn’t know me. I don’t understand. I know the guy was put off when I turned down his advances, but…”
“Is that your date-night guy?” Hunter asked.
I glared. “It wasn’t a date. We’re colleagues. Friends… ish. His film students were part of the Independent Film Festival. He invited me to check it out, so I went.”
“Wait, film students?” Maverick said, shifting on the couch to face me.
“Yeah.” I dug inside my coat pocket, remembering the program I’d shoved in there the other week when the theater had gone dark, and I was unable to read it. “Reggie’s students had their film featured. It was called, um—”
“Silver Angels and Running Devils,” Maverick finished. “Mr. McGuire’s third-year class. Yeah, he told us about it. I’m in his first-year film production class on Tuesdays.”
“Yes. That’s the one. Here.” I opened the program prepared to show them what I was talking about even though they knew.
Two things happened.
The printed image of Professor Reggie McGuire stared back at me, and Maverick said, “Reggie McGuire is, like, a hundred years old, man. He’s not who you were out with that night.”
Maverick’s words barely penetrated. Staring back at me from the program was an overweight man who was easily in his midsixties with sagging jowls, a pug nose, and a drastically receding hairline.
Officer Mund’s words echoed inside my head. “He claims he has no idea who you are.”
The paper rattled in my hands. I blinked as the image went fuzzy. Levi grabbed the festival program and glanced at it before handing it to Maverick. “Is this your teacher?”
“Yes. That’s Professor McGuire.”
Flashes of my weird friendship with a guy I’d thought was Reggie burst before my eyes. The first time we’d met when he’d claimed I’d dropped those pills from my pocket. The random run-ins on campus when he’d claimed our building had better coffee and that’s why he was there.
How many times had he diverted attention off his classes and onto mine? Even at the theater, he’d been adamant I should make my own interpretation of the film so he wouldn’t spoil it. He’d dodged students, not because he wanted to go unnoticed, but because they wouldn’t have recognized him at all.
Then it hit me. The anger behind his eyes when he’d seen pictures of Skylar on my phone. The inquisition about whether or not I was interested in my student. Was I dating anyone? The warnings.
“I was testing our friendship boundaries.”
The world tilted, and I grappled for the wall when my knees threatened to buckle.
The personal questions. The number of times he’d asked about Guelph like he knew I was lying, like he was trying to trip me up. Even the odd way he spoke my name. Jaxon, like it wasn’t quite landing right on his tongue.
“Oh god. Skylar.” His name came out no louder than a breath of air. A whisper. A plea.
I blinked, realizing everyone in the room was staring at me.
“He took Skylar.”
Everything clicked, and I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t seen it before. Reggie was odd, but it was more than that. He was obsessive. “You’re such a fascinating person, Jason. I want to know everything about you.” He was quick to anger. He was devious and malicious.
And he’d walked me right out into the mess of media the other day, knowing perfectly well who I was. He’d been calm. There had been no shock at discovering I was Jason Atkinson. Reggie had swooped in and taken control when I’d been unable to formulate a plan. He’d taken me home. Why? So he knew where I lived? So he could check to see if there was evidence of Skylar around? Had there been?
I had to think. I didn’t know a thing about this man. It had all been lies. Deception. Smoke and mirrors. If he knew who I was, then he also knew who Morgan was. This was all connected somehow. I knew it in my gut.
I didn’t know where Reggie lived. I didn’t know what he drove.
But I did have one thing. Something he’d been more than willing to share with me early on.
I drew my new phone from my pocket while Levi continued to ask questions. I didn’t hear him. The whomp, whomp, whomp of my heart washed out everything. Never in my life had I been more grateful that I’d saved my personal information to a cloud and was able to transfer it to my new device.